A Toy off the Rack – Page 22

Frosty Morning – 5 January 2017

Posted on January 5, 2017January 6, 2017 by Zogman

Cold and frosty morning to be more precise. I got up around half past eight and after making Scamp’s breakfast, I went out for an early morning photographic foray into St Mo’s. The light wasn’t quite as good as I’d hoped, because the sun hadn’t risen above the pine trees and the frost wasn’t as thick as I’d have liked. Probably not enough dampness in the air for a change. However, I did get a few shots worth posting. I was just taking my boots off when I got back and there was a knock at the door. My sewing machine had arrived, delivered by Parcel Force. Why couldn’t JL have told me they were delivering it? Why must everything be a mystery with them?

After breakfast and a dive into today’s sudoku, I had a go at loading a bobbin with thread and doing a couple of trial runs. It’s so smooth and quiet compared to Scamp’s old Jones machine. You even get an instructional DVD with it, showing you the basics of threading it and starting the first few stitches. Heavens, when we first got the Jones machine over 40 years ago, we didn’t have a TV far less a DVD player. They were as unimaginable as the science fiction of 2001!

I needed to get this ‘pure affro’ of a hairstyle of mine cut, so we drove in to Glasgow to get it done. Before that, Scamp bought herself a new Samsung tablet from, of all places, John Lewis! The price was right and we weren’t getting it delivered so I forgave her. After the haircut, lunch was in McPhee’s fish and chip shop and although it was a bit greasy which I knew I’d suffer for later, I enjoyed every mouthful.

That about summed up the day. Cold but bright with the temperature not rising above zero until the late afternoon when cloud rolled in

Goodbye 2016 – 31 December 2016

Posted on December 31, 2016December 31, 2016 by Zogman

Today we didn’t want to be bumbling around the house all day, so made a frail excuse and headed in to Glasgow on the bus. From there we got the subway to the west end, to be more exact Kelvin Hall station and went for lunch at Usha’s where food is served in tapas style. It used to be totally vegetarian, but now it feeds the carnivore too. I’m not going to have you salivating by repeating all our choices, but Scamp’s favourite was Aloo Gobi and mine was Patina Ghosht.

By the time we came out, it was bucketing down. It was teeming. We walked up Byres Road and while Scamp went to Waitrose – our frail reason for coming – I wandered round Waterstones. It was there I found my PoD. Hazy and I have been following Chris Riddell on Facebook for some time and this looked like an original. After getting the shot, I met up with Scamp and we walked across the road to Oran Mor and had a drink and a chance to get warm. Oran Mor is an old church that has been converted into a pub. It’s pretty old-fashioned inside with sanded floor boards and dark furnishings and it suited us perfectly today because it was warm with good beer and wine. Unfortunately, we had to get home today, so we restricted our drinking to one pint of Deuchars for Scamp and a large glass of Shiraz for me 😉

Outside the rain was still falling, so we decided to cut our west end visit short and get the subway home. When we got to the platform and the train arrived, it was absolutely ram-jam-full of Rangers supporters, all of them with very long faces. Today was the annual Old Firm match between bitter rivals Rangers and Celtic, and it didn’t take a genius to work out who had won. It must have been the quietest subway journey I’ve had. Every single one of the supporters was locked into his or her own little world, and it was colder in that world than the weather outside.

Got the bus home and that was the end of the Glasgow trips for 2016.

Now to the questions:

Best thing I’ve done this year?
Without doubt, it must be completing Inktober Not only did it make me sketch, but it made me sketch outside and that was a big challenge for me.

Best ‘Toy off the Rack’.
It must be the Linx 10.1″ 2-in-1 tablet/laptop. Very portable but very powerful too.

Worst thing I’ve done?
Technology again, but it’s installing El Capitan on the Mac. It’s the ‘Windows Vista’ of the Mac OS. The operating system that just didn’t operate. Wish I’d stuck to Mountain Lion.

Challenges for next year

Sketch more.
Paint again.
Gym and Swim at least once a week.
Talk to more people.
Smile more!

Let’s see how it pans out.

A Thursday that feels like Friday – 29 December 2016

Posted on December 29, 2016December 30, 2016 by Zogman

Because Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, the entire week has been one day out. Well, that’s my excuse anyway. Today was Thursday but it felt like Friday.

