Category: Driving

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.

An early rise – 13 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Not an enforced wakening, just neither of us could fall back asleep, so we agreed to have and early breakfast instead.

We were up and dressed just after 8am on a day that seemed to throw everything at us. Rain, hail, sunshine and a strong wind were the main factors in our weather and they cycled throughout the day.

We chose to drive to Stirling to go to Waitrose for ‘The Messages’. Maybe an odd thing to do on a Saturday, but we needed some essentials and we were fed up with Tesco, so Waitrose was probably a better option, besides, they do a good, fairly cheap packet of tea. We had half intended going for a coffee in Stirling, but the opportunity didn’t arise, so after we’d packed all the bags into the car, we just drove home, unloaded them and had lunch.

After lunch, inevitably it was time to empty the wardrobe. I hadn’t realised I had so many pairs of jogging bottoms. ‘Athleisure’ I’m told is the modern description. I knew I could probably hire a stall in The Barras Market to sell all the surplus tee shirts I have and also sweat shirts with stains on the front, but Joggy bottoms? Some of them, possibly all of them, have to go. Once I’d helped Scamp clear out the clothes, I started looking through the old record of work books from a pre 2014 life, knowing they would not be looked at again until the next spring clear out. Instead, I pre-empted that next clear out by getting rid of most of them today.. Not everything that came out of the wardrobe would be finding its way back in. The same would be true of my chest of drawers and various other glory holes in our room. Phase 2 was complete.

By the end of the afternoon the remainder of the storage areas had been emptied, or checked to see if they could simply be moved without emptying. When we were satisfied that we were organised, Scamp went downstairs for a coffee and I put on my walking boots and went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was still a wild day with strong winds and the occasional sharp shower. I went for a walk in the woods, but after seeing how many big strong trees had recently blown down I thought it wasn’t the most sensible place to go for a walk. However, I got a few shots of some Horse Chestnut trees opening up their buds to expose their big leaves and some had the candelabras of flower buds ready to open. One of those shots got PoD.

Back home the oven was on, ready to take a Charlie Bigham Tikka Masala curry we’d bought in Waitrose in the morning. It was a surprisingly filling dinner.

There was nothing worth watching on TV, so Scamp and I sat and read for a while and I had another of the instant whiskey cocktails Jamie and Simonne had given me. Tonight’s offering was Whiskey Sour which is basically Bourbon and Lime Juice over ice. Very refreshing.

Tomorrow we are intending starting Phase 3 of the grand plan, painting the remaining walls.

Embra – 11 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today Scamp suggested we get the train to Embra which I thought was an excellent idea given that the sun was shining and it wasn’t raining.

We drove to the station and along with half of Cumbersheugh got on the train to Embra (the other half were getting the train to Glasgow!). We were lucky and managed to get a seat across the passage way from each other. A family outing filled the other seats. I was sitting with the three kids who were all on iPhones and Scamp was with the mums and a bloke who, like us, was not in the family group. Scamp seemed to be enjoying being in charge of passing sweets from the mums to the kids and back again. I was listening to an interesting podcast about Mozart, the boy genius. With serious discussion and David O’Doherty providing the light entertainment. It passed the half an hour the journey took.

We did our usual walk up the hill from Haymarket and through Ladyfield to Nero for a coffee and a pastry. Then, instead of heading up and over to the Grassmarket, we went downhill and along to Princes Street Gardens. Walked round a display of high resolution photos about Space and listened to a piper who could play! I didn’t know that pipers could actually hold a tune for a whole series of for more than one piece of music. Thankfully he didn’t play The Sound of Silence. If that means nothing to you, see Monday’s blog.

We walked up through St Andrew’s Square and into the strange new shopping mall. We had a look at the tech in JL and came out without seeing anything we’d put money down for. Walked along George Street and down Rose Street to the end where Scamp was sure she knew where Whighams restaurant was. She was right and I’m glad she found it. It must be about five years since we’ve walked down the stairs to this restaurant, but it’s changed little in that time. Lovely lunch. Scamp had Goan vegan curry of cauliflower, butternut squash and chickpeas. I had tomato and prawn linguini. She had a glass of wine and I stuck to water. Even the coffee was good!

We walked back to the station via Waterstones, but I didn’t see anything that tempted me. Just managed to get the train back to Croy with minutes to spare and again, we got a seat across the passage from an american woman, a Scottish man, presumably her husband and two obnoxious children.

Drove home via Calders for Scamp to get a pot to plant out her newest acquisitions. Little pink flowers she’ll tell me the name of, and a bunch of pansies.

