Category: Dancing

New Tyres – 2 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out this morning for coffee with Shona. I was left at home.

Another beautiful looking day. Bright sun, but not all that much warmth was getting through. While the coffee drinkers were out, I posted today’s sketch, whose prompt asked for Discover and if you read yesterday’s blog you’ll know that with a ‘Y’ tacked on to the end, Discover became Discovery which was the name of one of the first Space Shuttle orbiters. I seem to remember seeing a plane with a retired Space Shuttle riding piggyback on it flying around Glasgow. It was while I was at Jordanhill and it caused a great stir. Anyway, The Space Shuttle was posted today and I started sketch 3 for Inktober, since I had some peace. The prompt asked for Boots and I gave it a sketch of my solid leather walking boots. Like most of the sketches, it’s not perfect, but looks like a pair of boots. It’s good being able to keep one step ahead of the required sketches. Here is the first sketch. I’m going to rummage through the computer to find today’s!

When Scamp returned, I missed lunch and drove down to Jim Dickson’s to get four new tyres on the blue car. It seemed a shame to wait in the ‘office’ of the garage, so I handed in my keys and went for a walk round The Village. Isobel had told us that a voluntary group was cleaning up the village cemetery and I went to have a look. Thankfully they hadn’t cut all the grass or scrubbed away the moss on the old headstones, but still put their stamp on it, so folk would know that work had been done. From there I walked round the rest of the village and found my way back at the garage to be told that they were almost finished and would I like to settle up? It was exactly what I’d been told yesterday and I was happy to pay for the work done. It’s good to support local business.

Back home with four shiny new tyres, I was ready for a filled roll with cold meat. Then I had time for a quick walk round St Mo’s and got today’s PoD on the way home. A low viewpoint shot of the path to St Mo’s with a bit of warm late afternoon sunshine coming through the trees.

Dinner was paella and it wasn’t my best. It ended up a bit claggy and soggy. My excuse is that it’s ages since the last time I made it.

Just finished dinner and it was time to get ready for Kirsty’s dance class. Again not our best. We are both agreed that the floor is simply too small for four couples to dance in. Also when she’s demonstrating, Kirsty is dancing almost round in a circle, so it’s difficult to visualise how that dance would look on a ballroom floor where it would be danced in a straight line. Both of us lost our tempers during tonight’s class. We must do some prep before next week’s class.

We have no plans for tomorrow, but shopping has been mentioned.

Strictly! – 28 September 2024

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We’re sitting watching a recording of tonight’s Strictly, but this morning we did our own Strictly!

We drove to Brookfield in the morning with me in my usual Saturday morning grumpy “I don’t want to go” mood. The nearer we got to the dance class, the lighter my mood got. Don’t know why. I don’t ask the questions, and I don’t try to answer them. I just go with what my inner ‘Black Monkey’ says.

So today’s dance lesson started with Blue Angel Rumba which was a quite simple and fairly easy sequence dance. Then everything changed and the first dance they wanted us to do was the Viennese Waltz. Lots of turning and lots of simple change of place, but all done in a very strict tempo. Most of it worked for us without thinking, because we were working to carefully choreographed moves. Thankfully we didn’t have to do too many spins, because Scamp didn’t have her sticky out multi-layered petticoat on and I’d forgotten my evening dress and tails. Other than that it was a success.

Next dance was Paso La Paz. Lots of stamping of feet and pretending to hold a beachball between us as we strutted round the floor. We did toe taps and matador stances waving our imaginary capes in front of us. Apparently the foot stamps and the toe taps are to clean the blood and sand from our shoes while we are in the bullring and after the bull has been despatched! Who knew? Neither of these were the Foxtrot or the Four Seasons Waltz we’d been expecting. Interesting though!

A couple of tracks of the Midnight Jive brought us back down to earth again and then it was time to head home again. Actually a really interesting and thought provoking couple of dances. I won’t criticise Strictly again. Well, actually I will, but I’ll be a bit more sympathetic with the poor folk having to learn these dances that look so easy, but are not.

