Pressing Engagement

I was awake early. In fact, by 6:00, I was getting fidgety, so I got up and went downstairs for a coffee. It was a further 2 hours before Diane stirred. I just had time to perform my ablutions and dress in time to walk to Zoe's and escort Ellie to school.

Back home, I grabbed my usual breakfast of porridge, a banana, and coffee and then, set up for the day, I set about a pile of ironing. This took a couple of hours, but it is always satisfying to see the pile of freshly pressed clothes growing by the side of the ironing board.

The rest of the day has been remarkably quiet. I spent some time learning a new technique on one of my computers, and spent some Kindle time until I had to leave to collect Ellie. As Zoe had a day off, she was there at the school gates, and when we had collected Ellie, I headed back home as they set of to their house.

We've just finished a light dinner, and plan to watch the World Cup semi-final between Spain and France during the evening. I'm looking forward to this game as I have no particular favourite, and so I can watch the game and just enjoy the spectacle without the stress of supporting one of the teams.

Just a typical day

I was up early to greet Elie when she was dropped off at 06:30. She was awake and wanted a cuddle, but then headed upstairs to get into bed with Nana. She went back to sleep, and it wasn't until I went to wash and dress at 7:30 that she woke up and went down for breakfast.  An hour later, I walked her into school as usual and then returned home for breakfast,

We had a couple of loads of washing during the morning, and these needed to be dried. I, meanwhile, got on with some admin. I had to update the accounts, then contact Allianz regarding our travel insurance. I was concerned that the travel insurance would go up significantly after Di's knee surgery. As it happened, there was no additional cost. In fact, the overall cost of travel insurance, including our age supplements and DI's medical history, was exactly the same as last year - to the penny!

After lunch, and a quiet hour, I collect Ellie from school. We hot-footted it home, then grabbed a snack (that I had already prepared) and headed into Chichester for her last appointment with the counsellor. Traffic in Chichester was dreadful, but we managed to arrive within 60 seconds of the appointment time.

I dropped Ellie back at Zoe's and then headed home. Di was chatting to Denise on the phone, and when they had finished, I made some chicken and prawns in red wine and tomato sauce on tagliatelle. We now have a quiet evening planned.

Gardener's World

Despite the very late night, I was up (thanks to my body clock) before seven this morning. I took Di a cup of tea and settled down with a coffee and the overnight news. ~Di emerged before eight, which seemed pointless, but her body clock is as accurate as mine!

After breakfast, I returned to my study to look at the results of the synchronisation of my media files overnight. It had not gone well. Instead of copying A to B, it made a new copy of B in A! I spent some time debugging it and tried again. I can now report that all of the files on A have been replicated to B. I now need to tidy up the rogue files copied yesterday.

Whilst all of this was going on, Zoe phoned Di. Hannah, from Muddy Boots, had been round and they had designed Zoe's back garden between them. Di was asked to attend and give her seal of approval. I walked her to Zoe's and left them to it. I had an anomaly in my accounts spreadsheet that I needed to clear.

I waded through all of the statements for this year, eventually finding a payment that I had made, but failed to record. All was correct once that was in the spreadsheet. ( I used the CoPilot AI features of Excel; I asked it to create a table from the separate sheets, recording each month of the year. It needed to show certain columns, but only if they were not empty. It worked brilliantly and made the cross-referencing with the statements so much easier). 

By the time I had finished, Diane was ready to come home, so I walked around the corner to collect her. They had tweaked the original plan, and were quite excited by what they had come up with. Hannah is hoping to get started in the next few weeks.

We have had a quiet afternoon (well, as quiet as it can be with Jasper in full voice). Dinner is now done, and we are preparing to settle for the evening.

Whew

 We had a gentle start this morning. The first thing of note was my call with the cousins and the tales from Down Under regarding Sarah's broken shoulder and hospitalisation, and Rolly's wife, Helen's, gallstones. It seems that I am not the only one touring local hospitals this year.

I spent a while in the study, working on my storage rationalisation. Whilst I found it interesting, nobody else would care, so I'll move on.

Di had a long chat with Jane, catching up on all of the gossip after their holiday in Portugal.

