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Kelpied – 24 September 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were all Kelpied!

Today dawned dry but a bit dreary. However, it soon brightened up and we thought we’d risk a run to the Kelpies. It all went well until we were almost at the M9 then the car seemed to be misfiring, which is strange because it had been running so well since its last service. I hadn’t bought petrol from anywhere other than my usual two petrol stations and I hadn’t run the level down until the red light came on. So that should rule out the possibility of a little bit of dirt getting in to the carburettor or the jets, whatever it is the Juke has. Made the decision to detour via the Nissan garage in Stirling, where the service manager came to see what the problem was. He gave it a fair run through the gears, fierce acceleration and gentle driving, but could not replicate the problem. There was little more the poor man could do, but he took it in to the service bay, put it on the computer and pronounced it clean. No problems listed. Finally he suggested we drive off and if the problem reared its head again, we should book it in for a full day check. Clive and I were puzzled. We couldn’t agree on a possible cause and he knows a lot more about cars than me. It ran perfectly for the rest of the day.

Got to the Kelpies and wandered round them just taking them in. Glad to see that Clive was equally entranced with these beautiful equine sculptures. We both took lots of photos of them from different angles and in different lighting conditions. Scamp was also taking photos, but I think we were the subjects. People are more important than places to her and that’s probably her greatest photographic strength. She captures people very much better than me.

From Grangemouth, we said goodbye to the Kelpies and headed round the outskirts of Falkirk to The Falkirk Wheel. The giant boat lift was one of the things that Clive had wanted to see and we arrived just as it was doing a lift, so he got to see it in action right away. I took the car away to park it and met them in the shadow of the great wheel where we discussed the mechanics of this modern wonder. We waited for another boat to be lifted and after a swift look in the visitor centre, I found the one ticket machine that was working and paid for our parking. For a visitor centre which was meant to show this wonder of engineering design, there were a host of machines with OUT OF ORDER signs on them. Almost nothing of any note was working. Poor show Falkirk. Drove home and arrived just as the rain was starting.

PoD was a view of the Kelpies reflected in the turning pool of the canal.

Tomorrow we may go to Glasgow, but it depends on the weather.

The Visitor Arrives – 23 September 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were meeting a visitor from down south.

Drove to Glasgow Airport to meet Clive who was travelling up to Scotland from Southampton. I’d asked him to bring some southern sunshine with him and he was as good as his word. The sky had been a dull grey in the morning, but by the early afternoon the sun had come out to play and it stayed that way for the rest of the day.

We were surprised that he arrived so promptly because this morning it was announced that Thomas Cook had ceased trading and thousands of customers abroad were being brought back home in what was called the biggest repatriation since the second world war. The media really do like to dramatise things, don’t they. However, hype aside, we had thought there might be more congestion at the airport, but we needn’t have worried. It appeared to be business as usual. No Dakota DC3s in camouflage paint disgorging hundreds of disgruntled holidaymakers. Just the usual mid afternoon business flyers … and Clive.

Scamp made Chicken, Leeks and Peas for dinner. We had a wee dram and Scamp introduced Clive to the joys of playing the piano. He’s had the first lesson tonight and will go on to the more advanced stuff tomorrow. We sat and talked and discussed music and Hi Fi stuff and albums we’d enjoyed many years ago. Not much else to say really. Just a good relaxing night.

Today’s PoD was taken just before we left for the airport and is Scamp’s Little Gems rose, grown from seed.

Tomorrow really depends on the weather. If it’s good, we’re off to see the Kelpies and the Falkirk Wheel. If it’s not, then probably Glasgow Cathedral and Kelvingrove.

Rain and battered birds – 22 September 2019

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Rain and battered birds.

Maybe it was the heavy rain that caused the pigeon to thump into the kitchen window.

