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The morning after – 27 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I don’t think either of us slept much last night.

However, today was a new day and we packed the laptop up after breakfast and drove in to Glasgow with it. We explained the problem to the girl in John Lewis. We’d bought it on-line from JL on Thursday, but that didn’t seem to matter, we’d bought it from JL and it wasn’t working. She checked and they had one in stock, so did we want a refund or a replacement. I think we were both shocked that it was as simple as that. After a bit of a problem at the till, we walked away with another laptop exactly the same as the one we’d left on the JL counter.

Still shocked, we went for a coffee and then a walk down Buchanan Street. Me for watercolour paint and shower gel and Scamp for shower gel because it was a special offer that closed today. Rain and sun all day, but we weren’t caring. Drove home via Tesco for basics. Milk and eggs and a bottle of rum.

We started the machine and it began to fill up One Drive right away, then complained that there was no space, but we had a solution, thanks to Jamie. I logged into a free trial of Microsoft 365 I’d had in December last year and paid for a year’s family membership. That meant I had Word, Excel and an assortment of other goodies, plus 1TB of One Drive that I probably won’t fill. More importantly, Scamp had Word, Excel and even more goodies plus another 1TB of One Drive and that 1TB stopped OD complaining about no space!

Scamp has been happily filling up her computer and its cloud storage with photos today. I’ve been the on-line help.

PoD turned out to be a photo I took in Glasgow just outside the GOMA in Exchange Square of a bloke wearing a tabard which declared that he was a Tour Guide. There were a few of these people in and around Glasgow last year, but there seems to be a lot more this year. Last year the tours were free with the hope that some folk would contribute a few pounds. I listened to this bloke for a few minutes today and he was quite interesting, talking about the Tobacco Barons of old. I also noted that he had a fairly decent crowd round him. Maybe Alex and I will join one of the talks some day.

Today’s prompt asked for A Feather. I decided I’d just draw for a change with such a fragile subject. It looks a bit rough as if it’s been pulled through a hedge backwards. Maybe it has been.

Tomorrow Scamp is going to the celebration of the life of a long time member of the choir.  I’m dropping her off and then driving into Glasgow. Our car has a recall to get the mounting of the front seats checked.

Computers! – 26 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The morning was all about putting more things in the new laptop.

Later we realised that One Drive was clogged solid and was wanting more space to put the data from the old PC. There seemed to be no way to unclog it and by lunchtime it was obvious that the data wasn’t going into the space we’d allocated for it on the C: drive. This surely wasn’t right. It got to a stage where the only sensible thing to do was to restore the machine to the way it was in the morning, when everything was working.

It took it a while to do that, but by the time dinner time came around, it had restarted and with a few omissions it was running just the way it had in the morning. We set it aside and had dinner after a few arguments.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard how he runs his PC in conjunction with One Drive. It sounded a lot easier than the way we were doing things. Maybe that is the way to go.
Good to hear that his Bee Orchids, whose flowers actually look like bees, were looking good. He even sent us a short video to prove it. By the time he hung up, and we’d watched the end of the Monaco GP, we had an outline plan of what to do to get this laptop show on the road.

Except it didn’t work out like that. When we turned the laptop on, we were met with a BSOD. The dreaded Blue Screen Of Death. The death of the laptop. It wouldn’t boot. From about 8pm until just after midnight, Scamp and I tried every possible combination of the multitude of problem solving hints and tips that were appearing on the blue screen. Nothing worked. Eventually Scamp made the corporate decision to go to bed and suggested we take the broken laptop back to JL in the morning. When she had gone I tried another alternative solution, using old fashioned DOS, but got nowhere. It’s now a quarter to one and I’m going to bed too. Hopefully the Techs at JL will come up with a solution.

PoD was an Aquilegia taken in the rain, just to be a place marker.

The prompt asked for a bitten apple. This one has definitely had a little nibble taken out of it.

Tomorrow, realistically later today, will surely be a better day than Sunday.

Dancin’ – 25 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Back to the grind again, driving over to Brookfield for an hour and a half of dancing.

It started with Mayfair Quickstep danced to a new piece of music which didn’t really fit the dance I thought, but what do I know. The next one also the Mayfair was to the traditional tune and it worked fine.

Next up was a Rumba which we’d dance a couple of weeks ago. Most of it came back to me after a couple of tracks, but then Jane added in some pointers to make it look a bit smoother and although I’m not always a fan of her additions, the Ball Flat she taught, where you step on the ball of your foot before you drop on to your heel, did make the dance much smoother and quieter!

