Category: Driving

More frost and more ice. – 10 January 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Out in the morning, then a lazy day.

I went out in the morning to book a face to face meeting with a doc at the health centre. It’s nothing serious, I’m just booking a PSA test. I had a biannual test in the years before Covid put an end to those things and I kept forgetting to get back in the loop. Alex nudged me about it yesterday, so now I have to see a doc next week to get my annual or biannual check-up authorised.

It was very sparkly and frosty when I was out and I was really glad to get back to the warmth of the house. We’d considered going out somewhere for lunch, but eventually talked ourselves out of it. Lunch was more of Scamp’s soup. It tasted better today. Better blended now the veg had softened and mixed together.

Inevitably my thoughts turned to what Hazy and I had been discussing yesterday, a new phone. I did have a look at an iPhone 16, but decided that ‘Apple Intelligence’ wasn’t for me. It all sounded a bit pie in the sky and none of the reviewers I read seemed to have a clear idea where the benefits were. There is advice that says “Never buy version 1 of anything. Wait until version 2 comes out. By then most of the bugs will be ironed out.” That Is how I think Apple Intelligence will pan out.

I did take a camera out for a walk today and took a few of my Dangerous Dan photos. It’s the dangerous practise of placing an expensive camera on the ice of a frozen pond, pressing the shutter button and quickly lifting said camera once the shutter goes click. So far I haven’t sunk any cameras, expensive or otherwise, but there’s still time! That didn’t get PoD. A swan looking as if it was skating across the frozen pond got that.

After I’d photographed the swan and the ice crystals on the pond I walked round the back of St Mo’s school and down to the shops. I was hoping to see some deer, but none were coming out to see me today. Got some veg in M&S to make a stir fry for dinner. It was pronounced good enough to eat by Scamp.

We watched a rather half hearted Grantchester episode and I came away not really knowing what had happened in it. Maybe just the manoeuvrings of the first episode of a new series, putting things in their place and maybe changing some things. Or else it might just have been a crap episode!

No plans for tomorrow. Dance teachers are back in the UK, I think, but not feeling well. There’s a lot of that about, I believe.

 

 

A day for a blether – 9 January 2025

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I drove in to Glasgow in the late morning to meet Alex. It looked cold, and it was with the temperature down below zero.

The first space I could get into was up on the seventh floor of the Buchanan Galleries, nosebleed zone. There was a lovely view across Glasgow, but blocked with heavy wire netting, just in case someone would attempt a swan dive into the concrete below. I took the lift down, not wanting to knacker my knees walking down twenty odd flights of stairs.

I found Alex with a nice new crewcut waiting for me in the bus station. We waked around the corner because he wanted to take some photos of the Pavilion Theatre with the low sunlight just glancing off it. I’d tried and failed to photograph this old building in the past, so instead I watched him try.

Next stop was Caffè Nero for our morning coffee which I admit we lingered over for a while, not wanting to face the cold breeze outside ad also discussing computers and monitors. Next stop was Guitar Guitar in Argyle Street, away at the far end of Argyle Street. There seemed to be two guitars on his list, but both were electric and although I did get a chance to test my G, F and C chords, it still felt clumsy and heavy. Do you know, I’ve just realised that was the first time I ever played (slight exaggeration “played” an electric guitar! I’ve had a few acoustic guitars, but never an electric. He settled for a Les Paul copy, although I’d have chosen the Sunburst, even if the balance felt all wrong.

We walked back along Argyle Street, because now it was almost lunch time and we were heading to Paesano for a pizza. Another opportunity for a blether and to stay in the warm. We both agreed they were both lovely pizzas.

Alex wanted to photograph the sparkly lights around the GOMA and I was in agreement. I got a couple of decent shots, of the buildings with the warm light from the setting sun providing the warm colour of the surrounding buildings.

Another coffee before we were done, then we went our separate ways, me to get a cabbage for Scamp to add to her Minestrone soup and Alex to get the bus home.

The soup was lovely, warming and filling with added pasta. I didn’t think I was hungry, but of course a plate of soup is difficult to refuse!

I spoke to Hazy afterward as promised and she gave me loads of information that, like Alex’s knowledge of monitors left me with more questions than answers, but it did point me in the right direction. I think I’ve made my mind up Hazy. iPhone 15 with 128GB. That may change tomorrow, but it’s where I am tonight.

We have no plans for tomorrow at present, but looks like another cold night. Only -3.3ºc just now.

 

Window Shopping – 8 January 2025

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We drove in to Glasgow on a cold, bright winter’s day.

We were going window shopping, both of us. Scamp was looking for a new fridge, big enough to hold all the foodstuffs we usually keep in our fridge, but not so big that she wouldn’t be able to reach the very top shelf. There were very few in John Lewis that fitted the bill, but we did find one or two.

