Category: Driving

What a grey day – 6 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

One of those days that just never get properly started.

The only thing we did today that’s worth mention is to go looking for new lights for the rowan tree. So let’s start there.

We drove to Calder’s Garden Centre first, but after struggling through the congested aisles of the main shop the area where the lighting is displayed was now home to a half full size family of polar bears and other assorted Xmas junk and there was a cloying scent of cinnamon, the Christmas scent. Still on display among the menagerie were a few boxes of lights, but not the kind that Scamp was looking for. So we drove further onward.

Next stop was Torwood, another of Scamp’s favourite garden centres. They had a larger array of lights and thankfully no polar bears or cinnamon. However, although there were many boxes of the lights and they were the ones we were looking for, most of the boxes had previously been opened and rejected. We rejected them too. We drove home empty handed.

It fell to Mr Bezos to fulfil our need for lights. Ordered in the late afternoon and they will be delivered tomorrow or the next day. What would we do without Amazon.

Spoke to Jamie later and were glad that he had had a fairly relaxed day. I must admit I’m intrigued by the wild boar meat he bought and would like a report on it once it’s been cooked and consumed!

I struggled with a sketch for today’s prompt, “Trek”. In fact, most of the prompts this year highlight to the author’s interest in walking and climbing. Ten of the thirty prompts have that theme. I changed it a bit and it became Star Trek and from that I drew today’s iconic badge.

I also had a hard time getting a photo. The day was so dull and wet, I thought I was going to miss out on a photo, but a walk around the garden in the late afternoon brought today’s PoD which is the Rozanne geranium.

I’m hoping to speak to the man in the garage tomorrow about some work needing done to the blue car.

 

 

 

Off to Spain – 5 October 2024

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Now don’t get excited, we were just outside Paisley, but we were dancing Paso La Paz like Spaniards!

Well, Scamp was dancing it like a Spaniard, I was plodding along in her wake, more like a Spaniel than a Spaniard. It’s the fast and furious Spanish bullfighter’s dance that we started last week. It’s really too fast for me and my old dance shoes. They are struggling to keep up with Rumba One (in joke), far less do the heel stomps and the toe taps and the arm across the chest. I struggled with this last week and this week I think I was worse. Heaven knows how I’ll get on with the full strength Paso Doble the teachers are talking about!

The Paso La Paz was actually the last routine we did. The first one was the Queen of Hearts rumba which was our warm up. It too was a mystery until the second track when muscle memory took over and pushed me in the right direction. It’s been years since we originally learned this sequence dance and that’s my excuse for getting it wrong through most of the first track.

The second dance was the Viennese Waltz. It looks fairly easy when you’re watching it on Strictly, but don’t be fooled there are fast passages in this too. Natural Turns (clockwise) and Reverse Turns (anti-clockwise) plus Half Natural and Half Reverse. By the time we got to the end of the second track I couldn’t remember if I was coming or going.

Next was the Paso La Paz, but you’ve heard all about that already, so I won’t go into it again. We finished off with two tracks of a Midnight Jive which is a simple sequence dance that is extremely exhausting. I think Stewart just chose it out of badness!

We drove home and had a restful afternoon lunch. Couldn’t decide what we were going to have for dinner and eventually settled on a microwaveable curry from M&S washed down with half a bottle of Barossa Ink.

Later we watched tonight’s Strictly and wondered what Toyah Willcox was doing on this show, apart from a bit of self promotion. I don’t know how much she paid to be on the show, but it’s definitely not enough.

Today’s PoD was a branch of Berberis we passed on the way to the shops. Beautiful bright red and orange leaves.

Today’s prompt was Binoculars which is what I drew. These are a pair of Nikon binoculars I got for a song in John Lewis a couple of years ago. Light, bright and with a good magnification they are almost always in my case when we go on holiday.

Tomorrow we may go looking for tree lights to brighten up the Rowan tree in the back garden.

Service Charge – 4 October 2024

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We were both out early this morning.

Scamp had to catch the bus to get to FitSteps and I was driving to Glasgow at the same time to drop the blue car off for its annual service.