The next dance was what’s now called the Four Seasons Waltz. At last we have settled on a name that works in any season of the year! It worked well. We both kind of knew it, but again the emphasis was on teaching us the techniques. In particular it was the ‘Sway’ which is a big part of waltz. I found that quite difficult. I could do the correct steps but not the sway or I could do the sway and forget what the next step was. I think that requires some practise.

We finished with a Bellissima Cha Cha which was less than bellissima from my point of view. It was one we’d learned years ago during lockdown. It was another one that came together after a few runs through.

After that we were set free again to drive back home through some folk’s panic to get to a football match between Glasgow Rangers and Celtic.

Back home, a chicken and potato omelette brought me back to normal after the drive and the dancing. I went out for a walk and wandered around St Mo’s for a while. That’s where today’s PoD came from. It’s some Speedwell flowers. Not as good as the photos Jamie sent of his Bee Orchids growing in the garden.

Today’s prompt was Towel Day (Hitch hiker’s guide to the Galaxy) or a Walnut. I’ve drawn a towel before for the Douglas Adams tribute, but this year I opted for a Walnut instead. I don’t think Douglas would have minded. Complicated things walnuts, the fruit reminded me of a human brain with all its whorls and symmetries.

Scamp is looking through photos on her new laptop that seems to be going well. I might have a wee dram before I go to bed. It’s been a tiring day.

Definitely no plans for tomorrow.

Waiting, Waiting, Waiting – 24 May 2024

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For the DPD man to call.

Scamp’s new laptop was due to arrive today, but eventually we got the message that it would arrive just after 1pm and as usual with DPD, it was right on time.

I’d forgotten how many times you have to sign your life away when you’re setting up a PC. Macs seem to be much easier and lighter on the crap that comes with the computer and nobody really wants. Eventually it did its inevitable updates and restarted four or five times, then we finally got to play with it, well, Scamp did. I was Tech Support today. The lady in the shop where we didn’t buy the laptop told it was easy to get the files and data from the old computer and on to the new one, but then she told us that anti-virus software was desperately important and that McAfee wouldn’t slow the system. I just shook my head and smiled. I knew she was lying, because her lips were moving. The in-store sales team will tell you anything to get your money and get you out of the store. We had gone by the short cut and ordered online from JL. No lies to listen to, just pay the money and wait for it to arrive.

Setting up the machine was fairly easy, but getting it to load the data and files from the old one took a good 2 – 3 hours. First it wanted to load all that data on to One Drive, got stuck and told us that we’d need a bigger One Drive. That’s when I got hot under the collar and removed One Drive, then put the data back old style by copying it from the backup I’d made in the morning. Now, only about 8 hours after we started it’s beginning to look like a real computer. It’s actually got a nice clear screen and the sound from the B&O speakers impressed Scamp’s musical ear. We’ll see how easy it is to work with after a few days.

I did manage a quick walk in the afternoon after waiting for a downpour to clear. Just a few minutes of really good light, but it cheered me up from the struggle with Mickysoft. PoD was a low level shot of dandelions with their bad hair day look after that rain.

Dinner was Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti (from a tin). Just what I needed.

Today’s prompt was A Tree. This is a tree across the corner from me. Like many of the trees this year, it had no leaves until the beginning of May, then tree and leaf growth went into overdrive. I think it was the warm weather coming after a decidedly wet and dull spell of weather. All the trees around seemed eager to be out in leaf. The lightly sketched car is intended to give an idea of scale.

I’ve just discovered what a good, comfortable chair the Poang from Ikea is. I’d a sore back after all that peering over the laptop keyboard. An hour with Angry Birds on the Poang relieved the pain.

The teachers are back from their latest voyage and I think we may go to dance class tomorrow to demonstrate all the things we’ve forgotten!

 

Raining again – 23 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Just light rain early in the morning, but it got heavier later in the day. I think it’s time for the clouds to turn the tap off now.

We had another discussion this morning and decided to order the laptop from John Lewis.

  • Same price as everywhere else
  • They had them in stock (not display models)
  • They do next day delivery
  • Two years warranty

No brainer.

I drove over to Tesco to get some missing elements for tonight’s dinner which was Lemon & Turmeric Chicken. It was the second one this week to turn out ‘ok’, just ok. It might have been tough chicken thighs or maybe it needed to be cooked for longer. Neither of us was all that impressed. HOWEVER! The Rhubarb & Custard Pie that Scamp made was excellent, I thought. Scamp wasn’t all that complimentary about it. It’s a bit of a faff to make, but I’d say it was worth the effort. Plenty left for tomorrow.

