Tag: online

Posted in Day Trip, Travel

Rosslyn Chapel

Posted on by Evallone

I’m sure everyone has at least heard of Rosslyn Chapel, mostly thanks to the spotlight given by Dan Brown in the Da Vinci code it helped bring even more tourists and conspiracy theorists to the church located on the outskirts of Edinburgh.

Day-Trippin’

Back in March, I’d planned to visit Rosslyn Chapel with the family in April but obviously the tour company cancelled it when it was announced that churches across the country had to close for the foreseeable future. I was miffed to say the least, April is prime day-trip season in Scotland and I’d blew through most of my holiday allowance at work so doing something on my days off was a perfect idea. It started as a random conversation of somewhere different we could go to, love Arran so much but Scotland has a lot to offer and I still feel I’ve barely seen anything. Given that none of us have a car, it looked a bit awkward to travel from Glasgow to Rosslyn. The website does suggest trains and busses from Edinburgh… but then, a chance advert in a newspaper Pater found Strathmore Travel running day trips to Rosslyn chapel of all places! It included pick up from Glasgow, travel there and back and a wee lunch/tea in the cafeteria for £49 a head. Freaking bargain.

The New Normal: Virtual Tour

Alas, it’s as tragic as everything else we’re missing out on. Scotland has had some of its best ever weather in the couple of months since lockdown started and it’s grating on us all – especially considering how rotten the winter was and it lasted until the second week in March. But the kind folks who look after Rosslyn Chapel also know how to look after their fans and disheartened would-be visitors and have released an online virtual tour of the chapel. Please see here. (I would recommend viewing it on a laptop or computer, my Chromebook froze trying to view it!)

It’s lovely that we can view it while safe at home, and I think it really plays into how lucky most of us are to have access to technology and be online during this crisis. The fact that we can virtually visit the places we can’t physically go to right now is comforting. Remember google street view exists! You can walk down the main street of your favourite city and pretend you are there.

Not the review I wanted

I wanted to have a series of great pictures and to detail the whole day on here, which I can’t do. Obviously there’s a great deal that we can learn online about it, like now I know you’re not allowed to take pictures inside the church, so thankfully there is the virtual tour. It looks quite small, but given how old it is and the detail in the carvings it more than makes up for it. While researching this, I found a great post on the Rabbie’s website about Rosslyn Chapel. Rabbie’s are a travel company that do tours around Scotland including to the chapel. This post isn’t sponsored, I’m just trying to throw some good karma in the way of local companies that they’ll survive Corona.

Featured Image Credit: RCT/Vic Sharp Via Rabbie’s Website.

Let me know if anyone has already visited Rosslyn and what you thought of it? Anyone planning to go (want to road trip)? Do you do day trips in your home country?

e x

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Posted in The Quarantine Diaries

I am Procrastinator…

Posted on by Evallone

Hear me… get back to you later with that one.

Nothing really matters

I’ve done nothing but avoid things for the last couple of days. And why not? It’s not like anyone’s really doing anything now. Except I have a to-do list a mile long of all the things I wanted to progress with when I had the time. Even this post has been sitting in my drafts for four days.. But what even is a day anymore?

Shopping’s not as fun as it was

I haven’t left the house in nearly a week, apart from taking out the bins. I’ll go to Lidl tomorrow but it’s all fairly dramatic these days. Last time a guy smooshed himself against the shelves of cereal as he walked passed me as if I was marching around with open sores, and a woman tutted when I turned my trolly round and headed back up the aisle.

To-do or not to-do?

Alas, I have re-investigated my to-do list and broken it down into the more urgent, pressing tasks and the things that aren’t immediate or take a bit more time to work through – i.e. writing the next chapter of my book. I’m also using this time for personal development, continuing to study Italian (I went back to the beginning again) using an awesome course on Edx through Wellesley College (they have a fantastic range of free courses covering almost everything you could imagine). Plus I am seriously trying to self-teach Dutch, I’d gotten into quite a good rhythm with it last year, but then the tonsils happened. It’s a delightful language and I spend over €60 on Dutch Grammar books from a cracking wee bookshop in the Hague three years ago. It’s the first language I’ve tried to self-teach as is very difficult to find Dutch classes in Glasgow, and not ones that fit my schedule. I did, however, purchase a course on Udemy that focuses on Dutch and Flemish variants so my goal right now is to use that course to get more of an ear for the sounds and practice repeating words and sentences and then return to the grammar books.

It’s a progression from playing the Sims all day, right? (Though there’s nothing really wrong with it.)

What things are you starting to do to stay sane?

e x

Posted in Education, Food, studying, University, Writing

Another Day in the Library

Posted on by Evallone

First things first, my last post was officially my 100th post! Woo hoo! I think I’m happy with it, or maybe I believed I’d posted more. Anyway, here’s to another hundred.

Monday was the recommencement of the Monday study sessions in town. My Italian class starts back next week, so I used this time to haul my laptop and notebooks with me to work on my Creative Writing assessment. It was a fairly early start (for me) and I was in the library for 12pm and a giant coffee to get things started. Unfortunately, for the first few hours we had to make do with a drafty round table, but later we got using a booth (not the usual one, but good enough). I’m a bit like Rory needing her study tree, I’m a creature of habit!

The second-best booth

I’m terrible for procrastinating, even when something is right in front of me to be done. I also put it down to being more of an evening, nighttime worker but needs must and since being ill my sleeping pattern has improved somewhat. But I had my checklists and tried not to overdo the pressure with the tasks I wanted to complete yesterday. In the end wrote 1700 words for my assessment which is sufficient as the bones of a first draft, it’s not due until the end of January but I can’t leave it because who knows what is around the corner.

Checklists, planners and laptop

The great thing about this library is that it is much warmer than the one in Aberdeen. Granted I felt chilly at points throughout the day, but most of that was to do with the draft from the door way and my brain wanting to curl up and go back to bed.

My plan now is to rework the draft into something I can share to the forums for feedback (I missed the workshop deadline – didn’t have anything to submit), then I have to start worrying about the commentary. It’s a horrible exercise of only 500 words which I apparently still don’t have the hang of. I ought to message my tutor for help, but what can she tell me that hasn’t already been shared in our groups online?

I need to remember more study snacks for the next library session, I had some food, but there’s nothing dairy-free or vegan as options at the coffee shop or canteen as a snack and the vending machines were empty too. You might recognise me on the next trip though, I’ll be the bag-lady laden down with laptop and books and a tote-bag full of food.

e x