Category: Driving

The Fort – 20 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

A lazy start to the day. It rained for most of the morning, but cleared away completely in the afternoon.

We drove to The Fort for some odds and ends and I finally got a shaver. Not the Braun I was looking for, but a Philips rotary shaver which seems to do what it’s meant to do and is much quieter than the Braun that’s going in the bin. The parking was fairly decent, although we did have to cruise around for a while before we found one.

While Scamp went off to find those odds and ends, I went for a browse in Waterstones and came out with another book. That makes it three in the same week and I’ve another one on the go just now that came from Fred. I was looking for something to photograph and saw the three “Easy Deer”. Easy, because they never run away. That’s probably due to them being cast in bronze. Got a view looking over their heads from behind, as you can see, as if they were watching the people rushing madly about. It wasn’t such a madhouse as Glasgow the other day, but I think everyone was in the new Primark.

When we were sure we had everything we came for, we drove home. A more pleasant drive that coming as the sun was now at our back. Some lovely landscape shots were passing beside the north facing side window, but as usual there were no places to stop and take a photo.

Dinner was a stir-fry made by Scamp an it was lovely. That was part of the ‘odds and ends’ Scamp was looking for at The Fort.

I watched a Kevin Bridges film in the evening: The Overdue Catch-Up. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and watch an hour and a half of Kevin. Just brilliant. After that, Scamp watched The Quartet. I think I’ve seen it before, but it was worth watching again.

Other than that, I tested the shaver and found it comfortable to use, no nicks! I think Scamp is now sorted for Christmas. We’ve had a glass of wine or two and we’ve watched the obligatory sickly sweet Nigella Lawson trying to pretend she has friends who come to her dinner parties. Aye right!

We’re hoping the promised incoming storm won’t be as bad as the weather fairies predict.

A driving tour of Central Scotland – 19 December 2024

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I dropped Scamp off at midday to meet Mags for lunch. Then I started the tour.

My electric razor is almost defunct. So I thought I’d just replace the foil with a new one. Unfortunately they don’t make foils for the older models, so I need a new razor, which shouldn’t be a problem, should it? Three hours and five shops spread liberally around the Central Belt later,I can definitely say that the electric razors are harder to find than I’d ever have imagined in my wildest dreams. In the end I came home empty handed.

I’ve been doing a lot of moaning about dull, drab and dark Scottish weather. Today was the exact opposite. It was bright, clear and the sun was shining. However, there’s always a ‘However’, isn’t there. However it being near the shortest day, the sun was low in the sky and I felt I was driving into the sun all day. Sunglasses didnt help nor did the windscreen blinds because they didn’t come down far enough. Some of us are never happy, are we?

I finished my driving tour almost exactly where I started, at Cumbersheugh Town Centre to get some easy peel oranges for Scamp. Everywhere I went, I saw crowds and crowds of folk barging about with full shopping trolleys. Allegedly the shops will be shut for two whole days next week! What will we do? Where will we find food? We’ll starve!!!

We watched the Celebrity Sewing Bee tonight. It was awful. I think ‘infantile’ was the best word to describe it. I actually started this blog about a quarter the way through it, that’s how bad it was.

PoD went to a little green elf I found sitting on a bench in the middle of a very busy Bishopbriggs car park. I hope his owner found him. A little brightener on a day of xmas madness.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

A day in Glasgow – 17 December 2024

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We agreed that we both needed to buy some things and Glasgow was the obvious choice.

I quite fancied having another go at oil painting after watching some short tutorial videos on Sky Arts. I’ve got the basic materials, but I need to get some solvent. Turps is frowned upon now because of the smell and the dangerous fumes. I was looking for a solvent called Sansodor (Franglais for Without Smell) and Cass Art in Glasgow has it. Scamp was looking for a few little somethings for Christmas.

We drove in to Glasgow and parked in Buchanan Galleries and went for a wander around the shops inside the galleries because it was raining heavily. I wanted a replacement foil for my electric razor and luckily I found one in Boots in the galleries. Eventually we had to go outside and we gravitated to Nero and shared an Italian Cream Bun. Then it was out into the rain again.

We walked down Queen Street and I got PoD which was a strip of red and white sparkling baubles outside an Italian restaurant. Lots of wee water drops on the shining balls had caught my eye. I got the solvent and a sketch book too in Cass Art and then we headed up to Sauchiehall Street which is still a disaster area and will probably stay that way for a good part of next year. I was looking for a book and Scamp was looking for something else, unstated. I didn’t find any books that interested me, but Scamp had a fairly well filled bag when we met up again. The rain was getting heavier, so we chose to leave shopping for the day and go home and have lunch.

