Category: A Walk

Dancing, Dodgy Cars and Coast – 27 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Drove to Brookfield for dance class, but with half an eye on lunch at Coast!

The traffic was fairly heavy going both ways on the M8, but we had left slightly earlier than usual and had time to spare. Car did a strange thing, it beeped three rapid beeps then the engine appeared to turn off and immediately on again. That’s a bit disconcerting and something I’ll add to my growing list of problems when I take it in for service next month.

Dancing was almost all about ballroom today. I think the teachers are aware that we haven’t had much actual teaching recently and were attempting to fill that gap. We started with the Vogue Waltz which we originally learned at the Perth weekend, so it was really a reprise for us. Next was the Charnwood Cha-Cha which we kind of knew. By “kind of” I mean that Scamp kind of knew it, but I was floundering! Finally we did the Jet Lag Waltz which was totally new for us at least, although some of the others seemed to know it. That’s a lot of different dances to get through in an hour and a half, but we were able to film the Jet Lag Waltz and hopefully Scamp will be able to decode it, chop it into manageable pieces and feed it back to me. I hope so, because next week the teachers are off to Tenerife for a week.

After a Midnight Jive to finish today’s session we were driving to Langbank to have lunch in Coast. That’s when I found out that half my stored destinations had disappeared from the memory of the sat nav. I’m beginning to think that the glitch in the morning caused that information to disappear. This really is the craziest car I’ve ever had the misfortune to drive. We did eventually get a route to the restaurant, but it was a different one from the route the Nissan app had given us yesterday!

The restaurant was fairly busy, but not too busy. My main course was the same as I’d had the last time I was there, Spicy Sausage Rigatoni Ragu with Penne pasta replacing the Rigatoni (a sign of the times). Scamp had Smoked Haddock and Salmon Gratin which she had had at the sister restaurant in Falkirk. We are creatures of habit. Both meals were declared excellent.

We drove over the Erskine bridge then through Bearsden and Kirkintilloch to get home avoiding a third day of the misery of the Kingston Bridge. It probably took longer, but we were travelling all the time. One little misfire from the blue car on the way home.

Back home I took the opportunity of some sunshine to take some more dragonfly photos in St Mo’s, but PoD went to a hoverfly feeding on a wild Scabious flower.

Watched a fairly boring Belgian GP Qualifying and later caught up with Shetland!

No plans for tomorrow. Maybe a day of not driving?

Dinner in Hamilton – 26 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out in the morning and I was off the leash.

Scamp was out at her FitSteps class in the morning and I had the morning at least to myself, to do with as I wished. The trouble was I didn’t have anything in mind to do. I watered the chilli plants and checked on their condition. Both the old Jalapeño plant and the new hot looking thin chillies were doing fine. The old plant has two Jalapeños which are fattening up nicely but the chilli plant I brought back from Jans Vans in Skye are producing either long, thin, straight chillies or a strange corkscrew variety, both on the same plant. The Jalapeños are staying green as Jalapeños usually do, but the Skye chillies are starting to turn red. I’m not sure what’s stronger, the red or the green. I must try them some day, to compare and contrast.

I spoke to Ray while he was making his lunch and caught up with all that’s happening in his world.  I’d hoped that he would agree to join the Auld Guys for a beer or two in Glasgow, but he carefully avoided the subject.  However it was good to keep in touch.

In the afternoon I took a camera out to see what I could find in St Mo’s. Lots of dragonflies about, but the PoD went to a little grey and black spider on its web, just sitting beside the boardwalk.

In the evening we got dressed to go out to John & Marion’s in Hamilton. It’s ages since we’ve been together with Covid, holidays and weddings we’ve passed like ships in the night. All the talk tonight was of weddings and photo albums and catching up with what the families are doing now. While Scamp and Marion were discussing the photos and the weddings, John and I were planning a day with the Auld Guys in Glasgow. Hopefully that will come to pass soon.

