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,

The Codeface

I was up soon after six. I had slept well, but was wide awake and in need of a coffee. I pottered downstairs with the elegance of a ballet dancer, in bare feet, walking on LEGO bricks. When Jasper had finished laughing at me, he went upstairs to disturb Diane (which I had studiously tried not to do). I worked through the overnight news and decided that there was no specific intervention required from me.

Once we were both up and about, I opened up the MacBook and started to write some code. Bit by bit, I explored the API that gave me access to. data from the new Skoda Elroq.  Some of it was extracted quite easily, but that was data that was easily available anyway. The more complex information proved a challenge. Over the course of the day, I made progress, but the data I really wanted remained elusive. My ultimate objective is to be blessed to extract data into a spreadsheet, allowing me to create various cuts of the data to understand the performance and cost of the EV.

Just after lunch, Di had an appointment at the Opticians at the same time that I had to take Ellie to Angmering for a night out and sleepover with her friend Lily. Zoe took Di to the Optician, and Ellie (on her booster seat) sat in the front of our car with me as we headed across to Lily's. The traffic was dreadful, but we arrived in plenty of time. They are off to Brighton (with Lily's mum) to see K-Pop Superstars (or something like that) at the Brighton Centre.

I arrived home just before Di and made us both a cup of tea. It turns out that she does need stronger glasses and so has a new pair on order and is having new lenses put into some of her old frames. ~

The rest of the afternoon was quiet.

Progress

 It was another clear morning. I was up by seven and enjoyed my coffee while reading the news. I probably should have gone for a walk, but I had a few things niggling on my mind. Once washed and dressed, I opened up the MacBook and started to investigate some ideas. 

The electronics in new cars seem to record vast amounts of information. Some of this is revealed through the car's partner App on the phone, but not all of it. It would be nice to get more granularity regarding trips, battery consumption, mileage, efficiency, and so forth. I was pointed to a set of libraries that contain APIs for the Skoda. It looks as if I can get all of the data I want. All I have to do is write a program to mine the data from the car. I can feel a little programming in my future.

We did our usual Sainsbury's trip to stock up for the week. As we finished unloading, Elli turned up with Aryana. Zoe had an important video call and wanted some peace while it progressed. The girls arrived and took themselves upstairs to Ellie's bedroom. They weren't here for long before Zoe called to say the call was over and could we come round for a briefing. We did as we were told. It turns out that Zoe's knee problem was not a ruptured ligament. It is actually a large cyst on the iniscus. They gave her a lot more detail, and promised they would get back later today with an appointment for her to see the consultant at the Chichest Nuffield. Things are moving at last, and it sounds as if the treatment is not major. Zoe called back later to tell us she has an appointment on Friday, the 5th.

We grabbed some lunch and started to think about a break for next February. We considered Malta, Cyprus, and Sicily, but eventually home in on Madeira. We haven't booked anything yet, but we have somewhere bookmarked.

Di wanted to do some shopping in John Lewis. I had been looking for a replacement TV for the kitchen/family room. This seemed like an ideal opportunity. We whizzed off and strolled around the store. After discussions with one of the colleagues, we chose a TV which had a significant discount, free delivery, and free installation. Result! That should arrive next week.

DI received a call while we were in John Lewis. It was the Consultant's secretary from the Nuffield. She has now fixed the date for her knee replacement, on 22nd June. (I wonder if we can get a family discount).

Expecting

 I was up early. I was expecting several deliveries throughout the day, and I wanted to get a walk in before Di had to go out for Pilates. So it was that I set off for my morning walk at 6:50. The skies were clear, and it was comfortably warm. It was a lovely time to be out and about. I arrived back home soon after 8:00 and settled down with a coffee and some porridge. It was already heating up, and we had the back doors open and the blinds drawn. It's easier to keep the heat out than to try to cool the house once it's warm.

Di set off for Pilates. It was an abortive trip, as the instructor, Liz, had arranged for a stand-in today. Di was not willing to chance her joints on a new instructor, so after a chat with her friend Kathie, she came home early.

Meanwhile, I had completed some admin and worked through the outstanding ironing.

I'm a bit of a wally. I had ordered a holster for the car charger, so that the plug would be protected. That was the first of today's deliveries. I took it outside to work out where best to install it. That's when I noticed that there is already a holster built into the unit. Doh! At least it wasn't expensive.

The next delivery was the fresh salmon steaks from Edinburgh. They came beautifully wrapped in iced gel packs and surrounded by an insulating layer of wool. I soon had them unpacked and tucked away in the freezer. My curry sauces are due before 20:00, but haven't arrived yet.

We spent some time with our Kindles during the afternoon, sheltering in the cool of the living room.

Assessment

 We had a gentle start to the day. The skies were crystal clear, and the temperature was already climbing. I had my early morning coffee, then as soon as I was washed and dressed, I headed out for my walk before it got too hot to enjoy.

