Dancin’ again – 4 November 2023

Out at our usual Saturday morning time for our usual Saturday morning class in our usual Saturday morning destination.

Sometimes our lives are so predictable.

We drove over to Brookfield to find the hall still full of tiny dancers, although at least one of them was riding a three wheeled scooter across the floor, instead of dancing. They were 15 minutes late in leaving the dance floor and there were hundreds of the small creatures. I don’t think Jane was impressed with the lack of consideration of the parents or the dance teachers, the weans were just being posh weans. I think words will be said at the next committee meeting.

Once the posh brats had left the building … with their weans in tow, we got down to dancing. Real dancing. We started with a nearly forgotten Mambo Marina. I thought it was only me, but I was wrong. There were quite a few puzzled faces. Once that was ironed out, we danced a gradually improving version of it for two tracks. Then it was into the Cha-Cha we’ve been learning for a month or so and it was working quite well. Both Stewart and Jane gave pointers throughout the dance, but of course I ignored them and concentrated on getting round the floor without tramping on Scamp’s toes while trying to fit the correct module into the correct space. Not always easy, especially when the teacher says you can do them in any order, but queries your choice of order!

Next was Ria Bachata, the bachata that was never a bachata with music that was never bachata music. Other than that, it was fine and we managed the ‘tricky steps’. Step tap, step tap, 1,2,3 together. Then 1,2,3 together on the other foot. Simples. Done to a bachata beat with bachata timing it works, but with a fast track with no audible bachata beat it’s just a recipe for disaster. Since this is a bit of fun that nobody is expected to remember, that’s probably the desired result.

Next was a Mayfair Quickstep to allow our brains to cool down followed by a Catherine Waltz, parts of which I remembered and parts of which returned to my consciousness as we danced it. Eventually, it worked and we managed a fairly decent flow of waltz steps. Usually by this time I’ve reached the “My brain is full” stage, but today I was ready for the next one which was a fairly easy Midnight Jive. So much crammed into an hour and a half or an hour and a quarter if you take into account the ‘brat time’ at the start. Still, I enjoyed it. A strange thing for me to say on a Saturday night.

We drove home, had a cup of coffee and headed back out again to have lunch at Mango in Longcroft. It does Italian and Indian, but we both had Indian today. Food was good, but the chopped up naan bread was a disappointment. I much prefer the big slab of scorched dough we get in Hamilton. This was daintily set out in a bowl, but was almost warm and dry. We’re used to naan dripping with ghee. This wasn’t at all like that. Curry was good, and so was the pakora starter, but next time no naan.

I needed a photo and drove down to the canal at Haggs. Unfortunately the sun had disappeared by the time we got to the canal and I inadvertently set the ISO to 40,000 which is a tad higher than the 1,600 I’d meant to set. Some of the photos looked like I’d dusted them with sand when I took them! Still, a slow shutter shot of water breaking over the Forth & Canal lock gates saved the day and got PoD.

When we got home I found that Jamie and Sim had sent videos of the transformation of their house into a gigantic Christmas parcel, complete with Halloween scary mummy!  Fascinating to see the 16th century method of hand crafting a roof, but I’m sure they will feel so much warmer and more secure with the 21st century  tech replacing it.

Later  we watched another contestant reaching his limit on Strictly. He might have a nice smile, but I feel he has, as we used to say at school, “plateaued”. I may be wrong, but the two armchair judges here say his time is up.

Tomorrow is Sunday and I’m hoping for a lazy day.

 

Talking to the Ombudsman – 3 November 2023

Or to be more precise, the Ombudsman’s lady accomplice.

It was all quite down to earth. She, Amy, asked a few questions for confirmation and Scamp gave her the gist of the problem and what our expected outcome would be. Amy agreed to take on the case on our behalf and would expect to take two weeks to investigate the case and speak to British Gas then if there is no resolution it might take another four weeks, just in time for Christmas! She did seem quite confident of finding a solution. All done in about fifteen minutes. That left Scamp enough time to get to her FitSteps class and for me to get out into today’s sunshine to grab some photos.

