Fixing the Code

Friday has been a good day, by the Gorse Fox's standards. The Silver Vixen has been in her study working on her preparation and practise for a workshop she will be attending tomorrow. The Gorse Fox has been in his study working on the Raspberry Pi.

With the camera module fitted, the pictures being captured are much better than the old ones. However, these pictures do not include any sort of timestamp on the image. What's more it doesn't appear to be an option. A little investigation revealed that a caption could be overlaid on the image using another program.

It took a fair bit of fiddling about, but now GF has the automatic image capture working.

This particular image was taken at four o'clock as the sun was going down. There was still a bug in the code at this point. The timestamp was repeating the hour - so instead of saying 160002 (2 seconds past 16:00) it repeated the hour and said 16160002. That was soon corrected.

There were many other tasks the Gorse Fox had to do: the early photos, taken when we first moved in, were mirror images of what was actually there - so he also wrote some code to go through and flip all the pictures that were affected.

Some tasks are still outstanding - dates/times were wrong for the first few weeks we were here - so they need to be sorted out if GF can work out what they should have been. Also, he would like to create a video by combining all the early photos (prior to the installation of the new camera) into a sequence.

Visiting the NT at Uppark

In August 1989 the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had decided to go and visit one of the National Trust properties that wasn't too far from our home at the time. The choice was Petworh House or Uppark House. (Both about 90 minutes drive). We chose Petworth and that very weekend Uppark was consumed by fire.

Several years of restoration followed at the cost of £23M, and the building was finally reopened to the public a few years ago.

We had visited since the reopening, but as it is on 17 miles from home and it looked like a very mild day, we though we would return.

Being a National Trust property, no photography is allowed inside the building - but the restoration is a triumph of care, attention to detail, and workmanship.

 It was a bit overcast when we first arrived, but slowly the clouds broke up and it brightened up by early afternoon.

There was meant to be a trail explaining the life and times of the house - created by artists in the "Arts and Crafts" style. The Gorse Fox is evidently a philistine, as he was spectacularly unimpressed by all but a few of these exhibits. It seemed, as it so often appears, to be an exercise in supporting people of little talent but who thing of themselves as creative.

After touring the dairy, the stables, and the main house, we made our way to the restaurant. Scones, jam, clotted cream, flapjacks, and cake all washed down with strong tea seemed like the perfect interlude in the trip.

Feeling very satisfied we moved on and took a stroll in the grounds. It was half-term and there were lots of yummy-mummies and their kids, but to be fair they were having fun without causing any kind of nuisance.

It was a nice trip, and the Gorse Fox expects that we will return as it is so close to home.

Go ahead

The chap from the scaffolding company turned up. If the Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen go ahead with the installation of the gas fire, we will need to get the chimney lined... and the nature of the gap between us and the house next door precludes use of a ladder. We debated with the scaffolder and a deal was done.

The Gorse Fox has now contacted the fire supplier and told them to go ahead. It will probably be several weeks before anything happens - but at least the decision is made.

Pi Cam

The Gorse Fox has had a quiet day. There was no football - which given the heavy rain, was lucky.

He made the most of the time by installing the Camera Module on his raspberry Pi. This will take over form the old webcam he had providing the timelapse view of life - as it goes by - out of the front of the house.

To give an idea of scale, just behind the camera module, on the right, is a normal SDCard. The whole unit (camera and Raspberry Pi) is mounted (i.e. sellotaped) to the top of box in which the iPhone 5 was delivered.

The Gorse Fox will have to come up with a better way of mounting this for the future, but this will do for the moment.

Discovery

After ten years, the Gorse Fox has just discovered something. If he sends a blog post by email, and that post contains a photo - then the text gets dropped. If there is no photo, the text is posted correctly. GF had never noticed this behaviour before.

Ten Years After

Today the Gorse Fox celebrates 10 years of blogging. It was ten years ago today he thought he'd give it a try - not quite sure why, nor whether there was a point. He had been inspired by several earlier bloggers and thought that, at least, it was an outlet for some of life's moments of irony, of humour, and the occasional moments of frustration. 7384 blog posts later we find ourself here.

Not yet crispy

It seemed too nice to stay in. The morning had seen a trip across to Rustington for some bits and pieces for the spare bedroom. The afternoon seemed like time to explore.

The Gorse Fox set off with the intention of walking through Bersted to Shripney. It seemed straightforward enough. The Gorse Fox, however, had not taken into account the road construction that was going on nearby. This bisected the route, and whist it was clear the footpath and the bridge over the new road were complete, they were still blocked off.

He diverted and came back via another route. This ran behind the new school (which opens next week) and down through the neighbouring development, past the attenuation ponds and back. It was clear this had become a favourite feed ground for some local ducks. Whilst they flew off as the Gorse Fox arrived, he only had to wait a couple of minute before they all returned to their feeding frenzy.

Football

Lovely morning of walking football. Only four aside this week but that meant lots of space to pass the ball and lots of movement.

As you can see, the AstroTurf pitch is really quite swish. It has a slight spring under foot and is very forgiving on old joints.

The Silver Vixen decided she would come along to watch. The Gorse Fox supposes that even on a Sunday morning it's good to have a laugh. When we stopped for a break at half-time she took a group shot.

The natural competitiveness couldn't be suppressed and the team for which the Gorse Fox was playing won comfortable (in fact we stopped counting when we got to double figures).

