Category: Driving

Some kind of normal – 4 March 2025

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Today we had shopping to do. A chance to turn the day into something approaching normal.

Afterwards we drove up to Torwood for lunch and a look at what the garden centre had to offer. Scamp got some seed compost and a very dark coloured hellebore. After I’d dropped her off at home, I took the Blue car for a spring clean at the car-wash! It looked so much better after that.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found that the frogs were back. Almost all of them were busy making more frogs. Yesterday there were none, but seemingly the message had got out that it was time to procreate. There were vast rafts of frogspawn. I’m sure this will bring crowds of primary school children eager to capture some of the frogspawn to put in jars in their classrooms. Probably there will be a law against capturing frogs eggs, but children know nothing of the legality of such ambushing.

Today’s PoD was inevitably “Frogs”!

We drove in to Glasgow in the middle of rush hour to pick up Jackie who had travelled south from Skye to add weight to the Scottish contingent. We were very glad to have her. It gave Scamp an opportunity to explain in detail the last few days. It also gave the sisters a chance to bond. I hate that ‘bond’ word, but it’s the only one that fits

Tomorrow we are invited to have coffee in Tesco with one of the English side of the family who may try to put her case for what happens next. I’d have thought a better, and less public place could have been chosen, but maybe, just maybe, it was the choice of Paul and Shona.

It feels like Spring (White Rabbits x3) – 1 March 2025

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Well, it didn’t feel like Spring when we were driving through a drizzle all the way to Brookfield for today’s dance class.

Thankfully when we came out again, the rain had gone and the sun was attempting to shine.

In between, we had a Midnight Jive to heat us up, because the Brookfield Politburo apparently thought 3ºc was warm enough for anyone!

Sufficiently warmed up, we were into the annoying October Waltz, even though it wasn’t October. I find it the worst waltz I’ve had the misfortune to attempt. It just seems so … “Clunky” is the only word I can use. It just doesn’t seem to flow and I was happier once it had gone back into its box, until the next time one of the teachers says “Oh, we haven’t done the October Waltz for a while.” There’s a reason for that I’d say.

Next was Tango and we struggled with that for a while, but it did get better after we got help from Jane. I think I could manage that one, given some effort on my part. Scamp helped by pulling me in the right direction and whispering the instructions in my ear.

We did Mambo Marina to finish with, but two fairly new dancers were left standing in the corner of the room looking bewildered while the teachers danced with a couple of ladies who knew the dance. That doesn’t seem like a dance class to me. Just a little bit of help would have put them on the right track. We had attempted to help the pair just over a week ago when they came to a Tea Dance we go to, but the teachers really need to TEACH. That’s what they are getting nearly twenty quid for every week!

After that we were allowed to go home. To go home with half a dozen eggs from one of the dance class who seem to be bringing eggs ever week or so. It’s very nice of them, the eggs come from a neighbour of theirs, and being free range, they do taste good.

Drove home through the normal tangle of cars and I chose the slow lane today. I really should have done the M74/M73 route which is longer, but faster overall.

I took a couple of lenses with the A7iii over to St Mo’s in the afternoon, once the sun was shining brightly and got a couple of photos. PoD went to a cloudscape with the setting sun just visible. I came home via Golden Bowl with Chicken Chop Suey and Fried Rice for Scamp and a Special Chow Mein for me. Nice to be walking home in the last of the day’s sun.

I almost forgot to mention, we thought the house was being torn apart in the morning or maybe broken into, but it was just the NLC house clearing mob tearing out everything they could find from the house next door. It seemed that Angela, who lived there after Betty (if you pair remember her) had done a ’moonlight’ without telling anyone. Strange woman. Now we wonder who we’ll get in her place.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk if the weather plays nice.

 

 

On Fannyside Moor – 28 February 2025

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Scamp was out for lunch with her friends and I took the opportunity to drive up to Fannyside Moor.

It was a cold day with a constant breeze stirring up the clouds on the moor and making it feel colder than it looked from a warm car.

I took the ‘big dog’, the A7iii with a couple of lenses. A shorter walk than I’d intended due to that wind feeling as if was cutting right through me, even with the Rab jacket. I think I spent more time watching the clouds scudding across the sky than taking photos. Watched a bloke about my age, on a mountain bike, go flying past me wearing a light jacket and shorts. That was adventurous today. Then another bloke passed me heading the other way, but he was running and dressed for the weather. Most days you see maybe one car on this road, but two folk out enjoying the fresh air was unusual. Then the inevitable car passed too. That made the trio!

Photographed a herd of sheep and a lichen covered fencepost, but PoD went to a long lens shot of the ruin of the old Jawcraig farm. In all, 28 shots taken but only 18 survived the first cull.

