Category: Family

The gas man cometh – 18 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Today we were waiting in for the boiler engineer to come and sign off our water boiler for another year.

Thankfully he didn’t arrive dead on 9am but knocked on the door an hour later when we were properly awake. He didn’t take long to clean out the boiler and certify it until next year, all being well.

That left Scamp me just enough time to run Scamp up to the town centre under a clearing sky to meet Isobel. While they were having coffee and a blether, I started putting everything back into the boiler cupboard. We’d decided that there were too many jackets hanging behind the cupboard door and we had to dispose of some and put others in long term storage, which is almost the same as disposing of them. I’d visited Tesco on my way home and brought home some essentials like milk and bread.

Scamp arrived not long after I’d finished and we had some lunch. I was about to dig out my boots and go for a walk but Hazy phoned and I wanted to speak to her, so delayed my walk. Scamp spent a while talking to her about her travels to Manchester and faulty buses. I asked her about the difficulties of moving Android data to iPhones. We were both glad that Neil is finally getting recognition for the work he does outside school hours.

There was just enough light left to take some photos over at St Mo’s pond and I’d brought some cabbage leaves to feed the waterfowl. Well, attempting to feed them. apparently they hadn’t had the memo about green leaf veg being good for them. They sailed past along to a bloke who was feeding them bread.You’ll regret this later waterfowl! A low level shot of the mixture of birds on the pond today made PoD.

It took me about an hour, probably more to copy the data from an almost full micro SD and paste it into a shiny new and much larger one Mr Bezos was kind enough to send us by Royal Mail, free of charge. Hopefully that’s the last of the computer work I’ll have to do for a while.

We watched the finale of the Portrait Artist of the Year and watched Brogan Bertie paint his version of Lorraine Kelly. It wasn’t the worst painting I’ve seen on this program, but it wasn’t great either. So different, it was from his work in the heats, I began to wonder if there was a ghost painter somewhere. Just thinking out loud. I must ask Fred for his opinion.

Tomorrow Scamp is OUT AGAIN. This time she’s intending meeting her pal Mags for lunch. I might go looking for a new shaver.

Another early rise – 11 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

This time it was just me who was rising early. Heading for the 10.14am bus to Glasgow.

I met Alex at the bus station as agreed, just exactly at 11am. We were adventurous today and went to an old Nero for a coffee and to plan our day. After we were finished I tapped a lady on the shoulder and told her she could steal. She’d asked me a few minutes earlier if she could have our seats and I said we’d leave them for her when we finished. I headed for the toilet, but all of them were full, so I went back and tapped her on the shoulder and told her and her mother(?) that they could steal our seats. They thanked us as we left.

Alex was looking for a down jacket like mine and I told him I’d show him it in Tiso in Buchanan Street, so we had a wander through the shop and I do believe he may be writing a letter to Santa as I’m sitting writing this to you. While we were in the shop, I saw a lovely pair of gloves. Light as a feather as befits a pair of gloves stuffed with feathers and they were only £60! I liked them, but not that much.

We walked down to St Enoch’s to see if the stalls were worth photographing. They weren’t, so it was a quick walk around them and then along Argyle Street as far as M&S where I got a pair of underwear while Alex was photographing the “Star Tunnel”. Not its real name, but close. Two ladies (different ladies) were walking past and one said to the other “Would you look at that! The place is falling to pieces and they waste money building a thing like that!!” I had to agree. A lot of time, energy timber and electronics for something that would be torn down in a month, if it hasn’t been vandalised before that.

By now it was lunch time, or thereabouts, so we walked along to Paesano where we both had a pizza Number 3 Anchovy and Olive.

I went to Cass Art to get some charcoal pencils to test out a sketching method I’d seen on the Sky Arts program on TV. Alex went for a wander in the gallery but came away saying it was all about Collage which never interested either of us. By the time we’d walked up Miller Street, the temperature was dropping and so was the light level, so the coloured lights of the Roundabouts and Big Wheel were beginning to be worth a shot of two. The newest attraction whose name I now forget, consisted of a gigantic glowing square column with a four sided set of chairs for those of an adventurous disposition to sit in and be winched up to the top before a disembodied voice called out 5 – 4 -3 – 2 – 1 ZERO and the whole set of chairs dropped like a stone, accelerating downwards 9.81 meters per second, per second, before even more rapid deceleration pulled it safely to a halt. We didn’t go on it, surprisingly!

