Month: January 2019

Electrifying – 31 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

We’d both postponed the clearing out of the electricity cupboard for far too long. We even tried to ignore it today too, but we both knew we’d have to give up the pretence and get started.

A cup of coffee each about 10.30pm and then we both decided at the same time to get started. The reason for the big clean out was nothing to do with a certain Japanese lady and everything to do with a strange smell that’s pervaded the house for a week or so. With so many “pellets of poison” (A Hard Rain’s a Gonna Fall – Bob Dylan) in various places in three houses I thought there might be a deceased rodent somewhere under the floor of the cupboard. However, if we found some items in the cupboard that were surplus to requirements, it would make sense to dispose of them at the same time.

By lunchtime we’d cleared the cupboard and filled the kitchen with the resulting detritus. I’d lifted some floorboards and checked for any dead rodents and there were none. I’d photographed in all directions under the floorboards and around the various pipes. Nothing, except some insulation, tar and heavy duty polythene, all held in place by plastic netting. Just to be sure, I lifted the floorboards in the toilet too with the same result. We did manage to fill a black rubbish bag with lots of stuff. Yes, there is still a lot of stuff that has been put back and needs to be looked through again, but the cupboard isn’t nearly as congested as it was.

Just as we were finishing, Hazy phoned and we caught up with things in the London area, then it was time for lunch. A slightly more down to earth lunch than yesterday’s posh lunch. Afterwards I loaded lots of bags into the Juke and took them away to the council tip. Some were probably antiques, especially cobblers lasts for repairing shoes, but I didn’t throw everything away. I kept a couple of lasts and some tools. I also kept a replacement heel for a man’s shoe. It was marked with the letters WD and an up pointing arrow, which I think was for the War Department.

When I came home I brought tonight’s dinner with me. A curry for two from Tesco. Good value for a fiver! With food sorted, I got my boots on and went for a walk in St Mo’s, hoping to get some shots in the mist that was descending. I think I achieved that with the PoD you see here. On the way back I tested the depth of a bit of bog and found it was up to my knee. Luckily only one leg went in and I could easily haul myself out, but wet trousers today with the temperature well below zero were not funny.

Curry was indeed good value and something I’d try again. Tomorrow we have no plans except we need to go for the ’messages’.

Lunch at The Barras – 30 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Well, not actually in The Barras, because they’re only open on a Saturday and Sunday and today is Wednesday. Maybe “in the vicinity of The Barras would be better”. Yes, that will do nicely.

Before any lunch could be partaken of, there was some dancing to do, and as we were a bit early getting to Blackfriars, we had a little drink first. Half a pint of Orkney stout for me and a ginger bee ’n’ lime for Scamp. It’s ok, we were travelling by bus today because we had agreed that ‘drink would be taken’ at some point in the day.

After our refreshment, we went downstairs to the dance class. Gary and Frieda weren’t coming today, so it was just us, Graham and Isobel and the two beginner girls. We’re no longer beginners, we’re ‘improvers’, and the Isobel in question isn’t Scamp’s auntie. Nothing like her.

Today’s jive was a reprise of the Step Over. We’d kind of forgotten it. Well, we remembered the basic move, it was just the little “John Wayne dance steps” as Tom Paxton called them, that we’d forgotten. Waltz was the usual round of getting it right first time then not being able to get back to those heady heights. A smidgen of Quickstep with Fishtails and Running Steps added in for good measure.

It was a short walk to The Barras and the A’Challtainn restaurant. Scamp opted for the Scallops with Yuzu followed by Stone Bass on Black Rice Risotto My starter was Mackerel two ways – Escabeche and Tartare. My main was Baked Loin of Cod Celeriac puree, Broadbean & Bacon salsa, Chicken jus. All the foregoing washed down with a nice dark Merlot. Just as good a meal as the last one and a great way to celebrate our the anniversary of the day we met, forty eight years ago. The meal was certainly worth the price of the Itison voucher, but a bit steep if you have to pay the full asking price.

We walked back up the town, had a cup of coffee and shared a slice of cappuccino cake in Nero and caught the X3 home.

We watched half of Ant Man tonight with a small libation to take away the pain of the ridiculous plot, and as you’ve probably guessed, I posted the PoD which was taken through the arches at Glasgow City Chambers and left the blog until today (Thursday).

On Thursday we will tackle the electricity cupboard.

Pasta Joke – 29 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Well, the predicted snow didn’t come to much. A few millimetres of manky grey sludge doesn’t constitute a snowfall.

I offered to do the shopping and returned with plain bread, milk and a dozen eggs. All will become clear.

