Category: #EDiF

Blue skies in Paisley – 13 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Out taking photos with Alex.

I was out fairly early today, early for me, anyway. Walked to the bus stop under a bright blue sky and with the sun to brighten my day. Got the bus in to Glasgow and for once it was Alex who was late. His bus was going the slow way for a change. I didn’t mind, it gave me a chance to do some people watching in the bus station.

When he arrived we went for a coffee and discussed our options. I agreed with his suggestion of Paisley but rejected his offer of the Riverside Museum. He suggested we put my suggestion of Bowling on the back burner until the better weather came in. So we settled on Paisley as a destination. We walked down to Central Station bought our tickets and had just enough time to walk along to platform 12 to catch the train.

It’s a short journey to Paisley from Glasgow and so much better than driving there. I remember the pain it was to navigate round the one way system to get to Glenburn when we were just starting going to the tea dances. It was strange that the sat nav would give us directions from the house to Glenburn via Paisley town centre, but on the way home it took us a totally different way. I never did understand that. Anyway, we arrived in Paisley and started making our way to the waterfalls of the White Cart Water for some motion photos before Alex suggested we go for something to eat.

We wandered round Paisley looking for somewhere we could get a decent lunch and eventually settled on The Ugly Duck. A dingy looking place but the food was brilliant. Nothing flash, just a massive cheese burger with two burgers, a slice of bacon between them, pickles, lettuce and a slice of melting cheese. All washed down with a coke for Alex and Irn Bru for me. First time I’ve had Irn Bru for years. Now that we were fed, we made our way down to the White Cart to get some photos.

The weather was still just what the weather fairies had predicted. Sunny with the occasional cloud to give a bit of interest. The water was coming over the rapids at quite a rate, not surprising given the amount of rain that had fallen last night. We spent about half an hour choosing different viewpoints around the rocks.

When we had had enough we walked down to the Abbey and took a few photos there, both inside and outside. We didn’t linger long because the building was closing just after 4pm, but by then we had all the photos we wanted. When we were coming out a bloke stopped me and asked if we were there to photograph the Alien. That is Alien as in the film of the same name. I told him I hadn’t seen it the last time we had been there, so he pointed it out to me. Ha! Hidden in plain sight. I got some shots of it. It’s the spitting image of Alien.

Alex wanted to get some photos of the Town Hall and when we rounded the corner that would take us to it, the sun was displaying it perfectly. Another twenty odd photos and we were almost finished. Another bloke, about my age, stopped to ask if we’d got any good photos and then told me a story about how he and his pal had ‘borrowed’ his pal’s dad’s canoe when they were boys, and paddled down the rapids and on to the River Clyde where they fell in the water after clearing the rapids and travelling all that way. I never thought to ask him what had happened to the canoe!

We were indeed done. We walked back to the station, just in time again for the train back to Central. A cup of coffee and we parted company, but not before I handed him his birthday present which was the bow tie I’d made for him and struggled with for about a week. He’s just sent me a photo showing him wearing it! He really suits it.

Scamp had been working in the garden while I was off galavanting, and seemed to enjoy her day. Dinner was ‘Rats’ for Scamp on a pancake which looked more like a Crepe Suzette thickness than a pancake. I had a couple with syrup and they were lovely.

PoD just had to be the rapids that bloke had shot all those years ago. And I managed to finish off the prompt for yesterday which was Burgundy. I described it as:

“A rather messy glass of red wine and an empty bottle that might at one time have contained an expensive red wine. I enjoyed painting this subject, and I followed my mantra for all edible (or drinkable) still lifes which is to remove the evidence. And that is what I’m doing now. Hic!
Cheers!!”

No plans for tomorrow, but it looks like the weather will revert to rain again.

Another day, another busy one – 7 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It snowed during the night last night and it froze afterwards, so it was a photogs paradise.

