Category: A Walk

Sunshine and Showers – 16 November 2019

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A day of mixed fortunes.

In the morning after breakfast, we found a sheltered place and went sunbathing for an hour or two.

After that we walked to market in Caleta. It was the usual junk. Michael Kors bags, tourist tat and cheap belts. I actually heard a ‘Looky-looky man’ at a belt stall say “Looky-looky is no charge!” There was nothing much to see there so we walked down to the town and then chose to walk back along the walkway to the hotel.

Just as we were arrived, the rain came on. We had a beer in the sheltered part under cover, then lunch. After lunch I chose to go for a walk to the crashy waves and Scamp went to sunbathe. Both of us had to give up and come back because of rain showers and the cold wind.
I did get some photos of the waves and of the camels going home for the night. It was the camels photo that made PoD.

Went to kids club after dinner and it was the best entertainment of the night. Guitarist on at the upstairs bar could play, but couldn’t sing and didn’t seem to know the correct words to any of the songs.
Gave up and took our drinks upstairs. Apart from the sunbathing morning, it had been a disappointing day in a disappointing hotel.

Tomorrow will be better.

The big city – 14 November 2019

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Travelling with the ordinary folk

This morning we got the bus to Puerto del Rosario. Paid the princely sum of €2.90 for both of us to travel to the big city. About a 20 minute journey, equivalent to a ‘fast’ bus to Glasgow, but at a fraction of the cost.

We didn’t have an agenda, although Scamp wanted to go to the beach which had looked interesting the last time we were on the island. We got off near the big shopping mall and Scamp immediately found a shoe shop. There she started a conversation with two Scottish women in the shop and discovered that they were from one of the cruise ships that was berthed in the harbour.

We found our way back to the “Church with the Bar”. The bar isn’t actually in the church, but it is in the church grounds. Can’t see that happening here! We got interviewed by two students who recognised us as tourists. I was shocked, I thought we fitted in perfectly with the locals! They were doing a survey for school and wanted to know if we’d been to Fuerteventura before, what we thought of it and why we came back. The boy especially spoke perfect English. I felt ashamed of my “Two beers and where’s the toilet” in Spanish.

Lunch was in the same café we went to last time we were there and after a bit of a panic, when I thought I was eating shellfish stuffed peppers, only to find it Hake, we had a great meal for a very, very reasonable price.

There were two Cruise ships in the port. One was the gigantic Aida Nova and the other was tiny by comparison, the Marella Explorer.
It was the Marella, the two ladies Scamp met were sailing on. We walked along the prom and were forced to listen to a street drummer playing to a seemingly endless set of midi files.

Lovely and warm in Puerto del Rosario, but cool when we got back to Caleta. It took us almost twice as long to get back. We must have boarded the island equivalent of the X3 by mistake.

Went to the Island when we got back and had a couple of Mojitos (one each!) sheltering from the wind.

PoD was one of a group of little shells. About 100 meters from the sea and not near any river. How they got there in the middle of what’s really a desert, I do not know.  Also saw a Spoonbill.  Never seen one before.  Such a strange looking bird which Scamp thinks looks like a pelican from the front.  Yes, it does, but from the side there is no likeness at all.  It was interesting, but  the little shell won PoD.

Danced to Tina at night. Even got a namecheck. “My two friends from Glasgow” she called us!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to walk into town to go to the market.

A walk in to town – 13 November 2019

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Still windy but still warm.

After breakfast we walked in to Caleta and had a paid-for beer. I think we must have picked one of the most expensive bars in the place. €5 for a pint and a half pint of lager. Not what I’d expected, but a lot cheaper than back home.

We hadn’t intended going much further today, so we walked back to the hotel, noting the very few changes that had been made to the town. It was still very windy, and although the wind did keep the temperature down, it wasn’t too cold. Certainly still shorts ’n’ tee shirts weather.

In the afternoon I walked out across the wilderness, almost to Museo de Sal and took some crashy wave shots. Trying to get to grips with the new 4K mode in the TZ90. It certainly has a lot more settings than the TZ70 and the results on the Mac look acceptable. Also saw a Painted Lady butterfly. Hard to believe that they fly all the way from the UK down as far as southern Spain and maybe even as far as the Canaries!

Tonight was our Italian dinner and although we had had one before, a few years ago, it was just as good. I remembered the sweet that I described as “Disgustingly Good!” It hadn’t changed. Mascarpone Cream on a Crispy Ice Cream base.