While I was in Tesco I bumped into Fred and we had a blether for about 20 mins with topics covering: Chemists, Surgeries and Painting we also discussed Rishi Sunak standing in pouring rain, with no shelter or umbrella, announcing that the General Election will take place on the 4th of July. Why?

When I got back and after lunch Scamp had started making the aforementioned Rhubarb & Custard Pie and I went for a walk in St Mo’s just as the rain started, but unlike Rainman, I had a raincoat on. One decent photo of a field of buttercups. That became PoD.

Today’s prompt was for a Gift Loop or a Gift Bow. Since I had no idea what a Gift Loop was, I chose a bow instead. It eventually morphed into a red bow on a green box which probably held a gift or maybe it would be a Jack in the Box. That would probably have been funnier, but it’s done and dusted now and cannot be changed. My drawing – My rules. The judge’s decision is final.

Hopefully if DPD are as efficient as they usually are, they should deliver a big box tomorrow. Not too early I hope, but not too late either.

Today the rains came – 22 May 2024

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One of those days when you knew the weather had indeed turned for the worse.

Well, I guess the plants don’t see it that way, They are desperate for some fresh water even if it’s at the loss of some of the heat they’ve become used to.

<Technospeak>
Scamp had been complaining for a while that her watch wasn’t synchronising with her phone. We tried a few of the tricks resetting the phone and the watch we even did a soft reset of the watch. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually we did a factory reset of the watch and installed a new update that seemed to clear everything. It only took about three hours to work out the best way forward, with a stop for lunch in the middle. However, we did get it going in the end, but sometimes you just have to rely on your instinct rather than the wahoos who claim to be gurus.
</Technospeak> (Not seen that warning in a long time Jamie)

The next thing to do was investigate the situation with a new laptop for Scamp. Her storage is being eaten away and the battery is failing, so a new machine is on the cards. We thought we’d found an ideal solution in the HP Shop. But then we checked them on Trustpilot and it looks like they are going through a rough patch. Lots of complaints of punters paying for goods that just don’t appear. HP claim a delivery within 2 working days, but 2 weeks seems to be the norm. After another look round the stores, we decided that the HP store are a bit too risky

We’d had some spits and spots of rain during the day, but then the rain got heavier and heavier. I stood at the back door to shelter and took today’s PoD of wet roses in the rain. The title was “Raindrops on Roses. No Whiskers on Kittens.”

Not long after that the distant rumble of thunder came from the east and it rolled along the valley heading west. I didn’t actually see any lightning, but there was plenty of thunder.

When the rain finally abated, I drove down to Tesco to get a bag full of veg to make a stir-fry for dinner. Usually I buy an M&S set of protein, veg, noodles and stir-fry sauce, but today everything was either from the store cupboard or bought fresh or as fresh as Tesco veg is. It wasn’t the best stir-fry, but bits of it were good. Good enough to try again another day.

Today’s prompt was A Staircase.
My sketch was Just an attempt at a sort of perspective view of a dangerous looking open plan staircase. No handrail! No balustrade! No soft fluffy cushions to break your fall. It was a Health & Safety nightmare. Should have a warning “Do not ascend after drinking alcohol.” Parachutes an optional extra.

No dance class tonight.  We’re not sure why. Maybe too many people called off because of the weather. Maybe something came up and Kirsty wasn’t able to run the class. I’m sure we’ll find out in due course.

Tomorrow, perhaps the search for the world’s best laptop will continue.

 

Change of plan – 21 May 2024

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We’d planned to go somewhere today on the train, but it looked like the weather was changing and there was just the chance of rain.

Scamp was the one who suggested we should take the train down to Largs on the west coast and from there we could catch the ferry to Millport, a town on the island of Great Cumbrae which is in the Clyde Estuary. However, looking out the window this morning it looked like we wouldn’t see much sun today, so we changed our plans.

Instead, we decided to go out looking for a particular plant trough to replace one Scamp wants to put into summer storage. It has held daffodil bulbs for the last six months. The flowers have now gone over and the plants need to be allowed to rest and rebuild their strength for next year. So we need a new trough to fill their space in the front garden. We drove to Klondyke Garden Centre, expecting to find one there, but they didn’t seem to stock that style. They did, however have hundreds, perhaps thousands of new plants, and we couldn’t leave without buying a few. We had a coffee first and a cake each to give us thinking time in the slowest cafe I’ve ever been in. The cakes were good, though!

