#47 Lockdown Day 37

Wednesday 29th April

Lady Mary’s in the morning for the daily dog walk - this is becoming a full on ritual now - but also a chore. During the 6k loop we took some video footage for Kirsty to share with her school kids, just to show that you can still keep your brain active by getting out and doing things (safely), its not just about sitting down and doing maths homework. This led to talking about the progression of this business venture of mine which led to an argument about money which ultimately led to an argument about our future, one of those arguments that really make you laugh, but two days later.

Once back, continued on with editing footage for the Loch Lomond client - nearly finished 2nd video - however, this was not helped in any way by the MacBook - STRESSED.

Took a drive to get out house and do essential shop at Sainsbury’s (bread milk chicken) which ultimately ends up being anything and everything - however, when we got back, Kirsty didn’t noticed I had snuck some extra items into the trolley, so I set about making some good old, home made rice pudding. Yessss.

Got back into editing as this is not a quick process - I blame the hardware, not my puny 2 years, self taught experience.

Got fed up with erditing

Emailed Apple about new computer

Took ruby out for an evening walk which resulted in Kirsty and I eating melted cornettos in the park.

class.

#46 Lockdown Day 36

Tuesday 28th April

Today I made a start on editing the footage from the weekend together - finished first video. in all there will be about 7 or 8 short clips - totalling about 9-10 minutes. I noticed that some digital media companies charge in excess of £3000 for this level of service - I need to up my game! First one finished by mid afternoon.

Walked ruby in the park, not lady Mary’s - after her serious lethargy yesterday, we decided to keep it easy and not push her too much, whilst also keeping a close eye on her.

Started the power washing of the Mono block - I can tell this will make a big difference, but I also didn’t realise (eventually) how long of a task this will become.

Another notable mention from today is the continuation of the yoghurt mod project - this time upping our game with banana and chocolate…

#45 Lockdown Day 35

Monday 27th April

SUNK MY BATTLESHIP. Had a nice cup of coffee all lined up, with a caramel wafer thing just sitting on top, warming up nicely.

forgot about it didn’t I…rage. Todays social media challenge was a thank you to all the customer from around the world - this was good fun and pushed the laptop a little in terms of rendering. I have noticed it is getting a bit sluggish - thanks to apple, I can’t really upgrade it either. This could cost a few pennies sometime soon.

Walked ruby up the knock which is always good, and also a nice wee change from the usual at lady Marys - its good to mix it up some times.

For lunch, decided to whip out the toastier machine - haven’t had toasties in a while!

Continued on with the home made coffee attempts, someone cracked out a Cappupeno joke regarding the shape of the froth that I had left on top - fair play.

First yoghurt mod - decided that as much as I like a muller corner - it just needs that bit more - so, some thick grated dark chocolate seemed appropriate.

Headache getting sorer took anadin for first time - this has been a few days now, bit weird. No other CWord symptoms though - but not ignoring it now - I never take any drugs other than hayfever measures, so this is a pretty big deal for it to be this bad.

Ruby is still a concern (mainly with Kirsty) and after going to the vets, we. were given some pain relief - which totally ko’d the girl - she actually seemed stoned…

#44 Lockdown Day 34

Sunday 26th April

Today Ruby was to be dropped back off by Kirsty’s folks - again adhering to social distancing. Whilst they are here I like to stay out of the way and keep busy - what turned into brushing some old grass off the lawnmower, turned into completely re-arranging the Wendy shed to properly store the snow sports kit and bigger garden tools.

Now we got the dog back, nothing better to do than take the girl for a walk (a walk in which we keep seeing LOADS of ducks and ducklings)

Decided for dinner to crank on with a BBQ - I have a feeling this might be 50% of the meals for the foreseeable!

Night ended early as still have a bloody headache!

#43 Lockdown Day 33

Saturday 25th April

So the shot list for today;

Cottages (contractors staying so didn’t spend too much time here, not nice to be whizzing a drone around people at 0800 in the morning, and the Campsite (bloody tractor and lumps of construction material lying around - hard to avoid!)

Up the hill and into the glen to get shots of the Hydro (Scary one as I just decided to go rogue and see how far the drone would go - its pretty terrible at long range signal).

