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Rain – 25 August 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It rained today from early morning until late at night.

Actually it did stop around 6pm when, for an hour, the rain stopped, the sun shone and I managed to get a handful of photos of flowers in the garden. After that the rain returned as heavy as ever and I think it’s still raining. Usually I say that the gardens need it, but the gardens are fed up with it too and just want some late season warmth and sunshine. An Indian summer we used to call it.

In a way, the rain was a blessing. It forced us to start tidying things up. Making bundles and packing those bundles away for better days to come, but first there were some messages to get.

Normally Monday is the shopping day, but we’d meant to do it yesterday, then yesterday slipped from our grasp and it turned into today. We couldn’t let it go any further or else there would be no food in the house, so we braced ourselves and drove to Tesco to buy some much needed supplies. Just the essentials today. Fruit, veg, milk and some sausages. No wine, no beer, just the bare necessities.

Then just as quickly as we finished our lunch, and read a few chapters in our books and played the occasional game of Angry Birds or finished a jigsaw for some, it was almost dinner time.

Just before dinner was when I got the PoD. It’s a bunch of Japanese Anemones with a bit of bokeh in the background courtesy of a hand made steel Allium that holds the raindrops beautifully. Thanks again for that Hazy.

Also around that time we found a PDF of the Holiday Recipes had arrived in the WhatsApp mailbox. Thank you for that Neil. Very well presented. It’s now downloaded and will be printed off tomorrow.

Spoke to Jamie later and agreed that stripping paint is not the most pleasant of ways to use your weekend, but sometimes it just has to be done. If we could string a few dry days together here, I’d like to give the window sills a fresh coat of paint, but if present weather systems are anything to go by, it would need to very quick drying paint!

I have an appointment with the nurse tomorrow to review a possible change in my meds. Hope it’s not as wet as today.

Dancin’ – 24 August 2024

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Today we drove to Brookfield for the first dance class in about three weeks.

It started well, with a Mayfair Quickstep which isn’t a quickstep, but that’s splitting hairs. Two tracks to make sure we were well warmed up, because it’s summer in Brookfield and they don’t have heating on in the morning until winter.

The first ‘real’ dance was a new Cha-Cha, new to us, anyway, but made up from figures we already knew. They were put together in different patterns, though. I thought I’d filmed it on my phone, but when I got home and looked at it, I’d a photo of Jane, the teacher, but no video. I really need to learn how to use this phone. I expect that someone, somewhere has a video of the new routine, but it’s not me!

Next up was a Viennese waltz. You see folk dancing this in Strictly and it seems to be all about blokes in evening suits and ladies with sticky out dresses ( that’s a technical description, by the way), twirling around on the floor, but it’s much more complicated than that. Oh boy, is it more complicated, and fast too. We did the baby steps quite well to start with, even that was difficult, but when they started mixing up Half Natural Turns and Half Reverse Turns with Full Natural and Full Reverse my brain sort of gave up and went to sleep. I don’t suppose we’ll ever go to Vienna and neither of us speak Viennese, so what’s the use of learning their dances? Huh?

The next one was more down to our earth. It was the Tina Tango danced to Ed Sheehan’s Shivers. I believe Scamp could dance this blindfold. I also believe that Scamp think I DO dance it blindfold which would account for stubbed toes for both of us. Anyway it was much easier that the Viennese waltz.

The final dance of the day was the Vogue Waltz. I can just remember dancing this on a Perth weekend. Bits of it were stuck in my memory slots, but other bits of it were Vague rather than Vogue, but we struggled on until I was almost fluent in it. Then they sprung a curve ball. We would only dance one round of the steps, then move on to a new partner. Woah! Chaos reigned for the three or four minutes this new routine was being danced. I’m so used to Scamp calling out instructions quietly in my ear that I though all the ladies did it. They didn’t, but a few of them laughed!! It was actually fun.

We drove home from Brookfield with our heads spinning with new and half remembered dance routines. We may try them out some time in the living room, just not today.

Lunch was a sandwich for both of us and we’d agreed that dinner would be provided by Golden Bowl.

Today’s PoD was a vase of flowers that sits on the kitchen window sill. Every time I’ve passed it for the last couple of weeks I’ve told myself I was going to photograph it, and today I was true to my word. I just liked the composition.

Tomorrow we are maybe going shopping.

