somedays
i just want to fling my books out of the window
shred my notes into a gazillion pieces
bang my head against the wall

and just not care

my magic

so my past week has been littered with shouts of "are u sure u don't know this?! how can u leave out this question?!?!?!?!"
been re-visiting my ghost of o levels past. tys-es, periodic tables, and ohbloodyhell, magnetic flux linkage.
really hope #3 survives this.


been watching how i met your mother this week
and now i have this humongous cheeseburger craving
all because marshall went around the whole of nyc trying to find his perfect burger.

and now i want mine.
juicy tender medium-well, chopped onions ++, tomato/crisp lettuce between 2 hot buns!

and i recently discovered the joy of bailey's irish cream mixed with cold fresh milk
(the things i do when im bored/alone at home)
the same chocolate-y creamy goodness minus the alcoholic siap-ness cos of the dilutional factor
but after tt i still get damn red lah
im not immune to the magic of alcohol ok.


in typical maria-fashion, i was granted a day off today
and i went gallivanting!

i wish.

just to suntec for porridge buffet with the anat peeps!
my anatgroupfriends are exciting ppl who never seem to run short of conversation topics.
from bitching about sip hos to new-clear ambitions to the fact tt jackspade really is the katespade's brother (both make swell bags!)

then we left after tt back home to do our own stuff.
how very unexciting.
plans to watch 20th century boys were thwarted by some Life! columnist who thought the movie was "schizophrenic" and worth only a measly 1.5stars.


today i attempted a little magic (after countless consultations, through sms-es and literature research)
stuffed my contacts in
and with bated breath, swished that wand across

and ho! my lashes became mops!

never. ever. run on an empty stomach

'nuff said.

i sit here now, dizzy from hypoglycaemia; glycogen-depleted.
bravely stupidly decided to skip lunch and go for a run.

5km and i couldn't take it
banglas wolf-whistling (couldn't muster enough energy to give them the finger)
the late afternoon heat
more importantly, the sheer exhaustion of dragging my lacticacid-sodden/lead-leaden limbs, having to powertalk my way through the last 500m.

don't.

/what about now

coldplay's vivalavida jason mraz's i'myours daughtry's whataboutnow on repeat.
till i get sick of them.

indulged in a little teenage fantasy over the weekend.
vampire-human romance in foggy town. werewolves vs bloodsuckers.
this is what happens when you have too much time on your hands and your #4 happens to be a manga-loving, HP-adoring fantasy freak fan with a huge collection of the said books to rival my textbook collection.

i read and i start to brood. why can't my life be this exciting?

anyway, stephenie meyers rocks my socks. looking forward to the movie adaptation of her much-acclaimed Twilight. HP's diggory is going to be the vampire, according to #4, with spunkier hair and a whiter face.

---

good day today.
still on my 7km endorphin high.
retail therapy high from buying 2 dresses, a skirt and a belt online.

plenty of classroom/canteen drama.
psych video after video. cold war. coffeeground romance + post-scrutiny wardrobe analysis.

extra 20min coupon time from a nice auntie in the carpark lot before me.
enough time leftover before fatimah books me to head down to borders to indulge in more stephenie meyers (i think there's some sort of a craze for her series right now. stacks and stacks of her books strategically placed in various spots)
i just might get the entire series if i'm feeling particularly rich.

the end of psychomed is coming.
can't wait.
then there's the nike human race thing this sunday.
let's see if i survive that before i even think about terryfox/runforhope.

cul-de-sac

so it isn't me
never was.

4 years down a one-way street
hitting a brick wall at the end of it all
cannot u-turn

leave me alone.

1 for the memories

i had a great time.
thank you(s).

from a very good friend

"the only harmony a person needs is in his/her heart.
to be at peace with all the imperfections with herself/himself and with all the pain in the world."

i need days like this.

good plug/bloods day
ilovewritingblueletters
busybusybusy

biting into what i thought was an ordinary choc chip muffin
and getting a mouthful of warm gooey chocolate ganache in return.

