Category: Food

Programming for Nerds – 21 February 2017

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Nothing to do with Elton John.  Keyboard Maestro is a very powerful programming tool for the Mac.  I’ve been struggling with it on and off for over a year now and have to tell you that with great power comes great complexity.  I’ve programmed interesting stuff in Basic and Assembly Language along with simple stuff in C and in Pascal, and even used Visual Basic to write macros in Excel, but the programming syntax in Keyboard Maestro is back to the stone age.  It makes assembly language look slick by comparison.  All I wanted to do was add two numbers together.  It shouldn’t be difficult, should it?  It was.  Mainly because of an almost total lack of tutorials using variables with this behemoth of an app.  I eventually found a wiki for it and all became (almost) clear.  I don’t think I’ll be coding very much in Keyboard Maestro, but my macro now works and I’m happy about that.  Actually I’ve been using it in the background while I type this blog.  I’ve got it set up to alter a few of my typos and also, if I type * KM without the space, it changes it to Keyboard Maestro –  See?  It did it there and you never even noticed.  I know, lots of other apps do the same thing, but this is an app for nerds!  I’m not afraid to say it: I AM A NERD!!

Scamp went to visit her Auntie, well, her dad’s cousin [that’s close enough to be an Auntie (or Uncle, depending on the version) in Larky].  Anyway, she was going for coffee with Isobel this morning and I was looking for something to do, so I copied yesterday’s sketch onto watercolour paper and made it into a painting.  I was quite pleased with the result.  I know it’s a bit gloomy, but the real thing is gloomy too.  The house sits back among trees and there can’t be a lot of light getting in those windows.

When Scamp came home and after we had lunch we went searching for food in Waitrose which is where I found the group of Neds you see above.  Who would have thought that Neds would be allowed in Waitrose.  Either they’ve cleaned up their act or that supermarket is allowing its standard to slip.

It was such a dull day, we just drove home afterwards with our spoils.  Lamb chops with potatoes and mushrooms for me.  Salmon and potatoes for Scamp.  Still on our self enforced diet, we didn’t even have a pudding!  We did have a crayfish salad to start with though, but you can’t consider that, because it was healthy!

Played a game of my new addiction Upwords tonight, but I don’t think Scamp was impressed with this Scrabble look alike.  I think it might be going in the next but one charity bag.

Nothing planned as yet for tomorrow because the weather may be taking a turn for the worse.

Oh, yes.  If you’re in the need of someone to add two numbers together, I’m your man.  Just give me a couple of hours to write the code and debug it and I should have it done!

Carrigan’s – 18 February 2017

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I went out for a walk along the railway in the afternoon.  A dull day with little prospect of any photos, and that’s how it turned out.  I took one photo before I went out and that was my PoD.  It was of a plantlet on the spider plant that lives in the downstairs toilet.  It reminded me of the Trinidad jungles!

On the way back along the railway, I stopped to sketch the house beside the canal with it’s extensions and odd angles.  It was a better viewpoint from the one I’d done a few months ago and it was looking quite good until the rain came on.  As I was closing the sketch book I realised that I was blotting the ink, but by then it was too late.  When I got back to the car and took a look at the damage, it actually looked quite good.  The rain had added texture to what would have been an empty page!

We were meeting Margaret and Billy Kent for dinner tonight in Carrigan’s in Hamilton.  It was a great night. Just nattering and eating all night. Right now, I’m feeling pretty full.  I may never eat again after a heavy three course meal, the star being the tablet ice cream!  Peppermint tea to settle my stomach then bed, I think.

Happy Anniversary – 17 February 2017

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Today we got the bus in to Glasgow.  The X28 no less, the real express bus that doesn’t touch the hovels of Moodiesburn or the ice cream dungeons of Muirhead.  No, it just goes straight down the M80 into Glasgow, after picking us up in Condorrat of course.  We were going to celebrate out 44th anniversary.

After a coffee in Nero watching the tiaras and bouffant hair pieces sauntering past, we walked up Sausage Roll Street because I thought I’d seen a drawing book in the book shop there, but I was mistaken, it was in Waterstones at The Fort.  The girl in Waterstones checked for me.  Meanwhile, Scamp was in M&S getting a bargain – a new swimsuit.

