Category: Driving

Snow and an Anniversary – 17 February 2025

Posted on by Zogman

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We drove home after the class and had Giovanni Rana pasta with some fancy out of date mushrooms on the side.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.

Just another Saturday – 8 February 2025

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Out in the morning to drive to Brookfield for another dance class.

Today’s class started by going straight into the October Waltz. Not my favourite of the waltz genre, but I didn’t write the script. Until this year we had always started with a sequence dance to ease us into the work that was to come. It appears now that has changed and we go straight into the class proper. This waltz seems a bit disjointed and doesn’t flow as well as some others. That’s my excuse for making a mess of it. Some others were also struggling and I’m sure they have their own excuses too.

Next was the Jive which was a bit awkward to start with, but it started to flow a bit better after a few practise sessions. I’m still feeling that bits of aren’t quite right, and I think I need to look more closely at the videos we’ve taken in class and see where I’m going wrong. That’s one of the benefits of filming short sequences of the dances. I can look back over the steps and find out where I’m ‘wrong footed’ and where I’m just plain wrong. When we get up to do a jive routine, we always start with the Seven Spins which is Glasgow Jive. Maybe we should put that on the back burner for a change and attempt the Ballroom Jive that S&J teach. After all, we come to class to learn the steps, not to cause confusion dancing our own steps.

Third set was a Rumba and although it was familiar to us, Jane had added a few changes to the steps and we did manage to get through them, although when I was watching the more experienced couples I could see how clumsy my attempts were. We live and learn.

We finished the hour and a half with the Melody Foxtrot and then my least favourite, the exhausting Midnight Jive. After that we were free to go. Despite my complaints, I really enjoyed today’s class.

Drove home via the Kingston Bridge which wasn’t as bad as it sometimes is on a Saturday. Maybe neither of the Glasgow teams were at home today, or maybe I just picked the right lane to be in.

We needed some extra bits and pieces for today’s dinner, so we walked over to the shops later to buy some. The meal in question was Spiced Coconut Chicken Traybake. For once it looked just like the photo in the magazine Scamp was making it from. We both would have made small changes, but we were both in agreement that it was worth attempting again.

I took a walk over to St Mo’s in the afternoon and today’s PoD is a low level shot of the wildfowl on St Mo’s pond.

No plans for tomorrow as yet.

 

Note to self:
I think I’ve found where I was making mistakes with the Lightroom catalog I’ve been using since the start of January 2025. I may use the old 2022 catalog (from the Grey SSD) to create a new catalog just to see if it runs properly. It need a bit of planning first to make sure I don’t corrupt anything that’s running just now.

Dancin’ – 6 February 2025

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Not a class, just a Tea Dance. Much more fun!

We drove over to Glenburn for this week’s tea dance. The first decent run the Blue car has had since its operation and it passed with flying colours. A much smoother ride than recent, although I was careful to avoid as many potholes as possible. Scamp was my ‘eye on the road’, warning me of any avoidable holes.

The class was about half full and we danced quite a lot of the ballroom and latin dances as well as the sequence dances. Lots of catching up with different folk we hadn’t met for a few weeks, some we hadn’t seen since before Christmas!
The tea dances give us a chance to practise what we’ve learned in Stewart & Jane’s classes and also the simpler routines we’ve worked our way through in Kirsty’s class. Today’s waltz was one we learned a couple of weeks ago in The Link. Really enjoyed today’s dance. Maybe because I felt comfortable with the dances we took part in.

We left early again, and for once we made good time, clearing the Kingston Bridge without stopping once. An amazing feat!

We came home via Tesco to allow me to post Jamie’s calendar which will be over a month late by the time he receives it. Maybe one more to go and that will be me finished for this year.

Dinner tonight was Bacon and Borlotti Beans. One we picked up from Jamie and Simonne, and still a firm favourite.

PoD was a photo of an orchid I treated myself to a couple of weeks ago. It was going cheap in Tesco and I thought it would look good on the kitchen window sill. It seems to enjoy its place there.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps and I’m hoping to get a letter written.

 

A lazy start to the day – 4 February 2025

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No need to rush out early this morning. The mechanic predicted midday for the car to be ready.

