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Woke up to hear Scamp struggling in the dark.  Oh dear, either we’ve not paid the electricity bill or the kettle has tripped the circuit breaker on the consumer unit again.  That bloody kettle was indeed plugged in.  Unplugged it and reset the circuit breaker.  Went back to bed.  One of the great benefits of being retired is being able to look out at the driving rain and say “Nah.  Not today thank you.”  Turn over and go back to sleep.  Woke around 9.30 and got up and had breakfast.  Outside it still looked miserable.  Moped around and tidied up some of my junk that is forever cluttering the living room table.  Yes, I admit it!  Later I had a long hot shower to ease the ache in my back, but thankfully it wasn’t as bad as yesterday.  The ‘flu like symptoms’ had gone and I felt a lot better after the shower.  It was still raining outside, even heavier than before

When Scamp came in she noticed there were no lights showing on the dishwasher.  Hmm, could that be the circuit breaker culprit?  Probably not, but it might be a blown fuse.  Scamp went off to collect her ‘Gems’ group and I set to, to remove the fuse from the kettle plug and use it in the dishwasher plug.  Plugged the dishwasher in and got an almighty fright when there was a BANG and a smell of electrical stuff burning!  In the hall, I heard the circuit breaker trip.  Oh dear, looks like we need a new dishwasher.  Just to be sure, I unplugged the dishwasher, reset the trip switch and tested the socket with the socket tester, well, what else would you test a socket with? 😉  It passed with flying colours.  No doubt about it then, it’s a new dishwasher for us.  Oh well, it probably doesn’t owe us anything, it’s been doing the dishes for 10 years now.  It probably deserves a rest.

RANT ALERT
We didn’t have any spare 13amp fuses in the house.  Well, we probably have loads of them, but they are all hidden away in a tin that’s in a shoe box that’s in a drawer that’s under a pile of papers that’s behind a door that’s inside a cupboard.  Perhaps.  It would be quicker to buy some more.  Drove through torrential rain to the gym but decided just to have a swim.  Steam room is great on a dull rainy day, as is the sauna.  Did manage to swim a few lengths too.  Went to Currys, the largest electrical store in Scotland and probably the UK.
“Do you sell fuses?” I asked.
“You mean like 13amp and 5amp?” She said.
“Yes” I said thinking ‘Oh, Oh, this isn’t going well’.
“No, we don’t sell them.  You’ll get them in B&Q”
Currys, I repeat, the largest electrical store in Scotland and probably the UK.  Sells almost every electrical appliance you might need or want, but not the fuse to make it safe.  Went to B&Q, got the fuses and drove through the rain wondering what the world is coming to.
END OF RANT

I did think of missing out on salsa tonight, but we drove through the rain in to Glasgow and I did enjoy the dancing.  Thankfully the rain had abated a bit by the time we were coming home.  Abated, but still there.

In case you’re wondering, the Randy Newman song was “I think it’s going to rain today”

Writing this while standing at St Mo’s watching the last of the light fade. It’s been a dull day. I was talking to a woman who gave me chapter and verse about the family of swans that live there or maybe I should say who live there as she seemed to know them intimately.

Earlier, around midday we headed for Glasgow but while driving down the motorway in torrential rain, we both decided it wasn’t really the way we wanted to spend our day.  Scamp suggested that we take the turn off and head for Costa at Robroyston instead.  Good move.  After lunch at Costa, we did a bit of shopping and went home.

Typically, as we headed home, the sky cleared and by the time we got home there was a bit of blue sky overhead.  That’s why I went for a walk to St Mo’s.  Two poor blokes were fishing and I noticed they had a wee bottle of Bucky to keep their spirits up and inject a bit of warmth.  Couldn’t blame them today.

Monday was dull, yesterday was a mix of fog and sunlight, today was even duller than Monday with none of Tuesday’s sun.

We went in to Glasgow to check out a wholefood shop and after driving in circles for a while, eventually found a parking place just outside.  I got coffee beans which I will try in the next few days and a steak which I had for dinner tonight and it was simply delicious.  I’ll go back.

Tonight was the Cumbernauld fireworks display and it was as good as ever.  Hundreds, if not thousands of pounds of up in smoke.  Not an unusual occurrence for North Lanarkshire Council.

Today’s photo was not as taken, it is a combination of two shots sandwiched seamlessly in Potatoshop!

