Category: weather

Sunshine and Showers – 16 November 2019

Posted on by Zogman

A day of mixed fortunes.

In the morning after breakfast, we found a sheltered place and went sunbathing for an hour or two.

After that we walked to market in Caleta. It was the usual junk. Michael Kors bags, tourist tat and cheap belts. I actually heard a ‘Looky-looky man’ at a belt stall say “Looky-looky is no charge!” There was nothing much to see there so we walked down to the town and then chose to walk back along the walkway to the hotel.

Just as we were arrived, the rain came on. We had a beer in the sheltered part under cover, then lunch. After lunch I chose to go for a walk to the crashy waves and Scamp went to sunbathe. Both of us had to give up and come back because of rain showers and the cold wind.
I did get some photos of the waves and of the camels going home for the night. It was the camels photo that made PoD.

Went to kids club after dinner and it was the best entertainment of the night. Guitarist on at the upstairs bar could play, but couldn’t sing and didn’t seem to know the correct words to any of the songs.
Gave up and took our drinks upstairs. Apart from the sunbathing morning, it had been a disappointing day in a disappointing hotel.

Tomorrow will be better.

Fairy Lights – 15 November 2019

Posted on by Zogman

I’d tried to avoid it, but Christmas is coming.

This morning, the inevitable happened. We’d been waiting for it and watching the weather forecasts. Pulled back the curtains and there it was. Rain. Not terribly heavy, but it was there blowing in on that constant north wind. Hmm, let’s have breakfast and make plans for the day.

Breakfast is the first chance you get to over eat in this place. I’m trying to meter my fruit intake because too much isn’t too good for my insides, but a little is good. I’ve been trying to have cereal on most mornings, then an omelette with some bacon. What are called ‘English Sausages’ have the shape of British sausages, but the content is partly sawdust, partly stale breadcrumbs and partly something else I don’t want to consider at this time of the morning. Bacon is fatty and salty. Both of these ingredients are essential to giving it a bit of taste. The omelettes are excellent and enormous.

After the morning repast we noted a fair bit of activity in the hotel. Three blokes kitted out with carabiners and ropes, clinking around with hard hats on. Then we realised they were there to put up the Christmas lights. All the way down from the ceiling on the enormous window wall to the floor. Oh dear, it’s almost Christmas.

While Scamp read in the hotel, I attempted a sketch of the rear of the hotel with its chairs, tables and palm trees. Half listening to the chatter around me of people whose plans had been thwarted by the now lessening rain. Soon it stopped and so did the sketch. Time to go for a walk.

We’d hear that the market was on in Caleta today and walked down the main drag to find that the rumours were untrue. Not a Looky, Looky man in sight! Continued on to The Trafalgar, the English pub in the town. Lunch was a bowl of hand cut chips washed down with a mug of Nescafe coffee. One of Scamp’s traditions is coffee in the English pub. After that a pint of lager each washed the coffee down!

We walked round to the harbour which is now much prettier and less interesting than it used to be. After that we crossed the sands to cut off a large corner of the road back. Today wasn’t just cool, it was actually getting cold. Scamp, of course, disagreed!

In the afternoon I went out to get some more bird pictures using the 4K setting on the camera. This time the subject was Ringed Plovers, but the abseilers got PoD.

There was a Variety Show tonight, but we’ve been to one of those before and there was very little variety on show, so we decided to give this one a miss. Played Rummikub for a while and called a halt to the day.

Tomorrow we may go to the market. We’ve checked and it is on tomorrow.

The big city – 14 November 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Travelling with the ordinary folk

This morning we got the bus to Puerto del Rosario. Paid the princely sum of €2.90 for both of us to travel to the big city. About a 20 minute journey, equivalent to a ‘fast’ bus to Glasgow, but at a fraction of the cost.

