Category: Driving

Dancin’ – 17 January 2026

Posted on by Zogman

Out early to go dancing at Brookfield.

We arrived way too early. Quarter of an hour early, because the long straight along to Paisley was almost empty of traffic. I don’t know why, but it if hadn’t been for the 40mph zone where they are constantly repairing something, we’d have been half an hour early.

The first warm-up was the inevitable “House of Bamboo” which I must admit now that I’ve mastered it, is just a bit of fluff. A waste of time. Stewart likes it and thinks it’s great. I’m not a fan.

Next was the Feta Foxtrot – I have no idea where that name came from. It’s quite a ‘nice’ dance. Nothing too difficult or demanding. Of course my mind went a blank after I’d filmed it, but then with encouragement from Scamp, and strangely from Jane, we managed to do it with included ‘Sway’ which is a lean to one side or the other. The Sway actually added interest to the dance and I just know that Scamp is going to love it.

Next it was Blue Angel Rumba. I find it a bit of a clumsy dance with nothing to recommend it. We danced a couple tracks, I think, mainly to take our minds off the Feta Foxtrot with its Sways.

Next was my nemesis, the Samba. This really is an awful forward, back, back, forward piece of nonsense. Maybe if you’ve had a few shandies it’s great, but for non-alcoholics at 11am it’s not all that much fun. I couldn’t go forward for going backward. It’s just crap, that’s the only word for it. I failed miserably in my attempts to get my feet going in the correct direction. No, it’s not for me. The music we danced to reminded me of Soca but without the fun. I didn’t like it. Did you notice?

Another sequence track got me out of Brookfield alive. Having said that, I did enjoy a lot of the dances this week, just that awful Samba wasted it for me.

The drive home was the exact opposite of the drive to Brookfield. Stop, go and stop again. I don’t know what was going on ahead of us. Maybe an accident or a breakdown perhaps. Somebody ahead of us was having the worst Saturday of the year. I decided to try going through the Clyde Tunnel instead of sitting behind cars that were crawling along. It turned out to be the best option. Maybe a little bit longer in time, but at least the wheels were turning all the time.

Lunch was Fish Finger Sandwich for Scamp and a Piece ’n’ Banana for me. After that, I went for a walk over to St Mo’s in the late afternoon. The light was getting quite low but I managed to get a shot of a chunk of moss clinging to a tree. Nothing special, but nice colours and textures. An easy PoD.

Dinner was a Three Egg Omelette each. I thoroughly enjoyed it and although Scamp would have liked only two eggs, she managed to finish it. Dessert was a slice of Madeira cake with one of the big strawberries from Jamie’s Christmas present on top.

We watched a poor, almost comical, episode of Grantchester. Maybe it’s just me, but nothing satisfied me today. Maybe I should just go to bed and hope for a better day tomorrow.

No real plans for tomorrow, but some research needed.

A fairly lazy day … for me – 16 January 2026

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The furthest I went today was a short trip up to the town centre to drop Scamp off at her FitSteps class. She was meeting Isobel after that for a blether. I was going home.

I’d half intended going for a run up to Fannyside to get some landscape shots, but it was drizzling and it was cold and I like my creature comforts, so I drove home instead, knowing that Scamp wouldn’t be back for a couple of hours and I’d a couple of things I wanted to fix in the house.

It was one of those silly things, a misaligned toilet seat that should have been easy to do. A five minute job. We’ve all made that mistake. I firmly believe there is no such thing as a ‘Five Minute Job’.

I got my socket set out and started finding which of the sockets would fit. They are in such an awkward position, the nuts that hold the seat, but I couldn’t find the socket I needed and was beginning to wish I’d never started the job. Then I realised none of the sockets would work because the nut holding the seat wasn’t the normal hexagonal one. Then I remembered that there was a special plastic one I’d used when I fitted the seat before. After that it was easy to loosen one nut, tighten the other one and then tighten the original one again. All in all, that five minute job took almost an hour.

The rest of my time was taken up with the beginnings of a tidying up of my room. I’d an old briefcase that I wasn’t ever going to use again. It took a while for me to empty it of old papers and note, odds and ends and basically rubbish. The next one to go will probably be my ancient Black & Decker boxed drill with its totally useless battery pack. Why I keep these things, I do not know.

