Author: Zogman

An improving situation – 13 February 2019

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Ah, today was better. Even got praise from Michael and that’s praise indeed!

Scamp was up and out early for a checkup and I started to tidy up the painting room. Only those with very good eyesight would have noticed the subtle differences, but I knew they were there.

When Scamp returned we had a quick lunch and then drove in to Glasgow for Ballroom and Jive. Michael seemed to think we were doing well and remembering all his little pointers, like closing your feet after every move in ballroom and Quickstep. Scamp and I did an almost perfect Jive routine with nobody watching, then when the two teachers were watching, my technique went haywire. It was a typical case of brain fade. Spin four went wrong and I just couldn’t do anything right for the remainder of the track. After that little blip, things got a lot better and I got praise for “almost getting it right”. That’s great praise from the pedant’s pedant.

Walked out of Blackfriars on a high and went for a coffee in Nero, stopping on the way to admire and photograph the distorted reflection of Ingram Street on that beautiful glass building. It became today’s PoD.

Pasta for dinner and then out to the 7.30 improvers Salsa class, only to find that it too is closing because of lack of numbers. What is going wrong with AdS. I have my suspicions, and I’ve said so to Scamp. She disagrees, but we will see what transpires in March when two classes now will close. We didn’t stay for the 8.30 class. That would mean we don’t get home until after 10pm. I’ve got stuff to do then and besides, there are too many ‘clowns’ in the 8.30 class.

Came home and finished off a painting I’d started in the afternoon. I tried three paintings of the two apples, but none of them were any good. Eventually started eating one of them (the apples, not the paintings) and decided it made a much more interesting subject, and the rest is history.

That was about it for today. It looks like Wednesday salsa will be with the Improvers at 6.30. Not sure what else will fill our time. I think it may be Bachata. Not my favourite dance, but better than nothing and I know Scamp likes it.

Tomorrow Scamp has coffee booked with Isobel in the morning, but we may go to Mugdock for a walk in the afternoon. Ages since we’ve been there.

Not the best of days – 12 February 2019

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Some days are good and some are simply bad. Today was the latter.

The tree in the garden that was trimmed yesterday doesn’t look at all like we thought it would. It may take some time for it to grow into itself again, but for just now it just looks a bit ugly. We’re both agreed on that and we’re both to blame for not making it clearer to Nicky what we wanted. However, like that awful haircut we’ve all had, it will eventually grow back. Unfortunately, trees take longer than hair to grow. We may make a bird box and fix it to the tree, at least then we’ll have something interesting to watch.

It’s always going to be a bit of a wrench having to go to another salsa class and now we have confirmation that the advanced class is to close in March. We’ve discussed it a lot in the last 24 hours and have come to the conclusion that it’s not just one reason for the lack of people, there are lots of reasons:

  • The class itself was becoming stale with long complicated moves that nobody in their right mind would attempt to dance in a club.
  • The Advanced class were always being merged with classes one or two levels below us. The constant merging of classes meant that the more advanced members were having to ‘tread water’ while newer, less experienced people caught up. When they did catch up, another class would merge in and the cycle would begin again. People simply didn’t want to pay for a class where they weren’t learning anything new.
  • Jamie is a great teacher, but only when he’s there. I realise he has other commitments with his work, but when he’s not there and less able teachers are taking his place, our interest suffers and some people, again, will move away.
  • There have been comments in class about some people, usually leaders, who are too rough and are injuring some of the followers. Scamp, herself has had a few bruises from these meetings. That is a definite reason for some of the followers leaving.

I really don’t know what the answer is, there may not even be one. We’ll try tomorrow’s ‘Advanced’ class. We’ll give it a fair test and it may be the salvation of Salsa in Glasgow. At least it will be with Jamie as a teacher.

I gave both our cars a quick wash and brush up today. They needed it, then when Scamp was out to lunch with Mags I hung out the washing and that’s where I saw today’s PoD! Scamp’s Christmas Roses are still in flower and are changing colour slightly. It looks like they are going to be sliding towards pink.

Today’s sketch is four Sugardrop tomatoes I spied when I was making paella tonight. A quick 40min sketch, but with decent technique and using a real brush, not a waterbrush for a change.

Tomorrow it’s dancing in the afternoon and hopefully dancing at night too.

Short back and sides – 11 February 2019

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Nicky, the arborist, was coming today to give our rowan tree a short back and sides. He didn’t mess around.

