Category: Driving

Another day at the horses – 19 June 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Only nine days ago Scamp and I went to see the Kelpies. Today Alex and I went visiting. Scamp was meeting Isobel for coffee.

I didn’t want to go on a photo walk in Glasgow. I’m just Glasgow’d out for now. Too many days trailing around our second city. I gave Alex some suggestions for destinations and he asked if we could go to the Kelpies. Not his fault, he didn’t know I’d been to see them just over a week ago, so I agreed. It’s not a long drive from Cumbersheugh to Helix Park where the Kelpies live and my other suggestions would have taken a lot longer, besides, there is always a new angle on these magnificent steel masterpieces.

I picked Alex up at the station an we drove over. I wanted to take a shot looking through the cleats where the boats tie up with the Kelpies in the background. Also, I’d offered Alex a loan of my 10-18mm f2.8 ultra wide angle lens as he was considering buying one. We did both manage to get some good views with Helix Park producing some lovely skies as a background. Lunch was a sandwich and a bottle of juice halfway through the day. Then we split up and found some different subjects. I walked under the canal bridge and took some photos looking back, but the pylons behind the structures rather spoilt the view.

We met up later as I was just finishing my attempt at the view through a cleat to the Kelpies behind. Alex seemed happy enough with his collection too. However, he needed to be back home earlier than normal because he was looking after the kids back home to allow their mother to go out to a concert. It was a tight run back to the station, but we made it with a few minutes to spare. Dropped him off and agreed to have a think about our next destination.

Dinner was a salad with a trout fillet each. A lovely bit of fish and the salad was so much better than I could make. Afterwards we sat and read in the garden, making the most of another beautiful warm day.

It was later in the evening I found that there was a green cast at all the shots taken with the A6500/10-18mm combination. I’d not seen this occurrence before and will have to look out for it. I doubt if there is an easy solution, other to shoot in mono.

Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to go to the FitSteps class in the morning, the last one for a few weeks and I’m maybe going to relax in the sun again.

Dancin’ – 12 June 2025

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A lazy day that started well, but ended with rain.

After a quick lunch we were off to Glenburn for a Tea Dance. Only a few of the usual dancers at the dance, but we did take to the floor and danced a couple of Waltz Nioli (badly in my case) and a load of sequence dances too. Carol (one of the dancers) was walking with a stick after damaging her Meniscus, so Scamp offered to dance with David, so he wasn’t sitting around doing nothing, which I think is his preferred place! After reading about what and where the meniscus was, I sympathise with Carol.

We were late leaving the tea dance and that meant we were caught up in the homeward bound traffic. I chose the M74/M73 route as although it’s a bit longer, it’s definitely quicker, especially if the Kingston Bridge has become a carpark as it turned out it was today.

I walked down to the shops later on a very close, clammy afternoon. On the way back I got some photos of a common Dog Rose and that became PoD.

Watched the semi-final of Glow Up. Just a bunch of posers, posing.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to FitSteps, although torrential rain is prodicted. We’ll have to wait and see if it comes.

It’s been a long time – 10 June 2025

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Today we had agreed to visit the Kelpies. It’s been a long time since we last went to see the big horses.

Today we woke to sunshine and blue skies. That made a nice change from the grey skies and rain we’ve been looking at for the last few weeks. Scamp was looking for more flowers for the garden too, so that gave us two places to visit.

We went to find some flowers first and our destination was Klondyke garden centre near Grangemouth. They always have a good selection of plants, possibly too many, because there is limited space in the boot of the Blue car. I can’t really complain, though, because I got a couple of flowers too. Scamp found one of the grasses she’d been looking for. Its proper name is Stipa tenuissima or Pony Tails grass. It’s to be a memorial to June. A nice idea to remember her. She says that June will be able to wave to her in the morning.

After we’d paid for the plants, we headed to Helix Park, home of the Kelpies – The Big Horses. The Kelpies were looking magnificent today, shining brightly in the sunshine. Such a pity they built the Helix Park beside a sewage works. The stink today was awful. It’s the first time I’ve noticed it, but you could hardly ignore it.