By the time I was finished, Scamp had returned and we had lunch. I’d missed an hour or so of decent weather and now it was raining again. I decided that PoD was likely to be a photo I’d taken yesterday of a wee bear ornament. I used a neat little app I’d bought years ago to change the creation date from yesterday to today and it looked genuine. Isn’t it great when you realise you bought an app years ago that adapted perfectly to work on today’s PoD. Sometimes plans do come together.

Dinner was Fish Risotto baked in the oven. Later we watched the first episode of Landscape Artist of the Year with a new presenter. Then we watched The Great Pottery Throwdown which is just Bakeoff with a twist. They make things out of clay, rather than flour. Even the presentation of it is too much like Bakeoff.

I think we have a quorum for dance class tomorrow.

Off the leash – 15 January 2026

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There was a big cardboard box heading our way today.

The man handed over the big cardboard box which wasn’t quite as heavy as it looked. We put it on the table and gently sliced away its Sellotape binding and even more gently lifted the contents out with their wicker handle. Then we untied the bow and stripped away the cellophane covering to reveal a large basket which looked as if it was made completely of fruit. Strawberries, some dipped in chocolate, different kinds of sliced melons, grapes on sticks and pineapple flowers. All arranged beautifully and very fresh. WoW!!!

It wasn’t until later we realised everything was held on spikes that had been driven into a carved out cabbage to support them. Ingenious! Of course we had to sample all of them just to make sure they were real and they were they were also delicious. Thank you Jamie and Sim. A wonderful surprise and the fruit is just ripe too!

Scamp was expecting visitors, Annette and Shona who were both coming for a blether, so you can imagine they too were impressed with this basket of so many fruits. I drove off before the ladies arrived, leaving Scamp to present the goodies.

I was heading for Kincardine Bridge on the Fife side of the River Forth. I’d taken photos there before and was hoping for a decent day, but it wasn’t quite as good as I’d thought. A bit breezy and decidedly cool on the banks of the river there. I’d been there a few times and knew you sometimes just have to take what you get. I walked along the path beside the water and guessed the tide was still coming in. I went as far as the old pipeline and turned back. I had a bunnet on, but had left my Buff at home. Silly old fool. I had my photos for the day and thought I’d head home when my phone chirped. It was a message from yesterday’s optician to say my glasses were ready to uplift. It seemed a shame to drive home when I could add a few miles to the journey and pick up the glasses, so that’s what I did.

The glasses were fine, as I knew they would be, so I paid the assistant and did head home this time. I missed Shona who was off at yet another meeting. However, I did bump into Annette and as she was driving home, she left me a space to park in. Thank you Annette.

That was most of the excitement for the day. The photos were ok, but nothing special. The fruit however made an excellent dessert after our Potato, Bacon and Cabbage dinner. Would you believe it, Scamp chopped up the cabbage and cooked it to go with the potatoes and bacon. Waste not, Want not!

Thanks again, Jamie and Sim for a lovely Christmas surprise.

PoD was a view looking over to the Kincardine Bridge.

Tomorrow Scamp is off to the first FitSteps class of the year. I may go a photographing again if the weather is good.

Off to Larky – 14 January 2026

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The living room was a bit of a mess after yesterday’s dinner.

However, the dishwasher was already filled and now it was switched on while the remaining pots and dishes were washed by hand before we settled down to sort out those puzzles again.

We had a fairly gentle run over to Larkhall at midday. While Scamp went to get her eyes tested, I put in my order for a new pair of glasses.

With that done, I drove down to Millheugh only to find that the bridge was being repaired, but I did manage to find a parking space beside the river. This is the first time I’ve been down that way for, probably a year. Since the last time Scamp had her eyes checked.

The Avon Water was really surging over The Boards, the manmade dam that was only there to force some of the water to run through a sluice that would power the machines of the Bleach Fields where clothes and sheets were washed and pegged out to dry. None of that remains now, it’s all been excavated and is now a housing estate. I went for a walk along the side of the Avon and got some photos. That’s where today’s PoD came from. I was surprised to see that there was still quite a lot of ice still lying in the shadow areas of the grassy park. Wet, slippery ice that threatened to cause a nasty fall if you weren’t careful. I was fairly careful.

