Category: Dancing

Dancin’ – 14 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Out for the first dance class of 2023.

It was an interesting drive out to Brookfield. We left Cumbersheugh in brilliant sunshine, but by the time we’d reached the outskirts of Glasgow it was obvious that wasn’t going to last. It wasn’t until we were almost at the airport that the heavens opened and we drove through rain all the way to the bowling club where our dance class was waiting.

We started with the Quickstep and we were both glad that we weren’t going to be learning a new dance. We really needed pointers on the ‘back end’ of the dance. There were a lot of things we weren’t sure of at the end of the routine. Thankfully the teachers were careful to show us ‘easy’ ways out of the tangle we found ourselves in, and by the end of almost an hour we were well on our way to completing this, our favourite dance of the moment.

Next a simple wee sequence dance then we were in to the Slow Foxtrot. That was another of our recent stumbling blocks and the word ‘Stumbling’ is not there by accident. We both did a fair bit of ‘stumbling’ on Thursday. Some of those problems got ironed out today, some are waiting to trip up the unwary! Another couple of sequence dances finished off a very useful morning.

The traffic was quite heavy driving home, but the nearer we got to Glasgow, the thinner the traffic became and I thought I’d risk taking the M74/M73 route which turned out to be a good decision. Almost no spaces in any of the car parks around the house. It later became clear that someone across from us was having a celebration of some kind and that explained the amount of cars. I found a space a fair bit away from the house and when a vacancy appeared nearer the house I drove down.

I did get out for a photo later in the afternoon and the best one was a shot of an old bunch of hawthorns growing on a wizened old tree in St Mo’s. That got PoD.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Bombay Dreams. Pakora was the best I’ve had from there. My main was too greasy and lacked salt. I’ll fix that tomorrow hopefully. Scamp said her’s was much better than usual. You just can’t please all of the people all of the time.

I finally got round to writing to Alex and sending him some of my photos. I could hardly believe how long it’s been since we did a photo exchange. Nearly a month! Weather, Poor light and generally feeling Yuk were all contributing factors. Hopefully we are on the up and up now.

No plans for tomorrow yet.

Dancin’ … badly – 12 January 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today was the first Tea Dance of the year.

It was raining when we woke, which wasn’t surprising because it had been raining all night after a beautifully clear day yesterday. When I was opening the curtains this morning I was drawn to the distortion caused by raindrops running down the window. I thought the two geranium plants made a good foreground and trusting my new phone, I took some shots as ‘bankers’, just in case I didn’t get a chance to get some with my ‘real’ camera. That was a good move, as it turned out, because the rain just kept coming all day.

By midday we were almost ready to drive to Glenburn, south of Paisley for the tea dance. A much smaller group than normal today which was a double edged sword. More room to practise the moves we had sort of forgotten, but on the other hand, nowhere to hide when we made mistakes, and we did make mistakes, both of us. I was the worst though, I’ll admit it. Even dancing the two simple waltzes we know I still managed to make a load of mistakes. Sequence dances I could handle, but it’s the repetition that cements the steps and of course the ‘sequence’ of those steps. The other plus for sequence dances is that they are danced in a circle, so most of the time there’s someone in front of you to watch and learn from. Waltz, Foxtrot and Quickstep are a different kettle of fish. You’re out on a limb with them. If you do find yourself making mistakes or if you lose the sequence of the steps, your partner is going to give you THAT STARE! I know, I’ve been there. Having said all that, we had a great time. Almost two hours of dancing that passed in a flash. We sat with Barry and Cath and the conversation was good.

Drove home through more lashing rain and went the ‘long way’ down the M74 and the M73 and continued on to Tesco to post a birthday card to one of Scamp’s pals and get some Thursday stuff. You know what I mean. Thursday is still ‘Prize day’.

Dinner was a fall back, Fish Fingers, Egg and Spaghetti (it has to be tinned spaghetti). The fish fingers went between two pieces of butter bread and became a Fish Finger Sandwich. Delicious.

Remember those photos I took in the morning? One of them became PoD. I’d shot them in RAW format. Very few phone cameras will record in RAW which is an uncompressed, unprocessed, literally raw image file. Usually it takes up a lot more space in the phone’s memory, but the excellent quality makes up for that. I dumped them into Lightroom and after half an hour of tweaking it looked presentable, so that’s what you see here.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Scamp’s intending to go out to FitSteps class in the morning and I’m hoping to start by making the dough for the night’s bread. John & Marion are coming to dinner. First time they’ve been here for ages. Looking forward to it.

Snow, Sleet and Rain – 27 December 2022

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That’s the short list of our weather today in chronological order.

