Category: Food

Caught out – 7 October 2022

Posted on by Zogman

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.

 

Hardly past the door – 25 September 2022

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It was a dull day. Rain that couldn’t make up its mind what to do at first, but settled for that misty, not-quite-rain we call Smirr in Scotland. Just plain miserable.

I made another start on clearing up the back bedroom and managed to find the sofa under old jeans and tee shirts that really need to be repaired or consigned to the bin. One pair of jeans have already left the room to go into a charity bag. Another pair is teetering on the edge of that same abyss. A load of old electronic junk is ready to meet the ‘small electrical’ skip in the near future. Heavens, if I keep going like this, I might even find the carpet soon.

After lunch I stretched a sketch of a house with the intention of splashing paint on it, but it didn’t quite dry out until much later in the day, but I’m sure it will be there tomorrow ready to be painted on. Watercolour, I think. Maybe a practise piece for a bigger painting on real watercolour paper.

Dinner was last night’s curry reheated. It tasted fine, but in retrospect, maybe it needed a little bit of liquid to help it soak into the rice.

Watched last night’s Strictly, but it was the same old stuff with the same old comments. Only the faces had changed’, and even then, only some of them. Same ‘judges’ same awful presenters. We discussed who would be first to go, but we both thought it would be the same person. We’ll see if we’re right next week.

Spoke to Jamie later and we discussed Assisted Steering or whatever it’s called on his car. He loves it and I hate it. Maybe I’ll come to make friends with it, but that will take some time. He sent us a newsletter from his new company which welcomes him into the team. It makes impressive reading. Seventeen years experience in the field? Where did all that time go?

The photo for today’s PoD was a tabletop shot. No way was I going out to wander around in the rain getting wet just to click a shutter at the right time. It covers two bases. It’s today’s PoD and it covers the brief for this week’s Flickr Friday which was ‘Drop’. This week it will be in on time.

No plans for tomorrow. The weather looks better than today, according to the weather fairies predictions.

 

Dancin’ – 24 September 2022

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Difficult dancin’ too but, I did tell them I wasn’t to move my left foot from the floor. That’s what made it difficult.

We drove the White Duke to the dance class in Brookfield. Never once did I move my left foot off the floor. I tried out the cruise control on the quieter stretches out approaching Paisley, but I didn’t like the way the car took over the driving, controlling not only the speed, but also the steering. It’s called ‘Assisted Steering’ and it attempts to keep you between the white lines. That’s what my friend, Colin, claims to do when he’s driving on memory. Keep it between the white lines and on the left side of the road! Actually, it drove quite well. Part of the fear is gone, but part is still there. Now, perhaps, I know how Scamp feels when she says it feels like the car is getting away from her. Anyway, we made it with time to spare.

We stared today with the Mambo Marina. It’s a silly, but cheerful little sequence dance with, what Stewart calls, ‘Happy Music’. We know it and it was one of the first sequence dances I learned. That got us on our feet and warmed up, because it was a cold morning this morning. 4.3ºc when I was making the breakfast.
Next it was Gershwin Foxtrot. We’d been practising this at home in the living room and although the heel turns and spin turns were difficult to control when dancing on a carpet, we felt we were progressing. Stewart, the perfectionist, found lots of my steps to criticise, but I understand where he’s coming from. Positioning on the dance floor is important in ballroom. I’m so used to Salsa where you don’t mind where you end up or what direction you’re facing. It’s a couple dance that really can be danced on the spot. Most of the ballroom dances flow round in an anticlockwise direction and a bit of floor craft is necessary to make sure nobody crashes into anyone else. Although a certain person who shall remain nameless did once deliberately crash into a show-off latin dancer, and enjoyed it! We’ve almost completed the Gershwin now with just a couple of figures left to round the whole thing off.
We finished today with Tango Serida which I’d never danced, or don’t remember dancing, although Scamp knows how it all works. To help out us beginners, S&J did a couple of walk-throughs. In the end, we were almost ‘getting it’.

Drove home via the Clyde Tunnel and, again, my left foot stayed firmly fixed on the floor. MPG for the journey was in the mid 50s which is quite good for a fairly heavy automatic, I think.

The rest of the day was spent recovering from the dancing and the stressful drive back, although I did go out for a walk in the afternoon and managed to get some lovely light on a spider stretched out over its web. That got PoD.

Dinner tonight came from Bombay Dreams and was delivered very promptly. The food was just as good as it usually is. I can’t find anything to beat BD for good Indian food, certainly not locally.

We watched the tedious matching up of the professional dancers with the celebrities in Strictly, actually a recording from yesterday. We have today’s equally cringe inducing first dance recorded to watch tomorrow. We just like living in the past, you see!

We watched ‘Ridley’, Hazy. Actually we quite enjoyed it and found that ‘Ted Hastings’ could hold a decent tune. It was a bit long for a police drama, though.

No plans for tomorrow. No F1 GP to watch, but I suppose there will be something to do in the garden!

 

Out to lunch – 23 September 2022

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June and Iain were taking us out to lunch today.

The day started with a morning call from Hazy. She sounded good and she agreed that she was feeling a lot better on her new meds. We caught up with all that was going on down south and we relayed what news we had. A good start to the day!

Scamp was out to FitSteps and while she was out I’d intended doing some painting, or slapping some paint on a piece of paper with pencil scratches on it, if you prefer. It never got done. Instead I took a series of selfie pictures, distorted ones for a FlickrFriday challenge. Unfortunately, I think I left it too late to post them because they’ve not appeared on the website. Still, they made an interesting, or funny, PoD.

