Leave of Absence - the book!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 5/6/2013 11:26:00 PM

'Read about what Tanya has to say about her fabulous new book 'Leave of Absence'#therapy #schizophrenia #mentalillness #life #inspiration #ptsdHERE!'

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Reflecting on the A-to-Z Challenge

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 5/3/2013 2:25:00 PM

'I have had a very productive April. I had a long Easter break from University and I spent it travelling, reading, and writing. Well done I say! This is the reason why my posts for this year's challenge were a lot better than last year's. My theme for this year was Scotland!I gave you posts about travel, music, experiences, life, literature, science, language, history, architecture, food... I think I did well. Scotland has much to offer and being a teeny wee country, no one notices i(...)'

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Z... is for Zoo!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/30/2013 11:37:00 AM

'I had an amazing experience at the Edinburgh zoo because1. I love zoos2. It was the first time I was visiting a zoo outside India3. It has penguins and pandas!I saw 12 animals that I'd never seen before, including pandas, penguins, koalas, wallaby, meerkats, and Sumatran tiger (that looks like a kitten). Anyway, the zoo is celebrating its 100th year, we got showed around the entire facility, including the Budongo Trail, the seat of leading research! The caretakers are a lovely bunch(...)'

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Y... is for Young, James

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/29/2013 12:50:00 PM

'Well, I didn't have anything that began with Y; but I knew I wanted to do a post about Science in Scotland. Aside from the Literature side that we've talked about and Scotland's footprint in philosophy (read: David Hume), this tiny little country  has a massive contribution to science, especially in innovations! James Young, from Glasgow, was a Scottish chemist best known for his method of distilling paraffin from coal. His Wikipedia page will tell you more, for anyone int(...)'

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X is for... the Saltire, of course!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/27/2013 12:42:00 PM

'The Saltire is the beautiful national flag of Scotland. It has a large white X on a blue backdrop. The patron Saint of Scotland, St Andrew, was crucified on a diagonal cross instead of the traditional cross. Apparently, this was because he felt that he wasn't as great at Jesus and felt that he shouldn't have the same cross. The Saltire is the oldest continuously used sovereign flag in the world, having been in use since AD 832 - or so legend has it.I love how you can do anythin(...)'

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W... is for Writers' Museum, The

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/25/2013 11:00:00 PM

'This is by far the best museum I have been to. Dedicated to the lives of  Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott and Robert Louis Stevenson, the three of the greatest Scottish writers. There are, of course, painting and sculptures, but there's also memorabilia - their desks, their pens, shoes even.There are tales of how their greatest works came to be, their stories, inspirations, and thoughts. Lives of these men are brought out in a beautiful collection of objects that were related to(...)'

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V... is for Venison!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/24/2013 11:07:00 PM

'Venison is one of the many things I ate for the first time when I got to Scotland. To be honest, I am no cook, so I don't have any recipes of my own. But I do enjoy the very occasional cooking of something that takes a while but tastes delicious. So, here is a recipe that I wish to try someday. I had it at the hostel that I stayed at in Skye and oh my goodness, it was fantastic!Venison Sausages Braised in Red Wine  from Millbank Parkland VenisonEnjoy!----------------------(...)'

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U... is for Urquhart Castle!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/24/2013 1:22:00 PM

'More on castles, this is a very very famous one. You wonder why you haven't heard of it? Well, that's because you have heard of it as the Castle by Loch Ness :)Yes, Nessie and her stories do overshadow everything, don't they? So, Urquhart was a castle that wasn't built for strategy at all! What harm could come to them from a Loch really, other than wee  monsters! But, quite the contrary, this castle was built for people to live in, sort of like a huge mansion. The ruins that ex(...)'

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T... is for Tantallon Castle!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/23/2013 8:51:00 AM

'No theme of Scotland is complete without at least two hundred pages on Castles! And so, as I racked my brains before the challenge began, about which one was going to be my highlight(s), I had to choose Tantallon, probably because I like the lesser known ones :)This was the first castle I visited and by far, the best. So far I have been to six other ones, and not one of them can compare to the view from this one! They are much better in terms of political/strategic importance, yes, (...)'

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S... is for Stirling!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/22/2013 8:36:00 PM

'Stirling is the perfect day out from Edinburgh. It is a tiny town about and hour away by bus ans id packed with things to do! The Stirling Castle, for one, is an attraction that can easily take up all day! It is a big big castle, overlooking the city much like Edinburgh, except that it looks much bigger. The views onto the city and beyond are absolutely fabulous! And since I was lucky to have gone on a sunny day, you could see for miles until your eyes found the snow capped peaks in(...)'

