Priorities

Priorities

Won't you come and have a good talk with me?

Pass a little moment by....

I'm your friend, your listener...

You're always busy..but won't you even try?

Won't you come and spend some time with me?

I'm waiting here for you day by day...

I want so much to get close to you

But you seem to push me far away...

Won't you hold my hand & follow me?

I want to guide you all the way...

It hurts to see you tired & struggling,

disappointed & even in dismay...

You need to know your priorities

What's important versus urgency...

You need to open up to me...

Just trust in me...I won't let go... this I guarantee.

This poem is dedicated to God. Telling me to spend more time with Him and in His presence. Work and final semester of school has caught up with me .. so much so that my priorities are kindof not aligned with Him. Lord, I miss You very much and I wanna re-aligned myself with you again.

Help me to prioritise You first and everything else in my life after You. I need to learn to trust that when I walk close and walk right with You, you're in charge and everything will always turn out fine.

British Museum - Lesson 2

Hello, welcome to the British Museum once again!

I hope the last lesson was educational for you or at least most of you.

Today's tour will include lil bit more of the Egypt sector and we'll move onto the next part of the museum which would be the Greek & Roman areas. Hopefully, you're excited to explore and know about the Greeks & Romans.. (Even if you're not.. frankly, I don't care!! haha.. it's my blog..)

Let's get on with Egypt.. as we last left off.. with a few mummies (see previous entry).. One of the visitors, Gab have posted a query if there were real mummies.

Here's a picture of what of a real mummy looks like... to be frank, after I snap this pic...I brisk walked away as fast as I can for the nearest less scary artefact.. (Yeah, I know.. I'm a cowardly chicken.. but I'm a gal!!!! I have every right to be that! :P)So, I'll leave it to you to guess if it was real.



Perhaps the reflection and the size of the fonts aren't favourable to your eyes. Basically, it's stated here that they used a CAT Scan to provide clear images of what lies beneath those wrappings. The left CAT Scan features a mummy of a young man. They determined this man died during late adolescence (what a pity!) as
the skeleton is in good condition and developmental state of the long bones indicates he is of late adolescence stage. Interesting!!



Below is a picture detailing how mummification process is done. 6 stages in all as depicted in the pic.

Stage 1 - Wrapping (1st Pic on left colummn): As soon as possible after death, the body will be taken to the Tent of Purification, located to the banks of the Nile (yuck.. and people bath at the nile? gross out..) and was washed in a solution of Natron (Click here for definition & uses of Natron)

Stage 2 - Removal of internal organs (1st Pic on right colummn): The brain is extracted via the nose using a metal rod. A stone knife was used to make an incision in the left flank of the body, through which *gulps* the organs of the chest and abdomen, except the heart, were removed. Organs are separately removed.

Stage 3 - Drying (2nd Pic on left colummn): The chest and abdominal cavities were packed with bags of natron to absorb fluids. Natron was packed around, beneath, on top of the body and it would be covered for about 40 days.

Stage 4 - Packing (2nd Pic on right colummn): The skull was often plugged with linen or filled with Resin (Click here for a definition & uses of Resin ). And the chest cavity would usually be packed with woodshavings (*ouch*ouch*), linen, earth or sometimes Lichen (Click here for definition & uses of Lichen)Sand, linen or mud was inserted under the skin to restore substance to the features.

Stage 5 - Anoiting (3rd Pic on left colummn): The skin was coated with liquid plant resin to exclude moisture from the body.

Final Stage - Wrapping (3rd Pic on right colummn): Pic speaks for itself.



Okie, enough mummies for now... let's do move on to know more about the Greeks, shall we?

The mosaic below, found in a Roman house at Old Paphos in 2nd century AD (Wow!! Amazing how they kept it so intact & well till now), illustrates a Greek legand of Leda & the Swan. Legend has it that Zeus (a renowned Greek cassanova kindof god) turned himself into a swan to get near to Leda when she was bathing in the river Eurotas. As a result of their union, Leda laid 2 eggs (yes..eggs..) out of which came twin sons (the Dioscuroi) & Helen of Troy (thought they said sons??Anyway..) who of cos attracted Paris and provoked the legendary Trojan War.



Arhhh.... As you can see from the picture below, is a statue of a bearded man (Duh! Pris!! Yes.. Yes.. I heard you). This is a Colossal limestone statue to be precise. It's made in Cyprus at around 500-480 B.C, from the sanctuary of Apollo at Idallion. Only the upper part of the statue survives, dressed in typical Greek fashion, truly Cypriot like in his hairstyle & beard and his almost big size suggests he could be a priest of Apollo or a prominent worshipper.




Picture below shows 2 terracota foot...used to contain scents by the Greeks. Innovative! (But how come not shaped like noses instead of feet? since its for scent?) hehehe..



Look at this magnificent artefact. What is it? Well, it is a.... (any guesses?) coffin. This is a very elaborate coffin. The information for this coffin is also too elaborate.. I shan't type it out but you can read more about it from the picture just below this coffin.





This is a shield used during war ... wow... *speechless* that is like the trumpet they blow during war times..


Proceeding to the next room in the museum, you can tell from the sign what room we are about to enter:



The first thing that greets you in this room is:



Who's head is this you asked? Check it out for yourself:



The next thing you're about to see reveals that ancient people are quite innovative and romantic as well. (More so than the people today I believe...)



If you would bring yourself closer to the picture above, you would be able to see that there is a figure of a woman on the ring.

Here's the information about the ring:



This however, is something rather like a brooch. It is intricately designed.



