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Cooking – 22 January 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A busy day. Crawford and Nancy were coming for dinner.

I hadn’t been feeling great in the morning and grabbed an extra half hour snooze after taking a couple of paracetamol. They didn’t seem to do much good, so I drove over to Tesco to get more veg and stuff for the dinner and by the time I came back the pills had kicked in and I felt a lot better.

After dinner I took a camera out to St Mo’s and got a few photos of a tough old Bramble branch with lethal looking thorns.

The rest of the day can be condensed into some bullet points.

  • I was making Mushroom Soup
  • Scamp was making Chicken Stroganoff for main course
  • Scamp was also making Tiramisu for the dessert
  • Neither of us were really impressed with our creations, but they seemed to go down well with the guests.
  • The guests arrive just after 7.30pm and left about half past midnight.
  • We loaded the dishwasher after they left and went to bed.
  • I had to forego my usual dinner party whisky because I was driving to the dentist in the morning, and it was already late.

Tomorrow it looks like Windy Willy is coming round again!

Beautiful clear day – 21 January 2025

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It was a bit dull this morning, but then the clouds cleared and the sun shone!

We had a fair bit of shopping to do today, so we drove up to Tesco to see if they had anything interesting in store. We managed to get almost everything we wanted, but we might need to go shopping again tomorrow for the odd one or two we missed.

We had intended to go out for a walk in the afternoon, but that didn’t happen. Scamp was cleaning and I was printing off the remaining calendars. Yes, Hazy, they are coming. I’m hoping to get them posted off tomorrow.

Later in the afternoon, once the calendars were drying, I went for a walk in St Mo’s. The sun was just setting as I was crossing the boardwalk and I took a few shots with the camera. Then I tried the phone camera, but wasn’t impressed with the results until I spent a good ten minutes going through the different settings and sub-settings on the thing. That’s when the PoD appeared. I was trying to shoot an ultra-wide view across the pond to grab the sunset colours, and suddenly it all just worked! Scamp chose the PoD and I have to agree with her. It worked so well.

We eventually got a ’normal’ dinner tonight. It was Pasta all’Amatriciana. Pasta with bacon, dried red pepper flakes and a tin of Italian tomatoes, served with cheese. I added crushed garlic just to play with the garlic press!

That was about it for today. Tomorrow I think we’ll both be baking or cooking for Crawford and Nancy.

An early shout – 20 January 2025

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Out just after 9am (early for me!) to go see the bloodsuckers. Those darling ladies who take away some of my high quality blood for their own nefarious purposes. I think they use it to make black pudding!

After the blood letting, I was free to enjoy the rest of the day. It was a gloomy prospect. Poor light in an overcast sky and nothing to look forward to. Even lost my 36 day run on Wordle. First one I’d tried on the new phone. I hope that’s not an indication of what’s coming next.

After a reviving cup of coffee, Scamp set out her plans for the remainder of the day which involve driving to Falkirk to look for a bedside lamp, a coffee table, maybe a new fridge and just the chance of a new rug for the lighting room.

  • None of the many bedside lamps ticked her boxes.
  • Of coffee tables there were no signs.
  • Fridges were also thin on the ground. There were cheap ones and there were expensive ones, but virtually nothing in between.
  • We did find a rug which was almost the same size as our present one and we took a chance on it.

At least we did get the rug and then we went shopping in Morrisons for … well, shopping mainly; – also known as ‘Messages’. We were almost as unlucky there too. It being Monday, a lot of the shelves were empty. I’m beginning to wonder about Morrisons. Over Christmas they were in dire straits when they couldn’t produce the Christmas goodies folk had been saving up for. It wasn’t a good sign. No doubt we’ll hear about it sooner rather than later if the shops begin to close.

Drove home and I took a chance on being able to get some decent landscape shots. Luckily for me I did find a likely sky scape that reflected on the water of the pond at St Mo’s. I took that as a basis for a PoD.

Drove up to Kirsty’s new dance class. The class had started last week, but neither Scamp nor I was really ready for it, but today we were. The hall she had found was a decent size an brightly lit. Much, much better than the dingy pocket handkerchief we’d been working I for the past year. This was a whole new possibility. Tonight’s dance was the first two parts of a waltz routine and it worked well. We had a new couple just joined us last week too. I hope Kirsty’s enthusiasm starts to bring in more ballroom and latin dancers.

Tomorrow, I think we may be practising some food ideas for two friends on Wednesday, all being well.

Snowdrops – 19 January 2025

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The first snowdrop flowers to appear in the garden.