Me disappointed, Scamp delighted, we walked down to Argyle Street to get some more of the bowtie print, bowtie material, some dark grey thread and a pair of dressmaking scissors.  Now don’t get excited Hazy, the ballgown is still a little way off yet.

Lunch was in Sarti’s and it was delicious.  Mine was shin of beef done in Italian beer.  According to the waiter, the secret is to marinade it for 48 hours and slow cook for 2.  Scamp had seabass cooked in orange and honey.  She said it was ok, but the spinach mash and the lentils was the star.

Walked back up to Sausage Roll again to buy Upwords.  It’s a game I’ve been playing on the iPhone.  It’s a bit like Scrabble but different.  There, that explains it totally.  Anyway, I went in to WH Smith to get a magazine to read on the slow bus home and, there was the book I was looking for!  Bought it.  That will save me a trip to The Fort tomorrow.  I bought the magazine too.

Went to get the bus back home, like I said, the slow bus.  That is when we re-met the hair pieces and hair extensions and little tiaras on legs.  Spray tanned legs on little Irish dancers.  Ten year olds, made up to look like midget twenty year olds.  All of them chaperoned by seriously overbearing and totally focused mummies.  Apparently today was the semi-finals of the dancing competition.  I think we’ll be going anywhere but Glasgow tomorrow to avoid these distorted little girls.  Childhoods stolen.

Slow bus home.  Today’s PoD was of a sunflower fixed into a crack in the new pavement being laid in Union Street.  Also, today’s sketch shows that I did learn something from the new book.  Curvilinear Perspective is a strange beast.

Lunch at Crews Inn – 12 February 2017

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12 Feb

 

It’s Sunday and Scamp was going to church with Madeleine and Jaime and I thought I should get up and do something IMG_3769_3769too.  So, after they’d left leaving Ori and I in charge, well, really it was Ori who was in charge and I was just getting in the way of his morning nap.  With Ori concentrating on his sleep pattern,I started a sketch of the house from a viewpoint at the front gate.  I gave myself a time limit of one hour and managed to get it completed in just over that time.  I’m quite happy with it apart from one little mistake.  By the time I was finished, I just had enough time for a shower before the others came home.  Ori was still sleeping.

We had a light breakfast because we were booked for lunch at the Crews Inn at the place that begins with a C and I can never remember its name.  I’m going to look it up now.  Ok, it was Chaguaramas.  Bing had the answer.  I hate Bing – It’s like most things Microsoft.  It’s crap.  I did say ‘most’ things.  Excel is brilliantly powerful and Live Writer is the best blogging prog I’ve used, but Bing is just painful to use. Why is it called Bing?  Apparently because it was short and memorable(?), but we all know it’s Because It’s Not Google, and in my opinion, it never will be.  Anyway, we were going to Chaguaramas for lunch at the Crews Inn.  In the mean time I managed to capture a couple of shots of the Monarch butterfly that’s been annoying me all holiday.  It thought it was out of reach, high in a tree, but it reckoned without the power of the 200mm lens on the Oly 10.  It was snapped!  As was the wee bit of bright pink blossom.

The Crews Inn is a lovely place, especially if you are a sailor.  I’m not, but it’s still a great location, right on the seafront with a vista that takes in fishing boats, skiffs, real yachts and big mega pretend yachts owned, no doubt, by millionaires.  We weren’t coming to see the boats, we were coming for lunch and I was going to have a glass of their very alcoholic Sangria.  It turned out to be not as good as the last one the others had, but it was still very rich and tasty.  I think we were all a bit disappointed when we were told that it was a buffet on a Sunday, but hey ho, it’s still food.  Indeed it was food and food a plenty.  We started with a salad and then went for the meat and fish option.  Then there was the dessert menu to investigate.  Really, I think Jaime and I did overdo it a little bit, well, a lot really.  It’s hard not to when there is this much food on offer.  That’s what I love and hate about buffets.  I love the selection, I hate the fact that I just pig out.  One day I’ll learn, maybe!

When we got home, I had to go for a snooze.  The food and the heat just got to me.  It was lights out for a while.

Later, we started the inevitable packing.  I’m about half packed just now.  I’ve now got to decide exactly what to wear on the plane and the train as we move from 25o to 5o.

Listened to some ‘pan’ from the semifinals at Savannah.  It’s nothing like the real thing.  Jaime is still listening to it on TV now.  Despite my wee snooze this afternoon, I’m beat and beddy byes is calling.  Good NIght.

