Up far too early – 21 November 2022

We were both up and on the go by about 8.30am which, for me at least, is far too early.

Today the plumber was coming to fit a new kitchen tap. We were ready by 9am, but he didn’t make an appearance until 11am. By that time Scamp had driven down to The Village to have coffee with Isobel and Isobel had phoned me to ask if Sheila was still at our house. Then she cut me off to say “Oh, she’s just coming in the door.”

It only took the plumber about twenty minutes to swap out the taps. I paid him what he asked for which was really too much for twenty minutes work and the price of a cheap mixer tap. Ok, there were two of them, but one was just there to mop up the water that had dripped out of the old tap. Still, we’ve got a tap now that doesn’t drip … so far and we won’t use that plumber again, but if anyone ask us to recommend a good plumber his name will be mentioned as someone to avoid.

With the main event of the day over, I walked over to the post office in Condorrat to send back a pair of dance trainers that were a size too big. While I was there I managed to get some sliced sausage, black puddings and half a kilo of diced stew at the butchers. Finally I took a trip round St Mo’s to see what was happening there. It was cold. The temperature when I left the house was just over 4ºc but the wind made it feel colder. Bunnet on the head and fingerless Foto Gra4 gloves on the hands.

The pond was really full of water, almost flooding over the path in places, because the channel that’s supposed to drain the excess water down into a soak-away and eventually on to the River Kelvin was blocked. The blockage was caused by the horsetails that grow on the verges of the pond dying off and floating towards the outlet. The council sometime clear them away, but they must be too busy putting up Christmas lights in Motherwell. As I headed home I dialled up the Hive on my phone and set it for a quick half hour boost of 21.5ºc. If you’ve got the technology, use it!

Today’s PoD was what will probably be the last of the low views of the reed beds with the camera held about five centimetres above the water surface. I had a dream last night where I leaned too far and fell in. Dreams do come true, but hopefully not that one!

So in the morning today I’ve spoken to Isobel, paid the plumber, been to the post office and the butchers and taken at least one photo. Scamp came home half an hour after I got back and it was time to investigate the ‘better quality’ of the sliced steak sausage. It was delicious.

I spent most of the afternoon poring over the poor quality photos I’d taken, but eventually decided on one that, with a few dunks in Lightroom and Photoshop became PoD.

Dinner was chicken soup again with croutons this time followed by more cake, stewed apples and cream. Good warming food.

We watched The Big Scottish Book Club with Damian Barr doing a great job of keeping everyone on the right track.

Another early rise tomorrow to go to the docs for 9am. Then, I’m told, we may need ‘some messages’. Such a hard life!

Glasgow on the bus – 19 November 2022

After struggling through Wordle and Spelling Bee (still working at it), we got dressed for the cold, because it was a lovely clear, dry day, but chilly, and headed out to Condorrat to get the bus to Glasgow.

When we got there we found that the the X37 was running late and was full with passengers, standing room only, when it arrived. We did both get seats, but others were still standing. Neither of us had experienced that before for the 20min trip to Glasgow. I don’t think the driver or the bus had experienced it either, because both were doing a fair bit of grumbling.

We’d forgotten that Glasgow would be busy, because it’s Christmas, or more accurately Xmas. There is a difference. The place was mobbed. People everywhere. We’re not used to shopping on a Saturday, or Sunday. We’re the lucky ones who can go shopping mid-week, so this was a bit of a culture shock.

We decided, after a quick browse in JL, that it would be best to visit Paesano for an early lunch before the rest of the hordes descended. We got a table right away! That doesn’t mean Paesano wasn’t busy. It was, but there were a few tables-for-two available. Scamp had a Number 1 (No garlic – Yes I know there is no cheese) and a side of rocket and parmesan. I had a Number 3 and a side of burrata and tomato. Washed down with a glass each of red wine. It’s such an ‘Italian’ place. Lots of folk sitting talking and eating. It’s not until you stop and listen that you hear all the different accents and languages overlaying each other. So strange in Glasgow. I don’t think it would be so strange in London!

Fed and watered, we went down to Argyle Street and wandered along for a while, then back along Queen Street where I got a photo I’d been thinking about. Then on to Buchanan Street where I knew the photo’s alter ego was waiting. They didn’t make PoD. That accolade went to a photo of the GOMA (Gallery Of Modern Art – Glasgow). However you should look for the pictures comparing the Roof Decorations on Flickr.

