Category: Driving

A less hectic day – 13 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

With a carton of milk waiting on the step for us when we woke.

Our first milk delivery in who knows how many years. A 2 litre carton of semi skimmed.

Hazy phoned in the morning and we had a good half hour blether about what was happening in Epsom and here. She also told me about a TV adaptation of Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman. I must look for that.

We went for the messages in the morning. Off to Tesco in the rain that followed us everywhere we went today. Came home with three big bags of essentials and by the time we’d put it all away, it was time for lunch. Sandwiches today, filled with Dairylea and Tomatoes for Scamp and Corned Beef for me. My what an exciting life we lead. While Jamie and Sim go to the beach, we get a shopping trip to Tesco.

I had decided not to take a camera for a walk in the rain, at least, not a long walk. Instead I cut a hole in a plastic bag, just big enough to poke a lens through and did some photography in the garden in the rain. The PoD turned out to be a Lupin leaf with a few water drops sitting on it. You can see how the shape of the leaf tends to hold some of the rainwater and channel it down to the roots, rather than allowing it to drip off the ends of the leaves, although some generally does that too.

Scamp was monitoring her sister’s progress down from Skye to Glasgow and we picked her up at the Concert Hall and drove home.

Lots to talk about and lots of question from both sisters as they caught up with what was happening in both families. I tried to keep out of it most of the time and made dinner which was Pasta Amatriciana, pasta with tomatoes, basil and bacon, with a pinch or two of chilli flakes.

Later in the evening I changed my role to Barman and we all had a Gin ’n’ Tonic. Still more blethering from both sisters.

Hoping for a good day tomorrow for a send off for Bobby Flavell.

 

 

… and then the lights went out – 10 March 2023

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Another bright and cold morning. The thermometer read -0.3ºc when we woke.

While Scamp went out to FitSteps I struggled with renewing the SSL on my website. I got the first part ok, I think and have the encrypted code for the SSL on the computer, but the next stage getting the CNAME registered is beyond me. I can’t understand the language and the video explanation of how to go about it is just so vague, it could be written in invisible ink. Eventually, after an hour of struggling I gave up and solved Wordle and Spelling Bee instead.

We’d talked about going in to Glasgow for a pizza lunch, so that’s what we did. We drove in to Glasgow. I couldn’t be bothered getting the bus and after all, that’s what we bought a car for, the convenience. Walked through JL and then along Buchanan Galleries then down to Miller Street to Paesano. Scamp had a variation on her usual and chose tomato and spinach – no cheese. I had a number 3: tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and olives. Both were great, just great, not excellent. PoD was the view of the Tron Church in Buchanan Street with some lovely reflections from the building opposite.

Wandered round the town afterwards and had coffee in Nero on Argyle Street. They claimed they had to use take-away cups because they were short of staff and refused to use the normal cups on the shelf behind them. Then they filled a large take-away cup almost to the brim with hot water and dropped my single shot into it. It was like drinking brown water. I thought I was in a Costa. They might have been short of staff, but they were definitely short of toilets too. The entrance to the downstairs toilets was blocked off and that left one toilet for the whole shop. I sensed an irate email coming on. We walked back up through the homeward bound office workers and drove home.

We sat and watched a recording of The Apprentice at night and were almost at the end of You’re Fired … and then the lights went out!

We thought at first it was a power cut, but housed across from us and next door had lights on, so just us then. Checked the fuse board and sure enough it was the something in the downstairs sockets that had tripped the switch. Went round with the torch on Scamp’s phone switching off all the sockets but still it tripped. Next we unplugged all the devices connected to the sockets. Still no go. That’s as much as I can do, so we phoned the electrician we usually use and he said he couldn’t come until Monday. This was Friday night. No heating, no power downstairs for two days wasn’t good. Then Scamp remembered Jamie using their emergency cover from their insurance. We phoned the number and the person I spoke to confirmed that ours was a valid claim, gave us a claim number and said that someone would phone in the morning to arrange a time to come and visit.

That’s where we are at present. We still have power upstairs and I’ve run an extension cable down from the landing to keep the freezer powered until we can get this fixed. I’ve brought a heater down from the back bedroom so we will get some heating although the central heating won’t work because there’s no way to power the boiler. Scamp says we can still use the cooker, so we won’t starve, but it’s unlikely we’ll be dancing tomorrow! I think we need to get the distribution board replaced and maybe we need the house rewired. That’s for the near future. For now we want to see what happened at the end of You’re Fired!