We were going out just after midday, so I booted up and went for a walk around St Mo’s to see what I could find to fill the PoD gap. The place is totally different in the morning to the afternoon which is my usual hunting ground. Everything looks or seems fresher. The light is coming from the south east, not the south west so most of my subjects look very different. The PoD turned out to be a dried out Hogweed plant from last year with its star-like flower stems holding little beads of ice that had been snow that melted to water then froze into ice. I liked the way the warm background contrasted with the ice.

I had a few in the bag when I walked home, but the usually trustworty A7iii was misbehaving today. First it decided not to take photos, then it thought better of that and took a dozen or more in motor-wind mode and by then I’d had enough of its high jinks. I’d already tried switching it off and then on again but that didn’t work – it rarely does with modern electronics, so it was the nuclear option. I took out the battery, counted to five and put it back in again. That showed it who was boss! Or so I thought. The sneaky camera had taken 50 shots on motor-wind and loads more besides. I’m hoping to look into the issue tomorrow. No time today.

Back home we had time for a quick lunch and then we were off with our dancing shoes to Motherwell to a church hall for a new(!) Tea Dance. Strangely, it’s just along from Alex’s house. It was a bit stressful going to a new hall with new people and a new teacher, but we survived. More than that, we both enjoyed it. The folk were friendly and welcoming and the dances were ones we knew for the most part and any ones that we didn’t know, we were tutored in by the more experienced dancers. Tea and cakes at half time, then a class tutorial on the Ria Bachata which we knew almost better than the teachers. The music wasn’t as interesting as S&J’s, but you can’t have everything. We both thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon and would be happy to go back. We even got invites to other tea dances in the surrounding area.

We drove back and just as we came on to the motorway my phone rang. It was Alex saying “Did I just miss you at the Loaning?” I laughed out loud. He had just been coming back from a walk into Motherwell when he thought it was me driving past. How strange it that. I’ll have a lot of explaining to do at the next photo walk!
One of the best things about this new hall is that it’s motorway driving almost all the way and there’s no Kingston Bridge to crawl over on the way home! That, in itself is a delight.

The prompt for today was “Tangerine”. So, another fruity one. Just the one tangerine, because I thought I was being a bit generous yesterday with my two and a half plums. I tried the old trick of using salt to create the skin texture of the fruit, but for once it didn’t work. The salt was difficult to remove too, so if you think the sketch tastes a bit salty, you now know why.

Tomorrow Scamp is booked for coffee with Isobel and I’ve some work to do in the house. I also need to get a card for Alex and post it. The snow is gone for now, but we’re expecting it to return on Friday.

Mountain climbing and lunch with Shona – 6 February 2024

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Today we were taking Shona out to lunch.

Scamp and I had planned to take Shona to Cafe Bothy. It’s actually called Coffee Bothy now, but we prefer the original name. It’s a great wee restaurant in a place called Blairlogie in Clackmannanshire. Isobel was the first one who found it, being guided by her granddaughter and Isobel introduced us to it. Shona had never heard of it, which isn’t surprising as it’s in the middle of nowhere on a farm off a single track road. Shona had Fish ’n’ Chips, Scamp had Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had Mince ’n’ Tatties. All with the apostrophe correctly place before and after the n you’ll notice! That was the main course. We all opted for cakes rather than pudding afterwards and it was Strawberry Tart for Shona, Cream Doughnut for Scamp and a Gypsy Cream for me with coffees to follow of course.

Fed and watered, Scamp suggested we drive to Dollar park for a walk. Unfortunately we couldn’t find it and instead we drove up and up and up a steep single-track road to a car park for Castle Campbell instead. From there we walked up and up and up, then down the other side. We had walked up the hill many years ago, but we’d forgotten just how steep the climb is. The two ladies gave up, when it looked like we’d have to wade across a ford, but I was determined to get a photo on such a beautiful day. As it happened, I didn’t need to ford the burn because there was a bridge tucked away out of sight from the road. I did manage to get up to the top, and got the photo I was hoping for, but I was really knackered after it. The castle wasn’t open. It doesn’t open until April. We may go back then and if we can get parked again, we might take our time and go visit the castle properly.

