Category: A Toy off the Rack

Nnnn Nineteen – 11 September 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Phone call this morning from the nurse to say that the podiatrist was off ill, so my appointment today was cancelled and I’d be given a new one. Five minutes later the nurse phoned back to say that another podiatrist had been contacted and my appointment was back if I was still available. I was.

Spent the morning putting the finishing touches to my painting. When I got to the point where as Whistler allegedly said “I can do no more to it”, I stopped and tore the A2 sheet from its spiral binding and hung it on the wall. Ostensibly to dry, but also to see if I would still like it when I walked past it occasionally. I did and it’s still drying. If I hadn’t it’d be in pieces in the bin by now.

After lunch I got ready and went to meet the podiatrist who signed me off as having a fit pair of feet, which was nice. Just what I’d expected.

Dinner tonight was exactly what I’d intended. A ragu made with the pulled meat from the dinosaur bone, served with some ribbon past I found in the back of the cupboard. It was very nice. Great way to use up the meat.

Salsa tonight was a bit frantic. One move in particular had me tied up in knots. It was called Balsero Dos and I hope Jamie G forgets about it next week, but I doubt if he will. We also did Disco(very), El Paraguas and Guanabo.

Found one of the limitations of the dashcam tonight. The detail in night driving is very poor. During the day it’s fine, but the contrast is so high at night and the frame rate and the shutter speed doesn’t allow for any detail to be recorded. This was pointed up when we were passed by a boy racer along Westfield Road. When I reviewed the footage, you could see it was a red car, and that was it. No detail. Useless as evidence in an accident.  Luckily we didn’t need it.

Today’s PoD is of a bunch of dragonflies I found sunning themselves up at Fannyside. There were an incredible nineteen of them all snoozing (I think) on an old rusted gate. One even let me get to within 30mm of her (I checked, it was a female Black Darter). All the photos were taken with the Teazer. Just shows what you can do with a point ’n’ shoot camera these days.

Early rise tomorrow when we’re off to the hospital in Glasgow for Scamp’s checkup.

A more down to earth day – 6 September 2017

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It seems like the last few days, in fact the last week have been a whirl of buying. Holidays, oops, forgot to mention that we are going on holiday! So apart from holidays, there were suites, hoovers dash cams and cars to look at, admire, assess investigate and purchase. Anyone would think we’d won the lottery. Now that would be unlikely because you have to buy a ticket before you can win and there is the downfall!

Today was more down to earth. A day to pick a drawer in a chest of drawers and clear it out into one of three piles using the KFC method:

  • Keep – It goes back in the drawer
  • File  – Find somewhere else to put it (where you can find it again)
  • Crap –  It goes into the bin. The more you can fit into this pile the better.

As usual, it’s really amazing the things you find in the back of a drawer. Things you’d forgotten about, things you knew you had but couldn’t find (previously filed!) and the things you find and haven’t a clue what they are, or why you were keeping them. After an hour of this I’d halved the contents of the drawer, filled two bags of rubbish and filed away numerous things, never to be found again. I just know that next week I’ll suddenly remember why I was keeping a 20mm long piece of dried clay in a zip top poly bag.

After lunch I started another painting. This one was of a real place it’s based loosely on a photograph of the Forth estuary at Torryburn in Fife. I’m quite happy with it at present, but I’ve a few bits and pieces to add and maybe, just maybe I’ll post it tomorrow, all being well.

I went for a walk along the canal in the late afternoon, just to get some fresh air in between the rain showers. It was too windy for any decent insect photos and the spider was the best I got. It was only when I was post-processing it I realised it was in the act of spinning its web. That’s my PoD.

Drove into salsa tonight and used the dashcam again. The video quality is really amazing. It even made a couple of ’emergency’ photos which it stores in a special ‘private’ folder. Impressed as I wasn’t actually braking hard, honest officer. Went to pay for parking at STUC and a prick was trying to talk to someone important on the phone that he had pressed between his shoulder and his skull whilst trying to feed about fifty 20p coins into the machine from a poly bag he was holding. It kept rejecting them then telling him to take his money, he kept on doing exactly the same thing again. After two iterations, I said to him that there’s a limit to the number of coins you can use in these machines. He looked at me as if to say go away old man. So I just said “Just trying to help and that’s what you get. WANKER.” I’m sure the person on the other end of the phone already knew he was a wanker, but I was said it loud enough to let them know that I knew too. I went across the road put in my £2.50 (no 20p coins were used) in another machine and came back as he was retrieving his ticket. It’s simple really. People who’s brain chip is an Intel Celeron single core shouldn’t try to do difficult things like parallel process. That’s only going end up in tears. Also, that’s what he gets for raiding one of his kid’s piggy banks to get his parking money. Just to annoy him more, I waited until he was back in his car and crossed the street again and photographed him. He’s sitting somewhere just now thinking “What’s he going to do with that photo?” No, probably he’s forgotten. Like my new dashcam, his brain chip will delete old data to make way for new stuff. You have to do that when you’ve only got 128k of RAM.