About an hour later I’d had enough and told Alex so and headed for the bus. Later he sent me a message to say that he’d stayed on for another 45minutes, before doing the same thing and going home.

PoD was a monochrome photo of two ladies (yet another two ladies) having lunch on a stage behind the main attractions.

Back home dinner was a bowl of soup. Lovely soup too, Scamp. Later we watched the finale of Shetland. Worth waiting for.

Tomorrow we may go dancing in the last tea dance of the year at Glenburn.

 

A lovely clear morning – 8 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

So good to wake to a bright, clear winter’s morning. Makes such a difference from the dull, milky skies of late and the gale force winds too.

It was Scamp’s suggestion that we drive over to Colzium, just outside Kilsyth and go for a walk in the woodland. I agreed, and off we went. Instead of our usual clockwise walk, we ignored tradition and walked it anti-clockwise. I hadn’t realised just how tiring the climb up the side of the Colzium Burn was until we were about half way up. Then we both realised that it was going to get even tougher when we crossed over the burn by the bridge and covered the last stint. A stop at the top gave us both a chance to rest for a while and take in the view down the waterfalls that tumble down to cross through the park many metres below.

After taking some photos of the waterfall and the rapids, we walked along the far gentler path that would take us through the trees to the once private road that led to Colzium House, now a wedding venue. On the way we were passed by a girl leading, or trying to lead her Setter along the path and through the trees. They made it Flickr, but didn’t get PoD. That went to a photo of the waterfalls at the top of the climb.

We took our time and followed the road past the house and back along a different burn on a higher channel. The burns cross at one point, but one is carried through a pipe below the higher one. It’s a strange sight to see. One sailing sedately along while the other drops through a manmade waterfall, through a pipe on off on a totally different direction. You probably have to see it to understand what’s going on.

We drove home via Lidl where we stocked up on sweets, beer and a loaf. The loaf was to be lunch, toasted and covered in baked beans. Beans on Toast, in other words!

Once lunch was past, we brought the tree out of the loft and unrolled the Snowman table cover in the living room to allow it to warm up and stretch a bit after being in cold storage for eleven months.

Dinner tonight was ‘Rats’ for Scamp and a steak for me. Steak was overdone but the baked potatoes we had with our protein were great.

Watched yesterday’s ‘Strictly’ and the F1 GP. Strictly was instantly forgettable but the GP was full of thrills and spills.

Spoke to Jamie later in the evening and heard about his plans for Christmas. We also heard of the problems of pleasing all of the people all of the time when it came to Christmas food. I don’t believe it can be done. Please yourself, that would be my suggestion. Then at least one person will be happy!

No definite plans for tomorrow, but a trip to the skips wouldn’t be a bad idea!

Meeting Shona – 19 November 2024

Posted on by Zogman

After we defrosted two days worth of ice from the car we drove up to the town centre.

Met Shona in Costa as arranged, then I went to the bank to find out what happened yesterday with a purchase I’d made, or tried to make online. I was buying a bit of software from a one-man company I’d dealt with before, but after I’d paid for it, the transaction seemed to pause. I decided to cancel and try again today. Then I received a message from the bank asking me if I had attempted to make a purchase and gave me the name and address of the company. After a debate with Scamp, I messaged back to say “Yes” I’d attempted to make the purchase but had cancelled the transaction. A reply came through to tell me if I still wished to purchase the £7 software, to wait 10 minutes and try again. By this time I was fed up with the waiting and texting and went to be after I’d checked that no money had been taken from my bank.

Anyway, I checked with the bank and was assured that all the messages were from the bank and not a scammer. That put my mind at rest. I could go back to my coffee and a blether with Shona about her problem child, Ben. It’s hard to believe that in a couple of years he’ll be 18 and an adult! Poor Shona.

