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Today was Scamp’s annual Christmas party when she cooks dinner and entertains her ‘Witches’.  The planning usually starts about a month before the party and so it was this year.  I try to make myself scarse on these days, but today the weather was continuing on its December theme and I stayed home to help with the preparations.  After I’d done all that I was asked to do, I went to the leisure centre for a swim.  Just like the last time, the water in the pool was lovely and warm, the sauna was hot and the steam room was steamy.  Just what you want on a cold, dull, miserable day.  I spent a pleasant hour in the heat, reminiscent of our recent holiday in Tenerife.

After heat of the pool, I took myself off to Fannyside to try for some long exposure shots of the trees blowing in the winds of Storm Desmond.  What on earth gave them the idea of giving our ‘storms’ names?  In global terms they are just a bit of wind, not a real storm like those in the tropics.  What my mum would have called ‘a good drying day for the washing’.  If you’re going to give them names, give them seriously dangerous names.  Not ‘ Desmond’.  With apologies to all the Desmonds out there, it’s not a scary sounding name is it?  Why give it a person’s name?  Give it an animal’s name.  Storm Tiger, Storm Orca or Storm Eagle sound better.  Storm Demond is about as scary as Storm Fluffy Bunny.

Anyway, the light was dropping away at a serious rate by the time I got to Fannyside and the wind was getting up.  Desmond was doing his best to show his bluster which was just what I wanted.  Tried a few shots using slow shutter speed and high aperture, then tried another few with the same camera settings, but took multiple images that I hoped to later combine in Photoshop.  The first shots were the best, the multiple images didn’t quite cut it as far as controlled exposure.  I need more practise in this stuff.

Just now I’m happily sitting in the ‘painting room’ listening to some music and avoiding the hilarity of the ‘witches’ downstairs.  It’s only one day a year after all.

What do my audience think of the ‘combo’ shots at the top of these epistles?  They’re easier to format than individual shots, but also give you the opportunity to link to the bigger versions on Flickr.  Answers on the comment form below please or I’ll pester you with a Surveymonkey form.

For a change, the day started with dry weather, but was forecast to become a lot less dry later.

I started a new painting using the heavy body acrylic paints I got yesterday. It does look good with lots of impasto. On the subject of impasto, I was amazed the other day when I asked one of the sales assistants in the Art Store in Glasgow if heavy body acrylics would hold an impasto and he asked me what an impasto was! The Art Store used to be THE place for art students to get a part time job as sales assistants. It doesn’t look as if that it the case now. I think they’ve had things too much their own way of late, with the only competition being the rather antiquated Millers (now owned by some equally old-fashioned Embra mob). However, now that the more modern and pro-active CassArt has arrived just down the street, it’s time they sharpened up their attitude.

Met Fred for coffee and a catch-up later, when we came out of the town centre it was raining and seven hours later, it still is 🙁

By two o’ clock the car’s automatic headlights switched on. No good light for photography today, so it had to be a still life for the POD. Just one step up from flooers.

Yet another day that began with that wet stuff falling from the sky, a grey sky.  Scamp wanted to do some shopping in Glasgow and I can always find something to look at or to buy there.  Driving in was as busy as yesterday and I used the same ‘shortcut’.  I also used the same parking ‘secret’.

We agreed to split up and shop separately.  While Scamp was in a shop, I was wading through a torrent from the sky to get to a sweet shop in Argyle Street.  When I got there, the shop was shut.  I said ‘bad words’, but got what I wanted in a nearby ‘American Candy Store’.  Walked back and when I was going up Queen Street I saw a photo I had intended taking yesterday and grabbed it because it was still raining.  I was determined to get at least one in the bag.  After meeting Scamp we went for a coffee in my new favourite place.  If you don’t know, see Monday’s blog.  It passed Scamp’s approval.  On the drive home the sky cleared and the sun shone again.  This is beginning to be a habit from the weather.

In the afternoon after speaking to Hazy on her birthday, I went out for a walk along the Railway Walk.  Weather was beautiful with a sky graded from blue to a sunset orange. Just enough high white clouds to give a bit of texture.  A day of two halves to be sure.  Got a few shots of the trees at the side of the Kelvin Burn with the sun just starting to dip below Bar Hill.

Last night I’d ordered a bottle of Licor 43 from Asda and was informed that it would be ready to collect between 4.00 and 5.00pm today.  Customer serviced didn’t know about it and the man in a van in the middle of the carpark where you collect your click and collect didn’t know about it.  I came home empty handed to find that I hadn’t finalised my order.  How do you do that when you’ve logged in, made your order, chosen your timeslot and found no continue button, no checkout button, no finalise button.  Asda Click & Collect is a shambles.  I don’t think I’ll use it again.  I may never use Asda again.  I’ll just buy the Licor 43 in a shop next time.