That last thought came from the tidy up today. I found a 128k memory module for a Sinclair QL (c1984). 128k what could you store on that now? A really small photo? About 8 seconds of music? Just shows how time and technology has moved on.

Salsa was great fun with the beginners starting to get adventurous with Exhibela and Exhibela Ronde. We even taught Jamie G a move we called Setenta Abaho. We’ll be teaching our own class soon!

And the winner is the Juke – 5 September 2017

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I made up my mind. The new car will be a Juke. A Flame Red one. That was Scamp’s part of the decision and I quite like red cars too.

Drove in to Stirling today to seal the deal and sign away all my indecision. Then Scamp suggested that since it was such a beautiful day, we should go to Perth to get tea and coffee and maybe a wee bit of lunch. Seemed like a plan, so that is what we did, with a bottle of prosecco in the boot courtesy of the dealership – you don’t get that with Arnold Clark!

Perth was almost empty today. If it wasn’t for some German tourists and a wedding party, it would have been completely deserted. You could tell they were tourists because they were all wearing tartan and rotating their street map to try to find where they were. Exactly the same as we do when we’re abroad. You could tell it was a wedding party because there was a lady with a white dress carrying a bouquet of flowers. Another clue was the group of ladies with what looked like giant black spiders on their heads. Bringing up the rear were the uncomfortable looking young men in kilts, fiddling with the tight collars of their starched white shirts. Oh what fun they were all having while the photog snapped photos for the overpriced wedding album. Cynic, that’s me.

Got my tea and coffee. Lunch was in the Breizh French restaurant. Food was interesting, but nothing great. A bit expensive. After reading a few reviews when we came home, it appears that it recently suffered from a change of ownership. That rarely means an improvement and that is what has happened here I think. May go back, but won’t rush.

Drove home and enjoyed an almost traffic free journey. I think we were just late enough to avoid the rush hour at the merging of the M80 and the M876. It’s usually a nightmare around 4pm and we were reaching it around 5pm.

Tried out the dash cam. Wasn’t too impressed with the quality of the recording until I tried it on my PC laptop with an i5 processor and everything improved greatly. It appears the Intel Core 2 Duo in the Mac just isn’t up to the job. Having said that, it will have to do the job generally for a year or so yet after today’s Flame Red investment!

Today’s PoD is of three folk attempting to emulate the statues in Perth High Street. Life Imitates Art.

Don’t have any plans for tomorrow. Just counting down the days to J-Day!

Back to School – 4 September 2017

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Today was a ‘Back to School’ day for Gems.

The day started with rain that gradually got heavier as the day wore on. Since Gems were coming back from their holidays, I had to find something to do or somewhere to go after lunch. Lunch was the second helping of Thai Green Chicken Curry. I’d made the paste on Saturday and we had the first helping for dinner yesterday. I’d intended this to be a smaller portion, to use up some chicken that was languishing in the fridge and also to use up the rest of the curry paste.

It was while I was deciding where to go and while I was listening to Scamp running through some songs with them that I began to wonder … Many years ago, before we were married Scamp was working in Glasgow libraries and she sang on a recording for an LP. Yes, and LP. This was long before CDs, far less digital downloads. I wondered if the album was lying somewhere in Spotify. As I typed in the title, the associated list became shorter and shorter until it disappeared. However, I pressed the search button and Lo and Behold, there it was. I promptly downloaded it and showed it to her. Not only is the album there, but Scamp gets a name check on her track! I’ll send you both the title so you can listen to it. Needless to say it is also available on iTunes and was promptly downloaded. Isn’t technology wonderful.
Some technology isn’t so good. Today I cancelled my Amazon Prime subscription. I wasn’t using Prime. Also Prime wasn’t available for more and more items, so it made sense to cancel it.

