Category: Food

Feeling better – 25 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A good night’s sleep works wonders.

As I’ve said before, I usually deal with a cold by having a morning or sometimes a whole day in bed. The next day I’m usually as right as rain. Not this time. Today was the first day I felt human when I woke. The cough was still there, but it wasn’t as annoying as it had been a few days ago. I suggested it was the “Hot Toddy” with honey, lemon juice, a good glug of whisky all topped up with hot water that cured it. Scamp said it was more likely the Paracetamol and Benylin that were the real fixers. She had been my nurse this week, so I have to agree with her.

I didn’t do much in the morning, but in the afternoon while Scamp was out tending her flowers, I set to and went through the instructions to Reissue and Reinstall a bit of software on the computer. I’d been putting it off for too long and it had to be done. I think I followed all the instructions from my provider and after a long wait, I got the “Good to go” message that told all was the installation was done. It only took about an hour all in from start to finish with everything double checked.

I went for a walk around St Mo’s later in the afternoon and was lucky enough to be overtaken by a jogger. I struggled to release my camera from its bag and got two shots of her/him before they were out of sight. In retrospect, a longer lens would have been better, but better still is the camera in your hand. PoD ticked off.

I was cooking tonight. Scamp had made dinner for about a week now and I thought it was about time I took charge in the kitchen. It was a ‘chuck it all in’ Tuna Pasta dish. Quite a few herbs and veg in the mix and it turned out great.

Hoping to get out somewhere interesting tomorrow if the weather holds.

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

I think you had a good day today. Birthday breakfast in bed with all your cards and prezzies around you. Yes, you had a decent day.

I was feeling better today. The combination of Paracetamol, Benylin and the strange squirty up the nose thing is beginning to work. I’m still hanging on grimly to the cough, just to prove to any of the disbelievers out there that I really am not well!

I didn’t do very much today, apart from read a few more chapters in my book, drink tea and eat toast. Eventually Scamp enticed me out into the real world to walk halfway to the shops. While she continued on to shops, I took a detour round St Mo’s with a camera. I got a few shots, but again, nothing all that interesting. I liked the PoD which was a couple of beech leaves dangling from a branch.

Scamp requested Fish & Chips for dinner tonight and I went off to find some. I actually enjoyed that meal. I think I’d lost some of my sense of taste to the lurgi, but the sharp taste of vinegar and salt brought it back.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and heard about all the goings on down south and got an explanation for a wicked looking short sword that came in the post. It does work well, I’m told. Scamp is delighted with it. Great for digging up dandelions I’m told. Likewise, she was taken by the Stiletto heeled shoe masquerading as a perfume bottle!!

I think I may have an early night tonight, after I take my pills and squirt the seawater up my nose. No real plans for tomorrow.

A morning in bed – 23 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Sometimes it works for me. Today it didn’t.

I woke with the same stinker of a cold that Scamp had last week. Usually I just have the morning in bed and when I get up in the early afternoon everything fits back into place again. Unfortunately that didn’t work today. I got up and just mooched around the house. Scamp went out to get me some more Benylin and a big packet of Paracetamol plus a strange looking Sea Salt Spray which the pharmacist recommended. Then she fed me the pills and a spoonful of Benylin and I squirted the salt spray up my nostrils. It was a strange feeling but it did seem to clear my nasal passages. I’ll try it again tonight before I go to bed.
The combination of Benylin and Paracetamol seem to be doing what they were designed for.

Scamp suggested that we cancel the trip to Oban we’d planned for Tuesday. I agreed, because I didn’t fancy getting the train to Oban if this cold/flu was hanging over me. Luck was on our side for once and I cancelled the hotel booking without having to pay out a penalty. Scamp managed to cancel the rail tickets with only £5 admin costs. I felt a fair bit relieved that we weren’t asked to pay to cancel the hotel and the train. We’re intending to re-schedule the Oban trip later in the year.

We watched a fairly lacklustre Chinese F1 GP in the afternoon. Just as I said before, it was only cars going round in circles … fast!

I went for a quick walk over St Mo’s and got some photos of apple blossom on one of the trees. That got PoD.

