Growing Tree

I was up before seven. I sat down with some coffee and my iPad and worked through the overnight news. Di wandered down a while later. She hadn't slept well, and I wondered if it had been some of thespice that was used on the Nando's last night. At the allotted time, I went to join Zoe and Ellie on the walk to school. There was a fine, misty drizzle soaking things more than you would expect. I headed off for my walk as soon as Ellie was safely in class.

Back home, I grabbed some breakfast and a second coffee, then settled down to complete the shopping list. As I was finishing, Lottie arrived, and it was my duty to torment her, as usual. Our trip to Sainsbury's was surprisingly quick. We did notice, however, that there were shortages of some fruits and vegetables. This, apparently, is because of the weather, which has been a problem for distribution, particularly for items imported from Spain.

After some lunch, I buried myself in the study and started to examine some of the recent DNA matches for Diane's side of the family. One set of matches revealed a branch of the family that I hadn't previously examined. After an hour or so, I had added a further 20 individuals to the family tree, each with supporting documents and confirmed by the DNA. 

We managed a little Kindle time before dinner.

Rained Off

 It was dry when we woke up. Bearing in mind the recent weather, that is something to celebrate. There was no hurry this morning as Zoe was on a 9 o'clock start. I walked around the corner to join the trek to school and then, leaving Ellie rushing into class, headed off for my morning walk.

The flooding in the area has left few navigable roads, and they are gridlocked. It would have been pointless Di attempting to get to Angmering for Pilates. She would have spent the whole morning sitting in traffic.

I spent some time on the family tree research and nailed down a few recent DNA matches. One has posed a conundrum which will require some research and a bit of lateral thinking. That's a problem for another day.

After lunch, I returned to an idea I had overnight. This meant trawling through lots of photos and asking AI to do some clever editing. I then started to merge some of these photos onto a single sheet. I achieved a basic version of what I was attempting, but it could do with some serious refinement.

After lunch, we had a bit of Kindle time, then I collected Ellie from football practice. We took her shopping to Matalan for an outfit to wear at the school's Valentine's Disco on Friday... and then we all had dinner at Nando's. While at Matalan, I noticed a sign "£5 and Under Baby Event". I looked around, but in the end I had to ask how many babies they have in stock, as there were none on the shelves - but at that price, they were probably selling well.

(No warning lights in the car today. Fingers are firmly crossed,)

Fixed, I hope

I was up soon after 6:30. Ellie was awake and pottering around in her bedroom. It was dry, for a change, but the forecast suggested that it wouldn't last. We followed the usual morning pattern, and we walked Ellie to school, leaving her in the class once the doors had opened.

I skipped the early walk. I was expecting the chap to come and collect the car, but there was no fixed time. I got on with my breakfast, did some admin, and did a bit of ironing. The chap arrived at 11:00 and took the car away to have a new ABS sensor fitted (needless to say, the car didn't reveal any of the warnings this morning).

Expecting the car to be gone for a couple of hours or more, I put on my shoes and headed out for a walk. I was out for about an hour, and when I returned home, the car was already sitting on the drive. I was amazed at how quickly they had dealt with it. They emailed an invoice and phoned me to confirm what they had done. I was delighted. Hopefully, there will be no further problems (at least from the ABS sensor).

The afternoon followed the usual pattern. We had an hour of Kindle time, and then I went to collect Ellie (it was raining quite heavily, so I told Di to stay put). Ellie buried herself in some snacks to keep her going, and then Zoe turned up to collect her.

Poster girl

 To avoid an early start this morning, Ellie stayed with us overnight. I let her sleep through until 7:30, and even then, she took a while to start functioning normally. We took her along to school, as usual, and then Di went home, and I set off for my walk. I mixed things up a bit by walking the back route into the village so that I could collect Di's meds from the pharmacy when they opened.

Back home, I settled down for some breakfast and to read the social media feeds. I wasn't able to linger for too long, as we had planned to go out for lunch with Jane and Trevor

To the sound of warning chimes and a display of random warning messages, we started our drive to The Refectory at Milford. Fortunately, all the warnings ceased after the first couple of miles, and the car behaved perfectly for the rest of the trip. I will be glad to get this fixed tomorrow.

