The other day – 10 September 2017

Yesterday was a beautiful sun filled, blue sky day. Today was the other day.

It rained almost all day. I did manage to grab a couple of photos one of which made it to PoD. The other one was shot using ISO 5000. Not good for detail, so it remains in Lightroom.

Hardly got past the door today. Drove down to Lidl at Kilsyth to get beer and that was it.

Started a painting, well, it actually started out as a charcoal sketch then a watercolour sketch and finally an acrylic painting, A2, biggest I’ve worked on so far. It’s still not finished, but it’s beginning to look like I hoped it would.

Dinner for Scamp was a sort of Crazy Water Fish and for me was half a Dinosaur Bone I got the last time we were visiting JIC and Sim. I’m not sure I cooked it for long enough as it was a bit jelly-like in places. I’ve pulled the rest of the meat off the bone and intend using it to make a ragu to have with pasta for tomorrow’s dinner.

Who would have thought two consecutive days could be so different? However, it is Scotland. We should be used to this.

Tomorrow I visit the Podiatrist to get my little feeties looked at.

Out West – 9 September 2017

Today after a lazy morning without any drawer rearranging, we drove down to Kilmarnock to see our friend Dorothy and her son, Colin.

Well, that was the intention, but we got as far as the Robroyston turn-off before CIRTRAC lit up with the happy news that there had been an accident after junction 16 of the M8. Just what we needed! Not to worry, it’s never usually as bad as they predict. A mile or so later, it was as bad as they predicted, in fact it was worse. The queue had backed up on to the M80 we were on. I took the next exit on to the M8 going in the opposite direction. From there we could go south on to the M74 and then take the exit to East Kilbride and from there onto the M77. Sounds complicated, but it was preferable to sitting in the carpark that is the M8 when there’s an accident somewhere ahead. As it happened we got to Dorothy’s place only about fifteen minutes late.

We spent about an hour with Dorothy, showed her some of our holiday pics, but she began to feel tired and we left her with her son looking after her. She looked a bit more tired than the last time we’d visited and we did have far too many holiday pics. We really need to make the effort to visit more often, but not stay as long.

It was still a lovely day, so we decided drive on down to Troon. Got parked without any bother at the harbour carpark and walked from there into town. The town was jumping. Hunners of people on the beach, but thankfully only dogs in swimming. If there were folk in swimming, they would probably have needed an ambulance in attendance. The sun was warm, but I’d imagine there were baby icebergs out there in the wet stuff. Wandered round the ‘town centre’ to give it the benefit of the doubt. Scamp wanted to go for lunch at The Lido. I’m not a big fan of it. You always have to wait ages for a table, even if you’ve phoned ahead to book one. Once you’re seated, you have to wait ages for the food. However, the food, when it arrives is worth the wait … almost. I suggested we give Scotts a go. It’s from the same stable as The Lido so hopefully the same quality of food, but without the wait. I was right on both counts. Food was great – Fish ’n’ Chips for Scamp (what a surprise) and Roast Chicken for me, but roast chicken with Smoked Carrot Puree among the sides! Interesting taste. The most remarkable thing though was driving into the restaurant carpark. It brought me in mind of Crews Inn at Chagauramas in Trinidad. Without the palm trees obviously. Sitting looking out at the boats in the marina under a beautiful blue sky just emphasised that memory. I think we’ll be back … to Scotts that is. I’d love to think that one day we’d go back to Crews Inn at Chagauramas too with its lethal brandy based Sangria.

Today’s PoD was taken just outside Dundonald on  the hill up from Troon and is looking over Troon to Arran.  I just had to stop to grab a shot or two … or twenty eight!  It’s been through Lightroom a few times, but I like the finished result.  Click on it to see it bigger in Flickr as usual.

Tomorrow we leave the blue skies behind and return to the land of the rain. Oh well, at least we had one really good day this week.

Drawer No 2 – 8 September 2017

The task today was to clear up the second drawer of the four.

I thought this was going to be an easy job, but after an hour and another poly bag in the bin, I had a semblance of order in the second drawer. It has become my ‘paper drawer’. Watercolour paper, pastel paper, photo paper, even tracing paper. Now the top drawer looks a mess again by comparison.

