Category: Driving

Slept in – 6 December 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Well, we both sort of slept in this morning, but managed the day quite well after that.

Saturday mornings can be a bit of a problem. We have to be up early, have breakfast, and be out to face the drive to the dance class in one synchronised movement, or so it seems. Today the synchro was broken and we were still yawning, but fed, when we headed west on the M8. Thankfully we weren’t the last to arrive.

I wasn’t looking forward to today’s class. I just knew it was going to be filled with more Samba nonsense … but it wasn’t! Instead it was a mixture of dance styles we’d seen before or danced before, but had forgotten. I can’t quite remember the format, but there was a form of Argentine Tango that Scamp said she’d seen, a Christmas Pudding dance, performed to “I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas”, a couple of sequence dances that we danced without breaking the sequence and, of course, a waltz or two. I thoroughly enjoyed the morning’s education and exercise, and was doubly delighted by the missing Samba!

We drove home on the M8/M73 route to avoid the Kingston Bridge. When we got home I went out almost right away to get some photos for the blog, only to find that Flickr had crashed and wasn’t showing any record of my existence. Try as I might with a lot of huffing and puffing I couldn’t get it to recognise me. Then I checked with ‘Downdetector.co.uk’ and discovered that the Flickr website was indeed down. The next move was to read a few lines of instructions suggesting I should delete the a couple of caches and that was the answer. Flickr knew me again. I think it must have had a heavy night the night before and was just recovering. Anyway, Scamp phoned for a taxi, because we were going to an early Christmas dinner.

A week or so ago, one of the guys in the Monday dance class had suggested we book a table in Dullatur golf club and have a late lunch there as it might be the last class this year.

It turned out to be a great afternoon. Scamp and I had Arancini as a starter then she had Fish ’n’ Chips and I had Lasagna. She didn’t like the arancini and didn’t eat much of hers. Mine was ok, but only just ok. A couple of drinks and a chance to catch up with a lot of folk we either dance with or have recently danced with. We got a lift home with Kirsty.

Today’s PoD is a reflection of some rushes in the flooded pond.

Tomorrow we are hoping to relax!

Dancin’ – 4 December 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were heading to Glenburn for a Tea Dance.

Before that Scamp offered to drive to Tesco in the morning to get a loaf and some veg for dinner and encouraged me to go for a walk in St Mo’s because the sun was shining. Yes, the sun was shining until I got to the park, then the sun disappeared and it started raining. However, I have to thank her for getting me moving and I did get some photos of Cladonia lichen to make a PoD.

For once, the hall was a bit more empty than we’re used to. Not that it bothered us much. We still managed to do the usual circuits of the floor, but to Christmassy music to emphasise the coming of Christmas with all that entails.

We started with a Waltz as usual and stumbled through two tracks. Then a few sequence dances just to get more folk on the floor, I think. That was followed by a Cha-Cha and a Rumba One ( which is always followed by a Rumba Two – Just a little bit faster than a Rumba One ). Another sequence dance and time for a blether with David and Carol, before the tea trolley came round.

As usual, tea time tended to last a little bit longer than was really necessary. The second half was a fair copy of the first half, with a couple of different sequence dances to fill the floor again. We had a chance to talk to Barry and Cath and interested to find that Barry has been told he has crystals in his ears. I’ve had that a few years ago. It seems that the solution hasn’t changed in that time:
1. Sit facing forward and move your eyes slowly from left to right and back again, without moving your head.
2. Sit with your head facing left and try to move your head as far as you can to the right without moving your eyes, then repeat in the other directions.
No crystals fell out of my mouth or ears in all these exercises and I felt no great benefit. Barry was in total agreement.

Spoke to Ronnie and Millie later. Ronnie was in hospital for a while earlier in the year with heart problems. He looks a lot better now than when we last saw him and he still bounces when he dances. He’ll never change!

We drove home through today’s rain and crawled over the Kingston Bridge. I’d hoped we would make better time that way than going the M8/M73 route, but I guessed wrong.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a day in Kelvingrove Art Galleries taking photos.

