Category: Architecture

Out to Lunch – 22 February 2017

Posted on by Zogman

It was another beautiful day.  Cold, but beautiful.  After seeing the fun the birds had at Madeleine’s birdbath in the garden in Trinidad made us decide to get one for our wee postage stamp garden at home.  Today we set out to see what was available and at what price.  We could also have lunch.  Two birds, one stone, no killing was done.

I’d initially thought of driving to Dobbies near Bearsden, but decided to change our destination to Oakwood Garden Centre.  We’d been there before and the food was good.  You can see now that the real reason we were going was for lunch.  Bird bath was just a ruse!  Enjoyable drive through the countryside just north of Glasgow.  Got there and the cafe was full, but they took our name and we were soon seated, with Scamp getting the good view out the window across the fields to the hills.  Food was good, maybe mine was not as good as last time, but that’s being picky.  This place serves real coffee.  Strong, rich Columbian.  Just the way I like it.  Browsed the bird baths available and although I liked the one with the two cherubs, Scamp scowled.  It will be a plain one, I think.

Drove home and dropped in at Lidl for some veg to make Minestrone soup.  With it simmering away and Scamp ensconced at the ironing board, I went out to get some photos at St Mo’s.  Thought of doing a sketch of the front / side of the sports barn, but it started raining, so I walked over to the pond instead.  The rain didn’t last, so I attempted a sketch of the rear / side view and that’s what you see here.  I think I should have stuck to the front view as the perspective gets a bit dodgy here.

There wasn’t much to photograph at the pond or in the trees, but I did get the shot above which I quite like with the contrast of hard and soft textures.

Salsa was good, if exhausting tonight.  Almost the whole of a level 2 class, followed by an advanced class.  I think I’ve finally mastered El Niño, but I won’t know for certain until Monday night when it will be put to the test again.

Storm Doris is heading our way – didn’t it drift our way when we were in Trinidad?  Maybe it got lost.  Anyway, amber alert for snow for Central Scotland tomorrow!  Don’t think I’ll be going far, except possibly a walk to St Mo’s again to get some photos if all goes well.

Is this your minky? – 11 February 2017

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11 FebToday we set off after breakfast for Chaguaramas to walk into the Bamboo Cathedral.

I don’t know what I expected, but I wasn’t ready for the sign warning us to

  • Walk in groups
  • Don’t display cell phones or jewellery
  • Stay in well lit areas

I thought we were going for a leisurely walk.  I forgot to pack the AK47 and stab proof vest.  Bummer.  However, once we walked past the entrance gate, I forgot all about that.  This was jungle!  Well, jungle with a wide tarmac road through it.  The trees round us were enormous and there was some bamboo too, but nothing ‘cathedral-like’.  Then we turned a corner and there was the bamboo.  Not one or two clumps, but hundreds  – everywhere.  Now I could see the ‘cathedral’ reference.  The bamboo arched over our heads from both sides and met in the middle making it look and feel as if we were walking through a green tunnel.  We walked the length of the bamboo tunnel and then started climbing the hill at the end.  As far as we could see, the bamboo was finished.  We turned to go back and Madeleine stopped to ‘rescue’ a piece of vine from the depredations of some weeds.  Jaime managed to wrap some banana leaf round it and tie it off with a bit of creeper to keep the roots damp until we got it home and could replant it.  It was a rescue vine.  We walked back through the Bamboo Cathedral and just before we got to the high trees, Madeleine notices movement in the bushes at the side of the road.  I started mentally ticking off the warnings on that sign, then we all saw the monkeys.

Madeleine said they were Capuchin monkeys.  I was too busy trying to get a decent shot of them in the low light that filtered through the canopy.  Eventually, I gave up, switched on fast continuous shooting and fired off seven or eight shots at a time, gave the camera time to deal with them then fired off another seven or eight.  I tried a video, but the Oly 10 isn’t really up to that kind of task, and when I checked later, there was nothing useable on either video.  Everyone had a great time looking for new groups who seemed to appear from nowhere, climb high into the branches above our heads and jump the gap across to the other side  Adult and babies all made the journey without injury although some were better at jumping than they were at catching the branches on the other side and there were a few almost tumbles.  Once they were all over, they started feeding and it was time for us to move on.  Great fun for all.  All the time we were watching the monkeys, people were passing by, all saying “Good Morning” and none really batting an eyelid at the monkey gymnastics.  I’m guessing this is a normal occurrence here.

