Category: Blossom

Lunch at Crews Inn – 12 February 2017

Posted on by Zogman

12 Feb

 

It’s Sunday and Scamp was going to church with Madeleine and Jaime and I thought I should get up and do something IMG_3769_3769too.  So, after they’d left leaving Ori and I in charge, well, really it was Ori who was in charge and I was just getting in the way of his morning nap.  With Ori concentrating on his sleep pattern,I started a sketch of the house from a viewpoint at the front gate.  I gave myself a time limit of one hour and managed to get it completed in just over that time.  I’m quite happy with it apart from one little mistake.  By the time I was finished, I just had enough time for a shower before the others came home.  Ori was still sleeping.

We had a light breakfast because we were booked for lunch at the Crews Inn at the place that begins with a C and I can never remember its name.  I’m going to look it up now.  Ok, it was Chaguaramas.  Bing had the answer.  I hate Bing – It’s like most things Microsoft.  It’s crap.  I did say ‘most’ things.  Excel is brilliantly powerful and Live Writer is the best blogging prog I’ve used, but Bing is just painful to use. Why is it called Bing?  Apparently because it was short and memorable(?), but we all know it’s Because It’s Not Google, and in my opinion, it never will be.  Anyway, we were going to Chaguaramas for lunch at the Crews Inn.  In the mean time I managed to capture a couple of shots of the Monarch butterfly that’s been annoying me all holiday.  It thought it was out of reach, high in a tree, but it reckoned without the power of the 200mm lens on the Oly 10.  It was snapped!  As was the wee bit of bright pink blossom.

The Crews Inn is a lovely place, especially if you are a sailor.  I’m not, but it’s still a great location, right on the seafront with a vista that takes in fishing boats, skiffs, real yachts and big mega pretend yachts owned, no doubt, by millionaires.  We weren’t coming to see the boats, we were coming for lunch and I was going to have a glass of their very alcoholic Sangria.  It turned out to be not as good as the last one the others had, but it was still very rich and tasty.  I think we were all a bit disappointed when we were told that it was a buffet on a Sunday, but hey ho, it’s still food.  Indeed it was food and food a plenty.  We started with a salad and then went for the meat and fish option.  Then there was the dessert menu to investigate.  Really, I think Jaime and I did overdo it a little bit, well, a lot really.  It’s hard not to when there is this much food on offer.  That’s what I love and hate about buffets.  I love the selection, I hate the fact that I just pig out.  One day I’ll learn, maybe!

When we got home, I had to go for a snooze.  The food and the heat just got to me.  It was lights out for a while.

Later, we started the inevitable packing.  I’m about half packed just now.  I’ve now got to decide exactly what to wear on the plane and the train as we move from 25o to 5o.

Listened to some ‘pan’ from the semifinals at Savannah.  It’s nothing like the real thing.  Jaime is still listening to it on TV now.  Despite my wee snooze this afternoon, I’m beat and beddy byes is calling.  Good NIght.

Little Mices, Spies & Statues – 8 November 2016

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8 Nov

This morning after breakfast and while Scamp was off sunbathing, I wrote up yesterday’s blog in the cafe area just outside the Asian restaurant.  The sacrifices I make for you, my readers!  As I was finishing, the kids club had just started and the goofy member of the animacion team was trying to instil some discipline in his charges.  He started by suggesting they get something to drink some of them wanted juice, some wanted wine and some wanted beer.  Since all of them were under 12, and most were extremely precocious and noisy, this was a difficult task.  At first he told them they had to be “as quiet as little mices (sic)”.  This seemed to work for the younger ones, but it just made the older ones even noisier.  He then changed tack and told them they were to be spies and to hide in the shadows as they were not to be seen by anyone.  They were to make guns from their hands and creep down the corridor.  That seemed to satisfy everyone.  Once they’d gone, I packed up and went searching for Scamp.  When I rounded the first corner, I heard the command “Quiet!  Statues!” and all the little spies stood stock still in the shadow.  As I passed them I heard the leader say “You see.  He never even saw us!  Now we are going through the jungle area.”  The jungle area was an inside planted area open to the sky.  Probably a great place for spies to hone their skills.

After I found Scamp we set off for Puerto del Carmen to get Scamp a new charm for her bracelet, only Scamp had forgotten to wear her bracelet, so while she went for it, I did some sketching, much to the consternation of the oldies in the coffee place who thought I was casing the joint.  Maybe they thought I was one of the ‘spies’ especially because I was sitting very still, almost like a statue.  Scamp returned wearing the bracelet, I finished the sketch and normal life in the coffee place resumed.

