Category: Gym

Muscles and Mussels – 15 October 2015

Posted on by Zogman

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAFrom the title you will guess that today I joined the super fit folk in the gym to get a tour of the mysterious torture machines. So now I know about extensions, arm curls gluts, biceps and free weights. However, when I tried to leave with a conservative selection of dumbbells I was told that it wasn’t that kind of ‘free‘. I suppose it must have been free as in ‘free speech‘ and not as in ‘free beer‘. I never did understand that, but then again, I’ve never seen a sign for free beer either, and is there such a thing as free speech? Anyway, the gym/swim thing went well, except that instead of doing leg extensions, my program actually had leg curls. Confused? Yes, I think these machines are designed to confuse the unwary. Anyway, I did my reps and completed my circuit with timed cooldown. I hope you’re impressed JIC. I can talk your language now, but with a Scottish accent. The gym instructor was telling me that the gym is getting an upgrade in December and they will have bikes with video screens so you can cycle on mountain passes and along a beach at sunrise. I don’t think she was impressed when I said “Oh, just like a Wii then?” Ahem, perhaps not then.

Other than the gym, I didn’t do much. Scamp on the other hand was a busy little bee, working, exercising and in between, arranging a week in the sun for us. I’m so glad she does it. I know it’s a pain in the arse for her, sitting in a travel agent’s shop listening to all the crap for an hour or so and I do appreciate the sacrifice she makes. So, we’re booked and I’m looking forward to it already!

SInce she wasted her afternoon at the travel agent, I thought it only right and proper that I should make the dinner and it turned out very well even if I might say so myself, despite a little frisson of fear as I was serving it up. Today’s dinner was Simple Fish Stew and what could go wrong there I hear you say. Well, it wasn’t until I was serving up that I read the ingredients on the fish stock packet and noticed the following: ‘May contain molluscs and crustaceans’. Oops, having a severe allergic reaction to mussels (mollusc) I was a bit on edge for the next hour or so, waiting for the itch in my oxters (another lovely Scottish word) and other uncomfortable places. Thankfully the itch never appeared, so it looks as if it will be safe have the rest of the soup/stew tomorrow for lunch. By the way, it was delicious. Fish twice this week!

Coffee and a scone – 14 August 2015

Posted on by Zogman

DSC_3282- blog--226I was up early(ish) this morning and managed to get a few photos of the dunnock searching the garden for food.  There was plenty of birdfood there, but the dunnock is shy and won’t feed when there are other birds around.  I looked it up on the RSPB site and it confirms my observations.

Gym and a swim later in the morning and a painting done – a very quick one.  A monochrome sketch totally done in paint with no pencil sketch.  A time limit too of 30 mins.  Like most of these ‘works’, it had it’s good points and its bad.  Also as usual, to my eye, the bad outweighed the good.  Strictly not for publication, but a useful practise piece.

Couldn’t find anywhere to go for lunch, so we had a swift sandwich, then went out later for a coffee at the ice cream shop in Muirhead.  Real old fashioned cafe.  Old fashioned coffee too.  Bought some ice cream to have with our dinner.

All in all, not a bad day.  There’s been worse.

 

That TGS key again – 24 July 2015

Posted on by Zogman

Started a painting, a watercolour on Fred’s watercolour paper. Wasn’t at all happy with the results, so gave it a coat of gesso and left it to dry. I’ll maybe try watercolour on the gesso next week when it’s dry. Gave up painting and started to pack away the easel in preparation for the visitors.

So, I forgot my notebook and the pencil, but I did get my TGS key back when we went to the gym. Tried to plug it in to the computer at the start of the session, but the screen showed MS Windows. Borked! Oh, oh. This doesn’t look good. Tried it in the first machine I came to and got the message “The Key is Empty”. Ok, time to go to speak to the liar assistant at reception.

Me – “When I put my key in any machine it says ‘key empty'”

Assistant – “Oh”

Me – “So what do I do?”

Assistant – “It says ‘key empty'”?

Me – “That’s what I said.”

Assistant – “Oh. Let me check with ****”

Assistant returns – “There was a note with your key that …..” It sort of fades out there.

Me – “So what do I do?”

Assistant – “It will say ‘key empty’ because you didn’t check in and you can’t check in because the computer’s not working”

Me – “How long has it been broken?”

Assistant – “Dunno. Quite a while.”

Me – “When will it be fixed?”

Assistant “Dunno.”

Do you get the impression that this is not the most interesting, intellectually stimulating, or productive of conversations? Do you also get the impression, as I did, that he doesn’t care? I left it there and went back to the gym, where Scamp had also not logged in but whose key was working properly in all the machines. It is all recorded and will be played back for the benefit of the manager of Q Hotels. The ‘Q’ is for Questionable Quality, I believe. Since the computer has a touch screen and a virtual keyboard, I was tempted to use these facilities to format the C:\ drive, but I didn’t. Not this time….

Had thought about going cycling, but the rain that had appeared put paid to that idea. Spent the rest of the afternoon completing the tidying up of the back bedroom for our visitors to be able to at least put the bed down. Then Scamp decided to pick the blackcurrants that are overburdening the bush. Managed to get about 700g of fruit which isn’t bad. The smell of the blackcurrants took me back to Kirkmuirhill and my aunt Jean’s small holding during the summer holidays. Isn’t it strange how smells transport us. Raspberries always take me to Ormiston and my Uncle Bob’s fruit garden.

 

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERATook some time out from tidying and fruit picking to photograph OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAsome peppers that were destined for the compost bin. The colour versions didn’t look that good, so I reduced them to mono and then sepia toned one. Quite impressed with the results.

Drove in to Glasgow Airport at night to pick up JIC and Sim. Lovely night after a very changeable day.