Category: Driving

The alarm rang out – 4 March 2024

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I suppose it was a charming little tune, but it didn’t raise a smile from either of us. We rose, dressed and trundled the bags to the car, then drove through an almost deserted Glasgow to the airport. We dumped our cases and went off to find some breakfast in Frankie and Benny’s.

We sat and read, solved Wordle, bought overpriced sweets and watched the athletes who had been competing in the athletics in Glasgow saying their goodbyes to their colleagues before taking their seats in the lounge. Then they too sat and watched, willing the gate to be confirmed before heading home, some with smiles, some despondent and some just aching from their efforts. Our gate showed up at the specified time and we were off in a metal tube in the sky for four and a bit hours before we landed in a new world. One where the temperature would be in double figures, we hoped.

Instead of waiting for a bus from the airport, we took a taxi to the hotel and then had to wait in a queue while the overstressed staff booked us in. Ah, but it was worth the wait in Glasgow airport, and the four hour flight, and the booking-in scramble. It was worth it for the first view from the balcony of our room on the 5th floor and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore just beyond our hotel grounds. This is what we did it for.

The hotel is in the process of getting a major upgrade. The dining room especially is airier and brighter than it was before, five years ago. Lots of ’Suits’ wandering around, presumably checking the progress of the upgrade.
The room too has had a facelift. New furniture and a bit wide screen tv on the wall. Annoyingly it turn on as soon as you put in your power key. You can of course turn it off, but sometimes it decides for itself that you need to see and hear more of what it has to offer.

We walked along the esplanade past the slightly posher Elba Carlotta and then the very posh Sheraton and the end. On the other side of the esplanade, looking out to sea is the wee cafe on the island, reached by a bridge. We left that for another day.

Entertainment tonight was our favourite saxophone player, Tina. Then we just had to celebrate with a fairly inebriated Salsa, got a cheer and went to bed to sleep it off. It was the jet lag, not the Jameson’s Whiskey or the Rum ’n’ Coke that was at fault!

Tomorrow we may walk into town.

 

Dancin’ – 2 March 2024

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Today we drove to Brookfield for the first dance class in a while.

Last week I was under the weather and we cancelled. Two weeks ago we did go to the class, but I was not feeling well. That has been the extent of our dance classes this year. Today was better, just better, that’s all.

Class started with the LA Swing sequence dance. It’s a sort of Charleston thing, but nothing to do with Los Angeles. The ‘LA’ part stands for Lace Agate and it’s an exhausting piece of nonsense. I don’t mind telling you, I was knackered after two tracks of that.

Next was a more sedate Spring Waltz which started life as the Christmas Waltz, then the Winter Waltz and now the Spring Waltz. “Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent” as the voiceover for Dragnet used to say. After a tricky bit of cheating with the Back Corté being noted and corrected by Jane, it all started to flow. I actually got to like its elegance.

Another sequence dance, the Melody Foxtrot gave us a chance to relax, because we knew this one fairly well and were in the minority for that, because it seemed to be lost on some of the other dancers. It’s nice to shine at something.

Next was Jive. One of Jane’s favourites and she was adding in new patterns to this exhausting dance. Nothing difficult, just moves with fancy names. We got through them fairly easily.

The class finished with Scamp’s favourite ’Shivers’ by Ed Sheeran. Actually it was only three quarters of the track because Jane ‘accidentally’ pulled the plug on the tape machine and that put an early end to that. Scamp my never forgive her.

We drove home along a busy M8 much busier than the traffic we’d had going to Brookfield in the morning. I took the Kingston Bridge route for a change and I think that was a mistake, but we weren’t going anywhere in a hurry, luckily.

Dinner tonight was a stir-fry from M&S and it was OK, just OK. As Scamp would say, “it filled a space.”

PoD was a Christmas present from Hazy. It’s the top of a beetroot, growing in plain unadulterated water. It’s sitting in a perspex container on the window sill. It’s been growing for a couple of weeks now and I’m thinking of planting it outside in the greenhouse.
This is the third successful ‘plant’. The first two were a garlic clove and a cutting from a spring onion. Great idea Hazy.