Back down the hill to shoot the Holiday park - static caravans with jet skis and motor cruisers in the driveways, Office (saw Buzzards from the drone but they were gone by the time I managed to get my 70-200 out!),

Over to a private let property - absolutely stunning - (Getting one shot of the gate opening drove me crazy - it takes about 4 minutes for he gate to close, and the drone decided to just go off in its own direction, then the batteries started getting thin, then something else and then something else)

then out to the clan house to get footage as a personal favour but because of the previous shot, I was running short on batteries, so had to approach the estates owner and clan chief (which is a big deal) for a plug socket - not particularly professional!)

Headed home which turned into a trip to out of hours for Kirsty ankle as she seems to have been bitten by something. During the drive home I started to get this immense headache - oooft.

#42 Lockdown Day 32

Friday 24th April

Lockdown Luss footage mission begins in an empty hotel - minus painters - hoping they can get things finished so I can get a good shot from exterior to a room.

Started work on the interior of the hotel - Bloody gimbal is impossible to balance - although I think im being thick. The brief from the client seemed to be pretty small - ad a funny feeling this might grow as the village is so empty, this is the perfect time to get some footage. I spent the day making sure I come into contact with no one - just like last night. The only people I was close too, was the two police men who quickly quizzed my presence, whilst the drone was overing approx 13 ft above their car roof. Fortunately, just dropping the clients name is enough.

The target of visit is to capture mainly video content of the various sites that the client owns, and, after seeing the first few pics of footage, this list gets added to and the decision is made to extend the stay whilst the weather is top notch.

As Kirsty and I traveled together we have a small room, right at the back of the site, which is our base for the couple of days. I can see it starting to smell of takeaway, coffee and pot noodles dry quickly…

#41 Lockdown Day 31

Thursday 23rd April

this morning, Kirsty and I did something crazy! Interval moderate 1 minute run pace with 2 min walk pace for the full 6k looop of lady Mary’s.

5k time was 40 min 22sec and the 6k time is non existent as we Met Angela and her son plus 2 dogs just at the ends of the loop so didn’t complete.

Turns out, after getting slated for my choice of socks, they served a purpose as just kirsty ended up finishing the run with a bitten ankle - karma?

Handed ruby over to Kirsty’s folks as I have been commissioned to do some more remote shooting out at Luss.

As luck would have it, the second I grabbed my keys to head off after fully loading the car, my ops manager phoned for nothing more than a lively chat and a catch up; it’s nice to have an upper management who seem to care - glenturret have been fantastic throughout this strange time.

Drive to Luss was immense - clear roads and a gorgeous day. Upon arrival, client was unreachable so just started shooting - took shots of the statue on Loch Lomond of the wee boy and at night managed to get some

incedible sunset shots of evening shots of Luss pier with the drone. The idea of today and the next few days is to really help the estates colony up their online profile with shots in and around some of their sites. Due to covid, everywhere is empty and has been for some time, so I carried out a sort of self risk assessment and deemed it safe to work.

#40 Lockdown Day 30

Wednesday 22nd April

Up early ask had some content to get together for the Distillery lot. Today it was photoshopping nature/wildlife photos for the client. Whilst doing this had a video call with one of the directors just to catch up. From there they had a few requests on the social media work - posts for stories and google my business to go up regarding the distillery and the packages available.

out again for a walk with Ruby and Kirsty, SAME LOOP again; we are loving it. Decided to take the SLR with me as I wanted to try a couple of in camera transitions.

Nothing much else to report from today, just go back from the walk and got the memory cards offloaded.

#39 Lockdown Day 29

Tuesday 21st April

Social media edits completed and scheduled for the new distillery project - this is becoming a bit of a morning ritual. Fortunately, as the content I have been capturing for the estates company is of the same area that the distillery is being planned for, I can make use of everything in the hard drive. Whilst doing this, something VERY strange happened.

Kirsty made breakfast without prompt.

We also decided today on the date for our wedding in 2021. Kirsty has been swaying with changing to a Summer wedding, but I think it best we stick to the plan and literally go for the same time just a year on. Easter 2021 - confirmed.

