Month: September 2025

Dancin’ – 20 September 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A much smaller class than we are used to.

Only three couples plus one solo dancer without a partner. She danced with Stewart.

I was a bit apprehensive about today. I’d heard all sorts of warnings about half-hour waits and queues of traffic due to extensive roadwork on the M8. As usual they were magnified out of all proportion. Yes there were roadworks, but only for a few miles. Nothing we hadn’t seen before.
Yes, there were road restrictions, but nobody had to wait in a queue. Just the powers that be trying to terrify us.

As a result of the poor attendance, the lesson was reduced from 90 minutes to 60 minutes. The class started with Tina Tango to Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shivers’. Then we went in to a quickstep, the Cameron Quickstep which we’d learned months, if not, years ago. With the help of Scamp and Muscle Memory, I managed to get round the hall fairly easily, if not elegantly. I do hope they repeat the lesson next week, because, with a bit more help from Scamp I’m sure I could master this one.

Stewart asked for suggestions of sequence dances that we’d like to go over in the second half hour. Queen of Hearts rumba was favourite for a reprise and after that the New Vogue Waltz finished of the main lessons. However, Stewart wanted to finish with House of Bamboo which I stumble through, but am beginning to remember bits of, just not in the correct order.

With that we were free to go. Again I expected more carnage on the drive home, but it was actually quite clear with everyone behaving themselves. I wish all the dance classes were as enjoyable as today’s.

Back home I should have been going out for a walk, but instead I got stuck in the puzzles again. They are quite addictive. Later in the afternoon I did manage a walk round St Mo’s and today’s PoD came from that walk. Just a bunch of Hawthorn berries hanging from a branch after a rain shower. I really must get out of the rut and walk further afield in these shortening days. Maybe tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was Fish & Chips x 2. Nice and easy and nobody needs to cook.

Tomorrow, maybe that walk.

A dull day – 19 September 2025

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Not the best day this month. Cloudy and dull.

Scamp was out in the morning to FitSteps. I stayed home and read for a while, then when Scamp returned we solved the usual puzzles. Sometimes the prompts cause more consternation than good. Maybe it’s because they are generally aimed at puzzlers are aimed at Trumpland.

Scamp suggested we have Bacon & Borlotti Beans, a recipe we got from Jamie and Simonne and always a great fallback if you can’t think of what to have for dinner. We needed a courgette to go with the beans, and as I hadn’t wandered past the door today, I volunteered to go and source some, along with cheese which we didn’t need for the meal, but we DID need for tomorrow’s lunch. When I walked out, there was a fairly large bank of cloud that I guessed was full of water, so I increased my speed a bit.

I was testing a new combo on the new toy. I was using a fairly old and hardly used Sony 16-35mm f4 lens. Like I said, quite old and with a ‘slow’ aperture. It performed really well with the A7c, so I’ll try to give it a bit more of a challenge in the next few days.

I wanted a photo of the wild geraniums that grow along the path at St Mo’s and got a few photos with those threatening clouds as the backdrop. That got PoD. Spoke to Susan Greenshields in passing, she was complaining as usual, but other than that, she didn’t say much, obviously not in the best mood today.

I walked over the back road to the Shops and found the groceries Scamp wanted. Before I left the house I’d chopped down some of the kale from what’s left of the raised bed because Scamp needed it for the dinner. I also planted some Red Kale in a pot in the garden. Hopefully it will grow well in some fresh compost and give us more kale to use in the kitchen.

I actually remembered what Scamp wanted from the shops, which is a miracle, especially because I’ve got so many things on my mind this weather.

Basically that was it for the day. Scamp made the dinner and it was really good. The kale was a lot fresher than it looked and it added that extra crunch to the meal.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to Brookfield for a dance class, but as there have been warnings for weeks that work is being done on the M8 and it’s likely to continue until May at least, I’m not looking forward to the drive.

Dancin’ – 18 September 2025

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Out to Glenburn for a Tea Dance, the first in ages.

I struggled with the Sony A7c’s internal workings, attempting to make sense of the new system for allocating the twelve items I use most often. I finally got what I wanted and it does work quite logically so I’ll stick to it for a while until I’ve filled in all twelve boxes. That and the inevitable Wordle took up most of my morning. I think it took up almost all of Scamp’s time too. After a quick shower it was time to get ready for today’s dance, and I was looking forward to it for a change.

A fairly busy drive over to Glenburn and we were almost late comers. Thankfully there were a few stragglers arriving later than us, so we didn’t get a telling off or even worse Stewart’s well worn comment “You can’t just Waltz in here at any time, you know.” It really should have a “Boom Boom!” at the end.

