Category: Food

A more relaxing day – 14 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

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.

Up and out early – 13 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

This was an early shout. Synchronised alarms set for 7:30. That’s early for us.

Scamp was off to Inverness today to meet her sister for lunch and a blether and maybe just a wee G&T each.

The day started with the 7:30 alarm, then after a quick breakfast I drove Scamp to the station where she would catch the train to Glasgow. After a brisk walk up to Buchanan Street bus station, it was on to the coach for the 3.5 hour journey to Inverness. Meanwhile I’d done my bit for now and was free to enjoy a relaxing cup of coffee and a seat in the sun, because it was a beautiful morning. Instead, I walked over to Condorrat to drop a couple of birthday cards in the post box then went for a morning stroll round St Mo’s where I got a few shots that never made PoD, but at least I had something in the bag. Then I had the coffee and the seat in the sun.

I messed around with my newest piece of software ON1 2023 and was amazed at some of the things it could do, but also disappointed with the quality of some of the things it was supposed to excel at. As with all pieces of software, the first version is always poor, but after v2 or v3 most of the bugs have been ironed out and it’s only seven or eight months later the software can be relied upon to produce the goods.

Lunch time was coming up, but I had other things on my mind. I was heading out somewhere to take some photos, but where? I was starting out heading east, first stop was Torwood to get a new set of solar powered lights for the back garden. Instead of buying the cheapo ones from B&M or Home Bargains that last about three or four months, I thought Scamp deserved a set of better quality ones and I was pretty sure I’d get some at Torwood. They had quite a large selection and I managed to get what I was looking for. Unfortunately just as I was getting close to the garden centre, the rain came. It came in sheets, blowing along the valley. Maybe it wouldn’t be such a good idea to go that way after all. I cut my losses and drove back towards Cumbersheugh and stopped at Haggs for a walk along the canal, where there was still blue sky and no sign of rain. Scotland can be like that. Dry when you start out, then five miles down the road the rain is torrential. Five miles further on it’s blue sky and sunshine again.

I got a few shots at one of the locks on the Forth & Clyde canal and was happy with them. Added to the ones I had from the morning walk around St Mo’s, I should get a PoD out of the selection. All the while I was conducting an on/off WhatsApp conversation with Scamp, getting updates on her journey.

I drove home from Haggs and started thawing out my dinner which would be Pork Stew and a baked potato. I’d made the stew ages ago and buried it deep in the freezer. It was a solid brick and would take quite a while to defrost. The weather I’d met on the way east was beginning to appear around here now. Big black clouds looking quite ominous. Time to power up the computer and get the images downloaded. While that was happening, I was working out what to do for today’s prompt ‘Kind’. Another of the vague prompts that don’t give you much of a toe hold on what to draw. I finally settled on a scarecrow as a central figure and little animals in his pocket or in his straw.

Dinner first, though and while I was eating it I was watching a webinar about the new software, but the bloke who was teaching it kept stopping to answer questions and would then go back over what he’d already done. Pointless. I gave up, finished my dinner, selected the PoD and started the sketch.

Missed a message from Scamp to say that she was on the bus heading home. She sent me a message when she was passing Stirling and I drove in to Glasgow to pick her up.

As it turned out, it was a bit of a messed up day for me, although Scamp seemed to have enjoyed her outing with Jackie. Glad she did it and I’m sure Jackie is glad she went too.

Tomorrow we may be going out for lunch, somewhere local.

 

On the Green – 9 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

 

The morning was dry, but not all that bright, but we’ll take ‘dry’ and get out.

We drove down to Glasgow Green where there were big spaces in the car park. It soon became clear that the reason for the spaces was the ‘pond’ that had appeared after the days of continuous rain we’ve had. Nobody wanted to park in the ‘pond’ , and neither did we, but we were there early and found a dry parking space.

We walked down to the McLennan arch near the High Court and then turned back along the path beside the Clyde. We took some time on the suspension bridge to watch some of the rowers in their twos, fours and eights and even one or two sculls. From there we walked on to the new bridge over the Clyde that would take us to Richmond Park. Not nearly as well kept as its English cousin, it’s in a bit of a state, and has been for some time now. Half of the original park was chopped up and sold to developers who now seem to have stalled, leaving it as an ugly, half finished building site. The pond is clogging up with litter and other kinds of detritus. Still, it doesn’t stop the model boat builders who were there today showing off their boats. That was the good part of the pond. We walked round the less well maintained section where there is a jungle, honestly that’s the only way to describe it, a jungle on an island in the middle of the pond. Ignored by the council, because it would cost too much to maintain. False economy, because it will just get worse with every year that passes.