We didn’t have an agenda, although Scamp wanted to go to the beach which had looked interesting the last time we were on the island. We got off near the big shopping mall and Scamp immediately found a shoe shop. There she started a conversation with two Scottish women in the shop and discovered that they were from one of the cruise ships that was berthed in the harbour.

We found our way back to the “Church with the Bar”. The bar isn’t actually in the church, but it is in the church grounds. Can’t see that happening here! We got interviewed by two students who recognised us as tourists. I was shocked, I thought we fitted in perfectly with the locals! They were doing a survey for school and wanted to know if we’d been to Fuerteventura before, what we thought of it and why we came back. The boy especially spoke perfect English. I felt ashamed of my “Two beers and where’s the toilet” in Spanish.

Lunch was in the same café we went to last time we were there and after a bit of a panic, when I thought I was eating shellfish stuffed peppers, only to find it Hake, we had a great meal for a very, very reasonable price.

There were two Cruise ships in the port. One was the gigantic Aida Nova and the other was tiny by comparison, the Marella Explorer.
It was the Marella, the two ladies Scamp met were sailing on. We walked along the prom and were forced to listen to a street drummer playing to a seemingly endless set of midi files.

Lovely and warm in Puerto del Rosario, but cool when we got back to Caleta. It took us almost twice as long to get back. We must have boarded the island equivalent of the X3 by mistake.

Went to the Island when we got back and had a couple of Mojitos (one each!) sheltering from the wind.

PoD was one of a group of little shells. About 100 meters from the sea and not near any river. How they got there in the middle of what’s really a desert, I do not know.  Also saw a Spoonbill.  Never seen one before.  Such a strange looking bird which Scamp thinks looks like a pelican from the front.  Yes, it does, but from the side there is no likeness at all.  It was interesting, but  the little shell won PoD.

Danced to Tina at night. Even got a namecheck. “My two friends from Glasgow” she called us!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to walk into town to go to the market.

A walk in to town – 13 November 2019

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Still windy but still warm.

After breakfast we walked in to Caleta and had a paid-for beer. I think we must have picked one of the most expensive bars in the place. €5 for a pint and a half pint of lager. Not what I’d expected, but a lot cheaper than back home.

We hadn’t intended going much further today, so we walked back to the hotel, noting the very few changes that had been made to the town. It was still very windy, and although the wind did keep the temperature down, it wasn’t too cold. Certainly still shorts ’n’ tee shirts weather.

In the afternoon I walked out across the wilderness, almost to Museo de Sal and took some crashy wave shots. Trying to get to grips with the new 4K mode in the TZ90. It certainly has a lot more settings than the TZ70 and the results on the Mac look acceptable. Also saw a Painted Lady butterfly. Hard to believe that they fly all the way from the UK down as far as southern Spain and maybe even as far as the Canaries!

Tonight was our Italian dinner and although we had had one before, a few years ago, it was just as good. I remembered the sweet that I described as “Disgustingly Good!” It hadn’t changed. Mascarpone Cream on a Crispy Ice Cream base.

Afterwards our entertainment was a sad group of jugglers. You lose a bit of interest when one of the jugglers drops the hat she’s supposed to catch. It wasn’t totally dire, just a bit tired.

Couldn’t sit on the balcony and have our traditional G ’n’ T because that bloody wind didn’t drop much in the evening, so it was a bit of light reading with a drink after the entertainment.

Today’s PoD was a Bird of Paradise hidden among the bushes. A Bird in the Bush, Not the Hand, so to speak!

Tomorrow we’re hoping to get the bus to Puerto del Rosario.

Up early and out – 12 November 2019

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Off to a warm place

Early rise, just before 6am. Quick breakfast then a fairly easy drive to Glasgow Airport. Equally easy check in and then, as usual my bag got hand searched at security, but this time the tray holding my ‘tronic stuff got searched too. I’m was beginning to think the ground coffee was looking suspicious, but what is there in a Kindle, a Samsung phone and a ten year old laptop, all of which switched off that could give cause for concern? Anyway, we were sent on our way again.

