A big one

 

First things first. Today was Kim's "statement" birthday. She had to be at the University all day, but hopefully she won't be too late getting back. I hope she has had a brilliant day (like this one on the beach in North Devon).

I was up at my usual time. It is noticeable that I need to switch on the kitchen lights when I first come down, but then Autumn starts tomorrow, so what do we expect! Once Diane was up and drinking her tea, I headed out for my morning walk. There was a slight nip in the air, but not enough to warrant a jacket or a thicker sweater. Soon after I arrived home, Di left to go to the hairdresser's. Once I had finished my breakfast and cleared away, I started on a pile of ironing, which occupied most of the morning.

Di arrived home just as I was contemplating a snack for lunch. We chatted for a bit, but then I followed her lead and went to the barber's. After all, I can't live with her hair even shorter than mine.

Once home again, I got on with some code while Di squirted some noxious substances on various weeds in the front and back gardens. After that, we both settled with our Kindles in the lounge (it was too hot in the Orangery).

Oving

It was a moderately quiet day. I was up early so that I could greet Ellie when she was dropped off, soon after 06:30. She went up to see Nana, but once they were stirring, I made Ellie some breakfast and sorted out Di's first coffee. 

Much of the morning was spent tidying everything away after yesterday. Once that was done, I sat down and updated the accounts and the statistics for the car (it is still averaging 2p per mile, but I expect that will rise during the autumn/winter period).

Late in the morning, I had to go to Chichester for my six-monthly checkup with the dental hygienist. This is not something that fills me with joy. She has the gentle touch of a gorilla standing on a piece of Lego, suffering from a toothache, while being thrashed with a bramble. Once I had escaped her ministrations, I drove home for some lunch and then spent the afternoon with some code before heading off with Di to take Jasper to the vet. While Dia and Jasper were with the vet, I took a walk around the village, I was very pleasantly surprised. It was an utterly charming old Sussex village.

Early Celebration

 I was up early again. I hadn't slept well and have no idea why.

The family were all arriving to celebrateKim's birthday. There was much to do. We worked through our mental checklists and, slowly, everything came together. Banners were put up, the table was prepared, and I worked out the timings for lunch preparations. Wine and beer were loaded into the fridges. We were poised and ready.

Zoe popped by to drop off some stuff, and then disappeared again. Kim and Jon turned up, so the celebrations were on the starting grid.

Once Zoe and Ellie returned, we were ready to launch. 

We had sourced an inflatable frame for the photos and had great fun as we all took our turns with the birthday girl.

I particularly liked this photo with "my girls". Don't get me wrong, Jon was there too, but (like me) he isn't quite as photogenic as the girls.

By mid-afternoon, everyone had gone. Di and I settled in the Orangery with our Kindles (which were not heavily used).

It was nearly seven before we stirred and moved ourselves to the lounge.

It had been a lovely day.

Frenzy

I did not sleep well. In Fact, I was tempted to get up at  5:00, but managed to lie still until just after seven. Di, meanwhile, was out for the count. I grabbed my first coffee and settled down to check that some of yesterday's changes had rippled through to the new photo library. They had, but I soon saw more changes that were required.

I had my usual call with the cousins. This included a cameo appearance from Tim and Sarah, who were on a coach tour as part of their Mediterranean cruise. Fortunately, we were on "silent", so the fellow passengers couldn't hear us. Time, however, was not on mute, so we could hear the commentary from the tour guide as they made their way through the foothills of the Italian Alps.

I spent the next part of the morning dealing with the anomalies I had discovered in the photo library. When these were finished, I spent some time clearing some of my detritus from the Orangery. I then made the most of a clear hour or so to go and have my walk.  With that done, I popped around to Sainsbury's to grab some extra wine for tomorrow, then returned to what had clearly become a cleaning frenzy, the like of which I hadn't seen since the evening before Kim was born! I tried to offer help, but stay out of the way at the same time.

I spent the afternoon buried in my code. I managed to learn a lot during this session, and it will certainly impact the way in which I develop code.

Physio

 I was up early again. The body clock seems to be shifting. Maybe it's moving with the Earth's magnetic poles, or maybe it is affected by the super El Niño! Being Friday, Diane wanted to get up early, so it wasn't a problem. Once I had finished my coffee, I headed off for my morning walk and got back just in time for Diane to leave for her Cardiac Rehab session.

When I had finished breakfast and another coffee, I caught up on some Admin before returning to my photo library project, which occupied the rest of the morning.

AT lunchtime, we drove across to Chichester for Diane's session with the physio. It only lasted about 40 minutes, but he concluded she was doing very well. We took a slow drive home and settled in the Orangery with our Kindles. I finished my book and started on a new one.

That's about all there is to report for today.

In and Out

I was up early. We didn't have Ellie this morning, but I was awake anyway. It was a lazy start, but I did have to complete the shopping list. With the family coming for lunch on Sunday and Denise visiting next week, we had to get our plans together, and the shopping list needed to accommodate them.

