Friends – Page 30 – My Photo Blog

Coffee and a couple of jags – 7 December 2016

Posted on December 7, 2016December 7, 2016 by Zogman

Yesterday, the plan for today was for me to head off to meet Val and Fred at 12noon and set the Scottish education on its path to previous glory over a cup or two of coffee, then for Scamp to meet me at about 1.45pm with the stuff the nurse was going to inject us with to stop us getting some exotic infection when we were off in foreign climes. I’d then drop her off at the station so she could get the train in to Glasgow to get even more Christmas shopping, leaving me the rest of the day free. That was scrapped after an early morning phone call. The nurse wanted the afternoon off, so could we come for our jags earlier, at 12noon. (not jabs you’ll notice, we’re Scottish. We get jags. Much nastier – there was even a sign in the surgery advertising Flu JAGS. Scamp wanted me to photograph it to prove to English people what the word should be). Anyway, we agreed and changed the schedule for the day accordingly.

After the jags, I drove Scamp to the bus stop – it’s almost as quick on the fast bus as it is on the train and then went for coffee with the other two. We solved the problem as I knew we would in double quick time. It’s simple when you’re an outsider. This is all you need to do:

Start teaching the ‘3Rs’ again in primary school although Val tried to muddy the water by saying that it was actually two Rs and an A. Objection noted.
Get rid of Curriculum for Excrement. That’s the core of the problem
Sack Swinney and pay us the exorbitant salaries to run the whole system.

After that we discussed Celtic’s glorious exit from the European Cup to Fred’s delight and the new ‘Stones album which is actually very good. Also discussed were “Landscape painting with felt” What the hell is that all about. Last night’s documentary about the Italian artist who tried to steal another artist’s work and pass it off as his own.

After that we left and I gave Val a run home. By this time (2pm) the automatic headlights came on in the car. It was another dull day, but I had previously decided on today’s PoD and it’s almost exactly as you see it above. The other big thing today was the arrival of the new battery for my MacBook. It was fitted in jig time (That means quickly, Englanders) and gave just over 3.5 hours of service today from an initial 75% charge, out of the box. It’s now charging for the recommended 12 hours after which it must be run down to 7% again before repeating the exercise. One of the best bits of the experience was finding that the touchpad on the mac was working again. I’d read that if the bottom left corner switch on the touchpad stops working, it could be because the battery was beginning to swell and press on it. It seems that was the case for me. We’ll see what tomorrow brings in battery land.

Hoping for a better day weatherwise tomorrow. Intending to go to Perth.

Santas on Parade – 4 December 2016

Posted on December 4, 2016December 5, 2016 by Zogman

We were driving into Glasgow when we saw a sign: “Warning! Santas Running” Hmm. Looks like a Santa run. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity of a PoD and that’s how it turned out.

After checking with the NLC volunteers, it turned out that the fun run had just started, but as we were about halfway round the course, we had a while to wait before the first runner, oops, Santas arrived. These aren’t the real Santas by the way, but are some of his fleet footed assistants. Having said that, Santa was only a few miles away in Falkirk yesterday, so I wouldn’t put it past the old fella to have sneaked in to the fun-run. We watched for a while and Scamp got into the spirit of things and was happily cheering them on their way, while secretly wishing she’d heard about it earlier and had managed to wangle a Santa suit and an entrance number for herself. Me? I’d hold the jackets. Lots more Santa pics on my Flickr page.

Once I’d got a few photos and was sure I had at least one contender for PoD, we drove the rest of the way in to Glasgow. Scamp had the bright idea of parking at Cowcaddens and getting the Subway to St Enoch’s. A stormer of an idea as it turned out when we saw the queues for different parking places around the town. Just to clarify, Glasgow is a city, but it’s always been known as The Town or more likely, The Toon. After we’d wandered round what is, apparently, the Medieval Part of Glasgow, down by Clyde Street and I’d taken some photos of extremely non-Medieval buildings, we had a coffee and headed for home. Glasgow on a Sunday in December is no fun. It’s full of shoppers and disappointed looking foreigners hoping to see men in kilts everywhere. Thankfully the ‘Bastard Drummers’ were nowhere to be seen or heard. Not even the mad “Bowie & Bolan” bloke who neither sounds nor looks like Bowie or Bolan was in evidence. Thankfully again.

