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On the road north – 6 April 2016

Posted on by Zogman

P4060006- flickr--98--97Waited in for the postman hoping that he’d brought the paracord camera grip I’d ordered on Saturday. He had and it’s really neat, much neater than I could make. Fits well and black to match the ’10 – that’s their new names sorted. One’s the ’10 and one’s the ‘5. Much better than Oly’s ridiculously long names. Anyway, it arrived and I’m pleased with it. Got all the bags loaded into the Megane and we were off by 1pm. Weather was as predicted, sunshine and showers. Good April weather. Traffic was light with only one slow 40mph max Lordy to contend with. Once we were past that it was plain sailing up to Fort William. We did get stopped at the edge of Rannoch Moor by police because of “filming”. A mile or so further on we saw the film crew working a boom mounted camera just off the road. Didn’t see any stars though. Bummer. Arrived in Fort Billy just before 4pm. Room is ok. Just a room. Going swimming now. A chance to compare and contrast.

Well, we did compare and we did contrast and the overall result was that home’s best. The Ben Nevis leisure centre had a better pool, a much better pool, the sauna was not as good as Westerwood and the steam room was much the same. The changing facilities and showers at home were much better, so overall it was a home win, but that pool was really good.

Biggest disappointment was the room, or to be more precise, the location of said room. Right on top of the kitchen, which meant that from about 6.30 until 9.00pm the extractor fan ran non stop and there was the banging of trays and pots you’d expect in a hotel kitchen. We just didn’t expect to have it relayed into our room. However, when the kitchen closed, the noise stopped at 9.00.

Dinner was good. Scamp liked the chicken pakora we shared and we both enjoyed fish and chips.

Walking in the Sunshine – 5 April 2016

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combo bScamp had Elevenses booked with her sister and Lunch booked with a friend today, so I had the day to myself.

After a wee natter with Hazy on the phone, learning more about my latest apps (Thanks for the links the first one especially is just what I was looking for), I took myself off to buy my dinner (Steak pie) from the butchers.

With the sun coming and going when I got back, I thought it would be a shame to not take advantage of the light and went for a walk along the railway line. I’d really intended to take the Nikon, but forgot that I’d put the Oly in the car when I went to find my dinner, I only noticed when I got to Auchinstarry and thought that if two heads are better than one, then two cameras would be too, so I stuck the Oly in my jacket pocket (a tight squeeze with the 45-200mm lens on) and off I went, but not before getting a 15min sketch done of a strange wee house near the canal.  It wasn’t quite in the open air, I was sitting in the car, but I timed it and it wasn’t done from a photo or a tablet screen.

The weather was much kinder than it had looked with a bit of a breeze, but nice warm sun. The breeze was helping the clouds to scud across the hills and I got some record shots to be the basis of some possible paintings later. I liked the light on the robin which was sitting on a branch across the burn from me, at least 4m away and the picture above is a severe crop to the centre of the frame. The blossom is a bit of a cheat. The branch was actually hanging vertically downwards and I rotated it when I cropped it in Lightroom. That gave me a diagonal composition and also helped remove some extraneous branches that were getting in the way. Not a big cheat, but a cheat none the less.

That’s about it really. A pleasant walk along the railway to Dumbreck and back. Saw a couple of deer feeding, but they were in the middle of a little stand of trees and I couldn’t get a clean shot. I tried of course, but the results weren’t all that inspiring, so they went in the bin. I’m being a bit more ruthless with my thinning out these days. The external drives fill up at an alarming rate otherwise.

Moody Monday – 4 April 2016

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P4040124- flickr--95It has rained almost all day, but that’s ok, because it produced today’s PoD which is a water drop of the curve of a tulip leaf with another tulip leaf or two behind.  Taken with the somewhat bypassed E-PL5.  That shouldn’t be the case, because the E-PL5 is an excellent camera.  In some ways it surpasses the E-M10 in that the rear screen has even more flexibility than the ’10’s and the EVF can flip vertically to allow the camera to be at ground level with the photog looking down through the viewfinder and out through the lens rather than lying prone to get one eye to the viewfinder as is the case with the ’10.  Without the EVF, it’s just that little bit nearer too which is a great advantage for taking candid shots which I occasionally do.  I used the kit lens for the above shot and it makes a fine fist of the job.  For some reason, the ’10 doesn’t like the kit lens and produces dark blobs which look like dust bunnies but aren’t.  I’ve checked with my sensor checker lupe and the sensor is clean.  The lens also had a problem with the aperture leafs sticking which caused the ’10 to overexpose occasionally, but the ‘5 hasn’t shown either of these faults so far.  I’ll keep a weather eye open for problems in the next week or so.

