Month: April 2020

Daddy’s gone to Iceland – 10 April 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Yes, I know we’re supposed to stay home and keep safe this Easter Weekend, but this was an offer I couldn’t refuse.

The offer was a delivery slot from Iceland for Tuesday, almost brilliant. “Almost”, because it’s for a time slot between 8am and 10am and with my luck it will be at the ‘8’ end of that time period, so I need to be up early for it. That said, it’s a slot and there aren’t many of them around. Coincidentally, it was last Friday Scamp managed to snag a slot on Tesco. Perhaps Friday’s are the key to nabbing a slot.

Scamp volunteered to go shopping to the local shops and brought back a fair amount of goodies. It was a dull start to the day, but by the time she was going out (solo) it had warmed up and the sun was shining. So much so that she came back I took the Nikon out for a walk in St Mo’s. At first I couldn’t see anything worthwhile to photograph, but then I spotted a hoverfly, first one this year and was sure I’d seen a butterfly too. It wasn’t until a bit later in a different part of the park I got a good clear shot of it. Not the best photo in the world, but my first butterfly this year. It’s a Peacock and fairly common, but it’s another sign that spring is here.

PoD was a long lens shot of a crow sitting on a branch. I liked the graphical feel of the shot. It almost looked black and white on the computer and when I changed it into true B&W I hardly noticed the difference. Second time around the pond I found the carcass of a swan. Don’t know what killed it. It could be a loose dog or a fox or daft kids throwing bricks, but there wasn’t much left of today. Then I heard a couple of swans flying overhead. They swung round the park and then landed on the pond. That sent the two resident swans into frenzy. They started puffing up their wings and heading in to separate the newcomers. It seemed like battle royal for a while, then everything calmed down. It looked like the residents won and the two visitors were being carefully monitored. Peace had broken out when I left. Didn’t get any decent shots of the action because my Tamron was in stupid mode and wouldn’t focus properly. It’s an odd beast. Sometimes it produces pin-sharp shots, others it’s a pain in the arse.

Aloo Saag for dinner. It too is a pain in the arse to make, but it usually tastes brilliant. Didn’t quite hit the mark tonight. Too much salt or too little spinach, I’m not sure which, but the result was the same – too salty, the customer said.

We did a bit of dancing practise tonight. Waltz No 1 and Waltz No2, then Foxtrot and finally Quickstep. All done to music too. These practise sessions work for me. They just get the muscle memory working.

As usual no plans for tomorrow. We’ll take the day as it comes.

Short and sweet – 9 April 2020

Posted on by Zogman

Not a lot to say about today, so this will be short and sweet.

After the excitement of yesterday, today was a bit of a let down as far as the weather was concerned. I presume a lot of work went in to getting the weather just right for my birthday, so today was recompense for that. It started off dull and grey and eventually deteriorated into drizzly rain tonight.

In the afternoon I did manage to drag myself out to St Mo’s to get a few photos, but the PoD was taken earlier in the garden with a little bit of light, not actually very bright light, but light none the less and I’ll take that. The subject is Scamp’s Pieris, variety Forest Flame. It really lives up to its name with bright red leaves in the spring and the promise of its tiny little white bell flowers to come in late April and early May. It’s a real uplifting bush, especially on a dull day.

Yesterday both the usual park benches were in use and today nobody wanted to sit in the damp and decidedly cold east wind. I can’t blame them really. Lots of geese seem to have taken up squatter’s rights in the pond and the two swans are making a show of telling them who’s pond it is. Like two big white polis, they patrol the perimeter of the pond shouting “Move along there. Nothing to see.” In swan-speak, of course.

So that was it for today. Another two prezzies today, one from Neil-D’s mum and dad and another from Gems, well probably Margie really! Lovely lady.

Tomorrow we must a-foraging for milk, bread and possibly eggs. Just down to the local shops, because it’s unlikely there will be any slots for Tesco and we can’t understand the workings of the ASDA Click ’n’ Collect layout.

There you are. I told you it would be short and sweet, and it was.

How terribly strange – 8 April 2020

Posted on by Zogman

To be seventy.

After breakfast this morning I opened the parcels. These weren’t prezzies, they were gifts from my family. From my son and daughter, from my son-in-law and daughter-in-law. I really cannot put on paper just how humble I felt. You are all wonderful. I know this wasn’t the birthday celebration you’d planned, but your generosity, especially at this time is beyond words. I love you all.