This blog comes courtesy of a mobile hotspot! No plans for tomorrow :-\

 

Dancing and Weather – 9 March 2023

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Today revolved around two topics: Dancing and Weather. Last night we had a couple of snow showers and by morning the cars in the car park had a decent covering. However, by the time we left for the Tea Dance, the sun had melted almost all of it away, thankfully.

Drove to Glenburn Community Centre in the southern outskirts of Paisley for the tea dance and didn’t see any hint of snow after we left Cumbersheugh. Even the Campsie Fells as we drove along had no snow. Just our luck then! I think the cold weather and the constant scare stories from the media about snow drifts and danger to life kept some folk at home. Not us, we’re made of sterner stuff, although it might have been the temptation of the tea loaf that drove us to travel today.

We struggled through the Quickstep, the Tango the Foxtrot and countless sequence dances but our biggest struggle was with the simple Waltz. We couldn’t put a foot right, at least I couldn’t. How could this simple dance cause so many problems? We used to be able to dance at least two variations of it, now we can do none. More practise required I think. Despite all that, we had a good laugh. We were sitting with Leslie and Gordon who are at about the same level as us, although I did not that they managed the waltz without a problem.

The drive home was just as easy as the drive there because we slide neatly from the M77 to the M74 to the M73 and finally to the M80. That means that we can avoid completely the notorious Kingston Bridge and its moving car park of vehicles.

I didn’t go out for a walk this morning and by the time we were getting home the light had all but disappeared, so today’s PoD had to be a tabletop. It’s just a pink flower from a bunch that is sitting on the book case beside me. I took it with the A7iii equipped with a LensBaby Sweet 35. I realise this means nothing to anyone but me, but it’s a good reminder. The Sweet 35 is a 35mm lens designed to produce a soft image and if you’re lucky enough to have some bright lights in the frame, you get some spectacular light blobs called Bokeh. I wasn’t looking for that today, just a soft focus effect and I was pleased with the result.

It’s snowing again as I write this blog, but I’m not sure it will lie until morning. I certainly hope it won’t. We might go in to Glasgow tomorrow for a walk and a pizza in Paesano. It depends on the weather.

A lovely Spring day – 6 March 2023

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But with a bitingly cold wind.

Scamp had the dentist in the morning and had intended to go out for lunch with her pal, but she had phoned to say she wasn’t well and was having a day in bed. That meant that after the dentist, we had a free day and a sunny day too. I suggested Gouldings on Clydeside and that’s where we went.

A pleasant drive through a countryside that hasn’t quite woken up after the long winter. Maybe just as well, because there’s snow forecast before the end of the week. Probably because we were fairly early and probably because it was Monday, we got our choice of window seats. Scamp had her usual Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had my first burger in a long time. I don’t think I’ve had one this year. Both were deemed good and we had coffee and a cake each afterwards.

Now that we’d been fed and watered, we had a look round the garden centre part of Gouldings. Scamp was looking for a photo frame that would take one of our photos from holiday. They all seemed overpriced for what they were and none had the right size of mat for our photo, so we left it for another day.

Although the sun was shining and we weren’t in a rush, neither of us could think of somewhere else to go, so we drove in the general direction of home. Still thinking about the photo frame I suggested we might try TJ Hughes which has a wide range of things like photo frames. So that’s where we pointed the blue car, but just as we were approaching the town centre we both spotted B&M. Equally cheap and usually with loads to choose from. That’s where we found a photo frame that would hold the photo and even better, there was a mat in it that was the right size.

Scamp also found a mirror she quite liked and also said she wanted the pipes in the toilet boxed in. B&M didn’t have anything that would do that, but B&Q might, so onward to B&Q. No, they didn’t. They didn’t have any decent mirrors, either.

Back home I needed a PoD and took the A7 out for a walk to see what I could find. PoD was a bunch of catkins backlit by the late afternoon sun.

The photo is in its frame and it looks good. I’ve a feeling we may be going looking for a mirror soon and that toilet will still need its pipes boxed in. Somebody is going to be busy!

No plans for tomorrow yet, but something will probably fill that space!

Dancin’ – 4 March 2023

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Today we were going dancing, but not until the evening.

That meant we needed to find something to fill up the hours before the dance.

After lunch we went for a walk to the shops to find something quick and easy to make for dinner. That turned out to be an M&S curry each. On the way back I was told to go and have a walk round St Mo’s. I eventually agreed, but as Scamp took the road back to the house, I noticed a couple walking along the path through the trees and thought that make a good photo. Three or four frames later I reckoned I had a PoD. Then I want for that walk around St Mo’s hoping it would help to lessen the headaches I have had for weeks now. Thankfully it did, but I didn’t get any more competition for PoD.