I walked back down the hill from the castle then over the bridge and up the hill on the other side wondering all the time what kind of vehicle the custodians must have if they travel that road every day to open up. Whatever it is it most certainly isn’t a wee blue car! The drive home was scenic, but I didn’t see anything that was any better than a castle among the trees with a rushing burn beside it. Very ‘Outlander’.

We dropped Shona off at her house with time to spare before Ben came home from school. Driving into the sun was strenuous, not that I’m complaining because the sun was shining, far from it. But I decided I needed to clean the glass in the car inside and out. When I got the Juke I got a big bag of useless spray bottles as part of the ‘deal’. I used the Bug Remover spray and the Seagull Crap remover too, but I remembered as I was driving home, peering through a grey windscreen that there was Glass Cleaner in the bag. I found it when we got home and cleaned all the windows inside and out. I also cleaned the wing mirrors. Hopefully that should make driving less of a bind.

The prompt for today was “Plum”. Being a generous person I added a couple more plums to the singular fruit that was requested and just to be sure they were fresh, I ate half of one. That’s what you see here. Believe that and you’re softer than these plums look!!

Alex had to cancel our photo walk this week because he was needed at home. Hopefully we’ll get out next week. This week was tight anyway. Just one of these weeks when everything piles up.

Tomorrow we may be going dancing in Motherwell. Scamp has been talking about it for weeks and we really need to go there to see how good it is and if it’s an alternative to Glenburn.

A blustery day again – 2 February 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Very windy during the night, but it did calm down a bit in the afternoon.

I’ll admit it. It was a lazy day, although we did walk down to the shops to get some things for tonight’s dinner. I suppose it was a February day with wind, rain and overall, not that cold. I spent most of the morning backing up January’s photos onto a 4GB external drive and then finding that I didn’t have enough space on my 2GB drive to do the second BU. I’ll maybe need to get another external soon.

After lunch we walked down to the shops for potatoes, bread and pineapple tarts. A little Friday treat. We walked back up past St Mo’s school, then Scamp walked home while I went round the pond a couple of times. PoD was a gorse bush with a little wee yellow flower on the top. I hadn’t realised until recently that gorse bushes aren’t only evergreen, they also flower all year round. Dangerous looking sharp spikes on the bush.

Today’s prompt was ‘Copper’.
“Think out of the lines”, the lady admin said, so for once I did what I was told. Police (Polis in Scotland) are sometimes known as Cops or Coppers, so I chose a Scottish Polisman’s hat as my solution to today’s problem. Sketched in pencil and lined in with fountain pen and black ink then blocked in with a Pentel black brush pen before finishing off with a Posco white brush pen. I quite liked the monochrome effect.

I suppose that was about it for today. I’d intended writing to Alex, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I don’t see us going far tomorrow, but you never know. The weather
may improve and pigs might fly.

 

 

A dull day – 14 February 2023

Posted on by Zogman

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A day of comings and goings – 13 February 2023

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Messages were flying this morning.

Message from my brother to say he can’t manage a photo-walk tomorrow. Bummer. Cryptic message from John saying “Will you be in between 12noon and 1pm”. Another cryptic message from Hazy that just read “We’re off!” And all of this before breakfast.

After I’d replied to Alex saying tomorrow was going to be tight for me anyway, so not to worry. Then replying to Hazy to say “Enjoy the short break.” After these replies I began to wonder what John’s message meant. I’d a fair idea what it was and decided to keep it a surprise for Scamp. Next message was for Scamp. It was a phone call from Nancy wanting to arrange a date for us to go to their’s for dinner. Scamp got that sorted. I was hoping there would be a lull in the message exchanges just for a short while to allow us to get Wordle and Spelling Bee done and dusted.

Well, we did manage to get the essential puzzles completed and later in the morning Scamp said “Annette’s coming over to see me about 12 o’clock”. Oh oh! Now I’d need to say that someone else was coming over about midday too and, of course had to reveal John’s message. As it happened, Scamp managed to reschedule Annette’s visit to tomorrow and John was just dropping off a parcel and a card before he and Marion drove off. By now it was lunch time and then we were off to Falkirk to see the man who talks in £s and $s and occasionally €s.

