Category: Friends

Coffee with Fred – 21 December 2024

Posted on by Zogman

I’d a bag of books either owing to him or ones I had read and thought he might appreciate. Coffee at Tesco was the halfway house for both of us.

It had been a dreich day. Sometimes sunny, then it all clouded over. You didn’t know whether to go out for a walk with the risk of getting soaked or stay in and mope about the house wishing you’d gone out after all. As it happened, that halfway house was the ideal solution. We met at 2pm and I had been asked by Scamp to bring home half a dozen eggs and a pizza.

As usual with Fred, talk was one sided. His side. I shouldn’t complain because when I’m out with Alex, I always feel I’m hogging the conversation. Maybe it’s just the same with Fred. We discussed the new Portrait champion of 2024. His merits and his faults. I was surprised at how accommodating Fred was about this young artist, but we were in agreement that he had been tutored or at least assisted by other artists. In a way I felt sorry for him, that he’d landed a big commission, but had he peaked too soon? Only time will tell.
After a flat white each, we both agreed we’d had quite enough poor coffee, worse than Costa and that is a real slur, so we parted ways with an apology from me for forgetting his and Margo’s Christmas card which I’d left at home.

By the time I got home the sun had gone to bed and it was pointless trying for an outside photo. Instead I photographed the wee bear that sits on the Christmas tree. It’s a Christmas tradition to have a photo of Fairy Nuff in her rightful place. A bit like the Royal Family, but more important! That made PoD.

Dinner was the pizza which I did remember to bring (I also remembered to get the eggs too!). For a shop-bought pizza it was very nice. Mozzarella and sun dried tomatoes with a tin of anchovies for extra flavour.

We watched Landward while we were having dinner, and were entranced by tractors somewhere cutting rectangular furrows perfectly straight ones. Fascinating 🤪 ! Then an hour and a half of twenty years of Strictly. I think I preferred the tractors.

Tomorrow we may go out somewhere just for the fun of it and because the days will be getting longer. Today is the shortest day.

 

Looong Day – 8 November 2024

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Scamp was out in the morning to FitSteps and after that, coffee with June. I was rebuilding MacOS Ventura for the third time … or is it fourth?

I spent most of the morning destroying the Crucial SSD that used to run the iMac, and with it, all the operating system and the data. Then I started again from a completely clean disk and reinistalled Ventura, the operating system. When that was done, I plugged in a second SSD and used the built-in Migration Assistant from Ventura to copy the data from the second SSD to the Ventura SSD. I knew this would take a good three hours, because, not only does it copy the data, it also updates it to Ventura at the same time. Rather than sit watching numbers and letters flying across the screen, I went out for a walk in a cold St Mo’s. Spotted two Canada Geese probably overwintering or maybe just dropping in for a rest before travelling further south for the winter. PoD went to a bunch of Flag Lily seedheads I found behind St Mo’s school. They looked like alien creatures or deformed insects, but had lovely deep brown colours.

When I returned, so had Scamp. We had lunch and discussed the morning’s events. I think the ‘tronics stuff went completely over Scamp’s head, much like her dance instructions fly over mine, but it’s still good to discuss these things! The computer seems to have settled down and everything works this time, touch wood.

Then out of the blue I got a message from Ray. I don’t think I’ve had a conversation with him since last Christmas. It seems he has medical problems and is in an old peoples home in Douglas waiting for an op. I was shocked. He asked me for Val’s email address and after confirming with Val that he was happy to give it, I sent it to Ray.

We went to Crawford & Nancy’s for dinner at night. Lots of news exchanged by all of us. Crawford is waiting for a cataract op and has his pre-op next week. He was a lot quieter than his usual which has probably got something to do with the operation. I know I was a bit jittery about my first cataract op, but I did enjoy the month off work it gave me!
Good meal and lots to talk about. We left just before midnight and it was almost straight to bed.

Tomorrow we’ll probably be dancing!

 

Busy – 20 September 2024

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Almost a duplicate of yesterday, but with Scamp being the busy one.

Scamp was out at FitSteps in the morning and I was rolling around under the downstairs wash hand basin squirting more silicone into the place where the leak was in the hope that it would stave off the drips, at least for a couple of days until we could get a plumber to fix it properly.