"you complete me"

running so hard that i stitch
nice clothes in the mail :)

cold shower.

i like my potatoes. mashed.

yay
one more place to chill. connect. carboload.

monstermash is here!

i think i make a sucky ho

230pm on a weekday and i'm home!
feels weird.

post-call
all i can think of is flopping into a heap on the floor and just never waking up.

survived on calbee seaweed flavour for dinner
and peach tea, very generously sponsored by drdonovan
only started getting hungry at around 3am
by then only therip-offplacethatcallsitself7-11 was open.
so no choice lor.
pchips seemed like a good choice then.

clerked a couple of the incoming cases
giddiness, chest infx, sepsis
went to cardio to clerk chest pain chest pain and more chest pain
and bloods
waking patients up in the middle of the night to poke them is no fun
thankful that most of my patients were nice and obliging
(well, they cant really do much even they protested)
i think those ECG + CE X3 are the most poor things.

got to squeeze in some sleep at about 5-6am
from 4-5am my brain was seriously malfunctioning
dunno how the hell i got from level9 to level8
don't recall taking either the stairs or the lifts.
i hope i didn't kill anyone.

i like taking bloods
probably the only thing im good at with regards to medicine
other times i feel like a total klutz during rounds
half the time i dunno what is it i can/cannot do
and i feel bad asking the HOs cos they're so busy
and i can't even answer questions properly
dunno how i'm going to make it through mbbs

week1 as a sipper and im slowly getting into the groove of things
though my case-note writing skills are still quite pok
and im still quite blur on how to phrase everything into medspeak on the notes
and my physical examination skills are going down the drain because all my exams are now chopchophurryup focussed ones
(actually no excuse lah, should still be able to do a proper one. i should stop being so lazy and inertia-fied)

got the weekend off yay
get some studying done and most of it better stick (be it my brain or anywhere else on my body. brain preferred)
maybe re-evaluate my life plans

geri next week!
grouchy old ladies, wrinkly old men
and collapsible veins!

with crossed fingers and toes

m5
in a few hours

official sip-er
casenotes discharges prescriptions wardrounds blueletter
nightcalls

wish me luck!

i love matcha ice-cream!

dinner with the girls has always been a delightful affair.
pasta de waraku
gobbled up c's remaining 2 oysters cos she said they "tasted funny"
and boy were they full of zinc (and other things i don't really want to know)
made my breath stink for a bit after that. eeurch

j remarked that our 10 year anniversary is approaching
and yay! we should all celebrate when that happens
we've seen each other through our scrawny teenage days (ok, i wasn't that scrawny), bowling sessions in china, bad hair, crushes, hook-ups to break-ups, stupid petty fights, university deadlines, family/bf/tuition/other-friend commitments
and the 3 of them have recently just made tiny steps into the big bad corporate world (congrats!)
we're all still good friends. amazing. :)

post-dinner shopping
stepped into zaramyfavouriteplace and picked up a summery pair of t-bar flats - on sale!
got abit lost amidst the mind-boggling array of mascaraseyelinersblushersglossestweezers (someone please teach me about makeup) at sasa and stumbled upon the coolest invention ever - electric eyelash curler! on discount!
techgeek in me wanted one. vainpot in me screamed at me to get it. cheapskate ah soh in me said mustbuymustbuy!
so i got it lor.
damn cool la.
can zhng my lashes and use for self-defense.


just acquired an extra mahjong table and mj set from my late granny
so that makes 2!
enough to open my own illegal gambling den
so i say comecome! my place is open 24/7 (if you're willing to come down to ulu eastwood)
cold drinks and stale biscuits provided.


may is getting married and i'm excited!
met her on thurs to pick up a couple of last minute stuff (and ended up shopping again)
seeing her all rosy and radiant makes me think of how shums would have been so happy for her sis. still remember her little happy jump that ended off with a tiny sideward kick.
if she were still here.

