Food – Page 198 – My Photo Blog

It didn’t get any better – 12 August 2016

Posted on August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 by Zogman

Got up. Had coffee. Went to the physio to be ‘manipulated’, pummelled, stretched and have pins stuck in my shoulder. All the while listening to the Zumba instructor next door exhorting her class to “Don’t give up now!!” (It beats me why people go to these classes to listen to ‘thump-thump’ music while sweating half their body fluids away and being castigated by a skinny sadistic instructor. It must be the masochistic streak in the human race. You wouldn’t catch me being tortured for an hour and paying for it.) Rested for half an hour and then had more pummelling, stretching and ‘manipulation’ before being set free. Until next week. Came home. Had mince with an egg cooked in it served on a piece of bread for lunch (Quite a West of Scotland delicacy). Dinner was provided by Bombay Dreams and as usual their portions were enormous. Half today and half tomorrow, we decided. No point in stuffing ourselves. Not for breakfast, though à la N. D’Ag. No, reheated for tomorrow’s dinner.

It rained all day.

Tomorrow will be better say the weather fairies. Sunday will be sunny and warm they say. We can only live in hope. If not, construction of the Ark will begin tomorrow.

Another Dull Day – 11 August 2016

Posted on August 11, 2016 by Zogman

Met Fred for coffee in the middle of the day. Came home. Went for a walk. Photographed a two headed swan at St Mo’s. Came home. Had mince and tatties with carrots and ‘roop for dinner. That was the highlight of the day by a million miles! It rained all day. Heavens, it can only get better now, surely. Can’t stand the possibility of watching another night of boring olympics badly filmed and with commentary by over excited numpties who would give morons a bad name. I think I may go and watch paint dry.

Fish Again – 5 August 2016

Posted on August 5, 2016August 6, 2016 by Zogman

Out fairly early to pick up our fish and crab meat from Oyster Oyster in Linlithgow. While we were walking into the town from the carpark, I saw this view of St Michael’s church spire pointing upwards behind the trees. Everyone thinks this is part of Linlithgow Palace and it looks as if it should be, but no. It dates from 1964 and is made mainly of aluminium.

When we got back it was time for a technology injection with a coffee or two with Val. It was good to exchange problems and solutions with someone who understands why that borked Nexus is a “wee shalenge”[sic]. As I expected, he suggested yet another way to solve the Nexus problem, or maybe just a chance to create a new problem.

When I got back it was time to prepare the main course. To speed up the preparation of the sauce, I decided to slice the ginger with the mandolin. Yes, JIC, I managed to slice my finger once again. The good news is that it was ginger I was slicing, not orange, so no acidic juice got in the cut. However, I had to continue the prep with two plasters on the cut and my hand in a plastic glove. Thanks to Nurse Scamp, it wasn’t any worse. Fish is now prepped and bread is baked without any more dramas. Just waiting for our guests to arrive.

Fanatics, Festivals and Food, always Food – 30 July 2016

Posted on July 30, 2016 by Zogman

E7301117- flickr--212 Today was the start of the Merchant City Festival and we usually try to visit at least once during the week or the weekend, depending on how long it runs. This year it’s for a whole week. What we didn’t know, well I didn’t know, because Scamp with her ear to everything that’s going on everywhere had already heard that there was a YES2 rally in George Square. Oh dear, I fear I may offend some people here, so if you have nationalist tendencies, it’s probably better that you go in to the kitchen now. I’ll call you back when I’ve finished denouncing Nick the Chick and all her deluded followers.

I don’t know who was selling the big saltire flags (probably made in China), but they were doing a roaring trade. The world and his wife seemed to have one. If you weren’t waving your flag, you had to wear it, like a cheapo Superman cape. We even saw a couple of dogs wearing them, but they didn’t look as excited as their owners. Most of the participants had at least some blue paint on their faces too, trying to look like William Wallace, the famous Mel Gibson look-a-like. E7301119- flickr--212 There were even some English Scots. I do not know what that was all about. One incensed bloke was bawling into a microphone connected to a loudspeaker. I really should have told him that the purpose of the loudspeaker was to avoid him having a very sore throat the next day. The clue is in the first syllable of LOUDspeaker. He was saying “WE’RE NOT LIKE THE OTHER PARTY” Which other party was never made clear. “WE’RE HAPPY TO LET ANYONE SPEAK. ANYONE CAN COME HERE AND SPEAK” as he held on grimly to his microphone. Everyone else who had come to the rally, and there were hundreds of them, was pumped up with excitement and national fervour. You could easily tell the tourists. They were the ones wandering around, without flags, but with confused looks on their unpainted faces. As I walked through the throngs I was amazed by the amount of excitement and happiness. Give a boy and girl flags to wave on a sunny day and they’ll be happy. Give them their own country to run? Aye Right!

