Author: Zogman

A free afternoon – 4 April 2019

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Scamp was out at a Gems gig this afternoon, so I had time to do as I pleased.

As usual with a free afternoon, I did what I usually do and frittered most of it away. I’d intended doing a bit more painting, but I didn’t. I was going to read a bit more in my most recent book, a true story about a forensic pathologist, but I didn’t. I did sit at the computer for a while, but ended up not doing anything constructive or creative.

Eventually got out and bought a rhubarb plant because the old one looks as if it’s dead. I think we’ve had it for a few years now and it’s been producing some stalks every year, but even after a mild winter it’s not waking up for spring. Bought another one anyway. You can’t have too many rhubarb plants. Got some Calabrese which is Italian or Green sprouting broccoli. Too early to plant it out yet (it was only 4ºc this morning) but it can harden off in the little greenhouse.

Took the cameras for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD of a coot sitting on its nest in the pond. The coot makes the nest in exactly the same place every year. Literally a creature of habit. I also got a ‘fun’ shot of half a bottle of cola of indeterminate vintage. Called the photo ‘Ginger’, remembering the Robbie Coltrane video of the same name. Watched part 1 of Tutti Frutti last night and that must have been what put it into my head.

Tomorrow I might have an hour free in the morning because Scamp has the dentist. Don’t have plans for the rest of the day, but next week I must take Hazy’s advice and get my new home for my blog sorted out.

Dancing Day – 3 April 2019

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This is what happens after two weeks off.

Out after a quick lunch and drove into Glasgow for today’s dance class. Jive was a disaster. We could remember the seven spins, but everything else had been deleted from our brains and then the bin had been emptied. Spent an embarrassing half an hour trying desperately to remember at least one move we’d learned two weeks ago. Finally got half the Time Step correct, but then got lost in the second half. Practise is definitely required. Waltz wasn’t too bad, but it was the finer points I was missing and I knew Michael was right when he started pulling me up on them. Quickstep was no better, although I think I can see now what’s going wrong with the ‘fish tails’. Again, more practise is required. All the foregoing are my mistakes, Scamp was almost faultless throughout the class.

Walked back and drove home. No coffee today, I didn’t deserve it. Got a couple of shots in the Toon, but nothing that so far merits a PoD. May try St Mo’s before the light goes completely. Aching a bit with all the twisting and turning in the ballroom class. That’s the strange thing about dancing. The leader (man) in salsa doesn’t really move much. All his work is done with arms and hands. Ballroom, which looks fairly smooth, has a lot of twisting and turning and moving the core. It’s like a swan, it looks effortless, but beneath the surface the legs are flailing around!

Finally decided to go out in the cold wind and spitting rain in the garden to get some record shots of the Forsythia bush before the flowers all fall. Then I took some shots of the tiny wee daffodils Scamp brought back from Skye and finally I got a few shots of raindrops on some normal sized daffodil leaves. The daffodils won PoD.

Drove in to Glasgow again tonight and danced with the 6.30 class and then with the new beginners class who had suffered at the hands of Shannon last week, but were now into the mad maelstrom of Jamie’s class. Most of them seemed to have a good time and hopefully they will be back next week.

That about wraps it up for this Wednesday when there was snow down south and snow up north, but thankfully none in the middle where we live. Long may that continue.

Tomorrow Scamp has a Gems gig in Abronhill, but no roadie or taxi driver is required, so I may go out tomorrow if I can borrow a coat to wear. Lyrics from an old song.

Isn’t it nice when a plan comes together – 2 April 2019

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Drove in to Glasgow this morning and dropped Scamp off so she could go on a shopping trip, then went to see the nice man at JL about an Un-Fitbit.

The nice young man at JL had a good look at my faulty Fitbit and, after checking the receipt, immediately pounced on the fact that the screen was cracked in a few places, suggesting that the cracks could be the cause of the screen failure. I was ready for this and told him that it was a well documented fault on the Fitbit2 caused by differential expansion between the metal body and the acrylic screen. He said he’d have to go and check with ‘the techies’ to see what they’d say. When he returned he agreed that it was indeed a manufacturing fault and was nothing to do with the pretty black and white pattern adorning the screen of the now defunct Fitbit. Unfortunately JL didn’t have any Fitbit2s in stock now, only the more expensive Fitbit3, but if I was willing to pay the £20 difference, I’d get a new Fitbit3 with a new two year warranty. I paid the money, said thank you very much and walked out of the shop with a new fitness tracker complete with warranty.

