Category: weather

Mainly Dancing – 6 November 2019

Posted on by Zogman

Today was dull and cold, but the dancing was good.

We drove in to Glasgow today under a dull November sky. We’d had another short practise this morning and I felt I’d got all four parts of the new routine off pat. So what happened? Michael was back and he wanted us to dance the old routine instead, Over the Rainbow. I couldn’t say I was Over the Moon about it, but needs must when the Michael drives. He added a bit of spice to the mixture by mixing up the couples and thankfully I got one of the ‘experts’ and Scamp got Anne Marie, the second in command.

We both survived Over the Rainbow and were allowed to go back to our normal partners, then we started on the new routine, and I must admit we were almost flawless. Others weren’t so lucky, but after last week, I know how that feels. We even went on to the next part of the routine which is the Forward and Reverse Sleeves which sounds as if it’s part of a knitting pattern, more than a dance routine. It is a bit more complicated than Over the Rainbow, but that’s to be expected. The main thing is we survived Jive and then it was time for Waltz.

We weren’t so perfect with the ballroom, but we did brush up on some of the routines in both Waltz and Quickstep. Who knows, we might even be able to dance at Stuart and Jane’s Christmas Ball without crashing into folk.

Went to see Dougie’s pictures – first time for Scamp and second time for me. The ones I liked are still stunning and Scamp was impressed with the quality of the prints.

Had a look for the Sony camera in City Centre Cameras in Parnie Street, but it was out of stock. After coffee we drove home through the gathering gloom. Not even 3.30 and the light was going. Today’s PoD is of some tangled Boris Bikes on Queen Street. Nothing great about it at all, but I liked the random chaos of the grey metal frames.

Tomorrow we have no plans.

Over the Forth on the Fifth – 5 November 2019

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Yesterday was Gems day. A Tuesdays is rapidly becoming our day.

It was a lovely morning and we decided we had to go out and enjoy it. Scamp suggested Kirkintilloch and I suggested Dunfermline. Scamp then said that was her second choice and we’d go to Kirkie on our next free day, so Dunfermline it was.

The River Forth was shining beautifully when we drove over the Kincardine Bridge. I was tempted to stop, but I’d proposed Dunfermline and while Scamp wouldn’t have complained about me taking a diversion, I thought I’d better stick to the plan. We parked just at Pittencrief Park and had a walk round the park in beautiful light shining through the trees and lighting them up. Found today’s PoD there too. A genuine fairy toadstool. The notorious Fly Agaric. Look but don’t touch unless you want to wake up in hospital, or never again.

The walk up through the town was less photogenic. Boarded up shops and more than their fair share of charity shops. It was like an outdoor version of the Cumbersheugh Town Centre. Good enough for coffee and a bit to eat though. After that we just walked back to the car, via M&S for Scamp and Waterstones for me.

As we were driving home the clouds seemed to be gathering, but I don’t think they were serious about it because the forecast is for sub zero temperatures tonight because of the clear skies. Also, as we reached the Forth again on the way out of Fife, with the low sun the river was shining again. I resisted the temptation again.

Practised the Fearsome Four Jive moves for tomorrow and I seem to have a finger hold on them at last. I’ll let the little grey cells work on them overnight and file the successful method away for further reference. Tomorrow morning we’ll try again and all will be well, I’m sure.

That was about it for today. A lovely day, most enjoyable. Tomorrow, hopefully, we’re dancing again.

Rain and Balloons – 4 November 2019

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All day, it rained. I think it should stop now, we get the message.

There was no point in going anywhere today unless you had to. Scamp had to go out to collect some of Gems, because today was Monday and that’s what happens on a Monday, Gems come. After she came back and after Margie and I had a look at each other’s drawings, I got my wet weather stuff on and drove out to the local council tip to get rid of the bottle of stinking oil I’d used to make the pakora the other day. After that I drove back via Tesco to get some money from the money machine and to get milk. You understand that there are times when these things are the highlights of the day.

