Category: Driving

I think my jacket’s still wet – 9 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was a wet day. Far wetter and duller than we’d hoped we’d get. But we were so fed up with looking out at rain that we drove over to Stirling to see if it was any better there.

Actually, it was better. Certainly not as wet as Cumbersheugh. We had half intended to do some shopping in Waitrose, but there were queues for every parking space and people just crawling round hoping against hope that they’d be the luck on who could nick a space that someone was coming out of. It never happens that way. It’s always the car you’ve just passed that moves and it’s the person behind you that nabs the space. We gave up and drove to the multi. £2.50 to park all day at weekends. I could probably have burned that amount on petrol cruising round the Waitrose car park.

We walked in to Stirling itself and the rain was definitely lighter. Coffee with a panini each and a seat at the window to boot. For once – right place at the right time. Fed and watered Scamp went off to wander the aisles of M&S while I went to the Made in Stirling shop where they sell old lenses and even older cameras. I wasn’t buying today, just taking in some retail therapy. I also found some interesting mountain paintings. Very minimalist. Just two colours it seemed at first, black and white, but on closer inspection there was a whole palette of subdued colours. Must try that some time. I’ll add it to my list of things to do when I’m not taking photos.

I met up with Scamp in the Thistle Centre as agreed and we also agreed that we would forego the retail pleasures in store in Waitrose and just go home. Drove up to Tesco to pick up my pills that today’s email had said were waiting for me, but the pharmacy was closed for lunch. So we drove home.

Later in the afternoon I did get my meds and next door in Tesco I got a bottle of Drambuie to add to my evening whisky to make a Rusty Nail. I even got money off!

I finally hung up my sodden jacket in the boiler cupboard where it could drip and dry in peace over night, while Scamp and I could have a cup of white tea for Scamp and a coffee for me.

I sold my Samyang 18mm f2.8 lens in the afternoon. It’s a good lens, but I just don’t need it any more and the extra money I get from the sale will go to more glass!

Tonight’s dinner was Miso Pork Ramen converted to Miso Chicken Ramen to suit Scamp. It was a bit of a mess, but worth trying again some time, although Scamp isn’t very impressed with the Chinese version of soup.

 

We watched a tedious semi-final of Strictly later. I lost count of the number of times contestants were given a ‘Surprise’ of a video of family members wishing them well. Some of the dancing was good and some was poor. We both have a short leet of possible winners. I’m willing to bet that neither of us is right!

PoD was a photo of a perfectly good, if slightly waterlogged table outside Cafe Nero in Stirling with nobody sit-in at it! I have no idea why! 😉

Tomorrow looks like a re-run of today with more rain and less light. Roll on the 22nd December, the shortest day. After that it should get a bit brighter.

Jags – 8 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today it rained, but thankfully not as heavy nor as continuous as yesterday’s deluge.

I was on the ball this morning, or so I thought. There was a bud on the Alec’s Red rose in the front garden that was on a broken stem. We’d agreed that it was pointless trying to save it and we kept forgetting to cut it. As it wasn’t raining when we woke, once I’d showered and dressed, the first think I did was to grab camera and photograph it. Scamp doesn’t like the idea of photographing dead flowers and I don’t really agree with it either, but this shot appealed to me. I don’t know why, it just did. I took only about half a dozen shots before the rain came and I returned to the safety of the house. One in the bag. After yesterday’s lack of light, I was just pleased to have enough sunlight to take a photo.

After I’d imported the photos and was happy that I did actually have some photos in the bag, I started working on a short leet of photos for the 2024 Calendar. It’s a long winded process, but if I work a month at a time it doesn’t take too long. By the time I’d stopped, I’d completed up to the end of August 2023. Far too many photos, far more than I’d need, but this is the long leet. More culling will reduce it to the short leet from which I’ll choose a maximum of four photos per month. Believe me, it works … in my head, at least.

Lunch today had been booked last week for Brodens which is becoming our go-to lunch venue on a Friday. It’s slightly more expensive than Broadwood Farm, but the food is cooked fresh for you and it just tastes better. Plus I can get a pint of Guinness with my meal, but not today.

Today we were getting our Covid and Flu jags. One in the right arm and one in the left arm. The vaccine place was The Link across from The Tryst at the Town Centre which at least two of my readers will remember, I’m sure. Since I knew I’d be driving later in the afternoon and because of Scotland’s draconian drink driving rules, I knew one pint would put me over the limit.