Scamp was away in the morning taking her sister to a Costa for a coffee. I got the sewing machine out and swore at it for a while then repaired the pocket of an old pair of jeans, then swore at it a bit more before patching the pockets of another two pairs of jeans. I finished off the process by swearing at it a bit more. It doesn’t really owe us anything as it was bought over 40 years ago. It cost about £25 in those pre-millennium times.

In the afternoon we drove in to Glasgow. For a change we thought we’d park in the Concert Hall carpark. We always get parked there in the basement. Not today. Basement was full and we had to go all the way to the roof to get a space. It’s ages since we had to go all the way up there. Brilliant view. That’s where today’s PoD came from.

I was in Glasgow to get my hair cut and Scamp was going shopping. However, it was standing room only in the barbers, so I decided to wait until next year to get my hair cut. We wandered round John Lewis looking for bargains – there were none. Then through Buchanan Galleries but there were no bargains there either, or if there were, they were well hidden, so we went for lunch in JL. Had another look at new sewing machines, but they didn’t have the one I wanted – out of stock, but in stock in Embra. Apparently this one just works, you don’t have to swear at it. I wasn’t sure I’d like that. It’s the swearing that makes it interesting you see.

Back home I made the decision and bought the machine from the Embra store. It will come in five working days, but with New Year a few days away, there’s no telling how far that ’five working days’ will extend to. Now I’m beginning to wonder if I’ve made the right decision. Will I like a sewing machine that you don’t have to swear at? I’ll find out in ’five working days’, and I’ll let you know. Effin’ sewing machines!

Scamp was out again tonight to a ‘Gems’ meeting (For ’meeting’ read ’drinking session’) and she had not actually been to the house before, which made it interesting for me as I was doing the driving. We got to the street and then she admitted that she wasn’t absolutely sure of the house number either. Honestly, you couldn’t write this stuff, although, I suppose you could. Well, I could because I’m writing it now, but you know what I mean. Eventually after a couple of dead ends, we found the house and the car was decanted.

Not sure what we’re doing tomorrow.

A Full House – 17 November 2016

Posted on November 17, 2016November 18, 2016 by Zogman

Tonight we would have a busier house as JIC and Sim were coming up for a flying visit.

Scamp was out this morning meeting one of her in-laws for coffee and I was charged with clearing up the painting room ready for JIC and Sim. Of course, I didn’t do that, there were more interesting things to do like format one of the borked drives and test copy files to it to make sure it was working properly. It was. I also worked out how to get my Sony F707 camera working in IR mode again, more of which later. Eventually I did get round to clearing up the room at least so that it looked like a room again.

When Scamp came back I drove in to Glasgow to see if Staples had a decent price for the 3TB backup drive I’d picked on the net. They didn’t, but it looked like Argos in Cumbernauld of all places did have it, so it was back in the car then back to Cumbersheugh in the driving rain, only to find that the drive I’d earmarked had been sold. Blast – well, I did actually say a different word which also started with ‘B’ but finished with a ‘D’ and had the letters ‘A,S,T,A,R’ and ‘D’ in the middle. You’ve probably heard it, and maybe even used it before. Not you Scamp, not you. Anyway, I settled for the slightly cheaper 2TB version and payment made, new toy collected, headed back to the car through the rain. That’s when I saw today’s PoD. Cumbersheugh isn’t a pretty town, but it does a really good gloomy. I instantly liked the shot with the little silhouette of an out of focus ‘wee wummin’ (remember ‘wee wummin’ from a couple of weeks ago?) in the middle distance. It looked good in colour, but I guessed it would look even better in mono.

Right, this Sony F707 IR thing needs a bit of explanation. If you look here, you’ll understand what it’s all about, maybe. I’d forgotten all about it and the magnet trick, but today, again in the seridipity of the Internet, I chanced upon a more up to date post about exactly the same thing. That got me started again, sticking an Infra-red filter on the F707. A 720nm filter is virtually black to the naked eye, but allows a narrow band of Infra-red light through and virtually none of the visible spectrum. The Sony just pretended it wasn’t there, except for making everything have a red tint. I think I prefer the results from the crossed pola filters. There’s a bit better range of colour to them. I’m intending to try it out tomorrow with some hoped for sunshine.

