No Hospital Trips

 We were up early. Zoe dropped Ellie and her friend Poppy off with us just after 06:30. To be fair, they were no trouble at all, and the morning ran smoothly. I walked the girls to school while Di got ready for her Cardiac Rehab session. Having left the girls in class, I set off for my usual walk.

Once home, I spent some time examining the MetAletrX software I had installed on "snowowl". I realised that there was far more that I could do with it than the raw data displayed when first installed. I took the opportunity to conduct an inventory of the switches I have installed around the house. I decided to change one of them for a "managed" switch to see if I could get additional information regarding our network. The nice man from Amazon should deliver this later this evening.

I had to take Di to the local surgery for a blood test at lunchtime, and we stopped off at Sainsbury's on the way home. After some lunch, ~Di headed for the Orangery with her Kindle, while I vacuumed the car and gave it a wash. (I'm not sure what came over me... but I've probably got it out of my system, now).

I joined Di in the Orangery and managed some Kindle time before we went to collect Ellie from dance class and take her home.

Monitor

We had a gentle start to the day (unlike Zoe, who found out that the fridges and freezers had gone down in the store overnight). We wandered around at the usual time, collected Ellie, and we walked her to school. Though it wasn't forecast for several more hours, it started to rain. I wasn't dressed for it, so I skipped my morning walk. 

Back home, I decided that I would spend the morning updating the documentation on the "snowyowl" build and extended this to include the installation of a network monitor that can look across our network and highlight any machines that have dropped offline. It took a while to get going, but now it seems to provide an excellent dashboard for our home systems.

This afternoon, we had to go to the hospital again. Di had to see the anaesthetist to discuss her medical history and determine if the procedure could be done at the Nuffield, or whether the risk was such that she needed to be at St Richard's. Fortunately, she was given the all-clear, and the procedure can be performed at the Nuffield.

Dovetails

 Ellie was dropped off soon after 06:30. She was already dressed and ready for school. She had a cuddle and quick chat with me before heading upstairs to see Nana. When the time came, we escorted her to school and dropped her off at the classroom. Di headed home to get ready for Pilates, and I set off on my walk.

By the time I arrived back home, Diane had already gone. I settled down with some breakfast and then worked through my mental list of things to do. None of these items took long, and I was just finishing up when ~Di arrived back home.

We had a quick lunch and then set off for the hospital. The first appointment of the afternoon was for a blood test. Then we had a short wait before "Joint School". This wasn't quite what I expected. I had been hoping to get some lessons on making sliding dovetail joints and box joints. I was disappointed. It was a 90-minute presentation discussing replacement knee joints. We had the opportunity to examine one of the implants and had a very thorough discussion regarding what to expect, how to prepare, and the recovery process from surgery. The session was run by one of the physios and demonstrated many of the exercises that the patient would have to do post-op and during the recovery. It was a very good session, and as Diane said, it is so much better to know what to expect, rather than speculate and guess.

Because of the session at the hospital, Zoe had to collect Ellie from football. Ellie went off with her friend, Poppy and Zoe came round to see how Di had got on, and tell us that she now has a date for her treatment. She will be going into The Nuffield next Wednesday. The treatment is only expected to take about 20 minutes, but she has to assume she will be very tired for a couple of days afterwards. So within the next two weeks, both of the family's flaky knees should be on the mend.

Up Town

We had an early start. We both needed to get up, dress, and have breakfast before taking Ellie to school. We had a day out planned. We walked Ellie to school as usual, but then, as soon as we got back home, we hopped in the car and drove to the railway station.

We made ourselves comfortable in the 1st Class compartment and began the trip to London Victoria. The train was slightly delayed, but it was a comfortable trip to the capital. We dropped down into the Underground and took the tube to Oxford Circus. From there, it was only a 5-minute walk to "Vasco & Piero's Pavilion Restaurant."

Paul, the owner, greeted us like family, and we were shown to a table where we could have a coffee and sit and wait for Paul and Cathy. We had only been there for about 10 minutes when they arrived. They are on their way to Poland, where, along with Ellen and Mark, they hope to explore some of the villages and towns from whence the family came originally.

We sat and chatted, catching up on the family news from across the pond... Laura's engagement and pregnancy, Michael and Emily's Eloise, and Andrew's new girlfriend. We also heard about their "bolt-hole" in the Eastern townships of Quebec. The photos Paul had on the phone brought it all to life. We had a lovely lunch, and sat chatting for a couple of hours or more. (In fact, we had been so busy chatting that I forgot to take any photos). Eventually, we stirred and headed back towards Oxford Circus. Paul and Cathy wanted to visit Marks and Spencer, and planned to go to the Royal Albert Hall this evening. We dropped back into the tube network and found our way back to Victoria. We had ourselves comfortable in the 1st Class compartment again, and headed back to the coast.

