Category: Dancing

Today the rains came – 22 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

One of those days when you knew the weather had indeed turned for the worse.

Well, I guess the plants don’t see it that way, They are desperate for some fresh water even if it’s at the loss of some of the heat they’ve become used to.

<Technospeak>
Scamp had been complaining for a while that her watch wasn’t synchronising with her phone. We tried a few of the tricks resetting the phone and the watch we even did a soft reset of the watch. Nothing seemed to work. Eventually we did a factory reset of the watch and installed a new update that seemed to clear everything. It only took about three hours to work out the best way forward, with a stop for lunch in the middle. However, we did get it going in the end, but sometimes you just have to rely on your instinct rather than the wahoos who claim to be gurus.
</Technospeak> (Not seen that warning in a long time Jamie)

The next thing to do was investigate the situation with a new laptop for Scamp. Her storage is being eaten away and the battery is failing, so a new machine is on the cards. We thought we’d found an ideal solution in the HP Shop. But then we checked them on Trustpilot and it looks like they are going through a rough patch. Lots of complaints of punters paying for goods that just don’t appear. HP claim a delivery within 2 working days, but 2 weeks seems to be the norm. After another look round the stores, we decided that the HP store are a bit too risky

We’d had some spits and spots of rain during the day, but then the rain got heavier and heavier. I stood at the back door to shelter and took today’s PoD of wet roses in the rain. The title was “Raindrops on Roses. No Whiskers on Kittens.”

Not long after that the distant rumble of thunder came from the east and it rolled along the valley heading west. I didn’t actually see any lightning, but there was plenty of thunder.

When the rain finally abated, I drove down to Tesco to get a bag full of veg to make a stir-fry for dinner. Usually I buy an M&S set of protein, veg, noodles and stir-fry sauce, but today everything was either from the store cupboard or bought fresh or as fresh as Tesco veg is. It wasn’t the best stir-fry, but bits of it were good. Good enough to try again another day.

Today’s prompt was A Staircase.
My sketch was Just an attempt at a sort of perspective view of a dangerous looking open plan staircase. No handrail! No balustrade! No soft fluffy cushions to break your fall. It was a Health & Safety nightmare. Should have a warning “Do not ascend after drinking alcohol.” Parachutes an optional extra.

No dance class tonight.  We’re not sure why. Maybe too many people called off because of the weather. Maybe something came up and Kirsty wasn’t able to run the class. I’m sure we’ll find out in due course.

Tomorrow, perhaps the search for the world’s best laptop will continue.

 

Off the leash again! – 19 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off at midday. Going to see the Strictly Professionals in the Armadillo.

Before she left we had a phone chat with Hazel and heard that things are returning to normal again after Rita’s funeral. I think it has taken more out of then than they had anticipated. I’m sure the mid-term break and the thoughts of the holiday will give them something to look forward to.

I dropped Scamp off at the British Legion, where she joined in with the rest of the FitSteps ladies who were going. No men appeared to be interested. My duty done, I drove out to Westway Retail Park where I was intending to buy some bags of compost … but not today! There were crowds of folk coming and going from the Home Bargains store which was where Scamp told me the best bargains in compost were. I’m sure there were bargains to be had, but there were no spaces in the carpark, and I do mean NONE. If that’s how busy it was outside, what was it going to be like inside. I drove home via Tesco and bought a loaf to take home.

It was a cloudy day. Lots of high white cloud that the sun couldn’t penetrate, so I got the grass cutter out and chopped the grass in the back garden, shifting all the pots as I went to avoid having to use the strimmer. It didn’t take very long to hover mow the grass, but it did take easily twice as long to clean the mower afterwards. By the time I had finished and put the mower back in its place, the sun was starting to cut through the cloud and the place was getting that little bit brighter. I dug out some compost from the raised bed and used it to earth up the two potato bags and the potato pot. That was the extent of today’s gardening.

After a cup of tea the sun was indeed shining and it was warm enough to take out a garden chair and read in the sun. The Black Dog by Kevin Bridges was today’s book. A bit of a scrambled start, but then the real story had started. I don’t know if it’s been part ghost written, but the language seems quite flowery for Mr B, in places. I’ll see how it settles down.

Later in the afternoon I thought I’d go over to St Mo’s to see if there were any damselflies or dragonflies. There were both, but the damselflies were busy making more damselflies while the single dragonfly seemed to flying circuits round the pond. Eventually it rested on a horsetail, quite near to the boardwalk and I managed to get a few (about 30) shots of it. One of which got PoD.

