Category: Birthdays

Oops I did it again – 3 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I blew up the computer again today. This time, knowingly.

First things first. Hazy got her belated birthday box today, delivered by Royal Mail a day late. That may be the last time we use this overprices but untrustworthy delivery company. Some poor bloke is intending to buy the Royal Mail. Good luck with that mate. Anyway, Hazy enjoyed her extended birthday! We had a good talk to her in the late afternoon.

It was a bright day for a change, but it looked cold outside in the morning so we just stayed inside looking out at it until lunch time when we were entertained by the local grey squirrel who was checking out all the local gardens, looking of anything it could eat.

After lunch I took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s and deliberately walked the long way round the house first to chase away the rat with the fluffy tail. I think also frightened the man at the corner of our block who was measuring up a neighbour’s garden for a new fence.

The good light had gone by the time I got to St Mo’s, but I did a walk round the pond to keep my step count up and took a few photos. I really need to get up and out early(ish) if I’m going to get any good light at all.

Scamp made a really delicious Fish Pie for dinner. Unlike Jackie’s fish pie with mashed potatoes on top, this one had sliced potatoes on top and a lighter sauce.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The PoD was intended to be Mr or Mrs Squirrel, but I blew up the computer again and it’s still struggling to get everything back into the big silver box, so the photos might not arrive until tomorrow. A bit like the Royal Mail.

I had decided to have one last try at installing the Paragon software, but for some reason the iMac wouldn’t restart after the installation. I’m guessing it’s because I’m running the show on an SSD and the software was designed to run on a ‘real’ computer. But because the internal hard drive of the iMac is junk, the SSD is a better choice.

The long term solution is a new iMac and although the prices can be eye watering, it’s my hobby, and I’m willing to pay for it. What I don’t want it to be is the constant struggle I’m having just now. At this moment the iMac is reinstalling the data from (yet) another SSD and will hopefully be finished in about an hour. Then I will let the whole thing cool down until we start the battle again tomorrow.

Hopefully we’ll get out tomorrow to get some potting compost and some pots for Scamp to take winter cuttings.

Happy Birthday to Me! – 8 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Another year older and deeper in debt.

Well, another year older at least. Not a bad day, though. Sunshine in the morning shading to clouds later and finally rain at night. Still, let’s start with the first word, Sunshine … for a while.

We took the X3 in to Glasgow and although I didn’t think it possible, it took even longer to travel the route. Due to some roadworks the bus was forced to perform an almost complete circuit of Moodiesburn, then manoeuvre itself around a country road between Moodiesburn and Muirhead before taking another detour through the delights of the Muirhead housing estates and finally returning to the normal route. For once I felt sorry for bus drivers.

In Glasgow we walked down West Nile Street and out on to Buchanan Street, then into the Apple shop where I wanted to look at the new iMacs, because this seven year old iMac I’m typing on is running on borrowed time now, I think. That doesn’t mean I’m expecting it to croak any time soon, but I’m just thinking ahead. It no longer runs on its internal hard drive, but does all its work on a couple of SSDs and I knew they won’t last forever. We had a look at the specifications of the shiny new plastic things and they look possible, but looking deeper told a different tale, like the additional price for greater storage and the exorbitant price for more memory. I put them on the back burner for now … and turned the burner off!

We went for lunch at Wagamama and had a feast!
Starters to share were: Pork + Panko apple Bau Buns, Bang Bang Cauliflower and Ebi Katsu Butterflied Prawns.
Mains were Shirodashi Pork Belly Ramen for me and Prawn Raisukaree for Scamp. All were scoffed in double quick time and were as delicious as usual.

We walked down Buchanan Street listened to a bloke playing Despacito on one of those strange violins with a metal cone that gave the music a strange old fashioned sound. We walked on to Argyll Street and heard a man and a boy playing The Sound of Silence on real violins. I don’t approve of kids busking in the street. Let them be kids for a while. They will grow up soon enough and won’t have happy memories of their earlier life when they grow older. We walked along to M&S, but couldn’t see anything interesting to buy so we wandered back to Nero entertained by The Sound of Silence. In Nero I grabbed a shot of a Chihuahua sitting on a seat in front of us. It became PoD.
When we left Nero, about 20 minutes later The Sound of Silence was just finishing again. We guessed at that point that it was the only tune the two could play. Further up Buchanan Street, the man with the trumpet violin was starting what must be his umpteenth Despacito. So that’s what they do. They only play one tune. People are not stopping to listen, they just walk on and throw a coin in the hat. By the time the audience has passed on, the fiddler can start the same tune again to a new stream of people, and so it goes on all day. One tune, one backing track and some money made.