Coffee with the guys today and perhaps, just perhaps, I’ve found the happy medium with Cumby Costa. Mocha Cortado to start and a double espresso after an hour or so. We talked a lot across a wide range of topics and finished discussing the start of construction of the new Cumbernauld Academy or Cumbernauld Atrocity as Fred will have it.

Because this was in my head when I drove away from Tesco, I just had to see what was happening to my old school. It appears that the concrete columns have been poured and there’s a bit of work on the concrete too. Basically it’s at the stage of being a quagmire with some concrete pillars poking out of it. One day it may come together, but for now, all I can say is that it’s in exactly the place that the architects intended it to be in.

Drove around looking for a subject for today’s PoD. It took me quite a while, but eventually I decided to have a look at the Falls of Luggie. That’s not its real name, but it’s a small waterfall on the Luggie Water, and Falls of Luggie makes it sound spectacular. A long shutter speed would have been good, but I didn’t bring a tripod. I’ve got two good tripods and I keep on telling myself to leave one in the car. I only need one at home. I made do with the slowish shutter. Slow enough to blur the water, but fast enough to hand hold. Couldn’t decide whether the 45mm or the 9mm worked better. The result is above.

Tomorrow we go to visit Dorothy and it’s supposed to be a better day, although today wasn’t all that bad.

The day that the rains came down – 7 September 2017

Today it was raining in the morning when we woke.

Later in the morning, when I was feeding the birds, it was raining.

When I went to the docs to get my retinopathy test, it was raining. When I came out it wasn’t raining, it was monsooning, if monsooning is a word. If it isn’t a word, then it should be, because this is what I imagine a monsoon to be like. By the time we got home, we because Scamp had kindly offered to drive me to the docs in case I got drops in my eyes and couldn’t see to drive. When we got home it was just raining again.

I had intended going in to Glasgow in the morning to get my hair cut, but there was no way I was travelling far in this weather. Instead, I stayed home and completed another painting. This time, I’m ready to post a pic. I’ll also include yesterday’s painting which I chose to keep unaltered.

Dinner was what Scamp called ‘comfort food’ and with good reason. A plate of soup for us followed by Bubble ’n’ Squeak for Scamp and Stew with Potatoes and Cabbage for me.

PoD was the strawberry flower in the hanging basket (bottom right). It was taken during the lighter rain through the open back door, from the shelter of the kitchen. Oh yes, and it’s still raining!

More rain forecast for tomorrow, but it will be better rain than today’s. At least we don’t have the devastating 120mph winds they’re getting in the Caribbean with Storm Irma.

A more down to earth day – 6 September 2017

It seems like the last few days, in fact the last week have been a whirl of buying. Holidays, oops, forgot to mention that we are going on holiday! So apart from holidays, there were suites, hoovers dash cams and cars to look at, admire, assess investigate and purchase. Anyone would think we’d won the lottery. Now that would be unlikely because you have to buy a ticket before you can win and there is the downfall!

Today was more down to earth. A day to pick a drawer in a chest of drawers and clear it out into one of three piles using the KFC method:

  • Keep – It goes back in the drawer
  • File  – Find somewhere else to put it (where you can find it again)
  • Crap –  It goes into the bin. The more you can fit into this pile the better.

As usual, it’s really amazing the things you find in the back of a drawer. Things you’d forgotten about, things you knew you had but couldn’t find (previously filed!) and the things you find and haven’t a clue what they are, or why you were keeping them. After an hour of this I’d halved the contents of the drawer, filled two bags of rubbish and filed away numerous things, never to be found again. I just know that next week I’ll suddenly remember why I was keeping a 20mm long piece of dried clay in a zip top poly bag.

After lunch I started another painting. This one was of a real place it’s based loosely on a photograph of the Forth estuary at Torryburn in Fife. I’m quite happy with it at present, but I’ve a few bits and pieces to add and maybe, just maybe I’ll post it tomorrow, all being well.

I went for a walk along the canal in the late afternoon, just to get some fresh air in between the rain showers. It was too windy for any decent insect photos and the spider was the best I got. It was only when I was post-processing it I realised it was in the act of spinning its web. That’s my PoD.