I took the A7 our for a walk later with the Tamron lens for company. There wasn’t much to see but it rained while I was out and I got a chance to see the raindrops beading and dripping from my new rain jacket. PoD turned out to be a robin singing its little heart out from the top of a Hawthorn bush. Quite impressed with the quality.

I came home via the chip shop with a Special Fish Supper (two fish in breadcrumbs and chips). After that we watched the ‘other’ strictly. Not nearly as good or as difficult as our morning dances!

No plans for tomorrow. I wonder if Scamp would notice if I cut a rose, and gripping it securely in my teeth while I stamped my feet, stood with my head back and one arm across my chest and the other behind my back in classic Matador’s stance, as I made breakfast tomorrow morning?

Dancin’ – 26 September 2024

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Another cold day. We seem to have skipped autumn and gone straight to winter!

A quick lunch and then we were driving over to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. Such a difference between Glenburn and Brookside. Last week Brookside had no heating of any sort. Today, the heating was on in Glenburn and had been for some time to make sure we were comfortable.

The usual programme of music and dances. I do find it’s a bit repetitive, but I also know that it’s that same repetition that embeds the moves in my brain. The waltz we started with was the Four Seasons and we do know it quite well, so after a few missteps I remembered most of it. Then the Cha-Cha and the Jive. That seems to be the fallback trilogy with occasional Quickstep, although that was missing today and a Foxtrot which we intended to try Kirsty’s steps, but either she or we had missed something, because it simply didn’t flow as it should have done.

After the tea break, Stewart tried to teach the Butterfly Jive to us all. I can remember the first part of it, but after that it just gets too complicate too quickly for my poor feet to catch up. After two rounds of the Butterfly, Stewart walked back to his desk, saying “That was Fun!”. I heard nobody agreeing with him, in fact there seemed to silence across the hall. I used to think the most hateful dance was he Cha-Cha. All that nonsense about starting on the second beat was simply nonsense to me, but now I’ve come to terms with the dance. Maybe in a couple of years I’ll also come to terms with the Butterfly Jive DV. Perhaps not. I don’t know if I was extra crabbit today, but everything seemed to put my teeth on edge. Maybe it was the weather, which had started out wet, but by the time we were leaving, the sun was coming out.

Back home, that sun that was coming out, was hiding again, but I managed a walk down to Broadwood Loch and got some late afternoon photos of swans. I also spotted and photographed some Bitter Nightshade. I often wondered what those bright little berries on the boardwalk and why the birds didn’t eat them. It appears that some birds can eat the berries without injury, but most avoid them. The berries are also poisonous to humans. A photo of one of the swans preening got PoD.

No real plans for tomorrow. Scamp is hoping to go to FitSteps in the morning.

 

Stravaigin’ – 25 September 2024

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“Wandering with no particular intent.” That’s what Alex and I were doing today, on a cold morning when the temperature was about 3ºc at 8am.

We met at the bus station and went for a coffee as usual and neither of us had a plan for the day. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not so good. It all depends on your frame of mind, I think. Scamp had driven me to the station and I just had enough time to buy my ticket before the train arrived.

Alex and I agreed we’d walk down to St Enoch’s to get some photos. Alex wanted to get a shot of the pigeons on the Teacher’s building. The building used to belong to the Teacher’s whisky company, but it’s changed hands many times since then. Today it seemed as if it was changing again, because a giant cherrypicker was parked outside it with the usual red and white barriers around what was going to be a building site. Alex was disappointed, to put it mildly.

I too was disappointed, because the photo I wanted was covered with half erected fun fair attractions. A Christmas fun fair already? It’s still September! Anyway, it didn’t look as if my photo was going to work either. That didn’t stop me taking a few photos and just blurring out the background with a wide open aperture on the lens.

From St Enoch’s is only a hop and a step and a jump to the Clyde Walkway where the graffiti artists show off their skills. Today we were really lucky because one of the artists was there insitu working on his latest piece, apparently entitled “I think I’ll go eat worms” (Don’t try this at home children). Watching him work made you think it was easy, but I’m pretty sure it isn’t. I counted at least 20 spray cans in a mix of colours, so, not only difficult to master, but also fairly expensive too.