It was obvious when the snow started that we weren’t going to get that walk today. What we did do instead was rearrange the kitchen and some of the cupboards. We were trying to make space for New Stuff and also use it as an excuse to get rid of old stuff. However, it was unlikely that the council skips would be open today, because today was a Substitute Bank Holiday for Christmas Day. Does that mean that Christmas Day gets a holiday to itself today? I don’t know, but as it came up only on my Samsung calendar, I’m not going to lose any sleep over it. Anyway, I collected some unused or broken small electrical items and they are now sitting in an IKEA bag in the back bedroom. I’m hoping to take them away later in the week.

I did make a loaf in the morning, but it didn’t turn out very well. Oven too low? Yeast too old? I’m not sure, but we’ll try toasting it tomorrow and if that doesn’t improve it, the remainder goes in the bin. I also braved the rain and took some photos in the garden. Abstract images for a change. Today’s PoD is a macro shot of the pea netting after it’s been messed about with in various apps!

It really was a dull day today. It started getting dark just after midday, but to keep our minds off it, Scamp launched into her ‘tidy the kitchen’ project. I’m sure it’s something to do with New Year. My mum, and her mum too were fanatical about having the house tidy for New Year. It was considered bad luck to allow the new year in to a dirty or untidy house. I’m sure it’s in the Scottish genes to continue this tradition. My part in the process was cleaning the extractor fan filter above the cooker. It’s a filthy job and it took me quite a while to get it looking decent and a new filter fitted. It’s done now, but I reckon it may need checked in about six months.

In the evening, we watched the first two episodes of The Crow Road, a Scottish mystery drama by Iain Banks from 1996. It was strange seeing these younger versions of folk who have aged a bit since it was filmed and also remember some who are no longer with us. Hoping to watch the final two episodes on iPlayer tomorrow.

That was a dull day but we got stuff done. We also had a practise at the Quickstep and Foxtrot, just to keep them fresh in our heads.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk, but it all depends on the weather.

 

A distinct quiet – 16 December 2022

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There was a distinct quiet about when I woke, almost as if everything was muffled. That probably meant it was snowing or it had snowed during the night.

I took a look outside and indeed, everything was white. Cars, road, trees and paths, everything. It wasn’t actually snowing at the time, but it definitely had been. One poor bloke was clearing his dark red car and getting ready for the morning commute. However, as it was about 6.50 in the am, I went back to bed and slept for another couple of hours before getting up to make breakfast. You can’t rush these things.

When I looked out a two hours later there were only two sets of footprints showing on our path. It must have been Wullie who lives at the corner and works odd hours. Nobody else had moved their cars and the space left by the dark red car was now covered in snow, so there had been another fall of the white stuff when I wasn’t watching. The temperature was a remarkable 0.3ºc when I was making the breakfast, a POSITIVE 0.3ºc. It felt like it had been weeks since the temperature had been above zero, but it was only a few days.

After breakfast I wrote my remaining cards and, dressed for the weather, I walked over to Condorrat to post them. I was hoping against hope that they would arrive on someone’s mat before new year, but I wasn’t confident about their chances.

On my way to Condorrat I took a photo of some leaves that would turn out to be the PoD. Just some warm brown leaves in a bunch without any frost or snow on them, but surrounded by lots of raindrops on the branches, in fact there was a very fine drizzle in the air. On my way back home I took a detour round St Mo’s pond, bit couldn’t see anything that would compete with the leaves. No directional light, you see. You really need directional light to give you shadows and form, to take away the two dimensional look of a photo.

Lunch was a bowl of Slimmers Soup. I don’t know if it is actually slimming, but the recipe came from Slimmers World via June and it’s quick to make and is just what you need when you’ve been out chilled in the snowy wastes. Scamp made it and it always tastes good.

We had already cancelled a dinner date with John and Marion for today because of the weather. Today we got a message to say that dance class tomorrow is also cancelled. One of the teachers is suffering from a cold or flu and doesn’t want to pass on her ‘Lurgy’. That’s a pity, but better safe than sorry in this weather.

Dinner tonight is Salmon fillet and potatoes for Scamp and a tub of stew Scamp discovered in the freezer. Both went down well. A wee glass of wine helped them on their way.

It’s been raining on and off all day and the temperature has been rising. We’re now up to 3.4ºc and the snow is finally receding. No real plans for tomorrow, but we’re hoping to get out somewhere if the roads are still clear.

Dancin’ times two – 10 December 2022

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I think the wee car thought we’d gone mad today.