Actually I already had a few photos. We were parked up at the car park at the top of the hill and I offered to bring the car down to our usual spot. When I got out I spotted movement on the roof of the car and found a tiny wee spider, not 3mm long wandering around. It was an agile wee thing, running around and then stopping and standing up on its long spindly legs. I’m guessing this was defence tactic “Don’t mess with ME. I’m big and strong”. Spider version of squaring up to a foe. I finally had to wave “goodbye”, because I was freezing, standing there in the cold east wind.

Once Scamp had gone to FitSteps, I bundled up and put my boots on for a walk in St Mo’s. I was hoping to get some photos of the big chestnut tree in the woods, or failing that, some chestnuts lying on the ground, but no leaves left on the tree and no chestnuts to be seen. BUT, I got the lovely PoD a few yards away in a splash of sunlight. Hard to believe that just over the fence there is a two lane motorway.

When Scamp returned we decided to walk over to Brodens for lunch. It’s the restaurant part of what was The Masonic Arms in Condorrat. Steak pie for me with a glass of Guinness and Mac ’n’ Cheese with a glass of wine for Scamp. Food was lovely, as was my Guinness. When we got home we booked lunch tomorrow at Mango in Longcroft. It saves wear and tear on the dishwasher is our argument!

The spider and the PoD feature in today’s Flickr submission.

We’re intending to drive to Brookfield tomorrow to get the last class before Perth.

Now that’s Dancin’! – 2 November 2023

A more successful day on the dance floor.

We spoke to Hazy in the morning and heard about Neil’s return to school and his new inhaler that makes a noise. A simple idea that sounds (no pun intended) like it will work! It was good to hear that they hadn’t suffered any damage from the gale force winds they’d had recently. Also good to know that Hazy and Simonne are willing to compare and contrast some holiday homes for next year. Hopefully they will find a good one!

Later I started the ‘new’ computer and after entering my password only about ten times, I think I’ve ticked all the required boxes at last. Touch wood, it seems to be settled down now, still the same operating system and version as it was before the crash, and it’s unlikely that I’ll try installing the update again. I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s because I’ve used the external SSDs to drive the computer that causes a conflict with the software the update is trying to inject into the system. If I want an update, I’ll have to do it the long way which takes about four hours. It’s not worth it. If it’s not broke, don’t fix it!

We drove to Glenburn Community Centre for today’s tea dance. Quite a small group to start with, then more and more folk joined in. We managed two tracks of Waltz Nioli and although they weren’t faultless, they were pretty good. We even did a couple of Joy’s Walz later in the afternoon and it was looking good too. Best of all, we managed two tracks of Quickstep! Something I’d never have thought I’d do. That was all down to a combination of Scamp’s and Kirsty’s teaching. Thank you both. These successes were won at the loss of the sequence dances. I just couldn’t get into the rhythm of them. Similarly, the Salsa we danced was pathetic. We used to be so much better than what we danced today. Still, progress was made on some hard stuff!

Back home I went for a walk, even although it was almost dark. I did get a couple of photos which were just presentable and no more. One heavily edited one made PoD. Along with it on Flickr are a couple of photos from Fannyside from last week. They’re much better.

Scamp and I are hoping to speak on the phone tomorrow to someone about the complaint we’ve made to the Ombudsman. It looks as if things are moving there.

Other than the above, not much planned for Friday. Scamp may find time in her busy schedule to meet June, Ian, Shona and Isobel for coffee after FitSteps.

 

October’s almost over – 31 October 2023

Another bright morning and a cold day to follow it.

I think we just sat in the warm living room and looked out at the world outside for a while. We also stood at the back window and watched the antics of a couple of magpies struggling to find a way to get at the fat in half a coconut shell that’s hanging on the rowan tree.  It’s a cheap bird feeder I bought intending it for the bluetits to feed on.  However one of the wily magpies found a way to hook the string that holds the coconut with its claw and pull it close, meaning it could plunder the contents in comfort.  The others were still flying up, taking a peck and falling back down.  I think they expended more energy than they gained from the fat.

Scamp wrote a letter to the Gas Ombudsman, complaining about the terrible wait we’ve had to get a gas bill.  Nobody seems to know why we’ve not had a bill and any correspondence we get for British Gas is basically a photocopy with the date changed from the last one.  The smart meter is working for the electricity bill, but not for the gas!  Maybe we need someone to come out and read the meter! We’ll see what the Ombudsman can do to jolly them along.

