Category: Friends

Just a lazy day – 14 December 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Dull and wet about sums it up.

Scamp volunteered to go and help keep Tesco in business. I just helped bring the goodies in.

The most I did all day was bring the decorations down. For those who know what it means, the ‘letter’ made interesting reading. All those things we thought we’d know by now which, as it turned out were still as clear as mud.

Drove to John and Marion’s in the evening and were entertained by Ross with his stories. It’s good to see that he’s getting on in the world. The little boy who sang and acted “Tragedy!” is still inside there, though. Food as usual was great and the Panettone and Clementine trifle was excellent.

Arrived back home just before 11pm and watched Kelvin Fletcher win Strictly, proving me wrong! Bed about 1ish.

PoD was the Christmas Rose (Helleborus niger) that sits on the back step.

Two late nights in a row. Must try harder tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll get more photos taken too and possible we’ll get some dancing done.

The sun returns – 11 December 2019

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It wasn’t lost after all. I was just having a rest yesterday.

I was out early today to make sure of capturing some of those little photons and storing them away in an SD card. Yes, I was taking foties. Scamp had already been out to the doc’s for her medication check and back again. I went over to St Mo’s and got some good light. Grabbed a PoD which is a low down macro shot of some sphagnum moss strands, looking like miniature evergreens. Got back just in time to go out again to meet Colin and Fred for coffee. Scamp was off again to see what the retail paradise that is the Town Centre had to offer the discerning shopper.

The coffee snobs centred around pubs in Glasgow (a common topic among us), books and the NHS. Given that tomorrow is polling day and Fred is a political animal, it was strange that the merits and demerits of the leading campaigners did not enter into our conversation. Maybe it’s not all that strange. I think we’re all a bit jaded with the whole shebang. It’s become a tactical election. Pick the person you don’t want to win and vote for anyone else. Much like the old Scottish football question:
Question – “Who are you supporting in the World Cup?”
Answer – “Anyone who’s playing England!”
(Notice that Scotland is never mentioned. We don’t do the World Cup.)

Drove home into glaringly blinding sunshine to collect Scamp and take her to the doc’s again, this time to get her flu jag. By the time we were coming home, the sun had set and the day was sliding into evening.

When Scamp had been out earlier, she had bought the makings of Stir Fried Prawns with Singapore Noodles. Sounded great. I volunteered to make it. It tasted as good as it sounds. The sauce that came with it was labelled Soy, Chilli and Ginger, but it smelled like simple Brown Sauce, the stuff that comes out of a square bottle with letters HP at the top. The strange thing was it didn’t taste anything like it! Must have been my cooking skills that transformed it.

The weather has turned back to rain again and it’s forecast to further turn to snow during the early hours of tomorrow morning. We’re booked to take Isobel to Monklands in the morning. Let’s hope the snow has gone by then.

Meeting up – 5 December 2019

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Back to The Fort again.

We were off to The Fort to meet Crawford and Nancy for lunch today. It was a great catch-up and great lunch in Frankie & Benny’s. It was strange having something that wasn’t breakfast at F&B’s. We’ve only ever been to one of their restaurants for breakfast when we’ve been jetting off to some warm place. Fish ’n’ Chips for four and everyone agreed the lunch was excellent. Drove back through the rain vowing we’d catch up again in the new year.

Long before we got home, around 2.30 the headlights turned themselves on automatically making it feel dark already. Heavy rain and gale force winds didn’t encourage me to go out and get some photos. Instead I started making a bow tie for tomorrow’s dance and Scamp started on wrapping up some parcels in a new ethical way. After a couple of hours of trying, I gave up and chopped the whole thing up. Don’t know what went wrong, but I think I need to be more accurate with my cutting out. Scamp’s parcels are done, finished and packed in a a bag. I’m jealous. I may try another bow tie tomorrow, but there seems to be less rain forecast for tomorrow afternoon and with the strong winds still in evidence, there may be breaks in the cloud to let some sunshine in, so I may go and take some photos instead.

Today’s PoD is the Weemen trying to find out exactly what went wrong with the sewing process. Not the use of a hazmat suit and the hard hats. H&S is very important to weemen.

