Blinds

Final coat of paint applied to garage floor this morning. It does look rather smart - but now Gorse Fox is wondering whether he shoud have painted the walls white also. That will have to wait now and become a future consideration or project.

With the Silver Vixen, Gorse Fox has been putting up the temporary window blinds so that we have a little privacy when we move in. As it is, Urban-cub is likely to be the first of us to sleep here. She is spending the day here and staying overnight on Monday so that we can move Jasper the cat over and limit the amount of disruption he gets from all the comings and goings during the packing and removals process.

Having become an expert in data centre moves, Gorse Fox has started the migration of the Fontwell data centre. He has chosen to do this by architectural affinity - thus, today, all the Windows PCs and laptops have been moved. This leaves only the IOS, osx, and remaining Linux systems to shift along with the network.

Floored

This is probably the last time the garage will look so tidy.

With the floor sealed this is the effect after a single coat of garage floor paint. There are a couple more coats to apply over the next day, but so far it is looking quite smart.

Signal

The MiFi seems to get a pretty good 3G performance at the new house, but the built-in 3G on the ipad (which uses O2) can only muster GPRS signals. Shame as Gorse Fox has quite a substantial data allowance on the iPad.

Garage floor has now been painted a nice shade of light blue and it awaits another coat when dry. Gorse Fox brought some AAA bateries for his energy sensor only to find one of the units uses AAA but the other uses AA... some a quick trip to the shops is on the agenda.

Sealed

The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen arrived at the Sales Office. A plaque greeted us, welcoming us to the development and we were presented with a bottle of bubbly and a bunch of flowers. Photos were taken and we were handed the keys and taken to the house.

More photos were taken and then we finally crossed the threshold.

We started to shuttle stuff into the house from the car. After all, we needed to be able to make tea even if we couldn’t do much else.

The Gorse Fox set up a Raspberry Pi at the study window to start taking photos of the view and how it changes over time. Then the name plaque for the house was fixed before the Gorse Fox started on the garage.

A gentle sweep (so as not to raise to much dust) and then the floor-sealer was put on with a roller. Gorse Fox was surprised at how far it spread and found that he had only used about half of what he had expected. It takes several hours to dry, so he will consider whether to put on a second coat before painting the floor over the weekend.

Meanwhile the Silver Vixen had been sorting out the kitchen and measuring up the “blinds in a box” that we intend to use at first. These are paper blinds that affix to the window-frame and provide a temporary solution until we have decided what our longer term window dressings will be.

Complete

Solicitor has just phoned to say that our house purchase has completed.

Home owners, again. At last!

Contrasts

The Gorse Fox is struck by contrasting articles in the papers today. 

On the one hand we find American soccer moms suing FiFA and US Soccer about the risks of heading the football. (The Gorse Fox notes that all the rest of the world, who have been playing soccer for many many years have had very little problem with this - the risk being very small).

In contrast we learn of the 9 year-old who shot and killed her gun-instructor. The Gorse Fox would observe that playing with guns is demonstrably more dangerous (nearly 9000 deaths in 2012) - yet there is no suit against the NRA or or manufacturers.

One might question, based on this simple analysis, whether there is really anything of great value that needs serious protection in the cranial cavities of these people. How about banning the big risks first then worry about the lesser and some would say optional risks.

New Postcodes

Moving to an established house in an established postal code is relatively easy in comparison to the hassle of moving to a brand new post code. So few online systems provide support for the case where a new post code has been allocated. This means that Gorse Fox has had the opportunity to spend much of the day listening to various "hold music" and diving through multi-level phone menus. In almost every case the systems insisted on telling him that he could save time by doing this online.

NO HE CAN'T

If he could he would have, but because you can't keep your PAF up to date, GF is having to call you to update the details.

Never mind... all is now done.

Blitz

The Silver Vixen has established a blitzkrieg on the house. Cupboards are being emptied, sorted, and cleaned. There is production line of articles being ditched or sent for re-cycling, and this morning the Gorse Fox was caught up in process. Dispatched to the garage he set about doing a high-level down-selection of stiff to keep and stiff to ditch.

It took two trips to the re-cycling centre to get rid of all of the material - old chairs, old tools, empty boxes, old parasols, waxes, detergents, oils, spirits and heavens knows what else. Fortunately, the guys at the tip were not very busy so they set about sorting out the contents of the car boot and ferrying it to the correct disposal points. (Very accommodating staff in Chichester).