Is this your minky? – 11 February 2017

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11 FebToday we set off after breakfast for Chaguaramas to walk into the Bamboo Cathedral.

I don’t know what I expected, but I wasn’t ready for the sign warning us to

  • Walk in groups
  • Don’t display cell phones or jewellery
  • Stay in well lit areas

I thought we were going for a leisurely walk.  I forgot to pack the AK47 and stab proof vest.  Bummer.  However, once we walked past the entrance gate, I forgot all about that.  This was jungle!  Well, jungle with a wide tarmac road through it.  The trees round us were enormous and there was some bamboo too, but nothing ‘cathedral-like’.  Then we turned a corner and there was the bamboo.  Not one or two clumps, but hundreds  – everywhere.  Now I could see the ‘cathedral’ reference.  The bamboo arched over our heads from both sides and met in the middle making it look and feel as if we were walking through a green tunnel.  We walked the length of the bamboo tunnel and then started climbing the hill at the end.  As far as we could see, the bamboo was finished.  We turned to go back and Madeleine stopped to ‘rescue’ a piece of vine from the depredations of some weeds.  Jaime managed to wrap some banana leaf round it and tie it off with a bit of creeper to keep the roots damp until we got it home and could replant it.  It was a rescue vine.  We walked back through the Bamboo Cathedral and just before we got to the high trees, Madeleine notices movement in the bushes at the side of the road.  I started mentally ticking off the warnings on that sign, then we all saw the monkeys.

Madeleine said they were Capuchin monkeys.  I was too busy trying to get a decent shot of them in the low light that filtered through the canopy.  Eventually, I gave up, switched on fast continuous shooting and fired off seven or eight shots at a time, gave the camera time to deal with them then fired off another seven or eight.  I tried a video, but the Oly 10 isn’t really up to that kind of task, and when I checked later, there was nothing useable on either video.  Everyone had a great time looking for new groups who seemed to appear from nowhere, climb high into the branches above our heads and jump the gap across to the other side  Adult and babies all made the journey without injury although some were better at jumping than they were at catching the branches on the other side and there were a few almost tumbles.  Once they were all over, they started feeding and it was time for us to move on.  Great fun for all.  All the time we were watching the monkeys, people were passing by, all saying “Good Morning” and none really batting an eyelid at the monkey gymnastics.  I’m guessing this is a normal occurrence here.

When we got back to the car, we drove on to Macqueripe Bay where we descended the stairs, under the screaming people on the Zip Wire above us, down to the beach.  Lovely little beach with what might have been a harbour at one end and a sort of short promenade above the sand.  The water looked lovely and clear and I wished I’d brought swimming stuff.  The whole place had a strange 1950s look to it and reminded me of the Lido at Bothwell Bridge near Hamilton.  Lots of folk swimming and just enjoying the sun, but then it was Saturday after all.  I got photos of some crabs before they dived down their holes.  They were well back from the sea and I wondered if they sneaked down the steps onto the beach at night.  From the promenade you could look out past an island to just see Venezuela in the distance.

After the short visit to the beach, we walked back up to the car and Madeleine drove us home via the supermarket which seemed to stock a lot of Waitrose goods. Which made me wonder if it’s an offshoot of that business.  We saw all the usual supermarket stuff and then some things you don’t get back home, like Chicken’s Feet again.  Scamp even took a photo of the aforementioned delicacy to show to the disbelieving ones back home.  On that subject, I did spot a cafe on the road advertising Cow Heel Soup.  Apparently it’s a local delicacy and the soup is really good.  I just hope they wash the cow’s heels well before making the soup, having seen the stuff that cows walk through!

Lunch was stewed chicken with fried plantain and salad, followed by coconut ice cream.  Maybe a notch down from the ice cream we got in Karawak, but still better than anything we get at home.

IMG_3767_3768Today’s sketch is of the house across the street with a bit of M&J’s house added in to set the scene.  Actually, after I was finished, I preferred the lightness of M&J’s house to the lumpy looking other house.  The perspective is much more pronounced with the viewpoint closer to the small house.  Worth another go, I think.  Maybe tomorrow.

