June 2016 – My Photo Blog

Perf – 30 June 2016

Posted on June 30, 2016 by Zogman

We were off to Perf today, mainly to get some coffee and tea, but also to take our colds out for a run in the country and possibly to share them with the posh Perf people (intentional alliteration). It turned out a pleasant day. Not totally dry. It rained for a while during our journey and also just for a short time while we were in the Fair City.

We used to go to Perf (ok, it’s real name is Perth, but I prefer Perf and it’s my blog, so live with it). We used to go to Perf to eat in Cafe Tabou which was a really innovative and slightly expensive French restaurant. Not its become a quite expensive and slightly innovative restaurant that still produces French food, but cooked by a very good Polish chef. The big failure for us is that the menu, which used to change every month, now stays the same and the intention seems to be to change it only four times a year. Admittedly they still have a Plat de Jour and a Poisson de Jour, but the choice isn’t there anymore, so that is why we didn’t dine there today.

I did get my coffee and tea in The Bean Shop. I’ve been going to this shop for years and the quality and taste of their coffee and tea never changes. I always buy beans now as JIC gave me a grinder last year and it produces the same grind time after time.

On the way home I took a side road to grab a shot of the corn field and the big daisies probably Marguerites, but always called Big Daisies by my mum. After I took the shots, I wished I’d brought a tripod to get some movement in the flowers and corn stalks. Maybe next time.

Tradition – 29 June 2016

Posted on June 29, 2016 by Zogman

A 7.30am start to take my car to Tadstar to get new rear brake disks and pads fitted. As an added extra, Renault supply the disks with with wheel bearings. They don’t do it for free of course. £70 a pop plus VAT and you need to fit them in pairs. All up, counting disks, pads and fitting, I got a quid’s change from £300. I suppose I could have got it a bit cheaper, but it’s brakes, you don’t cut corners with brakes.

Waiting for the car to be ready meant we had the rest of the day to play with and it was threatening to rain. Well, it was the end of the school year and we all know it rains in the afternoon of that day. It’s traditional. After we had breakfast, we went to the gym, or to be exact, the pool to pretend we were still on the ship in the warm waters of the Mediterranean. The pool was almost full, penshies everywhere. Luckily the steam room was empty. Ideal for me to help shake off the cold that’s hanging on me and for Scamp to rid herself of the last vestiges of hers. After a couple of sessions in the steam room, the pool got a bit emptier and I did manage a few lengths before more of the grey hairs waddled into the water. Heavens, there was even one codger wandering around with a zimmer frame! Aargh! I thought I was back on a P&O ship again. I’d had enough. One more soak in the steam room and it was time to go.

By the time we got back, the schools were out, the holidays had started and it was raining. From simple ‘raining’ someone turned it up a few notches to ‘hammering down’ and it stayed there for a few minutes before returning to ‘raining’, but you could tell it was on for the day. Sorry boys and girls, but it is traditional.

Got the car back about 4pm and after signing away or keying away the £299, I took a walk through St Mo’s, a wet St Mo’s. Didn’t get much, the light was so low, it’s a wonder I got anything at all. Took the Nikon for a change and I’m glad I did. One thing the Oly doesn’t excel at is low light.

Hopefully a bit brighter day tomorrow, because the weekend and most of next week don’t look too clever. It’s traditional.

The day that the rains came – 28 June 2016

Posted on June 28, 2016June 28, 2016 by Zogman

Woke with a sore throat. Actually it had started last night, but today it felt worse. It could be the start of a cold, so I began dosing up with Vit C. The chemist once told me that when you start to feel the twinges that precede a cold, overdose on Vit C to give your body a chance to prepare. Some will argue that is nonsense, but it works for me, so that is what I did. Your body has a limit to the amount of Vit C it can hold. How do you know when you’ve reached your body’s limit of that vitamin? Your body will flush it out, along with most of the stuff that’s in your digestive system at the time. That’s where I am at present 😉

As for the rest of the day, there wasn’t much to report other than it rained again, almost all day in fact. I managed a couple of shots from the back window while I was making dinner. Chilli con Carne for me and Peppers & Mushrooms with Rice for Scamp. Actually, Scamp had been out with her friend for lunch, so I didn’t expect her to need any food at dinner time, which is why I defrosted the mince for mine.

While Scamp was out to lunch, I took her car through the car wash. I think the poor bloke who runs it thought we had found the car somewhere. It looked like one of those you see in overgrown front gardens with flat tyres and a brushed on paint job. Once it came out the other end of the wash tunnel it was sparkling clean. When I dropped it off for Scamp to drive back from the restaurant, I noticed the cut in the front tyre. Oh dear, more expense. My car goes in for new brake disks tomorrow. It’s just an expensive time of year!

Hoping for a better day tomorrow, but not at all confident that we’ll get it. More rain forecast, but Thursday looks a lot better.