When we got back to the car, we drove on to Macqueripe Bay where we descended the stairs, under the screaming people on the Zip Wire above us, down to the beach.  Lovely little beach with what might have been a harbour at one end and a sort of short promenade above the sand.  The water looked lovely and clear and I wished I’d brought swimming stuff.  The whole place had a strange 1950s look to it and reminded me of the Lido at Bothwell Bridge near Hamilton.  Lots of folk swimming and just enjoying the sun, but then it was Saturday after all.  I got photos of some crabs before they dived down their holes.  They were well back from the sea and I wondered if they sneaked down the steps onto the beach at night.  From the promenade you could look out past an island to just see Venezuela in the distance.

After the short visit to the beach, we walked back up to the car and Madeleine drove us home via the supermarket which seemed to stock a lot of Waitrose goods. Which made me wonder if it’s an offshoot of that business.  We saw all the usual supermarket stuff and then some things you don’t get back home, like Chicken’s Feet again.  Scamp even took a photo of the aforementioned delicacy to show to the disbelieving ones back home.  On that subject, I did spot a cafe on the road advertising Cow Heel Soup.  Apparently it’s a local delicacy and the soup is really good.  I just hope they wash the cow’s heels well before making the soup, having seen the stuff that cows walk through!

Lunch was stewed chicken with fried plantain and salad, followed by coconut ice cream.  Maybe a notch down from the ice cream we got in Karawak, but still better than anything we get at home.

IMG_3767_3768Today’s sketch is of the house across the street with a bit of M&J’s house added in to set the scene.  Actually, after I was finished, I preferred the lightness of M&J’s house to the lumpy looking other house.  The perspective is much more pronounced with the viewpoint closer to the small house.  Worth another go, I think.  Maybe tomorrow.

Pigeon Point again – Still no pigeons.

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9 FebOut early again and got to Pigeon Point before the resort was fully open!  The benefit of getting there early is that you get your pick of the beach huts.  With our one selected and with sun screen slathered on, Scamp and I went for a walk in the shallows.  The water was cold, but then it was just after 9am.  The sea was much calmer today, so it was time to grab the mask and snorkel and head out to the reef.

Despite the lack of wind and only a slight swell, there was still a fair bit of silt in the water and visibility wasn’t that great.  However, IMG_3755it was good to swim in the sea without getting hypothermia.  After a while I swam back to the shore and met Scamp who wanted to have a deeper paddle and test the improved buoyancy you get from sea water.  We just messed around in the fairly shallow water for a while and she did try a few strokes before we got out again.  Sat watching the colours in the sea and sky for a while then had an early lunch of biscuits and cheese, washed down with some fruit juice.  After that Scamp and I went for a walk along the beach and watched the pelicans diving for fish.  Scamp found a wee bit of coral to take back and then she found a sea urchin shell.  Walked back to the beach hut and did a quick sketch of the lifesaver’s hut.

Back at the beach hut, a hoard of americans arrived (lower case shows my respect for them).

  The older ones were about our age and were quiet and quite biddable.  The younger ones were noisy and american.  What more can I say.  Each one seemed to want to project their inherent stupidity louder than the last.  Big Chief Stupid had his hair shaved at the sides and left long on top.  Such a good look.  I may grow my hair long this year and emulate him.  I won’t, however, plaster my arms and legs with ‘artistic’ tattoos.  To quote from Lou Reed “Stick a fork up their ass and turn them over, they’re done!”  Actually Lou was quoting from his friend, Donald, so maybe that’s a cyclic quote!?  We stayed a bit longer, I had another snorkelling mission then I went looking for a Sarong for Scamp, it being Thursday. Bought one from an old guy sitting on the beach with the sarongs hung up and drying in the breeze.  He even demonstrated the different ways to tie it.

