Category: Driving

Still Wet, Still Windy – 20 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

I could write, “For details of the day see yesterday”, but I won’t.

It started like yesterday, with wind and rain, but things needed to be done. Scamp was off to FitSteps until the phone rang and it was Kirsty hoping she’d catch Scamp, which she just managed to do. The message was that today’s class was cancelled because too many folk had called off. I must say it sounded like the most sensible answer, but I think Scamp was disappointed. Can’t blame her.

So where to start? First thing and easiest to set up was the tomato soup. Just a case of tipping the roasted tomatoes, onion, garlic and peppers into a pot adding a tin of tomatoes a cup of water and a litre of stock. Bring it to the boil and simmer for 30mins. Next was to thaw out the stew and dust it with flour, salt and pepper and leave it to dry out a bit and once the soup had had its 30mins, we drove to M&S for fripperies like fruit and bread, then Tesco for breakfast stuff and essentials like tonic and ice lollies. Got to get your priorities right.

Back home it was time to fry off the stew in the big wok and, once it was nicely browned, pitch it into the Instant Pot with carrots and onions and some stock, set it to slow cook for about 4 hours. Sit back and enjoy a Ginsters lunch. I know they’re not good for me and that they give me heartburn, but they do taste great. Scamp had a fried egg sandwich. Much healthier I’m sure. Simonne phoned to say they were on their way, so we were all running to schedule.

I kept thinking (hoping) it was getting lighter outside and that the rain was getting lighter, the way you do when you know you’re just lying to yourself. I eventually decided that an inside photo was the way to go today and took today’s PoD which is a bunch of carnations sitting at the kitchen window with the rain splattering on the glass.

The bed for the visitors was still to be made, so we got that done and the remaining obstacles were removed to the front room, leaving the room quite neat and tidy.

Next task was to blitz the soup and decant it to another pot. It was looking good, then Simonne phoned to say they were almost at Scotch Corner and were going to break the journey because the traffic was really bad and there had been a number of accidents. I think we both felt relieved to hear that. It’s a long journey in normal weather, but much more challenging with so many weather warnings across the whole country. We got a message later to say they’d arrive at Kendal and were going for dinner and a pint! Well deserved I’d say.

So we had some of the soup for starter with some Giovani Rana pasta to follow. Not the best we’d had from that range, but still better than Tesco.

Today’s prompt was ‘Frost’. I could not decide what to draw for Frost. Then, lateral thinking again, I found a picture of Robert Frost and tried another fifteen minute sketch. It worked.

We’re now expecting the visitors tomorrow, just as I predicted in Thursday’s blog! Some of us had these skills and some haven’t! Oh yes, and I did have heartburn thanks to the Ginsters, and I’ve taken my Gaviscon!

Windy & Wet – 19 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Windy and Wet sort of sums up the day.

Today we woke to rain on the back window and a blustery, gusty wind at the front. It wasn’t going to be a nice day, that was for sure.

I think we lay too long this morning because everything seemed to happen in a rush after that and before we knew it, it was time to get dressed to go out to the tea dance at Glenburn. I wasn’t looking forward to the drive over the Kingston Bridge and then onto the M77 before navigating the labyrinth of streets that take us around the north of Paisley to the community centre where the dance is held. I needn’t have worried, because the roads were fairly clear for once, a combination of warnings on the TV and radio about high winds and torrential rain, and the fact that the schools were on October holiday. So we arrived in plenty of time to a nearly empty dance hall.

People did trickle in during the first quarter of an hour, but the floor did look a bit empty, compared to what it usually looks like. We danced Waltz Nioli to two waltz tracks and made a reasonable fist of it. Then a sequence dance, any one, they’re all mostly the same. Next up was a Cha-Cha which we finished, but that’s about all we could say about it. We tried to do the Tango we’d learned last night at Kirsty’s class, but I’d forgotten the steps right at the end. I don’t know if that would have improved it at all, but later, when we got home we did have a look at the video of the steps Kirsty had demonstrated and we’d danced through a couple of times. Suddenly it all fell into place. More practise needed for next Wednesday. It would have been rather a dull tea dance if it wasn’t for David and Carol injecting a bit of humour into the proceedings. I enjoy their company and sense of humour.

