Month: June 2025

Westward Ho – 4 June 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were going west. Along a great road. In fact we were on the Great Western Road to Gartnavel Hospital to drop Scamp off for her brain scan.

I was glad I didn’t listen to my, now dodgy, sat nav as it tried to direct me through a line of bollards and then a steel barrier onto a road that no longer exists. In fact, a road that hasn’t existed for about 10 years. That’s what’s good about Nissans. Their technology make life more interesting. The sat nav was trying to direct us off at junction 17 of the M8, when we knew we should leave by junction 18. The rest was fairly well know to us from when we went dancing twice a week along Woodlands Road. Not exactly on the road, but in a building, just off Woodlands Road!

I dropped Scamp off at the hospital and as she was happy to go into the hospital alone and there were no spaces in the car park anyway, I drove back into the centre of Glasgow and parked in the JL car park.

I was too early to meet Alex, so I thought I’d have a wander through town first. That was before I saw the sheets of rain being blown down the street. Maybe it would be best to walk through the car park and over the covered bridge to Buchanan Galleries. From there I only had to cross the road to get to the bus station where Alex would arrive about 20 mins later.

The bus station is busy and a great place for people-watching. That’s what I ended up doing. “All human life is here” was a leader in the Times Literary Supplement some years ago and it can certainly be applied to train stations, airports and bus stations. Watching folk coming and going some carefully consulting their watches when connections are simply not connecting. My connection worked today when Alex strode along the concourse.

We walked down to Nero and discussed our plans for today. We agreed to do our usual walk down Buchanan Street, on through St Enoch’s Square and down to the Clyde Walkway to see what new graffiti there was. The answer was, not a lot. I’m guessing the rain that had fallen during the last week would make outdoor painting difficult, if not impossible.

I got a message around about then to say that everything was going well. Her injection had been in the back of her hand and she was now going to wait for it to spread through her body.

We on the other hand walked on past the St Andrews Church and further still until I found an old cobbled street that I recognised as Paddy’s Market. The market’s name originated with the large numbers of Irish immigrants who came to Scotland in the early 19th century, and I remembered it as a dirty alleyway where much wheeling and dealing went on. Now it’s just a cobbled street with some poor quality, but colourful graffiti adorned the walls. The view down through Paddy’s Market made PoD.

From there we walked up to Paesano for lunch. We agreed that it was one of the best pizzas we’d had. Quite, quite delicious. We had a look through the GOMA, but there wasn’t much to see there so we headed round the corner and had a coffee in Costa. Just then I got a message saying Scamp was on the bus back into town. I’d told her I would collect her, but Scamp is her own woman. Always has been.

We three sat and talked about the day in town and in Gartnavel and then we all headed home. Scamp was keeping her distance because she had been warned that the injection could be slightly contagious and she didn’t want Alex carrying it in to the house. Very thoughtful.

We split up at JL we were going to get the car from the car park and Alex was heading for the bus. A strange thing happened when we went to pay for our parking. I was parked on level 6 but I tried to pay on level 1, but I, and everyone else on level1, got the same message that card was rejected. We walked up to level 2 and got the same result. In fact, everyone had the same problem. Then one girl showed us where the help button was. We pressed it and before we could explain to the operator that the machine wasn’t working, he told us to go straight to the exit because the gate would be open for us due to a system error!! That saved us £14 for the day’s parking!! Wasn’t that nice! A lovely way to end the day.

Tomorrow we may visit Isobel in the morning for coffee and a blether.

A late rise – 3 June 2025

Posted on by Zogman

One of those days when we never heard the alarm clock go off.

Maybe that was because we didn’t set the alarm clock in the first place. In fact, I’m not sure we still have an alarm clock, but if we did have, we wouldn’t have heard it this morning.

After breakfast, and after Wordle et al, we drove over to Go Outdoors in Coatbridge, to search for a pair of trainers, nice cheap(ish) ones, like the ones I’d tried on and rejected in the same chain, in Kingston. It took a bit of searching, but I eventually found what I was looking for and this time I didn’t reject them. They seemed to fit perfectly for a change.