MiFi

Knowing that we will be without Broadband for a while, GF looked at getting a 4G MiFi but for PAYG it seemed prohibitively expensive. In the end he dug out his old 3G MiFi and switched it on. He wasn't expecting any response as he had been told the sim-card is deactivated after 6 months of non-use.

Clearly this is not the case.

The MiFi burst into life and said the account needed topping up (it is a PAYG account). £10 later, all seems to be working. So we should be set - as long as we don't try to do some massive downloads.

Morals

The Gorse Fox was pleased to make contact with Cousteau-cub yesterday - only to find out that they had been burgled twice in the last week and lost a laptop, the Nexus 7 we bought her, and one of their motor bikes.

Apparently this happens when there has been a poor low-season. Indeed C-c said it had happened to most of her friends over the years - so she had been lucky up until now.

The Gorse Fox finds such behaviour morally repugnant and cannot conceive of what makes people prey on others likes this. He has sent C-c a link which may help her locate the Nexus and if not, may at least lock and erase it.

Bank Holiday

Bank Holiday Monday. At least there's no work today.

Oh yes, just remembered - every day is a Bank Holiday. Feeling insufferably smug.

Wet

Well it appears that the forecast was correct. It is wet this morning. Jasper, the cat, wants to go out but takes one look at the rain, imperiously raises his tail and does an about turn. He isn't getting his coat wet. No sir!

Forecast

The weather forecast for Monday and the early part of the week predicts rain. This was reason enough to schedule time in the garden today.

Lawns were done and the Silver Vixen did some tidying and pruning/ GF helped out with some brambles and tidying all the cuttings into bags for his regular trip to see his mates at the local tip. It has been a while since the last trip so GF was expecting a guard of honour, and a human chain to empty the bags from the car. He was miffed to find it was quite busy and GF had, therefore, to work alone.

On another note, the timelapse photography application GF established for the Raspberry Pi seems to be working well. GF suspects that if this is to remain a long-running project, he may need to get a UPS so that the RPi could survive power cuts.

Timelapse

The Gorse Fox is feeling smug.

The front of the new house will look out NNE towards the South Downs. For the moment, the view is fairly uncluttered - a hoarding in the foreground, a little bit of building activity and then the fields all the way to the Downs. This will change as the development continues and, after a year or two, the hoardings will come done and further houses will spring up.

GF thought it would be interesting to see how this develops over time. To that end he has spent the morning connecting up an old webcam to one of the Raspberry Pis and has knocked up a little code to take a photo once an hour, on the hour, between 0900 and 1700 every day. When we move in to the new house this can be set up at GF's study window and we will see a time-lapse storyline building up as things change in front of us.

Code completed, tested and running. (Though currently monitoring change in GF's study).

Quiet day

Well we are heading for a Bank Holiday weekend. As a retired person, it lacks the usual expectation. Every day is now a holiday... And the Gorse Fox is loving it.

Pretty quiet day really, other than a short trip to Chi to sort out some direct debits which had been set up with incorrect account details.

Should be meeting up with Jane an Trevor for dinner tonight at Chris Evans' restaurant in Chiddingfold.

Typical

Typical.

the Gorse Fox went along to Screwfix. He waded through the catalogue and found that the only Forstner bit that would do the job came not as an individual purchase but as part of a set. And wouldn't you know it - not part of the 5-piece set, but part of £40 16 piece set.

Oh well... it's done now and the desk is back up and fully functional - though 9 inches smaller than before.

Cut, cut, cutting...

The Gorse Fox's desk is in fact two five-foot desks side by side. This will not fit in the room we have designated for the study in the new house. After yesterday's inspection, Gorse Fox was able to measure the space accurately. This morning the agenda was set to adapt one of the desks so that it was 9 inches smaller. Taking the old desk apart, it was a matter of measuring the positions of the fixings as they were, the diameter of the holes and their depth. The Gorse Fox then dug out his big handheld circular saw and performed surgery on the desk.

Almost everything is now ready to put the desk back together, but Gorse Fox needs to pop along to Screwfix and get a 14mm Forstner bit for the last two holes. 

Not bad

Well the 90 minute induction appointment lasted 3 hours. No surprise there then.

We worked our way through the house room by room - wall by by wall, window by window, plug by plug. In the end we had a very short list of things that required attention and commitment that they would all be addressed before we move in. It was very satisfying that there were so few snags to address - a testament to the quality of the build and their inspection process.

