Category: Glasgow

Happy Birthday Scamp – 24 March 2017

Posted on by Zogman

Today is Scamp’s birthday.  She had chosen to go to see the live sized portrait of Graham Norton by Gareth Reid in Cass Art and then go for lunch at Vecchia Bologna, so we set off on the round trip after parcels and cards had been opened.  Also after we had a Skype call with Hazy.

As well as visiting the portrait artist’s exhibition, Scamp did a bit of shopping and we had a coffee before returning along the M80 to Bridge of Allan to Vecchia.  Unfortunately, when we arrived the usual waiter came to meet us and tell us that the kitchen had closed early and they were not taking any more diners.  Oh well, there was nothing for it but to head back along the M80 again because Scamp had chosen Milano as her second choice of lunch venue.  Almost as good as Vecchia, but not quite.

When we got home, I helped her out of her massive crepe bandage and got her settled and headed off to St Mo’s while she was on the phone to Jackie.  Got a few macro shots of larch flowers, looking like miniature pineapples.  Also took a four shot vertorama ( vertical panorama ) which I later merged together in Autopano.

Tonight being Red Nose Day, we chose a film from Netflix, only to find that the internet connection was flaky and we had to give up on it.  Ended up watching Steve Jobs from DVD instead.

Overall, not a bad day.  Not as good as it could be, but sometimes life is like that.

Lost and Found – 23 March 2017

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Sometimes I feel that the day just got brighter.  When I look back on it to see what it was that happened to make me feel that way, I realise that it’s not what happened, but what didn’t happen that made the change.  It’s like finding something I was certain was lost.  I haven’t actually gained anything, just not lost it and that subtle difference changes everything.

I drove in to Glasgow this morning to drop Scamp off at the hospital to have a *bite* as the dermatologist described it, taken out of her arm where the mole had been.  This was to be a larger excision than the one she had before we went to Trinidad in January.  Neither of us was talking about it on the way in, but it was playing through our heads, that was obvious.  As she was going to wait for an hour and a half before she would go to the theatre, and as she had company in the ward, I took my leave.

I wandered round the town, seeing nothing very much to photograph or to take my mind off the day.  Totally by accident, I walked into the exhibition room of Cass Art and admired the portraiture of the winner of the Sky Portrait Artist of the Year and especially his portrait of Graham Norton.  I saw the bloke who sits on the toy horse outside the Apple shop ‘blacking up’ ready for a hard day in the saddle.  I watched one of the beggars who’s hands shake all the time outside Buchanan Galleries pluck a smart phone from her inside pocket and hold it to her ear, steady as a rock, then remember to start shaking her other hand holding her cup.  I walked back through to the car park and grabbed a few shots of the city skyline through the glass panels of the bridge and that’s what you see above, slightly edited.  Well, considerably edited.

Drove home and found it strange to be sitting alone in the car going along the motorway.  Lunch was a *piece ’n’ banana*.  Not long after I got the text from Scamp to say that she was back in the ward with a BIG bandage and then the text to say that a taxi was required.

Since she had been a very brave girl she got to choose tonight’s dinner, which turned out to be a fish supper with a pickled onion and a tub of Tablet Ice Cream as pudding.  She deserved it.

Windy Willie – 20 March 2017

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Windy Willie was Scamp’s explanation for strong winds when the weans were wee.  No need then for Storm Agatha or Storm Benjamin.  No, when the house was shaking in the gusts, Windy Willie was out there, that was enough explanation.  Windy Willie was out today.

Scamp was singing again with Gems today.  This time in Stepps.  I had intended to go sketching in Glasgow to get back to more architectural subjects, but when I got there, the horizontal rain and hail put me off, so instead I drove to the Fort to get some cheap pens and not so cheap painting stuff.  I say *painting stuff* because Inktense sticks are difficult to categorise.  They are part pastel sticks and part aquarelle.  Aquarelles are usually in the form of pencils and these are just sticks of pigment in a binder and are like pastels, except when you add water to them they turn into watercolour.  Worth a few quid to try them out and see what kind of mess I can make with them.