Drove back home by the usual M77, M73, M80 after we’d navigated the labyrinth again. Even the motorways were a lot less congested than usual.

Back home I decided I needed a walk in the park to clear my head and to get a couple of photos. Actually I got seven, but very few of them were worthwhile, which strengthens my argument for taking a break from “one photo a day” for a while. PoD went to a low viewpoint photo of some of the leaves that had been shaken from the trees by a combination of wind and rain.

Today’s sketch was finished just after midnight last night. A ten minute sketch that took about fifteen minutes if the truth be told. The prompt was ‘Plump’. This one was a bit of a struggle. I couldn’t think of anything that would fit the prompt, but then I remembered Tweedledum and Tweedledee from Alice in Wonderland and the brilliant Matt Lucas characters. Fifteen minute sketch and done!

Lots of things to do tomorrow, mainly preparing for the visitors to arrive. Hope the weather is kind to them.

Windy – 18 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

It was a breezy old day today.

We have been bombarded with warnings of extreme weather from Storm Babet from now until the weekend. We seem to be on the edge of it with a yellow warning in place for heavy rain in the next few days. The wind did get up later in the day, but earlier it seemed quite normal.

We spoke to Hazy in the morning and heard about Neil’s chest infection which has kept him off work today and given Hazy the opportunity to get her nurse’s uniform on. We discussed the progress of Nelly the split rock’s new split that seems to be progressing really well.

After we said “Cheerio”, Scamp and I drove to Tesco and bought a few odds and ends to feed our visitors who are hoping to arrive on Saturday after a long drive..

After lunch, we turned the sofa in the back room into a bed, stripped it and put on fresh sheets. We also completed the transformation of the back bedroom from a dumping ground into something that people would want to sleep in. Still some hoovering (Dysoning) and a bit of dusting to do, but the transformation is nearly complete. I even washed the window so the chilli plants could look out!

With that done, I felt it was time to go out for a walk in the wild outdoors and took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s. While I was out, Scamp started the prep for tonight’s Smoked Fish Curry. It’s a really old recipe from a book bought in Woolworth’s! That will give you and idea just how old it is, and it was originally for Egg Curry, but it works really well with smoked fish too.

There wasn’t much to see in St Mo’s but I did get a little cameo of an aspen leaf pierced by a reed spike and that was PoD sorted. Inktober prompt for today was Saddle. Instead of the obvious horses saddle, I drew my bike saddle. I’d completed a fairly rough pencil sketch last night, but wasn’t sure how to finish it. I tried using black ink from a brush pen, but that just didn’t look right, so I redrew it in pencil and then drew over it with a couple of ink pens. That left it as a line drawing to which I added some texture and shading … badly. Still, it fitted the brief and it’s up on Flickr now.

Dancing tonight was busy, busy, busy with six couples vying for a space on the dance floor to show off their Tango skills. It was a short dance, but with enough interesting moves to make our feet do a bit of thinking. I really like Kirsty’s style. She dances the man’s part, then the woman’s part, then to finish she enlists one of the good lady dancers to be her partner for the couple dance. What was a complicated set of moves, suddenly becomes a lot easier.

I think we may be going out into the wild weather tomorrow to go to a tea dance at Glenburn. Let’s hope we don’t get blown or washed away!

Tea for Two – 17 October 2023

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We were off to Troon today for afternoon tea.

Thanks to John and Marion we had a voucher for Afternoon Tea at Lochgreen House. We got it for our Golden Wedding and had hoped to use it sooner, but this year has been what Jackie would call a “Bourach”. A mess, a muddle, a shambles. Everything we planned had to be altered or something got in the way and the afternoon tea got pushed further and further back. Eventually we made the decision to have it either last week or this week. Even then it was going to be tight. Our final decision was made yesterday when we brooked it for today.