I mixed two of the eggs with some special 00 flour that Scamp had bought last week and then kneaded the resulting mess for the required 10 minutes, wrapped it in cling film and let it cool its heels in the fridge for an hour or two, or three or five as it turned out.

We’d intended cleaning out a cupboard today, but it was a lovely bright cold day although the temperature was above zero because some of the snow was melting. Time enough to go out and get some photos and still get the cupboard cleared.

It’s never that simple. I found a few good places to shoot, mainly landscapes, but then I discovered the fruiting bodies of some moss on a few rocks. Yes, I know it doesn’t sound that interesting, but the light was so good, I had to take a few shots, quite a few shots. By the time I got back, we agreed that it was far too late to start on the cupboard, so we’re leaving it for another day, a less photogenic one. One of the moss shots made PoD.

I assembled my pasta machine and started rolling out the pasta dough from the fridge into decreasing thicknesses. It’s not nearly as easy as they show you in Masterchef. I think my dough was too wet and sticky. It seemed to want to cling to the rollers even after they had been dusted with flour. Eventually after a few tries, a lot of swearing and tantrums, we managed to make some spaghetti.

We cooked the spaghetti in boiling water just like the stuff you get in the deli at the supermarket, but it was a bit doughy and chewy. More practise needed and next time I’ll leave the dough to rest in the kitchen, not in the fridge. It’s a learning curve. However, I know this Italian bloke who might be able to show me how to cut a few corners! Tonight’s dinner was Spaghetti with olive oil for starter, then Minestrone soup and the main course was a haggis, neeps and tatties pie.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go out for dinner. 30th January.

No drops today mum – 28 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

The big event today was getting my annual retinopathy scan.

Once upon a time many years ago the doc told me I had high blood pressure and it needed to be dealt with. You know those special deals you get in the supermarket, three for the price of one? Well, he talked me into getting three for the price of one. As well as high blood pressure, I’d get high cholesterol and diabetes too. Admittedly, in one blood test the sugar level in my blood was elevated, but that was because I was addicted to cheap sweeties at the time. Next blood test was back to normal, but the medical profession is dogged. No, you’re still diabetic. I told them I wasn’t diabetic and took all their tests which proved that I was right. Well, you may not be diabetic, but you are pre-diabetic. There is no way to beat them. As soon as you reach 50 you get given the trilogy HBP, Cholesterol and Diabetes, especially if you live in Scotland. The really lucky ones get COPD as well. Thankfully I’ve managed to dodge that one.

Today the nice nurse lady was taking photos of the back of my eye to see if I could jump the queue and get full blown diabetes. Usually I’m forced to have drops in my eyes that make me virtually blind for about an hour and really supersensitive to bright sun. Did I mention that the sun was really bright today? Luckily the shots turned out well without the need for drops and the sunglasses I’d left at home. Scamp had given me a lift up to the town centre because if I get drops in my eyes and am virtually blind, driving can be a problem. Not for me, but for the poor folk I run into. So it was the bus back home in time to look over Margie’s homework because it’s Monday today and Monday is Gems day. Margie had done amazingly well. The cubes she was drawing were improving out of all recognition. I’m so glad she’s finally got the hang of Two Point Perspective.

When Scamp left to drive Margie home, I started preparing dinner which would be Minestrone soup. It’s the simplest soup in the world to make. You just chuck all the vegetables you have into a pot, add a tin of tomatoes and about a litre of water and boil the stuffing out the mix for an hour. Chuck in some crushed pasta after that and simmer for 15minutes. Done. The hard part is the chopping of the veg, because there is so much of it. It tasted quite good. Maybe a bit too salty, but we both survived it.

Drove to Salsa and enjoyed most of the beginners 6.30pm class and then our own 7.30pm class. Our class were doing Akia and a new move that’s been christened Russia because the couple demonstrating it on YouTube are Russian. Logical for once.

Today’s PoD was a grab shot, taken while walking home from Condorrat in the afternoon. It’s a bolt group on the bridge over the M80.

Tomorrow I think we’re cleaning out a cupboard called the Electricity Cupboard because it houses the distribution board and meter for the electricity. Heavy snow is forecast although it doesn’t seem to have started yet.

A non-dancing day – 27 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

I think after Friday and Saturday, we were well danced out.

Today we had a light breakfast at the hotel said our goodbyes to new and old friends, excluding Diane who was not in either of these sets and anyway, hadn’t surfaced by our 9.30am scraping of the car and driving home. Beautiful light and scenery as we took the Hamilton road home. Much quicker route, especially on a quiet, cold Sunday morning.