Scamp made dinner tonight. It was chicken soup made from two chicken thighs, pulled apart after they’d been boiled to make the soup, then chopped veg to fill it out a bit. The main course was three roasted chicken wings with potatoes, and broccoli. A variation on my chicken thighs, leeks and peas.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that they are getting some decent weather to go for a walk, even if Vixen wasn’t invited and heard about a forthcoming visit to London to a team building course. It might be fun.

Well, I’ve doped my self up with Paracetamol and Benylin and I’m looking forward to squirting some salt water up my nose! 😝

No plans for tomorrow. It depends on how “the Heid is”.

 

The day after – 21 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A slow start for today.

I had a heavy cold in the morning and took my time about rising. It had been hanging on me for a while and mixing with others yesterday may have passed it on to some while I probably picked up a variation from others. Whatever, it was a long lie in for me.

After breakfast we all drove over to Cafe Bothy – real name Coffee Bothy, but we’ve always know it as Cafe Bothy, I probably picked up the ‘wrong name’ from Isobel, yes, let’s blame her. Anyway, we were handed a buzzer as usual these days and we wandered round the ‘shop’ amazed at the prices they charged. We didn’t have to wait too long to get a seat and put in our order:

Fish ’n’ Chips for Jackie
Mac ’n’ Cheese for Scamp
Sri Lankan Lamb Curry for me

Service was a bit slow, but the food was good and we weren’t in a hurry.

I had managed to get a photo of the Wallace Monument when we arrived and with a bit of adjustment, that became the PoD. Drove home through gradually increasing density of traffic, but we managed to keep the wheels moving.

Lots of reminiscing tonight, listening to old music tracks I’d found of Scamp’s family singing in Conisborough Road. Ancient technology recorded on a tape recorder I think and transferred through a selection of technology to a memory stick. I wonder where these tracks will finish up and what technology will play them.

Jackie is intending heading back to Skye tomorrow. It’s been great having her. I think the place will feel empty tomorrow.

I think that was summer! – 19 March 2025

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A beautiful morning with sun streaming in the window.

It did just entice me to get up, but one look out the window confirmed my suspicion that there was ice on the birdbath. Too cold for an early morning walk. I keep thinking I should get up early and go for a walk, an take some photos, but I never really get round to it.

After breakfast I drove Scamp and Jackie over to The Fort and set them loose on that big avenue of retail therapy. I drove home. I thought I might drive up to Fannyside to get some landscapes, but instead, I dug out Scamp’s kneeling device and tried to make myself comfortable, stuck between the bins, but couldn’t settle. So it was back to the old trusted fold down canvas seat.

Strangely, tucked between the bins, I was almost invisible to folk passing by. I sat there for almost an hour with my new book “Paperboy”, written in broad Glaswegian. After that I made myself a cup of coffee and returned to the bins … and the book.

Eventually I had to stretch my legs and go for a walk into St Mo’s. Only managed one decent photo, but I liked it. A Coltsfoot Daisy. That was my dad’s favourite wild flower.

When Scamp and Jackie returned, I volunteered to walk over to Golden Bowl for tonight’s dinner Chicken Chow Mein for two and Chicken Chop Suey with fried rice for Scamp.

Tomorrow there may not be a blog post. We’ll see how things work out.

 

Exchange & Mart – 18 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Bought a lens on Friday. Sold it back on Tuesday.

It was a very poor quality lens that I could have updated using an app I’ve had for years, but it wasn’t worth the money or the time it would have taken me to do the upgrade. I wish now that I’d have kept the original that I sold at a loss a few years ago. However, I do have an equally good lens with less artefacts for a little bit more. Winners and losers, that’s what life is about.

We drove in to Glasgow to do the exchange. Scamp suggested parking at Cowcaddens carpark. From there, she could go for a coffee and a cake in Waterstones while I went to do the handover. The exchange only took a few minutes and then I was back on Sauchiehall Street and heading for a Flat White and a cake while Scamp was almost finished.

Drove home, but I didn’t feel all that great. Feeling dizzy and aching all over. It felt that I had picked up Scamp’s cold. A vitamin-c tablet and a couple of paracetamol sorted things. Then Scamp’s suggestion (demand) that I have a wee snooze in the afternoon seemed to hit the mark.