 

Beautiful blue sky but cold – 2 December 2025

Posted on by Zogman

When we had breakfast, made by Scamp, the sun was streaming in the front window. The back window wasn’t quite so interesting. Big heavy clouds away to the north. Thankfully they stayed there before disappearing over the hills, leaving the sun for us.

I sent Hazy a Happy Birthday message and it wasn’t long before she replied with her usual “Hello! Are you free?” Then we sang the “Happy Birthday To You” song which probably embarrassed her and had a wee chat catching up with what was going on down south. Glad she enjoyed the prezzies we sent her.

Later, I was browsing through what was on offer in the Apple App Store and found an App I was sure I’d bought, but which wasn’t on any of my devices. It looked interesting and wasn’t expensive, so I bought it. It’s called ‘Keysmith’ and seems to work with another app I use every day called ‘Keyboard Maestro’. Hopefully the two won’t clash with each other. I’m not going to explain what it does yet, but looks interesting.

Scamp was meeting Shona today to be a ‘listening ear’ when she (Shona) went to see the Dr Banerjee to find out about her recent blood test results. He’s been there for ages a really nice man who takes his time to explain things. Both Scamp and Shona seemed happy with what he said. He never “makes a drama out of a crisis” to quote an old advert.

While the ladies were out, I was making steak and kidney from kidneys out of the freezer and defrosted with a pack of much, much older steak chunks from Waitrose, hopefully only last year’s and no older! The steak was tough (chugh in Scotland) despite being in the slow cooker for ages. The kidneys were excellent. Scamp said put everything back in the slow cooker again cook them until you’re going to bed. I wasn’t convinved, but did as I was told. After another four hours in the slow cooker they were perfect. That’s tomorrow’s dinner sorted!

When we got back after dropping Shona off at Paul’s house we watched another episode of Highland Cops a surprisingly interesting fly on the wall documentary based in the north of Scotland … obviously! Worth watching.

Other than that we didn’t do all that much today. The bloke from Virgin Media is due tomorrow evening so, hopefully we’ll have the ‘Big Telly’ back in business, although Scamp’s laptop has kept us going for the best part of a week.

PoD was a shot looking along the boardwalk as the sun set behind the trees at 2.24pm. Daylight doesn’t last long in Scotland in winter.

Scamp’s booked for getting her hair cut tomorrow and I may get my own locks shorn this week too, if I can find the time.

 

 

Dancin’ – 29 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Out early as usual on a Saturday, heading for Brookfield and our weekly dance class.

The class started with House of Bamboo which is Stewart’s idea of a warmup. I suppose that’s what it is, but a very gentle one – sometimes a good thing, sometimes not.

Next was the first real lesson and it was the Christmas Waltz. We managed quite well at it and by the end of the lesson we were almost there.

Next was the Feta Foxtrot. Most of it was ok, but there is a reverse turn at the end where the man dances round the lady and the lady dances round the man without either of us tramping on each other’s toes. We’ll get it done, but it will take some time.

To give us bit of a break from dancing, dancing, dancing the complicated stuff, we did a couple of well worked sequence dances beginning with Shivers by Ed Sheeran, then the Tina Tango to Annie Lennox. That gave us the chance to cool down.

Next was Samba, my nemesis. I hate this fast, shambles of a dance. In fact I wouldn’t even dignify it with the word ‘Dance’. I first saw it danced with Kirsty years and years ago and didn’t like it then and my attitude to it hasn’t changed. Jane, the teacher, didn’t even attempt to interest me in it. I think she knew it wasn’t going to work. I clock-watched all through the 25minutes I wasted on trying to learn these steps. Scamp did her best and to be honest, after the time was up, I was getting most of the steps right, but nowhere near the speed of the rest of the class. I will say no more.