We had a coffee in the restaurant. I was supposed to get scones to go with the coffee, but I decided to share a sandwich instead. Scamp was not amused. To make it up to her, I bought us both a ’99’ ice cream cone. That seemed to do the trick.

We drove home after admiring the Kelpies and getting a few new views of them. PoD went to two ladies discussing what was going on inside the great beasts.

Scamp set to and got most of the flowers and plants into their place later in the afternoon, but I’m sure there might still be time to shuffle them around later in the week.

We have no plans for tomorrow, but we do need to take some stuff to the tip. Not very interesting, but it needs to be done.

Another damp, dismal, day – 9 June 2025

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More or less what we expected after reading the weather report and checking online. It’s a Monday. Mondays are often dull. We had to cancel the visit to the Kelpies. I don’t think they’d be coming out anyway today.

With a lot of help from Scamp, I parcelled up my unwanted, too narrow and too short, dance sneakers, then drove over to UPS and gave the box and the proof of posting to the lady there and she said everything was in order. It’s up to UPS and Amazon now to do the rest of the business.

Next was a trip to Tesco for the usual lunch requirements. I did think about going for a walk in St Mo’s, but the constant showers didn’t encourage me to go walking in the rain. Instead I read a few more pages in my latest book, Murder Mindfully. It’s described as a the darkly comic bestselling thriller. I don’t know about the best seller, but it’s certainly very dark and at times funny. About a third through it now and I’m still not sure what’s going on or where it’s going!

I took some photos of the next batch of partly dried flowers that landed on the mat a couple of days ago. Then it was time to get ready to go to Kirsty’s class. Tonight we were reprising Waltz Nioli. I’d forgotten just how much I had forgotten. This was the dance class wearing my new dance sneakers and I must say they were very comfortable. I’d been told by a lot of folk that they make you think you have nothing on your feet and now I see exactly what they mean. Lovely, light trainers.

Drove home through more rain and around 7pm we had our dinner which was Giovanni Rana Tortelloni pasta and yesterday’s refried baby potatoes. Very nice and filling too.

After dinner I took some more photos of the flowers, but it was one of the earlier ones that got PoD.

Tomorrow we may have another chance to see the big horses, if they’re not too rusty.

Westward Ho – 4 June 2025

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Today we were going west. Along a great road. In fact we were on the Great Western Road to Gartnavel Hospital to drop Scamp off for her brain scan.

I was glad I didn’t listen to my, now dodgy, sat nav as it tried to direct me through a line of bollards and then a steel barrier onto a road that no longer exists. In fact, a road that hasn’t existed for about 10 years. That’s what’s good about Nissans. Their technology make life more interesting. The sat nav was trying to direct us off at junction 17 of the M8, when we knew we should leave by junction 18. The rest was fairly well know to us from when we went dancing twice a week along Woodlands Road. Not exactly on the road, but in a building, just off Woodlands Road!

I dropped Scamp off at the hospital and as she was happy to go into the hospital alone and there were no spaces in the car park anyway, I drove back into the centre of Glasgow and parked in the JL car park.

I was too early to meet Alex, so I thought I’d have a wander through town first. That was before I saw the sheets of rain being blown down the street. Maybe it would be best to walk through the car park and over the covered bridge to Buchanan Galleries. From there I only had to cross the road to get to the bus station where Alex would arrive about 20 mins later.

The bus station is busy and a great place for people-watching. That’s what I ended up doing. “All human life is here” was a leader in the Times Literary Supplement some years ago and it can certainly be applied to train stations, airports and bus stations. Watching folk coming and going some carefully consulting their watches when connections are simply not connecting. My connection worked today when Alex strode along the concourse.