PoD was an arty photo taken from Ladyfield looking out over Embra with the curve of a concrete balcony sweeping overhead. Like I say, arty!

Watched the penultimate Apprentice, the interviews and found it less than riveting.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps and I may just relax for an hour and read.

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.

 

It rained… – 5 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It rained all day. There was maybe a ten minute break for the rain clouds to catch a breath, but almost definitely not any more than that.

Scamp was out for the morning. Out for 10am to go to her FitSteps class, which was in a new (to her) venue in The Link which has been in Cumbersheugh since we’ve been there. She thinks it’s a great improvement on The Legion.

From The Link she went down to the Village to pick up Isobel and take her to Calders for coffee and an hour or so’s blether. No plants for either of them today, but Scamp drove Isobel home. After that she came home after about three hours off the leash.

While she was out I’d some computer stuff to tidy up, then I made good on my promise to wash up the pots and pans after decanting the oil from yesterday’s Fish ’n’ Chips. With my jobs done, I took the A6500 over to St Mo’s in teeming rain and got today’s PoD which is a bunch of yesterday’s weeds dripping in the rain. Best of a bad lot. Scamp had returned when I got back and we had a coffee before we went out to lunch.

We walked up to Brodens (in the rain) for lunch. Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp with a shovel full of skinny chips and Fish ’n’ Chips for me with the fish sitting on a raft of hand cut chips. Glass of wine for Scamp, pint of Guinness for me. That signed the deal. I couldn’t drive anywhere for the rest of the day because of that pint of Guinness! We walked back home and, of course, it was raining.

I started a book Fred had given me and found it was a bit more interesting than I’d thought. A strange vampire book: Masters of Death by Olivie Blake, in case you’re interested, Hazy. Don’t think it will interest Neil or your brother, but who knows!

Tonight we watched Series 1 – Episode 3 of Death in Paradise. So much more interesting than the drivel of Series 10. Of course, it’s the same format, but I think the acting is one notch more interesting, just one, but it makes a difference. The music is better too, although I’m sure Simonne would say that’s not a real Caribbean accent!

Tomorrow we are hoping to have a decent long lie in the morning as we’ve decided to forego the dance class. We may go to the evening monthly dance.

 

Out on the town – 4 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Not me, this time, but Scamp. Off into Glasgow by herself!

I drove Scamp to the train station and then came home. I was going to have a photography day out, but before that, there was work to do. I started to tidy up the back bedroom to give us more space to decant the contents of the cupboards and bookcases from our bedroom in preparation for the decorating.

It was still a beautiful morning when I was finished, so I packed the camera bags and my boots into the car and drove over to Bothwell to take some photos of Bothwell Castle. Well, that was the plan. Just as I was passing the slip road to the eastbound M8 all the traffic slowed to a crawl. Two lanes of it. I knew I could take the outside lane and drive to the castle on the A road rather than the clogged motorway. I’d just made my move as many others now had when the overhead gantry demanded I return to the original road. Then what was a five lane motorway became a two lane motorway and that’s when I knew something serious was going on. Long story short, an articulated lorry had ended up on its side on the ‘alternative’ road I was hoping to take and all five lanes of traffic was being funnelled into the two lanes heading for Hamilton. I joined the queue and an hour and a half later did find Bothwell Castle.

I took some photos, but they weren’t inspiring. Too many barriers at the front and an incredibly complicated scaffolding creation was shoring up the back of the building. I only stayed for about half an hour and then headed for home. It took another hour to get back, partly due to my sat nav packing in on me and partly due to the increased traffic load. Eventually got back, not long after Scamp.

A couple of slices of toast and a cup of tea and I had a look at the photos and wasn’t impressed. Instead I took a camera over to St Mo’s to bolster the photos of the castle. Found an old bike that had been lobbed into the nettles and brambles by the side of the path to Condorrat. Took two photos of it and knew the second one was PoD. I was right. I took some more photos, but they weren’t very good. Just a bad day with one and eventually two good photos. I thought myself lucky, because there was a lorry driver somewhere who had a worse day than me. I checked tonight and he survived the crash and was taken to hospital. It didn’t even make the Scottish News!

We’d had a clear out of the freezer earlier in the week. Some food went in the bin. Too old or didn’t look right. Of the remainder, some went back in and some went into the fridge to defrost slowly. We had those for our dinner tonight. Chicken and Chips! What’s not to like?

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to get back to FitSteps, then visit Isobel, and for the second day in a row, I have a free morning. Maybe lunch at Brodens for us afterwards? We’ll see.

What did we do today? – 2 April 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Sometimes I have to ask myself that question, because I can’t remember doing anything interesting or important that day. The answer to the above question today was “Not very much”.

