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All Day Dancing – 2 November 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Up fairly early for breakfast with the other dancers.

A leisurely breakfast then it was time to go down to the torture chamber again and bolt on the dance shoes for an hour long Quickstep tutorial. Actually it was quite interesting and although the steps did indeed come quick and fast, we both agreed it was danceable, after a fashion. The big problem was the number of couples, all wanting to be on the dance floor at the same time. Probably upwards of 70 folk.

We worked our way through most of the routine and once the hour was up, we agreed that, with a bit of practise at home, we could master this dance. It was called the Hoabie Quickstep if you want to look it up.

We went for a walk round Perth afterwards. I bought coffee and tea in The Bean Shop. We stopped to watch the River Tay for a while and I got PoD which was a bloke looking at his phone with the autumn trees in the background. We’d forgotten that the ‘glasses’ in the room would be plastic tumblers, so we splashed out and bought four glass tumblers. Then it was back to class for an extra, hour long, Salsa lesson by Gillian and Peter, who we’ve been dancing with for a few years now. They were concentrating on a set of moves called Exhibela which translates as “Show Her Off”. I found it a bit awkward and we were about halfway through the class when we realised they were dancing a different style from us. We dance Cuban salsa and I think they were dancing LA style. After that, we just amended the moves to fit our style of Cuban. It was a good workout for the hour.

We had a longer break for lunch which was a panini in Nero, then we read in the room for an hour or so before we had to get dressed in style for the evening ball. Dinner was great until the chefs appeared to run out of Pavlova for the dessert! When it eventually arrived the meringue was hard and the fruit tasted strongly of onions! Scamp reckons they were either using the knives that had been used to chop the onions for the main course or they had used the cutting board for the onions, to chop the fruit on. Either way, it was a bit of a let down. Wish I’d ordered the ice cream.

However, we were her to dance and we danced our little feet off for another three hour stint. Afterwards, we crawled upstairs to bed with the music still ringing in our ears.

Five hours of dancing and another hour to look forward to tomorrow!

FitSteps to DanceSteps – 1 November 2024

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Dance Steps on a Friday?

Scamp went to FitSteps in the morning and I started selecting my clothes and shoes for the dance weekend.

Today we drove to Perth for the three day extravaganza. The destination was The Salutation Hotel. It opened in 1699 and has the original floorboards judging by the squeaks and creaks every time you walk across one of the rooms. We were in a second floor room which had a shower. A couple of years ago we were in the top floor which had a shower, but no running water. Maybe that’s too critical, it did have running water in the shower if you didn’t mind waiting for half an hour for it to build up a sufficient head of steam to get the water up to the third floor. It’s a listed building and lots of the corridors had a list too. Some even listed in two directions along their length. I’ll leave it there. We weren’t really bothered about the rooms, we were there for dancing, Three days of dancing.

Arrived and parked after innumerable roadworks and diversions on the way. We picked a road that looked like it was going our way, and let the sat nav do the difficult stuff. With Scamp’s help, it took us right to the entrance to the car park. Parked the car and carried our dresses, shoes, suits, changes of clothes and a bottle of gin round to the hotel.

A condensed list of the day:
Got the key and found the room.
Dumped the bags and went out for lunch in Nero.
A dull, wet day, so we didn’t hang about.
Dinner served in the restaurant of the hotel
Dancing started around 7pm …
… and went on until just before midnight.

Absolutely exhausted.

By the way, the photo is the view from our room. Putting the “B” in Brutalist.

Tomorrow, more of the same.

Dancing, Dancing all the day – 31 October 2024

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Yesterday we were at dance class and today we were dancing at a Tea Dance.

I struggled in the morning to find something to photograph, because I knew we were going dancing in the afternoon. There is so little time in the morning and by the time the tea dance finishes, these dark days approaching winter, there is no light worth talking about, so it was going to be an inside photo, which is always a get-out, but!