Decided to try get the Strimmer up and running - what a weak, flimsy wee think this is, but it was free and it (now) does a job. Even though I have had to remove the wee safety buttons - its all good.

After tidying the garden up a bit (im not that accurate with the streamer it turns out) we took Ruby for a walk. Same loop as always, and timed the walk which came in at 5K over 1 hr 10 mins.

Wrap pizzas for lunch, didn’t commit much effort to it, but they turned out sweet, love an easy meal!

Didn’t do much in the afternoon, just bummed around doing odd jobs in the garden and tinkering in the shed.

Following this we had Lime and coconut Chicken for dinner - just supermarket fillets but they were really nice too.

Finished friends tonight - it really is a timeless classic. After this, decided to assemble my new C-Stand which arrived yesterday.

What - a -Palava.

Do yourself a favour in future JJ, just read the instructions before you Barry on.

#38 Lockdown Day 28

Monday 20th April

Today I am out at Loch Lomond for a shoot. Fortunately the client has asked for architectural and landscape content for their website, whilst the place is quiet and it can be done safely. How good is that, a job coming in where absolutely no interaction with anyone is required.

Drive out is excellent, roads totally clear. We have a little vauxhall corse, and I love it. Its no Ferrari, but it handles 10 times better than the Van, which may be quicker in a straight line, but that’s not where the fun is.

The main focus for the content is footage with the drone - as this will be going on the website for the full estate and the different parts to the outfit (campsite, holiday park, hotel, offices, hydro power generation etc etc). After draining ALL the drone batteries,. headed to the hotel where there was a cold pint of shandy awaiting - that, was lovely. Sadly, I hand sanitised the glass before drinking from it - but don’t tell anyone.

Got home late afternoon-early evening and managed to get a couple fo edits together and sent off and also came home to an amazon delivery - my amazon purchases have gone a bit crazy recently.

Kirsty and I are keeping on top of the housework, but sometimes something slips though the net. In this case, bedding. And it was NOT possibly dry, so, we slept in the spare room…that’s not lazy is it?

#37 Lockdown Day 27

Sunday 19th April

So Kirsty has found a new love in the morning - no not that, she literally spends about half an hour watching TikTok segments. I actually enjoyed some of the content, as its mainly about people losing their sh!t during this lockdown. To follow up on this very lazy start to the day, I proceed to make bacon sandwiches. Ohhhhhhh yeah.

Im getting back into my music, and today was time to get the big guns out - so I slammed on the Darkness and started to cook some chicken wings. Kirsty and I have been inited to an over the wall social distance conscious BBQ. Again, I wasn’t too keen on the idea, but I know the invite has come from a serious “preppier” who ha absolutely been self isolating. Good to see some friendly faces, and good to be respected when stating that we need to still keep our distance. Every thing was prepped separately, we took out own food and all seemed to go well. Also great to see the dogs!

When we got home, we lit the chimney and literally chilled in the garden for the rest off the evening.

Actually a really nice day.

#36 Lockdown Day 26

Saturday 18th April 

This morning started with a quick tidy up - and unbelievably, no arguments. Zero. Zilch, Nada. None. Howwwwww I will never know!

After getting the house kinda ship shape, was time to get back out with the pup, same walk as usual - doing the loop with ruby every day is becoming somewhat of a routine - also starting to get Kirsty to notice wildlife which is quite nice - Its mainly mallard ducks, but hey, take every win.

In laws decided to visit, I still don’t totally agree with it, as they sometimes forget about the 2m rule, so I just build blockades with mountain bikes etc and this helps justify it somewhat in my head. During conversation we realise that the power washer hasn’t been working for sometime, so using my neighbours and its parts and accessories, I break it down to problem solve why - basically the handle is coming apart and it is loosing all pressure. Easy fix, dismantle it, order a new Gun (as Karcher call it) an pray all will be sweet, as its Kirsty’s Dad’s. He offered to pay, so I told him it was £80. He didn’t buy it - literally and metaphorically.

