Month: February 2016

Leap Day – 29 February 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bThere’s not a lot to say about today.  Had breakfast in bed.  The first time since Scamp left for Fuerteventura.  Started a painting then got bogged down in it and started to seal up the boot lock for Scamp’s car.  Got it done and tried to fit it, but the plastic box I made around the switch was too big and wouldn’t allow the lock shield to bolt in place.  Had to remove it and resort to silicon sealant.  Messy stuff.  I’ve left it to dry and set overnight and will fit it again tomorrow hopefully.

Went for a drive in the afternoon, but with low light and no directional sunlight, there wasn’t much I wanted to shoot.  Took some photos on Fannyside Moor, but nothing that inspired me to work on it.  It was photos for photos sake.  However, the settings I changed last night seem to make an improvement to the general quality of the shots I took.
<Technospeak> (This indicates the start of a technospeak section JIC)
Found out how to link a MySet to an unused dial position on the camera which is a great advance.  I didn’t know you could do that on the E-PL5 either.  It’s amazing what you learn.
</Technospeak> (It’s ok, you can start reading again, technospeak over)

By the way JIC, here’s an interesting thing to try with your coffee grinder.  I’ve tried it and it works with some coffee, but not all.

Went to salsa and learned an interesting new move and an intersting sequence in bachata.  Other than that, it was cloudy all day and it’s raining now.  Hope the rain keeps away tomorrow to get this boot lock fixed on the Micra.

Old Boot – 28 February 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bI think Old Boot was the name of the dog in the newspaper cartoon “The Perishers” away back in the mid ’70s. However, the old boot that took up most of my day today was the boot lock on Scamp’s Micra. A couple of weeks ago, with no prior warning, the boot refused to open when the release was pressed. I first thought it was the release mechanism that was at fault, but after a few sprays of WD40 it still refused to open, so it was on to the Internet to find out if any other hapless motorists had had the same problem. More importantly, had they solved the problem. It turned out that the problem itself was the microswitch in the boot handle becoming corroded or otherwise borked. Back out again and tried the test they suggested and indeed it appeared to be the switch that was causing all the bother. Nissan replacement part £95 + labour + VAT. Finally I found two useful pages on the Net explaining how to go about the repair using a Maplin microswitch costing around £2.00 Inc VAT. That sounded more like it. Since Scamp was not desperate to get it repaired pronto, I decided to wait until she and her sisters were off on holiday and do the job then. Today was that day. It was a fairly easy job, thanks to the aforementioned instructions. I only diverged a little from them in the fitting of the replacement switch. The lock assembly is sitting. on the table now neatly soldered (actually the soldering is awful – it would get you an instant fail in any metalwork or electronics course) and glued together. I’ve not got to weather seal it and it can go back on the car as soon as possible. One more Brownie Point for me.

It was a lovely bright, dry, almost warm day which is why I chose to do the job today. No point in mixing electronics and water. That’s probably what damaged the old switch in the first place. Went for a walk later in the fading light to try to get some photos with the new camera. After spending ages setting it up last night, I changed the settings, deleting all my changes – dummy! As a result, the shots are not as good as they could be. I think I’ve managed to get almost everything back again now. This camera is an amazing piece of technology, but is so easy to get wrong. One wrong button press and bang everything is back to stage one. I should know better, but I don’t. Story of my life, I think.

Boats, Bridges, Bikes and Accents – 27 February 2016

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combo bBeautiful morning. Seemed a shame to waste it, so I got my bike on the rack and drove over to Culross (sorry Hazy, take that look off your face). I parked and cycled along the footpath back to Kincardine. The going was fairly easy. A few slight slopes, but nothing very strenuous. However when I was freewheeling down one hill, I just thought it might be a bit of a challenge on the way back. Took some photos of the bridges, Kincardine and Clacks (short for Clackmannanshire Bridge). Why are people paid to decide the names for bridges, then come up with a mouthful like Clackmannanshire Bridge? They know fine well that the folk that stay there and the ones that use it will make up their own names for the crossings. Clacks Bridge sounds so much better. Nothing to do with Diskworld though.

