Category: Light

Golden Light – 19 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

Today dawned, like the rest with a dull, grey cloudy sky.  It didn’t look as if it was going to get any better and it lived up to that promise, in fact it got worse.  A heavy mist came down obliterating any view that had been there.

I decided to make the best of the day and print off a first copy of my 2017 calendar.  Unfortunately, El Capitan doesn’t want to work with my Canon ip4500 printer.  Canon don’t want to supply a driver and Apple don’t care about any hardware more than seven years old as I already know.  A quick search of the internet confirmed my suspicions that there is no workaround for the problem, apart from buying a new printer.  I did manage to get the calendar printed by converting my Pages file into a PDF and using this to print it off on my old Tosh laptop.  A laptop much more than seven years old.  Despite my disappointment, or maybe because of it, I drove in to Glasgow hoping that Staples could supply me with a magenta cartridge for my ancient printer.  They could at £16.95.  Rather expensive when you find that Amazon can supply a three cart set for £26.  So Stalples is going out of business?  I think I can see why.  I didn’t buy their overpriced cart.  One interesting thing I found out is that Epson sell a 3 in 1 printer for £189, complete with two years’ worth of ink  No more dinky ink cartridges, this thing works with bottles of ink.  It sounds like a good investment as long as Apple don’t make it obsolete halfway through my second or third bottle of ink.  I’m really beginning to become pissed off with Apple’s devotion to designed obsolescence.  I may bite the bullet and go back to Mickysoft.  It’s slow and sluggish, but at least the OS just works.  Something I used to say about Apple, but not any longer.

When I was driving home my mood was lifted by the golden light making everything glow.  Now, that’s more like it.  The clouds had blown away, the mist had lifted and the sun was setting with a beautiful glancing light.  Instead of heading straight home, I took the road less travelled and with better views of the landscape.  That’s where the photo of the trees came from.  Even the mist earlier in the day had produced the water beads on the car roof and gave me one shot in the bag before I left for Glasgow.

Salsa tonight was a Christmas Extravaganza, one of JamieGal’s specialities with dancing, games, glow-sticks, silly hats and prizes.  He’d previously issued an open invitation to dancers past and present, from our school and from any other and none and there was a great party spirit.  Fun for all, that’s just his way.  Brilliant.  One of the best teachers I’ve had the pleasure to meet.

Tomorrow?  Maybe a swim.

Dull Day, Dynamite Dancing – 18 December 2016

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What a dull day.  From time we got up until dusk, the sky was a dull overall grey and the light levels were atrocious.  As a result, we didn’t go anywhere in the morning.

We were going in to salsa in the afternoon, the last one of the year, and as we hadn’t moved for the early part of the day, we decided to go in early and make the most of the uplifting salsa.  We did really need that uplift today.  Also for a change Scamp suggested that we park at Cowcaddens and walk up Sausageroll street to the Garage.  Since this is panto season and the Garage is a block away from one of the biggest pantomime venues, it is alway a problem getting on street parking in December.  Great idea.  So that is what we did.  We parked at Cowcaddens, walked around town for a while and then landed in Cuba at the Garage.

Excellent music and energy from everyone there.  Couldn’t have felt any different from the dull drab weather outside.  Had a brilliant time as always and came out almost two hours later feeling on top of the world.  Salsa does that for me.

Dinner was soup, Hake with broccoli and potato wedges followed by creme caramel, then Guinness Cake with chocolate sauce and cream.  That must have put back all the calories I lost in the Garage.

No plans for tomorrow, but I might go for a swim if I’ve got time.

Walking through the Gloaming – 15 December 2016

Posted on by Zogman

I’ve started a bad habit of allowing the blog to get away from me.  These last couple of days have seen me in the morning playing catch-up to get the blog posted, yesterday’s blog that is.  Today I’m finishing today’s blog today.

Not a lot of work done this morning.  Scamp was hard at work buying Tesco again and cooking all day for the Witches Christmas Party while I farted about.  There, that’s the honest truth, well, almost the truth.  I did get my 2017 calendar sorted out, so that’s one thing done.

I went for more ‘messages’ – you remember what messages are, don’t you – after lunch and took Scamp’s advice to carry ONE camera with me.  I chose the E-M5 with a short zoom lens and no EVF (Electronic View Finder).  Very pocketable.   I walked the short walk round the railway walk, across the tree plantation and back along the canal while the light changed from blue to a glorious orange gloaming.  Some beautiful lighting on the hills, but the short lens was struggling to make anything of it.  By comparison, the short focal length lens made the skies look good.

