A Busy Morning – 19 May 2023

Bags to pack, Cards to post, Sketches to do and Photos to take

Strangely for me, all the above were achieved in a morning!

This afternoon we drove up to Perth to the old dilapidated Salutation Hotel which started taking paying guests in the year 1699 and is still taking guests to this day. Inside it’s an overheated maze with a wheezy old lift that struggles to carry folk up to the third floor and that’s where we were going. We had a corner room, not open, airy outside corner room, but a tight oddly shaped internal corner with a view into a compactor where the day’s rubbish and all sorts was compressed in a skip. Delightful. I won’t mention the shower which wasn’t so much a shower as a warm drizzle. There, I said I wasn’t going to mention it, but I did. I will not speak of it again.

We had plenty of time for a walk round Perth which was looking at its best today. An almost totally calm and still River Tay gave perfect reflections and one of them became PoD. We walked through the park beside the river on a beautiful spring day. On the way back Scamp went browsing in M&S and found what might have been a new dress, only to discover when we returned to the room that it was the wrong size and would need to go back tomorrow.

Dinner tonight was served in the breakfast room. Last November it had been a slightly shambolic buffet in the ballroom. Today’s was a better arrangement and the food was ok, just ok. Dancing started around 7.30pm and continued until midnight, but we had had enough by 11.30. One of the good things about having the dance in an old hotel is that the walls and floor seem to be a lot thicker and sound deadening than in newer establishments. In our room there was not a whisper coming from Stewart’s sound system, or maybe we were just so tired by then that we didn’t notice.

The prompt today asked for Sports Equipment.
I’m not really a sporting person these days. Maybe a couple of days cycling a year but nothing more energetic. There was a time I liked a game of badminton, but that was many years ago. I almost reached the point of the owner of this racket, but not quite.

More dancing, much more dancing planned for tomorrow night, plus the dreaded Joy’s Waltz with its Overturned Spin Turn.

Was that summer? – 13 May 2023

A quite beautiful day of sunshine.

We drove to Brookside in the morning through the 40mph zone that wasn’t quite as bad as last week, although some folk were mistaking 40mph with 20mph, it seemed. We got to the class just in time. Just four couples including a decidedly pregnant Jasmine who, with her partner made light work of just about everything.

Started off with a couple of Mayfair Quickstep tracks to warm us up. The hall had a curtained off section today for some undisclosed reason, so we were dancing on what was virtually a square. After that, and after an explanation for those who hadn’t been there last week, the teachers launched into Joy’s Waltz. I thought we’d found a sneaky shortcut to get us through the Overturned Spin Turn, but was quickly shot down in flames by Jane who explained that although it did speed up the OST, it meant that when we came out of it we’d find our feet were tangled. Back to the drawing board then! I still can’t get the hang of the OST and I think I’ll resort to Scamp’s suggestion that we just fake that step and concentrate on getting the rest working.

Next we did the Sweetheart Cha-Cha with a few new adaptations just to make it more difficult, I think. Most of that went quite smoothly, even the new steps that they’d squeezed in. Thankfully Jasmine had filmed the new improved Sweetheart Cha-Cha and posted it to the group tonight.

Final dance steps were the Jive with American Spins, Alternative Stop & Go and Cha-Cha Walks. These words mean very little to me and will be forgotten by the time I finish the blog!

One last wee sequence dance, Rumba One to finish and that was us released to face the traffic going home. Overall, it was a good class, although the lady that Scamp has named Mrs Posh was being a bit of a know-all.

The drive home was easier than I expected, possibly because everyone was going to the seaside today to make the most of the sunshine. We just drove home and after lunch we worked in the garden. Scamp was chopping up a dying azalea and I was concentrating on potting up my sunflower seedlings and the wee rosemary bush we bought about a month ago.

I’d just finished doing my gardening and was putting the compost away when I felt a familiar sting on the back of my leg. I’d picked up a tick somewhere, possibly yesterday. First this year. Let’s hope it’s the last.

Dinner was a roast chicken and salad with a bottle of Prosecco to brighten it up even more.

PoD went to a purple aquilegia flower in the front garden.

Today’s prompt was An Elephant.
We don’t get many elephants roaming the hills in Scotland, and the only ones I’d photographed were either made from cast iron or paintings on billboards. However, Mr Google kindly supplied me with a model that fitted neatly on my A5 page.