Decided to crack on with a Jo Wickes effort for dinner, Burritos this time. Man, they were pretty good, and the way kitty has done this, when you double up the recipe, it ALOT of food.

After dinner, we binged on some friends, again until the inevitableKirsty Couch snooze, allowing me to continue being sh!t at gta. Tonight, it has nothing to do with necking a beer at the same time, honest.

#35 Lockdown Day 25

Friday 17th April

Decided to get on the bike this morning - walking is good, but all the beer and wine is starting to take its toll, aesthetically speaking. once back from Bike ride, which was the usual walking loop at lady Mary’s, created a post to announce the lucky winner of the £2k package giveaway. Love giving people good news.

Made a cheeky lunch for myself today, mackerel with creme fresh, Cajun and chilli, was a good un!

In addition to a couple of snarky arguments, Kirsty and I decided that for entertainment tonight we would go for some retro Gaming. We are NOT a gaming household, minus the occasional dabbling in GTA etc - but this is definitely me more than Kirsty. However, we (I) got our (Kirsty’s) N64 from attic (also put the first three pack of chipboard flooring up - rainy day project to floor the attic). Kirsty struggled with these, as they are pretty heavy.

Cracked on with the N64 - obvious game of choice being golden eye, then we sipped out the (Kirstys) GameCube and played a game I have never played before: Mario party 4. It was amazing!

Once the inevitable falling asleep on the couch from Kirsty I decided to continue the gaming theme and proceeded to play, and absolutely suck at, GTA 5. 

Nothing to do with the consumption of Scotch of course.

#34 Lockdown Day 24

Thursday 16th April

This Morning Kirsty and I got up early and, again, walked the Lady Mary’s Loop with ruby - the loop we are doing is about 6k, and it seems to be getting easier each day (not that it was difficult, but you know what I mean).

Decided that today is the day, its been a while coming, but time to cut this hair. So, out with the clippers, and the camera. Decided to make it a sort of, out of shot style of video, so used a bathroom shaking mirror to focus in on the hair cutting, as opposed to pointing the camera at my head - made quite a cool composition - shame I then paired it with some VERY 70’s porn style music. ah well.

With the distillery becoming more focussed on social media, as they are going to be closing the registration period shorty, I had to shuffle some of the scheduled posts so that the order of release made sense, bit of a bummer and a time pain, but again, ah well.

After an afternoon at the desk, decided that It was time to watch some movies - and for this, we reseted on Pirates of the Carribean. However, after the first one, which is AWESOME, we got a third of the way through the second and lost interest…

Whyyyyyy

#33 Lockdown day 23

Wednesday 15th April

This morning we agreed to No tv or computer games till 7pm. Weather is nice - that’s been about 3 1/2 weeks if lovely sunshine, amazing! This morning, our daily Walk with ruby will take us to lady Mary’s again - it’s great because it has a loop which is over 5k, has lots of different terrains for the dogs paws and has spots for her to get a drink and also loose the plot a little (we call it bc he zoomie s - outbursts of sheer energy). At the end of the walk we met (but kept our social distance of 2m from) one of the local guys Tom and his dog tess. Tom and tess are often at the pub and are both really sound.

when we got back, ended up having a 10 minute chat over the fence with our neighbour Lewis, about power washers. Man points.

Needed good for the next week or so so did an Aldi and coop run £85 for fruit veg and meat. I don’t think there was wine. Who am I kidding, there was probably wine.

Kirsty watches a military drama called Our girl -aside from the obvious reasons why I would enjoy this, it’s actually pretty good, so we binged on a few episodes whilst chowing down on some home made Cajun chicken fillets

#32 Lockdown Day 22

Tuesday 14th April

3.30 am start - Kirsty couldn’t sleep cos of ruby - not ruby keeping Kirsty up physically, Kirsty just couldn’t sleep for worrying about the pup.

Took ruby to vets for a consult as yesterday they seemed slightly dismissive of people bringing their pets in: their diagnosis was that we were just seeing ruby in a different light as we are spending every minute of the day in her company. I was inclined to agree with this as not only that, Ruby’s routine has been smashed to pieces also.