Since Tesco was now closed for restocking, after Scamp had bought everything it had, I went to Kilsyth to Lidl to get some odds and ends there and in B&M (my new favourite shop).  Bought far more than I intended to, so Scamp’s enthusiasm must be catching.  When I got home and after dinner, I started on my part of tomorrows banquet.  Now, at 10.30pm I’ve done my bit too.  The pudding is setting in the fridge and the bread is proving in the kitchen.  Some more work to be done tomorrow, but less frantic I hope.

I’m intending giving the WCP a body swerve tomorrow.  I’m booked for coffee and a chat with Fred and Val tomorrow midday and after that, well as Del Boy said, “The world’s my lobster”.

Fish Suppers – 13 December 2016

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Didn’t feel too good when I got up and so we didn’t go to the pool for a swim as expected.  I blamed it on eating all the leftovers from Scamp’s party.  I should know better, but I just had to have one more rum ball, even though they aren’t truly round and had never been near a bottle of rum.  One day I may learn.

There was still a lot of things could have been doing, but I skilfully managed to sidestep them all.  It takes years of selfless dedication to achieve my high level of work avoidance.  I’ve learned from quite a few masters of the art in my working life and now I am benefitting from those years of study.  Finally got caught and put to work wrapping parcels.  With two of us on the task it didn’t take that long and the boxes are now filled and ready to go to Santa.  Post strike permitting.

Had a quick waltz round St Mo’s later, but had managed to miss the best of the light although there were a wide spectrum of colours in the sky, so that became my subject in the late afternoon light.  After that it was time to pick up Jackie from the station and go for tonight’s dinner which was fish suppers all round.  Had to wait for the fish and the chips, but that meant they were very fresh and really lovely.  Didn’t even suffer any after effects which shows how fresh they were.

Tomorrow?  It looks like rain and Scamp is going in to town to meet up with one of her friends for lunch and Jackie goes back up north.  I may paint for a time.

Walkin’ on Sunshine – 1 December 2016

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1-decWhat a difference a little bit of sun makes and we had a fair bit of the big white ball in the sky today.  The grey had gone for a wee while at least.

We made the most of the sun by getting the bus in to Glasgow.  Actually, we took two buses in to Glasgow.  Scamp went in early and I fitted the new wipers to my car.  Surprisingly, it only took me a few minutes.  Sometimes it pays to buy the posh, Bosch wipers because they are so much easier to fit than the cheapo alternatives.  After fitting the wipers, I just managed to catch the bus, a different bus, in to Glasgow.  On the bus I discovered that I’d left my Kindle at home.  Worse than that, I’d left my headphones in my other jacket, also at home.  With nothing to distract me, I sat in the front of the bus and soaked up some of that sun.

I went to Millers art shop to get a couple of pens.  Before that I got myself an emergency pair of earbuds from HMV.  Skullcandy were always the cheap end of the market as far as I was concerned until I had the same problem I had today and had to buy a cheap pair of earbuds and succumbed to Skullcandy.  They were brilliant.  They are much better than my Sennheiser pair which are way to harsh and tinny sounding.  After this spending spree, I met up with Scamp and we went to lunch at The Italian Kitchen in Albion Street.  It was outside TIK that the reflections on the Herald building attracted my photographic attention.  After lunch we went our own merry way again.  Anyone watching would be wondering if we had fallen out, but that wasn’t the case, it was just about giving each other space.

I wandered around the city centre to get some more photos and even got a sketch of sorts done from the GOMA, then I wanted a look at a 21” iMac in the Apple shop.  The newly designed Apple shop, where there are no sales counters.  The Apple shop where a sales person was hogging the 21” iMac I was wanting to look at while she sold an iPhone.  Now I realise that the purchase of an iPhone is important, but wouldn’t it be a much better idea to have a sales desk where this transaction could take place.  It’s a bit of a barn of a place and it gives you an idea of the way Apple want things to go.

  • No Genius Bar
  • No sales desk, as I’ve mentioned
  • No Techys desk
  • No place to queue or sit while you wait to speak to a Techy

The other thing I noticed about this newly designed Apple store is the proportions of different machines on display.  Lots of space given to iPads and iPhones acres of deskspace given to Apple watches and entire tables given over to Macbooks of various kinds.  Only five desktop  computers on display, and that space itself being used as a sales point  It looks looks as if Apple don’t want/need to sell desktop computers any more.  Not a comforting thought.

Just managed to sneak on the X3 as it was about to leave and it turned out that Scamp was on the previous one, so we were running along behind each other heading for Cumbersheugh!  How sweet.

Hoping for another sunny day tomorrow, but today was good, so I shouldn’t be greedy.