After dinner we got better dressed and drove out to Brookfield, almost driving in the wheel tracks of our taxi driving neighbour who was leaving just before us. He seemed surprised that we were off to a dance on a Saturday night. . He left the M8 at the airport and we carried on to the Irvine turn off and from there to the hall at Brookfield.

When we got there, the hall was better than half full and we managed to grab a couple of seats at David and Carol’s table (another tea dance couple). The first dance as always was a waltz. We’ve been trying hard to master the Foxtrot and the Quickstep, but have disregarded the Waltz recently. It should have been easy to just join together the two routines we knew, but it was made difficult by the fact that there were other people on the dance floor and they kept getting in our way. We did a partial foxtrot and succeeded in completing the quickstep a couple of times. A tentative Rhumba after a couple of tries began to look like it should do too. Lots of folk up for Salsa and I surprised Scamp by introducing a decent Tornado which neither of us could really remember, but ‘muscle memory’ came to our aid after I got us into the starting position and it just worked after that.

Closing time was 10.30pm and it was almost a pleasant drive through a Glasgow devoid of the traffic jam we usually have to face in the afternoons. Back home we watched the qualifying of the first F1 GP of 2023 from Bahrain. It looks like this year won’t be the walkover for Red Bull that last year was.

Far too late we went to bed, that’s why this is a catch-up. No plans for tomorrow, yet.

A dull day – 14 February 2023

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Not a lot to say about today other than I got my hair cut at last.

I had intended to cut my hair myself with help from Scamp for the bits I can’t reach or see, but things got in the way and instead I earmarked today for the great shearing.

Scamp was staying in to meet up with Annette, so I drove to the station and left the car there and got the train in. So much easier and less stressful than driving in to Glasgow when the schools are on February holiday. Unfortunately, the train was full of Grans and Granpas with loads of weans, trying to keep them amused for the three extra days they’re on holiday – the weans that is, not the grandparents. They’re on duty every day, it seems. Glad we’re not in that subset of humanity. Also, and even more unfortunately, I’d left my earbuds at home. Noisy weans and no ear defenders is no fun for anyone.

For once there was a queue for the barbers, but I didn’t need to wait long before the Big Grumpy Guy invited me to take a seat. He’s cut my hair the last twice I’ve been in The Nile Barber’s. The last twice he’s been fine, the first time he just grumped all the time. His style is a bit rough and ready, but he’s quick and very little chat, which suits me.

With that done I walked up to JL to get some stuff for Scamp and while I was there I had a spot of lunch in the cafe. Lovely chunk of sourdough bread stuffed with tomatoes, peppers, roast broccoli and pickled cucumber. Strange mixture but it tasted fine. That and a cup of coffee that tasted of coffee, which is a bonus.

Took a walk down Buchanan Street and was heading for HMV to see if they had cheap cordless earbuds or an adapter for the S22+ and got sidetracked walked back along towards Waterstones before I remembered I didn’t have a voucher for another ‘real’ book. Decided to cut my losses and come home.

As the train slowed into Croy I could see I could see the layer effect of mist on the Campsie Fells, but by the time I got to my favourite place to photograph it the mist was receding but the sky had added a new dimension to the scene. You lose some, you win some. Actually that’s a lie. The mist was receding, but the sky was featureless, so I pasted in one of my own and that looked more like the view I’d seen from the train.

Came home to Mac ’n’ Cheese ’n’ Bacon. Delicious, especially with a blob of Fruity Brown Sauce! Thank you Scamp.

Today’s prompt was The Green Card. We don’t have Green Cards in the UK, at least not yet. So I thought I’d try an alternative solution, as I usually do.  Three playing cards, all aces (it’s an unwritten compositional rule that you should always have an odd number of objects. It just works) then I invented the Green Card, the Ace of Shamrocks. A lucky card. The Ace of Shamrocks trumps all. Why not? I wasn’t going to attempt to sketch Gérard Depardieu or Andie MacDowell and as I’ve never watched the film, I couldn’t select a scene from it. This is more fun. I like inventing things.

Tomorrow we’re both going to be busy all day with lots of little things to remember.

Stitchin’ and Snowdrops – 10 February 2023

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In the morning, Scamp was off at her FitSteps class while I dragged out the sewing machine.