Watched the first F1 GP of the year. It was interesting, but it was the usual suspects who were leading from the start. I think it’s time for something new.

No great plans for tomorrow. Maybe some tidying up now that the sketching and painting are over for a month or so.

The first day of Spring – 1 March 2024

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Meteorological spring that is, but it certainly didn’t feel like it. A cold wind put paid to any thoughts of warm spring days.

We drove up to Tesco for messages, but they didn’t have the whisky I was looking for at a price I was willing to pay. I can wait. It will come down to a reasonable price soon.

One high point of the day was our Friday lunch in Brodens. Fish & Chips for two and a glass of Merlot for Scamp and a pint of Guinness for me. All the elements of the lunch were perfect, as usual.

I was tempted not to take a camera out later in the afternoon, but I went anyway. However I might as well have stayed home in the warm house for all the interest there was over in St Mo’s. My PoD was a branch of four catkins bolstering my belief that this is Spring, despite the cold and the wind.

It was good not to have to think about sketches and painting. But there’s a lot more to it than just the drawing. There’s the time it takes to get the sketch scanned, cleaned up and then there’s writing the story that I always like to add. After that I post the sketch to Flickr then Facebook and finally add it to EDiF and/or 28DL. It’s not just about painting pretty pictures. I may do it all again in May, all being well.

I’ve just been told that the dance class is on tomorrow. Don’t know what the ‘menu’ is yet, but it seems we have more than enough couples for a qourum.

 

Watch for the tumbleweed – 27 February 2024

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This morning we were out to visit Our Man In Falkirk.

Andrew was looking very relaxed today. No fancy shirt, but he was just as sharp as usual. He talked us through the last half year and made his predictions for the next year. He explained that the new software they are using was designed in New Zealand of all places and that it was made in the same place as the hobbits live. You have to listen carefully to his stories because he is quite adept at slipping in the occasional joke like that just to see if you are listening. We were. Apparently our previous company were using version 1 of the software, but we have the most up to date version. We both like the way he speaks. He doesn’t water things down, nor does he talk down to you. A very clever man who inspires confidence. Just watch for the jokes. He’s even a photographer who used to do his own developing and printing!

Scamp and I went for a walk when the interview was over, after being warned by him that there were a lot of good opportunities for Street Photography near Asda. That said with a nod and a wink. As we were walking up to what used to be the main street. I noticed a few worthies who fell into the category he was describing, but I did’t take any photos, just in case.

Scamp went to Bonmarche looking for bargains in the clothes. I went to Waterstones to get a couple of books. We both came away empty handed. Maybe I’ll get the books on Thursday when I’m hoping to meet Alex.

Scamp and I were amazed how far Falkirk had slid down the slippery slope. What was a busy Main Street, was now a ghost town. It’s incredible the difference in about five years. I think M&S was the first to go and from there it’s been closure after closure. I’m guessing Waterstones won’t be long before it pulls the plug on Falkirk too.

We drove home via Torwood, but there was almost no room in the carpark and we assumed the cafe would be the same. We drove home and stopped for supplies in Tesco instead.

I went for a walk after lunch and drove to Fannyside which is a great place for skies and cloudscapes. It didn’t let me down today. Two lovely landscapes with impressive cloudscapes, one mono and one in colour. Mono won PoD.

Dinner was Baked Potato and Beans. Not amazing, but yesterday’s lunch was so good, it would be difficult to beat it.

Today’s prompt was Peach
I probably should have tried painting this soft fruit in pastels, but Old Dogs and New Tricks led me back to watercolour. So here is my interpretation of Peach. I must practise more with those expensive chalky sticks. I’ll dig them out some day and make a different kind of mess.

Tomorrow Scamp is going for lunch at Moira’s house. I’ve things to do at home.

Ah! That’s more like it – 24 February 2024

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Feeling almost normal again. I’m keeping it at that. I’m not ready yet to say I feel human again!