Came home and relaxed for a while before getting ready for the Sunday Social. The highlight of the week for us. Had a great time as usual and met an old friend (Kul) there, once we managed to get parked – nightmare during panto season – and basically that was it for Sunday. Beautiful day with plenty of sunshine, although a bit cold. Currently 0.3ºc with snow forecast.

Tomorrow is Monday with all the hustle and bustle that Mondays bring.

Visitors – 26 November 2016

Posted on November 26, 2016November 27, 2016 by Zogman

Out before 10 this morning, just before 10, but not before I’d made some bread to have with today’s dinner. Drove in to Glasgow to get some early Chrissy Prezzies and for me to return my Perspective book. Didn’t even have time to drop in for a coffee before we headed back home, because there was more work to be done, preparing for our visitors. I did manage to get a few shots with my 9mm Body Cap lens.

When we came home, Scamp started back on her part of the preparations and I kept out of the way, drove to Auchinstarry and walked along part of the canal hoping to see the secretive Kingfisher again, but no show. Crossed over to the railway path and walked a bit further along it before doubling back and heading for the car. Found a leaf embedded in a slab of ice and managed to balance it on a frosted fence post to get a few shots of it.

Came back to the organised chaos that is the preparation for visitors. I did help a bit, but as usual, Scamp was fully in charge of the situation.

The night went well, the pudding I’d made (Creme Caramel) was excellent and a good time was had by all. Now we just have the clearing up to do. Half of it is in the dishwasher and the rest can wait until morning.

Good Fun, Good Food and Good Friends.

An Early Rise – 25 November 2016

Posted on November 25, 2016November 25, 2016 by Zogman

Up and out of bed before 8.00 this morning, but it wasn’t the desire to take photos in the frost that was sparkling in the morning air that got me up, it was someone knocking the front door. It turned out to be the wrong address. The gas man was actually looking for the bloke next door. However, it did get me up and that led to me achieving yesterday’s target.

Walked through St Mo’s and got a few photos, some of which are in the matrix above. There was quite thick fog when I left the house with a temperature of -5.6ºc, but when I reached St Mo’s a few minutes later, the fog had gone, taking with it my chance of some ethereal early morning shots. I did see a deer, but it was far to far away and moving like the wind.

By the time I got home, Scamp was scraping her car and since I was meeting Fred for coffee later, I decided to clean mine too. The joker who lives a couple of doors down had parked next to me last night and left my car in the shade of the early morning sun that I’d hoped would have thawed it out. People should think before they park next to me. So it was frozen hands for me before lunch, but at least the windscreen was clear.

Met Fred for coffee and swap shop. 2 CDs from him to me. 1CD from me to him. Not a lot to discuss today and I think the cold is getting to all of us. He’d done some sketches of course and so had I, but not as many from each of us as we’d had in the past.

Fred had to leave early so I did too. I walked along the Luggie again and, probably with the thought of sketching in my head, got a quick sketch of a bridge done. Not the most beautiful structure, but architecturally interesting and demanding from a perspective viewpoint. It’s not quite finished, but it was quite cold and my fingers were getting numb and I’d got a likeness of it. I had my leather gloves with me, the expensive ones. Two pairs for a fiver in Perth one year! I should have worn the fingerless gloves Hazy gave me to keep my hands warm but my fingers free. They’re not just for FOTO GRA4s! (in joke). They’re going in my jacket pocket tonight. I got some photos down the Luggie too.

From the 44 photos I took today, I whittled them down to 14 and from that I chose my 5 favourites. That’s what you see above in the matrix.

Be careful how you touch the blog today as it might still be a bit greasy, that’s because dinner was a small fish supper for Scamp and a special fish supper for me (fish in breadcrumbs) eaten with the fingers of course. I was feeling generous, so I shared my special fish with Scamp.

Looks like it won’t be quite as cold tomorrow. Ice is nice as long as it doesn’t stay too long.

Another day on Planet Ice – 24 November 2016

Posted on November 24, 2016 by Zogman

Temperature this morning at 8.30 was -4.7ºc. That’s cold when you’ve come down stairs to the cold kitchen without your slippers. Frozen tootsies.