The afternoon started with a waltz, as usual. Also, as usual, I made a bit of a mess of the first track. However, by the time we’d completed the second track, Waltz Nioli was again firmly in my repertoire. The next track was a Cha-Cha I think. It’s hard to keep a record of what we did in what order, but if it wasn’t the Cha-Cha, it was a Quickstep. All the right dances, but not necessarily in the correct order. Again, as usual, Stewart inserted a few sequence dances to encourage some folk on to the floor. We didn’t really need the encouragement, we were there to dance and would dance almost anything.

Tea time came quite quickly and Scamp was annoyed that the two other blokes at our table didn’t include me in their conversation. I wasn’t really bothered, they were just arseholes anyway. See, Hazy I can swear in the blog too!

The formula for the second half of the dance hasn’t changed in the past year or so, it’s always a very few Ballroom and Latin dances linked with a collection of Sequence dances. I used to call Sequence “Dancing for the Dead”, but now I realise the repetition in these dances actually keeps them fresh in your memory, especially the complicated sequences. It’s quite a clever way to memorise them.

I was keeping a watchful eye on the clock because we like to get away early most weeks, to avoid the school kids. We were a bit later today and the road was almost clear all the way to Cumbersheugh by the M8/M74/M73.

Back home I walked over to St Mo’s to try to get some low camera shots with the new toy, but the light was beginning to fade as the big black clouds rolled in. I did manage a few and the best of a bad lot was the low viewpoint shot of some fallen leaves on The Path. It’s always good for fallen leaves later in the autumn. It just filled a space today.

Dinner was a baked potato and prawns with Marie Rose Sauce (ie tomato ketchup mixed with mayonnaise).

For the first time in ages I thoroughly enjoyed the dancin’ today. We must do it again some time. Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps tomorrow and I’m sure I’ll find something to fill my time.

A Toy off the rack – 17 September 2025

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It’s a long time since I had a toy of the rack. I think I deserved it!

We went out in the morning and drove up to meet Shona at her brother’s house, then we went to Costa in the town centre for coffee and a blether. It’s a while since I’d seen her, although Scamp meets up with her every couple of weeks at least, sometimes more than that. She was looking well and seemed calmer than she had been the last time I’d seen her.

I left her and Scamp talking and went for a walk through the town centre, at least, the Antonine centre which is the most ‘modern’ part of the town. It’s still a dump, but a dump with more shops than the entire Phase Four on the other side of the road. I had a quick browse of what’s selling in the town this weather. The answer was nothing much. Out of date iPhones, iPads and ancient video games. It really is a depressing mall, and cold too. No heating to speak of and with a cold breeze blowing into Costa every time one of the automatic doors opens, I can see why there isn’t a problem getting a seat. When the two ladies were finished their blether and their coffee, Shona went shopping while Scamp and I went home for lunch … and a heat.

Yesterday I had almost made my decision to buy a new camera, not brand new, I hasten to add. It’s a bit long in the tooth an ‘used’, but it looked as if it had hardly been used and has some interesting features that make it worth the money. I tried phoning WEX to book it, but the phone went to voicemail or more likely, they’d locked it in a cupboard to avoid having to answer it. So I drove in to Glasgow and parked at Cowcaddens carpark which had a notice at the entrance to say that the gates had been locked open until “… a new operator has been appointed” So, no need to pay today.

I walked up to WEX and after a cursory glance at the camera, paid my money and drove home again. Camera didn’t look as if it had been used and a quick check once I was sitting at the computer confirmed the shutter had only been actuated about 700 times. That’s nothing for a camera. Their usual operating range is just under one million actuations.

I didn’t get much time to play with the new toy, because Hazy phoned just after I got in for a wee chat. I managed to tell her what I’d done to the Gmail problem and that it seemed to be working fine again (touch wood). She told me about the new book she’d been reading and gave it a less than wonderful rating. I told her about mine, “Gunner” and I think mine was better than her’s, but not by much. While we were discussing things a parcel arrived for Scamp – from Hazy. It was a cleverly designed pair of spoons that look like they will be very helpful for Scamp’s problem. She has already discovered a solution to her problem of measuring out coffee with the new Red spoon. The Black spoon may need more work, but even that Red spoon is a boon in itself (no pun intended)

After we’d said “Cheerio” I went out into the garden and took some photos of the Rudbeckia flowers in the garden. One of them made PoD.

Tomorrow we may go dancing if the weather lets us. It’s getting a bit windy outside the windae just now (Pun intended!)

New Shoes – 16 September 2025

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Well, trainers, actually.