I think the sky is clouding over as I write this and we’re expecting rain tomorrow. Let’s hope today wasn’t Summer! The weather will determine what we do tomorrow.

Curry – 12 May 2023

Yesterday Scamp suggested Hamilton for lunch in the Bombay Cottage in Hamilton.

Scamp was out at FitSteps in the morning and I thought I’d spend that hour and a bit sketching today’s prompt which was “Your house or the neighbour’s house.” Surprisingly I got it finished just as she was coming through the front door. One tick in a box.

We drove to Hamilton and got parked fairly easily although the carpark was busy. Again we forgot that some people have to work all week and like to go in to town on the weekends. We used to be in that crowd, but thankfully we’ve seen the error of our ways and go midweek now. Food was just as good as usual, and the portions too, but really it’s the naan bread that makes us come back again and again. No chopped up dried out naan here. It’s light as a feather at one end and soft and pillowy at the other. Oh yes, and enormous!

After we’d had our three courses we paid and left, then drove down to the retail park. Scamp went and investigated the Home Bargains and Aldi while I walked over to what used to be the town square, but is now a building site, an untidy building site. I got the photo I wanted of the wee dog sitting on a seat, a statue by Shona Kinloch. That eventually made PoD. I also grabbed some shots of “The man with the rope” which is on Flickr now. Somebody decided he would look better with a traffic cone on his head, obviously not realising that joke had been done already a thousand times in Glasgow.

I walked back and found Scamp filling her basket in Aldi. We do have an Aldi in Cumbersheugh but we rarely visit it because it’s a shambles of a shop. Everything everywhere with nobody checking stock. At least it doesn’t smell so bad now as it did when it first opened and they didn’t realise they had to clean it every so often.

Drove home and the sun was shining brightly, but we didn’t sit out because it wasn’t really that warm. Cool breeze was blowing from the east and that’s never a good direction.

We did have a half hour practise of Joy’s Waltz. Once we got past the tricky “Overturned Turn”, the remainder of the waltz is quite doable. At least it was tonight. Whether it will continue in that vein tomorrow is still to be seen.

Tomorrow we are hoping to go to dance class in the morning and the rest of the day is set fine, according to the weather fairies.

Panic! – 11 May 2023

How helpless are we without a phone.

The day started well, sun shining in the window and the garden looking good. The Shooting Stars were enjoying the sun and I thought I might just catch a few shots of them before we headed off to Paisley. A quick lunch and we were off to Glenburn for the first tea dance in was seemed like months.

This was a displaced tea dance. It should have been last week, but for various reasons it had to be moved to this week. Whether because the change of date didn’t work for some folk or because everyone was confused, there weren’t many of the regulars there. We did get up for a few dances, even struggled through a Quickstep. Almost managed to make the Foxtrot work for us too. It wasn’t the same though with too few folk on the floor.

This extra dance was also a celebration of the Coronation and Stewart & Jane had put up bunting, had hot sausage rolls and extra cakes at tea time and generally put a fair bit of effort into making it a success.

We left a bit later than our usual 3pm because there were a couple of sequence dances Scamp wanted to walk through, then we were on our way home by the long way along the M74. Longer in miles, but much quicker in the long run. Also no stop go going over the Kingston Bridge.

When we got home I thought it might be a good idea to go over to St Mo’s to get something to add to the shooting stars I’d taken in the morning. The sun was still shining and everything looked fine, but apart from startling two deer in the woods, there was little to interest me and I walked home. I heard a strange engine note from a plane as I was walking back and checking with Flight Radar I found it was a Pilatus PC 12, a turbo prop which would explain the high pitched note.

Back home I had a seat in the garden with a beer while Scamp put the finishing touches to the dinner which was chicken with new potatoes, tomatoes and peppers. She was disappointed because the chicken was a bit dry. I did think we might have had our dinner outside, but it was getting cool by then, so we ate inside.

I was just getting ready to start the sketch for today’s prompt when I realised I hadn’t seen my phone. It wasn’t in my pocket, nor was it anywhere in the house as far as I could see. I decided to retrace my steps and see if I could find it before it got dark. I walked over to St Mo’s going by the paths I’d taken. I knew that the last time I’d used the phone was when I was checking the PC12 and I knew exactly where I’d stood to do that, and that was where I found the phone, lying face up in the grass with a little slug giving it the once over. Black phone in a black case in the gathering gloom. It could have gone completely unnoticed. Oh lucky man! I phoned Scamp and told her the hunt was over.

