Shopping, Jagging, Boosting – 18 October 2021

Don’t mistake Jagging for Jogging. Oh no, don’t do that!

We had to be up early today because the lady was coming with the swabs and the iPad that held the questions we have to answer on the Covid survey. She’s been before, in fact I think she was the first Ipsos MORI Market Researcher we met, more than a year ago. We both felt sorry for her having to stand outside in the rain asking all the questions and then trying to security seal the sample bags with sticky tape that wasn’t sticky any more in the rain.

With the survey done for another month, Scamp drove us to Tesco to get the messages. Mostly the usual sensible stuff that we use a lot and we managed to fill the Wee Red Car’s boot with bag after bag of useful sensible stuff. It was raining, of course, and showed no sign of letting up any time soon. When we were driving out of the estate I saw this car sitting under a tree with half the tree’s leaves covering it and decided that if it was still there when we came back I’d go out and photograph it. It was and I did. The photo didn’t need much post processing, it was just one of those ‘found things’ that make you smile. As I was finishing off removing the car’s number plate (on the computer) I noticed it was a Kia and thought wouldn’t it have been nice if it had been a Nissan Leaf!

With the photo done and posted fairly early in the afternoon, I started to make some soup. Today it would be Tomato and Red Pepper soup. I chopped and roasted the tomatoes and peppers then sweated the onion and garlic before adding everything to the pot, pouring in some stock and letting it bubble for half an hour or so. That gave me time to correspond a while with Alex about where and when we’d meet on Wednesday.

It was soon time to blitz the soup and make tonight’s dinner which was Pasta Carbonara and it was fairly good. It didn’t go with the soup, but neither of us paid that any mind.

I’d already agreed with our neighbour, Bobby, that I’d give him a lift to The Link in the town centre for our Covid booster, but when I went for him he said he’d drive because he has his own off-road parking place and parking in our parking area is at a premium after about 5pm. I accepted and then was driven in luxury in his big silver Mercedes. I’d already been warned by my pal, Fred, that there were long queues for the booster jag. He had a 45minute wait in the big converted games hall. He was lucky. We were just over an hour from start to finish, but we both walked away fully boosted and flu jag done at the same time. Ready to face the winter.

The rain was still beating down when we drove home. We rose at about 8am and it was raining. Bobby and I got back just after 8pm and it was still raining. We have had buckets out in the back garden to catch rainwater. They have been filled to the brim for about a week. The birdbath in the garden has been overflowing for weeks. Where is all the rain coming from, and more importantly, where is it all going?Tonight’s sketch is ‘Moon’. I thought about it long and hard and eventually came up with a rehash of last year’s Wolf. Added a crescent moon for the wolf to howl at and that’s what I’m posting here!

We have no plans for tomorrow, because more rain is predicted!

Out for coffee, out for coffee – 13 October 2021

Scamp was off to Tim Horton’s for coffee with Jeanette. I was out for coffee with Fred in Costa.

It did cross my mind that, as we were both meeting our respective friends at around the same time, what if we crossed over and I went for coffee with Jeanette and Scamp went to meet Fred? Not there’s a thought to start today’s blog! Just let that sit in your head for a while and consider the implications.

But we kept things the way they had been planned just so we wouldn’t scare the horses, or the friends. Fred and I did our usual. We compared the sketches we’d done recently and then talk turned to books we’d both read. After that the conversation took a wander down memory land with Fred telling stories about Glasgow in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some of it seemed familiar, but not a lot. I was still living in Larkhall then and he was somewhere around Cranhill. We could have crossed paths back then, but I doubt it. I got the feeling he was clock watching today, eager to get back home before his wife returned from her early morning visit.

I bought a loaf, a couple of squashes and a flatbread semi-pizza. I thought I’d turn the squashes into a pot of soup and the flatbread with the soup would make a fairly decent dinner. That would allow yesterday’s Steak ’n’ Kidney to go into the freezer to be discovered at a later date for a surprise, easy dinner for one carnivore.

After Scamp returned and we’d had lunch, she left to post a birthday card and I started the prep of the squashes. I don’t know why they call them squashes. They were almost impossible to cut in half, let alone squash! Eventually I did get them peeled and chopped. Then I fried the onions and assorted soupy veg before I added the stock and said squashes. Boiled it then let it simmer for half an hour before blitzing it. Meanwhile, Scamp had returned from the exploration of darkest Condorrat and was starting to make a Lemon Drizzle cake. I, on the other hand, with my soup resting, went for a walk in St Mo’s with the A7ii and a selection of lenses.

