Dancing – Page 67 – My Photo Blog

Just for a change – 28 November 2016

Posted on November 28, 2016 by Zogman

Just for a change today, I got the bus to Perth. Now this may be a spoiler alert for Hazy, but I’m sure you expected I’d have to take the trip to Perth, didn’t you!

These CityLink buses are really comfortable. Did you know they have heaters that work! Isn’t that a simply wonderful innovation? Typically one X3 bus in 100 has working heaters, and that’s the one you get every day in the summer and the heating is on full blast and the windows won’t open. In the winter, it’s the one with the sign that says “SORRY NOT IN SERVICE” or more often in Scotland “A’HM NO WORKIN’”. So, a comfortable journey north to the fair city of Perf. It’s a bit like Embra which is also known by some of its inhabitants as Edinburgh. Embra is its more usual and useable name. Perf is much better than Perth IMO and MO is the only one that counts in this blog. By the way, I once got an irate comment from an Edinburger on Flickr to the effect that: “It’s actually Edinburgh, not Embra, I know, I live there.”
My reply was: “That’s a shame, but I suppose somebody has to live in Embra, and it is Embra, hen. It’s Embra, it’s always been Embra and it always will be Embra. I know, because I’ve been there … once. But it’s alright, I’ve had my jags.” She didn’t reply to that – too many big words in it, I think.
Perf’s a nice place, I like it. It’s pretty and has nice buildings, but the folk are not so stuck up as Embra folk. It’s got a good coffee shop, an independent camera shop and a great second-hand bookshop too.

Anyway, purchases purchased I got the equally comfortable bus back down the road to less than scenic Cumbersheugh where they are painting the lovely butter coloured bricks of the town centre with a coat of ‘nearly black’. Cooncil must have got a job lot of the paint going cheap. I think it probably was originally black masonry paint, but they didn’t have enough to finish the job, so they got some equally cheap out-of-date emulsion for B&Q and just mixed it in to make the masonry paint go further. That would explain the slightly purple tinge to the finished product. If it looks boggin’ paint it black, that’ll fix it and make it look stylish into the bargain. Aye Right.

Kizomba was a bit of a shambles tonight. Class was a bit smaller with a lot of new faces. Mainly black faces, so maybe friends of one of the teachers. Also faces that were looking bemused most of the time because it appears this is the first time they had met this dance. Methinks it might have been Rentamob, there to pad out the numbers. ‘Left’ and ‘right’ seemed to be new concepts for some. One girl had to be dragged away from her phone and on to the dance floor to help balance the numbers. She was irate, because she didn’t know how to do the dance and didn’t want to learn. Hmm, not impressed.

It also looked like our salsa teacher wasn’t present and no announcement was made about who would be taking his class. This gave us a bit of concern and made us wonder if it would be one of the, how should I put this, less able and teachers of AdS. We needn’t have worried, Will took it and introduced us to a trio of twisty, turny moves that were a lot of fun. The next class was not so lucky, but we were out the door by the time the music started.

Maybe going to do a painting tomorrow. If I can remember how!

Cold and Frosty – 21 November 2016

Posted on November 21, 2016November 21, 2016 by Zogman

21-nov2

Yes, in the morning it was cold and frosty and it stayed that way for most of the day too. Poor wee violas in the hanging basket at the back door. They rarely see the sun in these winter days and today they looked wilted. When they finally thawed out about 4pm, the sprung back to life as if it had never happened.

Today being Scamp’s ‘Gems’ group’s singing practise, I packed my bags and headed for the leisure centre where I intended to have a swim and a nice 30 mins or so in the sauna and the steam room. That’s 30 minutes total, not 30 in each! However, it was their turn for ‘essential maintenance’. So far we’ve had the air-con in the changing room refurbished and the gym equipment replaced. Last week it was the jacuzzi that was essentially being maintained and today it was the hot rooms time for an overhaul. Next week the pool? Who knows. It always worries me when an establishment like this gets a complete facelift. Usually it presages a change of ownership. I hope I’m wrong, but I just have that feeling …

After the curtailed swim, I left and headed for Fannyside Moor, just on the outskirts of Cumbersheugh to get a PoD. Actually I had one in the bag from earlier in the day when the bluetits found the bird feeder had been refilled, but another one or two wouldn’t go amiss. I was armed with the old Sony F707 and the Furry Monkey. Hoping his magic paws would do the needful with the IR filter again. Well, he worked his magic, but there just wasn’t enough direct sunlight to give the necessary IR, so I resorted to a couple of landscapes taken with normal light instead, the best of which is above.