So tomorrow we may go dancing, I may take some photos and I may make a bow tie. Scamp has no plans at present.

Out before 11am? – 29 November 2019

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That’s just too easy!

I didn’t even bother to have a shower before I went out this morning (filfy beast). I just got up and went out and the first shot was taken at 9.39am. Unfortunately, at 9.38am I realised I’d forgotten to put the Oly in my bag and the camera I had, the Teazer2, wasn’t set to take sensible photos. I don’t know what buttons I’d pressed on it the last time I’d used it, but the ISO was set at 80 (just usable). The touch screen didn’t work (don’t know why). It wouldn’t focus any closer than about 1metre. Quite simply it was AAaaargh!!! Easiest way out of this mess was to use the magic 4K photo. That’s what I did. Once I had one in the bag that I knew was in focus somewhere in the fifty odd shots this remarkable camera takes in a second and a half, I applied logic and reset it to factory settings and once I’d switched on the RAW setting and switched off the annoying beep, we were sort of in business. First worthwhile shot was 9.51. Not bad after such a poor start. Of course what I should have done was go home, pick up the Oly and start again, but the light was changing and I didn’t want to waste it. I got a few shots that looked as if they’d be useable once they’d been Lightroomed into submission. Also saw some Hair Ice. Read about it, but this is the first time I’ve seen it. Strange looking and feeling stuff. Went home, cold but reasonably happy.

Back home Scamp had guessed that I’d want the coffee machine on and it was warming up nicely when I got in. Once I’d thawed out and had looked at the results of the mornings work, and with a cup of hot Cuban coffee in me, I felt more human and knew I had at least one shot in the bag.

After that I footered (another great word) about for a while adjusting that and pruning that and generally wasting time until lunch, because it was still cold. When I went out it was just cresting the zero line. Now it was a fairly tropical 4ºc. Scamp was going out in the afternoon with the witches to celebrate one of them being released from a life of bondage at HMRC. That meant I had the afternoon and early evening to myself.

First things first, after she left, I started cooking the mince for my favourite Mince ’n’ Tatties with a slice of beetroot, except there were no tatties, so I had to bundle up again and drive down to M&S to get some. I thought the new shops would be a flash in the pan thing, but it really is becoming a boon, not having to drive round the new traffic calmed roundabout and up the road to Tesco. Yes, they are a great idea.

Finally got round to programming the second light controller for the living room. We’ve only had it for about ten years! Now we have two controlled lights. Progress!

Watched another episode of His Dark Materials although the TIVO box nearly gave up the ghost the first two times I tried to view the recording. I think we may need a new one, or possibly a new provider. Virgin Media are not the most helpful company in the world. Brilliant computer graphics in the scenes of The North. Totally believable.

Scamp arrived back home just after 8pm, driven back with Jeanette by James. I wonder if Jeanette has ever said those famous words “Home James!” Must ask her sometime.

PoD was a shot from the morning. Camera placed gingerly on the ice of a frozen pond and shutter triggered by a 2 second timer. Great idea, old technology in a very able camera.

Hopefully going out to lunch tomorrow although temperatures of -4ºc predicted overnight.

Coffee – 26 November 2019

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Three auld guys moaning.

The three auld guys in question were Fred, Val and myself. It was more of a discussion than a moan today. We hadn’t met for quite some time, so there was a lot to discuss. Books exchanged, new tech demonstrated and coffee drunk. Even made plans for a bite to eat and a possible pint in Glasgow soon. Thankfully no politics muddied the the waters.

Drove home and found that my much needed tea and always needed coffee had been delivered by the DPD man. Such a clever and useful delivery service, flexible too. Worth the three quid I paid for it.

Scamp wasn’t feeling too great but she was still having lunch when I got back. It was too wet to go back out again and I had no notion of what I could photograph in the dull, dark landscape, and anyway it was raining, so I settled for an inside ‘flooer’ photo instead. When Scamp came back she got a phone call from the doc’s to say that there was a prescription for antibiotics waiting for her. I volunteered to go for it as it was getting dark now. I didn’t even bother to take a camera. Flooers it was then.

When I got back from the chemist and after a quick raid of Tesco, I made some soup along the lines of Scamp’s Just Soup and that was dinner with a couple of slices of good bread. Not home made bread, but good all the same.