With nothing much else to do and because the crowds were so thick on the ground, we got the bus home. Not nearly so busy on the way back, thankfully.

Watched the Qualifying for tomorrow’s final F1 GP of the season and then Strictly. We both agreed that there’s not all that much dancing in Strictly. Scamp has been saying for weeks now that the whole program needs revamping. I’d agree. It need a complete re-shuffle. If it’s good enough for Rishi Sunak, it’s good enough for Strictly.

Tomorrow looks wet. We’ll make the best of it, maybe with some soup!

 

Out to Lunch – 18 November 2022

Scamp was out this morning to her FitSteps class and I was waiting in for the plumber to come and give his cost estimate for the new kitchen tap. It was raining, and had been all night.

The bloke arrived about 11am, just as Scamp was going out to class. His estimate was more or less what we’d expected and he’s coming on Monday to fix the tap that’s been dripping on and off for about a year. I hadn’t realised it was that long until I read yesterday’s “A Year Ago Today” blog post.

I am still adjusting things on the camera that need tweaking, trying to get it back to where it should be. Today it was pairing it with the phone to allow me to shoot remotely over Bluetooth using the phone. Also to allow the camera to interrogate the phone and find its GPS position, then record it on the image. Very useful once it’s been set. However, Sony make great cameras but write really crap instructions for their use. Luckily I eventually found the instructions for doing the pairing in an Amateur Photographer tutorial on the net. Where would we be these days without the Internet?

When Scamp returned we just had time to get changed and then she drove me to the Red Deer (to give it its Sunday name) for lunch with June and Ian. It was a nice relaxed Friday lunch sitting by the real wood fire, blethering and enjoying the food. June had Chicken and Chorizo Pie, Scamp and Ian had Fish and Chips (one with and one without peas) I had my usual Gammon Steak, Eggs and Chips. I had a pint of lager which was the same as June and Ian’s half pint while Scamp, being volunteer driver for the day, had Soda and Lime. For pudding, June had Napolitano Delice (posh ice cream) Ian had coffee Scamp had Fruit Crumble and I had Edible Flower Pot. Scamp’s looked the best and mine wasn’t as good as it looked, but it did look good. We left after a couple of hours promising to do it again soon, definitely before Christmas, and of course Scamp drove us home.

I reckoned there was just enough light left in the sky to grab some photos, so it was boots on, because although the rain had stopped, everywhere was going to be boggy. I only went half way round the pond because I’d managed to get some decent photos in the available light and it was getting cold. On my walk back I bumped into a woman walking her dog. I’d spoken to her a few times, just passing the time of day. Today she looked a bit agitated and told me that it looked like one of the pair of swans that live on the pond didn’t look well and wasn’t moving. I said I’d have a look when I went past. She was right. It head was under the water and in the five minutes or more I stood there, it hadn’t lifted its head or moved. It looks like we have our first avian flu casualty. Strangely almost all of the 20 odd Canada geese that overwinter on the pond were stood on the bank looking right at the dead swan and its mate who was swimming round the dead one. The geese never moved as I walked past. It was a strange sight.

I reported the swan to DEFRA which is what you’re supposed to do, but I couldn’t find anywhere on the NLC site to leave a message to get the bird removed. Typical.

That was about it for today. PoD turned out to be a bent and twisted birch tree that stands where an old crab apple tree used to be in the park.

Tomorrow we may go in to The Toon on the bus.

 

An invitation – 24 October 2022

Scamp and I were watching the US F1 GP this morning when my phone rang and I got an invitation.

Fred was heading to Tesco in half an hour and did I fancy meeting him for coffee. Of course I did! Got myself organised with the books I’d borrowed from him and hadn’t got round to returning then drove over to Tesco where I was also instructed to bring back a loaf, pancakes and a bottle of milk.

I met Fred in the car park and after I dumped my bag of books in the boot of his car, we went to the cafe. He was buying and I had a cappuccino which I realised too late was coming from what looked like a Costa machine. That meant it was more of a Babyccino than a Cappuccino. Next time I’ll get a flat white. I let him peruse my Inktober sketch book that I’d brought with me and for once he was less than critical. It must have been good, because he usually finds something to criticise. But that’s good. He’s always fair with his crits. Eventually, now that it had been all but confirmed that Sunak was to be the new PM, he turned the conversation to politics, that and the gormless council being his two pet subjects. He’s really suffering with his leg now, especially his knee and is having a hard time of it trying to keep moving. It’s worrying that of the six of us that are left from the Auld Guys. Three of us need walking sticks just to get around. We are an ageing group now.