After a quick breakfast, I took Di to the Nuffield. She had an appointment, which was the first stage in her admission for knee surgery. Traffic was very slow, and we were a few minutes late arriving. (We had phoned to warn them.) I dropped Di at the doors and went to park. By the time I got back, she had already been whisked away. I sat and read, but she was soon out and ready to go. There will be another pre-admission appointment, but it is clear she is on a countdown.

Back home, we got on with some domestic chores before settling down for some Kindle time during the afternoon.

Di received an email. Things are picking up pace. She has an appointment for next Tuesday for the pre-admission appointment, which is expected to take a couple of hours.

We had an early dinner so that I could attend Ellie's football training. She had insisted on going and asked Zoe to come and watch. I grabbed the picnic chairs so Zoe could sit down, and I met them there. Once there, Ellie suddenly seemed to lose interest, and Zoe really had to cajole her into playing. It was clear that her heart wasn't really in the game. She just drifted back and forth, without really getting involved. Oh well, it was a nice evening to be out and about.

Hotter

 I was up soon after seven, though I had been entranced by the birdsong just after five. It was clearly going to be another hot day, and I opened up the doors in the Orangery to get some airflow through the house. Once Di was up and about, I went to wash and dress so that I could set out on my walk before it got too hot. My audiobook has me totally hooked and, despite the heat, I was completely engrossed in the story. I was particularly pleased to note that I had correctly identified two of the clues from earlier in the book,

Once back home, I grabbed some breakfast before taking Di to the local nursery. (It was nice to use the feature that allowed me to fire up the air conditioning from my phone to ensure the car was at a comfortable temperature when we were ready to leave.) We wandered around Brickkiln Nursery until Di had found the plants that she wanted. We then took a detour on the way home so that we could pick up some white wine for tonight's pasta from Sainsbury's. We hadn't been home for too long before we were called to Zoe's. Hers and Ellie's beds both needed to be made, and a new paddling pool needed to be pumped up and filled. We were not there for too long, but the chores were completed.

Ellie has clearly had a wonderful time in Hastings with her friend Lilly. I'm not sure how much sleep they got, but they had great fun.

I know it seems bizarre, it is, after all, only a few days since we last saw Ellie, but she seems to have grown while away.

Back home, we had a quiet hour or so with our Kindles before our usual Monday night dinner of Salmon and Prawns in a white wine and cream sauce, with tagliatelle.

Oh well, that was Bank Holiday Monday. Back to work tomorrow. No wait... I'm retired, for me, tomorrow is another holiday! (I still cannot get used to this.)

Hot

 It's been a hot one!

I had a lazy start, not getting up until 7:20. It was already 20 °C, and it was clear the temperatures were only going to climb. I had my first coffee, then after morning ablutions, headed out for my walk before it got too hot. My audiobook is progressing well, and had one of those minor crescendos just as I was approaching home. Rather than leave it mid-story, I stopped the book just at the right time. Tomorrow's walk will start with this revelation.

After some breakfast, I did something I haven't done for 12 years. Di was going to Zoe's to help with some cleaning, so I tagged along to mow her lawn. Yes, for the first time in 12 years, I handled the lawnmower and smartened up her back garden. She was thrilled, because it had been looking a bit bleak. When I had finished, it was quite smart.

The rest of the day was spent with our Kindles in the cool of the living room. I waded through several chapters of my latest book, then spent some time looking for, and eventually buying, a holster for the car charger. Once that was done, I looked at some options for a new TV in the Kitchen/Family room. As we are getting older, we are finding it harder to see the TV from a distance. I was looking at a new 65 in model that we should be able to see fairly easily. The old TV will be repurposed in Ellie's bedroom.

I was delighted to see that despite my worst fears, Spurs managed to avoid relegation from the Premiership, and in doing so, sent West Ham down.

Neighbours

Jasper was getting noisy at 05:30, but having made sure we were both awake, he settled back down.  I woke again at 06:00, but managed to stay in bed until just before 07:00. It was clear as I walked down the stairs that Jasper's noisy interlude had been him boasting about the foul-smelling package he had delivered, ready for me to dispose of when I arose.

After the early morning waste disposal, I managed to sit down with a coffee and reflect on the meaning of life. It occurred to me that Jasper's overnight emission was no more toxic than the effluent that spews from the White House day in and day out. In Jasper's favour, at least he isn't orange, and he seems to have an IQ at least equivalent to his paw size.

My overnight experiment with the E.On app controlling the car charging activity worked well. I will stick to this in future as it should optimise the charge procedure even more than the Ohme app.

After the morning call with the cousins (which followed the usual pattern), I settled down to wade through some admin and do some research regarding our new Skoda Elroq, and the options for charging when away from home. This became a bit of a quest, and I ended up diving down several rabbit holes as I worked through my options.

Di, meanwhile, was pottering in the garden. When she wandered to the front garden, she was accosted by Colleen and John, our new neighbours. We had a lovely chat and took them into our back garden for a look at the landscaping and the Orangery. We only chatted for 30 minutes or so, but we all seemed to hit it off well.

We've had lots of photos arrive from Ellie's weekend away in Hastings. She's clearly having a great time.