A lazy morning today sitting in the sunshine in the living room. It had been freezing during the night and was still quite cool outside. We talked about what we wanted to do and where to go. Scamp suggested that Glasgow wasn’t really a good idea at weekends and I agreed. Her second suggestion was Chatelherault for a ‘gentle’ walk. That fitted the bill for me, so we gathered together all the things we needed for a walk and drove over to a rather busy carpark near the “Big House”. The house was the hunting lodge of the Duke of Hamilton, but is now a busy and expensive (so I’m told) wedding venue. Since a ‘gentle’ walk was to be the order of the day I suggested walking down past the steel cut out figures of William Wallace, Robert Owen and David Livingstone. Usually a good photo opportunity, if the sun is playing nice, but it wasn’t today.

The path splits after them. One route takes you to the Old Avon Bridge and is quite scenic, but you have a long slog back up the hill again. The other route takes you through the woods, high above the Avon Water and back to the car park again with the option of stopping at the cafe. We chose the second option.

There were a family in front of us who were with a man in a motorised wheelchair. He seemed to be making heavy weather of the first climb up through a muddy path. By the time we caught up with them he was stuck fast between two exposed tree roots. Couldn’t go forward and couldn’t go back. We offered to help them, but the woman who I reckon was the his daughter said thanks but they’d manage. They seemed to thing that if they got past the tree roots everything would be fine from there. The wheelchair looked really new, but if he kept trying forward and reverse he was going to flatten his battery. Eventually the woman said “NO! WE’RE GOING BACK!” I thought at that point the boss had spoken. In retrospect, it was the correct decision.

We said Good Luck and walked on. It was heavy going for a while climbing up through puddles, burns and mud, then the path firmed up and dried up too. We carried on and a couple coming from the opposite direction told us it was pretty muddy the way we were going. We thanked them, and noticed that they were wearing ordinary town shoes. Just near the end of the path we discovered what they were talking about. The path dropped away in a steep slope that was almost pure mud. The centre 400mm or so was fairly dry and navigable. How the bloke would have kept control of the wheelchair in that I hate to think. Anyway, the worst was behind us.

We got to the cafe and Scamp grabbed a table while I stood in a queue for 20 mins or more but got two scones with jam and clotted cream and two coffees. The last two scones at that. Paid for them and for a pot of marmalade I’d picked up we enjoyed our lunch.
Note to self: The coffee in the Cafe is excellent. This is not Costa coffee!! It’s safe to drink.

Drove home and parked, then walked down to the shops to get a couple of small pizzas for dinner.

PoD was a view looking up the hill at The Big House as Alex calls it with a heavy sky behind it. Partly processed in Lightroom, partly in ON1. I’ve decided it has its uses.

Today’s prompt was Ruby.
I thought a Ruby ring was the easiest and simplest thing to draw. Simplest, yes. Easiest? Nothing to do with reflections and refractions is ever going to be easy, but this is my answer anyway.

Felt so much better after that walk in the woods. They say that walking in pine woods is good for the respiration. Perhaps it is. Perhaps I was just happy to be outside in the air again.

No plans for tomorrow, but maybe Sea Bass for dinner!

No fillings yet … – 19 February 2024

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Just before 9am Scamp booked an emergency appointment for this afternoon to let the dentist assess the problem with her old broken molar.

Ten minutes later she got a phone call to ask if she could come in at 11am instead. Even better. That was us up and getting the day started. I drove her up to Condorrat and then went for a walk in St Mo’s. I’d hardly walked down to the pond when the heavens opened and I went back to the car. I waited out the rain and then risked another walk, but Scamp beat me to it and told me she was ready to come home.

The dentist didn’t want to extract the tooth, but suggested a silver cap instead. She had the option to pay more and get a white cap, but since the tooth is right at the back of her mouth, nobody is ever going to see it anyway. She hasn’t made a firm commitment to the silver cap yet, but the dentist had put a synthetic cover over the tooth and Scamp is happy with it.