He arrived just after 10am and got to work straight away. He trimmed all the low lying branches and then some of the higher ones that were easy to reach with his expensive Japanese draw saw (cuts on the back stroke, like most Japanese tools). The next thing I saw was him strapping himself into his climbing harness and throwing a climbing rope over one of the sturdy upper branches. After that, he was up, up and away cutting a swathe through the branches that overhung the garden. I think it was at this point that Scamp became nervous and began to wonder if going to hack too much away. However, like a half cut head of hair looks in the hairdresser’s mirror, you have to have faith in the expert wielding the scissors, or in this case, the Japanese saw. By the time it was finished, the tree looks a lot more open. Light will get through and so will the air. He assured us that the ‘wounds’ (his word) would heal quickly and encourage new growth. Like the new hairstyle, it will take a bit of getting used to, but in a few weeks it will look fine.

All that was left was the disposal of the cuttings. That was going to take a few bucket and bag loads, about half a dozen in fact and since I was going to the skips today anyway, it seemed a good opportunity to make good the fresh start. With that in mind, and after Nicky had left we set to with the loppers and chopped all the branches into manageable pieces, bagged them and I took them in the car along with the rubbish from yesterday to the skips. The world and his wife were there too, dumping rubbish. We really do live in a throw away culture. At least the tree cuttings could be chipped and composted. Not so the rubble and timber. That will probably go to landfill.

Best laugh of the day was when we were doing our final tidy of the garden. An old bloke was walking past on the path behind the garden when I turned to Scamp to ask if some old rotten wood was going to. He turned to me and said “Would you mind keeping your voice down. You nearly woke me there.” I looked and he smile, so I said in my sincere voice. “My apologies.” We both laughed and he walked on. Just a wee bit humour gets you through the day sometimes.

After I dumped today’s stuff in the skips, I took a drive over to Fannyside Moss and got today’s PoD. It was taken with the Samyang fisheye lens. Drove back via St Mo’s with some bread to feed the wildfowl, although the greedy gulls got most of it. I know you’re not supposed to feed them on bread, but they didn’t seem to get that memo.

There was sad news at Salsa tonight. Our dwindling class numbers have made it impossible to continue the 7.30 Advanced class which has been running for 10 years in the same time slot in a variety of venues. We have only four weeks left in it and then we may have to look at joining the 8.30 class on a Wednesday. It’s nowhere near as good a class and the 8.30 time isn’t ideal. We may have to look for pastures new.

Today’s sketch of the banana and lime was done while listening to Masterchef, but I painted it under the light of a daylight bulb in the painting room otherwise the grinding of my teeth at the inane comments of the ‘fat bastard’ Gregg Wallace would have upset Scamp.

Tomorrow Scamp is out to lunch and I may, just may take the bike out for its first run this year.

Rubbish, just rubbish – 10 February 2019

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It started out today in the sox drawer then it expanded to the underwear drawer and before I could contain it, it had spread to a cupboard.

Tidying! It’s become our new religion. The sox drawer was too easy. It was needing what my mum would have called “a good red out”, and that’s what it got. I lost count of the number of calves strangling tight sox I threw out. I also got rid of some that were more holes than whole. I have to admit it looks a lot better after the changes. Now I may even be able to find boot sox, thin summer sox and just general purpose everyday sox. I was so pleased with my efforts, I started on the underwear drawer. It was a bit tougher, but I girded my loins and got to work. It now too is better organised.

The next one was the biggie. The towel cupboard is my hoarding cupboard. If I ever need a cable to connect my minidisk player to the PC laptop, I know I can get one in a box at the back of the towel cupboard. The towels, by the way, only take up about a shelf’s worth of space. My hoard, at least two shelves. The problem with finding the cable to connect anything to anything else is that I usually get side tracked into looking at something else in there that I’d forgotten I had and I have to check that out too. The usual upshot is that I find the cable, but only after an hour or so’s procrastination. Today that all changed. Half the cables and electronic junk in Scotland is now bulging out of one of the big blue IKEA bags, ready for the tip tomorrow. Of course, not everything went. I couldn’t bear to part with my coronation coach and horses. Even if the gold paint has chipped away to the bare white metal and some of the horses have a pronounced limp, because of missing legs, it’s still an heirloom and must go back in its rightful place. A lot of it has gone, though and another pile is ready for a charity shop. Even the subject of today’s PoD will eventually get the heave. It’s a Zenith LOMO camera, a relic of Soviet-era Leningrad. I think I may encourage Scamp to let it live a little longer with the towels. The biggest space-hog was my collection of lens and camera boxes, just on the off chance I might one day want to trade one of them in. These took up a ridiculous amount of space, but are now tightly packed into a bit plastic box, ready to meet the spiders in the loft the next time I’m up there.

