Category: Driving

Dancin’ – 7 February 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Out early as usual on a Saturday.

We drove over to Brookfield, a fairly easy drive to light traffic but clouds and occasional rain. What we’ve come to expect these wintry days.

The class started with a quickstep, but not one we already knew. Almost everyone else seemed to be happy with it and although we did bring this fact to the attention of the teachers, we didn’t get much instruction. Luckily I had Scamp to tell me what the teachers were doing and after I’d added in a few steps from Thursday’s Tea Dance, it began to come together, but teachers are there to teach, not to get partners to make up for their shortcomings. I don’t think Stewart believed we’d not done this dance before. For the first time in ages I wasn’t impressed with his teaching.

What I will say in his defence is that he did intersperse some units with a couple of sequence dances, mostly ones we knew. Given that we’d had a tough start to the day, I did actually enjoy most of the class I think Scamp did too.

We drove home with about a million others, all heading in the same direction as us at about 15 mph and in the rain again. It was a stop/start drive, but after half an hour or so the traffic picked up speed and thinned out. No rhyme nor reason to it. I’m sure you’ve all seen this feature of driving in the past. Nobody seems to be able to explain why the roads get snarled up and then just return to normal with nothing to explain it. I wish I could be in a helicopter to watch the changing traffic patterns from above. It would be an interesting thing to investigate.

I chose the M74/M73 again and everything went smoothly back to the house. Lunch was toast and beans. A simple menu that just hit the spot.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk through St Mo’s and got a few photos, a very few. My favourite and PoD was two magpies discussing world problems in a tree. Magpies, the Darth Vaders of the Avian world.

We’d hoped to have a Chinese dinner, but Golden Bowl in Condorrat was closed until the 13th of the month, so it was Fish ’n’ Chips instead. Lovely fish, but too much chips. We watched the Olympic Snowboarding and Luge while we consumed our dinner, wondering why people put themselves through these dangerous looking games. Good fun to watch, but I can’t see it catching on in Cumbersheugh.

As far as tomorrow goes, we have no plans. Not ever Snowboarding.

Dancin’ – 5 February 2026

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We drove to Glenburn to go dancing.

Drove through the rain and wind and traffic and were making fairly good time until we neared Glenburn where we had to get through three different sets of temporary traffic lights. One set of the ‘temporary’ lights will be there for months. That’s not my idea of temporary.

When we got there, Scamp was the star attraction with all the ladies and both teachers asking questions about what had happened on Monday in Dundee. I had laughingly suggested to her that she should have typed up a description of the day and run off a few copies to hand out to anyone who wanted to read them. Scamp said ‘NO’!

We did get through a fair few dances in our couple of hours. Most of them were sequence dances, but some were ballroom. We left it quite late to get back to Cumbersheugh, and took the M74/M73 route which is longer by the mile, but without as many holdups as the shorter M8/M80 way. I think in the end there’s not much difference between them.

It was raining when we arrived home and I chose an indoor shop for PoD. It’s a shot of a few Cerinthe seedlings sitting on a window ledge.

Hoping for a better day tomorrow. Always hoping!

Tidying up – 29 January 2026

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Today’s task was to take some stuff to the council tip.

I had quite a lot of unwanted odds and ends, things I knew I wouldn’t need again. Scamp had a similar collection and I managed to fill the boot of the blue car with them all and drove up to the council tip. There were cardboard boxes, an old Black & Decker drill that wouldn’t hold a charge in either of its batteries and an old briefcase I didn’t see myself using ever again. Then there were the bags. Black bags, white bags and multicoloured bags all holding articles that had outlived their usefulness. They all went for a drive and then went into those big skips. As I was driving out of the council tip, I was wondering how much we’d spent on all that unwanted scrap over the years and then decided I didn’t want to know!

 

To Be Continued!

Going for the messages – 28 January 2026

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It was a lovely bright morning and it seemed a shame to waste it sitting in the house.