I was making my morning coffee when I saw a blackbird having a wash in the bird bath in the back garden. By the time I’d grabbed a camera with a long enough lens, the blackbird had been ousted by four young starlings who were squabbling as starlings do, all trying to get washed in the bird bath. Eventually the fighting became more restrained and the numbers dropped to two who were splashing away merrily. That was PoD taken care of, because soon it would be all hands on deck.

When Scamp returned with lunch, I was again rolling on the floor. The living room floor this time adding an extension to the round table that would turn it into an oval table. After lunch, work started on the starter and the dessert, both Scamp’s strongholds and nothing to do for me. Instead, I got the hoover out and gave the hall, kitchen and living room a good going over.

I did think of taking a walk in St Mo’s, but the weather had turned dull and misty and there really wasn’t the need for more after the starling photos. Instead, I processed the photos.

Crawford & Nancy were the first to arrive and almost immediately afterwards, June & Ian’s taxi appeared. A full house tonight. Lots of catching up to do with everyone. Dinner worked out well. The starter was Prawn Cocktail (no tomatoes for Nancy). Main was Chicken Tagine (no olives for Scamp). Dessert was Tiramisu for everyone.

We showed some photos of the holiday and the wedding. I’d spent most of the afternoon coercing the tablet into playing nice with Chrome and actually casting the images on the TV.. Thankfully it worked on the night.

The visitors eventually left just before midnight and, after loading the dishwasher and a gin each, we finally got to bed about an hour later.

We might need a morning’s worth of work to get everything back in place.

A Late Lunch – 28 June 2024

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No, we didn’t sleep in. This late lunch was planned.

Crawford and Nancy asked us over to Larky for a late lunch, around 2pm. So after watching different weather patterns moving across the sky and still not being sure which one would run the day, we got ourselves decked out in our going-out clothes and drove to Larky.

It turned out a really nice day, as long as you were inside looking out. I reckon it wasn’t quite so warm on the other side of the glass walled conservatory. Lunch was Butternut Squash soup, followed by a Slice of Salmon fried and dressed with Philadelphia Cheese and Roasted Peppers with New Potatoes and Asparagus. Dessert was Bramble and Cream with a drop or two of alcohol to spice it up. Last, but not least was a sponge cake topped with Philadelphia and white chocolate. The whole lot washed down with a Americano coffee.

We sat and talked about where we’d been and what we’d done since our last meeting which wasn’t all that long ago, but we’d all covered a lot of ground since then. C&N had been using their Historic Scotland and National Trust cards to gain access to a host of places as well as a we-got-lost-and-found-this visit to the Japanese Garden near Dollar. We had been places too, using our Senior Rail Cards, we’d travelled to Stirling and its castle and Edinburgh and on to Leith. So, we had a lot of things to talk about.

When the ladies retired to the conservatory afterward, Crawford and I struggled to find out how to get photos on to an advertisement he was making using his new Chromebook. I’d never used one, but I was sure I could work it out, but I was wrong. It must be the most annoying piece of useless tech. Impossible to navigate without swearing. Eventually I had to admit defeat. Then he told me he had actually built the advert already on his iPhone and it was much easier that using a Chromebook. I could believe that. After about an hour, we were back where we started without having put anything onto paper. We gave up and joined the ladies.

Drove home and got parked after a bit of coming and going with four cars trying perform a ballet routine so that two could leave and two could park at the same time. Eventually it worked out and we even had a spare space!

PoD went to a photo I saw building as we were driving home. It’s a view looking over towards Lenzie from a single track country road near us. It’s actually two photos joined together to make a panorama.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go dancing and on the way home, pay for and pick up a lens. Apparently it arrived in the shop in the late afternoon.

 

A dull start to a Sunday – 23 June 2024

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It was a white sky day again today. Warm with just the risk of rain in the air.

We’d planned to go down to Glasgow Green, but never really got organised enough to go, then after lunch I was moping around looking at a couple of lenses which had dropped considerably in price when I noticed that WEX in Glasgow was listed as being open on Sundays. It had previously been a Monday to Saturday shop. I thought I’d risk a phone call to see if they had one of the lenses available for testing. They did have. That put a different complexion on the day!