We did do some stuff. We made a decision about Scamp’s ageing computer. I thought we were going to JL and maybe Currys to try out the computers, but Scamp convinced me that we didn’t need to go out. We’d already looked at the JL offerings last week and really, they all looked the same. The specs were pretty similar too and worst of all, they were all the same boring shade of grey. We know what we’re looking for. We know how much we’re willing to spend on a new laptop, so why wander round stores looking at the same slabs of plastic when we can order one online and buy one from HP. Not on the HP, but from HP and get it delivered. The decision was made and we could stay in, in the dry (did I mention that it rained almost all day? Well, it did) and that’s what we did. Neither of us is in a great rush to splash the cash, so some time soon, probably.

We spent another hour working out what we’d transfer from the old machine to the new machine and what we might need to buy. Scamp’s MS Office 7 might not work on a shiny Windows 11 machine but very little else would be needed. Really what she needs is more space for her files and we should manage that. An hour or two well spent.

After lunch we drove to Tesco in the rain and got a load of veg and fruit, milk and breakfast cereals. The usual everyday necessities. There were lengthy queues at the roundabout at Broadwood. We skirted them on the way to Tesco, but the traffic was flowing freely on the way back, at least on our side it was. The reason for the holdup was the inevitable roadworks. Two or three unlucky blokes wearing high vis jackets were digging a trench with shoves in the pouring rain for a fence to be erected round the roundabout. My heart did go out to them. Digging a trench by hand in this day and age is just ridiculous. Poor souls.

Tesco was as far as we ventured out today. PoD was a still life of my new Split Rock that Hazy has named “Terry” it’s a Pleiospilos nelii. Strange looking plant and very slow growing.

Maybe we didn’t do much today, but we achieved a lot!

Tomorrow we may go dancing if we can drive through all the puddles that will be everywhere.

Late night – Early morning – 30 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Never a good combination!

It’s not a good combination. Got to bed about 1am this morning after an interesting jam session with Scamp, Nancy and Crawford. Up at our usual time. Showered, dressed and off to dance class.

The bowling club, where we hold our dance class, was having an Easter Egg hunt and some of the children seemed to think they had free rein to charge through the hall. A few sharp words from the dance teachers to the parents made sure it only happened once.

We started with the Valentino Jive which seems to have nothing to do with Rudolph and even less to do with Jiving! Never mind, it got us all on the floor and moving. Next we went into the Spring Waltz with the “Spitfire Arms” we learned about last week and with the addition of CBM (Contra Body Movement) which basically means when your foot goes in one direction, your body turns in the opposite direction. We thought the Spitfire was difficult, but a quick explanation this morning simplified it. We are still wondering how to do the CBM. It looks so simple and obvious when the teachers are demonstrating it, but it’s not so simple or obvious when we tried to dance it. However we struggled on and have almost mastered the Spitfire now.

To break up the tension from CBM and Spitfires, we danced a couple of tracks of sequence dances, then we were into Jive. Jiving is fairly easy and the individual parts are quite easy to pick up. It’s the putting together of those individual parts that’s the difficult bit. I admit, I was lost after a while and couldn’t even remember the routines we learned last week and there were only two of them!
A couple of tracks of Tina Tango finished off our dance class for the day.

While we were driving home we passed a sign on the M8 that told us it was 10min to the Kingston Bridge. Usually it’s at least 15min. Could that mean we could shave about 10min off the homeward journey if we risked the M8/M80 instead of the M74/M73? Worth a try. For the first time in a long time we crossed the Kingston Bridge at an amazing 50mph and were back home with 15mins to spare. Fantastic! And all because everyone else was heading in the opposite direction, going to the west coast. Hundreds of them in a gigantic traffic jam while we tootled along at a pleasant pace.

After lunch I went out for a walk in St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which is a scruffy looking catkin. Not brilliant, but it ticks a box. It was very cloudy today with the occasional heavy shower. While I was out, Scamp was busy planting her new birthday azelea.

Dinner was roast chicken with roast veg and potatoes. Ate it while we watched Gardener’s World whilst almost falling asleep. Late night last night, an exhausting dance class, physically and mentally today then the realisation that we’d lose an hour’s sleep as we enter British Summer Time tomorrow meant an early bed for both of us. That’s where I’m off to now.

Tomorrow is earmarked for recovery.

Good Friday in the Toon – 29 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

After sitting around completing Wordle and finding one pangram in Spelling Bee, we decided to take the train to Glasgow.