When we got back in the car I tried to set our next destination on the sat nav, which was Currys for a new tablet for Scamp. That was when the sat nav went bonkers. It decided that we were actually in France and then somewhere down Africa way. I tried switching the engine off, counting to ten and trying again, with the same result. Eventually I gave in and drove to the Currys by memory. Switched the engine off and locked the car.

We found the tablet Scamp had sourced on the internet and bought it in Currys. Then we did some shopping for something that would work for tonight’s dinner across the car park in Tesco. That should give the car and sat nav enough time to cool its wheels and settle down to work. It did. It gave us the correct directions to take us home. I’ve not got a clue what caused that mishap. It’s the first time I’ve experienced it.

I drove to Tesco in the town centre for petrol and Scamp searched unsuccessfully for a new dress, then we went home. Just got stopped and parked at the house when the skies opened and we were in the middle of a downpour. Nearly got soaked walking from the car to the house. That was the first of many such downpours today, in fact, as I’m writing this, another one is starting. Such strange weather.

Quite a fiery chicken curry for dinner that was cooled down with an ice lolly as a dessert.

PoD was a photo of a Lupin plant in the garden. I always liked the strong colours of lupins. If you find the photo on Flickr and can go back one step, you’ll find a photo of one of the London Parakeets that fly in gangs around the city.

Tomorrow Scamp and I are intending to drive to Glasgow for her scan, and after dropping her off, I’m hoping to meet Alex.

A cold day – 2 June 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Well, I felt it was cold even although Scamp didn’t seem to agree.

While she was out planting and pruning plants I was in communication with Hazy trying to fix the on-line problem. Late last night I thought I’d found the solution. In fact I’d actually found the problem, but with a bit of help from Hazy it became more easy to understand what was going on. I say that, but it took me a few hours to get my head round it properly.

I ended up leaving it to the expert and sat and read for an hour or so in the afternoon, while Hazy dug deeper into the problem and Scamp started pruning her plants into a better shape. I wonder, do all women have this innate ability to be calm in the face of adversity? Probably they do.

Got a message from one of the tea dancers for a photo of the Japanese Garden for his wife to paint. That took my mind off my digital problems for an hour or so trying to source the original.

In the late afternoon we went to Kirsty’s class to be faced with the Viennese Waltz. We’d learned part of it from Stewart & Jane a few months ago and it was doable. The tempo was suited to absolute beginners and the steps were easily accomplished. Not today and not under Kirsty’s tutelage. After a couple of circuits I was out of breath and Scamp was feeling dizzy. If you watch it on Strictly, it looks so easy and the speed is not a problem. How different it is when you try to dance it. For the first time ever, we left the class early. I don’t want to see another Viennese Waltz again.

Dinner was a pizza, a small one. Then the message I was waiting for from Hazy. She’d done most of the work required to remove most of the problems and had in fact removed the remaining bits and pieces. I really don’t know how she can do all that. Amazing. Between us we wrote out or reply. Hopefully we’ll know tomorrow what the result is.

PoD was a shot of Scamp’s Thalictrum plant. It’s a lovely plant with soft pink flowers that bob nicely in the breeze.

Thankfully we’ve just been given the all-clear by the host company. A weight off my mind!

Webmonkeys Rule!!

Maybe looking for a pair of trainers tomorrow.

A lazy Sunday gone bad – 1 June 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It started as a normal Sunday, then it deteriorated into a bit of a mess.

It rained for a while, then the weather fairies took charge and turned the taps on full blast for most of the morning. It was on and off for the rest of the day. In the afternoon I did manage to get out during a short dry spell and grabbed today’s PoD which was a shot of Fiery Tempest a brilliant scarlet red Geum which manages to bounce back from the buffeting wind that is channelled down between the houses.

Dinner tonight was Mushroom and Chicken in Pasta an invention of Scamp’s that went down very nicely with a bottle of South African red wine.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about the preparations for the Open Gardens show down south. It sounds like a great idea at first, but there is an enormous amount of work involved.

Watched a bad tempered Spanish F1 GP. Lots of seemingly pointless crashes at high speed. Just cool down guys!

Halfway through talking to Jamie, I realised I had a worrying message on my phone to the effect that I was breaking one of the rules of the hosting company. Phoned Hazy and the upshot is that she seems sure she can fix it. What would I do without a Webmonkey?

Tomorrow, I’ll dig deeper into this morass … provided I get some sleep tonight.