I enjoyed looking at the motorbikes, none of which were made in Scotland. Scamp just looked embarrassed.

Right you, you can come back out of the kitchen now. The bad bit’s finished.

Wandered down to the Merchant City to see what was happening. As usual there were crowds of people there. A few ‘maddies’ wandering around entertaining the punters, like the four blokes standing on one of the marble ‘pews’ in the pedestrian area. They were spray tanned, wearing plastic nappies and miming in harmony – think synchronised swimming on land … with nappies! Bands were playing their wee hearts out and food stalls were selling every kind of food imaginable. You could even challenge Andy Murray Live to return two of his serves. One man said “It’s no’ even the real wan! It’s jist a big TV screen.” Come on pal, what did you expect? The double winner of Wimbledon standing there trading shots and insults with the cream of Glasgow’s shell suit wearing tennis afficionados? I don’t think so.

E7301121- flickr--212 Maybe it was the smell of the street food, but we both agreed it was lunch time and headed off towards the Italian Kitchen. Lovely lunch. It’s far too long since we last darkened its doors. Hopefully it won’t be long before we are back. Scamp had Salmon with a pesto sauce fried potatoes and a side salad. I had salsiccia and chilli pizza

On the bus back, one wee boy recognised me as his ex-teacher (I nearly slipped up there and said ‘old’ teacher). Scamp said “You see, somebody remembers you!” That kind of made my day a bit brighter.

Joke:

A Scotsman, and Englishman and an Irishman go in to a bar, but they couldn’t stay. They had to come out, because the Englishman didn’t like it.

The phone was there all the time – 27 July 2016

Posted on July 27, 2016July 27, 2016 by Zogman

Scamp phoned up about the replacement phone for the one with the broken seal. For once she got a Scottish voice. She started to explain the saga when the guy broke into the stream of consciousness and asked “Samsung?” When she agreed, it was a Samsung, he told her that it happens all the time. Allegedly Samsung do open the boxes to make sure that the Samsung phone in the box is up to scratch (and has no actual scratches). It’s their version of Quality Control. Why then don’t they seal the boxes back up? Dunno, neither did he. He did however assure her that the phone was legal and ok to use. Why couldn’t the other three duffers have told her so in the first place, causing her untold stress and a needless 48 hour wait before she got the phone working? Vodafone. I think that’s the answer. The company that doesn’t know its arse from its elbow. I’m going to take the assistant at Vodafone Glasgow’s advice and go with Tesco next time. In fact, I may take Fred P’s advice and buy a phone and just do Pay as You Go next time. For all the call time I use and the minimal amount of text I send, I could survive on PaYG, with a decent amount of download time.

That started the day off a lot better than yesterday. The sun came out too for a while, so we went to sunny Falkirk to get some fish for the tea. Seabass en Papillote, just like I made for us and Hazy last week. I hope I spelt it right, but I can’t be bothered looking it up!

Went on an expedition to St Mo’s later to get some photos. Found lots of hoverflies. Always like taking their photos. There are such a variety of them around at this time of year. Also lots of Soldier Beetles AKA Bonking Beetles for obvious reasons!

Finally I tried getting Annette’s Nexus 7 to work again using yet another hopeful sounding ‘solution’ from an ‘expert’ on the net. It didn’t work, but it did kill it completely this time. Now it won’t charge either. I think I may have eventually ‘bricked’ it. Good riddance.

Hopefully another dry day tomorrow when we can go out and I can get a couple of landscapes photographed if not painted. We’ll see, it’s all in the lap of the weather fairies.

A more relaxing day – 22 July 2016

Posted on July 22, 2016 by Zogman

Today was a day for relaxing after the last couple of driving days.

We were intending getting the bus in to Glasgow, but as the rain was pelting down (the garden needs it), we changed plans and drove in. For lunch we went to the Chinese restaurant on Sauchiehall Street (AKA Sausage Roll Street) where Scamp used to take her mum for lunch. We’d been there before. It always was in the “Cheap and Cheerful” category, but today it was only “Cheap”. The food left a lot to be desired. My Sweet and Sour Chicken was tasteless, apart from the sickly sauce. Scamp’s Chicken Pineapple was also tasteless. I don’t think we’ll be back. I think we might be spoilt by Cotton House.

After we came back, I went to get petrol because we’d used up all the Chessington petrol from yesterday. Then I went for a walk down the Luggie Water. Not a lot there to photograph apart from some early fruiting rasps. Drove over to Moodiesburn then over the back road and found some horses in a field. Took Harry the Horse’s photo, and drove home.

Jackie, Scamp’s sister and her husband referred to previously as Murd were on the way north from Southampton and I was going to give them a lift from Glasgow. That was before they got caught up in an almighty traffic jam just before Tebay services. They were due in Glasgow around 7.30pm. It’s now 10.30pm and they’re still not here. They told us they would get a taxi from Glasgow instead of tying up my night, which was very good of them.