Like I said, it was a wet day today, and as is Monday which is Scamp’s day for Gems, I made myself scarce this afternoon and did a little bit of work in the gym and then had bit of a swim and then 15 minutes in the sauna to round off my session for the day.  Pool was very busy, but that’s to be expected with the school Easter holidays on.

Hoping to go to salsa tonight and maybe try to remember what we did in bachata last week.  Hoping for better weather tomorrow and the chance to get my bike out.

The Birds and the Bees – 3 April 2016

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combo bThis was a very lazy, wet day with one bright light.

The rain was on and off most of the morning and afternoon, but Scamp was determined to do something about our summer holiday and we are now booked on a 14 day cruise to the western Mediterranean.  We’ve been to most of the places on the itinerary before, but it will not be a great hardship to visit them again.  Now all we have to do is pay for it.

The rest of the day pales into insignificance.  I went for a walk in one of the bright spots of the afternoon and got the photos above in St Mo’s.  I’m not sure if the insect is a hoverfly or a honeybee.  My money is on hoverfly because there is no evidence of a honeybee’s antennae.

On the slow train – 2 April 2016

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comboWe went to Edinburgh today, hereinafter referred to by its real name “Embra”.  Since the rail line to Embra is being electrified, the tunnel entrance to Queen Street Station in Glasgow is being closed to allow the necessary building work to proceed.  This means that trains will take a lot longer to get from Croy to Glasgow, 25 minutes longer.  That’s 25 minutes added to the 15 minutes it took before last Sunday.  On the other side of Croy, all the Embra trains now stop at all stations to Embra, meaning an extra 10 minutes on that journey too.  Now, I can almost understand why it takes the extra 25 minutes in to Glasgow with all the redirection that’s necessary, but I can’t see why closing a tunnel in Glasgow causes trains to stop at all the stations from Croy to Embra.  Maybe it’s a butterfly flaps its wings thing.  I never understood that either.

Anyway, the train arrived early, which was a surprise, and it was empty, which is unheard of.  Arrived in Embra and got tea (tea leaves, that is) at my favourite shop.  Walked up past the conference centre where there was a massive queue to get in to the Embra Comic Con, which at up to £27 for a ticket was really well named.  There were Doctors Who, Captains America and some vaguely demonic looking souls.  I said to Scamp that I should have worn my black and red striped rugby top and gone as Dennis the Menace, but she didn’t think that I was taking the thing seriously.  As if!

Walked through Princes Street Gardens, enjoying the thin sunshine.  Went to John Lewis and looked around the Toys.  Not the kids toys, the big boys’ toys.  Got an early birthday present of a camera bag.  Smiled at a bloke asking his wife if a radio he was thinking of buying was green or grey.  A constant topic of discussion between Scamp and I.

Walked back along to Zizzi and spent the voucher we got way back ages ago for complaining about the service and food in Exchange Square Zizzi.  Sometimes it pays to complain.  Squeaky wheels and grease.

On the way back to the train I went in to Waterstones and waited 15 minutes while a moron decided whether or not to buy a Dorling Kindersley book on Peru, because he was going there in June with a friend.  He has a friend?  Is it an imaginary friend?  I expect so.  He wasn’t sure whether to buy the book or not, because the new version was coming out.  He asked the girl behind the counter when the new version was due out and she said it was due to be published early June.  He then asked her if that meant the shop would have it then.  She said no, it was published on that date.  “What exactly do you mean by published?” he asked.  I sighed loudly “For fuck’s sake!” and walked away to go downstairs and pay for my book there.  How the hell is Peter the Peruvian Prick (alliteration) going to get all the way to Peru?
Go to the train station and ask Information “When is the next train to Peru?“
“It’s at 3.30pm sir, but you have to change at Queen Street and remember it stops at all the stations, so it will take you an extra 35 minutes.”
“What exactly do you mean by ‘stops at all the stations’?“
“For fuck’s sake!” Says the girl at Information and pulls down the blind.  “This position is now closed.”