My task for today was to patch my torn jeans. I found a piece of fabric (Coffee beans – Hazy!) to do the reinforcement and struggled to pin it in place on the inside of the tear. Then I further struggled to get the jeans into the place to do the sewing. With the patch in place I could sew two runs of stitches, one down each end of the patch. Ideally I wanted to be able to stitch along all four sides of the patch and possibly another few runs in the middle. It couldn’t be done with the standard foot and although I had an embroidery foot for the machine, I hadn’t used it before, but after a bit of poking around the working parts of the sewing machine I worked out how to remove the standard foot and fit the embroidery foot. All I needed to do then was to cover the ‘dogs’ that pull fabric through the bit with the needle. With that done, it was a five minute job to fill in the patch with with an abstract pattern of stitches that held everything together and another five to return the machine to its standard setting. It probably sounds very complicated, but the embroidery foot is my magic solution to lots of my stitching repairs from now on. By the time I was finished, Scamp had returned with lunch that was heating in the oven.

Spoke to Hazy and discussed holidays and house improvements also Canute & Delia’s final closure of the shop.  Big change for them.  Glad things are going to plan for the early spring break for you and for ‘the fluffies’.  What will you do without your feline hot water bottle?!

After lunch Jackie phoned and I went out into the dull monochrome garden to look for something to photograph. I found some snowdrops and one of them got PoD. By the time I came back in and the phone call had ended, so had the light.

That was about the extent of a dull day. Paella for dinner tonight was fine, but not nearly as good as the stir fry Scamp made yesterday and I forgot to give her a mention for. My apologies, chef.

Today’s prompt was Chocolat. Apparently I had watched the film some years ago, but, obviously, it didn’t make a big impression on me. Toblerone on the other hand, does make a big impression on me (and me on it.!) Big chunks of chocolate with nuts and chewy bits. Delicious straight out of the fridge, just don’t break a tooth biting into it. I thought this Swiss delight deserved a splash of watercolour today.
I really like drawing food, because you can eat the evidence afterwards!

Hopefully we’re going dancing tomorrow, unlike last week when the class was cancelled at the last minute. Fingers crossed.

 

A cancellation – 7 February 2023

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The plans had changed.

Yesterday Isobel phoned to ask us both to come to the house. This morning she phoned to cancel because she was suffering from a bad cold. We know what that’s like, having suffered from it ourselves lately and postponing was the right thing to do.

Instead of visiting Isobel, we we went to Tesco. Scamp had accrued quite a few vouchers and I had a couple from our Covid surveys. I checked them this morning just to see that they were still valid and was relieved to find that they were. Our trolley was fairly full when we reached the checkout, with about half going to the Foodbank and half coming home with us. A fair split, we thought.

Lunch for Scamp was sourdough bread with cheese. Mine was sliced rolled lamb from Sunday followed by sourdough toast. I don’t really like sourdough bread in its raw state, but toasted it’s a whole new ball game. Delicious and light.

In the afternoon Scamp was doing ironing and I was going out to walk in the little bit of sunshine that had appeared. It actually stayed for almost an hour and PoD was a view across the wee pond with a threatening black sky and the dark waters of the pond sandwiching a glowing golden strip where the sun lit up the dead grass of the park. I liked it right away.

Dinner tonight was Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce served with Potato Wedges. I added the last of my lamb to it after frying it off in the pan. I think I used up most of the good stuff in that piece of meat. I’ll be on the lookout for more from the same source the next time we’re in Waitrose.

After dinner Scamp suggested a dance practise.  It’s amazing how much you forget in a fortnight.  Everything had gone from my head.  Baby Waltz, Quickstep and Foxtrot.  I could remember all the start moves, but after that was a blur.  Thankfully Scamp knew what went where and when and we did eventually manage to put a shortened version of the routine together.  Whether it will still be there tomorrow remains to be seen!

Today’s prompt was The Pink Panther. Some prompts require a lot of thinking and planning then you get a fairly easy one. This was an easy one. I couldn’t say I’d never seen this film, or the cartoon series. The films are classics and the cartoons are too. I chose the easiest route possible and went for the pink cartoon animal.

Tomorrow Alex and I are hoping to go to the Kelpies. He’s coming to Cumbersheugh on the train and I’m picking him up at the station, then we’ll drive to Grangemouth where the Kelpies live, but I’ve another idea that might just work out well to test his new long lens. It depends on the weather.

So, tomorrow Scamp is intending to meet the rest of the witches for lunch and Alex and I intend to go somewhere to take photos!

Preparing for Spring – 6 February 2023

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Scamp wanted seeds and seed compost. Spring is in the air.

We drove to Torwood at lunch time to get the seeds and seed compost. Scamp also wanted a one tonne bag of general purpose compost. Ok, it maybe didn’t weight a tonne, but it certainly felt it. It was probably full of water because it just kept twisting and turning when I tried to lift it. Why don’t they make bags with handles on them that you can at least get a grip on?