Inspection

Today we have a viewing scheduled at our rented house - but more importantly we have the induction and inspection of our new house. A modicum of excitement is creeping in.

A Lovely Day

We started our special day with a trip to Fishbourne Palace. - to remind us of our youth :)

Fishbourne Palace is the largest Roman Villa ever discovered on British soil, and stands just to the south-east of Chichester. Whilst, in some ways, the mosaics are not as impressive as those at Bignor; the sheer scale of the site is what astounds anyone with a a rudimentary imagination.

Developed in a number of stages the buildings surrounded an internal courtyard garden that would have been almost the dimensions of a modern football pitch.

After a coffee an sandwich we headed across to the Chichester Canal Basin.

Until 1906, ships were able to bring their cargo up the Chichester Channel and along the canal into the heart of Chichester. Now the canal basis is given over to leisure - with the hire of rowing boats, kayaks, and canoes. Additionally, and more importantly for us, they run narrow-boat trips down the canal.

We duly bought our ticket and waited for our boat.

 A trip on a narrow boat is immensely relaxing. Theres is nothing you can do except watch the world drift by - at a slow walking pace.

The scenery along the canal was lush and a haven for wildlife. Any bird-watcher would have a field day as the various feathered friends swooped, dived, fluttered, or paddled along the route. At one point we saw a terrapin (ok, that's not a bird) sunning itself on the bank.

Passing Hunston junction and on past the tracks of the old Selsey tramway, the canal comes to halt (at least as far as the narrow boat is concerned). An elegant three-point turn saw us reverse the route and head back towards Chichester and the Canal Basin.

Of course, the canal has a towpath. This is a haven for walkers, joggers, anglers, cyclists, and dog walkers.

Talking of dog-walkers, we noticed this as boat was gliding along. The Gorse Fox feels that this approach to "taking the dog for a walk" is not what is normally intended by the phrase and could be the reason for canine obesity.

Back at the basin, we hopped in the car - popped home to change and then headed back out to the local "Amelie and Friends" for a celebratory meal.

A splendid day all round.

Anniversary

Well it's 41 years today since the Silver Vixen took pity on the Gorse Fox and decided to look after him. He confesses that he is still somewhat shocked that she said "yes" and wonders what he did that attracted such good karma.

Here's to the next 41 years.

Production Line

Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

According to the local dealer, the Gorse Fox's new car should be built today.

It would be interesting to know how long it takes from start to finish.

It would appear that a new Fiesta rolls off the production line in Cologne every 86 seconds






Here's a quick look at the build process:

Clarity

The Gorse Fox likes clarity. He was concerned the spreadsheet on which he had been working was not really showing the full picture adequately. This meant that he spent much of the day restructuring and refactoring the information.

He's still not quite convinced - but feels it is better than it was.

We have received the final account from the Solicitor for the house purchase. That'll knock a bit of a hole in the finances - but a hole we have budgeted for and expected all along. It's still a bit of a chock though when you write cheques that big.

Friends

It's always nice to hear from old friends.

The phone rang. A number we didn't recognise. It was Mrs Tiggywinkle - who, in the great scheme of things, is a few weeks ahead of us - having just moved sett with Badger. It was interesting hearing their tales as they so closely matched many of the issues and frustrations Gorse Fox has been experiencing over the past few weeks.

The important thing is that they have settled in now. We agreed to meet up soon after we are in the new place - whether up here, down there in the West country, or somewhere in between.

Views

After a morning of admin for both the Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen, we had to make ourselves scarce as the local Estate Agent was again showing some house hunters round the current house.

We popped across to the outskirts of Chi and GF wandered into Staples to try and get some more storage boxes for his study. Now back in the study, having loaded the new boxes, GF realises that he still needs more - and that some items just don't fit in the boxes.

Opening

Yesterday evening saw the opening of Sonning Place. It was a chance to see the part of the development that has, up until now, been behind hoardings.

 Along with our new neighbours and those already living on the development we had a chance to meet, chat and get to know each other a bit.

 The development, as a whole, looks very smart, and "our" little corner looks lovely. There has obviously been quite a push in the last few days.

We had a chance to chat with the Site Manager and he was convinced that we had picked the best of the plots because of our outlook front and back.

As commented above, Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had a chance to meet the neighbours. We are all going to be moving in with a a couple of weeks of each other. It was fairly clear that it is going the be a bit of a riot as there are some very nice people all around - a head teacher, an ex-Maths teacher, and ex-Deputy Head, someone who is a driving force at Goodwood, and some retirees.