Today we went to Edinburgh – 23 August 2024

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See, sometimes I do give it its real name, not just Embra. We were going to get what my mum would have called “a wee minding” Just a wee something they could hang on their wall if they liked it, or keep it in a drawer if they didn’t. Either way, it was a gift for a Special Occasion.

Today was deemed a non-driving day. We walked down to the bus stop at the shops and got the wee red bus down to Croy Station. From there we managed to get two separate seats in First Class because the guard said there were no seats anywhere else and anyway he wasn’t going to fight his way through the crowded carriages to check any tickets. It was almost the end of the Edinburgh Festival and that was the reason for the crowded train. Our carriage was full, but next door in the other half of the carriage a party was going on. Scamp said there were at least five ‘ladies’ eating their way through some vile smelling food and screaming their heads off. I was pleased that there was a sliding door between them and us that kept almost all of the noise in their section.

As is traditional, we got off at Haymarket and walked up the hill to cross over Ladyfield to Caffè Nero. It was at Ladywell I got my PoD. It’s a mono shot of a man walking across a bridge that runs over one of the really busy roads in the city.

Once we’d had our coffee we walked down to Princes Street to pay for and pick up the gift we’d come for from one of Mhairi’s daughters who was minding the stall. I didn’t embarrass the girl by asking her is she was the one who was in the office chair or the one who was pushing it.

They used to come with their mum to our weekly salsa class in the ground floor of what had been a big old fashioned school. It also doubled as a Trades Union office during the day, but on a Monday night the two girls would take it in turns to ride down the sloping entrance ramp on an office chair with dodgy castors. Usually one or other of them would crash the chair and come crying to mum who wasn’t at all sympathetic. “They bounce” was her reply when someone asked if the girls were injured!

So having achieved our main goal, we walked through Princes Street Gardens. Always well tended gardens and today was no exception. We were just in time to hear the One o’clock Gun. Which was a lot louder that I remembered.

I was still looking for a new waterproof, breathable rain jacket and I tried on a few on Rose Street, but couldn’t find the Goldilocks jacket. Some were too short, some had only two pockets and some were just plain uncomfortable. I’m still looking.

I suggested Whighams and Scamp said that was where she was heading! Lunch was a bowl of mussels for Scamp with a glass of French white wine while I had a Goan vegetable curry and a pint of Tennent’s. Both meals were lovely. We walked back to Princes Street and after getting a couple of books in Waterstones, we wandered along and got separate seats again on the train to Croy. Got the wee red bus again which dropped us at the Shops and we walked the rest.

All in all, that was a really good day. It would have been better without all the crowds who had come to see the festival, but you can’t have everything. Weather was good. Sunny but with a gusty wind again.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to the dance class in Brookfield.

Dancin’ – 22 August 2024

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Bright sunny day that developed the look of rain, which never appeared until evening.

We were going dancing today at Glenburn, but before that, Scamp went shopping for bread and milk, so that after lunch we could get changed into dancing clothes and go.

We didn’t dance as much as we’d thought we would because we were sitting with a couple from Largs. The lady struck up a conversation with Scamp while we men sat around and chipped in the occasional comment, as men do.

We did manage a fairly lengthy quickstep without making it too obvious that we were repeating a lot. I attempted Fishtails, but need a lot more practise on the actual strategy of fishtails before I can confidently insert them into full dance. There are lots of little steps like that we know and just need the confidence to add them to our short routine. Practise, that’s what we need the most. Anyway, it passed an afternoon that otherwise we’d have used up sitting around the house.

Drove home and had an M&S curry for dinner. For the first time I was distinctly unimpressed with the Chicken Tikka which was just bland with nothing to commend it in my opinion.

We watched episode 1 of a series called Vienna Blood, set in 1906 Vienna. I drew comparison immediately with The Turkish Detective which even with occasional subtitles was a much better series. Scamp took issue with the close-ups of staring eyes. Maybe episode 1 was a good place to stop.

The PoD was a robin that stopped for a quick splash in the birdbath in the afternoon. Another swimmer I saw today was a snail, complete with shell in an old mushroom tub sunk in the raised bed, I’d originally poured some no alcohol beer into it to see if the smell would attract slugs to drown in it, but they appeared uninterested in pretend beer. This snail, however wasn’t drowning in the now rainwater tub, it was actually swimming. I’ve once seen a big black slug paddling in puddles with its ‘head’ above water, but this snail seemed to be floating in the water. Maybe the shell holds enough air to make it buoyant. I must investigate that.