Isobel was in Costa too with her granddaughter and one of her pals. “Ok, here comes a ray of sunshine!” She said. I think she was talking about my orange jacket, at least that’s what I think she meant, although she has a good line in sarcasm, has Isobel!

We said goodbye to Shona who was heading for Tesco while we were off to Stirling to go to Waitrose.
Scamp said she wasn’t needing much, but eventually we filled four bags with what we bought and most of it wasn’t bottles of anything … for once!
Roadworks right outside Waitrose meant it took us almost 10 minutes to get out of the car park, with no sign of any work being gone on the road!

A walk in St Mo’s in the afternoon gave me a chance of more early winter photos. The PoD was a cow parsley plant in front of some lovely sunset light through the trees. The light is technically called Bokeh and is much sought after by photogs.

A cold day, but an interesting one for a change.

Tomorrow I’m intending meeting Alex for a walk and a blether and maybe a pizza.

Sunshine and flowers – 11 November 2024

Posted on by Zogman

For once it wasn’t sunshine and Showers.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning. I think she liked the rhinoceros shoes that are destined for Grian. I did have a quick look, but no adult size shoes with attached sox could I find. The Van Gogh exhibition sounded amazing, Hazy.

As we were talking I was watching the light playing across the Alstrumeria cut flowers on a table in the living room. Once we’d finished our call with Hazy, I just had to take a couple of shots of them. Literally two shots was all I took, but the effect of that sunlight and shadows meant I didn’t need any more. Photo one got PoD.

I took the Down jacket out for another spin later. Just a walk down to the shops to get bread. It should have been bread and some cold sliced chicken for Scamp, but I completely forgot the chicken. It was one of those days when things went a bit wrong. Never mind Scamp I’ll bring some home tomorrow if I remember.

Dinner tonight was pasta all’Amatriciana. Pasta with tomato, onions, bacon and chilli flakes. I added some tomato concentrate to strengthen it and it worked very well. The simplest dishes are often the most difficult to make properly.

That was about it for the day. That bright sunlight in the morning sort of faded away in the afternoon and left us with the usual clouds.

Last week Scamp was at the dentist. Tomorrow it’s my turn. I know I need at least one filling. I’ll have to wait to find out what else she discovers!

 

Off to the Far East – 24 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

It was a fairly early rise for me, well, for us. I was meeting Alex at 11am in Glasgow to catch a bus to Edinburgh. £16 return to take the train and £0 to take the bus. A no brainer … or so we thought.

We did meet up in the bus station and got seats in the bus without any problem. I thought the bus would only stop at the bus station in Edinburgh, but as it turned out you could press the button to request a stop anywhere. We got off at Haymarket and walked up to Ladyfield and walked through the ‘canyon’, where Alex got his first taste of the architecture that had appeared in the last twenty odd years. We spent a fair amount of time investigation photographic opportunities.

After I managed to drag him away, we went and had coffee in the wee Nero that Scamp and I use regularly. Next was a walk up to the Grassmarket where a lot of green and white flags were waving. There was also a lot of singing and banging of drums signifying a football crowd. As it turned out, it wasn’t Celtic, but a team of football supporters from Cyprus, Omonia Nicosia who were making all the noise. A good natured crowd.

We walked up the steep West Bow and marvelled at the amount of people happy to wait in a queue on the street to gain entry to the Harry Potter Museum. We weren’t all that interested in Harry, but we took a few photos of the crowds. It was there that I got today’s PoD. I spotted two girls on a high walkway above West Bow taking photos of the crowd. That was an easy PoD.

We continued on up to the Royal Mile and St Giles which Alex wanted to see. I had never been in St Giles and it was a well lit building, but surprisingly, noting great to photograph. We left there and waked down the long Playfair steps and finally got somewhere to eat in the National Gallery of Scotland’s restaurant. Maybe I’m getting more critical of eating places, but I wasn’t that impressed with it and maybe a bit overpriced. Foodies!