And he wasn’t far wrong. My phone rang just after 12pm to tell me the car was ready to pick up.

I got a taxi down to the village and paid for the repair then drove home to pick up Scamp so we could drive to Tesco to get some much needed food. We’d been starving for over a day with no transport to get us our usual amount of food. We also took a big bundle of clothes to the Salvation Army bin in the Tesco car park. Another tick in another box.

Later in the afternoon I went for a walk round St Mo’s and into the woods for a change of scenery. Lots of trees down in the woods, but many of them had been pretty unhealthy looking for years and, in a way the storm had cleared a lot of dead wood and hopefully this will give the woods a chance to regrow. PoD turned out to be an Oyster Mushroom growing in one of those fallen trees. Apparently Oyster mushrooms are edible, but I’m not intending trying them anytime soon.

I finally got round to making a sensible weekday dinner tonight, Pasta with tinned tomatoes, mushrooms (non poisonous ones) and half an onion and some chopped peppers.. A few flakes of chilli to brighten the taste and some concentrated tomatoes to give a bit of body. Sort of like a home made pasta a’ la arrabbiata. Scamp thought it was good, I thought it could have done with stronger flavours.

Also on a food note, we watched a Jamie Oliver episode on quick, healthy and cheap cooking. Both Scamp and I picked up some interesting topics on that.

We may be going out tomorrow. Somewhere away from Cumbersheugh.

An Early Rise – 3 February 2025

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The comedy!

The Blue car was going in to the car hospital to have some surgery done. Reluctantly I left it with the other cars while I went looking for a taxi to take me home. It came quite quickly for a Monday just after the school bells had rung. A very pleasant man drove me home and I handed him a couple of quid after I’d crossed his card machine with plastic.

I reckoned I had a couple of hours to finish Wordle and have a cup of coffee before going to the dentist. As it happened a had a bit more than those couple of hours, but I didn’t know that at the time.

After we’d collaborated on solving Wordle, Scamp asked me what time I was due at the dentist and that was when panic took over. I read the card the dentist had given me and it read 10:15am. It was now 9:40 and I hadn’t brushed my teeth or checked for hidden plaque and the dentist is half an hour’s walk away, so I was cutting it fine, but I strode out and got there with a few minutes to spare. The first receptionist said “You’re not on my list for today.” and I thought I’d won a watch. Then the other receptionist said quietly, “Yes, you are, but not for an other hour. Do you want to stay or go for a coffee?” Either way, I’d been caught.

I left the surgery and phoned Scamp to ask her to check on the card. She replied “Yes, it says 10:15 … but that was for November!” Somebody else confirming that I was a Numpty. She agreed to meet me in Condorrat to go for a coffee, which is what we did. She didn’t have any money, nor did she have her phone, but thankfully she did have the house keys. We had coffee, bought some rolls and then she walked home and I walked crestfallen into the dentists for the second time today.

The check-up showed that the penicillin I’d been doping myself with had done the trick. The soft squidgy gum was now hard and smooth and despite the lady dentist’s probing and rattling my big wisdom tooth I gave not a squeak. I left with a smile on my face.

After a roll ’n’ cheese for me and one with an egg for Scamp I wrote five notes to folk I knew well, who had sent me Christmas cards a favour which I hadn’t returned. They are sitting upstairs waiting to be posted, hopefully tomorrow. Another tick in another box.

Late in the afternoon I got a message from Jim Dickson to say that the car won’t be ready until tomorrow. One of the two arm bushes won’t be delivered until tomorrow (and NO, I don’t know what an arm bush is.)
That meant we’d need to get a taxi to and from dance class tonight. No big deal.

We arrived early and stood chatting with Kirsty until the rest of the dancers arrived. Firstly we went over the short waltz. I actually felt quite confident of dancing it, even after Scamp ceased whispering me the prompts.

Next was the Foxtrot which was a bit more difficult, but eventually it also fitted into a space in my ‘dancing head’. I even added the final part of the foxtrot and got most of it correct. The foxtrot still needs a bit more work, but hopefully we’ll get a chance to practise it during the week.

