Category: weather

… and then the lights went out – 10 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Another bright and cold morning. The thermometer read -0.3ºc when we woke.

While Scamp went out to FitSteps I struggled with renewing the SSL on my website. I got the first part ok, I think and have the encrypted code for the SSL on the computer, but the next stage getting the CNAME registered is beyond me. I can’t understand the language and the video explanation of how to go about it is just so vague, it could be written in invisible ink. Eventually, after an hour of struggling I gave up and solved Wordle and Spelling Bee instead.

We’d talked about going in to Glasgow for a pizza lunch, so that’s what we did. We drove in to Glasgow. I couldn’t be bothered getting the bus and after all, that’s what we bought a car for, the convenience. Walked through JL and then along Buchanan Galleries then down to Miller Street to Paesano. Scamp had a variation on her usual and chose tomato and spinach – no cheese. I had a number 3: tomato, mozzarella, anchovies and olives. Both were great, just great, not excellent. PoD was the view of the Tron Church in Buchanan Street with some lovely reflections from the building opposite.

Wandered round the town afterwards and had coffee in Nero on Argyle Street. They claimed they had to use take-away cups because they were short of staff and refused to use the normal cups on the shelf behind them. Then they filled a large take-away cup almost to the brim with hot water and dropped my single shot into it. It was like drinking brown water. I thought I was in a Costa. They might have been short of staff, but they were definitely short of toilets too. The entrance to the downstairs toilets was blocked off and that left one toilet for the whole shop. I sensed an irate email coming on. We walked back up through the homeward bound office workers and drove home.

We sat and watched a recording of The Apprentice at night and were almost at the end of You’re Fired … and then the lights went out!

We thought at first it was a power cut, but housed across from us and next door had lights on, so just us then. Checked the fuse board and sure enough it was the something in the downstairs sockets that had tripped the switch. Went round with the torch on Scamp’s phone switching off all the sockets but still it tripped. Next we unplugged all the devices connected to the sockets. Still no go. That’s as much as I can do, so we phoned the electrician we usually use and he said he couldn’t come until Monday. This was Friday night. No heating, no power downstairs for two days wasn’t good. Then Scamp remembered Jamie using their emergency cover from their insurance. We phoned the number and the person I spoke to confirmed that ours was a valid claim, gave us a claim number and said that someone would phone in the morning to arrange a time to come and visit.

That’s where we are at present. We still have power upstairs and I’ve run an extension cable down from the landing to keep the freezer powered until we can get this fixed. I’ve brought a heater down from the back bedroom so we will get some heating although the central heating won’t work because there’s no way to power the boiler. Scamp says we can still use the cooker, so we won’t starve, but it’s unlikely we’ll be dancing tomorrow! I think we need to get the distribution board replaced and maybe we need the house rewired. That’s for the near future. For now we want to see what happened at the end of You’re Fired!

This blog comes courtesy of a mobile hotspot! No plans for tomorrow :-\

 

Dancing and Weather – 9 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

Today revolved around two topics: Dancing and Weather. Last night we had a couple of snow showers and by morning the cars in the car park had a decent covering. However, by the time we left for the Tea Dance, the sun had melted almost all of it away, thankfully.

Drove to Glenburn Community Centre in the southern outskirts of Paisley for the tea dance and didn’t see any hint of snow after we left Cumbersheugh. Even the Campsie Fells as we drove along had no snow. Just our luck then! I think the cold weather and the constant scare stories from the media about snow drifts and danger to life kept some folk at home. Not us, we’re made of sterner stuff, although it might have been the temptation of the tea loaf that drove us to travel today.

We struggled through the Quickstep, the Tango the Foxtrot and countless sequence dances but our biggest struggle was with the simple Waltz. We couldn’t put a foot right, at least I couldn’t. How could this simple dance cause so many problems? We used to be able to dance at least two variations of it, now we can do none. More practise required I think. Despite all that, we had a good laugh. We were sitting with Leslie and Gordon who are at about the same level as us, although I did not that they managed the waltz without a problem.