Popped in to the airport to pick up the travellers and then back past CITRAC signs warning of ice tomorrow. Ice in Scotland in November? Surely not.

Hoping for sun tomorrow. Always!

More Repairs – 9 July 2016

Posted on July 8, 2016July 9, 2016 by Zogman

The Megane was due in at the garage for 8am, so it was another early rise, this time for both of us. Got it down there on the dot at 8am. Back for breakfast then just after that, decided to set the garden back the way it was before the fence went up. Almost the way it was. Scamp wanted the compost bin put in a new position, so clearing a space for it and levelling it was the first order of the day. With that sorted, we could procede to refill it from the six black bin bags we’d filled with the compost. Then plants in their pots had to be relocated round the periphery of the garden. Some trimming next. Two branches of the Rowan Tree were encroaching in the neighbour’s garden, so I lopped them off. Dead headed the Schoolgirl rose at the front and that’s where I found the caterpillar. It ended up in the front grass to fend for itself.

Just before lunch, the garage phoned to say that the Megane was ready and for once the bill was slightly smaller than we had estimated. Every little helps. Picked up the car and came home for a well earned lunch. After that, I drove us in the Megane with its new CV joint boot to Bishopbriggs to get a lightweight Manfrotto tripod I fancied. It will probably be a ‘car tripod’ as the big Manfrotto is a bit of a tight squeeze in the boot. It really is a neat little thing and is much less cumbersome than the big 055CL. However, I will keep the 055 to hold the D7000 because it feels much more secure on the big Tri.

Went for a walk over St Mo’s and got the shot of the damselfly. The Pana lens wouldn’t focus on the damsel because it found the daisies in the background more attractive, so I used manual focus and focus peaking on the ’10 to get accurate focus on the insect and it worked perfectly. The butterfly is a Ringlet and this is the first time I can recall seeing this name.

One wee sad thing today, but a happy thing too. Val wanted a DSLR. He’d been given one by one of his friends, but that person asked for it back. He’s been looking for a cheap second hand one for a while with no success. I had a D70 that’s been redundant since I got the D7000, so I stuck on the Nikkor 70-200mm and gave them to him. I think he liked them. I hope he enjoys using them as much as I did. A wee bit sad for me parting with them, because they’ve both been great tools for me, but hopefully a happy day for Val, who’s going through a bad patch just now.

More problems uploading to Flickr tonight. That’s the second time this week. I finally got the images uploaded, but I think I may be looking for a new repository for my images soon, along with a few other people according to the forums on the net.

It’s not been a bad day at all weatherwise. A little rain in the morning, but lots of blue skies and a lovely sunset tonight. Let’s hope for more of the same tomorrow.

Extra! Extra! – 6 June 2016

Posted on June 6, 2016 by Zogman

I got the train in to Glasgow today. The fast train, but also a bit of mystery tour. What should have been a 15 min journey took just over half an hour. The reason was the closure of the tunnel at Queen Street Station. They are electrifying the line and are using that as a chance to repair the tunnel that hasn’t had any decent work done in it for over forty years. I knew it would be a long journey, but I wanted to experience the trip through stations I hadn’t been to in ages. Ashfield, Dawsholm Park, Maryhill. All names from the past. I quite enjoyed it.

I’d gone in to Glasgow to get a 37mm UV filter for my new toy, the 12-32mm lens. This 37mm diameter piece of glass cost me £18 in Merchant City Cameras in Parnie Street. That’s almost 50p per millimeter. Ok, pedants, I know it’s not really 50p per mm, but 3.4p per mm² doesn’t have the same gravitas!

While I was coming to terms with the hole this filter had made in my finances, I noticed the crowd outside the Trans Europe Cafe in Parnie Street. It looked like a Lights, Camera, Action thing and after talking to one of the extras, well, I think he was an extra, it wasn’t Johnny Depp. I’m sure I’d have notice him if he was there. Anyway, the extra told me that it was a comedy being made for Netflix. I don’t think I’ll ever see it, because we don’t have a Netflix, just a ‘cooncil telly’.