After dinner, we watched a film on TV up until the World Cup quarter-final between Norway and England. It didn't kick off until 22:00, and with extra time, it ran on into the early hours. Like so many England games, it was torture to watch. Though we won 1-2, I agree with the manager that we were lucky and just not good enough.

Reports

 We had another quiet morning where I could take my time and stroll to Zoe's just in time to walk Ellie to school. She was full of the joys of spring (summer) and charged into school, having dismissed me at the gate.

I cleared some domestic chores before we had to leave to take Diane for her first post-Op physio appointment. I was a little concerned about the traffic, being the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend, but we were going against the traffic and had no problems. We sat and waited in the cafe area of the Nuffield Health Centre until Dean turned up. He whisked Di away, and I sat and read my Kindle. About 45 minutes later, they returned. He was delighted with how well she was doing, and it was clear she was well ahead of where he had expected her to be. She was already doing some of the advanced exercises that he would not have expected. She still has to use her crutches when out and about, but can ignore them when pottering around the house. She was very relieved, and I was not in the slightest surprised.

Back home, I returned to my storage rationalisation. I have now changed all but two of the Raspberry Pis to use the new storage for their code libraries. I may take this further over the coming weeks.

I collected Ellie from school. She came out of class clutching her report card. When Zoe arrived to collect her, she opened up the report and read out the highlights. Ellie is doing brilliantly in so many different aspects of her lessons, scoring "1" (the highest) in several of the subjects and behaviours. Best still, she scored 100% in her Maths. We are so proud of her.

We had a quiet evening and watched the Spain / Belgium game from the World Cup. I think it was the best game we have seen so far.

Perambulating

 It was another glorious start to the day. Zoe had a day off, so there was no hurry to get going. I did wander around in time to conduct the morning walk to school, however.

The morning followed a typical Thursday pattern, in that I had to raid Sainsbury's. I was a bit earlier than usual, which meant that I was in and out before the delivery of zombies. The local roadworks that have (and continue) to plague us have moved to the next section of road. This means that we can now get in and out of the estate via the main spine road, and turn left towards Bognor Regis. This makes the trip to Sainsbury's a lot quicker than the diversion we have had to use for the last few weeks.

Once the shopping was tucked away, Di went to do her exercises, and I returned to the job of rationalising my data storage. I did some experimenting and believe I may have come up with the ideal solution. Whilst it has worked perfectly, I will return to this tomorrow as I think it is very elegant.

I didn't have to collect Ellie from school, as Zoe was available. I did, however, take Di for several laps of the Italian Gardens. She was fair galloping around as she becomes more mobile and more confident.

More... you want more!

 Ellie was dropped off at 6:30. She had a lot more sparkle than yesterday morning, and we embarked on a couple of hours of general chat while she was fed and she prepared for school. She had decided that, as she had an evening performance of the school production, she wouldn't go to the after-school girls' football club. By the time we left for school, she had changed her mind.

After breakfast, I got on with various domestic chores, filling the washing line with a couple of loads from the machine. Once the chores were finished, I returned to my study to continue with the implementation of the new NAS drive. I had a couple of outstanding problems with the way in which my backup was using it, but after a short bit of bug hunting, everything burst into life. It will now probably take about 24 hours to populate the drive from other backups.

I took Di for several laps of the Italian Gardens. Her walking is getting better every time we go out. She wanted to get this walk in before she removed the last of the wound dressings. When we got home, she removed the dressing to reveal her scar in all its glory. I think she said that she had counted the sites of 34 staples along its length.

I met up with Zoe outside the school. We had seats in the 2nd row for the performance of "Oliver!". Ellie was one of the street urchins and was on and off the stage throughout the performance. The show was excellent, and it is incredible to think these nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds can perform with such accomplishment. Photos and video were taken, but we were asked not to share with Social Media, as parents had not been asked for their consent. Fair enough.

The show finished at 19:20, we collected Ellie from the classroom and headed home. She was absolutely buzzing, and I expect. it took Zoe a while to bring her down so that she could go to sleep.

Storage

Ellie had an early drop-off this morning, though she wasn't awake enough to realise it. She wandered straight upstairs and got into bed with Nana. She was still there when Nana came downstairs, and I had gone up for my shower. She woke up slowly and hadn't really switched her brain on until we arrived at the school gates (where I had to leave her, again).