PoD was a photo I took earlier in the day. It’s actually a tray with a selection of cacti and some succulents. Carefully selected view point gave it a bit of mystery. It was actually placed on a shelf in the downstairs toilet with a bright sun shining on it from behind. Possibly too much information there, but it’s done now.

Tomorrow I’m hoping for a bit of a lie in and a healthier Blue car to drive.

 

 

 

Dancin’ – 1 February 2025

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Driving over to Brookfield for a dance class.

I really thought we were going to have to give up on dance class last night. Nobody seemed to want to tell us if the class was on or off. As it happened, it was on. Thanks for making us wait for hours to find out if the class was on!! Yes, that was sarcasm.

Anyway, today we started with the October waltz. A rather over complicated and clumsy at times, waltz. Eventually with the help of Scamp I managed the first part of it, but it wasn’t easy. I can’t imagine dancing this on a busy floor, like at the Salutation with about eighty other dancers on the floor. Maybe I’m being over critical, but we just don’t have the time to drive over to Brookfield twice a week like a lot of the class do. We survived it, but I was glad to move on to the Tango.

We’d learned the basis of the tango a year or so ago and this one wasn’t really all that different. Basically the same moves in a different order, I thought. Lots of little tweaks that were interesting were included and we did manage a fairly decent run around the floor.

Next stop was a few jive steps. The problem here is that we learned Glasgow Jive, away back in the dim mists of time. It’s totally different from Ballroom Jive. It’s all to do with the beats I’m told, but it complicates matters, not knowing which foot I should be on. Maybe we should just forget Glasgow Jive and throw ourselves into the Ballroom Jive. Seriously, it would be difficult to unlearn a dance and start anew, but it might be the only way to keep in step with the rest of the class.

Final torture was the Midnight Jive, of all things. One track was enough for all of us, I think. Too much work today and not enough breaks for lighter, sequence dances.

We drove home on a very quiet M80. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the road so empty, but I didn’t complain, I just kept on keeping the car between the white lines!

I went for a walk in the afternoon to clear my head and to get some photos. I was hoping to get a couple of shots of the ladybirds that overwinter in St Mo’s, but none were visible this year. Such a shame. Lots of trees down here, most of them old and rotten. I imaging none of the tree doctors will be tending to them, deep in the woods.

PoD went to a tiny wee mushroom. The cap is less than 3mm high. How did something so fragile survive Storm Éowyn?

No plans for tomorrow.

Rather a busy day – 30 January 2025

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I was out in the morning. Scamp and I were out in the afternoon.

I was out first to go to the doc’s for the results of my PSA test. About three years ago my last test, result was 2.1 ng/ml (I have no idea what that stands for, except it was a good result I was told.) Today’s result was 2.5 ng/ml. Anything below 5 is considered good for my age group and everyone’s results increase over time. The doc was satisfied with that result and put me on a six month rolling program to tests.

Satisfied with that, I drove over to Boots to pick up my set of drops. I got Gort, the grumpiest of the assistants who grudgingly gave me the two boxes of drops and signed me in for two-monthly repeats. Drove home after buying some stuff for lunch from Tesco, next door.

Scamp had a meeting with a consultant about her tremor. It went quite well and the woman doing the test picked up on a few things we’d not noticed. She’s now booked in for a brain scan, some time in the next four months, to rule out the possibility of Parkinson’s. That might mean we won’t get a summer cruise in the early summer. Not a great problem, as we were thinking about having a couple of mid-week short stays at home, or at least in the UK. They could probably be slotted in somewhere without causing any problem.

Instead of driving straight home we went via The Fort. I was trying to get a photo on this disjointed day and Scamp was intending to get some chicken for tonight’s paella dinner. After a very short bit of prompting, she accepted my suggestion of a dragonfly charm for her nominations bracelet. Except … they didn’t have any in the Nominations shop, so we may go in to Glasgow tomorrow and hopefully get one there.

My photo (one of only three I took!) was the new frontage of a couple of renovated shops. After dunking it into a couple of baths of Photoshop, it came up looking interesting. That was PoD.

Dinner was indeed a paella. Afterwards we watched a less than inspiring The Apprentice, way less inspiring. It needs put to bed.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to take the bus in to Glasgow, for a dragonfly.