We walked down to Nero and discussed our plans for today. We agreed to do our usual walk down Buchanan Street, on through St Enoch’s Square and down to the Clyde Walkway to see what new graffiti there was. The answer was, not a lot. I’m guessing the rain that had fallen during the last week would make outdoor painting difficult, if not impossible.

I got a message around about then to say that everything was going well. Her injection had been in the back of her hand and she was now going to wait for it to spread through her body.

We on the other hand walked on past the St Andrews Church and further still until I found an old cobbled street that I recognised as Paddy’s Market. The market’s name originated with the large numbers of Irish immigrants who came to Scotland in the early 19th century, and I remembered it as a dirty alleyway where much wheeling and dealing went on. Now it’s just a cobbled street with some poor quality, but colourful graffiti adorned the walls. The view down through Paddy’s Market made PoD.

From there we walked up to Paesano for lunch. We agreed that it was one of the best pizzas we’d had. Quite, quite delicious. We had a look through the GOMA, but there wasn’t much to see there so we headed round the corner and had a coffee in Costa. Just then I got a message saying Scamp was on the bus back into town. I’d told her I would collect her, but Scamp is her own woman. Always has been.

We three sat and talked about the day in town and in Gartnavel and then we all headed home. Scamp was keeping her distance because she had been warned that the injection could be slightly contagious and she didn’t want Alex carrying it in to the house. Very thoughtful.

We split up at JL we were going to get the car from the car park and Alex was heading for the bus. A strange thing happened when we went to pay for our parking. I was parked on level 6 but I tried to pay on level 1, but I, and everyone else on level1, got the same message that card was rejected. We walked up to level 2 and got the same result. In fact, everyone had the same problem. Then one girl showed us where the help button was. We pressed it and before we could explain to the operator that the machine wasn’t working, he told us to go straight to the exit because the gate would be open for us due to a system error!! That saved us £14 for the day’s parking!! Wasn’t that nice! A lovely way to end the day.

Tomorrow we may visit Isobel in the morning for coffee and a blether.

A late rise – 3 June 2025

Posted on by Zogman

One of those days when we never heard the alarm clock go off.

Maybe that was because we didn’t set the alarm clock in the first place. In fact, I’m not sure we still have an alarm clock, but if we did have, we wouldn’t have heard it this morning.

After breakfast, and after Wordle et al, we drove over to Go Outdoors in Coatbridge, to search for a pair of trainers, nice cheap(ish) ones, like the ones I’d tried on and rejected in the same chain, in Kingston. It took a bit of searching, but I eventually found what I was looking for and this time I didn’t reject them. They seemed to fit perfectly for a change.

When we got back in the car I tried to set our next destination on the sat nav, which was Currys for a new tablet for Scamp. That was when the sat nav went bonkers. It decided that we were actually in France and then somewhere down Africa way. I tried switching the engine off, counting to ten and trying again, with the same result. Eventually I gave in and drove to the Currys by memory. Switched the engine off and locked the car.

We found the tablet Scamp had sourced on the internet and bought it in Currys. Then we did some shopping for something that would work for tonight’s dinner across the car park in Tesco. That should give the car and sat nav enough time to cool its wheels and settle down to work. It did. It gave us the correct directions to take us home. I’ve not got a clue what caused that mishap. It’s the first time I’ve experienced it.

I drove to Tesco in the town centre for petrol and Scamp searched unsuccessfully for a new dress, then we went home. Just got stopped and parked at the house when the skies opened and we were in the middle of a downpour. Nearly got soaked walking from the car to the house. That was the first of many such downpours today, in fact, as I’m writing this, another one is starting. Such strange weather.

Quite a fiery chicken curry for dinner that was cooled down with an ice lolly as a dessert.

PoD was a photo of a Lupin plant in the garden. I always liked the strong colours of lupins. If you find the photo on Flickr and can go back one step, you’ll find a photo of one of the London Parakeets that fly in gangs around the city.

Tomorrow Scamp and I are intending to drive to Glasgow for her scan, and after dropping her off, I’m hoping to meet Alex.