it's been more than 2 years since she left
and although nothing can ever fill up that gaping hole she left behind
it's nice to know that the people that love her are trying to move on with their lives.
i miss her.

they're all moving on
so should i.

i don't wanna be a char siew pau

charsiewpau and mantou got dumped by their respective boyfriends.
but only charsiewpau cried her little heart out.

why?

because charsiewpau had fillings.

the return of the kukubird

itchy fingers=lopsided kukubird hair again
why can't i just go to the hairdressers like every other normal person


my mummy made some rather extravagant purchases recently
and i was the luckyducky recipient of a fraction of her expenditure

got a new bag for school/work
looks like one of those giant japanese rice triangles
those with the salmon/tuna filling and wrapped with seaweed.

oh well,
avant garde bag to match my new "avant garde" fringe


have officially finished watching the legend (taewangsashingi).
i say "officially" because i actually finished the entire series in 2 days last week out of sheer boredom
and the mother isn't supposed to know because we're all supposed to watch it together. as a family.

got hooked onto the series when i watched the very 1st ep in glasgow
fire-breathing birds that blast the earth into a sea of fire turn me on.

so i've watched the last 8 episodes twice.
not that i'm complaining.
double yoon tae-young (no, not bae yong jun) screen time!
excellent baddie eye candy

the ending sucked though.
i sat through 32 episodes of korean and close-ups of baeyongjun's face, waiting for the moment.
but no damdeok + sujini = happily ever after!
instead bae and his buddy splint got sucked into some giant blue light that was supposed to represent heaven's power
and then the ending was narrated, whilst various pictures of bae's character (and his horse) looking all serious and royal flashed on my screen.
why?!?!?

stupid ending got me all depressed for an entire day
hai~


in other news,

back in the macritchie game and loving it.
even if it means waking up at 630am on saturdays
driving halfway across the island
and running half-conscious into the deep dark trail...

i'm back!

just shoot me

my baby sister

when asked, told the family over dinner that
牛油 = horse (which she later hurriedly changed to cow) oil.

technically correct but socially ohsooooowrong.

my poor ol' dad was having a hard time keeping his food down
my mum was looking absolutely appalled
and i, out of sheer shock, nearly fell off my seat in manical laughter

all in a day's work/i feel empty

atls mock exercise in the morning.
see our MOs pretend to be paramedics, intubate a trauma-tised mannequin, trauma activate, order xrays/ctscans/e-blood.

auto-pulse run-through.
(really cool device. compressions abit scary though. i think by the time they finish cpr-ing, the poor patient would probably have suffered multiple rib #s and lung contusions, if he hadn't already. the nurse deadpanned that once upon a time blood was seen coming out of a patient's OG tube because the lifeband was positioned too low.)

organophosphate poisoning! (neverevereverever seen that before) from a guy who drank 2 bottles of insecticide and downed 3 bottles of valium. siao.
but the full SLUDGE toxidrome didnt manifest. only urination and bowel sounds +++.
OP smell permeated through the ED and the adjacent lift lobby.

102 year oldman with creps and rhonchi +++ plus bedsores

guy who OD-ed on benzos cos he felt frustrated.

classic ureteric colic writhing-on-bed-vomitting-loin-to-groin-pain presentation.

most exciting last day ever!


my 4 months are up.
electives have been great.
think i learnt the most from the last one.

the doctors have been awesome.
the nurses have been swell.
seriously going to miss them and the hustleandbustle of all my mornings/afternoons.