After lunch we walked down to the shops for the makings of a stir-fry and some potatoes to make Potato and Leek soup.  There were a group of ‘workies’ cutting back the bushes at the front of the house.  I didn’t envy them their work in the cold breeze that was blowing.  We felt it too on our fifteen minute walk to the shops.  I’d intended leaving the bags with Scamp on the way back and going for a walk in St Mo’s, but they were quite heavy, so I walked home with her and then went out again to see what I could find. Not a lot was the answer, although I did startle a deer in the woods. It saw/smelled/heard me long before I noticed it and it was away like the wind.  I tried taking photos of some fungi but few of them were interesting, then I found a curvy looking flat topped mushroom just as the sun shone through the trees on it.  I think I missed the best of that light, but was happy with the image I did get.  That became PoD.

Back home the workies had finished and I could smell soup, so the potatoes had been used! I made a cup of coffee and uploaded today’s photos then worked on them for a while.  Then I remembered, or was reminded by the computer that there was an update to the iMac’s OS, so I put it in.  About an hour later I was walking past the computer and noticed the screen was still black with a white progress line half way along its slot.  Not long after an error message flashed on the screen.  The update had failed for some reason. On a normal week, I’d already have made a backup of the OS and would just have overwritten the OS with a new one, but I hadn’t made a backup and I didn’t want to risk losing the data as well as the operating system.  I tried a Safe Mode start and everything was still there, but I decided I’d wait until tomorrow to do a backup and then replace the OS.  Computers are a pain some times. Dinner was the stir-fry and it was quite good, but nothing special. Soup was kept for tomorrow.

Today was the last sketch in Inktober for this year.  The prompt was Fire. Instead of an actual fire I chose to sketch the vehicle that hopefully would be responsible for stopping a fire. It’s based on a Dennis F8 Fire Engine 1955. The group this year with a couple of headbanger exceptions has been really good and well behaved.  That made my life a lot easier!

I think a dance practise will be called for tomorrow.  Other than that, we may well be sheltering from the predicted rain!

Glorious Light! – 30 October 2023

Today was a much brighter and much colder day than yesterday.

We watched the Mexican GP and it was a fairly lively affair with the home boy, Perez going off at the first bend after attempting an overtaking manoeuvre that was always going to end in tears for somebody. After bouncing his car around on the run-off area, he took it back to the garage and said “It’s Broke!” In Mexican I presume. Of course the golden boy won the race as Scamp had predicted he would.

Today was Monday and Monday is a day for doing shopping. Nothing fancy, just the messages. The boring stuff like bread and cauliflower, rice and coffee, fruit and onions, essentials. Plus a bag of jam doughnuts and a couple of bottles of wine. Because man cannot live by bread alone, and neither can woman! Tesco shopping it was today. We talked about going to Morrisons or Waitrose, but neither of us were interested in travelling far afield. Sometimes it’s better to stay local.

When we got back it was lunch time and that meant the rest of the soup I made yesterday. It was thicker today and the taste was stronger. Just the thing with a slice of bread ‘dooked’ in it. When that was done I waited long enough to see what the weather was going to do later in the week. Then got my boots on and my jacket with the inner sleeve still damp from yesterday’s soaking and drove over to Fannyside where I thought I’d get some autumn colour from the trees. While I was off in the country, Scamp was brushing up the leaves in the garden, in the sunshine.

The light was nothing short of amazing today. After yesterday’s rain had cleared the air, you could see for miles. I was heading for the old ruin of Jawhill Farm. The farm wasn’t really the centre of attention today, it was the trees that were the stars. They were that lovely rusty gold colour that leaves get just before they fall and the sun was getting low in the sky picking out the textures in the farmers’ fields. Blue sky overhead with just enough broken clouds to give a bit of interest to the scene. These days don’t come often, so we have to make the most of them. It’s a pity the cold east wind was really cutting. I was glad I’d picked the heavy Bergy jacket, rather than my fleece.

On the way back to the car I passed three cattle, two cows and one bullock in a field. I just had to have a picture of the bullock. Its coat was almost the same colour as the leaves I’d been photographing and it only had one horn. I don’t know what the story was there. The farm house made PoD, but the bullock got second place.