St Andy’s Day – 30 November 2016

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Gym and Swim in the late morning and guess what?  They were still repairing the sauna and the steam room, but the jacuzzi was working, well, it was working until I got in and was then told by some dick with an ipad (have ipads replaced clipboards now?) that they were just about to drain it.  I complained that the sauna was close, the steam room was closed and now the jacuzzi was being closed.  What was going to be next?  The pool?  He said that the repairs to the sauna and the steam room were now complete and they were just about to open them again.  For once they were as good as their word and the hot rooms were hot.  In the case of the steam room, very hot.  Steaming hot in fact.  Tested all three facilities and they passed muster.

Home to a lunch of three-day-old soup which didn’t taste that bad, but oh dear what a dull day.  Dreich in extremis.  It felt like the sun had forgotten to get out of bed today.  I went to get new wiper blades for the car and some much needed screen wash too.  After that I drove to Auchinstarry and got a few sunset shots, but I was glad I’d kept the new wee tripod in the car, because I really needed it today to support the camera with the slow shutter speed that was necessary to get the ISO down.  It was supposed to be 9.7ºc today, but the wind-chill must have dropped that temperature down by 10º.  It was baltic.  Shots in the bag, I headed for home and a hot cup of tea.  Fish ’n’ Chips for dinner with an egg thrown in for good measure.  That put a smile on my face for a while.  We should have been going to salsa tonight but it looked like Jamie Gal was still in Bristol by mid afternoon, so the likelihood of ’the other teacher’ (Nudge, Nudge – Wink, Wink) taking the class was quite high and also the fact that I wasn’t feeling all that great meant that we stayed home tonight.  I’d rather be there, but the thought of driving through the usual Wednesday football traffic just to find that we were doing “Oo la la” ’styling’ when I’m not feeling at my freshest didn’t appeal.  I might have a hot toddy and head off for an early bed tonight.  Maybe I’ll read another chapter of Ben Aaronovitch’s “The Hanging Tree” (Peter Grant Book 6) and further eke it out.  This is book 2 of my must-read trilogy, the third being the latest of Ian Rankin’s or John Rebus’s books (I’m never sure exactly who it is who writes them or who is real and who is merely a character).  After those three, the first being A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers, I’m in no-man’s land.  Need to go looking!

Hoping for a better day and a better attitude tomorrow.  May go and do some urban sketching ‘In the Toon.’  Some sunshine would be nice.

Just for a change – 28 November 2016

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Just for a change today, I got the bus to Perth.  Now this may be a spoiler alert for Hazy, but I’m sure you expected I’d have to take the trip to Perth, didn’t you!

These CityLink buses are really comfortable.  Did you know they have heaters that work!  Isn’t that a simply wonderful innovation?  Typically one X3 bus in 100 has working heaters, and that’s the one you get every day in the summer and the heating is on full blast and the windows won’t open.  In the winter, it’s the one with the sign that says “SORRY NOT IN SERVICE” or more often in Scotland “A’HM NO WORKIN’”.  So, a comfortable journey north to the fair city of Perf.  It’s a bit like Embra which is also known by some of its inhabitants as Edinburgh.  Embra is its more usual and useable name.  Perf is much better than Perth IMO and MO is the only one that counts in this blog.  By the way, I once got an irate comment from an Edinburger on Flickr to the effect that: “It’s actually Edinburgh, not Embra, I know, I live there.”
My reply was: “That’s a shame, but I suppose somebody has to live in Embra, and it is Embra, hen.  It’s Embra, it’s always been Embra and it always will be Embra.  I know, because I’ve been there … once.  But it’s alright, I’ve had my jags.”  She didn’t reply to that – too many big words in it, I think.
Perf’s a nice place, I like it.  It’s pretty and has nice buildings, but the folk are not so stuck up as Embra folk.  It’s got a good coffee shop, an independent camera shop and a great second-hand bookshop too.

Anyway, purchases purchased I got the equally comfortable bus back down the road to less than scenic Cumbersheugh where they are painting the lovely butter coloured bricks of the town centre with a coat of ‘nearly black’.  Cooncil must have got a job lot of the paint going cheap.  I think it probably was originally black masonry paint, but they didn’t have enough to finish the job, so they got some equally cheap out-of-date emulsion for B&Q and just mixed it in to make the masonry paint go further.  That would explain the slightly purple tinge to the finished product.  If it looks boggin’ paint it black, that’ll fix it and make it look stylish into the bargain.  Aye Right.