After I estimated Scamp should be finished in the optician’s I drove back up the long hill back to Larkhall. I was just parking when I saw Scamp coming towards me. Nicely timed S!

We both had meds to pick up in Cumbersheugh so we drove there, but not before we stopped at a wee cafe for lunch. We could argue that it was on our road home, but it’s a cheap and not too nasty ‘greasy spoon’ place we’ve been at before. The place was absolutely jumping!! It was just after 1pm and almost everyone there was ‘of an age’. Most had grey hair and they were all talking at once, with a couple of big dogs barking their comments too. Roll ’n’ Scrambled egg for Scamp. Roll ’n’ Flat Sausage for me washed down with two coffees. Lovely.

Drove from there straight over to Cumbersheugh, picked up the meds and a couple of bottles of milk and then home to find our parking space was still there!

Dinner tonight was Pasta with Tuna. It’s becoming a staple on a week day.

Scamp is hoping to meet Annette and maybe Shona tomorrow. I might be off the leash for the first time in a long while!

Busy day – 12 January 2026

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The morning was the relaxing part of the day. The rest was kind of busy.

I had a couple of very belated Christmas cards to write, just a catch-up with people I used to work with and cards that I’d put on the back burner too many times for my conscience. They were a bit of a scribble, but both were different and to totally different people, so both where written as opposed to battered out on a computer keyboard. With that done, I felt a lot better.

We drove to the Town Centre Tesco for Scamp to collect some messages for tomorrow’s dinner with Crawford and Nancy at our house. Another tick in another box. The third thing for today was my annual retinopathy check which seemed to pass without too many questions. Then we were free to drive home on a cold afternoon. The occasional splashes of rain driven by a cold wind that seemed to continually change direction.

Walked over to St Mo’s more for the walk than for any photos, but the rain kindly stayed away for the half hour I was there. I got a couple of shots. PoD went to desiccated hawthorn berries on almost bare branches.

A spot of lunch and then we were getting ready to go to the first weekday dance class of the year. Today’s class was Tango. Slightly different from our Saturday class, but well worth going to. Little things to pick up on, like crossing my foot behind, not in front of the other.

Back home we watched our usual Monday trio of puzzles and games. Then as I was trimming and twiddling with today’s photos I discovered there was a problem with a couple of day’s photos. Two hours the dulling of the first of our automatic lights announced that it was 11pm. Bed time was coming up fast.

That’s when I started writing the blog. The tangled wires and stuff in Lightroom will have to wait until tomorrow to be fixed. It’s a busy life us retired folk lead!

Tomorrow I’m going to be baker of bread. I’ll also be a helper for Scamp when she needs it. Another busy day then Crawford and Nancy are coming for dinner. More high jinks!

 

Spending money – 9 January 2026

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Out this morning looking for a new cordless vacuum.

Our Dyson wasn’t running at its best and even after we fitted a new battery, the charge didn’t last all that long. Certainly nothing like the life I would expect from a Dyson.

We drove to Currys at Coatbridge which was the nearest place with a reasonable array of vacuums … except, they didn’t have any Dyson’s on display. Probably the most common vacuum cleaner on the planet, but they didn’t have enough room to display them. Apparently, and this is the story that came from one of the sales assistants,  Dyson demand payment from Currys to have their vacuums on display. It sounds a bit unbelievable, but that is what we were told. Strangely the same assistant told us we could see the Dyson range in Uddingston a few miles away. We ended up bringing home a Shark instead. It seemed to work just as well as a Dyson did, but was a bit lighter and hauled a great amount of dust in the time we used it. So who was the Shark? Dyson or Shark? I expect we’ll find out in the coming months!

While we were out, we did cast our eye over the carpet cleaners in Currys. I don’t think either of us were intending to buy one today, but we did have a look around. Some were big, some were small, some looked like they’d need a whole room all to themselves to be stored in. Maybe some of the bigger ones would fit in a small garage. I just wonder what colour the carpet in the living room would turn out to be if we used one over a weekend!

Back home and after we’d had lunch I took a walk over St Mo’s to see how the land was lying. A group of four or five teenagers were standing on the frozen pond, bashing away at the ice with metal bars. Maybe they were intending to ice hole fishing, like Eskimos or Inuits. I took some photos of them standing in the middle of the pond. The stupidity of some folk beggars belief. I’d imaging your lifespan if you fell through the ice would be measured in minutes.