Just relaxed when we got home with a decent cup of coffee and solved today’s Sudoku while Scamp complained that there were pieces missing in her digital jigsaw. To clear this problem from her mind she went off to buy Tesco. After she got back, I grabbed my boots and went over to St Mo’s to get some photos. My favourite became PoD and is what you see above. It’s another Cladonia Pixie Cup with a bokeh background. Just out of focus shapes really, given a fancy Japanese name.

We had partly intended to go a Sunday Social at Mango tonight, but neither of us could be bothered and a little glass of Rhubarb & Ginger Gin followed by a glass of white from Michael’s hamper signed the fate of the evening. I’d be well over Nicola’s Abstemious Law, so couldn’t drive in to Glasgow, even if I wanted to.  Scamp made dinner and it was a belated Burns Supper i.e. Haggis, Neeps (mashed turnip) and Tatties (mashed potatoes).  Lovely wholesome food.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about all the things happening down in his neck of the woods. Other than that, watched a bit of fluff on the TV and now I’m writing this record of a relaxing, non-dancing day.

Tomorrow I get my annual diabetic retinopathy test. Hope I don’t get drops in my eyes, but I’m getting the bus anyway!

Powered by Duracell – 26 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were up early, bags packed and out by 11.30 for our trip to Strathaven, posh centre of South Lanarkshire.

We were off to the Strathaven Hotel for a day of dance workshops (boiler suits not compulsory). Decided that through Hamilton was the quickest way on a normal day, but given it was a Saturday and around midday, it would be chaos. So we headed for the scenic route up to Canderside and then through Stonehouse and Strathaven itself to the hotel which used to be in farmland through an avenue of trees, but that was fifty odd years ago. It took a bit longer than I’d anticipated, but we found the hotel without any problem. There were a few trees left standing, but hardly an avenue. The farmland was gone, of course, covered with private housing and a primary school. The hotel looked fine with a modern restaurant extension to the existing old building.

Booked in and found our way to our room through the tortuous labyrinth that you’d expect in an 18th century country house hotel, and then found our way back to the ballroom. Wishing all the time that we’d had the forethought to lay down a path of breadcrumbs! Nice large and intimidating ballroom with the equally large and intimidating Diane! One of those people who stands right in front of you invading your space. An alpha female if such a thing exists.

The workshop started with waltz with only four couples. Scamp and I both agree that we learned a lot. Then a short bit of quickstep, concentrating on the technical part of the ‘fishtails’. In jive we did a Boston Cross or Kick ( the jury’s still out on the exact name) and the Four Chassis. Both of which have now slipped my teflon memory (nothing sticks!). Then lunch. We waited over 40 minutes for a small plate of sandwiches. That seemed to be par for the course, because other people sitting near us complained about the wait too. Overwhelmed or understaffed it was difficult to tell.

Back in the workshop Diane’s contingent had arrived and the room was filling up. We were told to simply dance a waltz to warm up. This was our first time attempting a waltz in real ballroom and we both made a hash of it. It was obvious that the Diane’s class were much more practised practitioners of dance. Everyone was dancing sedately around us and giving us a wide berth, obviously realising we were just learning. We should have worn “L” plates, or at least “P” plates. However, one idiot in particular decided that he and his partner didn’t need to follow the anticlockwise rule and started zig zagging across the dance floor. One time in particular, just as Scamp and I were getting our feet sorted out, he landed right in front of us and we had to do an emergency stop. Then they were off again in a different direction and at top speed. Powered by Duracell. He was a bit like a dragonfly in that he seemed to move only in straight lines at really high speed. However his irresistible force met an immovable object. Me. I just got so pissed off with this unnecessary show off that the next time he shot past us and tried to move off in another direction, I moved over into his path and crashed into him. I apologised and then we staggered our way further around the floor. It was an accident, honest 😉

When the next workshop started it was obvious that we were far out of our depth. This was Diane time. She had already stamped her authority on this group, her group. She shouted and postured and shouted some more. We watched for a while then went up to the room to read for an hour or so, since it was dull and wet outside and worst of all, I’d forgotten my camera.

Dinner was a protracted affair. It took over two hours from Starter to Coffee. Food was quite good and well presented, it was just the time lag in between courses that made the whole thing tiresome. Even more tiresome was the dancing afterwards. No salsa, very little jive. This was the Diane’s Dance Show aimed fairly and squarely at her own group. We waited until the end and did manage to dance salsa to one of the tracks and also performed our version of the Seven Spins, but didn’t really attempt any ballroom. More practise needed there. However one of our dinner companions provided PoD. He did look very like somebody from the ’60s, and his name was, in fact, John!

