Month: February 2025

A lazy start to the day – 4 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

No need to rush out early this morning. The mechanic predicted midday for the car to be ready.

And he wasn’t far wrong. My phone rang just after 12pm to tell me the car was ready to pick up.

I got a taxi down to the village and paid for the repair then drove home to pick up Scamp so we could drive to Tesco to get some much needed food. We’d been starving for over a day with no transport to get us our usual amount of food. We also took a big bundle of clothes to the Salvation Army bin in the Tesco car park. Another tick in another box.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk round St Mo’s and into the woods for a change of scenery. Lots of trees down in the woods, but many of them had been pretty unhealthy looking for years and, in a way the storm had cleared a lot of dead wood and hopefully this will give the woods a chance to regrow. PoD turned out to be an Oyster Mushroom growing in one of those fallen trees. Apparently Oyster mushrooms are edible, but I’m not intending trying them anytime soon.

I finally got round to making a sensible weekday dinner tonight, Pasta with tinned tomatoes, mushrooms (non poisonous ones) and half an onion and some chopped peppers.. A few flakes of chilli to brighten the taste and some concentrated tomatoes to give a bit of body. Sort of like a home made pasta a’ la arrabbiata. Scamp thought it was good, I thought it could have done with stronger flavours.

Also on a food note, we watched a Jamie Oliver episode on quick, healthy and cheap cooking. Both Scamp and I picked up some interesting topics on that.

We may be going out tomorrow. Somewhere away from Cumbersheugh.

An Early Rise – 3 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

The comedy!

The Blue car was going in to the car hospital to have some surgery done. Reluctantly I left it with the other cars while I went looking for a taxi to take me home. It came quite quickly for a Monday just after the school bells had rung. A very pleasant man drove me home and I handed him a couple of quid after I’d crossed his card machine with plastic.

I reckoned I had a couple of hours to finish Wordle and have a cup of coffee before going to the dentist. As it happened a had a bit more than those couple of hours, but I didn’t know that at the time.

After we’d collaborated on solving Wordle, Scamp asked me what time I was due at the dentist and that was when panic took over. I read the card the dentist had given me and it read 10:15am. It was now 9:40 and I hadn’t brushed my teeth or checked for hidden plaque and the dentist is half an hour’s walk away, so I was cutting it fine, but I strode out and got there with a few minutes to spare. The first receptionist said “You’re not on my list for today.” and I thought I’d won a watch. Then the other receptionist said quietly, “Yes, you are, but not for an other hour. Do you want to stay or go for a coffee?” Either way, I’d been caught.

I left the surgery and phoned Scamp to ask her to check on the card. She replied “Yes, it says 10:15 … but that was for November!” Somebody else confirming that I was a Numpty. She agreed to meet me in Condorrat to go for a coffee, which is what we did. She didn’t have any money, nor did she have her phone, but thankfully she did have the house keys. We had coffee, bought some rolls and then she walked home and I walked crestfallen into the dentists for the second time today.

The check-up showed that the penicillin I’d been doping myself with had done the trick. The soft squidgy gum was now hard and smooth and despite the lady dentist’s probing and rattling my big wisdom tooth I gave not a squeak. I left with a smile on my face.

After a roll ’n’ cheese for me and one with an egg for Scamp I wrote five notes to folk I knew well, who had sent me Christmas cards a favour which I hadn’t returned. They are sitting upstairs waiting to be posted, hopefully tomorrow. Another tick in another box.

Late in the afternoon I got a message from Jim Dickson to say that the car won’t be ready until tomorrow. One of the two arm bushes won’t be delivered until tomorrow (and NO, I don’t know what an arm bush is.)
That meant we’d need to get a taxi to and from dance class tonight. No big deal.

We arrived early and stood chatting with Kirsty until the rest of the dancers arrived. Firstly we went over the short waltz. I actually felt quite confident of dancing it, even after Scamp ceased whispering me the prompts.

Next was the Foxtrot which was a bit more difficult, but eventually it also fitted into a space in my ‘dancing head’. I even added the final part of the foxtrot and got most of it correct. The foxtrot still needs a bit more work, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to practise it during the week.