Woke expecting snow, but it was rain again.  Rivers of the stuff running down the road.  I drove Jackie in to Glasgow as I was going in anyway to get some paint.  Traffic was ridiculous going along M80.  Never seen it so busy in the morning.  However, because Scamp insisted on going a ‘better’ way one night, I knew a shortcut, well, actually a long road for a shortcut along past the fruit market.  Longer in miles, but way, way shorter in time.  Got parked without a problem in my ‘secret‘ parking area of the Concert Hall.    Left Jackie to her own devices and shopping then went through John Lewis (another shortcut).  I was walking past the staff (Oops, ‘partners’ !?) entrance when I saw a group of mannequins inside waiting to ambush anyone who came through the door.  The sign above their heads read “Welcome to John Lewis Glasgow”  That gave me the title too: “The Welcoming Committee”.  Managed to avoid one ‘Partner’ who was going in and get the shot before I was caught either by another ‘Partner’ or a mannequin.  Dived down to CassArt only to find that the paint I was looking for was only available on-line.  Bummer.

Walked back up the road and got a shot of a couple of pigeons looking really drookit.  Almost as drookit as I felt.  Plodded back up Bucky Street to the carpark and got to the ticket machine with only four minutes to spare, meaning I only had to pay £2 instead of double that if I’d been 5 minutes later.  I was going to say it put a brightener on the day, but that would be taking things too far.  It would need more than £2 to put a smile on my face today.

When I got home I discovered that I’d left the heating on, so the house was lovely and welcoming.  Much more welcoming than the Committee.

Sitting in Cafe Tabou waiting for our starter listening to an absolute prick shouting across the table to his friend who may not have been deaf to start with, but certainly was now. He also regularly interspersed his monologue with laughing “A HA HA” as if he had read about laughing, but hadn’t actually have heard it before. I think he may have been, or is, a lawyer or some other worthless bastard, but obviously (self)important. The Art Critic quote from Monty Python sprung to mind “… clever people like me, who talk loudly in restaurants …”  Lunch itself was good.  Salad de Chef with kippers and loads of other good stuff followed by Hake for Scamp and Rabbit and Chorizo Ragu for me.

When we left, we went to WH Smith to win our fortune with a couple of Thunderball tickets and bumped into Duncan and Heather.  It’s ages since I’ve seen him and it was really good to catch up.  Twelve months catchup in 30 minutes as Duncan said.

We had already finished our shopping – coffee, tea and cheese, with a trip to M&S for Scamp to pick up any Black Friday Weekend bargains.  She did get one, of course.  We had also stood and watched a trio of youngsters playing on the outdoor stage.  Unlike last year’s, this lot brought a lot of enthusiasm to the gig and didn’t seem at all fazed by it.  At least not until they tried to give out their Facebook website address to the crown, then they became a bit tongue tied.

It was now time to head home through the pouring rain.  Driving home wasn’t much fun through driving rain and sleet, but at least we were warm and dry in the car.  It was one of those occasions when the car was better than the bus.  I couldn’t imagine sitting in a wet jacket and jeans on a cold bus for an hour and a half, then waiting in the rain for another connection.  Nah, driving might have been a pain, but it was better than public transport tonight.

I got up early today, soon after Scamp left for work.  I couldn’t get on to the blog site last night because the server in the US was borked.  When I switched on the computer this morning, everything was back to normal.  The next task was to start getting the pictures organised for my 2016 calendar.  Unfortunately, my hazel (lower case for the prog – Upper Case for the person) skills were lost on the task.  Yes, it worked, but it would have taken until the end of 2016 to get the images arranged the way I wanted them.  I put the rules, because that’s what hazel calls the scripts it uses, on the back burner and went for a walk.

The last time I walked along the old railway I got soaked.  Today started much better, but by the time I got to my usual turning point the rain had changed from an irritating drizzle to a soaking driving rain.  Thankfully, on the way back I had the rain behind me.  Even so, by the time I got back to the car, I was soaked again.  I had intended to go straight in to Glasgow after my walk, but I decided to go home and change.  There’s no point in being uncomfortable when you don’t need to be.

When I got home, I knew exactly how to write the hazel rule.  Of course I didn’t write it down I have found and elegant solution etc as did Fermat before me.  One of these days I’ll learn from my mistakes … maybe.

I parked at the station (which in itself was a minor miracle on a weekday) and got the train in to Glasgow.  The light, while low, was interesting. I bumped into Steve Mooney in John Lewis where he was booking his Black Friday bargain.  We had fallen out before we both retired, but for the five minutes we talked, we were very pleasant to each other.  Meanwhile holding down our real feelings.  That’s how we got on with people isn’t it.  That was about it for the day.  Other than visiting the tiny Laboratorio Espresso for a flat white.  Lovely coffee in a lovely artistic cup.

Today started at 7.00am when I got up to wait for our new dishwasher to be delivered.  These days stores are at pains to offer you an exact delivery window.  Most carriers, like DPD, delivering from the south of England, will give you a 60 minute time slot.  John Lewis, delivering from 15 miles away, give you a 7 HOUR window.  That’s not a delivery window JL, that’s a whole shift I’d lose if I’d been working.  Not really acceptable in this day and age.  As you might have guessed, the delivery was not here until 1.30pm, SIX AND A HALF HOURS after the start time.  I’m beginning to think that JL is living in the past and resting on their laurels (if that isn’t mixing my metaphors).  However, the dishwasher was fitted, tested and the old machine taken away in double quick time.  It’s been tested and it washes dishes.  All is good.