Arrived in Falkirk right on the dot of 2pm. Andrew talked us through the money markets as he sees them with lots of interesting asides to keep us interested. We had some questions for him and he gave us good advice on how to deal with upcoming problems. We left after an hour bamboozled, but feeling more upbeat than I thought we would.

Back home I got a photo of a crocus flowering in the front garden and that became PoD. Just a lone yellow flower against a green background.

Today’s prompt was The Sting. I didn’t relish the challenge of sketching Robert Redford or Paul Newman, so I chose another Sting expert as my challenge. Wasps can be vicious insects. Unlike honey bees they can sting you more than once if they choose to do so. That has never stopped me from photographing them, but I tend to more than a little cautious when they’re around.

Tomorrow I’ve promised myself I’ll get my hair cut. I was going to do it myself, but better to get someone who knows what they’re doing to do it.

Still recovering from yesterday – 12 February 2023

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It’s Sunday. It’s ok to lounge about on a Sunday.

Basically that’s what we did. We lounged about the living room. We watched Laura Kuenssberg savage another politician and when they’d dragged his bleeding body away, it was lunch time. We had two rolls left over from yesterday’s lunch, so that’s what we had. Scamp had an Omelette on a roll and I had Bacon ’n’ Egg on a roll. Neither of them looked very appetising, but that’s not the point. The point is to use up what’s in the fridge and that’s what we did. Actually mine was really good and I didn’t hear any complaints from Scamp.

In the afternoon Scamp walked down to the shops to get some bits and pieces for tonight’s dinner which was to be Fennel with Cod and Prawns. Another case of using up what’s in the fridge and freezer. Fennel from the fridge, Cod and Prawns from the freezer. Every little helps.

When she came back, I went out for a walk in St Mo’s. It was lighter than I thought outside and the reason was the clouds ,that seem always to be there these days, were just that little bit higher. High pressure is in charge according to the weather fairies. Buds were bursting in the trees and I did photograph some, but it was a splash of bright yellow lichen on a park bench that got Pod. In case you’re interested, it was a Xanthoria parietina. The strange thing about it was that the park bench was made entirely from recycled plastic. I wonder where the lichen gets its nutrients from. I know that some lichen have been known to digest plastic, but not this common and garden variety. Unless it’s learning! Thoughts of “The Trouble With Lichen (John Wyndham) spring to mind. Anyway, that was a bright splash of colour that got PoD.

Spoke to Jamie later had heard that Simonne is halfway on her trip to Japan. Stopover in Kuwait and onward and eastward tomorrow. We talked a while about meet-ups in the spring. Where and when are not agreed yet and will need all three parts of the family to agree on dates and place. I meant to tell you Jamie that I’ve signed myself up to Audible today. Two free books for the first month. I’ll let you know how I get on.

Today’s prompt was The Graduate. The Graduate is one of the films I have seen a few times. I liked the music and I liked his sports car. I wasn’t enthralled by the story, but everyone said you had to go and watch it because of ‘the scenes’. I preferred to watch ‘the scenes’ of Dustin Hoffman driving that red Alfa Spider across the bridge and thinking “one day, maybe …”

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to see Andrew in Falkirk, but we’ll be going in a blue car.

 

Dancin’ workout – 11 February 2023

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Today was a dancin’ day and no mistake. No respite either!

The warmup today was a the Cameron Quickstep. That’s almost half a circuit of the floor, even before the teachers begin to make additions. Apparently it’s really a sequence dance! I can’t see many Tea Dancers doing this one without a defibrillator nearby. We tried it slow – a walk through and it was achievable. Then the teachers turned the music on and it was chaos. What comes next?? Is it the Zig Zag or is it the Chair? Nobody seemed to know or care. It was that old joke, all the moves were there, just not in the right order. Eventually, and I mean eventually we worked out where we were, what comes next and where we were meant to be. After half an hour we were exhausted, well, at least I was. I had to have a wee sit down to get my breathing back to normal.