Just as I was finishing, Scamp arrived home, had a quick shower and got changed. I’d already shaved off the stubble from the photograph session so a quick shower for me too and a change of clothes and we were both ready to go. No phone call from the garage to say when the car would be ready, so I was going to miss out on my lunchtime drink. There was no point in both of us missing out, so I said I’d drive us back home after lunch. That would allow Scamp to have a cheeky wee red with her meal.

June and Iain were waiting for us at the restaurant which wasn’t busy, so we got to choose where we sat. Scamp and Iain had Fish ’n’ Chips and June had Beef Bourguignon. I had my all time Dead Deer favourite, Gammon Steak with two eggs. The food didn’t take long to appear after our drinks, and it seemed to go down well. I must say that my gammon steak was the best I’ve ever had in the Dead Deer. Almost perfect. The only thing missing was the grilled pineapple rings that I used to get. The others went on to have dessert. Scamp had Banoffee Pie and Iain had White Chocolate and Raspberry Tart, but June was the star with a Black Forest Flower Pot with Dark Mousse, Cherries in Kirsch, Brownie Pieces and Whipped Cream! If you had seen it on the plate, you would have believed it was a real flower pot that had fallen spilling out its soil. It looked too good to eat, but it was scoffed! I had coffee. By the way, Hazy, there was no great revelation.

We sat and talked for a while, a long while and set the world to rights again. If they had only asked us, we could have fixed thing properly without the need for a Tory leadership contest, but they never listen, do they.

We thanked our kind benefactors and while they waited for a taxi, I drove Scamp and me home. Still no message from the garage to say what was going on with the car.

I phoned the garage when we got home, but nobody at the service desk wanted to answer. I left it a quarter of an hour and phoned again. This time I got to speak to the bloke who had arranged the car being signed in. He said they were still working on it and when I pressed him on a date for completion he said Monday or Tuesday next week. I asked him for a confirmation email that my insurance had been extended and he agreed to send it. I’m still waiting, but as it’s now almost 11pm, I don’t think it will arrive tonight. Yesterday I thought this garage had turned the corner, but now I think it’s in a one way street, going the wrong way. I’ll give them until Tuesday and then I’ll doorstep them to get an answer.

One final practise of the Jet Lag Waltz tonight and another of the Gershwin Foxtrot. I think we’re ready for the last dance class for almost a month while the teachers swan off to teach on a cruise ship. Somewhere warm, no doubt.

So, hopefully the White Duke will take us to Brookfield tomorrow and bring us back safely. Just as long as I remember to keep my left foot on the floor.

An early rise – 22 September 2022

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Up and out fairly early today to take the car to the garage for its service.

I thought it was going to be a nightmare run to Stirling. The rain was torrential when I woke, but by the time I was leaving it was tailing off and so was the traffic which usually turns the M80 into a carpark if you are travelling before 10am. A nice easy run to the garage.

Spoke to a lady assistant who asked if I’d had any problems with the car since the last service and when I handed her the typed up A4 sheet, she said “Oh! I see”, read it and promptly passed it on the service manager. Actually they couldn’t have been more helpful today. They seem to be under new management, so that might explain it. I signed all the paperwork, drew in a sharp intake of breath when the service assistant told me the cost of the Major Service and we walked out to my car for the day. It was a white Nissan Juke – automatic. His parting words to me were “Just remember not to lift your left foot.” Wise words. At the first roundabout I stamped on the brake, thinking it was the clutch. “Don’t lift your left foot” became my mantra for the drive home. My first thoughts were It’s BIG, It’s a bit noisier than the Micra and It’s got Sport Mode!!

After a bit of a kerfuffle I managed to reverse park The Beast and like all Nissans it complained about everything with warnings on the dashboard screen and beeps for every infringement.

I thought it would be good to go for a drive with Scamp. I knew she’d hate it. It’s too big and it goes too fast. I have to agree, but first I had to find how to put fuel into it. I could not find the switch to open the door that hides the fuel cap. The Micra has two tabs, one opens the bonnet and the other opens the fuel compartment. Eventually I gave in and read the instructions. To open the door, you press on the rear of the fuel compartment door, just like the Megane. Problem solved.

We drove out slowly and put in a few quids worth of petrol, then went for a run to The Kelpies. Just to annoy Scamp, I put on the heated seats when she wasn’t looking. That gave her a shock and a laugh (you taught me that, Jamie). I still don’t like them and Scamp hates them. I managed to drive all the way to Falkirk and only once did an ‘emergency stop’ by trying to use a clutch that wasn’t there. I also gave Scamp a laugh when I started trying to change gear in an automatic. My hand went to the gearstick quite a few times. When we parked at The Kelpies, I tried to pull on an invisible handbrake – the joys of ‘electronic handbrakes’.

The Kelpies were just as magical as they always are. We walked round them trying to see them from a different angle and being amazed at how lifelike they are. It was quite quiet today, no crowds. Well, it was quiet until a lorry load of visitors arrived and mobbed the place. There seemed to be hundreds of them. We went into the cafe and had lunch before they realised there was food nearby. Today’s PoD came from Helix Park, where The Kelpies live. It was a snap shot, not a snapshot. Saw it and took it before I realised that the bloke was with the woman in the background, wearing the yellow jacket and she was photographing him. Oops!

After we’d seen the great metal horses and walked round them, we headed home. Scamp bought birthday cards in Condorrat while I processed today’s photos. After that, we wrote the cards and I walked to Condorrat to post one. Hopefully the other will go to June for safe keeping tomorrow.

Oh yes, tomorrow. I got a phone call from the garage about 5pm to say Would it be ok to leave the Micra with them overnight until they finalise their investigations? I agreed that it would be fine by me. They confirmed that they would extend my insurance. So I get another day to find our more about the White Juke.

Tomorrow June and Iain are taking us out for lunch at the Red Deer (AKA the Dead Deer). Looking forward to it. Also looking forward to getting my Blue Micra back.