It had been a lovely day, and it was so nice to catch up with the family for a few hours.

Wet through

 It was decidedly damp, but not raining this morning. We trotted around to Zoe's to manage the school run. Dropping Ellie at the classroom, Di headed home, and I set off for my walk. It was important to catch up with Lisbet Salander, and I was tempted to do an extra lap of my walking route, but the early morning coffee put an end to that.

Once home, I settled down for breakfast as Di prepared to visit Specsavers to collect her new glasses. Once I had cleared away, I set off to the barbershop to get my hair cut (and listen to another chapter of my book). I also tried to drop off some expired meds at the pharmacy, but they would not take them because they contained needles. Once I had been papered in the barbershop and was looking like a film star (Bell Lugosi), I headed home, and as I left, it started to rain. By the time I was halfway, it was pouring, and the bag in which I was carrying the meds had disintegrated. By the time I arrived home, I was soaked through and had to get changed. (You can't beat the British Summer... at least not without escaping to Portugal).

After lunch, I returned to yesterday's exercise regarding cruises. I faffed about looking at various options, various routes, and various cruise lines. In the end, Di and I home in on one and I sent the details to Jane and Trevor. Would they be interested? Should we consider it?

The way things worked out, we have accidentally booked a 14-night cruise to Norway and Iceland on Arcadia during the summer of 2028. We have also managed to book the aft corner suites with the wrap-around balconies. Now, other than paying for it, we just have to wait for 2 years!

Stuff

 There was no real theme to the day. I was up soon after seven and read the overnight news. Di came down sometime after eight.

The morning was focused on rewiring the man-cave. ~Fortunately, the crucial panel was attached with a French cleat, so once everything was unplugged, I could remove it and take it to the kitchen to work on. It took a while to make everything neat and tidy, but once it was back in place and switched on, everything burst back to life. 

With the man-cave sorted out, and bearing in mind we had to move a large picture to mount the new TV, I rejigged the pictures in the Orangery so that the homeless landscape could nestle on the wall in the Orangery and the pictures that had been in there were remounted in a vertical stack by the door.

I experimented some more with the photo gallery function on the new TV, adding a new batch of photos to the collection. Later in the day, I added more still. The afternoon was fairly quiet. We spent a lot of time looking at possible cruises for 2028. One particular cruise has caught our attention, so I sent a link to Jane and Trevor to see if they were interested, but given that they were en route to their hideaway in Portugal for the next month, they may not have seen it yet.

We have a busy week coming up.

Stats and cables

We have been under a yellow weather warning for high winds. It certainly was incredibly blustery throughout the day, and the rain has swept through with vengeance on and off throughout the day.

After my usual start to the day, I had the Saturday call with my cousins. I don't remember how we got onto the subject of bands and performers we have seen, but I ended up making a list. It is still expanding as my addled mind dredges up another performance from the distant past.

The rest of the morning was spent sorting out the cabling for the new TV and the EE set-top box and trying to make it as invisible as possible. Everything is now working remarkably well, and with that in mind, I grabbed the paint pot and touched up the various scuffs on the wall. All of this consumed the whole morning and the early part of the afternoon. I was going to sort out the power distribution in the man-cave, but decided to leave that until tomorrow.

We had a quiet hour with the Kindles before I started on tonight's dinner. With that finished and the dishwasher loaded, we have a quiet evening planned, though there is an England vs New Zealand football match on at 21:00.

Hospital Taxi Service

 It was a blustery, but bright start to the day. Zoe didn't have an early start, so we wandered around to collect Ellie and walk her to school when the gate opened.

Back home, we had breakfast, and I spent some time trying to work out what options there were for using the new TV to display artwork when it isn't in general use. Some of the options looked very good but incurred a monthly charge. They can forget that. I then looked at options for using a curated selection of our own photos. I got this working, but I will have to return to it when I have edited the photos to 16:9 format.

Late morning, I took Di to Zoe's, where she was going to do some cleaning, and collected Zoe to take her to the hospital for her appointment with the consultant. She spent quite a while with him, and his conclusion was that she should have a steroid injection, and he would try to aspirate the cyst that is causing the problem in her knee. We just need to await the appointment.