The drive home was just as easy as the drive there because we slide neatly from the M77 to the M74 to the M73 and finally to the M80. That means that we can avoid completely the notorious Kingston Bridge and its moving car park of vehicles.

I didn’t go out for a walk this morning and by the time we were getting home the light had all but disappeared, so today’s PoD had to be a tabletop. It’s just a pink flower from a bunch that is sitting on the book case beside me. I took it with the A7iii equipped with a LensBaby Sweet 35. I realise this means nothing to anyone but me, but it’s a good reminder. The Sweet 35 is a 35mm lens designed to produce a soft image and if you’re lucky enough to have some bright lights in the frame, you get some spectacular light blobs called Bokeh. I wasn’t looking for that today, just a soft focus effect and I was pleased with the result.

It’s snowing again as I write this blog, but I’m not sure it will lie until morning. I certainly hope it won’t. We might go in to Glasgow tomorrow for a walk and a pizza in Paesano. It depends on the weather.

Oh No! It’s Snow! – 8 March 2023

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Just a scraping at around 9pm tonight, but it was real fluffy snowflakes that were falling for a while.

You’d never have guessed this morning that we’d have snow tonight. That is if you hadn’t looked at the thermometer. It was -3ºc this morning when we woke and the sun was shining brightly from a clear blue sky. Unfortunately, we had both looked at that thermometer and decided to take it easy for a while. There were puzzles to be done and books to be read. I for one was happy to struggle through them, rather than face the cold world outside.

We watched some tree surgeons performing fairly invasive surgery on some trees across the road and wondered when they’d get round to the poor Ash tree outside our window. It’s been failing for a while now, but it’s been there for longer than we’ve been in Cumbersheugh. I remember the three girls who stayed round the corner swinging on its branches when they were wee. They were wild!

Lunch was Scamp’s ‘Just Soup’ and it was fine. Scamp made her usual deprecating noises about the carrots being too tough and I did comment that it might need a bit of salt, but as a lunch it was fine with a slice of bread.

After lunch Scamp was charging round mopping floors, hoovering carpets and moving furniture around while I eventually dragged myself out to St Mo’s to get some photos. There weren’t a lot of interesting shots today. That’s been the way of things lately. I’m finding it hard to generate some interest in things photographic and I’m getting the impression that Alex is finding that too. PoD went to a row of Salmonberry flowers I spotted by the outfall of the pond. I think they may be last year’s blooms, because this years are still in the pods.

Dinner was a main of soup with rice pudding to follow. I think there will be just enough soup for tomorrow’s lunch.

Today was Jamie and Simonne’s anniversary. Congratulations to them both. Nine years ago we were at the wedding in Trinidad. That was a wonderful wedding, as all our family weddings have been.

Tonight we had snow. The weather warnings have been out all week and finally we got our first taste of the white stuff for a while. Not much, but a warning that winter isn’t gone yet.

Tomorrow, if the roads are clear, we’re hoping to go Tea Dancing.

Two walks in a day – 7 March 2023

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Today we went for a walk. We liked it so much, we went for another one later.

Walked down to the shops in the late morning for essentials like milk and bread. Came home and had lunch then thought it was a shame to waste another beautiful day, so we got properly dressed for a walk with boots and big jackets and headed off again, intending to walk round Broadwood Loch and out into the forest walk. That was the intention, but they are ‘making improvements’ at Broadwood, hopefully repairing the paths and fixing the drainage in the forest walk, so we were limited to the boring ‘round the pond’ walk. It still got us out, but Scamp was disappointed.

Back home, dinner was White Pasta, also known as Pasta Carbonara, while Scamp made Just Soup. While we were starting it, a bloke knocked at the door offering to deliver milk. I said ‘No’, then though about it and called him back. So we’ve ordered a four pint carton to be delivered on Monday. We always say we should support local companies. Today we did it.

