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The rains came – 25 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

More washing today.

It was one of those drizzly wet days that wasn’t quite up to deciding what it was going to do. With nothing much to do but washing, Scamp made a start in that. She also started pruning back some of the dried out plants in the back garden, in fact, both of us tidied up the plants, dead heading the aquilegia and some of the roses.

In the afternoon the rain started and just forgot to go off. I did manage to grab a few shots of Simply The Best, the golden rose in the front garden. It was looking good with its collection of raindrops. That was PoD.

Later we spoke to Jamie and heard about the trials of having people just turn up to look round your garden. This was the first of the Open Garden days jeu had signed up to and it seemed to be a success. I think they both enjoyed it.

Watched an interesting Canadian GP with the usual suspects at the front.

Finally getting round to making plans for the next day. Scamp’s out to lunch and I’m off to Hamilton.

Dancin’ – 24 July 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Not Aka’s weird gavottes, but dancing with Stewart & Jane. Real dancin’!

Yes, back in the saddle again. Drove to Brookfield for an hour and a half of dancing practise. My legs are still a bit fat from water retention and not enough exercise or whatever else it is. That made squeezing them into my dance shoes a bit of a problem.

First half of the class was Quickstep. More advanced footwork this time that seemed to stick in my head after Aka and partner’s nonsense was kicked out. I’m not entirely sure that it is still there now, but I’m sure we’ll have a go at it in the coming weeks because the teachers are off on holiday for a couple of weeks, so we’ll have plenty of time (tongue firmly in cheek!). A little bit of light relief in a sequence dance after that and then a relaxing Rumba which they seemed to have forgotten that we’d learned it during lock-down. Well we two had learned it, but presumably the rest of the class hadn’t! However, it was slightly different and it was done to a greater depth. Much was made of the footwork which I thought I could do, but not with the delicacy that S&J were demonstrating. Another sequence and we were off the leash for two weeks!

More washing and ironing while I continued rebuilding blog and Flickr. I did go out for a walk to the shops and on the way found a pair of glasses with a broken leg hanging on a lamp post. That fitted nicely with a group on Flickr that is entitled TLOP which stands for Things Left On Posts. That became PoD

We had a look around the garden later to see what we’d managed to save and what we’d lost to two weeks of high temperatures and no rain. Luckily our neighbour had saved most of the front garden because he’d watered it for us, but watering the back garden had been hit and miss with our six foot fence between us, but some things look like they might survive with Scamp’s care and attention. We’ll wait and see if we get some decent rain in the next few days. Lots of pots soaking in buckets just now.

A little rain later, and more promised for tomorrow … hopefully.

Washing – 23 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

The washing machine was the star of the show today.

Cases were opened and almost two week’s washing bounced out to be categorised as:

Right away!
or
Some time soon.
or
When I’ve got time.

Scamp was organising it and I was just contributing.

I then started on the mammoth task of posting two weeks worth of photos, just over 900 I thought before I discovered lots more that had been taken on phone camera and then the final total became around 1,030. This was going to take some time. Luckily I’d started making bullet points of things to remember from places we’d been.

While Scamp was busy with the first couple of loads of washing I took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s and found a Latticed Heath moth. Quite common here at this time of year, but a pretty little thing. That was PoD.

Tomorrow, more of the same and wish for some rain.

 

 

Flying home – 22 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Yesterday’s packing had disappeared overnight, destined to appear again in Glasgow.

Ours was an early morning rise and a quick breakfast before boarding the bus to take us to Dubrovnik airport for the flight home.

As usual there were delays. After checking in at security and passing through, we waited for the message to start boarding. Finally we were allowed to begin the boarding process, except there were no buses to take us to the waiting plane. Almost an hour later they finally found the buses and took us to the plane. Then we were told that there would be a one hour wait before we’d be assigned a takeoff slot by German flight control. I felt sorry for the poor captain who had to relay the updates to the fed up passengers. Finally we were on our way on a turbulent flight to Glasgow.

Our troubles weren’t over when we landed at Glasgow and were put in the wrong parking bay where the stairs wouldn’t reach the aircraft doors. When they finally found suitable stairs we exited and went through immigration to a luggage conveyer belt that was carrying four plane loads of luggage. Another half hour before the luggage from our flight appeared and we were free to leave what is advertised as an International Airport. Mickey Mouse airport would be closer. The final ignominy was that only two of the three exits from the carpark were working and one of them seemed to be on a go-slow. If it wasn’t so depressing, it would be a comedy.

The highlight of the flight home was flying over Cumbersheugh and that “I can see our hoose from here” moment! It’s amazing how green and pleasant some places look in good afternoon light from 4,000ft.

An ancient Vrabac sailplane in Dubrovnik airport became PoD.

A cup of tea and a seat in your own living room is a great consolation. Tomorrow we’ll start unpacking.

 

Split – 21 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Famous for Game of Thrones. We didn’t want to go into town, we’ve been before. Lots of folk taking Tuk Tuks trips into town.