Today the penultimate prompt for Inktober 2023 was Rush. I duplicated it and it became Rushes, Bull Rushes. I’ve been reading some comments about the prompts this year being a bit too obscure and I have to agree. There have to be better prompts than the ones we’ve been given recently. For the past few years these one word prompts stump a lot of people who then give up on the whole thing. Anyway, today’s sketch was done in fountain pen and a water wash to get some shading.

Tomorrow we have no plans, but the weather looks good, but cold again.

Summer is gone – 29 October 2023

It’s been replaced with rain, I think.

It was raining when we woke today. It’s still raining now at 11pm. I believe there have been dry periods during the day, but they didn’t last long.

I spent most of the morning writing to my brother, commenting on his photos which are always worth looking at and adding some of mine which are sometimes worth a nod in the right direction.

After that we watched the qualifying round of the Mexican GP and for the second, or maybe the third race in a row, despaired about the new ’Track Limits’ rules which just seem to be a way of giving the stewards some air time. Why not remove them entirely, the Limits and the Stewards and just let the drivers race. That’s what it’s all about, isn’t it? Or is it more about money changing hands? Hmm answers on a postcard please.

Later in the morning I volunteered to make “What’s in the Fridge” soup. It was based on carrots, onions, half a sweet pepper, lentils and three kale leaves, plus a litre of water and two stock cubes. Actually it turned out quite well, once it had been left to simmer away for an hour or so.

We hadn’t crossed the threshold until well after lunch, but I thought the rain was lessening and Scamp confirmed that it wasn’t raining, that was around 3.pm. I booted up and put on the Bergy jacket and walked over to St Mo’s. The two trees at the far end of the car park looked interesting and bright with the dull green of the pines behind them. I took four shots then the rain came down in torrents (and everywhere else too) and I decided I’d be absolutely soaked if I walked round the pons, so instead I headed home. In total I had 7 shots. The two trees made PoD after I’d injected a gloomy looking sky into the mix. A low down shot of the watercourse that used to be a path was the other photo to join the trees on Flickr.

Dinner tonight was soup and a slice of doughy bread from Tesco. Probably the worst loaf Warburton’s has made. The soup made it worthwhile though. With a yoghurt and the promise of a Crunchy ice lolly later that was Sunday dinner. It was that sort of day.

We watched a dull Strictly and weren’t surprised by the couple who left. Like Scamp said, she was the only non-dancer in the whole group. What she meant was that all the rest were either dancers or actors who’d been to dance school. No room for amateurs on Strictly.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that the roof is still holding and there is no further ingress of water in the bedrooms. Scaffolding should be finished soon and all is well. Apart from poor Vixen having an upset stomach after her visit week in the kennels.

PoD was sorted and the prompt for today was “Massive”. Every time I said that word I thought of Massif Central which is a highland area in France. Why it stuck in my memory I do not know other than it originates from Mr Anderson’s O Grade Geography class in Larky Academy back in the dim mists of time. My answer to ‘Massive’ was a gigantic fly being attacked by ‘neohumans’. Just a bit of fun.

Hoping for some dry weather tomorrow to get out somewhere nice for a walk, perhaps?

Dancin’ – 28 October 2023

Actually a very interesting and useful dance class for a change!

It was a pleasant drive to Brookfield today. Light traffic on the motorway and a blue sky with fluffy white clouds overhead. A marked difference to the dark grey clouds hanging over the Campsie Fells when we left the house.

There is a children’s dance class in the hall before us now. Normally they aren’t a problem, but lately they have been taking longer and longer to pack up which eats into our class time. They were even later this morning and we only had a one hour time slot due to The Committee needing to set up the hall for their Halloween party tonight. I don’t think our teachers were very pleased and we got the impression that words would be said to the organising Committee.

The teachers made good use of the limited time we had for the class but the Sally Ann Cha-Cha that was the warm-up was a shambles. Nobody seemed to know where they were going and no two couples were in time with each other. Thankfully, things got better after that. We started with the Tango which got tangled with Kirsty’s tango in our heads and it took a few tracks before we were entirely happy with it. But we did manage to master the Prom Turn to Rock Turn with a bit of help from Jane. It had baffled us a fortnight ago.

Next up was Joy’s Waltz which we sort of know, but are not fully cognisant with. We sorted out a few problem steps in it too with help from Stewart.