We crossed back over the Clyde and walked past more building work on a piece of spare ground. This one looked more organized with proximity detectors to prevent intrusion. I photographed one that looked like a robot. Maybe it photographed me too! After a while we were recrossing our steps back to the car park where that big puddle was still guarding a few parking places.

Back home I decided it was time I cut my hair. It took longer than I thought, even with two clippers and Scamp to help me. It’s great to have a shower and have dry hair after a few minutes.

Dinner tonight was Seabass with roast veg and roast potatoes. Eaten while we watched a very strong Japanese GP which Verstappen won. Also, after a few a few scratched heads by the officials, he was also crowned World Champion because of an infringement by Le Clerc that dropped the Ferrari driver down to third place. Verstappen never seems to win a clear victory, but he did deserve today’s award.

Spoke to Jamie tonight and heard how he may have moved to his new company at the right time. Good luck to Simonne on her half marathon on Saturday.

Today’s Inktober prompt is “Nest”.  My sketch is of some wee hatchlings, what we in Larky used to call ‘Scuds” in their nest.  Not the best sketch in the world, but done and posted. PoD went to a “Meeting of Mushrooms”.  With all the UK parties having their conferences just now, maybe the mushrooms are thinking about having their own political party.  They couldn’t do much worse!

Tomorrow we’re going to see a man about a car.

Heading East – 8 October 2022

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We were determined to get out somewhere today. I chose East.

<Hazy-warning>
We drove to Culross and we were better than half way there when I remembered I was going to bring my walking boots and they were still I the cupboard they live it back at the house. But we were half way there and although it was raining, the sky was clearing the further east we went. Trainers would be fine.

When we got to the quaint wee village of Culross which Hazy hates with a vengeance, we had just parked when the rain came on much heavier so we sat in the car for a while. To make sure we stayed there, a bus parked behind us, blocking in at least half a dozen cars. Admittedly there aren’t very many place to park a bus in Culross and at least the driver stayed in the bus while he waited for his time slot to go, or maybe he was having his lunch. Culross must be one of the few places where a bus is allowed to block in six cars, legally parked in a car park. That’s the Fife mentality.

Eventually the rain eased and we got out for a walk beside the railway that has no traffic now that Longannet has been demolished. The railway used to carry slag from the power station to dump it on some reclaimed land on the east end of the town. The railway runs alongside the Firth of Forth, so we were on the path beside the railway beside the sea.

I wouldn’t say the weather was brilliant, but there were bright spells and the rain although always there wasn’t heavy. We walked a path we hadn’t been on for years. A path that zig zagged between the edge of a wood and some boggy looking grassland. A couple ahead of us had an excitable collie that kept running into the long grass and on one of its runs it spooked a deer. I don’t know who got the bigger fright, the dog or the deer. Once the dog had recovered, it seemed to think this was a great game, running into the grass to see what else it could find. The deer just ran away until it was half way across the field where it felt safe enough to start grazing again. The dog was called back and put on a leash for the rest of the walk.

We eventually found the end of the path where it rejoined the main walkway through the woods, but it was a long way round the main walk which would take us round the edge of the reclaimed land and eventually back to the car park. I suggested we take the other direction and walk the main path back to the railway walk. That’s what we did and just as we were about 100m from the car the rain came down in torrents. Just as I was framing up a couple of photos. I managed to get one of the and that made PoD. It’s the new pier at Culross with a lion rampant on a flagpole. The girl standing there was a ‘lucky’. Scamp was wet, I was soaked. We had intended going for a late lunch at Torwood garden centre, but we agreed we were both too wet for that and went home for a late lunch of tea and toast.
</Hazy-warning>

Later in the afternoon I walked down to the shops to get an M&S curry for each of us for dinner. We ate it while we watched the qualifying for the Japanese GP. It looks like a wet race tomorrow which always makes for interesting driving.

Today’s prompt was ‘Match’. Nobody believed that the newly married Mr and Mrs Match would ever settle down. In fact most of their friends said that a couple of hot-heads like these would end up in an almighty flaming row. However they proved to be the perfect match for each other.

No plans as yet for tomorrow.  Probably there will be more rain falling from the sky, but if there isn’t, there might be the chance of a walk.

 

Caught out – 7 October 2022

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Slept late today. Must have needed the rest with all the walking and exercise recently (I don’t think!)