Got the rattliest bus ever home and sat in the garden to soak up as much of the sun as possible while Gems went through their paces. Thunder storms and heavy rain forecast for tomorrow. Coming home from salsa tonight, even the CITRAC signs were forecasting heavy rain and they are never wrong (sarcasm).

Testing Again – 4 June 2016

Posted on June 4, 2016 by Zogman

The new lens was due to arrive between 3pm and 4pm so we had time to kill today. The day had started with heavy cloud, bit without the rain that had been predicted. However as the day wore on, the clouds lifted and the sun shone, but there was a cool breeze, so rather than sit in the garden as we’ve been doing recently, we did our phase one packing. Just to see how much we could lob into these canvas bags. How more efficient they are than the big heavy rectangular boxes my mum and dad had to drag on holiday with them. No rolling wheels for them, no, they had to carry them. Going on holiday was a tough business in the old days.

<Technospeak>
The lens arrived on time and I took a two or three shots. They looked as good as the reviews had predicted. This lens is a 12 – 32mm zoom and this equates to a 24 – 64mm in 35mm terms. On a 35mm camera, a standard lens is anything between 35mm and 60mm, so this lens covers this with a little more on the short end. In other words, it’s a wide standard lens, a kit lens. It doesn’t do anything very special, but it does it very, very well. Those two or three shots showed that it was really sharp. It provided the sharpness of a prime lens with the versatility of a zoom. It looks like it’s going to be locked on to one of the Olys for some time to come.
</Technospeak>

All of the photos in the matrix were taken with it today.

JIC and Hazy: The one top right is all that’s left of the Adventure Playground on the path to Condorrat. They’ve taken out all the old stuff. Now we wait to see what will replace it with.

Spent the rest of the afternoon coaxing, first the Mac and then the new Linx tablet, to work properly. The Mac problem is iTunes. My least favourite Mac prog. I applied an update this morning, something I rarely do. After that I kept getting a popup telling me that something to do with the dock had crashed. After checking on the net, it turns out that everyone else who has the problem links it to the same iTunes update. Apple, I don’t expect this of you.
The Linx problem was that some of the apps wouldn’t load any more. When Control Panel failed to load with an error that looked like the progeny of half the alphabet and an international telephone number, I knew it was time to restore it. Unfortunately the restore got to 95% and got stuck. I restarted it and it worked a bit better. The apps loaded, but Control Panel still failed. I’ve downloaded the restore from the Linx site. If I have time tomorrow, I’ll install it and see if that helps. Microsoft, I do expect this of you!

Looking for warm sun tomorrow.

Keep taking the tablets – 30 May 2016

Posted on May 30, 2016 by Zogman

We went in to Glasgow with the stated intention of getting a tablet/laptop. Apparently what I was looking for was a “2 in 1”, which I suppose describes it quite well.

Note to JIC.
Please feel free to ignore this part as it’s almost all technospeak.
First stop was Staples where I saw the cheapo looking Linx 10.1″ tablet with a clamshell keyboard/lid. Cheapo maybe, but it had 2 x USB3 ports and 1 x micro USB for power and doubling as a port if you have an OTG (On The Go) cable. Even better, it was at a bargain price of £149.99. Ok, one possible.
Ok, JIC, Technospeak over.

Next stop was John Lewis who on paper had a load of these 2 in 1s. Unfortunately, if we ignore the very expensive Mickysoft offerings, there were only two. One was an Acer with no price on it and no power in the battery, the other was an HP at £80 more than the cheapo Linx. The spec appeared to be almost the same, in fact it only had 1 x USB port and 1 x micro USB. So it looks like it’s back to Staples.

Before that, Scamp decided that lunch at Patisserie Valerie was in order. Since she prefers to eat inside, we got a table no bother because everyone wanted to sit outside in the sun. Had our order taken: Crayfish Salad for both of us and Apple Pie for after for Scamp, Pecan Pie for me. Tea for both.
The tea arrived, and so did the manager to apologise, but there was no Pecan Pie. No problem, I’d just have the Apple Pie. A little later he arrived back to say that sorry, there was no Crayfish Salad. He did offer alternatives. Scamp went for Chicken Caesar and I chose Chicken Brochette. We’d been sitting for 20 minutes by this time. Half an hour later and still nothing had arrived although the manager had floated past about 15 minutes before to say that my chicken was just going on the grill. I’d had enough. We offered to pay for the two teas, but the girl on the till would have nothing of it and told us the manager “should have been dealing with it.” If I’d had to speak to the manager himself, Begbie would have come out of the box again.