She woke me a few hours later with a cup of tea and I realised I’d caught myself snoring on the bed, after I’d been criticising other people for doing the same thing. Of course, I was ill and the other person was only snoring. There is a difference!

I took my second lot of pills and Vit-C and went for a quick walk round St Mo’s and got at least one good shot of the late afternoon sun shining through the trees and that made PoD. By the time I got home Jackie was almost in Glasgow and I was ’encouraged’ to allow her to take the bus back to Cumbersheugh.

Scamp made her delicious Prawn & Pea Risotto for dinner tonight and as usual it was perfect. As she says, it’s one of the few dishes I’ll eat with loads of lemon in it.

Tomorrow the ladies might be going for a walk around The Fort, but it won’t be an early rise, I’m sure.

 

Another sunny day – 17 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

Scamp suggested we go out for lunch somewhere today. I agreed.

We drove out past Stirling to The Smiddy, not the seedy wee pub in Cumbersheugh, but the cafe / deli / restaurant near Doune. We go there quite often and the food is always good, especially the ‘specials’. I had a Venison Burger with all the trimmings and delicious chips. Scamp had Posh Fish Pie. Both were lovely and tasted just as good as they looked.

We drove home via the conjoined Dobbies and Lakeland. Their adjoining shutter door was having a bad day which separated the two stores. Scamp almost got a pair of black shoes to fit her in Moshulu, but came home with a scrubbing brush from Lakeland instead. I also took a detour past B&Q to look at power drills. My old Black & Decker with its NiCad batteries just won’t hold the power these days, but then they are ancient now. I had a look, but need to have a word with Crawford to see what he recommends I should buy.

Finally back home, I took the A7iii out for a walk and tried the Samyang lens and wasn’t impressed with the results. I think it may go back. Too much colour fringing and vignettes. Maybe I can fix it with an upgrade, but I doubt it. I did get a close-up of some of the thorns of a hawthorn bush and that became PoD.

That was about it for today. Hoping for more good weather tomorrow, but Scamp wants to “do some tidying up”. That doesn’t sound much like fun!

First F1 GP of the year – 16 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

We just had to watch it.

We’d recorded it, and I had avoided looking too carefully at the BBC news on my phone this morning just in case I saw the result before I watched the race. I had to wait Scamp had finished watching Laura Kuenssberg tearing into some politicians. Usually it’s interesting, but really, this isn’t politics, it’s much more important. This is Formula One. The first race of the season!
Yes, I know I’ll suffer for that … later!

Anyway I ate my lunch while the politics thing was on, then I had a couple of hours of entertainment as cars went skidding this way and that. Even the big names were sliding across the Melbourne grass, and that was before the rain came! For once there was fun, frolics and broken cars in F1. Thankfully there were no serious injuries.

With that done, I wrote out a shopping list under Scamp’s dictation and went shopping. I found out where the Paracetamol and the Ibuprofen were kept, they were in a different Tesco. The main Tesco seems to get all the goodies while our skimpy one gets the leftovers. I’ve suspected it for ages, but I prove it to myself today.

Back home with ticks in all my shopping boxes, I prepared my Breast of Lamb for the oven, then with a host of herbs adorning it, I bunged it in the oven at about Gas Mark three and a bit for a couple of hours and went for a walk in St Mo’s. There wasn’t much to see until I was heading home and the sun came out from behind the clouds. That gave me two possible PoDs. The winner was a landscape looking across the pond to two individuals who appeared to be looking for the frogs that had been there last week.

Back home the lamb was halfway through its allotted time, so I gave it a shake and a turn, then it went back into the oven to finish off.

It actually turned out fine. Perhaps a bit overcooked, but it tasted fine. Scamp had a lovely big thick fillet of salmon which also looked good.

Spoke to Jamie and heard that Simonne is labouring under the same symptoms as Scamp. Sore throat, runny nose and an awful cough. I think Scamp felt better after that.

We have no real plans for tomorrow. It depends on how Scamp is feeling. Both of us have been sitting here having a sniffing competition!