We drove in to Brookfield this morning. It was snowing a bit when we left the house. Not heavy snowfall, but those light fluffy snowflakes that always make you think there is more to come. It didn’t happen though, in fact by the time we reached Glasgow it had stopped and the temperature was rising. Then it changed as we got to Brookfield and we had to navigate an icy car park.

Inside and after the warm-up sequence dance, it was into the Quickstep which were are definitely getting to grips with. Not quite perfect yet, but we’re on our way. I thought we might have to put up with the Christmas Pudding Rock with “I Want A Hippopotamus for Christmas” as the ear worm, but thankfully we were saved from that. Instead we did the Charnwood Cha-cha which is a sequence ballroom dance. Next it was the Jetlag Waltz which is not one of my favourites, but we worked our way through it.

Drove home through the crowds of folk heading to Glasgow, because it is Xmas and you simply have to worship at the alter of mammon. After switching lanes and taking short cuts that were never short and rarely cut any time we ended up on the north end of the Kingston Bridge and into a traffic jam that was ostensibly caused by one broken down car, but was really caused by shutting down two lanes of a four lane motorway because the council hadn’t the resources to repair a bridge. That’s the honest truth of it. Bridges these days, like buildings are built to have a 50 year lifespan and this one is reaching that fifty year limit. They will say that work is progressing to repair the bridges, but as anyone who travels this route frequently will tell you, nothing is being done, nor has been done for years. Anyway, we did get through eventually and arrived home to a slight covering of the white stuff.

After lunch and after a really dull afternoon with cloudy skies and and a temperature that barely reached above zero, I chose not to go out into the dreary world to take today’s photo, but decided that a bright pink flower on the Christmas Cactus was far more interesting. That was PoD sorted, post-processed and posted online. With that done we had to decide on dinner and Scamp’s suggestion of Fish Fingers, and Spaghetti was the winner. We were, after all, going out to the Christmas Ball afterwards and didn’t want to spoil our appetite.

We were heading off to Brookfield for the second time today. Better dressed this time. We had an allocated table and were sitting with one couple we see quite often at tea dances and another couple who we’ve seen before in Perth Ball. We managed to circle the floor with a waltz and a social foxtrot and even had a fair go at the quickstep. Just after the intermission we got a chance to show off our salsa moves to the surprise of quite a few others. However, the weather was closing in and we wanted to be home before the white stuff fell again. With that in mind, we left just after 10pm and drove home via the M74 because the M8 was closed just before the Kingston Bridge. Traffic was much quieter at 10.30pm than it had been at 1pm, and despite the slightly longer route, we got home and parked just after 11pm.

A quick G ’n’ T and a Rum ’n’ Coke brought a busy day to an end.

No great plans for me tomorrow as I’m waiting in for parcel, but Scamp is heading to Glasgow with the Witches for lunch and a concert in the Concert Hall.

December’s here! – 1 December 2022

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Got a lot to do in the morning, and dancing in the afternoon.

While I was bringing in the bins in the rain this morning, I saw a few little leaves on the path and got some photos of them and they would have been PoD until I saw the Ammi majus, like a delicate cow parsley, in the back garden with its flower heads holding a vast amount of rain drops. That became PoD.

It wasn’t our best set of dances, more like a refresher for us and a chance for some exercise! Heavens, we couldn’t even remember how to do the “Baby Waltz” which is a short and fairly easy waltz. Sometimes we practise and practise the more difficult new dances and forget to refresh the older ones. I’d say we’ll practice some more for Saturday’s class, but that’s unlikely we’ve been busy tonight but more of that later.

Today was a Christmas Tea Dance. Christmas themed dress was encouraged. Scamp had her Christmas Tree dress and I had my jolly reindeer tee shirt. We did manage to struggle through the new Cameron Quickstep, but that was mainly my problem. Sequence dances are easier for me, firstly because they are short and secondly because they are repetitive and muscle memory makes it easier to remember. Longer dances like the quickstep and foxtrot are interesting and challenging and I enjoy them one I’ve worked out the pattern of the individual steps. I think “could do better” would be the comment on my dance card for today.

Back home Scamp suggested a fish supper each would be a good idea, because Crawford and Nancy are coming for dinner Tomorrow and we knew we’d be doing prep tonight. I’m in charge of soup and bread. Scamp is in charge of the main course and pudding. She wanted the main course started tonight and I wanted to get the soup made too. So, we took turns working around each other doing our prep and lessening the load for tomorrow. So far, the soup is made and the main has been cooked. The fish ’n’ chips were brilliant. Just thought you’d like to know!