I walked down to the shops and came back with some grapes, some sticky buns and a nice piece of rump steak. Most of the foregoing was for Scamp, but the steak was for me.

Dinner was a ‘small fish supper’ each. Delicious.

PoD turned out to be a photo of a boardwalk with little bunches of ice crystals spreading out from the gaps. Not great, but good enough for a cold icy and at times misty day.

Tomorrow I believe we are booked in for a lesson in dance at Brookfield. The first dance class in over a month. I’m glad now that we had a practise session yesterday at Glenburn.

Dancin’- 8 January 2026

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Today was all about dancing.

We drove through the snowy, sleety rain to get to Glenburn, but all the work was worth it.

The pavements were slippy when we left the house just after midday. The actual roads themselves were ok to drive, but occasionally it was sensible to drop the speed and concentrate just on driving. We made fairly good time considering this was a Thursday in the middle of the day and we weren’t the last to arrive.

We danced at least one of every track Stewart played. The only one I remember missing was a slow Quickstep which sounds like an oxymoron, I know. It would have suited us down to the ground, but I was talking to David and Scamp was talking to his wife at the time, so we didn’t really get a chance to shine. Pity!

As usual, it was a cheerful happy bunch at Glenburn and a nice collection of music to dance to. Ok, some of it needed a nudge from Scamp to get me started, but after that, muscle memory kicked in and we were away.

We, ourselves, were away almost on the chime of 3:00pm from the clock that was running two hours behind. For once I chose the right road home. Over the Kingston bridge an on to Cumbersheugh. We got parked fairly easily, not in the exact place I’d have liked us to be in, but close enough. One look at the sky told me that I wasn’t going out again today. Actually the automatic headlights had come on just about 12:30pm. It was that kind of day.

I was chef for the day and I had already chopped the tomatoes and roasted them last night. Today was just a case of blitzing them in the blitzed ( technical description ) and heating them up to become tonight’s dinner, helped by that delicious bread again. I must get back to making our own bread.

We watched an episode of Grantchester tonight. It’s getting a bit long in the tooth now, but at least there is a story line to follow. Simple, though it is.

I couldn’t think what to do for a PoD. If I’d been on the ball, I’d have had a photo idea in my head. Instead, I found an amiable monkey with its baby and forced them to climb up a Poinsettia tree which is why mummy monkey has a bit of a baleful look on her face. It filled a spot in Day 8 of the 2026 365.

One more thing I found by accident today:
Today, Charlie McKillop retired. I think some of you have met him. He was my apprentice at Siporex and discovering that he had retired made me feel very old!

Tomorrow I believe we may be going shopping for new toys for Scamp!

Off shopping – 29 December 2025

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Looking for somewhere new to take our trolley through.

I decided it wouldn’t be Tesco, so that left Morrison’s or Waitrose.
Again, I chose, and it was Morrisons. Now which Morrisons?

There were two options:
1. The Fort (it would be busy)
2. Morrisons in Falkirk (it’s traffic light city!)

Between us we made the choice of The Fort and headed off as soon as we could. Two spaces when we left the house and headed on to the motorway.

The Fort itself was busy, not excessively busy, but busy enough. The bonus of going to any of the Morrison’s is the breadth and availability of the produce. I think it’s better than Tesco, but for the ‘thing you forgot’ Tesco wins. Morrison’s lived up to its promise and soon we were heading home. Unfortunately I got in the wrong lane and that means a drive round and round the circular car park until you can find the way out. It took me two tries before I could find my way out of the maze. Then it was just an easy drive home.

When we got home there were still two spaces in our car park, but by the time I’d unloaded the car those spaces had been taken. Driving is crazy at this time of year. My cousin had an answer to it. He said you should treat everyone on the road as a drunk. That’s a really good idea. I’ve used it often, especially at this time of year.

Lunch was a ‘well fired roll’ (the means black!) filled with a banana. Then Scamp sat me down and between us we chose an ‘under counter’ freezer to replace the very old one in the hall. It arrives on Friday and cost a lot less than the equivalent model in Currys. Sorted.

I went out in the afternoon to grab some photos. The best of a bad lot was a dried up Willow Herb which, with a bit of care and attention became PoD.