Scamp didn’t want to come into town with me, being more interested in getting the front grass cut, so I drove down to the station and was just in time to get the express train to Glasgow. The day was brightening up and the sun was poking holes in the cloud, so I walked up the Bath Street hill and down the other side to WEX. Unfortunately, it was the expensive lens that they had on display, but I tried it out, just in case it would be worthwhile. Lovely bit of equipment. Almost perfect for what I wanted, but just a little out of my price range. However Baz, who was the salesman I spoke to said they could get a lens sent up from the warehouse for the middle of next week. I agreed and went home to dream about things I couldn’t afford!

I grabbed a couple of candid photos in a walk-by shooting spree on Sauchiehall Street and another couple of more planned shots in Buchanan Street, then walked through to the station, where I bumped into Cathy Donaghy who used to be in the office at work along with here daughter. They too were waiting for the Croy train to arrive after the previous one had mysteriously disappeared from the display board. We talked for a while and I found out that Danielle, her daughter was getting married in September and that a few of the teachers we knew had retired, as had Cathy. It was a really good catch-up with folk I hadn’t seen for years.

Back home, Scamp was sitting in the back garden with a Soda & Lime having done a great job on the front grass. I told her my tale of woe of the wrong lens and of meeting Cathy and Danielle then recharged her glass with Pimms and filled mine with Birds & Bees Summer Ale. We then soaked up the sun that had cleared the sky of clouds for an hour or so until it was time for dinner.

Later in the evening we watched a processional Spanish F1 GP. Which was won by the usual suspect. Later still just as the Scotland vs Hungary football was starting, Jamie phoned and we discussed work and the prospect of Simonne getting a job with a more localised area. That wouldn’t be a bad thing.

Finally we watched a lacklustre Scotland losing to the better team, Hungary. Apparently Scotland were robbed of a penalty because the referee was from Argentina?? I think that’s just clutching at straws. Anyway, what difference will it make. They didn’t win and that’s it for this year at least.

One of the Sauchiehall street shots got PoD. As usual it was a mash-up of two photos!

A few too many glasses of wine, brandy and beer last night meant this blog was carried over until today! My appy-polly-logies. Hicº

Hopefully another warm but sunny Monday for the start of the week. We have no plans.

 

Meeting Erin – 7 May 2024

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Today we were going to meet John and Marion’s new granddaughter, Erin.

In the morning I did a bit of more mundane work and ordered a replacement bus pass after the last one failed to connect on the bus.  It’s supposed to arrive within 14 days.

Scamp was really excited about it and I must admit I was looking forward to see the new baby too.

When we got to Hamilton, the star hadn’t arrived, so we sat and talked to John and Marion about how their lives were going to change over the next year. They seemed perfectly happy to be stand-in parents. I expect we would be the same.

We had lunch while we waited. It was home made Veg Lasagne and it was lovely. I must get Scamp to coax the recipe out of Marion. I din’t used to like veg lasagne, but now I prefer it to the meat version. Dessert was Apricot Trifle and it was very, very good, with crushed amaretti biscuits on top.

Just as we were finishing, Laura arrived with Erin. I’d forgotten quite how small, new babies are. I’d also forgotten about the little details like tiny little nails on her fingers and how bright blue her eyes were. I tend to forget these things after forty odd years. Scamp was obviously desperate to hold Erin and as soon as she had her cradled in her arms, she went straight into ‘Mother Mode’. The room was totally silent too, everybody’s eyes on that baby. Not long after that, the spell was broken when she started to cry. Laura did the thing every parent does and put her knuckle into Erin’s mouth and said “Yes, she’s needing fed.” Even I remembered that feeling of a baby’s gums trying to suckle your finger. So off mum and baby went to feed her and change her nappy.

We sat and talked with the new grandparents while this was happening and heard about their plans for holiday this year. Aruba sounds very exotic and it’s just a bit north of Trinidad. They are meeting up with friends there but it’s a long flight.

Erin was much more relaxed with a full belly and a clean nappy and John was having a great conversation before it was time to mother and baby to drive home. It was a great experience, but I’m glad we could hand her back when it was time to go. Did I have a chance to hold her? No, not me. I’m of the the Kevin Bridges group. More “How you doing mate?” than Goo Goo. I’d be terrified I’d drop her or something similar.