We eventually left around 11pm and were home and parked just before the witching hour.  I got a surprise present from Marion.  A wee bottle of Limoncello!  All the way from Sorrento.  How nice was that!

Early(ish) rise tomorrow to drive to Brookfield for dance class, but with the sweetener of lunch booked at Coast in Langbank.

Dancin’ – 25 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Tea dance. The first one in ages.

An accident on the M8 set us back by at least 20mins on our way to the first tea dance in at least a couple of months. We shouldn’t have complained, the poor soul(s) in the badly bashed red car on the hard shoulder were having a far worse day than us.

We drove on and ignored the route the sat nav was giving us and instead we forged our own route, one the sat nav had given us months ago. Why it changed its mind on the best route to the outskirts of Paisley is anyone’s guess. It was a good day for a drive round the motorways of Glasgow, even if some idiot towing a caravan almost forced us off the road. Some folk don’t realise that sitting a driving test before you take a car on the road is not an option, it’s the law. Maybe he just forgot he was towing a massive big white brick behind him. Maybe he was a moron. Probably all three.

We danced a decent waltz today, especially as it’s been so long since we’ve danced among so many people. Yes, we danced on the cruise, but that was in a tiny little elliptical floor. No room to show off our catalog of mistakes. Today we had the whole room to impress with our footwork. We even managed a reasonable Social Foxtrot as well, but we did stumble a bit in the rumba. More practise needed there to smarten up the routine. Lots of sequence dances in between and most of them I got right.

We left early to try to avoid the traffic on the Kingston Bridge. Scamp thought the traffic was lighter than yesterday, but I’m not so sure. In retrospect, I should have taken the M74 rather than the M8. Short term pain for long term gain.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s later and found a compliant dragonfly that sat very patiently for me to get some ‘head on’ shots of it. It almost feels like dragonflies, and damselflies too, are studying you while you’re studying them. The head to head shot got PoD, but a close second was a little hoverfly pretending it was a bee on a wild Scabious flower. The wee thing was completely covered in pollen and you could actually see the pollen on the stamens of the flower. That’s how pollination works and that’s why we need insects, even if some of them are a bit of a pain, literally!

One of Scamp’s specialities for dinner today, Potatoes with Cabbage and Bacon. Scamp going for the vegetarian version without the bacon. It’s one of those meals that doesn’t sound as if it works, but it does.

Tomorrow, Scamp is heading for her FitSteps class. I’ve got a couple of phone calls to make.

Out in the wide world – 24 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Both of us … together!

Back on the cruise, in what seems like a different world now, I felt a clicking form my dance shoes. I thought it would go away, but it didn’t. Today I was going to look for a new pair. If time allowed after that, we would go for a walk in one of the parks on the south side.

The weather didn’t look that clever in the morning, but the weather app maintained that all would be well in the afternoon, and gradually the sky lightened, the rain stopped and we went out.

We drove to the shoe shop in Rutherglen, hoping to get parked outside like we did last time, but today luck wasn’t with us, so we drove on to Tesco and parked there. Long story short, I got a pair of plain black dance shoes that seem to fit perfectly. Job done. Of course Scamp also saw a new pair of dance shoes and just had to have them!

After a couple of wrong turnings, ok, three wrong turnings, we found our way to Bellahouston Park. We had a wander through the park and found an elephant, a rusty, steel, life size elephant.  Cast from melted down scrap locomotives from India and South Africa. Locomotives that had originally been made in Glasgow. A photo of that “Nellyfunk’s Bum” became PoD, but it was close run thing between that and a couple of other images that may make their way into Flickr.

Lunch was in the Art Lovers’ Café in the House for an Art Lover in Bellahouston.  Peppermint tea for Scamp and a decent cup of coffee for me with two massive scones to keep the hunger pangs at bay, although I did fancy the Pork Belly with Potato Cake, chargrilled spring onions, Spinach and Mustard Cream sauce.  Maybe next time!

