Category: Architecture

A day in the Toon – 30 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Meeting my brother for a walk, some photos, a spot of lunch and a blether.

His choice was Glasgow and my choice was Glasgow too today. However, his idea was a walk round what we could call the City Centre, while I wanted to head out to the west in search of interesting architecture. We combined the two with a walk round the city centre photographing interesting architecture. First though we had the traditional coffee in Nero and caught up on what was happening in both families.

With the updates done we headed off down Buchanan Street to get some photos of the subway entrance on Buchanan Street itself. It has a lovely green glass cover over the entrance, although you don’t really see the green tinge unless the sun is shining like it was today. From there we ignored all the retail opportunities on either side and Alex took some shots of the other, completely different, entrance to St Enoch’s subway station. It’s a futuristic domed glass cover, not at all like Buchanan Street’s green glass box.

Two in the bag for Alex. Next we walked east along Argyle Street which used to be a fashionable street for clothes, but is now a bit down at heel with more and more shops with closed signs on the windows and doors. A sign of the times perhaps. We were looking for cranes. Big, gigantic tower cranes. They were right at the end of Argyle Street. I could see what I wanted to photograph, but if I stood on one side, signs and traffic lights were obstructing my view and if I stood on the other side it was the old sandstone buildings that were in my way. The only way to solve it was to wait until the green man appeared and stand halfway across the road. Bingo, three shots taken before the lights changed! Of course, we both took a lot more than that, but they were only fillers. The ones from the middle of the road were the money shots.

We walked round and had a cursory glance at Merchant City Cameras which will forever be Quiggs. It’s not been the same since Mr Quigg’s son sold the shop. I think the present owners are struggling to keep it afloat. Not surprising as it’s only enthusiasts who are buying cameras when mobile phones do such a good job of capturing the moment.

We walked back to Miller Street to Paesano. The real reason Alex wanted to come to Glasgow. Best pizzas in town. Only bettered occasionally by the West End shop of the same name. We must try that one the next time we’re out west.

Next target was the GOMA in Queen Street. That’s where today’s PoD came from. I just liked the relaxed way that bloke was sitting there.

Our final jaunt was down the Clyde Walkway to admire the graffiti. I also grabbed some shots of the mirror glass frontage of the Archdiocese of Glasgow building which stands next to the much older St Andrew’s Cathedral.

From there it was the long plod up to Buchanan Street bus station, a quick hug and then off home on our respective buses.

Back home Scamp had retained the last of the Just Soup and that became dinner. We had a first run through of the new Quickstep routine and, as Scamp had told me, it wasn’t nearly as fearsome as I’d imagined. Another practise tomorrow if all goes well and we should be fit for Saturday.

No great plans for tomorrow, although Scamp fancies going to her FitSteps class. Having just completed over 16,500 steps today, I’ll pass on that class.

Nae Dancin’ – 4 February 2023

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It wasn’t us who called off today it was the teachers.

We were up, showered, dressed and ready to go when a WhatsApp message alerted us that the already depleted class had suffered another call off and that the teachers had decided the class wouldn’t go ahead today. A bit of a disappointment for me but a much greater one for Scamp. So we changed back into ordinary clothes from our spandex and lycra ’Strictly Suits’ and discussed what to do with the day.

Eventually we made the decision to go to Stirling for lunch. That meant Indian Cottage. For us it’s the only place to go for food in Stirling. We’d intended parking in the ‘council’ car park, but it’s now run from an app and I didn’t have the app. Also I’d heard bad things about ‘RingGo’ so we parked at Waitrose because we’d be shopping there later.

Indian Cottage was busy but there wasn’t a queue. We recognised most of the staff from the last time we’d been there. Later Scamp reminded me that we’d been less than complimentary about the food the last time we’d visited. This time it was all good. Good food, good servers and the naan bread we had was ‘well done’ as requested. Hopefully we’ll be back again soon.

We took a walk around the Thistle Centre. I was looking for a book, any book that interested me as I’m still eking out my last few pages of Project Hail Mary. Scamp was looking for tops and skirts in M&S. Both of us met again later empty-handed. However Scamp did manage to find something that suited her as we walked back to the car. I’m not saying what, but all will be revealed later in the month DV.

