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Glasgow on the bus – 19 November 2022

Posted on by Zogman

After struggling through Wordle and Spelling Bee (still working at it), we got dressed for the cold, because it was a lovely clear, dry day, but chilly, and headed out to Condorrat to get the bus to Glasgow.

When we got there we found that the the X37 was running late and was full with passengers, standing room only, when it arrived. We did both get seats, but others were still standing. Neither of us had experienced that before for the 20min trip to Glasgow. I don’t think the driver or the bus had experienced it either, because both were doing a fair bit of grumbling.

We’d forgotten that Glasgow would be busy, because it’s Christmas, or more accurately Xmas. There is a difference. The place was mobbed. People everywhere. We’re not used to shopping on a Saturday, or Sunday. We’re the lucky ones who can go shopping mid-week, so this was a bit of a culture shock.

We decided, after a quick browse in JL, that it would be best to visit Paesano for an early lunch before the rest of the hordes descended. We got a table right away! That doesn’t mean Paesano wasn’t busy. It was, but there were a few tables-for-two available. Scamp had a Number 1 (No garlic – Yes I know there is no cheese) and a side of rocket and parmesan. I had a Number 3 and a side of burrata and tomato. Washed down with a glass each of red wine. It’s such an ‘Italian’ place. Lots of folk sitting talking and eating. It’s not until you stop and listen that you hear all the different accents and languages overlaying each other. So strange in Glasgow. I don’t think it would be so strange in London!

Fed and watered, we went down to Argyle Street and wandered along for a while, then back along Queen Street where I got a photo I’d been thinking about. Then on to Buchanan Street where I knew the photo’s alter ego was waiting. They didn’t make PoD. That accolade went to a photo of the GOMA (Gallery Of Modern Art – Glasgow). However you should look for the pictures comparing the Roof Decorations on Flickr.

With nothing much else to do and because the crowds were so thick on the ground, we got the bus home. Not nearly so busy on the way back, thankfully.

Watched the Qualifying for tomorrow’s final F1 GP of the season and then Strictly. We both agreed that there’s not all that much dancing in Strictly. Scamp has been saying for weeks now that the whole program needs revamping. I’d agree. It need a complete re-shuffle. If it’s good enough for Rishi Sunak, it’s good enough for Strictly.

Tomorrow looks wet. We’ll make the best of it, maybe with some soup!

 

Out to Lunch – 18 November 2022

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Scamp was out this morning to her FitSteps class and I was waiting in for the plumber to come and give his cost estimate for the new kitchen tap. It was raining, and had been all night.

The bloke arrived about 11am, just as Scamp was going out to class. His estimate was more or less what we’d expected and he’s coming on Monday to fix the tap that’s been dripping on and off for about a year. I hadn’t realised it was that long until I read yesterday’s “A Year Ago Today” blog post.

I am still adjusting things on the camera that need tweaking, trying to get it back to where it should be. Today it was pairing it with the phone to allow me to shoot remotely over Bluetooth using the phone. Also to allow the camera to interrogate the phone and find its GPS position, then record it on the image. Very useful once it’s been set. However, Sony make great cameras but write really crap instructions for their use. Luckily I eventually found the instructions for doing the pairing in an Amateur Photographer tutorial on the net. Where would we be these days without the Internet?

When Scamp returned we just had time to get changed and then she drove me to the Red Deer (to give it its Sunday name) for lunch with June and Ian. It was a nice relaxed Friday lunch sitting by the real wood fire, blethering and enjoying the food. June had Chicken and Chorizo Pie, Scamp and Ian had Fish and Chips (one with and one without peas) I had my usual Gammon Steak, Eggs and Chips. I had a pint of lager which was the same as June and Ian’s half pint while Scamp, being volunteer driver for the day, had Soda and Lime. For pudding, June had Napolitano Delice (posh ice cream) Ian had coffee Scamp had Fruit Crumble and I had Edible Flower Pot. Scamp’s looked the best and mine wasn’t as good as it looked, but it did look good. We left after a couple of hours promising to do it again soon, definitely before Christmas, and of course Scamp drove us home.

