Gallivanting in Glasgow

 As previously mentioned we went over to Glasgow last week. We went to the opera a couple of times and the day in between we went to the Tutankhamun Exhibition. This was at the S.E.C. where we had never been before, so we were unprepared for how massive the place was. The Tutankhamun exhibition was in only one of their halls, and it wasn't small! There was also a Christmas Craft fair on in a neighbouring hall. As it is years since I actually subscribed to any needlework or knitting magazines and quite a long time since I even bought a one off, I had no idea this was on, otherwise I might have been tempted to go back the next day. But we were busy and parking at the SEC is exorbitant and I wasn't really prepared for doing anything extra and spontaneous, so we didn't. Also the Christmas theming didn't grab me that much to be honest. 

The  Tutankhamun Exhibition  was very enjoyable. There were a few genuine artefacts, lots of replicas, a VR experience of how the Egyptians saw the afterlife,  a simulated trip down the river Nile with massive 360 degree film projections, a fairly sanitised video of how they made mummies and plenty of exhibition panels with information, beautifully done, with fabulous illustrations. 

I took lots of photographs and here are one or two

well you know me, it's all about the jewellery!

I loved this little canopic jar,  partly because I don't think the animal on the top can decide whether it's a lion or a polar bear

ha, ha! this made me laugh. According to the label this pair of sandals (obviously a replica) had pictures on the soles of Egypt's enemies so that every time the Pharaoh wore the sandals he was walking on his  enemies. Couldn't help wishing I had known this a decade ago, when I could have printed out a photo of my Ph D supervisor twice and popped the  resulting pics in my shoes. And walked on him, every day. 

A scene from the film projection. Whatever you took a picture of had human heads in the way, it was just the way things were. This has the fewest/smallest. 

All in all, money well spent.

We drove to the exhibition, see my comments earlier about parking but went to the opera on the bus. First nigh this was relatively straightforward, although we got to the theatre aeons early. The next evening we went out slightly earlier for the bus and waited in the cold for 40 minutes while the 5 buses that would get us to our destination that should have arrived at our stop failed to materialise. Several of them had times given  on the little screen telling us when they were due, and then they were about 3 minutes out they disappeared from the screen -  and apparently the streets. We were very panicked about whether we would actually make it to the theatre in time but in fact at the last possible moment, well about two minutes before the time we had decided we would need to give up, a bus arrived. It was  a nerve wracking ride in, as we tried to decide whether we would make it in time. We did, but more or less by the skin of our teeth. 

Going back was more entertaining. I was playing a game on my phone and vaguely heard the OH murmur something about 'he's gone the wrong way' but I didn't take much notice because there were road works and Hope Street was closed and there were diversions so I thought the driver had just taken one of those. Sadly not. The next thing was hearing  a voice from midway down the bus call out 'Hey, driver, you've gone the wrong way'. The driver ignored this through several repeats. I should say that the driver was not a native Glaswegian. The man telling him where he had gone wrong was. They carried on an inconclusive conversation for a wee while, all the time the driver continuing on his merry way, although happily only as fast as Glasgow traffic lights will allow, which is  is Not Very, and in the end  he was finally forced to take notice when half the rest of the lower deck passengers joined in the chorus of 'you've gone wrong. The person who had first drawn attention to the error took himself up to the front of the  bus, stood behind the driver's shoulder and proceeded to give him directions to get him back on the right road. Once that was achieved he got a round of applause from the rest of the passengers and stayed put until he got off some while later; luckily at that point the bus was on a road that basically carried straight on to the end of the route. I have never seen anything quite so Glaswegian in my life.