Scamp was out in the morning for her FitSteps class. I loaded the washing machine before she left and put it on for its hour long wash. Managed to collect the first of my six active hours. It should have been eight, but six out of eight is a good start. There was blue sky and sunshine when I came back from my morning stroll round the policies as Colin would say, and the washing was done. I decided it would stay dry for a while, so I hung out the washing. Ten minutes later the rain came on. Should I take the washing in or should I risk leaving it out. A quick look to the west confirmed my suspicions that bring it in would be the smartest thing to do. It was indeed the sensible thing to do, because as soon as Scamp came in from her class there was an almighty cloudburst.

Earlier in the morning we’d considered going out to lunch if the weather held, but that wasn’t going to happen. Instead we had a banana sandwich each and watched the rain falling. We needed vegetables and some fruit so we went on a trip to Tesco to get the messages. It was still raining a bit, but the cloudburst had gone east to dampen someone else’s day. We loaded up the car with bags and drove home.

To brighten our spirits, Scamp suggested fish suppers for dinner and I readily agreed. It was while I was walking over to Condorrat that I got a couple of photos, in the gloaming, that could be blended together to make PoD. For me it kind of summed up the grim week of weather we’d had. A queue of cars heading to Glasgow, while another string of headlights heads towards Cumbersheugh on the other lane of the motorway. Meanwhile a quite surprising and colourful sunset appears above the trees. That’s Scotland for you!

The prompt for today was ‘Trip’. Various possibilities went through my head as solutions to this request, but the one that worked best, and my first thought actually was the one you see here. The poor bloke is falling, but I’m not sure if that’s a precipice or a grassy knoll or maybe a busy road. I leave it up to you, my dear readers to decide the final outcome for yourselves! It could be titled “Did you bring me a stalk of rock?” (From your trip!)

Tomorrow looks like the best day of the week. For* ‘best’* read ‘least worst’. I think we’re intending going out somewhere … anywhere.

An early walk – 5 October 2022

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I was out early to the post office to send off a parcel to Samsung.

I’d recently bought myself a Samsung phone and as part of their deal, got a discount if I mailed them an old, but working, mobile phone. Scamp volunteered her Huawei P Smart which is now on its way to them. As I was walking over to the post office in the rain, I overtook this snail that was also heading in the same direction. It seemed to be quite sure where it was going and, as it was making fairly good snail time, I said good morning and passed on. At this point I must thank the couple on the other side of the road who stopped and waited while I took a couple of photos. I don’t know what they thought I was doing. I thanked them and walked on.

We had half intended to go out for lunch today, but as it was raining and miserably we agreed we’d walk down to Broadwood Farm for lunch. It’s a part of a chain and, of course, has never been a farm, its main stock in trade now is as a carvery of sorts. That suited me fine, but as Scamp doesn’t eat all that much meat, she had her usual Fish ’n’ Chips. I had the carvery, Turkey, Ham and Roast Beef with all the veg you could eat. Years ago Broadwood Farm was a decent pub with a fair selection of beers. Today I fancied Guinness, but they didn’t have any ‘at this time’. In that case I’d have a Belhaven Best. Oh, that was also off ‘at this time. I asked what they did have, and it turned out they only had lager, no beer. There used to be a song about “A pub with no beer”. Now it’s become a reality. The food was decent pub grub although I could have used the roast beef to repair the soles of my shoes. Next time I’ll have turkey and ham. We took a long way home via M&S for bread and fruit.

Much later in the afternoon I went for a walk in St Mo’s and bumped into another teacher from school who was out walking her dogs and moaning about it. It was obvious that she was really enjoying it, but didn’t want to say so. Some folk are just like that. As the light was fading I walked on, still in the rain, but although I took a few more photos, there was nothing interesting in them once I’d downloaded them to the computer.

I was just thinking the other day that I’ve not seen any swallows recently.  I think the last time I saw some was about a month ago. I think they must all be back in warmer climes now.  Lucky them!

Today’s prompt for Inktober was ‘Flame’ and in an attempt to enhance my sketch I made the flame be a candle flame, put the candle in a candle holder and then had three moths flying around it. Like Moths To a Flame. It’s important to make it one candle and three moths. Odd numbers of objects are seen as more interesting than even numbers apparently.

No plans for tomorrow, now that Scamp has been dumped by her wee sister!

The Elephant on the path – 2 October 2022

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We went for a walk and saw an elephant.

We did Wordle (Me 5, Scamp 3). We did Spelling Bee (Me 2 words, Scamp 1). I messed about with settings on the phone again and finally found a way of deleting all the annoying nonsense jokes and funny stories one of my pals dumps on me every day. Basically we just sat there wasting time while it was beautiful sunshine outside. Eventually one of Scamp’s “I’m fed up” sighs prompted me to ask “Should we go out for a walk?” Of course that was what the big sigh was for, so Scamp promptly agreed.