I wanted to have a photograph to remember today. It was along the lines of a Paul Simon song “Old Friends”:

“Can you imagine us years from today, sharing a park bench quietly?
How terribly strange to be seventy.”

Around midday, Scamp and I took a walk over to St Mo’s. I knew of two park benches there. Both of them were in use. One with a mum phoning everyone in the western world, sequentially, one after the other and keeping the seat occupied. The other was home to at least two families of mums and weans who didn’t look as if they were going to move anywhere fast. We walked on and that was when Scamp noticed the “Bee Seat”. It’s a wooden bench seat in the grassy area of the park, away from the path, so I suppose it was an actual ‘Park Bench’ and it was quiet. I set up the tripod and took a few shots. I just knew one of them would have me moving. One would have either Scamp or me with our eyes closed and one or two would be fine. I was right. I picked the best one and it became PoD.

Back home and after a quick lunch, Scamp went out to wash her car. I thought it was a good idea, so once she was finished, I washed mine too, just to get the seagull crap off it. We spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sunshine and chatting to the next door neighbours at well over the recommended 2m distance. Me with a glass of beer and Scamp with a G&T. The neighbours were having a wee glass of something too. A very civilised way to spend a birthday afternoon.

I’d requested a mince pie for dinner, not to be confused with a mincemeat pie. This is a half a pound of mince seasoned with salt and Bisto and wrapped in flaky pastry. Baked in the oven for about 25 mins, or until cooked. Hot or cold it’s delicious. I had half tonight and will hopefully deal with the other half tomorrow. My cake was a Scamp speciality, a coffee cake, with just the one candle. Seventy would probably have set off the smoke alarm and been an absolute nightmare to blow out. We held off the lighting of the candle until we were on Zoom and all three parts of the family were together. It was good to see everyone together again, only two weeks since our last hook up.

Scamp, as well as providing the cake and the dinner had made me up a ‘Lucky Box’ with an assortment of goodies with the inevitable Toblerone. All the separate items wrapped up in tissue paper to make it even more festive. She also managed to make me a birthday card, a birthday banner and also posters. Such a clever girl.  Thank you, all of you who sent messages, e-cards and analog cards.  Thank you all.

All in all I had a wonderful ’Special Birthday’. One I really enjoyed.

Tomorrow we may go shopping for milk and bread. Just the basic staples.

Out in the world again – 7 April 2020

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We ventured out today, just for exercise. On purpose we didn’t go to the beach or to our second home in Fife.

We didn’t go out to the beach or Fife, but just in case there was somebody somewhere listening in to our conversation, Scamp sneakily said we could walk over to Condorrat (where there are shops that sell essential foodstuffs). That way, the powers that be, the police, the government and MI6 wouldn’t suspect that we were going to St Mo’s. It was a clever ruse, and it had me fooled too. I thought we were going to the butchers to get a nice juicy steak for dinner, but instead of turning right at the end of the path past the (now locked) swing park, we turned left, crossed the road and walked through St Mo’s. The diversion might have had me fooled, but the invisible trackers, that are now being designed to be injected into our bodies secretly in the anti-virus when its made, wouldn’t have been fooled by the change of direction. They would have reported back and sent a fleet of drones to pinpoint our location for a squad car of armed police to detain us under their new emergency powers. At least, that’s what I read on the InterWeb last night.

Anyway, in the real world, we went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was fairly quiet with no cars in the car park and only a handful of people walking around in the sunshine taking in all the vitamin D that was available. There wasn’t much to see, but I did take another low down landscape for St Mo’s from the far side of the pond. I’d say that it was the best of the photos I took today, but it was really one of only two photo that survived the cull when I got them into the ‘puter back home. The main reason I didn’t take any more was that the battery indicator on the camera was flashing red, warning me no doubt that it was about to shut down. I’ve never seen it flash red before and the camera did take about three hours to replenish the battery from my fastest fast charger, so it must have been pretty empty.