I thought that by the time I was going out around 11.30 to meet Val that the car would have thawed a little. I forgot that where I’d parked it last night would remain in the sun’s shadow all day, so no luck with the auto-defrost. It was down to manual scraping of the windscreen. Then by the time I got in the car and turned on the ignition, there was a new film of ice on the glass. Finally got it defrosted and headed for the town centre. One great thing about this car is the air-con, which in the winter defrosts the windows PDQ.

Over coffee, our conversation ranged through the usual topics of computers, cameras, more computers and moans about everything else. Along the way I picked up some useful tips from the computer genius. Really, that’s not sarcasm. What Val doesn’t know about computer hardware and low level programming in DOS is not worth knowing. I learned a lot about his experience of external hard drives and gave him some pointers on camera lenses. As usual I gained more than I gave back.

After we we had had our caffein hit for the day we parted company. Him to wander round the shops and me to get some photos. Today’s walk through the winter wonderland was along the Luggie Water, part of which was frozen white and part was steaming away nicely in the warmth of the sun. Got a barrel load of photos and reduced them down nine and from those nine, I chose my favourite six. I’m really trying to reduce the photo overload these days. It’s all right to take lots of photos, in fact I recommend that you do, but it’s also essential that you store only the ones that are worth storing. I have to be more brutal or I’ll be filling the house with storage disks, even more than I do already.

By the time I was getting back to the car, the light was fading rapidly and it was time to head for home. You forget just how short the winter days are, so it’s really important to make the most of the good light.

My maxim for the week is get out early and get the shots in the good light, even if it 4.7 degrees below zero. Let’s see how long that one lasts!

A Busy Day – 2 November 2016

Posted on November 2, 2016 by Zogman

Some days there are loads of things to write about and some days, like today, are busy, but nothing all that interesting is happening.

Out this morning to meet Fred and Val for a coffee and a catch up. We were all pressed for time for different reasons and had to rush more than normal. Still a good sharing of minds 😉

From there I drove back home to pick up Scamp and drive to Falkirk. We were running a bit behind time and perhaps that’s why we didn’t notice the ‘Road Closed’ sign. We did notice the barrier across the road a mile or so further on. The only way I was sure we could use was back a couple of miles at the roundabout and that’s where we went. We managed to get to the office just in time. Thankfully this was good news again and to celebrate we went for a coffee in a new cafe just down the lane from Andrew’s office. The decor was good with guitars and mandolins hanging on all the walls, the coffee not so good. Maybe it will improve with age.

Drove back and dropped Scamp off at the house where she had some work to do. Drove up to Argos to get myself a 32Gb SD card to replace the 64Gb one I had bought from 7 Dayshop. It was a good price for 64Gb, but the speed was dire. Nice surprise when I went to pay for the 32Gb as it had 1/3rd off. Glad I went there. Managed to grab a couple of sunset shots at Broadwood Loch on the way home.

Back home had birds to feed because the greedy things have eaten all the peanuts already. Hopefully this lot will last a little longer. It’s an expensive hobby feeding all these feathered friends.

Tomorrow? Who knows.

Coffee and Swapshop – 19 October 2016

Posted on October 19, 2016October 20, 2016 by Zogman

I used to say that people who wanted to drink coffee should go to Costa and the rest should go to Starbucks, because Costa serve coffee and Starbucks serve Starbucks. I think that is no longer the case. Recently I’ve been going to Cafe Nero rather than go to Costa. The quality of coffee in Costa has plummeted recently in my opinion and is now almost as bad as Starbucks. Unfortunately, we don’t have a Cafe Nero in Cumbersheugh, only Costa.

Today the three Auld Guys, Fred, Val and I met to exchange goodies. Fred brought music. Music in a variety of formats, MP3 predominantly, but also FLAC and WMA . Val and I both got some. Val brought books which we accepted with grateful thanks. I also brought books which were shared out between the other two. We also shared jokes stories and the other two critiqued my Inktober sketches. It was a pleasant way to spend a couple of hours with good friends and bad coffee. The meetings of the full Auld Guys contingent is a much better affair with plenty of sarcasm, wit and good beer, but these fortnightly meetings are good too. They have their place in our ‘busy’ lives.

When I got back I went for a cold walk round St Mo’s. Attempted a couple of landscape shots, but the light wasn’t conducive to decent photography. I think I just left it too late and the light quality was too poor. I did like the PoD at the top of the page. I like the graphic quality of monochrome, especially Black & White and I’m always amazed at the work the spiders put in to decorate these dried plants. You don’t notice these things until you look and that’s what photography is all about, looking.