Flight was on time and the actual flight was without event. It was actually an interesting flight with very little cloud after we left Scotland. Great having plenty of leg room in the Jet 2 plane.

Short wait for our pre-booked taxi, and a short run to hotel. The room was fine, on 5th floor with a sea view as advertised. Unfortunately there was no sunny balcony and it faced into wind. A strong wind. Fuerteventura is always windy, but according to the weather app this was a 20 – 25mph wind which is a lot stronger than usual.

Quickly got dressed in something more appropriate for the 23ºc temperature and went in search of our first holiday beer. It’s traditional, lunch and a beer in the sun. We won’t starve.

After dinner we danced to Tina, the saxophonist who we were hoping told be working the hotel. So we should be having at least two nights of dancing as she will be back on Thursday, all being well. We even had a visit from the dancing Pepe who wasn’t worked very hard because there were very few kids for the Kids Club. I think the visit made Scamp’s night.

PoD was a quick snap of the airies at Glasgow.

Tomorrow we investigate the hotel further.

They brought a tank – 11 November 2019

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I made my decision this morning and packed up the Sony RX 100iii.

It was a pretty little thing, but in the end it was overpriced, even considering what I paid for it and it didn’t do what I intended it to. It had to go. Drove into Glasgow and returned it. I got my money back and also had the JL points deducted from my account, which is only fair. I then bought a Panasonic TZ 90. Not nearly as pretty as the Sony, but a lot more useful I hope. I wanted a camera with a large sensor, a long zoom and a tilting rear screen with a viewfinder if possible, Santa. The TZ 90 doesn’t have the large sensor but it does have a long zoom, a tilting screen and a viewfinder. Actually the Sony had ticks in all but one of my boxes too, but I just didn’t like it. It’s as simple as that. The TZ 90 is to replace a hard worked TZ70, so most of the controls are in familiar places. The fact that it was £100 cheaper was of no consequence.

Came home and Scamp was just going out to get Gems. After a quick lunch and a cursory glance at the users manual, I plugged the camera in and let it charge and charge and charge for about four hours. In the meantime I took the Oly out for a run. I needed petrol and a run in the country would lift my spirits, I thought. Drove up onto Fannyside Moss and that’s where today’s PoD came from. Lovely cloudscape over the far hills. They had been covered with a light dusting of snow this morning, but now almost all of it was gone.

Came back just as Gems were leaving. After some discussion, Scamp and I decided that we’d miss out on Salsa tonight, because we both had a lot to do.

On the way back from my photo trip, I took a run past the school and, oh dear. It looks like they brought in a tank after all. The glazing panels down the side of the Techy block are gone and part of T1 drawing room has gone. It won’t be long until it’s just a memory. Goodbye T4. I had some good days and some bad days there, but mostly good.

No great plans for tomorrow. We’ll see where the day takes us.

Bad coffee and good cakes – 10 November 2019

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That seems to be the story of our outings recently. Why do so many people make such bad coffee?

We went to The Fort today, more to get out of the house than anything. It was a cold morning with -1ºc on the outside temperature when I got up. By the time we were heading for The Fort it had warmed up, but it was still single figures centigrade, thankfully positive single figures though. We were going to Boots. We could have gone to Cumbersheugh Boots, but a wee run in the car could just brighten our day.

After our Boots visit we went for coffee in Costa, but the queue was even longer than usual. Gave up and went to Pret a Manger, because the other option was Starbucks and we wanted a coffee, not a Starbucks. Maybe we’d have been better taking the risk, because the brown liquid in a paper cup I got didn’t taste of anything, not even Costa’s burnt water tastes that thin. The cakes were good, but that’s not a reason to go back.

Back home and after our lunch with Real coffee, I worked on a shot I’d taken in the morning of some Japanese maple seeds. Ones we’d picked at Colzium a week or two ago. I used the Sony to take them and they turned out ok. There’s a lot to this camera. A lot of complicated looking menus that I’m beginning to get my head round. For how much longer, I still don’t know. Scamp said tonight that she’s never seen me so undecided about any purchase. Anyway, that photo made PoD.