We did go to Waitrose to pay for our parking by buying some lamb for me and a couple of bottles of wine for Scamp, well, for both of us really. It’s just that she’s a much better chooser of wine than me. With that done we donated our parking space to a worthy driver who was tired of waiting and waiting for a space, and drove home.

I’d taken a couple of shots of a building in Stirling that I’ve meant to photograph for ages. When I go it home and added a better sky than nature provided today, it looked good and became PoD.

Today’s prompt was ‘A Good Year’. Just for fun, I found it on Prime Videos and we watched it tonight. I’d already planned to use a picture of a wine bottle for the prompt because the story is based in a vineyard, but then I saw the car Russell Crowe drives and knew it was a better subject for today. So a yellow Smart Car made the sketch of the day.

Tomorrow I must decide whether I’m having a lamb shoulder shank or a lamb rolled shoulder, or maybe neither and they’ll go in the freezer and Scamp will come up with something different. I’ll let you know!

 

The shortest day – 21 December 2022

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After today, hopefully things will begin to get a bit lighter.

Scamp began today vacuum packing the fish she bought in Waitrose earlier in the week. She got one done, but after that the machine stopped. The vacuum worked, but it wouldn’t seal the pocket. We both tried it to no avail. It seems like the heater that does the sealing has given up the ghost. We use the machine quite a lot. Maybe not as much as we used to, but it comes in useful, especially for meat and fish. We had a look for a replacement. Amazon, of course, had them, but they were suspiciously cheap. Lakeland had them too but they were a bit more expensive. Currys advertised them, but they had none in stock, as usual. It looked like a trip to Stirling was in order.

We drove there through heavy rain showers, finally got parked in an extension to the car park. It seemed that everyone else had come to the Dobbies/Lakeland/Cotswold mini retail park. Scamp had a wander round Dobbies while I was off taking photos of the Wallace Monument looking grey and intimidating, standing on its hill with a grey sky above. When she returned said the queue for the restaurant was the longest she’d seen in the shop. That was why the car park was so busy. Everyone was here for their Christmas dinner!

Lakeland had two different models of vacuum sealer. We chose the heavier and larger of the two it just looked a bit more solid than it’s smaller sibling. I humphed it into the boot of the blue car and we drove off home. I was going to stop for photo paper in Currys, but it’s such a circuitous route to get to it, I couldn’t be bothered. Instead I thought I’d stop at Tesco in Cumbersheugh to see if they had any, but the queue to get in to park wound round the carpark, out past the petrol station round a roundabout and up to the main road. Maybe another day would be better. I can’t believe folk are queueing up to go to Tesco for their Christmas dinner!

I’d used an old Panasonic TZ90 to take the photos of the Wallace monument and the camera had made expensive sounding grinding noises, but the photos were there, although they weren’t the best shots I’d ever taken. However once they’d been dunked in a bath of Lightroom suds they were a bit cleaner and another bucket of ON1 Photo RAW gave a bit of colour to them. To finish them off, I went outside to catch the beginning of a sunset with the A7iii and pasted it on to cover the grey sky and it began to all come together, as you can see at the top of the page.

Once the new toy had been unpacked and inspected, the instruction book read and digested we each had a go at sealing up some fish. It seemed a bit quieter than the old one, but it is a lot younger. It seems to do the job it was intended for. So we’re happy.

It’s been a wild windy and wet day. We’re hoping for a brighter, day tomorrow with a bit less rain

Out on the town – 8 December 2022

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We were both out to lunch today, but in different place and with different people.

Scamp has a lunch date with her pal Mags and I had a photo walk booked with Alex. We caught the same bus, but I hopped off early at Greenfaulds, crossed the road at the underpass and caught the fast bus in to Glasgow.

I got there half an hour before we’d agreed to meet and as there was no sign I decided that either Alex was still travelling or else, more likely, he too had come in early and had gone to get some photos. Either way, I probably had time to get my hair cut. Just walked in and got a chair right away. Fifteen minutes later I was back out with a number four all over, plus ears and eye brows done for less than a tenner. Walked back to the bus station and met Alex. He had been off on his own taking photos.

