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Cramond – 28 December 2015

Posted on by Zogman

combo wToday we took JIC and Sim to Cramond. The weather was dry and we had a gentle walk along the the Almond to the waterfall. We agreed that beyond that, the path would get too muddy and slippery for those without boots, i.e. all of us. To waste some time we watched a red rubber ball trying unsuccessfully to escape the eddy below the waterfall. (You probably had to be there!) We walked back and had coffee and a scone at the quite excellent Falls Cafe before walking down to the estuary and deciding it was just too late to attempt the crossing to the island in the shadow of the ‘toblerones’.  If you haven’t seen them, it will mean nothing to you. They were anti-submarine defences from WW2.

After that we drove home because Sim and JIC were meeting Scott for a liquid lunch and a catch up after twenty odd years.

While I made dinner, Scamp injected profiteroles with cream (more successfully than I did last week). Later JIC and Sim returned with the aforementioned (I like that word, did you guess?) Scott with his wife and wee girl. Scott hadn’t changed a bit.  It was almost as if he had left out house the day before, rather than twenty odd years before.  They stayed, reminiscing about exotic dancing and other escapades from the past and then it was time for dinner.

I’d already booked The Legend of Barney Thompson to watch after dinner. Oh dear, I wish now I hadn’t. It was the most dire film I’ve seen this year, or probably in any year. Whatever you do, don’t watch it. Absolute Crap! The book, well the first book anyway, was funny. The rest had nothing at all to recommend them. The book was just a ‘British Film’. Rubbish.

Don’t know what tomorrow will bring, we’ll let the fates decide.

An Uplifting Day – 27 December 2015

Posted on by Zogman

combo bWe woke to sunshine.  Real, unabated sunshine with drying streets too.  Scamp needed to go shopping, so we had to risk driving out to Tesco with no hope of getting a parking space when we got back.  When we got back after an altercation with a total prick in the carpark. – As an aside, I’d like to say that one of the great benefits of having your own little slice of webspace it that you can say what you really feel without fear of having it redacted by some pinhead admin.  I am the admin so I’ll say what I like. –   Anyway, the prick took umbrage at me bumping a car’s wing mirror (not even his car) with my trolley.  After emptying my trolley, I just gave him a smile as I walked as slowly as I could in front of his car.  One of the great benefits of being old is that you can do things like that.  If the aforementioned prick wants to scream and shout at you, all you do is grab your chest and stagger around a bit and watch the colour drain from his face.  Then you smile again, stick your tongue out and walk away.  It’s a brilliant windup.  Yes, I know ‘boy’, ‘crying’, ‘wolf’ etc. Until then it’s still great fun and to be recommended for dealing with angry pricks.

Got back to find that there was a wedding stretch limo reversing tentatively up the hill near our house.  To accommodate it, I had to park miles from the house and carry the bags down the hill.  Is that what they call ‘Karma’?

After a cup of coffee I went for a walk to St Mo’s armed with the Nikon and 70-300 and also the old E-PL1 with 9mm.  Got a few shots, but for once the 9mm failed to perform.  Don’t know the reason why.  It might have been too slow a shutter speed because there was a considerable blur in the images, but this is the first time I’ve used that camera/lens combination.  Maybe I’ve gotten so used to the remarkable E-PL5 that I’d forgotten how limiting the ‘1’ is.  Must do some more tests before I can make a reasoned judgement.

After that we were waiting for JIC and Sim to arrive from ‘darn sarf’.  They made really good time and were great company tonight.  Let’s hope the weather holds out for tomorrow, because it’s been a great day today, weatherwise and a very entertaining one too.

It rained today – 26 December 2015

Posted on by Zogman

IMG_2986- blog--360Well, this is going to be a short entry.  It was raining when I got up this morning, just before 9.00am and at 7.43pm it’s still raining.  It has not stopped raining in all the intervening ten and three quarter hours.  That about sums up today.  I did a bit of watercolour painting this afternoon.  I also did a bit of reorganising of the painting room.  Didn’t do any boxing despite this being Boxing Day.  Feel sorry for all those folks in the north of England who have been flooded and flooded again.  It must feel like groundhog day to them.