After we’d drunk our warm milk and set the world to rights, we went to do our shopping, vowing to meet up again soon. I managed to get the three items that were on my list and added in a packet of doughnuts just for the fun of it.

Lunch for Scamp and I was Just Soup, then we needed to get ready to go and visit Margie. I dropped Scamp off at the entrance to Monklands and then went to park the car. I gave up on the car park after about fifteen minutes of driving round and round and round. The galling part about it was that I’d driven past a space and ignored it. Of course, it was long gone when I went back for a look. I remembered parking at the roadside down a quiet cul-de-sac. Maybe I’d be lucky again. I was. A space just the right size for the wee blue car. Perfect.

Walking back to the hospital, I saw today’s PoD lighting up in front of me and grabbed a few shots with my phone camera, not having a ‘real’ camera with me. I could never have achieved that quality with my old phone camera. Sat and talked to Margie and showed her my sketches so far in Inktober. Again, Margie is quite a critical sketcher and doesn’t give praise lightly. I’m so glad she liked my efforts.

Drove home through the awkward road junctions in Airdrie and found there were no spaces in our car park either. I did find a space further on. Dinner tonight was a rather good Pasta Carbonara. Finally got round to writing to Alex and asking where we were going this week for a photo walk.

Today’s prompt was ‘Fairy’. This happy wee fairy lives in our bedroom. She’s always smiling and wears a pretty pink dress with matching bright red boots. I do believe she enjoyed being a model for a day.

Well, Sunak did get the PM job. A poisoned chalice if ever there was one. I hope he’s better than the last two inhabitants of No10. I just wonder what Larry the Cat thinks about all the comings and goings in his house!

We’re waiting to see what the weather is going to do tomorrow before we make any rash decisions. Maybe East, maybe West. Who knows.

Making the most of the morning – 23 October 2022

This morning there was light cloud, but the weather report looked gloomy.

We decided that it would be best to go for a walk in the morning while it was still dry, if not bright. Boots on for both of us, because it was going to be wet underfoot, wherever we went.

It wasn’t a long walk. Just down to Broadwood Loch, over the dam past the exercise machines and back past the shops. Around 6000 steps all told. We didn’t hang around much and I only took two photos, that’s how dull it was. We did stop at the shops to get some veg for dinner and a very nice piece of rump steak for my dinner. Scamp was having salmon instead of meat. By the time we reached home it felt like there was rain in the wind and just after lunch it was definitely raining. I’m glad we decided to go out while it was still dry.

Just before it got too heavy I went out and took a few shots of the fuchsia plants that hang in a basket on the fence. There was just enough sunlight to pick out the raindrops on the flowers. That became PoD.

I spent a while fiddling with the settings on the SSD that was now taking the place of the internal hard disk drive of the iMac. I did one upgrade that brought the version number up from 11.68 to 11.7. That seemed to make a big difference to the stability of the drive. The speed difference from using the hard drive is immense. Lightroom takes between 3 and 4 minutes to boot from the hard drive. Today it took 14 seconds. That’s over a ten fold speed increase. There are lots of other areas where things are working a lot smoother too. Still not totally settled on the new technology, but it’s working well for now.

Today’s prompt was ‘Boogers’.
As another sketcher with the nickname “Mydoghasnno.se” says, different places have different words for the mucus that must be removed from our nostrils. In the US they may be Boogers, but in Scotland they are Bogles and the more liquid varieties are Snotters. The bloke I drew is obviously an expert Bogle hunter.

Spoke to Jamie and heard about the cost of repairing a roof in a listed building. It’s a lot more than I’d have thought, but Jamie seemed to accept it as a reasonable price and with winter coming, it has to be done. Glad to hear they are getting some much needed rain.

I’ve never been much of a political animal, but the events of last week with Liz Truss resigning after 45 days as PM and Boris attempting a comeback are the stuff of pantomime. Unfortunately, it’s real.

Tomorrow we may go and visit Margie … in hospital.

Back in the old routine – 22 October 2022

We were off to Brookfield again after a three week layoff.