Back home, we had a quiet hour or so before going to collect Ellie from dancing. Then we had to go to St Richard's for Di's Echocardiogram. We arrived early; it seemed that there was nobody on the roads at 17:30 on a Friday, so we had to wait for a while. The procedure took about 20 minutes or so, and the report will be sent to the Nuffield in time for Di's appointment with the anaesthetist next week.

Once home (again, the roads were empty), we had dinner and settled down for a quiet evening.

Testing

 I was up early again so that I could greet Ellie as she burst through the door at 6:30. She was already washed and dressed, ready for school. Once the early chatting was done, and she had some breakfast, she settled down with a pile of paper, some coloured felt-tipped pens, and a ruler and spent a quiet 40 minutes working on some crafts. During this time, the rain hammered down, and it looked as if we would get very wet going to school. It stopped just before we left, thank goodness.

Dropping Ellie, we returned home. Di got on with some phone calls and some chores, while I assembled the latest Raspberry Pi "snowyowl". Over the following hour or so, I installed the operating software and a program called "iperf3". I then installed the whole kit and caboodle next to the EE Router in my man cave.

I returned to my MacBook and then, plugging it into the network points in the house, one after the other, ran "iperf3" in client mode. This came back and told me that I was achieving a bandwidth of about 1 Gbps. This was what I wanted to see. It would have been pointless trying to speed up the network in the kitchen or the lounge if the distribution point wasn't achieving the speeds I wanted. Over the next few weeks, I will test the various endpoints in and about the house to see if any are throttling performance. This may mean switching old Cat 5 cables for new Cat 6a cables. (This would give plenty of headroom.)

Di and I discussed the aesthetics of the cabling for the new TV. We now have a plan, and I have ordered the first few cables to implement that plan. It will probably be a busy weekend.

Talking of being busy. I have to take Zoe to the Nuffield in Chichester tomorrow lunchtime so that she can see the consultant. Then late in the afternoon, I have to take Diane to St Richard's for an Echo Cardiogram prior to her meeting next week, with the anaesthetist.

Screen time

I was up at 6:30, ready for Ellie to be dropped off. She had woken early and was already washed, dressed and ready for school when she burst through the door. After a brief chat, she went up to see Nana. The early morning routine followed its natural course, and we walked Ellie to school at the appropriate time. Diane then headed home to get ready for Pilates, and I set off for my walk. Today saw the start of a new audiobook. This is book 5 in the Millennium Series featuring Lisbet Salander (the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo). I'm only an hour into the story, but it already has its hooks in me.

Di was just leaving for Angmering as I arrived home. Within a few minutes, the heavens opened and heavy rain set in for a few hours. I settled down to a bit of domestic admin, and when that was finished, I returned to my program for extracting data from the Skoda. Now that the basic function was working, I wanted to add a few bells and whistles. It only took an hour, but I'm pleased with the results. Some of the other data isn't available at the moment, and the interface doesn't return the charging history.

The new TV was scheduled to be delivered during the afternoon, so I finished clearing the area where it would be installed, and I pulled all the cables through to make it easy to connect it up when the time came. We then grabbed a bite to eat and settled into the lounge for an hour or so.

The delivery men arrived and did an excellent job of installing the. TV. Everything was carefully measured, holes were drilled (with a vacuum cleaner on hand to catch the dust), and the bracket was mounted on the wall. The TV was wired up and switched on, then the basic functions were demonstrated. Everything was cleared away, I signed off on the delivery, and they were gone. I will have to tidy up all of the connections over the next few days, then put the family room back together.

Preparation

 It was an extremely wet night, and it was still pouring down when I got up. I suggested to Diane that, as she had had a poor night's sleep, she should stay home, and I would deal with Ellie's school run. As it happened, the rain stopped in time for our trip to school, but it soon started again when I got home.

Di had to take Jasper to the vet for his monthly jab. I stayed at home to prepare for tomorrow's delivery and installation of a new TV for the Kitchen/Family room. Stuff needed to be moved to provide access, and the old TV and its bracket needed to be taken down. This was a lengthy process as the bolts that held the bracket to the wall were absolute beasts to remove. Once everything was removed and I had vacuumed up the detritus that gathers under cupboards, I surveyed the empty wall and decided it needed some remedial treatment. I headed to Wickes, collected some Polyfilla (my old one had turned to concrete), a new paint brush, and a coax extension that I may need tomorrow. I then returned and filled the holes in the wall, sanded them down, and repainted. I think that's all I can do until the new TV is installed and I can work out any cable runs that may be necessary.