in this 1 month, i have done/seen/memorised/been patiently brought through:
1) all the symptoms in section 1 of the black book, except for chapters 6,7,9,12 (the kid chapters). so i think i should be able to know what to look out for when i see someone coming in with chestpain/ SOB/ giddiness/ weakness/ diarrhea/ vomitting etc.
2) enough plugs to be fairly confident of not shearing anyone's veins and/or giving them a huge hematoma.
3) glasgow coma scale
4) the ecg changes in a STEMI
5) exciting cardiac dysrhythmias - WPW! R-on-T!
6) VF/pulseless VT/PEA/asystole algorithm (drilled into my thick skull by drtan)
7) many collapse cases (thank god for 6)
8) xrays, abgs, blood cultures, iv drips
9) what cyanosis really looks like
10) 1 clinic session, where i saw delirium at its very best (or worst, depending on which side of the line u perceive it from)
11) quite a few t&s-es. enough to make my hands stop shaking everytime i hold the needle.
12) 1 bier's block and tried (with the help of drgoh) to m&r a colles #.
13) 1 cooper-milch.
14) many psych cases. enough to understand why we need more psychomed trainees.
15) oh, and i forgot, 3 triple-As!!! i only saw like 1 during my AH surg posting.

sip up next!
watch me cry.
(actually quite excited lah, just a leetle apprehensive about the unknown)

i love my sexy new voice!

that, and hacking away violently every 5minutes.

whyohwhy do i have to catch the flu

but being a med student does have its perks. like getting a nice fat discount from my friendly not-so-neighbourhood doctor.


seriouslyseriously *poofed out from emed these couple of weeks.
wake up at 0630am catch #10 and dive straight into one day of plugs, cultures, abgs, sutures and answering drgohdrleedrthngdrlimdrtan's questions.
non-stop, i tell you.
then back home at around 1700 and i ko for the next 2hrs before dinner is served.
then wake up with a start in the middle of the night frantically trying to find out why bier's block is contraindicated in children less than 8yearsold and why tcu 10days after m&r of a colle's #. cos if i don't know dr *** will tsktsktskhehehe and i will feel damn lousy so i must find out.

i like my life (now).


met up with firemanZul today!

he rocks.
come all the way down to the hosp for lunch with me.

haven't seen him in like what, *counts fingersandtoes 5years?

and he's having the flu too!
so it's us 2 sniffling goons having a sad lunch in the cgh canteen.

i love catching up with longtimenosee friends and finding out that nothing's really changed over the months/years we haven't been in much contact.
kind of brings me comfort to know that in life, there actually is some constancy.
that friendships stay even though it's been left in one corner for cobwebs to collect (sorrysorry not my fault! sometimes i reallyreally got no time)
and i'm really lucky to have met people who care and understand that i am that kind of person.

so yay to my friends!

sgt. pepper's lonely hearts club

on a fine weekday afternoon

C (who has been happily attached for the longest possible time):
are u all still single and available?

*cue 3 (dejected/ambivalent) nodding heads


I (to C):
would you like to join us?

my granddad said i grew fat(ter). boohoo

bah.
too much eating in europe.
cannot fit into my grey skinnies already.


weekend's been great so far.
got to catch up on sleep.
seriously burnt out from 1week of emed.
my stamina is going nowhere.

but emed has been great.
set manymany plugs.
did like dunnohowmany ecgs
did a couple of t&s-es
and helped in a reduction of a colles fracture
(i just stood there and provided traction lah)

jetlag seriously sucks.
can't think can't think!
i can't believe i forgot the ecg signs for atrial fibrillation
kena scolded by dr lee
but methinks i deserve it

my top 3 cases of the week:
maid who drank 200ml of dettol
policeman who got literally got stabbed in the back
bangla who fell through a zinc roof

more green plugs next week!

back to reality

my last pita gyros at 1030am.

worried a little as i watched my backpack trundle into the check-in xray machine and disappear into the deep dark abyss of idunnowherebutpleasepleaseturnupinchangiairportterminal1

worried somemore when i see the huge pot-bellied person sitting next to me slushing down gulp after gulp of johnnywalker redlabel. straight from the bottle.
and asking for whisky while the stewardess was serving snacks.
and a bottle of red wine during lunch.