I decided I had enough photos to work with and drove home. Scamp arrived about an hour later

Dinner tonight was Penne al’arrabiata with the addition of some bacon.

I think we may be going dancing tomorrow. We’ll probably be the outcasts. The ones who didn’t go to Calpe for almost a week of dancing. Oh well.

Clive – 24 February 2025

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Today was a sad day.

It was Clive’s funeral which made it sad, but it was a day for remembering what a kind, gentle man he was and for celebration too. We only knew him for a few years, before his way and ours went in different directions, but I know Scamp and I both enjoyed his company and I hope he enjoyed ours. Lots of stories told and lots of tears shed, but that’s life, and he enjoyed his share of it. Goodbye Clive. You were a lovely man.

Scamp insisted we go out for a coffee and a cake once the service was over. We just drove to halfway to Glasgow to a Costa, and the place was full to bursting on a cold day. After our coffee and a cake, we went for a look at a new ‘pop-up’ furniture shop in a line of similar shops. Unlike the rest, this one had a ‘sale’ on with prices slashed all round the store. Although there were a few folk in the big empty barn of a shop, nobody was buying. Mainly because the price being asked for the articles was exorbitant. Cheap quality and high prices never make many sales, and this one was no exception. We left and drove home.

I went for a walk, because it was still a lovely day. Just a wander around St Mo’s with no thought about what I wanted to photograph. PoD eventually went to a child’s see-saw in a swing park. Mono seemed to suit the subject and the PoD was nailed.

We drove to Kirsty’s dance class when I got home. Tonight was Quickstep. It wasn’t really all that quick. I think she spent too long going over a simple routine and some people were becoming bored with going over the same steps time and time again. Too much talk and too little action, I think. Maybe I’m wrong, I have been before … many times.

After such a lovely day it was a shame to be driving through heavy rain on the way home, but at least we got parked when we did arrive at the house.

Tomorrow we may go out somewhere if the weather plays nice!

A problem solved – 21 February 2025

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Today, Scamp was off to FitSteps in the morning and I was determined to fix a problem that had been bugging me for almost two months.

The problem was that my .gmail accounts had managed the transition from Android to iPhone, but it felt like the Apple system was putting blocks in my way when I tried to put a couple of my own, home-grown accounts into the iPhone. Every time I tried, there was an error of some sort that prevented them being accepted. Today I solved it. I doubt if any of my readers are interested in the nitty gritty of the process, but after about six hours of work I finally found out how to do it.

The answer was there all the time in a combination of a Namecheap link and a Cpanel link. I needed both of these pieces of information to work the magic. I’ll store the work-through somewhere on the iMac, so I can come back to it when I’m sure it’s working. For now it’s a “back of a fag packet” solution. If you don’t understand that, then you’re too young! (Or I’m too old!!)

I started about 10.30am and finally had a working prototype by about 4pm with breaks in between for food and drink. It had been a terrible day with heavy rain showers and gale force winds. Scamp said she was nearly blown over getting from class to the car. Once in the car, driving was fine. That’s one of the benefits of having a car with a fairly low profile, it cuts through the wind well. I did go out into the back garden for a few minutes to recover a flower pot that our local grey squirrel had tipped over, but came back in when the rain got heavy. That’s when I found the PoD. It’s a view of the stained glass panel on the front door with raindrops on its outside face.

While I was still swearing at the computer, Scamp was making the dinner which was Carrot & Lentil Curry. Not a hot curry, just one that improves with resting and can have lots of additions to improve the general flavour. It’s an ancient recipe now carefully kept in a binder.

Tomorrow we may be dancing at Brookfield if there is enough interest to make a quorum. Some lucky folk are booked for a week’s dancing in Calpe, flying out on Sunday, but for a couple of reasons we won’t be with them.

Dancin’ – 20 February 2025

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Out shopping in the morning and dancing in the afternoon’

Sometimes, life is one big whirl!

Out in the morning to get my meds for the next couple of months and then I did some light shopping for lunch today and tomorrow. By the time I got back it was time to get ready for the Tea Dance.

Long, long tailbacks on the M77 which looked like it had been turned into a giant carpark for the day, and it was raining! It had been blue skies when we left the house, but the weather has been very changeable for the last few days. By the time we were taking the slip road off to Paisley, the congestion was easing an it looked like there had been a crash just a few hundred metres from our turn off. The rest of the journey to Glenburn was without incident and we were just a few minutes late.

Usual mix of waltz, jive and rumba with a few sequence dances to lighten the day. Then S&J announced that we were getting a short waltz lesson, the New Vogue Waltz. It wasn’t totally new to us, but it was a long time since we first learned it (November 2021 I’m told) at Perth. We we were almost total newbies, then. It wasn’t too bad and danced as a sequence dance you usually have someone in front of you to act as a guide to the steps. I’d say it was danceable, and certainly better than the overly complicated “October Waltz”. I think we might be introduced to the New Vogue Waltz on Saturday if all is well.