Watched a complicated episode of Endeavour apparently the second last one ever! Definite shades of Clockwork Orange in the acting and the music. We were intrigued.

PoD was a photo of a little Christmas decoration I saw on our second walk.

Nearly broke the Internet tonight trying to send Alex one of my holiday videos. If anyone’s broadband went down tonight, it wasn’t me. I didn’t notice that the file was 175MB!!!

Tomorrow we may get snow. Might not be going far.

A lovely Spring day – 6 March 2023

Posted on by Zogman

But with a bitingly cold wind.

Scamp had the dentist in the morning and had intended to go out for lunch with her pal, but she had phoned to say she wasn’t well and was having a day in bed. That meant that after the dentist, we had a free day and a sunny day too. I suggested Gouldings on Clydeside and that’s where we went.

A pleasant drive through a countryside that hasn’t quite woken up after the long winter. Maybe just as well, because there’s snow forecast before the end of the week. Probably because we were fairly early and probably because it was Monday, we got our choice of window seats. Scamp had her usual Mac ’n’ Cheese and I had my first burger in a long time. I don’t think I’ve had one this year. Both were deemed good and we had coffee and a cake each afterwards.

Now that we’d been fed and watered, we had a look round the garden centre part of Gouldings. Scamp was looking for a photo frame that would take one of our photos from holiday. They all seemed overpriced for what they were and none had the right size of mat for our photo, so we left it for another day.

Although the sun was shining and we weren’t in a rush, neither of us could think of somewhere else to go, so we drove in the general direction of home. Still thinking about the photo frame I suggested we might try TJ Hughes which has a wide range of things like photo frames. So that’s where we pointed the blue car, but just as we were approaching the town centre we both spotted B&M. Equally cheap and usually with loads to choose from. That’s where we found a photo frame that would hold the photo and even better, there was a mat in it that was the right size.

Scamp also found a mirror she quite liked and also said she wanted the pipes in the toilet boxed in. B&M didn’t have anything that would do that, but B&Q might, so onward to B&Q. No, they didn’t. They didn’t have any decent mirrors, either.

Back home I needed a PoD and took the A7 out for a walk to see what I could find. PoD was a bunch of catkins backlit by the late afternoon sun.

The photo is in its frame and it looks good. I’ve a feeling we may be going looking for a mirror soon and that toilet will still need its pipes boxed in. Somebody is going to be busy!

No plans for tomorrow yet, but something will probably fill that space!

A sunshiny day – 5 March 2023

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Went to bed too late last night, hence had a later than normal surfacing today.

Woke late. Almost afternoon, Scamp said. That’s the price you pay for a getting to bed too late, or too early in the morning as it was yesterday.

After a coffee and a struggle to get Wordle, the world looked a bit better. Lunch was beckoning and in the style of Neil, my breakfast was half of Scamp’s Prawn Bhuna from last night, quickly reheated in the microwave. Unhealthy? Probably. Delicious? Definitely! That completed the rebooting of my system.

We got a WhatsApp message from Jamie from Port of Spain in Trinidad with a photo of Jaime, Simonne and Scamp’s favourite dog Ori. Scamp was delighted.

Scamp had decided to sacrifice the rest of today on the altar of ‘Ironing’. Her argument was that it needed to be done and once it was done, then the rest of the week was her own. My case was similar, but not so well presented. I needed a walk to clear my head and also to get a PoD if any presented themselves.

As it happened, it was the 35mm LensBaby that produced today’s PoD. There was a lot of lovely sunshine creating nice sparkles on the Whin bushes and that in turn created some lovely bokeh (hate that word) in the out-of-focus areas. It also gave a good contrast with the sharply focused subject which was the bright yellow flowers.

Dinner tonight was Chicken Milanese, or chicken that’s been bashed with a rolling pin, dunked in eggy mix and finally dredged in bread crumbs before being pan fried. Scamp made it and served it with ‘rats’ (AKA ratatouille) and potatoes.