Walked in to PdC and Scamp got her charm.  Got some photos of the scenic part of town and then headed back to the hotel.  Scamp had more sunbathing to finish and I went for a walk before dinner.

After dinner we listened to an awful guitarist playing and ‘singing’.  Even the barmen serving drinks seemed decidedly unimpressed with the noise coming from that area.  Who knew that John Lennon’s ‘Imagine’ could sound so bad.  Thankfully we’d arrived more than halfway through his set and he packed up and left.  Some of the hard of hearing shouted for an encore, but he wasn’t listening.  Thankfully.

Went and watched Goofy whipping the kids club into a frenzy as he dispensed certificates and medals with a large dollop of sarcasm that went right over the kids heads.  Reminded me of Robin Strong at school, many years ago.

The main entertainment for the night was a Magic Show.  Scamp rates ‘magic’ with ‘humour’, ie, Does Not Compute, so we were heading to the room when I was sure I could hear drums. We followed our ears and found a Samba Band practising across the road from the hotel in a concreted display area.  They were quite excellent and were a fitting end to the day.

Don’t Look Hazy, Just Don’t! – 29 August 2016

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29 AugWe decided at the weekend that we need to get out more. In the winter it’s ok to lie in bed longer than is good for us, but in these late summer days, we should be out getting some good fresh air into our lungs. With that in mind, we set ourselves the target of being out by 10am. Today we managed that, just!

Drove to the petrol station which was buzzing with police and ambulances, then got into an argument with a dumbo driving a tank, you know what I mean, great big gas guzzler and a tiny wee brain behind the wheel. There he was sitting looking smug, at least a metre away from the pumps while his wife filled the tank. I tried to park beside him, but it was an impossible situation, so I drove out and back in to a different pump, but not before mouthing to him “Prick!” While I was filling my own tank he came out of his pride and joy and said “Can I help you?” I smiled at him and said “Well, you can pay for my petrol if you want.” A smile and an unexpected reply usually baffles the dumbo. “Oh, I thought you needed something from me” he said after he had thought for a while. “Well, a bit of space would have been nice.” I said and walked away. This did not compute. CPU overload. Dumbo had to get back in the tank and plug his brain into the USB socket. I paid for the petrol and when I came back out, there he was again, brain freshly rebooted. “I don’t usually drive this car.” was his starting gambit, followed by “I wasn’t doing it to be ignorant. I had to do a very tight turn.” This is what always happens when you reboot a computer, it does random things. It looked like his CPU was still in the process of rebooting and was making his mouth spout rubbish. He should remember ‘Engage brain before opening mouth’. Not a big shouting match, but it started the day well, outwitting a dumbo. When we drove out he was still trying to remember how to start the tank. Then we saw the reason for the heavy police presence. A Post Office van had embedded itself in the wall of the garage!
We drove to Culross, parked in the carpark and walked along the coastal path in the general direction of Torryburn until we came to what on Google Maps on the phone looked like a path, but in reality was a pair of overgrown tractor ruts. We headed back and found another path that, according to Google again, would take us back to the main coastal path. It did, and was much more interesting from a photographic point of view. We sat for a while and watched the world and a few boats go by then walked back to the town, but called in at the Red Lion pub for lunch on the way. Lunch was a shared Chicken Salsa Wrap with Chips and a Salad and two cups of coffee. Oh, it was hot, and so was the weather. In Scotland we moan about the weather. If it’s cold we moan. If it’s hot we moan. If it’s windy we moan. If it’s not we moan. Never satisfied, that’s us. I got a few shots of the new pier and then we went home

Salsa tonight was interesting, fast and painful for me. My shoulder complained from start to finish, but we’re home now and I’m sitting upstairs in the front bedroom avoiding the Three Sisters below. There’s a mountain range up north called the Five Sisters of Kintail. This is the Three Sisters of Cumbernauld.

More journeyings tomorrow if the weather is good. If not, I may go a-hunting the Bramble! It’s that time of year.

Hobbiton – 14 August 2016

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14 AugAccording to the weather fairies last week, today was to be a beautiful day.  Yesterday they said that Sunday was to be a bit cloudy but with sunny intervals and Monday was to be a beautiful day.  Today was less than beautiful and there was a distinct lack of sunny intervals, and now the predictions are that Tuesday, not Monday will be a beautiful day.  It’s like “cake tomorrow, but never cake today.”  However, we struggle on with grey skies and the eternal prospect of good weather some day.