I reckoned there was just enough light left in the sky to grab some photos, so it was boots on, because although the rain had stopped, everywhere was going to be boggy. I only went half way round the pond because I’d managed to get some decent photos in the available light and it was getting cold. On my walk back I bumped into a woman walking her dog. I’d spoken to her a few times, just passing the time of day. Today she looked a bit agitated and told me that it looked like one of the pair of swans that live on the pond didn’t look well and wasn’t moving. I said I’d have a look when I went past. She was right. It head was under the water and in the five minutes or more I stood there, it hadn’t lifted its head or moved. It looks like we have our first avian flu casualty. Strangely almost all of the 20 odd Canada geese that overwinter on the pond were stood on the bank looking right at the dead swan and its mate who was swimming round the dead one. The geese never moved as I walked past. It was a strange sight.

I reported the swan to DEFRA which is what you’re supposed to do, but I couldn’t find anywhere on the NLC site to leave a message to get the bird removed. Typical.

That was about it for today. PoD turned out to be a bent and twisted birch tree that stands where an old crab apple tree used to be in the park.

Tomorrow we may go in to The Toon on the bus.

 

Dancin’ and Camera Misadventures – 17 November 2022

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Today it was raining, miserable wetting rain and then heavier soaking rain, but it didn’t matter, we were going dancing.

In the morning I cancelled our subscription to Which. We’ve been talking about doing it for ages. It used to be totally independent in its reviews, but recently we’ve noticed a tendency to support ’favourites’ like JL and Apple rather than the less expensive shops and brands. The time had come. Since I’ve emailed them I’ve had two pleading emails telling me what I’m missing and inviting me to rethink. Both of them fell on deaf ears.

Drove over to Glenburn and danced what was probably the worst selection of dances we’ve ever done. Both of us made countless mistakes, even in the sequence dances that we both knew. I think it was something to do with our dancing brains being worn out from the nine hours of gracing the ballroom floor in Perth almost a fortnight ago. I have no other excuse for it. Maybe we do need the weekend off to regroup and forget today’s outing. Or maybe we just need more practise. Either way, today was a “disaaaaster, darling”! But we did have a laugh with David and Carol at the table. Plus we almost, just almost, got a handle on the Cameron Quickstep.

Drove back through the unremitting rain and picked up some ‘bake in the oven’ Katsu Chicken and a bottle of Malbec from M&S to wash away the memory of today. Since we arrived home just after 4pm and the car’s headlights had been on for the journey home, there wasn’t much hope of getting an outside photo. I set up a table-top of my jalapeño plant, looking like a little bonsai tree and left it while we had our dinner.

When I went to take the photo, however, one of my usual settings had disappeared from the menu. I won’t bore you with the details, but the camera was telling me some gobbledegook about movie settings. I’ve only taken one movie with this camera, the A7iii and never touched the settings again. I got so confused by what was going on I just did a ‘factory reset’. Now it works normally again, but it’s going to take me most of tomorrow to get all my dials and buttons reconfigured to the way they were before this thing happened, whatever it was.

Tomorrow we’re booked for lunch with June and Ian and before that the plumber is coming to have a look at the kitchen tap which has been dripping on and off for months.

Beautiful morning, dull afternoon – 16 November 2022

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We woke to sunshine today. Sunshine and an outside temperature of just over 3ºc, so quite cool.

The sun didn’t tempt me out to take photos, although I wish now it had. We sat around soaking up the sun shining in the window and laughing as our wee Chinese lucky cat waved its hand in the air when the sun hit its the solar cell that powers it. When the sun went behind one of the slats of the blinds, the waving stopped until it cleared the blind again.

Scamp gathered together the ironing and powered up her magic steam iron. I started the long process of turning my new SSD into the heart of the iMac. It’s a fairly easy procedure if you follow the instructions to the letter. Most of the time is taken with downloading and installing the new Big Sur operating system, but as it’s an almost automatic operation, there’s nothing much for me to do.