I already had a subject, an inside subject. All I needed was a display. A cardboard box and an old CD container covered with a scrap of velvet to disguise their angular shapes into smooth curves gave me a pedestal for the bow tie I made yesterday. Anyone who has tried to tie a bow tie will know how devilishly difficult it is to do, even standing in front of a mirror. Especially when standing in front of a mirror! Try doing it with a cup as a ‘neck’ and tying it from behind the cup. It’s utterly impossible … almost. I did manage it at my third attempt, only because I found the hidden loophole you have to thread the part made tie through. That is what you have here. Today’s PoD is the Star Wars Stormtrooper Bow Tie.

The dance was quite well attended, but for some reason, Stewart had decided to concentrate on Sequence dances. They are a bit too repetative for my liking. They are useful, it’s true because they are repetitive. They generate muscle memory and you can almost dance them in autopilot, almost, but not quite. We did dance one freestyle waltz, Waltz Nioli which is fairly simple but with some more advanced steps. We also dance a decent Cha-Cha without getting it too wrong or missing out the occasional couple of steps. The second half of the tea dance was devoted almost entirely to Sequence, but we joined in anyway.

Today was the final of this year’s Inktober. The prompt was Landmark. It just had to be The Kelpies. Anyone who has seen them and walked round them, knows they are special and you feel as if the are moving with you. They are massive, dwarfing any visitors to Helix Park in Falkirk, but not in a bad way. Yes, The Kelpies are a great closing image for Inktober 2024.

This was probably the worst and least imaginative collection of prompts I’ve seen. Also the increase in AI ’sketches’ and ‘drawings’ done on iPads has been exponential this year.
</Rant>

Tomorrow Scamp may be going to FitSteps and I might try to get a photo or five in the morning.

A working day – 30 October 2024

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I was making a bow tie today and Scamp was gardening.

In the morning, Scamp decided to go shopping by herself. I started planning out the making of the bowtie.

I was using what some Quilters and Crafters call “Fat Quarters” and the fabric was cotton with a repeating Star Wars stormtroopers patter n because I thought it would fit in well with an upcoming “Black & White” evening dance.

But first, Scamp had returned and it was time for lunch. Banana sandwich for Scamp, Sunday’s stew reheated for me. Then it was back to the bow tie.

After carefully measuring a previously successful bow tie, and checking it twice as all good craftspeople do, I cut out the four patterns needed for the tie. It was then I realised that maybe I should have been more careful with the orientation of the ‘Stormies’, but it was too late now.

I ironed on the interfacing which stiffens the tie on one side only of a matching pair of parts. From then on it was just a case of joining pairs of parts together (right sides together), stitching all round the perimeter apart from a pinkie length of gap on one side and easing the entire bow tie right through the gap and shaking it out. Ironed it next then sewed up the gap. Then it was time to see if it fitted, and if the storms would be sitting right side up. First attempt was a bit of a disaster when the tie unknotted itself. Second attempt was a success. I’d even managed to get the Stormies sitting the right way up!!! Delighted.
Although, if it had been Sewing Bee, the participants would have sewn a full outfit in the time it took me to make a bow tie!

Scamp had been strimming the edging of the front grass and was tidying the pots and together we put them back in their places.

There was just enough light left by then to have a walk in St Mo’s. Today’s PoD came from there and is Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus sericia)

Today’s sketch prompt was “Violin”. Not much leeway there, but luckily I’d drawn one before, although this is a poor comparison when viewed with the original. Still, it’s finished and just about to be posted.

Lovely piece of haddock for dinner tonight. Great fat chunky pieces of fish with some chips. That’s a good midweek dinner.

We were dancing Paso La Paz tonight. Lots of stamping of feet and posturing. The jury is still out on whether it was taught correctly or not. I’m not going to be drawn into that argument.

We may go dancing tomorrow or we may not. We’ll wait and see.

Out to lunch – 29 October 2024

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I’d said we might go out somewhere today and we did.

It wasn’t quite the place I was thinking about. Instead of driving, we got the bus to the town centre and from there another bus to Dunfermline. After a coffee in Nero, we had a walk around Pittencrief Park and spent a good half hour or more in the glasshouses. Actually it’s one big glasshouse that’s divided into three spaces. Despite the time of year and the cold outside, the plants were mostly all growing well and the carp in the pond were getting even bigger than the last time we had been there.