He wanted to take some photos of the old Pavilion theatre and once we walked over to it, I could see why. Even although it was midday, the sun had a distinct warmth to its colour. We took a few photos and it wasn’t until I was processing one tonight I noticed just how steep the hill it was built on was. We walk past these buildings all the time and don’t notice these things. With a few photos in the bag we went for coffee in Nero because photogs run on coffee.

During the coffee break we set out a plan for the day. This was Alex’s choice of venue and he had an outline plan of what he wanted to take. I added in a few ideas of my own and we started out down the hill to Buchanan Street Subway entrance which always draws us when the light is strong and it was very strong today. A few photos there and then on to George Square where we took some photos of the carnival rides.

A stop in Paesano for a pizza lunch and a glass of red wine for me because I wasn’t driving today and then on toe Princes Square for more photos. From there we walked on through St Enoch’s Square to the Clyde and walked down the walkway to the Squiggly Bridge whose proper name is the Tradeston Bridge, but nobody calls it that, taking photos all the way. Then it was back to Nero in St Enoch’s for more coffee before our final photo destination for the day which was George Square for some early evening ‘blue hour’ shots of the attractions. When SD cards were full we walked back and got our buses home. This time I chose to take the X3, the slow bus because I’d already completed 13,000 odd steps and the X3, while slow, stops nearly at our door.

264 photos taken and after the first cull 114 of them were on the cutting room floor, leaving an acceptable 150 deemed worthy of a place in today’s shoot. PoD went to a monochrome shot of Buchanan Street Subway entrance/exit, but another two shots are in Flickr.

Tomorrow Scamp is probably going to FitSteps, but I’m hoping to have a relaxing morning.

Glasgow on the bus – 19 November 2022

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After struggling through Wordle and Spelling Bee (still working at it), we got dressed for the cold, because it was a lovely clear, dry day, but chilly, and headed out to Condorrat to get the bus to Glasgow.

When we got there we found that the the X37 was running late and was full with passengers, standing room only, when it arrived. We did both get seats, but others were still standing. Neither of us had experienced that before for the 20min trip to Glasgow. I don’t think the driver or the bus had experienced it either, because both were doing a fair bit of grumbling.

We’d forgotten that Glasgow would be busy, because it’s Christmas, or more accurately Xmas. There is a difference. The place was mobbed. People everywhere. We’re not used to shopping on a Saturday, or Sunday. We’re the lucky ones who can go shopping mid-week, so this was a bit of a culture shock.

We decided, after a quick browse in JL, that it would be best to visit Paesano for an early lunch before the rest of the hordes descended. We got a table right away! That doesn’t mean Paesano wasn’t busy. It was, but there were a few tables-for-two available. Scamp had a Number 1 (No garlic – Yes I know there is no cheese) and a side of rocket and parmesan. I had a Number 3 and a side of burrata and tomato. Washed down with a glass each of red wine. It’s such an ‘Italian’ place. Lots of folk sitting talking and eating. It’s not until you stop and listen that you hear all the different accents and languages overlaying each other. So strange in Glasgow. I don’t think it would be so strange in London!

Fed and watered, we went down to Argyle Street and wandered along for a while, then back along Queen Street where I got a photo I’d been thinking about. Then on to Buchanan Street where I knew the photo’s alter ego was waiting. They didn’t make PoD. That accolade went to a photo of the GOMA (Gallery Of Modern Art – Glasgow). However you should look for the pictures comparing the Roof Decorations on Flickr.

With nothing much else to do and because the crowds were so thick on the ground, we got the bus home. Not nearly so busy on the way back, thankfully.

Watched the Qualifying for tomorrow’s final F1 GP of the season and then Strictly. We both agreed that there’s not all that much dancing in Strictly. Scamp has been saying for weeks now that the whole program needs revamping. I’d agree. It need a complete re-shuffle. If it’s good enough for Rishi Sunak, it’s good enough for Strictly.

Tomorrow looks wet. We’ll make the best of it, maybe with some soup!