Afterwards our entertainment was a sad group of jugglers. You lose a bit of interest when one of the jugglers drops the hat she’s supposed to catch. It wasn’t totally dire, just a bit tired.

Couldn’t sit on the balcony and have our traditional G ’n’ T because that bloody wind didn’t drop much in the evening, so it was a bit of light reading with a drink after the entertainment.

Today’s PoD was a Bird of Paradise hidden among the bushes. A Bird in the Bush, Not the Hand, so to speak!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to get the bus to Puerto del Rosario.

Bad coffee and good cakes – 10 November 2019

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That seems to be the story of our outings recently. Why do so many people make such bad coffee?

We went to The Fort today, more to get out of the house than anything. It was a cold morning with -1ºc on the outside temperature when I got up. By the time we were heading for The Fort it had warmed up, but it was still single figures centigrade, thankfully positive single figures though. We were going to Boots. We could have gone to Cumbersheugh Boots, but a wee run in the car could just brighten our day.

After our Boots visit we went for coffee in Costa, but the queue was even longer than usual. Gave up and went to Pret a Manger, because the other option was Starbucks and we wanted a coffee, not a Starbucks. Maybe we’d have been better taking the risk, because the brown liquid in a paper cup I got didn’t taste of anything, not even Costa’s burnt water tastes that thin. The cakes were good, but that’s not a reason to go back.

Back home and after our lunch with Real coffee, I worked on a shot I’d taken in the morning of some Japanese maple seeds. Ones we’d picked at Colzium a week or two ago. I used the Sony to take them and they turned out ok. There’s a lot to this camera. A lot of complicated looking menus that I’m beginning to get my head round. For how much longer, I still don’t know. Scamp said tonight that she’s never seen me so undecided about any purchase. Anyway, that photo made PoD.

Later I walked over to St Mo’s to see if there was anything more worthwhile, but the light was fading rapidly and the cold and damp were making the walk uncomfortable. Some blokes, adults were racing little dune buggies, radio controlled with petrol engines on the BMX track. I’ve seen them there before, but there were about half a dozen of them today. I’ll maybe have a go at photographing them some day. Some day with better light, I mean.

To increase my step count, Scamp and I went over last Wednesday’s Jive routine. It works now and we’ve got the video to help us clean it up. I did manage to get my “8 Active Hours” because of the practise. Still well away from achieving my 10,000 steps.

Tomorrow it’s Gems in the afternoon and perhaps dancing at night. It depends on how we’re feeling.

Dull, Dull, Dull – 7 November 2019

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That sort of sums up the day. Dull with the chance of Brexit.

I’m getting fed up with the amount electioneering we are getting on the (supposed) news. The first thing they talk about is the election or Brexit. No news there. We know there’s going to be an election. We’ve been saddled with Brexit since 2016. Why is the important stuff always playing second fiddle to this nonsense.

Then it’s Labour slagging off the Conservatives. Conservatives slagging off Labour. Lib Dems labouring under a delusion that they’re going to oust both of them and the SNP slavering for another referendum. Then there’s some poor reporter who’s sent to some god-forsaken town to try to drum up some interest in the whole shebang. Haven’t you heard yet? Nobody’s interested, and apart from the party faithful, nobody has found any party in the whole mess worth voting for. For what must be the first time in my life I don’t want to vote. Scamp even suggested that I should spoil my ballot paper and I might just do that and write “NONE OF THE ABOVE” at the bottom. There, I’ve got that out of my system.

Today was a dull day, but it brightened up in the afternoon and the rain dried up too. I managed out for a walk in St Mo’s and came back with the monochrome offering at the top of the page. Walked on down to the new shops and got a nice wee bottle of wine to go with the dinner. I’d made some soup and Scamp made Chicken and Mushrooms. The wine washed it down beautifully.

After talking to Val in the morning I gave Linux on the Linx another go, but I’m getting tied in knots with it now and beginning to think that it’s more trouble than its worth. I’ll just put Windows back in, reset it to factory settings and sell the big black slab. It’s always been ok, but not great. Windows 10 kills it. Might get a few quid for it and put that to getting a replacement for my dust ridden Teazer.

No plans for tomorrow other than hopefully going to Milano Express for lunch.

Over the Forth on the Fifth – 5 November 2019

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Yesterday was Gems day. A Tuesdays is rapidly becoming our day.