Woke to rain, just drizzle to begin with, but then it got heavier and heavier before it tailed off to drizzle, then began the cycle again. It used this set of options a few times before it finally gave up and turned off the taps around midday.  That was when we heard the thump form the kitchen.  I guessed, right away that it was a bird strike, in fact, a pigeon strike.  They usually make pretty ‘angel patterns’ on the window and often there is a dead bird lying underneath the pattern.  Today there was just a wet mark on the window and a stunned looking pigeon on one of the branches of the tree.  We kept a weather eye on the poor thing and eventually it flew off for further adventures, thankfully unharmed.  Speaking of birds, I just realised yesterday that I hadn’t seen any swallows this week.  Perhaps they’ve flown back down to warmer climes.

<Technospeak>
By then we’d had lunch and I’d been searching for about an hour for Autodesk Mechanical Desktop 2008 to draw my lens hood on the slightly more modern Linx computer. Unfortunately it wasn’t going to happen and I thought I could rely on the old fifteen year old Toshiba laptop running Windows 7 to complete the job. That’s when I found that although the Win 7 laptop said it could see the Epson printer, it was in fact lying. Why oh why do windows computers have such a problem connecting to printers. In the end I downgraded the Autocad file and successfully ported it across to the Linx which couldsee and connect to the printer. Such a faff! Anyway, I finally got the development printed.
</Technospeak>

Welcome back JIC. With the development printed, Scamp said it was time for me to take a walk outside in the rain to get some photos, and more importantly, some fresh air. I agreed. When I came back, the Spatchcock chicken was roasting away nicely in the oven and a glass of sherry was waiting for me.

Watched a boring Singapore GP while we ate our chicken. Looked for Sort-of-cousin Colin in the crown, but didn’t see him! Annoyed by the result, but the person on the top of the podium worked for his money today. I’m not saying who it was, just in case somebody reading this hasn’t seen the results yet.

Spent the rest of the evening flying around Scotland in X-Plane using a new flight plan construction software called Little Navmap which is so much simpler than trying to click on knobs to input waypoints and destinations. Heavens, this is the 21st century, not the 19th. No steampunk junk here thank you very much!

Today’s PoD was a raindrop hanging from a pine needle in St Mo’s. It sort of marked the day.

Tomorrow, Clive arrives, hopefully. Glad he’s not travelling with Thomas Cook who seem to be in serious trouble.

Another day on the bike

Posted on by Zogman

That makes it sound as if I was cycling all day. It wasn’t really like that. Not quite the Tour de France.

Neither Scamp nor I could decide what to do with today. We didn’t really want to go in to Glasgow again, besides, there were four Orange Lodge marches planned. Four! Thats about five too many for me, and before you say, No, I don’t want any of the Republican marches either. So where else could we go? Stirling was discussed and rejected. I offered to drive us to Mugdock park, but that didn’t fit either today. Finally we went to the Fort for a cup of coffee and a wander around the shops. I got some bits and pieces to hopefully make a prototype of the lens hood.

After a Costa lunch we came home and I got changed, dropped the back seats on the Juke and took the bike down to Auchinstarry. The actual carpark at Auchinstarry Quarry was completely full. Not one space, so I turned and drove up the the Hebo House and found one of the last four available spaces. Took the bike out and cycled off down the railway path as far as Twechar and that’s where I got today’s PoD. It’s an old garage that looks good in glancing low sun. I just missed that sun by about an hour today. I’ll check with an app tonight and try to get there at a better time tomorrow. There are apps for absolutely everything these days. Mine is called Photo Pills.

Back along the canal into the headwind, but I didn’t mind, because the sun was shining, the birds were singing and it was warm. It’s still quite warm at 11.42pm and I’m sitting here in a short sleeved cycling shirt and jeans, feeling quite comfortable. It can’t last. It won’t last. We’re forecast to have some rain tomorrow evening

Back home again I started the next phase of Make The Back Room Look Liveable. After an hour of moving stuff around it looks like a room again. Just a few things to shift tomorrow and we’re ready for Clive.