<Technospeak>
Thought I could do the fancy 4K Post Focus trick with the new camera but then realised if I was going to use room lighting with low ISO it wouldn’t work. The Post Focus trick takes about twenty odd shots in 1-2 seconds. To get them all taken in that short time, it needs to use electronic shutter and the electronic shutter don’t work with exposure times greater than 1/30th of a second. Basically, this is a bright daylight only trick. Bummer.
</Technospeak>

Got the shot done using the E-M1 and it’s a rose from some cut flowers. Not exactly what I had in mind, but it works, and it’s PoD.

I was playing around with a trial version of a new prog called Luminar4. It has the amazing ability to change the sky in a landscape instantly to any one of about 40 different ones. It apparently uses AI to accomplish it. It really is a brilliant trick, but where’s the fun in doing it instantly when you can take an hour or so in Lightroom and ON1 to do it with a lot of swearing? AI? Not for me I prefer LOI. Lack Of Intelligence.  Typical result below.  Original sky on the left.

Tomorrow if we’re fit we’re hoping to go dancing.

Dull, Dull, Dull – 7 November 2019

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That sort of sums up the day. Dull with the chance of Brexit.

I’m getting fed up with the amount electioneering we are getting on the (supposed) news. The first thing they talk about is the election or Brexit. No news there. We know there’s going to be an election. We’ve been saddled with Brexit since 2016. Why is the important stuff always playing second fiddle to this nonsense.

Then it’s Labour slagging off the Conservatives. Conservatives slagging off Labour. Lib Dems labouring under a delusion that they’re going to oust both of them and the SNP slavering for another referendum. Then there’s some poor reporter who’s sent to some god-forsaken town to try to drum up some interest in the whole shebang. Haven’t you heard yet? Nobody’s interested, and apart from the party faithful, nobody has found any party in the whole mess worth voting for. For what must be the first time in my life I don’t want to vote. Scamp even suggested that I should spoil my ballot paper and I might just do that and write “NONE OF THE ABOVE” at the bottom. There, I’ve got that out of my system.

Today was a dull day, but it brightened up in the afternoon and the rain dried up too. I managed out for a walk in St Mo’s and came back with the monochrome offering at the top of the page. Walked on down to the new shops and got a nice wee bottle of wine to go with the dinner. I’d made some soup and Scamp made Chicken and Mushrooms. The wine washed it down beautifully.

After talking to Val in the morning I gave Linux on the Linx another go, but I’m getting tied in knots with it now and beginning to think that it’s more trouble than its worth. I’ll just put Windows back in, reset it to factory settings and sell the big black slab. It’s always been ok, but not great. Windows 10 kills it. Might get a few quid for it and put that to getting a replacement for my dust ridden Teazer.

No plans for tomorrow other than hopefully going to Milano Express for lunch.

Singing, Photographs and Numpties – 2 November 2019

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Today was going to be a busy day with a load of culture.

Today I was dropping Scamp off in Baillieston at midday for a choir rehearsal and then I was off into Glasgow to see Dougie’s photographs of Cuba.

The first part was fairly easy although the sat nav took us by a different route from that chosen by Google Maps. No big problem though because it got us there, possibly quicker than Google would have. Dropped Scamp off and headed for Glasgow. Took a wrong turning, but followed my nose and the lie of the land and found my way on to the M8 again at Easterhouse.

Got to Glasgow and parked on level 6 of Buchanan Galleries. Even then it was just a lucky space. Don’t usually have to go that high! When I was walking down to Tolcross where the exhibition was, I did notice more than the normal amount of Saltire clad Scotsmen (and women, but mainly men). The worrying bit was the amount of police roaming George Square. Much more than a normal Saturday.

Got to Dougie’s exhibition and had a word with him. Some lovely prints on the wall. Didn’t even ask the price because:

  1. If you have to ask the price, you can’t afford it.
  2. I’d been in such a rush to get there, I hadn’t had time to go to the bank and I only had £10 in my pocket. That said, £10 was the price of the catalogue, signed catalogue too by both artists, so not that bad.