Back home I managed to repair the pocket on a pair of jeans. I hate throwing out a perfectly good pair of jeans, just because the pockets are worn through, not with cash I hasten to add, but with my keys. Making the repair pocket isn’t a problem, it’s the topology of pockets that gives me a headache. It’s like working with a cloth Klein Bottle, where the inside becomes the outside and vice versa, plus you have to work out how to get the bloody thing into a position that allows the sewing machine needle to do its work. Finally after three dummy runs, with me as senior dummy, I botched it together. It’s not the finest piece of sewing I’ve done, but I think I’ve saved another pair of jeans from the bin. Now I’ve just found another pair in need of a new pocket. I’ll possibly leave that until next week when my head has stopped hurting.

According to government sources tonight, Boris is in good spirits and is stable. It didn’t mention exactly what the spirits were and if it was overindulging in them that had led to the initial instability. We wish him well. Better the devil you know …

Tomorrow is the big day. The weather doesn’t look great, but I think we may go looking for a park bench, quietly.

A Tick – 6 April 2020

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How I hate these tiny invaders.

Found it last night as I was getting ready for bed. A tiny little black dot with a bright red surround and it was itchy. It was my first tick of 2020 and I’ve no idea how it came to be on me. I’m scrupulously careful these days when walking in long grass. Always have my jeans tucked into my socks. Never crouch down in the long grass. Rarely even put my knee on the ground. I don’t suppose it matters how, it was there and it had to be removed and the wound cleaned. Luckily Scamp had bought me a pair of needle pointed tweezers a year or two ago and they helped pull the tiny thing out. It was only about 1mm long, I had to use one of my old camera lenses as a magnifier to be sure it was a tick, although all the evidence pointed to it being one. It was. Just need to keep taking the antihistamines and using some Germoline for a few days. Covid-19 and ticks, what a wonderful world!

Hadn’t intended going anywhere today, even with the brilliant weather predicted and that’s what we did. We stayed Home. Made some soup in the afternoon and got a delivery from Tesco with about 75% of the stuff we’d ordered. Not bad really considering we didn’t have to traipse round what is now a One-Way store. That’s worse than IKEA. At least it just has arrows projected onto the floor which you can ignore. Ignore the one-way system in Tesco at your peril.

Finished painting the upstairs window sills. That’s all the sills now have at least two coats. Some have three and a couple of lucky ones have four, I think. But who’s counting. The paint has been put away for this year and the brush has been washed. I intend to do no more to it.

Today’s PoD is a couple of Forsythia flowers. Last autumn I pruned the forsythia too hard. I got a gentle lecture from Scamp about next year’s flowers growing on the old wood I’d just cut off. I don’t intend to make the same mistake this year. “Prune immediately after the flowers fall, not in the autumn” is the mantra.
We still had a few flowers, despite my hacking.

Poor Boris, or BoJo and Fred calls him seems to be in a bad way. He was admitted to Intensive Care tonight after being given oxygen in the afternoon. I don’t like him, but I feel he’s in over his head with the epidemic. He just looks shattered. Who would have that job?

That more or less summed it up for the day. Tomorrow we should go out for a walk, if only for the exercise.

Taps off weather? – 5 April 2020

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17ºc predicted for today. I used to define 15ºc as ‘Shorts & Tee Shirt weather’. I don’t think it quite reached the 17º today.

In fact it hardly reached the heady heights of 15ºc once windchill was taken into account. Yes, I was wearing a tee shirt, but it was under a shirt which itself was under a zip-up cardigan, so I don’t think it was in the spirit of the Shorts & Tee Shirt region. It certainly fell quite short of the Shorts requirement. Just to be sure that frostbite wasn’t going to figure in the report, I was also wearing a fleece to go out into St Mo’s in the afternoon.

I was hoping to see some deer, I’m always hoping. I’d come prepared with the camera set to shutter priority, lens pre-focused to infinity and long lens attached to the Oly. Just got clear line of sight to see the white tail of my quarry disappearing over yonder hillock, easily 200m away. Oh well, landscapes don’t run away and neither do little beasties, well, they do, but not so fast that I can’t catch them on camera. Switched to a macro lens and went looking for some slower, less easily frightened sycamore seedlings to stalk. Got a few, then I heard the crashing sound away to my left. It must be one, or possibly two dogs I’d seen earlier, excitedly chasing a ball. No, out of the corner of my eye I saw a deer, a roe deer buck with neat little antlers charging down the line of the bushes not 20m away. Wrong lens on the camera. Do I have time to change? Yes! Without moving my head I got the lens out of the camera bag, disengaged the bayonet on the macro lens and removed it, then, with both lenses in my hands and none on the camera, the deer turned and looked straight at me. I thought I’d got away with it, then it must have sensed or scented me and it ran off to join its mate, because the first one I was sure was a doe. Oh well, screwed up again. How often has Scamp heard me say “Wrong lens”. This time it wasn’t WRONG lens, it was NO lens on the camera!
Gave up on the deer hunt, took some desultory photos of sycamore seedlings and walked out to of the woods. Walked right round the pond and took a few shots across it of the reflections and last year’s horsetails blocking it up. That became PoD.