I drove back past the old Gartloch Hospital, a scary looking ex asylum on the outskirts of Easterhouse.  I kind of want to photograph it, but it comes into the same category as graveyards for me.  I often feel uneasy about photographing graveyards and most times don’t get the camera out.  It’s almost as if I have to ask permission to take photos there.  I can’t really explain it.  Some day I’ll make time to go to Gartloch and get some images.  Whether or not I’ll keep them I can’t say.  I might just format the card after they’re taken.  I will say this though, it will be a bright sunny day I go there.

Only two photos worth showing today.  One of contrasting textures between the grey sky and the grey aluminium of  the M&S building at the Fort and another of an old knife with a couple of beads of jam on it (not blood!) sitting on the draining board at the sink at home.  I just liked them both.  PoD was  the knife.

Before salsa tonight, I was enlisted to help with beginners Bachata which Cameron was teaching, and teaching quite well.  He still needs to relax, but his voice control is much better and he also needs to realise that he doesn’t need to show off so much.  It all looks like a lack of self-confidence to me, but I’d never tell him that.  Enjoyed it.  Salsa was fast and furious.  New move tonight was Tresario Doble, I think.  Interesting and counter intuitive at times.  We need to practise it.  Also Cubaa Se from last week.  Good fun.

No plans for tomorrow.  Snow and ice forecast with Windy Willie around too.

A walk down The Green – 12 March 2017

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We decided, well I suggested, last night that we go for a walk down Glasgow Green today.  It fitted with the new regime of getting up that wee bit earlier, especially if we were to miss the hoards of ‘Billys’ and ‘Dans’ who would be heading for Celtic park for a local derby, AKA a punchup, because that’s what usually happens.  Actually, although Celtic park is close to Glasgow Green, I’d rather drive there than Ibrox which is the Rangers park.  Both Scamp and I know lots of short-cuts we can take to avoid most of the Parkhead traffic, but if Rangers are playing at home, the motorway becomes one big car park with all the maddies desperate to get there before anyone else.  I imagine living near Ibrox must be a nightmare, no matter which team you support.  I can just imagine all those cars parked everywhere.

So we drove through the green and white hoards to The Green and got parked without any problem.  Walked down to the McLennan Arch at the far end, then back along the side of the Clyde past the rowing clubhouse.  The high flats on the far side of the Clyde always impress me.  They seem to catch the light so well, especially in the winter and spring.  I took some pictures of them, but preferred the shot of the washing drying behind the perspex screens.  Lots of rowers out today and an unusually large number of ‘8s’ with the self-important looking coaches cycling along beside them shouting through tannoys.  Stood on the suspension bridge watching the coming and going of the different boats with their varying skill sets.  Then went up the hill to the People’s Palace.

Went for the usual lunch of Roll ’n’ Sausage for me and two rounds of Toast for Scamp.  My sausage was inedible.  That’s the first time that’s happened to me.  I think it must have been left over from New Year’s Day and had been ‘nuked’ in the microwave once a week since then to heat it up and kill of the bacteria.  I left it on the plate.  I value the few teeth I’ve got left and wasn’t going to risk damage to the expensive crowns.  Maybe I should have complained, but, like I said, this is the first time it’s happened, so I’ll cut them some slack.  Did a quick sketch of the inside of the Wintergarden.  It’s still got its emergency sheeting in place to prevent any further risk of falling glass panels.  I expect that sheeting will become a permanent feature, which is a shame, because it does detract from the look of the wrought iron trusses, but safety before beauty, I suppose.  I am quite pleased with the sketch because the perspective is fairly correct, but also I managed to include a couple of people, something I must practise.  Walked round the plants and took a few shots.  Smiled when I saw a wee girl with her wee sister and a point-n-shoot camera. Talking into it as if she was conducting an interview, finishing with “… and that’s it for this visit to Glasgow.  Handing you back to the BBC in London.”  Imagination.  That’s what it’s all about.  The camera wasn’t even switched on.