Tomorrow we may be going east in search of some sun.

Out on the town – 21 August 2024

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I was meeting Alex today for a photowalk round Glasgow.

Actually bumped into him on Buchanan Street after I got off my train. Scamp had given me a lift to the station and ten minutes later I was on the train to Glasgow.

Alex was testing a new lens, let me rephrase that, “Alex was testing out another new lens” This one was a Chinese 35mm f1.4 manual lens. By manual I mean there were no electrical or electronic connections in the lens, nothing. Sometimes that’s a good thing, sometimes it’s a hindrance. His lens was a nice size and weight. It balanced well on his S6600 body. I wished him well with it, but it wasn’t for me. I like to control the settings on my lens, but give them a bit of leeway to help me get the best out of the camera/lens combo. I’ve had manual lenses in the past and got on well with some of them, but now I like to know that they can think for themselves!

As usual, it was coffee first, then catch up on what we’ve been up to in the last few weeks. Next we made our plans for the day. Alex wanted to photograph some distorting mirrors in the GOMA and I wanted to visit a photographic exhibition on Argyle Street.

We walked to the GOMA and got our photos. I managed a picture of The Duke on his horse with a seagull perched on its tail.

Next stop was the art exhibition, except after walking as far as High Street, I discovered when I checked with my phone that it wasn’t in Argyle Street, but up at the top of High Street. Oh well, we were on High Street now, so we might as well continue and see what was on show. The exhibition was in a couple of old shops that had been knocked into one. Interesting prints roughly 10” x 8” mostly B&W but with a few colour too. Not at all busy, but it was worth the walk. Must keep an eye open for it next time we’re doing a photowalk.

We walked further on and found a gable end with a mural of St Mungo holding a robin. It was a pity that someone decided it would be a good idea to plonk what looked like a gas installation right next to it. I took some photos anyway, because a couple of trees framed the photo well.

We walked back to the city centre and from there to Paesano for lunch. Lots of interesting buildings and mural on the way there. Things you’d pass easily, not realising they were there.

After our usual Paesano pizza lunch (Alex’s turn to pay) we went back to the GOMA and got some more photos. I wasn’t impressed. Nothing much had changed since my last visit. From there we went down to Princes Square where Alex wanted to test out his new lens again, inside this time, in the dry. It had been raining all day. I watched fascinated as four ladies equally spaced went up on the escalator. I suggested to Alex that they looked exactly like the old shooting galleries in the fair. The ones where you had to shoot down the moving targets with an air rifle, back in the bad old days!

By that time we were getting thirsty, so we had a coffee in the cafe in Princes Square. Coffee was black and weak. Wouldn’t darken their door again.

At the bus station I managed to get on the X3 with literally minutes to spare.

47 Photos taken today and not one chucker among them! That must be a record.

I’d messaged Scamp to say I didn’t need any dinner, but she’d heated too much of last night’s tagine, so I did have a few fork fulls of it just to fill a wee space. We couldn’t decide whether to keep the remainder or put it in the bin. Since the main protein had been chicken, I felt it would be safer to put it in, and that’s what happened.

A good day, but a pity about the rain. Just over 11,000 steps which isn’t bad.

PoD was the escalators (without targets) in Princes Square.

Tomorrow we might be going dancing. High winds forecast.

A busy day – 20 August 2024

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Much of my work had been done yesterday. Today was Scamp’s day.

I took the easy way out and drove to Glasgow. I’d a shirt to exchange at Slaters which was easily accomplished and that left me enough time to get my hair cut and my beard trimmed . Much easier getting somebody who knows what he’s doing to do the work than trying to work with cutters and scissors while staring intently in the mirror. I also managed to find time to source some white chocolate for the topping of the cake Scamp was baking. Easy, especially if you’ve planned your route in advance.

Not so easy was getting to Glasgow in the first place and getting home again as the council had decided the roundabout at the bottom of the road needed a sprucing up, complete with 4-way traffic lights. There had been no notice this was happening, so it was a nice surprise!! Ratbags!

When I got home, after another 15 minute delay, stuck in the queue, I realised I’d forgotten to get olives. Rather than face the queue again, I walked down to the shops and got the olives, then got soaked walking home.