We watched an interesting F1 GP from Bahrain with all the usual ducking and diving from the hopeful beginners and the slightly more sensible driving from the old hands. As usual, Scamp predicted the winner.

That was about it for the day and I’m off to my bed now, hopefully before midnight.

Ducks and Crocuses – 3 March 2023

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Apparently Crocuses, Crocus and Croci are all acceptable plurals for more than one crocus. Just thought you might like to know that.

I had a lazy morning today, to balance out the day because Scamp was off FitStepping. I sat and read for a while and then checked in with Flickr. I might even have snoozed for a while, and by that time Scamp had returned from her exercise class.

Lunch was soup, that last of it – three day soup is pretty good. After that, Scamp was off to chop more of the plants in the front garden. I took the A7 out for a walk in St Mo’s. Found and photographed a bunch of crocuses in St Mo’s. Now crocuses are not wild flowers, so these ones must have been planted in the grass park and were just growing in the wild. They made PoD. I also did a check on the ladybirds which are still nestled in their various trees. Final photos were of a couple of Mallards which usually take off as soon as they see me. I was careful today and got fairly close while I changed the camera setting to Continuous Shooting which means the camera will take a rapid set of shots until I release the shutter button. As soon as the birds took off, I pressed the shutter and followed them as the climbed into the air. I got one clear shot from the seven I took, which I ‘fiddled’ by enlarging it in ON1. It’s a bit rougher than the original, but it does a good job of enlarging the photos without losing too much detail. It still didn’t beat the crocuses.

Read a bit more of my book when I got back and almost fell asleep on the couch.

According to the weather fairies we may be getting some snow next week. Not sure about the detail yet, and we may miss it, but best to be prepared. I’ll put the snow shove in the car again.

Hoping for a long lie in tomorrow with the prospect of dancing later.

Walking with the crowds – 18 February 2023

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After sitting in the sun in the morning we walked down steps to the coastal walk and went left.

It was a bit dull today as the PoD shows. It seems that in the morning the sky is clear and the sun shines, but in the afternoon the clouds roll down from the mountains and it all gets a bit tricky. Later in the afternoon, as the sun is sinking, the clouds clear away again. That’s been the general run of weather so far.

We walked, with everyone else it seemed, as far as Puerto Colon which probably sounds good in Spanish, but has a different meaning in English! We were looking for somewhere to have a quiet lunch with no football on a giant tv. We both agreed on a pizza for lunch. Lots of restaurants and cafes with photos of pizzas, but were any of them capable of making a decent one? Eventually we found what looked like an authentic Italian restaurant called Amalfi which had a sea view but no TV, and we both had a pizza. Scamp had margarita and I had anchovy and olive. Scamp said her pizza had too much cheese, but mine was perfect with a good base and plenty of salty anchovies. We took our time walking back to relieve the pressure on Scamp’s knee and also just to enjoy the place.

We danced tonight to brilliant singer, Beatriz Lopez, who brought along her fan club. Where we’d been dancing with about three or four couples for the past few days, tonight there were about three times that, mostly women, but some men too. I could understand why, because she was charismatic and could follow the mood of the room and work with that. Unlike yesterday’s ‘entertainer’

 

 

5.05am wake up call – 16 February 2023

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Today it was a quick cup of tea and then off.

The bags were packed yesterday which only left a morning drive to Glasgow Airport and the usual nail biting passage through security, although this time an organised approach and copious amounts of Tesco’s finest clear resealable plastic bags made light work of getting through unscathed.

The usual overpriced breakfast in Frankie and Benny’s and it was almost time to fly through the air in an armchair in an aluminium tube for four hours, listening to three tubes in front of us on their way to a 60th party bash. Thankfully they weren’t going to our hotel.