The Link wasn’t exactly overrun with customers for the jags. It was us two and a bloke called Andy, who lives around the corner for a while before another couple of folk daundered in. We were told after we had our two jags that we hadn’t to drive for 15minutes after our jabs because we wouldn’t be insured if we had an accident. I didn’t think that applied to us, because we’d had jags instead of jabs!

Went to pick up Scamp’s prescription and my B12 prescription from the chemist and waited for half an hour in the queue, only to be told that mine hadn’t arrived from “Central Distribution” yet. That’s what more efficiency organisation gives you, a longer wait for everything!

Scamp watched the final of Professional Masterchef and I must admit I watched it too in amazement at what the three cooks produced.

Later we watched an interesting tongue in cheek ‘documentary’ about the discovery, testing and marketing of Viagra. Lots of double entendres. At times it was like watching an old Carry On film. Who knew that most of the testing was done in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales, but it was first sold in America and only much later in the UK.

Tomorrow looks like another day of deluges. We’re looking for somewhere with less rain.

 

 

Rain – 7 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It rained all day. Non stop rain. Continuous and soaking rain and it was so dark outside too. Get the message?

Scamp was going out to lunch today with her pal, Mags and I was hoping to get myself a cheap(ish) pair of jeans.

I was also hoping to drive in to Glasgow for an undisclosed shopping expedition. Instead, I chose to drive to The Fort. For once I got parked quickly and went for a walk around the circular shopping area. I didn’t find what I was looking for and thought I’d cut my losses and just do what I’d intended doing to start with and drive down the M8 to Glasgow. However, after I’d walked back to the car, I was soaked, well, I wasn’t, but my jacket was.

Instead of Glasgow, I drove back to Cumbersheugh and got the veg and chicken I needed for tonight’s dinner. That and a Ginsters for my lunch. Then I drove home. Scamp was on her way home on the bus by that time.

I kept hoping that the rain would stop, but I’d seen the weather reports yesterday and had read the forecast on my phone, so I knew it was a forlorn hope. The rain was on for the day.

By the way, I got my jeans and Scamp enjoyed her lunch!

Let’s hope tomorrow is bright, like the Gerbera, but I’d settle for dry!

Coffee again – 6 December 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Out in the morning for the third time this week, but this time it was both of us who were going out.

Scamp was heading for Glasgow to find an undisclosed purchase and I was going for a coffee. I gave Scamp a lift to the station and then managed to pick up a box of Christmas cards and had just enough time to write them before the meeting began

I was meeting Colin and John for coffee in Costa. I think I’ve had my fill now of poor coffee. Not terrible, just not good coffee. But I did have a good blether with Colin and John. I laughed when one of my FPs (Former Pupils) walked past pushing a pram, and who then did a double take at the sight of at least two of her former teachers sitting there. Even worse, she returned to the counter with another FP, presumably to corroborate her discovery that we were still in the land of the living!

After about an hour and a half we were talked out and went our separate ways. I drove home through what must have been freezing fog, I reckon. It certainly wasn’t very pleasant to drive through. I’d had the fog lights on earlier in the day, but didn’t need them on the way back.

After footering about for a while back home and once again praising a central heating system that keeps the living room at a comfortable temperature, I was just thinking about heading over to St Mo’s to grab some misty, if not foggy photos when a message from Scamp arrived on my phone to tell me she was on the bus home. That’s when I realised I was supposed to be making soup for dinner and I hadn’t started it yet.

The early warning gave me about 45 minutes to get going. It was another “What have we got that’s worth cooking” soup which finally settled down to be Leek, Red Pepper, Carrot, Turnip and Kale soup with a handful of Broth Mix added in for good measure. By the time Scamp arrived the soup was simmering nicely and I did go out with the A7 to get some photos.

There had been fog in the morning, but by the time I was in St Mo’s, it had dissipated and the temperature was dropping just like the weather fairies had said. The fog had left a light film of moisture on the branches and berries on the bushes and as the temperature dropped below zero, that moisture became spikes of ice crystals. Very pretty to look at but very cold. I got a few photos of them, but PoD went to a crop of a shot of wildfowl on St Mo’s pond. The crop made it look, to my eyes, like a sort of panorama. I was quite pleased with it. However a black & white image of a man and his dog walking over the boardwalk got more attention on Flickr.

No dance practise tonight because the teacher is crocked. She twisted her ankle when she was out walking her dogs at luchtime.  That’s a pity, because I’m getting to like her style and her classes.  Maybe next week.