It was a foggy start to the day and the fog didn’t really lift until we were out through Glasgow, on to the M77 and climbing up into the Fenwick Moors. From there to Troon was clear and we parked down near the beach where there are usually hosts of wind and kite surfers, but wind surfers need wind and there was none of that today. Only the Glasgow folk, “down on the beach with their coats on” as my dad was keen to tell you. We, too, went for a walk along the path between the beach and the grassy foreshore, but eventually we found a path through the dunes that took us down to the beach. Where’s the fun of going to the seaside if you don’t get sand on your shoes?

It was a short walk, because we’d still to drive to the posh Lochgreen House. We arrived right on time and were seated in a booth and had tea, or hot water for Scamp, then we were served the three layer platter with hot food in the bottom, sandwiches in the middle and scones on the top. The scones being served with clotted cream and strawberry jam. I could almost see myself reaching for the Gaviscon when I saw that big quenelle of clotted cream!

Scamp played her vegetarian card and had a Goat’s Cheese Quiche, Vegetable Tempura and a Finger of Fish, not to be confused with a fish finger. I had Haggis Bon-Bons, Ham Quiche and a Sausage Roll that had never been near Greggs! Those were the hot foods.

My sandwiches were Chicken and Tomato, Coronation Chicken and Roast Beef with Mustard and Lettuce. Scamp’s were Egg Mayo, Tuna and Goat’s Cheese.

Two scones each, one fruit, one plain with that clotted cream and strawberry jam finished the platters, but there were six cakes to finish off too. Unfortunately, we were full by that time and asked for them to be boxed to take away.

All in all, it was a lovely afternoon in beautiful surroundings, waited on hand and foot.

Because we had some time to spare, we drove down to the big car park we usually go to and walked over the Ballast Bank to let our lunch slide down. It’s usual for us to walk over the top of the Ballast and down the other side, then take the narrow low path along the edge of the water if the tide isn’t in. That takes us back to the car park. We found a seat half way along the low path and stopped to look out to the sea. I took a few photos and then recognised a couple of folk walking towards us. They materialised into Ronnie and Millie from Brookfield. They had been dancing at the ballroom in Troon and, like us were stretching their legs with a walk in the fresh air. I think we might be going to that ballroom soon too, some Tuesday afternoon.

Drove home through the usual 4.30 rush. Thankfully we didn’t attempt the Kingston Bridge, but stuck to the M74/M73. Longer journey but much less stressful. Back home we had two cakes each. That leaves two to share tomorrow.

PoD was the view when we were climbing up through the dunes to get to the beach.

Today’s prompt was “Demon”. The demon here is The Demon Drink. As fearful a monster as any, and just like a genie, as long as he’s kept trapped in the bottle you are safe. However once you twist that cap and release him you are opening a Pandora’s box or am I just getting carried away now? Anyway, it let me splash on lots of red paint!

That was a lovely day. Good weather, good food, good company and great fun. Must do it again sometime. Now, where’s that Gaviscon?

No plans for tomorrow.

 

Back in the old regime – 14 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Driving to Brookfield today for the first class in ages.

Ah, but what a pleasant drive it was. No 40mph stretches of the motorway and no restricted lanes. What a delight that was, but how long will it last before the next phase starts? It doesn’t matter, because at least we had a stressless drive for once.

Not stressless in Brookfield. We started with the Charnwood Cha-Cha which Scamp was at pains to tell me that we’d done it before. I did remember bits of it and eventually it began to flow as it should.

Next was a new dance that was called the Ria Bachata. It was familiar up to a point. The steps were bachata steps, but the speed of the music was far too fast. It was more like a cha-cha bachata. I wasn’t impressed, but apparently we’ll be dancing it at the next ball in November, so we better start practising.

Next up today was the Tango which we learned years ago on Zoom during lockdown. This version was different, much more precise than our simple tango. Also there was a new step to master before the final “X Line” splits! Neither of us can remember its name, but I think we’ll be leaving it out of our tango version.