Dull foggy morning with the threat of rain, but we were off to dance class, and that lifted our spirits, even mine. According to the messages that were crossing and recrossing the ether last night it appeared that there would only be about four couples coming to the class. That’s a nice number, but it means there’s nowhere to hide!

The road was unusually busy this morning and the fog that had faded out as we reached Glasgow thickened again as we drove out of the city again. The land is fairly low lying there and we could see pockets of fog all around. Strange weather.

We were first into the hall and we saw the teachers final practise for what was to come in a week or two. There were four couples to start with, then another arrive and another. So it wasn’t as small a class after all. We started with what was a new sequence dance for me, but not for Scamp, the Blue Angel Rumba. It seemed it was new for quite a few folk and took a while for everyone to get to grips with it. Next was the Foxtrot which we knew quite well, at least the first half of it we knew quite well. The second half, the back end as the teachers called it, was cloaked in mystery for me. We did, however make a decent fist of the first half. That dance took up almost an hour of our allotted time. We finished off with a couple of relatively easy sequence dances. Then it was time to head home into the rain that had developed from the fog. As we got nearer Cumbersheugh the rain tailed off and, I’d like to say it was a lovely day after that, but it wasn’t. It was just dull and miserable. Dreich was how one of the ladies in the class described it, and if fitted perfectly.

PoD was a quick photo of a rose in the garden that’s just starting to produce its second flush of buds, Lady of Shalott. Taken in the rain, if you look closely you can see the streaks of the falling rain drops.

Prompt for today was ‘Heist’. It was getting late when I started it and it’s not as glamorous as an American heist with guns blazing and tyres screaming. This is a more sedate British heist.

No plans for tomorrow.

What a day – 20 October 2022

Woke to rain, drove in the rain, came home in the rain, and it’s still raining.

That bloke who was building a boat last week had the right idea!

In the morning I made the decision to install the next operating system, Big Sur, on the iMac. Downloaded the installer and set it to do its thing. 20 minutes it said. It lied. An hour later and it was installed. Tried booting it (felt like booting it with big workman boots) and it took about 15 minutes to boot. Everything was like swimming through treacle. Eventually I gave up and got properly dressed to go dancing and left the ‘thing’, that used to be my go-to computer, to cool down. Maybe the good fairy would drop in while we were out and fix the sorry mess.

For the first time in ages I really enjoyed the tea dance. Usually I’m clock watching until it’s time to come home. Today, I was relaxed. We were dancing and we were moving around the floor avoiding some folk and managing not to get in others way. This is what I wanted to able to do. Nothing flash, nothing fancy, just dancing with Scamp. We danced some sequence dances too. Some were more successful than others, but mostly they worked by the time we got to the end of the second track. I’m pretty sure I even managed to smile for a while. After we’d done the cha-cha line dance, it was time for the tea break. Yes, I danced a cha-cha line dance. Something that would never have entered my head some years ago. We were sitting with a fairly chatty table and had a laugh after the announcement that Liz Truss had resigned. That took everyone by surprise, but injected a bit of good humoured banter into the conversations. More dancing, Tango and another Waltz in the second half and another more difficult sequence dance to finish our day.

We left early to try to miss the homeward rush. It worked for a while, but inevitably the Kingston Bridge brought an end to the rush. It took us nearly an hour to get home, then another half an hour to work out why the phone won’t connect properly to the car. It was solved by removing a piece of crap software that never worked properly from the first day it was installed. I felt better after that.

Time to face that bloody computer again, but I had a plan. I checked the version of the OS I’d installed and it was 11.1. the most up to date was 11.7. That must be the problem. Downloaded the new version and everything, well, almost everything worked. Still a few things to iron out, but the bulk of the work is done.

Dinner tonight was veggie sausage potatoes and cabbage for Scamp. If you substitute lamb burger for the veggie sausage, you have my dinner right there. If you meat eaters out there get a chance of Waitrose Lamb Burgers, try them. They are a delight.

PoD was a picture of my chillies grown from a plant that I bought in Jan’s Vans in Portree. Most of the time the plant lives on the window sill of the painting room, but in the summer it went out into the garden to get some attention from the bees, hoverflies and various other insects. I don’t know how hot these chillies are, because I’ve not been brave enough to try them, but I will soon.