I left the car at the garage almost exactly at 10am and was told that it would be ready by 5pm. That’s seven hours for a three hour service! This appears to be normal practise for Macklin Motors, but not anywhere else I’ve ever used. When I asked the service technician why it would take that long, he said I should have been told that it was an “Open Booking” and would be worked on as soon as was possible, but there were two people off ill today. That sounded a bit familiar, because when I booked the same car in at the same garage a month ago for its MOT it did in fact take seven hours before I got to take it home and the reason was … there was only one MOT tester available that day. Sounds suspicious! I agreed and signed away my afternoon then went for a walk round the city. First port of call was Nero for a coffee and a chance to plan the rest of the day. Foolishly I took the option of their new blend Honduras and it was pretty awful. So a bad start to the day.

When I texted Scamp to tell her the news, she asked if I wanted her to come in to town, but I told her not to bother and that I’d phone the garage about two to see what progress had been made.

I walked down to St Enoch Square and got a couple of photos there, one of which became the PoD, but there was very little directional light and the milky white sky didn’t help. I know he looks as if he’s talking to his hand, but he’s posing with his new phone, I think. I took some more photos of new graffiti being sprayed on the wall of the Clyde Walkway and admired the vision of these guys being able to visualise their finished artwork. Haven’t seen any girl graffiti artists, but I’m sure there are some.

I got another message from Scamp saying she was now free to come in to Glasgow for lunch. That sounded a good idea. I met her in the bus station about an hour later and we went to an Italian place we’d looked at last Friday. Just as we were heading there I got the call from the garage to say the car was ready. The time was almost exactly 2pm. For once they were right on time. I said I’d be along to pick up the car as soon as possible.

The food in the restaurant was good, but my Spaghetti a la Polpette wasn’t very hot and the meatballs had the feel of ‘Ping’ (microwaved) about them. Scamp said her Risotto was fine. So we decided to give them another chance. A bit like Macklin Motors!

On the way back to the garage I got a new book by Chris Brookmyre. I’d heard about it in the Great Scottish Book Club and it sounded interesting. The book is The Cracked Mirror. It should have been £18, but I had a tenner in my Waterstones card, so I got it for £8! I’m almost finished a Peter May book Lockdown which started so well, but has descended into farce in the final 150 pages.

I got another surprise when I went to pick up the car. There were two advisories. Thankfully nothing needing done immediately, but just another expense that will need to be looked at early in the new year. I’m talking about New Year already and it’s not even Halloween yet!


Prompt for today was Exotic and my sketch was of a Bird of Paradise flower which fitted the bill perfectly.

Tomorrow we are expecting to be dancing Paso la Paz, It’s all about stamping our little feet and wiping the blood from our shoes. If you don’t understand, re-read the blog from 28th September.

We went shopping – 3 October 2024

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Today we went for the messages, in Waitrose in Stirling.

We drove to Waitrose in Stirling for the run and to get some messages. Not a lot said Scamp. About an hour later we returned to the car with three bags full (a bit like Baa Baa Black Sheep!). We’d intended to go into Stirling for a coffee, but instead Scamp wanted to go home, so that’s what we did.

Scamp is very organised and today as we unpacked the bags in the kitchen, she built three piles of messages. One pile for those that were going into the cupboard upstairs. Another pile for those that were going into the fridge and a final pile for the items that were going into the freezer. You see what I mean? Organised.
I have to admit, it did make storing a lot easier. One day I’ll be organised like Scamp. Ha Ha, No Chance!

Later in what was now mid afternoon I took the A7 out for a walk with me and took just over thirty photos. I only meant to take about twenty, but I’m guessing my finger kept finding the shutter button on the camera and because I was using Silent Shutter Mode, I didn’t hear myself taking photos as I was walking. It wasn’t until I got home and downloaded the photos that I found the dozen or so blurred photos of leaves, the path I was walking on and some beautiful concentric circles. I have no idea where I got that last one. PoD was an actual shot that I knowingly took. It’s a view through the trees and along the boardwalk at St Mo’s. The light shining through the trees is real, not faked for once.

Today’s prompt for Inktober was ‘Boots’ and I drew my old comfortable walking boots. A fair amount of folk are still pretending to sketch, but are really using AI of one kind or another to produce a sketch. I tried it myself today and created a much better version of the Discovery space shuttle than I could ever draw and if I hadn’t known it was created in Photoshop using AI, I’d have thought it was drawn.

Today we had a Charlie Bigham Lasagne for dinner. It was lovely!

As promised, I had a rummage around the computer folders and found the last two sketches. One of a rocket ship and one of a pair of boots. I hope you can tell which is which.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to drop off the blue car for its annual service in Glasgow while Scamp will have to get the bus to FitSteps.