Salsa tonight was enough to brighten any day. Tonight was Jamie G’s Halloween Party with balloons, fairy lights, glow sticks and reindeer antlers. There should have been witches hats, but one the other teachers had stolen them. Children? What can you do with them? As well as the usual festivities, this was the first night of a beginners class and we were called upon to help out. It wasn’t an onerous task, in fact it’s quite fun to be considered an “expert”. It’s also fun to watch their faces when Jamie demonstrates what they’ll be able to do in eight weeks time. You can see them whispering to each other, “I’ll never be able to do that!” But the thing is, They Will! Yes a Halloween party with everybody acting like big kids and a chance to be an “Expert”. Those two things made me forget about the dull day and the rain.

Today’s PoD is a sycamore seed which was stuck by the rain on the rear light cluster of the car. I liked the patterns the rain made more than anything else.

Tomorrow looks like a better day, but we’ll have to wait until morning to see if it works out that way.

Rained again last night – 3 November 2019

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And most of today too.

It was one of those days that entice you out with the promise of sunshine and the unwary will venture out and end up soaked. The more circumspect will notice that there is a fine drizzle sparkling through the sunshine and wait for it to clear completely. For most of the day we were in that second group, then we made an excuse, any excuse, went out and got wet. There, that more or less sums up the day.

Spoke to Hazy in the morning and then she phoned back to sort out a couple of iPhone problems for me. It’s great to have an expert on hand for just those niggling problems. After a puzzling hour Scamp and I finally managed to get my calendar and hers to speak to each other. You would think that in this day and age of technical wizardry, something as simple as sharing a calendar would be easy peasy, but it’s not. But then it’s associated with emails and it’s well known that emails and printers are the biggest nuisances in computing, other than trying to install Linux in a Linx computer that its, but that’s another story.

Here is that other story. I have a Linx 12×64, 2 in 1 laptop. It works fairly well, but it’s saddled with the despicable Windows 10 OS. It forever wants to “Get me back on track”. I don’t want to get back on track, I just want it to do what it’s told. That’s when I thought it might be a good idea to install Linux. Linux for those of you who have never heard of it is a free (as in free beer and free speech) operating system that runs on a UNIX base, much like a Mac. It’s a bit geeky, Val uses it, so it’s a lot geeky and the two of us are now competing to get it to run on our 12x64s. He’s almost there and I thought I was today until the screen on Elementary OS closed down every 15 seconds, no matter what I did to try to stop it. The challenge still continues and I’ll have another go tonight. I thought I’d broken the Linx last night when it ended up in no man’s land with no OS at all. No Linux and no Windows. Then I crossed my fingers and used Macrium to restore a backup of Windows and it rose from the dead again. I’m trying to keep this light with very little technospeak for JIC’s benefit, so I won’t explain my big mistake that led to that little problem. Suffice to say I won’t do it again … until the next time it sounds like a good idea.

Eventually Scamp harrumphed and said it was time to go out and get wet. We walked down to the new shops in the almost dry, got our messages and came home in the rain, just solid, straight down, rain. We knew we’d get wet and were dressed for it, so that was fine.

PoD tonight was taken, hand held with the pens sitting on a couple of tissues with another couple behind to hide the mess on the coffee table. I quite liked it.

Today’s blog title came from a Tom Paxton song, by the way “The Things I Notice Now”.

Tomorrow it’s Gems and I’m hoping to go out for a while, rain or shine.

White Rabbits (x3) – 1 November 2019

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It’s traditional on the first day of the month to say “White Rabbits, White Rabbits, White Rabbits”. Well, it’s traditional in this house anyway.

It was wet when we woke and it stayed that way all day. Eventually Scamp encouraged me to join her on a safari through the wet rainforest to the new shops. There we found our quarry, a pack of pancakes some chicken thighs and some ready-made flatbreads. Enough for dinner tonight we thought.

I was tempted to take another route home via St Mo’s and allow Scamp to carry the bags part way home, but that would be a bit unfair and I decided I was wet enough without an extra trudge through the muddy St Mo’s.

Back home, and after completing yesterday’s Sudoku, I started to make some pakora to go with the curry. I overestimated the amount of ingredients and ended up with far too much pakora. Luckily Scamp offered to scoff all the cauliflower pakora and I did the same with the onion bhajis. The result was we never did have the curry. We simply didn’t have enough room.