We walked out along the path to Broadwood and over the rickety bridge. Some idiot thought it would be a good idea to make a boardwalk out over part of Broadwood Loch, but make it out of plastic, presumably because it was cheaper and the plastic wouldn’t rot. It wouldn’t rot, but its not strong enough to hold lots of people either. NLC. Numpty Labour Council. Anyway we survived the Wibbly, Wobbly Way and walked on, over the dam down behind it and along past the exercise machines. Back up the hill and into then out of M&S with a bag full of messages.

It was when we were walking up the path to the house, I saw what I thought was a big fat slug on the kerb. On closer inspection, its skin was dry and not at all like a slugs slime. I tried to take some photos with my camera, but it wouldn’t focus close enough. My phone did, though. Back home I did a bit of research and found that it was in fact an Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar. Like the ugly duckling, it turns into a beautifully colourful moth. You didn’t think it was a real Elephant, did you. Come on, it’s Cumbersheugh. Somebody would have taken it home and hidden it in their bedroom. Ah, but that’s a different story that I might tell you some time. The photo of the Elephant Hawk-moth caterpillar is on Flickr if you’re interested.

I started my dinner early. It was Stew and it needed a long time to cook, so I fried off the meat and dumped it with a chopped up onion, a couple of rubbery carrots and half a can of Guinness in the slow cooker and left it to slow cook for a couple of hours. Then I went for a walk in St Mo’s. It was still a lovely day but I found very little to photograph. I eventually settled for a single dandelion gone to seed. That became PoD.

The stew wasn’t great, because it wasn’t cooked for long enough. Scamp’s salmon was overcooked and the skin wouldn’t come off. Somewhere between those two extremes was the perfect dinner. Maybe tomorrow. Homemade Apple Sponge for dessert was perfect! Our apples too!

The prompt was ‘Scurry’? Well, it just had to be a mouse and cartoon mice are easier to draw than real live furry ones, so that was it settled. A cartoon mouse it was.

Spoke to Jamie later and we discussed phones and the difficulties of working with the Samsung website. Also on the discussion table was vegetable gardening. Glad he’s getting some decent tomatoes after a bit of a problem earlier in the year.

Hoping for a good day tomorrow. The weather fairies say don’t bother.

 

A much better day – 29 September 2022

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Decided to have one more try at the Samsung website.

The expression “A Dug wi’ a Burst Ba’.” springs to mind. I just couldn’t let it lie. I just tried to buy the phone this time, but it still kicked me out. Then I thought it might be the extra £100 from Jamie’s generous offer that was causing problems. With a heavy heart I removed it and tried again. Lo and Behold, it worked! DPD sent me a message this afternoon to say they would be delivering my parcel tomorrow. Let’s hope it’s the phone and not the box to return the old Huawei!

So, with a skip in my step and after a lift from Scamp, I got a train in to Glasgow to meet Alex. We got the bus out to Kelvingrove and the picture above is what we saw when we got off, PoD captured. Beautiful light on Glasgow Uni with dark glowering skies above. It only lasted for a few minutes then the light was gone, heading north to brighten somebody else’s day. We listened to the organist playing the gigantic pipe organ in the main hall of Kelvingrove Art Galleries, then we had lunch. After that Alex wanted to photograph the ceiling of the main hall, so I loaned him my wide angle lens while I wandered round the galleries. For the first time in my life I plucked up courage and asked a total stranger if I could take their photo. Thankfully, she said Yes. I never asked her name and she didn’t ask mine, but she was sketching a plaster bust in one of the galleries. Thank you, whoever you are.

After we’d covered everything in the building, we walked up to Glasgow Uni. All that good light was well gone by then, but Alex was heading for the famous Cloisters to get some slow shutter photos of folk walking around them. I did the same, but neither of us was all that successful and we left the excited ‘Freshers’ to their conducted tours and walked back down the hill to get the bus into Glasgow.

There was a bloke came on to the bus in a fancy motorised wheelchair. We were impressed at the way he could manoeuvre it into a busy bus and then reverse it into the wheelchair space. I told him as we left how impressed I was with his driving skills and he just laughed and said “Thanks for noticing!”

Another coffee in Nero and we walked down to the bus station. Alex was getting the bus home and I was heading to the station hoping that Scamp would give me a lift home from there, which she did.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Cacciatore. Delightful with a glass of red. A great end to a really good day.

Tomorrow looks like rain from start to finish!

Back to the garage – 27 September 2022

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Today we were going back to the garage.

