Category: Friends

Coffee Time – 7 October 2016

Posted on 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

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M8310698- flickr--244Not 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

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E8251411- flickr--238On 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.

Fish Again – 5 August 2016

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E8051190-Edit- flickr--218Out fairly early to pick up our fish and crab meat from Oyster Oyster in Linlithgow. While we were walking into the town from the carpark, I saw this view of St Michael’s church spire pointing upwards behind the trees. Everyone thinks this is part of Linlithgow Palace and it looks as if it should be, but no. It dates from 1964 and is made mainly of aluminium.

When we got back it was time for a technology injection with a coffee or two with Val. It was good to exchange problems and solutions with someone who understands why that borked Nexus is a “wee shalenge”[sic]. As I expected, he suggested yet another way to solve the Nexus problem, or maybe just a chance to create a new problem.

When I got back it was time to prepare the main course. To speed up the preparation of the sauce, I decided to slice the ginger with the mandolin. Yes, JIC, I managed to slice my finger once again. The good news is that it was ginger I was slicing, not orange, so no acidic juice got in the cut. However, I had to continue the prep with two plasters on the cut and my hand in a plastic glove. Thanks to Nurse Scamp, it wasn’t any worse. Fish is now prepped and bread is baked without any more dramas. Just waiting for our guests to arrive.

The Hottest Day of the Year – 19 July 2016

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19 JulyYesterday was hot, but today, oh today was even hotter.  Over 33ºc in some places.  Heavens, even Scotland had over 25ºc.  What is the world coming to?

Scamp had decided that she was going to sit in the garden all day.  A sensible decision given that the sun was going mad.  We sat in the garden for a while watching movement in the pond.  We couldn’t decide whether it was frogs or newts.  We settled on ‘Frewts’ as the most likely suspects.

After lunch we went for a walk along past the golf course and had a couple of drinks at the clubhouse.  It doesn’t seem as if you have to be a member, just as long as you’ve got money.  We had money and I sampled another of these English IPAs which are very nice.

After we got back, Scamp went for more sunbathing in the garden while I went back to the wild woods to try to photograph some butterflies.  I managed to get a Small Heath and a Comma.  We don’t get Commas in Scotland, but apparently they are moving further north as a result of global warming.  I saw a deer, but it was too fast for me and was away into the tall grass before I could get the camera ready.  Also saw the pale blue dragonfly that I saw earlier in the week, but again, it wasn’t landing, just cruising, looking for a mate.

Canute and Delia came over for dinner which was an Indian take-away.  Very entertaining evening.  Just hope I can get to sleep in this really hot night.

Back North tomorrow.  Heavy rain forecast!

More Repairs – 9 July 2016

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8 july bThe Megane was due in at the garage for 8am, so it was another early rise, this time for both of us.  Got it down there on the dot at 8am.  Back for breakfast then just after that, decided to set the garden back the way it was before the fence went up.  Almost the way it was.  Scamp wanted the compost bin put in a new position, so clearing a space for it and levelling it was the first order of the day.  With that sorted, we could procede to refill it from the six black bin bags we’d filled with the compost.  Then plants in their pots had to be relocated round the periphery of the garden.  Some trimming next.  Two branches of the Rowan Tree were encroaching in the neighbour’s garden, so I lopped them off.  Dead headed the Schoolgirl rose at the front and that’s where I found the caterpillar.  It ended up in the front grass to fend for itself.

Just before lunch, the garage phoned to say that the Megane was ready and for once the bill was slightly smaller than we had estimated.  Every little helps.  Picked up the car and came home for a well earned lunch.  After that, I drove us in the Megane with its new CV joint boot to Bishopbriggs to get a lightweight Manfrotto tripod I fancied.  It will probably be a ‘car tripod’ as the big Manfrotto is a bit of a tight squeeze in the boot.  It really is a neat little thing and is much less cumbersome than the big 055CL.  However, I will keep the 055 to hold the D7000 because it feels much more secure on the big Tri.