The rain did ease off for a while today after we returned from the shops, but not enough to encourage me out again.

PoD was a raindrop on a bush on the way to the shops. It was just a dull, wet day.

Tomorrow Scamp is going singing and I’m going to immerse myself in Cuba. All will become clear, I hope.

Coffee for two – 31 October 2019

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Off to meet Val for a technological chat.

There are four of us. Fred, Val, Colin and me. We all have our specialisms. Fred likes to talk politics, books and music. Val talks technology and books. Colin talks about gardening. I talk bollocks and books, music and technology. Between us we always find some topic of conversation to take apart. Today there were only two of us and so it was Technology and Books, but mainly Technology. We discussed new phones and old computers, books we’d read or were going to read and we both told each other lies and tall stories. That’s the best bit about shooting the breeze, nobody really believes everything the other is saying.

After we were done, Val went off to meet his wife and I went home to meet mine via M&S to get some lunch. After that, we picked up June and took her to sunny Coatbridge for her eye check. While the ladies were in the clinic, I took a trip to Currys for a bit of window shopping. Found another possible replacement for the Teazer, but on further inspection it didn’t quite fit the specification I’d set for myself. The back screen doesn’t flip up. Such a pity. The Sony RX100 iii is still the front runner.

Picked up the sisters after they were finished and after dropping June off, we went home. Scamp was getting ready to assemble a fish pie, so I went out to get some photos, but it was cold and I came back with only a couple of shots. Luckily they were decent, so I present one of them as my PoD.

Tonight’s sketch, and the last one of this year’s Inktober is an umbrella. This is not just an umbrella, this is a dripping umbrella. Let’s face it, those of us who live in Scotland get plenty of opportunity to sketch them, except today. Today was a bright, cold, sunny, DRY day. Typical!

We have no plans for tomorrow, at least not yet. Looks like rain.

On the Bonny, Bonny Banks – 29 October 2019

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Today we visited Loch Lomond.

Tuesdays are becoming the ‘just go’ days. Just get up, get out and go somewhere. Today that ‘somewhere’ was Balmaha on Loch Lomond side. To those who have never heard of it, it sounds like somewhere exotic, but you’re probably getting mixed up with The Bahamas. It was not very exotic today, in fact it was a bit cold, but when you were in the sun it didn’t feel too bad.

We had packed a flask and the usual assortment of picnic food like crisps and chocolate biscuits. Good healthy food and not in the least fattening. Before we got stuck into that we had to do some walking to get the blood flowing after our 50 minute drive. Walked down to the jetty and that’s where I got today’s PoD. It’s a two frame panorama stitched in Lightroom 6, thanks for asking. The blue sky is real and it looks exactly like the view from that pontoon today.

After getting my photos we walked back to give some other folk a shot on the pontoon. Took some more photos near the poorly tended Tom Weir garden. Then it was back to the car for a coffee and a chocky biscuit.

Scamp fancied stopping at the Beech Tree Restaurant on the way home, so that’s what we did. Luckily the Sat Nav lady knew the way to Dumgoyne and gave us directions.

Food was good, but I got a fright when the waitress asked me if my name was Campbell and was I a Techy teacher, if so there was a young lady sitting in the corner seat who thought she knew me. It turned out to be a former pupil and thankfully, it was one of the most pleasant ones I’d taught. I went over and had a few words with her and her dad who I remembered from various parents nights. Poor girl, like so many others, she’s working in a job she doesn’t like. I know that feeling. It took me many years before I got the opportunity to do a job I really enjoyed. Hope she gets that chance before long. After being properly fed on Haggis, Neeps and Tatties, and giving father and daughter a wave on the way out, we headed for home. Today was a lovely day.

I’m still not sure if the proper term is Skullcandys or Skullcandies. I’m going with the former. These are my go-to headphones (or to be more precise earbuds) when I’m out walking by myself. They fitted the topic today perfectly and the topic was A Pair of Headphones.

Tomorrow Scamp is out in the morning and we’re hoping to dance in the afternoon.