We had a lovely lunch. Di had chosen a Crispy Beef Asian Salad, while I had a Wild Boar, Pork, and Parsnip pie. We both chose well, though Di would have preferred to have the dressing on the side. The Refectory was packed (probably because people were using up the vouchers we were given at Christmas) and as a result, service was slow. Normally, this doesn't trouble us, but we had to keep an eye on the time so that we could collect Ellie from school.

We were a bit late leaving the restaurant, and it was touch-and-go for the school pickup. We made good time and were on Drayton Lane before the traffic came to a halt. We still had 20 minutes for the last 3 miles. We made it, with 5 minutes to spare.

Ellie had dinner with us and then cracked on with some homework. I helped by showing her how to generate images using AI (Google’s Gemini). We used these images for a poster showing her recent baking exercise when she made some delicious scones

As Zoe has another early start tomorrow, Ellie is again sleeping here overnight.

(Just as an aside, Dad would be 100 years old today. Remarkably, his twin brother would also!)

Boots or Fins

 I was up by seven. For a change, it was dry, but it was incredibly misty. I made my coffee and took a tea to Diane in bed, then I settled down with the newspapers. Many newspapers charge a subscription fee to read them online. I can, however, read. them without a subscription through my local library. The library provides access to many UK, European, and worldwide newspapers through an app called PressReader. This will either display page images from the paper or a list view of all of the articles. It's brilliant.

Once Di had wandered down, I put on my shoes and headed off for a walk. I followed the usual route and, as predicted yesterday, finished one audiobook and started another.

As I walked back past the community football pitches, I noted that there were no games being played. Maybe waterpolo would have been more appropriate, or a swap from football boots to fins.

Once I was home, I enjoyed my usual breakfast, then as Diane went to her sewing room, I went to my study.

I spent much of the rest of the day working on the family tree. Some recent DNA hits opened up a few further areas of research. By the end of the session, I had added a further 18 cousins to the tree. It has been a good day.

Hardback

 It was gone seven before I emerged this morning. The rain was pounding down, but it was already getting light outside. Having taken Di a cup of tea in bed, I enjoyed a coffee while reading the news. Being Saturday, I had the Zoom call with my cousins, so my walk would have to wait (but given the rain, that wasn't a hardship).

The call followed the usual ramblings, though I introduced some of the newspaper clippings that I had gathered during the week. We didn't delve too deeply into the cousin who was fined for stealing a traffic cone, but we did comment on the press report of his sister's wedding. That moved the conversation to a branch of their family that they knew little about. I was able to download a simple summary of the family and share it with them on the call.

Much of the remainder of the morning was spent working through the press clippings and filing them against the correct individuals. I still have a few to go, but I made good progress.

By late morning, the rain had ceased, and the forecast suggested it would remain dry for the remainder of the day. I changed my shoes, put on my jacket and headed out for my daily walk. My AirPods chatted away as I walked, and I am about 5 minutes from the end of my current audiobook. I already have another lined up, so I can seamlessly move on when the current book finishes.

After some lunch, I returned to the family tree research until I was interrupted by the postman. He was delivering my latest printed journal. This distracted me from my research, and I spent a while reading through the finished article.

I must say that I am delighted with the results.

The rest of the afternoon was spent finishing my current Kindle book and starting on a new one. I had finished the first few chapters before stopping to prepare this evening's dinner.

Island hopping

 It had been wet overnight, but had dried up by the time I went down for coffee. The forecast was not good (in fact, we had a Yellow Weather Warning for rain). I took no chances. I dressed in my waterproofs before setting off for Zoe's to join the walk to school. It remained dry and was quite mild. We dropped Ellie in class, then as Zoe headed home, I set off for a walk.