What issit for? It is used like sort of a medal or 'ribbon' to honour women in the imperial family as further explained below:



As you know that the British Museum houses many artefacts, I will not be covering all of it in this tour (Well, basically cos your tour is free la.. hahaha...& besides, it's tedious to re-size pics, upload them on the web, and post them here and explain leh!! U guys better appreciate it.. if not your heads will roll!! :) )

Next on the list is this room:



Look at this exquisite jewellry. I love it!!!! It's like sooo simple, yet elegant..



And... this is truly what I call... an everlasting piece of fashion!! Check out the history!!



Being your girly guide, I shall show you this ring which I felt it's romantic & sweet... anyone wants to do something like this for your wedding bands? Lol.



You're almost reaching the last part of this (free) tour now.. bear with me for just lil bit more and you will be amazed at how porcelain can look this good even when matt.

Yes, as I mentioned... next is about porcelain...(I can see alot of you folks starting to yawn... Awww.. C'mon.. dun be a spoilsport... porcelain is not that bad!! trust me!)



Isn't it beautiful? Black vases contrasting with white designs? Lovely...

What you see is really what you think it is. An almost life-like (esp the snake) porcelain plate used for serving. I dun think I personally want to eat from this plate. Gives me the impression it will start moving. Though I must say it is grand.



Another plate but this is much cuter ... read the info and I think it's such a cute wedding gift!





As for the next few porcelains and artefacts, your guide here is gonna slack and make you read through the information yourself yeah? :) Be good! Reading is good for your brain.. it helps to keep it young and succulent.. oops.. did I say succulent? I dun mean to sound like hannibal lector. I meant to say smart.






THIS!!!! My fellow readers, is my favourite of all...... I dun know why I simply lovvvvvvvve this piece. It's soooo... I dun know... just love it. Thanks to Khanh that helped me locate it in the British Museum.. if not I wouldnt be able to locate it and appreciate it.



This is truly beautiful... to me at least..
What issit? Read on..



Maybe its my fascination with Greek mythologies thats why I like it... but other than that.. I (yes I repeat) think it's... (everybody repeat after me) BEAU-TI-FUuULL!!

Alright, folks..follow me down to Level 1 of the museum...



Now now folks... please keep up... this is the last of the museum tour that I will be showing you already.. anyone else lagging behind? (Btw.. fwah.. that guy's shoes sure can glitter!!)



This is the last part of our tour ... the statue on the wall is a typical Assyrian statue. Doesn't it remind you of epic movies like 'Clash of the Titans?' Or erm.. 'Jason and the Argonauts?' or erm.. 'Sinbad' or erm.. 'Cleopatra?' or even of those 'Lord of the Rings' kind of movies?



Well, that's it for today now folks. Thank you for your patience and once more I hope your knowledge has been enhanced by the free blog tour of the British Museum. If not, I really dn't know what I can say to you either..hahaha..kiddin.

Have a lovely weekend all. Cheerios!

British Museum - Lesson 1

Welcome to the British Museum



I'll be your guide for today (Sorry, you don't have much of a choice)



Our tour today will be about the Egyptians and their neighbouring countries...

You would have to climb this nice flight of steps to reach the Egyptian exhibit. Please do not stop to take pics as we would want to avoid crowds today.. the Egyptian exhibit is popular with the crowd.




To your right, you would be able to see a chic cafe or eatery ... but please do not be distracted and pause here.. we'll come back here later after the tour (riiiight... as if...haha)



As you are about to enter the Egyptian area of the museum, look at what is hanging above the entrance...



Here's the information about the panel hanging above the entrance...



Walking further to our Eyptian sector of the museum, you would be able to see the Phoenician Coffin below of the 5th Century B.C. This white marble anthropoid coffin shows a male head wearing an Egyptian style headdress. Coffins of the Graeco-Egyptian type have been found in large numbers at the Phoenician city of Sidon, but examples are also known from Cyprus, Sicily and Gades (Cadiz).



Moving on ... to the center of the room you would be able to view the granite head of a 19th Dynasty Pharaoh. The granite head is wearing a royal headdress which depicts a new kingdom pharaoh, possibly Ramses II.



The next head you see here is a basalt head of an Ammonite King (during the Iron Age II, 8th Century B.C, from Amman). It is wearing an Egyptian style headdress and was found in the Zarqa river bed of Amman. It's one of a number of pieces that are similar in their designs that were recovered from the region of Amman and which seem to represent a local school of free-standing sculpture. The piece is thought to depict a king or possibly a god.



And the from the picture below, you can see ammonite face potteries made of granite.



Next, will give you 'insight' to how the insides of an Egyptian coffin looks like:



Ever wondered how an Egyptian harp looks like? Check this out:



Does it fit your imagination closely? Well, good on ya if it does!

Further down the Egyptian room, you will be able to find many fragments of Egyptian scrolls and one of them can be seen from the picture below:



Before you read the words, look at the sculpture in the picture below.... notice that the sculpture has got big ears as compared to the one above (e.g. Ramses II.), there is a symbolic meaning... read the information in the picture!!! (hahaha.. no spoon-feeding.. if it's 2 small u can let me know..I'll run that with you on a personal level..)



The 'Gayer-Anderson' Cat...



To know more about this cat... read on...(too long to type here... ur guide is lazy.. sorry..heheh)



These are the linen clothe and some items used for mummification:



Look at the intricate design of the coffin. This coffin is for males.. See the coffin head.. portraying a male figure.



And the female coffins:



Riight... okie, enough of coffins for now (Shudder..shudder) as it is 1147pm currently, ur lazy guide here is about to knock off for bed already... so we'll continue our next exploration lesson of the British Museum yah?

Hope you learn something new today...