Drove into salsa tonight and used the dashcam again. The video quality is really amazing. It even made a couple of ’emergency’ photos which it stores in a special ‘private’ folder. Impressed as I wasn’t actually braking hard, honest officer. Went to pay for parking at STUC and a prick was trying to talk to someone important on the phone that he had pressed between his shoulder and his skull whilst trying to feed about fifty 20p coins into the machine from a poly bag he was holding. It kept rejecting them then telling him to take his money, he kept on doing exactly the same thing again. After two iterations, I said to him that there’s a limit to the number of coins you can use in these machines. He looked at me as if to say go away old man. So I just said “Just trying to help and that’s what you get. WANKER.” I’m sure the person on the other end of the phone already knew he was a wanker, but I was said it loud enough to let them know that I knew too. I went across the road put in my £2.50 (no 20p coins were used) in another machine and came back as he was retrieving his ticket. It’s simple really. People who’s brain chip is an Intel Celeron single core shouldn’t try to do difficult things like parallel process. That’s only going end up in tears. Also, that’s what he gets for raiding one of his kid’s piggy banks to get his parking money. Just to annoy him more, I waited until he was back in his car and crossed the street again and photographed him. He’s sitting somewhere just now thinking “What’s he going to do with that photo?” No, probably he’s forgotten. Like my new dashcam, his brain chip will delete old data to make way for new stuff. You have to do that when you’ve only got 128k of RAM.

That last thought came from the tidy up today. I found a 128k memory module for a Sinclair QL (c1984). 128k what could you store on that now? A really small photo? About 8 seconds of music? Just shows how time and technology has moved on.

Salsa was great fun with the beginners starting to get adventurous with Exhibela and Exhibela Ronde. We even taught Jamie G a move we called Setenta Abaho. We’ll be teaching our own class soon!

And the winner is the Juke – 5 September 2017

I made up my mind. The new car will be a Juke. A Flame Red one. That was Scamp’s part of the decision and I quite like red cars too.

Drove in to Stirling today to seal the deal and sign away all my indecision. Then Scamp suggested that since it was such a beautiful day, we should go to Perth to get tea and coffee and maybe a wee bit of lunch. Seemed like a plan, so that is what we did, with a bottle of prosecco in the boot courtesy of the dealership – you don’t get that with Arnold Clark!

Perth was almost empty today. If it wasn’t for some German tourists and a wedding party, it would have been completely deserted. You could tell they were tourists because they were all wearing tartan and rotating their street map to try to find where they were. Exactly the same as we do when we’re abroad. You could tell it was a wedding party because there was a lady with a white dress carrying a bouquet of flowers. Another clue was the group of ladies with what looked like giant black spiders on their heads. Bringing up the rear were the uncomfortable looking young men in kilts, fiddling with the tight collars of their starched white shirts. Oh what fun they were all having while the photog snapped photos for the overpriced wedding album. Cynic, that’s me.

Got my tea and coffee. Lunch was in the Breizh French restaurant. Food was interesting, but nothing great. A bit expensive. After reading a few reviews when we came home, it appears that it recently suffered from a change of ownership. That rarely means an improvement and that is what has happened here I think. May go back, but won’t rush.

Drove home and enjoyed an almost traffic free journey. I think we were just late enough to avoid the rush hour at the merging of the M80 and the M876. It’s usually a nightmare around 4pm and we were reaching it around 5pm.

Tried out the dash cam. Wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the recording until I tried it on my PC laptop with an i5 processor and everything improved greatly. It appears the Intel Core 2 Duo in the Mac just isn’t up to the job. Having said that, it will have to do the job generally for a year or so yet after today’s Flame Red investment!

Today’s PoD is of three folk attempting to emulate the statues in Perth High Street. Life Imitates Art.

Don’t have any plans for tomorrow. Just counting down the days to J-Day!

Back to School – 4 September 2017

Today was a ‘Back to School’ day for Gems.

The day started with rain that gradually got heavier as the day wore on. Since Gems were coming back from their holidays, I had to find something to do or somewhere to go after lunch. Lunch was the second helping of Thai Green Chicken Curry. I’d made the paste on Saturday and we had the first helping for dinner yesterday. I’d intended this to be a smaller portion, to use up some chicken that was languishing in the fridge and also to use up the rest of the curry paste.