On the way there I grabbed a low level shot of leaves on the path that follows the road through and avenue of trees. I quite liked the effect. One in the bag. I saw a woman who was walking her dogs (everyone walks dogs in St Mo’s – I must get myself one. Not a real one, just a little pull along one. Less mess and no vet’s bills.) Anyway, this woman was photographing the sky, then I saw why. The sky was filled with lovely Mare’s Tail clouds. I grabbed a few of those too.

PoD was taken on the Bee Seat in the park. It’s a broken snail’s shell with no sign of the snail. Probably lunch for a hungry starling or thrush. Of course the photo had originally been two images that had gone separately through Lightroom, were joined together in Photoshop, then returned to Lightroom before I was happy with the finished shot. But I was happy with it, that’s why it is PoD!

Back home and the baking was still progressing with a lot of huffing and puffing about the wrong kind of butter, or something. Later when we ate the offending article I couldn’t care what kind of butter it should have been made with, it was simply delicious and I don’t even like lemons.

The soup was a bit sweet and also a bit thin. It will probably be better tomorrow. The semi-pizza was just ok. A bit dry Scamp suggested and I agreed. However, it and the sweet soup filled a wee space as we say.

Sketch prompt for today was Roof. Roof of the mouth? Roof of a house? Probably the worst prompt so far this Inktober. I chose to draw the four most common types of roof I know. Flat roof, Mono pitch, Gable and Hipped. They are done and have had a wee splash of watercolour to brighten them up.

Tomorrow we’re intending driving to Gorbals for a tea dance.

What a wet day – 9 October 2021

We’d already agreed to go to Stirling for some light shopping and the possibility of a coffee.

Basically, we did exactly what we’d agreed. Driving through torrential rain and blinding spray in to Stirling. We parked in the big cheap carpark just outside the town centre proper. It was even cheaper today, in fact it was free for some reason. All the ticket machines were covered, maybe to protect them from the rain. Who cares, we didn’t even have to pay the usual cheap price of £2 per day.

We walked in to the town and found a new cycle shop where the owner was repairing, of all things, a Clavinova. Scamp’s Clavinova has a dodgy key and I’ve been telling for ages to get it fixed. The bloke listened to her explanation of the problem, then told her what was causing it, and more importantly, that it could be fixed. No estimate of the cost until he sees the piano. She got his card and will probably phone him to get him to have a look at it.

From there we walked past The Gallery, an art shop we always stop to look in, but sadly is now closing. Stirling won’t be the same without it. Then, down through the Thistle Centre which is the Stirling version of a mall. Brilliant lego fantasy creatures in the mall. The Griffin was exceptional. Coffee in Nero and a few pies bought from the farmers market then that shopping in Waitrose before the drive home into the rain that seems to linger around Cumbersheugh on these damp days. Drizzle elsewhere, rain in Cumbersheugh.

That, I’m afraid was about it for today’s excursion. PoD was taken in the garden when the rain had reverted to dismal drizzle.  It’s what’s left of the geranium flower Rozanne after  the wind and rain have blown away all its petals.  It’s posted on Flickr as Rozanne naked ☺️. Prompt for today was Pressure. I chose to do some lateral thinking and my offering is the difference between high pressure and low pressure as far as weather is concerned. I was going to draw a pressure cooker, but this was better fun.

We have no plans for tomorrow. Weather looks a bit better than today. We’ll, believe it when we see it.

Choosing Shoes – 4 October 2021

“Bright shoes, white shoes, Dandy-dance-by-night shoes, Perhaps-a-little-tight shoes, Like some? So would I.”

Today we were driving to Rutherglen to get Scamp a new pair of dance shoes, or maybe a couple of pairs or maybe …

I had sent the directions to the Blue car last night and today, when we switched on the ignition it appeared to be there. However it was the directions to our house, from our house. That’s the thing about Nissan electronics. It’s actually Renault electronics and they are probably the worst in the world. So we found a place to park, put the postcode of the shop in manually and it grudgingly gave us directions. After that it got us right to the door of the shop, but there was nowhere to park, so I dropped Scamp off and went to park the car. Then see what the lady in the shop had found to show the dancer. Half an hour later we came out with two pink bags containing three pairs of shoes, all ladies shoes, all dance shoes and all with enough sparkles to light up a Christmas tree. She also had a big beaming smile.