Prompt for today was “Bluff”. I just couldn’t think of anything that I could draw. I eventually settled for a cartoon of someone playing Blind Man’s Bluff, although we both agreed we’d called it Blind Man’s Buff which might be a totally different thing!

That was an annoying day which could have been a total disaster, but wasn’t mainly because I enjoyed the dancing so much. Thank you Scamp for all the help, especially with the waltz.

Tomorrow we’re hoping it’s going to be a bit less rainy and we may go out somewhere.

Tea dance without tea … or dance – 16 October 2022

Today we we had booked and paid for a tea dance. We left at half time.

Still messing around with the new toy, the Samsung phone. It’s got more bells and whistles that a hundred steam trains. Controlling them, ah! That’s a different matter.

I found an app in the Galaxy App Store that led me down a rabbit hole and stole away hours of my attention. It’s called Good Lock. It opens out to two lists of apps. Some are good and useful, all are clever in their own way. All of them needed investigating and that’s what stole away the morning Your Honour. I did find a couple that more substance and less flash. Tomorrow’s task is to find out how to use them sensibly.

I’d half intended going for a walk in the morning, but that would have to wait until later. We were going to a tea dance with a live band in the Lanternhouse cinema cum dance studio in the new Cumbernauld Academy. We arrived fairly early, we thought, but already the room was packed, and I mean PACKED. Far too many tables for comfort and far too many of them were already occupied. We’d paid over the odds, I thought, for the tickets, but that was for a tea dance. I could see no tea and the dance floor was smaller than the one we practised on in the British Legion on Wednesday.

The music was from a Swing Band and they looked the part. Probably about 12 musicians with two singers. We did get up for for the second dance, which was the tempo for a social foxtrot, but the dance floor, oh the dance floor. It was as if it was made from suede leather or felt. There was no way to do an Immelman Turn (actually a Telemark Turn) on that floor if you’d tried you would have ripped the sole from your dance shoe. All the tunes had roughly the same tempo. One waltz, no rumba, no cha-cha, no tango. Just social foxtrot after social foxtrot. There were two Swing dancers who definitely could dance, but the more I think about it, the more I think they were stooges. There to show off their skills to the music that was playing.

The floor was small and made even smaller because the band were taking up about half of the available space. To me, it looked like they’d sold as many seats as they could and hadn’t considered that people might like to dance at a tea dance. We left at half time, disappointed. The amount of people that were crammed into that space would be a fire hazard. The floor was no in any way a dance floor, and one of the ‘singers’ couldn’t sing. Honestly, I could have done a better job … well, maybe! Did you get the impression that we didn’t enjoy it? We didn’t.

Back home I got dressed for a walk and went over to St Mo’s. Got a few photos, but the light was all but gone by the time I got there. PoD went to a photo of a Cow Parsley seedhead.

Dinner was Celeriac Soup, Fish Pie (from M&S) and Apple and Bramble Crumble. All were good and there’s soup and crumble at least for tomorrow.

Spoke to Jamie and told him our story about selling the red car. Also our sorry tale about a tea dance with no tea and no room to dance.

Prompt for today was “Fowl”. The fowl I chose was a cockerel, a photo from Google and I thought it looked fairly good. It had a lovely red comb and I was tempted to add a bit of watercolour red to it, but I resisted the temptation and just washed in some ink. It’s done and in.

I’ve an appointment with the dentist tomorrow. First visit in three years! Apprehensive? Just a bit

 

 

A more relaxing day – 14 October 2022

Lazy start, didn’t wake until about 10am

In such a mixed up week I completely forgot that Scamp was off this morning to her FitSteps class. Brave girl, this was only the second time she was driving the blue car for real. When she left I started thinking about today’s prompt which was ‘Empty’. A Humblebums track “Silk Pyjamas” had been in my mind for the last two days, with the lyrics ” … empty pockets, heavy debts …”. Of course, Paul Simon’s song “Diamonds on the soles of her shoes” also worked with ” … empty as a pocket with nothing to loose …”. So what I’m saying is, it just had to be an empty pocket and with that I started sketching. The music made me do it! The first attempt became the final attempt and although the hand wasn’t right, it was close enough and a splash or two of water added bit of necessary form. Sketch done with lots of time to spare.