After breakfast, I got on with some domestic chores to get them out of the way, giving me a fairly clear day. DPD had messaged me to say my packages would be delivered by 10:00, and I wanted to play! Just after the packages arrived, Kim arrived. She had been for some blood tests, and dropped in on the way back. We had a lovely hour or so, chatting and hearing about their recent holiday on the riverside near Ripley. As she has finished University and her various placements until September, we hope to see a lot more of her during the summer... though she is taking on some bank work.

I finished unwrapping my parcels and set up the new NAS device during the afternoon. Having changed the layout of the storage (from the old, failed drive), I spent some time tinkering with the backups so that I could get the most from them and simplify the way in which the storage was laid out. I hadn't finished by the time I had to collect Ellie, so this is something that I will return to tomorrow.

We watched the Argentina / Egypt match from the World Cup. I was sorry to see Egypt lose. They had played so well, and their goals were so well taken.

Dressing

I am really enjoying this lovely sunny weather. Knowing the peculiarities of the UK weather, however, I suspect it will all collapse as the school holidays begin. Zoe had a late start this morning, so I was in no hurry. I wandered around to Zoe's to collect Ellie. I was instructed by Ellie that I should walk her as far as the school gates, but she could then go in by herself. This was to acclimatise us in preparation for next year when she can walk to school by herself! I, of course, did as I was told.

Today was a significant day in Diane's recovery. I took her to the hospital at lunchtime so that they could remove her main dressing and the staples stitching the wound together. They then re-dressed the wound with a smaller, more flexible dressing. It didn't take long, and she was walking a lot better as soon as she came out.

We had a quiet hour or so before I collected Ellie and took her into Chichester for her regular appointment.

Come the evening, we watched the highlights from the England / Mexico football game last night. It was good to see such a significant win. Let's hope the team is finally beginning to tick, but I'm glad I didn't stay up through the night to watch it. Tonight, we are watching the Spain / Portugal game.

Stroller

 We had a very lazy start to the day. The sun was shining, and it was clearly going to be a lovely day. There was nothing specific on the agenda.

I cleared a few domestic chores and popped to Sainsbury's to get some Ibuprofen (just in case), then settled down to take another look at options for replacing the failed backup drive. I dwelt on the options over a couple of hours, and in the end, ordered a new Synology NAS and a Seagate HDD. These should arrive during the coming week.

Di was eager to take a walk, so we wandered around the Italian Gardens a few times. She did very well, but did need to lie down when we got home. We did repeat the walk later in the afternoon. It's good to see her getting about, and to see the swelling going down.

Not much else to report. We won't be staying up to watch the Mexico / England game in the early hours. We are trusting that they can do the job without us yelling at the TV.

Not the Plan

 Well, that wasn't the plan... but we'll come to that in a moment.

Firstly, on this lovely sunny day, I am celebrating the completion of 12 years since I retired. Some may moan about their retirement, but not me. It has been 12 years of joy, family, travel, and generally doing whatever we want. I commend it to the reader.

Now, whilst I didn't have a plan for the day, I certainly was not expecting to spend it the way that I did. I guess I should start at the beginning. On Thursday evening, I developed what seems to be referred to as an "ice-pick" headache. This is a stabbing or shooting pain that lasts for a second or so, but repeats randomly. This lasted all evening and night. Paracetamol did not touch it. On Friday, the pain had gone, and there was no recurrence, even overnight.

This morning the pain started again while I was on my usual Zoom call with the cousins. The frequency had increased to about 13 seconds between "hits". After the call, I went online to 111 and went through their questionnaire. It said I should go to our Urgent Treatment Centre. I was sceptical and chatted with AI. It said I should contact AI and go to my Urgent Treatment Centre. That was unanimous then. I checked Di had everything she needed and headed for St Richard's. I was triaged fairly quickly, then waited to be seen. Several hours later (by which time the pain had gone), I was seen, and after some tests, the doctor suggested a couple of possible causes, but blood tests would be needed to provide some more clarity. A nurse took an armful of blood and sent it to the lab. I went for a walk and grabbed a coffee. The results came through within about 15 minutes. It was, however, a couple of hours before another doctor had the chance to review them with me. Blood tests were all clear. This meant that the most probable diagnosis was Trigeminal or Occipital Neuropathy. A letter was sent to my GP, and I was told to visit the GP if the problem recurred. In the meantime, if Ibuprofen helped, then use that.

