Genius

I woke this morning to find that my muscles are feeling better than yesterday, but I've now developed a sore, scratchy throat. Brilliant!

Otherwise though, I've had a great day. Mum and Ian came up to Edinburgh and we went out for afternoon tea at Scrumptiousness in Morningside. This was one of the places Angela and I were supposed to go to in our afternoon tea tour, but the voucher I got meant that the deal was only available midweek. So I took my folks instead to celebrate the end of my marathon season.

We then went to Queens Gallery to see the Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man exhibition. I've always loved his anatomical drawings and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see them. The exhibition was amazing, da Vinci was a meticulous, visionary, inspiring genius. Between 1510 and 1512 he anatomically mapped the human body, through careful dissection of corpses, examination and scientific experimentation. He was thwarted by the Church for undertaking unnatural activities and he was unable to publish his work by the time he died in 1519.

This work then remained hidden until the 1900s; lost to the world. Had they been published, they would have transformed the study of human anatomy in Europe. Sadly though, they didn't. Anatomical advancements were made, but many, many years later and da Vinci's hidden work played no part.

Now, it's amazing to see that da Vinci's drawings and notes showed startling discoveries. He used mapping similar (if not better) to that used nowadays in 3D modelling to understand the body, surgery and disease. And he did it all on his own in the 1500s. The man was a genius.

I'm so pleased I got to see the exhibition. I've bought an amazing book with all of his drawings and notes - and their explanations - which I will read further with interest.

On another plus note, I now get free admission into Queens Gallery for a year - brilliant!