I started today by putting what might be the finishing touches to the oil I started yesterday.  It looks better, but still not exactly what I wanted it to be.  Time, as they say, will tell.  For now, I’m happy with my first ‘real’ oil in years.

I’d decided last night to do the gym/swim thing today and for once, I stuck to my guns and went – early – before 9.00.  That early.  When I got to the car there was a poor wee jenny long legs stuck to the aerial (Top left in the mosaic), covered in droplets of dew or it might have been dampness from the early morning fog that was just lifting.

I’m getting used to the upper body machines at the gym, they’re no longer torture devices, or maybe I’m just not doing it right 😉  Gym was very busy, so I might not go this early again.  The dreaded WaterBabies were in the pool with their singing teacher.  I think that’s why I cut my swimming short and soaked up some heat in the sauna.

Came home and had breakfast.  Yes, painting and then exercising BEFORE BREAKFAST.  This is the start of my new regime.  It’ll last until Friday … maybe.  After my late breakfast, I drove to Auchinstarry and walked the railway.  I left the house in sunshine and parked at Auchinstarry in cold fog.  I’d brought a body warmer instead of a fleece.  Bad move.  Literally hundreds of folk with their over-excited dugs were walking the railway today.  I did manage to get some moody shots in the varying densities of fog.  Saw a jay.  Don’t ever remember seeing one here before.  I remember seeing one down at Hazy’s a year or so ago, but never this far north.  By the time I got back to the car I was feeling quite chilled.  Drove home and it was back to sunshine again.  That’s Scotland for you.  Two completely different climates within a couple of miles of one another.

You know those days that start off all dull and drizzly in the morning then the sun shines through and by the afternoon it’s blue skies all around?  Well, this wasn’t one of them.  It started off like one of them, but then it just got duller and damper.  I started an oil painting in the morning.  A real oil painting with real turps or white spirit, because I’m a cheapskate and real linseed oil and proper oil paints, not the water based oils I’ve been using up until now.  I’m not sure it’s working.  Its another one on a square canvas and I feel you have to get the composition right on a square ground or it looks too dull and boring – like the day.  I’ll sleep on it tonight – not literally because that could be quite messy – and consider its fate tomorrow.

What was left of the day was spent baking a loaf which turned out really quite well, sorting out the music better on the new iPhone and dancing at night.  We did two classes which, added to almost two hours at The Garage yesterday put a bit of stress on my poor wee ankle.  I may go and do some gentle exercise at the gym tomorrow and then a swim with a session in the steam room to finish.  Nothing too strenuous.

Today’s photos were taken down by the Luggie.  Dull day, no good light and as we know:

**It’s all about the light**.

The First of November already.  White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits.  Where does the time go?

Got sorted out early today and drove to the carpark at Underwood Lock with my bike.  Cycled  west towards Dullatur, but didn’t quite reach it.  After the bridge that takes you to Glenskirlie, the cycle path becomes one long, uninteresting stretch and I couldn’t be bothered completing that section, just for the sake of it.  It wasn’t that the wind was gusting too strong in my face, well, not entirely because of that, but it was a contributing factor.  Waited ages for the clouds to break and the sun to come out over the farm in the mono shot, but it didn’t happen, so I took the shot anyway with the dull lighting, knowing that I could resurrect it in Lightroom later.   Cycled about 200yds to take the shot of the fishermen and looked back to see the clouds had broken and the farm was sunlit 😡 However, I knew by the time I went back to grab the shot, the sun would be in hiding again, so I carried on back to Bonnybridge (which isn’t all that bonny, but does have a bridge).

On the way back from that bustling metropolis, I stopped off at Seabegs Wood.  Possibly only the second time I’ve stopped there in the almost thirty years we’ve stayed in Cumbernauld.  Today it looked beautiful with low glancing light showing up the green of the grass and the gold of the leaves.  Now, you see that stone in the top right photo?  It would be good to say that a Roman soldier sharpened his sword on that stone.  Unfortunately that is unlikely as the ground at this point is very wet and boggy, so the original ground level is way below the present one.  Pity, as it would make a good story!