A relaxing day for us, but maybe not for Jackie and Murd

Don’t know what we’re doing tomorrow. To quote Scamp “It depends on the weather”

Homeward Bound part 2 – 21 July 2016

Posted on July 21, 2016July 21, 2016 by Zogman

After yesterday’s journey into the epicurean dungeon that is Lancashire services I decided that we wouldn’t risk salmonella, dysentery or norovirus and would leave earlier than planned hoping to find a cleaner service station.

I woke around 5am and couldn’t get back to sleep, but I lay until almost 7am when Scamp, having been woken by me asked if I wanted to just have a cuppa and head off. I agreed with her suggestion and by 8am we were washed, dressed and on our way north again. As I expected, the traffic was much lighter today and we made good time. We stopped at Southwaite services. What a difference. Light, clean and with people who wanted to serve you. Apparently their dishwasher was working because they had proper cups, not made of cardboard. I don’t know what it is about cardboard cups I don’t like. I think it’s something to do with the feel of the cardboard against my lips. Picky? Not me. Anyway, having had a proper breakfast and a proper coffee, or peppermint tea in Scamp’s case, we journeyed on. Weather was much more Scottish as we crossed the border and we even manages a little bit of rain. Not a lot, just enough to welcome us home. It was much cooler too, around 19ºc most of the way. We turned into our street just after 11am. Last week we were just getting on the road at that time.

The rest of the day was spent lazing around, backing up computer stuff, posting photos and generally winding down. I got ready to take my bike out later in the afternoon, that was when the rain came on, so I did nothing instead. A bit of a waste, that’s the way it is.

Tomorrow, the bus will take the strain.

PS
I mentioned yesterday about the poor WiFi in the Travel Lodge. I didn’t manage to get the blog posted using it. I imagine there were too many words for it to handle 😉
What I finally did was use my iPhone which was connecting with four bars of 3G. I created a personal hotspot and used that to finally upload the blog post. Isn’t technology wonderful when it works.

Homeward Bound – 20 July 2016

Posted on July 20, 2016 by Zogman

I’m going to keep this short and sweet. The WiFi in this Travel Lodge is awful. You would think in this day and age that they could afford broadband for their paying guests rather than dial up. Unless it’s BT based, because they seem to be having problems today. They were not the only ones.

We expected, and got delays on the M25, but then we went on to the M40 and there were delays there too caused by … well, nothing really. I’d love to see the motorway system from the air to see these phantom problems that seem to hold up traffic for hours. On to the M6 and that is where the big problems started. Queue after queue. Some caused by roadworks, some caused by breakdowns and some inevitably caused by rubber-neckers wanting a good view of accidents on the south-bound carriageway. By the time we got to the Travel Lodge I was exhausted. Booked in and had a shower and felt a lot better. Went for dinner in the services. Oh dearie me, what a depressing place. When we drove down, we stopped at Birmingham services and had fish & chips and it was excellent. Today we had cold chips and something that might have seen the sea quite a few years ago wrapped up in yellow plaster of paris, at least that is what it tasted like. Before you ask, “yes” I have eaten plaster of paris. The yellow dye didn’t improve the taste at all. We decide not to risk the coffee and went down stairs to have Costa coffee. Here is what I wrote in the Costa on-line complaint form:

“I’m sitting in an excuse for a Costa coffee shop drinking an excuse for an Americano from a cardboard cup because the dishwasher is broken. Although there were lots of ceramic cups visible on the coffee makers we were not offered them, we HAD to have our coffee in a cardboard cup. I assume this makes clearing up easier for the staff and to Hell with what the customer wants. I asked for hot milk on the side. That wasn’t available either. Probably for the same excuse that cups weren’t, but the girl operating the coffee maker offered to pour some milk into my already watery Americano from a plastic carton. No thanks Costa. I’ll stick to Cafe Nero in future.”

I expect I’ll get a standard reply from Costa with a standard Costa gift card which I will cut up and put in the bin.

So, it wasn’t just the plaster of paris fish and the cold chips, it was also “couldn’t care less” Costa too. What do foreigners, French folk, German geezers, Spanish senoritas think when they visit one of these service stations? Everything is overpriced and the food is inedible. I remember the first time I travelled through France. We stopped at a service station. Everything was shiny and clean. I had a jambon sandwich that had half a pig in it and tasted magnificent. No plaster of paris there, even in France! France, paris. Well, I thought it was funny.

Today’s photos were of a pied wagtail taken earlier in the day. The imposing but falling apart Grade 2 listed tower at the Lancaster services and sunset through the hotel window. Not much of a view, but just look at those clouds!

This was meant to be short and sweet, but I rambled and ranted on again.

Heading to the cold country tomorrow!