After lunch when the ironing had been done and the shirts and jeans put away I started phase two which is to transfer, or ‘migrate’ the apps and data from a working installation into the new bigger SSD. Again, once the data is sourced and checked, the new SSD gets to work and does the transfer itself. Some tidying up afterwards and it’s all good. It seems to be working fine (always a dangerous thing to say) because I’m typing this blog post on the new system.

By this time it was early afternoon and the sunshine of the morning had been replaced by cloud. However, I guessed there would be enough light to get some photos in St Mo’s. I walked through a different area of the woods this time and found a straggly bramble bush with bright green, orange and red leaves … and a bramble flower. A very hopeful flower. I’m not sure there will be many insects flying around to pollinate it. Still, it shone out on a dull day.

That was PoD. There wasn’t much more to photograph because the good sunlight never came back. But on the way back I heard the Whump, Whump of a couple of geese flying in to St Mo’s pond.  Then the whumps disappeared to be replaced with honks as they glided in to land on the pond.  The honks got quicker in succession as they got closer to the water.  Almost as if they were counting down to the landing.  I only managed one shot with the wrong lens on, but I saw the whole thing.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go dancing and the weather doesn’t look very good at all.

The rain came back – 15 November 2022

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We had two days of glorious sunshine. It was inevitable the rain would return.

It was a “chucking it down” kind of rain. Straight down, no messing rain that wasn’t going off any time soon. In fact it stayed with us until about 4 o’clock.

Scamp was out for coffee with Annette this morning. I was staying in, not just because it was raining, but also because Mr Bezos was sending me a shiny new SSD, yes, another one. This one will be a swapping drive to allow me to make a running copy of my Big Sur operating system, built using the latest method. It looks and feels faster than the first build I made. Also it was half price as Amazon have now extended Black Friday to November. I’d been sent an email to say that it would be delivered today before 9pm. Not a very exact time slot, but Mr Bezos is a busy man! It arrived just after 6pm.

Left to my own devices, I decided it was time to pick all the remaining chilli peppers and prune the plant back a bit. ‘Experts’ opinions vary on how fierce that prune should be. Some say cut about 25% from the bush. Others say cut it right back to the ground, it will regrow next year. I chose the middle ground and cut off about 50% of the green stuff after I’d removed all the ‘fruit’. I was being careful to work around the nettle that has taken root in the pot. The sting I got from it the last time I was removing chillies took a couple of days to go away. It’s done now and I think it looks a lot healthier after its trim. We’ll wait and see if it needs another chop.

The next thing to do was to phone the plumber to come and fix the kitchen tap. He’s promised to come on Friday morning. We’ll wait and hope that he’ll know how to fix it, or just replace it, whichever is easiest … and cheapest!

Lunch today was soup. It’s a long lasting soup that one, and there’s even a splash or two left for tomorrow. With that done I took a walk over to the butcher’s in Condorrat in the rain and on the way back got today’s PoD. It probably looks faked, but the only fakery in it is the removal of a couple of street lights that were spoiling the view. That misty spray from the cars on the motorway and the colour are just as it came out of the camera. It’s the low sun pushing its way through the clouds that colours the spray to the sepia hue. That’s why they call it the hour just before sunset, ‘The Golden Hour’.

I got another couple of photos in St Mo’s, because the clouds lifted, the rain stopped and the sun shone for about half an hour before it dipped back into the clouds again.

We heard from Neil that his check-up today went well with nothing untoward to report. Photo looks good Neil. They haven’t spoiled your good looks with the ’Nose Job!’ 😉. Nurse Hazy must be working hard.

Tomorrow looks like the best day of the week, but we’ll be staying at home waiting for Scamp’s new dance trainers. Hope they come before 9pm!

Off to see the big horses – 14 November 2022

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Today we were heading to Falkirk to get a pair of trainers.