Dinner for me was some of yesterday’s chicken with potatoes, chives and tomatoes and it was almost as good as yesterday’s.

Just before 8pm I got a text from Scamp asking to be picked up from the rooftop restaurant in the town centre. It seemed that the show was a success, although it wasn’t exactly what she’s been expecting.

Spoke to Jamie later and heard about their garden. What was growing and what was not. Simonne is off on her travels again, this time in England.

Today’s prompt asked for a Ball of Wool. This is not an exact spherical ball, more a disjointed cylindrical woollen object with hemispherical ends. So, to my eyes it’s a ball of wool, but I’m sure my daughter will correct me and tell me it’s yarn, not wool. It is what it is, and it was easier than I thought to draw.

We may go looking for compost again tomorrow, hoping to find a quieter time.

A Flaneur – 15 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Just a wee walk round Glasgow with my brother.

Since Scamp wasn’t in need of the car today, I gladly drove it to the station, parked there and got the train in to Glasgow.

I was early for once and went for a walk along Sausageroll Street and by the time I got back, Alex had arrived. We went for a coffee as is our usual plan of attack and then just wandered down Buchanan Street taking the odd photo here and there. Down into St Enoch’s and through on to the Clyde Walkway. We didn’t see any new graffiti since our last visit and while Alex took some shots of the reflections of the cathedral in the glass sided building next to it, I manage a few shots of the cathedral between two trees … until Alex walked into the frame and stood taking his shots. As it happened I’d got a couple before he walked into the frame. I also liked the lighting on a modern high-rise block of flats, posh looking flats beside the river. I changed them to mono later and that seemed to improve them.

It was a toss up whether we would continue along the side of the river or go and have lunch. I won the toss and we did lunch in Paesano, of course.

After lunch we walked in to George Square and took some photos of folk. Street photography it’s called. I’m not keen on it, really, but Alex is and he’s good at it. Something to do with his brass neck, I think! Thought I’d caught one bloke off guard, but then realised he was smiling, probably having taken a shot of me when I wasn’t looking. Alex was off photographing buses, of all things. Well, I shouldn’t criticise since I’m the one who photographs spiders fighting!
I got a photo of two blokes about my age talking animatedly, both with guitars on their backs. Either they were discussing the merits of nylon strings vs steel strings, or they were commiserating with each other on the poor results of their favourite football teams. That was PoD.

Another coffee and we were heading home. Alex to the bus station and me to the train station. The train was really busy but I got one of the last seats. Then an old lady (ie older than me!) got the one across from me. As she turned, I noticed she’d been ushered into her seat by a younger woman. I offered the younger woman my seat and although she refused at first, I told her I was getting off at the next stop and she thanked me and took the seat. When I was getting off, two seats became vacant and the lady turned and mouthed “Thanks again”. That made my day brighter. A good deed done.

Dancing tonight was the second part of the waltz and it was a bit more difficult than the first half, but with Kirsty’s breaking down of the steps it became easier and Scamp also helped keep me right. Next week we’re hoping to join the two halves together. Another practise tonight may have cemented the second half in my memory. Only time will tell.

Today’s prompt was A Glass of Wine. I couldn’t find a glass of wine, so I sketched one. Just a glass of red wine that had been enjoyed by someone or some people. It’s a pretty glass, or was at one time before being dribbled on, had lipstick marks made on it and had been generally abused. That’s what happens when you mix a clean glass with a good bottle of red wine and a group of people with a drouth (Scots word for a thirst). It was very nice wine!

No plans for tomorrow yet.

Coffee with Isobel – 8 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

We were out this morning for coffee with Isobel.

I sometimes don’t join Scamp when she’s meeting Isobel, but I chose to today. As usual, Isobel’s conversation covered family, gardens and anything else that was interesting her at the time. She’s a mine of useful information about gardens and plants, so Scamp is often picking her brains about what to plant and when to prune. Me, I just go along for the ride and interject with some cheeky comments if I think I can get away with it, which isn’t often with Isobel. One thing she did say was that a the new Home Bargains had some great bargains in the plants section. When we left Costa we decided to go and visit it, because Isobel was going shopping in the town centre.

The new Home Bargains is enormous, taking in the general shopping area, a well stocked garden area and a cafe, although we couldn’t find it. The prices for the plants were very good, but you had to be careful to get fresh looking plants as quite a few of them were wilting. We picked a couple of plants that Scamp fancied, a miniature Gypsophila and a Foxglove. We went in to Aldi which is next door for a loaf and some soda scones. When we came out we’d spent less than a tenner! Result!!