After my search through the musical archives, I had intended going to Stirling to make sure I was happy with the Juke, but one look at the weather and the queues on the M80 made me defer that until tomorrow. Instead, I went to get some glue to repair a painting. Imagine a techy teacher having to BUY glue! Unfortunately B&Q were reorganising their stock and today was the adhesive section’s chance to be revamped, so it was blocked off and I wasn’t going to get any glue today. I went in to Halfords and bought a dashcam instead. I think it will be a useful accessory after hearing about Sim’s accident. It’s busy charging as I write this. Hopefully it will go into the Megane tomorrow. After that I went to the boggin’ Antonine Centre and in The Works, I got a little bottle of PVA for £1. Bargain. I’d just spent around £100 on a dashcam, but felt really good at getting my glue for a quid!

After the heavy lunch, we didn’t feel like having dinner so it was just scrambled eggs on toast. Absolutely fine. Salsa tonight wasn’t as bad as last week. For one thing, I remembered how to do Caltec! Tonight’s moves were Caltec, Disco, Prado and Machucho.

Today’s PoD was a grab shot out the open back door during a little respite from the rain.  Watching blue tits and coal tits scrambling over the peanut feeder always makes me smile.

Oh yes, if you get a chance, search Spotify for The Streets of Glasgow.  The track you are looking for is ‘Bottling Songs‘.  Listen carefully and you should hear a familiar voice!

Tomorrow we may make that run to Stirling.

Almost Perfect – 3 September 2017

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It was sunny when we woke.

It seemed a shame to waste the (unexpected) good weather, so we drove down to Auchinstarry and walked along the railway, across the plantation and back along the canal. About half my usual canal – railway walk, but it was curtailed when the slight drizzle, less than a drizzle, more just spitting rain, became proper rain. Luckily the walk back was under trees for about three quarters of the way, so we were sheltered. Scamp being a rock-cake had decided against wearing a raincoat. I had my blue rainy coat with me like always. Its actually been welded to me since I bought it. I even took it with me on holiday. Temperatures of 35º but you never know when you’ll need a good Goretex™ rainy coat! Anyway, but the time we got out of the tree cover the rain had reduced again to spits and spots. By the time we got home the rain had gone off again. Managed to pick a few big fat brambles on the walk. Nowhere near as many as yesterday.

After lunch I went in search of photos. Just got in the car and the rain came back on. Drove round the now circuitous route to get to Coatbridge from Cumbersheugh. I was going to Parks garage to look at a Renault Clio. It was no good. Almost as low as the Megane. The salesman asked if I’d tried the Captur. I hadn’t, but it looked big and bulky in the showroom. However, he had one in the parking lot. Pre-registered with 0 miles on the clock. It looked a lot smaller when it was outside, but the seating was the right height. I almost said I’d take it there and then. Then I asked if it had a parking camera or just sensors. It didn’t have either. I’d have to go up to the next level of car to get parking sensors. Yes, I know I could get them fitted for around £200, but that’s not a factory fit and maybe wouldn’t be as reliable. We had both liked the parking camera on the Juke. So near, but maybe so far.

Today’s PoD is maybe the start of a series. I have a few ideas for the motorbike that featured in the first ‘Weeman’ photo back in 2009!

This is Loch Àiteigin  It doesn’t really exist.  I think Àiteigin is Gaelic for ‘Somewhere’.  It’s just a placemarker to make sure I’ve got an ink drawing/painting done after missing last week!

Juke & Jeans – 1 September 2017

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Today was all about the Juke.

We drove to Stirling to test drive the Juke and I was a bit apprehensive, although I don’t know why!  I drove it home and parked it, then Scamp drove it round the local roads and parked it. Then we drove it back to the garage.

Plusses +

  • I liked the driving position.
  • I liked the big multi function screen beside the speedo and stuff.
  • I especially liked the reversing camera.
  • I liked the oomph from the 1.2litre turbo charged engine.
  • The steering was positive.
  • I liked that you could turn off the ‘start – stop’ fuel saving system.

Minuses –

  • I didn’t like the analogue speedo.
  • I didn’t like the dark interior trim
  • I didn’t like that I couldn’t set the cruise control intuitively.

Plusses outweighed the Minuses. Price was decent for a new car and the deal was explained well. Most of all, we liked the relaxed, but matter of fact way this dealership worked. We left with a lot to think about.

Took a look at the Peugeot dealership again and this time we were considering a 2008. It wasn’t what I had expected. I seemed more like a standard estate car that the cross over I was expecting. I don’t think it will make it to the test drive stage. Scamp suggested we look at a Renault Clio as it is now a big car. All we have to do is find a dealership other than Arnold Clark.