Soon after Laura and Erin left, we did too. Back home I changed into walking clothes and went for a walk in St Mo’s which is where today’s PoD came from, a pink Bluebell. Is that an oxymoron? On the way back home I stopped at the chip shop in Condorrat for a small fish supper that would be our supper. Very nice it was too.

Today’s prompt was for a pencil sharpener. This is my pencil sharpener. It’s a Swann Morton scalpel holding a Swann Morton No 11 blade. I used to use a standard sharpener with a built-in tub to hold the shavings, but the scalpel allows me to shave a much longer and narrower point on the pencil which doesn’t need sharpening quite as much as a standard rotary sharpener.
The only problem with the scalpel is that changing blades is difficult. I use a fine pair of pliers to twist the blade out and carefully twist a new blade into place. Oh yes, and remember that these are surgical quality steel blades. They are liable to cut more than pencils if you’re not careful!!

Tomorrow we may go for coffee with Isobel. It all depends on when a coffee delivery arrives for me.

Old Friends – 29 April 2024

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I met Fred and Val today for coffee and a long blether..

Three Cortados, one each, and we were off discussing what was going on in our worlds and what we were doing. Val had a new whizzo electric wheelchair and we were impressed with its manoeuvrability which he was keen to display. We exchanged books I returned two to Fred and gave him one. Val got another one of mine and Fred gave me one of his. Fair exchange is no robbery! Another round of Cortados was needed to keep the talk going, and I think we spent about two hours discussing everything from politics to religion. Fred, remarkably, had a lot of good things to say about the now resigned former First Minister Humza Yousaf. I think we were all in agreement that he had been handed a poisoned chalice. Val’s wife had been to Tesco and by the time we were breaking up, she arrived and we agreed to do it again in about a month. I think I’ll put a note in my diary to book another meet-up.

Back home lunch was a soft roll with banana and a chance to listen to the resignation details. Poor bloke, hung out to dry by all and sundry, including myself at times.

Later in the day I went for a walk in St Mo’s in the rain.  First rain for about a week, but I got a few shots. PoD went to a close-up of moss, cladonia and some seed heads. Don’t ask me why, it just spoke to me!

After dinner the TV went off. At first we thought the circuit board had tripped, but then Scamp found a message on her phone to say that most of Cumbersheugh was without power. It took about an hour to get it back on. In the interim, Virgin Media claimed that they were the ones who were working on the repair! That would be a first. I think this fault was more like a substation outage, than a Virgin one.

Finally we agreed on a hotel for Gillian and Ed’s wedding. All booked, but not paid for yet. I felt the tension go out of Scamp when she got the confirmation. The delay was mostly my fault for not doing my bit earlier. However it’s done now and we can go to a wedding DV.

Tomorrow is a day for doing the messages. Maybe we’ll manage to get some real rolls, not the silly softies we had today. Mea culpa!

Sad News – 17 April 2024

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Hazel phoned this morning to say that Neil’s gran had died this morning. We had been expecting this news, because she had been in poor health for a few months. She was a lovely old lady and she will be missed by everyone who met her.

Alex phoned later in the morning to cancel today’s outing to Gouldings because the cough he has been struggling with for the past month or so is showing no signs of improving and he was hoping to get to speak to a doctor and have his chest sounded. That left the day free.

We drove to Tesco later in the morning just to get some essentials and for once what we got was the bare essentials.

After lunch Scamp fed the roses, did the ironing and planted some of her packet of fifteen Cerinthe seeds, also known as Honeywort and they were hopefully getting some sunshine in the front bedroom window sill. While she was working, I took an old lightweight Manfrotto tripod with a couple of cameras up to Fannyside in search of some interesting clouds to photograph. I was also carrying a couple of neutral density filters in an attempt to get some very slow shutter speed photos of the clouds scudding across the sky. I don’t know what I did wrong, but most of them ended up with circular reflections from the lens on them. Must investigate. I did get some normal exposure shots of some nosy sheep and a few landscapes, but PoD went to an old fencepost covered in moss and lichen.

Giovanni Rana tortellini for dinner. Today’s variety was Basil and Pine Nut. Then it was time for Kirsty’s class, the final section of the Tango. After a struggle remembering the last thing we did last week, we managed to bolt on the new ending and that was it done. Not quite as easily as that, but not the drama it might have been, although Drama is an integral part of Tango!