We watched the final episode of Shetland and found out who the murderer was as well as discovering how the sorry tale unwound itself. Clever writing, producing, acting and scenery. I’m beginning to feel that I know what Shetland looks like now.

Tomorrow Scamp is out again for lunch this time with Mags and I may take the opportunity to do some painting or to go in to Glasgow. It depends on the weather!

Frosty white rabbits – 1 December 2023

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A cold and frosty day.

Scamp was going out to FitSteps in the morning and I volunteered to drive. This is the first day we’ve had to scrape the car since about February. As we were leaving Scamp pointed out a roughly 15cm long icicle hanging from the boiler exhaust guard. I took a few photos of it and when I got back it had grown to almost 30cm, so that is where today’s PoD came from.

Lunch was in Brodens with a disappointing steak pie for me but an excellent fish ’n’ chips for Scamp. It could be a change in kitchen staff that’s to blame. I hope so. I got some stewing steak and some mince in the butchers on the way home. That will be going in to the freezer tomorrow I hope, to be rediscovered and used some day soon.

That walk over to Brodens in Condorrat was the extent of my exercise today, but Scamp had an extra hour at Kirsty’s class to boost her total.

I was reading last year’s blog the other day and I may take my own advice when I said that if you want to get any decent photos, you need to be up and out before midday. Any later than that and you are battling with the fading light. It’s good advice, I think, although it’s hard to generate the interest in getting out in these cold mornings.

Tomorrow we may go out for a walk down Glasgow Green, but it depends on the weather, as always in December.

 

Another cold day – 30 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was only just above zero when we woke, and then it cooled down!

Scamp was going out for lunch with her pal and I had a plan for some photos. I wanted to get out and find somewhere nearby that wasn’t St Mo’s. I gave Scamp a lift up to the cafe at Calders where they were meeting up and then I drove over to Fannyside after I’d bought an almost daylight bulb for my new lamp. It’s slightly warmer than my real one, but it’s got an Edison Screw fitting and the old one is bayonet, so at least it fits the lamp.

There wasn’t much to see at Fannyside. All the leaves have been blown away from the beech trees now and they just look bare. Five sheep, four ewes and a ram had a look at me and questioned what I was doing in their territory. The ladies were unsure whether or not to approach the man with the metal tube, but the ram was giving me the side eye and they all stayed away. I took their photo anyway, which was quite good, because that became PoD.

Not long after I came home and dumped the photos, Scamp phoned to say she was ready to come home too. I drove over to the village and picked her up then we went home via Tesco to get some veg and stuff to make a veggie chilli. We were driving out of Tesco when I saw a sunset building up. I drove round to the car park at the rear of the building and grabbed five shots before the sun completely disappeared. My favourite of the five is on Flickr. A Tesco Sunset.

I made the chilli in the Magic Pot and it turned out quite well, except it was meant to serve 4. It’s more like 400. I think most of it is going in the freezer for a quick meal some day.

We watched Masterchef tonight and I hate to say this, but I’m actually enjoying it. We also watched another Portrait Artist. The numbering of the individual episodes is chaotic. None of the numbers are correct as far as we can see.

Tomorrow Scamp is planning to go to FitSteps or I may drive her if the roads are dodgy. Hoping to get to Brodens for lunch. Steak pie for me, hopefully. Don’t know what Scamp will have.

Glasgow again – 27 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today we drove in to Glasgow, just for a change.

Actually we drove to The Fort today, but couldn’t find what we were looking for there and the place was really quite busy for a Monday morning. Even the gigantic car park at The Fort was nearly full. So we changed our plans and drove down the M8 to Glasgow which was busy, but not as busy as The Fort.

We took a walk through the Buchanan Galleries and then down Buchanan Street before we went for a walk round the partly assembled Christmas market in George Square. Not nearly as many stalls as usual and an ice rink that is a ’work in progress’. That is, not quite finished yet. A bit disappointing, really. Coffee in the new Nero Coffee House which is unlike most Neros in that it is light and airy with none of the dark stained wood most of them have. Quite impressive! Scamp had her usual Single Shot, Extra Hot, Latte and I had an Americano with hot milk on the side. Unfortunately I also had the new Christmas blend which I found bitter an unpleasant. I won’t be having that again.

It was a lovely day with bright sky and a few clouds. On the walk back to the car I got today’s PoD which was a bunch of weeds growing out of a poorly maintained brick wall. I liked the limited sharpness of the picture thanks to the new lens’s wide aperture. It’s amazing the difference a decent lens makes.