It was a lovely morning and we decided we had to go out and enjoy it. Scamp suggested Kirkintilloch and I suggested Dunfermline. Scamp then said that was her second choice and we’d go to Kirkie on our next free day, so Dunfermline it was.

The River Forth was shining beautifully when we drove over the Kincardine Bridge. I was tempted to stop, but I’d proposed Dunfermline and while Scamp wouldn’t have complained about me taking a diversion, I thought I’d better stick to the plan. We parked just at Pittencrief Park and had a walk round the park in beautiful light shining through the trees and lighting them up. Found today’s PoD there too. A genuine fairy toadstool. The notorious Fly Agaric. Look but don’t touch unless you want to wake up in hospital, or never again.

The walk up through the town was less photogenic. Boarded up shops and more than their fair share of charity shops. It was like an outdoor version of the Cumbersheugh Town Centre. Good enough for coffee and a bit to eat though. After that we just walked back to the car, via M&S for Scamp and Waterstones for me.

As we were driving home the clouds seemed to be gathering, but I don’t think they were serious about it because the forecast is for sub zero temperatures tonight because of the clear skies. Also, as we reached the Forth again on the way out of Fife, with the low sun the river was shining again. I resisted the temptation again.

Practised the Fearsome Four Jive moves for tomorrow and I seem to have a finger hold on them at last. I’ll let the little grey cells work on them overnight and file the successful method away for further reference. Tomorrow morning we’ll try again and all will be well, I’m sure.

That was about it for today. A lovely day, most enjoyable. Tomorrow, hopefully, we’re dancing again.

Rained again last night – 3 November 2019

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And most of today too.

It was one of those days that entice you out with the promise of sunshine and the unwary will venture out and end up soaked. The more circumspect will notice that there is a fine drizzle sparkling through the sunshine and wait for it to clear completely. For most of the day we were in that second group, then we made an excuse, any excuse, went out and got wet. There, that more or less sums up the day.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and then she phoned back to sort out a couple of iPhone problems for me. It’s great to have an expert on hand for just those niggling problems. After a puzzling hour Scamp and I finally managed to get my calendar and hers to speak to each other. You would think that in this day and age of technical wizardry, something as simple as sharing a calendar would be easy peasy, but it’s not. But then it’s associated with emails and it’s well known that emails and printers are the biggest nuisances in computing, other than trying to install Linux in a Linx computer that its, but that’s another story.

Here is that other story. I have a Linx 12×64, 2 in 1 laptop. It works fairly well, but it’s saddled with the despicable Windows 10 OS. It forever wants to “Get me back on track”. I don’t want to get back on track, I just want it to do what it’s told. That’s when I thought it might be a good idea to install Linux. Linux for those of you who have never heard of it is a free (as in free beer and free speech) operating system that runs on a UNIX base, much like a Mac. It’s a bit geeky, Val uses it, so it’s a lot geeky and the two of us are now competing to get it to run on our 12x64s. He’s almost there and I thought I was today until the screen on Elementary OS closed down every 15 seconds, no matter what I did to try to stop it. The challenge still continues and I’ll have another go tonight. I thought I’d broken the Linx last night when it ended up in no man’s land with no OS at all. No Linux and no Windows. Then I crossed my fingers and used Macrium to restore a backup of Windows and it rose from the dead again. I’m trying to keep this light with very little technospeak for JIC’s benefit, so I won’t explain my big mistake that led to that little problem. Suffice to say I won’t do it again … until the next time it sounds like a good idea.

Eventually Scamp harrumphed and said it was time to go out and get wet. We walked down to the new shops in the almost dry, got our messages and came home in the rain, just solid, straight down, rain. We knew we’d get wet and were dressed for it, so that was fine.

PoD tonight was taken, hand held with the pens sitting on a couple of tissues with another couple behind to hide the mess on the coffee table. I quite liked it.

Today’s blog title came from a Tom Paxton song, by the way “The Things I Notice Now”.

Tomorrow it’s Gems and I’m hoping to go out for a while, rain or shine.

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 November 2019

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It’s traditional on the first day of the month to say “White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits”. Well, it’s traditional in this house anyway.

It was wet when we woke and it stayed that way all day. Eventually Scamp encouraged me to join her on a safari through the wet rainforest to the new shops. There we found our quarry, a pack of pancakes some chicken thighs and some ready-made flatbreads. Enough for dinner tonight we thought.