Back at the apartment, I wanted to go out and get some pics of the pelicans fishing from the beach that had disappeared yesterday.  Today was better, but the waves were now attempting to cover it.  Walked along to where the pelicans were, and found a white bull in the field behind me  – no fence!  I said bye-bye to the bull and made a hasty retreat.  On the way back, I found a dragonfly, right next to me on a bush.  Dragonflies in February, now there’s a thing!  Got lots of photos.

Out to Karawak again for dinner.  Two waiters instead of waitresses tonight and it was Cajun Chicken for me and Mahi Mahi fish for the others.  I didn’t enjoy it as much as last night, but I was in the minority.

Back at the apartment, Jaime, Scamp and I went to watch the limbo dancer.  I think now we saw him the last time we were here, but he was entertaining with his fire eating and his clowning around.

We went to bed early because we’ll be up early tomorrow for the plane back to Trinidad.

A Grand Day Out – 08 February 2017

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8 FebThis will be a rushed post.  It’s been a long day and we’ve crammed a lot into it, although it might not seem so with this compressed or condensed description.

The day started well and we left the apartment with the intention of visiting Scarborough and then heading to a beach, but that’s not how it turned out.  Firstly we made a stop at the Magdalena Grand Hotel to see how the other half live.  The hotel, which is quite grand and quite magnificent is surrounded by a golf course which has the usual water hazards.  However, the water hazards on most golf courses don’t have warning signs saying ‘This lake contains caimans’.  Thankfully we didn’t stop near the water.  We did continue on to see the hotel and to walk the grounds as if we were staying there.  It’s a technique I must learn some time.  We were both impressed with the size and look of the building, but there weren’t very may folk staying there, so we did wonder how profitable it was.  While we were there I got my first decent shots of Frigatebirds.

As we were leaving the weather seemed to take a turn for the worse with squally rain appearing.  It had been threatening while we were trespassing on the hotel grounds, but now it was doing more than threatening.  We carried on to Scarborough, and it did remind me of the English seaside town with the steep hills around it.  Madeleine drove us to Fort King George and old stronghold, now open as a museum.  Loads of interesting stuff to be seen and most of it was open to the public.  That’s where we saw the cockerels and the hens.  They seemed to have the run of the place.  Jaime bought us some Tamarind Balls which are made from Tamarind paste with added pepper made into balls then covered in sugar.  A strange sweet/sour/salty taste.  Hard to define.  Great place to visit.  It was there too we found all these lovely butterflies.  Butterflies in January?  Who would have thought it?  Aha, but this isn’t Scotland.

By the time we were leaving here the rain had started for real.  No longer  squally, but a proper downpour.  After an attempt to outrun it, we gave up and headed with our sandwiches and juice back to the apartment where we had a picnic on the balcony.  Not quite what we’d intended, but at least we were dry for a time.  Then the rain started again and we took shelter inside.  These showers continued all afternoon.  I got fed up after a while and went out to walk along the beach.  Unfortunately, the beach had disappeared under the heavy breakers of high tide, so I sat down and sketched a concrete seat as a possible subject.  It rained again and I had to give up.  At that point Jaime appeared wondering where I’d got to.  We walked back and he showed me the fruits on one of the trees in the hotel grounds.  I must remember to ask him what it was called.  Before we got ready to go out to the restaurant Scamp wanted to dip her feet in one of the hot tubs.  We sat in it for about half an hour while the rain made little soldiers on the surface of the water around us.  What a strange feeling that was.  When we finally gave up the hot tub, we went for a swim in the pool.  The water was remarkably warm.

After our swim we went back to the room and Scamp went to shower and wash her hair.  I grabbed my sketchbook and drew the view from the balcony.  It’s not technically perfect, but it’s a better, and more interesting, drawing than the concrete seat.  IMO.