reached heathrow in 1 piece

at wh smith,
tried to juggle 3 toblerone bars, 2 boxes of shortbread fingers 1 bottle of ribena, my bag of harrod's goodies and my "fragiles" bag.
just because i was too lazy to pick up a shopping cart.

spent the next 3odd hours sipping my ribena reading my emed book and watching hyperactive kids tear through the airport like they were training for the 100m sprint.

then from heathrow to singapore

got my prized 40D seat
front row, more leg room (no person in front to lean back and squish my knees)
right behind the galley, so i get served first!
AISLE seat (only aishu will understand the torture i went through and the significance of an aisle seat in a caucasian dominated aircraft)

all this from my kiasu singapore genes
yay for checking in online the day before.


i land at arrivals and get my duty-free stuff
sorely tempted to get clinique's happy heart
but the price makes me choke

i exit and i feel it
the heat, the humidity

my pores are drowning.


but im so glad i'm home :)

i feel so clean

santorini is my favourite place in greece.

1.5 days there and it seems like it isn't enough.

day 1
we argued with the abit siao hostel landlady who wanted us to pay for a night we didnt stay
took a boat ride to nea kameri, santo's ancient caldera for breathtaking views.
literally.
breathed in a hell load of sulphur gas.

went for a swim in the hot springs (i just stayed on the boat and looked pretty cos i didnt have swim gear)
took a donkey up the cliffs. freaked the shit out of me. and i finally saw the purpose of a tail.

andandand i tried the best wine. ever. from sundried grapes.
bought 2 bottles of it back. which i know i will regret when the time comes for me to lug it back home.

and a shot of evilblue absinthe. 80% alc.
absolutely throat-sterilising.

one more day to home!

bonjour. i hate the eiffel tower.

today.
i was very excited.

cos i got to climb the eiffel tower. yay.
and as a student, i get 50% discount. double yay.

i climbed up to the first viewing platform. got wow-ed by the pretty views.

then someone jumped off the 2nd viewing platform.
sucks.

other than that,
paris has been great.

the people, the sights
and the fact that people sit facing the road in cafes,
just so they can people-watch.
one row of people sitting just outside the cafe - it's quite a sight.

even the louvre was nice (not much of a museum person actually).
took us 1.5days to cover 75% of it.

strange enough,
i got myself a small model of the eiffel tower as a souvenir.
talk about morbid memories.


next stop: gladiators, gondolas and gelati!

i got my tigers. yay.

leaving for london tomorrow!

can't wait to leave the apartment. the disgusting housemates that smoke pot/basically anything that's dried and use the COMMON kitchen chopping board to cut up their tobacco. eeweewewwww.

housemates that cannot be bothered to do their dishes after they eat. just leave them in the sink to grow dunno-what-sort of exotic fungus.

i think this house qualifies as one of the top 10 house of horrors, just purely on the basis of the people living here. and after this, any hostel i stay in in europe is probably much better than this.


went back to the royal for the very last time today.
said our byebyes to prof rankin + donna. the waddly janitor that gave us free food. and the super nice librarian.

got back my evaluation report also. merit.
which is not bad considering i didnt get to spend much time in the clinics with prof rankin. hardly any time actually.
but yay. one elective down. one more to go.

one last mabel iced donut before i go!

see u all in london! :)

and my heart goes boom!

heart function clinic today.

run by the extremely nice and good(-looking) dr petrie.

seriously, if i were an ah ma in heart failure,
my LVEF (left ventricular ejection fraction) would dramatically improve the minute i see him.

backs my theory that not only is laughter the best medicine, eye candy helps. alot.


so many people with heart failure in scotland.
(no) thanks to their smoking.