Remember the jeans from yesterday? Posted a complaint on Debenhams FB page. Can’t say I was satisfied with the reply, so I emailed the complaints dept. They too provided a somewhat less than interested reply. However, we went in to Stirling and got another pair of the same make of jeans, just not in the same colour, priced the same as the pair I got last week. Got to the checkout and they came up on the till at half price. I should have queried it, but I reckoned I was due it after last night’s fiasco and Debenhams couldn’t care less attitude.

Today’s PoD is from a walk in the sunshine along the railway to clear my head after all the technology and finance details of the morning and afternoon.

Maybe going to Ayr tomorrow to see the airies! (Scottish Air Show).

The last day of Summer – 31 August 2017

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According to the weather pixies, today is the last day of summer. When did it start? I think I must have blinked.

Sort of got off to a slow start today. We woke to blue skies and fluffy white clouds.  I’d thought of going to Helensburgh on the train (sorry JIC). Scamp had thought about going to Embra. We couldn’t agree on what to do and wasted too much time farting about.  In the end, we did neither. We went in to Glasgow on the train hoping to get me a pair of jeans in Debenhams. I’d got a pair in the sale last week and despite them having a button fly, they were really comfortable. Went today and they were full price again. Worse still, they didn’t have my size. Bummer. Had a coffee in Nero and came home, but not before I’d got a couple of photos with the Teazer on Queen Street. PoD is above.

After dinner Scamp tried to buy the jeans from Debenhams website, but although it promised next day delivery to your nearest shop, after choosing our nearest shop, in fact any shop, it said we could collect them on Saturday. What happened to Friday? Don’t they do Fridays? Maybe the delivery staff have a wee party on Fridays and customers can go to hell. It used to be, you wrote a letter of complaint to head office about stuff like this. Now you post it on their website for all to see, something like this:

Tried to order a pair of jeans today (Thursday) with ‘click and collect’. Order before 9pm it said and you can collect tomorrow after 12 noon it said. At the checkout I selected the Stirling store. You can collect after 12pm on Saturday it said. Saturday is not the next day after Thursday, Debenhams. Oh yes, and why are Scottish customers warned that they may have to wait another hour before their parcels are delivered? Is there a problem getting the parcels through the customs at Hadrian’s Wall? Filled in the survey, but of course there’s nowhere for you to put in your email address for a reply. I wonder why??

This morning it was the car’s turn for a clean out. Scamp had ‘done the stairs’ with the new Dyson and it was my turn to clean out the car. It does a great job, but the battery lasted about 5minutes of full power. What a handy little tool it is. It’s now been charged twice more, once to finish cleaning the car and once to get it back to a full charge. I think it’s a ‘keeper’.

Tomorrow we go for a test drive in a Juke. Hence the clean up of the Megane.

No animals were injured – 30 August 2017

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Spent an hour this morning cleaning out one of the drawers in the chest of drawers. It was the least opened one, the bottom one. Actually, one of the easiest to do because there was less junk in it. I also took down some of my old paintings and filed them away. Still loads to do, but a little every day makes it easier, or so Scamp says.

Just before lunch, Scamp decided that she was going to shell out on a portable Dyson. We’d talked about it before, but she had decided then that it wasn’t all that necessary. However, while I had been looking at printers in PC World, she had been comparing and contrasting the different models of Dyson. This just shows how PC World has changed. A few years ago it was a world of PCs with the occasional Mac to keep the weirdos happy, but now half the stores are taken up with white goods or vacuum cleaners, TVs and other non PC (in its widest sense) items. No longer can you talk to geeks about SCSII cables, USB gender changers and portable hard drive speeds. Now it’s just a household electrical store. It’s just not the same. It’s not a place to spend a wet Sunday afternoon in mooching around the latest desktop computer and comparing specs and prices. What it the world coming to?

Thankfully Scamp wanted to go to JL for the Dyson. At least there the salespeople have had a bit of training and seem to know what they’re talking about, as opposed to PC World and Currys where they haven’t a clue. The downside of the loss of the Geek! After testing out the different models, she settled on a Dyson V7. Halfway between the underpowered V6 and the scary V8 Animal. The lady had asked us if we had a dog and I had started to get worried. Maybe you had to have one to qualify for the purchase of the cleaner. Or maybe they were giving one away with every purchase. I don’t like dogs and I’ve heard they don’t even taste like chicken … er, but moving right along. The reason she had asked was that the scary ’Animal’ range is intended for picking up animal hair. She wasn’t all that clear about what you did with it after you’d picked it up. I remember Hazy talking about ‘knitting with cat hair’. So no, we could make do with the ordinary V7.