We drove home because I just knew she would want to try them out, all three pairs, one at a time. I was thinking more about lunch. Yesterday’s shepherd’s pie leftovers reheated in the microwave fitted the bill. Then as Scamp went to start the ironing, I took my camera and drove to Fannyside Moor via Tesco where I got the essentials like milk and bread, also Boots where I picked up my meds.

The clouds were low when I got to Fannyside and a strong wind was tearing at them and driving them across the landscape. The afternoon sun was shining through the gaps in the clouds and lighting up areas of the fields and hills. My target for today was an old fencepost covered in Cladonia lichen which I’d photographed before. I took a few shots of it in flat lighting, but had to wait about half an hour before some glancing light added a bit to drama and form to the proceedings and that gave me my PoD.

On the way home my phone pinged a message from Alex confirming that Chatelherault on Wednesday would be a good choice, however his suggestion of meeting at around 10.30am was a little early for me, so I might have to discuss this with him.

Inktober prompt for today was ‘Knot’. A few thing had run through my head, but nothing had stayed for long. Then I had an idea of a piece of string tied round a finger as a reminder of ‘something’, yes, that would do. As it happened it was trickier to draw that I though it should be, but it’s done and in its place now.

Tomorrow we are intending to drive to Falkirk to see Andrew. A very clever man who wears the brightest of shirts and even gaudier socks. He works magic with graphs and numbers. I suppose he is a sort of magician.

The poem was by Frida Wolfe and I’m sure at least a couple of my readers will remember it.

Away for the messages – 17 September 2021

This was nominated a Recovery Day. That’s what we did.

We needed some messages and I wanted to find out how much EE wanted from me for a reasonable amount of data and a Sim-only contract. We agreed to go to The Fort.

Scamp went to M&S and I walked round to the EE shop. Three people serving and only two customers. Waited 15 minutes, but nobody was paying any attention. I gave up and walked out. I might come back another day or I might just go to Tesco instead. The Tesco website tells you how much you get for how much money. The EE website is a maze. It tells you nothing.

Back at the car I met Scamp and we went food shopping in Morrisons then we drove home. After lunch I went for a walk in St Mo’s while Scamp went to see how the garden was growing.

It was a relaxing day, because, even with our alfresco dancing lesson in Cumbria, we’ll still be a bit rusty for the real class tomorrow.

The boot’s on the other foot – 13 September 2021

Scamp needed better shod and today was the day to look for new boots.

We drove to Kirkby Stephen and went to Mad About Mountains, an outdoor clothing shop which came recommended by Sim. It certainly held a lot of stuff in a small space. Scamp tried on a few boots and liked one of them, although she did think it was a bit tight. With that in mind, she asked for the other boot of the pair to try, and that’s when the trouble started. The bloke who was serving us couldn’t find it, however he told us his boss was due in soon and he would know where the missing boot was. He also recommended two different running shoes. They weren’t boots, but what the hell! He told us to go for a coffee and his boss would have found the rogue boot by the time we came back.

Since MaM had a café at the back of the shop, we went there. Scamp had a latte and I had an americano, but neither of them were coffee. I’m almost certain they had a fair amount of Chicory in them. Almost undrinkable, but we waited a while before we went back, hopefully, to try on a PAIR of boots. Same bloke was waiting at the till doing Facebook updates by the look of things. Eventually he noticed we were there and told us that he hadn’t been able to find the boot. When I asked him if his boss had managed to find what had happened to it, he looked confused and after gathering his brain cells (both of them) together said his boss hadn’t a clue either. He had told us he only worked there two days a week. If his excuses don’t get better soon, that will reduce to zero.

Feeling a bit disappointed and disillusioned we walked along the street where we found a wee walkers shop. Two blokes were sitting outside having a smoke and a natter. One of them said we didn’t need masks because there was nobody in, and to ask him if there was anything he could help with. Scamp told him what she was looking for and long story short, ten minutes later she was walking out with a pair of leather walking boots. Remember the name Mad About Mountains and give it wide berth. Head for Eden Outdoors instead. They sell their boots in pairs!