We took the bus in to Glasgow on a bright sunny Tuesday morning. We were each looking for a pair of trainers for the holiday. My old ones were almost worn through. Scamp found a pair in John Lewis for a very good price. Nothing fancy, just trainers. I swithered, as usual and decided I’d go for a walk first. Scamp was going looking for clothes and we agreed to meet at Waterstones on Sauchiehall Street after .a cup of coffee in Nero.

My walk took me up Bath Street in torrential rain that seemed to come from nowhere, to WEX where I got a chance to test two possible new cameras. One was wildly out of my range, but it’s nice to play with shiny new toys! The other one was a bit less expensive, but did almost the same thing. I’d saved up a few quid, so I felt I was due a new toy. Not bought anything yet. Still thinking.

On my way back to meet Scamp I was passing an old climbers shop on Sauchiehall Street that was having a refurbishment sale. That usually means a closure or at best, a move to smaller establishment. I hope I’m wrong. Anyway, I went in for a quick look and they had a lot of lady’s jackets so I phoned Scamp and told her about it and she agreed to meet me. Long story short, she didn’t get anything in the shop, but I came out with a new Goretex jacket at a very good price. Strangely, I was reading the blog post for 15th September 2024 last night and I’d just bought a single skin waterproof jacket that I never really liked. Strange how the world turns!

We went to Wagamama for a very nice lunch, then we headed homeward, but not before I got a pair of trainers, almost the same as Scamp’s, also for a good price.

Got the bus home and watched the final of the Great British Sewing Bee. The best person deserved the win.

PoD today went to a couple sitting on the stone steps of a shop in Buchanan Street. Don’t they know they’ll get piles?

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to meet Shona for coffee.

 

Now that’s a better day – 15 September 2025

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Not brilliant, but with enough sunshine to make it worthwhile going out with a camera.

We were up and out fairly early today, early for us anyway. Scamp wanted a lift to Tesco and after dropping her off, I drove over to Condorrat to the dentist. Half an hour later I walked out of the surgery with my broken tooth fixed. It still doesn’t feel like my own tooth, but I’m getting used to it. Just as I got to the car, I got the message from Scamp to say she was waiting for me in the Tesco cafe. I found an empty ‘Drop Off’ slot, where we loaded the car and drove back home. An efficient way to get ‘The Messages’.

Later in the day, while Scamp was deadheading some of the flowers, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, a shorter version of my usual walk, mainly because we were expecting to go to Kirsty’s dance class, but as it turned out, the class had dwindled. One of the men had pulled a muscle in his back, one couple were on an extended weekend holiday and another part time teacher was sunning herself in foreign climes. We decided that only four of us didn’t really make a quorum, so Kirsty agreed to cancel tonight.

That gave me enough time to process the photos I’d taken in St Mo’s. Not a bad haul and the PoD went to a bunch of Antirrhinums poking their bright pink heads out of a break in a fence, like a trio of runaways. It made me smile and it’s now on Flickr.

We may go on a trip to Glasgow, tomorrow. Looking for the elusive trainers. Maybe a walk up to WEX to see what they have to offer too.

No excuses – 14 September 2025

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Today we didn’t do very much. I’ve no excuses for this, it was just the way the day turned out.

It was a normal Sunday. Watched Laura Kuenssberg tearing strips of poor undefended MPs and other politicians. It was fun for a while watching them squirm, but you knew they were lying because their lips were moving. That took all the fun out of it.

After lunch I went for a walk over to St Mo’s. There wasn’t very much over there to photograph, but I did get out for a walk which was good … until the rain came on. As usual, the rain waited until I was at the furthest point from home, then it started. I didn’t mind, because I had my big orange Rab jacket on and it’s fairly waterproof and the rain was fairly light for most of the walk home.

PoD was an old favourite of mine, the view down the avenue of trees that takes you down past St Mo’s school. A bloke with an umbrella was kind enough to walk into view just as I was crossing his past. I waited a few minutes and got my Photo of the Day and he never felt a thing.

Dinner was a rump steak for me and potatoes with ratatouille for Scamp. Rice and prunes was the dessert.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard that he and Simonne are considering going away for a week some time soon, not sure when yet. This time Vixen gets to go with them which should please her.

Thanks for the hint Hazy. I’ll tell you how I got on with it once I work my way through it.

Dentist tomorrow to get a broken cap on one of my teeth fixed. Oh what fun!

Recovery – 13 September 2025

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A day for recovery after all the work we put in yesterday.

That, and a late night, led to us abandoning today’s dance class. Just too much still to do to clear up the dishes and pots meant Scamp suggested we take today off. In fact she suggested we might apply that rule from now on when we’d been out late or when we’d too much to do. Losing the occasional dance class wouldn’t be a terrible sacrifice if it gave us some free time. It’s worth a try.