It was Scamp’s idea that I should take a photo of the first snowdrops. I think it was just a ploy to get me to go outside for a while, but I didn’t mind. Finding a decent viewpoint to shoot them from, because they were nestled into a corner of a square pot, that was a challenge. I eventually used a piece of matt black neoprene to give a dark background that would hide the plastic pot, but wouldn’t be too detailed and draw the eye from the plants. Eventually I came up with about six photos. Three from one angle and three from another. The final choice was up to Scamp and she chose this one. I think she was right. She sometimes is!

The remainder of the day was a typical Sunday. Lunch for Scamp was one of yesterday’s fresh eggs, fried with some tomatoes on buttered bread. I had the remainder of Friday’s mince with another of those eggs poached in it. A Larky standard!

Later after Scamp had taken in all that Laura Kuenssberg had to say about the release of hostages from Israel and Gaza and the forthcoming deification of Donald Trump, we went for a walk to the shops. Of course I took a camera with me, but I didn’t use it. I knew the first snowdrop would stand for PoD. It wasn’t as cold as it had been in the morning when I’d been on location in the garden photographing flowers, but on the way back home a chill began to descend.

Dinner was Trout Fillets with Hasselback Potatoes (why do I keep calling them Hasselhoff?), Peppers, Tomatoes and Shallots, roasted in the oven. Absolutely lovely. Why do I keep describing food? Because we are both foodies and good food deserves to be praised.

Spoke to Jamie and heard how he had spent his week weeding and working in the garden while Simonne lived the high life in Florida. Your time will come Jamie!

Tomorrow morning I’m expected to donate a full test tube of my precious blood to demonstrate how wonderful it is!

Dance Class – 18 January 2025

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First one this year and first one for about a month too.

Drove to Brookfield to find that the room was almost full. Neither of us had seen such a busy dance class in a long time, if not ever!

Just as we were driving over to Brookfield, my phone buzzed. By the time I got there the message was long gone and anyway it was just a message to say that NHS Hairmyres Hospital had called and it wasn’t possible to reply to this message. What sort of way is that to run a railroad, or a hospital, for that matter. I phoned the hospital and spoke to a human who told the message was about an appointment I had. By the sound of her, I wasn’t the first to have one of these calls. In fact I’d had one last week and knew what was coming.

Back at dance class, we recognised a few faces from years ago, in for a refresher course. Stewart asked us how many of us could remember the October Waltz. Most of us couldn’t remember how to tie our shoe laces, far less how to dance! That didn’t sway Stewart and Jane and we were soon remembering ‘Back Cortés’ and ‘Spin Turns’. It also gave me a chance to do take some video footage on my new phone. The October Waltz took up most of our time and we may still be perfecting next October if we’re spared.

A wee bit of sequence dancing gave our knotted leg muscles a chance to recover after the waltz, and we were in to the Tango. A new version of the X-Line Tango that we started with a few years ago, but which has been altered an improved in the last year or so. Actually, it feels like a completely new dance now. With Scamp and Jane’s help I did put the steps in the correct place and my feet followed suit. In the end, the tango wasn’t as daunting as I’d feared.

A Midnight Jive or two brought proceedings to a suitable finale and we were still able to walk back to the car. One of the dancers had brought eggs, laid by a neighbour’s hens and was giving them away. Scamp collected half a dozen in a box filled with straw and they survived the journey home. I took a risk and went the Kingston Bridge way home, it being quicker, especially if you claim a space in the outside lane quickly enough. I did.

Back home despondency hung over me because of the complications of the iPhone 15 again. However, a severe talking to by Scamp and the promise of a Golden Bowl supper made me forget.

A walk over to Condorrat to collect the supper gave me my first serious shot with the phone of cars on the motorway. I was quite impressed. Not camera quality, but not bad. That was the PoD in the bag.

Remember the phone call that you cannot reply to? We got another one tonight when we were watching last year’s prom on iPlayer. The same message I got last week, so I knew what to expect. Automatic recorded voice which, thankfully wasn’t american, talked me through the procedure an I was booked in.

Scamp was enthralled by Barber’s Adagio and I was similarly fascinated by Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Absolutely fascinating. How can these folk remember all those piano pieces.

In a much better frame of mind tonight. I’m more settled with the phone and with the next appointment at the hospital. It looks like it’s going to be a busy week. Only one free day for a walk with Alex.

Hoping for a bit better day tomorrow, even just a bit of light, even if it’s raining will do.

Dull, Dull, Dull – 17 January 2025

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Where did those lovely blue skies go.

They were there yesterday, complete with Lenticular Clouds. Today it’s just heavy grey skies 🙁

Scamp was away early in the morning to go to FitSteps and I had the run of the house for a good couple of hours or more, because she was meeting Isobel for coffee after the class. I stayed at home and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

I read for a while, considered going out for a walk, but the dull grey sky didn’t do much to encourage me, so I stumbled through more tweaks to the amazingly complicated iPhone 15. Many moons ago when I got my first MacBook Pro, you could take it in to the Apple shop in Glasgow and they would talk you through alll the things you could do with it and answer your questions as you went. I think things have changed a lot since then, judging from my last foray into Apple Glasgow.