Later I walked over to St Mo’s to see if there was anything more worthwhile, but the light was fading rapidly and the cold and damp were making the walk uncomfortable. Some blokes, adults were racing little dune buggies, radio controlled with petrol engines on the BMX track. I’ve seen them there before, but there were about half a dozen of them today. I’ll maybe have a go at photographing them some day. Some day with better light, I mean.

To increase my step count, Scamp and I went over last Wednesday’s Jive routine. It works now and we’ve got the video to help us clean it up. I did manage to get my “8 Active Hours” because of the practise. Still well away from achieving my 10,000 steps.

Tomorrow it’s Gems in the afternoon and perhaps dancing at night. It depends on how we’re feeling.

Pythagoras, Roast Chicken and a Baked Potato – 9 November 2019

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It was a cold start to the day and it only gradually got warmer. The best thing that happened today was Roast Chicken and a baked potato. Pythagoras was useful too.

It was one of those days that my dad used to warn me about. “When you’re retired,” he told me, “you don’t get weekends.” It’s true. Weekends are just like any other day … almost. Mondays are different. Mondays are days to wake early. Walk to the window and look at the rain streaming down, then go back to bed for an hour. Today was Saturday and we didn’t have anywhere we wanted to go. So we got up and sat and read the news on tablet or on computer.

I decided I’d best take the new piece of technology out for a test drive. It performed well enough, but not enough to convince me not to return it to JL. It might get packed up tonight, but more likely tomorrow morning. It’s good, but not worth the money that’s being asked for it. It’s touted as being a 1” sensor, but the actual dimensions of the sensor are 13.2mm by 8.8mm. Now, applying Pythagoras to that will give you a diagonal size of 15.86mm. As far as I can remember, 1” = 25.4mm, so the diagonal of the sensor in this camera and others like it is in fact 0.62 of an inch. That’s if and only if the entire sensor is used, because it never is! Do you realise that the ‘camera’ inside a phone is actually smaller than your pinkie nail? Like all things photographic, it’s a con. One of the photos I took with the ‘medium dog’, the Oly E-M1 graces the top of this page and became PoD. It’s a close up of the seed head of cow parsley. Shot against the sun it’s quite pretty IMO.

Lunch could have been in a restaurant or cafe somewhere, but ended up being a piece ’n’ black pudding for Scamp and a piece ’n’ bacon for me. Suitably refreshed, we started making plans for dinner and my suggestion of roast chicken met with Scamp’s approval. We walked down to the shops and got a chicken and other stuff for dinner. The car park was full, absolutely full. Maybe some folk were hoping for a glimpse and perhaps a selfie with Denise Van Outen whoever she is, because she was opening Matalan this morning, but I imagine she would be well gone by the time we arrived.

It’s a pleasant walk down to the shops now. I imagine Tesco is feeling a slight pinch, but nothing too serious. The roast chicken and baked potatoes were lovely. Even better, there’s more for tomorrow.

Speaking of tomorrow, I have no plans, but I my parcel up the Sony camera and give someone else the chance to be disappointed with it. Scamp is doing stuff in the house, I believe.

The Highs and the Lows – 8 November 2019

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Cameras. Can’t live with them, can’t live without them.

I’ve been looking for a replacement for my Panasonic Lumix TZ70 which is a wonderful pocket camera. Long, Long zoom, shoots in the malleable RAW format, nice comfortable grip and an ideal form factor. Its big drawbacks are the small sensor (the digital “film”) and its habit of sucking in dust to the lens and ultimately to the sensor. A tiny bit of dust on a DSLR sensor is a bit of a pain, as is a tiny hair. On a sensor that’s smaller than your pinkie nail, that tiny bit of dust is a great black blob. My Teazer has a host of those blobs and now has a hair to keep them company. That’s my reasoning for looking for a replacement. Not ‘another’ camera as JIC will have it, but a replacement. One in, one regretfully out.