Hoping for some dry weather tomorrow.

Happy Christlefridge – 25 December 2015

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comboChristlefridge, as far as I can remember was a give away game at Christmas for the Sinclair Spectrum, round about 1980 something.  I remember it was a good fun game, but can find no reference to it on the internet.  Maybe my memory is playing tricks again.  “So”, as John Lennon said, “this is Christmas, and what have you done?”  I usually ask this question at New Year, but Christmas is as good a time as any.  So what have you done?  What good?  What not so good?  Possibly more important, what are you going to do about the latter?  Think about it.

Why does everyone say “Merry Christmas”?  It must be the only day in the year when we use the ‘Merry’ word.  Merry usually means drunk, so are we wishing (hoping) that everyone is drunk at Christmas? The SNP won’t like that.  Wee Mooth, AKA Nick the Chick, AKA Nicola Sturgeon won’t like that.  It goes completely against their Calvanist policies.  You’ll all go to Hell, you know and Nick the Chick will be standing there with the pitchfork.

Today we went for our usual Christmas walk around, not St Mo’s for a change, but Broadwood Loch.  Not a real loch, but manmade about twenty odd years ago.  Not a very interesting walk, but one we always indulge in at this time of year.  Saw some gulls, some cormorants, some geese and hunners of swans.  That was about it.  No herons and definitely no deer.  Dull, dull, dull.

After the walk, we had lunch and then settled down to watch tv for an hour or so before we started to make dinner.  Ate and drank too much as usual and are now resting while watching the Titchfield Thunderbold (c1953, although it could just as well be 1593).  Totally innocent fun, but in colour.  Isn’t that what Christmas is all about?

Today is Fred P’s birthday.  His reply to my birthday wish text was:
“Many thanks, Fred (or as others have said ‘Oh Christ it’s him’)”

Hope my readers have had a happy Christmas, or even a merry one if you’ve been living dangerously.

Don’t cross your legs – 24 December 2015

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DSC_4649- blog--358Scamp thought I wanted to go in to Glasgow today and I thought she wanted to go in. It wasn’t until we were walking down Bucky Street that the crossed wires became untangled. We had travelled in on the bus and had just been to John Lewis where I showed Scamp the toy I’d like in my Christmas stocking, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Apparently Santa may not have any left as a lot of boys and girls have asked for that self same thing. Oh well, never mind, I’ll just have to wait until it turns up on MBP, second hand.

Went and had coffee in Cafe Nero at St Enoch’s, then headed back up to Sauchiehall Street. Blacks were having a closing down sale and I managed to snag myself a new Berghaus jacket. Maybe not as good as an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, but a lot more practical.

Just missed the bus home, but that’s about par for the course at the bus station and got talking to a wee visually impaired man who told me you should never sit with your legs crossed because it restricts your circulation. You won’t feel it at the time, he said, but it will get you later. I don’t know where he got that information from, but he was quite adamant about it.

Weather was mixed. Beautiful bright sun one minute, torrential rain and hail the next. Scamp says we have to blame Storm Eva for that. When I got home I slapped some paint on a canvas while I waited out the hail storm that was battering the window and then went out for a walk around St Mo’s. It didn’t rain, but the sun didn’t shine either. Managed one shot of a confused wee green shoot that thinks it’s spring. I think there are more cold winds, hail showers and possibly sunny intervals between now and then. Keep your fingers crossed ….. but not your legs!

Christmas Eve Eve – 23 December 2015

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OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAToday we went to try out the new gym.  We were both impressed with the new setup.  Lots of new machines, some of them a bit more video game than serious training devices.  All very shiny and nice to see screens that could display a tv picture without it looking as if it was being viewed through a snow storm.  Time will tell how well they last.  Swimming was out because the pool was slightly oversubscribed, but the sauna, the steam room and the jacuzzi were very welcome.