IMG_3753Dinner was in Karawak restaurant and it was fabulous.  Callaloo soup followed by Tomato, Basil and Olive salad then a main of steak or shrimp with rice, pumpkin and a sort of ratatouille served in a hollowed out half aubergine.  Dessert was coconut cream cake with ice cream, sorbet or ice cream.  It’s hard not to compare that with what we had on our first night here at the steak and lobster grill and it’s hard to see now how the S&L Grill survives against competition like this.  The waitress worked the table with a great sense of humour that you couldn’t help but appreciate.  The only fly in the ointment was the owner or manager, it wasn’t clear which, who only seemed to be interested in her regular customers and only gave us a cursory glance.  She needs to take a lesson from our waitress.  Nobody it that high and mighty that they don’t need to cultivate new custom.

Well, that was meant to be a condensed description of the day.  I missed out the Karaoke because it was so bad, it wasn’t even funny, and no we didn’t take part.

The toon in the sun – 25 January 2017

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Well, almost.  There was some sun for a while, then it got tired and went behind a cloud or two for a wee rest.  It was there, though for a while.

Scamp had decided that we needed to go in to the toon today on the bus, because we were going for lunch.  As it turned out, it was a good idea, but we weren’t sure where we were going.  It was finally decided that we would go to my new favourite restaurant / pizzeria, Paesano.  There, I’ve spelled it right first time without checking.  I checked afterwards, but that doesn’t count.  I had pizza (everything is a pizza there) with Salsiccia and Friarielli (Friarelli are a green vegetable like Broccoli but are only grown in Campania and they are in a category all their own).  A pizza bianco which doesn’t have tomato sauce.  I also had a side of lovely balsamic onions.  Scamp had Burrata (a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream), Cherry tomatoes and Basil and a boring old Pizza Margherita.  Lovely!

Afterwards we went for a coffee in ‘Nero and that was the extent of our stravaigin’ in the toon.  Bus home too and the sun came out of hiding and started shining again for a while.

Not a lot to take photographs of today and I only took the one camera, the Oly 5.  I liked the distorted reflections of the buildings overlaid on the internal details of 110 Queen Street and it’s my PoD.  When I got home I’d left myself a reminder to glue the little metal cap on my Oly 5 (It fell of the other day).  When I was doing it, I found a little metal circlip that had broken and decided to pull it off.  When I pulled it off, it unfortunately took the plastic shutter button off with it!  Oh dear, I’ve just broken what has recently become my go-to camera – of course the actual words I said were not “Oh dear”.  The sentence was much longer and contained a lot of sweary words.  However, I managed to find the offending article and also managed to clip it back in place.  Then I glued on the offending metal cap with Araldite (other Two-part Epoxy Resin Adhesives are available).  It still seems to be working.  Moral of the story – If it ain’t Really broke, don’t fix it.  It worked perfectly before without the little metal cap.

Looking cold for tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll be on a warm train for a change.  Letting the train take the strain.

Remnants of a former glory – 22 January 2017

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Drove in to Glasgow because Scamp wanted to get a new travel bag.  She found one in Debenhams and while she was there, I perused Cass Art, but there were no great bargains to be had.

Coffee in Cafe Nero and then we were done, well almost.  I spotted a Remnant Kings  on the first floor across the road and we went in to have a browse.  I found a piece of cloth printed with bow ties to make a bow tie.  Should look good.  When we came out I was amazed at the decoration on the landing outside the shop.  That’s where the photos came from.  It never ceases to amaze me, the decoration that’s in closes and stair wells in Glasgow.

Came home and the sky hadn’t changed at all.  Still milky white with no shadows.  Felt hemmed in, so went out for a walk around St Mo’s but saw nothing interesting and therefore photographed nothing.

Added a photo of the new bow tie cloth.

It appears that the screamers AKA Gems will be having a debrief tomorrow after their gig last week.  It seems that a recording contract may be in the offing.  I’ll be elsewhere, whatever the weather.

“Excuse me …” – 20 January 2017

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Earlier today:
I’m sitting alone watching and listening to the films of the people’s stories in the Disappearing Glasgow exhibition in the Lighthouse. I’ve just had to shut up a couple of wahoos who were pontificating loudly about the photography round the walls.  I just got madder and madder with them and eventually turned round and called across the room “Excuse me. Do you mind if I listen to this?” That did the trick.  My seven days beard growth and my old battered and torn Bergy jacket probably helped.  They shut up then left … quietly.  They were english, so they didn’t know how to behave.

