Glasgow – Page 44 – My Photo Blog

One day this weary winter will be gone – 28 January 2016

Posted on January 28, 2016 by Zogman

Title comes from a Loudon Wainwright song and it sums up my feelings quite succinctly. Another still life as evidence of the darkness outside from dawn to dusk. Dusk being about 5 minutes after dawn. After that, total darkness reigns.

Today we went to 1 Devonshire Gardens for lunch. It was a retirement present from the Malleys for Sheila. This was a full dress occasion – suit, shirt and tie. I even got shaved. It was worth it. Food was really excellent. Service was excellent too, just what you’d expect in a place like this. Because we knew that “drink would be taken”, we went on the bus, in fact buses because we got the bus from the centre of town to the restaurant. That was a first for us, travelling IN Glasgow by bus, but it was a necessity today because it was a 20 minute walk from the subway station and it was raining.

After our delicious lunch we went back in to the centre of town to pick up my beautiful artwork from Sunday’s class in Cass Art. It’s still sitting in the bag until I have the courage to look at it again. I’m only glad that I didn’t buy the paint they were pushing at the class.

Now we are getting ready to batten down the hatches before Storm Gertrude arrives with its 80mph wind gusts.

A Different Sort of Day – 22 January 2016

Posted on January 22, 2016January 22, 2016 by Zogman

After a downer of a week, weatherwise and otherwise, we woke today to … rain. Woke up at around 6.00am to rain battering against the window. Turned over and went back to sleep. Next thing I knew it was 9.00am and it was still raining. Oh well, I’d decided to go in to Glasgow for a wander and the weather app on my phone said it would be sunny by midday – fat chance says I. By the time I’d got myself organised and finished just one more chapter of Strange Loyalties by the late William McIlvanney, a very introspective novel with wonderful use of language, by the time I finally put it down, it was getting on for 11.30. Scamp had declined my offer of a run into town, so I went myself on the train. Got parked easily for a change at the station.

When I was walking up to the station, the rain had stopped and wonder of wonders, there was blue sky up there. At 12.10, sitting in the Glasgow train, the clouds parted and the sun shone. It stayed that way for the rest of the day. The weather app was right, well, ten minutes late, but we can forgive it that. In Glasgow I went up to JL, but they had no bargains – well, they hardly ever do. Had a play around with one of the Oly 4/3 DSLRs I’ve been watching coming down in price. Second hand of course. Unfortunately I handled the posh V2 version first, so the viewfinder wasn’t as clear in the second, more affordable, one. That said, it has come EVFs have come a long way since the Sony F707, or even the removable EVF of the Oly E-PL5. Sorry for all that technospeak, Jic, it’s over now, you can open your eyes again.

Lots of lovely light in Bucky Street and interesting people too. I have to thank the community policeman who noticed I’d dropped the viewfinder from the E-PL5 in my rush to get a shot. Thank you very much whoever you are, I never really got a chance to thank you properly. I know it’s unlikely you will ever read this, but I feel better now. I walked all the way down past St Enoch’s to the Clyde walkway and found even more photo opportunities.

Back up to the station, back home and a piece ‘n’ cheese for a late lunch before Scamp came home from a “Witches” meeting.

What a difference a bit of sun makes.

A grey day – 20 January 2016

Posted on January 20, 2016January 20, 2016 by Zogman

Grey start to the day with mist and the inevitible rain. We had hoped to go out somewhere scenic today as we did last week, but it wasn’t looking like a scenic kind of day. Finally settled on going to the Forge Market in Glasgow. Not very scenic, but it does have a Clarks shoe shop and there are few of them in the countryside. After trying this and that, leather and suede, black and brown, boots and shoes – you get the message, I settled on a pair of brown leather shoes and almost as my debit card was cooling in my wallet changed my mind. That’s about par for the course for me. I’ve got 28 days to cool my heels, or my feet to be more precise, before I have to accept or reject the shoes.