There was just enough light when we got home to make me want to get another photo or two in St Mo’s, but by then the light was failing and it had started to rain. I gave it two circuits of the pond and walked home.

I was on dinner duty today and it was Pasta Carbonara tonight. I carefully separated one egg yolk from the white and then added another two full eggs to the cup before I accidentally tipped it over on the worktop! Surely this wasn’t going to be another Disaaaaster Day! I managed to save most of the eggs and got them back into the cup, but then I had the mess on the worktop to clean up and egg white is such a sticky horrible thing to clean up. But in the end the carbonara was ok, just ok, but edible and the kitchen was back to normal again.

None of the photos I took were really good, so the Urban Garden retained its PoD status. I’m still working on another shot from Glasgow that might make it into Flickr tomorrow.

I think between Hazy and Simonne we’ve managed to find and book a cottage for a week next summer. That’s another little brightener to give us all something to look forward to. Thank you very much ladies for all your research work.

No quickstep practise tonight, but maybe some tomorrow if we’re not too busy.

Other than that, no plans for tomorrow other than a bit of light shopping, all being well.

The yellow brick road – 20 November 2023

Posted on by Zogman

No Scarecrow. No Tin Man. No Cowardly Lion.

The yellow brick road is what we used to call IKEA when you had to follow the yellow arrows round the store. Now it’s arrows projected on the floor from above and not even yellow ones. Not nearly as much fun.

We were looking for a rug for the kitchen, a hanger for holding socks and pants on the whirly and maybe a replacement light for my room. What we came home with was:

  • Two boxes of sealable plastic bags, the ones IKEA do so well.
  • Half a dozen new dinner plates.
  • The hanger for the socks and pants.
  • A portable phone charger.
  • A toilet brush.
  • Three rolls of Christmas wrapping paper.
  • A bag of IKEA Swedish meatballs.
  • A box of alphabet biscuits.
  • The light for my room (but no bulb).

No rug because we couldn’t quite agree on which one we liked best. Quite a restrained set of purchases though, even if I say so myself.

Earlier in the morning we’d been to B&Q because their websites said they had two CO2 monitors in stock. They lied. Eventually got them in Screwfix for less than B&Q wanted for them, even if they had them.

Drove home via Costa in Robroyston for a cup of coffee and a bite to eat. Then continued on to Muirhead where I got today’s PoD which is a view over to the Campsie Fells with a lovely bit of golden sunshine lighting up the edge of the hills. The most amazing thing about it is that bit of sunshine is real! Not faked in Photoshop or ON1, although I admit there was some post-processing done on other parts of the picture, but that slice of golden light was real!

Dinner tonight for the first time in ages was pasta. My speciality, What’s In The Fridge pasta. Just using up odds and ends I found in the fridge.

<Technospeak>
One thing that’s been bugging me and I couldn’t solve was to create and install an SPF script into my email system. SPF is nothing to do with sun cream! Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is used to authenticate the sender of an email. I’ve struggled to complete the complex script that need to go deep into the email system to verify that an email I’ve sent to someone’s Gmail address is genuine and comes from me. Today I found a way to get that script written for me by the email system itself!
For my Webmonkey:
The answer was there all the time in Cpanel, and it was all done in less than a minute. I can now send emails to half the world without it bouncing back to me! I realise that now I’ve said that, the first email I send tomorrow will, indeed bounce! That’s just the way computers trip you up, isn’t it!
</Technospeak>

No plans for tomorrow, but the temperature is due to drop to near zero tonight! Brrr.

Rain, Rain, go away – 18 November 2023

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Come again another day (but not tomorrow).

As you will have gathered, it was a wet day.  Thankfully we didn’t need to drive out to Brookfield for the Saturday morning class because Stewart had cancelled it last night because there were only four of us were showing an interest.  Instead, we drove to Stirling in the horrible drizzly rain and filled a trolley in Waitrose.  We had hoped that the rain was localized and the rain clouds would lift when we left Cumbersheugh and we could walk into Stirling town for a coffee, but it was not to be.  The clouds followed us all the way to Stirling and then all the way back.  The rain got lighter later in the day, but only for a short time.  It’s raining heavily now.

It was so dismal that I didn’t even want to go over to St Mo’s to get some photos, so today’s PoD came from a table top setup in the back bedroom.  In fact it was more than a table that was holding up the subject.  The table had a drawing board with a paint pot on top, but that wasn’t tall enough, so I added a couple of thick books.  Still not high enough. Maybe one more book would do the trick, and it did … just. Sitting on top was an upsided down empty plant pot and the contents of the pot were balanced on top of this Tower of Babel.  I really should take a photo of my constructions for table top photos.  They are a bit like icebergs in that the bit you see is only around a tenth of the final structcture.  The photo is a collection of basil seedlings that never really managed to get beyond the seedling stage. I’ve changed the compost and watered them with plant food, but I now believe there just isn’t enough light these dull days in November.  They need to be grown in summer.