Tomorrow afternoon Scamp has an appointment with the dentist.

Good Friday in the Toon – 29 March 2024

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After sitting around completing Wordle and finding one pangram in Spelling Bee, we decided to take the train to Glasgow.

Got on a busy train in to The Town. Coffee in Nero and walked up to Buchanan Galleries but really only interested in JL. We are kind of looking for a new freezer and possibly a new fridge. A combined fridge/freezer might be a viable alternative to singles. We did find a few that were in our budget and also would fit in the available space. No definite front runners yet. Simply keeping our options open.

Three floors up in JL is the “Toy Shop”. Scamp’s laptop is getting old and a bit tired. It’s also holding a lot of files, mainly photos and videos in its 128GB SSD. That means there’s not a lot of space left, which is the reason it’s getting tired. The “Toy Shop” is where all the laptops live in JL and while Scamp would like a new laptop, she can’t be bothered looking at all the numbers and abbreviations. I suppose that’s my job. We looked at a few that, like the fridge/freezers, were within our budget and surprisingly there were more than I’d thought there might be. Again, this was just an initial investigation of what was out there. No decisions made.

We had a quick wander round the town, but this was Good Friday, so there were loads of folk doing the same thing. I had a look in Cass Art but wasn’t really looking for anything. While I was looking at paint and things, Scamp was looking at dresses for a wedding later in the year. We met up again later and walked back to JL again, in the rain that had descended on us, for a spot of lunch. Italian Deli roll for Scamp New York Deli roll for me. Both fine for a decent lunch with a cup of tea. Walked back to the station and caught the train back, then drove home through torrential rain again for the second time in two days. April showers come early?

PoD was a shot looking down Buchanan Galleries from the Benugo cafe where we had our lunch. Quite a risky shot to take as the guards who prowl the floors are quick to tell you that photography is banned in the galleries, although neither my brother nor I have seen any notice confirming this. Maybe I was just lucky today.

Drove over to Larky for dinner at Crawford and Nancy’s. Great fun as usual. I did take my Spanish guitar and we played and sang as a foursome after dinner. Scamp on piano, Nancy and Crawford on ukulele and me on guitar. Everyone pitching in with vocals as required. Ollie the dog retired to the kitchen and I’m sure lay there with his paws over his ears!

Drove home and amazingly managed to get a parking space! Finally got to bed just before 1am. A long day, but a good one. I think I may practise more on the ukulele for our next foursome, all being well. It’s easier for the chord changes.

No plans for tomorrow other than to be up and out by 10:15 to drive to Brookfield!

Dancin’ – 21 March 2024

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After a lazy morning we were pitched into another day of dancing.

Drove to Glenburn for today’s tea dance. Horrible day, rained all the way there, but we got to sit at a great table and the weather was forgotten. I missed the first two dances, both waltzes because I had something in my shoe or in my sock. It took me two dance tracks to fix it, I wasn’t avoiding the dance … honest. I knew I’d have another opportunity to dance the waltz after tea or find something else in my shoe if necessary.

Next was foxtrot which I staggered through with Scamp’s helpful comments like “Where are you going?” ringing in my ears. On a positive note, we danced an almost perfect Ballroom Rumba and Ria Bachata.

Good to sit and talk to folk the same or similar age as us and hear their plans for the year. Also good to see the floor full for most of the dances.  Even better, was for me to win a chocolate egg in the Easter raffle!  Thank you Stewart & Jane!

Drove home through more, even heavier rain on the M74 and kept the wheels turning. We’d never have managed that on the Kingston Bridge which is just a slowly moving carpark until about 8pm on any day of the working week.

Dinner, after some discussion was Chicken Thighs with Leeks and Peas. Brilliant recipe where the oven does all the work. Lovely crunchy skin on the chicken and the crisped up leeks are great too.

Speaking about Leeks, today’s PoD  was another experiment. I cut off the bottom 20mm of a leek and set it to float in a container of water. That was a few weeks ago. Now it has grown and been tidied up a bit and I’m hoping to plant it in a pot in the greenhouse and see if I can grow a leek from a leek! I have Hazy to thank for the inspiration.

Tomorrow, the plan is to drive to some B&Q that actually has paint to sell of the exact colour we’re looking for for the next stage in Project Spring Clean the House!