Sunny Coatbridge – 289 October 2019

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Beautiful day. Too good to stay in.

Stayed for a while to talk to Margie and cause ructions in the Gems group, then did as I suggested I would yesterday and made a sharp exit.

Since we are taking June to get her eyes checked on Thursday, it made sense to do a quick recce of Coatbridge. I was pretty sure I knew where I was going, and I was right. More importantly, I found where the parking was. There’s not a lot of it in Coatbridge and most of it is either owned by Asda or NLC education department, neither of which I trust with the Red Juke. I’m sure there are other more secure parking places near the building. Google will know, even if I don’t.

Since I was in Coatbridge, I thought I’d have a look at the grand building Clive and I had investigated on Google Maps. It took a bit of finding, but today with the sun shining on it, it did indeed look very grand. It also looked like the original building had been there for a long time. I don’t know how much of it IS original now, but it looks expensively refurbished. Didn’t want to risk taking photos of it for fear of security taking an interest in me. Maybe another day. On the way there, I discovered that Coatbridge has a cricket club. Who would have thought that?

On the way home I stopped at St Mo’s and that’s where I got the PoD.  I just thought the nearly naked tree looked a great shape against that bright blue sky.  Later I though about straightening up the slope of the grass, but eventually decided it looked ok like that.  I must look next time and see if it really does slope.

Back home and after dinner we set off for Glasgow and Salsa. Tonight we learned that New One No 2 is now called Timber. Named after a snake I believe! Jamie G also tried to reinvent a couple of moves from last week. The first one, a Rueda move, he decided could be extended to run infinitely. It caused a fair bit of confusion. The second one which might or might not have a name could be converted to a follower’s move according to him. I don’t know if many of the followers or any of the leaders managed it.

Today the demand was for a sketch of coins or dosh or smash or loose change. I had to cadge some extra spondoolicks to bolster my meagre collection, but then, it is nearly the end of the month.

We have plans for tomorrow, but only if the weather fairies behave. It’s 1.2ºc just now, so we’ll have to be well wrapped up.

Diwali and French cuisine – 26 October 2019

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We heard about the Diwali festival on the radio yesterday and Scamp decided it was a fair excuse to visit our eastern neighbours – Embra.

Actually our next door neighbours woke us just after 8am with the sawing and banging associated with having more decking laid in their back garden. We were up and out almost in time to catch the 10.30 train to Embra. The key word there is “almost”. We missed it by seconds. Not to worry, we walked back to the car and waited in relative comfort for the next one. Well, if it was you, would you rather sit on a cold aluminium seat on a station platform with a cool 1ºc breeze blowing or would you sit in your cooling, but 12ºc car with soft fabric seats? I rest my case, yer honour.

Caught the next train and luckily chose the right carriage to get a seat. I’d my phone in my pocket, but, of course, my headphones were in my other jacket. Typical. Never mind it was good watching the sunny, if Arctic, countryside whizz past. There was a zoomer in the carriage. I thought he was German or possibly Austrian. Scamp thought he was Dutch, but he was definitely from the Planet Zanussi. He kept asking people questions with the Columbo catch phrase “I have one question.” He also seemed to holding a conversation with his phone, not on his phone, but with it. Really strange. Never met a German / Austrian / Dutch Zoomer before.

While he went off to find Kirkcaldy, we walked up towards the Nero for coffee. As we were walking through the architectural canyons that link the Western Approach Road with Lothian Road, we chanced upon a window cleaner washing the windows on one of the canyon sides with an enormously long brush. Strangely I’d never wondered how they washed those window. Now I know. Rattled off a half a dozen shots and knew right away that I had a potential PoD. Coffee and a pastry in Costa then a walk up through the farmers market and on to the Grassmarket. I could see Scamp’s eyes light up as we got near the Petit Paris restaurant and knew resistance was useless. That was going to be our lunch venue.