I shook things up this morning. I ignored my normal route. Instead, I walked into the village to post some cards and looped back via the village hall before dropping back down to our estate and completing a couple of laps. It had been an enjoyable walk, and I had avoided the rain, which started about 10 minutes after I got home.

Di was at the Cardiac Rehab session at the Community Centre. She managed to get wet as she walked to the car at the end of the session. We really don't need more rain. North Bersted is almost an island now, with only one route out of the area. All of the others are closed due to flooding. I did ask our local councillor yesterday if there were any mooring spots available in Chichester in case I had to come in by boat. (Strangely, he hasn't replied.)

We had a quiet morning dedicated to admin. This was followed by some lunch and some Kindle time. Di went along to join Zoe as she collected Ellie from school, while I stayed put and did some further genealogy research. This was predominantly based on finding relevant newspaper articles for family members over the years. I suspect I will be doing more of this over the weekend.

Local Wag

 I was up just before seven. It was pouring with rain and had been for several hours. Clearly, today would require the waterproofs. I noticed that a local wag had published several videos of the flooding at Shripney. One featured a ferry, several galleons, and a rib ploughing through the flood waters. Another video featured dolphins, and today's offering featured a submarine surfacing. They were very well done, but hid the real inconvenience the locals are experiencing.

I went to Zoe's and joined the walk to school. As it was raining so heavily, the classrooms were open so that the children could go straight in. I set off on my usual walk. The rain eased off a bit during my first circuit, but returned with vengeance during my second and third laps. You will not be surprised to hear that there were very few walkers this morning.

Once home, I had breakfast and then finished the weekly shopping list. Lottie arrived, and we had the usual banter with her before heading out to Sainsbury's. When we first arrived, we seemed to clash with a bunch of Zombies, but after the first few aisles, they melted away and gave no further trouble. I saw a little old lady looking at the salmon, and she commented on how expensive it was. I told her about my deliveries from Fresh Fish Daily, explaining how much my wife loves salmon. "Oh, you must take care of your wife. A good wife is most important," she explained. I acknowledged that, and as I walked away, she said, "A good husband is important too, but I no longer have one" I said that I was sorry, and she responded, with a twinkle in her eye, "It's all right, I'm not looking for one. You're quite safe." We both chuckled as we parted and continued with our shopping.

When we had finished in Sainsbury's, we popped across to M&S for a couple of bits, then headed home. By this point, it was lunchtime, so once we had packed the shopping away, we grabbed some lunch and a cup of tea.

We had a bit of Kindle time during the early afternoon, but then Di had to take Jasper to the vet for an injection, and I had to meet up with Zoe to go and collect Ellie from school.

We have just had a severe weather alert regarding heavy rain. I'm wondering if there is a market for local countryside river cruises.

Press hound

We had a lazy start. Yesterday's rain had blown away, and it was a lovely, clear morning. Once I was showered and dressed, I went out to check the car with the expectation. that I would have to take it for a drive to clear the warning messages. As it happens, there were none. So I could confidently let Diane take the car to Pilates.

I walked to Zoe's to join the trek to school. I didn't head off for my usual walk, however. I went home for breakfast. I had decided that I would make the most of the morning and walk to Bognor and spend the morning in the library. It was a wonderful morning for walking, and it took me about 40 minutes to get there. I may not have used the shortest route, but I was trying to stick to the quieter side roads so that I could listen to my audiobook in peace.

Once I had arrived at the library, the assistant showed me to the public PCs and helped me get started. I soon registered for my free access to the British Newspaper Archive and spent the next couple of hours searching for articles that referenced various relatives. As I found each article, I downloaded it to the USB drive that I had taken with me. I will process these over the coming days at home.  All in all, I was quite impressed with the service but frustrated by how slow the PCs and their network were.

I packed up my notebook, my USB drive and my library card, and walked home. As I arrived, Di called to say she was just leaving Angmering, and Tim Empson called to ask some questions regarding tracing a relation. I did what I could to help, but fear there is insufficient base information to get to the bottom of his quest.