The Hottest Day of the Year – 19 July 2016

Posted on July 19, 2016July 19, 2016 by Zogman

Yesterday was hot, but today, oh today was even hotter. Over 33ºc in some places. Heavens, even Scotland had over 25ºc. What is the world coming to?

Scamp had decided that she was going to sit in the garden all day. A sensible decision given that the sun was going mad. We sat in the garden for a while watching movement in the pond. We couldn’t decide whether it was frogs or newts. We settled on ‘Frewts’ as the most likely suspects.

After lunch we went for a walk along past the golf course and had a couple of drinks at the clubhouse. It doesn’t seem as if you have to be a member, just as long as you’ve got money. We had money and I sampled another of these English IPAs which are very nice.

After we got back, Scamp went for more sunbathing in the garden while I went back to the wild woods to try to photograph some butterflies. I managed to get a Small Heath and a Comma. We don’t get Commas in Scotland, but apparently they are moving further north as a result of global warming. I saw a deer, but it was too fast for me and was away into the tall grass before I could get the camera ready. Also saw the pale blue dragonfly that I saw earlier in the week, but again, it wasn’t landing, just cruising, looking for a mate.

Canute and Delia came over for dinner which was an Indian take-away. Very entertaining evening. Just hope I can get to sleep in this really hot night.

Back North tomorrow. Heavy rain forecast!

Open Heart Surgery – 17 July 2016

Posted on July 17, 2016July 17, 2016 by Zogman

The open-heart-surgery wasn’t on me, it was on my blog. Or to be more exact, it was on my website architecture, but more of that later.

Not such a lazy start to the day, by which I mean that I was up and having breakfast just after 9am. That’s early enough for me – on my holidays. After that, Scamp and I went for a walk through the woodland path near the house. Much better paths than back in Cumbersheugh. The managed woodland is wedged between two halves of a golf course and is wild enough to feel as if you are miles from anywhere, but with the knowledge that you are only a mile at most from civilization. I got a few photos, but on the way back, the battery on my ’10 packed in, so I swapped it out with the one in the ‘5 which is much more frugal with its energy. When I got back to the house I found I’d lost the battery cover for the ‘5. It’s the weakest part of the design of this camera and pivots on a flimsy plastic hinge, or doesn’t in this case. I reckoned it was lying on the path somewhere and as it was black and the path was hard packed black dirt among trees, there was little chance of recovering it. It was lost for good. Duct tape would make a reasonable substitute when I got home, until then I need to be careful.

For ages, Hazy has been promising she’d help me organise my website to make it more simple to navigate. Today we sat down and after backing everything up, we set about the open heart operation. Actually, the backing up was the hardest part. Once that was complete, the reorganising was pretty straight forward. Straight forward, that is if you have someone who knows what they are doing sitting right next to you, not on the other end of a phone line, or worse still, someone who had been sitting in their room in California six months ago writing a blog post telling a numpty like me how to do it. So, once again, thank you Hazy for not making a drama out of a crisis. You are a gem, and you know it.

After that scary thing, Scamp and I drove out to Tolworth to get dinner. This was another scary thing. Here I was driving in London, well, in the outskirts of London, but driving with the rest of the lunatics. My God, I thought I was impatient – I am impatient – but I have nothing on these folk that need to be everywhere, like, yesterday! The only thing to do is to join them and be as mental as them. Turn a rubber ear to all horns and turn your blind eye to the gesticulations. Fire a few well chosen Scottish sweary words back at them. They won’t understand the words, but they’ll get the gist. I’d hate to drive through this every day going to and coming back from work. I dare say you get used to it.

So, we reached M&S and got parked too. Almost as soon as the engine had stopped a bloke came over and offered to wash my car for a fiver. If I thought he could have removed the dried seagull crap from the back wing without steel wool, I’d have got him to do it! I saved him the trouble by saying “Thanks, but it’s ok as it is.” Had coffee after M&S to fire me up for the drive back, which incidentally was much more pleasant than the drive there. Maybe I have joined the lunatic fringe.

Scamp had already stated her intention to go and sit in the sun in the garden for the remains of the afternoon, but that battery flap was still bugging me, so I set off to see what I could see. I’d hardly walked for five minutes along the path when there it was! By luck it had fallen with the chrome inside facing up and glinting in the sun, completely confounding the Centre of Gravity theory that states that bread always falls butter side down. Too difficult to explain after a stressful day – Google it. Happy now, my step was a lot lighter as I retraced my steps of this morning and walked the wild woodland again. Saw a beautiful pale blue dragonfly, but it was too busy looking for another pale blue dragonfly to bother with the likes of me.

Dinner was Sea Bass en Papillote with new potatoes and broccoli. Followed by Apple Crumble with cream. Tonight’s film was the mystifying Now You See Me. Third success from Hazy.

Tomorrow we may be going to Hampton Court … on the bus. Enough driving excitement for me today.