While I was on this gardening theme I gave my two chilli plants a fairly severe pruning. Last year I cut them down by about 25%.  This year it was more that 50%. I hope that might encourage some growth and bring us some more chillies next year, all being well.

Scamp has been in a long term battle with British Gas who don’t seem to be able to send us a bill. She eventually took the matter to the Energy Ombudsman and uploaded our case details and interactions with BG to the Ombudsman. On Thursday we received the reply from BG through the Ombudsman’s office.  Some truths and a lot of half truths from them. Surprisingly, on Thursday we also received our first bill from BG for a year! Now isn’t that a coincidence, however that bill only covers the outstanding amount up until June. They have admitted there is a fault in ‘The Flow‘ which we assume is the flow of information from our smart meter to their headquarters. They also admit that they now know where the flow stops, but don’t seem to have any idea of how to fix the problem.  Today we sent our reply to the Ombudsman pointing out the half truths in their story.  We await the outcome with bated breath!

Dinner tonight was a veggie lasagne from Waitrose.  I could almost agree to being vegetarian if the food was all as tasty as that.

No plans for tomorrow, except maybe to get a CO2 alarm somewhere, probably a real B&Q.

A rather full day – 16 November 2023

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Lots of things to do and a tea dance in the middle.

Out in the morning. Dropped Scamp at Tesco then carried on to B&Q hoping to get a replacement for the CO2 alarm that packed in yesterday. Unfortunately, the only CO2 alarms they had were in double packets and I only needed one. They did have a single packet of CO2 alarms, but they were the same price as the double packet. Well, I didn’t expect anything better from B&Q. Drove back to Tesco and picked up Scamp and drove her home.

It was a bright autumn day and I was determined to get some decent shots with the new lens on the first decent day. I knew I only had an hour at the most to grab some images before driving to Glenburn for yet more dancing, so I couldn’t go far. So it was over to St Mo’s again to see if the colours would jump off the page for me, and thankfully they did.

The new lens didn’t let me down. Focus is quick and accurate. I’d little need today to resort to manual focus, but I’m getting used to the oddly placed focus ring and the A6500 did seem to lock on quite quickly. I still wasn’t sure about the edge sharpness or the corner detail, but a quick look when I got home was enough to assure me that Sigma had everything sorted. Time to put the dance shoes on.

It was a packed room today, but strangely, the floor wasn’t all that busy. We started with a Waltz Nioli and after a few mistakes I found my feet and rhythm and we had it beat. That might serve us well next week when Kirsty has promised a quick couple of tracks of that waltz to keep it in our heads and in our muscle memory. Next was Cha-Cha and we danced our version with very few errors. We were promised two Foxtrots next and I suggested we wait and dance the second one. But the second one turned into a Social Foxtrot, so disappointed, we danced that instead. That was almost the end of the ballroom dances and Stewart decided there weren’t enough folk dancing ballroom on the floor and announced that it would be sequence dances for the second half of the afternoon. A strange and poor decision in our eyes.

We danced a few of the sequence dances after the tea break, but I’d much prefer to attempt the ballroom dances. One of the reasons we come to tea dances is to practise what we’ve learned over the last week or two and although it’s not the real reason for the fortnightly dances, it’s a major part of them and just walking round in a circle to music isn’t going to entice folk to come back. Practising and learning from others you see dancing will make folk want to improve. Sequence dances have their place, but variety is the key.

We left a little later than our usual 3pm, but still managed to miss most of the traffic and get back fairly quickly. Simonne was on a sales visit to a few of the universities and pharmaceutical establishments in Scotland and was coming to us for dinner. After discussing whether we’d eat at home or book a table somewhere, Scamp chose to cook dinner. She arrived around 6pm and we had Chicken Thighs, Cauliflower Florets and Green Lentils. It was a tray bake and it worked really well. Dessert was Lemon Meringue Pie, also lovely. Afterwards we sat and talked about replacing the roof of their house and the problems that brought as well as catching up with what else they had been doing in their lives. A good night.

PoD turned out to be a path through the trees in St Mo’s.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps in the morning. Then we’re hoping to have lunch with June and Ian.