Came home and dumped my photos, then the sun came out.  It had been raining on and off all morning, but now the clouds had rolled away and the sun was coming out.  Scamp was ‘Tidying Up’ and I didn’t want to get involved in that, so I too the ‘Big Dog’ out to St Mo’s to see if there was anything interesting there.  Some coots building nests, but they were too far away to make anything of.  A cormorant, but it flew away.  No deer to be seen, but load of frogs.  Spent a wee while watching them, watching me.  I took some photos of some of them, but didn’t notice them photographing me.  Maybe they did and have posted them on FrogFlickr.  Maybe they’re writing in their blog about the BigBloke with the BigCamera who they saw today.  Who knows.  We are not alone in this world.  Might go back for some more photos tomorrow.

Dinner tonight should have been Tuna steak, but neither of us were impressed with it.  It just didn’t taste right, so we ditched it.  It looked so nice too.  Last time we’ll go to that fishmonger – it wasn’t even Tesco!

Hoping to go in to Salsa early tomorrow to get some ‘messages’.

A Posh Lunch – 11 March 2017

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Scamp had booked us a posh lunch today at the Blythswood.  It was an Itison voucher lunch, but a posh one, none the less.  This was our second posh lunch this week.

As it happened, neither of us were over impressed with the Blythswood or the lunch.  Now don’t get me wrong, the food was good, just not great and the surroundings were nice, just not all that impressive.  Maybe we are being over critical or maybe places like this aren’t trying all that hard for the voucher brigade.  I don’t know what the answer is.  The food was Smoked Hake starter for Scamp and Chicken Liver Parfait for me, followed by Chicken Supreme for both of us.  Like I said, good but not great.

After lunch we got the subway out to Byres Road and walked through the Botanic Gardens which are celebrating their bicentenary this year.  Usually we just walk through the Kibble palace, but this time we took in both glasshouses.  Oh, it was almost like being back in Trinidad with the heat and the humidity.  However, alas and alack, when we came out it was just Glasgow humidity.  It was raining.  Not heavy rain, just a Scottish smir.

We thought we had nothing more to do than dodge across the street and go for a drink in Oran Mor.  Unfortunately, that was not to be.  The place was mobbed.  Not a seat to be had anywhere.  Most of the punters seemed to be engrossed in Scotland getting gubbed by the english again, at rugby this time.  Instead of a drink, we walked down Byres Road and got a piece of Tuna for tomorrow’s dinner, then got the subway back into town and walked up to get the bus home.

Just as the driver started the engine, I saw this wee wummin running across the road, arms outstretched like a scarecrow, carrying two bags in one hand and one in the other, trying frantically to catch the driver’s eye.  As he put the bus into reverse to exit the stance, I saw her visibly deflate as she realised that she had another 30 minute wait in front of her, because he wasn’t going to open the bus doors.  I don’t know what she said, but I’m sure it wasn’t “Oh dear”.

<Technospeak>
Back home, I think I’ve parted company with Dropbox.  It seems that my temporary term with 10GB of storage is rapidly coming to an end and the 2GB I’ll have in a week or so just won’t cover my requirements.  So I have to move my backup to Google Drive which generously gives me 15GB.  There is a ‘but’ and the ‘but’ in question is, ‘but it is the very devil to set up’.  I’d read up on it last night and didn’t understand a word.  Tonight I found a YouTube video explaining in words of one syllable how to do it, so I got started.  After an hour and a half of setting up a project, getting a ‘secret’, authorising it, failing, authorising it again, failing, resetting my ‘secret’ before authorising again and this time succeeding, it now seem that I have a new home for my WordPress backup.  I felt a bit like the wee wummin.  I had just thought I’d caught the Google Driver’s eye, but then he pulled out of the stance.  Never mind, it’s done now and I hope the wee wummin is home with her three bags full.
</Technospeak>

Today’s photos are from the Botanic Gardens and also a couple from Tobago.  You see Hazy, Shug and Tam did go on their holidays.

Celtic are at home to Rangers tomorrow.  We’re hoping to go for a walk down “The Green”.  Need to go early to avoid the battles.

Just Get Up Ya Lazy Sod – 3 March 2017

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I usually list my alarms on the iPhone by where we were when they were created, however, today’s alarm which was sandwiched between ‘Last Day Cruise 2011’ and ‘Dubrovnik’ and was called ‘Just Get Up Ya Lazy Sod’.  It was for 6.15am!