 

‘A’ listed ruin – 3 November 2022

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I was off this afternoon with my brother to see a ruin.

In the morning I thought we’d made a bit mistake. There was sunshine early in the morning, but that didn’t last and the clouds started rolling in. Were we even going to any light on the building? Maybe not. Then, just after lunchtime the clouds began to thin and the sun was trying to get out. It might just work after all.

I picked up my brother just before 2pm and we drove to Wishaw. We had both checked when the light was in the best position for photographs of this ruin using The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE) and Photopills both confirmed that the sun would be in the best position between 3pm and 4pm and we were heading directly at that time.

We parked at a burger van car park and walked down a private road. We couldn’t drive along it, but it was a sunny day and we had agreed that we’d go for a photoWALK today, so we walked. We walked for half a mile downhill and found Cambusnethan Priory sitting there. No barricades, no chain link fence, nothing to stop us wandering around this 19th century ruin. Halfway up one wall of the entrance there is a small sign warning you not to enter the building. That is the preventative measure. We wandered round taking pictures all the time. Of course, neither of us went into the building itself, because we’d read that small notice. The good light had gone behind a cloud now, it might have seen us coming down that long hill. It didn’t stop us taking photos. I don’t know how many my brother took, but my total was 54 photos taken of which 6 were rejected, so 48 keepers. The PoD turned out to be a view of the front of the building reflected in a very dirty, very big puddle. A ‘Puddle Pic’ my brother called it.

Now, what goes down must go up again. We packed our bags and climbed that big hill, and it was a big hill. We stopped once to look at a hole in a telegraph pole or maybe it was a power cable it was carrying. It was a wooden pole with a neat oval hole about three or four metres up from the ground. The hole was about 10cm high by about 5cm at its widest. It was neatly chiselled out probably by a beak. I’m glad I saw it, because it gave me an excuse for a rest. When we turned around the sun was shining brightly again and we both wanted to go back down and have another chance of some better lit photos, but we knew that wily sun was watching us and it would hide behind a cloud as we reached the building. We walked on and were on the longer, straighter part of the walk. This time I made it a request that we stop to get my breath back. That’s what’s wrong with St Mo’s. It’s a great place to wander round, but there’s not nearly enough hard climbing. I might go out every day, but I’m just doing easy climbs. Must try harder (climbs!). We walked on after watching the colours change on the trees.

I was glad when we were back on the level, potholed, puddled path again and even happier when we were on our way back into Motherwell. Dropped my brother off and we agreed we needed another day at Cambusnethan Priory.

Drove home to find that Scamp was making Prawn & Pea Risotto for dinner. All the chopping had been done and she was waiting for me to arrive so the cooking could begin. That was lovely risotto. Best I’ve tasted for ages.

Tomorrow were on the road again.

The day dawned dry and clear – 25 October 2022

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Not quite sunny when we woke, but dry and clear was good enough for us to pack a pair of boots and head off to Japan.

Before we went, we had one more thing to do and that was to photograph the eclipse. Everyone was raving about having to wear eclipse glasses. Being a photographer, I had a couple of polarising filters. If you orient them with the glasses at 90º to each other, they cut out about 95% of visible light. I did that and took a few photos of the sun with a bite out of it! Then we were on our way.

We drove over the ‘Clacks’ bridge to Clackmannanshire, then over to Dollar. Took a wrong turning there and got stuck behind a slow moving jeep pulling a trailer then up a long, steep, twisting, single track road, only to find a bin lorry coming the opposite way. Luckily I’d just passed a house about 100m back and was able to reverse down into their drive to let the bin lorry through. Thankfully no more vehicles on the road, but we seemed to be at the back of beyond and no sights of anything that could be construed as Japanese. We were looking for somewhere to stop when I saw an elegant open wrought iron gate. That looked like the place. We parked and walked to the cabin to pay for our walk in a garden.