We drove home by the M8 and over a Kingston Bridge that was beginning to clog up to its usual afternoon traffic jam. Then Scamp noticed warnings that more roadworks were about to start in a couple of weeks and would last until January 2023! We’ve had months of roadworks earlier in the year, they finished in June before another set began in July. It seems that every month there has been roadworks in this stretch of motorway. I doubt if this latest set will be the last. Unfortunately for us, this is the route we take to dance class every week.

Just as we were driving in to the estate, and home, another electronic sensor in the car reported a failure. This time it’s the tyre pressure sensor which reported an error. The car goes in to the garage for service next month. I doubt if anyone will be able to diagnose the fault, but they will reset the failure log and tell me it’s fixed. Then they will want me to come in and choose my next new car. It might be a Nissan, but I doubt it. It most certainly won’t be coming from a dealer who can’t fix the problems with my current car.

I had a bit of sad news today. Jack Doyle, who I worked with for many years at school, passed away a few weeks ago. I’ll always remember Jack’s sense of humour. He was a great guy who drank beer, but never lager and told great stories, so he did!

Tomorrow I’m hopefully breaking in a new pair of dance shoes.

Spiders in the rain – 22 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

It was a wet day today. No real incentive to go out.

Scamp drove up to the chemist to get her meds, but I stayed at home. She walked over to St Mo’s later to post a couple of parcels and got thoroughly soaked for her trouble. So badly soaked was she that her raincoat is still drying in the kitchen.

Earlier I almost managed to choose a dry spell for a walk in St Mo’s. Lots of spiderwebs with their attendant spiders easily visible after the rain. One of those shots got PoD. I was quite pleased with the out of focus raindrops hanging from the web. It almost looked like the Milky Way to me. Although I did get wet, I wasn’t nearly as wet as Scamp was later in the afternoon.

Spoke to Fred for a while later and discussed paintings he’d done and sketches I’d done. I must get that back bedroom cleared out and create some space to get some painting done.

Dinner tonight was a very tasteless Spice Tailor daal. With leftover chicken from Saturday’s dinner. It’s not often we have a failure with Spice Tailor kits.

Scamp and I played Rummikub later because there really is nothing worth watching on terrestrial TV. Maybe we should have a rummage through the offerings on Amazon Prime and Netflix.

Maybe it was just a bad day and tomorrow will be better. It doesn’t really look like it though. Wednesday looks the best day of the week. We might go somewhere then.

 

Baking – 21 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

A loaf was requested by Scamp. Also, the topic for this week in Flickr Friday was Daily Bread. I imagine bread would fit both bills.

With the foregoing in mind, and after a nudge from Scamp, I got started on some bread themed work this morning. I used my ready reckoner to determine the amount of water, yeast, butter and salt I’d need for the 312g of bread flour I’d measured out. It’s always good to go with the old fashioned photogs “Time and Temperature” method. Of course we are allowed to adjust as we go adding more water or flour as determined by the ‘feel’ of the dough. With the dough feeling suitably smooth after roughly 10 minutes of manual manipulation, I set it to rest and double in size while I had my morning coffee.

Next on Scamp’s list was ‘shopping’ or to be more Scottish, ‘messages’. We drove up to Tesco in her wee red car and made a fair fist of trying to buy the shop. Unfortunately some articles were not available, so a complete buy-out wasn’t possible in the time available, but we did try. We even forgot to get rolls, but I bravely volunteered to go back and buy some while Scamp took the rest of the purchases to the car. We’re used to watching the ‘Penchies’ (pensioners) groping the plain sliced loaves to find the freshest feeling ones, but today I met a twenty-something doing the same thing with the rolls. The first one he tried was obviously well fired, but too crispy. The second one, medium fired was better and he nearly accepted it, but put it back in favour of a ‘not so well fired’ batch. The Goldilocks Rolls. Not too hard, not too soft, just right! Once he was finished with his inspection I finally got a change to grab a lightly fired bag of six that would suit my two butterflied sausages. It’s a challenge buying the perfectly baked morning rolls.