New Tyres – 2 October 2024

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Scamp was out this morning for coffee with Shona. I was left at home.

Another beautiful looking day. Bright sun, but not all that much warmth was getting through. While the coffee drinkers were out, I posted today’s sketch, whose prompt asked for Discover and if you read yesterday’s blog you’ll know that with a ‘Y’ tacked on to the end, Discover became Discovery which was the name of one of the first Space Shuttle orbiters. I seem to remember seeing a plane with a retired Space Shuttle riding piggyback on it flying around Glasgow. It was while I was at Jordanhill and it caused a great stir. Anyway, The Space Shuttle was posted today and I started sketch 3 for Inktober, since I had some peace. The prompt asked for Boots and I gave it a sketch of my solid leather walking boots. Like most of the sketches, it’s not perfect, but looks like a pair of boots. It’s good being able to keep one step ahead of the required sketches. Here is the first sketch. I’m going to rummage through the computer to find today’s!

When Scamp returned, I missed lunch and drove down to Jim Dickson’s to get four new tyres on the blue car. It seemed a shame to wait in the ‘office’ of the garage, so I handed in my keys and went for a walk round The Village. Isobel had told us that a voluntary group was cleaning up the village cemetery and I went to have a look. Thankfully they hadn’t cut all the grass or scrubbed away the moss on the old headstones, but still put their stamp on it, so folk would know that work had been done. From there I walked round the rest of the village and found my way back at the garage to be told that they were almost finished and would I like to settle up? It was exactly what I’d been told yesterday and I was happy to pay for the work done. It’s good to support local business.

Back home with four shiny new tyres, I was ready for a filled roll with cold meat. Then I had time for a quick walk round St Mo’s and got today’s PoD on the way home. A low viewpoint shot of the path to St Mo’s with a bit of warm late afternoon sunshine coming through the trees.

Dinner was paella and it wasn’t my best. It ended up a bit claggy and soggy. My excuse is that it’s ages since the last time I made it.

Just finished dinner and it was time to get ready for Kirsty’s dance class. Again not our best. We are both agreed that the floor is simply too small for four couples to dance in. Also when she’s demonstrating, Kirsty is dancing almost round in a circle, so it’s difficult to visualise how that dance would look on a ballroom floor where it would be danced in a straight line. Both of us lost our tempers during tonight’s class. We must do some prep before next week’s class.

We have no plans for tomorrow, but shopping has been mentioned.

A busy day – 1 October 2024

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Lots done today, but lots more still to do.

Today was the first day of October and that usually means a lot of work. When you add in a hundred odd beginner sketchers trying to post their pictures in Inktober 2024 that starts today too, it becomes a bit hectic.

After I’d read the first few comments and fixed some Inktober problems, then had time to look at the sketches it was time to drive up to Jim Dickson’s garage to get someone to have a look at the blue car’s tyres and give me a price for them. I agreed the price and was told the tyres would be with me tomorrow (Wednesday). I’d already dropped Scamp off at the town centre where she was going to have coffee with Isobel. That left me some time on my own. I used that time to post my first Inktober 2024 sketch and to tidy up some of the problems that had cropped up with people lost as to how to post etc.

I got a message that Scamp was ready to come home and picked her up at the town centre where she won a prize by getting a bag of rolls and also well fired ones to boot. That was lunch sorted.

I like to be ahead of the game with Inktober and knew I had a busy month ahead, so I started investigating the possible solutions for day 2. I couldn’t decide what to do with the prompt, which was ‘Discover’, but if I added a ‘y’ to the end and made it Discovery, that was the name of one of the first Space Shuttle orbiters that NASA built. All I had to do was to find a decent photo of it on Google and fifteen minutes later I had a rough sketch completed and day 2 was in the bag.

The sun was still shining but the temperature was low, so I wrapped up well and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just walking past our row of houses I saw it. Three sparrows sat evenly spaced on the fence of the corner house. The second of two shots was the PoD. I still went for a walk and got some more shots that looked great in the viewfinder, but were poor once I’d enlarged them on the computer. The sparrows were the definite winners.

Dinner was a ‘what have we got in the fridge’ stirfry. Scamp is the past master at making this and sails through it without any problems, while I always forget one ingredient or another and have to search the shelf while the veg is burning. Oh to be organised!