From there we wandered along to St Andrew’s Church because Alex seems fascinated by it. Me, not so much. When I’d eventually prised him away from the buildings we walked up to George Square to have lunch, which was a roll with spicy chicken and a bottle of juice each. We usually have a pizza, but as we’re both on a diet of sorts, the lighter lunch seemed sensible.

By the time we’d finished, I was almost ready to head for home, because tonight was dance class, so we walked up to the bus station just in time for both of us to catch our buses home.

Dinner for Scamp and I was yesterday’s veggie chilli which was a wee bit hotter tonight. Then it was time to “put on our dancing shoes and dance away our blues”. It was a reprise of last week’s class since some folk hadn’t been at that class, and others were struggling with the moves. Actually, on reflection tonight, Scamp and I agreed that the floor is just too small for a Foxtrot which requires a fair amount of space. It also requires learners who don’t just stop dead on the dance floor and have a wee discussion as one pair did fairly often.

PoD today was a view looking out from the inside of the subway at St Enoch’s. Sometimes you have to think outside the box and sometimes you just have to look outside …

Tomorrow is probably a Tea Dance, and maybe a chance to dispose of some old junk.

The party’s over – 21 September 2024

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Last night’s dinner party, that is.

The first stage of clearing up was to switch on the dishwasher and leave it to do its work for an hour or so, while we disassembled the bit oval table and turned it back into a circular one. Then all the cups, plates, bowls and cutlery had to the put in the proper places again. That took most of the morning.

The next part of the clearing up was getting the cases up into the loft. That cleared a bit of space in the spare rooms. Not a lot of space, I grant you, but every little helps.

While Scamp was watching Gardener’s World, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a few photos. Not as many as I’d hoped, but it was a really dull day. What I did find was a lot of bushes loaded with big brambles. Much bigger than what we usually get. Probably due to the amount of rain we had at the start of August, coupled with the warmer weather we had at the end of the month. I may go out tomorrow to see if I can get some more.

By the time I came back, it was time for an early dinner before we got ready to drive to Brookfield for the monthly dance. Traffic was heavier than usual when we drove west, but we still arrived just ahead of time and easily got a table. Although, apparently that table was earmarked for those and such as those. Jane was warning everyone who came near that we had to leave two seats for Les and Sandra who are friends of the teachers. We don’t fit into that category. I know my place.

The dance followed the usual format with a couple of ballroom dances interspersed with a couple of sequence dances. It’s all pretty formulaic as most dance evenings are, I suppose. They are also nights when you get to talk to people you haven’t met in ages. We danced a fair bit, but were glad when the Last Waltz was announced, at least I was glad, because my feet were sore by that time. One good thing I did was to bring a can of zero alcohol, Brewdog Elvis Juice. One of the better low alcohol brews. Scamp was also testing a new idea, ‘Wine in a Tin’. Her’s was not alcohol free, but was a can of 19 Crimes red wine. Very neat and easy to carry.

We left as about half of the room was dancing the last waltz and the rest were tidying up and leaving. Another good night at Brookfield and a lazy drive home with very little traffic on the road at just after 11pm.

We watched the qualifying for the Singapore GP with its usual thrills and spills. Surprised to see Verstappen on the front of the grid again.

The PoD was a branch of red hawthorn berries.

Tomorrow we’ve voted for a lazy day after two busy ones.

Dancin’ ( or trying to) – 14 September 2024

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We drove over to Brookfield for the first dance class in ages.

The first dance in the unheated Brookfield Hall was a sequence dance, the Melody Foxtrot. Two tracks to start with and an extra one for Peter and Gillian because they were late. Would they do an extra track for us or for Leslie & Gordon? Maybe not, but Peter and Gillian are friends of the teachers. Petty? Me? Oh yes, but if your face don’t fit here you don’t get privileges.

First dance was the Butterfly Jive. I’ve never really sorted this one out in my head. Too many things coming at you too quickly. Scamp seems ok with it, it’s just me who’s too slow.