Today’s topic for sketching was Urban Sketch. It was now about 3ºc, but with windchill it would be nearer 1ºc, so I doubted that I’d be doing anything urban and still retaining my fingers, so we went for a walk instead, but just in case I’d get the opportunity, I got a cheap sketch book in Greyfriars Art Shop. Then on to the Meadows and, because the sun was in our eyes and it was blinding, we took a detour round the University, then doubled back when we found we were near Bristo Square. From there it was an easy jaunt back to the Grassmarket and Petit Paris.

Got a table easily downstairs in the dungeon. I had Lentil Stew with Bacon and Sausage. Scamp had Pan Fried Chicken Breast with Forestiere Sauce. Both were lovely, although I had an upset stomach later and the only thing I could blame was that lentil stew. Half a glass of red wine washed down my lunch and a glass and a half of the same washed down Scamp’s. Thanks for that Nicola, ya bastard!

Just managed to catch the end of the Diwali Festival group walking and dancing their way across Embra. There were two big white horses pulling the ceremonial carriage. When they were stopped on The Mound, one of them felt the need to receive itself of excess liquid. Dear me, these horses can carry a fair amount of water! I reckon it stood there for about five minutes “emptying its tanks”. Needless to say, it being Embra, after the procession had passed, the last vehicle was a street sweeper! Can’t have the horses messing up their clean streets!

Decided we’d been fed and watered and seen part of the procession, so we headed for the train and caught it this time with just a few minutes to spare. No foreign Zoomers on it, just some home-grown ones.

I chose to draw our last five apples as a replacement for the missing “Urban Sketch”. I was quite pleased with the result.

Tomorrow we have no plans. We don’t even know the predicted temperature. It’s supposed to be sunny, so we may go for a walk.

Old Bologna – 25 October 2019

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Today was dull, really dull, so to brighten our day we went out to Italy.

I started the theme early by flying from Italy to Sicily. It was an uneventful flight until I allowed X-Plane to take control of the aircraft. It was supposed to fly it by AI, but I don’t know what the ‘I’ stood for. It certainly wasn’t Intelligence. It decided to take it away from the flight path and turn off the jet engine. After a bit of a struggle I got everything sorted out an performed a text book landing … at the designated airport, not in somebody’s garden as my brother used to do in Microsoft Flight Simulator.

Back in the real world I struggled with getting email to work on the Samsung. Eventually I gave up or we wouldn’t have arrived at the restaurant in time for supper, let alone lunch. It must be at least three years since we’ve been in Vecchia Bologna, but the menu was quite familiar, the prices were a bit higher and the food was just as good as before. Next time, and I’m sure there will be a next time, we’ll book in advance to get a window seat.

Drove from there to Hobbycraft at The Fort to get some material to make a bow tie. I saw it earlier in the week and should have got it then, but the ‘fat quarter pack’ I was looking for was still there. Met Nancy when we left and made arrangements for lunch some time soon. Back via Aldi so that Scamp could test it out. That smell was still there, but again, it could have been because of the clientele although it did seem to be coming from the fruit and veg aisle.

Back home it was too dull to get an outside photo, so today’s PoD is of the last five apples from the James Grieve tree. Best year we’ve had so far.

Got a bit pissed off with the poor phone reception near the house. Can’t even get Spotify to play on the dire music system on the Juke. Eventually cooled down and accepted that EE is probably, overall the best of a bad bunch. O2 is better than all of them, but elsewhere its coverage is decidedly patchy. Vodafone is about the same as EE, but they really do make life difficult for you. I spent about an hour filling in the form to unlock my iPhone SE! O2 and EE unlock theirs after 18 months automatically. Three is just a joke – no coverage and a poor record. The moral of the tale is “Live with what you’ve got.”  What I did manage to do with the phone was finally get the email sorted.  It was the simplest thing.  The username was wrong, and that completely borked everything.  That’s not what the Samsung told me was wrong.  It told me that I hadn’t set up the PoP or the IMAP properly.  Misdirection is one of the greatest bugbears of the digital life.

Today’s Inktober topic was A Towel. This is how I spend my Friday nights now. Sitting on the toilet sketching an ink drawing of a pink towel. It’s things like this that give amateur artists a bad name!

Tomorrow we have no firm plans. It all depends on the weather fairies.