I took 48 photos, 46 of them in the glasshouses and two outside. There were quite a few exotic specimens inside. A purple/blue Brazilian Spider Flower which does actually look like a spider. A Japanese Lantern Plant, and PoD, a pair of tiny little parachutes like the feathery dandelion clock seeds, but with a spiral tail. Have a look and you’ll see what I mean.

Eventually we went for a walk around the formal gardens. All the rose bushes are untouched still, I expected to see them cut down to the ground. But very few flowers to be seen. Just one or two around the paths.

From there we walked up through the town and had lunch in Wetherspoons. Not the best we’ve ever had, but it filled a space. I ordered Roasted Cauliflower and Spinach for Scamp and Chicken Jalfrezi for me. What came was Chicken, presumably Jalfrezi, for Scamp and probably Beef Madras for me. We should have sent them back, but had started them before we noticed. I must say that is the first time I’ve had a poor meal in Wetherspoons. Scamp has complained about it when she has been in the Cumbersheugh Wetherspoons with her pal Mags, but my food has always been fine. Must be more careful and critical in future.

We walked back to the bus station via M&S and arrived at the stance about two minutes late. Didn’t even see the bus leaving. That meant a half hour wait for the next bus. Lovely scenery going back. Beautiful light on the hills and I was in a bus, so couldn’t stop to take photos. Never mind, I was sure I had loads on my card, and I was right.

Watched Bake Off tonight and didn’t get the result we were hoping for. I suppose that’s life.

While we were out, I got a call from Val. I don’t think he’s keeping very well. I might go and see him this week or next.

Today’s prompt was Navigator. I sketched a Silva Compass, just like the broken one I’ve got in a drawer in my room. The design hasn’t changed much in the fifty odd years since I bought it … the price has!

No big plans for tomorrow. I might make a bow tie for Saturday.

Shorn – 28 October 2024

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My last haircut was back in August. It was time for another one.

First I had some stuff to do on the computer. I was struggling to work out how I managed to get the upgrade from Big Sur to my present operating system, Monterey. I’d made cryptic notes on how to do it, but they lacked the fine detail I now needed. It took me until evening to work out what I needed to do. Eventually I gave up for the night and am writing the blog before I get sucked into that rabbit hole again.

Today was dull again and with lots of things to do and no interest in doing any of them, we both completed Wordle and Spelling Bee and then decided it was lunch time. After that, there was no reason not to, so I did the decent thing and spent a tenner and got my hair cut. It’s not until you do it, that you realise how cold that wind is blowing through your Number 4 on top and Number 3 on the sides. Worse, I didn’t have my woolly hat with me.

Next, after the shearing, I was heading to Jim Dickson’s to get a price for the repairs that were needed to the car … except there was a big delivery van blocking the entrance and anyway there was no room at the inn, even for a wee blue car, so I pencilled it in for tomorrow and drove over to Fannyside to get some photos over the loch an into the hills. By the time I got to the loch, the visibility was low because on a dull day like today, the evening comes quickly. Two shots and I was done. Headlights came on when I was driving home.

Pasta Carbonara for dinner tonight, made the proper Italian way with eggs, cheese, bacon and fusilli. NO CREAM. I’d been well warned by Val. I’d used Pecorino cheese and maybe that was what made it taste very salty, or maybe it was the bacon. I don’t know, but I ate it anyway, as did Scamp.

That was about it for today. PoD went to a massively altered view of the wind farm beyond the loch at Fannyside. Who says there’s anything wrong with AI?

Today’s prompt was Jumbo and this is Jumbo, a Nellyfunk. Another photo found on the Interweb and sketched, simply because there aren’t too many Nellyfunks wandering around Scotland, these days. I blame the cold weather, the rain and Keir Starmer.

Tomorrow we may go out for a run somewhere and I’m not forgetting the pencilled reminder to speak to Mr Dickson.

Everything is upside down – 27 October 2024

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It’s changeover day from BST to GMT. It’s happened since 1916! It must have been a greater pain back then!

Once we’d changed all the manual clocks, apart from one which I realise I forgot to turn back, we could settle down for a while, well, Scamp could settle down. I was heading up to the health centre for my annual booster jags. One arm for Flu and one arm for Covid, then I could go home to relax after I’d done some shopping.