While I was there an old guy wheeling a bike came along. I say ‘old’ but he was probably about the same age as me. He spoke to me, but I couldn’t make out what he was saying.  I thought he might be Polish. He repeated it and still I couldn’t make him out. It was only when he turned and said very slowly, “It’s nice to see a bit of sun” it twigged that he’d said “It’s a grand day”. His Fife accent was so thick it was almost impenetrable to my Lanarkshire ears. I agreed with him and he went on his way to the boat yard where he laboured a bit hauling a rowing boat down the jetty and setting off in it.

I’d just finished taking shots of the bridges and the mountains beyond and was ready to come home when I turned and saw the three wee boats sitting on the water with the beautiful cloudscape behind. Camera back out and got another load of pictures. The Oly isn’t tamed yet. It kept overexposing (sounds naughty, but it just means the photos are very pale) so when I got home I changed the exposure setting to Auto. That’s something I never do.

The run back was uneventful except, remember that hill? I was right, it was a killer on the way back. Got my blood pressure up and my pulse racing. Does you good to get out somewhere on a real bike, not a computer simulation.

Sirloin steak for dinner. It was lovely and I felt I’d earned it today.

A day in the “Toon” – 26 February 2016

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combo bRather a late and lazy start to the day.  Possibly too much Laphroaig last night, if you can have too much of a good thing, that is.  So, later than anticipated, I took the Megane for its wash and brush up for being a good car yesterday and not giving me a showing up at the MOT garage.  It felt better to drive after the car wash, but that was partly due to it having a service yesterday.  Cars always drive better after a service.  I know it’s probably a psychological thing, but it is partly practical too.  Still a couple of things to put right before we drive any long distance runs.  Rear brake disks need replacing and the front tyres are also needing replaced.  If it had been to Arnold Clark for the last three MOTs it would have had to have the disks replaced and the wheel cylinders replaced too every time, I’m sure.  Bunch of sharks.  I digress, as usual.

I drove in to Glasgow and to limit my wandering about time, decided to park at a meter.  Found one near to the bus station and went to pay the ticket.  After decoding the parking cost/time formula I proceeded to dump all my loose change into the ticket machine.  Almost got to the two and a half hours I needed and the message “Take your money back” appeared and all my change rattled out.  I assumed the machine was knackered and went to another where the same thing happened!  Is there a limit to the amount of coins you can put in these machines?  It’s never happened to me before.  I can only think that the money box in the machines was full and couldn’t accept any more cash.  I didn’t have any pound coins, so I had to abandon that idea and go to the expensive Concert Hall carpark where, despite the sign saying “Car Park FULL”, there were indeed spaces in our usual secret dungeon.  Best kept secret in Glasgow.

Wandered down Bucky Street and took some photos of folk that looked interesting.  One bloke who stands there hail, rain and shine with a sandwich board saw me and turned his back which was a great shame as he has an interesting face.  Maybe I should ask him next time if I can have his photo.

I had a last visit to the Art Store before it closes next week.  There wasn’t much left.  The shop is all but gutted now.  Almost nothing left.  No brushes, paints, pencils, canvasses or sketch books.  A few pens and some pastels, but nothing worth talking about.  Everything was 75% off.  I saw an old woman pocketing a couple of packets of pencil leads.  Sales assistant watched her and just shrugged his shoulders.  If she’d bought them, they would have cost a few pence.  Some folk have no decency at all. Not been doing very much painting or drawing recently.  Must get started again.

Egg pizza for dinner, but went in to Collins & Son butchers on the way home and bought a couple of nice sirloin steaks, one of which is in the fridge destined to be tomorrow’s dinner.  Got loads of other stuff too, almost all of which is now in the freezer.  It’s good to go to a real butchers rather than Tesco.  The meat just looks better.  It’s been our aim for the past few years to buy from indepenedents where possible.

Weather for tomorrow doesn’t look inspiring.  Don’t have a plan.  The Easy Rider mentality, only I won’t be stamping on my watch in the morning (see the film to understand).