Kizomba was a bit of a shambles tonight.  Class was a bit smaller with a lot of new faces.  Mainly black faces, so maybe friends of one of the teachers.  Also faces that were looking bemused most of the time because it appears this is the first time they had met this dance.  Methinks it might have been Rentamob, there to pad out the numbers.  ‘Left’ and ‘right’ seemed to be new concepts for some.  One girl had to be dragged away from her phone and on to the dance floor to help balance the numbers.  She was irate, because she didn’t know how to do the dance and didn’t want to learn.  Hmm, not impressed.

It also looked like our salsa teacher wasn’t present and no announcement was made about who would be taking his class. This gave us a bit of concern and made us wonder if it would be one of the, how should I put this, less able and teachers of AdS.  We needn’t have worried, Will took it and introduced us to a trio of twisty, turny moves that were a lot of fun.  The next class was not so lucky, but we were out the door by the time the music started.

Maybe going to do a painting tomorrow.  If I can remember how!

An Early Rise – 25 November 2016

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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.

img_3579-flickrFred 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

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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!

Design Obsolescence – 22 November 2016

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22-nov

My car is just coming up for eight years old.  Its had a few bits and pieces replaced since new.  The usual consumables like the oil filter and the air filter every year at servicing time.  Every couple or so years it also has needed new tyres when they run a bit thin on tread.  More expensive items like brake disks, wheel bearings and CV joints have also been replaced when necessary.  Sometimes I use good quality third party replacements, but manufacturers parts are always available at an extra cost.  Occasionally I use them when it seems prudent to do so.  All based on the trusted advice from my local garage.  It’s a good car and runs perfectly well.

My Macbook Pro is also coming up for its eighth birthday.  It’s also had a few ‘improvements’ over the years.  It’s had a memory upgrade and a new hard drive installed, then last year I added a super fast Solid State Drive.  Some from Apple and some from third party alternatives.  Now its battery is failing, so I went to the Apple store in Buchanan Street to find out how much it would cost for an Apple fitted new battery.  I was shocked to hear them claim not to have replacement batteries for “such an old computer”!  Really?  A company the size of Apple can’t source the parts to repair its own computers?  I was told by a ‘Tech’ that I would have to phone technical support to see if they still had any in stock, and if they did the repair would cost around £160.  I don’t think so.  Amazon are advertising a replacement battery for £40 and I’m not so ham fisted I can’t fit it myself.
Since I’ve had the Macbook I’ve become a great fan of Apple, but my allegiance is fading after this example of Designed Obsolescence.

Right, now that I’ve got that out of my system, here’s a synopsis of the day:

Had an entertaining phone call with Hazy in the morning (yes, I did look up the Hive – impressive structure, H), then out to visit the dentist and no fillings, no scale and polish, just a cap replacement and no charge.  What a nice man.

After lunch Scamp and I drove in to Glasgow for some pre-Christmas shopping.  Better to go mid-week when the crowds are at work earning the pennies to spend at the weekend when we head for the hills, literally.  Parked in the Buchanan Galleries carpark with its wonderful panoramic walkway to the galleries proper.  Such a great view of Glasgow (and carpark is cheaper than Concert Hall!)  I headed off to the book shop for a couple of books I’d my eye on, but which turned out to be less than enthralling.  Scamp went looking for girlie stuff.  Met up later and had my introduction to the wonders of Designed Obsolescence – Apple style.  How to kill of a potential sale in one easy lesson.

Coffee and then trudged back homeward, but not before Scamp noticed that Jacques Vert had a sale on.  I’ll give her that, she always makes it look as if it’s a great surprise to see the sale posters in the window.  More girlie stuff bought.  Walked back across the bridge to the carpark and the light was just marvellous, so I had to stop to take some photos.  Such a beautiful sunset and one you knew just couldn’t last, so I made the most of it.  If I’d hurried past I’d have saved myself £1.50 in parking money, but I’d have missed today’s PoD (I’d also have brought the price of an Apple replaced battery down to £158.50, but I’m not bitter!)

Back home I found out that the books weren’t as interesting as I’d thought and have decided to return them (in pristine condition) tomorrow.  After a lovely stirfry cooked by Scamp I made some scones that turned out the best yet!  No eggs Hazy!

Was posting a condensed version of my rant on the Buchanan Street Apple shop page on Facebook when my eye was drawn down the page to a bloke complaining about exactly the same thing.  So, I am not the only grumpy old man then.

Travel clinic tomorrow to book our jags for foreign climes and maybe take that book back.  Unless Apple phone in the morning and offer me a brand new Macbook Pro – top of the range and an iPhone 7 to go with it to make up for their shocking customer service today.  But then I’d wake up and it would all be a dream  😉