It was pasta for dinner, it being Monday. Scamp wasn’t really impressed with it, but I liked the different sauces and spices that went in to it.

We watched our trilogy of quiz programs later and Scamp beat me hands down getting most of the answers correct. I must work harder at these quizzes.

Tomorrow we may take the bus somewhere interesting.

Shopping and Fruit Flies – 22 December 2025

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Out this morning for a bit of shopping. At least, shopping for Scamp.

I dropped Scamp off at Tesco and headed for somewhere that would be redacted if I’d posted it here, so must remain a secret. Unfortunately I didn’t find what I was looking for, so drove back, picked up Scamp with the ‘messages’ and we drove home for lunch.

Thankfully we got parked fairly easily. The parking in our street is a bit hit or miss at times. Today was one of those strange days when there were lots of spaces when we left, but only one when we returned from Tesco. Parked the car and left it there for the rest of the day.

After lunch which was roasted cheese on white bread, with dried basil sprinkled over the melting cheese(try it sometime. Cinnamon sprinkles work too). I went for a walk over to St Mo’s. It’s a strange looking pond now that the water level has dropped by about 75mm. Also, the pond weed is much thicker than it should be at this time of the year.

Today’s walk took me over behind St Mo’s school (all the kids are on holiday) then out into the woods where I found today’s PoD which is Amber Jelly Fungus on some winter trees. Odd looking fungi whose colour does look like amber. I also got a couple of nice cloud photos that I must plumb into Photoshop to be a home made cloudscape background.

Dinner was Sea Bream with Potatoes and although the fish was quite small and thin, was delicious. Scamp wasn’t so complimentary.

We’ve been pestered by tiny little fruit flies in the house. We can’t find out where they are coming from, but I’ve found a way of getting rid of them. Scamp has been experimenting with little jars of Apple Cider Vinegar with a drop of washing up liquid to reduce the surface tension. The top of the jar is covered with cling film with holes punched in the top. The flies are attracted by the smell of the cider vinegar and crawl down through the holes then fall into the liquid and drown due to the reduced surface tension. It works, but takes quite a lot of time.

I’ve chosen to use my battery powered tennis bat You may remember Jaime having one in Trinidad. It makes a lovely crack as it despatches the flies. Other than that, we didn’t do much today.

Tomorrow I may get the bus in to Glasgow to get the final prezzy that I’d hoped to get today.

A long lie in – 19 December 2025

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Maybe too long a lie in this morning. 9am had come and gone before we woke up properly. Must be the time of the year.

Yes, getting up at 8.30am feels like the middle of the night, and by 3.30pm it feels like it’s evening. So, effectively we have less than six hours of daylight at this time of year and that is without adding in the light loss from cloudy skies and rain. I can’t wait for Sunday 21st December, the Winter Solstice, after which the days get lighter and longer. At least they do in Scotland, anyway.

Eventually we dragged ourselves out to do some shopping. Nothing elaborate, just a drive up the road to Tesco to buy a few essentials and a lot of non-essentials, but ones that we’re hoping will brighten our Christmas season.

Parking is becoming a problem in our estate. None of the houses have off road parking and today it took an hour or so to get parked near the house. One of the problems is a neighbour who has a big mobile home. Badly named, because it’s only mobile for about three weeks a year. The rest of the time it just rusts away, blocking off about three spaces instead of one. Others are even more careless, parking where they like and taking up three space instead of two. Some folk don’t think. Anyway, I did finally manage to get parked.

Right, that’s most of the moaning done. After shopping, the sun came out and I went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just a walk round the pond, then on to the path behind St Mo’s School, then back by a circuitous route back home. I managed to get a couple of photos that I liked. One was off Cleavers which we would call Sticky Willies. Little balls of seeds that have hooked claws that catch on to animals and humans and that’s what spreads the seeds. The winner, and PoD was an old piece of farming mechanism that was probably used to dig out potatoes, but which is now a collection of iron and steel for kids to play on.

We watched the Portrait Artist of the Year final, where the winner of all the heats gets to paint a famous person. The winner in question was Chloe Barns who after a few changes, finally produced a painting of Professor Hannah Fry. That won her a £10,000 prize. In the last couple of years the overall winners have not been stellar in my opinion, nor in others I have spoken to.

Tomorrow we may have a wander round Glasgow as today’s walk was a washout. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.