In the evening we went for a walk, going left after leaving the house, just to try out the new boots. Apparently the boots are fine for space, not cramping Scamp’s dainty toesies, but the collar at the ankle is pressing a bit tight. Not enough to be a problem, just an inconvenience. “They’re fine!” was her comment. Tonight Jamie and Sim were cooking Naked Fish and Carrot Chips, one of their specialities. We were agreed that this was the best version yet.

PoD was a shot of an old tractor Murdo would have been proud of.

Watched the first part of a Silent Witness. It seemed a bit more interesting than the last one we saw.

Tomorrow we may go for a longer walk and try out these new boots.

 

Climbing and Flying – 1 September 2021

The assault on Croy Hill, the reverse direction.

Scamp suggested we go and visit Silvanus, the Roman warrior’s head that stands on the edge of Croy Hill, and instead of walking the usual path from Croy itself, we could walk along the canal and up on to the old railway line and tackle the hill from the north. It was a beautiful morning with blue skies and sun, so the walk seemed like a good idea, but first I wanted a closer look at a plane.

We’ve seen and heard a Spitfire flying around the town and I wanted a closer look. With that thought in mind we drove up to Wardpark and past the airfield, but saw no evidence of the old warbird. Disappointed I drove over to Kilsyth and from there to Auchinstarry where we parked and put on sensible walking boots for the walk.

I’d forgotten just how steep the climb was from the canal up to the old mineral line, but thankfully once we had reached that path, most of the hard work was done and we were on level ground for a stretch. The statue of Silvanus was much further along than we remembered, but as we were walking I could hear the sound of the Spitfire’s Merlin engines although I couldn’t see the plane itself. I checked with Flightradar24 and found that the plane was almost over Carron Reservoir, about 5 miles away. The sound of the plane faded as it dropped behind the hills. We walked on and as we neared the statue we could hear it returning. This time, with the help of Flightradar I found it heading straight for us. I took a few photos of it before it banked and overflew the airfield before climbing and performing a neat slow roll. Then it turned and headed back with flaps and undercarriage down. A few more photos before it disappeared over the hill to the airfield. I wasn’t sure I’d captured it, but at least it was better than nothing. A little bit of research at home led me to its website. You can book a flight in this two seater Spitfire. £3,000 will get you a 30 min flight in this old lady, which is five years older than me. I may have to save my pennies for a long time before I book that flight!

We met a bloke at the statue who was a Kilsyth local and was impressed that he’d ID’d the Spitfire. He wasn’t a fan of the Silvanus head, but like us was pleased that it hadn’t been vandalised in the time it had been up on the hill. We said our goodbyes and headed up over the hill while he seemed to take a lower path. I must admit I was wary of the hill because we’d passed notices to say that the cattle were back on the hill for the winter. These cattle are big brutes, if I remember right and I don’t like cattle at the best of times. “The best of times “ being when there’s a fence between them and me. There are no fences on Croy Hill. However we didn’t meet any today and we took the ‘easier’ paths where they were available, missing out the tourist routes over the tops.

When we had passed the top and were coming down the other side I realises Scamp wasn’t behind me. I walked back, expecting to find her having a seat somewhere. She was nowhere to be seen. I shouted for her, twice, but no response. I changed to a wider path that was closer to the edge and there she was. Did she not hear me shouting? Yes, she had. That could have been a time to pick up a ‘black monkey’, but for some reason I didn’t lose it. I think I was just glad to see she hadn’t come to any harm. She said she was on the right path and knew I’d eventually realise I was on the wrong one. That could be the story of my life!

When we got back to the car it was absolutely boiling inside. Drove home with the air con on full. It was lovely.

I spent the afternoon cleaning the sensors of the two Sonys. They seem to be absolute dust magnets. They are a bit cleaner now. Not perfect, but a lot better than they were. After that I got a request from Jamie to fix a photo for Sim. It was a fairly easy bit of editing, made even easier by the new Photoshop. Scamp was cleaning up the leaves in the back garden and managed to scrape both arms raking leaves from under the blackcurrant bush. Then it was Guinness and Pimms time in the garden, in the sun.

Fish & Fried Potatoes with tomatoes for dinner. A new twist on Fish & Chips. After that we sat in the garden while I listened to the end of my Alan Parks book, Bobby March Will Live Forever. Good story with a poor reader. It was there I got PoD. I was looking at a wee single sweet pea flower backlit by the setting sun. It took a wee bit of editing to get it looking like my eyes saw it, but that’s what Lightroom excels at.