The other thing she had her eye on was a new freezer. She didn’t think my idea of a wooden box in the garden would work, even if it is plenty cold enough for it to work. Freezers were a bit easier to find. We saw quite a lot of ‘under counter’ ones. This was the first serious look for one. We’ll probably try one of the larger Curry’s stores next week.

My search was for an iPhone. Maybe an iPhone 15 or maybe a 16. I want one that’s a fair bit smaller than my present Samsung which I feel is too clumsy. To be honest, I’ve never liked it since I got it. I tried a couple out in John Lewis and they did feel very neat and the screens were clear. Hopefully I’ll get a chance to speak to an expert (Hazy) tomorrow.

Then I walked down to the Apple shop and spoke to one of the assistants there about a new iMac. My eight year old iMac is definitely not working to its optimum. I got a few ideas from him, but I’m still not sure whether to get a complete replacement, basically the same as the one I have, but with seven or eight years of upgrades in it, plus more memory. My other option is to get a tiny wee box, a Mac Mini and a separate monitor. I’ve read a few reviews of the monitors online and none of them were very complimentary. Either way, it’s a lot of money to spend.

We had a scone and a cup of coffee for lunch in a seat that Scamp had carefully chosen to get a view from the Royal Concert Hall all the way up to the shambles they have made of Sauchiehall Street. It really is an eyesore. I managed to get a few shots from there of folk sitting having lunch on the steps of the concert hall. They must have been freezing.

We drove home and watched the final of this year’s Christmas University Challenge. The wrong team won. The other lot were better.

Hopefully meeting Alex tomorrow for a wander round Glasgow. That would make it my second in two days! Hope it’s not too cold!

A bit lighter – 7 January 2025

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We actually went out for lunch today.

Not far, just down to Calders in the village and it was stowed! Every table seemed to be full of ladies of a certain age, to quote Greg Wallace. I felt quite out of place until I spotted a lone man on the edge of the restaurant. I didn’t feel so bad then. After that, more men joined the ranks and I treated easier. Lunch was quite good, just a panini for me and a toastie for Scamp. I had been well warned not to order coffee or I’d get something like a babychino. I ordered tea.

Drove home via the much larger Tesco in what is laughingly called the Town Centre. Looking for porridge oats and found none of the type I wanted, but we did get lots of other things. Scamp wanted a bottle of Kraken rum and I was joking that she’d be too small to reach it, when a bloke came along and offered to help us. He was fairly tall, over six feet he said, but I thanked him and I managed to capture the bottle. Friendly guy. Must be a visitor to Cumbersheugh.

Drove home and as the light was really good, I walked over to St Mo’s and got today’s PoD which looks very similar to many of my St Mo’s photos. Very few birds on the ice today. St Mo’s pond has remained frozen for almost a week now and I think the waterfowl are fed up with it. It was fun for them to take turns doing slides as they came in to land, but the joke isn’t funny any more. I think they have now gone on strike and left the pond to find somewhere warmer to overwinter. But the blue skies and the sheets of ice do make good photos!

We’re finally working our way through the University Challenge Christmas quiz. We’ve not got to the final with the two successful sets of finalists fairly closely matched.

Alex sent me a link to a half hour film about <Don’t Look Hazy!> Culross. I didn’t like the style of the bloke who was presenting it, but the filming and the history stuff was interesting. We must go back there in the spring. Get a few shots from the top of the hill. Strangely, I’ve never climbed up the steep path between the houses.

Feeling lighter today. Much less worried about the iMac. I know it’s not quite right yet, but I’ve been given a way out.

We may go in to Glasgow tomorrow.

 

Dining out – 3 January 2025

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But not until about 6pm. Until then we’d need to starve.

We were going out to dinner at John and Marion’s, but were a bit worried about the weather. No snow as yet, that was due for Saturday or Sunday, but there was ice on the paths and no guarantee that we wouldn’t get some snow.

I’m still struggling with the iMac. Ever since New Year I’ve had problems getting the catalog and the photos to work together. I’m beginning to think the old catalog I’ve been cleaning out and reusing for the last three years has become corrupted somewhere along the line.

I spent most of this afternoon finishing off the calendar photos. It took longer than usual because of the problems with the Mac. I think the basic calendar is more or less complete now and I might try a test print tomorrow. No time for one today because it’s getting near time to drive over to Hamilton.

Scamp was looking out the window just now and there was a fox in the front garden. She said it calmly walked across the grass without a care in the world. I didn’t get a chance to see it, but it was time to drive to Hamilton.

Had a great time with J&M and the food was excellent as always. John had even made a loaf of bread for the meal. I was really impressed. He admitted that it was Bread Maker bread, but that doesn’t matter, it’s the taste and the thought that counts. We came a bit earlier than usual with worries about the weather still in our heads.