Scamp eventually settled on a box of Violas and another of Lobelia, plus I got a pot of Marguerites, what my mum called Big Daisies. Marguerites always remind me of her. We drove home, but stopped at Calder’s Garden Centre, still looking for that trough. They had one that was almost a match, but was really too big to fit in the space. I suggested we try Home Bargains where we’d tried last week and were unsuccessful. Hopefully they would have restocked their shelves and have the troughs. Our luck was in. They had one left. It left with us. Scamp had also bought a pair of sandals in Klondyke and they went into the trough along with the plants which made it much easier to carry them into the house … just as the rain started. The temperature had been dropping when we reached Klondyke, and the clouds were massing, but now it was looking like we’d made the right decision, leaving Millport for another day.

I hadn’t taken a single photo all day, so I grabbed the A7 and took a few of daisies, ordinary daisies in the back garden. One of them made PoD. Just as well, because the rain continued all evening.

Dinner tonight was Pea and Lemon Risotto. An interesting mixture which Scamp made. We both liked it, but commented that there wasn’t enough to make a main meal. We’ll alter the quantities and try again some time because the flavour was good.

Today’s prompt asked for A Bicycle. This is my Kona Dewdrop. It was a great bike in its day, but now, like me it is retired. It doesn’t get out much, mainly because I don’t like riding it on the busy road around where I live and I don’t have a bike carrier for my car. I really should make the effort and take it off-road some day now that the weather is getting warmer. Maybe I will do that this year.

Watched the first Sewing Bee of the year later and both agreed on the person who left.

No plans for tomorrow, but we need to practise the Waltz.

 

Gardening again – 20 May 2024

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Quite a busy day. Lots done for a change.

Today started with a visit to the doc’s, well to the practice nurse who confirmed what my optician had suspected, that my sugar levels were high. Not enormously high. A reading of 87- 88 is considered safe. My reading of 89 is considered high. One point over the limit and you are caught out! That doesn’t seem fair to me. However she was quite nice about it and gave me three months to put my house in order, with lots of sensible food suggestions. Unfortunately Jam Doughnuts weren’t to be seen anywhere in that list.

Back home and after lunch we drove up to Home Bargains and got two 50L bags of fairly decent compost. Drove home and started filling a tub for the new rhubarb plant, Victoria, with the sodden compost. I think they must have had it soaking in a paddling pool before the put it out for sale. I used Monty Don’s technique for repotting where he puts the plant, in its old pot, into the new pot, fills the compost around the pot, almost burying, it then removes it, takes the plant it out of its original pot and puts it into the cavity he’s created in the new pot, of course, it fits perfectly. Really smart Mr D. Even although the compost had been wet, I gave the plant a good soaking.

While I was doing that, Scamp was pruning some tangled weeds and roses from under the apple tree. She’s determined that she will limit it to two fruits on each branch this year to reduce the strain on this old tree.

It was too good a day to waste, so we sat in the sun for a few hours, reading and drinking lemonade (no additional sugar lemonade.) Dinner was the remains of Saturday’s chicken with pasta and a rich tomato sauce. Dinner was a bit later than normal because we both had good books to read and the sun was lovely and warm.

PoD was taken in the garden and is a Primula Japonica which is a candelabra style Primula with concentric rings of white flowers running up the stem. How many rings? I’ll tell you when it stops producing them.
I just photograph them, Scamp is the one who grows them.

Today’s prompt was for A Cloudy Sky. We have our fair share of cloudy skies in Scotland, but thankfully for the past week it’s all been blue skies and fluffy clouds. However, the weather folk are telling us to be prepared for wet weather and strong winds from Wednesday. If it comes, I’ll console myself with the knowledge that the garden will love the rain.

We do have some plans for tomorrow, but it depends on whether the weather holds.

Off the leash again! – 19 May 2024

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Scamp was off at midday. Going to see the Strictly Professionals in the Armadillo.

Before she left we had a phone chat with Hazel and heard that things are returning to normal again after Rita’s funeral. I think it has taken more out of then than they had anticipated. I’m sure the mid-term break and the thoughts of the holiday will give them something to look forward to.

I dropped Scamp off at the British Legion, where she joined in with the rest of the FitSteps ladies who were going. No men appeared to be interested. My duty done, I drove out to Westway Retail Park where I was intending to buy some bags of compost … but not today! There were crowds of folk coming and going from the Home Bargains store which was where Scamp told me the best bargains in compost were. I’m sure there were bargains to be had, but there were no spaces in the carpark, and I do mean NONE. If that’s how busy it was outside, what was it going to be like inside. I drove home via Tesco and bought a loaf to take home.