A Jump, Skip and a Hop – 10 February 2017

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 10 Feb Today we said goodbye to Tobago and caught the plane to Trinidad.  Madeleine and Scamp weren’t very impressed with the pilot’s driving skills and I have to say it was a bit of a bumpy ride at times.  What I did wonder about was the fact that before it landed in Tobago, it hadn’t appeared on Flight 24 on my phone and there was no airline insignia on the fuselage.  A pirate of the skies perhaps?  Anyway it got us to Piarco airport on Trinidad and from there Madeleine drove us home, stopping on the way to pick up some Roti which are Indian flatbread wraps holding the main course which for three of us was chicken and for Scamp was veg.  Possibly my best favourite of these lunch wraps so far.

When we were at the airport on Tobago, Madeleine showed us the bright yellow fruit she’d picked from the hedgerow along with its delicate wee yellow flower.  I think it was a Carailie Vine, but I may be misspelling that.  I’ll check tomorrow.  It tasted good.  Just another of the fruits available on these islands.  Even better, this one is free as it grows wild in the hedgerows.

Ori was pleased to see us and after being fed, fussed over and having a run round the garden at top speed a couple of times, lay exhausted in the livingroom.  Such a relaxed dog.

While Madeleine was watering the garden earlier on, Jaime picked a Guava from one of the trees in the garden and we all had a piece.  Beautiful green colour with soft pink flesh inside.  They really do have an amazing selection of fruits here.  Unfortunately, one he was trying to harvest looks like it’s been invaded by ants.  It’s a Sour Sop.  It is a big dark green fruit covered in spikes and is supposed to have a sweet white flesh, but I doubt if we will taste it because the ants have been there first.

IMG_3756_3756Today’s sketch is of a wee sea urchin shell that Scamp found yesterday on the beach at Pigeon Point.  It’s a bit rough, but at least it’s done and on time.  Maybe I’ll find something more interesting to draw tomorrow.  It won’t be the little beastie that Madeleine showed me today, asking what I thought it was.  I took a photo and it looked for all the world like a caddis fly larva, but it was much, much smaller.  I searched on Google for it giving as much info as I could and it turned out to be a Household Casebearer and it turns into a moth after pupating.  Nasty looking little thing.  Now gone along with it compatriots under a spray of bug killer.  Oh, yes, one more thing.  Out of the corner of my eye tonight I thought I saw a bright green light flying around the room, turning on and off.  Couldn’t quite catch it though, then I did and it was a Firefly!  First time I’ve seen one.  It looked like a wee moth with an LED on its bum!  And with that thought, I’ll say goodnight.

A Grand Day Out – 08 February 2017

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8 FebThis will be a rushed post.  It’s been a long day and we’ve crammed a lot into it, although it might not seem so with this compressed or condensed description.

The day started well and we left the apartment with the intention of visiting Scarborough and then heading to a beach, but that’s not how it turned out.  Firstly we made a stop at the Magdalena Grand Hotel to see how the other half live.  The hotel, which is quite grand and quite magnificent is surrounded by a golf course which has the usual water hazards.  However, the water hazards on most golf courses don’t have warning signs saying ‘This lake contains caimans’.  Thankfully we didn’t stop near the water.  We did continue on to see the hotel and to walk the grounds as if we were staying there.  It’s a technique I must learn some time.  We were both impressed with the size and look of the building, but there weren’t very may folk staying there, so we did wonder how profitable it was.  While we were there I got my first decent shots of Frigatebirds.

As we were leaving the weather seemed to take a turn for the worse with squally rain appearing.  It had been threatening while we were trespassing on the hotel grounds, but now it was doing more than threatening.  We carried on to Scarborough, and it did remind me of the English seaside town with the steep hills around it.  Madeleine drove us to Fort King George and old stronghold, now open as a museum.  Loads of interesting stuff to be seen and most of it was open to the public.  That’s where we saw the cockerels and the hens.  They seemed to have the run of the place.  Jaime bought us some Tamarind Balls which are made from Tamarind paste with added pepper made into balls then covered in sugar.  A strange sweet/sour/salty taste.  Hard to define.  Great place to visit.  It was there too we found all these lovely butterflies.  Butterflies in January?  Who would have thought it?  Aha, but this isn’t Scotland.