Fairly early up and out tomorrow. Scamp may be meeting Shona for coffee and I’m hoping to drop the car off for its ’new boots’.

The end of September – 30 September 2024

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Well, this shouldn’t take too long.

In the morning I drove down to the Village to see if Jim Dickson’s garage was open to get a booking for a couple of tyres. Because this is September Weekend, a Scottish holiday I wasn’t really expecting it to be open and it wasn’t. The garage was shuttered and shut.

I was just reaching the garage when my phone jingled into life. It was Hazy testing a WhatsApp multi-person call, the multi-persons being Scamp and me. I was confused at first, then I realised what was going on and told Hazy I’d catch up with her when I got home. I caught the tail end of the call when I got home. Incredible house prices down south. The asking price for the house next door to Hazy and Neil is £700,000 for a three bedroom bungalow! Crazy money.

I went out later, once the call was finished, to put some air in the tyres because they were a bit low. Hopefully I’ll get to speak to Jim tomorrow to get the front tyres replaced.

Later in the afternoon I put on my new wet weather jacket, because the rain was coming and going, and got a few photos over in St Mo’s. Spiders were the topic today, and one of them got PoD.

I believe that’s about all I can say about today. Hoping the weather fairies have got it right with their predictions of a few dry days to take us up to the weekend.

If I remember to switch it on, Inktober 2024 will light up the Interweb at midnight.

Strictly! – 28 September 2024

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We’re sitting watching a recording of tonight’s Strictly, but this morning we did our own Strictly!

We drove to Brookfield in the morning with me in my usual Saturday morning grumpy “I don’t want to go” mood. The nearer we got to the dance class, the lighter my mood got. Don’t know why. I don’t ask the questions, and I don’t try to answer them. I just go with what my inner ‘Black Monkey’ says.

So today’s dance lesson started with Blue Angel Rumba which was a quite simple and fairly easy sequence dance. Then everything changed and the first dance they wanted us to do was the Viennese Waltz. Lots of turning and lots of simple change of place, but all done in a very strict tempo. Most of it worked for us without thinking, because we were working to carefully choreographed moves. Thankfully we didn’t have to do too many spins, because Scamp didn’t have her sticky out multi-layered petticoat on and I’d forgotten my evening dress and tails. Other than that it was a success.

Next dance was Paso La Paz. Lots of stamping of feet and pretending to hold a beachball between us as we strutted round the floor. We did toe taps and matador stances waving our imaginary capes in front of us. Apparently the foot stamps and the toe taps are to clean the blood and sand from our shoes while we are in the bullring and after the bull has been despatched! Who knew? Neither of these were the Foxtrot or the Four Seasons Waltz we’d been expecting. Interesting though!

A couple of tracks of the Midnight Jive brought us back down to earth again and then it was time to head home again. Actually a really interesting and thought provoking couple of dances. I won’t criticise Strictly again. Well, actually I will, but I’ll be a bit more sympathetic with the poor folk having to learn these dances that look so easy, but are not.

I took the A7 our for a walk later with the Tamron lens for company. There wasn’t much to see but it rained while I was out and I got a chance to see the raindrops beading and dripping from my new rain jacket. PoD turned out to be a robin singing its little heart out from the top of a Hawthorn bush. Quite impressed with the quality.

I came home via the chip shop with a Special Fish Supper (two fish in breadcrumbs and chips). After that we watched the ‘other’ strictly. Not nearly as good or as difficult as our morning dances!

No plans for tomorrow. I wonder if Scamp would notice if I cut a rose, and gripping it securely in my teeth while I stamped my feet, stood with my head back and one arm across my chest and the other behind my back in classic Matador’s stance, as I made breakfast tomorrow morning?

A day in the Toon – 27 September 2024

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In the sunshine!

Scamp was out this morning to her FitSteps class. When she came back we drove down to the station and got the train to Glasgow.

This was September Weekend, a Glasgow holiday on the last weekend in September and we expected the station to be mobbed, but it was the Alloa train that came in first and they don’t celebrate the Sept Weekend, so the train was half empty. A nice easy run into Glasgow.

Had coffee first in Nero where the Learner Barista got the orders mixed up and Scamp got the two shot latte and I got the single shot americano. She’ll learn, but hopefully fast before she gets her ‘jotters’.