Last dance of the morning was the Quickstep and Scamp devised a neat shortened version of the routine that would allow us to dance it without stopping. Clever teacher, Scamp! And with that our hour was up and the class was over.

We drove home through equally light traffic. I don’t know what happened today to give us a record time of just over 30mins for the run home.

We both had a fairly lazy hour after lunch, reading and basking in the sunshine while I chased an errant bluebottle round the house but didn’t catch and release it until much later in the afternoon. I think it found its way in while Scamp was in the garden, potting up a Yew tree she’d asked Jamie to bring up. She was also increasing her numbers of pelargoniums and geraniums by taking cuttings of both.

Dinner was to be Fish Risotto and we didn’t have any smoked fish in the freezer, so I booted up and went for a walk over St Mo’s, then down the path behind the school that would take me to the shops. That’s where I found todays PoD. It’s a bit weird looking, which is ok for Halloween, I suppose, but it’s actually the seed pods of a clump of Flag Irises that grow in a boggy area beside the path I liked the colours and the shapes of the seed pods and the seeds themselves. I may go back tomorrow and collect some seeds to sow. Don’t know if they will grow or not. We’ll find out some day, hopefully.

Prompt for today was “Sparkle”. I don’t have a very sparkling personality, but I did think up today’s sketch which was a pink ice cream sundae with sparklers sticking out of it. A splash of paint and a cherry on the top made it look quite festive, I thought!

The dinner worked very well and the bluebottle was released into a cold Saturday evening.

Tomorrow we’ve to have heavy rain all day, but an hour extra in our bed. Don’t know if I will take that walk over to St Mo’s to collect some seed. We’ll see.

 

Out to Lunch – 27 October 2023

It was a dull day and it really needed a decent pub lunch to brighten it up.

The house still feels a bit empty after the mountaineers have gone back down south to the flat lands. I hope they are pining for the heathery hills now.

Scamp was out at FitSteps in the morning and I was trying to get my new white mouse to do what I want it to do, but that requires an app to be installed first. Heavens it’s just a three button bluetooth mouse, not a washing machine. Why do they, the invisible ‘THEY’ need to make things so complicated. I eventually gave up and decided I’d just have to get used to it.

When Scamp returned, we couldn’t be bothered going far, so instead we went to Broadwood Farm. By that time I was hungry, so a Large Carvery portion would hit the spot. Scamp, on the other hand wanted a Fried Chicken Burger. What came for her wasn’t what she wanted. I’m not to blame. She called the girl back and told her what she had expected to find between the two halves of the bun. The girl apologised and brought something that looked almost the same, minus a gallon of spicy sauce. Happy customer, if slightly embarrassed for giving the chef more work she didn’t need. It’s not my fault this time. I asked for exactly what she said and my Large Carvery was lovely. I think the Broadwood is feeling the pinch now from McD’s next door. Fewer staff on the floor and fewer punters sitting at tables.

On the way home I went for a walk round St Mo’s and brought home a photo of two dandelions.That made PoD.

Prompt for today was “Beast”. The beast in question is a Weevil. Scamp spotted one at the top of the stairs the other day and came running with the message “There’s a beast at the top of the stairs.” I guessed it was an earwig or something similar and I was right it was a weevil. I scooped it up on a bit of paper and deposited it in the garden, apologising to it that I was sorry it was raining. It didn’t seem to mind and walked away. Any creature, large or small is a “Beast” in this house and I am called to fight it. Thankfully most of them are insects and I can handle them. Don’t know how I’d fare with a charging hippo, though!

I finally got confirmation today, after phoning Nissan, that we are now owners of our car, not leasers. It only took them a month to finally email us a document confirming our ownership.

Tomorrow we are hoping to get to Brookfield for a short, hour long dance class. Hopefully something interesting and short.

Climbing Higher – 26 October 2023

Today the climbers were off to Ben Lomond hoping to bag a Munro.

While the mountaineers were driving to Rowandennan to start the climb, we were happy to have and extra hour or two’s snooze.

The first thing we chose to do was have a quick practise of the Tango which I thought I had down pat. That’s all I’ll say at this time.

Afterwards we dragged ourselves out into the real world, and drove over to Tesco for the inevitable shopping. We did add a couple of extra things just for the visitors and just for fun.