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R... is for Robert Burns!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/20/2013 11:11:00 AM

'Scotland's favourite son, The Bard of Scotland, The National poet... are some of the titles Burns has earned over the years. I had read very little of Burns before I got here, only having perused his most famous works. I have been reading some more now that I've been around a bit of Scotland and can see what inspired him; and man, is he brilliant!I'm not in the mood to write much today, so I'll leave you with some wonderful poetry and my favourite version of Auld Lang SyneScots, wha(...)'

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Q... is for Queen of Scots, Mary!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/19/2013 3:00:00 PM

'The history of civilisation is bloody and torturous. Death, murder, villainy, and tragedy... Mary's life, like the lives of many women before us, was difficult, and much more than what makes us complain. For one, she became Queen when she was 6 days old! What a joke... anyway, Scotland was ruled by regents while she grew up in France, married the french Dauphin, and came back to reign.Imagine being 19 - 20, married, and expected to come and rule over a land that she was in for the f(...)'

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P... is for Portobello!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/17/2013 11:43:00 PM

'Portobello is the nearest beach from my place in Edinburgh. It is a medium stretch of mud+sand beach on the North Sea, where families and students throng in scores. The first time I went there was on impulse, V has grown up in Delhi, India and had never ever seen a beach before!'Outrageous!' I said; 'that's 24 years of unacceptable existence!' and we jumped on a bus and were there in half an hour, on a very cold and windy day. He was very happy, obviously never having seen one befor(...)'

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O... is for Old Man of Storr!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/17/2013 11:05:00 AM

'At 719 m, the Old man is the highest point of the Trotternish Peninsula on the Isle of Skye. An old man and his wife, that lived close to the foot of the hill climbed up everyday and when they reached the summit, they told stories to the faeries. They told great lovely stories and the wee folk loved them! This went on for years and years until every fairy in the fairy land came to listen to their stories every evening.Then one day, the Old man announced that this was his last v(...)'

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Liebster Award!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/17/2013 10:22:00 AM

'My lovely friend S, over at Failed Experiments & Experimental Failings, nominated me for the Liebster Award!A couple of days later, Kathleen from Writing, Reading, and Life, nominated me again! I have only started reading her blog but the name, if you know me, is like a magnet and you should definitely stop by.This is very special to me as this is the FIRST award this blog has won. Thank you, both of you!This is a pay-it-forward award. It’s only for participants of the A-Z (...)'

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N... is for Necropolis!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/16/2013 5:22:00 PM

'There is something infinitely sinister about the world Necropolis, City of the Dead. Dark, depressing, and creepy are the feelings I'd associate with the word. The Glasgow Necropolis is all those feelings, and one more, that of sheer beauty.For a bit of background, Wiki says, "Following the creation of Père Lachaise Cemetery in Paris a wave of pressure began for cemeteries in Britain. This required a change in the law to allow burial for profit. Previously the parish church hel(...)'

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M... is for Mogwai (Music)!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/14/2013 9:15:00 PM

'Little known and little heard, Mogwai is the only band I knew about that was from Scotland. That was before I came here, but Mogwai has stuck with me for a long time now. This is a tiny post because I'm on a trip using someone else's computer to type it. And also, friends and conversations are waiting. So, I'll leave you to listen to my favourite Mogwai track!Enjoy!-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This post is(...)'

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L... is for Loch Lomond and Luss

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/13/2013 12:40:00 AM

'Loch Lomond is very very popular. Almost everyone who I know that has been to Scotland has been to Lomond. And it doesn't disappoint! The largest freshwater lake in the UK (nope, it isn't Loch Ness, with its monsters, that's the deepest), its waters are an absolute delight to look at. Silvery and ripling, the waters have a beautiful, serene quality with hardly any waves. The sides are dotted with low hills, and in autumn, the contrast of the yellows of the tops of pines with the sur(...)'

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K... is for Kirk!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/12/2013 10:36:00 AM

'Kirk is the Scottish word for Church, and oh my, do they built them well here! As part of tourism, various volunteering activities, and just being poor because I'm a student, I've been to a lot of kirks here. Usually, they would have been built by one king or another queen, either for their own private prayers or as part of a celebration/coronation.For example, St. Margaret's Chapel, which was probably a personal prayer house, is the oldest surviving structure in Edinburgh, having b(...)'

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J... is for John o' Groats!

Author : Udita Banerjee      Blog : Shreds & Shards      Date : 4/11/2013 1:08:00 PM

'Again, this post comes at a strange time, for it will have to be updated next week!John o' Groats is famous famous, as being the northernmost point on the UK mainland. It is not. That glory belongs to Dunnet Head, a peninsula that is close by and that actually is the northernmost point! This weekend, I'm going on a trip to hopefully both these places.John o' Groats is only 2,200 miles (3,500 km) from The North Pole, a thought that is celebratory and humbling at the same time. I(...)'

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