Listened to the introduction to the gallery and the ethos behind the photos. Then the two photogs took us through a few of their photos, explaining the reasons for hanging them. Dougie spoke no Spanish and Roberto Chile, the other photog spoke no English, so the translator was kept busy. My one criticism of the event was the translator. He spoke in a monotone all the time. Shannon (Dance teacher Shannon) was there. She would have been a much better translator and would have injected a bit more life into the talk, and the occasional “Ooo la la” too. I must suggest it to Dougie.

Too many people there and too few seats, which meant I was leaving with a sore back. Walked back up the hill and found that the Saltire Army must have been breeding. There were hundreds of them all being whipped into a frenzy by some opinionated numpty with a microphone. The crowd did, however, give me the opportunity to take some crowd photos. Best one I got was That Selfie Moment which made PoD.

Walked up to the car and was trying to get out when I came across a poor woman trying to reverse what I suspect was her husband’s rather large automatic Audi out of a tight parking space. She was in a tizzy and had got herself into a position where it was almost impossible for her to move back in to the space and impossible to get out. I took the bull by the horns and gave her some simple driving instructions and between the two of us we got it out without any bumps or scrapes.

Drove to Tesco to get lunch and then realised that it was 3.30pm and Scamp’s concert started at 4.00pm. Dumped the loaf that would have been my lunch and drove back in to Baillieston and just got there in time. Thoroughly enjoyed the Faure Requiem. An hour’s peaceful music in a busy day.

Dinner was a dire curry from Bombay Dreams. Not sure what was wrong with it, but it wasn’t their best. Suffice to say if the next one isn’t any better we’ll be looking for an new Indian take-away.

Tomorrow we may go for a walk and there’s talk of a practise session for Jive, Quickstep and Waltz in the afternoon.

Coffee for two – 31 October 2019

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Off to meet Val for a technological chat.

There are four of us. Fred, Val, Colin and me. We all have our specialisms. Fred likes to talk politics, books and music. Val talks technology and books. Colin talks about gardening. I talk bollocks and books, music and technology. Between us we always find some topic of conversation to take apart. Today there were only two of us and so it was Technology and Books, but mainly Technology. We discussed new phones and old computers, books we’d read or were going to read and we both told each other lies and tall stories. That’s the best bit about shooting the breeze, nobody really believes everything the other is saying.

After we were done, Val went off to meet his wife and I went home to meet mine via M&S to get some lunch. After that, we picked up June and took her to sunny Coatbridge for her eye check. While the ladies were in the clinic, I took a trip to Currys for a bit of window shopping. Found another possible replacement for the Teazer, but on further inspection it didn’t quite fit the specification I’d set for myself. The back screen doesn’t flip up. Such a pity. The Sony RX100 iii is still the front runner.

Picked up the sisters after they were finished and after dropping June off, we went home. Scamp was getting ready to assemble a fish pie, so I went out to get some photos, but it was cold and I came back with only a couple of shots. Luckily they were decent, so I present one of them as my PoD.

Tonight’s sketch, and the last one of this year’s Inktober is an umbrella. This is not just an umbrella, this is a dripping umbrella. Let’s face it, those of us who live in Scotland get plenty of opportunity to sketch them, except today. Today was a bright, cold, sunny, DRY day. Typical!

We have no plans for tomorrow, at least not yet. Looks like rain.

Old Bologna – 25 October 2019

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Today was dull, really dull, so to brighten our day we went out to Italy.

I started the theme early by flying from Italy to Sicily. It was an uneventful flight until I allowed X-Plane to take control of the aircraft. It was supposed to fly it by AI, but I don’t know what the ‘I’ stood for. It certainly wasn’t Intelligence. It decided to take it away from the flight path and turn off the jet engine. After a bit of a struggle I got everything sorted out an performed a text book landing … at the designated airport, not in somebody’s garden as my brother used to do in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Back in the real world I struggled with getting email to work on the Samsung. Eventually I gave up or we wouldn’t have arrived at the restaurant in time for supper, let alone lunch. It must be at least three years since we’ve been in Vecchia Bologna, but the menu was quite familiar, the prices were a bit higher and the food was just as good as before. Next time, and I’m sure there will be a next time, we’ll book in advance to get a window seat.