Today, Scamp was to go to the hospital to be assessed by the plastic surgeon for a further operation on the site of the mole.  Unfortunately, the hospital was in Greenock, just over 40 miles away and on the other side of Glasgow.  Google estimated the time to get there for 9am was from 1 hour to  1 hour 40 minutes.  At the worst estimate, that’s an average speed of 24mph,  which is quite slow for, in fact illegal for, a motorway, but realistic for the M80/M8 at any peak time.  So that explains the 6.15am alarm.  I’d intended leaving at 7am and as the temperature last night was forecast to be below zero for most of the night, I knew I’d have to get out early to get the car warmed up and the windscreen scraped.  Not like the lucky folk with their heated front screens 😉

As usual when I know I’ve an alarm set, I seem to sleep for two hours at a time before waking, then as the allotted time approaches I enter deep sleep, only to get a rude awakening with some awful chime from the phone.  That’s what it was like today.

After prepping the car, we had a quick breakfast and were off, just after 7am.  Cutting a long story short, we entered the quagmire of traffic of the M80 / M8 intersection.  From there to the Kingston Bridge it was nose to tail and constantly changing to the lane that was moving fastest.  Luckily all those Monday and Wednesday nights stood me in good stead and I found the fastest lane through.  After the Kingston, it was good going for a while, until we reached Greenock, in fact. The scenery was beautiful all the way down the estuary, with pockets of fog and mist creating perfect photo opportunities.  Unfortunately, you can’t use ‘Photo Opportunity’ as a reason for stopping on the hard shoulder of a motorway.  Personally, I can’t understand why.

Almost at the hospital, we hit the ‘Road Closed – Follow Diversion’ sign.  For once, I followed the diversion with Scamp acting as a navigator who was becoming more and more concerned that we seemed to be going in the wrong direction, then seeing where it was leading us and confirming that we were, indeed, heading in the right direction.  Parked at the hospital with 10minutes to spare from the Google worst estimate.  Impressive, Mr G!

In and out of the consultant’s office within about 30 minutes, then it was the simpler route back to Glasgow, but the good light and the good photo opportunities were gone by now, of course.  Parked up on what will always be St James St. in Glasgow and went for a coffee in JL with Scamp before leaving her to meet up with ’The Witches’.  After doing some window shopping, I drove back home to a cold, dreich, Cumbersheugh.  I had thought I’d manage to get my bike out, but it was the cold east wind that put an end to that idea, so I did a bit of painting instead.  I also made some bread dough and retained enough to make a pizza.

Went for a late afternoon walk around St Mo’s, but there was nothing of interest to photograph.

Scamp arrived back about 7.30pm after having had a ‘Day in the Toon’.  It’s almost 11pm now and it’s been a long day, so I’m heading for the Land of Nod.

Good Night!

Russian around Glasgow – 24 February 2017

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We made a late decision to go to Glasgow today.  The other option was Falkirk, but the finger finally fell (alliteration of ‘F’) on Glasgow because we wanted to buy some ‘Trinny’ stuff to make dinner on Sunday, and we didn’t think Morrison’s would have plantain, dasheen or cassava, but Solly’s African Shop in the West End probably did.  Or two out of three as it turned out.

Got the bus in because that meant we could both have a drink with our lunch.  I wanted some water based markers in Cass Art or Millers so we headed down Buchanan Street, then along Argyle Street.  Scamp suggested we should have lunch in Charcoal’s cafe on Argyle Street and I thought that was a good choice.  However, when we got there, it looked closed and although there was a sign outside, there was no lights on inside and no customers.  I was ready to head back to Paesano pizza shop when Scamp said why didn’t we try the Russian place, Cossachok.  I’ll admit that I wasn’t all that keen.  The a la carte menu didn’t look very inspiring, but it was open and it was busy and we’d often passed it and said we must try it.  Yes, we had to give it a chance.  I had Borscht which I’d heard of, but never tasted and for a main I had Golubtzi which was cabbage roll stuffed with mince served in a spicy tomato sauce.  Scamp had Olivie which was like vegetable salad which we both remembered having back in the ‘60s! Her main was Mama’s Blinis which was minced chicken in a thin pancake, served with a creamy spinach sauce.  I’d have borscht again, definitely, but the golubtzi was really quite hot.  Scamp didn’t like the spinach sauce because it had a caramel taste.  That said, the lunch was cheap, filling and tasty.  What else can you ask for.  Next time I’ll have Russian coffee which is espresso with vodka and whipped cream.  A strange mixture.  There will be a next time!