I have had a few isolated "hits" since, but it hasn't been too bad. That was six hours that I wouldn't really wish to repeat.

Off duty

 Zoe had a day off today, so Grandpa was off duty. There was no school run, and he didn't have to attend the school sports day. Di and I had a quiet morning. She was able to shower for the first time since the operation, now that the swelling had diminished sufficiently to get the waterproof cover on her leg. I, meanwhile, worked through the pile of ironing and did several loads of washing, making the most of the glorious day to dry everything outside.

Zoe popped in to tell us how well Ellie had done, but reported that her hay fever was playing up and she had come up in a rash on her arm. She was felling decidely sorry for herself.

We had a quiet afternoon. In my case with my Kindle. In Di's case, she did her physio exercises on the bed and then, no doubt, spent some time with her Kindle. She really does seem to be doing well and is now pottering around without the aid of her crutches.

Nine Schools

It was a normal start to the day. It was a little overcast, but that soon burned off. After the statutory teas and coffees were distributed, I wandered to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. Ellie was very excited because she was one of the kids who had been selected to represent the school in an Athletics Meet this afternoon.

Once home, I got on with a few chores before collecting Maureen and setting off for Sainsbury's. (Though Chris is back from hospital, he can't drive yet.) The shopping trip was remarkably quick. We didn't seem to have as much as usual this week. I stopped in to say "Hello" to Chris when I dropped Maureen off with her shopping. He is looking very well, considering the seriousness of his recent episode. He is hoping to be driving (at least for short trips) again next week.

I stowed all of our shopping away and then pottered for a while. After lunch, I managed a quiet hour with the Kindle before getting ready for the afternoon's excitement.

I collected Ellie from school, and we drove across to Felpham. There, on a huge school field, the pupils from 9 junior schools were gathering in their groups. Ellie's school was one of two schools classified as "small". We had arrived early because of the expected traffic. This worked well, but it did mean we had about 45 minutes to wait for the activities to start. Ellie was scheduled to do the (standing) long jump and the relay. This meant a lot of waiting around. (I should mention that there was a very impressive turnout of parents, along to cheer on the children.) It was clear that some of the larger schools had some very fine young athletes. What was nice, however, was the way all the children were cheered on, even those at the back.

Ellie did well in the long jump. There was no official statement by the time we left, but the results were to be sent to the schools. In the relay, she had a lot of ground to make up after the previous runners had dropped several places. Ellie managed to claw those places back and gain another, but the last legs of the race couldn't maintain what she had gained.

It was a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine, and I grabbed an ice cream for her as it all broke up. We were soon home, and now she just has to prepare for tomorrow's Sports Day at school.

Defend for Goodness Sake

July started gently. There was no need to be up at 6:30. I was anyway. I took Di some tea, and slowly the day came together. I wandered around to Zoe's and took ~Ellie in to school. She was particularly chirpy this morning. 

Back home, I grabbed some breakfast and then got on with some domestic chores. (Which reminds me, I think I have a load of washing sitting in the washing machine - I must hang that up). 

Jasper had an appointment at the vet. Di decided to venture out and come along with me, so we all piled into the car and took the furry thing for his monthly jabs and to have some of his matted fur clipped. We were there for about 30 minutes, but he was very calm and quiet. (If only he were like that at home).

When we got back, Di had a chat with our neighbour, Ken, who had also had his knee done. They shared their experiences for a while, but then she came in and went upstairs to rest. I, meanwhile, grabbed the failed irrigation controller and drove to City Irrigation. True to his word, the chap behind the counter examined it, then replaced it with a brand-new device. I soon had re-fitted it and have set up and working.

I picked Ellie up after her school football club and brought her home, only to find that Zoe was already waiting for us. Everybody, it seems, wanted to be home in time to watch the England / DR Congo game from the World Cup. Zoe and Ellie headed home, and we sat down to dinner in front of the TV. The redeeming feature of the game was that England won. They don't, however, make it easy viewing for the fans, and the defence is dreadful. Unless they sort that out, I can't see them progressing much further.