So, after some discussion, we decided to drive to Stirling to get some messages in Waitrose and have a walk through the town. In the end, and with a very full car boot we decided to have a coffee in Waitrose rather than walk down to Nero. The coffee wasn’t the best, but Scamp was happy with her latte and an iced bun staved off the hunger pangs for a while.

Instead of driving straight home, we turned off the motorway and parked near Haggs. From there we had a walk along the Forth and Clyde canal. The weather held up and with a few fluffy clouds in the sky and an almost perfectly flat calm on the canal we walked along the canal, heading east. Beautiful reflections on the still water gave me plenty of opportunity for photos. Even when we passed one of the locks, the water stayed still and allowed more photo opportunities.

Not far past the canal lock we turned and walked back to the car. We saw a couple of swans following the twists and turns of the canal, presumably looking for a good place to land. Unfortunately I just missed them! Maybe next time.

Back home and after we’d emptied the car, Scamp went out to plant two new pot plants, pink at the front and purple in the back. Both Primulas. Not happy with that, she did a bit of pruning and also stayed out in the sunshine just tidying up the back garden.

Dinner was a shared pizza from Waitrose. Then after I’d downloaded today’s photos and posted a couple, we watched another Landscape Artist of the Year. I don’t know where they find these ‘artists’, but today’s lot were some of the worst we’ve seen. Hopefully they will improve soon.

A week or so, Scamp asked Hazel to ask Neil if his mum knew where she, Scamp, could get Panch Phoron, a Bengali five spice mix. Today a parcel dropped through our letterbox and inside was a packet of Punch Pooran which is the same mix with a slightly different name. Attached was a message from Neil’s mum saying “Happy Cooking”. Isn’t it great when a plan comes together!

PoD went to a view looking east along the Forth and Clyde canal.

No great plans for tomorrow. Scamp says she might do some ironing. I may take a load of odds and ends to the council skips.

Scrubbing the floor – 26 January 2026

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We weren’t down on our knees doing the scrubbing. We’ve got a machine to do that for us now!

In the morning we built up the Vax carpet cleaner. It’s a bit of a beast! With a lot of reading of the instructions we managed to get it built up. Then we added some water and a glug or two of the magic carpet cleaning stuff, plugged it in and started it going. It’ quite noisy and it was soaking the carpet, until we realised we could push it forward quite quickly, but had to withdraw it fairly slowly so the muck in the carpet was sucked into the chamber. In the end we were both impressed with the efficiency of this new technology. So far we only have a small bottle, but I imagine we’ll get a larger bottle before the end of the week. We were impressed by the amount of muck that was sucked into the dirty water container!!

After that we walked down to the shops to get something for lunch and also something for dinner. It was cold and a bit windy, but the weather fairies are warning us that it’s going to get even windier before the end of the week.

I took myself out for a walk in St Mo’s later and got a few photos, but even fairly early in the afternoon, the light was fading quickly. For a change I took the small A6500 with me. I usually use a nylon cord to suspend my cameras when I’m walking. I almost made the mistake of letting the A6500 dangle, but realised just in time that there was no cord on the camera today and caught it before it fell. Eejit!

Once round the pond was enough for me today. If there had been more light and it it hadn’t been quite so cold I’d have gone for a second round, but once was enough today.

We drove over to Kirsty’s class at The Link and completed the third part of the three part Tango routine. It was a bit repetitive in places and the constant turns were causing some of the ladies, Scamp included to become dizzy, so I don’t think the full routine will be danced very often.

PoD was a three holly leaves making a break for freedom from a nearby wooden fence.

I think we may be going shopping tomorrow, but as usual at this time of year, it all depends on the weather

Out shopping – 25 January 2026

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Not Tesco shopping, shopping for new tech!