It was while I was deciding where to go and while I was listening to Scamp running through some songs with them that I began to wonder … Many years ago, before we were married Scamp was working in Glasgow libraries and she sang on a recording for an LP. Yes, and LP. This was long before CDs, far less digital downloads. I wondered if the album was lying somewhere in Spotify. As I typed in the title, the associated list became shorter and shorter until it disappeared. However, I pressed the search button and Lo and Behold, there it was. I promptly downloaded it and showed it to her. Not only is the album there, but Scamp gets a name check on her track! I’ll send you both the title so you can listen to it. Needless to say it is also available on iTunes and was promptly downloaded. Isn’t technology wonderful.
Some technology isn’t so good. Today I cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription. I wasn’t using Prime. Also Prime wasn’t available for more and more items, so it made sense to cancel it.

After my search through the musical archives, I had intended going to Stirling to make sure I was happy with the Juke, but one look at the weather and the queues on the M80 made me defer that until tomorrow. Instead, I went to get some glue to repair a painting. Imagine a techy teacher having to BUY glue! Unfortunately B&Q were reorganising their stock and today was the adhesive section’s chance to be revamped, so it was blocked off and I wasn’t going to get any glue today. I went in to Halfords and bought a dashcam instead. I think it will be a useful accessory after hearing about Sim’s accident. It’s busy charging as I write this. Hopefully it will go into the Megane tomorrow. After that I went to the boggin’ Antonine Centre and in The Works, I got a little bottle of PVA for £1. Bargain. I’d just spent around £100 on a dashcam, but felt really good at getting my glue for a quid!

After the heavy lunch, we didn’t feel like having dinner so it was just scrambled eggs on toast. Absolutely fine. Salsa tonight wasn’t as bad as last week. For one thing, I remembered how to do Caltec! Tonight’s moves were Caltec, Disco, Prado and Machucho.

Today’s PoD was a grab shot out the open back door during a little respite from the rain.  Watching blue tits and coal tits scrambling over the peanut feeder always makes me smile.

Oh yes, if you get a chance, search Spotify for The Streets of Glasgow.  The track you are looking for is ‘Bottling Songs‘.  Listen carefully and you should hear a familiar voice!

Tomorrow we may make that run to Stirling.

Almost Perfect – 3 September 2017

It was sunny when we woke.

It seemed a shame to waste the (unexpected) good weather, so we drove down to Auchinstarry and walked along the railway, across the plantation and back along the canal. About half my usual canal – railway walk, but it was curtailed when the slight drizzle, less than a drizzle, more just spitting rain, became proper rain. Luckily the walk back was under trees for about three quarters of the way, so we were sheltered. Scamp being a rock-cake had decided against wearing a raincoat. I had my blue rainy coat with me like always. Its actually been welded to me since I bought it. I even took it with me on holiday. Temperatures of 35º but you never know when you’ll need a good Goretex™ rainy coat! Anyway, but the time we got out of the tree cover the rain had reduced again to spits and spots. By the time we got home the rain had gone off again. Managed to pick a few big fat brambles on the walk. Nowhere near as many as yesterday.

After lunch I went in search of photos. Just got in the car and the rain came back on. Drove round the now circuitous route to get to Coatbridge from Cumbersheugh. I was going to Parks garage to look at a Renault Clio. It was no good. Almost as low as the Megane. The salesman asked if I’d tried the Captur. I hadn’t, but it looked big and bulky in the showroom. However, he had one in the parking lot. Pre-registered with 0 miles on the clock. It looked a lot smaller when it was outside, but the seating was the right height. I almost said I’d take it there and then. Then I asked if it had a parking camera or just sensors. It didn’t have either. I’d have to go up to the next level of car to get parking sensors. Yes, I know I could get them fitted for around £200, but that’s not a factory fit and maybe wouldn’t be as reliable. We had both liked the parking camera on the Juke. So near, but maybe so far.

Today’s PoD is maybe the start of a series. I have a few ideas for the motorbike that featured in the first ‘Weeman’ photo back in 2009!