We’d spoken to Hazy in the morning and found that they had beautiful blue skies down London way. At that time we had dull grey skies. That didn’t prevent Scamp from doing a bit of transplanting and potting up of last year’s cuttings. She really does have green fingers. A great deal of her cuttings take root. Some of mine do, but she beats me for skill and enthusiasm. Hazy reported that more of the nasturtiums she’d planted in their window box had germinated too.

Dinner tonight was Loch Trout with potatoes, carrots and broccoli.  Absolutely delicious.  Scamp made it of course and although I’m not a great fish fanatic, I thought this was extremely tasty.  Almost as good was pudding which was cake and custard.  Some things, although they are simple are simply the best things to have.

Spoke to JIC later and he explained to me in Topsy & Tim terms how the government labs are using antibodies to give results in Coronavirus tests. Very well done JIC, I understood a lot of that explanation. They also had had a springlike day down Cambridge way with warm temperatures and clear skies. Eventually we did get clear skies too, in fact I’m maybe being a bit critical when I say we didn’t reach the predicted 17º. It probably was that in the shelter from the wind here. Actually about 7.30am I looked out the back window and the sky was that lovely orange-pink colour you get in early morning springtime. Maybe spring is really here.

Today the Scottish chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood was forced to resign after admitting that she’d travelled from Edinburgh to her second home in Fife, not once, but twice recently. This was in direct contradiction of her own advice to the Scottish public. Foolish, but aren’t we all at times? Don’t we all think we’re above the law? Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.

Tomorrow we will be waiting patiently for our food delivery from Tesco.

Hard to believe this was a Saturday – 4 April 2020

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I think it’s the lack of a routine that’s the biggest problem, that and the lack of a purpose.

If you don’t have a pattern to your life, the days all blend together such that when you wake up, well, at least when I wake up, it takes a minute or two to work out what day it is. I found the same problem when I retired, but even then, there was an underlying rhythm to life. Mondays were Gems and Salsa days, Tuesdays were free days, Wednesdays were dancing days too, Thursdays were ‘prezzy’ days and Fridays the weekend was in sight. Saturday and Sunday were The Weekend, even after Scamp retired, the same rhythm was in place. Now, for both of us it’s look in the fridge, do we need milk? Do we need bread? That’s about all the structure there is. I imagine it’s somewhat the same for most folk, even those who are working from home. It’s a strange feeling having to build some purpose into life.

Today was no different, although I did manage to score two topics off my To Do list. Still another couple to do. Spent most of the morning looking for a tiny scrap of paper with my cousin’s email address on it. I clearly remember tearing a receipt in two and writing down the address on it. I actually found at other half of the receipt , the piece without the address. That was in my wallet. The location of the piece with the address remains a mystery. I found another email address for her on my phone and wrote to her on that. The email hasn’t been returned by the postmaster, so I suppose it’s possible it’s landed somewhere, with someone. Hopefully my cousin. Why I didn’t think to photograph it with my phone I’ll never know.

I got a text message from an old colleague and one time friend until The Scottish Referendum split us apart. He on the YES side and I on the NO side. All the message said was “How are you? Long time no see.” I replied “We’re fine, but who are you?” Once he explained, it all became clear. We had a fairly lengthy text conversation, as if we’d never fallen out which ended with “Stay Safe and Speak Soon.” I suppose that’s a positive that’s come out of this crisis. In both of these situations, people are trying to make contact with friends and relatives. Putting the past behind us and building bridges. That’s what folk do. We unite against a common enemy.

Watched a live video by science communicators for children. Our Salsa teacher, Jamie G was on it. His topic was Coca Cola and the history and science behind it. It was really entertaining and educational too. He does tell good stories though, that’s what he’s famed for in class and this was no different. He started by pouring milk into a bottle of coke and finished by drinking the disgusting almost clear yellow liquid and telling everyone that it still tasted and smelled like coke. The previous presentation by a girl from New Zealand was about how soap can destroy the Coronavirus on your hands. Very simply explained using Topsy and Tim language that even I could understand. You know how to do that too JIC.