A quick practise tonight. Just about half an hour at the most, but we covered Tango, Waltz, Cha Cha and Bossa Nova in that time.

Tomorrow Scamp is intending to go for lunch with Isobel, June and Ian. I’m hopefully meeting Val for coffee in a different place, but at almost at the same time. Scamp and I will be able to compare and contrast our experiences!

Out early again – 30 August 2021

It’s becoming a habit, this up and out early.

The reason for today’s early rise was to take the Blue Micra to Stirling for its first service. I’ve not been too impressed with their service in the past, but was willing to give them another chance, better the devil you know … We were there early and sat for five minutes or so before we went in to hand over the keys. Once we’d signed the car over to their safe keeping we were told it would be ready “mid afternoon”. Hmm, obviously they hadn’t read the email they sent us telling us it would be ready by 12.30pm which is hardly mid afternoon. To give the young service assistant his due, he consulted with one of the more senior assistants and came back to say they could indeed have the car ready for 12.30pm. I handed over the keys and we left to find a bus to take us to Stirling itself, the dealership being on the outskirts of the city of Stirling.

Basically, we’d missed the bus and there wasn’t another one for 30 minutes. Mr Google said it would take us 20 minutes to walk into the city centre. This is beginning to sound a bit silly. Stirling is legally a City, but in reality it’s a big town with ideas above its station. From now on in today’s blog, it’s a town, with a town centre. Right? Good, let’s get on.

Mr Google was right on the money. Twenty minutes later we were walking into the town centre. We were going to got to Nero for a morning coffee, except the shop was experiencing a bit of a coffee rush and was queued out the door, so we went to a wee independent we’d been to before. It sold decent coffee and probably had cakes too.

While Scamp secured us a seat, I ordered two coffees and the slice of cake that Scamp had pointed to and watched the bloke at the counter note them down on his pad using a kind of shorthand. However when I chose an Eiffel Tower (two layers of sponge with cream in the middle and the whole thing covered with strawberry jelly and desiccated coconut) I noticed he spelled Eiffel with an “A” maybe it wasn’t an A at all, maybe it was a little drawing of an Eiffel Tower. Whatever, the coffee was weak, but the ET was excellent and he’d given me something to think about that would stay with me all day!

We walked round the Thistle Centre which used to be a thriving arcade with no empty shop fronts. Now there seemed to me more boarded up ex-shops than those open for business. It’s a terrible sight that’s becoming more and more common these days.

The garage phoned at about 11.30 to say that the car was ready to collect. We walked back the same way we’d come and picked up the keys, collected the paperwork and paid for an hour’s work, and drove home.

After lunch Scamp cleaned the downstairs toilet and I did the upstairs bathroom. With that done I felt I’d contributed something and went for a walk while she did the ironing. I’m not good at ironing. I put more creases in than I take out. I walked down and round the boardwalk at Broadwood for a change. I saw two ladies seemingly feeding the ducks from the boardwalk and commented on it, but was told they were feeding the fish. Sure enough the little fish were gathering to feed on the fish food they were throwing down to them. Now that’s something I’ve never seen in Cumbersheugh before. I walked round the loch a bit and included them in a photo of the loch.

No plans for tomorrow. It will be a surprise!

 

Walking through Colzium – 26 August 2021

Another hot day. Maybe a tad cooler than yesterday, thankfully!

The day started with with a call from someone called “Unavailable.” Scamp decide we were too and cancelled the call. Five minutes later we had another call. I was going to answer and do some time wasting with the time waster, but thankfully we have Caller ID. It was Hazy. We had a good long chat about borrowing bikes, families, films to watch and lots, lots more. (Yes, we did watch Anneka, thank you. Interesting first episode. We’ll probably watch more of it.) Enjoyed the chat and catch up.

First thing we’d promised to do was to give all the plants a good feed of seaweed fertiliser. I did the back garden and Scamp did the front. It didn’t take all that long and I’m sure the plants benefitted by it.