Three Birds, Four Faces – 25 February 2016

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combo bYet another early rise. This one not as bad as yesterday, only 7.30 this morning. Taking the car to get its MOT. Taxi back from the garage because it’s about three miles away on a freezing cold morning and there’s no public transport to speak off there. Moped about for the rest of the day. Read more about the new camera and then updated the firmware on it and on the Panasonic lens. Didn’t realize you could get firmware for lenses. Got some decent photos of birds in the garden then after a few more tweaks to the bells and whistles, went to St Mo’s to spy on more birds and hopefully some deer.

Birds were easy, even Mr Grey was posing for some action shots, but the deer were off like the wind. I saw them, but they’d seen me long before. Then I spotted a fox, but couldn’t get a clear shot of it. One shot of the back of his head. That’s when I saw the clay faces. I remember photographing them some years ago in the woods behind the pond. These were obviously from the same source. Last time it was red clay, this time it was grey/white stuff. The decoration was the same. Twigs, leaves and pine cones. Some imaginative ideas there. I’m guessing it’s from one of the local schools. Don’t think the “Bucky Boys”have the intellect or the skill to make them.

Came home and made a pizza from the Nigel Slater book. Pizza base, mozzarella and an egg yolk on top. Quite delicious and very filling. Not for you though Hazy. It tasted all the better when the garage phoned to say the car had passed and was ready to pick up. Phoned a taxi and brought it home. Tomorrow it gets to go through the car wash for being a clever little Megane. I get a Laphroaig because I won’t be gettin up and driving too early. A good day.

An Early Start – 24 February 2016

Posted on by Zogman

combo bSo what of the day?  Well, it was a really early rise with the alarm set for 5.30am.  A quick breakfast and a couple of mouthfulls of tea then out to defrost the car.  It wasn’t too bad really, only about -1ºc.  It had been colder during the night, but now there were clouds hiding the moon which raised the temperature a bit.  Next we loaded the cases into the car, because today Scamp and her sisters were off to a place where there is rarely, if ever a need to defrost the cars, Fuerteventura.

I was supposed to run them to the bus station in Glasgow, but the CITRAC signs said it would be an easy 19mins to the airport, so I decided to just extend the run out to there instead.  Indeed, for once, CITRAC was right and it was a textbook run out along the motorway.  Dropped them off and set off back down the motorway again in the opposite direction.  I had expected heavier traffic heading east into Glasgow, but the gods were with me because it was far lighter than I had anticipated and I made good time back home.  I was glad I’d left the heating on.  Nothing beats a warm house to come home to.

Today DPD were delivering my new (new to me) camera.  I’d finally settled on an Olympus OM D E-M10.  Apparently:

  • D is for Digital to separate it from the old OM1, 2 and 10 film cameras
  • E is for Electronic (duh, I think the word ‘Digital’ gives the game away)
  • M is for Mirrorless
  • 10 is for the model number

Really?  Do we need all those numbers and letters?  Why don’t they just call it an OM 10D?  Olympus don’t make anything other than mirrorless cameras and compacts now anyway.  Maybe longer names make the objects look more important.  Audi seem to do quite well with one letter and a one number.

Anyway, the parcel arrived dead on the target time of 15.08.  Signed for it and carefully unpacked it – no I didn’t, I ripped off the bubble wrap and stuck the battery in it to see what it could do.  As with my other Oly cameras there were a multitude of menus to navigate.  Luckily, this one was very similar to the E-PL5 (don’t ask what the letters and numbers mean), so it wasn’t the steep learning curve I had there.  Suffice to say that I headed off to St Mo’s to test it and some of the results are show above.  Am I impressed?  I have to say yes, reservedly yes.  It’s a very small camera.  Not too small, I think, but I wouldn’t want to work with anything smaller.  I remember when the OM1 came out in the mid ’70s, everyone said it was a lady’s camera, but a few professional photographers whe were big blokes took a shine to it and it gained acceptance.  I thought it was a lovely camera.

While waiting for the new toy to arrive, I monitored the sisters flight down to the Canaries on Flight Radar 24 which gives vast amounts of information to those interested in such things.

So, the car goes in for MOT tomorrow and I’m hoping to take my mind off that by taking some more photos.  Not testing – taking.