We decided we’d done a fair bit of Edinburgh, so we found the bus station and got on a bus to take us to Glasgow. The journey from Glasgow to Edinburgh took about an hour. The journey back to Glasgow took just over two hours. I think there might have been problems on the motorway because the road was jammed solid with traffic just crawling. When we did eventually get to Glasgow it was another 40 minutes to get home.

In retrospect, maybe it would have been better to pay the price of the train tickets, rather than sit in a bus that was crawling along the motorway. That would have been £16 well spent.

Prompt for the day was Expedition and it turned into a childish sketch of an expedition of aliens preparing to take off to Earth from a distant planet. A poor prompt deserves a poor sketch.

We have no plans for tomorrow, other than not going to Edinburgh on the bus.

Rain, Sun and a gentle Wind – 22 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

So, a decent amount of Autumn weather, but it’s sad when the highlight of the day is going to Tesco for ‘The Messages’.
That’s what we did. We drove to Tesco in the afternoon and got the messages. Just a Monday shop on a Tuesday. Nothing fancy apart from four ice lollies and a bottle of wine.

I was determined to get a PoD and it turned out to be one of a few photos from the garden. A pink Astrantia trio looking good and brightening up the border.

Although we had a dull day, it was good to see some folk had a much better one. Hazy and Neil posted the first photos of their new car.  A nice bright red.  Hope it’s a good one and you get lots of use from it.

The prompt for today was ‘Camp’ and although someone in the house suggested I should draw a man with a limp wrist, and in fact some people drew that as a subject, I kept it PC and drew a well worn tent, with a coupe of patches, looking sodden in a rain soaked field. Another sketch that was good fun to draw.

Dinner tonight was an old faithful, Tuna Pasta. We both agreed it was lovely. The ice lollies, not so much.

Tomorrow we might go out somewhere, maybe for lunch, with just the chance that I can get some photos, that weren’t taken in the garden or St Mo’s.

Expect Strong Winds – 20 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

That’s what the weather fairies have been saying for a few days now.

Well, it didn’t look like the weather fairies were telling the truth in the morning. Dull to start with followed by sunshine and occasional showers, but we knew it wouldn’t last, and it didn’t.

By early afternoon it was clouding over and the gentle breeze turned into gusty winds which blew in some ragged showers. Luckily we didn’t really need to go out anywhere because we had agreed on a Scottish favourite, Haggis, Neeps and Tatties. With an addition of Carrots to add a wee bit of colour to the feast.

While Scamp was getting the veg ready,I went for a walk in St Mo’s. I’d offered her the chance to walk with me, but she preferred to stay at home in the warm. It was a sensible choice, because there wasn’t much to photograph today, but I enjoyed the walk, which seems a stupid thing to say when you’re walking into driving rain, but with a good jacket and lots of layers, it’s a fairly pleasant walk twice round the pond at St Mo’s. PoD turned out to be an old favourite, looking down the boardwalk and catching the clouds being driven on by those strengthening winds. Converted to monochrome it looked distinctly uninviting!

The prompt for today was ‘Uncharted’. I’ve drawn a subject similar to that a few times for the monthly challenges, so this one was already in my head and it turned out to be a Treasure Island theme with an island with the actual treasure part torn from the map! “Arrr, Jim me lad!” Any other piratical comments are equally happily accepted. Drawn on cheap Cass Art absorbent paper with a Lamy ABC children’s fountain pen that Lamy no longer make! Why? It’s a great pen to keep in your pocket. Rarely leaks and if it’s kept clean it works really well.

Spoke to Jamie in the evening and heard about his ‘normal’ week and we told him about our ‘normal’ week. It seems like his weather is a bit like ours, but without the really high winds.

The forecast says the winds will calm down a bit tomorrow. How quickly and by how much is not clear, it depends on what app you read. We’ll go with the best one and ignore the rest.
Strangely, I was just reading last year’s blog for the 20th Oct and the weather was much like I was describing today!

Tomorrow Scamp is booked to go to Muirhead just after midday to get her Flu and Covid jags. I have to wait until Sunday to get mine.