Later in the evening, when we were home we hears strange noises coming from the bushes across the path from us us and I caught a quick view of a fox. Just a small, young one. We guessed that it was lost and that was reason for all the Yip, Yips coming from the bushes.

PoD was a photo of a Kissibel apple I’d halved and left in the back garden for the blackbirds. I think it might have been frozen solid and was too hard for the blackbirds.

Hoping for a thaw tomorrow.

 

The Fort – 20 December 2024

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A lazy start to the day. It rained for most of the morning, but cleared away completely in the afternoon.

We drove to The Fort for some odds and ends and I finally got a shaver. Not the Braun I was looking for, but a Philips rotary shaver which seems to do what it’s meant to do and is much quieter than the Braun that’s going in the bin. The parking was fairly decent, although we did have to cruise around for a while before we found one.

While Scamp went off to find those odds and ends, I went for a browse in Waterstones and came out with another book. That makes it three in the same week and I’ve another one on the go just now that came from Fred. I was looking for something to photograph and saw the three “Easy Deer”. Easy, because they never run away. That’s probably due to them being cast in bronze. Got a view looking over their heads from behind, as you can see, as if they were watching the people rushing madly about. It wasn’t such a madhouse as Glasgow the other day, but I think everyone was in the new Primark.

When we were sure we had everything we came for, we drove home. A more pleasant drive that coming as the sun was now at our back. Some lovely landscape shots were passing beside the north facing side window, but as usual there were no places to stop and take a photo.

Dinner was a stir-fry made by Scamp an it was lovely. That was part of the ‘odds and ends’ Scamp was looking for at The Fort.

I watched a Kevin Bridges film in the evening: The Overdue Catch-Up. If you haven’t seen it, do yourself a favour and watch an hour and a half of Kevin. Just brilliant. After that, Scamp watched The Quartet. I think I’ve seen it before, but it was worth watching again.

Other than that, I tested the shaver and found it comfortable to use, no nicks! I think Scamp is now sorted for Christmas. We’ve had a glass of wine or two and we’ve watched the obligatory sickly sweet Nigella Lawson trying to pretend she has friends who come to her dinner parties. Aye right!

We’re hoping the promised incoming storm won’t be as bad as the weather fairies predict.

A driving tour of Central Scotland – 19 December 2024

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I dropped Scamp off at midday to meet Mags for lunch. Then I started the tour.

My electric razor is almost defunct. So I thought I’d just replace the foil with a new one. Unfortunately they don’t make foils for the older models, so I need a new razor, which shouldn’t be a problem, should it? Three hours and five shops spread liberally around the Central Belt later,I can definitely say that the electric razors are harder to find than I’d ever have imagined in my wildest dreams. In the end I came home empty handed.

I’ve been doing a lot of moaning about dull, drab and dark Scottish weather. Today was the exact opposite. It was bright, clear and the sun was shining. However, there’s always a ‘However’, isn’t there. However it being near the shortest day, the sun was low in the sky and I felt I was driving into the sun all day. Sunglasses didnt help nor did the windscreen blinds because they didn’t come down far enough. Some of us are never happy, are we?

I finished my driving tour almost exactly where I started, at Cumbersheugh Town Centre to get some easy peel oranges for Scamp. Everywhere I went, I saw crowds and crowds of folk barging about with full shopping trolleys. Allegedly the shops will be shut for two whole days next week! What will we do? Where will we find food? We’ll starve!!!

We watched the Celebrity Sewing Bee tonight. It was awful. I think ‘infantile’ was the best word to describe it. I actually started this blog about a quarter the way through it, that’s how bad it was.

PoD went to a little green elf I found sitting on a bench in the middle of a very busy Bishopbriggs car park. I hope his owner found him. A little brightener on a day of xmas madness.

Hopefully tomorrow will be better than today.

A day in Glasgow – 17 December 2024

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We agreed that we both needed to buy some things and Glasgow was the obvious choice.

I quite fancied having another go at oil painting after watching some short tutorial videos on Sky Arts. I’ve got the basic materials, but I need to get some solvent. Turps is frowned upon now because of the smell and the dangerous fumes. I was looking for a solvent called Sansodor (Franglais for Without Smell) and Cass Art in Glasgow has it. Scamp was looking for a few little somethings for Christmas.

We drove in to Glasgow and parked in Buchanan Galleries and went for a wander around the shops inside the galleries because it was raining heavily. I wanted a replacement foil for my electric razor and luckily I found one in Boots in the galleries. Eventually we had to go outside and we gravitated to Nero and shared an Italian Cream Bun. Then it was out into the rain again.