We didn’t drive straight home, but we navigated our way through Glasgow’s streets and eventually found a way into Buchanan Galleries carpark, parked and walked down to The Briggate to go to a Pot Fest in one of the big galleries there. A Pot Fest is where potters come to sell their ceramic pots, bowls, mugs and other hard-fired glazed clay pieces. Scamp bought herself a lovely big fruit bowl, decorated with leaf imprints.

That was about all we did in Glasgow itself, but walking back past Paesano (my favourite pizza shop) the light was lovely just catching the light on the old sandstone buildings. I took a few photos. PoD was that street with the sun shining on it.

We parked at the house and unpacked the new bowl which looked just as good as it did at the show. Then I walked over to St Mo’s to get two small fish suppers – one each. That was lunch and dinner combined.

We’ve just finished watching the F1 GP pre-race.  Strange to watch on Scamp’s laptop, but it will have to do until we get our old V6 box fixed.

No plans for tomorrow.

A disturbed night for Scamp – 27 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

When Scamp woke this morning she told me about the wild night she had last night. It seemed to be caused by strange dreams, presumably brought on by the new meds the consultant gave her. Once she woke completely, she was fine, but it was a strange morning. But all was not lost, because I managed to sell some of the meds outside the ‘Masonic’ in Condorrat Main Street for a few quid each and we have just less than a hundred of the little pills! Just joking!!
Scamp phoned the consultant’s office to be told that she was on holiday this week, but the secretary she spoke to said she would pass the message on when the consultant returned next week.

We were up fairly early in the morning with quite a few things needing done:

  1. Drove to Boots for more (normal) meds.
  2. Tesco for milk, and wrapping paper I can’t divulge why we needed wrapping paper.
  3. Drove over to the Town Centre and wandered down the ramps that took us down into the bowels of what used to be Phase 4. It’s now just Argos and not much more. We were buying a replacement one-cup water boiler. The one we have has now developed Alzheimer’s, poor thing and can’t remember if it’s switched the hot water off or not and fills a second cup just in case.
  4. Drove from the Town Centre to M&S for lunch stuff and jam doughnuts for me.
  5. Finally we drove home and decanted all the stuff we’d bought.

After lunch I walked over to St Mo’s. It was dark and gloomy there by 3pm. It was wet and windy. Strong winds and heavy showers. A typical dreich Scottish day. I came home with a view across St Mo’s pond that ended up heavily processed, but reasonable looking PoD.

The final annoyance was discovering that the Virgin Media box wasn’t working. It’s not the modem it’s definitely the box. I’ve spent the last couple of hours ‘talking’ to the bots that are rapidly becoming the worst invention this century. You can’t even swear at them!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending meeting Isobel for coffee and a blether. I’m hoping to get this Virgin debacle sorted out and then make some soup.

Shopping – 25 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Despite last week’s shopping bonanza, there were still some things we needed ( for Needed, read Wanted ).

We drove to Morrison’s at The Fort and bought a few bottles, mainly wine, but I admit I did collect a couple of beer bottles too, just to be up sides with Scamp. Morrison’s is so much more down to earth than Waitrose. Now, don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with Waitrose, it’s just that I tend to be more restrained in Morrison’s than in Waitrose with all its enticing and intriguing offers than you get in Morrison’s or Tesco. Still, we spent enough to take us from “just tap your card” to “your PIN number is required”. I think the problem was I couldn’t find a ‘normal’ sized trolly and settled for the big deep one. I should have thought it through and searched further afield for a ‘normal’ one. My fault.

Instead of driving straight home, Scamp suggested we stop at Drumpellier Park and go for a walk round the loch. It’s not a big loch, but it’s big enough to give us a chance to stretch our legs. Underfoot the paths were a bit icy and to get better purchase we could walk on the grass. It gave better traction, but then you risk crunching through the thin skin of ice and sinking into the mud beneath. A ‘no win’ situation. We took the hybrid route. Walk on the path if it doesn’t look icy and if it does, keep your fingers crossed and walk on the grass.