Drove home, grabbed some photos off the iMac and stuck them on the Samsung Note to show to Val and Fred. Met Fred in the car park and we walked in through the rain to meet Val. Strangely, Fred was very generous to Morag when I told him about her retirement and agreed that she had had a raw deal. For once it was me who did all the talking, but both Fred and Val admired the statues and sculptures I showed them from the tablet.

Got home just after Scamp had returned from the shopping expedition. Quick lunch and then unwrapped the Fitbit, charged it up and got it sync’d to the iPhone. Seems to be working fine. Long may it continue. I was just thinking about taking it out for a walk in St Mo’s when the hail storm put an end to that idea. The hail lasted for about an hour and the white layer that looks exactly like snow is still there. I did manage an hour in St Mo’s later and got the PoD at the top of the page of the daisies pushing their heads through the hail into beautiful sunshine.

Gave Scamp a quick look at the potential of Lighthroom as a replacement for the deplorable ‘Photos’ app on Windows 10. It’s even worse than its twin on the Mac. Not sure if she is totally happy with it yet, only time will tell.

Tomorrow it’s “Put on your dancing shoes” time again.

April Fool’s Day – 1 April 2019

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No time for fooling around. It’s a Monday and that means Gems then Salsa.

It was a dull day and when Gems arrived around midday I chose to do some painting rather than go out walking in the rain. I’d been wanting to copy a painting I saw at Eilean Donan castle last month. It turned out ok, although Scamp turned her nose up at it.

I did manage to get a few photos in the afternoon after the singers had left. Just some flower shots in the garden and some raindrops on leaves. The PoD turned out to be the little white bell shaped flowers from the Piers.

Salsa tonight was the first night of the Rueda Club which is the Advanced class under a new name. Some returning advanced salseros, but nothing like the numbers we need to keep the class going. Two new totally forgettable moves whose names evade me at present. I don’t know how long it will continue in its present state. Managed to survive two hours of dancing without too many aches and pains.

Tomorrow a trip in to Glasgow to JL to see if I can claim a replacement Fit Bit under guarantee. Just within the two year guarantee which runs out in two weeks!

Lovely day, didn’t go past the door – 31 March 2019

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Such a shame to waste a lovely day, but needs must when the blog drives.

I was determined to get the blog up to date and that’s about all I did today. I feel I’ve been typing all day and that’s because I have. Now I’ve finished all the backlog and am doing today’s blog, today. Now, there’s a novelty.

Skyped with Hazy in the morning and spoke to JIC in the evening and caught up with all their news. In between I took the PoD and we watched a GP. Other than that it was blogging all day long.

Today’s PoD is a photo of one of Scamp’s geranium cuttings. She took the cuttings in the autumn last year and now one of them had decided it’s big enough and strong enough to produce flowers. She asked me to take its picture and here it is.

Watched the Bahrain GP and for once it was quite exciting and incident packed as the overexcited commentators would say. It was ok.

Dinner was a Top Rump Steak for me which I overcooked and Mushrooms Stuffed with Cheese and Spinach for Scamp which didn’t have enough cheese.

That was today. Tomorrow is Gems day so I’ll make myself scarce. I think I’m fit enough to go dancing tomorrow night, but I’ll leave the final decision until tomorrow.

Phew! Finished.

Hamilton – 30 March 2019

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The curry capital of South Lanarkshire.

Scamp wanted to go out to lunch today, but we couldn’t decide whether to go to Stirling (curry) or Hamilton (curry). Can you see a pattern here? We eventually decided on Hamilton.

We got a table without any problem, but as we were sitting there, more and more people came piling in. I honestly don’t know where they were putting them. The seats at the bar were all taken and I’m sure all the cupboards must have been full too, but still they came in. Scamp had her usual Cauliflower Shimla Bhaji and just for a change I chose the Chicken Syrah which turned out to be quite hot, but also tasty. I’d try it again. When we left, I’m sure there would be a fight to get our table for two.