I tried the foil on my razor and discovered that, although the razor is a Braun series 5 and the replacement was a Braun series 5, they were completely different from each other. No way would that foil fit my razor. I’d have to take it back to Boots in Cumbersheugh to get a replacement. Meanwhile, Scamp had been having problems with her phone. It looked to me as if it was an early warning that her storage was almost full, so I volunteered to get a new SD card while I was out. Getting my money back for the razor foil was no problem, but after wandering around three different phone shops I still hadn’t found anywhere that sold micro SD cards. Hardly anyone uses them now. Most phones have built-in storage. When I got home, disillusioned and wet, I asked Mr Bezos if he had any cards, and of course he did. It’s due to arrive tomorrow.

We watched, horrified as one of the three finalists for Portrait of the Year proceeded to paint caricatures of a posed couple, and, you guessed it … He won!
I dread to think what he’ll do to the final portrait which will be of Lorraine Kelly. They really need to weed out those who cannot paint, at the early stages instead of making a mockery of what is a great show.

I’ve another early rise tomorrow because the engineer is coming to service the boiler between 9am and 12noon.

Another broken bus – 15 December 2024

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Usually the blog is written from my perspective, but the majority of today’s is written about Scamp and the Witches visit to Manchester.

Yesterday the witches had a fairly faultless run down to Manchester and by all reports were impressed with the Trafford centre. Today they were heading back to Manchester from their overnight stay in Chorley or nearby there to go to the Christmas Markets. Around 3pm I got the message that they were leaving Manchester and would phone at Gretna.

I got a message to tell me they were leaving Gretna with an ETA of 7.20pm at Hamilton bus station where I’d agreed to pick them up. Two minutes later I got the message that the extremely high winds had blown the windscreen wiper off the bus and they’d need to get someone to fix it or get a replacement bus. Long story short, two hours late, I picked up the four and dropped them off at Jeanette’s house and we drove home.

I’d made a fairly large pot of Minestrone soup for a late lunch and it was used for dinner while the sorry tale unravelled. I’m not saying Scamp is a jinx, although she did, but this is the second bus journey that has come to grief with a broken bus she has been on!

My own day had been a case of taking some odds and ends to the skips in the afternoon. The winds hadn’t been as wild then, so I carried on to Fannyside and got some photos of “The Girls”, the hardy sheep that don’t seem to notice the wind and the rain as long as there’s food in their basket. Went for a walk along to a farm, got some photos of Cladonia lichen that grows well there, apparently a sign of clean air. On the way back I saw a fast flying bird land on a telegraph pole and grabbed a few photos of it. When I came home I found that it was a Kestrel. Unmistakeable with the narrow wings and the chestnut coloured back.

PoD was that picture of “The Girls”, looking as if they were posing for a photo.

Hoping to have a less stressful day tomorrow.

 

 

Off the leash – 14 December 2024

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An early rise for me. 6.30am is definitely early for me, very early. I was up at that ungodly hour to drive Scamp the Condorrat, there another driver would take her with the rest of the Witches to Glasgow. And from there down the M74 and the M6 for miles and miles and miles.

They were all off on a short ‘Jolly’ down to Manchester to experience the Trafford Centre. Tomorrow, hopefully, a Christmas Market awaits them, also in Manchester. Then back up north to a place called Reality!

That left me off the leash for a whole day and a half. What would I do with all that free time? I would do this, and that, and that other thing I’ve been meaning to do for ages … but in the end, I sat and read for half the morning. Then went to Tesco looking for something that wasn’t there. I did grab myself a pizza for dinner and a bag of Jelly Babies, two bags, actually and came home. That’s the trouble with having plenty of time. I just never ever use it properly. I just fritter it away, and before you know it, the sun is setting and I’ve not taken a photo yet.

Well, I did have a photo. Admittedly I’ve shot that same scene at least ten times, each one similar to but not the same as the last. It’s That Lane. Usually it begins to look a bit sinister after I’ve boiled it in Lightroom and Photoshop, then washed it out in ON1. Still, it’s done and I like its sinister aura “a’ roon” to quote Billy Connolly.

I watched another couple of painting tutorials. Little half hour slots with known faces, painting faces. They always amaze me how simple their structure is, simple and perfectly formed. I nearly always try to do as they say and end up putting it in the bin.

As you’ve gathered, I didn’t get up to much today, but I did go for a walk and achieved what Garmin says is a decent score.

Scamp is due home tomorrow evening and this time I’m chauffeur. After that, life will return to normal I hope!

 

Coffee and Cake Cancelled – 13 December 2024

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I said yesterday that Shona had invited us to Costa for coffee and cake. It was cancelled.

Scamp got a message from Shona just after 9am to say that Ben had refused to go to school. That means he’ll be home all day and the Costa visit was cancelled.That sort of messed up our morning, but not as much as it messed up Shona’s morning. Poor soul was looking forward to a relaxing morning, heaven know she deserves it.

