Category: St Mo’s

Tradition – 29 June 2016

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29 june bA 7.30am start to take my car to Tadstar to get new rear brake disks and pads fitted.  As an added extra, Renault supply the disks with with wheel bearings.  They don’t do it for free of course.  £70 a pop plus VAT and you need to fit them in pairs.  All up, counting disks, pads and fitting, I got a quid’s change from £300.  I suppose I could have got it a bit cheaper, but it’s brakes, you don’t cut corners with brakes.

Waiting for the car to be ready meant we had the rest of the day to play with and it was threatening to rain.  Well, it was the end of the school year and we all know it rains in the afternoon of that day.  It’s traditional.  After we had breakfast, we went to the gym, or to be exact, the pool to pretend we were still on the ship in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.  The pool was almost full, penshies everywhere.  Luckily the steam room was empty.  Ideal for me to help shake off the cold that’s hanging on me and for Scamp to rid herself of the last vestiges of hers.  After a couple of sessions in the steam room, the pool got a bit emptier and I did manage a few lengths before more of the grey hairs waddled into the water.  Heavens, there was even one codger wandering around with a zimmer frame!  Aargh!  I thought I was back on a P&O ship again.  I’d had enough.  One more soak in the steam room and it was time to go.

By the time we got back, the schools were out, the holidays had started and it was raining.  From simple ‘raining’ someone turned it up a few notches to ‘hammering down’ and it stayed there for a few minutes before returning to ‘raining’, but you could tell it was on for the day.  Sorry boys and girls, but it is traditional.

Got the car back about 4pm and after signing away or keying away the £299, I took a walk through St Mo’s, a wet St Mo’s.  Didn’t get much, the light was so low, it’s a wonder I got anything at all.  Took the Nikon for a change and I’m glad I did.  One thing the Oly doesn’t excel at is low light.

Hopefully a bit brighter day tomorrow, because the weekend and most of next week don’t look too clever.  It’s traditional.

Blackout – 7 June 2016

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E6070097- flickr--159Today we were due to have heavy rain in the afternoon. It’s 5.30pm now and it’s still not rained – touch wood. We were also promised thunderstorms and again, touch wood we have had none. We had initially intended having lunch at Vecchia Bologna, but then Scamp suggested we just wait for a while and go to Milano instead. We waited, and then I noticed that the wifi on the laptop had switched off. I checked the modem and there lay the problem. The modem was off. Switched on the lights and they refused to light. Then I realised that someone’s house alarm was wailing away somewhere. Oops, it looks like it’s a power outage. So it didn’t look like we were going to Milano because all of Cumbernauld was out. Also, it was too late to go to Vecchia Bologna now. What I did was try to complete today’s Sudoku (failed!) and Scamp soaked up what might be the last of our June sun. I was amazed at the total quiet (once the house alarm had switched off) with no electrical appliances. You get so used to the hum of the fridge, the freezer, even the TIVO box. Such a lovely quiet. After about an hour, the freezer chugged into life and immediately switched off again. So, they were at the problem and working on it. Less than 30 minutes later the power was restored and the peace was broken by the combined hum and rattle of the various electrical appliances starting up again. The distant house alarm added its wail to the cacophony. Too late now to go to Milano. Oh well.

Took a walk over to St Mo’s to get a PoD and saw Mr Grey gasping rather than basking in the sun. Not a lot of sun by then, it was getting a bit cloudier and felt a bit close too. Uncomfortable. I actually felt sorry for Mr G. Saw more dragonflies, but they were busy flying around and attempting to make more dragonflies for next year and too quick for me.

Didn’t get to Milano. Didn’t get to Vecchia Bologna. Just about to tuck in to Charlie Bigham’s Fish Pie..That will do nicely.

Testing Again – 4 June 2016

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4 JuneThe new lens was due to arrive between 3pm and 4pm so we had time to kill today.  The day had started with heavy cloud, bit without the rain that had been predicted.  However as the day wore on, the clouds lifted and the sun shone, but there was a cool breeze, so rather than sit in the garden as we’ve been doing recently, we did our phase one packing.  Just to see how much we could lob into these canvas bags.  How more efficient they are than the big heavy rectangular boxes my mum and dad had to drag on holiday with them.  No rolling wheels for them, no, they had to carry them.  Going on holiday was a tough business in the old days.