Yep, Gorse Fox thinks it is looking very promising.

Odds, Ends, and Openings

Not too exciting so far - mainly odds and ends.

A late brunch was followed by a trip to the DIY store where GF picked up some new hoses for the washing machine (just in case the old ones had perished whilst not in use). Whilst there, using his healthy Starfleet discount voucher, he was offered a card that could give a further 10% off on Wednesdays - him being over 60. Obviously, it took a lot of convincing that he was indeed eligible, but eventually he left clutching the card.

Then we headed for Chi to complete a few more items before enjoying a coffee and cake at John Lewis's and heading home.

After a quiet hour we are preparing to head out for the Grand Opening of the phase of development (called Sonning Place) that incorporates our new house. Should be fun, and may meet some of our new neighbours.

(PS. GF notices BT have already slipped their appointment, to connect the services to the new house, by seven days).

Pillar to Post

Well more like Pillock to Phone.

The Gorse Fox got back on to BT - given that we were assured everything was now set up. He's glad the contact number is freephone - as it took 75 minutes during which he was passed from pillock to another - without any warning he was being transferred - and in most cases without the new person being briefed as to why they had been put in the hot seat.

It was particularly concerning at one point to hear there was an order against our account to transfer the services to a postal code GF had never heard of! In the end a very efficient lady took control of the call and eventually everything got sorted. Unfortunately this will mean that we get a new phone number - but at least we will have one.

Transfer of the Broadband isn't quite so straightforward. That cannot be arranged as this is a brand new service and it is not until the phone has been active for a few days that they can assess the suitability of the line for Broadband - so looks like GF and the SV will be relying on 3G when they first move in.

Digit Extracted

Silver Vixen has heard from the Site Office. Openreach have extracted their collective digit and everything should be available tomorrow for GF to go online and arrange the transfer of services.

Fingers are, metaphorically, crossed.

Meanwhile GF has spent much of the day moving Direct Debits. He has adopted a 3 account approach; one main account, one account for monthly expenses, and one for annual expenses. This allows for a little more clarity and also makes optimal use of the various interest rates and cashback options available with the different accounts.

On the subject of cashback - GF found some old premium bonds last week and had them aggregated into his recent holding. This added the vast sum of £12 - but also revealed that £12 invested in 1957 has won no prizes whatsoever in the intervening 57 years.

Relapse

Seing the news that Labour have a 7% lead in the polls is a depressing thought. It is like the country has been an alcoholic and hasn't touched a drop in the last few years - but is about to have a spectacular relapse just as they beginning to get better and their liver is recovering.

Communication breakdown - it's always the same

The Gorse Fox phoned BT to arrange the transfer of services to the new property. It all seemed to be going rather well. The agent wasn't perplexed by the fact the post code had not yet been updated on their system. She asked for the developer, the plot number, and kept trying to help. In the end she had to give up, explaining that BT Openreach had to put the basic developer information on their system to start with. She suggested GF contact Openreach and gave hime the freephone number.

The Gorse Fox tried the Freephone number - which just would not connect. He decided this was something the developer should be doing and phoned the Sales Office to explain the dilemma. They said they would look into it and several hours later the Gorse Fox received a copy of an email where they were cajoling BT Openreach to see if they had further work to complete as the developer had provided all the basic plans and plot numbers long ago.

What was obvious was that the Sales plot number and the developers plot number were very different. GF decided to call BT again and go through the process once more - this time with the other plot number. Again a very helpful chap tried but failed to get any information that would allow him to enter the order. Again he suggested BT Openreach were the source of the problem and agin provided the Gorse Fox with the Freephone number.

Gorse Fox tried the number and once more it was unobtainable. A little bit of research however revealed a direct number for our local office. GF called and started to explain. The lady at the far end was not happy. GF was told that BT should not have provided the number and that anyway they could always enter the order against an unknown address. Gorse Fox maintained his equanimity and thanked her profusely for the help she had provided. She hung up.

Still haven't managed to arrange BT services at new house.

Trickle down

No - not the rain. That stopped several hours ago. It is still quite windy but other than that the weather has returned to normal.

No, Gorse Fox was referring to the Postal Code. It is clear that it is starting to trickle down. He has, today, managed to sort out the transfer of the TV license from here to the new address (something you can do up to 3 months in advance - as long as you have the post code). The code was immediately recognised and the transfer actioned.