Salsa tonight was the usual mayhem with Jamie Gal forgetting his moves which “… worked perfectly earlier in the day in my office!” Then trying to make up a name for them, before attempting to translate the name into Spanish. Great fun!

Kizomba? Hmm, not a lot of fun and I sense a rant starting.
This was the last lesson of the block and I would have thought that Kay, the teacher, would have been pushing hard to keep us interested. Instead she just tread water for almost all the class time. Because her teaching assistant was absent, she had one of the class members run the guys through a ‘warm-up’ reprise of the last seven weeks’ moves while she did the same with the girls. The ‘warm-up’ lasted for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes of an hour long class. Then she introduced a new ‘helper’ who either didn’t speak English or didn’t want to be there, because he hardly uttered a word all night. You could tell the class weren’t too happy when she applauded us all after our first dance and nobody in the class responded. I nearly left there and then when she attempted to introduce ‘Musicology’ as a topic. I wasted two hours of my life with the dreadful Samira attempting to make this into a science instead of something that everyone can do naturally. If you can’t understand the beat of the music, this time wasting exercise wasn’t going to help you IMO.
Scamp wants to go back for a second block of Kizomba, but I’m not so sure. This is the second week we’ve been without a teacher for the guys. I like the dance, but if there is no teacher for us, then I’m not getting value for my money and that’s not a good thing. I’m suggesting we pay the class on a week by week basis to see what transpires and if it doesn’t improve, I’m not going to continue with it.

Temperature is rising and even as I write this at 11pm it’s warmer than it’s been all day.

Dentist tomorrow 🙁

JIC and Sim Homeward Bound – 20 November 2016

Posted on November 20, 2016November 20, 2016 by Zogman

This morning we drove JIC and Sim to the airport for their flight back down south. We stopped in Glasgow on our way back for some shopping and a coffee and then returned to an empty house. It was good to have a busy house for a while, but they had to go back to their own life and Vixen. Oh yes, and back to work too. We really did enjoy the visit and Friday was a brilliant day, one we’ll remember for a while.

Back in the land of computers, I finally got the photos backed up on to the new external drive and the battery rallied for a while on the Mac, but it was a temporary respite before it dropped again to 37%, currently 31%.

Salsa in the Garage tonight was uplifting to say the least and we left feeling a lot better than when we went in.

Tomorrow? Well, tomorrow’s Monday with all that a Monday entails. Busy, busy, busy.

Just an ordinary Scottish day – 16 November 2016

Posted on November 16, 2016November 16, 2016 by Zogman

Windy, wet, sun and cold. Four seasons, sort of Scottish.

Today was Scamp’s turn to have needles stuck in her and lasers fired into her too. She had to go to the physio to get some treatment for her ankle. Something to do with her Achilles Tendon, or Archimedes Tendon as I got it wrong. Like me she wasn’t really all that bothered with the acupuncture needles or the laser and she’s got exercises to do to. Only five reps, three times a day not ten, three times a day like I had. That’s a bit unfair, I think. Sexist or ageist or shoulderist or something.

When we got back, I went for a walk over to St Mo’s in the sun, but ten minutes later the sun disappeared. I managed a couple of shots before the gloom and rain arrived again.

Spent some more time consolidating my photo collection and being side tracked just looking at the photos. Attempted to use File Juggler which is supposed to be a filing assistant on the PC. The best one apparently. Filing on a computer pivots on the use of folders, as anyone who has work with Windows, OS X or Linux will know only too well. Unfortunately after trying unsuccessfully for half an hour to move folders using File Juggler, I discovered this on the company website :

Question – Can File Juggler manage folders?

Answer – No, unfortunately not. File Juggler handles only files.
I plan to add this feature later.

This was followed by a link to a page that had nothing at all to do with File Juggler or the author’s apparent abortive attempt to implement this feature, which he seems to feel is not really all that important. I’m guessing he’s never worked with Hazel on a Mac. I got all my folders nested exactly as I wanted them in ten minutes flat using a script I’d written in Hazel. Sometime you just have to leave the PC to do what it does and get the work done on a Mac.

Salsa tonight. Helping in a beginner’s class at 6.30 then an advanced class at 7.30. Great fun as always.