Dragged ourselves off to bed. As I climbed the stairs, I thought “That’s twelve hours of my life I’ll never get back.”

Tomorrow we’ll have breakfast and leave this sorry place.

Dress the dolly – 25 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going in to town to get me more highland dress stuff.
Came out of the JL bridge after getting the compulsory photo of the Glasgow skyline and noticed a sale in the Ecco shop. Initially I was interested in a pair of boots to replace my old leaky Clarks pair. Then I saw a pair of black shoes which looked wearable and actually had a fair bit of tread on the soles. The upshot was I got the shoes and left the boots for another day.

The Lakeland shop is on that level of Buchanan Galleries and it was my next target. I’d asked Santa for a pasta machine, but lots of other boys and girls had been asking for the same thing and there weren’t enough to go round. Maybe Santa’s little elves would have been busy making more and put them on the shelves of Lakeland (cheapest place for a pasta machine). Yes! They had the very thing in stock, so I grabbed one and asked if we could pay for it and collect it later. Heavy beasts these pasta machines. Next, the object of the exercise, a new shirt and a belt for wearing to the ceilidh tonight.

We went to McGregor & McDuff in Bath Street, because that’s where we bought my kilt four years ago and we’ve always had good service from them. We could have gone to the House of Tartan which is a ‘cheap and cheerful’ chain which seems to be run by Indians or Pakistanis, but the prices were about the same in both establishments and the quality in McG&McD looks that little bit better. Today I was to be getting a Ghillie’s shirt (I hoped the ghyllie in question didn’t mind) and a belt for my kilt. Belts, along with braces sometimes, are usually used for holding things up, but in this case they are purely decorative but, thankfully not too expensive.  After that it was lunch at Verona, Italian of course and very nice too.

The salsa ceilidh was actually called The Tartan Ball and was held on Burns Night. The only rule was that you must wear something visibly tartan. The kilt ticked the box for me, but Scamp was scrabbling for something for her. She finally settled on a navy and white checked dress for a fiver and remarked that if she didn’t like it when she got it home she’d wear a thistle wrapped in tartan ribbon on a tee shirt. She didn’t like the dress when she got home, so the thistle and tartan ribbon was indeed the face saver.

I’d not been looking forward to the salsa ceilidh, but as sometimes happens with these events, as the time drew closer, it lost some of its dread. We drove in to Glasgow about 8pm and missed the turning off Clyde Street, exactly as we did last Christmas and had to rely on the Juke’s satnav to get us out of trouble again. Again it did exactly that and directed us to the wrong carpark for the second time. Two Q-Parks within 100m of each other seems daft to me. Anyway we were parked and under cover.

The salsa part was great and we danced a fair bit. The ceilidh was equally good with a real ceilidh band and caller! The caller did a wonderful job of instilling some order in the inevitable chaos. After the band, it was back to salsa again and I was danced off my feet by the end of the set. We left around 11pm because we have an early rise tomorrow.
Home and a wee dram to cure the ringing in my ears and the aching in my bones, then bed.

Today’s PoD is of a variety of architectural styles as viewed from Sausage Roll Street in Glasgow.

Tomorrow, hopefully we’ll be taking part in a workshop without the need for boiler suits or heavy machinery.

Joiner/Taxi Driver for a day – 24 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Chisels, hammers and drills used to be my friends. Today we have become strangers.

I was up and out at 10am to Shona’s today to fit a lock on her bedroom door to prevent her son wandering in and spraying her perfume and anti-perspirant. She’s afraid he might accidentally squirt some in his eyes.

It should have been a simple job to remove the old catch and replace it with a key operated lock. Got the old catch off without problem. Went to B&Q to get the replacement. The first thing I noticed was that the replacement was smaller than the original but that wasn’t really a problem. The next thing was the bigger problem and it was that the lock was the ‘wrong hand’. Difficult to explain, but easier to understand if you see it. The door opened to the left. The lock seemed to be for a door that opens to the right. However although a problem, it wasn’t a deal breaker. I was sure I could find a way to turn it.

When we got home I discovered in the instructions that I’d have to almost totally disassemble the lock, turn the catch round and reassemble which, if you’ve ever read a Haynes manual, “is the opposite of disassembly.” It took me twenty minutes at least to remove the spring and work out how to put it back in again. Also helpful was the illustrations in the instructions as they seemed to be for a different lock. However I did eventually get the lock reversed and reassembled.

Got it fitted and then had to cut the hole in the door jamb for the deadlock. Hammer, chisel and drill made short work of the cutting, but all the while I was very aware that downstairs there were two new babies. I hope they slept through the noise.