So it was that, in a fit of optimism, GF logged in to BT to try and effect the transfer of the phone and provision of Broadband. Clearly, BT aren't so quick off the mark and the new address is not recognised. (The website starts to deal with this by displaying a message saying that if the address isn't found you should click on a certain "radio button" - which it promptly forgets to show on the displayed page, so you cannot comply). Pah!

Clearly the trickle has not yet become a flood.

Rain

It's absolutely thrashing down with rain. This is what it must be like living in Wales, or up North.

Just a few bits and bobs

The Gorse Fox had woken during the night. He realised there was an error in his spreadsheet. His gut was telling him the answer to his sums was out by a fairly significant amount. First thing he re-cast the whole page. It took an hour or two, but in the end it was much clearer, much easier to understand, and confirmed GF's unconscious detection of an error.

By late morning, GF had taken the Silver Vixen through the sums and we were satisfied that we had clarity. It was time to use some of the estimated costs and go to order some more of the furniture we had modelled for the new house. We returned to the New England furniture store and placed an order for some bedside tables (on which the Gorse Fox managed to drive a deal), a chest of drawers, and a coffee table. All are scheduled to be delivered the first or second week in September.

Then we pottered off to the fireplace showroom and confirmed our selections from the previous trip and arranged for a survey of the lounge. Again this is scheduled for the first or second week of September. It looks as if we will be busy!

Watched the Spurs vs Schalke04 match on TV. Good to see another pre-season win. Let's hope the season will be more successful than last. Whilst watch the game we got a text message from Urban-cub to tell us that as a result of her 8-mile walk yesterday (down in Dorset) she has a stress fracture of the foot and needs to go to hospital on Monday morning to determine whether a plaster is necessary.

Service

You may not associate good service with the Civil Service. Whilst it does, indeed, provide shelter for the indolent and talentless - it also has many brilliant, hard-working,and dedicated individuals. (Gorse Fox has mentioned before that he worked with one Government Agency which had offices around the country - and many of those offices had a 30% absentee rate).

Today GF phoned the DWP. He decided that with the recently announced changes to the State Pension and various rules about contracted-in or contracted-out pensions, GF decided that the best way to be sure of what he will be entitled to receive was to ask. Afetr a long wait a very nice lady finally took the call, asked all the relevant questions and promised that she would look into it, calculate GF's entitlement and call him back on 26th August between 12:00 and 14:00. Apparently, the computer systems have not yet been written to provide printed estimates - hence the manual calculations and return phone calls.

On a different subject - Gorse Fox got a call from the car dealership. It seems that GF's new car is scheduled to be built on 18th August and will be in the dealership at the end of the first week in September.

Accounting

As mentioned earlier in the week, the Gorse Fox had recognised that opening a ~Santander 1-3-3 account could actually be moderately lucrative - give 1%, 2% and 3% cash-back on various common expenditures. Indeed, it looks as if we could get a "rebate" of several hundred pounds per year - which is not to be sniffed at!

This afternoon we met with a nice Russian girl called Kate at Santander (the bank, not the port). After about 45 minutes of discussions, and form filling we walked out with the appropriate accounts in hand.

Clearing House

The Gorse Fox greeted three chaps as they rand the doorbell. They were from Stonepillow - a charity that provides goods for people who cannot otherwise afford them. We had a list of items for them to pass on. Over the next 45 minutes we loaded their van with a larder fridge, a dishwasher, a single bed and mattress, a double bed, a full length mirror, a pine cabinet, an ottoman, and a DAB Radio.

Let's hope that they go to people that can make good use of them.

Trouble at t'mill

Seems like there is a problem posting to the blog from normal interface. This is a "mail-in" entry to see if the problem is endemic to the blog, or limited to the normal blogging interface.

Clinging to the Edge

Urban-cub had broken the Nexus 7 GF had bought for her last birthday. Well, strictly that isn't true - her dog leapt on it and cracked the screen.

GF is going to get this fixed as her birthday present this year. He has found an outfit who do such repairs and took a walk into the charming village of Walberton to drop the device off at the Post Office.

Despite some overnight rain, it was quite hot still and the 5km walk was a pleasant stimulus!

GF has also ordered a Kindle, today, for the Silver Vixen. It should turn up at the weekend and hopefully will fit the bill.

Living on the edge

It is clear that, now retired, the Gorse Fox is living on the edge. He has read the papers, drunk some coffee, checked some web-sites, written a letter to the Premium Bond people, and transferred some more money between accounts.