To make use of the day, Scamp and I drove up to Tesco and bought a trolley load of food (and drink) and then drove home for lunch. Which turned out to be Wednesday’s soup.

Later in the afternoon, but not too late, I put my boots on and took a camera out for a walk in St Mo’s. Scamp was walking down to the shops, so I joined her for most of the walk down to M&S, then left to go round St Mo’s pond a couple of times. Not a lot to see, but the thaw had come and all the frosted trees had little droplets of frost melt. One of those photos made PoD. Scamp says it looks like a cartoon horse’s head. It took me a while to see it, but now I can’t unsee it!!

Dinner tonight was paella and it actually tasted quite good for a change. The only mistake I made was putting the prawns in too early, resulting in Rubber Prawns. Not very nice to eat.

Watched the semi-final of Portrait Artist of the Year and wasn’t surprised to see a truly awful painting make it to the final three. I think I now know who is going to win, unfortunately.

Scamp is hoping to go on a overnight tomorrow with the other Witches. That means an early rise for me too!

Dancin’ – 12 December 2024

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The last tea dance of the year.

Drove through the freezing fog to Tesco for a bottle of fizz for the dance teachers, plus a loaf and some pomegranate seeds and … well, lots of things, actually.

Then it was back home for a coffee and a Wordle. Didn’t quite get the Spelling Bee, but the coffee was good. Found I’d got an Explore for the photo of Hair Ice back on Tuesday. I suppose it is a strange looking thing and not seen very often.

Lunch was coming up fast and I wasn’t dressed for it yet, so it was a frantic rummage in the wardrobe to get suitable clothes for today’s tea dance. ‘Christmas’ was the unspoken theme for today and for once I did embrace it. Christmas jersey and a very old bright red tee shirt with a reindeer. Scamp was in her Christmas dress and looked very festive.

The fog was almost gone by the time we reached Glenburn but there were only a few or the regulars there. We danced a whole, or almost a whole, Quickstep. I was quite chuffed to find that I could remember almost all of the Hoabie Quickstep. We rather messed up the Waltz Nioli which we used to know and that was it for the formal ballroom dances. The rest were sequence dances and I think we danced them all, even the Christmas Pudding Dance which is a complicated four person dance with lots of ducking under and dancing round each other. Best seen, not described.

Made a mistake on the way home and took the Kingston Bridge road which felt like a moving car park. Once we were on the bridge and after a quick lane change we were moving a lot faster. Actually we took about the same time as we would have done if we’d taken our usual M74/M73 route. That freezing fog from the morning was descending by the time we got home. I dropped all the bags in the kitchen and went over to Condorrat to get a large fish supper for us to share, and that was dinner sorted.

There had been no time today for an outside photo, so it was a still life. The Christmas cactus has just come into flower, so that was today’s subject. Actually it an amalgam of two photos. One of the flower petals and one of the stamens. If you look closely you can see a dusting of pollen from the flower.

Watched the final of Masterchef The Professionals and the right person won as far as we were concerned.

Tomorrow we’ve been invited by Shona to coffee and a cake in Costa. I look forward to that.

A lovely clear morning – 8 December 2024

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So good to wake to a bright, clear winter’s morning. Makes such a difference from the dull, milky skies of late and the gale force winds too.

It was Scamp’s suggestion that we drive over to Colzium, just outside Kilsyth and go for a walk in the woodland. I agreed, and off we went. Instead of our usual clockwise walk, we ignored tradition and walked it anti-clockwise. I hadn’t realised just how tiring the climb up the side of the Colzium Burn was until we were about half way up. Then we both realised that it was going to get even tougher when we crossed over the burn by the bridge and covered the last stint. A stop at the top gave us both a chance to rest for a while and take in the view down the waterfalls that tumble down to cross through the park many metres below.

After taking some photos of the waterfall and the rapids, we walked along the far gentler path that would take us through the trees to the once private road that led to Colzium House, now a wedding venue. On the way we were passed by a girl leading, or trying to lead her Setter along the path and through the trees. They made it Flickr, but didn’t get PoD. That went to a photo of the waterfalls at the top of the climb.

We took our time and followed the road past the house and back along a different burn on a higher channel. The burns cross at one point, but one is carried through a pipe below the higher one. It’s a strange sight to see. One sailing sedately along while the other drops through a manmade waterfall, through a pipe on off on a totally different direction. You probably have to see it to understand what’s going on.

We drove home via Lidl where we stocked up on sweets, beer and a loaf. The loaf was to be lunch, toasted and covered in baked beans. Beans on Toast, in other words!