By the time I’d chosen and paid for my rolls, Scamp had unloaded her trolley and was waiting in the car. We drove home and unloaded the back seat, because I’ve not fixed the boot lock yet. Then we could start on lunch which was Black Pudding and Egg on a roll for Scamp and two butterflied sausages on two rolls for me.

Scamp spoke to June and found out that yesterday at Hamilton Racecourse had been a brilliant night. Pity we didn’t make it, but as we found out later, we did make the right decision, based on the information we had. Glad everyone, especially June and Ian had a great time. Glad the birthday surprise was indeed a SURPRISE for Crawford and Nancy.

In the afternoon I sorted the dough and on a whim I poked a two holes for eyes, one for the nose and a curve of more holes for a smile and left the dough to do its second prove.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s with a camera that never came out of the bag. I sat for a while on a seat in the park watching the world go by and then came home, empty handed. Not one photo. I photographed the rising dough and turned the oven on. After the mandatory fifteen minutes warming up time I pushed the bread into the oven and set the timer for 20mins. That gave me time to go and photograph Scamp’s miniature tomatoes in the garden. When the timer pinged I turned the bread over and baked the bottom for another 5mins. When it came out, I photographed the bread, the Happy Bread!

Time to start the Pea and Prawn Risotto. Hand made, like the bread. Peas from the garden with the pods chopped up and boiled to make the stock. The whole risotto turned by hand using the custom made risotto paddle. It tasted almost perfect although Scamp thought it lacked salt. She always says that. The bread was lovely, with no sign of a soggy bottom! PoD was a picture of the sliced up bread, with the smiling face just visible.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard all about his new job in a new company with new people. Good to hear that there’s at least another Scotsman in the management team!

Tomorrow we have no plans, because it looks like it might be wet.

 

There’s a light – 20 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

It’s “… at the end of the tunnel”, I believe. Or, it might just be “… over at the Frankenstein Place …”

I held off until after midday before doing today’s Covid test. I was hoping for a line at ‘C’ but no line at ’T’. Well, it wasn’t quite like that, but the line at the ’T’ was the faintest I’ve seen. I deemed it enough of a success to show a step in the right direction, but just not enough to allow us to go to the big 70th party with a clear conscience. I certainly felt a lot better than I’ve been for at least a week. It would have been good to go to the party, but June and Ian were going in our place, so the family was represented at Hamilton Racecourse.

I managed to do my “8 active hours”, but didn’t quite reach the heady heights of 10,000 steps. I did go out in the afternoon to grab some photos over in St Mo’s. My favourite by far was the broken branch of a tree. I’ve seen it a few times but never photographed it. Today the lighting was good enough and I did take that photo which became PoD.

Earlier in the afternoon, Scamp and I went for a walk to the shops to get something for today’s lunch and also to get a chicken for tonight’s dinner. Both items were purchased. Cold meat for lunch, both for Scamp and for myself. The chicken was cooked to perfection by Scamp, because I’m not that skilled at roasting things in the oven successfully yet. Generally I overcook them and they end up a bit too dry.

The European Championships trundles on. Today was the men’s single diving championship and it was amazingly boring. At least the mountain biking circuit showed grit and determination from the contestants, but watching punters jumping off diving boards into a swimming pool isn’t breathtaking as far as I’m concerned. However, the UK showed its mettle by achieving a silver for its controlled splashes.

We watched another episode of Shetland tonight wondering who they will get to replace “Perez” and why. It’s a convoluted story with people dropping in and out from various different soap operas. It gives the viewers the chance to ask “What was he/she in?”

I’m not doing a test tomorrow. I’ll assume that the faint line will be almost invisible by then and I’ll be able to go shopping in Tesco without a mask.

Feeling a bit flat – 19 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Well actually it was Scamp’s red car that was a bit flat, the battery was at least.