We left the quickstep behind and did a wee relaxing Bossa Nova to cool us down before we entered the next 30min class on Foxtrot. I thought we had this in the bag, but it was in the wrong bag, not the one I’d brought. After some corrections from Jane and then Stewart, we began to find the dance we’d practised for a couple of turns round the living room. The living room Foxtrot bore some resemblance to the Brookfield (big hall) version, but only an expert could see it. Again, eventually, we managed to put all the pieces together and it began to sort of flow.

Another break and it was time for the third half hour which would be Tango. We can do a fairly representative tango, but then the teachers decided to add in another part that was new to us. It wasn’t difficult, in fact it was similar to another part of the routine and that’s what made it difficult. It was similar, but not the same, possibly too similar. In time we’ll either work it in properly or erase it from our memory – probably the latter.

Just to keep our heart rate up it was a couple of Midnight Jives to finish. I’m not sure whether that was a dance class or a workout. It was good and we learned a lot, but I was exhausted by the time we were walking out into the drizzly rain.

Drove home again via the M8/M74 route and stopped for rolls and a Danish pastry at the shops on the way home. I was so knackered, I went for a 45min snooze in the afternoon. By then it was dinner time and we’d agreed on a fish supper each for dinner. I walked to Condorrat and was back in about 15 mins. Record time. On the way there in the gathering gloom I got today’s PoD which was taken in the Adventure Playground in the park on the path to Condorrat. Lurking around in a kids playpark after dark! That sounds dodgy, but I love these rough cut balancing toys they look so graphic.

Today’s prompt was The Big Blue. Not only had I not seen this film, I’d never even heard of it. The only Big Blue I was aware of was IBM! However, I went with the flow (no pun intended) and watched the previews on YouTube. Still it meant very little to me.
The deepest I’ve dived, personally, was 2m in the swimming pool at Butlins, or was it Pontins? I can’t remember. But I do remember it didn’t give me the urge to go any deeper. However, I do remember you needed flippers, and a mask better than the ones you got in Woolworths, so that’s what I’ve sketched and painted today. I like the mask. It’s quite manic looking. Like a Japanese Daruma with both eyes painted in!

Tomorrow we may be resting our weary limbs. We might walk to the shops if we can summon the energy!

Stitchin’ and Snowdrops – 10 February 2023

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Good Dancin’ – 9 February 2023

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We drove to Glenburn today to get some dancin’ done.

We were driving in bright sunshine today. I could have been photographing things instead of driving through roadworks to get to two hours of dancing, but hopefully there would be sunshine when we got home, providing we got back before sunset!

We were a bit late getting to the hall, but we weren’t the only ones. Actually we danced well today. Quickstep was our star turn. We managed to finish one full set and continue on to the next which is a bit step forward for me. Scamp was guiding, of course, gently reminding me what was coming next and it helped build the picture of the routine in my head. That may sound strange, probably it is, but it’s the way my brain works. We’d practised the Waltz in the morning. Just a short dance round the living room, but very useful for keeping the steps alive for me.

As usual we left the hall early in the hopes that we’d be able to avoid the crowds of school kids and also the inevitable roadworks, but for once there were no gangs of school weans and even more surprising, we seemed to avoid the roadworks. We went with the M77/M74 route and it worked a treat. Yes!, we did get back before sunset and Yes!, there was still sunshine. Not a lot, I grant you, but enough photons were flying about to allow me to capture them on whatever magic flypaper is in the back of the A6000. Today’s PoD was a couple of catkins hanging from a tree in St Mo’s.

Today’s prompt was White Nights. I watched a bit of the film, couldn’t make head nor tail of any of it, so did a bit of alphabetical “jiggery pokery”. That’s a technical term that would take too long to explain.
Basically, I took the trailing ‘s’ from the title, then found an almost brand new ‘K’ in my pocket, so I added it to the start. “Fair exchange is no robbery”, they say. So here I present to you my interpretation of White Knight. Simples!

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go to her FitSteps class and I’m hoping put some ‘scintillating stitches’ in my jeans to prevent a little tear becoming a big rip!