We’d been talking about getting a carpet cleaner. Scamp had searched the usual online places and it seemed on paper that everyone of them was happy to sell us one in two days time. We knew that Currys in Coatbridge had them on display, and we found the one we were looking for, but when we said we’d like that particular model, the assistant said they had none in stock … but they did have that model in the Hamilton and Uddingston stores. If we were interested, we could pay for it in Coatbridge and she would sign off the paperwork, then we could pick it up from either of the two stores.

It seemed too good to be true, but, for once it worked almost seamlessly. Unfortunately when we drove to Uddingston, the slip road that would take us to the store was closed, so we had to drive a long circuitous route round a roundabout and down under a flyover that eventually took us to the Curry’s store in Uddingston. There we picked up the big box and drove back home via the M73, a route I’m quite familiar with, except we were approaching it from the opposite direction!

Meanwhile, Scamp had been in text conversation with Shona who was out for a walk and asked if we were busy. Scamp explained that we were on our way home and would meet her at our house in about 20mins, and we did just that. She stayed for a couple of hours and we heard about all her worries about Ben and Paul. Neither of them really involved us, but gave us more of an insight into how the councils work, and how convoluted everything is. We’re both glad we don’t have to go through all those hoops. It must be tough to be young in these times.

Shona didn’t want to stay for dinner, but got a taxi home. We don’t think she likes Haggis, Neeps and Tatties! That was dinner for tonight, it being Burns Night. After dinner we watched a supposed Burns Night celebration. It was truly awful. One Scottish bloke told a couple of jokes that were really, REALLY funny. Something you could laugh at without feeling talked down. Nor did you feel awkward because they were crude or rude. No, they were just good humour.

With one exception, the remainder of the ‘celebration’ was cringeworthy. Scottish singers singing Burns ballads in English, not with a Scottish voice. Burns spoke and wrote in Scots, not the anglicised version that was foisted on us tonight. Even worse, it was a recorded version that was played, not a live show. Bah!

Spoke to Jamie later had heard that Simonne is happy in her new job and hopefully Jaime’s house may have a new part-time owner. That’s a weight off both their minds.

Today’s PoD was taken on the kitchen worktop before all these shenanigans were taking place.

Tomorrow we may build the big carpet cleaner. It’s a hefty piece of kit, judging by its weight.

Dancin’ – 24 January 2026

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Today was Saturday and every Saturday we go dancing, well, not really every Saturday, but most.

Today I wasn’t really looking forward to driving for three quarters of an hour to get to Brookfield for a dance class that would entail me ‘dancing’ the Samba. It’s not a real dance, just a way of shuffling around the floor to music. That’s not dancing!

Right, I’ve got that out of my system and I can now talk about what we did today. Drove to Brookfield and it was a busy dance floor. Lots of folk willing to have their hip joints dislocated for no good reason. Oops, there I go again. You’d think I didn’t like Samba! I’d rather dance Salsa or Soca or anything other than Samba, but I must cool down now and concentrate on what I did enjoy, and not mention SMA again tonight.

We had a Waltz to manage first and it, at least had some redeeming features. For a start, it’s got ‘real’ music not just heavy beats and no structure, and once you learn the names like “Syncopated Whisk” and a “Double Reverse Turn” it becomes a bit clearer. I just think it makes me sound clever when I say “Oh yes, we were doing a Double Reverse with a Syncopated Whisk”. I don’t know what it means, but other people listening to me might believe I was fully ‘au fait’ with the subtleties of this dance. Don’t be fooled people. I was just “doin’ a wee bit of spinnin’ roon the flair”. Scamp, on the other hand, knew what all these mysterious words meant. Either that or she’s a very convincing liar!

After the statutory hour and a half of gyrating round the floor without bumping into too many people, I was so glad when Stewart called a halt to the proceedings and sent us on our way, probably with his head in his hands and asking himself what he’d been teaching for that hour and a half.