PoD was a photo I took earlier in the day. It’s actually a tray with a selection of cacti and some succulents. Carefully selected view point gave it a bit of mystery. It was actually placed on a shelf in the downstairs toilet with a bright sun shining on it from behind. Possibly too much information there, but it’s done now.

Tomorrow I’m hoping for a bit of a lie in and a healthier Blue car to drive.

 

 

 

Lazy Sunday Afternoon – 2 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Thank you, The Small Faces.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon, and a Sunday in general, too. I did have a lot to do, but as usual, I sidestepped most of it and did the easy stuff instead. Isn’t that what Sundays are for? It certainly is for me.

After a light lunch, I went out for a walk, still searching for the elusive Sixteen Spot Ladybirds, but again I was unsuccessful. Maybe they are overwintering somewhere else. I certainly hope so. The walk only produced six photos, and two of those were rejected immediately. Luckily a hen blackbird decided it was time for a cooling splash in the bird bath and I grabbed a few shots of it, but then I was so excited to actually get some photos, I pulled the SD card too quickly and more or less glitched the whole thing. The camera was on continuous shooting mode (slow) and there should have been about a dozen shots there. Only two shots came out, the rest were unrecoverable according to Sony. Fortunately, one of the two was a fairly good, sharp shot and it got PoD.

Neither Scamp nor I could settle on what to have for dinner and we finally agreed on home-made Tomato soup and a pack of chicken pakora I’d picked up in Asda on our way home from dance class on Saturday. Not our typical Sunday dinner, but for some reason, neither of us was hungry and the soup was good. The pakora, not so much IMO.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard that things are calming down after a stressful week, for Simonne especially, losing Valioso, but also for Jamie, visiting Clive. Our thoughts are with them.

I’ve an early rise tomorrow. I’m intending to take the Blue car to Jim Dickson’s to get a bush fitted. Then, hopefully a taxi to Condorrat to drop me off at the dentist.

 

Dancin’ – 1 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Driving over to Brookfield for a dance class.

I really thought we were going to have to give up on dance class last night. Nobody seemed to want to tell us if the class was on or off. As it happened, it was on. Thanks for making us wait for hours to find out if the class was on!! Yes, that was sarcasm.

Anyway, today we started with the October waltz. A rather over complicated and clumsy at times, waltz. Eventually with the help of Scamp I managed the first part of it, but it wasn’t easy. I can’t imagine dancing this on a busy floor, like at the Salutation with about eighty other dancers on the floor. Maybe I’m being over critical, but we just don’t have the time to drive over to Brookfield twice a week like a lot of the class do. We survived it, but I was glad to move on to the Tango.

We’d learned the basis of the tango a year or so ago and this one wasn’t really all that different. Basically the same moves in a different order, I thought. Lots of little tweaks that were interesting were included and we did manage a fairly decent run around the floor.

Next stop was a few jive steps. The problem here is that we learned Glasgow Jive, away back in the dim mists of time. It’s totally different from Ballroom Jive. It’s all to do with the beats I’m told, but it complicates matters, not knowing which foot I should be on. Maybe we should just forget Glasgow Jive and throw ourselves into the Ballroom Jive. Seriously, it would be difficult to unlearn a dance and start anew, but it might be the only way to keep in step with the rest of the class.

Final torture was the Midnight Jive, of all things. One track was enough for all of us, I think. Too much work today and not enough breaks for lighter, sequence dances.

We drove home on a very quiet M80. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the road so empty, but I didn’t complain, I just kept on keeping the car between the white lines!

I went for a walk in the afternoon to clear my head and to get some photos. I was hoping to get a couple of shots of the ladybirds that overwinter in St Mo’s, but none were visible this year. Such a shame. Lots of trees down here, most of them old and rotten. I imaging none of the tree doctors will be tending to them, deep in the woods.

PoD went to a tiny wee mushroom. The cap is less than 3mm high. How did something so fragile survive Storm Éowyn?

No plans for tomorrow.