Went for lunch at Milano.  By the look of the carpark, I thought we wouldn’t have a hope of getting a table, but we did.  Maybe because we only needed a table for two.  It was quite busy with lots of Christmas parties.

After we left, we went to Muirhead hoping to get a steak for my Christmas dinner, but the queue outside the butcher’s meant it would be a long wait just to get inside and then another queue inside the shop.  No, there are limits to what I’ll put up with for my dinner.  I’d rather have a veggie Christmas dinner than wait in a chilly queue for some meat.  As it was, we went to Tesco and I have a nice bit of steak for my Christmas dinner.  It may not be as good as the butcher’s steaks, but then again I didn’t have to queue either.

I wrote a couple of cards for Ivan and for Peter H when we came home and walked over to Condorrat and just managed to catch the post.  Got a few photos of cars on the M80 some time exposures and some with as fast a shutter speed as I could manage with the light level available.  Blended them in Potatoshop and that will have to do as POD for today.

The Shortest Day – 22 December 2015

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combo b“Maybe we spend too much time looking at glowing screens.” I heard this while I was listening to a podcast coming back from another walk to Dumbreck Marshes.  I couldn’t agree more.  We all spend far too much time in this virtual reality we live so much of our lives in.

Before my Damascene revelation today, we went to Stirling, to shop and stock up for Christmas at Waitrose.  It was just in case the snow comes in great drifts in the next few days and we can’t struggle our way across the tundra to Condorrat to buy the last loaf of bread in the bakers.  Yes, I know the temperature is almost in double figures today, but you never know, do you?

On the way back we stopped at Halfords to get the headlight bulb replaced in my car.  I could have done it myself, but I couldn’t remember the sequence for removing the clips and bolts, well, that’s my excuse.

After we got back, I went out to have my religious conversion and Scamp went to do more shopping, this time in Glasgow.  When I got back, I stared at these ‘glowing screens’ again to get the photos downloaded and processed and then get this blog written.  We need the glowing screens, but I dare say we could use them a little less.

A Delightful day – 21 December 2015

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combo bWell, at times it was delightful.  It started well, with blue skies and early morning sun.  I had planned to go in to Glasgow to get my Christmas shopping finalised.  Well, sort of finalised.  Final is such a, well, final word that I very rarely use it.  Let’s say that “Today would see my Christmas shopping nearly finalised.”  That’s a better way to put it, it leaves a bit of wiggle-room.  “Wiggle-room” is a hyphenated word that will no doubt make it into the OED next year if it isn’t already there.  Scamp kindly offered me a lift to the station so I could travel in comfort rather than sit on a cold bus for 45mins.  The kind man at the station gave me £7 change with my tickets which was a bit of a surprise as I’d only given him a fiver!  I gave him the fiver back.  He smiled and looked relieved that I’d been honest.  After all, ’tis the season and all that crap.

By the time I got to Glasgow the rain was pelting down, so I cut to the chase edited out my window shopping and concentrated on the real stuff instead.  Got everything I wanted and headed home on the first available train.  I’d phoned Scamp and she was just driving in to the station as I was walking out.  Perfect timing.

After a swift lunch, we both went to the gym, separately.  She to have a ‘facial’ me to investigate the new whizzo machines in the gym and to have a swim.  Gym looks much better laid out now.  More stuff in it and it looks like there’s more space.  A sort of ‘Tardis’ conversion then.  I’m hoping to try out the machines later in the week.