I’d brought my A7c with me and with frosty patterns on the ice and a beautiful sky that graduated from blue to creamy yellow over the pond, I did take a few photos. The “Whale’s Tail” made and interesting subject, but it wasn’t until I caught sight of two swans cruising past on the loch that I got PoD. One definite in the bag.

It had been a cold day with the temperature not rising much above 2º and I was glad to get parked and settled. Dinner was Fish Risotto. One of the easiest risottos you can make. The oven does all the hard work.

Scamp seems to be a lot more comfortable now that she’s had a couple of doses of her meds. Good to see that.

Neither of us were interested in going out again today, because you could feel the cold returning. As I write this, the outside temperature is – 0.7ºc and I’m off to bed.

Scamp is intending to meet the other witches for lunch at Borden’s in Condorrat tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll find something to do.

Dancin’ – 22 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Heading to Paisley for a dance class at 9:45am.

We drove through the thick Cumbersheugh fog, heading to Brookfield, but before we reached Glasgow the sky had cleared and the sun shone from a bright, blue sky. Welcome to Scotland.

It was a fairly easy run to Brookfield. No dramas today and no great holdups. Everything just running to plan. We reached the dance class with time to spare.

First dance was my much hated House of Bamboo, written by a Bampot, I think. When we’d disposed of that piece of excrement, we went on to the Foxtrot we’d been learning for weeks and I struggled to get all the bits in the right places.

At this time of year, the Christmas Waltz is a standard. After Christmas it changes its name to the Spring Waltz, then later it becomes the Summer Waltz and so on. Today we were in Christmas Waltz territory.

Then we started a run through of the Mayfair Quickstep set to new words that were quite funny, but I think they would begin to grate after a few weeks.

The next offering was a Samba. I thought we’d seen the back of this ‘dance’ a year or so ago, but it had returned with some new steps in it. I just couldn’t get the hang of it. Kirsty tried to teach it a couple of years ago, but thankfully it was dropped from the curriculum before it caused an injury!

I was on the point of walking out when the tempo changed to a Cha-Cha and I could manage that.

Finally we did one track of the Queen of Hearts Rumba, and after that we were allowed to go home.

The roads towards town were very busy, probably to do with the Christmas rush that’s just beginning, but I tried one of the back roads I’d used in the past that took us under the Clyde and out through the town in a lot better time than any other route. I reckon we were just lucky.

I took my A7iii out for a walk in St Mo’s and PoD was a Buckfast bottle lying on the sheet ice that’s covered the pond for these last few days. Thankfully the ice is melting now, but it’s still a lot thicker than it looks.

No plans for tomorrow yet, but I’m sure something will fill the space.

Another cold blast – 20 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Another sub-zero morning.

I was out in the morning to get my meds and some messages from Boots and Tesco in that order. I was meant to get sone veg, milk and a chicken, except I completely forgot about the chicken. It wasn’t until I got home that I realised my error. Scamp said it was ok and we could survive without the chicken and I took her at her word. I also realised that Boots had short-changed me on my meds. Two lots of them just weren’t there. I did get a message from them two days ago to say that my prescription was partially ready, but yesterday’s message said that it was ready to collect. Crossed lines somewhere, Boots. This is the first time I’ve had a message like that. I’ll maybe have a word with them next week if I have the time.

Back home it was time to get ready to drive to Glenburn for a Tea Dance. I thought we were going to be late because of what looked like a collision between two large lorries, but the Polis managed to sort it all out and we arrived just in time, before the doors closed.

I thought it was a bit of a washed out tea dance. Just not a lot of life in it. Maybe that was because most of the attendees had recently been at Perth for the autumn dance weekend. For whatever reason, there was just not the same ‘life’ to the day. We left later than normal and got caught up in the homeward bound masses. Just as we neared M&S in Cumbersheugh, we saw the line of waiting traffic and gave up on any idea of having a chicken for dinner. Instead we had a very nice pizza I’d stashed in the freezer earlier in the week.

Watched another episode of Portrait Artist. Some good work, but some equally poor stuff. I won’t say I could do better, but I was veering that way.