Then we could relax for a while because Scamp was going to an exhibition by a local dance troupe hoping to fund a visit to take part in the Easter Day march through New York. All the witches were going and I was picking two of them up when they were ready to come home.

I spent a lot of the afternoon working out the best way to upgrade the old SSD that runs macOS Monterey to macOS Ventura. I’m still not entirely sure it is possible, although I’ve done a similar update a couple of years ago. I think I’m ready for the challenge which may start tomorrow. The other thing I did was make the stew for my dinner tonight. It looked a bit bland after it had been cooking gently for an hour and a half, When Scamp returned later in the afternoon, she took one look and said three words Too Much Water. Now I’ll know for the future. The third thing was to walk to the shops to get replacement CR 2025 for my loupe magnifier. The shop had plenty CR 2032 batteries, but no 2025s. Maybe tomorrow.

On the way to the shops I noticed a child’s wooden train wagon lying in some leaves. It looked as if it had been run over a few times, but it was still recognisable for what it was. A couple of shots secured its image for posterity. That toy made PoD.

Then came the message from Scamp to say they were ready to come home. By now it was around 6pm, dark and raining. It took me more than the half hour I’d allowed to find the restaurant the exhibition was in, and only then after I’d phoned Scamp to say I was lost. As it turned out I was right next to the restaurant and must have looked a proper fool!

The stew was a lot better than it looked and I’ve got the other half of it to make lunch for me tomorrow. Too much water and too much flour on the meat. Those were my take-aways from today’s cookery class.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about his week. Which was a difficult one, reading the eulogy for a person he worked with. I didn’t envy him that task and was glad that I never had to do that when I was working.

Today’s prompt was “Road”. Quite open ended and I enjoyed drawing cars running round a figure of eight track. Nothing amazing, but it covered the prompt.

As far as I know we have no plans for tomorrow.

Dancin’ – 26 October 2024

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Off to Brookfield on a sunny morning in October wondering what the torturers oops, teachers would have in store for us today.

We didn’t have to wait long. The menu started with a Queen of Hearts Rumba we thought we knew, but obviously didn’t. After the second one we more or less had it.

Next was the October Waltz which was new to about half the class and nearly caused a fist fight between me and Scamp. As it happened, for one I was right. It was all about one back step which Scamp said I didn’t have to do, but on review later, I did have to do or I’d end up starting on the wrong foot. It was a simple wee dance with figures we already knew, just not in the order we were to do them in.

To cool things down, we did a Midnight Jive. Not my favourite by a long way, but at least we didn’t argue about the steps, because they are burned indelibly in to our brains.

The next dance was a Cha-Cha which deteriorated into a free-style Cha-Cha and one we stumbled through, or to be more correct, I stumbled through.

One more sequence dance and we were free to go. Can’t remember its name, but that’s no loss.

Drove home over the Kingston Bridge which allowed us to travel at 40mph all the way over. The easiest drive home from Brookfield we’ve ever had, I think.

The sunshine we’d had in the morning stayed with us well into the afternoon, but later everything dulled down and it felt like the sky was preparing for evening. PoD was a photo of a strawberry flower growing in the garden. I don’t believe it will ever produce fruit that will ripen, but the deep red flower held my interest.

Today’s sketch was Camera. I didn’t try anything fancy, like the camera obscura I was going to draw and instead just drew a fair representation of my A7iii with the kit lens that lives on it these days.
Half of the time I had one eye on the sketch and one eye on the progress of the dancers on Strictly, but, it being Halloween week, the antics of Craig Revel-Horwood and Anton Du Beke as two evil twin sisters really stole the limelight from the other two.

Up and out fairly early tomorrow because I’m booked for my combined Flu and Covid Jags. Oh what fun. At least I get an extra hour in bed because the clocks go back at 2am tomorrow. Scamp had her jags last week.

 

New Shoes – 25 October 2024

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Scamp was off to FitSteps in the morning which left me with the opportunity to finish my book, but as usual that didn’t happen.

Instead I doodled with some sketches and took a longer view of yesterday’s photos. It’s amazing the difference it makes to go on a photo walk with someone who’s seeing the views for the first time. Alex hadn’t been to Edinburg for about 30 years, he reckons, and a lot has changed in that time. Looking through his eyes, opened my eyes to subjects I’d ignored. We must try it again sometime.