Later today:
When I eventually rose to leave, about twenty minutes later, there were six other people sitting around me.  I hadn’t noticed them arriving.  They hadn’t said a word throughout the films.  They were Scottish.  Brought up properly.
Definitely an exhibition worth seeing and hearing if you get the chance.

Glasgow was dull today with one of those milky white skies that simply drag you further down.  A January Sky.  No directional light, so no shadows.  I couldn’t see anything I wanted to photograph, so I got the train back home.

Stepped off the train at Croy and realised that it was only just coming up to 2pm.  It seemed a shame to just drive home and stare at a glowing screen for an hour or two, so I decided to travel east in the hope of finding some brighter skies in Stirling and also hoping that Tiso would still be in business there and would have a pair of the excellent Bergy gloves in a small size to fit Scamp, and that is what I did.

I didn’t get the brighter skies, but I did get a couple of photos.  One of the Wallace Monument through the mist and another of a closed down pub.  I also got the gloves.  I considered stopping for a coffee, but then decided I’d rather be on my way home before rush hour, because rush hour on the M9/M80 is a nightmare of drivers changing lanes, changing back, cutting in, cutting out. Just a situation to be avoided, and that is what I did.

I don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow.  The weather fairies say it will be fine with sunshine.

Perf – 17 January 2017

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Today we went to Perf, Perth to you.  It was a really dull, dreary day when we left the Cumbernauld Cloud, but true to form, the weather brightened up about halfway to Stirling and from then on it was a lovely day.

Walked from the carpark to the coffee shop to start our visit in the time-honoured fashion and stopped at Clarks shoe shop to see if there were any bargains.  There were and a new pair of shoes and trainers were soon bagged and paid for.  I think the trainers may replace the ones I got last week.  Both are Goretex which I think is the bees knees as far as walking in Scotland is concerned, in fact all three new pieces of footwear are Goretex.  Coffee scoffed we wandered for a while around Perf and decided on an early lunch.  We went to a new (to us) cafe and I had a lamb burger (which I am suffering for now) topped with feta cheese.  Not sure it’s a great combination.  I get the link: Feta – cheese made from sheep’s milk and Lamb, but it just didn’t taste that good.  Maybe it’s just me.  Scamp had a chicken burger which seemed to go down well.  Coffee was on a par with Callander Coffee!

After lunch we split up Scamp went shopping for a bag and I went looking for books.  Didn’t find any, but I did pick up a lovely Dylan album in  the Bootleg series.  From the Philharmonic Hall in New York 1964.  An all acoustic set.  Brilliant.  Scamp didn’t find a bag – the search continues.   I also got today’s trilogy.  The girl in the mono shots was busking next to the the iconic street architecture in the main street of Perf.  Actually she was quite good and I really should have dropped some money in her guitar bag.  I liked the graphical nature of the the square window overseen by the security camera.

When we met up again, I went and got some coffee and tea and also dropped in at a fabric shop and bought some blue cotton with white spots to make another bow tie, a keeper this time I hope.  By the time we got on to the main street, the light was failing and it was time to drive home.  I felt quite sorry for the old church at the end of the main street.  I’ve photographed it a few times.  It used to provide great shots of pigeons sitting in the broken stained glass windows.  The last time we were in Perf there was scaffolding on it and I hoped it would be renovated, but today there was a security fence round it and the scaffolding was gone.  Soon, I think the church will be too.  Such a pity.

I finally managed to rip the Monty Python DVD tonight.  I used an old program that I’ve used in the past and also one that Hazy suggested, ‘Make MKV’.  It wouldn’t work on the Mac, I think it didn’t like the DVD player being connected by USB.  Maybe the information stream wasn’t quick enough.  However, when I used the PC laptop, MakeMKV got to work right away and after half an hour or so later I had the rip.  Unfortunately it was a 4Gb rip.  Compressing it into an MP4 file looks like it’s going to take a couple of hours, but that’s a job for tomorrow.