PoD was a setup shot of a Lindt chocolate bear. That’s what happens when you spend an hour going for the messages and then your day disappears and you don’t get an outside photo.

Hoping to meet Alex tomorrow for a blether and some photos.

It was Wet. – 18 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

It was wet from start to finish today.

Sometimes heavy, sometimes light, always wet. Thankfully we weren’t going anywhere today. The furthest I got today was a quick trip to the tip to dump some of the odds and ends we’ve gathered in the past year and some that have been lingering in cupboards for a long while before that.

Other than that, I set up a still life of Alstroemeria flowers and that became the PoD. Not great, but it worked quite well on such a dull day.

Dinner was pasta with tomato sauce and spinach. It looks like becoming a favourite in the house.

For once I watched the World Cup 2026 qualifiers because Scotland were playing in it. I wasn’t expecting them to win against Denmark. Imagine my surprise when they not only won that match, but won by four goals to two. Amazing or lucky? I don’t think it matters to the Scotland fans, judging by the antics on the park after full time. Good Luck to them all.

No plans for tomorrow, but it would be nice if the rain would stop for a while.

A day on my own – 17 November 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp and Shona were booked on the train to Inverness today, but …

We were both up and dressed nice and early. I had warmed up the car and defrosted it, while Scamp was having a swift breakfast, then we drove off to pick up Shona at Paul’s house. That’s when things went wrong. Despite three phone calls and knocking on the door, there was no sign of Shona. We waited for a good four or five minutes, and Scamp was getting worried that we might miss the first train, the one that would take her to Stirling where she only had 5 minutes to catch the connection to Inverness.

I dropped Scamp at the station with enough time to spare to walk over the bridge to the far side to catch the Alloa train that would drop her at Stirling. Just to satisfy my nagging worry that Shona might be waiting at her own house, rather than Paul’s, I drove past her own house, but there was no sign of Shona. Knowing that we’d both done everything we could, I drove home and had my breakfast. No need to rush now. Scamp had sent a text to say she was now on the Inverness train. I thought I’d take my time and read a bit more of my latest book ’The Fathers’.

The plan for the rest of today was to put some air into the Blue car’s tyres. Then if time allowed, to take some clutter to the skips. The tyres had been gradually losing pressure for the last few months and needed it fixed. I remember when air was free at a petrol station as long as you were buying fuel, but not now. Thinking back on it, that was at least 20 years ago now! Anyway, I paid my quid and filled the tyres. I hadn’t realised just how low those tyre were. The car went skipping along now.

I checked the box with the stuff for the skip, but wasn’t certain I was looking at the correct box. Better to be safe than sorry, so I left it for another day. Instead I drove to Tesco for bread and a pizza which would be my dinner tonight.

Lunch time was coming up soon and that was going to be a ‘piece ’n’ banana’. Healthy and nutritious and, best of all, easy to make. Another nose dive into the book and it was time to go for a walk. Somewhere close to home, because light was fading again. The days are certainly getting shorter.

PoD came from that walk. The pond was frozen, really frozen, not like yesterday when there was a thin sheet of ice on the water. This ice was hard. I tapped it with my fingernail and it sounded hard. Time for one of my ‘Dangerous Dan’ ideas. Set the camera to the aperture and shutter speed you want and gently place it on the ice, holding on to the wrist strap, just in case! Gently press the shutter and get ready to swipe it off the ice at the first sign of a crack. Just as I was pressing the shutter button I saw the ice start to shift. It wasn’t as solid as I’d thought. Whipped the camera away, unharmed. It would have been a great shot, but maybe another day. The final photo was take from a slightly higher viewpoint and it looked almost as good as the photo that never was.

After my pizza dinner I got a message from Scamp to say she was on the Inverness train heading to Stirling. The next message a couple of hours later told me she was on the Glasgow train. I drove down to the station and parked just as the train came in.

That was a long day for Scamp and Jackie, but not for me. I just relaxed through the day. Shame about Shona missing the trip, but there will be other days.

Absolutely no plans for tomorrow.