No plans for tomorrow. No dancing booked and like I said it’s not looking as clever as it was today. However, we had a good day today, so shouldn’t grumble.

Today I peed in a bucket – 20 September 2019

Posted on by Zogman

It was a bit more high tech than that, but basically that’s what they do for a ‘flow test’.

It’s the tech below the bucket that does all the clever stuff, measuring the rate of flow and producing a graph. Apparently I’d produced a classic bell shaped graph which is perfect. The nurse also gave me my PSA reading from the blood test and explained it all. The reading was 2.2 for those who understand such things. Way down the scale from the 5 I was producing back in February/March. She also showed me my blood sugar reading which was 47, but that was down from the 50 I’d had back in June, so it’s now off the Diabetic range and into the Pre-diabetic area. You’re never ever going to get off the scale. Once they’ve got their hooks into you, they don’t let you go.

So it was a Happy Boy who left Monklands with Scamp this afternoon. A little bit less to worry about. Back home I sorted out my car insurance which was another thing I was reminding myself to do before the end of the month. One thing left to do is pay the Road Tax. That has to be done before the end of the month too. September is always an expensive month. It used to be March, for the same reasons!

Scamp wanted to do some gardening when we got home, so I did the sensible thing and took the bike out for a run in the surprisingly warm sunshine. It’s not often I can go out on the bike with shorts and a cycling top. When I was out I got some more brambles, but I think this lot will be the last. I didn’t see any ripening fruit. It was either ripe or turning to mush. We’ve got a fair bit this year, almost 2kg now. Freezer is full of bags bulging with deep purple berries.

PoD was almost a tie between a macro of a Cranesbill (Geranium maculatum) and an HDR shot of some corn bales. The corn bales won. What surprised me about the HDR shot was the way the camera just took over and did it. So easy! (I’m not going to explain what an HDR shot is because JIC will just complain about technospeak!).

That’s about it for today. The day I peed in a bucket and got a bell shaped graph. I’m sure there’s a joke in there somewhere. Tomorrow Scamp wants to go out somewhere if it’s ‘nice’. Neither of us have a clue where that place is.

Talking to HAL 2000 – 19 September 2019

Posted on by Zogman

It was all going so swimmingly. A sure sign failure was on the horizon.

Got the train in to Glasgow today after Scamp gave me a run to the station. Got my hair cut and indulged in a bit of politician bashing with the political barber. Went to look at a possible new camera in Jessops and then in JL. That’s when the message came in and the day turned sour. Message from the health centre to phone about my results. Phoned the doc and had to endure the now annoying half a minute of condescension from one of the doctors, explaining how a good health centre works. Nothing like the one I was phoning. Finally got through and asked to check my results. Gave my name, address and DOB. A lot of grunting and things being bashed about on the other end of the line, eventually ending in:

“Was it blood results?”
Yes.
“Are you having them done here or at central?”
I’ve had them done. I got a message to phone about my results.
“Oh” <more bashing and phones ringing>
“You’ve to make an appointment with the practice nurse.”
OK, but what about my results?
“That’s why you have to make an appointment with the practice nurse”
Can’t you give me the results?
“I don’t have a medical background, I can’t give you details”
Can’t you give me the numbers then? <This is when the receptionist turned into HAL>
“I’m sorry, I’m afraid I can’t do that”
Hmmm
“I’m sorry, did I say something funny?” <Oh dear, that’s ‘light the blue touch paper and retire time. I felt like saying “Did you really say that?”>
So you want me to make an appointment. I’ll phone next week and do it.

Now that I think about it. I believe she didn’t actually have the results in front of her. That’s what all the banging was about, she was trying to find the results. Either that or she had found what she thought were the results, but there were big words on that bit of paper and she couldn’t read them. I ended the call there and walked away fuming.