Back at Staples, I bought the Linx. Unfortunately, when I got it home, I found that it looked nothing like what I’d seen in the shop. Quick phone call and was told to bring it back and they’d exchange it for the correct one. I did, they did and this time I checked it before I left the shop. So far, it’s doing everything I expected it to do. Pity the same can’t be said for Patisserie Valerie.

More sun promised for tomorrow. Bring it on!

Old Boot – 28 February 2016

Posted on February 28, 2016 by Zogman

I think Old Boot was the name of the dog in the newspaper cartoon “The Perishers” away back in the mid ’70s. However, the old boot that took up most of my day today was the boot lock on Scamp’s Micra. A couple of weeks ago, with no prior warning, the boot refused to open when the release was pressed. I first thought it was the release mechanism that was at fault, but after a few sprays of WD40 it still refused to open, so it was on to the Internet to find out if any other hapless motorists had had the same problem. More importantly, had they solved the problem. It turned out that the problem itself was the microswitch in the boot handle becoming corroded or otherwise borked. Back out again and tried the test they suggested and indeed it appeared to be the switch that was causing all the bother. Nissan replacement part £95 + labour + VAT. Finally I found two useful pages on the Net explaining how to go about the repair using a Maplin microswitch costing around £2.00 Inc VAT. That sounded more like it. Since Scamp was not desperate to get it repaired pronto, I decided to wait until she and her sisters were off on holiday and do the job then. Today was that day. It was a fairly easy job, thanks to the aforementioned instructions. I only diverged a little from them in the fitting of the replacement switch. The lock assembly is sitting. on the table now neatly soldered (actually the soldering is awful – it would get you an instant fail in any metalwork or electronics course) and glued together. I’ve not got to weather seal it and it can go back on the car as soon as possible. One more Brownie Point for me.

It was a lovely bright, dry, almost warm day which is why I chose to do the job today. No point in mixing electronics and water. That’s probably what damaged the old switch in the first place. Went for a walk later in the fading light to try to get some photos with the new camera. After spending ages setting it up last night, I changed the settings, deleting all my changes – dummy! As a result, the shots are not as good as they could be. I think I’ve managed to get almost everything back again now. This camera is an amazing piece of technology, but is so easy to get wrong. One wrong button press and bang everything is back to stage one. I should know better, but I don’t. Story of my life, I think.

Three Birds, Four Faces – 25 February 2016

Posted on February 25, 2016 by Zogman

Yet another early rise. This one not as bad as yesterday, only 7.30 this morning. Taking the car to get its MOT. Taxi back from the garage because it’s about three miles away on a freezing cold morning and there’s no public transport to speak off there. Moped about for the rest of the day. Read more about the new camera and then updated the firmware on it and on the Panasonic lens. Didn’t realize you could get firmware for lenses. Got some decent photos of birds in the garden then after a few more tweaks to the bells and whistles, went to St Mo’s to spy on more birds and hopefully some deer.

Birds were easy, even Mr Grey was posing for some action shots, but the deer were off like the wind. I saw them, but they’d seen me long before. Then I spotted a fox, but couldn’t get a clear shot of it. One shot of the back of his head. That’s when I saw the clay faces. I remember photographing them some years ago in the woods behind the pond. These were obviously from the same source. Last time it was red clay, this time it was grey/white stuff. The decoration was the same. Twigs, leaves and pine cones. Some imaginative ideas there. I’m guessing it’s from one of the local schools. Don’t think the “Bucky Boys”have the intellect or the skill to make them.

Came home and made a pizza from the Nigel Slater book. Pizza base, mozzarella and an egg yolk on top. Quite delicious and very filling. Not for you though Hazy. It tasted all the better when the garage phoned to say the car had passed and was ready to pick up. Phoned a taxi and brought it home. Tomorrow it gets to go through the car wash for being a clever little Megane. I get a Laphroaig because I won’t be gettin up and driving too early. A good day.