We drove home through fairly heavy traffic with some of the signs on the gantry reducing our speed to 20mph. Do these people really understand what 20mph looks like? How many folk could honestly say they have driven at 20mph on a motorway. Very few I’d imagine I’d think.

Long story short, we went through the Clyde Tunnel and on to meet the M8 on the other side of the Clyde and from there it was an easy drive home through glowering clouds constantly threatening rain that never came. Lunch was half a Ginster’s for me and Toast & Banana for Scamp. Then an hour to work on the answers to Wordle et al.

In the afternoon I went for a walk round St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which was a drooping weed and a lifebuoy with the title “The Titanic Sinks Tonight”. They’re on Flickr if you choose to peruse them. We watched the Great Pottery Throwdown which is actually a lot better than I thought it would be. I can’t remember being shown how to ‘throw pots’ but in my first year at Cumby High I do remember John Swan teaching John M and me how to make slab pots and coil pots too. I’ve actually still got both pots somewhere about the house.

Tomorrow we may go looking for a carpet cleaner. What fun we have!

Dancin’ – 22 January 2026

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Today was Thursday and every second Thursday we go dancing in the afternoon if we can manage it.

We drove through the rain today to get to Glenburn and were surprised to see a lot of empty tables. We knew that David and Carol wouldn’t be there, but hoped that more would be coming, and they were coming. In their dribs and drabs they filed in, paid their entrance fee, had a word with Stewart or Jane and found a spare seat to change their shoes to dance shoes and join in the conversation. I think it’s the camaraderie I like best about dancing, especially dancing in Glenburn. There are no airs and graces, everybody talks to everybody else, plus there is always some Tea Loaf to go round at half time!

Today we hardly missed a dance. Sometimes one of us would get it a bit wrong, but nobody notices or sometimes just pretends not to notice and the dance goes on. Some ballroom dances today but lots of sequence dances. Most people gravitate to one or other, other just dance. The time seemed to pass very quickly today and then it was time for the Tea part of the tea dance. After the tea drinking and the chat, we started again. The second half of the afternoon is usually all sequence and it’s a shorter half than the first half. We’re usually in a rush to get out before the schools come out, because the roads get busy then, with the homeward rush beginning. We just took it easy today and drove the M8/M73 route with is longer in miles travelled, but usually faster than the stop/start on the Kingston Bridge. In the end, there’s very little difference between both routes.

Dinner tonight was a chicken curry, made from an easy recipe that provides all the spices for you, leaving you to supply your own meat, fish or veg. It’s one of our favourite dinners and this one was no exception.

We watched another episode of Landscape Artist of theYear. They, the experts picked the wrong person this week. They need a good talking to these folk. Too busy spouting nonsense and then picking a numpty as this week’s winner. Bah!

Since it was dark by the time we got back from Glenburn, PoD was an inside shoot. It turned out to be three miniatures of whisky on a white ground. “Getting ready for Burns Night on Sunday” the story said!

Tomorrow I think Scamp may be going Fit Stepping in the morning. If it’s dry, I may go over the road for a walk. If it’s wet, I’ll probably start filling a black bag with rubbish to go to the skips.

Another bright clear day – 20 January 2026

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Maybe not quite as good as yesterday, but by midday the clouds were clearing and the sun was getting through. Plus, of course, it wasn’t raining.

Scamp went out first. She was heading for Tesco and I was gathering all my bits and pieces together then headed off not far behind her. I was using the A7c and saw a lone berry on a tree on the way to St Mo’s. Turned the camera on and saw the message “Battery Exhausted”. I was glad I wasn’t far from home and could just walk back and grab my A7iii instead. If I’d been in the depth of the woods and seen that message, I’d have been saying ‘Sweary Words’. Lots of them.

With the cameras swapped over, and with about 80% charge in the A7iii I was good for an hour or so. I wandered round the pond and got a few shots, the first one being the lone berry on the tree! As usual I went half way round the pond then reversed my direction and went the other way. It’s strange that the view one way round the pond is totally different from the other direction. The proof is the PoD which I didn’t see when I was walking anticlockwise, but found it right in front of me when I was walking back, clockwise!