Walked down Bucky Street, going over the conversation in my head. Did she really say that? Should I report that? Make a formal complaint? Nah. Just put it to the back of your head (nicely coiffed, by the way) and go for a walk, so that’s what I did.

Wandered around taking pictures and bought myself another, allegedly simple, pattern for another waistcoat. Took some photos down Bucky Street, Queen Street and the GOMA. Finally arrived at George Square to find that battle lines had been drawn. West side and all the pubs therein was commandeered by Feyenoord supporters. East side by equally noisy and steamin’ Rangers supporters, with about twenty police trying to keep the peace. Good luck with that. Took a few photos of that too and then got the bus home.

Ranted at Scamp when I got back and gave another version of the conversation to her. Than “Dug and Burst Ba’” (Can’t let it go, got to keep worrying it), phoned the surgery and got a different receptionist, a human who told me my PSA was fine and my sugar was a bit high, and I made the appointment with the nurse. All over in less than a minute. HAL 2000 must have left the building.

Last story of the day, and this one is interesting. Scamp found a thin silver ring when she was doing even more tidying this afternoon. She cleaned it up and I did some research on the Internet. It was made in Glasgow, Assayed in Edinburgh and dated around 1860. Probably belonged to either Scamp’s or my Great Grannie, or maybe even Great, Great Grannie. Just a wee ring sitting in a bowl. What stories could it tell? I photographed it with the macro lens. What would the lady who owned it think of me taking a photograph of it with a tiny little camera and looking at that photograph on an illuminated sheet of glass that can let me talk to people on the other side of the world?

Today’s PoD is the head of a dragonfly from a walk in St Mo’s this afternoon. Walking without a jacket too. Lovely warm day.

Tomorrow I go to the Hospital, basically, to pee into a bucket. No other plans.

Dancing day four of four – 18 September 2019

Posted on by Zogman

But before we go dancing, some blood must be donated.

Drove up to the health centre for my 9.10am appointment with the blood taker. Not the cleanest or most painless donation ever, leaving me with a fairly large bruise. However maybe it was her first blood letting of the day. Nobody is perfect.

On to the rest of the day and more importantly, the ongoing saga of the NAS drive. Today I managed to get into the control page of the WD MyCloud and it told me after a fair amount of time wasting that my firmware was up to date. This I find hard to believe when I’ve had warning after warning that the firmware needs to be updated. In fact I have had Fourteen such warnings now, the last one being this morning! I downloaded the most up to date version and tried connecting the MBP to the drive directly using a cable but when I tried to install the new update I got the message that there wasn’t enough space on the device to install. There is only about 700GB of space on the drive, but I’d have thought that would have been enough. I checked to see if I was misreading the instructions, but no, for once, I’d done everything I was asked. After this last attempt, the drive seemed to go on a go-slow and wouldn’t do anything without a ten minute wait. I gave up and got ready for today’s dancing.

Today we were back in Blackfriars and I was in a Black Mood. However, my mood brighten when I heard the music. That’s one of the reasons I keep going. The music is bright and cheerful. Not so bright and cheerful were the other couple who had returned to the class after about a six month lay-off, apparently because of illness, as yet undisclosed. A new start today when all us beginners were partnered with an advanced dancer. Quite a revelation to me. It was good to be guided by an expert. Not that Scamp isn’t a great guide, but these ladies have many years of dancing experience over us. Really good idea, Michael.

Today we were going over what we’ve been taught for the last three or four weeks and trying to clean it up and get out of bad habits, so no new moves in Jive, Waltz or Quickstep. A good chance to consolidate.

On the way to Blackfriars I grabbed today’s PoD. One of the protesters who have now become a fixture outside the City Chambers on George Square. Every day, one of them is sitting with a loud hailer spouting their demands to anyone who will listen. Come rain or shine they are there. It wasn’t rain today, nor was it really shiny, but this bloke was sitting there playing his pre-recorded spiel.