Once lunch was past, we brought the tree out of the loft and unrolled the Snowman table cover in the living room to allow it to warm up and stretch a bit after being in cold storage for eleven months.

Dinner tonight was ‘Rats’ for Scamp and a steak for me. Steak was overdone but the baked potatoes we had with our protein were great.

Watched yesterday’s ‘Strictly’ and the F1 GP. Strictly was instantly forgettable but the GP was full of thrills and spills.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard about his plans for Christmas. We also heard of the problems of pleasing all of the people all of the time when it came to Christmas food. I don’t believe it can be done. Please yourself, that would be my suggestion. Then at least one person will be happy!

No definite plans for tomorrow, but a trip to the skips wouldn’t be a bad idea!

A cold windy day – 7 December 2024

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We hadn’t planned anything for the day and it didn’t look like there was going to be any reason to go out.

Basically, that was the story of the day.

It was such a dull day too. I had no reason to go out to take a photo. Instead I decided it would be a tabletop shot today. I chose the Hebe cuttings she’d taken, with permission, from Jackie’s bush in her front garden in Skye. She had watered them today and a little bead of water was nestled in the bottom of some leaves. An ideal subject from a less than ideal day. After about a dozen shots I had one I was happy with. It was a 30second exposure which will give you an idea how low the light level was in the toilet today. The toilet has been a great place to photograph plants. Awkward to get the Manfrotto tripod into, but a great setup to shoot in. PoD done and dusted.

With a few hours left were taken up with building this year’s calendar. I’m only really about half way through the first attempt and there’s still a lot to do, but a start has been made.

A pizza for dinner, because we were going over to Brookfield in the evening for the final evening dance of the year. Quick change of clothes and a shower, then we were off into Storm Darragh. Again, we were just on the edge of the worst of the wind, and thankful for it.

Arrived in plenty of time and had a great night of dancing and what can only be called a “Carry On”. Spoke to folk at our table who I may, in the past, have described as slightly standoffish, but once I took the time to talk to them, they are just ‘folk’.

Drove home along a motorway that was busier than I’d anticipated, probably due to shows and pantomimes emptying into the motorways. After we left Glasgow everything calmed down and we got parked quite easily at home.

We watched the qualifying for the F1 GP of the year, and had a wee snifter each to keep our eyes open.

Wind is still quite strong and noisy, but it’s calming down, I think.

No plans yet for tomorrow.

We start the battle again tomorrow – 4 December 2024

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My parting words yesterday were “… I will let the whole thing cool down until we start the battle again tomorrow …” and that’s basically what I did.

I have two SSDs which can run the iMac. One seems to be damaged, or mismanaged in some way, but the other, the older one, does work, although the operating system isn’t as up to date as the dodgy one. Before I went to bed last night I swapped the dodgy one for the less up to date one and it just worked.

It was a foggy morning and we drove up to Calders to get some compost and plastic pots to plant out some cuttings Scamp had ‘acquired’ from Jackie. She, Scamp, was booked to have her hair cut later in the morning , so on the way home we drove past Condorrat, where the hair dressers is, to ensure the four way traffic lights wouldn’t block the entrance to the hair dressers. They didn’t, thankfully. On the way past St Mo’s park the fog was turning to mist and rising very photogenically from the surface of the pond.

We parked at the house and I grabbed a camera and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Beautiful light and excellent shadows from the trees in the park. Plenty of subjects and when I’d done one circuit of the pond, I came upon a group of about a dozen Canada geese paddling in one of the channels that had been dug to increase the cover for the waterfowl. They took one look at me then turned a blind eye to me. I think they were pretending that if they didn’t look at me, I wasn’t there. I decided to do the same after I’d taken half a dozen photos, and walked on without looking in their direction.

Back home I uploaded the photos to the laptop, so at least I would have them saved somewhere on a computer and could retrieve them sometime.

Of course I couldn’t leave well alone and, started looking in detail at what was happening with the dodgy drive. None of it made sense and the more I looked the worse it became, and the more fankled I became.

The bright spot of the day was dinner which was Mince ’n’ Tatties. It gave me heartburn later, but that was a small price to pay for such a lovely meal. Thanks Scamp.

At night we went dancing in Kirsty’s class. Tonight was the last class of the year and hopefully the last time we’ll be on that tiny wee dance floor. Every dance tonight was a sequence dance, starting with the Sambarina which I hate. Then it was on to other dances. Some just silly wee dances, but some real sequence dances we knew. A lot of folk gave up on them but about six of us, three couples managed to finish them. Actually, if you ignore Sambarina, it was a good night.

Drove home and watched the penultimate episode of Shetland then we both went to bed to read for a while after another disappointing day.

Still no photos to show, but hopefully I’ll process some on the old drive tomorrow..

Tomorrow we may also go in to Glasgow.