Kirsty, to her credit, has been analysing ruby in a bit more detail and is insisting that there’s something just not right.

obviously, having been in each other’s company for over three weeks straight, missing a birthday celebration, our own wedding and now a potentially ill dog, whom we both would do anything for, this is not going to be great in terms of emotions running high.

So it was agreed that tonight would be a Takeaway night and, after eating into a food coma, Kirsty and ruby fell asleep in the couch and I started GTA 5 again…

uh oh

#31 Lockdown day 21

Monday 13th April

Today was a bit of a rough one - Ruby is becoming apparently unwell, she stayed in and did nothing - following advice we took a sample of her urine using one of the sample bottles I had accumulated from the distillery over the past year or so. I decided to let Kirsty do this..

Decided that we would try spruce up the garden a little do I started by cutting the grass. The absolute thankless task born out of necessity as opposed to pleasure.

Whilst doing this Kirsty made a start on painting the pallets we are using as a makeshift decking area outside the shed. Once done with the lawn mower and the worlds most gutless strummer, lenses a hand with the painting and inevitably this turned into a bickering session. We are doing well, haven’t had any major fall outs. Yet..

Kirsty painted shed door to wrap up our little session of productivity.

furing the evening Kirsty started to worry a bit more about ruby, and look into her behaviours and movements with a finer eye. As much as I don’t agree with people using the internet as a tool for diagnosis, the vets were pretty keen to avoid us bringing ruby in for a consult with everything that is going on - which is fair enough I guess.

#30 Lockdown Day 20

Sunday 12th April

Earlier in the week I had treated myself to a Goose egg from the farm shop - gutted as I managed to just ever so slightly over boil it…still nice though.

We decided to head up to the knock with ruby for our one a day exercise and dog walk all rolled into one, and (at what is the height of lockdown and social distancing) we saw a couple of families out egg rolling… we didn’t challenge this, but I did seem a bit contrary to what the “rules” suggested.

when we got back, noticing some changes in Ruby’s behaviours over the past few days, Kirsty noticed a spot on Ruby’s chest (similar to a skin tag). Decided that we would call the vets about it the next day.

#29 Lockdown Day 19

Sat 11th April

Absolutely nothing completed in the morning and I don’t care who m owe it. Nice and lazy - nothing to do with the beer and wine consumed during the three or four part zoom call with the guys.

Kirsty went to Tesco in the morning and when she came back we went for a sanity drive and ended up popping to Comrie. I decided it was only fair to get some good food for ruby so stopped in at the butchers and got some plain pork sausages, HUGE chicken fillets and a few burgers for ourselves (pork and apple). This followed our Burgers and Cornettos for lunch. I also finished off the last of the dauphinois from the other night - just as good cold!

Smashed through a good bit of GTA - love the story mode of this game, but I know online is lurking and I need to get better at it as I am absolutely terrible at console gaming. Gaming in general in fact.

Had a good Play in garden with ruby - mainly just to tire her out - seems to be one of my main occupations these days.
toom the iPad outside to get on a zoom call with Martin and Kate…again, good to see some friendly faces! After a couple of beers, we called it a night and I went inside to, well, let’s be honest play some more GTA before a request came in from the client. They are looking for a design, almost like a certificate of ownership, as a couple of customers have invested into the cask scheme for their kids to receive when they grow old enough. The guys want to issue a document and after chatting it over with Roddy, it seems easy enough and all we need is the guys to scribble their signatures on a bit of paper and send a picture of that through.

easy we thought.

#28 Lockdown Day 18

Fri 10th April

Laziest day yet

Vets about ruby - this is still going on and we are starting to feel like we aren’t being listened to when we say that we think something isn’t right with ruby - beyond the obvious environmental and routine changes.

Watched the Lego movie - it really is awesome but Kirsty decided to slag me off about this. I proceeded to sing “everything is awesome” for, well, pretty much the whole of the rest of the day.

Chimnea then got lit and we sat in the garden and chilled outside with a beer before a scheduled Zoom call with Kirsty and I, Jen, Amanda and Seve. Good chat and good to see some faces again - but I was quite conscious it turned into Amanda and I talking about food for the most part!
Little does she know but I am actually going to post her out a truffle…