We were going looking for a pair of leather gloves for Scamp. She had lost her good pair of purple gloves a few months ago and now that the weather was getting colder, she needed a new pair. First stop was JL. They had loads of them at loads of different prices, but no purple ones, or none she liked anyway. She did seem stuck between a light brown pair and a grey pair. Not sure, we walked down through the city centre to M&S in Argyle Street.

On the way there we noted all the differences that had occurred in the four or five years since Covid. Buildings where there used to be car parks. Shops that had changed their names in those intervening years. The city seems to be in a constant state of flux. We did find leather gloves in M&S, but they just didn’t look as comfortable or as well made as the ones in JL. I could tell by the look on her face that these were not the gloves she wanted.

We left, deciding to go back to JL. On the way we took a detour through the fun fair that had sprung up in two days since Alex and I had wandered round it. I got the shot I should have taken on Wednesday of the inside of the entrance to the St Enoch’s subway, shot on the ideal lens this time. I was pleased with that.

We walked back up Buchanan Street looking for somewhere for lunch. We tried to get in to an interesting place called Mowgli, but we’d have to wait for about two and a half hours to get a table. It wasn’t that interesting, but we may go back to it again. Instead we chose All Bar One. Scamp had, surprise – surprise, Fish ’n’ Chips and I had Chicken Pad Thai. Service was slow, but the food, when it came was good and Scamp’s fish was massive.

Left there and walked up to JL where Scamp chose the light brown gloves which looked really nice on her. On the way we’d picked up a birthday card for Ian, June’s friend. We wrote it and Scamp went to post it while I browsed the bargains in JL, of which there were few.

Got through the ticket gate just in time to catch a train going to Alloa via Croy. Alloa folk seem strange. There were plenty of seats, but they seemed happier cluttering up the doorway. Maybe they don’t get out much.

Drove home and had a decent cup of coffee, Scamp of course, having white tea. Dumped the photos and posted three of them on Flickr. The best in my opinion was another view of the subway station at St Enoch.

Tomorrow I think we may be dancing. It looks like we do have a quorum, but only just enough folk.

A good day in The Toon.

Driving – 23 September 2024

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Today we were going to the optician.

Scamp was due her annual checkup and we were driving to Larky.

We were just about to merge on to the M74 motorway when the red tail lights came on ahead of us and both lanes came to a standstill. We’d left with plenty of time, but when the traffic started to flow again it was at a snail’s pace. Scamp phoned ahead to the optician to warn them that she might be late. It did look as if we might have to cancel, but then the traffic started moving a bit faster and eventually we could see that there were blue and red lights ahead, so we knew traffic was being controlled by the police and although slow, it was moving. As it turned out, only one of our lanes was affected, the overtaking lane was closed, but the accident was on the northbound lane, not our southbound. I didn’t get a chance to see what was going on, but Scamp said she saw one four wheel drive SUV on the north bound lane, pointed the wrong way. I’m guessing that would be the end of someone’s trip for today. Thankfully not us.

A quick call to the optician to say that we were on the road again and would probably only be five minutes late, cleared things up with the optician. I dropped Scamp off at the Cross in Larky and continued straight on down to Millheugh.

Millheugh used to be a village in its own right, but has now been swallowed up by Larky. It also used to have a salmon river with legal and illegal salmon fishing. These days, it has a salmon ladder to allow fish to swim past the dam that Larky folk call ‘The Boards’, but I’ve yet to see any salmon in the Avon Water swimming upstream. It’s a nice story though!

I wasn’t there to catch salmon, those days are long past for me. I was there to get some photos and with the autumn colours in the trees I managed that. Unfortunately, the sky was a featureless white. Not that it mattered to me, I knew I could put a bit of life into it back at the computer.

From Millheugh I drove up the old back road to Stonehouse, but the light was poor and I knew I’d be struggling to get a decent shot of the old Avon bridge, so I carried on over to Canderside and then on to Larky. That was when Scamp called to say she was finished at the opticians and would meet me at the supermarket. From there we drove to Brookside Garden centre for a quick lunch of Roll ’n’ Egg for Scamp and Roll ’n’ Flat Sausage for me. Both washed down with a cup of coffee.

Drove home without any hitches and the weather stayed the same all day. White sky and drizzle. Such a change from last Monday’s visit to the Kelpies.

PoD was a view of Millheugh with a decent looking sky added.

No plans for tomorrow yet.