No plans for tomorrow yet, apart from converting from MKV to MP4.

AirTable v Bento – 16 January 2017

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Another aimless day mostly spent under grey skies with the occasional shower of rain falling to give a bit of variety.

I spent most of the morning working with and learning to use AirTable, a multi-platform database that Hazy alerted me to.  Up until recently I’d used Bento,  the delightfully simple database for IOS and OSX.  I don’t use it much on the Mac, but it’s always there on my phone, especially the books database.  If I’m browsing in Waterstones and see a new book I like the look of, I type its name into my Bento Books Database, along with the author.  Then, when I have the time, I look it up on Amazon to see a price I’m willing to pay.  More recently, I have started looking in my local library e-book list to see if there is anything there.  Unfortunately, NLC library don’t have a great deal of e-books in THEIR database yet, but it’s always worth a look.  Once I’ve borrowed or bought a book, I tick it off as ‘Checked Out’ then later when I’ve read it or junked it I mark it either ‘Keep’ or ‘Drop’.  All done on Bento.  Unfortunately, Bento was itself ‘Dropped’ by Filemaker for reasons best known to themselves in 2013 (ish) and users were encouraged to replace it with Filemaker Go which is free, but really requires Filemaker Pro which costs around £170.  A hefty price to pay for a book database.  Enter AirTable which seems to fit the bill of price (free for non-commercial) and power.  I had a bit of a problem getting my Bento database into it, but with some HazyHelp, it worked a treat.  The main problem was that Bento on the phone wouldn’t sync with Bento on the Mac.  I gave up looking for a solution and in the end, just typed in the details I was missing.  Not comes the big test, when I take it out in the wild tomorrow to see if it cuts the mustard!

Went for a walk down the Luggie Water in the later afternoon, while Gems were invading the house, but saw very little apart from the ‘Ripples’ shot.  Drove up to Hulks Road, a wild bit of country road on the outskirts of Cumbersheugh, and got some lovely light on the landscape after such a dull day.  That’s where the rest of the shots came from.

Salsa tonight was a disaster.  I couldn’t remember the move we did last week, despite having watched our record of it before we went out.  Worse still, we did Chi-wa-wa (sic) which I know and like, and I couldn’t get that either.  I must have been one of the few leaders who actually knew the move, but was the only one who couldn’t get it right.  Embarrassing?  Just a little.  Lots of folk there tonight who hadn’t been to class for ages.  Good to see.  Scamp and I went for a coffee and a soft drink with Catherine and Linda after class to catch up with everybody’s news.

Tomorrow we may go to Perth for coffee and the run.  Weather looks as if it will cooperate.

Cauld day in the Toon – 13 January 2017

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We went in to Glasgow, drove into Glasgow.  The ring road was still being dug up and we weren’t sure the buses were running normally and besides, we didn’t want to be sitting in a bus whose heater was pumping out cold air for 45minutes.  That’s one of the reasons we bought a car.

I bought myself some interfacing for stiffening the cloth I’m going to make a bow tie with.  Got it in JL (didn’t get it delivered!) for £1.50!  The bowtie itself, the prototype, will be made from an old pillow case.  That’s the essentials bought.  This weekend I’ll try to put it into practice.

After JL we walked down Bucky Street and on to Argyle Street, then up Miller Street to Paesano.  For the first time ever, we had to wait for a table.  When we got one five minutes later the food was just as good as ever.

After being fed, we went for a coffee in Café Nero in St Enoch’s.  Scamp went to wander round the St Enoch’s Centre and I went to do a quick sketch of the suspension bridge over the Clyde.  It’s rough, but it’s done and it’s on time.

When we got home, Scamp realised that she had fogotten to post a card in town, so I volunteered to post it in Condorrat.  I took my camera of course and that’s where the sunset shot came from.  It’s more a gloaming shot really.  Gloaming means more than sunset.  It’s that golden hour before the sun sets and it’s also the afterglow from the set sun.

Gloaming.  Make it a word you use some time today, in its correct context.