Weather to get colder tomorrow. Pack wooly jumpers, wooly hats, warm gloves and snowshoes JIC and Sim!

Super Moon, Ordinary Day – 14 November 2016

Posted on November 14, 2016November 14, 2016 by Zogman

Not such a bad day today compared to yesterday. Thankfully, Scamp is feeling a lot better and I think a phone call this morning from Hazy helped too, that and looking forward to a visit from JIC and Sim has lifted her spirits. Still a bit cloudy with the occasional rain shower, but we had that in Lanzarote last week too. Having said that, the temperature differential is significant, nearly 20ºc .

Last night’s attempt to resurrect the damaged partition on the external hard disk ended in failure, as I expected it would. However PhotoRec which comes as part of the free TestDisk partition recovery suite managed to find all the photos in the damaged partition and, using it I also managed to download some of the photos to check that they were intact. It looks like most if not all of the photos are recoverable. The problem now is where to put them while I sort them back into their proper folders. Sorting them into the folders won’t be a big problem as the Hazel app on the Mac and File Juggler on the PC will manage that task with relative ease. The problem is that I now need (yet) another external hard drive to use as temporary storage while I do the filing. I might just bite the bullet and buy another external HDD and be done with it. Then I’ll format the old one and use both as a photo repository. It does make you think though, that a free program downloaded from the ‘net can search your hard disk and recover deleted photos even from a formatted drive. If a free prog can do that, what can dedicated forensic software used by police and other agencies do?

For the rest of the day, I went to the gym and then for a swim. Really quite enjoyed it. Salsa and Kizomba tonight was demanding, but also enjoyable.

Today’s photo is of the ‘Supermoon’. Did look slightly bigger than normal, but nothing to get excited about.

Looking for sunshine tomorrow. Always looking!

Lazy day / Dancing night – 7 November 2016

Posted on November 7, 2016November 11, 2016 by Zogman

After the long walks these last two days, we both settled down to a sunbathing day today. The furthest we were going to go was the pool, or should I say the pools. The pool with the bar in it, yes in it, not just next to it, but in the pool itself, which means that you can swim up to the pool, have a drink and swim away again. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, but it all went ‘swimmingly’ today Winking smile Both Scamp and I had a swim in the pool and when we both tired of this aquatic activity, we baked in the sun for a while more. It was while Scamp was swimming she shouted to me that there was a dragonfly dipping into the pool. It was actually a mating pair that was laying eggs in the swimming pool. I don’t think there is much chance of those eggs hatching any time soon. If the chlorine doesn’t kill them, the filters will grind them to a pulp. Such a waste of time. I got a fairly decent ink sketch done while we were sitting by the pool

We had booked for the Asian restaurant tonight and so we settled for a light lunch to protect our appetite. After lunch it was back to the hard work of sunbathing again.

Later in the afternoon the sun had moved round and our sunbeds were in shadow so we went back to the room and sat on the balcony for a while. I got itchy feet and headed over to the lava rocks to see if I could capture any photos of butterflies. I managed a couple and that was my lot.

The Asian meal was delicious although it was a buffet and Scamp’s not keen on food that’s not piping hot, so she was a bit disappointed. I thought it was all lovely. My favourite was deep fried Dim Sum. Scamp’s fave was the Tuna – no surprise there. We had intended going for a walk and possibly a drink after the meal, but when we left the restaurant we could hear a violin playing. At first we thought it was piped music, but it turned out to be a live musician playing an electronic violin. Very clever stuff and of course that put paid to any chances of a walk, so it was ‘cooncil cocktails’ tonight. Like I said, the bloke was really good, playing classical, pop and jazz. We listened for his full set.

After the violinist had left, we went to hear the duo singing. Different duo tonight, different songs, slightly better mumbled English lyrics, but best of all, we got to dance! We did one Bachata and one Salsa. Not our finest, but better than nothing. There was a German (?) couple a bit older than us sitting in front of us and they seemed to think we had done alright. They seemed to dance Ceroc rather than salsa.

We actually watched the full show tonight – Best of Shows it was called. More like Least Worst in my opinion. Blokes with balloons up their jumpers seem to get a great laugh here. Possibly a Teutonic sense of humour. I think it was the show that put the tin lid on things. We went back to the room and off to sleep. No nightcap on the balcony tonight because we were both tired out after such a lazy day!