We went to Falkirk today, looking for a pair of dance trainers for Scamp. She only spent about fifteen minutes in the shop because they didn’t have her size, but at least she got to see them and find out if they were what she was looking for. Afterwards we went to Morrisons, basically to see if they had the Neapolitan ice cream wafers, but they didn’t. They did have bread and milk and chocolate button ice cream cones, so we didn’t come home empty handed. We had lunch there, but the place looked like a tip. Food left all over a table and on the floor beneath. One cleaner came to wipe down the table and take away some of the rubbish, but despite her calling on the tannoy for help, nobody came. I don’t think I’d go back to Morrisons cafe. If that is the state of the tables in the cafe, what is the kitchen like?

Afterwards we drove down to the Kelpies and they were looking really grand in the afternoon light. They always bring a smile to our faces. I got a few shots of the beasts from a slightly different angle that avoids the pylons and the power lines. Light was really lovely with just a hint of haze beginning to gather in the distant hollows. One of those photos made PoD. I watched a group of folk flying a drone and posing for photos with it. Photos you couldn’t take any other way. I hope the shots turned out. I’d like to play with a drone, but I doubt if I’d be happy with the quality of photos it would produce.

I think today was the last day of sunshine for a while. Tomorrow looks wet and it remains changeable for the remainder of the week.

Scamp didn’t get the trainers in the shop, but she did order them from Amazon tonight, for delivery tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow, although I’m hoping for a dry hour some time in the daylight hours. Just a little window to take some photos. Scamp is off for coffee with Annette.

Another sunny day – 13 November 2022

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Just a relaxing Sunday for us please. No driving and maybe a walk in the sunshine for a change.

For the most part, that’s how it worked out too. There was no point in going out too early for photos because the sun is in the wrong position for the effect I was hoping for. All I needed was no clouds in the sky around 3pm. I’d a few things to do, including writing yesterday’s blog post and also posting yesterday’s PoD. That’s what happens when you’re getting home after 11pm.

After lunch, and with the blog posted and the photos in Flickr, I decided I’d go for a walk in St Mo’s where there might just be PoD’s to be picked up. Scamp was off to the shops for milk and bread.

I had to wait a while to get the light I was looking for, but eventually it came to me and I took another chance with a shot into the sun. It worked and the evidence is at the top of the page. A fair bit of post processing was needed, but that’s sometimes the way of things.

Spoke to Jamie and found out that he’s all on his lonesome this week. Even Vixen is off living the life of luxury in kennels.

That was about it for our lazy Sunday. Weather doesn’t look so good for tomorrow.

Dancin’ and Singin’ – 12 November 2022

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As usual on a Saturday we were off to Brookfield for dance class.

Very small class today only four couples and one single woman. Apart from the single woman, they all have nicknames, none of them particularly complementary and none of them will be used here!

First dance was a Melody Foxtrot which did have a musical Melody attached, but no discernible Foxtrot steps. Some knew it, some didn’t, some did ‘kind of’ know it. I’m talking about individual members of the pairs here. I was in the ‘kind of’ category while Scamp was in the ‘know it’ one. It took us all about half an hour of staggering around the hall to get more or less adept at this fairly simple sequence dance.

Next was the main lesson, The Cameron Quickstep which, although danced as a sequence because it finished at a point where the dance could start again. We’d danced it for the first time last week at Perth and it looked and felt just like a normal quickstep. We’ve not had much chance to dance quickstep and this looked like a great introduction. We’d practised it a bit at home, but a living room is not anything like a dance floor. Today gave us a much better chance to work on the dance and of course we had expert help at hand. Unfortunately the teachers are off watching rugby next Saturday, so we’ll have to wait a fortnight before we get to have a real practise, although there is the chance of a tea dance later this coming week. A couple of sequence dances rounded off the day and we were back on the road home.

I did actually get out this afternoon to take some photos in the sunshine that had lasted all day. PoD went to a view through the trees to the setting sun. Nice to get an outside photo without too much fakery, or post-processing as photogs call it.

We drove over to Larky later. Me to have a jam session with Crawford and Scamp to go with Nancy and Jacquelyn to a concert in Strathaven. I wasn’t really looking forward to jamming with Crawford. I don’t practise playing guitar, relying on what I did way back in the late ’60s, but my fingers were far more supple then and could reach all those hard to fret strings. However we did cover some weel kent songs and had settled down to a blether by the time the girls returned. Another cup of white tea for Scamp and some arrangements for a return visit to us in December and we headed home and actually found a parking place just after 11pm.