Got the subway out to Kelvinbridge and investigated two Caribbean food shops.  Both had most of our ingredients, but only one had the plantain we were looking for.  Neither had dasheen.  We came home with plantain, coconut and cassava. It looks like Sunday dinner will be Stewed Chicken with Fried Plantain and the possibility of Coconut Ice Cream.  Subway back and coffee before we got the bus home.  Only the advert above as a possible PoD.  I thought it was exactly what you do on the subway and exactly what I was doing.  I was avoiding catching the eye of the three Chinese (?), Japanese (?), Korean (?), yes, Korean girls sitting opposite.  They looked like three little maids from school (yes, I know that’s Japanese) and seemed to find the adverts funny too!  Good advert, well worded.

Tonight’s other picture was taken after I had finished today’s ’28 Drawings Later …’ sketch which is here.  I wanted something simple to draw and paint and the two sheep worked well for that.  I needed something to recreate the mottled finish on the salt & peppers and decided to try out the salt technique where you sprinkle salt on a wet wash and allow it to dry before dusting it off.  According to the books, it works with sand too, but I’d never tried either.  I did a quick test using salt from my mum’s old bakelite salt cellar and the result was exactly what I wanted.  The photo shows the tools I used for the painting including the salt cellar.  Remember it anyone?

Yesterday’s snow and this morning’s ice is nearly all gone now, so I think we’re going down to visit Dorothy tomorrow.  Strong winds forecast for overnight, but hopefully they should have calmed down by tomorrow.

A More Frugal Day – 19 February 2017

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Milky white sky but mild.  Not really a day to encourage you out.

Lunch was a frugal scrambled egg on toast and dinner a baked potato with fish fingers and tinned spaghetti.  Neither of us felt like eating all that much after last night’s feast.

I made another bow tie and it took me half the time the last one did.  It was still a bit short, so I’ve made what I hope will be the final adjustments and may make one more just to be sure, but I’m going to use different material this time. Onward and upward!

Managed to get Scamp’s “illegal copy of Windows” back into the fold.  After consulting with Val and downloading Magic Jellybean – daft name – I found out that the CD key used for authenticating Windows was totally wrong.  So, all I did was type in the correct one from the label on the bottom of the ‘puter and, hey presto, it was licensed and we were legal again.  I have no idea how or when that got changed, but it did.  I also took the opportunity to remove what seems to be a dodgy Windows update at the same time.  It’s amazing, just how many people are complaining about this problem on the Internet.  This is the first time anything like this has happened to me, either with legal or not so legal Windows OSs.  Anyway, I hope it stays fixed and doesn’t revert to the dodgy side in a few months time.

Went to the Sunday Social tonight and enjoyed trying to remember the moves we were learning a few weeks ago.  We didn’t stay that long as I had a real nagging headache that simply wouldn’t go away.  Back home, and after swallowing a couple of paracetamol, it disappeared. Like the Windows problem, I don’t know where it came from, but unlike Windows, I couldn’t just type in the correct CD key!

Today’s PoD was seen in a doorway in Pitt Street in Glasgow.  Strange instructions.  Today’s sketch is of our new dressmaking scissors.  I think this is the first time I’ve used Promarkers since I left teaching. They gave a bit more depth and realism to the sketch.  I’d intended going out and doing a sketch in the wild, but it wasn’t happening today.  Too dull.

So I finish today’s blog where I started it, talking about the weather.  Nicely cyclic.

Happy Anniversary – 17 February 2017

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Today we got the bus in to Glasgow.  The X28 no less, the real express bus that doesn’t touch the hovels of Moodiesburn or the ice cream dungeons of Muirhead.  No, it just goes straight down the M80 into Glasgow, after picking us up in Condorrat of course.  We were going to celebrate out 44th anniversary.