It was a cloudy day. Lots of high white cloud that the sun couldn’t penetrate, so I got the grass cutter out and chopped the grass in the back garden, shifting all the pots as I went to avoid having to use the strimmer. It didn’t take very long to hover mow the grass, but it did take easily twice as long to clean the mower afterwards. By the time I had finished and put the mower back in its place, the sun was starting to cut through the cloud and the place was getting that little bit brighter. I dug out some compost from the raised bed and used it to earth up the two potato bags and the potato pot. That was the extent of today’s gardening.

After a cup of tea the sun was indeed shining and it was warm enough to take out a garden chair and read in the sun. The Black Dog by Kevin Bridges was today’s book. A bit of a scrambled start, but then the real story had started. I don’t know if it’s been part ghost written, but the language seems quite flowery for Mr B, in places. I’ll see how it settles down.

Later in the afternoon I thought I’d go over to St Mo’s to see if there were any damselflies or dragonflies. There were both, but the damselflies were busy making more damselflies while the single dragonfly seemed to flying circuits round the pond. Eventually it rested on a horsetail, quite near to the boardwalk and I managed to get a few (about 30) shots of it. One of which got PoD.

Dinner for me was some of yesterday’s chicken with potatoes, chives and tomatoes and it was almost as good as yesterday’s.

Just before 8pm I got a text from Scamp asking to be picked up from the rooftop restaurant in the town centre. It seemed that the show was a success, although it wasn’t exactly what she’s been expecting.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their garden. What was growing and what was not. Simonne is off on her travels again, this time in England.

Today’s prompt asked for a Ball of Wool. This is not an exact spherical ball, more a disjointed cylindrical woollen object with hemispherical ends. So, to my eyes it’s a ball of wool, but I’m sure my daughter will correct me and tell me it’s yarn, not wool. It is what it is, and it was easier than I thought to draw.

We may go looking for compost again tomorrow, hoping to find a quieter time.

The First Damselfly this year – 18 May 2024

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We couldn’t decide what to do today, then Scamp suggested we go for a walk in Drumpellier park.

It had been very misty earlier in the morning but that soon burned off to reveal a lovely day. We walked counter-clockwise round the big pond and then walked into the trees. The trees are beautiful at this time of year with their lush green leaves. So much brighter than in the middle of summer when they darken down. We bumped into a wee excited boy with his mum. They had seen a deer and a squirrel. We walked on and chose a random set of paths to follow but too soon we were out of the woods and onto the converter belt of folk who just walk round the tarmac path that edges the pond. Scamp suggested we turn back and walk along a path that runs parallel with the tarmac path, but much deeper in the woods. That’s when we saw a deer. I don’t know if it saw us, but either it was quite used to humans walking through the woods, or it hadn’t seen us. It just crossed our path and walked into the dense woodland, lost to us. I wondered if it was the one the wee boy saw. We didn’t see any squirrels though.

Scamp’s navigation was spot on right. She told us where we would come out of the deep woods and on to a path we’d walked before, but in the other direction. The path took us back to the ponds and there in the ponds I saw the blue flash that could only be a damselfly. Indeed it was. I didn’t manage to get a clear shot of it, but I did catch another, dark yellow one and it became PoD. First damsel this year.

It was really warm today, so we got a couple of cones at an ice cream van then found a seat to sit on and watch the world go by.

We drove in to Coatbridge intending to buy the laptop we’d seen yesterday in Stirling, but unfortunately the only one they had was the display model and Scamp was adamant that she wasn’t taking that! Instead, we crossed the road and got a chicken for roasting for dinner, milk and some veg. Then we drove home for lunch, because all that walking had given us an appetite.

After lunch, Scamp went into the garden to sit in the sun and read. I changed into shorts and boots and walked over to St Mo’s and there I found, not only damselflies, but also a couple of dragonflies. Very early in the season for them. I forgot to mention yesterday that I’d seen the first swallow of the year. They are our late spring or early summer visitors and always brighten my day.

Dinner was great. Chicken was lovely and moist and Scamp’s crushed potatoes were equally good.

I was running a bit late yesterday, but yesterday’s prompt was for a cream cake. I think this one fits the bill. Layers of sponge alternating with layers of butter cream. Then the whole thing studded with strawberries, blueberries and a few brambles from the freezer. I’d eat it, given the chance!

Today’s prompt asked for A Game. The game I chose was Chess. I used to play it a lot, but once you stop playing you loose the rhythm of the game and it takes a long time to remember the patterns and the strategies. I really should go back to it, but it’s difficult to find a chess club where I live. Like so many things, computers have taken over and, while they are great for learning the game, playing against a human opponent is much more satisfying, even if you lose, which I did a lot!

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to go and see the Strictly show in Glasgow with the rest of the FitSteppers. Hope she enjoys it.