It was dry, not very windy and quite warm, so we went out for a walk.  Today’s choice of walk was around one of the paths at Chatelherault near Hamilton.  It’s a huge area with forest, grassland and interesting architecture.  The main building on the site is the former Hunting Lodge and Summer House for the Dukes of Hamilton and looks out over an avenue of trees which originally led down to Hamilton Palace which has now been demolished.  Behind Chatelherault is a large forested area of gigantic redwoods, pines and also some natural hardwoods.  The Avon Water runs through the estate and it was looking very fishable today with tea coloured water just running off a spate.

We left the car in the car park and headed for one of the shorter routes.  Shorter, but still quite demanding, especially to two walkers who will happily admit they are out of condition.  I think we need to visit the gym more than once a week to get back to a reasonable degree of physical fitness.  That said, it was an interesting walk.  Lots of ups and downs, muddy paths and demanding stairs to climb.  Perhaps it was because we were watching “The Hobbit” last night, but  the whole place had the feeling of the set for that film with thinning of the pines allowing the light to penetrate and made it much less gloomy than commercial woodland.  Unfortunately we didn’t see any hobbits.

There wasn’t much to photograph today, but it has potential if there is a bit more directional sunlight to play with.  I did manage to fake a shot of the frontage of Chatelherault with a bit of levels adjustment in Lightroom, then I pasted in a more interesting sky from one of yesterday’s shots.  The peas are two of the potentially five pods from our single pea plant.  I think I planted the other peas upside down and they are growing down the way.

Hoping against hope for cake tomorrow.

Open Heart Surgery – 17 July 2016

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17 JulyThe open-heart-surgery wasn’t on me, it was on my blog.  Or to be more exact, it was on my website architecture, but more of that later.

Not such a lazy start to the day, by which I mean that I was up and having breakfast just after 9am.  That’s early enough for me – on my holidays.  After that, Scamp and I went for a walk through the woodland path near the house.  Much better paths than back in Cumbersheugh.  The managed woodland is wedged between two halves of a golf course and is wild enough to feel as if you are miles from anywhere, but with the knowledge that you are only a mile at most from civilization.  I got a few photos, but on the way back, the battery on my ’10 packed in, so I swapped it out with the one in the ‘5 which is much more frugal with its energy.  When I got back to the house I found I’d lost the battery cover for the ‘5.  It’s the weakest part of the design of this camera and pivots on a flimsy plastic hinge, or doesn’t in this case.  I reckoned it was lying on the path somewhere and as it was black and the path was hard packed black dirt among trees, there was little chance of recovering it.  It was lost for good.  Duct tape would make a reasonable substitute when I got home, until then I need to be careful.

For ages, Hazy has been promising she’d help me organise my website to make it more simple to navigate.  Today we sat down and after backing everything up, we set about the open heart operation.  Actually, the backing up was the hardest part.  Once that was complete, the reorganising was pretty straight forward.  Straight forward, that is if you have someone who knows what they are doing sitting right next to you, not on the other end of a phone line, or worse still, someone who had been sitting in their room in California six months ago writing a blog post telling a numpty like me how to do it.  So, once again, thank you Hazy for not making a drama out of a crisis.  You are a gem, and you know it.

After that scary thing, Scamp and I drove out to Tolworth to get dinner.  This was another scary thing.  Here I was driving in London, well, in the outskirts of London, but driving with the rest of the lunatics.  My God, I thought I was impatient – I am impatient – but I have nothing on these folk that need to be everywhere, like, yesterday!  The only thing to do is to join them and be as mental as them.  Turn a rubber ear to all horns and turn your blind eye to the gesticulations.  Fire a few well chosen Scottish sweary words back at them.  They won’t understand the words, but they’ll get the gist.  I’d hate to drive through this every day going to and coming back from work.  I dare say you get used to it.

So, we reached M&S and got parked too.  Almost as soon as the engine had stopped a bloke came over and offered to wash my car for a fiver.  If I thought he could have removed the dried seagull crap from the back wing without steel wool, I’d have got him to do it!  I saved him the trouble by saying “Thanks, but it’s ok as it is.”  Had coffee after M&S to fire me up for the drive back, which incidentally was much more pleasant than the drive there.  Maybe I have joined the lunatic fringe.