Went for a walk over St Mo’s and got the shot of the damselfly.  The Pana lens wouldn’t focus on the damsel because it found the daisies in the background more attractive, so I used manual focus and focus peaking on the ’10 to get accurate focus on the insect and it worked perfectly.  The butterfly is a Ringlet and this is the first time I can recall seeing this name.

One wee sad thing today, but a happy thing too.  Val wanted a DSLR.  He’d been given one by one of his friends, but that person asked for it back.  He’s been looking for a cheap second hand one for a while with no success.  I had a D70 that’s been redundant since I got the D7000, so I stuck on the Nikkor 70-200mm and gave them to him.  I think he liked them.  I hope he enjoys using them as much as I did.  A wee bit sad for me parting with them, because they’ve both been great tools for me, but hopefully a happy day for Val, who’s going through a bad patch just now.

More problems uploading to Flickr tonight.  That’s the second time this week.  I finally got the images uploaded, but I think I may be looking for a new repository for my images soon, along with a few other people according to the forums on the net.

It’s not been a bad day at all weatherwise.  A little rain in the morning, but lots of blue skies and a lovely sunset tonight.  Let’s hope for more of the same tomorrow.

Another Wet One – 4 July 2016

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4 julyWet from start to finish today, but stuck to my guns and went out in the rain to capture something of the essence of the day. There were quite a lot of people about given the weather conditions. I felt sorry for the poor wee man sitting fishing under his umbrella. I hope he caught something – not the cold though! My cold has lifted thank goodness. Scamp is still coughing, but I think she is on the mend now.

It would be nice to say that these were all as they came out of the camera, but as usual, some ‘shopping’ was necessary.
The man with the dog for example:
When I got the base photo, the dog was off investigating an interesting scent in the woods, so I had to wait until it surfaced again, but then the man was facing me and had lost his hunched shoulders pose that really summed up the rainy day. No problem, I cut out the dog and added it to the original base photo, then blended it in with a vector mask. Although I knew it was raining heavily at the time, the photo didn’t show it, so I added some rain as a layer and changed the layer type to Lighten and it looked so much better. If you can’t see those carefully crafted raindrops, check out the version on Flickr 😉  EDIT!  Well, you will when Flickr remembers how to upload files.  What’s the point of having all these bells and whistles when the basic system doesn’t work.  For Flickr read Fuckr.

Had coffee with Val in the middle of the day and enjoyed the chat. It’s always good to see old friends you haven’t met with for a long time. Had a long discussion about computers and programs. Picked up a few tips on new apps to try, both on the PC and on the Mac.

Dinner was a bit rushed as I decided at the last minute to go to salsa after all and with Scamp’s blessing. I knew that Jamie Gal wouldn’t be hosting tonight’s session, and was hoping it wasn’t Colin but dreading it might be Shannon although there is one worse than that. Surely she wouldn’t inflict him on an advanced class. Keep him for the beginners. It turned out to be Will who taught a good class very clear instruction and a great deal of humour. Total enjoyment for the full hour, 9/10 Will.

Driving home, I thought I might attempt Charing Cross Mansions as a sketching objective some time. One of the prettier architectural frontages of Glasgow. I would need a dry day for that, and the weather forecast doesn’t seem to include one of those for the foreseeable future.

A Lost Day – 2 July 2016

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2 July bI spent most of the day in bed. I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think it might have broken the back of this cold. Last night, I was dead on my feet by the time I went to bed, and this morning was a lost cause.

Scamp drove us in to Robroyston and a cup of coffee helped me on my way to fitness. Didn’t manage to get out for any photos, so todays shots were taken in a rush through the kitchen window, but they are Pictures of the Day and therefore count.

Tonight we went to friends in Hamilton and had some lovely food, including a Tiramisu which almost equalled Scamps. I never thought I’d say that. Maybe that will encourage her to up her game. Only kidding Scamp!