Instead of driving straight home, we went to B&Q to get some paint testers to see what would be best for the bedroom and the downstairs hall. We decided last week that we’d repaint both areas. We came home with a cream, a pink and a yellow and neither of us like any of them. Not quite back to stage one, we did find a big tub of what is probably Magnolia. The ultimate no-nonsense, slap it on anywhere, inoffensive paint everyone uses at one time or another. It has been ear marked for the bedroom.

Back home via Tesco for bread and blueberries and stuff for lunch. Then I went out for a walk in the wintry wind. It wasn’t really all that cold as long as you kept walking, but stand too long in that cold south westerly wind and you felt it. No frogs today, or if they were there, they were hiding. However there were bird feeders in the fairy dell now. Home made ones created from pine cones stuffed with lard and coated in bird seed. It looks like this is an ongoing project.

I spooked two deer in the woods, but they had seen me long before I saw them and all I was was their white tails bouncing away into the bushes. PoD turned out to be an old worn fencepost with barbed wire wrapped round it. Just enough interest to find a place in Flickr.

Today’s prompt was Straw. I edited it to Straw Man.
I saw a few straw figures in farmers fields across the country. Some were rude, some were political, but all were funny and they were all made from straw and silage that was rolled up in black plastic. When I saw today’s prompt I wondered what it would look like if the wrapping was removed and the Straw Men could stand there naked as nature intended. They would certainly be impressive and slightly scary figures. I think there would be more than a touch of The Wicker Man about them.

That’s about it. I’m heading for bed early tonight with a couple of paracetamol to give me a night’s sleep. I do believe I have the cold. Scamp should sleep better tonight after a stressful day.

Dancin’ – 17 February 2024

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Back in the old routine.

Drove over to Brookfield in that Saturday morning lull in the traffic. Thankfully not too many folk in today’s class, just the usual suspects and Margaret Maciver to throw the even numbers out.

First thing was the LA Swing which we didn’t really know. By “didn’t really know” I mean Scamp had seen it and had it stored in her memory, but it was a mystery to me. Add those two pieces of individual knowledge and divide by two and you get “didn’t really know”. Maybe that’s too mathematical and obscure for this time in the morning. The LA Swing turned out to be a Charleston type of 1920s thing with kicks, turns and lifts. The lifts were optional, thankfully. Simple but fast paced. That took me by surprise. I’m more used to a gentle start to the dancing day.

Just to make it worse, the next set was Quickstep. The teachers’ demo was like a blank page to me. Then, when we started, Scamp reassured me it was just the same quickstep we’d been dancing on and off for weeks, and that’s when the penny dropped and I relaxed a bit. It wasn’t so bad but the language is sometimes so obscure it hides a simple routine. How would you like to be told that the next figure is a Zig-Zag Back Lock Running Finish with optional Fishtails? Confused? I was, especially when they said that the zig-zag wasn’t really a zig-zag. Clarity, that’s what we need, Clarity. I won’t say we covered the quickstep really well, but we made a decent fist of it most of the time. Also, my breath was coming back when we eventually finished after two fast routines.

One short respite of sorts with the Ria Bachata which at normal bachata speed was fine, but was chaos for most when the tempo was increased. For once we were leading this silly wee dance.

The last routine just had to be the Samba. Not so much a dance as a shambles set to music. There is no way I’m ever going to learn this piece of nonsense. It’s a bit like Soca with fancy names for the different routines. The less said about it, the better. Let’s hope Jane had now got it out of her system. If they stick to the same timing next week, I’ll leave early for a walk around the bowling green while Scamp and the rest can dance the Samba.

Driving home was through more congestion, as I suspected it would be. Saturday’s are always a problem on the M8. However, once we were on the M74 it was just a case of following the flow. It’s a slightly longer drive, but at least we were moving at the legal limit.

We had a posh dinner at home to celebrate our 51st wedding anniversary. A big slice of trout for Scamp and a thick rump steak for me. It’s ages since I’ve had rump steak, but this one was exceptionally nice. Lidl at its best. A few glasses of wine, possibly a few too many on my part and I decided to leave the blog until Sunday. Don’t drink and blog. That’s my rule.