Finally there was the Foxtrot which I was quite confident at dancing until I came to the Continuous Hover Cross. Despite Stewart demonstrating it with Scamp and Jane dancing it with me, it felt different again from what we learned a couple of years ago. Maybe I just need to go back to those old videos and try to find our version of it. I remember it took me a long time to master it and I don’t want to go through that again.

That may be the last lesson for some time as it seems unlikely that we’ll be going to the next class and the class the week after that has been cancelled because the hall committee are putting up decorations for Halloween.

We drove home and quite a while after lunch I went out to get some photos. Nothing really seemed to be working, but then I saw a man out walking two dogs and managed to frame him between two trees and Bingo! I hd a picture of the day. On the way back from my photo walk I dropped in at Golden Bowl and brought back a Chicken Chop Suey with Fried Rice for Scamp and a Special Chow Mein for me. Both of us agreed that was a good move.

Prompt for the day was Castle. I thought of drawing a real castle, but realistically, the Rook from a chess set would fit the bill as its alternative name is Castle. I drew it while half watching Strictly and that accounts for the poor symmetry of the castle.

Tomorrow it looks like it will be cold as it’s just above 0ºc just now. We might go out for a walk in Colzium to see the colours of the Acers.

Eureka! – 13 October 2023

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It worked.

<Technospeak>
I did what I should have done in the first place and read (actually listened to) the instructions on YouTube. The writer of the instructions was Andrew Tsai, a very clever bloke who was the first person I’d heard of who explained how to replace the internal mechanical hard disk in a computer with a solid state drive, an SSD for short. I listened to his instructions this morning and found my mistake. I’d gone for the quick and dirty approach when I should have taken the slow path. That’s what I did. I formatted the old scrambled SSD and then installed the new OS from a specially set up memory stick. That took an hour and a half. I knew I didn’t have time to do the next bit, because it was going to take a lot longer.
<\Technospeak>

By then I’d done Wordle and failed to find the Spelling Bee Pangram while waiting for the ping from the computer to tell me that it had finished the first install. We had a piece ’n’ jam each and got dressed to dance. Then we drove up to the town centre to one of the new churches that used to be a carpet shop next to B&Q, but today was the venue for a Tea Dance. We got there about fifteen minutes after the opening time and by then the room was about three quarters full. Also the car park outside was completely full with minibuses. My heart sank even further than it had yesterday. We WERE going to be the youngest folk in the hall.

There was a band, two guitars, a keyboard and drums and there was a singer. Scamp knew the keyboard player whose name was Alathea and went over to speak to her at the interval. Actually the musicians were really quite good, the singer, not so much. I thought we’d have to leave after half an hour, but eventually found Scamp’s method of tuning out sounds I don’t want to hear, and concentrated on listening to the band. One of the guys who dances at the Wednesday class arrived and we all sat and blethered for a while. We had our tea and a cake and Scamp and I did dance for a couple of tracks, but with a carpeted floor, anything other than a shamble across the floor was out of the question. After that, Jim left and so did we a few minutes later. We did learn that it was a once a year tea dance and the organisers were giving up after this one. I can’t say I blame them. Too many empty tables showing a lack of interest from our age group.

We drove home and I started on the second part of the marathon installation. This time it ran like clockwork and about an hour and a half later I had a working computer again running macOS Monterey. It looks no different to macOS Big Sur which it replaces, but I’m hoping I’ll be able to upgrade Lightroom now!

With only a couple of niggles to fix, I took a walk in St Mo’s to see if I could find anything worth photographing. I didn’t find anything inspiring, so I walked down to the shops and got some mozzarella to top the pizzas I was making for dinner. I took the long way home and risked a photo of the underpass that takes you through to Blackwood. Always something dodgy lying around there, but quite an interesting perspective. That got PoD.

“Rise” was the uninspiring prompt for the day. I ended up drawing a hot air balloon, or a giant light bulb, maybe. That must have been the poorest prompt so far this Inktober.

Tomorrow we’re intending to go to the dance class again, but hopefully the roadworks will now be clear … perhaps!

 

Out for coffee with Val – 10 October 2023

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Up fairly early … for me.