When we came out we tried to get a table at Cotton House, but were too late. They closed at 2.00 and it was just about 1.00 at the time. We were in Glasgow and they were in Bonnybridge – a bridge too far.

After getting lost a couple of times trying to get back on the motorway, Scamp suggested we go to The Fort in Easterhouse. I always did think they needed a fort in Easterhouse, but not one with high fashion shops, just a portcullis and a drawbridge. Had lunch at Wagamama. I had my usual of Ramen, Pork Ramen to be precise and Scamp had Teriyaki Chicken which was quite nice.

Walked along to Hobby Craft after lunch and got myself a daylight light bulb. Fred gave me one a month or so ago and although it was quite good, it was a bit weak and not as blue as daylight should be. The one I got today is much better. It’s a long life spiral bulb 20W which equates to 95W and has a mired value of 6500k which sounds like a perfect daylight level. I’ll give it a try over the next few days. Maybe it would disperse the grey light we are living with at the moment.

Snow! – 16 January 2016

Posted on January 16, 2016January 16, 2016 by Zogman

A late start after the late night yesterday. Couldn’t really decide what to do today and the weather didn’t look as if it was going to be all that good for a scenic drive. That being so, we settled on a drive in to Glasgow and lunch there. On the way there, the snow started falling and by the time we got to Glasgow it was quite thick. I’ve got a dream just now about getting an iMac to replace the Macbook Pro. I asked the Apple rep in John Lewis some questions about it. Some she couldn’t answer, some she could, but she didn’t inspire confidence in either Scamp or me, but she had a good way of moving ‘weans’ away from the expensive ‘toys’. We walked out and down through Buchanan Galleries then down Bucky Street to the Apple store which is closing for “remodelling”. They couldn’t tell me when it would re-open and I found that a bit disconcerting. What I did find out about iMacs confirmed that not only did the JL rep not know much about the computers, but also she just made up some of the answers. Why do JL employ supposed ‘reps’ from companies when these people know nothing about the products and sometimes deliberately mislead customers. It’s not the first time this has happened to me.

I wasn’t feeling all that hungry, so we headed back to the car park, but made a detour to the JL teashop where we had a light lunch. Luckily, Scamp had found a seat with a good view past the Concert Hall and up Sausageroll Street. The snow seemed to abate for a while while we were in JL, but by the time we got back to the car park it was back with a vengeance.

Back home I made good on my promise and dug out the old sewing machine. While it was not exactly the same as the one I’d been using on Thursday, it was close enough to work out the basics. Tomorrow I’m hoping to get some 3in1 oil and get it lubricated at least and hopefully working. Bearing in mind that this is a forty odd year old machine, for once I will have to be very gentle. Let’s hope that tomorrow’s blog is not titled “It’s Broken”.

A bit of culture, sew there – 14 January 2016

Posted on January 14, 2016January 14, 2016 by Zogman

Another bright morning, bright but cold. Since I was going to a sewing machining class, yes, that’s right a sewing machining class in Glasgow tonight and I wanted to see where it was, we decided to drive in to Glasgow. It was really quite easy to find and it was near Kelvingrove Art Galleries, so it made sense to just stop and smell the roses, or look at the pictures. It’s ages since we spent any time in the (F)art galleries, many more ages since I took a critical look at the paintings. I won’t say I learned a lot, but I did see some intersting techniques that I’ll have a go at. Since we were on quite a tight time schedule we left without listening to all of the organ recital, but it didn’t look as if Bowie was on today’s playlist.

I had an hour or two before I needed to get my threads and needles ready, so I went for a walk through St Mo’s. Saw a deer in the distance, but that was it as far as the wildlife was concerned. Even Mr Grey was absent. Got some pics of frozen and snow covered toadstools. We don’t often get toadstools in January, so this is another sign of the mild weather of the last few weeks. Temperature is dipping quite drastically now though. Frosted cars in the morning and the grit lorry making its rounds tonight.