Got on a busy train in to The Town. Coffee in Nero and walked up to Buchanan Galleries but really only interested in JL. We are kind of looking for a new freezer and possibly a new fridge. A combined fridge/freezer might be a viable alternative to singles. We did find a few that were in our budget and also would fit in the available space. No definite front runners yet. Simply keeping our options open.

Three floors up in JL is the “Toy Shop”. Scamp’s laptop is getting old and a bit tired. It’s also holding a lot of files, mainly photos and videos in its 128GB SSD. That means there’s not a lot of space left, which is the reason it’s getting tired. The “Toy Shop” is where all the laptops live in JL and while Scamp would like a new laptop, she can’t be bothered looking at all the numbers and abbreviations. I suppose that’s my job. We looked at a few that, like the fridge/freezers, were within our budget and surprisingly there were more than I’d thought there might be. Again, this was just an initial investigation of what was out there. No decisions made.

We had a quick wander round the town, but this was Good Friday, so there were loads of folk doing the same thing. I had a look in Cass Art but wasn’t really looking for anything. While I was looking at paint and things, Scamp was looking at dresses for a wedding later in the year. We met up again later and walked back to JL again, in the rain that had descended on us, for a spot of lunch. Italian Deli roll for Scamp New York Deli roll for me. Both fine for a decent lunch with a cup of tea. Walked back to the station and caught the train back, then drove home through torrential rain again for the second time in two days. April showers come early?

PoD was a shot looking down Buchanan Galleries from the Benugo cafe where we had our lunch. Quite a risky shot to take as the guards who prowl the floors are quick to tell you that photography is banned in the galleries, although neither my brother nor I have seen any notice confirming this. Maybe I was just lucky today.

Drove over to Larky for dinner at Crawford and Nancy’s. Great fun as usual. I did take my Spanish guitar and we played and sang as a foursome after dinner. Scamp on piano, Nancy and Crawford on ukulele and me on guitar. Everyone pitching in with vocals as required. Ollie the dog retired to the kitchen and I’m sure lay there with his paws over his ears!

Drove home and amazingly managed to get a parking space! Finally got to bed just before 1am. A long day, but a good one. I think I may practise more on the ukulele for our next foursome, all being well. It’s easier for the chord changes.

No plans for tomorrow other than to be up and out by 10:15 to drive to Brookfield!

Downpours and Landscapes – 28 March 2024

Posted on by Zogman

The downpours came first and the Landscapes survived them.

It was a dull start to the day, but about an hour after we woke the rain started lightly at first but soon it became heavier and heavier until it was thumping down so heavily, it was creating a mist when it hit the pavement. It didn’t last all that long, but it was longer than a usual downpour, but it did stop eventually. As we watched the weather forecast on TV where they claimed that the clouds would roll away we were a bit disbelieving. However, an hour later the clouds broke and the sun shone and I went out with a camera.

I’d bought a plant last week from Amazon and it was delivered yesterday, unfortunately in two pieces. I think the roots were meant to be connected to the stem and the leaves, but that was not the case. I found out the company who were selling the plant through Amazon were five miles or so down the M73. I phoned them and then emailed a photo of the decapitated plant as requested by the lady I spoke to. She replied asking if I wanted a replacement or my money back. I opted for the replacement and that was where I was heading with the intention of collecting the plant and then driving to Fannyside to grab some landscape photos.

After collecting a healthy looking plant and some apologies from the garden centre I headed over to Fannyside, only to find that some electricity blokes had parked their 4×4 in MY parking space while they repaired some overhead cables. Disgruntled, I drove past through some deep puddles and found an alternative view of a fairly new house that stands at the top of a steep hill, accessed by a rutted gravel path with grass tufts down the middle, where the tyres don’t go. The house is pure white against a dark sky. Stopped on the single track road, grabbed five photos at various settings and drove on before an irate farmer in a tractor saw me blocking the road. Prepared myself for the rattling climb up the hill and past the house, but the road had been repaired with a layer of tarmac! In retrospect, it has lost a lot of its character, but it is so much easier to drive up.

After cresting the hill, it was an easy downhill drive through the wee village of Arns and I only had one car in far distance in front of me. Then I noticed the plumes of what looked like smoke coming from both sides of the car in front. Then it happened again. It wasn’t smoke, it was a deep, long puddle, caused by that downpour in the morning. I took a more cautious approach, dropped down a gear, but still managed to make a decent bow wave through the puddle. It wasn’t as dramatic as the one Jamie saw last month, but it was deep enough. Got home without further incident and one the White House photos made PoD.

Dinner tonight was a Charlie Bigham’s Thai Green Curry. Delicious! Scamp was not so complimentary about it, so I don’t think we’ll have that again. Pity.

Some shopping to do tomorrow.