Set off to pick up Val just before 11am and we drove to Costa. Not the Costa I was expecting to go to, but eventually we found the right one of the three Costas in Cumbersheugh. Sat there and drank coffee, ate cakes, discussed kitchens and showers. Then found that we had both bought the exact same dishwasher. First one for Val, third one for us. After an hour and a big bit it was to take Val home. We should do this more often and we will do this more often if I have my way.

Drove home via Tesco to get some fruit and veg and a slice of brie which, along with a few slices of our own apples and a generous spoonful of honey made the filling in a brown bread sandwich for my lunch. Scamp had already had her lunch while Val and I were blethering.

After lunch and with the sky seeming to clear, I went for a walk in St Mo’s with the A6500 having a shot of the 85mm. The close ups the pairing produced were good, but the surprise was the way it handled a long shot across the pond to catch a bloke on his phone, sitting on the Living Lounge seat nearly half a mile away. I later enlarged it and it’s ready to be viewed on Flickr. It didn’t get PoD, that went to two spiders on a web.

Scamp offered to help me get more of the workload finished at a sensible time by making tonight’s dinner which was her signature Prawn & Pea Risotto. Best one for ages, Scamp!

Today’s prompt was “Fortune”. I tried to draw a Fortune Teller’s view of a crystal ball. I thought this would be a fairly easy sketch to do. How wrong I was. The left hand was fairly easy, but have you tried drawing your right hand with the pen in your left (reverse that if you’re left handed) It’s impossible. I even tried photographing my right hand and sketching from that with only slightly more success as you can see here. If I’d only had a crystal ball I could have seen the mess I was going to make!

It’s Scamp’s turn to go out for coffee tomorrow with June. I might try to update the laptop to Monterey. That’s where it happened, you know! Google it!

A Toy off the Rack – 6 October 2023

Posted on by Zogman

A new, well, nearly new lens.

So, I slept on it, as I said I would, and decided to add the Sony 85mm f1.8 to my armoury.

Scamp was out in the morning to go to her FitSteps class. I phoned WEX in Glasgow and asked the lady to put the second hand Sony 85mm f1.8 lens aside for me and I’d be in to collect it in the afternoon. When Scamp returned from her class, just over an hour later we drove in to Glasgow.

First we went to John Lewis to have a serious look at fridges, freezers and fridge-freezers, the trio we’ve been mulling over for the past week. I don’t think either of us was fully committed to the idea of a combined fridge and freezer. If one part of it breaks down, does that mean the other half dies with it? Scamp seemed reluctantly resigned to an undercounter freezer and separate fridge. The two of them were sitting beside each other in the JL basement, like Tweedledum and Tweedledee. We were really looking for a Goldilocks fridge. The ones on show were either too big or too small and she wanted one that was in the middle of the height range. Eventually,Scamp spoke to an assistant who very helpfully went away and returned with a model number for a fridge that was indeed the nearest thing to a Goldilocks. Now we need to find a picture of it, or better still, somewhere that has it in stock, because JL in Glasgow didn’t have one.

Feeling we were another step forward, we left JL behind and walked up to WEX, checked the lens I’d play tested yesterday and paid my half of the money. Of course I immediately knew that I’d made a mistake as the Buyers Remorse kicked in, but I just ignored it. I had a toy off the rack.

Coffee in Nero on the way down a Sausageroll Street that was being chopped up, dug up and generally destroyed in ‘improvements’. They’d even cut down most of the trees. Sometimes I fear for the sanity of these urban planners, other times I know they are all just morons.

I had a look for a new raincoat to replace my old faded blue one that’s not as waterproof as it used to be, despite being proofed regularly, but didn’t find anything that impressed me. Heavens some of them only had two pockets. TWO? What use is that to me?

Drove home and that was when the rain started and it’s still raining. It doesn’t look like I’ll get a chance to try out the new toy until at least Sunday. Heavy rain predicted for tomorrow.