After Scamp returned, and we had lunch, I drove up to Kenilworth to speak to a doctor. It was a routine appointment to get myself a PSA test to make sure my ‘waterworks’ were behaving properly. Before Covid, I’d had six monthly checkups, but Covid changed so many things. I just thought I should be getting back into that routine again. The doc gave me a once over and declared that there were no major problems, but suggested I should cut down on my caffein intake which meant less tea and coffee. That would be a hardship for me, as you can imagine, but I’d been gradually reducing my coffee intake recently, so I guess it was no great surprise. Blood test is set for Monday, so coffee and tea might not be the only things I’ll be reducing.

As I was driving home I saw a break in the clouds appearing and thought I might catch a shot or five with my new camera, but as I got closer to home, I realised I couldn’t outrun that golden disk and it would have dipped below the horizon before I could get to a suitable vantage point. Instead, I drove home and picked up a tiny wee stick with two green leaves sprouting from it. It was a cutting of a Honeysuckle from the garden, but it didn’t seem to ‘take’ and eventually appeared to be dead. We were going to dump it in the compost bin when I noticed what looked like white rootlets at the base. Scamp re-potted it and sure enough, two little green leaves appeared. To give you a sense of scale, the leaf on the left is just a tiny bit less than 5mm long. The twig will eventually be cut back if the leaves continue to grow. PoD in the bag!

Scamp had Bubble ’n’ Squeak for dinner and I had Mince ’n’ Tatties. Delicious, because Scamp made them, not me!

Tomorrow I think we might be going to dance class. First time this year and first time in about a month!

Heading for Fife – 16 January 2025

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Today we got a bus to catch a bus that would take us to Fife for a walk in the park and to grab some lunch.

We got the X3 to the town centre and just missed the bus to Dunfermline. That meant we had to stand in a cold, unheated bus shelter for about half an hour until the Dunfermline bus arrived. Really, in this day and age I’d think a wee bonfire in the corner could have been lit to provide us with some heating. Even if we gathered up all the fag ends, we could have allowed them to dry out so they would be easier to light and give us a heat. It looked from the singe marks on the timetables in the shelter that some adventurous folk had the same idea. At least someone was thinking about us shivering pensioners.

We finally got on the most rickety bus Stagecoach could find and at least it was heated. A fairly pleasant run up to Dunfermline, but I was wishing that I’d taken Scamp up on her suggestion that we grab a seat on the Perth bus that we allowed to pass us, or even the Dundee bus would have been good. The fact that both of those destinations had shops selling coffee beans that I’d tried in the past had nothing to do with our destination. There were no coffee beans for sale in Dunfermline, but there was a Cafe Nero which was the next best thing.

Suitably refreshed, we went for a walk through the park and I got a chance to take some photos of the more exotic plants in the heated glasshouse. I also sneaked some photos of folk in and around the park. PoD went to a leaf in the glasshouse, brilliantly lit from behind by today’s bright low sun.

Lunch was in Wetherspoons. Fish ’n’ Chips for Scamp and Chicken Jalfrezi curry for me. Scamp’s was washed down with a large glass of Barossa Ink and mine with a pint of Innis & Gunn. Long time since I’ve had that.

After that it was time to head for the bus home. An uneventful journey with some lovely cloudscapes that I couldn’t take, but enjoyed watching.

Tonight we watched our first and probably our last Traitors. I’m guessing most of the folk in this pointless bit of fluff were cracked actors or “Be on a Show” people who just wanted to be seen on TV. It was puerile rubbish, but seems to have attracted a fair following. So what do I know?

Tomorrow we’re back in the old routine with Scamp intending to go to Fit Steps in the morning.

 

Sunny and cold today – 15 January 2025

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A lazy morning for Scamp, and for me a successful hour or so of working out how to put my Gmail accounts into the iPhone. These may be famous last words, but I think I’m getting the hang of the iPhone at last. It’s far more complicated and security conscious than the old SE model I had a hundred years ago!

In the afternoon I took a break from technology and drove Scamp up to the fairly new Westway retail park, in what used to be Wardpark, for lunch with the Witches. A few shops, a Home Bargains, a Halfords and a B&Q. Fantastic.

I wasn’t invited nor did I want to be. Instead I drove up to Fannyside on a beautiful cold day with wall to wall blue sky. I only came, as I said, for a break from fighting with an iPhone that wanted my password every few seconds. I parked at a corner by the side of a field full of sheep (The Girls) and went for a walk, heading north-east for about a mile along the single track road and got a few photos, then retraced my steps, back to the car.