Troosers – 19 May 2025

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I was looking for a cheap(ish) pair of walking trousers and came home with two!

In this month of excessive heat, I’d grown attached to a pair of walking trousers, lightweight Brasher ones I got in a sale in Tiso a few years ago. I’d forgotten just how comfortable these trousers were and also how versatile with a multitude of pockets of varying sizes.

We drove over to Tiso and only after rummaging around all the expensive ones and rejecting them because they didn’t feel as comfortable as my old lightweight Brashers did I eventually find only two pairs of Brashers in the bargain bin. One pair were size 30 (too small) and the other pair were size 40 (too big) . No Goldilocks trousers for me from Tiso.

Scamp stuck the address for Go Outdoors into the sat nav and we drove over to Coatbridge. There they did have exactly the trousers I was looking for and in two colours too. Nothing dramatic in the colour scheme, just either black or brown. Scamp suggested that it looked like the trousers were being withdrawn, I should take advantage of the cheaper price and buy both pairs. That seemed like a sound investment, so that’s what I did.

Now I just need a decent pair of trainers to complete my ensemble or maybe I should just be grateful that I’ve got a pair of trousers that look like they’ll fit me.

Drove home and Scamp made chicken and mushroom pasta for dinner. Usually my creation, but on this occasion, I let her have her head and she did produce a good filling meal.

Spoke to Hazel later and heard that Tilly’s leg seems to be ok after her x-ray which is a weight of their shoulders, and Tilly’s too I expect.

PoD was a sunset, taken from the house. I was quite impressed with it.

No plans for tomorrow as yet.

Perth – 17 May 2025

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Drove to Perth in brilliant sunshine.

We set off at 9am and arrived at the car park neat The Salutation Hotel almost exactly an hour later. Parked on the ground floor for the first time ever and found our room was on the third floor. Scamp asked if there was a room on a lower floor. We’d been given a top floor room before and remembered the water dripping from the shower head when the shower was set to full. We didn’t want that again. Thankfully the girl on reception found us a smaller room on the ground floor. Great we shall be washed!

Met the rest of the dancers at our table, all of whom we’d met somewhere before and were introduced to our lesson for today, Rona’s Rumba. There were fewer dancers than there had been last year, although that was in November 2024 and this was a hot May 2025. The temperature was maybe the difference. In the bigger parties, the teachers usually split the class into two and teach the lesson to one half of the class at a time, then the groups are reversed. This time everyone was on the floor at the same time and it was a bit chaotic.

In the afternoon we bought some sandwiches and two wee bottles of orange juice then found a vacant bench in the park and had a picnic. It was great sitting in the sun watching the world go by.
Now that we’d been fed and watered, we went to the Bean Shop and I bought a couple of bags of coffee beans and a bag of Ceylon decaf tea. It’s the one decaf tea I can say honestly tastes like real tea.

It was so hot we had to stop and have drink before we went on to the creaky old Salutation and got dressed properly for the Dancin’.

Food was quite good in the hotel and although I did lose a knife somewhere, that was the only problem this time. It has been much worse in the past.

There was a little fly in the ointment. Obnoxious wee man tried to lower the tone of the night, but a few smiles between Scamp and I and some sarcastic comments by me were all that were needed for him to leave in a huff! I felt sorry for his wife, but now I know why she calls him Grumpy!

Danced to almost everything in the evening and lasted until the last two dances were called, then made our way back to the room.

PoD was a shot of four men. Two were real and two were manmade … or, was that an oxymoron? Actually the guitarist busker was really good, with a nice line in clever dialog. I gave him two quid!

Tomorrow we may be dancing again after breakfast. It’s a hard life, this dancing business.

 

Flying Things – 15 May 2025

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Another bright sunny morning, although the breeze was cold, despite the temperature being 13 point something degrees, according to the old thermometer in the house.