An improving day – 27 June 2016

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Zogman

With Scamp’s cold improving, she went to Marji’s for June-D’s birthday lunch. That left me off the leash for an hour or so in the afternoon. I spent the morning looking for the serial key for a piece of software I wanted to swap over from the Toshiba to the new Linx. Never did find it and I wasted almost a whole morning trying. I wasn’t going to waste the afternoon.

Once I’d got my ‘easy’ sudoku solved (Easy? Do these people know the meaning of the word?) I got ready, and dressed to deter the ticks, I drove down toe Auchinstarry to see what was new along the railway. The answer was, quite a lot actually. The trees were in full leaf now and the smells from the flowers, especially the Meadowsweet were lovely. There was quite a strong westerly wind blowing and this helped make the lighting on the hill much more interesting. Unfortunately, the wind also blew in the rain clouds that joined me for the walk back to the car. I could have got soaked, but luckily I’d prepared well and brought my old almost-waterproof rain jacket with me. It saved the day again. Happy with the collection of photos I got today.

Salsa for me tonight, but as I was getting into the car, I felt that little roughness in my throat. Don’t tell me I’m getting Scamp’s Lurgi. Salsa was interesting with three new moves for me to remember. Hope my voice recorder has caught all the nuances of the moves.

Just about to start on the doggie bags Scamp brought back from the party.

It started out nice – 26 June 2016

Posted on June 26, 2016 by Zogman

It did start out nice today, but then it went downhill by about 14 o’clock, that’s 2pm to you. Rain swept in and forgot to sweep out again. The furthest I got today was Tesco. Couldn’t even interest myself in a walk over to St Mo’s, that’s how bad it was. Scamp has still got the cold she picked up coming home and can’t seem to shift it. Remembered to take some pics of the new fence so you can see what a difference its made. Yes, the garden does look bigger, but that’s because you can’t see the forest of plants behind me. Lots of planning to be done before we put things back in their new places. I only want to do it once, because these plant pots are really heavy.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow. There’s always tomorrow.

A no news day and a new fence day – 25 June 2016

Posted on June 25, 2016June 3, 2018 by Zogman

Now that most of the furore of the last couple of days has died down and the UK hasn’t sunk beneath the waves of the Atlantic, life has returned to a bit more like normal. The media is still in full blown disaster movie mode, but who really listens to them. I only watch the news to see what the weather is going to be like tomorrow, all the rest I can get from ‘bbc.co.uk’ and only click on the links that interest me. It’s as if news has come full circle. At the start of last century newspapers were really the only form of news distribution, then came radio. The problem with radio was that you had to listen to all the guff before the news reader got to the bit that interested you. It was more up to date than newspapers, but it was Serial Access of information. Then came TV and as this medium has proliferated, news readers have become actors and presenters producing colourful presentations. News became more of ‘edutainment’ for the masses, but it is still Serial Access. You still have to wade through all the multicoloured drivel Robert Peston has to show you so you will understand just how much cleverer he is than you. Now that we have news online and especially on smart phones, we have returned to more of a newspaper format where you can immediately access the information you want without the drivel or the presentations. That’s the great thing about Random Access as opposed to Serial Access. For me, I just click on the weather and ignore the doom and gloom.

Alan, the fencer was coming today (not with his foils and epees, but with his spade, crowbar and nailgun). Today we were getting a new fence between us and Ghost, the gigantic Japanese Akita and also a new fence at the back of the garden. The old one which was very fragile was over 30 years old and had done quite well surviving the ravages of a Scottish climate for that time. It took Alan less that three hours to get the remnants of the old fences down and the new ones up. Thanks in part to the wonderful ‘nail gun’. Brilliant thing. Gas powered from a little propane cylinder. He hammered in 50 nails in as many seconds. I want a nail gun. I don’t know what I’d do with it, I just think it’s such a wonderful toy. I’d even say it was ‘cool’!

Scamp was decidedly under the weather today with a heavy cold, presumably from sitting in a bus for 10 hours breathing in the recycled germs and viruses from the coughers and sneezers around us. Anyway, we decided to go to the wee tea shop over at Johnston Loch and that brightened up our day.

I had a quick walk over to St Mo’s later and got some photos of a bit of yarn bombing that had been going on while we were away. Also a bit of landscaped seating that’s been added to St Mo’s. Let’s hope is doesn’t get damaged. It’s good to see NLC actually doing something in the community for a change, especially as pupils from local schools had become involved.

See, there’s always a bright side. Yes, Scamp, I have been listening to you.

Independence Day – 24 June 2016

Posted on June 24, 2016June 26, 2016 by Zogman

Wasn’t that the title of a disaster movie from the ’90s? Looks like it’s also a disaster reality of the mid early 20teens too. I couldn’t believe that two bumbling idiots, well three if you include Gove, managed to persuade 51odd precent of the British public that they could actually sail us through the uncharted waters of a Brexit withdrawal from the EEC. I’m not a great supporter of the EEC, but much better the devil you know than the devils with no brains and no policies. It’s like the Monster Raving Loonie Party winning a general election and suddenly finding they had to make up a parliament. I don’t for one minute believe that these Spitting Image puppets could make a decision without phoning their mummy. It will be as one ex colleague said tonight: “There are interesting times ahead”. I think there’s a Chinese curse along the lines of: “May you live in interesting times”.