One thing I found in the cupboard was a box crammed with colour slides. I’ve scanned about a quarter of them this afternoon after we finished and closed the door on the towels and the empty space that’s there now. Some lovely shots of the family from about 1975 onwards.

Today’s sketch started off as one whole egg and a couple of egg shells, but the paint wasn’t playing nice. I tried it twice and it just wasn’t working, so I added five more eggs, an egg box and removed the egg shells. I gave up on the paint too, because I was working with room lighting which is a lot closer to the orange end of the spectrum than daylight, so I chose to use pencil instead.  I really do have to get more organized and do my drawing and painting in the daytime instead of in the evening when I’ve only got room light.

Should have gone dancing tonight, but my waterworks said no and I listened to them.  We should be ok for tomorrow night for salsa.  Gems day tomorrow, so I’ll go and clog up the council dump with lots of lovely rubbish.

Recovery time – 9 February 2019

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Early to bed, early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise. So going to bed late, very late for some makes you the opposite? Yeah, that sounds about right.

Didn’t break the surface until well after 9am this morning. I consoled myself with the thought that I must have needed the rest, then after breakfast I fell back asleep. Finally got up and Scamp suggested lunch at Wagamama in The Fort. The Fort used to be a dump, but now that they’ve tidied it up, installed a coffee shop (unfortunately a Costa!) and a bookshop, not to mention Wagamama, it’s not at all bad. Yes Scamp, good call, we’ll go to Easterhouse for lunch. Bet you never thought I’d say that forty odd years ago!

Drove there and for once we got parked without a problem, unlike back at the house where it seemed that somebody was designing a slalom on the street with cars, vans and even lorries apparently abandoned everywhere. Wandered round the shops and bought some stuff that we both needed / wanted, then went to Wagamama which was jumping! Saturdays, the days when the working people go out shopping. Food took a little time to come, but it was busy. Scamp’s was not very hot, so she complained, she’s getting good at that, and got it replaced. It was a Raisukaree Curry and it looked and tasted lovely. I had a Chicken and Prawn Teppenyaki and although it was a bit dry, which was my fault for not checking, it was very tasty. Would I have it again? Probably not. I’d probably opt for my favourite Ramen, almost any flavour would do!

When we came out I grabbed today’s PoD which is the head of a bronze deer sculpture by Lucy Casson. There is a little group of them outside the restaurant. Then we went our different ways. Me to Hobbycraft to be shocked at the price they were asking for tubes of watercolour. Eight quid for the smallest tube? Luckily I’ve got plenty to keep me going. Scamp went looking for clothes. We met back at the car, both of us empty handed.

Drove to Morrisons to get ‘messages’ and the makings of pakora tonight, and that was it for the tour of The Fort. Storm Erik was still blustering around trying desperately to sound like the promised tornado, but not fooling anyone. Drove home watching the changing light on the hills caused by the clouds being ripped apart by the wind. Very pretty.

Attempted to make pakora tonight, but it wasn’t a glowing success. Couldn’t remember how to get the batter to the right consistency and as Scamp kept saying, there was something missing from the filling. Still not sure what it was. All we have now it dirty oil. It looks like somebody’s changed the oil in an old car. Need to find somewhere to dump it now.

Tonight’s sketch was done while watching a quite interesting documentary about Bowie. All these old blokes who used to be youngsters in the Spiders From Mars. Interesting part was listening to how they created the backing tracks with ancient technology.

Tomorrow we’re back to normal rising time hopefully and may go dancing later.

Out to lunch – Out to dinner – 8 February 2019

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No home cooking for us today!

We were going to Larky to Crawford and Nancy’s for dinner tonight, but that wasn’t until about 7pm so the rest of the day was free for us to rampage through. We decided to go in to Glasgow to have lunch and for me to try to get the Burnt Umber paint I’d failed to get the other day. The weather was a bit wild with strong winds and heavy rain and it was forecast to get even wilder as the day progressed.

First stop was lunch, a light lunch we’d agreed, in Paesano. It was a fairly light lunch and as we weren’t going to be eating tonight until about 8pm, a pizza in the middle of the day wasn’t going to hurt. I certainly didn’t disappoint.

From there we parted company and while I went to get the paint, Scamp went to M&S to buy stuff. I bought another half pan marked Burnt Umber, it’s a dark brown ‘earth’ colour by the way, but this time after I’d bought it I immediately opened it in the shop and showed it to the girl who had served me. The actual pan was marked Burnt Sienna. This is Windsor & Newton colour. Not cheap and supposedly professional quality. I showed it to the assistant. She called the manager who went to test the actual colour. She came back and agreed that the colour in the pan was Burnt Sienna which is a much lighter orange-brown. She opened another sealed packet that was marked Burnt Umber and it too was marked Burnt Sienna on the actual pan. The last one in the rack was opened and it was marked Burnt Umber! Result!