Back home I got fed up and performed a restart on the NAS and left it to get on with it.

After dinner we went to Salsa. We knew that the 6.30pm class was closing and that Jamie G was giving up teaching on Wednesdays. Personally, I think this is the thin end of the wedge and the next announcement will be that he’s giving up teaching salsa completely for perhaps a year, to devote more time to his ‘day job’, but we’ll have to wait and see. What we didn’t know was that the STUC building is to be demolished to build houses. Where will we go on a Monday night now? Didn’t learn anything new here either but went over some old favourites.

Came home to find the drive running like new. For how long, I’m not willing to say. It works, for now.

Tomorrow I may get my hair cut.

Big Dancefloor & Hill Walking – 17 September 2019

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Easily achieved my 10,000 steps and my 8 active hours today!

Out to Milton of Campsie to a fairly new church hall for an extra dance class today. Big hall, but only three couples again. We went through our paces with Quickstep and Waltz, then had a go at the Over the Rainbow set for Jive. I think we were slightly further ahead than the other two, but not by much and the size of the hall was a bit off-putting to start with. We still managed to get in folks way when dancing, but not as much as at Blackfriars. I think we’ll go back again.

Back home, Scamp was gardening as usual, but the sun was shining, so why not. I grabbed my wee camera bag and took it for a walk up Croy Hill. I’ve been meaning to climb it for a few weeks now and, as the weather was kind today, that seemed like the ideal opportunity. I made the mistake of parking at Auchinstarry which meant I had to walk up the path to the start of the real assault on the hill, but I will remember that I can park nearer to the interesting part of the hill and forego the slog up from the car park.

The main hill was fine, although it was hard going when you haven’t done this sort of thing for a few years. Great view from the top, all the way along the valley and across to Glasgow too. The light was lovely on the Campsie. Took a couple of groups of shots for an extended panorama, but Lightroom baulked at it, so I had to use Autopano Giga which apparently has been bought out and discontinued by another company. Such a pity as it was an expensive, but really useful panorama maker. It was based on a free program, but the company who developed it added lots of bits and pieces that made it far more user friendly. That’s the way of things these days. After all that, I wasn’t that impressed with my pano, much preferring the view across to Bar Hill, the next Roman fort on the line of the Antonine Wall. That’s the one that got PoD.

Tonight I tried to update the firmware on our NAS drive, but it was a complete disaster from start to finish. It’s a Western Digital MyCloud and it’s as slow as treacle on a Mac. On a PC it’s no problem. I thought the ‘automatic updater’ had ‘bricked’ it, but it came back on line again after a cold restart. Might have a go at a manual install tomorrow.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to give some blood for my PSA test and for a diabetic check. Best to get them both done at the same time.

When a plan goes awry and Mickysoft get it right – 16 September 2019

Posted on by Zogman

It was one of those days where I’d planned what I wanted to do and how to do it.

It was one of those days when the planning went to pot right from the start. I had an idea that I could install an old version of AutoCad that I got, legally, years ago in the Linx. The installation went well after a shaky start when Windows 10 kept interrupting to tell me it was time to “Get back on track”. This happens occasionally and if I tell it to go ahead, it just clears the screen and displays the annoying message again, and again, ad nauseam. I finally clicked “Update and Restart”. It didn’t update, just restarted, but when I looked the “Update and Restart” message had gone, so for once, Win 10 was satisfied that I was back on track. Now I could settle down to installing AutoCad. The installation went well and then when I clicked the icon the spinning wheel spun for a while, stopped spinning and so did AutoCad. Tried again with even less success. Not even a spinning wheel to infer that something was happening. I closed the laptop and went upstairs to avoid Gems.

I had been intending posting a parcel to Hazy and driving in to Glasgow in the morning. It was now early afternoon, there was no point in going in to Glasgow now and a black cloud had descended on me, but I did get the parcel posted Hazy! Outside the sun was shining, but I couldn’t be bothered to take any of the cameras with me for a walk, so I just went for a drive instead.