<Technospeak>
The lens arrived on time and I took a two or three shots.  They looked as good as the reviews had predicted.  This lens is a 12 – 32mm zoom and this equates to a 24 – 64mm in 35mm terms.  On a 35mm camera, a standard lens is anything between 35mm and 60mm, so this lens covers this with a little more on the short end.  In other words, it’s a wide standard lens, a kit lens.  It doesn’t do anything very special, but it does it very, very well.  Those two or three shots showed that it was really sharp.  It provided the sharpness of a prime lens with the versatility of a zoom.  It looks like it’s going to be locked on to one of the Olys for some time to come.
</Technospeak>

All of the photos in the matrix were taken with it today.

JIC and Hazy: The one top right is all that’s left of the Adventure Playground on the path to Condorrat.  They’ve taken out all the old stuff.  Now we wait to see what will replace it with.

Spent the rest of the afternoon coaxing, first the Mac and then the new Linx tablet, to work properly.  The Mac problem is iTunes.  My least favourite Mac prog.  I applied an update this morning, something I rarely do.  After that I kept getting a popup telling me that something to do with the dock had crashed.  After checking on the net, it turns out that everyone else who has the problem links it to the same iTunes update.  Apple, I don’t expect this of you.
The Linx problem was that some of the apps wouldn’t load any more.  When Control Panel failed to load with an error that looked like the progeny of half the alphabet and an international telephone number, I knew it was time to restore it.  Unfortunately the restore got to 95% and got stuck.  I restarted it and it worked a bit better.  The apps loaded, but Control Panel still failed.  I’ve downloaded  the restore from the Linx site.  If I have time tomorrow, I’ll install it and see if that helps.  Microsoft, I do expect this of you!

Looking for warm sun tomorrow.

Another hot day – 2 June 2016

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2 june bAnother sunny day although in the late afternoon and evening the clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped significantly.

Back in the morning, I went to meet Fred and we had a couple of coffees while we set the world, the education system and some of our previous colleagues on a better path to success. If only people would listen to us …!

In the afternoon, Scamp and I went to Glasgow and it was almost uncomfortably hot in the car. I really must get the air-con fixed before we head south. I was going to get a bit more memory for the new tablet/laptop and a hard disk to back my photos to. I got myself another pair of shorts, because I do need them in this warm weather. Scamp talked herself into a new pair of sandals. We both had milk shakes in Nero, although mine was more of a cafe freddo. I’m going to start making cold coffee again in the jug Hazy got me. What I didn’t get was a hard drive or a chunk of memory.

Went for a quick walk over to St Mo’s later to get a PoD. Amazed to see that the adventure playground on the path to Condorrat had been completely dismantled and the ground levelled. It had been fenced off for a week or so, but I assumed that things would progress at the usual NLC speed. That meant I expected work to start after Christmas. There’s no indication of what, if anything, is to replace it. Surely not more houses?

It was fish suppers for dinner tonight and the strawberry vodka was delicious.

A walk on the canal side – 31 May 2016

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31 may bScamp suggested a walk along the canal this morning.  As it was so bright and sunny, it seemed a shame not to, so we drove down to Auchinstarry and headed off along the railway to Twechar.  Maybe it’s because we were talking all the way and maybe it’s because we were marching along quite sharply at Scamp’s usual pace, but I didn’t take a single photo all the way there.  Even on the way back I only grabbed two desultory shots of some backlit grasses, neither of which made the final cut.  The word ‘desultory’ always makes me think of A Simple Desultory Philippic.  It was a track on Simon & Garfunkel’s Parsley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme album, and I never really understood it.  Liked it, but never understood it.  But to quote Dylan, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”  It was just after the grass photos that Scamp said that this was what retirement was for.  It’s strange, but last Tuesday, a week ago, when I was out walking around St Mo’s about 5.30am I was thinking exactly the same thing.

Didn’t do much else when we got back other than cut front and back grass while Scamp went to a ‘Witches’ meeting.  Don’t ask, it’s just an opportunity to gossip!  No spells were cast.  Later, when the light was better, I went for a walk in St Mo’s, being careful not to go in to the wild wood for fear of little beasties namely ticks which I seem to be very prone to.  Got some decent shots of the baby coots and Mr Grey hiding in the reeds, pretending he wasn’t there.  Then, in one of the smaller ponds, I spotted a dragonfly.  It’s still May, ok the end of May, but still May and there are dragons out!  Unheard of.  I’d say that this might be summer starting, but I know from the weather forecasts that next week rain sweeps in.  Still, we’ll take all the sun we’re offered and say thank you very much.  This is what retirement is all about.

An EARLY start – 24 May 2016

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May 24 bDrove in to Glasgow just for a walk and to get some stuff for the hols.  Didn’t even go to the art shop!