Speaking about tonight, I drove into Glasgow to go to the Sew Macho class. Couldn’t find the actual studio at first. Luckily there were other dressmaking hopefuls there too and one of them knew where we needed to go. Only four in the class and I, of course, was the oldest by far. It was a really, really interesting introduction to the mysteries of the sewing machine. When I was at school I wasn’t allowed to take Home Economics – boys did Woodwork or Metalwork and girls did Cookery or Sewing and never the twain would meet. I’d played about with Scamp’s sewing machine forty odd years ago, but apart from making strings of little ducks and little dogs, I didn’t do anything with it. I was always scared I’d punch a hole in my finger with the needle, or I’d break the needle, maybe even both!
Tonight I learned to:

Set up the machine.
Spool the bobbin with thread and load it.
Do Single Stitches
Do Zig-zag Stitches
Make a Simple Hem
Make a Blind Hem
Sew in a patch
Sew on a button

All taught with good humour and confidence by teacher Jenny. I even managed to patch an old pair of jeans. I think I will dig out the old sewing machine and see if I can remember some of the techniques. You never know, I might even make myself a tee shirt … someday!

Another year over – 31 December 2015

Posted on December 31, 2015 by Zogman

Just another one of the many grey days we’ve had recently. Didn’t want to stay in though, so we took the train to Glasgow. Not looking for anything in particular and everything in general. Ended up walking down Bucky Street, along Argyle Street, coffee in Nero at St Enoch’s and back up Bucky street for the train home. I tell a lie, we nipped in to Waterstones where I got the last ever Terry Pratchett book, a book of Soup recipes (I kid you not) and Scamp, because she was so taken with some of the recipes in the Nigel Slater book Hazy and ND’A gave me for Christmas, got herself another Nigel Slater book! More food books – you can never have enough cook books. By the way, Hazy, your calendar is printed and as we were passing a Ryman, I got the A4 envelopes to post it in. It will be despatched as soon as the post office recovers from New Year.

While we were at Nero’s, I took the opportunity to photograph the futuristic subway entrances there. I must say I really am impressed with the use of steel and glass in the construction. Also impressive is the way Glasgow Council had managed to bung up the drains in front of one of them to create a little shallow pond that reflects their shape perfectly. Artistic but not so practical. Well done again GC.

So, here we are again watching crap TV in the hopes that there will be something worthwhile to pass the time until “The Bells”. It’s unlikely, as it’s never been good before, but there’s a first time for everything.

Until next year, Good Night All.

Don’t cross your legs – 24 December 2015

Posted on December 24, 2015 by Zogman

Scamp thought I wanted to go in to Glasgow today and I thought she wanted to go in. It wasn’t until we were walking down Bucky Street that the crossed wires became untangled. We had travelled in on the bus and had just been to John Lewis where I showed Scamp the toy I’d like in my Christmas stocking, an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II. Apparently Santa may not have any left as a lot of boys and girls have asked for that self same thing. Oh well, never mind, I’ll just have to wait until it turns up on MBP, second hand.

Went and had coffee in Cafe Nero at St Enoch’s, then headed back up to Sauchiehall Street. Blacks were having a closing down sale and I managed to snag myself a new Berghaus jacket. Maybe not as good as an Olympus OM-D E-M10 Mark II, but a lot more practical.

Just missed the bus home, but that’s about par for the course at the bus station and got talking to a wee visually impaired man who told me you should never sit with your legs crossed because it restricts your circulation. You won’t feel it at the time, he said, but it will get you later. I don’t know where he got that information from, but he was quite adamant about it.

Weather was mixed. Beautiful bright sun one minute, torrential rain and hail the next. Scamp says we have to blame Storm Eva for that. When I got home I slapped some paint on a canvas while I waited out the hail storm that was battering the window and then went out for a walk around St Mo’s. It didn’t rain, but the sun didn’t shine either. Managed one shot of a confused wee green shoot that thinks it’s spring. I think there are more cold winds, hail showers and possibly sunny intervals between now and then. Keep your fingers crossed ….. but not your legs!