After a coffee in Nero watching the tiaras and bouffant hair pieces sauntering past, we walked up Sausage Roll Street because I thought I’d seen a drawing book in the book shop there, but I was mistaken, it was in Waterstones at The Fort.  The girl in Waterstones checked for me.  Meanwhile, Scamp was in M&S getting a bargain – a new swimsuit.

Me disappointed, Scamp delighted, we walked down to Argyle Street to get some more of the bowtie print, bowtie material, some dark grey thread and a pair of dressmaking scissors.  Now don’t get excited Hazy, the ballgown is still a little way off yet.

Lunch was in Sarti’s and it was delicious.  Mine was shin of beef done in Italian beer.  According to the waiter, the secret is to marinade it for 48 hours and slow cook for 2.  Scamp had seabass cooked in orange and honey.  She said it was ok, but the spinach mash and the lentils was the star.

Walked back up to Sausage Roll again to buy Upwords.  It’s a game I’ve been playing on the iPhone.  It’s a bit like Scrabble but different.  There, that explains it totally.  Anyway, I went in to WH Smith to get a magazine to read on the slow bus home and, there was the book I was looking for!  Bought it.  That will save me a trip to The Fort tomorrow.  I bought the magazine too.

Went to get the bus back home, like I said, the slow bus.  That is when we re-met the hair pieces and hair extensions and little tiaras on legs.  Spray tanned legs on little Irish dancers.  Ten year olds, made up to look like midget twenty year olds.  All of them chaperoned by seriously overbearing and totally focused mummies.  Apparently today was the semi-finals of the dancing competition.  I think we’ll be going anywhere but Glasgow tomorrow to avoid these distorted little girls.  Childhoods stolen.

Slow bus home.  Today’s PoD was of a sunflower fixed into a crack in the new pavement being laid in Union Street.  Also, today’s sketch shows that I did learn something from the new book.  Curvilinear Perspective is a strange beast.

The toon in the sun – 25 January 2017

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Well, almost.  There was some sun for a while, then it got tired and went behind a cloud or two for a wee rest.  It was there, though for a while.

Scamp had decided that we needed to go in to the toon today on the bus, because we were going for lunch.  As it turned out, it was a good idea, but we weren’t sure where we were going.  It was finally decided that we would go to my new favourite restaurant / pizzeria, Paesano.  There, I’ve spelled it right first time without checking.  I checked afterwards, but that doesn’t count.  I had pizza (everything is a pizza there) with Salsiccia and Friarielli (Friarelli are a green vegetable like Broccoli but are only grown in Campania and they are in a category all their own).  A pizza bianco which doesn’t have tomato sauce.  I also had a side of lovely balsamic onions.  Scamp had Burrata (a fresh Italian cheese made from mozzarella and cream), Cherry tomatoes and Basil and a boring old Pizza Margherita.  Lovely!

Afterwards we went for a coffee in ‘Nero and that was the extent of our stravaigin’ in the toon.  Bus home too and the sun came out of hiding and started shining again for a while.

Not a lot to take photographs of today and I only took the one camera, the Oly 5.  I liked the distorted reflections of the buildings overlaid on the internal details of 110 Queen Street and it’s my PoD.  When I got home I’d left myself a reminder to glue the little metal cap on my Oly 5 (It fell of the other day).  When I was doing it, I found a little metal circlip that had broken and decided to pull it off.  When I pulled it off, it unfortunately took the plastic shutter button off with it!  Oh dear, I’ve just broken what has recently become my go-to camera – of course the actual words I said were not “Oh dear”.  The sentence was much longer and contained a lot of sweary words.  However, I managed to find the offending article and also managed to clip it back in place.  Then I glued on the offending metal cap with Araldite (other Two-part Epoxy Resin Adhesives are available).  It still seems to be working.  Moral of the story – If it ain’t Really broke, don’t fix it.  It worked perfectly before without the little metal cap.

Looking cold for tomorrow, but hopefully we’ll be on a warm train for a change.  Letting the train take the strain.