A Japanese garden. Honestly you would never know this place existed if you hadn’t been looking for it. The photo, which became PoD, was the first view we got of this place. It’s laid out like a Japanese garden, but not in a tacky, tawdry way, but one that you just know was designed by someone who knew what they were doing. It was utterly stunning. The weather was trying its best to make it look even more beautiful. The sun, which had survived its fight with the moon, was cutting holes in the clouds and spreading some light on the trees, the pond and the little shelters. Everything was meticulously clean and tidy. Not a spot of litter. We spent about two hours walking round the place. We even found a “Christie Path” that led into the trees! I could rant on for ages telling you what we saw. It would be better have a look here and see for yourself:
https://cowdengarden.com/

Drove home by a different route, taking our time. After a cup of coffee Scamp decided it was time to cut the front grass. When she was finished I hauled the ‘grass hoover’ into the back garden and cut the back grass. It’s not perfect, but given the dampness underfoot, I think we did a fairly good job. It’s like a bad haircut, in a fortnight it will look fine. We also put up another set of lights. Little stars this time that hopefully will fare better than the last ones did. They’re shining brightly as I’m typing this.

Today’s prompt was ‘Tempting’.  I thought of that bag of four doughnuts I’d bought the other day.  There was only one left, so I sketched the bag and the doughnut.  One doughnut left?  It’s always a temptation to just eat it.  You know you shouldn’t. You know you should share it, so that’s what I did.  No I didn’t! I ate it!!

Tomorrow Scamp has been asked out for coffee by June. I’ve got more computer stuff to fix. Always got more computer stuff to fix!

A beer in the Toon – 13 September 2022

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Today the Auld Guys, or at least, three of them went in to Glasgow for lunch.

We all met up sporadically in and around George Square. We were going to Doppio Malto, an Italian restaurant and beer shop in the centre of Glasgow. Ray arrived first and got things organised while I met John in the square (not a masonic keyword!) and we went looking for Val. Eventually we went back in to the restaurant to see if the wily Italian had sneaked in behind us and that was when we found Ray with the table all sorted. You can always expect Ray to get things done properly. So I left John with Ray and went looking for Val again. Found him and brought him back to the fold. The lunch could commence.

Pizza for Ray, Val and me, but John went for Carbonara, just to be different. Beer for me, IPA in fact, “Sexy IPA” to be more exact. John went for boring lager and Val had Guinness, Italian Guinness! Who knew there was such a thing? Ray was driving when he got home, so he was drinking orange juice. The pizzas were a bit of a disappointment. A bit tough and to use the Scots word, “Cheugh”. John said his carbonara was fine, but the sauce looked a bit thin. Maybe it’s just the focaccia that they can make well. We may go somewhere else next time.

Val seemed to enjoy chatting with the waitress in Italian. No, he didn’t tell me what they said! I just enjoyed being out with folk other than family again. Just sitting for an afternoon with pals, blethering, telling jokes and tall tales. What we ate and what we drank didn’t matter, but I did have another beer, if only to hear the waitress say “Your Sexy Sir”, while Val and John had Sambuca, but “Your Sambuca” doesn’t have the same ring to it!

All too soon we had to go our separate ways, vowing to do it again, hopefully some time in November. Before the Xmas rush.

Managed to get a train back and Scamp picked me up at the station. Her lunch had been the same as ours. Wetherspoons where they’d chosen had no fish, so fish ’n’ chips was off the menu. I’ve never heard of a restaurant having no fish. Macaroni cheese is fairly easy to make from scratch, but Wetherspoons seemed to be serving a microwaved box of it. There will be excuses reasons, I’m sure, but it’s sorry state for the hospitality sector to be in.

PoD was an ultra-wide shot of the new Queen Street Station in Glasgow.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go somewhere for a proper lunch. No ‘ping’ food accepted.

Out in the wide world – 24 August 2022

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Both of us … together!

Back on the cruise, in what seems like a different world now, I felt a clicking form my dance shoes. I thought it would go away, but it didn’t. Today I was going to look for a new pair. If time allowed after that, we would go for a walk in one of the parks on the south side.

The weather didn’t look that clever in the morning, but the weather app maintained that all would be well in the afternoon, and gradually the sky lightened, the rain stopped and we went out.

We drove to the shoe shop in Rutherglen, hoping to get parked outside like we did last time, but today luck wasn’t with us, so we drove on to Tesco and parked there. Long story short, I got a pair of plain black dance shoes that seem to fit perfectly. Job done. Of course Scamp also saw a new pair of dance shoes and just had to have them!