When an energised Scamp returned, happy that she’d reverse parked and had a good exercise hour into the bargain we had a coffee and she had a shower, then we were off to lunch at Dead Deer. Scamp had Kedgeree Fish Cakes and I had Gammon Steak. Of course, both of us had chips and eggs. The bloke who served us was fairly chatty and friendly. The place wasn’t very busy for a Friday lunchtime, so he had plenty of time to spend talking to diners. After he asked if the food was ok, he turned to me and asked if I was a teacher at the High School, because the chef had seen me in passing and wasn’t sure it it was me, but didn’t want to ask. I just laughed, sometimes I can go nowhere without being spotted. Usually a nod and a smile is all I get. That’s better than “Campbell ya ba5t@rd!” and a laugh.

Since there was no rush to clear the tables, we sat and talked for a while over the dirty water that was trying hard to be coffee. Future plans and destinations were discussed and a sort of solution was found. That’s all I’m saying at present.

Back home I did manage to get out for half an hour in St Mo’s. There was a strange gathering in the woods with about half a dozen neds with Buckie bottles and a pram with a toddler in it. I thought “Oh-Oh, this looks like trouble.” But I needn’t have worried, it was all good natured. One big bloke, well over six feet tall gave me the “Ye all right mate?” to which I replied “No’ bad”. That was the correct password, apparently. Then he said “We’re just educatin’ the younger generation!” and we all laughed. I think it was a picnic they were having. A liquid one.

I found a PoD on the way back to the house.  It’s a Garden Cross spider, so called because of the cross shaped pattern on its back.  They’re quite common around here, but this was a big one, its body was about 2cm long and a beautiful chestnut colour.

No great plans for tomorrow yet.  It looks like it will be wet during the night, but promises a better day in the late morning and afternoon.

Out for a walk – 12 October 2022

Out walking round Dalzell Estate with my brother.

The weather fairies were convinced that the weather today would start our wet in the morning, but would clear for the afternoon. I wasn’t so sure, but that’s exactly the way it turned out.

I sat and talked to Carol and Fiona and Ollie. Ollie didn’t say much, at least not much that I could understand, probably because he is only about 7months old, but he smiled a lot and made noises which is the best kind of talking.

Alex and I said goodbye to everyone and we headed off to Dalzell Estate and went for a walk in the woods. Some folk were having a picnic in a clearing. I don’t know what that was all about, but they didn’t invite us to join them so we walked on. From one of the bird hides we watched a flight of geese, some swans and a host of lapwings. I haven’t seen any lapwings (or ‘peeweeps’ as we call them on account of their call) for years. One of the serious bird photographers arrived and I think we were crowding his hide so we left to find a temple Alex wanted to show me. It was a fairly long walk, but one I remember going with him a year ago. Eventually we found the temple, but it wasn’t the one I was thinking about. After looking at a map tonight, I think I might have confused it with a mausoleum which is in the estate.

Anyway, we walked back to the car from there after admiring the “Big House”. It’s an impressive building with centuries of additions to the old part of it, but the land in front of the building has been turned into a car park which spoils the look completely. We stopped once more at the Japanese Garden where I got some decent shots of the maples. I also got a bruise on my bum when I slipped on the slimy steps up to the garden.

With some of the day left, we drove to Chatelherault in the outskirts of Hamilton and had a coffee in the cafe there, then went a walk down the broad avenue of trees that stretches for a mile or so to Hamilton itself. Walked further down to the Avon Water which was still in spate after last week’s rain. Back at the Chatelherault House itself I got PoD which is a view down the narrow avenue.

Drove home and dropped Alex at the house, then drove home for dinner before I changed from my waking gear into my dancing trousers and drove to the British Legion in Cumbersheugh for an hour long dance class. I wasn’t impressed with the first half which was Tango Serida. Not my favourite sequence dance. The second half was more interesting, but there were too many clowns in the class, every one a comic.  Let’s hope they calm down next week.

Today’s prompt was one of the vague ones, ‘Forget’. After a fair bit of soul searching, I decide on the one you see here: a note pinned to a wall.  I am a master of forgetful. My mum used to say “You’d lose yer heid if it wasn’t sewn on!” She was probably right. I haven’t lost my heid yet, but I’ve forgotten much more than I’ve remembered. Now what was I saying???

That was about it for a busy day. Tomorrow Scamp is hoping to get to Inverness for lunch with her sister. An early rise to get the train that will take her in to Glasgow and then a walk to the bus station to get the bus. Rather her than me.