Met Scamp and went for a coffee then we headed up past the GOMA where today’s PoD came from then home through the gathering Storm Erik. I started my sketch of the day which was oranges, new oranges, the last lot having been consumed, in an elegant bowl with lovely swirling colours. Just to be sure, I tested the Burnt Umber, checked and it did say Burnt Umber on the pan and painted a swatch only to find it was another bloody Burnt Sienna. No point going back to the shop. This time I’m writing to W&N to query their quality control.

PoD done. Sketch done. Both posted and on time, but no time left to blog. As you’ll have guessed it was written on Saturday.

June arrived bang on 7pm without Iain who wasn’t feeling well. Off we went for an entertaining night with C&N. Food and conversation was great and sitting in front of their log burning stove was just lovely. Great night. Couldn’t believe when I looked at the clock and it was just before 11.30. Home through the storm, dropped June off and home for a dram before bedtime.

Tomorrow (Today 😉 we would go out to lunch somewhere.
Spoiler Alert: We did!

A day of two halves

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The morning was to be relaxing. The afternoon was not.

Not much to say about the morning, other than that we did relax. Drank some coffee, solved a sudoku. Scamp played patience on her tablet and read for a while. We went to Tesco and used a basket so we wouldn’t be tempted to buy everything. Then Hazy phoned, having read yesterday’s blog, and wanted to know what the big deal in the afternoon was. So I had to tell her about my prostate problem and that today I was going in to hospital for an examination and perhaps a biopsy. The secret was out. To be more accurate, the secret was fully out, because JIC had phoned last night and I’d told him.

Those of a nervous disposition should look away now
Got to the hospital in plenty of time. Scamp was driving because I might not have been fit enough to handle machinery after the biopsy. As it turned out, I couldn’t have the biopsy or the full ultrasonic scan because it was too soon after my recent UTI. Spoke to the surgeon and the nurse and had the situation explained to me. The nurse scanned my bladder area and declared herself happy with the result. The surgeon gave me a more personal examination. Anyone who has had it will understand what that means. Anyone who hasn’t, well, let’s put it this way, you don’t want to know. He also told me he was happy with the result, but added that I’d be getting an invitation to attend his surgery in the near future for further checks on my PSA which was not giving him any cause for alarm.
It’s OK, you can look again!

When we got back I grabbed my Nikon bag and went over to St Mo’s with a lighter heart than I’ve had for at least a week and probably a lot longer. The rain came on, but I didn’t mind. Today’s PoD entitled ‘Ripples’ for obvious reasons was the result. Walked to Condorrat in the now heavy rain and got two pineapple tarts for tonight and two Thunderball tickets for tomorrow night because today had been a good day. A day when a weight had been lifted.

I tried many subjects before I settled on tonight’s painting for 28 Drawings Later. I’m not exactly happy with it, but it fits the theme that seems to have started. It’s done and on time.

Tomorrow? Maybe a Day in the Toon. Maybe not.

Dancing in the afternoon – 6 February 2019

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Not dancing all the day, just dancing.

Drove in to Blackfriars and ‘wasted time’ taking a picture of the building above while we walked down from the carpark. Every time I’ve passed the Ingram Square Building in the Merchant City I’ve liked it and wanted to photograph it, but the lighting had to be just right. It was today. I particularly like the angled turret at the top and the reflections from windows across Ingram Street. At the class we got an extra ten minutes practise. Our Jive moves today were Baskets, Step Over and Ladles. That will probably be gobbledegook to most of you, but it will act as a reminder for us, hopefully, next week. Waltz was getting a lot better according to Michael, but we didn’t do anything new. We didn’t really get any Quickstep done because I wasn’t feeling too good and we left early, just five or ten minutes early.

Why is it, when you’re in a hurry, that’s when the motorway jams up. That’s what happened today. Just about to join the M8 going home and everything ground to a halt. It turned out to be a three vehicle accident spread across the two exit lanes for Stirling. Luckily it didn’t close of the entire length of the exit lanes and we found our way back on in the great snaking line of cars and vans who were also Stirling bound.

Dinner tonight was the remainder of the chilli and Scamp was back to home food with a baked potato and tuna. Dessert was an excellent Neapolitan Choc Ice each from Tesco, where else!

Doodled a sketch of a horribly difficult Sudoku grid and that is my sketch for 28 Drawings Later. Not as detailed as some and not as colourful, but it fulfils the two requirements:  Done and On Time.

Tomorrow, hopefully a lazy morning to prepare us for a busy afternoon.