40sticks a day and still dont want to quit.
rather die than quit.
ask the doctor to do whatever he can to make the heart pump better, but still refuse to quit.

sometimes i feel like just telling them that the heart failure is all their fault and they should stop expecting doctors to find quick-fix solutions.
and really, if you smoke and you get COPD/heart failure/lungtonguethroat cancer,
you deserve it.
cos the consequences have been spelt out so nicely, yet you still choose to do it.


photos from our trip to the botanic gardens

just off byres road. near where we stay.
so we took a leisurely walk there before dinner one weekday evening.

so many damn plants in there.
was very tempted to steal borrow some of their garlic, lemongrass and spring onions for our dinner.

they even have a tropical greenhouse in there!
even got the humidity down pat.
felt like i was back in singapore in there.


gorgeous place nonetheless.

inside one of their greenhouses

dome of the greenhouse

so many pretty flowers!

attempted murder in cacti land

no sweat.

the weather was fab today.

good enough to go for a run!

round kelvingrove park,

nearly died on the slope up university avenue,
down byres road.

past somerfields,

too winded to attempt botanical gardens
(which is a pretty place btw)
then back home.

wind in my hair; on my face. no sweat.

ran until the insides of my thighs were raw from rubbing against my scratchyscratchy trackpants. no sweat.
panting like a maniac when i got back. but still no sweat.

2weeks of mabel's fabulous deep-fried (!!!) doughnuts,
muller's yoghurt on alternate days

tesco's strawberry cheesecake
sitting on my bigfat bum learning how to knit.

turns me into a lump of lard that can't even handle a 30min run

argharghargh

andijustdiscoverediputonFREAKING2kgtoday!

:(

sunday's child...

... is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

which was what i was on sunday when we went to The Barras!


The Barras is Glasgow's very own local flea market. with (an advertised) 1000 and more stalls selling just about anything and everything.

abit like singapore's sungei market. but bigger.
muchmuch bigger.

fantastic treasure trove of dingdongs/knick-knacks, antique bone china bowls, dusty porcelain plates, princess diana memorabilia, even old spectacles.
basically anything they can find in their homes, they sell.
my mum will seriously love this place.

picked up a couple of great finds.
one of them being this gorgeous piece of madeinengland wedgwood - for only 4quid!
*manymany smiles

probably going back there again the following sunday
and see what more i can unearth.

and also because i need to replenish my diminishing stock of 10-for-a-quid chocolate eggs.
marvelous chocolate eggs with gooey toffee+truffle centers.
keeps me happy through the week.

(now why don't they make stuff like tt back home?!)

and that, is the end of our edinburgh story

first things first:

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY

to my mummy!!!!

so this weekend we go to edinburgh again

first on our agenda, carlton hill.

hill with manymany monuments remembering scotland's greats

massive half-finished colosseum (think they ran out of funds)

atop carlton

jess mounts her canon

then we visit edinburgh university

and it's medical school's famed wall of doctors:
doctors that gave us addison's disease/hodgkin's lymphoma

man, i so want to graduate

Reid Concert Hall; Museum of Musical Instruments

jess gets abit high at the sight of so many violins

We take a (nauseating) half-hour bus ride to Roslin.
home of Rosslyn Chapel.

rosslyn chapel

the amazing chapel featured in the da vinci code.
very easy to see why.

small chapel (abit anti-climatic cos i expected to see a massive exterior work of art after how much it has been hyped-up by the media and the movie. i didn't watch the movie)
but every inch of it's interior is covered with carvings.

ceiling to pillar to floor. all carved.

freaking amazing carvings
these were all over the chapel
(photos not allowed; managed to sneak one in before i kena scolded)

the handiwork of the masons that sculpted this chapel is so fantastically intricate
even the tiniest of details are not missed out, right down to the tinytiny veins on the leaves.

chapel exterior

prior to rosslyn chapel, we had actually gone on a walk around the small town of roslin itself.
chapel was booked from 2.30-4.00 for a wedding, so we could only come back after 4pm.

roslin is just a very sleepy town. it's main buzz comes from the manymany tourists wanting to take a peek at the much hyped-about chapel.