With some shots in the bag and a PoD taken, I walked home and bumped into Scamp unpacking the car. I was settling down to look at the photos when Scamp showed me her new box of ‘Rice Krispies’ which weren’t normal Rice Krispies, but some alien version with twice the amount of sugar. We’re both trying to reduce the amount of sugar we eat and I could see she wasn’t happy with these lumps of sugar. It was still light so I suggested I’d walk over to the shops and buy a proper box for her. Usually Scamp will disagree, as a measure of her annoyance, she gave in and allowed me to go search a Real box of Rice Krispies. She also handed me a winning ThunderBall ticket that’s been stuck on the fridge for far too long. So, off I trotted and redeemed the ThunderBall ticket for three new ones. Then I walked down to the shops and picked up the a box of the Real Rice Crisps. After that, calm returned to the house. We won’t find out if we’ve won a million pounds until tomorrow, but at least breakfast will a quieter affair.

The PoD was what looks like three leaves stuck together by the rain and backlit by the low sun. I liked it. If you prefer a photo of Oak Moss ( that isn’t only on oak trees and isn’t moss at all, look on Flickr).

We watched ‘The Night Manager’ (second series) and I’ll admit I became completely engrossed in it. Can’t wait until next week!

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Alex for a photo walk round Glasgow. I think Scamp has a meeting with the other witches.

 

Sunshine at last! – 19 January 2026

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Hooray for a day of bright sunshine. A bit chilly, but we can live with that, we’re Scottish!

I was out in the morning to get my broken tooth replaced with another more solid one. I had already had the preparation done and this was just the fitting and gluing in place. Also I talked the dentist into repairing a tooth whose cap had come off a month or so ago. She very kindly did both jobs at the same time, well one after the other, obviously!

Drove home with a strange feeling in my mouth. My tongue was a bit upset with this new interloper, but by the time I got home, tongue and tooth were getting along fine. Let’s hope it’s a marriage that will last.

The sun was still shining brightly when I got back, so I took that as a sign that I should get out and get some photos while the big ball was still in the sky. I drove up to Fannyside.

When I was driving there I passed a load of new houses. One of them had a jet of water outside it shooting straight up into the sky. The water must have been more than three storeys high. One poor bloke was in charge of waving traffic through the water. Somebody was going to have the “Looong Monday” John Prine sang about.

I hadn’t been to Fannyside this year, and went for a walk. I found some old rotting fence posts simply covered with Cladonia lichen and took a few shots. I gave myself a limit of the farmhouse at the top of the hill. From there I walked back, past the car and on as far as a stand of trees that create interesting shadows if the sun is in the right place. Then I had to drive back home to have lunch. For once I stuck to my pledge and got back with a fair few photos, certainly enough to get one or two ‘keepers’. On the way home I noticed the gusher had stopped gushing and the road was almost dry again.

Scamp had an appointment for a video appointment with a neurologist who specialises in Essential Tremor treatment. We were only on-line for about fifteen minutes, but in that time he, the neurologist, had agreed with Scamp that she should go to Dundee to have more tests to find if the procedure would work for her. He also explained that more modern techniques were now available. Now we have to wait and see what the outcome of a Dundee visit will be.

Today’s PoD was a stand of trees on a long straight road at Fannyside.

Today’s dance class with Kirsty was a bit of a hit and miss. We danced three different routines, but none of them seemed to gel with either of us. Scamp was feeling dizzy with some of them and I just felt lost. As Scamp said tonight, Kirsty is good at demonstrating, but isn’t great at choreography. I know I left wondering what I’d learned tonight and couldn’t really say I’d learned anything useful. Maybe next week Kirsty.

Tomorrow we’re possibly going shopping.