Back home after lunch Scamp was working in the garden and I thought I should too. I split up a pot of basil that I bought in Tesco and made four pots with the plants. We also cut down some old broken solar powered lights. They seem to work for about a year then just die. If you put new rechargeable batteries in, they don’t last as long as the original ones. I reckon it’s ingress of water at the cable junctions that causes the problem.

I was getting coffee delivered today from The Bean Shop. I was disappointed in the coffee I’d got from Braithwaite’s in Dundee when we were there. Old Brown Java was almost exactly as its name described. It tasted old and brown. I don’t know where in Java it came from, but it tasted like it had been mouldering in a damp cellar somewhere. But I digress, as it turned out my coffee wasn’t delivered until about 7.30pm, by which time we were halfway through a new Waltz routine with Kirsty. Quite a small class today, but that’s often a good thing. It was tonight. By the time our hour was up we’d learned the first waltz and were promised the second one next week, all being well.

Back home I found my coffee in the bin shed, exactly where I’d asked for it to be put. DPD always delivers! So far, at least.

PoD was a single solitary American Cowslip – Shooting Star. Usually I get at least half a dozen flowers, but this year there was only one. I’d read that the plant only lasts for about five years and that’s about the time I’ve had it. I have seeds that I harvested last year, somewhere in my room. I’ll need to find them and hopefully grow a new batch of Shooting Stars for next year DV.

I got a lot of flak from some of the more PC members of EDiM in Flickr. Almost all the comments were about the dangerous weapons I was sketching. A pencil and a scalpel. Ok, I agree about the scalpel, but a pencil?? Some folk just don’t live in the real world.

Today’s prompt was A Scooter.
This is the exact scooter I used to have many years ago. It’s a Triang Mobo scooter. Mostly made from metal with yellow wheels, red chassis and plate and black rubber grips. I travelled miles on that scooter. When I grew out of it, I passed it on to my brother. I wonder what he did with it.

Tomorrow, if the good weather stays, we may go and visit the big horses.

Dancin’ – 4 May 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This morning we drove over to Brookfield for today’s dance class. The first class in about a month for various reasons.

I wasn’t really looking forward to today’s class. All those long lie ins on Saturday mornings were over today. Back to the grind stone. Actually it wasn’t all that bad, in fact I have to say I really enjoyed it.

First dance was the White City Waltz. Scamp said we knew it and I took her word. The demo that Stewart & Jane did reminded me of it, but after the first bit I was lost again. I think that maybe Kirsty goes too slowly at times, but S&J sometimes go to quickly for my wee brain to catch up. However, after two or three tracks we were dancing it like we’d always know it.

Next was the new Rumba routine. Again it looked insurmountable until you broke it down and found we knew most of the moves from previous dances and, although it took longer, it did eventually all go together.

The third and last dance was a Cha-Cha and the same as the Rumba, we managed to put all the moves in at the right time. We both made mistakes, but in the end we were dancing it fairly competently.

Drove home and after lunch we didn’t do very much. Scamp wasn’t feeling great and thinks she might have hay fever. She’s been taking Sudafed but it isn’t helping much. Later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a couple of decent photos. The PoD went to a branch of May blossom. I was intending to bring back dinner for both of us, Chicken Chop Suey and a portion of Fried Rice each. However when I phoned the Golden Bowl I was told their card machine wasn’t working and it would have to be cash. I’d only £12 in cash and that wouldn’t cover it, so I walked home, got the money and went over to Condorrat to pick up the food. I’ve now heard of a few places only dealing in cash transactions. Maybe they don’t want to pay the overheads the banks charge for the machine transactions or maybe there’s another reason. The food was good, just not as good as I remembered it to be. Next time I’ll return to my usual of Special Chow Mein.

Today’s prompt was “May the Fourth be with you” (4th of May) or a bee or a fly. I tried sketching a Lego Stormie minifig and I tried a honey bee. I tried a hover fly, but finally I settled on the flying assassin of ponds. The Dragonfly. They are such beautiful flyer. So skilful in the air, but such ferocious killers of other insects. I love them and I wait impatiently for the first ones to hatch every year. This is my sketch of a Common Darter (male).

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if Scamp is well enough.

 

Shoes and Greece – 15 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

How the other half live!