Lunch – 18 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp was off to FitSteps in the morning.

While she was out, I decided to make sure I got a PoD, so I went over to St Mo’s. The sun had been shining when we woke, but by the time I got out, the sun had disappeared and the clouds were rolling in. I got quite a few decent shots, but the low light meant that they were all going to be ‘gritty’ looking with digital noise. Not a big problem as Lightroom is excellent are smoothing out the grit.
Just as I was heading home, the rain started and it was coming down in sheets. You could see it against the dark of the trees blowing along in waves. Thankfully I had my new jacket on and it was proving its worth as it shed the rain easily.

Scamp was a few minutes ahead of me and after we’d done Wordle and Spelling Bee, we had an hour or so to read before getting ready to walk over to Brodens for lunch with June and Ian. Fish and chips for three of us and Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp. I risked a pint of Guinness as I didn’t think I’d be driving anywhere in the afternoon. It had been some time since the two sisters had been together for a blether so Ian and I let them talk amongst themselves and gave Scamp a chance to show off the latest baby photos we’d been sent, the ones June hadn’t seen yet. The two ladies had fairly large desserts while Ian had a latte and I had another Guinness, a half pint this time.

We paid up and made plans to come back again. June and Ian walked round onto Condorrat Main Street to get their taxi home and we started walking back. Next thing, John, the taxi driver, pulled up and gave us a lift to the house. That’s just the kind of person he is. He and Carlyn had been shopping and I offered to help, but he wouldn’t hear of it. Although it was just a short journey, It was kind of them to stop for us.

Today’s PoD came from St Mo’s and was a baby conifer with raindrops beading on its needles. Lovely blue/green which contrasted well with the warm yellows and oranges around us.

Today’s prompt was “Drive” and I sketched, not one, but two Hard Disk Drives. It should have been three, but I couldn’t be bothered to add the last one. One drive could probably be formatted as an extra storage medium. The other two are really only fit for the skips.

It looks like there will be enough folk for a class tomorrow, so I think that means we might be going to Brookfield to join them.

A busy day – 1 October 2024

Posted on by Zogman

Lots done today, but lots more still to do.

Today was the first day of October and that usually means a lot of work. When you add in a hundred odd beginner sketchers trying to post their pictures in Inktober 2024 that starts today too, it becomes a bit hectic.

After I’d read the first few comments and fixed some Inktober problems, then had time to look at the sketches it was time to drive up to Jim Dickson’s garage to get someone to have a look at the blue car’s tyres and give me a price for them. I agreed the price and was told the tyres would be with me tomorrow (Wednesday). I’d already dropped Scamp off at the town centre where she was going to have coffee with Isobel. That left me some time on my own. I used that time to post my first Inktober 2024 sketch and to tidy up some of the problems that had cropped up with people lost as to how to post etc.

I got a message that Scamp was ready to come home and picked her up at the town centre where she won a prize by getting a bag of rolls and also well fired ones to boot. That was lunch sorted.

I like to be ahead of the game with Inktober and knew I had a busy month ahead, so I started investigating the possible solutions for day 2. I couldn’t decide what to do with the prompt, which was ‘Discover’, but if I added a ‘y’ to the end and made it Discovery, that was the name of one of the first Space Shuttle orbiters that NASA built. All I had to do was to find a decent photo of it on Google and fifteen minutes later I had a rough sketch completed and day 2 was in the bag.

The sun was still shining but the temperature was low, so I wrapped up well and went for a walk in St Mo’s. Just walking past our row of houses I saw it. Three sparrows sat evenly spaced on the fence of the corner house. The second of two shots was the PoD. I still went for a walk and got some more shots that looked great in the viewfinder, but were poor once I’d enlarged them on the computer. The sparrows were the definite winners.

Dinner was a ‘what have we got in the fridge’ stirfry. Scamp is the past master at making this and sails through it without any problems, while I always forget one ingredient or another and have to search the shelf while the veg is burning. Oh to be organised!

Fairly early up and out tomorrow. Scamp may be meeting Shona for coffee and I’m hoping to drop the car off for its ’new boots’.