We went home in the train in the rain, having had the best of the day.  It stopped at all the stations.

Glad we went to the landscape yesterday – 1 April 2016

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P4010125- flickr--92The forecast was for wall to wall rain today. They weren’t far wrong. It was drizzling when we woke and I think it’s still raining. In between every kind of liquid rain has fallen from the sky. That is to say we haven’t had snow or hail (yet) but we’ve had smir, light rain, spitting rain, drizzle, heavy rain and pelting rain. Scots allegedly have more than 400 words for snow, more than the Inuit. If that’s so, we must rule the world in words for rain. Let’s just wrap it up by saying “It rained today.”

Scamp went out early into Glasgow for some secret mission which I was not party to and I … well, I sat around and did very little apart from swearing at a Hard sudoku puzzle.

When Scamp returned much earlier than I expected. That’s the thing about Scamp, she goes, does what she planned and comes home. Me? I wander round looking at things, window shopping, people watching, practising my procrastination skills and taking the occasional photo. Anyway, when she got back I suggested we go for a swim and that is what we did. The pool was nearly empty apart from some obnoxious weans (most weans are obnoxious) who had brought along their brain-dead parents and grand-parents. Why are these people allowed in when we are there? I’m going to complain about it.

I couldn’t decide what to use as my PoD. After yesterday’s over excess of opportunities, today’s rain reduced my scope quite considerably, so when this magpie descended and started to mop up the remaining breadcrumbs, I took this as my chance to fill a space on April 1. ISO is a lot higher than I’d have liked, but needs must.

And a Bang on the Ear – 31 March 2016

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comboWe set off fairly early on an improving day. Down the M80 on to the M8 down to and across the Erskine bridge, past Dumbarton (can you guess were we’re going yet?). On past Balloch and up Loch Lomond side. We drove past Luss on the right and Inverbeg on the left and north to Tarbet (not to be confused with Tarbert which is miles away). From there it was over the pass to our first destination, Arrochar. We parked in the much reduced carpark across from the collapsing pier and watched the light change on The Cobbler (Ben Arthur). We saw folk walking some of the paths through the pine forests. If I’d brought my boots we could have been up to the summit and back down again in about an hour – Aye Right!

Arrochar is scenic, but there’s not a lot to see in the village itself, so we headed up past the part demolished torpedo testing station, past Ardgartan and on up the long slow climb to the top of the Rest and Be Thankful, passing on our right the new landslide trapping nets. This was the end of our scenic tour. We sat in the parking place at the top of ‘The Rest’ and had our coffee and ‘pieces’ – not sandwiches, Pieces. I took lots of shots looking down the valley of the River Croe and off to the west to the higher peaks where the snow still lay.

I went off to get some shots of still, dark, gloomy Loch Restil and that’s where I got my ‘bang on the ear’. I walked right into a road sign and bashed my ear on it. How stupid can you be not to notice a notice? It’s not as if it was a wee sign, it was about a metre wide by about 60cm high. Having said that, it was a stupid place to put it, right where somebody would bang their ear on it. It’s amazing how much pain is caused by such a small cut. Numpty.

From The Rest it was all downhill – literally. Took a different road back, down the side of Loch Long to Helensburgh (It’s ok, JIC, we didn’t stop except to go to Waitrose) and then back over the Erskine Bridge. There I made the big mistake of attempting the M8 rather than the M74 to take us home. In future, remind me to take the left lane and head for the M74 because the traffic is less horrific there.

Good to get out and see some beautiful scenery in good light with great company. Must do it again some time soon, if possible without the bang on the ear.

Another day not wasted – 30 March 2016

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combo bUp fairly early and went to the gym. Scamp was quite circumspect with the machines, not wanting to aggravate here sore shoulder and then a heat soak in the steam room, the sauna and the jacuzzi.

After a quick light lunch I toddled off to fill up with petrol which has gone up to 101.99p per litre a rise of 2p since last week. I drove around for a while after that frittering away that expensive alcohol looking for some photos. I eventually settled on Hulks Road but luckily didn’t encounter any gigantic angry green men and got a few shots looking down the valley towards Glasgow an the incoming rain clouds.