It took a long while before I managed to drag myself out to take some photos today. The PoD is of a Horse Chestnut bud just beginning to burst. Allegedly the tree got its name from the shape of the scar last year’s leaf makes when it falls off. If you look you can clearly see the horse’s hoof shape and even the imaginary nail prints on the stem below the bud.

While I was out, Scamp was making Treacle Scones. I had one with my tea when I got back. It was cold and windy outside and the scone went down a treat with the tea. Maybe the tiniest bit undercooked in the middle, but still lovely. A blast from the past. Dinner tonight was yesterday’s curry sauce poured over two boiled eggs, served with rice. Another recipe from a previous time. The book it’s in is maybe about forty years old. I remember getting it in Woolworth’s in Motherwell!

A parcel appeared to arrive by post today, but it has now disappeared, I know not where. Strange things are afoot these days.

Tomorrow? Maybe a communal walk. Maybe round Broadwood Loch again taking in some of the new routes that have been cut into the forest. It’s supposed to be the warmest day of the year so far and we’ve all been warned not to rush out to the beach. No beaches at Broadwood, so we should be ok.

A walk in the park – 3 April 2020

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What’s the point of having a Fitbit if you don’t use it?

That’s the question Scamp asked me yesterday, so I did. I wore it today. As I sit here writing this blog, I’ve achieved 10,803 steps. A lot of those steps were gathered walking round Broadwood Loch this afternoon. Scamp wanted to go for a walk and as there was a bit of hit and miss sunshine, I went with her. We walked down to Broadwood and then round the loch. Not the most interesting walk in the world, but it got us out and moving. I managed to get a couple of shots of a Crested Grebe, not sure if it’s a Great Crested, but it was quite a good one. There wasn’t much else to see, but on the plus side, there weren’t a lot of people around either, so that was a bonus. I wanted to see if there was a way to photograph the outfall from the loch, but it’s carefully managed so that the actual waterfall is obscured from view. I may have another look sometime, but on a cursory glance today and a couple of preparatory shots through the railings, it’s a no-go. Pity.

Came home and Scamp made a startling discovery. She’d logged in to Tesco and found a whole page of free slots for home delivery. I was dubious to begin with, but it looked genuine, so she has completed her order and the goods should be arriving on Monday. No guarantee that they will actually have the advertised articles in stock come Monday, but if it means we don’t need to queue along with all the masked minions, I’m up for it. If it means we don’t have to lug great bags of potatoes and tins up from M&S I’m doubly up for it. We’ll see.

I made red lentil curry for dinner to be served with the remainder of Wednesday’s chicken and it was while I was making it I got today’s PoD of the crow making off with a bit of stale bread. Actually, the better shot for me, although the quality was poor, was the one here of a crow dunking its bread in the birdbath to soften it. Now I’ve heard of this before, in fact, my dad used to tell me tales of crows soaking their bread. I though it was just that, a tale, but today I saw it happen before my eyes. Bread must have been just a little too hard for him! Curry was voted hot, but just on the safe side of too hot. There is some left over to use tomorrow with some fish or some eggs. Both work well with it. Might try to get some coconut milk to calm it down because it will have ‘matured’ by then!

That was about it. Hoping for high temperatures this weekend, but not as high as the folk down south will be getting. Might get some things done in the garden. I’m thinking Scamp may want to cut at least some of the grass if it stays dry long enough.

The day that never really began – 2 April 2020

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Some days are full of things to do some are not. Today was in the latter group.

It was a cold day with strong winds in the morning and early afternoon. It didn’t lend itself to gardening or to photography, so Scamp resorted to dusting the bedroom furniture. I started tidying up the back bedroom, but soon tired of that. Spoke to Colin on the phone and found that he didn’t do “the what’s appy thing” so I didn’t go as far as trying to talk him through Zoom™. Did find out that his son-in-law is volunteering to deliver folk’s Click and Collect groceries in the surrounding villages. We agreed this was a very useful task, but only if you can actually get a C&C slot. The problem seems to be people block booking slots and the supermarkets are unable (or unwilling) to do anything about it. Still, an admirable use of time and labour.