I’ve been charting the price fluctuations of a Sony RX100iii for the past few weeks and had a look at the camera in Jessops which was the cheapest of the local shops and Amazon too. Today when I checked, the price had risen by £30 from £449 to £479. The price hike, I presume is so they can ‘reduce’ the price again for Black Friday at the end of the month. It looked like it was out of the question, but I had a second runner in the race and thought I’d have a look at it. Went to JL and they had it in stock it was a Panasonic LX10 (I knew you’d want to know that JIC), but although it had a viewfinder, it didn’t have tilting screen which I now use a lot on my Olys. Bummer! Then I noticed in the reduced section in JL, the Sony I’d been denied by Jessops false price hike. Better than that, it was a kit, complete with a finger grip and a leather case. Best of all, it was about £100 below even the original asking price for the kit in Jessops! I took it. Things were on the up, perhaps. Scamp had got herself ‘another’ pair of jeans in M&S, so she was a happy bunny too.

Came home and went to lunch at Milano Express at Old Inns. Pizzas were a bit of a disappointment, lovely light, well-fired base, but far too heavy on the cheese. Must ask for less cheese next time. Had a relaxing lunch and Scamp was driving on a beautiful sunny day.

By the time we got home there was hardly any time to grab a photo and I did want to unpack this small miracle camera. It was small, it is tiny. Without the finger grip it’s very difficult to hold. Quite slippery. The controls, too are tiny and the menu is a labyrinth of jargon filled abbreviations. You can control the camera using NFC which is great, but the software is a bit clumsy and doesn’t always work. Also, the ‘control’ you have is whether to shoot with a time delay or not. No chance to change aperture or shutter speed. No clue what you’re focusing on. It’s all a bit hit or miss, but mostly miss. Long story short, although the camera is perfect and looks like it’s never been used, I think it may go back on JL’s shelf soon.

Today’s PoD is a slice of pomegranate, but could equally well be a slice through my befuddled brain!

Tomorrow we have no plans.

Dull, Dull, Dull – 7 November 2019

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That sort of sums up the day. Dull with the chance of Brexit.

I’m getting fed up with the amount electioneering we are getting on the (supposed) news. The first thing they talk about is the election or Brexit. No news there. We know there’s going to be an election. We’ve been saddled with Brexit since 2016. Why is the important stuff always playing second fiddle to this nonsense.

Then it’s Labour slagging off the Conservatives. Conservatives slagging off Labour. Lib Dems labouring under a delusion that they’re going to oust both of them and the SNP slavering for another referendum. Then there’s some poor reporter who’s sent to some god-forsaken town to try to drum up some interest in the whole shebang. Haven’t you heard yet? Nobody’s interested, and apart from the party faithful, nobody has found any party in the whole mess worth voting for. For what must be the first time in my life I don’t want to vote. Scamp even suggested that I should spoil my ballot paper and I might just do that and write “NONE OF THE ABOVE” at the bottom. There, I’ve got that out of my system.

Today was a dull day, but it brightened up in the afternoon and the rain dried up too. I managed out for a walk in St Mo’s and came back with the monochrome offering at the top of the page. Walked on down to the new shops and got a nice wee bottle of wine to go with the dinner. I’d made some soup and Scamp made Chicken and Mushrooms. The wine washed it down beautifully.

After talking to Val in the morning I gave Linux on the Linx another go, but I’m getting tied in knots with it now and beginning to think that it’s more trouble than its worth. I’ll just put Windows back in, reset it to factory settings and sell the big black slab. It’s always been ok, but not great. Windows 10 kills it. Might get a few quid for it and put that to getting a replacement for my dust ridden Teazer.

No plans for tomorrow other than hopefully going to Milano Express for lunch.