Up and out at stupid o’clock – 5 February 2019

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I’d forgotten that 7.30AM existed. I used to be out the door and on my way to work at that time. That was just over four years ago and you tend to remember the good times and ignore the bad. 7.30AM was one of the bad times. Defrosted the car and picked up Scamp to take her to the train station. Her and half of Cumbersheugh seemed to on the way to the station at Croy this morning. Dropped her at the ticket office and drove off to park and walked back to check that she had caught the train. The train was already at the station by the time I got there, but I saw that familiar red hat on a person that was sitting in a seat. There’s only one hat like that in the world, Hazy!

With her safely on the first stage of her journey to Inverness to meet her sister, I drove home, had my breakfast, read my emails and went back to bed for an hour. I should have gone out and photographed that beautiful dawn sky before I went to bed, but I didn’t and I so regret it now.

When I got up for the second time today it was lunchtime and I had the last ladleful of my soup, then I went out to get a PoD under a much different sky. The clouds were Scottish Grey and as I walked to the car, the rain started. I drove down to the Luggie Water and found the snowdrops which were now blooming nicely. Using my glove as a cushion for the Oly and a Moleskine notebook as a wee tent to protect the lens from rain I grabbed half a dozen shots at various distances and quickly checked them to make sure they’d all worked and they had.

Back home, processed the photos and made my dinner which was chilli con CARNE, because Scamp would be having a posh lunch in Inverness, so I could have a meat dinner tonight. Dumped the chilli into the slow cooker and left it for an hour or two, plenty time to get my sketch of the day done. Today it was to be two oranges, a pear and an apple. I made the mistake of having four items in the sketch. Every beginner know you should always group odd numbered items. It was the apple that went wrong. If anyone asks me about it, I’ll just say that the apple was old and was getting a bruise at the bottom. I liked the oranges and the pear. Unfortunately you can’t clone out mistakes on a watercolour.

Scamp sent a text to say she was just passing Stirling Castle about 8.30pm and I got ready to drive in to Glasgow. Picked her up just after 9pm after doing a detour because the motorway was being repaired.

Tomorrow it’s Dancing day. Hopefully it will be Blackfriars in the afternoon and STUC salsa at night. Chilli was fine, but just a little too mild.

A Dull Day – 4 February 2019

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Usually a walk along the canal can lift my spirits, but today the opposite was the truth.

It’s a Monday and that means Gems and Gems means I go out for a walk. Today I was half decided to go down to the Luggie to get some photos of snowdrops, but then I changed my mind and went to Auchinstarry instead. I walked along the canal, but there wasn’t much there that inspired me. Lots of other folk were there too, maybe they too were looking for inspiration. I hope they found some. I didn’t see any black monkeys while I was there, but one seemed to cling to me while I was there and it remained with me for the rest of the day.  Today’s PoD was taken crossing the Plantation over to the railway path.  I think they are crab apples.  As you can see, although it was a dull day for me, there was a beautiful bright blue sky.  That’s sometimes the way of things.

Dinner was the usual Monday, ‘Red’ Spaghetti. However, we also had a bowl of soup and that soup contained a selection of the veg I painted for yesterday’s 28 Drawings Later. The sketch was good, but the soup was better. Not so today’s sketch. Although it’s done and on time, I wasn’t happy with it. I don’t think the Midori notebook is conducive to watercolour work. It’s fine for ink, but doesn’t have the tooth or the strength to hold a watercolour wash. Note to self, horses for courses.

Went to salsa and helped out at the 6.30 beginners class. Very big class with too many followers or to few leaders. Either way, that meant both Scamp and I were needed as leaders, as were any other people willing to lend a hand. Our class suffered from the same lack of leaders, but whereas the beginners class had over forty participants, our class had seven people in total. Three followers and four leaders including the teacher. Even worse, one of the followers left to go to her ballet class halfway through the lesson. Unless we get a sudden injection of salseros, I don’t see the advanced class continuing in its present form after this session, and that will be a terrible shame. Scamp and I have discussed the problem at length and cannot put our collective finger on the source of the problem. I don’t think there is a single source, as usual with things like this, there are a host of contributing factors. Only time will tell if the class will continue. It may not have been the most successful class for numbers, but I did manage to pass on that wee black monkey to someone else!
Tonight’s ‘new’ move was an old favourite Chi Wa Wa. We also tried to remember Agamemnon with little success. I’m sure Jamie G will have it perfected by next week.

Tomorrow I’m up early to give Scamp a lift to the station to catch the Glasgow train and from there she will hopefully get the bus to Inverness to have lunch and a gossip with Jackie. I may go looking for interesting photos and inspiration!