Scamp had already stated her intention to go and sit in the sun in the garden for the remains of the afternoon, but that battery flap was still bugging me, so I set off to see what I could see.  I’d hardly walked for five minutes along the path when there it was!  By luck it had fallen with the chrome inside facing up and glinting in the sun, completely confounding the Centre of Gravity theory that states that bread always falls butter side down.  Too difficult to explain after a stressful day – Google it.  Happy now, my step was a lot lighter as I retraced my steps of this morning and walked the wild woodland again.  Saw a beautiful pale blue dragonfly, but it was too busy looking for another pale blue dragonfly to bother with the likes of me.

Dinner was Sea Bass en Papillote with new potatoes and broccoli.  Followed by Apple Crumble with cream.  Tonight’s film was the mystifying Now You See Me.  Third success from Hazy.

Tomorrow we may be going to Hampton Court … on the bus.  Enough driving excitement for me today.

Another hot day – 2 June 2016

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2 june bAnother sunny day although in the late afternoon and evening the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped significantly.

Back in the morning, I went to meet Fred and we had a couple of coffees while we set the world, the education system and some of our previous colleagues on a better path to success. If only people would listen to us …!

In the afternoon, Scamp and I went to Glasgow and it was almost uncomfortably hot in the car. I really must get the air-con fixed before we head south. I was going to get a bit more memory for the new tablet/laptop and a hard disk to back my photos to. I got myself another pair of shorts, because I do need them in this warm weather. Scamp talked herself into a new pair of sandals. We both had milk shakes in Nero, although mine was more of a cafe freddo. I’m going to start making cold coffee again in the jug Hazy got me. What I didn’t get was a hard drive or a chunk of memory.

Went for a quick walk over to St Mo’s later to get a PoD. Amazed to see that the adventure playground on the path to Condorrat had been completely dismantled and the ground levelled. It had been fenced off for a week or so, but I assumed that things would progress at the usual NLC speed. That meant I expected work to start after Christmas. There’s no indication of what, if anything, is to replace it. Surely not more houses?

It was fish suppers for dinner tonight and the strawberry vodka was delicious.

Of Books and Bookshops – 11 May 2016

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comboA few years ago I bought a Kindle. Scamp thought I was mad. Then I bought her a Kindle and she realised the potential of this little slab of plastic and ‘tronics. Since then we’ve both had an on/off relationship with e-readers. Mostly on. I like the instant result from downloading a book. I like being able to carry a dozen books around with me on my slate. I like being able to read late at night by my illuminated screen without disturbing anyone. I like the novelty of having an on-board dictionary where I can discover, not only the meaning of a word, but also its derivation. We don’t have a bookshop in the town and I have to travel in to Glasgow or Stirling to peruse bookshelves. I could go to the library, but somehow that’s not as satisfying as handling and owning a new book, maybe it’s the owning part that’s the most important. If I didn’t have the money, I’d have to rely on our local library and maybe I should use it more, because if I don’t use it I could lose it, but mostly I’m sold on digital downloads.

Sometimes I deliberately buy a book, a physical book, just because I like the weight of it in my hand, or the tactile feel of turning a paper page, rather than the pretence of stroking a screen. Or sometimes, especially with a newly published book it’s actually cheaper to buy a book than a digital download. I have on occasion bought a non-fiction download, but I’ve never been totally satisfied with them even if I can search through them much more easily than with the printed article. There’s a place for books and equally there’s a place for Kindles.

I was thinking about this today when we were in Waterstones in Glasgow. I saw their Book of the Month and thought it looked interesting, then said to myself “I’ll add that to my Book LIst”. However, although I added it to the list I’ve got on my phone, I mentally added it to a paper book list, not an e-book list or just a must read list. Maybe some books are better read in printed form rather than electronically. For my birthday, Hazy gave me two paperback books and Scamp gave me a book token. Maybe that’s what’s reawakened my interest in printed media. I know I’ll probably take my Kindle on holiday with me, but I might just take a book too.