I went in to Glasgow tonight to a retiral ‘do’ for a couple of teachers from my old school. It was good to see some old faces that I recognised from the past. Other teachers that had found the light at the end of the tunnel was sunlight. Good to see that others are still making their way towards it. Also good to see that there are others still attempting to climb that greasy pole. Good luck with that, people.

Thoughts – 23 June 2016

Posted on June 23, 2016June 26, 2016 by Zogman

Not a lot I can say about today, other than it was a day recovering from an excess of eating and sunbathing. It feels like that’s all we did for the last fortnight. The experiment with the Win 10 tablet went very well. Much better than I expected. It didn’t take me long to get back to using Mickysoft Live Writer. It really is the best blogging software I’ve ever used. It hurts me to say this, but it is so much better than anything Apple has to offer. Most, if not all the blogging software for the Mac is so far out of date it’s not worth using. Really, it is. It’s as if Apple has decided that nobody is writing blogs anymore so they aren’t going to support this form of communication. That is such an ‘Apple’ point of view. Mickysoft, for once seems to be on the ball and offers Live Writer for free. OK, you have to search around a bit to find a way to install it in a 32bit Win 10 ‘puter, but it does work.

The other thing I’ve been thinking about is the proliferation of ‘free’ WiFi in mainland Europe. By ‘free’ I mean WiFi that’s available in cafes and restaurants there. There’s no such thing as ‘free’ wifi as much as there is no such thing as a free lunch. However, for the price of a cup of coffee and a cake I was given the password in all the cafes I went to. For heaven’s sake Britain, dig yourselves out of the 19th century and embrace the 20th cent (21st century may take a little longer). Even some of the ports abroad have truly free WiFi. It may be a bit slow, but it’s open access wireless. Glasgow now advertises free WiFi, but I’ve never heard of anyone getting connected to it. Advertising it is one thing, supplying it is another.

I eventually dragged myself out today to take some shots down the Luggie Water. Lovely smells from the flowers in the bushes and along the riverbank. What were bare sandy banks a month or so ago are now covered knee deep in foliage. Great time of year.

Then a strange thing happened. Scamp had been looking through my blog posts in the afternoon and I was just about to add my latest one when I couldn’t access the blog page, nor could I get any of my site based emails. Panicked a bit then phoned Hazy who knows everything there is to know about email, websites and such. She got right back to say there was a problem at the host’s end. Panic over then. It was down for about an hour then came back as right as rain. Now I’ve got a plugin configured to send me emails when the site is down. Thanks again Hazy, my web monkey!

Voted today for the EEC Referendum. Don’t know which way it will go. That’s a lie, I’m writing this on Saturday night and I now know the disaster that awaited me on Friday morning, but I’ll write about that later.

Back on dry land – 22 June 2016

Posted on June 22, 2016June 23, 2016 by Zogman

Well, technically it isn’t dry because it’s raining. Not heavy, just a drizzle. Poor organisation by P&O. Shambles of queueing passengers in every available space on deck five with tannoy instructions telling us to wait in the comfort of the public areas. If that was comfort, I’d hate to see what they deem uncomfortable. However, once we got moving things went a lot more smoothly. We were first on the coach for a change. Oh! Where will we sit? Now waiting for the dribs and drabs of fellow travellers to appear. Might be a long wait.

Earlier we watched the forklift trucks doing their little dance as they ferried the boxes of cases (Scamp would call them “Yorkies”) from the ship to the warehouse where they get placed by deck order. Quite fascinating to watch.

A Foggy Day – 21 June 2016

Posted on June 21, 2016June 22, 2016 by Zogman

The last full day on the ship started foggy. Apparently the foghorn had been sounding all night, but we didn’t hear it. One of the benefits of living in the bowels of the ship. After breakfast I went to art class. Today we were painting flowers, at least, those of us who were not finishing off yesterday’s Tuscan farmhouse. The flower was a hibiscus, a light pink one against a background of dark green leaves. This was a bit of a challenge for me as I’d never really painted flowers before and certainly not in watercolour, But with a little thought and my gained confidence in painting wet in wet, I got a fair representation of the photograph. I even got a ‘well done’ from the teacher. Teacher’s pet, that’s me. No long after I started, the foghorn started and all was white around us. After what seemed like 10 minutes painting, the teacher said it was time to pack up. I looked at my watch and I’d been painting for an hour and the fog was almost gone. Then I realized I hadn’t heard the foghorn for ages. Totally engrossed I was.

Scamp had come up to meet me and we went back to the cabin to do the inevitable packing. Most of it’s done now and we’ve just been for lunch. Scamp’s off her class and I think I’ll try to sneak a photo of her.