Today’s PoD was one of my regular shots of the changing face of Glasgow. It seems that every month there is another change to the skyline. Some are for the better and some are not. I think the call it progress, but I’m not sure. Anyway, after a bit of jiggery pokery again, I had a photo that looked interesting.

Today’s Inktober prompt was “Golden”. It’s my wedding ring which, over the years, has been chopped off my swollen finger, soldered back together and then chopped and soldered again to make it slightly smaller to stop it from falling off my finger. It’s definitely Golden.

Tomorrow rain is predicted, lots of it. We may go out for lunch and not discuss White Goods.

Curry for lunch – 30 September 2023

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We couldn’t decide where to go today, but eventually settled on a curry in Hamilton.

Not the most exotic place to have lunch, but according to the sign, there’s only one Bombay Cottage, so we drove to Hamilton to have a curry for lunch. Scamp had here usual Cauliflower Shimla Bhaji and for a change I had Chicken Tikka rather than my usual Chicken Rogan Josh. I’d have it again. It’s not been a favourite of mine, mainly because the sauce can be really thin and really spicy hot. This one was much milder and I could taste the onions and spices in the sauce. The chicken was as moist as any I’ve had. The only down side was the naan bread which had too much ghee and was a bit bland. Scamp had asked for well done, but either the bloke taking the order wasn’t listening or he forgot. He looked as if he was half asleep.

Fed and watered, because the drinks were very watery, we headed home into a constant drizzle in what was left of the day. Not a great day for photographs, but I did a round of the garden when we got home and the picture of a teasel flower was PoD.

We watched Strictly at night and I felt it really dragged. A few ‘no hopers’ a few trying desperately to impress and the rest were there to get their faces on TV or were brought in to fill in spaces. I’m only watching it to see them dancing in the Tower Ballroom in Blackpool, now that we’ve been there!

That was it for the last day in September. Inktober starts tomorrow and that will mean an extra hour or so’s work for me sketching, scanning and posting my efforts, then answering inane questions from those who can’t read the rules.
“But why do we have to sketch in ink?”
“Because it’s in the rules”
“But why?”
“Because I said so.”
“But why can’t I use a pencil?”
“Because you’d probably injure yourself”
“But why can’t I just use my IPad”
“Because you’re now banned! Next!”
“But why do I have to …”

Sometimes it’s a pain being an admin. Sometimes it’s fun. ????

Tomorrow we may be going to watch the Great Scottish Run. Watching, not competing!

Has she gone already? – 28 September 2023

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We hadn’t even noticed she’d been, Storm Agnes. She must have passed us by.

Neither of us noticed an increase in the wind during the night. Perhaps the weather maps were right for once when they showed the central belt being storm-free last night and early this morning.

Scamp had a list of places to go this morning. First we were driving to the Muirfield Centre to pick up free tickets to a tea dance. Actually a tea dance that last for five hours! That would be a marathon. Can we go home for our dinner half way through and come back after but still get our tea at the tea dance? Just asking!

Next stop was Calders to book a round table for six folk, except they didn’t have a round table that would sit six. Five, yes, but not six. Probably an EEC ruling that’s still in place. While we were there, Scamp bought some bulbs in the garden centre. Not the electrical variety, but the ones you plant in the garden. Hopefully they’ll brighten up the garden.

Last stop was Tesco for the messages. Just the usual, a bottle of wine, a bottle of gin and some odds and ends of food.

After lunch I took the A7 out with a macro lens and got today’s PoD. It’s a spider wrapping up tonight’s dinner. I should really have gone further afield and got a bit of landscape, but the sky was clouding over and there wasn’t really any decent light on the hills, so spiders and webs were all that I managed.

Dinner was Bacon and Borlotti Beans, something I haven’t made for a long while, but it was deemed edible, in fact, quite edible which was good because it’s one of those dishes you have to constantly be in charge off. It would, of course, have been better if I’d been better prepared. Maybe next time!

That was about it for today. No real plans for tomorrow, other than having a drink on Friday night, because I’m not driving to Bridge of Weir the next morning. The teachers are swanning off being teachers on a cruise ship.