We left just after 3pm to avoid the school runs and I made a few bad decisions like taking the Kingston Bridge rather than the longer but less congested M74/M73 route. You win some and lose some. Torrential rain showers on the way home didn’t help much either.

I suggested we get some chicken thighs and make a Chicken & Pea Traybake for dinner and the suggestion was accepted. I waited until the rain had almost disappeared before I walked over to M&S. By the time I got there the sun was shining brightly and I cursed my stupidity to not bring a camera.

The traybake takes a while to cook, but as the oven is doing all the heavy lifting, it’s not a great hardship. It turned out just as good as every other time I’ve made it, and there are not a lot of recipes I can say that about.

Because I’d left the camera at home, I had nothing for PoD until I spied a pretty spray of pink carnations on the piano. A box and a paint can balanced on a stool provided a support for a jar of pencils and the carnations stood a decent distance away from an A2 drawing sheet pinned to the wall. Camera on a tripod and the PoD photo was taken. I quite like the result. Not perfect, but worth another try some time.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending going to FitSteps and I’m hoping to work out why the iPhone won’t accept one of my most used email addresses.

Snow and an Anniversary – 17 February 2025

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In the morning there was snow, but it didn’t lie for long before the snow turned to rain.

It was one of those days when the weather couldn’t decide what to do for the best. First it decided that today was to be a snowy day with fairly thick flakes coming down. Then it chose to change its mind and make the snow disappear, before thinking again and returning to the snowy theme. On and off, it went all morning until eventually snow was cancelled and just plain dull was the choice for the day. Then it rained, of course.

We didn’t do much today. We drove over to Tesco to get Scamp’s meds and a few bits and pieces for lunch and dinner.

After some discussion we decided that we’d go dancing in the early evening and spent a fairly useful hour trying to work out how we were going to dance the Foxtrot. Would we choose style 1 where we would do part one and then repeat that pattern.
Or would we choose style 2 where we would start with part one and then add on part two before returning to part one and repeating the entire routine.

To be honest, I was completely lost. Style 1 I could understand and I could almost manage style 2, but neither of them seemed to allow us to move round the dance floor and it looked to me as if we were simply dancing a routine on the same area of the floor all the time. I was confused … Dot Com. I don’t think this was one of Kirsty’s more thought out routines.

We drove home after the class and had Giovanni Rana pasta with some fancy out of date mushrooms on the side. Neither of us liked the mushrooms very much and they more or less stayed ‘on the side’.

We did scoff a couple of half bottles of wine while we watched Mastermind and University Challenge, shouting out the occasional answer now and again.

It was our 52nd wedding anniversary today and we were allowed to do those things without fear or favour.

PoD was a picture of a Christmas Rose from the garden, looking a bit battered and bruised by the wild weather, but still flowering nicely.

Tomorrow I’m hoping to meet Charlie and maybe another couple of folk I haven’t seen for about forty years! Perhaps I should wear a red carnation!

Dancin’ and a Black Monkey – 15 February 2025

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Drove to Brookfield and a hundred people we there for dancing class.

Not really a hundred, but lots more than normal. I don’t know why that might be. Maybe it’s because the S&J fan club are going to somewhere in Spain soon and some folk needed a couple of refresher courses and had a Saturday morning free. Or maybe it was our scintillating dancing skills that were drawing them in, but I don’t think so. Still, it was a big class.

The first dance was the October Waltz. I don’t know who invented it, but I firmly believe they had their head up their backside when they made it up. It just doesn’t flow as a waltz should. I find it clumsy and badly written. Too many forward and back moves. If you danced it as just one couple and not a sequence dance, you’d be crashing into the dancers behind you and causing mayhem. I put up with it for the requisite amount of time and hoped that whatever was coming next would be better.

The next dance was a Jive and it was marginally better. I could understand the steps and the order they were being danced in. That’s when a Black Monkey waltzed (pun intended) onto the floor. After that I couldn’t put a foot right. Everything was being analysed by Scamp and found wanting. “Lift your knee when you do the Hip Bump” I’d just done that, but apparently it was a different knee I should have been using. After we’d attempted all the different steps and worked out the sequence they should be danced in, I still wasn’t getting it right. Jive is a routing, like Salsa, but without the joy that salsa has.

The last unit was a Rumba. A very short one. We had learned a longer version a few years ago and I felt this new one wasn’t anywhere as good nor as elegant as that old dance.