A Delightful day – 21 December 2015

Posted on December 21, 2015December 21, 2015 by Zogman

Well, at times it was delightful. It started well, with blue skies and early morning sun. I had planned to go in to Glasgow to get my Christmas shopping finalised. Well, sort of finalised. Final is such a, well, final word that I very rarely use it. Let’s say that “Today would see my Christmas shopping nearly finalised.” That’s a better way to put it, it leaves a bit of wiggle-room. “Wiggle-room” is a hyphenated word that will no doubt make it into the OED next year if it isn’t already there. Scamp kindly offered me a lift to the station so I could travel in comfort rather than sit on a cold bus for 45mins. The kind man at the station gave me £7 change with my tickets which was a bit of a surprise as I’d only given him a fiver! I gave him the fiver back. He smiled and looked relieved that I’d been honest. After all, ’tis the season and all that crap.

By the time I got to Glasgow the rain was pelting down, so I cut to the chase edited out my window shopping and concentrated on the real stuff instead. Got everything I wanted and headed home on the first available train. I’d phoned Scamp and she was just driving in to the station as I was walking out. Perfect timing.

After a swift lunch, we both went to the gym, separately. She to have a ‘facial’ me to investigate the new whizzo machines in the gym and to have a swim. Gym looks much better laid out now. More stuff in it and it looks like there’s more space. A sort of ‘Tardis’ conversion then. I’m hoping to try out the machines later in the week.

Dropped in at Tesco to spend a Tesco voucher I got when I retired, that’s almost 18 months ago! I bought myself a bottle of Glenrothes whisky with it (Whisky was what I was told to spend it on 18 months ago). Glenrothes appears to have nothing to do with the New Town of that name. I don’t think I’ve ever been to Glenrothes, but the name ‘New Town’ damns it anyway. On the way to Tesco, the sky had cleared after dumping tons of rain on us from about 11.00am and it looked like being a great sunset and the statue of Arria was catching some great light, so I took the opportunity to combine the two and take some shots of it. You get someone to build a gigantic statue of a Roman emperor’s mother (Why?). You put it in a prominent place overlooking a busy motorway, but you don’t tell anyone how to get to it. That’s Scotland for you. Shoots itself in the foot every time. Actually it’s quite easy to find if you know where, but isn’t that a universal truth. You have to drive through Eastfield Cemetery, park at the end and find the overgrown path to the statue. Simple! Such a shame as it’s a stunning piece of work, but I’ve no idea why she has four arms. There’s probably a good punchline waiting to be heard there.

So, for once it was a delightful day. Started well, crap in the middle and finished well. Sort of like a crap sandwich. Now there’s a delightful thought to end with.

The Magnificent Seven

Posted on December 11, 2015December 12, 2016 by Zogman

Another dull, dark, wet day. An ideal day to go for a swim in the warm waters of the leisure centre with no need to feel guilty about not exercising first, as the gym is being refurbished this week. So off we went, both of us, because Scamp can now go when she wants – the freedom of retirement.

After that we headed in to Glasgow because, remember yesterday’s boots trip? Well, this morning I decided that the boots were just a wee bit too wee for complete comfort. Parked at Cowcaddens and took the underground to St Enoch’s. Yes, I know it’s real name is St Enoch, without the apostrophe ‘s’, but it’s alway referred to as St Enoch‘ss, so that’s what it is here. Got the boots exchanged for a green pair. Scamp says it’s really my colour. Don’t tell anyone in Larky that or they won’t let me in again. This pair are a half size bigger, so that should be fine and dandy.