After a change of clothes I was given the job of finding, and clearing, the table in the living room where it lay hidden under a pile of magazines, cables, SSDs, a computer and assorted rubbish (all mine). Then finding a place to put said rubbish where I’d find it again when needed.

After that I helped out in the kitchen with the fiddly bits of dressing the Portobello mushrooms for the starter and re-heating the main course I’d made yesterday while Scamp made the pudding. All achieved just in time to welcome John & Marion.

Dinner was:
Starter: Portobello Mushrooms with Cheese, Spinach and Parma Ham
Main: Chicken Tagine
Dessert: Baked Apricot Brioche.

It was a good night. Lots to discuss. The new grandchild for J&M, Erin. John’s new car, (although he says it’s Marion’s), a Renault Clio and a hybrid to boot! Holidays were discussed and days away too. Much later than any of us intended we let them go and we started the clearing up.

Another glass of wine for Scamp and a small whisky for me and it was time for bed.

PoD was a view looking down Buchanan Street from the opposite side of the subway entrance.

Plans for tomorrow will start with whoever is making breakfast, switching on the dish washer. I’m intending meeting Alex for a photowalk in Glasgow.

Out in the morning and in the afternoon and then again later – 19 August 2024

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Out in the morning to get my blood results. The good news is that I am no longer described as Diabetic. The bad news is that it was only by one point on the scale. I hoped it would be a better result, but I’ll take it and keep eating a healthier diet without sugar. Still, another possible step forward is there removal of Bendroflumethiazide from my daily diet of pills. It’s not a long term removal yet, I’ve another meeting with the Sister next week to check if that reduction is working for me.

Back home I had time for a sandwich. A piece ’n’ tinned salmon to be precise before I was off again to another health centre, this one in Muirhead to get an injection to prevent a virus called Respiratory Syncytial Virus, (RSV to its friends) from getting its hooks into me. Half an hour out of my day seemed a worthwhile offering for a better winter.

Since I was in the wilds of Muirhead, I drove home by the long road with a chance of some photos looking over to the Campsies. Not much to see today, though. Just half a dozen horses in a field on one side of the road and a farmer’s field of just-cut hay or silage on the other. I chose the second option, because I’m not that keen on horses and at least the landscape doesn’t walk away when you’re trying to photograph it.

We had been for ‘messages’ in between Nurse 1 and Nurse 2 and had stopped for petrol on the way home, but the petrol pump didn’t recognise my card, so I had to use my backup one, the one I made myself from an old bus pass and a bit of wire. That’s ok in an emergency, but I really needed to get the proper card fixed.

So when I got home from Nurse 2, I had a shopping list dictated to me and off I went again up to Tesco and the Bank. I tried the faulty card in their machine and it spat it out too, so the nice lady in the bank gave it the once over before telling me I needed a new one. Probably it will get to me some time this year. Until then I can just use the old bus pass with the bit of wire.

I got the ‘messages’ in Tesco and tonight I chopped them up, boiled them with some other stuff we had lying around and made something that didn’t taste too bad and hopefully will make a dinner for our visitors tomorrow.

The PoD was the photo of the landscape. A bit cobbled together, but not so much that you’d notice. Not my best work.

Various plans for tomorrow. Which one we choose is, as usual weather dependent.

Oh yes. I’ve been told to say that I was only joking about making a card from an old bus pass and a bit of wire. It was a pass from school I used!

Another stay at home day – 18 August 2024

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Dull and a bit cool for August. Nothing to make us want to go out.

Didn’t even want to take any photos today, although later in the day I did take the camera for a walk in the garden.

I’d promised I’d wash the downstairs back windows and that’s what I did. A bucket of warm soapy water and a combination sponge scrubber and squeegee made short work of the windows. A quick wipe down with a polishing glove and the job was done. As promised!

While I was busy cleaning windows, Scamp was potting up some geraniums into bigger pots.

Eventually I got round to taking some photos and at Scamp’s suggestion, it was the miniature sunflowers time to shine. They have slightly smaller ‘faces’ than normal sunflowers, but very short stems. Barely 250mm overall height. Their big cousin is still growing in the same raised bed and is not far short of 2m at present. Another ‘carder bee’ appeared to have a closer look at the sunflower!

