A Second Day Out

Managed to drag my ass out of bed this morning. I distinctively remember waking up at 6am, then again at 7.30 and realised I don't quite have time to settle domestic affairs before meeting the girls at 9am. Arranged to meet them halfway through their tour, at 10.30am instead - and thank goodness I did. They went too early, and none of the attractions opened till 11! While waiting for B & gf to arrive, we took an uphill walk along St. Vincent Street to reach the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasgow). Yes, very odd. The 2 schools are grouped into 1 here, instead of the usual separation into medics and butchers. It's a tiny, decrepit-looking building, quite a disappointment actually. Took some photos anyway, on the phone.

We initially wanted to go visit the Lighthouse, this tall dome where you can see most of the city. Obviously I wouldn't want to climb up. Heights are bad. Was just about to make up some silly excuse ("Oh, I'll be visiting this with yx and my mom later, so I'll skip it.") when they decided they won't go in. Phew.

Traipsed to Pizza Hut along Jamaica Road for the £3.99 lunch buffet, and once again I was horrified. Tried not to let too much show on my face - maybe it's just me who's getting bothered by this. Just some very odd, ironic things that really sparked off in my head, during the lunch. S didn't join us - she packed lunch and said quite rightly that she didn't want to spend her time here eating, since the others swore they'd eat for hours to make their £ worth it.

1) 3 out of 4 of them ate the pizza's stuffing and left the crust. Not that the crust wasn't tasty (on the contrary - it was delicious, just about the best stuff I've tasted here), but because you'd fill up quickly.
2) All decided not to have drinks because it'd make the bread expand and fill you up quickly.
3) £25 for a £22+ bill would have been reasonable tipping, isn't it? Ah ... they picked the bill tray clean. Even the £0.05.

So where's the irony? Ha. Everyone started behaving like prim, civilised model-citizens and picked at their pizzas using knives and forks. What the hell?!? Fuck it. I ate my entire meal using hands and had heck of a fun time to boot.

OK, after lunch, it was sight-seeing time. We went to only 3 today, and all within 2 minutes of each other.

1. Glasgow Cathedral
It's really so much nicer inside than it looks from the outside. Lovely, intricate architecture, once again Victorian, with loads of minute little details. Went down to the crypts, which supposedly houses the tomb of St. Mungo, the patron saint of Glasgow. I saw no saint in there. Just some stones claiming to be the tomb. I really don't know why people don't want to know for sure, it's not that hard to dig it up is it? Ah, and all of a sudden I realised that they probably wanted it that way. Better to have a mystery to draw the faith, rather than an outright rejection of the truth. Anyway, it got extremely creepy down in the crypts. I was standing on an interesting slab on the floor, trying to read the engraved writing on it - before I realised too late that the slab was actually a grave. They were everywhere! You can't help stepping all over these poor people! Bought a souvenir booklet on the cathedral from its shop, such a beautiful place deserve some patronage. Also bought a book on scottish folklore and myths for £5 - kind of regretted after I've finished the book. Mainly because I've finished with it. =)

2. Necropolis
YESSSS .. We went to the graveyards!! Oooooh! S and I were the only excited ones though. I could tell most visibly that B's gf couldn't wait to get the hell out of there. It was a really nice walk, with a good view of Glasgow city right at the top of the hill. The higher we climbed, the richer the dead people are, and therefore the larger the tombs became. It came as no surprise that the largest monument (i.e. the richest) was some church leader. Yes, even surpassing the wealth of a Professor of Anatomy, whose tomb was passed by slightly lower down. Really should have gone later in the evening, when it's creepier.

3. St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Art
The part that I least liked. It was SO BORING, and was in no way representative of many religions, even though it boasted of showcasing EVERY religion in the world. Of course, you'd expect a skewed representation towards a certain religion. It was a very bad exhibit.

So far the impression I got of Glasgow is that it tries too hard. Jack of all trades, master of none. Take the Museum of Transport, for one. If you want to do something, never do it in halves. You can't pick out certain crowd-drawing cars and claim that you are a Museum. They don't seem to try to do their best for these museums, these are really quite lame attempts, IMO. If you want to showcase christianity, you jolly well do it on the scale of that "Journey of Faith" Vatican Collection exhibit we had in Singapore some time ago. If you want to showcase buddhism, you jolly well get a stupa to show for it - they seem really confused about what they're saying, and mixing up the Theravada, Mahayana and Tibetan buddhist traditions. What about Japanese buddhism? These people obviously need a teaching even from a novice like me. And how come only 2 Hindu deities were shown?!? Bottom line is, it's all very disappointing. They obviously don't have an inkling of what they're talking about at all, and trying too hard to be too many of "the only whatever" in the uk/europe/world.

Well, I truly started having a better feel of the group dynamics today. Obviously B was tending to his gf, and trying to make us conform to her wishes while trying not being too obvious about it. ;) I quite understand, of course. However, the interesting stuff was the 3 girls. H lives in glasgow alone, while S and W live right at the outskirts, 40 mins by train to Glasgow, and almost right next to the sea between Ireland and Scotland. The odd thing is, W and H are very close, and kept talking to each other only. Works well anyway, I get along well with S, as mentioned earlier. Poor S, she seems to be overruled by the other 2 all the time though, as to which attractions they want to see. Ah, the troubles of going out in a group. We do share very similar tastes, so now we all go where I wanna go. =) Hahahaha. Like a power struggle, you know? I added quite a bit of muscle to this side of the camp. S is also another one of them sublime, mild girls, but she's really so into the supernatural ghostly stuff. Had a fun talk about cemetaries and haunted castles, and how I'm freaking poor mom out by booking us a stay in a famous haunted castle.

So yeah .. I'm starting not to feel too left out in this group. They're going on a day trip to Stirling next weekend, btu I'm flying down to Birmingham so I won't (psst .. don't want to) join them. Might be having a Bank Holiday sometime next week, rumour is that it's on Fri and Mon, so my plans will have to change somewhat. Might end up having an awful time all alone again. Let's see the plans:

Plan A
Saturday:
Plane to Birmingham, visit the Bullring as Mr. Ye recommended, then train to Telford. B&B in Shropshire, Telford.
Sunday:
Meet up with Mike, spend the entire day talking about plants and hopefully buying some, and in the evening, train back to Birmingham, plane back to Glasgow. Might end up reaching here rather late in the evening.
Monday:
Train to Greenock to visit the 2 girls. =) Yes, I've been invited!

Plan B
Saturday:
Rot around here .. somehow. Maybe a solo tour around the area. Maybe a visit to Edinburgh.
Sunday:
Early morning flight to Birmingham, transfer to train to reach Telford, and meet Mike hopefully in early afternoon. Then B&B in Shropshire.
Monday:
Train from Telford back to Birmingham, visit the Bullring, then flight back to Glasgow.

I guess it just hinges on whether I want to be late in meeting Mike, or be late in coming back to Glasgow. I'd prefer neither, honestly. Then again, I'm assuming that I get the day off on a bank holiday - it works differently here than in Wales and England, it's not a mandatory public holiday.

Ahh ... school again tomorrow, and somehow I'm not quite looking forward to it. Somehow. The weariness has started setting in, but it's this week that my posting's really starting. Someone's here to stay along the corridor, but further down in a single room, haven't met him yet. He left the (as yet undiscovered, for me, until several hours ago) bathtub room open though, which gave me a shit fright. I walked past it, and there was this pot of shaggy-looking plant on a shelf. Which looked like a head. Grrr. Closed the bloody door and hoping that it remains that way.