Actually, that’s only half the story.  I woke about 4.20am and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I think it was all that sitting around on one train, then on another train, then on one more train.  Hardly walked anything at all, so I just wasn’t tired, so I got up and dressed and went over to St Mo’s to grab some of that early morning light.  It was a good decision.  Got some nice captures of closeups with that lovely light.  There was a bit of mist on the pond, but if I’d been just a little bit earlier, it would have been better – never happy.  Used the macro lens for the closeups and as usual was impressed with the sharpness.  See if you can spot the reflection.  You might have to go to the Flickr feed to spot it.

In the town I was listening to the bloke playing the sax.  When a photog started taking his picture he began to ham it up and I decided I’d have a piece of that too.  I liked the close cropped shot.  When we walked through the St Enoch’s centre there was a boxing promotion with a ring set up.  Ricky Burns did a bit of shadow boxing and I managed about 6 shots of him.  The mono was the best.  I liked the gritty feel of it.  I felt he looked like a boxer.

So that was a long day, but even now I don’t feel tired.  It was a great start to the day and the rest wasn’t all that bad either.
Repairs day tomorrow.  Doctor and Dentist – a glutton for punishment!

Slugs and Snails – 15 May 2016

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combo bYet another fine day, almost as good as yesterday.  I’d said I would fix the fence between us and Scott to hopefully prevent his dog from bringing it down completely.  Of course, he’s said he’s going to get a new fence, but while we’re waiting for this momentous construction to occur, a little DIY was needed.  Got it sorted out in my head last night and today I put it into practise and, surprise, surprise it worked.  I didn’t write  it down with:

Problem
Specification
Investigation
Etc

I didn’t even do a drawing, I just cut up some wood, drilled it with approximately the correct drill and screwed the thing onto the existing fence.  It seems to work because the dog hasn’t pulled it down yet.  It won’t last forever, but I expect we’ll have our own fence / windbreak in place before the end of the summer DV.

After my Craft (without design) project, I cut the front grass and strimmed the back all as per Scamp’s instructions.  Then after dropping my lunch off the table (don’t ask – the plate was too hot to handle) we sat down to watch the ‘Live’ Spanish GP.  It was a very dull race after the gruesome twosome of Hamilton and Rosberg took each other out of the race.  You can tell how dull a race has been by the number of times the commentators tell you what an exciting race it has been.  “Er, we were watching it too mate.  It was boring.”  Well, as boring as it can be to watch twenty million pound cars travelling around a track at 200mph.  Relatively boring then, yes, relatively boring.  The ultimate disappointment was watching that gormless Max Verstappen winning.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone so devoid of gorm in my life.  If you’re reading this Max, you drove a very exciting race!

After the low point of the day, I went out to take some foties of snails of all things.  I did startle a fox, but there was no way I was quick enough to get a photo of it.  Snails are much more accommodating and these were not just ordinary snails, but the famous St Mo’s Tree Climbing Snails.  One photo above shows just how high these snails will climb.  I reckon the highest one was over 20 feet above ground, that’s around 6.5m in new money.  I don’t know why they climb trees and neither does anyone I’ve spoken to.  The Internet has lots of possible reasons, but none that make sense.
“They climb to get away from the high temperatures at the forest floor.”
It’s Scotland.  We don’t get high temperatures … anywhere!
Whatever.  It happens every year and if anyone has an opinion (even you Max, exciting race, by the way) reply using the box at the bottom and I’ll lambast you for it.

Other than that, it’s blood test day tomorrow – fasting test.  I hate it.  It’s not as if I really go mad at night and stuff my face with a pizza and a cream bun.  It’s just the thought that once the big hand’s at twelve and the little hand’s at ten, I can’t have anything else to eat for twelve whole hours (at least eight of which I’ll be asleep).

Looking forward to food tomorrow.  No, don’t think about it.  It’s making me hungry already …… !

Pimms Time – 10 May 2016

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ComboScamp had an appointment with the osteopath this morning, so I took the opportunity to grab some shots of the foliage and flowers in the back garden.  As the sun was good and warm, I scouted round to find a sheltered spot for a seat in the sun because you have to make the most of these sunny days.  The back garden wasn’t an option as there was a strong wind blowing along all the gardens in the block, so I parked myself at the front door and got stuck into my latest book – The Bone Clocks.

When Scamp came back she announced that we should go to Dobbies to use up her birthday cream tea voucher.  There was a sting in the tail of course.  She wanted ‘somebody’ to haul a bag of potting compost into the boot of her car.  I didn’t mind, and the cream teas were lovely.

When we got back, I planted out some Tesco mint that was getting a bit pale and leggy on the kitchen windowsill and also sowed some basil seeds I’d got at Dobbies.