Technospeak Alert
On the way back to the car, I stopped to get a shot of the underpass at Cowcaddens. I like this underpass with its interesting graphics and great lighting. I wanted a bit of human interest and I thought I had the idea subjects when a group of guys wandered through. There was my shot. It even had a title “The Magnificent Seven” because there were seven of them. When I got home and downloaded the shot I was disappointed to see that there were in fact, only six of them. However, as always I’d taken another couple of shots from different angles. One of them had a woman walking towards the camera at about the same distance as the six guys. It was a simple matter to use Potatoshop to clip her out of one frame and insert her into the other one. There, now it was the Magnificent Seven (Now referred to as the MS). Isn’t that what they invented Potatoshop for? The lighting was a bit more difficult to fix. I tried low key, high key and HDR. None of them worked for me. I eventually used a preset I’ve been making good use of this week. It’s a low key, high contrast monochrome. The only problem was that the MS were lost against the background. However, help was at hand with Lightroom’s new radial filter which allowed me to lighten the back wall and make the MS stand out in silhouette. Just what I wanted. There, that’s the full story, not the sanitised version that goes into Flickr. I don’t know what it is with underpasses, bridges and tunnels this week.

Stopped at the Costa at Robroyston with the intention of going to Asda for essential shopping later. When we came out, we couldn’t be bothered, so we decided to go home instead. That’s what we did. Scamp is out tonight at the choir carol service. I offered to go with her, but she quite rightly said that I’d hate it, so she went on her own. May start a painting later, or maybe I’ll just heat a pizza because it’s Friday.

Boots – 10 December 2015

Posted on December 10, 2015December 10, 2015 by Zogman

combo b I went in to Glasgow today to get some paint – one tube of paint to be exact. Scamp was singing in the afternoon, so this got me out of the house too. I’d been looking for a new pair of boots. My old well worn Goretex walking boots were beginning to let in water. After five years of solid use that’s not surprising. For months now I’ve been looking for a replacement pair without much success. Today I chanced by Clarks in Argyle Street and there was the exact boots I was looking for. I’m not saying how much they cost, but the cost was proportionate to the cost of the old pair they are replacing. When I walked out of the shop I passed a camera crew recording interviews with passers by. On the local TV news tonight, there I was in the background. Hey, I was on the telly.

I went for the bus home, but when I got to the bus station a fire alarm started. Everyone just ignored it to start with. It’s Scotland. We find it hard to get excited about fire alarms, burglar alarms. If WW3 started we’d probably just stand and watch the bombs dropping thinking “where are the hidden cameras then?”. Eventually, when the fire wardens in their red Hi-Vis jackets appeared, people grudgingly exited the buildings. It was cold, the wind was gusting and there was a threat of rain (maybe it would put the fire out) so I decided to use my time constructively and went to John Lewis to have a cup of coffee and a scone. When I came out, the emergency was over and everything was running normally (i.e. there were no buses for Cumbernauld for about 30 mins). When I got home Scamp was gone to her gig(!) and the sun was out, so I went to take some photos. Walked along the Luggie again and used the 9mm lens a lot. I also used a Lightroom preset I’d made up to process the decent shots.

Last night the Mac crashed. Black screen, no sign of anything happening. Not a sound. Not a flicker. I eventually powered it down. Not the way you’re meant to do it, but by holding down the power button. You’re not meant to do that because it can cause problems. It caused problems. Every time I opened Finder (Windows Explorer to the MicroSofties) it would take about a minute to produce the goods. I eventually found out that it was a corrupted .plist. If that means nothing to you, don’t worry. I don’t understand either. All I know is that the repair I found on the net was convoluted, but it worked. I think. I’ll know better tomorrow when I try a reset. I can’t be bothered to do it tonight. It’s been a long day, but I’ve got a new pair of boots!

Oh yes, here’s the repair code:

In Terminal type

cd /Users/User/Library/Preferences/ <Where User is your user name>

rm -fr com.apple.sidebarlists.plist

rm -fr com.apple.finder.plist

Logout

Then Logout from the apple menu