Tomorrow the prep and cooking continues. I’m hoping to get the bread started in the morning and then Scamp can continue with her prep. So, very little time for photos, but hopefully I’ll find something.

Another day in the Toon – 27 November 2022

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We’d discussed the possibility of driving home via Glasgow yesterday, but the weather was so depressing, we left it until today.

It was a much better day today. Sunshine aplenty from early morning, so we drove in to Glasgow. Scamp had things to buy and I had photos that would need taking. Between us we achieved our stated goals. It wasn’t quite as cold as we’d thought, but when you were out of the sun it gave a better picture of the air temperature. Maybe it reached double figures, but not by very much.

We also made some time for coffee and a cake, but decided we’d just go home for lunch. The Christmas Market was jam packed with punters today, so we gave it a body swerve and headed up Buchanan Street. There were four little groups of children dressed in costumes and all well chaperoned who were performing dance routines all the way up the busy street and collecting for charity. I think we saw four of the groups, some with five or six dancers, some with just two, but all were very accomplished. We also saw a bloke who was jumping through flaming hoops and hoops with knives round the edges. He was collecting too, but not for charity!

I found my PoD at the bottom of the street. A low level shot of a bloke selling helium balloons. Those big bunches of brightly coloured vinyl balloons and I was lucky enough to catch him removing one to sell to a little girl. That was my picture of the day right there. I got a couple of mono shots too that made it to Flickr.

Back home and after lunch Scamp headed down to the shops to get a chicken for dinner while I worked on the photos. By the time she was coming home the light was beginning to fade, but by then the photos were uploaded into Flickr, so I didn’t need to worry about going out for more shots.

Dinner was roast chicken with potatoes and roasted veg and it was quite delicious. Pudding was just as good. It was a slab of ice cream with meringue crumbled over it. A healthy squirt of raspberry sauce finished it off.

Spoke to Jamie later and broke the news to him that we wouldn’t be coming down to their house for Christmas. The trains are too risky with every week bringing more strike announcements. The flights are overpriced as a result and for him to drive to the airport and back, picking us up and then delivering us back again would take a large chunk out of his day on what should be holiday time. We did say that we like to come down in the spring and we’ve agreed a possible time. Hope you’re not too disappointed Jamie. Glad you’ve booked a trip to see Jaime in Trinidad.

That was our day. Tomorrow we’re hoping to take Shona out for lunch. Out to lunch again, I hear you say?! Well, we haven’t been out for lunch this week yet. Mind you, it’s only Sunday!

 

Dancin’ – 26 November 2022

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Drove through the rain to Brookfield to find an enormous marquee sitting in the car park.

Thought for a minute the class had been cancelled, or that the marquee was for us to dance in. Neither was the case. It appeared that the marquee was for an event later in the day and unfortunately the class hadn’t been cancelled. We filed into the hall to find tables arranged round the hall. More obstacles for us to dance round or collide with, depending on our dancing skill. The class started with a Melody Foxtrot, two tracks of it. Then it was full pelt into the Cameron Quickstep and almost all of the practise we’d done last night went clear out of my head. Gradually it returned after I listened to Scamp’s whispered directions, but it wasn’t the resounding success I’d hoped for. Although, neither was it the disaster that it could have been, so we’ll take that as a positive.

Midnight Jive was next just to give us a chance to clear our heads before the teachers decided to throw in the Jetlag Waltz, which we’ve only danced once or twice, but like most of these dances, consists of dance ‘units’ that are bolted together to form a complete dance. It’s knowing what order the units are in that makes for the level of difficulty. According to Scamp we have that one on video and so should be able to make more sense of it by next week, all being well.

I thought we were going to be forced into the Christmas Pudding Rock to finish with, but instead we did a round of the Sally Anne Cha Cha. I don’t know who Sally Anne was, but this wasn’t a cha-cha. Again it was a series of dance units bolted together in what seemed like random patterns. Noisy and energetic and fairly good fun. Got our blood flowing ready for the drive home.

The actual drive home wasn’t too bad although the weather wasn’t too clever. Still raining and I really need to replace the wiper blades soon. The way they rattle across the windscreen sets my teeth on edge. We stopped at the shops on the way home to get milk and donuts and cakes, because we’d been good and not made a total mess of the morning’s dances.

I took a walk over to St Mo’s in the late afternoon because the rain had stopped and the sky was clearing for a warm looking sunset. Warm looking, yes, but it was getting cold, so only one circuit of the pond. PoD was a shot of a woman walking her dog along the boardwalk with some early evening light.

Dinner tonight came courtesy of Golden Bowl. Chicken Chop Suey and Fried rice for Scamp and Chicken Chow Mein for me. Very nice, if a bit dry.