Watched a confusing Brazilian GP with Kevin Magnussen in first place and Mick Schumacher in last place. Both drivers from the Haas team! Unfortunately Magnussen couldn’t hold on to that lead after the sprint race.

Tomorrow the weather looks good again. Two days in a row, is that too much to ask? I’m hoping to tell you tomorrow.

Another day, another surgery – 11 November 2022

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This time it was the doctor’s surgery for my annual check-up.

That wasn’t until the afternoon. It was a dull, depressing morning, but at least it wasn’t raining. Scamp went off to her FitSteps class and I started hacking into my SSD drives. Not literally, but I wanted to see if there was any advantage to using a new method of forcing Big Sur into a partition of one of the SSDs and that meant finding some space to put the truncated version of the operating system in. Following the instructions by the author, Andrew Tsai, to the letter (for once), after a couple of hours I had the OS in place but there was no appreciable improvement to the boot speed. At least I know that now and I hadn’t spent any money finding it out. That experiment took up most of the morning.

Soup for lunch and then it was time to steel myself for what might be bad news at the doc’s. I needn’t have worried. I’d lost four pounds (lb pounds not £) since last year, my cholesterol was down my glucose levels were also down and my BP was just where it should have been. I got a gold star from the sister for being a good boy. Feeling better, I went to get the makings of tonight’s dinner which was to be Baked Haddock and Cabbage Risotto, which at least a couple of my readers have had before.

Driving back home I realised that the light had gone. It was just after 3pm and I was driving with the auto headlights on! That’s Scotland. The wind was still gust and almost gale-force. The bins that were emptied yesterday were lying where they’d fallen last night. There was no point in lifting them, because they’re top heavy when empty and would just fall down again. Worst of all, there was no point in taking a camera out. It was just too dark. Today would be an indoor photo, and probably Flooers!

The risotto is one of the easiest ones to make, because the oven does most of the work. I’d bought some tomatoes in Tesco and I thought that as the oven was going to be on anyway, I’d use it to roast the tomatoes for making soup tomorrow. In these straitened times you have to do a bit of lateral thinking at times.

One of Scamp’s Pelargonium plants became the PoD. Not the best photo in the world, but it was better that than nothing at all.

We practised the Cameron Quickstep tonight and I discovered how to make a slow-mo video on my phone, because you really need to see the steps at half speed. Also it’s quite funny to listen to the teachers’ instructions at half speed. Cleverly the app can reduce the speed while keeping the pitch of music or speech at the normal level. It just sounds a bit slurred.

Tomorrow we are booked for our normal dance class at Brookfield. It hardly seems like a week since we were at Perth!

A host of fillings today – 10 November 2022

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I’ve had two fillings come out recently. I was hoping this was third time lucky.

I expected she would complete the fillings over two days, but I was wrong. One filling and about half a dozen caps. It’s early days yet, I know, but they feel fine for now. I’ve been warned only to eat soft food for the next two days. So, does that mean chocolate and ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner for me? I hope so.

I think evening began about 2pm today. Black clouds were rolling around and the threat of rain was always there, plus the wind had been gusting all day. I went for a walk. I wanted a photo to become PoD and it wasn’t going to be flowers, anything but flowers. The light in St Mo’s wasn’t really any better than back home, but at least there was standing water there that I could use. It was a water based photo that made PoD. It was the outfall from the pond without any ducks for a change. The ducks, mainly mallards seem to get good feeding near the outfall.

After that I walked down to the shops and got some of that aforementioned chocolate, although I realised soup and pudding was a more reasonable alternative. The rain never really came, but the clouds got thicker and lower all the time. So different from yesterday when rain showers and sunshine took it in turns to change the landscape.

We got a message from Neil to say that he had a good night, although the pain got worse after breakfast but was still bearable. He was intending to rest for the remainder of the day. That sounds like a plan.

Tomorrow Scamp has FitSteps in the morning and I have a meeting with the nurse tomorrow afternoon.