While I’m on the subject of fakes, that beautiful sky in the mono shot of the farmhouse is fake too.  Like I said at the start, the early afternoon light was really dull and uninteresting, but the Lightroom version of the shot was bright, but boring, so I decided to augment reality (AKA cheat).  I sandwiched the bright but boring shot with the dull and uninteresting one as layers in Potatoshop with the bright one on top.  Then I used a mask to cut away part of the bright shot to allow the dull one to show through.  The finished shot should look as if the clouds are scudding across the land and their shadows are producing the dark patches.  That’s almost word for word what the Flickr patrons got as their description, without the explanation.

Must try to get out more using the car to travel and the bike to explore, oh yes, and Potatoshop to augment reality

First the Apple part. The hard drive on the Mac is getting really clogged up with excess files. Zip files I’ve already unpacked, installed and possibly rejected. Disk images that have been installed and, again, possibly rejected. Hundreds of them. Gigabytes of them. All needlessly taking up space on the poor wee 2.5″ drive. I made the decision to dump them on the NAS and then delete them from the Mac, freeing up much needed space. I didn’t do it myself, no I got Hazel to do it, and while it was there, it organised the files into folders by date. Hazel is possible the most useful bit of software on the Mac. Just in case you were getting confused there JIC. Next for relocation is the backup iTunes library. There’s 30GB in that which could easily reside on the NAS.

So what about the Trees? After lunch, in fact quite a bit after lunch I decided to go for a walk along the railway to try for a photo of the autumn colours in the trees. One specific tree was in my mind to photograph, but when I got there I found out I was about a week too late. All the leaves were gone, but the skeletal branches made a good silhouette against a darkening sky. I keep forgetting just how short the days are now. I’ll have to rethink my timing for walks because the light is beginning to fail about 3.30. I did however get a couple of good shots of fading light on the Campsie Fells away over at the Dumbarton end where the hills slope rapidly towards the River Clyde. It needed a bit of post processing in Lightroom and also in Intensify Pro. I hope I’ve not overdone it. It’s so easy to do in Intensify.

I finally booked a slot in a sewing class in January for men. It may be the kickstart to my career move to dressmaking.

Today I made some bread. I made the bread. I didn’t just pour some flour, yeast, salt, butter and water into the mixer bowl and switch the mixer on. No, I mixed the ingredients by hand and then kneaded the dough by hand until I got a springy dough. I then proved it for a couple of hours before knocking back and proving for a second time for another couple of hours. In those couple of hours Scamp and I left it to its own devices and went out for a cup of coffee and a wander round the shops.

While we were out, I saw today’s pic and stripped the back protective film from the back of the iPhone (now christened “Mambo No 5” – Google it!) and it took its first ‘real‘ shot. I thought it handled the contre-jour (backlighting) very well. Impressed so far with the camera. While we were in ASDA, I wanted to Google something and found that I was connected to 4G. IN ASDA? JIC, I was even more impressed than I was with the camera.

When we got home, the bread (remember the bread) was looking good so I fired up the oven and when it was good and hot, I baked an exceptional loaf. Much better than Monday’s. I think it was my manual skills that made the better bread. It must have been, because the iPhone was off all the time.

Now that I’ve settled on Mambo No 5 as my new phone, the iPhone 4 is somewhat redundant. I’ve checked and I won’t get much money for it, so I’m hoping to unlock it and use it as a spare. Now in contact with the Vodies who are processing my request as we speak. Oh, yes, and I got a text from them telling me that they are sending my Vodafone order by Royal Mail. Is this a new iPhone 6s? I certainly hope so 😉

Today was iPhone day. The nice girl at the Vodafone shop in Cumbernauld, not only installed my Nano sim, she also registered my sim with my old number. It wasn’t until I got home that the swearing started. Whoever invented iTunes was a total imbecile, that’s all I can say. It took me over two hours to get the phone restored. “iTunes won’t restore your music”. Well, it tried to put about 20GB into a 16GB pot and found that it wouldn’t work. What a surprise. Then when I tried tonight to sync my Day One with iCloud that wouldn’t work unless I upgraded the Mac to Yosemite. Have you read the reviews of Yosemite? More than half the people who upgraded gave it one star, and it looks like El Capitan is going the same way. Anyway, it looks like the phone is working and I’ve managed to shoehorn about 900 songs into it and still leave room for some photos. I’m still not sure it’s for me. I still have the 30 days to decide. It may be a long 30 days.

I’ve had enough technology for one day. I’m off to bed.