We couldn’t decide what to have for dinner tonight and it eventually turned out to be Tempura Prawns with Ayrshire Potatoes and Peas. An odd mix and the prawns weren’t anything to write home about, but the potatoes were lovely.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his birthday fish ’n’ chips with Simonne at the seaside. We also discussed the problems of removing ourselves from the clutches of BT.

Tomorrow I’m expecting to see the nurse in the morning then a vaccination to look forward to in the afternoon. Getting my money’s worth from the NHS!

No Dancin’ today – 17 August 2024

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Usually on a Saturday we drive to Brookfield for dance class, but today after some discussion, Scamp decided she didn’t want to go today because her course of treatment for her cystitis isn’t complete yet. I agreed with her decision.

It turned out to be a dull day. Not a lot of sunshine, in fact hardly any, but no real rain showers either. Just a dull, Scottish Saturday. The furthest we went was a drive to ‘The Shops’ to get some messages and something for tomorrow’s dinner. We usually walk there, but were going to be carrying back two message bags of stuff and I made the decision not to do that, but drive instead. After all, that’s what we bought the car for!

I went out for a walk in the late afternoon. Just one circuit of the pond at St Mo’s and it was actually quite pleasant at that time. The PoD was a Moss Carder Bee, a fluffy, gingery bumble bee that sometimes has brown and orange stripes. They get the ‘carder’ name from their habit of combing material together (carding) to create a covering for the cells in their nesting place containing the larvae. There you go! You learned something today … and so did I!

I didn’t come straight home, but walked over to Condorrat to get a small fish supper with two pickled onions for Scamp and a Special (bigger fish coated in breadcrumbs and deep fried) fish supper for myself. I was shocked at the price I had to pay, but it was worth it for such lovely fish.

Nothing worth watching on TV, now that the Turkish Detective is finished, so if anyone has any suggestions of what to watch on iPlayer, please let us know.

Finished my latest book ‘Down Cemetery Road’ by Mick Herron this morning 4/5 on Goodreads. Definitely recommended to all. Now I’m prowling round Amazon looking for something else on Kindle.

No real plans for tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Jamie – 16 August 2024

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Good to see you took the sensible approach and worked from home today, Jamie.

We’d talked about going to Edinburgh, but I wasn’t in a rush, so told Scamp she should go to her FitSteps class first. While she was there I messed around the house and had a long hot shower to ease my back which is still giving me grief some days. Scamp returned early from the class, and she didn’t look well. She knew herself that she had a little infection and phoned the surgery. After the usual questions they said the nurse would give her a call later in the morning. Good as her word, the nurse called back and asked a few more questions and said she’d leave a prescription at the desk in the health centre. About half an hour later I drove to the health centre, picked up the prescription and had it filled at the chemist next door.

That was us home for the day. No big deal, because we can go to Edinburgh next week some time, all being well. We may even have to forego tomorrow’s dance class too. You have to be sensible about these things.

Lunch for both of us was tea and toast. Neither of us was all that hungry. The afternoon dragged a bit, mainly due to the weather which was looking rainy without actually raining. Plus there was a cold wind blowing. Scamp was looking better and more relaxed too, so I took myself upstairs to do a bit of painting with some watercolour markers Fred had recommended. I wasn’t really impressed with the quality. The markers themselves had very coarse brushes and the ‘pencil’ end of the double ended markers was a bit soft. Just cheap markers, pretending to be something better. However that made me set up an easel and start painting with real watercolour. Just a wee landscape that will probably never see the light of day, but it kept me amused and out of Scamp’s hair for an hour or so.

I also got the PoD. Two roses in the garden had had their petals blown away in last week’s gales, leaving their stamens and pistils exposed, but in bright colours. The title of the PoD is Naked Roses! That should generate a few views!!

Alex sent me a message late in the afternoon to say that the Environmental Health people had visited and sprayed some white powder over the wasp nest and sealed off the room they are in. They were told not to open that room until the experts in their “Ghostbusters Uniforms” returned in a week’s time. I’m sure he will obey those instructions. I told him that I think the white powder the bloke was spraying might have been ‘Oofle Dust’. It always seemed to make things disappear for Sooty!

That rain never came today, but the wind was strong and the temperature was dropping away rapidly. Almost, as the weather forecast man said, as if it’s already autumn. Do you think there’s a way to get our money back for the summer we never had? Answers on a post card, please.

Tomorrow we will wait to see how the invalid is before making any judgement on what to do with the day.