Four season in one day – 23 February 2016

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combo bThe day started with a swim this morning.  No gym, just some water relaxation.  It seems to have helped my back and still gave me some exercise.  After that, Scamp and I went for lunch and I took myself out for a walk while she was making the final touches to her packing for HER holiday.  The light was beautiful today with the occasional cloud giving a bit of shadow detail on the hills.  For once (whisper it) the Tamron behaved well.  As Scamp suggested, maybe it too just wants to be out in sunshine.

When I got home, it was time to drive to Glasgow to pick up Jackie.  Beautiful sunshine when I left home, blizzard conditions on the motorway ten minutes later, then beautiful sunshine five minutes later.

It is Scotland after all.

Gym, Walk, Dance – 22 February 2016

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combo bI usually go to the gym while Scamp has her Gems group in the afternoon. Today I changed that around today and went to the gym in the morning. After the workout, I went for a swim, but the pool was full, so I sat in the sauna instead. Fifteen minutes in total silence in a hot environment. Absolutely fantastic. Came out and the pool was quite a lot quieter, so I managed a few lengths before the Monday hoardes returned.

After lunch and while the Gems were gathering, I went for a walk down the Luggie. Not the best day, but there was warm sunshine and a little bit of a breeze, so I got some photos.

After dinner we went to salsa which was quite good, but for once the bachatta was even better. With the moves we have learned in the past three or four weeks, we can build a fairly decent combination. That’s something that Scamp has wanted for a while and I can see the possibilities in it.

Sore tonight. Sore shoulders and back. I’m doing something wrong with the upper body machines in the gym. I may go for a swim tomorrow, but no gym. I might even manage another fifteen minutes in the warmth of the sauna.

Endorphins – 21 February 2016

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combo bbSometimes when we come out of the salsa social on a Sunday, I feel it’s a duty done. Scamp usually wants to go to The Garage to the Sunday Social and I don’t usually mind. Today when we came out, I was buzzing and could have stayed until closing time. Yes, I’d have been knackered and yes I’d have been starving, but I don’t think I’d have minded. Apparently it’s all to do with Endorphins. If you haven’t heard of them, I’m told they are little smiley faces that bubble round your bloodstream and do happy things. You can read all about them on Wikipedia if you aren’t a sciency type like me. What they don’t tell you on the revered Wikipedia is that the little endorphins like dancing, especially salsa dancing and that’s why I was feeling much better coming out of The Garage than I did when I went in.

Made the rest of the pakora when we got home and although the chicken stuff was ok, the veggy pakora was much too thick and stodgy. Version 2 will be better when I get round to making it.

It’s been a dismal day with constant rain. The temperature is supposed to drop considerably over the next couple of days with ice and snow forecast. Much nicer than constant rain.

Stirling in the Rain – 20 February 2016

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combo bStirling in the rain is like anywhere else in the rain, it’s a bit dismal. We’d only come here because we couldn’t face going to Glasgow again, we’d been to Embra yesterday and let’s face it Hamilton, Airdrie and Motherwell are pretty depressing. Not as depressing as Cumbersheugh, but nowhere is really. We couldn’t be bothered going far, but wanted to get out the house for a while and Stirling would be better than anywhere else within the 30 mile limit we’d kind of set.

When we got to Stirling the rain actually stopped for a while. Did some shopping, Scamp got some Euros to celebrate Big Davie Cameron’s Battle for Britain. Nah, she got them for going to a sunny place next week. I’m not going, I’m not invited. This is a girls only do. I’m going to stay home and paint and maybe fix the battery in the Mac Book Pro. I might even go out a run in the car, but not to Stirling and not in the rain.

There was a break in the clouds when we got home and I ventured out to St Mo’s to get some foties. Got soaked on the way back, but that was ok because I had a few shots in the bag. Well, to be pedantic, the photos were on the card, in the camera which was in the bag.

Made chicken and prawn pasta with rocket pesto, and made it better than that tasteless Brown’s concoction. If they want my recipe I’ll sell it to them. Had a first attempt at chicken pakora tonight. It tasted ok, even Scamp agreed. Maybe veggy pakora tomorrow, but deep frying in a wok on a gas hob is a bit scary.