So, the story of the shoes:
Scamp bought a pair of dance shoes back in November last year. She wore them once to the gala ball in Perth, but found they hurt her foot. She changed the shoes midway through the evening and though no more about it. Recently she tried wearing them again and felt a sharp pain in her toe. When I had a look at the shoes and probed the sole with my finger I could feel something like the sharp end of a staple. Presumably that was the source of the pain she felt.

Long story short, she sent a message to the lady who owns the shop where she bought the shoes and today we took them in to the shop in Rutherglen for inspection. The owner recognised Scamp because we’ve both bought shoes from her in the past and agreed that a badly placed metal staple was the problem. She apologised and is intending to replace the shoes once her stock comes in.

We bought some fruit and bread, some solar powered lights and a new frying pan in a big Tesco not 100m from the dance shop then drove home in the rain. The fruit was for Scamp and June to have some refreshments on the four hour journey to Inverness, tomorrow. The frying pan was because we needed one and it was a bargain. £22 marked down to £8. Couldn’t resist a bargain. The lights were also cheap and Scamp has been talking about getting them for a long while. The only problem might be they need 48 hours of sunshine to charge them.  I don’t think we’ve had 48 hours os sunshine this year!

After lunch I went out for a drive, but couldn’t get parked in my usual spot at Fannyside because someone had dumped a big tractor there. Farmers! They think they own the place and can just park anywhere! Couldn’t find anything to interest me enough to take the camera out of the bag, so I just drove home. It was just one of those days!

When the rain went off about half an hour later, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a couple of decent shots. PoD was a bunch of daisies growing beside the path that leads to St Mo’s. The grass looks good and lush, but underneath it’s like a swamp. I fully expected a crocodile to be crawling through it. Everywhere seems like a swamp this year. Scotland seems to be getting the worst of the weather and to rub it in, the dance teachers keep sending photos of the wonderful places they are visiting. Today it was Rhodes in the Greek islands, and by the look of the photos, it wasn’t raining there.

Tomorrow we’ll have to be up early because I’m driving Scamp up to the bus station in the Town Centre. June has booked a taxi for herself. I have the rest of the day to myself, I hope, before picking Scamp up about 9pm.

Windy and Wet – 6 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a strange day. No dance class in the morning, but a monthly dance at night.

We didn’t really settle down all day. It was a wild day. Very high winds and heavy rain lashing at the windows. In a fairly dry spell I took some photos of flowers in the garden to make a collage just in case I didn’t get out again!

One brightener was the bud on the Split Rock began to open and almost opened fully, but not quite. Maybe tomorrow when the weather is supposed to be a bit calmer it will open up and show its petals.

We did walk down to the shops in the afternoon to get some food to take to the dance and a pizza for an early dinner. Afterwards I went for a walk in St Mo’s with the A6500 and a couple of lenses. I also took my ziplock plastic bag that provides the camera and lens with a bit of protection from the rain. I got some photos of the clouds scudding across the skies, but nothing I was happy with.

After dinner we got ready and had an interesting drive through the wind and rain to Brookfield where we were surprised at how few tables were spaced round the room, much less than we expected. We shared a table with Barry, Cath, Niahmat and Audrey and a couple of others. That brightened the evening! It also kept us well fed with the amount of food Barry produced from what seemed a bottomless bag!

The dance finished just after 10.30pm which is much earlier than we’ve had in previous dances. However it gave us straight run home along the M8 and the Kingston Bridge. We eventually got home and parked just after 11pm.

PoD was the collage of garden flowers. Not my best work, but fitted the bill.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for a bit day that’s at least partially dry with less disruptive winds. Too much to ask for? We’ll wait and see.

 

Carwash and Orchids – 27 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was out with the Witches this afternoon. I was out for the messages.

Lazy morning, not doing much other than Wordle and failing to do Spelling Bee. I’m not so anal about it anymore. If I get bumped in Wordle, like yesterday, it’s no big deal any more. Similarly with Spelling Bee, I give it about ten minutes max. If I don’t get the pangram in that time I give up. I’m either getting lazy or growing up. Probably the former.

When Scamp was out in the afternoon I drove to Tesco with my shopping list and came back with the things that were on it and, as usual, a lot more. Then I did this amazing thing. I took the blue car through the carwash. I don’t know when I last washed the car, I’m not even sure I’ve done it this year!!! I certainly can’t remember taking it through a carwash. Heavens, I don’t think I took its predecessor through a carwash either! Anyway, I paid my money and sat in the car while the giant machine foam washed and rinsed then dried the car. When I left it was shining like a new pin. Well, almost. I thing there is some ingrained dirt on its roof. It might take sandpaper to get it off and that would be a step too far. Still, it was nice to drive a clean car for a change!