Scamp had been intending going out to her FitSteps class in the morning, but one turn of the key in the red car put and end to that plan. Just a clunk and a rattle said it wasn’t going anywhere today, and neither was Scamp. She saw it as a sign that maybe she was overstitching herself and would leave the FitSteps until her own steps were a bit fitter.

For me it was an opportunity to get an old newspaper laid down in the back bedroom and after finding the socket set and the elusive 10mm socket that would release the nut holding the battery terminals in place, it was an easy job to undo the battery locking plate and lift the heavy black box out of the engine compartment. Placed the battery on the newspaper and connected it to the charger which then hummed away happily putting some energy into the battery. Meanwhile, lunch was tea and toast. No appetite for anything more adventurous.

In the afternoon I risked a walk in St Mo’s with the constant threat of rain. The threat never materialised, but if I hadn’t prepared for it, it would surely have come. A fair few insects were on the wing today, dragonflies and butterflies mainly. It was one of the peacock butterflies that made PoD.

By late afternoon the battery charger had done its work and was now just ticking over. As the Haynes Manual says, “Replacement is the reversal of removal.” The battery went back in and the the wee red car coughed into life at a turn of the key. Success.

I waited until 6pm for no particular reason to do my up the nose test today. It made little difference, because the outcome was the same. Still positive. Maybe the line was a little lighter today, but realistically it meant the same thing. Still in quarantine.

We might need to go shopping tomorrow, but it depends on how we’re feeling.

An improving picture – 18 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp tested negative this morning. Me, I’m at the coo’s tail as usual, still positive.

Scamp was careful not to look at the pink column as it rose in the recording window of the test kit. Then after about twelve of the required fifteen minutes she gave a yelp. It was a negative result. Not even the slightest ghost of a ’T’ trace. At last, one of us had broken free. Mine was slower than usual to confirm a positive, but it was there for all to see by the fifteenth minute. I didn’t expect it to be any better, but it would have been a nice surprise …

I took a walk down to the shops to get some bread and a bunch of flowers to brighten the house. Also got some cherries and the stuff to make a stir fry for dinner. Later in the afternoon we both went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just once round the pond, but that was enough for me to snag a few shots of dragonflies resting on the boardwalk. I reckon it’s the daily rain showers,  another of which we had in the late afternoon, that are increasing the water level in the ponds and that’s encouraging the hatch of dragons. Mostly Common Darters, both male and female, but a few Black Darters occasionally added to the mix. One of the low down views of a dragonfly made PoD.

Stir fry was ok, but I inadvertently picked up a carton of Vegan broth mix instead of Chicken. I’ll be more careful in future. I much prefer the milder chicken flavour.

It was a bit dull today. Couldn’t really get myself interested in anything. I’m just finishing my first Stuart McBride book in years and am not all that impressed with it. Too predictable, I think. However, I bought the Audible version with the Kindle book and it helped the flight home pass much more quickly than reading.

We may go out somewhere tomorrow, just to get out of the house.

Another day, another test – 17 August 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This morning Scamp did another test, but it was just positive and no more.

The general rule seems to be that you have to stay at home for five days from the first positive test. I assume that after that time you aren’t definitely clear, but are unlikely to pass on the infection. Everything is so vague now that hospitalisations are so much fewer than they were last year.

Anyway, Scamp declared herself still positive although she was feeling better than yesterday. I declared myself happy that today I was up to date with blog posts and also with Flickr posts, but was intending going for a walk in the afternoon to get more photos to post and stories to tell.

While Scamp was busy in the garden I went for a walk in St Mo’s. There were lots of lovely dragonflies fluttering around the boardwalk at St Mo’s pond. Mostly common darter males but also a few black darters circling the ponds. Butterflies too were in plentiful supply almost all of them were Peacocks. Had a chat with Fred while I was out and before my signal broke up. I really do need to look into the possibility of changing my phone. One of the common darter males (head on) got PoD.

Hoping for another sunny day tomorrow.