Another sunny morning – 14 March 2025

Posted on by Zogman

A sunny morning that deserved a walk or something active, but instead we stayed home and just enjoyed the sunshine.

Scamp had woken with a stinker of a cold. I had had some business in the village but was given a list of medicines we needed in the house, but Benylin Original was high on the list for Scamp. I managed to source the Benylin easily, but Paracetamol and Ibuprofen were more problematic. However I had found a couple of the meds and that meant I wasn’t going home empty handed.

Back home, I found the final photos I needed to finalise the Order of Service booklet and sent them off through the ether to the Funeral director. She got back to me fairly quickly, confirming that everything had been received. That meant my work was done. The photos for the screening were with the funeral people, as were the Order of Service photos.

Meanwhile Scamp cleared the bed and was ready to rotate the mattress. A monthly process where we either rotate the mattress of we flip fit over. It weighs half a ton, so the word ‘flip’ is rather flippant for turning over such a heavy load!

We decided we deserved a day out for lunch, and after some discussion, settled on The Riverhouse in Stirling. We drove to find that the carpark was completely full, not even a space to squeeze a little BMX bike far less a car. We couldn’t think where else we’d find a decent restaurant on a Friday afternoon, so we drove home.

I went for a walk in St Mo’s and got a nice bit of ‘Bokeh’ (out of focus highlights) with the sun setting behind some Gorse flowers. That easily made PoD.

I made a mess of the pizza I’d bought on the way home, forgetting to put it on a tray in the oven which led to the centre of the pizza falling through onto the empty tray beneath. Some days I just can’t do anything right!

The Benylin and the paracetamol plus the ibuprofen seemed to work on Scamp’s cough and her cold, I’m glad to say.

I’m hoping to pick up my new lens tomorrow. Scamp’s looking for a new vase for her flowers. Maybe we can achieve both. That would be nice!

Out on the town – 12 March 2025

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Just Alex and I, out for a photo walk.

We met at the Buchanan Bus Station as normal and went for a coffee in Nero. We must have sat talking about last week for over an hour. Certainly long enough for Alex’s coffee to get cold, but he didn’t want another one. Once I’d unburdened myself and answered his questions, we walked down a sunny Buchanan Street and zig-zagged down to Argyle Street where Alex wanted to get a new set of strings for his guitar.

On the way I got a photo of two old (ish) ladies, one-finger typing into their phones. I know I should be careful with the ‘Old’ word, I’m in the male category of that age group now too! Anyway, when I got home I was pleased to see the photos had turned out well and one of them became PoD. Photographing strangers is a photo technique I’ve learned from Alex. It can be a really interesting way to use a camera … as long as you don’t get caught.

Getting back to the Photo Walk, we walked back along Argyle Street and crossed over to head for Paesano, the only pizza shop Alex would go to. Pizzas were lovely as usual and another hour had passed in catching up chat. I suggested we have a day away in Dundee some time and get some photos of the V&A. Alex agreed that it might be good in the warmer weather, when the days were longer. I’m not sure he’s completely sold on the idea.

When we’d been talking in Nero, Alex had mentioned he fancied a walk up Sauchiehall Street, just to see how the renovations were going. However, we’d gone down Buchanan Street instead. He said it was probably muscle memory, because we ofter walk down that hill to go to St Enoch’s. Whatever the reason, we went for that walk up Sauchiehall Street then. I wanted to look for a book I’d seen advertised on the ‘net, but wasn’t due to hit the shelves until tomorrow. While Alex went for a wander round the books, I found the book I was looking for “Paperboy”. Out a day early. I used the book token Scamp had given me back in January to buy it. Thank you Scamp.

Another coffee and a long blether later we were ready to hit the road back to the bus station when Alex noticed that the time was fast approaching 5pm.

We said our goodbyes and went to our buses. I just got on mine and almost got to my seat when the bus reversed out of the stance. Perfect timing.

That was a good day. PoD was the shot of the two ladies struggling with the technological challenge of mobile phones.

Tomorrow we are meeting the Celebrant to finalise the remaining details for next week. Hopefully the meeting will go well.