We finished with Scamp’s favourite sequence dance, the Tina Tango danced to Ed Sheehan’s Shivers. Scamp’s best favourite dance, and mine now too. It’s just joyful, especially compared to today lesson.

I was speaking to a fellow dancer when we were leaving and asked him if he’d enjoyed the morning class. He replied that he’d rather have *“paid the twenty quid to watch Partick Thistle being beaten again.” That more or less summed up my feelings.

We drove home through heavy traffic which turned out to be Celtic supporters travelling to their home game against Dundee United. Apparently none of the supporters wanted a black monkey which still clung to me.

By the time we got home my replies to Scamp were becoming monosyllabic and it wasn’t until I decide to go out in the rain to get tonight’s dinner that the black monkey left me. I don’t know where it went, I was just happy that it was gone from me and despite the weather, I felt so much better.

PoD was a couple of Pansies that have survived the winter so far and seem happy in their spot on the garden fence.

My apologies to you S. I know you were just trying to help and you did help. I was the one at fault.

Tomorrow we should go out for a stroll, if the weather is playing nice.

Coffee with Isobel and a light – 14 February 2025

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It’s a Friday and that means Scamp is off to FitSteps in the morning.

I usually have a free hour or so to do as I please. Today, instead, I was catching the bus to the Town Centre to listen to Isobel’s tales. Scamp was already installed there when I arrived and the serious blethering had been completed. We sat and drank coffee while we listened to her tales, mainly because there wasn’t an opportunity to get a word in edgewise. However, she kept us interested with stories about her family. The only problem I had was that for a coffee shop it was quite cold. It’s Costa, but that’s not an excuse. Even with automatically closing doors there was a chill breeze each time they opened. Both Isobel and I were sitting with an insulated coat or jacket on, while Scamp was wearing a light cardigan!

While I was on the bus to the Town Centre, I got a text from JL to say that the bedside lamp I’d ordered for Scamp had arrived. That would mean a trip into Glasgow was likely in the afternoon. And that’s exactly what happened. We drove into Buchanan Galleries and got a space immediately. An unusual occurrence on a Saturday afternoon, and Valentine’s day to boot!

We walked down to Paesano and squeezed into a seat at the back of the restaurant, near the wood fired ovens. After our experience at Costa, that was the sensible place to be. Scamp’s usual No 1 with no garlic. It comes with no cheese either, but that’s the way she likes it. I had a No3 anchovies and olives with cheese and capers. A glass of Prosecco for Scamp and a glass of San Pellegrino Aranciata (orange) for me because I was nominated driver. We were sitting across from a typical Italian family all enjoying their pizza lunch.

When we left I saw a bloke photographing the building we’d just left with his phone, and I realised the light was still good with plenty of sunshine through the clouds, so I grabbed the A6500 and took a few shots of my favourite building in Glasgow, the curved glass of 110 Queen Street. It looks as if it’s now getting a make over, replacing some of the many glass panels that have taken a tumble to the ground in the past few weeks. I wonder how much that will cost the owners!

Finally we worked our way back up Buchanan Street to allow Scamp to do some window shopping and some real shopping, I had the worst coffee I’ve ever had in a Nero. Gave them a 2 out of 5. We also got the lamp and a bulb that would fit it, then drove home.

It was a cold day and I seem to have carried the Cumbersheugh cold breeze home with us. The photo of No 110 got PoD as was inevitable.

I think we may be going dancing tomorrow, although it’s snowing at present!

I saw the sun – 13 February 2025

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Not for long, but it was there! A nice bit of sunshine in the morning.

The big deal of the day was we went for lunch. We drove over to The Smiddy near Blair Drummond Safari Park. No monkey business, we just walked in and got a window seat. Mac and Cheese with a portion of chips for Scamp and Venison and Mash for me. Mine was delicious, but Scamp’s was a bit dry and stodgy although the chips made it almost worth while.

I got a few photos of the scenery around the restaurant, but they were disappointing when I saw them at home. Instead, a low level view of a couple of snowdrops got PoD.

We dropped in at Dobbie’s on the way home and picked up a few things, seeds and live plants in plugs and in their next-door neighbour, Lakeland, a cake tin liner. We had a look at an air fryer, but left without one. Too clumsy, too big and no real need for one. Our thoughts might change, but not for a while.

I made some Butternut Squash soup yesterday and today I blitzed it and we had a couple of bowls full for dinner tonight. It was ok. Nothing special, but the slices of rhubarb pie we had as a dessert were lovely.

It was good to see some sunshine today, just a pity it couldn’t stay very long. Maybe we’ll get a couple of hours of brightness tomorrow, but that will be all, according to the weather forecast on my phone.

Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps tomorrow and I might meet her afterwards for coffee with Isobel.