I had two cameras and three lenses with me, so I changed cameras and lenses and walked south-east for another three-quarters of a mile before heading back to the car again with very few shots in the bag. Then I noticed that a few of The Girls were wondering what was going on and coming over for a better look. That’s when I got the PoD. I could drive home quite happily now there was something decent in the bag.

Back home I was just making a cup of tea (herbal tea) when Scamp arrived home from lunch with tales of cakes and coffee bought for just a few quid. Who would have thought you’d get decent coffee and a cake at Home Bargains for less than a fiver?

Scamp made dinner tonight and it was Prawn & Pea Risotto. A lovely combination she makes so well. Washed down with a half a bottle of red. Well, it is ‘Hump’ day. Midweek!

Later we watched The Great Scottish Book Club. Always worth a watch, just to make sure you’re not missing anything worthwhile putting on your ‘watch list’.

Tomorrow the plan is to take the bus to Dunfermline over in Fife for a walk in the park and possibly some lunch.

A frustrating day – 14 January 2025

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Scamp gave me a lift to the station this morning.

I was hoping to get a solution to my problem of squeezing my Android data into the new iPhone. I headed straight to the Apple shop and got my first let down. I spoke to the ‘greeter’ at the shop and was told that they didn’t actually do transitions between Android and Apple. The reason she gave was that they weren’t allowed by law to work with third party equipment, or words to that effect.

I told her I wasn’t impressed much with Apple, since they proudly state that they made the software for the changeover, but weren’t willing to help with its use. She checked with her manager and he confirmed that. My hopes of an easy answer were gone.

I left and went to get my hair cut. A wee old man in a long white ankle length coat, like Muslim men wear, asked me for directions to the Bank of Scotland and I said I was going that way and told him I’d walk with him up to Sauchiehall Street. He looked as if he was very tired and walked quite slowly. Eventually we walked up to the top of West Nile Street and I pointed out the bank. He thanked me and crossed the road to it. That was my good turn for the day.

I got my hair cut and told my tale of woe to the barber who didn’t sympathise with me but told me that was just how business was done these days. I paid him and went for a spot of lunch and thought about what he’d said and was heading for the train when I spoke to Scamp and she agreed with the barber.

That made me think again and I went for a walk to clear my head, then phoned Scamp again and told her I would get a later train, then went back to the Apple shop and apologised to the manager for being a hot headed eejit and he explained what I was doing wrong with the attempted transfer of data.

I took him at his word, phoned Scamp and to get a lift back to civilisation and did what the bloke in the Apple shop had said. This time doing it by his method. The last time the transfer took about two minutes maximum. This time it took about 45 minutes, but almost everything transferred without a problem.

The only thing missing was the emails. They needed to be installed separately and individually. There were only four of them, but even after working at it for three or four hours, I’m no further forward. I may have to go to that Apple shop again to have it explained to me.

A frustrating day, I said. It certainly was, for me.

PoD was a photo taken in Queen Street Station. I liked the light in there.

Tomorrow, Scamp may be going out with the rest of the Witches. I might go back into Glasgow for another tutorial. I’m sure it’s something simple I’m missing.

Wet – 13 January 2025

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We have become so used to dry, cold, icy days that rain is almost a novelty … Almost!

We soon became tired of the constant rain, but couldn’t find the place where you turn it off. Instead we both wandered off into our individual bedrooms. For my part I started gathering old bits of tech, filling a bag with them and dumped the bag in the bin. Scamp had been complaining about the number of jackets of varying age and condition in my room, so the next target was to gather them into two boxes, Keepers and Chuckers. Usually I go back on my promises and keep them all, but surprisingly, this time I kept to my word and put more than half of them in the box to go to the Salvation Army.

I struggled to get WhatsApp into the new phone, and at one point I thought I’d destroyed it, but after a bit of help from Scamp it all became clear and it’s now on computers and phones. I’ve still got a lot of apps to load on, but it looks like being a long drawn out process.

I didn’t go far for today’s photo, just into the garden. It’s a bud from Scamp’s Lady Emma Hamilton rose that never quite got a chance to open and then was frozen solid for a week. Such a pity, but only to be expected in mid winter.

We had intended going to the first night of the dance class, but neither of us were in the mood for it, so Scamp wrote a note of apology to Kirsty and promised we’d do our best to be there next week. Kirsty replied with a couple of videos of the class learning a Waltz in the new, much larger and brighter room in the Link.

Hoping against hope for better weather tomorrow, but I’m told we may need some shopping, but I might manage to get something photographed along the way.