Category: Dancing

Panic! – 11 May 2023

Posted on by Zogman

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

Dancin’ again – 18 March 2023

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Back to the “bump and grind”. More of which later, but not what you think!

Drove through busy traffic to Brookfield and we started with the Catherine waltz. It looked more difficult than it was and by the end of the half hour we had it, more or less. “More or less” covers a multitude of sins. Next we went straight into a Jive routine. Technically it was a different jive from what we normally do. We learned “Glasgow Jive” which is based on six beats but they were teaching “Ballroom Jive” which is based on four beats. That doesn’t seem like much, but it made a big difference to us. Eventually we did work out what was going on and on the way home we realised that most of what we were being taught, we’d already done, and that includes the “Hip Bumps.” No grinds though, at least not yet!

We’d both forgotten just how exhausting jive can be, so we were relieved to find that the next item on the ‘menu’ was a much more sedate Slow Foxtrot. Still complicated, especially in what they call the ‘back end’ which we think of as the second half, but much slower than the jive.

A couple of tracks of sequence dance and we were done for the day. That was exhausting, but once we’d looked over the videos of the jive, it wasn’t really more difficult than the ones we’d done years ago in Blackfriars with Michael, just different.

Drove home through more traffic than a normal Saturday, but managed to take the M74 turn off and ended up arriving home in about 45mins which is good for the return journey on a Saturday.

After a quick lunch I chopped up some half price tomatoes, two onions and a red pepper, loaded them into a baking tray, sprinkle them with basil and roasted them in the oven (gas 6) for an hour. Decanted the lot into a pot, added a tin of tomatoes, a litre of hot water and a chicken stock pot and cooked it for 30mins. Blitzed the lot in two stages in the blitzy thing (liquidiser) and let it settle for a while.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s with the little A6000 and a 55-200mm lens. It’s not a brilliant lens, but it’s the longest one I’ve got that actually works on the Sonys. I got a few photos of the host of frogs that have now invaded the ponds. One of them made PoD. I liked the reflection of it in the murky pond.

Dinner tonight was tomato soup with a baked potato. Not elegant, but warm and filling. Watched the qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP. I think Scamp was a bit disappointed when Verstappen’s car died on him and he was demoted to the back of the pack. It will be interesting to see how long it will take him to get back to the podium tomorrow.

The dancing, but especially the Jive took a lot out of us today. We had an early night, and that’s why this is the second catch-up in a row. Thank you Hazy for getting back to me. I hadn’t found that page before, although most of the links lead back to pages I’d already found. I think my plan is to let the SSL expire and then start a new one from Namecheap this time. At least that should be an easier way to go.

No plans for tomorrow which is Mother’s Day, of course.

Dancing and Weather – 9 March 2023

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Today revolved around two topics: Dancing and Weather. Last night we had a couple of snow showers and by morning the cars in the car park had a decent covering. However, by the time we left for the Tea Dance, the sun had melted almost all of it away, thankfully.

Drove to Glenburn Community Centre in the southern outskirts of Paisley for the tea dance and didn’t see any hint of snow after we left Cumbersheugh. Even the Campsie Fells as we drove along had no snow. Just our luck then! I think the cold weather and the constant scare stories from the media about snow drifts and danger to life kept some folk at home. Not us, we’re made of sterner stuff, although it might have been the temptation of the tea loaf that drove us to travel today.

We struggled through the Quickstep, the Tango the Foxtrot and countless sequence dances but our biggest struggle was with the simple Waltz. We couldn’t put a foot right, at least I couldn’t. How could this simple dance cause so many problems? We used to be able to dance at least two variations of it, now we can do none. More practise required I think. Despite all that, we had a good laugh. We were sitting with Leslie and Gordon who are at about the same level as us, although I did not that they managed the waltz without a problem.

The drive home was just as easy as the drive there because we slide neatly from the M77 to the M74 to the M73 and finally to the M80. That means that we can avoid completely the notorious Kingston Bridge and its moving car park of vehicles.

I didn’t go out for a walk this morning and by the time we were getting home the light had all but disappeared, so today’s PoD had to be a tabletop. It’s just a pink flower from a bunch that is sitting on the book case beside me. I took it with the A7iii equipped with a LensBaby Sweet 35. I realise this means nothing to anyone but me, but it’s a good reminder. The Sweet 35 is a 35mm lens designed to produce a soft image and if you’re lucky enough to have some bright lights in the frame, you get some spectacular light blobs called Bokeh. I wasn’t looking for that today, just a soft focus effect and I was pleased with the result.

It’s snowing again as I write this blog, but I’m not sure it will lie until morning. I certainly hope it won’t. We might go in to Glasgow tomorrow for a walk and a pizza in Paesano. It depends on the weather.

Dancin’ – 4 March 2023

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Today we were going dancing, but not until the evening.

That meant we needed to find something to fill up the hours before the dance.

After lunch we went for a walk to the shops to find something quick and easy to make for dinner. That turned out to be an M&S curry each. On the way back I was told to go and have a walk round St Mo’s. I eventually agreed, but as Scamp took the road back to the house, I noticed a couple walking along the path through the trees and thought that make a good photo. Three or four frames later I reckoned I had a PoD. Then I want for that walk around St Mo’s hoping it would help to lessen the headaches I have had for weeks now. Thankfully it did, but I didn’t get any more competition for PoD.

After dinner we got better dressed and drove out to Brookfield, almost driving in the wheel tracks of our taxi driving neighbour who was leaving just before us. He seemed surprised that we were off to a dance on a Saturday night. . He left the M8 at the airport and we carried on to the Irvine turn off and from there to the hall at Brookfield.

When we got there, the hall was better than half full and we managed to grab a couple of seats at David and Carol’s table (another tea dance couple). The first dance as always was a waltz. We’ve been trying hard to master the Foxtrot and the Quickstep, but have disregarded the Waltz recently. It should have been easy to just join together the two routines we knew, but it was made difficult by the fact that there were other people on the dance floor and they kept getting in our way. We did a partial foxtrot and succeeded in completing the quickstep a couple of times. A tentative Rhumba after a couple of tries began to look like it should do too. Lots of folk up for Salsa and I surprised Scamp by introducing a decent Tornado which neither of us could really remember, but ‘muscle memory’ came to our aid after I got us into the starting position and it just worked after that.

Closing time was 10.30pm and it was almost a pleasant drive through a Glasgow devoid of the traffic jam we usually have to face in the afternoons. Back home we watched the qualifying of the first F1 GP of 2023 from Bahrain. It looks like this year won’t be the walkover for Red Bull that last year was.

Far too late we went to bed, that’s why this is a catch-up. No plans for tomorrow, yet.