After Scamp returned, we talked about where to go and what to do with the day. Her idea was to go back the dance shop and have another look for shoes for me. I wasn’t so keen, although there was one pair I didn’t dislike, let’s put it that way. It might have been something I said, or more likely something she said, but I made the decision to try those shoes again. We drove to Rutherglen by a different route that took longer than the one given by the satnav. I hate it when it gets it right. I tried on about five different shoes and settled, after some discussion with self, on a lovely soft pair of Black ’n’ Whites. Of course Scamp found a cheaper pair in the sales stock. So both of us came home with new shoes.

We went for a coffee and a cake in Tesco, just along the road from the dance shop which gave us a chance to discuss our purchases and to test for Buyers Remorse, but there was none to be found, so we’d done the right thing for once. Drove home by the satnav’s instructions, just to show that there were no hard feelings.

By the time we were getting home the light was failing and there was a mist beginning to reduce the visibility. I might have managed to get a photo, but I decided not to. Instead, I photographed my new shoes as a still life, almost in black and white.

The prompt for today was a fairly easy one, Scarecrow. This was almost a 15 minute sketch, because it just flowed out. Not all of them have been like that this year, in fact very few have been and I’ve read a load of comments about the lack of interesting prompts.

I had a glass of 0% Guinness tonight. Barry, on of the dancers we meet at socials recommended it to me and said it’s difficult to tell if it’s alcoholic Guinness or zero percent you’re drinking and I agree totally with him, even the creamy head is there. Worth a try.

We’re intending to go dancing tomorrow, but the new shoes will be staying in the box until their memory banks are fully charged and the data has been transferred.

Off to the Far East – 24 October 2024

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It was a fairly early rise for me, well, for us. I was meeting Alex at 11am in Glasgow to catch a bus to Edinburgh. £16 return to take the train and £0 to take the bus. A no brainer … or so we thought.

We did meet up in the bus station and got seats in the bus without any problem. I thought the bus would only stop at the bus station in Edinburgh, but as it turned out you could press the button to request a stop anywhere. We got off at Haymarket and walked up to Ladyfield and walked through the ‘canyon’, where Alex got his first taste of the architecture that had appeared in the last twenty odd years. We spent a fair amount of time investigation photographic opportunities.

After I managed to drag him away, we went and had coffee in the wee Nero that Scamp and I use regularly. Next was a walk up to the Grassmarket where a lot of green and white flags were waving. There was also a lot of singing and banging of drums signifying a football crowd. As it turned out, it wasn’t Celtic, but a team of football supporters from Cyprus, Omonia Nicosia who were making all the noise. A good natured crowd.

We walked up the steep West Bow and marvelled at the amount of people happy to wait in a queue on the street to gain entry to the Harry Potter Museum. We weren’t all that interested in Harry, but we took a few photos of the crowds. It was there that I got today’s PoD. I spotted two girls on a high walkway above West Bow taking photos of the crowd. That was an easy PoD.

We continued on up to the Royal Mile and St Giles which Alex wanted to see. I had never been in St Giles and it was a well lit building, but surprisingly, noting great to photograph. We left there and waked down the long Playfair steps and finally got somewhere to eat in the National Gallery of Scotland’s restaurant. Maybe I’m getting more critical of eating places, but I wasn’t that impressed with it and maybe a bit overpriced. Foodies!

We decided we’d done a fair bit of Edinburgh, so we found the bus station and got on a bus to take us to Glasgow. The journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh took about an hour. The journey back to Glasgow took just over two hours. I think there might have been problems on the motorway because the road was jammed solid with traffic just crawling. When we did eventually get to Glasgow it was another 40 minutes to get home.

In retrospect, maybe it would have been better to pay the price of the train tickets, rather than sit in a bus that was crawling along the motorway. That would have been £16 well spent.

Prompt for the day was Expedition and it turned into a childish sketch of an expedition of aliens preparing to take off to Earth from a distant planet. A poor prompt deserves a poor sketch.

We have no plans for tomorrow, other than not going to Edinburgh on the bus.