After we came back from Glasgow Scamp got settled in her chair at the front door. I took the shot of the disintegrating tulip. Tulips have no shame. They quite blatantly display their naughty parts for public gaze. With at least one decent photo in the bag, I got the bike rack out and took the bike down to Auchinstarry then cycled along the canal to Kirkintilloch. The only real reason anyone would go to Kirky is for the exercise of cycling along the canal tow path. Other than that, it has little to recommend it. On the way I saw the little pink blossom with its translucent green leaves beside the canal.  Also, saw my first damselfly of the year.  Not the best photo, but it was down in an overflow channel from the canal and I wasn’t going to go down to get a better shot. Turned at Kirky and came back, knowing that I’d be heading into that same east wind from yesterday and the day before. It was heavy going for a while, but quite exhilarating too. Got back and joined Scamp for a relaxing hour in the sun before dinner.

Another beautiful day. More of the same tomorrow? Yes please!

Pimms Time – 10 May 2016

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ComboScamp had an appointment with the osteopath this morning, so I took the opportunity to grab some shots of the foliage and flowers in the back garden.  As the sun was good and warm, I scouted round to find a sheltered spot for a seat in the sun because you have to make the most of these sunny days.  The back garden wasn’t an option as there was a strong wind blowing along all the gardens in the block, so I parked myself at the front door and got stuck into my latest book – The Bone Clocks.

When Scamp came back she announced that we should go to Dobbies to use up her birthday cream tea voucher.  There was a sting in the tail of course.  She wanted ‘somebody’ to haul a bag of potting compost into the boot of her car.  I didn’t mind, and the cream teas were lovely.

When we got back, I planted out some Tesco mint that was getting a bit pale and leggy on the kitchen windowsill and also sowed some basil seeds I’d got at Dobbies.

Basically that’s all the work I did today, apart from driving a staple into my thumb as I was fixing the lining to Scamp’s sweet pea box.  Later in the afternoon, Scamp declared that it was Pimms O’ Clock.  Me?  I had mint tea – a mix of peppermint and spearmint, fresh from the garden.

I got an email from Alex tonight reminding me that it was 16 years yesterday since Susan died and so today was my dad’s anniversary.  Where did all those years go?

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ComboToday we had to drop Scamp’s car off at the garage by 8.30am. This meant a much earlier rise than normal, but we managed it and got the car dropped off in time. Even then, almost all the parking spaces were taken, mainly because of poor parking skills by the garage’s clients. Some people are so impressed that they have reverse parked, they don’t seem to notice that they are not actually in a bay or maybe they think that white line is a target and you’re supposed to get a wheel either side of it. The parking was so bad that a couple of the mechanics were gainfully employed parking the cars neatly and so releasing a couple more spaces. Scamp parked very neatly, showing all these dobbers how it should be done. Don’t understand ‘dobbers’? No, it’s not an Australian word, much ruder than that. Google it.

Because we were out early, we had intended having breakfast out, but with the exception of Tesco and Asda, there was nowhere in Cumbersheugh where we could have breakfast. Buckfast, yes, Breakfast, no. And there was no way I was having breakfast in either of the supermarkets with school doggers (Don’t Google it!!) sitting at the next table. So we came back home for a normal breakfast.

Later in the morning the gas salesman phoned to say he was running ahead of schedule and could he come early. No problem, that left us more time in the afternoon. Yesterday we had a sales lady. Today we got a gas engineer. Someone who could answer our questions without spin or waffle. Of course there was still spin, there always will be when people are trying to sell something, but not as much as there could have been. No quote yet, but it should be posted to us tomorrow. We thought that was the end of the quotes, but I bumped into Fred P this morning and he’s going to give me the number for the guy who installed his boiler and a personal recommendation is always the best way to get a good workman. The road goes ever on.

Since we didn’t manage to get breakfast out this morning, we did lunch out instead. We went to Milano and I had a tuna pizza which wasn’t all that great. First failure for Milano. Scamp had a gigantic Chicken Burger. Absolutely enormous. She finished it!

Went for a walk to St Mo’s later in the afternoon and despite an unspoken embargo on ‘Flooers’ as a subject today, the first shots I took were flooers. But you see, they aren’t flooers, they’re blossom, so that’s ok! My photo, my rules. The wireless shutter release on the ’10 is so good for taking ground level shots. No more lying on the ground, picking up mud, twigs and the occasional sheep tick. Jut remember to charge your iPhone and remember to take it with you! That’s how the monochrome shot was taken. The green blobs are fruiting bodies of mosses. I’m not sure what species of moss it is, but it was the safest shot to take today because mosses don’t have flooers. Just fruiting bodies called ‘capsules’. There, you and I have learned something new today!

Coffee with Fred P and Val tomorrow. Three auld guys putting the world to rights.