After lunch, Scamp wanted a loaf, so I offered to make one, rather than wait in a long queue to get one loaf and feel foolish, having waited all that time with just a loaf to show for it. I knew I’d end up buying a basket of stuff we didn’t need. We have loads of flour, some of it getting close to its Use By date, so this was an ideal way to do something useful with it. Made the dough and left it to prove then went out for a walk just in case there was anything interesting out in the Coronavirus world, because although there were scattered clouds, the wind had died down. I did get a few pictures of some dogwood branches with the buds just opened and the leaves caught in the transmitted light of centre-jour (backlighting). Interesting, but not brilliant. It was only when I got home I saw a wee daisy just starting to shut down for the night because the sun was dipping down behind some houses. That became PoD.

Scamp made a lovely Chicken Stir Fry for dinner. No sticky chilli sauce, just veg, rice, chicken and a great deal of skill. A little soy sauce just as extra seasoning and it was perfect.

We had a dance practise tonight. Foxtrot, Quickstep and New Waltz with some jive routines we hadn’t practised in too long a time. Really enjoyed it. Sometimes it’s the practise at home that burns the routines into your memory. At least it’s that way for me. I won’t claim that I got it all right, but the majority of it worked … eventually. Before that we joined a straggling few at 8pm to clap for the NHS. Not nearly as many as last week.

Watched the national news tonight and oh my they are so depressing. Such a difference from the Scottish news who are quite upbeat by comparison. Scamp thinks it’s because the geography is so different in Scotland in that we have a lot of open space around us, unlike London where everyone lives in each other’s pockets. Whatever way it finally turns out, we can only look after ourselves and try our best to keep healthy.

Tomorrow, getting colder according to the weather folk. Maybe even snow.  Probably stay in and eat the bread I made.

More painting – 1 April 2020

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Just brushing it on the front sills mainly. Oh yes, and some oil work too.

Scrubbed off yesterday’s paint from the back window of the living room. It flaked off really easily, so it wouldn’t have lasted very well. Gave it a new coat of that lovely rusty brown acrylic. I was actually wondering if I could use it as a primer for oil painting. The sand in the paint would give an interesting texture. But that was for another day. Today wasn’t nearly as warm as yesterday, so I got the jacket on and started scraping the front bedroom sills. They were a totally different colour from the back, so I suspect they hadn’t been painted as recently as the back. Lots of lichen on the concrete which was another indicator of the age of the paint. Slapped a relatively quick coat on them as it felt like there was just the hint of rain on the breeze. Next was the back bedroom and it was really flaky. Another quick coat. The tiny wee bathroom sill was last to be done because it’s such an awkward window to open fully and even then, you don’t have much room to work, but it was scraped, dusted and painted and we were good to go before the rain. In fact the rain didn’t materialise, it just drifted by on the gentle western breeze, cold breeze.

After the left overs from yesterday’s main courses (‘Rats’ for Scamp, stew for me) warmed up for lunch, we both went for a walk in St Mo’s. Still lots of people walking round the pond just to be out and about getting some exercise and some fresh air. I grabbed a shot of the larch flowers I’d seen yesterday and although the light wasn’t as good today, the photos were. One of them made PoD. Walked to Condorrat to get some chicken burgers, fresh chicken, some stew and some black pudding. Just to see how good the meat was. The Chicken Stir Fry was sold out.

Back home and after I’d confirmed that my shots had worked, Scamp started preparing dinner which was a roast chicken. I went and tackled the tree in the oil painting I’d been working on for the past few days. I’d sketched part of it in last night, but wasn’t really happy with it. Today was much better, probably because I stuck to the maxim Paint What You See, rather than what you think it should look like. Roast Chicken, roast veg and baked potato smells were calling from downstairs and I had to wash out the brushes and leave it for a while to go and eat.

Tonight, after the Portrait Artist of the Year produced a dire painting of Nile Rodgers, I went upstairs, finished the tree and signed the painting. I will do no more to it.

That was it for the day. Funniest thing was an April 1st joke on Facebook to the effect that as part of the Covid 19 precautions, Nicola Sturgeon had banned the sale of alcohol from midnight tonight. It shows how gullible we’ve become, because Scamp and I simply accepted it as verbatim! But then, it’s the sort of thing Nick the Chick would do, just to annoy folk!

No plans for tomorrow. Is there ever, these days?