It was quite wet, and I couldn't be bothered to put on my wet weather gear, so there was no walk this morning. Once we were both presentable, we headed to Sainsbury's. It took quite a while to complete the shopping, and the trolley was groaning as we headed for the checkout. By the time we got home and had put everything away, the morning had disappeared.

After a light lunch, Di prepared some nibbles: samosas, sausages, and quiche for an afternoon tea that she was attending in Rustington. She set off and left me in Jasper's capable paws. I managed to get in a bit of Kindle time before Ellie turned up after school. With Zoe working until 21:00 tonight and Di not expected back until six-ish, I was trusted to be the responsible adult!  Ellie was in and out a bit, but was trackable on her phone. When she was in, she had Poppy in tow. They seemed to be playing some game whereby Ellie was a hotel recptionist, and Poppy was a guest. It was really quite funny to listen to them as they played their respective roles.

I made some dinner for Ellie and me. We had some chicken drumsticks in a crispy crumb. Ellie had some skinny chips with it, and I heated up a UFO (Unidentified Frozen Object), which turned out to be a curry. Nana arrived back soon after we had finished and cleared away.

Around 19:00, we walked Ellie home and stayed with her until Zoe got in.

Double Ditto

 I was up early so that I could greet Ellie when she was dropped off soon after 6:30. She was in a bit of a mood (for whatever reason) and stomped upstairs to Nana.  Among her irritations was the fact that Mummy had forgotten her favourite water bottle. UI said that, once showered, I would go back and collect it. Half an hour later, showered and dressed, I went to find the water bottle. It was a fruitless journey. I couldn't find it. ~Ellie stomped over to her school bag and, lo and behold, the water bottle had been there all along! Grandpa put on his boots and went for his walk!

I returned from the walk with another audiobook finished, just in time to wave goodbye to Diane as she drove to Angmering for her Pilates session. I made some breakfast and settled down with "the socials" and a coffee. Once I was finished and everything cleared away, I returned to the pile of ironing I had started on yesterday. First, however, I had to run two full cleaning cycles on the iron itself. The ironing didn't take too long, and once finished, I returned to the photo library management. The code I had written yesterday seemed to work well overnight. It did, however, trigger another thought about running a full inventory on the library. That became the target project for the day.

We had a quiet afternoon, and as it had become very warm, we spent some Kindle-time in the Orangery.

Ditto

 The days are much the same at the moment. I was up early for Ellie to be dropped off. Once she had given me a cuddle, she went up to see Nana while I enjoyed my first coffee in peace. Ellie was insistent that she would do her own breakfast today, so I left her to it and went up to wash and dress. She is becoming very self-sufficient.

Just as Ellie was preparing to leave for school, I too headed out for my morning walk. It was a little cloudy, but it was pleasantly warm as I strode around my usual circuit.

Soon after I arrived home, Di set off to meet up with her friend Sheila for coffee at Denman's Gardens. That left Jasper in charge. I carried on with some admin from yesterday and started on a bit of ironing that I will finish tomorrow when Di is at Pilates.

I have been looking back through the photo library. It has revealed that whilst most photos are filed in the correct folders (by date), many, particularly old ones which were scanned in do not have valid metadata. That is now the  challenge for the next day or so.

Not Much Ado About Anything

 I was up well before seven and halfway through my coffee by the time Di came down for her tea (I did offer to take it up). Once I was washed and dressed, I headed out for my morning walk. Though this overlapped with the time when the kids are heading for school, I was surprised at how quiet the walk was and how few people I passed on my trek.

Once home, I had a light breakfast, and then cracked on with some admin before returning to my project to set up significant events as albums in the new photo library manager. I realised that I wanted a program to scan the whole library for dates where the number of assets was excessive. I described the problem to ChatGPT and described how it should work. It accepted the challenge and wrote the code for me, and it worked first time. If it hadn't needed to use Python libraries to talk to the library manager, I would have written it myself, but my view of Python is that it is an abomination, and I really don't want to use it.

We got a call from the school. Ellie was worried that Zoe hadn't ordered a hot lunch and had forgotten to prepare a packed lunch.  We quickly made a packed lunch, and I took it to the school. Meanwhile, Di had contacted Zoe, who confirmed that she had ordered the hot lunches (today was curry), but evidently Ellie had forgotten.

We had a quiet start to the afternoon. I sat and read my Kindle, and Di worked on her sewing project in her sewing room. 

AT the end of school, Ellie (with her shadow, Poppy) came here so that we could take Ellie to Chichester for her appointment with Hannah. We got there with a few minutes to spare. Ellie went up to see Hannah, while Di, Poppy, and I remained in the waiting room with our various devices for company. After the session, I dropped the girls back at Zoe's, and we went home for dinner.

Early Bird

 I slept well, but I was dozing by six, and when Jasper started shouting at 6:40, I decided to get up. I don't know why. He immediately quietened down and then stayed put when I went downstairs. I took Di a tea and settled down for a coffee, quickly followed by another coffee!

I read the news and then reviewed the changes that I had made to the Photo system yesterday. The few changes I had made worked perfectly. I asked Google to download ("Takeout") a bunch more albums. This was not an insignificant collection (one album alone had 1100 photos in it), and it took most of the day to process them and create the equivalent albums in Immich.