Drove from there to Hobbycraft at The Fort to get some material to make a bow tie. I saw it earlier in the week and should have got it then, but the ‘fat quarter pack’ I was looking for was still there. Met Nancy when we left and made arrangements for lunch some time soon. Back via Aldi so that Scamp could test it out. That smell was still there, but again, it could have been because of the clientele although it did seem to be coming from the fruit and veg aisle.

Back home it was too dull to get an outside photo, so today’s PoD is of the last five apples from the James Grieve tree. Best year we’ve had so far.

Got a bit pissed off with the poor phone reception near the house. Can’t even get Spotify to play on the dire music system on the Juke. Eventually cooled down and accepted that EE is probably, overall the best of a bad bunch. O2 is better than all of them, but elsewhere its coverage is decidedly patchy. Vodafone is about the same as EE, but they really do make life difficult for you. I spent about an hour filling in the form to unlock my iPhone SE! O2 and EE unlock theirs after 18 months automatically. Three is just a joke – no coverage and a poor record. The moral of the tale is “Live with what you’ve got.”  What I did manage to do with the phone was finally get the email sorted.  It was the simplest thing.  The username was wrong, and that completely borked everything.  That’s not what the Samsung told me was wrong.  It told me that I hadn’t set up the PoP or the IMAP properly.  Misdirection is one of the greatest bugbears of the digital life.

Today’s Inktober topic was A Towel. This is how I spend my Friday nights now. Sitting on the toilet sketching an ink drawing of a pink towel. It’s things like this that give amateur artists a bad name!

Tomorrow we have no firm plans. It all depends on the weather fairies.

A Day at the Seaside – 15 October 2019

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Up and out we said. Up and out it was today.

Breakfast downstairs today and out for 10.30. Off to the seaside. I chose Troon as our destination. It began to look a bit dicey when we climbed up the M77 to the top of Fenwick Moor and drove into the low lying cloud. Fog lights on and we carried on. Thankfully after about 15 minutes we were back into sunshine with the cloud looking like a grey wall behind us. From there it was sunshine all the way to Troon.

Couldn’t get parked at the first car park, so we carried on to the one we used to go to round by the harbour. The place with the crashy waves. The waves weren’t crashing today, in fact the sea was very calm with only the slightest movement. Arran’s peaks were poking through some low cloud and made a great PoD. Taken by me, chosen from the sixty odd others by Scamp. We walked round the Ballast Bank by the low and now notifiably DANGEROUS path. Sat for a while on one of the seats by the path. Beautiful views over to Horse Island and Ailsa Craig in the distance. Listened to the hundreds of seabirds on the exposed rocks. It could have been summer, sitting in the sun with the high banking sheltering us from the sun.

Eventually we gave up our seat and walked on into town. Nearly at the town Scamp’s cousin appeared with her daughter and the two of them had a long catch up, nearly blocking the path for everyone else. Eventually we split up and went our separate ways. We walked as far as the wind surfers’ car park at the far end of town. There we turned and walked back in to town. I suggested we go to the Venice cafe for lunch. The best part of half an hour for a roll ’n’ sausage and a roll ’n’ scrambled egg. It’s not that they were busy. We were the only ones waiting to be served. No apologies, nothing. Scamp told them in no uncertain manner that we wouldn’t be back. I don’t think I’ve ever heard her say that before. That will give you some idea of how angry she was. Now we know why it wasn’t busy.

Walked back to the car and who should we bump into again? Elspeth and her daughter. They had been to Scotts for lunch and that’s where we had been heading before we met them. Don’t see some folk for ages, then you see them twice in the same day.

Drove home through the usual 4pm traffic. No low cloud or fog this time, just loads and loads of cars on a busy road.

Sketch today was “A Dessert”. We had Meringue with Strawberries and Cream for tonight’s dessert and I attempted to draw that, but wasn’t impressed with the attempt, so I drew Strawberries and Cream instead. Three strawberries and a tub of Elmlea. I liked that one!

Maybe we should keep that Juke. Today we started out with 274 miles predicted in the tank. We arrived home with 295 miles predicted in the tank. It seems like the petrol tank is related to the Magic Porridge Pot that never emptied!

Tomorrow it’s dancing in the afternoon, hopefully.