By the time we were leaving here the rain had started for real.  No longer  squally, but a proper downpour.  After an attempt to outrun it, we gave up and headed with our sandwiches and juice back to the apartment where we had a picnic on the balcony.  Not quite what we’d intended, but at least we were dry for a time.  Then the rain started again and we took shelter inside.  These showers continued all afternoon.  I got fed up after a while and went out to walk along the beach.  Unfortunately, the beach had disappeared under the heavy breakers of high tide, so I sat down and sketched a concrete seat as a possible subject.  It rained again and I had to give up.  At that point Jaime appeared wondering where I’d got to.  We walked back and he showed me the fruits on one of the trees in the hotel grounds.  I must remember to ask him what it was called.  Before we got ready to go out to the restaurant Scamp wanted to dip her feet in one of the hot tubs.  We sat in it for about half an hour while the rain made little soldiers on the surface of the water around us.  What a strange feeling that was.  When we finally gave up the hot tub, we went for a swim in the pool.  The water was remarkably warm.

After our swim we went back to the room and Scamp went to shower and wash her hair.  I grabbed my sketchbook and drew the view from the balcony.  It’s not technically perfect, but it’s a better, and more interesting, drawing than the concrete seat.  IMO.

IMG_3753Dinner was in Karawak restaurant and it was fabulous.  Callaloo soup followed by Tomato, Basil and Olive salad then a main of steak or shrimp with rice, pumpkin and a sort of ratatouille served in a hollowed out half aubergine.  Dessert was coconut cream cake with ice cream, sorbet or ice cream.  It’s hard not to compare that with what we had on our first night here at the steak and lobster grill and it’s hard to see now how the S&L Grill survives against competition like this.  The waitress worked the table with a great sense of humour that you couldn’t help but appreciate.  The only fly in the ointment was the owner or manager, it wasn’t clear which, who only seemed to be interested in her regular customers and only gave us a cursory glance.  She needs to take a lesson from our waitress.  Nobody it that high and mighty that they don’t need to cultivate new custom.

Well, that was meant to be a condensed description of the day.  I missed out the Karaoke because it was so bad, it wasn’t even funny, and no we didn’t take part.

Just a hop, skip and a jump – 06 February 2017

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This will be a short post, because it’s been a long day and we’re up early tomorrow to go to Pigeon Point.

This morning we finished packing and got ready for the drive to the airport.  Traffic on the road through Port of Spain was heavy, but Jaime managed it smoothly and we arrived in plenty of time to check in.  Found that we could change to an earlier flight to Tobago and took that.  A smooth flight, but a bit wobbly on the final approach.  Scamp and Madeleine were not impressed, especially when the pilot bumped the plane down the runway.  It was very windy which probably explained that

Our room was ready early, so we could just go and dump our stuff before heading for the cafe for lunch which was roast chicken and chips.  After that Scamp, Jaime and I went for a walk along to Sandy Point beach.  Jaime took a shortcut through a hotel and  seemed to be deliberately ignoring the signs that said ‘Residents Only’, but maybe he just didn’t see them!!  As usual, he was a mine of information and on the way he took us through the ruins of Fort Milford.  It’s a place we saw when we were last here, but didn’t investigate.  We should have, if only to see how many times it had changed hands over the years.

When we came back, Scamp and I went to soak our feet in the hot tub, then went for a wander round the beachfront because they were giving away free rum punch.  It was rough, but it was free.  Then we all sat for a while on the balcony and watched the stars appear.

We went for dinner in the Steak and Lobster Grill next door.  Big mistake.  We had hoped that the really slow service there had improved.  Oh, no it hadn’t, in fact it had got worse.  A whole catalogue of disasters that I won’t go into here, but you’ll appreciate what I mean JIC and Sim.  Finally got served and I got my first real taste of lobster and an hour and a half later I’m still alive, so I imagine lobsters have more in common with crab and prawns than mussels and clams.

Had a rum ‘n’ coke at the hotel bar and Scamp had a Strawberry Daiquiri.  Then it was time for bed which is where I’m typing this.

Night, night, until tomorrow!  Photos will be posted later.

The not so Common Market – 04 February 2017

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4 Feb

Madeleine found one of the ‘singing frogs’ in the shower this morning and managed to capture it in a jar.  It’s a tiny wee thing, no bigger than my thumb nail and that’s it fully grown.  After its photo call we let it go back to rejoin its midnight choir.