We had a quiet hour after lunch and then headed for the hospital. Diane had her pre-op preparation interview. We were ushered into an office, and Nurse Sheila spent the next 90 minutes going through Di's medical history, her meds regime,  and set expectations regarding the day of the op and the post-op care. She also recommended we attend their Joint Clinic before the operation. We just need to book attendance at that clinic for next Wednesday.

Grandpa is not on football duty today. Not being sure when we would get back, Oscar's mum volunteered to take Ellie to and from the football practice. (Ellie isn't going to be allowed to play because of her broken finger, but she will be allowed to do the warm-ups and to help the coaches by running the line.) I'm sure she will tell us all about it in the morning.

Refund

 I was up before seven. Though Ellie was back at school, Zoe didn't have an early start, so we could have a more leisurely start and then walk around to Zoe's in time to take Ellie to school. We dropped her off at the classroom (explaining to her teacher about her broken pinky). Di headed home, and I set off for my walk.

I finished my latest "Venice" audiobook during the walk. I was so engrossed that I took several different turns during the walk. I suspect the book, by David Hewson, was the last in that series. He has certainly left it in such a way that I suspect there will be no more, but there is an opening if he changes his mind.

Once home and with breakfast finished, we set off for Chichester. The main road running from our estate towards Bognor is closed for the next month. This makes it easy to get out of the estate towards Chichester, but it seems to be causing chaos in the other direction. Once parked, we strolled along East Street, where Di stopped to pick up a birthday present for a friend and then headed to M&S for some clothes shopping. I went to the bank. The DVLA had sent me a cheque as a refund for the old car's road fund license. The trouble is that business cheques are notoriously difficult to capture on the mobile banking app (though personal cheques, which have different dimensions, are fine). This meant a trip to the bank. It didn't take long, then I went to meet up with Di. We grabbed a coffee, then made our way home.

The afternoon saw the usual Kindle time until we had to collect Ellie from athletics. She had had a good day and was really chirpy as we took her home to Zoe.

Done

It was gone seven by the time I got up. It looked like another lovely day, but the temperatures were a little cooler. 

Once the day was underway (ablutions completed, breakfast finished, coffee consumed), Di pottered for a while and then settled down for a long phone call with Jane. I returned to my little project. With the help of AI, I determined that some of the data I wanted was not available to me, but it took a couple of hours of analysis to get to that position. In the end, I had extracted as much useful data as I could and dropped it into a spreadsheet. This gives me the foundation for a telemetry repository for the Elroq.

After lunch, Di pottered in the garden while I faffed about some more. One of the things that has been nigglong at the back of my mind is whether the Ethernet network in the house is delivering data at the rates it should. This will be my next technical quest. As part of the analysis, I may have accidentally ordered another Raspberry Pi to act as a server and monitor throughput from various endpoints. I think it will be an interesting exercise.

Extraction

 I was up and about soon after seven. I consumed the overnight news and a decent coffee to start the day. Di came down just before eight, so I went to perform my morning ablutions.

I took my breakfast and a coffee to my study and logged in to the weekly call with my cousins. It was a chirpy call with plenty of chat and banter. Tim and I exchanged some observations regarding our EVs and also the local and central planning authorities. I always find it troubling when we agree on political issues!

As I wandered downstairs after the Zoom call, Zoe called Di. Ellie hadn't stayed at Lily's overnight. She came home just before midnight. To fill in some background, Ellie had fallen on the stairs mid-afternoon yesterday. In doing so, she had bent her little finger back, and it was very painful. We had given her Arnica and a cold compress, and she tried to ignore it. She went to Lily's, and they ended up on a bus replacement service to Brighton as a result of a line fire near Arundel. They thoroughly enjoyed the concert, but the trains were not back to normal by the time they left. Lily's older brother came over to collect them. By the time they had stopped for a McDonald's, Ellie was feeling sore and wanted to go home.

This morning, it was clear that the finger was quite swollen. A trip to A&E was needed. I took Ellie and Zoe to St Richard's and left them there, not knowing how long they would have to wait.

I went home and continued developing the code and exploring the data I could extract from the car. Progress was slow but steady. Just as I broke for lunch, Zoe called. They were finished at the hospital. I headed back to Chichester and collected them. The X-rays had shown that Ellie had fractured her pinky in two places. They strapped it up and referred her to the fracture clinic. It wasn't clear how long that would take. I ran them home and left them to it.

Once home, I did some more exploration of the data that I could (and couldn't) access from the car. I'm so close to having what I want, but I'm not quite there yet.

We had some quiet time in the Orangery before dinner,