We walked down Queen Street and I got PoD which was a strip of red and white sparkling baubles outside an Italian restaurant. Lots of wee water drops on the shining balls had caught my eye. I got the solvent and a sketch book too in Cass Art and then we headed up to Sauchiehall Street which is still a disaster area and will probably stay that way for a good part of next year. I was looking for a book and Scamp was looking for something else, unstated. I didn’t find any books that interested me, but Scamp had a fairly well filled bag when we met up again. The rain was getting heavier, so we chose to leave shopping for the day and go home and have lunch.

I tried the foil on my razor and discovered that, although the razor is a Braun series 5 and the replacement was a Braun series 5, they were completely different from each other. No way would that foil fit my razor. I’d have to take it back to Boots in Cumbersheugh to get a replacement. Meanwhile, Scamp had been having problems with her phone. It looked to me as if it was an early warning that her storage was almost full, so I volunteered to get a new SD card while I was out. Getting my money back for the razor foil was no problem, but after wandering around three different phone shops I still hadn’t found anywhere that sold micro SD cards. Hardly anyone uses them now. Most phones have built-in storage. When I got home, disillusioned and wet, I asked Mr Bezos if he had any cards, and of course he did. It’s due to arrive tomorrow.

We watched, horrified as one of the three finalists for Portrait of the Year proceeded to paint caricatures of a posed couple, and, you guessed it … He won!
I dread to think what he’ll do to the final portrait which will be of Lorraine Kelly. They really need to weed out those who cannot paint, at the early stages instead of making a mockery of what is a great show.

I’ve another early rise tomorrow because the engineer is coming to service the boiler between 9am and 12noon.

Another broken bus – 15 December 2024

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Usually the blog is written from my perspective, but the majority of today’s is written about Scamp and the Witches visit to Manchester.

Yesterday the witches had a fairly faultless run down to Manchester and by all reports were impressed with the Trafford centre. Today they were heading back to Manchester from their overnight stay in Chorley or nearby there to go to the Christmas Markets. Around 3pm I got the message that they were leaving Manchester and would phone at Gretna.

I got a message to tell me they were leaving Gretna with an ETA of 7.20pm at Hamilton bus station where I’d agreed to pick them up. Two minutes later I got the message that the extremely high winds had blown the windscreen wiper off the bus and they’d need to get someone to fix it or get a replacement bus. Long story short, two hours late, I picked up the four and dropped them off at Jeanette’s house and we drove home.

I’d made a fairly large pot of Minestrone soup for a late lunch and it was used for dinner while the sorry tale unravelled. I’m not saying Scamp is a jinx, although she did, but this is the second bus journey that has come to grief with a broken bus she has been on!

My own day had been a case of taking some odds and ends to the skips in the afternoon. The winds hadn’t been as wild then, so I carried on to Fannyside and got some photos of “The Girls”, the hardy sheep that don’t seem to notice the wind and the rain as long as there’s food in their basket. Went for a walk along to a farm, got some photos of Cladonia lichen that grows well there, apparently a sign of clean air. On the way back I saw a fast flying bird land on a telegraph pole and grabbed a few photos of it. When I came home I found that it was a Kestrel. Unmistakeable with the narrow wings and the chestnut coloured back.

PoD was that picture of “The Girls”, looking as if they were posing for a photo.

Hoping to have a less stressful day tomorrow.

 

 

Off the leash – 14 December 2024

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An early rise for me. 6.30am is definitely early for me, very early. I was up at that ungodly hour to drive Scamp the Condorrat, there another driver would take her with the rest of the Witches to Glasgow. And from there down the M74 and the M6 for miles and miles and miles.

They were all off on a short ‘Jolly’ down to Manchester to experience the Trafford Centre. Tomorrow, hopefully, a Christmas Market awaits them, also in Manchester. Then back up north to a place called Reality!

That left me off the leash for a whole day and a half. What would I do with all that free time? I would do this, and that, and that other thing I’ve been meaning to do for ages … but in the end, I sat and read for half the morning. Then went to Tesco looking for something that wasn’t there. I did grab myself a pizza for dinner and a bag of Jelly Babies, two bags, actually and came home. That’s the trouble with having plenty of time. I just never ever use it properly. I just fritter it away, and before you know it, the sun is setting and I’ve not taken a photo yet.

Well, I did have a photo. Admittedly I’ve shot that same scene at least ten times, each one similar to but not the same as the last. It’s That Lane. Usually it begins to look a bit sinister after I’ve boiled it in Lightroom and Photoshop, then washed it out in ON1. Still, it’s done and I like its sinister aura “a’ roon” to quote Billy Connolly.

I watched another couple of painting tutorials. Little half hour slots with known faces, painting faces. They always amaze me how simple their structure is, simple and perfectly formed. I nearly always try to do as they say and end up putting it in the bin.

As you’ve gathered, I didn’t get up to much today, but I did go for a walk and achieved what Garmin says is a decent score.

Scamp is due home tomorrow evening and this time I’m chauffeur. After that, life will return to normal I hope!