By 1.00pm I had to change from by joiner’s disguise to a taxi driver’s. I drove home and picked up Scamp and her keyboard, song sheets and music stands to take her to the Gems gig. Then it was back to being a joiner again.

Remember I said that the new lock was slightly smaller than the original? Well I had a cunning plan to fit a spacer to take up the slack. Cut a piece of pine to fill the space and headed back The House of Shona. Drilled the holes for the handle, drilled the hole for the key and cut it using my dad’s old keyhole saw AKA a padsaw. A tool that has only one use, but one which it does perfectly. Fitted everything, made a few adjustments and everything worked. I presume it’s still working because I haven’t had any phone calls to say that Shona is locked in the bedroom!

Still not finished, I’d to change into Taximan and head up to the gig to pick up Scamp and Margie, then deliver them home. Finally at about 4pm I was finished for the day and was absolutely knackered. A 30min snooze and a hot shower made me feel human again, or as close to human as I get. A glass of Rioja helped. It also gave me the energy to make paella for dinner.

With no time to get an outdoor photo, today is a ‘Flooer Day’. Crop of one of Scamp’s cut flowers won PoD.

Tomorrow? Maybe a visit to Glasgow to get a shirt for tomorrow night.

Different Dances – 23 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

It was cold this morning when we woke and that cold stayed all day.

Phoned the surgery to get the result of my blood test and it was fine. It was back to normal, but the doc had given me a course of penicillin to take to completely clear up the lingering UTI. Good result. Good start to the day.

Drove into town to go dancing and found out that we were doing a host of dances today. First we rattled through the seven spins of our jive routine. Then Michael started us on the Rumba which we hadn’t done since the Hamilton class years and years ago. After that we had an introduction to the Cha-Cha, which, again we had done before, mainly on sea days on a variety of cruises, but never in so much detail. Who knew your feet had to stay on the floor at all times? Finally we did a fairly representative waltz and a quickstep. Five dances in an hour. That’s not bad going. I think that’s us prepared for the workshops on Saturday in Strathaven, provided we can lay our hands on a pair of boilersuits.

Walking back from Blackfriars I looked along Hutcheson Street and saw the old Hutcheson’s Hospital lit up by the afternoon sun. It looked like a good subject and that’s why it became PoD. A fair bit of post processing in LR and ON1 2019 which meant the digital noise was a bit overpowering, but I managed to tone it down a bit in LR. Bought a couple of half pans of watercolour paint to beef up the Joan of Art painting box.

It tried to snow a bit as we were leaving Glasgow, but didn’t come to much. We weren’t sure if we were going to salsa tonight, but finally agreed that it would be fine. That was before the sleet and the snow on the M80 going in. Luckily again, it didn’t last and we arrived in fairly good time for Scamp to help out with the last half of the 6.30 class.

Moves in the 7.30 class were Astrella Complicada, Prado and Bayamo. Enjoyed the class although it was smaller than previous weeks.

Tomorrow I’m a Joiner for Shona fitting a lock to her bedroom door and then a Roadie for Scamp who’s got a gig for the Probus club. Not her favourite audience.

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas – 22 January 2019

Posted on by Zogman

We woke to snow today. Not lots and not long lasting, but still snow.

It was one of those mornings when we rejoice at being retired. Not for us the scraping of the windscreen and then the slow drive to work, single file in the tyre tracks of the car in front. No, back to bed with a cup of tea and a good book. Rivers of London (book 1, Hazy). The snow came and went for most of the morning before eventually tailing off and then the slow drip, drip of the thaw started, but not before I grabbed a camera and got some macro shots of the snowmelt on the plants in the garden and also on the metal allium feature in the back garden. That’s what achieved PoD.

The furthest we went today was Tesco and only after we were sure the road was clear of the white stuff. Tonight the snow is all but gone, but the temperature is down to -2ºc as I write this.

January is a time for hanging up calendars, but I found we had misplaced one of ours. It was in a polythene bag at the side of the wardrobe in the bedroom and it came from Sardinia. It started us checking back through our photos to see what Alghero, Sardinia looked like. Scamp usually does a screen grab of the temperature every day we are on holiday and in Alghero in June it was 27ºc. That’s a nice thought to end with!

Tomorrow will probably another dancing day. I may go and get three half pans of watercolour paint to replace the ones in the Joan of Art paintbox Hazy bought me a year or so ago. I liked the tin, loved the idea and the tiny little brush, but hated the colour selection – too acidic for me. I’d been painting tonight and decided it was time to warm up the colour selection.