out of sheer nothing-to-do-ness, we stumble onto a trail into roslin glen:

roslin glen

we have our lunch on the grass by the river

picnic by the river :)

coats swinging in the breeze

we venture into what used to be roslin castle (now a holiday home for some rich people)

goof around
before heading back to the chapel.

another (nauseating) ride back into edinburgh

and we walk smack into one of their haps flea market!
rows and rows of stalls selling hot buttered sausages, piles of smelly cheese, all sorts of knick-knacks.

jess goes crazy over 2 for 10quid necklaces, while my roving eye catches this:

can't take my eyes off you... :)

"The holy grail 'neath ancient Roslin waits.
The blade and chalice guarding o'er her gates.
Adorned in masters' loving art, she lies.
She rests at last beneath the starry skys."

one and a half weeks.
and im getting into the swing of things

cardiology has been a super learning experience.
the doctors here have been nothing short of inspiring.
and nice. very nice.
i don't feel like scum of the earth here.

patient load is not fantastic, and the working pace is kind of slow.
but im not complaining, when i get doctors who patiently take you through each and every patient, explain the purpose of the procedure and not make sarcastic disparaging remarks when you ask stupid questions.

been sharing prof rankin with about 7 other elective students from glasgow med.
they get to elective modules like us as well - student-selected modules (SSM).

students here really get by on alot of initiative.
theyre opinionated, outspoken and really on-the-ball.
something i'm seriously lacking in the personality department.
working on that.

got to run my own chest pain clinic just the other day.
nearly got a panic attack when dr martin handed me my first stack of notes and told me to take a room and see the patient.
by myself. *sweat

didn't know if i was writing the case notes correctly, didn't know my history-taking was thorough enough, if i missed out an important step in examining the patient.
what if i missed out an important sign and the patient goes home and dies the next day?!?
(it's amazing, really, the number of stupid paranoid thoughts that can run through my tinytiny brain)

but, after that it became fun.
derived alot of joy from talking to the patients, flipping through their notes, getting to know not just their medical problem, but them,
as people. with their own quirks, anecdotes and stories.

kind of brought me back to the good old days when i was dead certain of why i wanted to do medicine.

plus i got to listen to some kickass cardiac murmurs!

so all has been good. :)
just waiting for the weather to get better!

"he who holds stirling, holds scotland"

river forth

sunday we go to prettypretty Stirling

first through the old town (not very old)

enroute to the castle, we stop by the church of the holy rude, where james VI, son of mary queen of scots, was crowned king

stained glass

to the castle!

tapestry

then to argyll's lodging

off the beaten track to find the beheading stone,

which we didnt find.

we find tellytubby land instead.
green green grass and flowers so bright they look fake.

we cross the old bridge of stirling.

old bridge, stirling

lunch @ corrieri's
fantastic pasta

(william) wallace monument

disgustingly narrow and winding steps.

3 of us, breathless

(ruins of) cambuskenneth abbey

enroute to cambuskenneth abbey

long live the queen!

the weekend in pictures:
(and some words)

We go up to Edinburgh on Saturday.

We walk the Royal Mile.

tried some fantastic scotch whisky
bought more marmalade&jams

900kg beauty ;)

visit a kilt factory

oh, the curiousity gets to me...

EDINBURGH CASTLE

long live the queen!
birthday weekend means everything in historic scotland is free!

£11 but we go in free!
so happy we behave like children under 5.
the queen rocks.

lunch at monster mash at the recommendation of marvin's friend.
tried haggis. on a mound of mashed potatoes.
got sick of it.

don't think i'll ever eat it again.

we stumble upon "the elephant house"

where jkrowling first wrote harry potter

and excitedly take pictures.

at this point in time, my camera decided to die on me

so no more photos until i get them from aishu.

we attempt arthur's seat (old volcanic plug in edinburgh) in the light drizzle.

steep inclines, mossy vertical stone cliffs and gorgeous views of edinburgh.

more updates soon!