We watched Hidden Figures on TV. It’s based on the true story of three women of colour in America attempting, and succeeding in working for NASA to make a success of the first American in space. Yes, we’ve seen it before, but the message was still there and the fact that we’d both lived through such ridiculous bigotry shocked both of us, just as it had on our first viewing.

Tomorrow looks a lot better than today according to the weather fairies. I hope they have it right.

Checking out the Humans – 25 November 2022

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Not an early start today, but I got a fair bit of work done once I was up.

Scamp was out at 11am for her FitSteps class and I began my cleanup of the back bedroom, my painting room. I managed to clear most of the chest of drawers. Some of the things I wanted to keep went into a drawer, most of it went into the bin. I even dusted the two bookcases in the room. It’s not nearly finished, but it’s started and that’s the main thing.

After lunch we drove over to The Fort and while Scamp went shopping, I went looking for photos of Provan Hall which I remember sketching about fifty years ago. I’ve still got that wee sketch somewhere. Drawn with a dipper pen in blue shellac based ink. Unfortunately once I’d battled through a rainstorm, I found that the 15th century building was getting a facelift and seemed to be in the middle of a building site. I did get a few photos, but they were more record shots than anything creative.

I walked back to the car in the gathering gloom looking for a last minute photo, then I remembered the three deer who are always ready for a photo opportunity. Instead of the usual face on view or the profile shot, I chose to shoot over their bronze heads as they checked out the Humans, and wondered what the glitz and jingle bells nonsense was all about. I used a wide aperture, meaning that the background of the shops in their festive splendour would be just a warm blur.

We drove home and Scamp wisely used the Hive app to turn the heating on for a half hour ‘boost’ when we were halfway home, ensuring we had a warm welcome when we arrived. It had been a cold, wet day and the house was indeed toasty when we got back.

Dinner tonight was Scamp’s veggie chilli and a baked potato. Like soup, the chilli tastes better the second day, or as was the case here, the third day.

Tonight we had a practise run through of the Cameron Quickstep and ironed out a few problems, then we did the same with the Gershwin Foxtrot, a lot of which had slipped my memory.

Both of these dances will be contenders for further changes and additions tomorrow at Brookfield.

Glasgow on the bus – 19 November 2022

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After struggling through Wordle and Spelling Bee (still working at it), we got dressed for the cold, because it was a lovely clear, dry day, but chilly, and headed out to Condorrat to get the bus to Glasgow.

When we got there we found that the the X37 was running late and was full with passengers, standing room only, when it arrived. We did both get seats, but others were still standing. Neither of us had experienced that before for the 20min trip to Glasgow. I don’t think the driver or the bus had experienced it either, because both were doing a fair bit of grumbling.

We’d forgotten that Glasgow would be busy, because it’s Christmas, or more accurately Xmas. There is a difference. The place was mobbed. People everywhere. We’re not used to shopping on a Saturday, or Sunday. We’re the lucky ones who can go shopping mid-week, so this was a bit of a culture shock.

We decided, after a quick browse in JL, that it would be best to visit Paesano for an early lunch before the rest of the hordes descended. We got a table right away! That doesn’t mean Paesano wasn’t busy. It was, but there were a few tables-for-two available. Scamp had a Number 1 (No garlic – Yes I know there is no cheese) and a side of rocket and parmesan. I had a Number 3 and a side of burrata and tomato. Washed down with a glass each of red wine. It’s such an ‘Italian’ place. Lots of folk sitting talking and eating. It’s not until you stop and listen that you hear all the different accents and languages overlaying each other. So strange in Glasgow. I don’t think it would be so strange in London!

Fed and watered, we went down to Argyle Street and wandered along for a while, then back along Queen Street where I got a photo I’d been thinking about. Then on to Buchanan Street where I knew the photo’s alter ego was waiting. They didn’t make PoD. That accolade went to a photo of the GOMA (Gallery Of Modern Art – Glasgow). However you should look for the pictures comparing the Roof Decorations on Flickr.

With nothing much else to do and because the crowds were so thick on the ground, we got the bus home. Not nearly so busy on the way back, thankfully.

Watched the Qualifying for tomorrow’s final F1 GP of the season and then Strictly. We both agreed that there’s not all that much dancing in Strictly. Scamp has been saying for weeks now that the whole program needs revamping. I’d agree. It need a complete re-shuffle. If it’s good enough for Rishi Sunak, it’s good enough for Strictly.

Tomorrow looks wet. We’ll make the best of it, maybe with some soup!