Trip the Light Fantastic

I had eaten and drank until I nearly exploded - my belly filled with food and fizz (and vodka).
In the morning though, I managed to stretch and squat my way through an exercise class - sweating out  the toxins from a birthday bash the night before.
After a well-earned lie down, I needed more restoration, this time for mind and soul.
I made my way to an exhibition at The University of Edinburgh - an army of solider lanterns placed outside and on display for just a week for the Chinese New Year. Inspired by the terracotta warriors discovered in the 1970s, the lanterns (there are around 90) were created for the Beijing Olympic Games back in 2008 and were on display in Scotland for the first time - luring their own army of visitors with their technicolor glow. Walking around the quadrangle where the soldiers stood, you noticed how they eerily tilted and swayed - brought to life by a gentle breeze.
Not wanting to hang around the growing number of screaming children, I discharged myself and escaped to St Andrew Square to see Field of Light - an installation by British artist Bruce Munro.
Made up of 9,000 glass orbs lit up from within, the installation transformed the garden into an Avatar-esque land that, when seen from above, looks like a plasma globe or the inner workings of a brain.
The ethereal music of a nearby guitarist added to the otherworldliness.
I passed through the space slowly, looking at how the flower-like bulbs changed colours sporadically and rose from the ground, merging with the lights of the city and crawling over the ground and around trees like tentacles.
I shuffled away feeling a bit listless though; perhaps I was thinking solemnly about the lights fading and disappearing; about the soldiers silently standing at ease in the dark.
Maybe they reflected something about life...
Actually, I think I was just a bit rough from all that food and fizz.




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