Emails arrived for the garage that I dealt with yesterday. They forwarded the full diagnostic report, gave me an estimate for the fix, and confirmed the appointment to do the work. I'm very impressed.

We managed some Kindle time in the warmth of the Orangery this afternoon. It was bright, sunny, and pleasantly warm. Di went to meet up with Zoe and collect Ellie from football practice. Zoe was absolutely buzzing. Today was meant to be her day off, but she got a call to say the auditors had arrived to do the store audit. She dropped everything and went to work. At the end of the audit, they had scored 100% with no "advisories". She is delighted, having achieved that two years in a row.

That's Better

It was a very wet night, and it looked as if the rain had set in for the day when I got up. I was up early to greet Ellie, but she ran straight upstairs, got into bed with Nana, and went back to sleep. We left her until 7:30 before waking her. Despite the rain, Diane came on the school walk with us, but went back home afterwards. I set off on my morning walk. The rain pelted down, and I was not surprised when I saw very few walkers.

Once I had returned home and stripped off my waterproofs, I grabbed some breakfast. Then I returned to yesterday's problem regarding the car. I called a local independent specialist. I explained why I was calling, i.e. the problem I was facing with the car, and mentioned the problems I was having with Richmond Skoda in Bognor. He chuckled and then apologised, explaining that there is another Skoda on his forecourt and the owner has also had problems with Richmond. Back to business, he asked where I was and offered to fit me in for fault diagnosis this morning, while I wait! I leapt at the offer and was there within 20 minutes. He plugged in the diagnostic tool, and we then went and sat by the computer to go through the results. The problem turns out to be the front offside ABS speed sensor. I paid for the diagnosis (it was £60 cheaper than Richmond), booked the car in for rectification, and drove home. I was back within an hour of my phone call. Unless anything changes, he will have the problem fixed and back with us (yes, he picks the car up from the house and returns it) a day before Richmond could even start the diagnosis. I am really looking forward to cancelling my appointment with them.

The afternoon followed the usual pattern. We sat in the lounge reading our Kindles until it was time to collect Ellie. As it was still raining, I left Diane at home, collected Ellie and took her home to Zoe so they could get to Chichester for Ellie's dental appointment.

Incandescent

 I was up early to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. Ellie, however, was in too much of a hurry to snuggle up to Nana and ran straight upstairs. Grandpa's greeting would have to wait. Other than that, we followed the usual morning regimen. The only addition was that Ellie was taking some flour, milk, and butter to school so she could make some scones! That's the sort of classwork with real benefits.

Dropping Ellie, I made the most of the dry morning and set off on my walk. I was back before ten and grabbed my breakfast before retiring to the study for some work on the family tree. I was intent on filling in more facts, supported by articles from the press, regarding various close relatives. When I had exhausted the articles that I downloaded at the weekend, I started to think about the regional press. Their archives are held in the British National Archives. I logged on and saw that there were various subscription models. The question I struggled with was "Would I use these archives enough to warrant the subscription?" I concluded that I wouldn't, but wondered if they were accessible through the West Sussex Library Service. They are. You can access them online, but only from a public PC in the library. I'm perfectly happy with that, so I will set aside some time for a trip to the local library.

After lunch, I enjoyed some Kindle time until it was time to collect Ellie from school. We brought her home, and we all tucked into her yummy scones. Zoe arrived to collect her just as we were finishing. We returned to our Kindles. The phone rang. It was the local Skoda dealer. Their only Skoda technician has just decided to take a holiday, and tomorrow's service has to be rearranged. Again. I was incandescent. They play me up every time I book the car in, they shift dates, they don't have the parts, there's always one problem or another. I said to the guy, "Is it safe to drive?" (Laying it on a bit thick). His response was "If you've got breakdown cover, give them a call if you have a problem". That impressed me, not. There's not a lot I can do immediately, so I rebooked the car for next week. Meanwhile, however, I have done some research and have found an independent VW Group specialist near the vet's. I will give them a ring in the morning (the garage, not the vet).