After we landed we had the mile long walk through the labyrinth to be inspected by the polis and have our passport stamped then the interminable wait for bags before we walked out into the sunshine and the heat. Clever Scamp had organised a personal transfer to the hotel rather than sitting in a bus that took another hour or so to drop off passengers at their hotels. Been there, did that, didn’t enjoy it one little bit. Paying the extra was worth every penny. Our driver came from Cuba and was happy to recommend the best Salsa club to go to in Tenerife. He seemed a genuinely nice bloke and reminded me of the constable in Death in Paradise. Must have been the accent.
Booked in at the hotel, but our room wouldn’t be ready for another half and hour, so we had lunch and our first Holiday Beer.

Once we got rid of the cases and got changed into tee shirt and shorts we went for a walk in the sunshine. We walked down to the front and turned left past all the cafes and restaurants. It looked fairly familiar, although bits of it had changed and there was a lot of new accommodation everywhere. We walked for miles and I foolishly hadn’t brought a hat. A lesson learned.

After dinner we went to see what entertainment was available. We danced an embarrassingly bad salsa. Don’t drink and dance – it’s not a good image. We quickly decided to stick to soft drinks for a while and sobered up enough to dance much better, later. The girl singer was good and there were quite a few people dancing.

What they call ‘local spirits’ in the hotel are free to all inclusive guests , but are just not worth drinking. We agreed we’d buy a bottle for the room tomorrow.

PoD was a shot of Adeje, looking back from Puerto Colon.

Fairly early bed, after a long day.

A dull day – 14 February 2023

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Not a lot to say about today other than I got my hair cut at last.

I had intended to cut my hair myself with help from Scamp for the bits I can’t reach or see, but things got in the way and instead I earmarked today for the great shearing.

Scamp was staying in to meet up with Annette, so I drove to the station and left the car there and got the train in. So much easier and less stressful than driving in to Glasgow when the schools are on February holiday. Unfortunately, the train was full of Grans and Granpas with loads of weans, trying to keep them amused for the three extra days they’re on holiday – the weans that is, not the grandparents. They’re on duty every day, it seems. Glad we’re not in that subset of humanity. Also, and even more unfortunately, I’d left my earbuds at home. Noisy weans and no ear defenders is no fun for anyone.

For once there was a queue for the barbers, but I didn’t need to wait long before the Big Grumpy Guy invited me to take a seat. He’s cut my hair the last twice I’ve been in The Nile Barber’s. The last twice he’s been fine, the first time he just grumped all the time. His style is a bit rough and ready, but he’s quick and very little chat, which suits me.

With that done I walked up to JL to get some stuff for Scamp and while I was there I had a spot of lunch in the cafe. Lovely chunk of sourdough bread stuffed with tomatoes, peppers, roast broccoli and pickled cucumber. Strange mixture but it tasted fine. That and a cup of coffee that tasted of coffee, which is a bonus.

Took a walk down Buchanan Street and was heading for HMV to see if they had cheap cordless earbuds or an adapter for the S22+ and got sidetracked walked back along towards Waterstones before I remembered I didn’t have a voucher for another ‘real’ book. Decided to cut my losses and come home.

As the train slowed into Croy I could see I could see the layer effect of mist on the Campsie Fells, but by the time I got to my favourite place to photograph it the mist was receding but the sky had added a new dimension to the scene. You lose some, you win some. Actually that’s a lie. The mist was receding, but the sky was featureless, so I pasted in one of my own and that looked more like the view I’d seen from the train.

Came home to Mac ’n’ Cheese ’n’ Bacon. Delicious, especially with a blob of Fruity Brown Sauce! Thank you Scamp.

Today’s prompt was The Green Card. We don’t have Green Cards in the UK, at least not yet. So I thought I’d try an alternative solution, as I usually do.  Three playing cards, all aces (it’s an unwritten compositional rule that you should always have an odd number of objects. It just works) then I invented the Green Card, the Ace of Shamrocks. A lucky card. The Ace of Shamrocks trumps all. Why not? I wasn’t going to attempt to sketch Gérard Depardieu or Andie MacDowell and as I’ve never watched the film, I couldn’t select a scene from it. This is more fun. I like inventing things.

Tomorrow we’re both going to be busy all day with lots of little things to remember.