The prompt asked for a Lighthouse today.
After rifling through my photos for an interesting subject I came upon a photo I’d taken back in 2008 of Neist Point Lighthouse on the Isle of Skye. It’s not the typical shape for a lighthouse, but it was interesting enough to draw. A bit squint perhaps, but that’s ok.

Tomorrow we may be going to Hamilton for a lunchtime curry.

Driving the 40mph motorway – 6 May 2023

That motorway is the M8. No sooner is one set of repairs finished than another set are announced. It seems that we drive more miles at 40mph than we drive at 70mph. PITA.

Yes, we were off to Brookfield this morning for the first dance class after a three week lie up. I thought the Charnwood Cha-Cha would be the end of me. It’s not good to spring things like that on us without warning, or access to a defibrillator. The only thing I can say is WOW, that was hard work. Thankfully we knew all of the steps and I had a rough idea of the order they should be danced in.

Next was a new one, a waltz this time and we both think we were guinea pigs here to see how quickly we’d pick it up. Not that easy was my answer. Thankfully we both filmed it so we could watch it at home and work out what was being described in the walk-through. The Charnwood was a workout for the body. Joy’s Waltz (named for a friend of Jane’s who died in January) was a workout for the brain. Eventually we got the hang of the first three sequences and after watching the videos this afternoon we’ve got an even better idea of the bits we’ve never done before.

The final workout was another quite fast one, a Jive routine this time. It had a few routines we have picked up along the way in the last few years from different teachers, so it wasn’t totally alien to us, and not so fast that we were too exhausted to fit in the final sequence dance of the hour and a half, a Mayfair Quickstep. Just a fairly easy dance to ease us down to drive through the 40mph zones again on the other side of the road.

Back home we had lunch and watched the pageantry unfold in London. I took myself off for most of it as I’d a sketch to complete for EDiM. I was doodling a sketch on a bit of backing paper and the picture came to me. It was a highland cow, but there was too much rubbish on the paper and I knew I’d need to redraw it, so I left the rough there and went to get a photo for today. As I was walking over towards Condorrat, I noticed a snail tucked into a corner of a fence and knew that was the PoD. Of the three photos I took, the one you see here is my favourite. I also got a shot of the inside of a dandelion puff ball. It’s like the highland cow in that it’s not the finished article, but it’s worth another try, possibly in an inside setting with a camera on a tripod. We’ll see.

When I got home, Scamp was whizzing through the recording of the actual Coronation. It is one mighty big and complex piece of organisation. How they worked out how to get all those people into the cathedral and how they covered the lawn of the palace with the thousands of army, navy, airforce personnel from almost every country was astounding. I wasn’t really all that interested in it, I was waiting for Zadok The Priest to be sung. When it was, it was a little disappointing. Scamp said it was too fast and I thought it was lacking in power. Had we been conducting, heads would have rolled.

Dinner was from Golden Bowl. Scamp had her usual Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice. I had a treat that I knew I’d suffer for later and had Sweet and Sour Pork Balls and Fried Rice. I did suffer for it, but it was worth it. Pure decadence.

I redrew the Highland Cow and it does look better than the original. I’m happy with it and Scamp laughed out loud when she saw it. That was enough of a stamp of approval for me.

We have no plans as yet for tomorrow and there have been no street parties in and around Cumbersheugh, I’m glad to say, so not many sore heads tomorrow morning. Well no more than usual!

Dancin’, and more Dancin’ – 1 April 2023

Learning in the morning. Putting it to use in the evening.

Drove to Brookfield in the morning and we started with Charnwood Cha Cha then the Foxtrot and finishing with the Quickstep that we’d been practising all week … except, they weren’t interested in what we’d been practising, they only wanted to add in extra steps. We just ignored the new steps and concentrated on trying to get the ‘basic’ quickstep danced properly in a ballroom situation. There were, of course, a collection of sequence dances to leaven the more demanding ballroom dances.

We drove home through a much quieter motorway than last week and were back home in a little over forty minutes.

We talked about whether we’d go to the evening dance or not. I wasn’t keen. Driving the M8 twice on the same day didn’t appeal to me, and sometimes the evening dances are a bit dull, but it’s not only about me, and although Scamp said she didn’t think we should go, I knew she was only doing it for me. So, eventually I convinced her we agreed to go. And we had a great time. We joined Peter & Gillian, Barry & Cath, plus Cath’s sister. We danced most to the dances. I wasn’t perfect, but then I never am, so nothing new there. We laughed with the crowd at the table which you can’t avoid doing with Barry and Peter. The main thing was we enjoyed the company, the music and the dances.