First Bus tried to completely spoil our day when we got to the bus station. When we got there, the bus and a fair crowd of folk were waiting for us. But then a driver got in and drove the bus away and parked it. 20 minutes until the next one. No explanation. And the bus companies wonder why folk aren’t using public transport.

Instead we got a bus from the other side of the bus station that took us up to Cumbersheugh, almost non-stop. Got off and went through the underpass and got the grumpiest driver I’ve ever had who took us past our stop and dumped us at the shops. Walked back and moaned about the state of the bus companies until we realised nobody was listening.

A large glass of wine later and we were both a lot happier and planning our next outing together.

Spoke to Jamie later and we had a laugh about birthdays.

That’s enough for now. “I’m tired and I want to go to bed” as a very old song goes.

No plans for tomorrow when it will be some other lucky person’s birthday.

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp’s Birthday today.

A lazy morning for both of us. Lots of prezzies opened and lots of smiles. Hazy phoned in the morning and I gave them space to talk while I tidied up downstairs.

After lunch Scamp wanted to get her new plants into pots and distributed round the garden. I took a camera for a walk in St Mo’s. Not a lot to be seen, but I did get some photos of a bunch of dandelions sitting on a wall and with a fence to give them some extra support.

Scamp had requested that dinner should be, Chicken & Pea Traybake, to give it its proper name, The same meal we had on Thursday. I was chef, of course, but the real cook was the oven because it did all the hard work. Dessert was Viennetta. All washed down with a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Jamie and Simonne’s Christmas parcel.

Spoke to Jamie later in the day and heard that the main works seem to be finished and now the push seems to be on to get the plastering completed. The hope being that when that is finished, they can move back it full time.

We watched the final episode of this season’s Death in Paradise. The story was dragged out even more than it usually is. Lots of old faces returning for this finale. Maybe this is, as one critic wrote, the Death of Death in Paradise. We can but hope.

I think Scamp enjoyed her birthday. I really hope she did.

Tomorrow we may tidy up some loose ends.

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A busy day, but a great one.

Today was Scamp’s birthday, a big birthday. It started with breakfast in bed as befitted the Birthday Girl. Then it was time to get dressed and face the day.

There were cards to open and parcels to unpack. I became doorman and brought in the parcels that delivery men asked me to sign for, lots of them. Most amazing being an enormous bouquet of flowers. I do believe the birthday girl was overwhelmed by it all. There was paper and cardboard boxes everywhere. Eventually everything calmed down and we went out to lunch.

It wasn’t a posh lunch, just a normal(ish) Friday afternoon outing to The Cotton House, or go-to Chinese/Thai restaurant a couple of miles down the road. Typically, we had our usual choices from the menu. Scamp had Thai Spring Rolls, followed by Chicken Chow Mein. I had Chicken Noodle Soup and Salt & Chilli Chicken with Noodles. No tea or coffee, just the bill, please. Food was just as lovely as usual.

Instead of driving home, we travelled on to Torwood Garden Centre to get some solar powered lights for the garden. Scamp had said a few weeks ago that she’d like garden lights as a birthday present, so today she got to choose them. We also got a new watering can and a peony rose for me.

Since we were only halfway to the Kelpies, it seemed like a good idea to just drive there so Scamp could tell them all about her birthday so far. We took a rather strange route to get there, but in the end we found Helix Park where the Kelpies live. As usual, I took loads of photos and one of them got PoD. It was a lovely day with blue skies, but later as we were just deciding to go to the cafe for a coffee, there was a sharp shower of rain. After coffee and more photos, we said cheerio to Baron and Duke and drove back home, just managing to avoid the worst of the rush hour.

There was a card on the mat when we got home to say that a parcel was waiting for Scamp at the Post Office. I checked the time it closed and I had just enough time to go there and collect the parcel. Of course it was another birthday parcel.

Later in the evening we had a three way Zoom call from Hazel, Jamie and Neil. Simonne had been in hospital to get her tonsils removed and Jamie was waiting to see if she would get out tonight or not. It was a good call, even if Simonne was absent. Lots of stuff talked about and plans were made for later in the year. Hey, but you know all this. We used up almost our whole hour of air time. Thank you all for organising that.

Tonight (or should I say yesterday night, since you’ll know this was a catch-up) we had an early night. Too much excitement and planning for two bears of little brain.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to dance in the morning and relax for the rest of the day.