Signed Off – 31 October 2016

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Zogman

After a fairly lazy morning I was gearing myself up for what might be the final visit to the physio. I needn’t have worried. After a bit of prodding and stretching he declared me fit to go out and push my shoulder to its furthest extent. To go where no shoulder has gone before. He did, however stab half a dozen needles in just to warn it (and me) that if we didn’t behave, there would be more prodding, stretching and stabbing to be done. I find it hard to explain how I feel. I’ve gained nothing from the exercises, but I’ve lost all the pain associated with the injury. I think that’s the bit that’s hard to explain. It’s the lack of something rather than a gain, although it is a gain, I’ve gained the ability to make my arm move, painlessly, in ways that it hasn’t in about a year. I’ve been set free from the pain.

In the afternoon, I went for a walk over Cumbernauld Fields to sketch Cumbernauld House. The house was under the governance of CDC (Cumbernauld Doesn’t Care) when we first moved here. After that it was taken over by NLC who almost immediately sold it to the highest bidder. Now it’s been converted to a host of executive apartments. Such a shame, but not surprising from the despicable NLC. That said, I chose part of Cumbernauld House as my final Inktober sketch. Technically it’s nowhere nearly as good as the Venetian Mask (my favourite), it’s a fair representation of the house. I’m going to miss Inktober. Admittedly I will now have more hours in my day, but sketching now has a place in my life. I’m glad I completed all 31 of the sketches, all in ink, and most in a bound sketchbook.

Kizomba is bucking the trend for dancing in the STUC. It’s becoming a Man’s dance. More often than not, there are more men than women in the class. Very strange. It’s becoming a bit more technical, especially with footwork, but I’m still hanging in there, kept in check by the very tolerant and patient Scamp and Irene V. I blunder through more steps than I’ve ever encountered in Salsa, but it’s still enjoyable. If it wasn’t I wouldn’t have signed my name on the sheet to say I was interested in a Level 2 class.

Salsa was another example of Jamie Gal’s zany and, at times, absolutely mental imagination. Who would have thought of issuing all of us, leaders and followers with glowsticks and then turning all the lights off in the STUC then dancing a rueda. Meanwhile there were sweets, lollies, chocolates an oranges to sustain us. Very Halloween. Thank you again Jamie Gal for your insane imagination.

Tomorrow? Glasgow? Maybe.

Just a Wednesday – 26 October 2016

Posted on October 26, 2016October 26, 2016 by Zogman

Some days are interesting, some days are not. Today was not. We had a few loose end to tie up today and we got them done. Scamp was feeling better, or she said she was feeling better. Photography was covered with a walk in the wind and the rain along the Luggie and I got a fairly decent shot of the wee falls upstream from where I usually go. I had to take the shots in between chasing two dogs who wanted to be in the photo. It’s an ok shot, but nothing spectacular.

We drove in to Glasgow tonight and did manage to catch the last 20 minutes or so of the beginners class, a minor miracle in itself as when we entered the motorway the CITRAC signs were telling us that it would take 51 minutes to reach the airport. On a good day it takes 17 minutes. Apparently Rangers were playing at Ibrox and the road was full of mad Gers fans. After a few ‘long roads for shortcuts’ we did manage to reach the STUC building in just under an hour. That was forty minutes more than our journey back home, an hour and a half later, after half a beginners class and our own Wednesday class. I think they should ban football during the week, or on Salsa days anyway. We weren’t the worst by far. Poor Roy S took 2 and a half hours to get there from Alloa. Having said that, Alloa is on the outer reaches of the galaxy.

Today’s Inktober is a sliced up apple. The knife is an old bone handled one that, I think came from Scamp’s mum. The handle recently broke and rather than throw it out, I glued it with Epoxy resin. Old traditional bone handle repaired with modern adhesive. I like that. We’ve both found that we’re using the old bone handled knives more than their plastic or stainless steel handled modern counterparts. The old knives have a much better feel to them and a lot more character.

Maybe going to Glasgow tomorrow, but we’re driving in. I think the bus journeys with all the sneezers and coughers is what’s given Scamp the cold. I don’t want it, and I want her to get over her dose as well. I might even get some architectural drawing done into the bargain. Who knows? (Question mark or not??)

A better planned Monday – 24 October 2016

Posted on October 24, 2016October 24, 2016 by Zogman

Mondays are busy days, frantic sometimes and the only way to get everything done and keep sane it to plan the day beforehand.