Salsa tonight was interesting. It was Jamie G’s last lesson with his beginners class and I felt sorry for him saying goodbye to them because they are joining a class with another teacher next week. I know how he feels. I felt the same when I lost one of my classes at the end of the year. But that was long ago now, in the dim mists of time.

I’d thought long and hard about today’s Inktober sketch and attempted a couple of setups before I settled on A Pair of Pears. I quite like it. Not the best I’ve done, but better than what went before it tonight.

Coffee Time – 7 October 2016

Posted on October 7, 2016October 7, 2016 by Zogman

Coffee with Val and Fred today. Fred was his usual self, but for once, I think I beat him in sketches done, just beat him, but it counts. Val was just Val.

Got some tips from Fred on sketching and gave him some tips on filling up a Kindle. As usual he had some CDs for me.

In the afternoon I went for a drive looking for photos. That’s where the landscape came from. Also, I got a sketch done. Previously, I’d started, then aborted a sketch of Auchinstarry Quarry. Then I started the drawing of the house. It was meant to be a preliminary sketch, but as I worked on it, it became firmer and more detailed and finally it was the sketch. Unfortunately, it was on the same page as the aborted sketch. That’s what the Tippex covers. In future I won’t skimp on paper. It’s the cheapest part of the sketching process and it is stupid to skimp. Learn by your mistakes I was told. That said, I remember reading that only fools learn by their own mistakes, wise men by the mistakes of others. Be wise.

Scamp’s out at a Witches Glam Night. No Halloween this year, it’s been brought forward and it’s a Glam Night instead. That leaves me with a half bottle of wine, three bottles of beer and an almost full bottle of whisky. That should do for tonight!

Heading somewhere that sells tea tomorrow. Long Leaf tea, not the floor sweepings I got last week.

Total abstinence is an impossibility – 31 August 2016

Posted on August 31, 2016 by Zogman

Not a lot to say about today, other than the six Auld Guys met up in the Horseshoe Bar for a few drinks, a cheap lunch, a few more drinks and a lot of good natured banter. It was great fun and for once there were no arguments, even when conversation turned to politics. The title of the blog post is one of the quotes painted, properly painted by a skilled signwriter on the inside of the gantry of the Horseshoe Bar. It’s attributed to Queen Victoria, but there is no proof that she drank in this pub.

From visiting one of the oldest pubs in Glasgow I had a look in one of the newest places, the Apple Shop in Buchanan Street. It only opened on Saturday after an eight month refit. It’s now much more open inside, but unfortunately they removed the glass staircase. Such a shame. It also looks as if they have removed the upper floor which housed the ‘Genius Bar’. That’s not such a big deal as I never actually found any ‘Geniuses’ there.

Only one photo today, there were more serious things on my mind today like a few drinks, a cheap lunch, a few more drinks and a lot of good natured banter. The building is the Premier Inn which, like the Apple shop was recently renovated. In my opinion they turned an ordinary building into a really ugly one. Kind of suits this area of Glasgow.

Don’t know what’s on the cards for tomorrow. It all depends on the weather.

Coffee, Dragons and Vitamin D – 25 August 2016

Posted on August 25, 2016August 26, 2016 by Zogman

On a cloudy day, I went for a coffee with Fred in the morning and we set the world to rights again.

Met Scamp afterwards and sorted out our winter, week-long Vitamin D supplement, sometimes known as a week-in-the-sun. For once the process of booking was much easier than it could have been, and has been in the past.

After that, the sun came out, and I took a walk as usual around St Mo’s. Still a few dragons flying around. None of them breathed fire, but I managed to get a shot of one, despite having completely the wrong settings on the camera. I don’t know what I did, but I was using ISO 100 with an aperture setting of f10 which produced a shutter speed of 1/40th. Luckily I set the camera down on the boardwalk to take a low level shot and this meant I had a really steady support, otherwise the shot would have been as shaky as the other 7 I took today. That’s what happens when you assume you have the normal settings and don’t check the info on the screen. Numpty. Still, it’s a good shot.

Physio to look forward to tomorrow :-/ Then maybe lunch out would be good. We’ll see tomorrow.