By the time I got home, Scamp was home too and I just sat doodling for a while, then took some photos of the Moth Orchid (Phalaenopsis) I got yesterday. It’s quite small with just a few flowers so far, but plenty of buds. Hopefully it will provide a few more photos. One of the photos got PoD.

We had Giovani Rana Tortolloni for dinner, then got ready for Kirsty’s dance class. Tonight it was a reprise of the full Foxtrot. It’s beginning to fall into place now. It’s taken us a while, but that’s because the entire dance is split into two. I can do the first part and the second part, but marrying them together is where it all falls down. Still, the encouragement I get from Kirsty and Scamp make the whole thing work a lot smoother.

Tomorrow we have no commitments so far.

 

Dancin’ Class – 23 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

For four couples!

Only four couples dancing the Valentino Jive, Spring Waltz, Mayfair Quickstep, Jive and Tina Tango (to Shivers by Ed Sheehan, of course). Four couples and five routines, but, for me it was the Spring Waltz, or more correctly it was the details in the Spring Waltz we learned today that made me think for an hour I was “Dancing”. Both Stewart and Jane demonstrated the ’Sway’ technique that took the waltz from a walk round the floor to moving through the dance. It’s difficult to explain and will probably need a fair bit of rehearsing for us to get it right, but that simple technique took the waltz to another level. I’m really glad we went to today’s class.

Drove home and stopped at the shops to get the makings of tomorrow’s dinner which will be a reprise of Thursday’s Chicken Thighs with Leeks and Peas. M&S had no Skin-On, Bone-In Chicken Thighs but Aldi did.

After lunch I took a camera for a walk round Cumbersheugh and actually found a new vantage point to photograph the Campsies in some lovely light. The weather is best described as ‘changeable’. Rain one minute, brilliant sunshine the next, constantly changing. As well as that I also managed to get …

This section of the blog has been redacted due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter. Friends and family will understand why this decision has been taken. It may be released at a future date.

With that completed, I drove back home in time to take Scamp to The Link for her final Shingles injection. She had her first one eight weeks ago and it was a dull dark night. Today the sun was shining. What a difference a couple of months makes.

She had requested Fish ’n’ Chips for dinner and we stopped at Condorrat on the way home to get some. Nice fresh fish and freshly fried chips too. Perfect for a Saturday dinner.

We watched a recording of Rocky Horror Picture Show we’d made around about Christmas. I think we both had forgotten just how funny it was.

Preparations are in place for tomorrow, bus some are still to be finalised. That’s where I’m going now.

Dancin’ – 21 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

After a lazy morning we were pitched into another day of dancing.

Drove to Glenburn for today’s tea dance. Horrible day, rained all the way there, but we got to sit at a great table and the weather was forgotten. I missed the first two dances, both waltzes because I had something in my shoe or in my sock. It took me two dance tracks to fix it, I wasn’t avoiding the dance … honest. I knew I’d have another opportunity to dance the waltz after tea or find something else in my shoe if necessary.

Next was foxtrot which I staggered through with Scamp’s helpful comments like “Where are you going?” ringing in my ears. On a positive note, we danced an almost perfect Ballroom Rumba and Ria Bachata.

Good to sit and talk to folk the same or similar age as us and hear their plans for the year. Also good to see the floor full for most of the dances.  Even better, was for me to win a chocolate egg in the Easter raffle!  Thank you Stewart & Jane!

Drove home through more, even heavier rain on the M74 and kept the wheels turning. We’d never have managed that on the Kingston Bridge which is just a slowly moving carpark until about 8pm on any day of the working week.

Dinner, after some discussion was Chicken Thighs with Leeks and Peas. Brilliant recipe where the oven does all the work. Lovely crunchy skin on the chicken and the crisped up leeks are great too.

Speaking about Leeks, today’s PoD  was another experiment. I cut off the bottom 20mm of a leek and set it to float in a container of water. That was a few weeks ago. Now it has grown and been tidied up a bit and I’m hoping to plant it in a pot in the greenhouse and see if I can grow a leek from a leek! I have Hazy to thank for the inspiration.

Tomorrow, the plan is to drive to some B&Q that actually has paint to sell of the exact colour we’re looking for for the next stage in Project Spring Clean the House!