Morning was bright and colourful with the sun shining through the leaves. I imagine leaves get thinner and more translucent in autumn. I’d guess it’s because the sugars and starches are being drawn away from them into the trunk of the tree. Anyway, the colours were really striking this morning. I had my usual coffee while I finished today’s ‘Easy’ Sudoku. For once, it was easy. They’re not always like that.

After lunch, and while Scamp’s ‘Gems’ group were in practising, I went out to get some photos and hopefully a sketch too. I’d planned to go to Auchinstarry and sketch some of the barges in the marina, but instead I went to Colzium park in Kilsyth. Scamp and I used to go there for a walk on Sunday mornings. We haven’t been there for a long time, maybe it’s time we went back again. I didn’t come for the walk this time, just to sketch the house. It’s an old house, dating from the early 19th century. It’s owned by NLC now which means it’s closed most of the time, a great shame as it has great potential.

I settled on a seat to start the sketch and was getting to grips with it and also getting used to sketching in public. Then a wee man who had been sitting admiring the view over Kilsyth and also keeping an eye on me came over and asked if I was ‘Doin’ a picture” I told him I was and he asked if I he could have a look. This is the first time anyone has spoken to me when I was drawing and it was a bit disconcerting, but the sketch wasn’t looking too bad, so I said “Of course you can.” After casting his critical eye over it he asked me if I was going to make it bigger. I suppose he thought this was just a ‘rough sketch’ and here was me thinking it was looking quite good. I told him that this was the finished article. He seemed bemused by this and asked why I was doing it. Now, how do you explain Inktober to a stranger, especially to someone who doesn’t draw? Luckily I didn’t have to explain because he started a new tack. “You’re no’ fae Kilsyth are you?” He said. I told him no, I was from distant Cumbersheugh. He dismissed that great New Town with a “Hmmph” and after a few other bits of small talk he was off home and I’d survived my first unasked for critique.

I liked the slo-mo shot of the burn coming down the wee falls. I also liked the swanhead on the old curling pond. Most of all I was quite happy with my finished sketch of Colzium House. Were will tomorrow’s sketch be from? I don’t know, but tonight before going to Kizomba and Salsa, I had processed the pictures and loaded the successful ones to Flickr. I’d also posted today’s Inktober sketch. All that was left after dancing was to write the blog. That’s almost done and it’s just 11pm. That’s what happens when you plan your day.

Coffee and Swapshop – 19 October 2016

Posted on October 19, 2016October 20, 2016 by Zogman

I used to say that people who wanted to drink coffee should go to Costa and the rest should go to Starbucks, because Costa serve coffee and Starbucks serve Starbucks. I think that is no longer the case. Recently I’ve been going to Cafe Nero rather than go to Costa. The quality of coffee in Costa has plummeted recently in my opinion and is now almost as bad as Starbucks. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Cafe Nero in Cumbersheugh, only Costa.

Today the three Auld Guys, Fred, Val and I met to exchange goodies. Fred brought music. Music in a variety of formats, MP3 predominantly, but also FLAC and WMA . Val and I both got some. Val brought books which we accepted with grateful thanks. I also brought books which were shared out between the other two. We also shared jokes stories and the other two critiqued my Inktober sketches. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours with good friends and bad coffee. The meetings of the full Auld Guys contingent is a much better affair with plenty of sarcasm, wit and good beer, but these fortnightly meetings are good too. They have their place in our ‘busy’ lives.

When I got back I went for a cold walk round St Mo’s. Attempted a couple of landscape shots, but the light wasn’t conducive to decent photography. I think I just left it too late and the light quality was too poor. I did like the PoD at the top of the page. I like the graphic quality of monochrome, especially Black & White and I’m always amazed at the work the spiders put in to decorate these dried plants. You don’t notice these things until you look and that’s what photography is all about, looking.

Salsa tonight was interesting. It was Jamie G’s last lesson with his beginners class and I felt sorry for him saying goodbye to them because they are joining a class with another teacher next week. I know how he feels. I felt the same when I lost one of my classes at the end of the year. But that was long ago now, in the dim mists of time.

I’d thought long and hard about today’s Inktober sketch and attempted a couple of setups before I settled on A Pair of Pears. I quite like it. Not the best I’ve done, but better than what went before it tonight.