The tempo slowed down for the next dance which was the Four Seasons Waltz which I thought I was dancing correctly, but Scamp kept telling me I was wrong. For once, I was sure I was right because muscle memory was telling me to do one thing and Scamp was telling me something else. Eventually, after calling the adjudicator, Jane, I was proven right. It’s nice to be right … sometimes. We’d danced this waltz on Thursday and most of it was encoded in my head, I just couldn’t play it back with confidence, but Scamp could. I can usually rely on her to keep me right.

The third ‘real’ dance was a Quickstep which may have a name, but I can’t remember it. It’s quite quick, but again, muscle memory came to my rescue and the entire first section just flowed perfectly. The next section we hadn’t practised, but struggled through. It might need some homework to get the footwork fitting in perfectly, but it was much better than I anticipated.

The torture finished with a Sally Anne Cha-Cha which is just a bit of noisy fun with hand claps and shouts of “OI!”. Then we left for a quick trip into Glasgow, or so I thought.

I was heading to WEX to drop off a lens I was selling. It should have been easy, but the sat nav had found a new way that didn’t allow for roadworks or diversions. After a good half hour of going the wrong way, we eventually found the carpark and dropped off the lens at the shop. We dropped in at Nevisport where we’d had a good chat last week with one of the sales guys. Not so today. Almost none of last week’s stock was there. It had been replaces with “SALES” stock. None of which was what I was looking for. We left to have a decent cup of coffee in Waterstones and drove home empty handed. Stopped at M&S in Cumbersheugh to get some fruit then went home.

In the fading light I got today’s PoD which was a James Grieve apple on our apple tree, viewed through a LensBaby distortion lens.

Dinner was a very spicy chicken curry with an ice lolly each to cool us down. Not a bad day as far as weather was concerned, but tomorrow looks better. We’ll see.

Dancin’ – 12 September 2024

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This was the first tea dance in ages, at least, it felt like ages!

A very small group today, spread thinly around the hall. About ten couples in total which is most unusual for a tea dance. But we danced. That was what we came for and we were going to get our money’s worth. We were sitting with Leslie and Gordon who don’t usually get to the tea dances because of Grandparent Duties. But other that them, it was ’Weel Kent Faces’ at the rest of the tables. The usual suspects, you could say.

The dance started with a waltz as usual and to my surprise I could remember most of the steps. We danced to two tracks with occasional ‘brain fade’, but nobody seemed to notice. Then it was in to the usual routine with the Ballroom Jive, then sequence dances. The afternoon really did seem to fly in and we took part in most of the dances.

As usual we left just a little bit early to avoid the school rush an this time we seemed to get it just right. A few spots of rain on the windscreen occasionally on the drive home, but otherwise a bright day as long as you were in the car. Outside it was cold, a measure of what is to come tonight, apparently. Temperatures around 1ºc predicted widely. It’s definitely autumn now.

PoD was a Tiarella flower from the garden with a distorted background courtesy of the LensBaby again.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps. Afterwards we might visit Isobel who isn’t feeling well just now.

Wandering round Glasgow – 11 September 2024

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I drove in to Glasgow today to meet my brother.

We had planned to visit the Transport Museum, or the Riverside Museum as it’s known these days, but it was a beautiful day and it did seem a shame when we could be wandering round the streets taking photos. Anyway, I never was a fan of the Riverside Museum. The old Transport Museum had character which the new one lacked and why stack loads of cars in a vast space where petrolheads can’t get near them to look inside and remember driving that classic car? Totally pointless. The outside of the new museum is much more interesting than the inside, and the only reason I’d go there.

So, instead we walked down Buchanan Street to take some photos and so that Alex could wander round a guitar shop, looking for a new amp for his guitar. I had an ulterior motive too. I was still looking for that jacket. The waterproof one I’ve been searching for all week. I’m beginning to think it doesn’t exist, but I’ll continue looking Dug wi’ a Burst Ba’ again. I didn’t find it today, but we’d both scratched our individual itches and come away with nothing, but we’d both looked and seen.

I suggested we adjourn to Paesano to see if a pizza each would give us time to think. After lunch we went for a walk round St Enoch’s square to take some photos. For once we both went separate ways and met up again after taking a few shots of different subjects. Then it was a walk down the Clyde Walkway to admire the graffiti, and there was an entire wall that had been covered with artwork since the last time we’d been down there.