This is Loch Àiteigin  It doesn’t really exist.  I think Àiteigin is Gaelic for ‘Somewhere’.  It’s just a placemarker to make sure I’ve got an ink drawing/painting done after missing last week!

A lazy day with some brambles – 2 September 2017

We’d intended going to Ayr to see the ‘airies’, (Flying display to you) today. However, although I’d have liked to have seen the scary Typhoon, I decided that we would both be standing around for some time and that’s sore on the back. Also as the last minute cancellations mounted, I didn’t want to get there and find it was all a waste of time. As it happened, it looked a reasonable display although the Red Arrows flypast was cancelled just before it was due to start and the pilot of the Typhoon had to cut short the demo because of fuel problems. Makes you wonder why all these things happen a week or less before the event. Makes you wonder if the organizers knew about the cancellations, but just didn’t inform the public, the paying public, that is.

Anyway, it was a lovely sunny day with hardly a breeze, so we drove over to the Kirky road and picked just over a kilo of brambles between us. I wanted to get them before the rain came tomorrow (Sunday). That said, the latest forecast is for rain during the night and warm but cloudy tomorrow.  Later we did a bit more tidying in the garden, eventually getting round to planting the rhubarb in one of the big plastic pots I got ages ago.  It was half filled with rainwater and was providing a neat little swimming pool for various insects and flies.  Unfortunately I had to interrupt their swimming lessons to put it to a more mundane task of becoming the home to the rhubarb plant.  I’m sure it will be happy in it because the roots had become an almost solid ball.

I made dinner tonight and it was Sea Bass en Papillote with Thai Flavours. Basically a paper parcel of sea bass marinated in lemongrass, garlic, chilli and lime juice. Served with new potatoes. I clean forgot to get veg to go with it, but the main component, the sea bass was great, but the potatoes were the winner. I’d intended making Thai Green Curry, but that’s been postponed until tomorrow. Paste is almost made and is resting in the fridge. That’s the hardest part done.

Almost completely forgot about a photo today, but I’d had this idea in my head for a while so it didn’t take long to put together, thankfully, because it was about 10pm when I shot it.

Tomorrow, as I said is to be cloudy and warm. Don’t know what we’re up to.

Juke & Jeans – 1 September 2017

Today was all about the Juke.

We drove to Stirling to test drive the Juke and I was a bit apprehensive, although I don’t know why!  I drove it home and parked it, then Scamp drove it round the local roads and parked it. Then we drove it back to the garage.

Plusses +

  • I liked the driving position.
  • I liked the big multi function screen beside the speedo and stuff.
  • I especially liked the reversing camera.
  • I liked the oomph from the 1.2litre turbo charged engine.
  • The steering was positive.
  • I liked that you could turn off the ‘start – stop’ fuel saving system.

Minuses –

  • I didn’t like the analogue speedo.
  • I didn’t like the dark interior trim
  • I didn’t like that I couldn’t set the cruise control intuitively.

Plusses outweighed the Minuses. Price was decent for a new car and the deal was explained well. Most of all, we liked the relaxed, but matter of fact way this dealership worked. We left with a lot to think about.

Took a look at the Peugeot dealership again and this time we were considering a 2008. It wasn’t what I had expected. I seemed more like a standard estate car that the cross over I was expecting. I don’t think it will make it to the test drive stage. Scamp suggested we look at a Renault Clio as it is now a big car. All we have to do is find a dealership other than Arnold Clark.

Remember the jeans from yesterday? Posted a complaint on Debenhams FB page. Can’t say I was satisfied with the reply, so I emailed the complaints dept. They too provided a somewhat less than interested reply. However, we went in to Stirling and got another pair of the same make of jeans, just not in the same colour, priced the same as the pair I got last week. Got to the checkout and they came up on the till at half price. I should have queried it, but I reckoned I was due it after last night’s fiasco and Debenhams couldn’t care less attitude.

Today’s PoD is from a walk in the sunshine along the railway to clear my head after all the technology and finance details of the morning and afternoon.

Maybe going to Ayr tomorrow to see the airies! (Scottish Air Show).