Di spent much of the day on one of her sewing projects. In fact, even as I write this after dinner, she is still pressing some of the seams she has sewn.

I managed to go out for a walk at lunchtime. I was out for over an hour and became engrossed in the new audiobook. Once I returned, I spent some time tidying up some of the code I have developed over the last week or two. (After all, code should be developed in a way that makes it easy to maintain, and this means checking that the commentary in the program still reflects the actual code.)

Just Faffing

 It was a nice day. Not too hot, not too cold, not too breezy; just nice. I was up around seven and took Di a cup of tea before sitting down with my coffee.  At nine, I had the weekly call with my Empson cousins. There were seven of us on the call today, and our discussions ranged from zoos, through politics, to system backup design. Geeky, but fun!

After some admin, I headed out for a walk. I headed in the opposite direction from my usual walking route. I needed a track that would loop through the village so that I could collect Di's meds on the way through. I then took the back way to our estate and did a partial loop there before heading home. My audiobook drew to a close, and I started on a new one for the last ten minutes of the walk.

Back home, I returned to my project with the photos. The main coding may be finished, but there are still many photos that need to be filed correctly. This was a good fill-in activity for whenever I had time. During the afternoon, I managed to speak to Kim about her upcoming birthday. I now have a clear plan for her present. I also spent some time in the garden pruning the climbing rose, which has become rampant.

Not much else to report.

Final Stretch

 I was up before seven, and as Di had her Cardiac Rehab this morning, she wasn't far behind me. Having cleaned up the present Jasper had left overnight, I made the coffee and tea and settled down with the news. Once the coffee was finished, I went to wash and dress and then set off on my morning walk. It was a delightful morning. The sun was out, it was about 16C and there was no wind. My audiobook kept me company and is rapidly approaching the climax.

Di headed off for her session just as I arrived home. I settled down with some breakfast and another coffee and looked at the results of the overnight scans of the photo library. The scans had worked, but the results were not what I had expected. It took a couple of hours to get to the bottom of the problem, but once the error was cleared, everything started to work as designed. Indeed, I would now conclude that the whole exercise is complete and I have a fully functional Photo Library manager running at home. Now, you may argue that I have spent an inordinate amount of time on this, but the reality is that I have between 50 and 80 thousand photos, filed by date and numerous Google Albums showing collections of the online versions of these photos. I wanted to ensure that I was not dependent on Google or Apple and that my own library was just as complete and fully backed up locally. I will probably go through and polish the documentation for each of the routines I have written, but other than that, I think I'm done.

We had a quiet afternoon in the Orangery with our Kindles. I finished the book that I started yesterday, and have downloaded four or five more.

Binning it

 I was up well before seven. Diane and Ellie were still away with the fairies as I brewed my coffee and waited to hear movement upstairs. They had both emerged by 7:30, and everything kicked into gear. Zoe, who had been away overnight because of work in Leatherhead, managed to get back here in time to see Ellie potter off to school. 

While Di got ready, I spent some time finishing the shopping list and re-creating some of the Google photo albums. Once Di was ready, we raided Sainsbury's. There seemed to be a lot of zombies there today. Several times I found myself catching the eye of some chap or other as we tried to compete as to how far we could roll our eyes or shake our heads in disbelief.

Back home, we had the usual banter with Lottie as she was finishing upstairs. Once everything was stowed away, I returned to the Photo Library where I spent much of the afternoon. Mid-afternoon, Di met up with Zoe to go to Ellie's school for the parents' Year 5 welcome briefing. I went to a neighbour's who is about to go away for 3 weeks and needed a key holder. This involved not just a bunch of keys, but also a briefing on how their security system worked. I took notes, but I hope they won't be needed.

Back home, while I cooked dinner, Di raided the fridge and checked the dates on everything in there. Anything that had passed its scheduled date was ruthlessly binned; the jars were cleaned, and they were put out for recycling.

A Birthday

 I was up soon after 6:30. We didn't see Ellie this morning as Zoe had a late start, and Ellie was able to leave from home. Once I was caffeinated, showered and dressed, I went out for my walk. It was a bit cooler today, and was very comfortable for walking (there is still no need for a jacket of any description).

Once home, with breakfast finished and cleared away, I sat down to catch up on some admin before starting on a pile of ironing. Di was insistent that she could stand comfortably now, and she would finish the pile. I settled down for some coding until lunchtime.

After lunch, we had a quiet afternoon in the Orangery until Ellie and Poppy turned up for dinner. Then it got a bit noisy for an hour or so, until I took Poppy home. Having said that, even now, the two of them are chatting away on FaceTime or WhatsApp. (Ellie is staying with us overnight tonight as Zoe has an early start tomorrow.)

Today was Jon's birthday. He had taken the day off, and he and Kim went to Tangmere Military Aviation Museum. They have just been on the phone to say what a brilliant museum it is and is a "must-do". Jon even had a go in the English Electric Lightning simulator. They spent a couple of hours or so touring the exhibits before going to Arundel to visit the castle, and then on to The Black Rabbit for lunch. It sounds like Jon had a wonderful birthday.