I was tempted to take another route home via St Mo’s and allow Scamp to carry the bags part way home, but that would be a bit unfair and I decided I was wet enough without an extra trudge through the muddy St Mo’s.

Back home, and after completing yesterday’s Sudoku, I started to make some pakora to go with the curry. I overestimated the amount of ingredients and ended up with far too much pakora. Luckily Scamp offered to scoff all the cauliflower pakora and I did the same with the onion bhajis. The result was we never did have the curry. We simply didn’t have enough room.

The rain did ease off for a while today after we returned from the shops, but not enough to encourage me out again.

PoD was a raindrop on a bush on the way to the shops. It was just a dull, wet day.

Tomorrow Scamp is going singing and I’m going to immerse myself in Cuba. All will become clear, I hope.

Coffee for two – 31 October 2019

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Off to meet Val for a technological chat.

There are four of us. Fred, Val, Colin and me. We all have our specialisms. Fred likes to talk politics, books and music. Val talks technology and books. Colin talks about gardening. I talk bollocks and books, music and technology. Between us we always find some topic of conversation to take apart. Today there were only two of us and so it was Technology and Books, but mainly Technology. We discussed new phones and old computers, books we’d read or were going to read and we both told each other lies and tall stories. That’s the best bit about shooting the breeze, nobody really believes everything the other is saying.

After we were done, Val went off to meet his wife and I went home to meet mine via M&S to get some lunch. After that, we picked up June and took her to sunny Coatbridge for her eye check. While the ladies were in the clinic, I took a trip to Currys for a bit of window shopping. Found another possible replacement for the Teazer, but on further inspection it didn’t quite fit the specification I’d set for myself. The back screen doesn’t flip up. Such a pity. The Sony RX100 iii is still the front runner.

Picked up the sisters after they were finished and after dropping June off, we went home. Scamp was getting ready to assemble a fish pie, so I went out to get some photos, but it was cold and I came back with only a couple of shots. Luckily they were decent, so I present one of them as my PoD.

Tonight’s sketch, and the last one of this year’s Inktober is an umbrella. This is not just an umbrella, this is a dripping umbrella. Let’s face it, those of us who live in Scotland get plenty of opportunity to sketch them, except today. Today was a bright, cold, sunny, DRY day. Typical!

We have no plans for tomorrow, at least not yet. Looks like rain.

On the Bonny, Bonny Banks – 29 October 2019

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Today we visited Loch Lomond.

Tuesdays are becoming the ‘just go’ days. Just get up, get out and go somewhere. Today that ‘somewhere’ was Balmaha on Loch Lomond side. To those who have never heard of it, it sounds like somewhere exotic, but you’re probably getting mixed up with The Bahamas. It was not very exotic today, in fact it was a bit cold, but when you were in the sun it didn’t feel too bad.

We had packed a flask and the usual assortment of picnic food like crisps and chocolate biscuits. Good healthy food and not in the least fattening. Before we got stuck into that we had to do some walking to get the blood flowing after our 50 minute drive. Walked down to the jetty and that’s where I got today’s PoD. It’s a two frame panorama stitched in Lightroom 6, thanks for asking. The blue sky is real and it looks exactly like the view from that pontoon today.

After getting my photos we walked back to give some other folk a shot on the pontoon. Took some more photos near the poorly tended Tom Weir garden. Then it was back to the car for a coffee and a chocky biscuit.

Scamp fancied stopping at the Beech Tree Restaurant on the way home, so that’s what we did. Luckily the Sat Nav lady knew the way to Dumgoyne and gave us directions.

Food was good, but I got a fright when the waitress asked me if my name was Campbell and was I a Techy teacher, if so there was a young lady sitting in the corner seat who thought she knew me. It turned out to be a former pupil and thankfully, it was one of the most pleasant ones I’d taught. I went over and had a few words with her and her dad who I remembered from various parents nights. Poor girl, like so many others, she’s working in a job she doesn’t like. I know that feeling. It took me many years before I got the opportunity to do a job I really enjoyed. Hope she gets that chance before long. After being properly fed on Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, and giving father and daughter a wave on the way out, we headed for home. Today was a lovely day.

I’m still not sure if the proper term is Skullcandys or Skullcandies. I’m going with the former. These are my go-to headphones (or to be more precise earbuds) when I’m out walking by myself. They fitted the topic today perfectly and the topic was A Pair of Headphones.

Tomorrow Scamp is out in the morning and we’re hoping to dance in the afternoon.