After I had my lunch, the good light was fading and I hadn’t had time to take any photos.  So, it was boots on and a quick walk to St Mo’s in the late afternoon.  I thought I’d missed all, the good light, but luckily there was just a little bit left.  In the gloaming you get some nice reflections on the pond if there’s a decent cloudscape.  I’d brought the Nikon with the 70-300mm today and I thought I also had the ultra-wide 10-20mm Sigma with me, but it turned out I had the kit lens instead.  One of the many great things about Nikon is the quality of the kit lenses.  I read so many people complaining about the poor resolution from their kit lenses and thank the salesman in Jessops (when it was a REAL photo shop, staffed by photographers) 15 years ago who convinced me that it was worth paying that little bit more for a Nikon D70.  He was right, but of course, I always wanted a Nikon from away back in the ’70s when I bought an Olympus OM1 and should really have bought a Nikkormat FT2.  I think from that day on, I aspired to a Nikon.

There was a fair bit of post-processing on the ‘Golden Pond’ shot.  It’s a sort of HDR process, but one that’s done completely within Lightroom.  I found it by accident on the internet in a tutorial by Serge Ramelli. He also has a fair amount of video tutorials on YouTube.  It’s a simple technique and so much better than using progs like Photomatix because it’s infinitely adjustable and seems to produce less digital noise than other ‘real’ HDR progs.  Anyway, it works for me and it also works with Jpeg format files, which Photomatix doesn’t do.  Technospeak rant over.

The day broke to a bright, if cold sky. Cold, as in -0.3ºc according to the weather station. Just below freezing. A temperature drop of nearly 25 degrees from yesterday morning according to the temperature display outside the hotel. It seemed a shame to get up and go out today in the cold, but we needed food for lunch and dinner tomorrow and we had the knowledge that the food would be better than we had to endure for the last week in the hotel. Restaurant and café food was so much better.

We dined out for lunch today at The Stables. Chicken and leek pie for me and fish and chips for Scamp. Lovely, except the barman tried to con me by trying to palm me off with coke from the dispenser rather than the bottled Coke I’d asked for. The waitress changed it for me telling me my drink was flat because there was too much ice in it! Aye Right.

Tomorrow’s dinner was bought from M&S and Lidl (top and bottom of the range). Unfortunately, I missed the good light this morning and since daylight was fading by mid afternoon, there wasn’t much choice of subject. I ended up with a mono shot of the first snow on the Campsies. A missed chance this morning.

Today we walked to the shore and turned left. We walked along to Playa de los Americas with a stop on the way to take on beer. Scamp found out she had forgotten her top to protect her shoulders from the sun but, surprise, surprise she knew where she could get one.
Actually the day had begun earlier with a walk along to a local market which was more like “The Barras” as it used to be. Crowds of folk all jostling looking for a bargain, but not really expecting to find one. We didn’t either.
Back at the Playa we were getting thirsty again. It’s thirsty work this walking, you know. Luckily we remembered getting ice cream at a wee cafe and they had lovely looking mojitos, and that’s what we had. They hit the spot perfectly. We walked back a bit and Scamp found the shop that sold scarves to protect shoulders and I found a nice Italian cafe that sold pizzas. Unfortunately the turned a blind eye to us. Maybe we didn’t tip them well enough last time. Oh well, their loss.
We soon found another place and ordered a pizza each. Scamp’s face when they arrived was a picture. The pizzas must have been about 18″ across. For what is probably the first time, I couldn’t finish mine. After that it was the long walk home. I went for a shower and a snooze and Scamp went sunbathing. I joined her later and we had a last couple of swims in the icy water of level 5 pool. I stood and watched the paragliders coming off the hills. See me? See next time? I’m going to try that. DV of course.

This morning we stayed by the pool on level 5. We both swam in the almost freezing water, although it isn’t so bad once you’re in. Didn’t even bother to towel dry, just lay in the sun and watched the water evaporate! Walked down to The Pantry ( real find) for a light lunch, then walked right at the front to take us to the edg of Poshland. Managed to get a photo of the doorkeeper minus pointy hat today, but with his black belt. He’s a black belt second Dan at doormanology you know. Not only can be open a door with either hand, he can do it with maximum damage to person. His door opening hands are licensed and he has to sign himself in at the local police station when he goes to a new town.
After our close encounter, we went for an expensive G&T in a bar on the outskirts of Poshland, well, Scamp had an expensive G&T and I had a slightly less expensive beer.
Walked back after that and went for a coffee at The Pantry. That is, Scamp had a coffee but I had a Baraquito which is a cocktail of a coffee. Google it!
Later, Scamp went to level 5 and I went for a walk on the dodgy part behind the hotel where people appear to walk their dogs. Loads of people walking dogs. Not on grass, but on volcanic cinders. Can’t imagine that’s comfortable for the poor dogs. By the time I got back, it was Gin o’ Clock once again and after that it was dinner time, which signalled the end of another beautiful day on this island.