PoD was a photo taken from the front window of a poor Alec’s Red rose bud whose stem was broken in the winds. It had rained since we got home from Brookfield and there was no way I was risking getting the camera wet when I could take the shot perfectly well from inside.

Today’s prompt was Coral.
These are two small pieces of coral we found on a beach in Tobago many years ago. Broken but well rounded by the action of the waves and sand, they are more complex in shape than the coral that is to be found on the Coral Beach in Skye. We’d dearly love to go back to Tobago, but being realistic, it’s more likely we’d go back to the Coral Beach in Skye!

No plans for tomorrow.

Looking for mythical creatures – 16 February 2024

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Scamp was out in the morning to get her hair cut. I was left in charge of the house.

When she returned looking glamorous we discussed what to do with the remainder of the day. We discussed various options and came up empty handed. Finally, after a long wait I suggested we go shopping in Lidl in Kilsyth. My ulterior motive (there is always one) was that I’d heard tell of a kingfisher frequenting the Garrel Burn.

So after we’d bought our shopping we took a walk through Kilsyth and followed the burn all the way to the main road without seeing any life in the burn whether fish or feathered. We walked back to the car by a different route and found a tributary to the Garrel, but it didn’t look as if there was any activity in it either. I’m not sure if the story of the kingfisher is a myth or not, but I’ll give it another chance some time, maybe going downstream as well as upstream this time.

I did get one decent photo on our walk. Looking through a circular hole in the cast iron bridge over the burn to look upstream through the trees. I just liked the frame the circle made for the burn. That became PoD.

On the way back to the car we discovered the fresh fish shop we used to visit in Kilsyth. Scamp was impressed with quality of the fish and bought a piece of salmon for tomorrow’s dinner. I’d already selected a thick slice of rump steak for mine from Lidl.

We drove home and found a nearly empty car park and had our choice of parking places for once.

Today’s prompt was “Violet”.
I chose to paint some African Violets, at one time my favourite flower. They used to be seen in garden centres all around the country, but now they seem to have fallen out of favour. One of the easiest plants to propagate from cuttings, I may go looking for some once the cold weather has gone.

That was about it for the day. Dinner was the remains of yesterday’s chicken which for some reason disagreed with Scamps teeth and a very old filling came out. It had to happen late on a Friday when the dentist isn’t open at weekends. I think it might be something soft and easily chewed for breakfast tomorrow, maybe porridge!

It appears that the dancing teachers have returned and so have the classes, starting tomorrow.

Cormorant – 15 February 2024

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It was a wet day today. Nothing really to recommend it, except that there was no mist today, unlike yesterday.

After a lazy start and a light lunch, we drove up to Tesco in the town centre to get some messages. As I’ve said before, there is more of a choice there and why stint yourself when you can add five minutes to your drive and get a far better choice. We bumped into Shona there and remarked on her new hair colour. Then we drove home. Some days are full of exciting surprises and some are days like today.

I went for a walk round St Mo’s because the rain had stopped for a while and I wanted to get out. Scamp was busy booking a hair appointment for tomorrow. Not hair colouring, just hair cutting. Occasionally a Cormorant visits the pond in St Mo’s and it was standing there today holding its wings out to dry. It would take quite a while for them to dry today because although it was mild, the wind had disappeared with the rain. As I said, it was drying its wings, but it kept turning round to see what I was up to behind it and one of those times I managed to get a full face to face shot. Quite pleased with it. PoD done and dusted.

Dinner tonight was roast chicken and it was done perfectly. I also roasted some beetroot we’d bought at the weekend and it will probably go into a salad or on a piece of bread tomorrow. I cut the tops off carefully, Hazy, and they are now sitting in their water bath on the kitchen window sill. The garlic and spring onion were getting leggy so they are now planted in soil in the greenhouse.