Dropped in at Tesco to spend a Tesco voucher I got when I retired, that’s almost 18 months ago!  I bought myself a bottle of Glenrothes whisky with it (Whisky was what I was told to spend it on 18 months ago).  Glenrothes appears to have nothing to do with the New Town of that name.  I don’t think I’ve ever been to Glenrothes, but the name ‘New Town’ damns it anyway.  On the way to Tesco, the sky had cleared after dumping tons of rain on us from about 11.00am and it looked like being a great sunset and the statue of Arria was catching some great light, so I took the opportunity to combine the two and take some shots of it.  You get someone to build a gigantic statue of a Roman emperor’s mother (Why?).  You put it in a prominent place overlooking a busy motorway, but you don’t tell anyone how to get to it.  That’s Scotland for you.  Shoots itself in the foot every time.  Actually it’s quite easy to find if you know where, but isn’t that a universal truth.  You have to drive through Eastfield Cemetery, park at the end and find the overgrown path to the statue.   Simple!  Such a shame as it’s a stunning piece of work, but I’ve no idea why she has four arms.  There’s probably a good punchline waiting to be heard there.

So, for once it was a delightful day.  Started well, crap in the middle and finished well.  Sort of like a crap sandwich.  Now there’s a delightful thought to end with.

I saw the sun today – 20 December 2015

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combo bToday we woke to sunshine.  Real sunshine from a blue sky with little pink clouds.  After half an hour, the pink clouds had turned gold as the sun rose a bit higher in the sky.  Amazing.  It didn’t last of course.  An hour later the rain was torrential – but the sun was still shining!  It wasn’t a sun shower though, the rain went of for a full 15minutes without relenting and the sun still shone.  Then, just as the sun disappeared behind the grey clouds we’ve become accostomed to, the rain stopped.  Strange weather.  At least the rain stayed off for most of the day after that although the clouds stayed, always threatening more of the wet stuff.

Since Scamp had done most of the cooking yesterday for J&M, I though it was only fitting for me to ‘recycle the dishes’ as they used to say in the Fairy advert (other washing up liquids are available).  Most of the heavy lifting had been done last night by the dishwasher, it was just the garlic encrusted pans and trays and the bowl that had contained the marinade (garlic) that formed the bigger part of today’s work.  It didn’t take that long really and I felt better for doing it.

After lunch I made the decision to risk getting soaked in the hope of getting some photos over by St Mo’s.  I was just walking over to the pond when heard a loud croaking above me, and there was my old friend Mr Grey, flying in for his own lunch.  I stalked him for a few shots from the relative cover of the Scots Pine wood, but I really wanted to get some photos of him taking off and soon I got my chance.  I thought I’d got some decent shots, so set off to annoy the deer.  The deer must have heard me coming because they were all hiding.  I did find some deer hair on the ground.  I remember deer hair from using it to tie fishing flies – many moons ago.  No blood, so are the deer moulting, casting, whatever it’s called when they lose their winter coats in this strange warm, dull, damp climate we live in now.

Daylight was fading so it was time to head for home.  At the wee pond, there was Mr Grey again, so I got a few more shots of him flying off to the middle of the big pond where he knew he would be safe from my depredations.

Such a (Mr) Grey day.

A Busy Day – 19 December 2015

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IMG_2981- blog--353This morning I made choux pastry for profiteroles.  Under the careful tutelage of Chef Scamp.  Such a faff, I kept asking myself was it really worth it.  It was!
While I was doing that, Scamp was filling the kitchen with the smell of garlic, was it worth it.  It was!
After that, it was time to make the bread, and adjust the texture of the dough, was it worth it. Hmm, not really – possible the worst loaf I’ve made in a long time.  Oh well, you can’t win them all.

After all that prep, it was time to go visit Dorothy.  Spent an entertaining hour with her an Colin, then drove back to more Masterchef Mysteries.  This time I was in charge of beating the cream to make the filling for the profiteroles, then the additional faff of squirting it into the choux pastry blobs.  Fiddly.  Was it worth …
After that, my kitchen chores were over for the day all but over.  Just tidying up the living room and then I could sit down while Scamp refilled the kitchen with the scent of garlic.  Vampires beware, this kitchen is off limits.

The dinner made everything worthwhile.  Starter to Coffee, it all tasted great.  Busy day, but it was a successful one.