As if this wasn't enough excitement, he has also retrieved a hold-all from the loft to lend to Urban-cub as she prepares to go off on holiday tomorrow.

More Admin

It is frustrating that the GF cannot get more done, but so many things are dependent on the post code file - the master might have been updated but until that rolls out to the online service and PAF clients, GF is picking his way through the tasks that can be completed. In doing this, he has discovered another insurance policy that could be cancelled. There is little point insuring an appliance that we no longer have!

He also spent some time on the phone to HMRC. It appears that whilst they have recently changed his tax code - they sent the notification to Starfleet instead of Starfleet's Pension Trust. As a result GF is still on the wrong tax code. This, in its own right triggered some questions regarding the Silver Vixen's accounts and the benefit of an HMRC R85 which stops tax being deducted from the accounts of non-tax payers. Talking of accounts - Santander seem to have a very good deal with the 1-2-3 account which pays interest and gives cash back on a number of regular expenditures. Looks like a very good deal, so we have made an appointment to go to Chi and open said account.

Again GF's attention wandered. He started to look at the cost of energy. The new house is likely to be more efficient than this one. But by judicious account switching, GF can already see nearly £300 - £400 of savings annually - based on current consumption.

Very quiet Sunday

The Silver Vixen had some sewing preparation to do, and the Gorse Fox had nothing specific on the agenda. The SV disappeared up to her craft-room, and the Gorse Fox spent some time in the study.

GF had a book on the go. This has been ignored for the past month, so he plugged in his earphones and spent the afternoon finishing "Th Flood" by David Hewson. As he had his earphones in place he was able to get on with other things. A nice piece of gammon was simmered in Coca Cola, onion slices, cloves, and red peppercorns. After a couple of hours it was set aside to cool. Then it was roasted slowly at 150C for an hour whilst being basted in honey every 15 minutes. Hugely successful.

Quiet

A viewing had been booked this morning, so after a quick run round with the vacuum cleaner and tidy-up we made ourselves scarce so that the agent could do his job. We took the opportunity to go out in the car and try to stitch together a few roads that could prove useful when we have moved - in that they provide alternative routes out of Bersted.

Back home, most of the rest of the day was quiet. GF contacted Arun DC to inform them of the move. That was straightforward as they already had details of the new postcode. However, BT are still in the dark and whilst GF spoke to a very nice man with a broad Belfast accent, the chap couldn't do anything until they get the postcode. He promised to keep a check on it and get back to the Gorse Fox. (GF may be a little cynical, but somehow he is not expecting that call back!).

We went through the address book and highlighted those people who we would need to inform of the move - deciding who would get a card, who would get an email, or who would get a phone call. Once we have have details of the phone (whether or not we can keep the number) - GF can get that process under way.

Chi

The Silver Vixen had an appointment in Chi.

The Gorse Fox had some errands to run, so dropped off the SV and headed out to the recycling centre (where he was greeted like an old friend). Then stopped at Staples for some envelopes. The family will know that letting the Gorse Fox loose in a stationary store is at best reckless, at worst disastrous. GF managed to keep himself at the reckless end of the scale and ended up walking out with more envelopes, cards and what not than was ever intended.

Then GF headed back to Chi - and observed that there was a better class of busker than one is used to wandering the town. First stop was NatWest where he had to deposit a cheque. The queue stretched to the door so GF decided to use the automated teller. He filled in the details and place everything in a rapid deposit envelope. Unfortunately he then put this in the wrong machine - rendering that machine out of service. Eventually he spoke to a member of staff and owned up to breaking their machine; getting assurance that they would sort it out and handle the deposit.

Next stop was the Halifax where he closed an old account that has been dormant for many years. List completed, he wandered around until he could meet up with the Silver Vixen for lunch. As it is "Glorious Goodwood" the town was quite busy, so we sat in the rear courtyard of Pizza Express and spent the proceeds of the now closed Halifax account.

It was lovely afternoon and the courtyard was quiet and sheltered. We sipped some cold white wine, ate our main dishes, which we both thoroughly enjoyed, and were then tempted by the sweet menu. Gorse Fox is not (generally) one for sweets - but cannot resist a summer pudding. Summer Pudding with marscapone was the first item on the menu. How could he resist? Well, as you can see, he didn't. The Silver Vixen enjoyed a sorbet with cappuccino... but GF is sure it wasn't as good as the summer pudding.

That's it - no more food for us today.