Anyway. We dumped the bag in the blue car’s boot and went for lunch. The place seemed to be full of old folk. I know I’m a member of that illustrious community, but these folk seemed a lot older than me. I ordered a Cajun Chicken Wrap and Scamp had a bowl of chips. I also got a mug of burnt water pretending to be coffee while Scamp went the sensible route and had peppermint tea. I really think, in retrospect, that I was served filter coffee ‘by mistake’. It was brown, had no crema and tasted of nothing. Two sachets of sugar and a fair dollop of milk made no difference to the taste. It was absorbed by the burnt water. I’ll follow Scamp next time and have what she’s having.

Drove home and yes, the sky did seem to be lightening, but only slightly. In the east, the area we were leaving, the sun was definitely breaking through. After I’d humphed the one tonne bag of compost through the house to the back garden, the clouds were closing in again and I knew if I was going to get any photos today I’d have to move soon. The PoD was a snowdrop, flowering in a pot of bare stem roses. To isolate it from its neighbours I used a sheet of matt black neoprene. Not real neoprene, but something that looks and feels like it. It’s great at creating a black backdrop for photographing flowers. Photos taken, PoD on the way.

While I was doing that, Scamp was busy at the kitchen sink, the draining board of which she’d covered with a plastic tablecloth. This gave her a neat worktop to use for taking cuttings of Geraniums. A sensible arrangement, because it was getting cold outside. She has also planted some Sweet Pea seeds. I didn’t get round to planting my kale seeds today, but I will soon. Honest!

Dinner tonight was a “What’s in the fridge that needs used” type of dinner. Basically it was half a tin on chopped tomatoes, a slice of bacon sliced fine, some capers that needed to be used and some penne. It all worked well, for a change.

What I did next was plan out my sketch to meet today’s prompt of The Fast and The Furious. I’ve never seen this film, one of many I’ve never seen, but for some reason an image came into my head of a Reliant Regal 3/30, a three-wheeler I had many moons ago. In fact it was my first car and I could legally drive it on a motorcycle license. It was a great car which carried us all round Scotland for years. Just for the fun factor, I gave the sketch a snail to speed past the Reliant. The driver of the Reliant was Furious to be passed by a super Fast snail.

Tomorrow, Isobel requests our company. No reasons given. It’ll be a surprise.

 

Nae Dancin’ – 4 February 2023

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It wasn’t us who called off today it was the teachers.

We were up, showered, dressed and ready to go when a WhatsApp message alerted us that the already depleted class had suffered another call off and that the teachers had decided the class wouldn’t go ahead today. A bit of a disappointment for me but a much greater one for Scamp. So we changed back into ordinary clothes from our spandex and lycra ’Strictly Suits’ and discussed what to do with the day.

Eventually we made the decision to go to Stirling for lunch. That meant Indian Cottage. For us it’s the only place to go for food in Stirling. We’d intended parking in the ‘council’ car park, but it’s now run from an app and I didn’t have the app. Also I’d heard bad things about ‘RingGo’ so we parked at Waitrose because we’d be shopping there later.

Indian Cottage was busy but there wasn’t a queue. We recognised most of the staff from the last time we’d been there. Later Scamp reminded me that we’d been less than complimentary about the food the last time we’d visited. This time it was all good. Good food, good servers and the naan bread we had was ‘well done’ as requested. Hopefully we’ll be back again soon.

We took a walk around the Thistle Centre. I was looking for a book, any book that interested me as I’m still eking out my last few pages of Project Hail Mary. Scamp was looking for tops and skirts in M&S. Both of us met again later empty-handed. However Scamp did manage to find something that suited her as we walked back to the car. I’m not saying what, but all will be revealed later in the month DV.

We did go to Waitrose to pay for our parking by buying some lamb for me and a couple of bottles of wine for Scamp, well, for both of us really. It’s just that she’s a much better chooser of wine than me. With that done we donated our parking space to a worthy driver who was tired of waiting and waiting for a space, and drove home.

I’d taken a couple of shots of a building in Stirling that I’ve meant to photograph for ages. When I go it home and added a better sky than nature provided today, it looked good and became PoD.

Today’s prompt was ‘A Good Year’. Just for fun, I found it on Prime Videos and we watched it tonight. I’d already planned to use a picture of a wine bottle for the prompt because the story is based in a vineyard, but then I saw the car Russell Crowe drives and knew it was a better subject for today. So a yellow Smart Car made the sketch of the day.

Tomorrow I must decide whether I’m having a lamb shoulder shank or a lamb rolled shoulder, or maybe neither and they’ll go in the freezer and Scamp will come up with something different. I’ll let you know!