Day: July 27, 2026

Back to normal – 27 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

After the faded glamour and glitz of The Blackpool Tower Ballroom and the fun of Glasgow Merchant City Festival, today it was back to reality with a bump. Monday is ‘Messages’ day. A trip to Tesco was as far as we got.

After we emptied the car and put all the ‘messages’ away, we had lunch. Then Scamp decided she was going out to make some changes to the back garden. I let her get on with it and settled down to write some of the blog and put the rest of it back into the places it should have been in yesterday. Then Scamp explained what she wanted to change in the garden and where things were going to go.

Thankfully, it was around that time that Hazy phoned to see if we were busy. We talked about Blackpool and dancing and and dentists. Also, how the hats got on people. If that makes no sense, don’t worry. Books, as usual, were topics for discussion too. Good to hear that Neil is enjoying his school holidays.

After we had said our goodbyes, it was back to the back garden for more of Scamp’s ideas for its alterations. Actually it looks as if it will work quite well, but it will need quite a lot of changes.

It was a cool afternoon with the threat of rain always just there in the wind and very little sign of blue skies. I didn’t really want to go out to take photos, but I did get some photos of the bees on the Buddleja bush in the garden. They were Bombus pascuorum (Carder Bees). One of the shots made PoD.

It looks like we are going to have more rain tomorrow. That will be good for the garden. We’ve had a few showers, but we still need more to keep the plants healthy.

No plans for tomorrow.

Glasgow Merchant City Festival – 26 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

It being Sunday, we knew we’d get parked at Croy station and from there we would get a train to Glasgow. That sounded like a plan.

It was a very good plan, because although the train was a bit late, it was an express that didn’t stop after Croy. Unfortunately once we got to the Merchant City, there was very little to see. For once we were too early. We decided to walk round to a Nero and have a coffee. A cake would also be a good idea.

Scamp wanted to have a look in M&S for something for dinner, but she seemed to drawn to the dress department too. There is a wedding in the offing and I suppose she needed to see what was fashionable these days …
We did spot some things that would work well for dinner too and then we walked back to the Merchant City. In the time we had been wandering around M&S and having coffee, lots of stalls had popped up and the place looked much more lively. Two large balloon shaped people were running around the stalls. The Show was on.

Scamp stopped by one of her friends who was selling bangles and to quote her, “… one just jumped out at me!” So she bought it there and then. It looked good on her too.

We stayed for a while, watching a street artist hauling folk around on a long wooden rod (much more interesting than this description), listened for far too long to a tuneless jazz style band and a group called Brass Aye who could play proper, interesting music. PoD went to a group of ladies in yellow robes demonstrating why you can distort things with Chinese Whispers.

When we were finished, we went back to M&S, bought some food for tonight and got the train home.

I think we might go back again to the second Merchant City Festival next week, if we have the time.

Dancin’ in Blackpool – 25 July 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Not your usual dancin’. This was dancin’ in Blackpool, not Brookside.

Taxi in the morning to Holiday Inn at Strathclyde Park. We met another dancer there. Natasha was the teacher for the first dance class we went to about twenty years ago! I wouldn’t have recognised her, but Scamp did. Twenty years? Who would have thought it!!

Picked up the minibus there that would take us from Strathclyde Park to Blackpool. A three hour drive with one stop for a ‘comfort break’ would bring us to Blackpool, right to the door of the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. The show was already in full swing, so we got our dance shoes on and watched the expert

Dancers of varying abilities were showing off their steps and we watched entranced for a while before we took the plunge and hit the floor. We had had no real chance to practice, but that wasn’t a problem, as two ladies took Scamp and me around the floor for the first time. Such a civilised way to start the day. After that, and when they were sure we could cope by ourselves, they left us to pick up another couple showing signs of having dancing problems.

After that, we danced our little feet off for over two hours. The building really is an amazing place, truly vast. It has a ground floor and two layers tiers above that. It also has a fully sprung floor that you don’t notice to begin with, then you feel the movement as you dance.

Eventually time was running out and we hadn’t really had anything to eat all day, so we left the dance hall and fought our way in a gale blowing in from the sea and found a Pizza restaurant with a space for us. By the time we left there we had just enough time for a quick walk along the prom before finding our minibus and the drive home.

A quick drink back at the Holiday Inn and then got the taxi back home.

It was an interesting experience. Would we do it again? I don’t think so. Blackpool is a poor looking place now. Very run down and a shadow of its former self. Also, six hours overall in a minibus isn’t good for the back. Not the most comfortable day we’ve had.

PoD was a shot of the the dance floor once most of the participants had left. An image of its former glory.

Tomorrow will be all about recovering.