I found today’s prompt, Chartreuse, one of the most restrictive this year in EDiF.
Chartreuse is an alcohol based herbal liqueur made by monks in southern France to a secret recipe. It sounded to me like an upmarket Buckfast, also made by monks to a secret recipe. The two main differences are the cost and the colour. Chartreuse is green or yellow and Buckfast is brown with red tinges (or so I’m told). I liked the idea of green wine, but not the cost.

The clock is in the picture because the first time I heard the word Chartreuse was in the track “Clockwork Chartreuse” on the Loudon Wainwright III album “Attempted Mustache” back in the early ’70s. The lyrics are fairly violent and probably wouldn’t be allowed in these PC days.

Scamp is booked to get her hair cut tomorrow morning and I might cut mine in the afternoon. Twins!

Out to lunch – 14 February 2024

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But a case of the Curate’s Egg

Today Scamp mentioned that she would like to visit a new garden centre called Homegrown. We’d nothing better to do, so we drove over to Gartcosh to see what it was like.

We found it easily enough, just a few minutes off the M73. It was a new-build rectangular block. We went straight upstairs to the restaurant and were one of the last to get a table. All the other tables were already reserved, but didn’t have any notice on them to say they were not free. We both settled on the soup, Leek & Potato, and chose to have coffee afterwards. The soup was fine, lots of flavour, but apart from the obvious L&P I couldn’t quite put my finger on the other ingredients. When we finished and the waitress was taking away the plate I asked what was in the soup and that’s when things started to go wrong. The waitress just couldn’t answer my question and mumbled “Well, leeks and potatoes … “ Scamp leapt to her aid by suggesting “Celery?” She agreed that “there was celery in it and onions…”

In the end I gave up and we both ordered coffee and a scone. When mine arrived it was absolutely roasting. Just one notch down from glowing red hot. Worse, it was brick hard (probably a fire brick.) The final flaw was that it was baked onto the black serviette it was sitting on, I had to tear the thing off. Scamp said her’s was fine, but a bit hard. When a second waitress came to take away our plates, Scamp mentioned the problem with the scones. The waitress made a few noises, but seemed unable to string the noises into a coherent sentence. We paid and left to see what treats the shop and plants had in store for us.

The answer was “Not Much”. It seemed a bit of a shambles. Shopping trolleys filled with cushions were being wheeled about in quite a tight space and shelves were being re-stacked in the shop area. Some lovely pieces were on display for ‘lovely’ prices. The outside plants area was the same. Lots of workers with wheelbarrows bring in raw materials and the sound of a Stihl saw cutting through sheet steel. Almost everything was overpriced compared to the garden centres we’re used to visiting.  The overall impression was of a work in progress.

Would I visit again? Well, today could just have been a bad day, but there was definitely a feeling of style over substance here. Also, people were being turned away from the restaurant because tables had been pre-booked. That is fine if there is a card on the table to say ‘Reserved’, but there wasn’t. They company might also think of investing in buzzers to hand to potential customers if they want to keep them onside. I’m usually happy to give a company a second chance, but I’m not sure I would for this one.

We drove home. I’d managed to get a couple of grey photos of a grey landscape on a grey day. I turned one of them into a sepia toned monochrome image that would become PoD.

Next task was to get sketches and paintings done for today and yesterday in EDiF.
Yesterday’s prompt was Lime, so being cantankerous, I made it Limes. After a couple of aborted attempts at using salt to give me the texture I was looking for in the lime’s skin, I eventually searched on YouTube and found the answer. I learned that the best way is not to remove the paint using salt, but to add the texture with a fine brush and a stippling action. Lo and behold, the additive method works. I’m done now with limes. I’ll keep them and the salt for Margaritas!

Today’s prompt was for “Rose”. This might have had something to do with today’s date, 14th February is traditionally Valentine’s Day. To me it was just a chance to sketch and paint a rose, more or less freehand with very little pencil sketching. I did it in what an art teacher once called my ‘splashy style’ totally the opposite of yesterday’s ‘Lime’ which was quite tight and calculated. Strangely I enjoyed both techniques.

Tomorrow looks a bit like today as far as the weather is concerned. I’m not sure where we will be going yet, if anywhere.