Just a coffee for breakfast this morning because we were going to the Green Market and Madeleine said we would get something to eat there.

I didn’t realise it was so far away, almost halfway to Yves’ house, or so it seemed.  When we got there the market was in full swing and there was lots for these Scottish visitors to gawp at.  Dasheen, Yams, Cassava and real live cocoa pods.  An amazing variety of fruit and veg that we had only heard about or read about in books sitting on benches right there in front of us.  After a quick walk through, we went looking for that breakfast.  We all had Empanadas – that’s fried corn bread ‘rolls’ with a variety of fillings.  I had beef, Scamp had chicken, Jaime had pork and Madeleine had cheese.  While we were sitting there stuffing our faces with these fatty foods, a lady from a local surgery was explaining how high cholesterol, diabetes and hypertension are all caused by obesity and too much fatty foods.  I don’t think this was the best place to be putting out that message – or maybe it was!  I was amazed to find Ortaniques (a cross between and orange and a tangerine) for sale on one of the stalls.  I remember getting them in Larkhall away back in the 1960s.  I haven’t seen them for years.  Three for a pound was a bargain too good to pass up.  Another stall was selling juices and they were lovely.  Scamp had a mixture of ginger, melon and coconut water.  I had passion fruit.

When we were done there, it was back in to town and a visit to another market.  This one called the Up Market.  It was a sports hall filled with stalls selling lots of different crafts.  I bought myself a copper bracelet to ward off rheumatism and Scamp got a pair of maracas to use with Gems!IMG_3710

After that it was time to go home.  Nobody really wanted lunch, but there was a good selection of fruit so we had that.  You see, maybe that lady’s talk did sink in after all.  After the fruit fest, Scamp went out to read in the garden and I staked my claim on a place to sketch Jaime’s hut.  Possibly the neatest hut ever.  Madeleine says it’s not so neat inside.  I’m not sure I believe her.  Anyway, this was a pencil sketch for a change.  Unfortunately my Staedtler pencil was loaded with 2H lead, not 2B so tone was difficult to achieve.  But, like yesterday’s, it’s done.

Tonight J&M took us out to a Chinese restaurant for a meal.  The meal was delicious, but the way it was organized with veg being ordered separately from the meat was very strange.  Good food and good company.  You can’t beat it!

The toon in the sun – 25 January 2017

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Well, almost.  There was some sun for a while, then it got tired and went behind a cloud or two for a wee rest.  It was there, though for a while.

Scamp had decided that we needed to go in to the toon today on the bus, because we were going for lunch.  As it turned out, it was a good idea, but we weren’t sure where we were going.  It was finally decided that we would go to my new favourite restaurant / pizzeria, Paesano.  There, I’ve spelled it right first time without checking.  I checked afterwards, but that doesn’t count.  I had pizza (everything is a pizza there) with Salsiccia and Friarielli (Friarelli are a green vegetable like Broccoli but are only grown in Campania and they are in a category all their own).  A pizza bianco which doesn’t have tomato sauce.  I also had a side of lovely balsamic onions.  Scamp had Burrata (a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream), Cherry tomatoes and Basil and a boring old Pizza Margherita.  Lovely!

Afterwards we went for a coffee in ‘Nero and that was the extent of our stravaigin’ in the toon.  Bus home too and the sun came out of hiding and started shining again for a while.

Not a lot to take photographs of today and I only took the one camera, the Oly 5.  I liked the distorted reflections of the buildings overlaid on the internal details of 110 Queen Street and it’s my PoD.  When I got home I’d left myself a reminder to glue the little metal cap on my Oly 5 (It fell of the other day).  When I was doing it, I found a little metal circlip that had broken and decided to pull it off.  When I pulled it off, it unfortunately took the plastic shutter button off with it!  Oh dear, I’ve just broken what has recently become my go-to camera – of course the actual words I said were not “Oh dear”.  The sentence was much longer and contained a lot of sweary words.  However, I managed to find the offending article and also managed to clip it back in place.  Then I glued on the offending metal cap with Araldite (other Two-part Epoxy Resin Adhesives are available).  It still seems to be working.  Moral of the story – If it ain’t Really broke, don’t fix it.  It worked perfectly before without the little metal cap.

Looking cold for tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll be on a warm train for a change.  Letting the train take the strain.