Took it home and plugged it in to give it a full charge and while Scamp caught up with her soap watching, I wandered round St Mo’s and just missed Mr Grey. He was hiding in the bushes but when he saw me he was off like a shot squawking his derision at me. I did manage to grab the snail on the dried cow parsley seed head. There wasn’t much colour about it, so I turned it into a mono shot and that seems to suit it.

Salsa tonight was ok, but my feet were killing me wearing the dancing shoes. They are the most uncomfortable shoes I’ve ever worn. I couldn’t bear to wear them for any more than the beginners class. I may forget to take them next time we go dancing!
In the advanced class we went over Espejo.

No plans for tomorrow. Just hope we’re not driving again.

Under the Knife – 24 May 2017

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This morning began early with me taking the Megane to the garage to have its water leak investigated. By lunchtime it had been confirmed that the problem was a hole in the radiator. It had to stay in overnight and is scheduled for an operation tomorrow with a replacement radiator being fitted. Scamp’s dad would simply have repaired the radiator, because that was his job. Now they just replace them. More expense.

Didn’t do much for the rest of the day until I was coaxed out for a walk by Scamp, not that she was coming with me, oh no, she was watching the final of MasterChef on catch-up. One thing I did do was work out how to use Mail Drop on the Mac. Very clever way of sending large (> 50MB) files to someone. I should make more use of it.

Walked over St Mo’s and got some photos of spiders and dandelion clocks (a must for photogs every year). Still using the Teazer and getting more used to it.

Had to drive Scamp’s car to Salsa tonight, but luckily the traffic was light and we made it with no problem. Salsa itself was fun. Beginners were experiencing the thrill of Exhibela. Advanced class was pretty small, but we covered La Cuadra, Tresario Doble, Cubaa Se. We also tried one of the most exasperating moves, La Confusion where the leaders become followers and vice versa. So well named. No Salsa on Monday, so we have to wait a week for our next fix.

Tomorrow? Scamp has coffee in the morning with Shona and I have coffee just after lunch with Fred and Val. Then hopefully we have to pick up the car.

Water, Water, Everywhere – 23 May 2017

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Sky water and radiator water, they were both in evidence today.

It was a lovely morning and a fairly decent start to the afternoon too. Began with some gardening duties, namely thinning out the beetroot that now looks as if its been broadcast all over the raised bed because I aborted the first sowing and began a new one at the start of the month. It appears that the first lot were just a wee bit tardy in germinating and have only now found out which way is up. Unfortunately, I turned over the bed before I sowed the last lot of seeds, now I’ve got two lots.
Next I planted out the kale seedlings and lastly the final two pea seedlings, or should that be ‘pealings’?

After that I checked the car and yes, there was a yellow puddle of sticky liquid under it, so there was a leak after all. I knew there would be, but you can always hope. Drove to the garage and got an appointment to have it checked tomorrow. Another early rise 🙁

After lunch Scamp encouraged me to get out in the sun. Also, the wee man who lives on my wrist now was telling me the same thing Freddy Fitbit is his name. It was obvious I wasn’t going to get any peace, so I took myself out. I drove down to Auchinstarry with the Teazer in my pocket and the Oly5 in my bag as backup and went for a long walk. I took lots of shots with the Teazer before rain stopped play. It looked like the rain was on for the day, so I headed back to the car, thankful that I’d decided to bring my new, blue, totally waterproof jacket. The best buy this year so far. Drove home and processed the photos while Scamp made the dinner: Pea and Prawn Risotto. Lovely.

Photos were ok. Some were better than others. I’ll admit I was disappointed and had almost decided to take the camera back before Scamp gave me a severe talking to and reminded me of my original intentions for it. It was to be a ‘stick in your pocket’ camera. It was never going to equal the Olys, far less the Nikon. Its got a place in the pecking order. It’s going to be the ‘pup’ of the camera family. Smaller than the ‘wee dog’, maybe more a Chihuahua kind of dog, just not so yappy.

Tomorrow, after we take the Megane to the car hospital and get it checked in? Don’t know. Maybe a drive somewhere unless it’s still raining.