Brackets

 It was very wet outside when I woke up. The rain had been pounding down for a while and continued for several more hours. I decided that there was no need to get wet, as the forecast suggested a dry period towards the end of the morning. I drank my coffee and read the news before making my morning porridge and enjoying a second cup of coffee.

With breakfast over, I went to the study and opened up my genealogy research. I picked a few people at random and delved further into the archives to fill out more details of their lives, where possible. The subscription I took out a few weeks ago gave me access to the newspaper archives, and I was able to add some newsclippings to some of the leaves on the family tree.

I looked up from my research and realised the sun was shining and the rain had stopped. I grabbed my walking shoes, jacket, and AirPods and set off for a walk. After nearly three kilometres, the morning's coffee had created a distraction. I returned home to check the plumbing and then set off again for a second walk. I looped around the estate a couple of times, adding a further four and a half kilometres to my day's total.

After some lunch, I returned to the study to file away some of the press clippings I had found during the morning. I looked up from the computer to see that it was thrashing down with rain again. My walks had been neatly bracketed by the inclement weather.

I managed some Kindle time during the afternoon while Di worked on her sewing project. I managed to complete another book and already have another lined up for bedtime.

Publish and be damned

After a superb night's sleep, I greeted the day just before seven. Though it was still dark, I could see that it was dry and fairly clear, so unlikely to rain. Checking the forecast, I could see my conclusion looked correct. I enjoyed my morning coffee and took a tea to Diane in bed.

After I had showered and dressed, I had my Zoom call with the cousins. It was interesting that Chris, in eastern Turkey, had also had a lot of rain over the last few days, though maybe not as extreme as Devon. The small trickle in the creek by his apartment had swollen in a matter of a few hours until it was over 4 metres deep and swamping the car park. It has subsided now, but has left a thick coating of red mud.

I spent some time reading the social media and then set off for my walk. I headed for the medieval highway to Shripney. I wanted to see if it was passable, as I may need it on Tuesday when I take the car for some attention at the garage. This route would be my preferred way home on foot. I managed to get quite a way before coming across standing water across the road. With more rain forecast for Sunday and Monday, I suspect I will have to select another route.

When I arrived home, Diane was cutting out a pattern for her latest sewing project. I retired to my study and finished the second edit of last year's journal. I uploaded the journal to Lulu.com, then started working on the hardback cover. This takes a lot of effort as I have to edit a saved PDF cover from a previous year. This took me an hour or so, but finally I was able to upload it and finish creating the book. I sent it off for printing, and can expect the finished article in about a week. 

Satisfied with the book, I set out on another walk. I limited myself to two laps of the estate (about 4km). This has taken me to a total of 198km for January (I really should have walked another 2km), but 123 miles for the month is more than adequate. Once home, I settled in the lounge with Diane, and we had some Kindle time until Zoe called for a chat, and I went to prepare dinner.

Do Not Disturb

 It has been an immensely quiet day. I was up soon after 6:30, but there was no particular hurry. I grabbed some coffee and read the overnight news. I have always been sceptical of "news" items in social media, but I must say that it is getting to the point that I always assume them to be false unless I can corroborate them in the grown-up press or media.

I went to Zoe's to accompany them on the walk to school. Leaving Ellie as she walked into class, I set off for my morning walk. I was halfway through my first lap when my audiobook ended. I immediately triggered the next book and enjoyed the rest of the walk with a new storyline and new dramatis personae.

I was surprised to find that Diane had arrived home before me. She was meant to be at Cardiac Rehab. Jackie, who runs it, had come down with the flu and forgotten to let Di know. We sat and chatted while I finished my breakfast. The rest of the morning was occupied with some research for a staff scheduling problem Zoe had raised, and general admin. Di got on with some ironing.

After lunch, we settled down with our Kindles. As the time ticked towards pick-up time for Ellie, the rain started. I told Di to stay put, climbed into my waterproofs and headed off to school (clutching Ellie's umbrella). Her dance lessons finished on time, and she was soon outside sheltering under the brolly as we walked home. She was with us for about an hour before Pete arrived to take her for the weekend.