The hall will be closed from tomorrow for a week at least, probably more because the floor needs repaired and re-varnished. Then the teachers are off working on a cruise ship for two and a bit weeks. So this would be the last dance until May! How quickly the year goes round.

Drove home along a very quiet M8 and we both had a little nightcap before turning on Sunday morning. So this is another catch-up. PoD was a LensBaby shot of Forsythia in the garden, because it was a bit too cool in my opinion.

Later on Sunday we intend to watch the Australian GP and do very little else.

The last day in March – 31 March 2023

And so March draws to a close with another dull, cold day.

Scamp went out to FitSteps in the morning and I didn’t do all that much. Come to think of it we didn’t do much in the afternoon either! After some discussion we opted to go to Tesco for our shopping. We could have gone to Waitrose in Stirling, but it seemed pointless to travel the extra distance for a slightly wider choice of groceries and since neither of us was all that bothered, we chose the closer to home option. You know it makes sense!

Back home we had a late lunch and then with Scamp settled on the sofa, I put my old Bergy jacket on and took the A7 with the 50mm macro out to see what I could find in St Mo’s. A little Salmonberry flower caught my eye and its image was promptly sucked into the camera and on to the SD card. I got some gritty looking lichen photos too and they got even more grungy in Lightroom. Both images are now on Flickr, but the Salmonberry flower got PoD.

We’d got a Charlie Bigham curry & rice from Tesco in the afternoon and that became tonight’s dinner. Spicy without being too hot, it was bolstered by some home made flatbreads which went well with it. We ate it while watching Series 1 – Episode 1 of Death in Paradise on iPlayer. Neither of us could remember watching this episode, but it was head and shoulders better than the drivel that’s being foisted on us these days in Series 10. Plus, the music is so much better in the original.

Another practise of the quickstep for tomorrow’s class and that was the day done, well, almost done, because the blog isn’t finished yet.

Tomorrow is Dancing Day. Class in the morning, back home for lunch and maybe dinner then out again to the monthly dance. Ok, that’s it done now. The blog is finished.

A day in the Toon – 30 March 2023

Meeting my brother for a walk, some photos, a spot of lunch and a blether.

His choice was Glasgow and my choice was Glasgow too today. However, his idea was a walk round what we could call the City Centre, while I wanted to head out to the west in search of interesting architecture. We combined the two with a walk round the city centre photographing interesting architecture. First though we had the traditional coffee in Nero and caught up on what was happening in both families.

With the updates done we headed off down Buchanan Street to get some photos of the subway entrance on Buchanan Street itself. It has a lovely green glass cover over the entrance, although you don’t really see the green tinge unless the sun is shining like it was today. From there we ignored all the retail opportunities on either side and Alex took some shots of the other, completely different, entrance to St Enoch’s subway station. It’s a futuristic domed glass cover, not at all like Buchanan Street’s green glass box.

Two in the bag for Alex. Next we walked east along Argyle Street which used to be a fashionable street for clothes, but is now a bit down at heel with more and more shops with closed signs on the windows and doors. A sign of the times perhaps. We were looking for cranes. Big, gigantic tower cranes. They were right at the end of Argyle Street. I could see what I wanted to photograph, but if I stood on one side, signs and traffic lights were obstructing my view and if I stood on the other side it was the old sandstone buildings that were in my way. The only way to solve it was to wait until the green man appeared and stand halfway across the road. Bingo, three shots taken before the lights changed! Of course, we both took a lot more than that, but they were only fillers. The ones from the middle of the road were the money shots.

We walked round and had a cursory glance at Merchant City Cameras which will forever be Quiggs. It’s not been the same since Mr Quigg’s son sold the shop. I think the present owners are struggling to keep it afloat. Not surprising as it’s only enthusiasts who are buying cameras when mobile phones do such a good job of capturing the moment.

We walked back to Miller Street to Paesano. The real reason Alex wanted to come to Glasgow. Best pizzas in town. Only bettered occasionally by the West End shop of the same name. We must try that one the next time we’re out west.

Next target was the GOMA in Queen Street. That’s where today’s PoD came from. I just liked the relaxed way that bloke was sitting there.