In the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s hoping the sun might shine through the clouds. It did, but only on the distant Campsie Fells, but not on Cumbersheugh. A mist had come down just after midday, but then a breeze made it disappear, leaving water droplets on some of the weeds. One weed in particular had a spiderweb with wee beads of water. That became PoD on a dull Scottish day.

The climbers returned after their trip to the peak of Ben Lomond. Munro bagged! Simonne had some beautiful photos taken from just below the peak but the photos from the actual Trig point were covered by mist and rain. It’s Scotland. It’s like that. They just had time for a quick shower before heading off to dinner with Andrew, Cat and the kids.

Dinner was Monday served on Wednesday, ie Pasta. Actually Penne pasta and a very nice sauce with three types of tomatoes: baby tomatoes, blitzed plum tomatoes and passata. Don’t know what I did right but we both enjoyed it and I doubt if I’ll be able to make it like that again.

While they were off eating again, we drove to midweek dance class with Kirsty and a chance for me to prove that I didn’t have it down pat after all. Despite all Scamp’s encouragement, I just couldn’t confidently get it right every time. Finally I asked the teacher to lead me through it and it worked. That doesn’t mean she is better than Scamp, just she explained it differently and probably hauled me round with more confidence. After that we got the entire Tango to work almost every time.

Today’s prompt was “Dangerous”. I could have drawn almost anything to fulfil today’s prompt of ‘Dangerous’. In the end I settled for a lion. A pretty dangerous beast by all accounts.
With that said, according to the BBC, it is only the 10th most dangerous creature in the world. The Mosquito is the biggest killer with Humans in second place. Makes you think!

We drove home through driving rain again and when Jamie and Simonne returned we sat and talked for an hour with a wee drink to mark what was really the end of a great week. Unfortunately Jamie was driving tomorrow, so he had to abstain from the drinking.

Tomorrow will probably be another early rise, but a sad one.

Off to the capital – 24 October 2023

Today we were going all posh!

We were all booked for lunch at The Kitchin in Edinburgh today and as we would be having a glass or two, we weren’t driving. None of us were.

We took a taxi from the house to the railway station and caught the train to Edinburgh (posh day, posh name for Embra!). Got off at Haymarket and walked up to our usual Nero. Suitably refreshed we walked up the Grassmarket because Simonne hadn’t been there before. Then on to the West Bow with its crowds of tourists and quirky shops and houses. Marvelling at the queues of Harry Potter fans waiting to get in to the HP shop. From there we walked down the newly reopened Playfair Steps to Princes Street.

Round the corner from Princes Street we found the tram stop that would take us to Leith. This was the first time any of us had been on the trams in Edinburgh. It’s a very comfortable, if slow way to get around the city and we enjoyed the ride. Scamp had done all the research and told us we’d be getting off at The Shore. From there it was only a short walk to The Kitchin. I could list all our choices from the menu, but instead I’ll just post a menu and let you guess! Not long after we were enjoying our ‘amuse bouche’ someone asked us if we were enjoying our meal. I thought it was one of the many waiters and turned to reply and there was Tom Kitchin himself!! I think Scamp was dumbstruck. This was the first time I’ve seen him mingling with the guests in the restaurant. In fact this is the first time I’ve seen him in the restaurant.

The food was just as lovely as you’d expect it to be in a Michelin star restaurant and with the ‘paired wines’ we were taken on a journey through the vineyards of the world by the sommelier. The same one we’d had the last time we had been there. Eventually we’d eaten our fill and sampled the wines and it was time to go.

The weather had been dull when we arrived, but when we headed for the tram stop the sun was shining and it being late afternoon by then, that lovely golden light appeared. That’s when I got today’s PoD which is The Water of Leith and the floating hotel, Ocean Mist.

We took the tram back to St Andrews Square and walked over to the station and the train back to Croy, then a taxi with a wisecracking driver took us home.

While Scamp, Simonne and Jamie watched Masterchef I sat and drew my reading of today’s prompt – ‘Shallow’. The story that goes with it is: “Those who are interested in scuba driving are generally recommended to spend some time paddling in shallow water. At least, that what I was told by a friend one day. A friend who doesn’t even swim! I think he may be joking with me.” Total fantasy, but it filled the comments box!

    

Tomorrow I think we will take it easy after todays excesses. Jamie and Simonne, however, are hoping to be out climbing again.