After a couple of wrong turnings, ok, three wrong turnings, we found our way to Bellahouston Park. We had a wander through the park and found an elephant, a rusty, steel, life size elephant.  Cast from melted down scrap locomotives from India and South Africa. Locomotives that had originally been made in Glasgow. A photo of that “Nellyfunk’s Bum” became PoD, but it was close run thing between that and a couple of other images that may make their way into Flickr.

Lunch was in the Art Lovers’ Café in the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston.  Peppermint tea for Scamp and a decent cup of coffee for me with two massive scones to keep the hunger pangs at bay, although I did fancy the Pork Belly with Potato Cake, chargrilled spring onions, Spinach and Mustard Cream sauce.  Maybe next time!

We drove home by the M8 and over a Kingston Bridge that was beginning to clog up to its usual afternoon traffic jam. Then Scamp noticed warnings that more roadworks were about to start in a couple of weeks and would last until January 2023! We’ve had months of roadworks earlier in the year, they finished in June before another set began in July. It seems that every month there has been roadworks in this stretch of motorway. I doubt if this latest set will be the last. Unfortunately for us, this is the route we take to dance class every week.

Just as we were driving in to the estate, and home, another electronic sensor in the car reported a failure. This time it’s the tyre pressure sensor which reported an error. The car goes in to the garage for service next month. I doubt if anyone will be able to diagnose the fault, but they will reset the failure log and tell me it’s fixed. Then they will want me to come in and choose my next new car. It might be a Nissan, but I doubt it. It most certainly won’t be coming from a dealer who can’t fix the problems with my current car.

I had a bit of sad news today. Jack Doyle, who I worked with for many years at school, passed away a few weeks ago. I’ll always remember Jack’s sense of humour. He was a great guy who drank beer, but never lager and told great stories, so he did!

Tomorrow I’m hopefully breaking in a new pair of dance shoes.

Flying home – 11 August 2022

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There isn’t much you can say about going home, other than that it’s usually very carefully orchestrated by P&O and Jet2. Usually

We left our bags outside the cabin last night and knew they’d be picked up and taken away by midnight. The next time we’d see them would be when we took them off the carousel at Glasgow Airport. We were ushered into one of the restaurants after breakfast and waited there until our buses were ready to take us to the airport. Then the rain came. Torrential rain. The staff wouldn’t allow us to go to the coaches because it was raining! Why couldn’t they just bring the buses to the bottom of the gangway and allow us to leave? No, they couldn’t do that. Were they frightened someone might slip and be injured and they’d be sued? Possibly. Eventually they had to let us go.

We passed through security quickly this time because I’d organised all my camera gear and electronic gadgets plus my laptop into easily manageable chunks and it all passed muster. Then we were through and almost immediately we were given the gate number.

Fairly pleasant flight home until one baby at the front of the plane started screaming its head off. I don’t know if the mother was deaf or just didn’t care, but I kept thinking about the scene in Airplane where all the passenger queue up to slap the hysterical woman. It wasn’t the wean that we’d be queueing up to slap, but the mother.

Finally we landed in Glasgow and the next calamity occurred. The person who drives the ‘airbridge’ couldn’t get it aligned correctly with the door and was attempting a second run at it, but then the airbridge broke down and wouldn’t reverse. Eventually they solved the problem by bringing in a set of steps manually. I think everyone was happy to get off that plane. It must be the first time we’ve arrived in Glasgow and our cases were in the reclaim carousel before us!

Driving home the traffic was terrible on both the M8 and the M74. I opted for the M8 which was the wrong decision. It took us an hour to get over the Kingston Bridge because some poor soul had broken down just past the bridge on the part of the motorway that has two lanes now instead of four. That meant only one lane in four was in use. We did get home, but it felt that everything that could go wrong, did go wrong.

As soon as we got the bags and cases in, we did our tests. I was negative, but Scamp was positive as she’d expected. At least we were home.

PoD was two street cleaners sweeping up Valletta’s streets this morning.

Tomorrow will be another day.