Our final jaunt was down the Clyde Walkway to admire the graffiti. I also grabbed some shots of the mirror glass frontage of the Archdiocese of Glasgow building which stands next to the much older St Andrew’s Cathedral.

From there it was the long plod up to Buchanan Street bus station, a quick hug and then off home on our respective buses.

Back home Scamp had retained the last of the Just Soup and that became dinner. We had a first run through of the new Quickstep routine and, as Scamp had told me, it wasn’t nearly as fearsome as I’d imagined. Another practise tomorrow if all goes well and we should be fit for Saturday.

No great plans for tomorrow, although Scamp fancies going to her FitSteps class. Having just completed over 16,500 steps today, I’ll pass on that class.

Recovery – 25 March 2023

A day to recover from yesterday’s excesses.

Yes, a day to recover from yesterday’s excesses, and also to recover from the morning’s dance class!

Drove through a fair bit of traffic this morning to get to Brookfield for today’s class. It started with a couple of easy sequence dances then it was into the Foxtrot. Suddenly my mind went blank. Thankfully Scamp was there to whisper the count and the next steps that were coming up. Stumbled through it without too much trouble, but I wouldn’t call it elegant. On Strictly it looks so smooth and classy. That’s all a con. It takes a lot of skill to get to that stage. Well, it takes me a long time to get to that stage.

Next another sequence dance to get our confidence back and to clear the Slow Foxtrot out of our heads, because next up was Jive. Scamp has been working at the jive steps and the different moves that make them up. She has this ability to remember sequences of moves and fit them together in the correct timing. I have difficulty remembering g the moves themselves. The jive we’re doing now seems to bear very little resemblance to what Michael taught. The footwork is different, the hand and arm choreography is also different. I made a mess of it and I know it. I can only apologise to Scamp because I feel I’m wasting her time. It will get better, I know that, but it doesn’t come easy to me.

Worse was yet to come, because next was Quickstep and I was ready for it … except this was a different quickstep routine. Not the one we’d worked on for months and had it almost perfect. This one had Fishtails in it. It took me months to master fishtails with Michael, but I must remember that Stewart & Jane are much better teachers that Michael & AnneMarie. We danced our almost perfect quickstep instead of the new one. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.

The drive home was a nightmare. Juggling with lane changes to find the best route through the traffic. In the end we weren’t all that much later than a normal Saturday, but it felt like we were.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s in the afternoon, taking the A7 with the LensBaby and an old Zenit lens, a Helios 44. The results were better than I anticipated. It’s weird working with a totally manual lens like the Helios. PoD was a shot taken with the LensBaby of a whin bush.

I finally went not the chat line for my internet provider and the person on the other end talked me through the installation of the SSL. Thankfully that should be me sorted until next year, all being well.

Dinner tonight was roast chicken and roast veg. Very nice indeed. I really enjoyed it.

We have no plans for tomorrow yet.

Dancin’ – 23 March 2023

We went dancin’ today.

Drove through torrential rain to get to the wee hall in the south of Paisley.

There was a good mix of music, as usual and dancing started as usual, with a Waltz. Actually we did quite well with it. I don’t know why, perhaps it was because we were relaxed and weren’t out to prove anything. Of course I made mistakes, but not too many. We danced a few sequence dances, it took me a while to get to grips with a couple of the less common ones, but Scamp was there whispering the next steps. We danced a Social Foxtrot a Cha-Cha a Line Dance and a couple of Quicksteps. We also managed to dance the quickstep for almost a full track.

As usual, we left fairly early, just after 3pm and it was an easy run home, taking the longer but easier M74 option. So nice to always be moving from entering the M77 to leaving the M73.

I dropped Scamp off and then drove to Tesco to try to get grapefruit for Scamp and get petrol for the blue car. I didn’t get the grapefruit and I was driving out of Tesco when I realised that I hadn’t got the petrol. Parking is getting tight again in our street and it was good to park the car and then get my camera and go for a walk. I walked round St Mo’s and took some boring shots of a fence post with nails hammered into it. Then I crossed the road and found out that M&S didn’t have grapefruit either. Luckily Aldi did and I got two then walked back home in the gathering gloom. That’s where I saw the daffodils. They made such a bright spot in a, now, dull day. It wasn’t until I started processing them that I noticed the amount of grit and dust on them. That’s what you get when you try to grow flowers beside a busy road.

We may go for lunch tomorrow.