We couldn’t decide what to do with the rest of the day and spent far too long discussing what we could do, to actually have the time to do it. What we did do was plan out how to get to the party on Saturday. Imagine, we’re invited to a birthday party on Saturday! Us, the oldies! It was great to be asked and of course we’re going. Now that we know where it is and how to get there. As Hazy reminded us, this is the second birthday party we’ve been invited in two years. Mind you, the first one in Irvine was done “in shifts” as she put it!

We finally agreed on a walk round Colzium. It’s not a long walk and we did an even shorter version of it today, but it’s fairly heavy going for a while with a stiff climb up the hill for the first part, then the easy bit that lulls you into thinking you’re past the worst, then the next bit long drag up to the top. However, the walk down is much more relaxing. I wanted to take some photos of the waterfalls at the top, but when we got there the water was just trickling down. No fun at all. We need more rain now. It didn’t stop me from climbing down the rocks and taking some shots. In the end, I wasn’t happy with them and they didn’t even manage a post in Flickr. The PoD went to a slightly edited version of the view of Granny’s Mutch, a shelter built to enjoy the view at the top of Colzium Estate. The Dictionary of the Scots Language defines a ‘mutch’ as “A head-dress, especially a close-fitting day cap of white linen or muslin, specifically such as used to be worn by married women”.

Walked back down the path on the other side of the burn, hoping there would be an ice cream van at the children’s play park at the bottom, but of course the schools are in here in Scotland so
No Children = No Ice Cream Van = No Ice Cream 😟

Dinner tonight was a stir-fry made, of course by Scamp, the expert Stir Fryer. It was delicious and I made myself a side of fried Padron Peppers, equally delicious.

Tomorrow we’re hoping for one last day of warm sunshine and a chance to go for a drive with a spot of lunch.

Shopping in Stirling – 18 August 2021

We were away for the messages.

Scamp had mentioned that she fancied going to Sainsbury’s for the messages this week. The nearest one, that didn’t run the risk of five miles of queues because of road works, was in Stirling. As far as we knew, there would be no problem with folk digging up the road there, so off we went. We drove through the Raploch, once the worst housing estate in Scotland, now very up-market and the worst place to drive through in Scotland. Every few yards the road surface changes from tarmac to concrete to granite tiles. Speed bumps everywhere, and in the tiled areas they are colour matched to the tiles which makes driving very tricky, but ensures you keep within the 20mph limit. We found Sainsbury’s without any problem and I discovered I’d a message from Jamie with some very good news.

Lots of interesting things to buy in Sainsburys. First supermarket I’ve been in where they sell watches! Whatever next. But it felt like we’d gone back in time a year and a bit, because a lot of the shelves were empty. Not enough delivery drivers we’re told. Well, some of you silly buggers voted for Brexit and swallowed every fairy tale you were told. It looks like reality is coming home to bite you now that there aren’t enough low paid foreign workers wanting to come to the UK to work.

We’d found an interesting historical artefact when we were checking out the road to Sainsbury’s. There’s a Beheading Stone on a hill near the supermarket. We’d half intended going for a look, but as far as we could tell, there were no beheadings scheduled for today. Maybe another day then.

Back home we potted up the echinacea we bought on Monday. We’d bought a clay pot for it and Scamp had had it soaking in the bird bath for a few days. You have to do that with clay pots because otherwise they will draw water away from the compost and allow it to evaporate into the air. After we’d potted the plant up we gave it a good drink of pure rain water we’d collected during the heavy rain last week. Then it got to sit in the sun for a while at the front of the house, while a rose that had sat there all summer went to the back garden to rest a while.

I finally chopped and sawed down the remaining trunk and branches of the tree that had been growing between Angela’s garden and ours. The loppers did most of the work on the branches, but I had to resort to a panel saw for the trunk. I’d been talking to Fred before that and he was telling me that he recycles all his tree branches with a shredder. I don’t think we have enough trees to warrant the purchase of a shredder, but it would have been useful today. However, it all went into the brown bin today and it gets lifted tomorrow.

Went for a walk in the woods of St Mo’s later and got today’s PoD. It’s a little ball of moss on a dead tree branch. I liked the way the sun was just catching the moss. Not everyone’s favourite, but I liked it which is the reason it got PoD.

A longer and calmer practise tonight trying to put together the ‘back end’ of the foxtrot routine. Sometimes if feels more like a ‘backside’ rather than a back end, but it’s coming together slowly.

Tomorrow we are intending to take Margie out for coffee somewhere.