Basically that’s all the work I did today, apart from driving a staple into my thumb as I was fixing the lining to Scamp’s sweet pea box.  Later in the afternoon, Scamp declared that it was Pimms O’ Clock.  Me?  I had mint tea – a mix of peppermint and spearmint, fresh from the garden.

I got an email from Alex tonight reminding me that it was 16 years yesterday since Susan died and so today was my dad’s anniversary.  Where did all those years go?

Noilly Prat – 7 May 2016

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comboNoilly Prat is a brand of vermouth from France. “White” Noilly Prat is the archetype of dry, straw-coloured French vermouth.  It’s also the words I woke up to today.  I don’t know why.  Maybe it was precognition or just a word that I saw somewhere and got trapped in my cerebral cortex.  It happens a lot to me.

Woke later than normal and felt as if I hadn’t rested at all.  Only myself to blame.  That’s what happens when you get home at 2am after a long day, coupled with a late night the day before.  Dragged myself out of bed, then a shower and a cup of strong coffee helped put the world back on its axis.

Today we were driving down to Kilmarnock to visit Dorothy B.  We spent a good hour there with her and Colin.  Enjoyed the company and I’m sure she did too.  Got her up to date with what’s been going on in our life and our prospective plans for the next few months.

It was a dull kind of day with very little direct sun, so although I took my cameras as usual, nothing inspired me enough to haul one of them out of the bag.  We drove back up the M77 and dropped in at Waitrose for ‘the messages’ and a light lunch.  While Scamp was deciding on a bottle of wine for tonight, I turned around and what caught my eye?  Why a bottle of Noilly Prat!  Just coincidence.

When we got home, and after finishing yesterday’s (extremely) Hard Sudoku with a little help from my tablet, I went for a walk to St Mo’s.  Again, nothing was tempting me to get my camera out, then I saw the moss fruiting bodies.  Difficult to see with the naked eye, but amazing detail shows up when you use a couple of extension tubes on the Oly with the Panasonic 45-200 zoom.  The green larch needles were taken contre-jour (against the light) and I just liked the little pink flower.  Three shots survived out of 37 taken.  Not bad really.

TV was crap as usual on a Saturday night so we watched a recorded episode of Rick Stein.  He was in Berlin, and what wine was he celebrating?  Why Noilly Prat!  Once is coincidence, twice gets scary, especially since if you’d asked me yesterday what Noilly Prat was, I couldn’t have told you.

Earlier in the week we were promised 24ºc for Sunday (tomorrow), but the weatherman’s revised estimate tonight is nearer 18ºc.  Oh dear, let’s hope it doesn’t go any lower.

Driving – 6 May 2016

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EM100065- flickr--128--127Not exactly driving all day, but it seemed like that to me.

Out at 12 to drive to Larky for my cousin Alex’s funeral. Don’t panic Hazy and JIC, not brother Alex, cousin Alex. We hadn’t spoken for years, about 20 years to be a bit more precise. However, my conscience demanded that I go to pay my respects. It’s what you do.

After the service we came home because Scamp was going out to one of The Witches’ 60th birthday bash in Milano. After a quick change, I drove her to Milano so she could enjoy a drink (or five) with the girls. I took the opportunity to wander St Mo’s with the heel of a home made loaf to see if any of the residents wanted a late lunch. Found Mr & Mrs Coot out with the red headed weans who where very receptive to a big bit of stale bread. I think there were about eight baby coots in the brood. Quite a handful I’d imagine. Checked the photos in Lightroom when I got home and they looked good, so PoD was sorted if nothing else.

I sat and read for a while after that, enjoying the peace and quiet before the next episode of the day. Scamp phoned asking for a lift home because the others were ensconced in the restaurant for the rest of the day. Picked her up and after another swift change went to pick up June to drive to Larky again for dinner with C&N. Great dinner and conversation with them and eventually left just before 1am and, because of roadworks on the M74, chose an alternative route through Bellshill. Only to find that I’d driven back on to the M74 again! We still can’t work out exactly what went wrong. Personally I think we went through a time slip and the roads lost alignment somewhere. We definitely took the Bellshill turnoff at the Raith Interchange, but the next sign we was was for Shettleston. Anyway, with my excellent navigational skills we found our way back home about 2am. Today, because I’m writing this on the 7th May, I’m still exhausted.

Scamp said that if anyone was watching our comings and goings on Friday they’d have wondered what was going on. She had had four changes of clothes on the day! Just showing off? Oh, surely not.

Off to Ayrshire today to visit Dorothy.