Looking like a better day weather-wise tomorrow. Hope it is because Scamp needs some good weather to brighten her day and wipe out her cold.

Noilly Prat – 7 May 2016

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comboNoilly Prat is a brand of vermouth from France. “White” Noilly Prat is the archetype of dry, straw-coloured French vermouth.  It’s also the words I woke up to today.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it was precognition or just a word that I saw somewhere and got trapped in my cerebral cortex.  It happens a lot to me.

Woke later than normal and felt as if I hadn’t rested at all.  Only myself to blame.  That’s what happens when you get home at 2am after a long day, coupled with a late night the day before.  Dragged myself out of bed, then a shower and a cup of strong coffee helped put the world back on its axis.

Today we were driving down to Kilmarnock to visit Dorothy B.  We spent a good hour there with her and Colin.  Enjoyed the company and I’m sure she did too.  Got her up to date with what’s been going on in our life and our prospective plans for the next few months.

It was a dull kind of day with very little direct sun, so although I took my cameras as usual, nothing inspired me enough to haul one of them out of the bag.  We drove back up the M77 and dropped in at Waitrose for ‘the messages’ and a light lunch.  While Scamp was deciding on a bottle of wine for tonight, I turned around and what caught my eye?  Why a bottle of Noilly Prat!  Just coincidence.

When we got home, and after finishing yesterday’s (extremely) Hard Sudoku with a little help from my tablet, I went for a walk to St Mo’s.  Again, nothing was tempting me to get my camera out, then I saw the moss fruiting bodies.  Difficult to see with the naked eye, but amazing detail shows up when you use a couple of extension tubes on the Oly with the Panasonic 45-200 zoom.  The green larch needles were taken contre-jour (against the light) and I just liked the little pink flower.  Three shots survived out of 37 taken.  Not bad really.

TV was crap as usual on a Saturday night so we watched a recorded episode of Rick Stein.  He was in Berlin, and what wine was he celebrating?  Why Noilly Prat!  Once is coincidence, twice gets scary, especially since if you’d asked me yesterday what Noilly Prat was, I couldn’t have told you.

Earlier in the week we were promised 24ºc for Sunday (tomorrow), but the weatherman’s revised estimate tonight is nearer 18ºc.  Oh dear, let’s hope it doesn’t go any lower.

A grey start with late brightness – 17 March 2016

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combo bThe day started off very dull and grey.  Scamp went off to meet a friend for coffee in Hamilton and reported that the weather there was much better than here in Cumbersheugh.  Nothing surprising there with our omnipresent Cumbersheugh Cloud.  I went up “The Toonie” to meet Fred for a coffee.  It’s not as if we don’t have coffee or coffee makers at home, it was just a coincidence that we were both meeting different friends for the same beverege.  Had a natter with Fred and we set the world to rights as usual then the unthinkable happened.  The Costa repair man came in to service the coffee machine and they could only provide tea.  Now I’m perfectly happy with tea, but as far as I know, Fred only drinks coffee and beer.  Hardly ever spirits and never tea.  So we had to either walk to the other end of the centre and enter the dingy Costa there or sit coffee-less in the light.  We chose the latter.

When I came home, via Tesco as I was cooking tonight and Dobbies because I wanted to be self-sufficient in mint for mojitos, the weather was definitely brightening up, so I got my boots on and went over to St Mo’s to get some foties.  Got a couple of shots of a pair of deer and a lot of contre-jour ones against the low light.  The monochrome one of the trees was a happy accident.  I was trying to  work out how to use my phone to geotag the photos in the new Oly and just took a grab shot.  When I got home, I found that I had indeed geotagged the shot but it was unremarkable and was destined for the bin.  I must have pressed a hot key that did a basic conversion to mono and when I was doing a final check of shots for the bin, I liked the result.  Not PoD, but interesting enough to save.  Have a look at it on Flickr viewed on the lightbox (press L) and see what you think.