I’d intended to leave the car at the retail park and go for a look at the art shop. It’s an independent shop and there aren’t many of them left these days. Unfortunately everyone else wanted to go to the retail park too, so we just headed for home.

Scamp wanted to work in the garden when we got home, nothing to do with the fact that our new neighbours next door were building a decking area in their back garden. Honest she didn’t want to see what it looked like. I went for a walk over in St Mo’s and got a couple of shots of two ladybirds which turned out to be the invasive Harlequins. Also got a shot of a black moth, at least I think it is a moth. That got PoD.

That was about all the excitement for the day.

No dancing tomorrow and it’s Mother’s Day, so I’m doing breakfast.

Another teacher breaks out – 29 March 2019

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Didn’t do very much today.

Some days are like that. Scamp went out shopping for essentials at Tesco. I stayed in and re-lived the holiday through the medium of blog writing.

My Fitbit is not at all well. The date was stuck at 27th March and nothing I could do would shift it. I tried doing a few resets with no success, and last night I let it die completely. I tried again to plug it in and reset it from zero, but all I got was a mangled display on the screen. I fear it may be dead, well, that’s not entirely correct. It still works internally, it just doesn’t have any way of displaying that work. It still vibrates to tell me to move and it still syncs to the iPhone. It just displays scrambled egg on the screen. Apparently it’s a common fault and is well documented on the InterWeb.

I went out at night to a retiral evening for Morag Pearson the ex-PT Art at Cumby High. Met Duncan and John for a beer in the Wetherspoon’s in Sausage Roll Street and had a pint of the excellent Punk IPA. The meal was a curry in Kama Sutra, just along the road. Lots of old faces from the old guard. Lots of young fresh looking faces of the youngsters, some of whom would eventually become the old guard in about forty years time. Talked to lots of folk I knew and liked and a few whom I disliked or detested. Thankfully I could walk away from the latter to find more of the former to compare stories with. It was a good night.

Walked down Sausage Roll Street with John before we went our separate ways him for the train home, me for the bus. Unfortunately, as I got to the bus station I just saw the X3 disappear round the corner. As I’d have to wait in the rain for another hour for the next one I phoned a taxi instead and had a pleasant run home talking to the driver.

Nice to see another teacher get out of the Cumbernauld Academy hell hole and into the light. Shame to see that some are still stuck in this nepotistic environment. Not conducive to good learning and no good for teachers or pupils. Glad I’m out.

Today’s PoD is of the leaves on the Poinsettia Scamp’s been tending since before Christmas.

Tomorrow, maybe a curry in Hamilton. Another curry!

“But I lost the ring” – 28 March 2019

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A visit to the doc was the order of the day.

The pain in my side wasn’t decreasing, well, I didn’t think it would, but I was walking wounded, so it wasn’t all that serious. Phoned the surgery and the nurse phoned me back to say it would be best to go to A&E rather than the surgery, so off we went, with Scamp driving, to Monklands. Monklands gets a bad reputation, but we’ve never had any real bother there. Today was no exception.

Spoke to the woman at A&E and she took my details. Sat for about 15 mins before I was called through. Nurse took my BP and oxygen levels then attempted to remove my wedding ring which was restricting the blood to my finger, but it was a no-go. I guessed that would be the case, because I’ve not taken it off for about twenty or thirty years, since my finger joint has grown bigger. She decided to leave it for a while to allow the swelling to reduce a bit. The doc came in and gave me a quick hands on check for broken ribs, then sounded me. Said it was ok, but he wanted a chest X-ray just to make sure. X-ray turned out to be clear, no cracked or broken ribs and the chest cavity was clear, no deflation. He recommended Paracetamol to ease the pain, but wasn’t happy about the state of my finger and suggested that they might be better having another go at removing the ring.

After trying lubricant on it, the famous thread trick from YouTube and finally getting an auxiliary to try using elastic instead of thread which is apparently the recommended method now, it wasn’t for coming off. Finally, I made the decision to have it cut off, the ring, not the finger! It only took about five minutes to have it cut through and prised open. It’s a strange feeling not having the ring there, but almost immediately the swelling on my finder started to go down, so it was the right thing to do.