I just had enough time to tackle Wordle although Scamp had already started into the more complicate of the NYT puzzles. Then it was time to get dressed properly for the drive to Glenburn for today’s Tea Dance. A smaller than normal group with quite a few folk calling off, probably because of the good weather.

It was the usual fare, starting with a waltz. We tried hard to work out the steps of Waltz Nioli, but got as far as the first half dozen steps before it all fell to pieces. We eventually gave up and started a wee short nameless Waltz that Kirsty had taught the class fairly recently. That worked, but it was a lot shorter than Nioli.
Next Stewart called for a Jive routine, any jive routine. We danced the Seven Spins we’d learned with Michael, all those years ago – before Covid, that’s how long ago. A couple of sequence dances later and it was nearly tea time with a fairly lengthy chance for a blether.

Second half was more sequence than ballroom, with a few well known sequences and also a few we’d almost, but not quite forgotten. As the clock was just past 3pm we decided that if the next one was worth dancing, we do it, otherwise we’d drive home. The next one turned out to be the Ria Bachata, but not to real Bachata music, so we said our goodbyes and drove home.

An almost non-stop drive from Glenburn, over the Kingston Bridge and home. Not the best drive time we’ve had, but the wheels were turning all the way. That’s very unusual on a Thursday afternoon.

Back home, Scamp was having a rest in the garden and I was going over to St Mo’s to see if any of the dragonflies and damselflies were coming out to play. Well, the dragonflies were, but I only saw one damselfly and it was keeping a low profile in and out of the weeds by the side of the pond. Keeping out of reach of the dragonflies that were patrolling the pond looking for easy takings.

I walked round the pond then went back the other way. Sometimes that gives you a different view of the park. Today I followed a wee butterfly with strange markings and got a shot or three of it. Next a damselfly came past and attached itself to a nearby leaf. Another half a dozen frames made sure I’d a photo of that too. Finally as I was walking home I spotted a bedraggled Crane Fly (AKA Jenny Long Legs in Scotland) was dangling from a trio of Horsetails, the prehistoric perennial plants. That became PoD.

Dinner tonight, just for a change was pasta with a rich tomato sauce. Very nice it was too. I made it!

We watered the garden later when the sun was going down. Scamp did the front and I did the back, despite warnings on the BBC to the effect that water shortages may mean a hosepipe ban. It’s just meant to scare us and we’re not listening!

Tomorrow Scamp may go to FitSteps in the morning. I have no plans.

Where has the sun gone? – 14 May 2025

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Woke this morning to grey skies and a mistiness all around. Wondering what suddenly happened to Spring.

Scamp was out in the morning for a catch-up with the rest of the witches. (For ‘catch-up’ read ‘blether’). That left me with a morning to fill.

A little reading filled part of the time and a bit of shopping filled another part. It had been recommended to me that I should perhaps get my hair cut, or tidy it up at least. I took these suggestions onboard and drove over to one of the many barbers. For the first time in ages I had to wait to get my locks shorn. Usually there are plenty of hairdressers lurking in the back shop, but not today. They must all have been making the most of the sunshine that had appeared around lunch time. Job done and £10 lighter of pocket I drove home.

Not long afterwards I got a call from Scamp to say that she was ready to be collected. I drove up to the new retail park and we went shopping there for some beer and cakes. I’d bought the sensible bread and bananas earlier for my lunch, but I didn’t complain about these extra essentials.

I couldn’t really be bothered with walking over to St Mo’s today, so took some photos in the garden. I pulled up the ‘whirly’ clothes pole and that gave me the much wider view of the garden I’d been looking for. Later, with the clothes pole replaced, I took some close-ups of the Golden Torch rhododendron flowers. Its name says “Golden Torch”, but it looks pink and white to me. Scamp tells me it will change from pink to yellow later in the flowering period. Those flowers got PoD.

Dinner tonight was pasta with the remainder of the orange and rhubarb jelly as dessert. Delicious with a dollop of ice cream. (The jelly, not the pasta).

Tomorrow we may be going to a tea dance.