Next we took some photos of St Andrews Cathedral and its reflections on the glass walled building next door. By that time the temperature was dropping and I was aware that it was getting towards late afternoon and I was going to dance class later.

We walked back up Buchanan Street before splitting up with Alex heading for the bus and me going for my car. Some good shots today and some good nonsense talked by both of us.

I got back in time to get ready for Kirsty’s dance class. Today it was a reprise of the Rumba she’d turned into a Cha-Cha. I admit, I was lost to begin with, but after a quick run through by Kirsty and Scamp, it began to fall into place again.

PoD went to a photo of the ‘Balloon Man’. He stands in Buchanan Street in Glasgow twisting balloons into the most intricate shapes to the delight of hundreds of children every week. I was lucky, the light was just right today.

Tomorrow Scamp would like to take me to a Tea Dance in Paisley. How could I say no?

 

The Wedding Day – 31 August 2024

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As has become traditional when we’re away from home, the write-up is more of a place marker than anything else. With bullet points to keep the memories fresh without taking up too much writing time.

  • A walk through a different part of the town on a dull morning
  • Found a monument to Jersey Cows!
  • One calf had found a toad
  • Wandered round the indoor market
  • But soon it was time to get dressed to impress
  • Got a taxi to La Mare Vineyard
  • The weather had improved
  • It was time for Pimms on the lawn
  • More butterflies in the garden
  • Alex and family arrived later
  • Just in time to see the happy couple’s entrance
  • Saw some folk we hadn’t seen in years
  • The meal was delicious
  • The dancing was hilarious
  • I took over 300 photos here are some:

 

 

Dancin’ – 24 August 2024

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Today we drove to Brookfield for the first dance class in about three weeks.

It started well, with a Mayfair Quickstep which isn’t a quickstep, but that’s splitting hairs. Two tracks to make sure we were well warmed up, because it’s summer in Brookfield and they don’t have heating on in the morning until winter.

The first ‘real’ dance was a new Cha-Cha, new to us, anyway, but made up from figures we already knew. They were put together in different patterns, though. I thought I’d filmed it on my phone, but when I got home and looked at it, I’d a photo of Jane, the teacher, but no video. I really need to learn how to use this phone. I expect that someone, somewhere has a video of the new routine, but it’s not me!

Next up was a Viennese waltz. You see folk dancing this in Strictly and it seems to be all about blokes in evening suits and ladies with sticky out dresses ( that’s a technical description, by the way), twirling around on the floor, but it’s much more complicated than that. Oh boy, is it more complicated, and fast too. We did the baby steps quite well to start with, even that was difficult, but when they started mixing up Half Natural Turns and Half Reverse Turns with Full Natural and Full Reverse my brain sort of gave up and went to sleep. I don’t suppose we’ll ever go to Vienna and neither of us speak Viennese, so what’s the use of learning their dances? Huh?

The next one was more down to our earth. It was the Tina Tango danced to Ed Sheehan’s Shivers. I believe Scamp could dance this blindfold. I also believe that Scamp think I DO dance it blindfold which would account for stubbed toes for both of us. Anyway it was much easier that the Viennese waltz.

The final dance of the day was the Vogue Waltz. I can just remember dancing this on a Perth weekend. Bits of it were stuck in my memory slots, but other bits of it were Vague rather than Vogue, but we struggled on until I was almost fluent in it. Then they sprung a curve ball. We would only dance one round of the steps, then move on to a new partner. Woah! Chaos reigned for the three or four minutes this new routine was being danced. I’m so used to Scamp calling out instructions quietly in my ear that I though all the ladies did it. They didn’t, but a few of them laughed!! It was actually fun.

We drove home from Brookfield with our heads spinning with new and half remembered dance routines. We may try them out some time in the living room, just not today.

Lunch was a sandwich for both of us and we’d agreed that dinner would be provided by Golden Bowl.

Today’s PoD was a vase of flowers that sits on the kitchen window sill. Every time I’ve passed it for the last couple of weeks I’ve told myself I was going to photograph it, and today I was true to my word. I just liked the composition.

Tomorrow we are maybe going shopping.