We had a problem, but not with the car. The service history hadn’t been updated and wasn’t signed. I thought it would be a quick and easy fix, but forgot that the log book is a legal document and needs to be signed by the person who performed the service. That meant I had to wait for the service manager to take the book to the mechanic for him to sign, then bring it back. These little things seem to matter.

With the book signed, we continued on to Morrisons in Stirling. It was nearby and we hadn’t been to it for years, besides Morrisons is the only place we can be sure to get Neapolitan wafer ice cream. Just to be sure again, we got two packets. Of course we got other less important things too, like food.

After that we drove back through traffic that was considerably lighter than yesterday’s moving car park. Scamp discovered that the reason was probably the fact that there were three cows on the M73 after discovering that the grass was indeed greener on the other side of the fence. Something in the region of a ten mile tailback for three cows. And we wonder why the country is going to the dogs … and the cows.

I’d put the idea of a new phone on the back burner a week or so ago, today I turned up the gas. I had been looking at getting a Samsung Galaxy S21 FE, but Samsung UK didn’t have any to sell. John Lewis had none in any of its shops, Curry’s and Argos did have some, but they didn’t do 0% finance which the other two did. I’d read somewhere that Samsung had halted production of the ‘older’ phone, to concentrate on their newer models. I started looking at a more recent S22+. To help offset the cost, I could trade in an old phone – that offer wasn’t available for the S21 FE. The only stipulation seemed to be that it didn’t have a broken screen and that it would hold a charge. I put in the IMEI number of my old A40 and there it was, an instant £150 discount. I might just take them up on the offer.

With a bit of a smile on my face, I went for a walk in St Mo’s and found lots of spiders sitting in their webs, patiently waiting for an unlucky fly. However, the PoD turned out to be a shot of the late afternoon sun glancing across the Campsie Fells. I also walked over to Condorrat to get some stew and some mince to fill up my section of the freezer.  Back home I ordered another batch of Rave coffee.  Slightly different from what the Perth shop sells.  Not better, nor worse, just different.  A pleasant change.

It wasn’t until later in the evening that I discovered I’d brought something else back from St Mo’s. A tiny little tick on my wrist. It’s now gone to tick heaven. First one for ages. I hope it’s the last one for a while.

Tomorrow we’re visiting Margie. Always an entertainment.

Lunch in the Toon and a Wanderer returns – 26 September 2022

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We took the train in to Glasgow today after Scamp had run us to the station.  Just a wander around the centre of Glasgow with maybe the chance of a lunch thrown in.  Seemed like a good way to use a sunny day.  Sunny, but not all that warm, well it is nearly the end of September.  Glasgow was busy, probably partly because this is the end of September weekend which is a local holiday.  We walked down Buchanan Street and heard a bloke playing a blues on nice sounding guitar.  I gave him a few quid for his efforts.  We walked back up and found the restaurant Val had praised a few weeks ago.  It’s called Mozza and is part of a chain.  We’d been impressed with their pizzas when we’d been staying in Annette’s caravan in St Andrews last year.  Today’s pizza wasn’t a patch on the St Andrews one.  I had Italian Sausage and allegedly Italian Broccoli, but what was on my plate was cabbage, possibly Italian cabbage, but nothing like broccoli.  It was smothered in half a ton of cheese.  Scamp was smarter, she’d asked for just a little cheese and her’s looked a lot less of a mess.  It wasn’t expensive, but it wasn’t all that great either.  It wasn’t as bad as Doppio Malto’s effort, but way below Paesano in my quality rating.

We went for coffee in Nero after the disappointing pizza and then headed for the train.  Just missed the train back by seconds and with 25 minutes to wait for the next one, we went for a walk round George Square and down to Cass Art to see if they had a sale on … they didn’t so we ambled back to the station and on the way I got a few shots of the big glass building that is 110 Queen Street.  I liked the round table set for a meeting.  That became PoD.

Back home and had just finished a coffee when the phone rang and it was the garage to say the Blue car was ready.  I drove the White Duke over to Stirling, noting  the two mile queue on the other carriageway, the carriageway I would have been using to drive home.  Picked up our car and found that an upgrade to the Engine Control Unit had solved the problem and an upgrade to the sat nav and radio had also been done and checked.  I haven’t tested their checks yet, I was too busy plotting a route home that would mean the wheels were turning all the time, but I think we may go for a run soon.

That was about it for the day.  Nice to have the Micra back, but I admit I almost stalled it a couple of times forgetting it wasn’t an automatic!

No plans for tomorrow yet.  Weather looks reasonable for the time of year.