With that said, we didn’t do much for the remainder of the day. I’d written to Hazy saying it was a beautiful Autumn morning and less than an hour later it was tipping it down. Actually that was the story for the rest of the day. An hour’s sunshine followed by a ten minute torrential downpour. As a result, I did manage a few shots in the afternoon when it wasn’t raining. Just grab shots of bedraggled flowers in the garden.

We’d intended going out to lunch, but that just didn’t happen. Instead, we had lunch inside and later we had a home made curry for dinner. I did manage to work out how to set-up and run a clever bit of software that will allow me to copy my Mac files to a PC hard drive. It’s something that should happen automatically, but Apple doesn’t work with PC and PC doesn’t work with Apple without a bit of software that nobody talks about. Ludicrous in this day and age. They just pretend that the other lot don’t exist!

I’ve not a lot more to say about today. Hopefully we’ll get out somewhere tomorrow for a walk or to find a pair of trainers for Scamp and me, even in the rain!

Busy, Busy, Busy – 12 September 2025

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We were having visitors today. Crawford & Nancy were coming for dinner.

Scamp was first in the kitchen. She was making the main course of Spicy Chicken with Fruity Couscous and the first task was to make the marinade. Then the chicken had to marinate for a few hours.

After that, it was my task to start the Panna cotta. That’s when I realised we didn’t have any decent vanilla pods. We had one that had been languishing in the cupboard for a long time and was really just a wooden stick now. I drove over to M&S, but they didn’t have any, nor did Tesco. They did have vanilla paste which Scamp said would do the job. So I chucked double cream, milk, sugar and the vanilla paste into a pot and set it to simmer. Then I filled the serving pots with the mixture and set it to cool. My work was done until tonight when I’d to serve it.

In the mean time, Scamp walked down to the shops in the rain, to get more odds and ends I’d forgotten and then made Pea Soup and fried some bacon to add to the soup before we served it. We were doing quite well with the timing so we could relax with a spot of lunch.

I intended to take a risk to grab a few shots of a wee posey of flowers but the occasional torrential rain made me think again and instead I took an inside shot of the posey instead. That was PoD.

After lunch my panna cotta was cool enough to go into the fridge. One of the great benefits of this new fridge is the really low temperature it generates, so I was hopeful that the chill would firm up the panna cotta.

The soup was good and will stretch to another day easily. The main course was delicious. It’s a long while since Scamp last made this dish that came originally from a Gary Rhodes recipe. My panna cotta firmed up nicely in the fridge and went down well. We had a great night with of laughs and banter.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go out for lunch.

More shopping – 11 September 2025

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Yesterday was window shopping and a touch of ‘real’ shopping.

Today was back to reality shopping in Tesco. Scamp had made a fairly large shopping list and we just worked through it, managing to find most things, but with the usual few missing items.

We’d intended to have lunch, but I’d a bit of stomach cramp so we postponed it. Then Scamp’s pal, Annette, arrived. Now I’m not being sexist here, but two women discussing things can lead to “Three’s a crowd” so I took my stomach cramp upstairs and read for a while. After Annette went home I did trust my stomach with a couple of slices of toast and a cup of tea. That seemed to settle things down. I’m blaming a pot of Kefir yogurt for the problem. The last time I had some, it had exactly the same effect. I’ll be more circumspect in future.

The weather today has been hit and miss. Sometimes the sun shines for an hour or more and sometimes it only lasts for a short while before the driving wind sprays everyone with showers. I caught a couple of those showers today. I also missed one by sheltering under the trees when I was out for my constitutional over St Mo’s then on across the football park and back home. Sometimes I extend the walk to include the path to the shops, but I was keeping a weather eye (literally) on those big black clouds that were rolling in from the north-west.

I went out with a different camera/lens combination today. A Lensbaby Sweet 35 lens for closeups and a Tamron 70-180mm zoom. Both on the A7iii. The Lensbaby gives dreamlike effects and the Tamron is an almost ideal short telephoto. Both worked very well, but the Tamron won the day with another shot of a Bird’s-foot Trefoil behind a chain link fence. This one has a much better background than the original. PoD sorted!

We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner, but in the end Scamp had an omelette and I had a fry-up. For me it was a bit of a test to see if my stomach was back to normal and it seems as if it is … touch wood.

We watched another boring episode of Masterchef. Thankfully it’s coming to an end soon. Good riddance I say!

Tomorrow is a cooking and maybe a baking day. Crawford & Nancy are coming to dinner. Whoever is free will probably be making the starter (possibly soup), Scamp is intending doing the main course and I’m booked for the dessert. We’ll see how it goes.