I took the opportunity to ask the doc about my egg shaped lump on my elbow that had appeared last November. I’d already checked on the InterWeb and was almost sure it was Bursitis. He confirmed that it was and told me to apply Ibuprofen gel and wear an elbow support bandage. I like to get the full value from my NHS, so I had an X-ray, an examination, a ring removed and a confirmation of a minor ailment, all in one morning.

After lunch I went for a walk to St Mo’s to celebrate and that’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s a dogwood bud just starting to open up.

Today’s title came from “Tangled up in Blue” by Dylan. I didn’t actually lose the ring. It’s in the display cabinet at home waiting to go to the jeweller’s to be brazed together again, probably after having a little bit of filling to increase its diameter.

Tomorrow I’m off to a retiral in Glasgow.

Off Home – 27 March 2019

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Bags packed, ready for the off.

After an uncomfortable nightwith a swollen finger and a pain in the side after yesterday’s gymnastics, it was time for the last breakfast.

Since we didn’t need to leave the room until midday, we went for a walk along the front to soak up a last couple of hours of sunshine.  Sat on the same seat as yesterday with the same toy mouse, still unclaimed and gazed at the same sea.  Finally had to drag ourselves away.  Said goodbye to the wee toy mouse and told it we were sure someone would come back to claim it, then turned to face the journey home.

One final check of the bags before heading for reception. Sat and read for a while before we booked the taxi which arrived about two minutes later and we were off to the airport.

Whizzed through check-in and security and settled down to wait. Called to the gate earlier than we’d expected and were off home to a cold Glasgow, then drove home.

There’s not a lot more you can say about the long day at the end of a holiday, certainly not anything interesting.  It wasn’t the best holiday ever, and definitely not the best hotel we’d stayed in, but it was  a week in  the sun and it doesn’t matter what the hotel is like or the food is like, the sun’s the same for everyone, and the sun is free.

PoD was the queue at a gate in Fuerteventura airport.

Tomorrow reality will kick in!

Last Full Day – 26 March 2019

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Ticking off the last few things we had to do in The Warm Place.

After breakfast we took the free bus into Caleta after a mystery tour round the various hotels around the town. We were keeping a weather eye on a big black cloud that was getting ominously close and were becoming a bit concerned that we might just need the brollies we’d left in the hotel! With that in mind it was a smart walk around to see the newly renovated Ereza Mar hotel which had been partly torn down the last time we’d been on the Windy Island. It looked really smart, but that was just the white paint and the blue roof tiles. We’d seen the holes in the blockwork of the balconies!

Walking back towards the town we felt the first spits and spots of rain. Warm rain, but rain, none the less. That gave us the opportunity to nip into the Irish bar for a pint of Guinness for me and a half pint of lager for Scamp. By the time we came out the cloud and the rain had disappeared, the streets were dry and the sky was blue once again. Walked along the sands and grabbed today’s PoD which was three seats with a view, but no takers. There is a strange dearth of visitors on the beach this year. It might be something to do with Brexit that’s keeping the Brits at home, but that wouldn’t prevent the French, Germans and Italians from grabbing some early spring warmth. Can’t quite work it out, and we’ve heard quite a few people saying the same thing. Signs of the times perhaps.

Sat on a seat beside a child’s lost toy mouse and had an ice cream, just looking out to sea. Then we said goodbye to the toy mouse and walked on to see the fish in the little river that flows out of Elba Sara. I got some photos of a bird that might be a Turnstone, but PoD remains the three seats.

Just sat by the pool in the afternoon, but the clouds were massing again and it wasn’t looking as good as it had done earlier.

Getting ready for dinner, I slipped getting out of the bath that doubles as a shower. Banged my side against the bath and staved my finger. Silly old fool. It felt reminiscent of November in Lanzarote when I woke up on the last day with a lump the size of an egg on my elbow and no knowledge of how it had happened.

Dinner wasn’t anything special to write home about, so I won’t.

Spent our last evening packing and re-packing the bags and cases. I really must review my bag packing list. With a bit of re-organising I manage to get the carry-on bag down to 4.3kg which was much better than the vastly overloaded 8kg going out.

Tomorrow it’s going to be a long day.