Things to remember:

  • Eight Tuk Tuks in a line waiting to go in the morning.
  • Sitting by the pool after breakfast.
  • A leisurely swim in the pool for both of us.
  • Really hot.
  • Couldn’t be bothered going into Split.
  • Sat with an ice cream in the beach huts by the pool (on the ship).
  • Saw the boys jumping off the sandy cliffs into the sea, just like 2019!
  • Spent most of the afternoon making sure everything would go into the case.

Ancona – 20 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Where my dad worked during the war at the docks. It didn’t look as if it had changed much in the intervening years. Narrow old cobbled streets and wide squares.

Things to remember:

  • Got lost trying to find our way into the town.
  • Police (Carabineri) carrying shiny swords (celebration?)
  • Walked round the town squares.
  • Coffee in a street cafe.
  • Americano was a ristretto coffee with a jug of hot water.
  • Do it yourself coffee!
  • S had ice cream I had beer.
  • We found a park with Lavender growing in it, well looked after.
  • Two beers in the park.
  • Whitney Houston act in place of a show – we didn’t go on and on and on.
  • Listened to Shane the pianist in Flutes.
  • Had to listen Aka (Dolce) spouting his lack of knowledge about dance origins.
  • Watched him dancing with the little girl with the red shoes.

Trieste – 19 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Beautiful city. We both liked the architecture of the elegant buildings.

Things to remember:

  • Hundreds of yachts in the marina.
  • Diver working round the rusting pier.
  • Architecture.
  • Statues.
  • Walking down into an underground carpark to get the elevator to take us up to the Cathedral and Castle.
  • Beautiful cathedral.
  • Wedding.
  • Sparkling paintwork inside.
  • Castle reminded me of Blackness – same shape.
  • Panini with Bresaola and Brie for lunch in a street side cafe – D
  • Vegetable Club Sandwich – S.
  • Walking back to ship.
  • “Eataly” Italian restaurant.
  • Another wedding!
  • Strange looking yacht in the bay.
  • Nonna’s for dinner.
  • Pizza was overdone.
  • Show tonight was like a school show.

Today we were in Zadar – 18 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Zadar is one of our favourite places, although we often confuse it with Koper and that’s what happened today. We kept looking for places that were, in fact, in Koper – not Zadar.

Things we’ll remember:

  • The big white five masted sailing ship Windsurf (PoD).
  • The Sea Organ.
  • Punters dressed as Roman centurions for some reason.
  • Buildings in the town still with shell damage from the war.
  • Cats, both real and painted on walls.
  • The “Head Garden” of busts, so called by a tour guide.
  • Dinner in Kora La.
  • Watching a table of rowdies being told quietly to leave the premises.
  • Wondering if they were made to walk the plank.
  • Monkey towel animal. Not the scary monkeys we sometimes have.

All at sea – 17 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were on a sea day, but at least it wasn’t raining!

The ship was busier after its mid cruise stop in Dubrovnik, so we thought it might be more difficult to get a pair of sun beds. It was, but with a bit of jiggery pokery we managed to move a couple of beds to a sheltered and warmer position and settled down to soak up some sun. That’s more or less where we stayed for most of the day, retaining our beds while we had lunch in Smash ’n’ Grab. We even got a splash in the pool and did some gentle washing of the costumes afterwards, hanging them on the back of a chair on the balcony. That became PoD. Yes, I’m still doing PoDs although I’ve been a bit lax with them recently!

Dinner tonight was in Nonna’s. Pizza for me and pasta for Scamp. She even found enough space to put away a Knickerbocker Glory afterwards.

Things we’ll remember:

  • A full day in the sun.
  • A splash in the pool.
  • Nonna’s for an Italian dinner.
  • Julio the waiter with that big wide smile supplying us with red wine.

Life is hard on a Sea Day!

Submarines, Cats and Islands – 16 June 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today was Kotor and I was up early and out on the deck watching the ship sail through the narrow passages that would open into the Bay of Kotor. This is the part of the cruise that looks just like the west coast of Scotland. Although we’ve never actually sailed round the west coast, this is what I’d like to think it looks like. It was certainly Scottish weather at 6am. Not that warm and just a bit of dampness in the air.

I saw the old camouflaged submarine pens which apparently date back to WW2, but I missed seeing the two little islands in the bay. You can’t be on both sides of the ship at the same time. I saw the little lighthouse too as we entered the bay and didn’t realise it was also a church.

Later we got the tender that took us to the town and we walked into Kotor and through the old town. Scamp was looking for the Christmas shop where she always buys some souvenirs. It rained on and off all day. Not as bad as yesterday, but not what you want when you’re expecting sunshine!

In the evening we went to the ‘Sit Down’ dinner, and were finished just in time to see the two islands passing on the right (starboard) side of the ship. Two little man-made islands. One is a chapel and the other is a monastery.

Things we’ll remember:

  • The tender that took us over the sea to the town.
  • Cats. Cats everywhere.
  • Eating cherries we bought in the market.
  • Scamp’s face when she finally found the Christmas shop.
  • The submarine pens, or at least the entrance to them.
  • The two little islands.
  • The wee church that’s also a lighthouse.
  • The clear water running down from the mountains in Kotor town.
  • Watching town. float past the ship.
  • A surprise bunny wabbit towel animal on our bed.