It was a good idea to take the laptop upstairs, because when I was out, I remembered that if you right click on a recalcitrant app on Win 10, you can sometimes encourage it to work by coaxing it into believing it’s running on an older OS. That’s what I did and after some number crunching it decided that the old AutoCad would work better in Windows XP, probably the most resilient and trustworthy OS Mickysoft has made. Tried it and it worked. How amazing. Everyone said that AutoCad 6 wouldn’t run on anything newer than Windows XP, even Microsoft said so. Then they make it believe it’s running on Windows XP and it works!! Sometimes Mickysoft do get it right. After that I struggled for a good hour trying to remember the commands and tweaks to draw in AutoCad. Just in case you’re wondering what I’m drawing, it’s a portable, One Size Fits All, foldable lens hood for the Oly and Panasonic lenses. Yes, I could have drawn it old-style on paper, on a drawing board, with instruments, but where’s the fun in that?!

By the time I’d managed to draw circles and straight lines properly it was time for Salsa, the black cloud had gone. In the last night of the intermediate class we covered an old move, Elliem which I should know, but couldn’t get right tonight. Also a new move which was much more complicated, but I got right every time. Don’t know how that happened. In our advanced class we did three new moves called New Move 1, New Move 2 and New Move 3. How we’re going to remember which one is 1 and which one is 3 next week I do not know. Also found out that Jamie G is not going to be teaching on Wednesdays after the end of September, due to pressure of work. That’s a pity. A vacuum that will need to be filled.

It may be partly filled by a new ballroom class we’re hopefully testing out tomorrow in Milton of Campsie, which is a bit of a trek for us. We’ll have to see what it’s like.

PoD was a grab shot of a cactus that’s been growing happily in the downstairs toilet for about 30 years. It’s a fair size now, but the original plant is still there, growing in an ice cream tub that came from Netherburn! I really should replant it.

Tomorrow hopefully dancing in a new venue and more AutoCad tutorials to read.

Clean and Tidy – 15 September 2019

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Scamp was having a cleaning day today, and just for the fun of it, I got involved too.

My target today was the top of the chest of drawers in ‘my room’. It’s not seen the light of day for manys a long year. By the time I was finished it wasn’t exactly clear, but about four or five inches depth of detritus had been chucked out or stored, mostly stored to be brought out again in a couple of weeks, but some dried up pens and odd bits of paper were consigned to the bin. Lots of photographs and paintings were put into long term storage and it even amazed me, some of the things I found. It’s not finished yet, but it’s a good start. I have to admit it’s beginning to look like a room again.

After lunch, Scamp decided it was dry enough to cut the front grass and I left her to it, grabbed my raincoat (just in case) and headed off to St Mo’s with not real chance of getting anything decent, but the sun was out and so was I, and that was good enough.

Saw a tiny black dragonfly on the boardwalk of St Mo’s. Stealthily crept forward stalking it and taking great care not to let my shadow fall on it, a sure way to spook a dragonfly. I was down on my knees just grabbing today’s PoD when I had the feeling that someone was behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and a black and white dog was standing behind me looking agitated, probably because I was blocking his path. I got up and apologised to him and his owner who just laughed. He probably wondered what I was doing crawling along the boardwalk, but then saw my camera and thought “Eejit”! Probably right too.

Found another three dragonflies, red ones, later in the walk playing musical chairs on four logs. One would lift off and that would cause all of them to circle around for a while before settling down again, then another one would take to the air and it all started again. They seemed to take turns at it.

Finally got a decent shot of a Painted Lady although it was quite far away. It was being blown about on the breeze, all over the place.

PoD went to the Black Darter (Sympetrum danae).

Danced at the Record Factory later. Met some girls we haven’t seen in years. Good to catch up.

Tomorrow it’s Gems and Salsa in that order, all being well.