Tonight we went to salsa as we hadn’t had our dancing fix on Monday because it was Easter holiday.  Drove through some torrential rain showers with the sun shining brightly behind them.  Worth it though.  Exhausted after two classes and found they were pretending to repair the motorway again and there were diversions everywhere. I made my own diversion and found a way back on. Why do they divert you to a slip road that’s closed? Only Glasgow has the answer and they’re not telling anyone. Looks like a decent day tomorrow, so we’re heading for some scenery somewhere. That’s the plan anyway.

Went Out, Did Something – 29 March 2016

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comboYesterday was a bit of a wasted day and we were determined not to do the same today. I’d like to say we got up early and went out for a walk or a run or even to the gym, but we had breakfast in bed, then read for an hour or so, this after waking up about 9.15. However, after that we DID go out.

We couldn’t decide where to go at first with both of us making half-hearted suggestions. We finally settled on Hamilton, intending to walk through the Palace grounds to the Mausoleum. Hamilton is such an awful place to drive through, always has been with a convoluted one way system and stringent parking regulations, so rather that face that, I decided to take the Motherwell turn off and park in Strathclyde Park. From there we could walk to the Mausoleum if we wanted or walk part of the way around Strathclyde Loch. We chose the latter.

We started walking anticlockwise round this soulless man made sailing venue. It’s never been my favourite place to walk. At weekends it’s usually crowded with dog walkers, joggers and cyclists, oh, and hundreds of weans. At night it has a totally different reputation. It used to be a boy racers’ paradise, but the council speed bumps every 20 feet or so has put paid to that. Now it’s the secluded carparks that are venues for other sporting pursuits – or so I’m told 😉

I remember it when it was simply Motherwell Pond, away back in the ’60s. Then it was just a big pond in the middle of a field. It had the reputation then for holding the biggest pike in Scotland and I remember seeing some big fish taken there. Not by me though. If I was lucky I’d get a small perch or two. Now it’s just a big sterile expanse of water used by small boat sailors, the occasional windsurfer and canoeist. It also has an Olympic rowing course. Enough of the adverts, it’s a rich person’s playground. Proles like us just get to walk round it.

We walked round the south end of the loch and on past the man made beach. Just before that, I spotted a buzzard through a fence. It was sitting on a post in a timber yard just outside the park. I managed a few shots of it and it seemed quite happy to let me get near. Then a couple of seagulls started mobbing it and it flew off. When we were walking near the water and under some trees we were joined by clouds of wee black flies. I don’t know what they were, but as they only appeared when we were near the water, I assume they were water borne and had just hatched. Maybe spring is near after all. We walked as far as the Roman bath house which, if you read the description on the plaque is not original, but a reconstruction using modern materials. That’s a bit of a con I think, but what do you expect in North Lanarkshire? The South Calder Water runs in to the park at this point and just around a bend in it is the old Roman bridge. This is part reconstructed too, but there are no signs to tell you what it is and it’s fenced off so you can’t get across. Well, you could get on to it quite easily, but I suppose by fencing it off NLC exonerate themselves from any injury caused from falling from it. YOU WERE WARNED etc.

Walked back the same way we’d come and almost managed to get back to the car before the clouds opened and although we got wet, we didn’t get the soaking that we might had got if we’d caught the full downpour that arrived a couple of minutes later.

Tomorrow? Who knows. Hopefully we’ll GO OUT AND DAE SOMETHING again.

A Dull Day – 28 March 2016

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comboOverall, quite a dull day, well dull in as much as we didn’t go anywhere or do anything.  Just a normal working day, but without the work.  It looked like nobody else was working either because few cars moved from their parking places outside the house.  The weather was a lot better though.

The only thing I did do was to go to the Spar shop in Condorrat via St Mo’s of course.  I got a few arty shots and a couple of landscapes, oh yes, and a tin of spaghetti.  The spaghetti came from Spar, not St Mo’s and the landscapes came from St Mo’s, not Spar.  I hope that has clarified the situation.  Tonight’s dinner was fish fingers, egg and spaghetti, courtesy of my walk to Condorrat.

First episode of Maigret played my Mr Bean.  Really quite good, but I kept expecting him to start talking gibberish and was disappointed that he didn’t.  Having said that, I hate Mr Bean with a vengeance and I liked the realism of Maigret.  Worth setting a series link.

Weather tomorrow is to be similar to today, so I think we must get out and “DAE SOMETHING”.  That’s the plan anyway.