There's no mid-week game this week - which is probably as well as it gives us a chance to heal a few tweaked muscles and rest some aching joints.

Explanation

The Gorse Fox had taken time to explain about the clocks changing. The cat seemed to listen but obviously forgot everything we had discussed at 0600 this morning.

Expectation

Have heard from the local dealer. The Silver Vixen's car should arrive on site this coming week so with luck we will have it within the next 10 days or so.

Talking of expectation, the Gorse Fox received a text from BT. He  can expect his kit to be delivered on 3rd November. With P&P it will cost £41-ish, oh yes and his Broadband should be switched on on 3rd November. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear.

The Gorse Fox has not ordered anything from BT.

He does not need any kit.

He does not want any kit.

He is not going to pay £41 pounds for something he neither needs nor wants.

He already has Broadband (although painfully slow).

His heart sinks. Is this whole nightmare about to replay itself?

Cool and Dry

It's cool and dry (much like the Gorse Fox). Seemed like an ideal opportunity to take some sheets of MDF out into the garden and get them primed so that the Gorse Fox can start his little project next week. (Though he does need one additional sheet of MDF to complete it).

Fortunately it is touch dry in a very short time so he has had time to flip the boards and do both sides and the edges.

Little Victories

The agent from BT called. Our correct phone number has finally been restored... and our charges - going forward - have been significantly reduced.

Broadband is stil very slow - so the Gorse Fox complained about this and she took it in hand. let's see what happens over the next few days as there has been no real increase in speed over the last week and by now it should be approaching its optimum.

Queues

The Gorse Fox got an alert. Tickets for Eric Clapton's 2015 Royal Albert Hall concerts were going on sale at 0900 this morning. He loogged on an found himself in a queue with 3349 people in front of him, just to gain access to the website. By the time he reached the head of the queue all of the prime tickets had gone. He did, however, manage to grab a few for next May.

Transactions

Now that the Gorse Fox has, what BT laughingly refer to as, Broadband, he has been able to log in and download all of the various bank transactions that have accumulated since we moved. It has taken all morning to go through them and record them all.

The Gorse Fox use MoneyDashboard which is a very useful aggregator for all of the various accounts. The problem is that they seem to have change the interface somewhat and it looks like they have hidden or lost the facility that allow you to download all of the transactions to a spreadsheet. The GF is not sure how this constitutes progress.

Complications

We heard last week that the Coventry Hobbit had been involved in a motorcycle  crash. Yesterday it became clear that, one week on, bruising was still developing. It was decided he should head back to the hospital.

We await news... and hope that all is ok.

We Wuz Robbed

So the local derby game was played. It  was great fun, ending up 0-0. This, however, meant a penalty shoot-out. We were slightly hampered by a ref who couldn't count. The iidea was 5 penalties each team, and if still a draw, then sudden death.

The Gorse Fox went in goal for his team - and saved 3 of the 5 penalties. Our team scored 3 penalties - so had logically won. Trouble was the ref had lost count and went to sudden death where the Gorse Fox not only let the next ball through, but being his turn to take a penalty, he hit it straight at the goal keeper.

Pah!

One of the organisers from Brighton & Hove Albion was there taking photos which are, apparently, destined for twitter. The Gorse Fox will keep an eye out. 

Local Derby

Today the Gorse Fox has another football match. This is a local derby against Littlehampton - at their ground. At least it isn't quite as blustery as yesterday - though there is a nip in the air. Not sure how many of our lads will turn up - but we'll see.

Online

The Silver Vixen was out playing with her coven. This left the Gorse Fox at home alone. Alone, and online (finally).

It wasn't plain sailing. It was so long since some of the systems had been connected that they all wanted to back-up or update. The iPhone took 4 hours to update, the iPad threatened to take 7 - but only took 4 hours. Let's hope things speed up.

We met with the chap who will be developing our Orangery to tie down some basic logistcs and answer some final questions. Looks like they can't start until the New Year, now. That's not too much of a problem and not too much of a delay.

Relief

The Gorse Fox heaves a sigh of relief. Broadband service has been switched on. 

At the moment he feels like he has been under a Stone Age seige and the digital relief column has been seen coming over the hill, but hasn't quite arrived. The speed of the link is dreadfully slow at present, but should pick up as the line settles and the modem tunes itself. It's still too soon to do a great deal, but at least the infrastructure is now in place. 

Another working week

And so begins another working week. 

Ooops, oh no it doesn't. It's another non-working week. No commuting, no irritating conference calls, no stupid targets, no annual assessments, no clients, and no management by running around shouting. Just the Silver Vixen, other nice people, and nice tasks that the Gorse Fox wants to perform, rather than has to perform... and the odd game of football.

Excellent

Well the football went well with the Gorse Fox on the winning side in 3 out of 4 games. The last one being a draw. He also scored several goals. 

After that it was home where Urban-cub and Pistol Pete came to visit and cook Sunday lunch. Lovely afternoon.

Mixed Signals

Apparently the arena where the Gorse Fox is playing football this morning has 3G AstroTurf. Hopefully this will mean he gets a better signal on his phone :)

Swapsies

Spent some time today swapping phones around. The Silver Vixen has upgraded, so the Gorse Fox has taken over her old phone. This took a bit of fiddling about as it needed a change of SIM card. Gorse Fox noticed a new deal for a 4G SIM with 1GB of data. This couldn't be handled in the shop so he phoned customer services. It turns out that the £16.50 deal was only for new customers and for the Gorse Fox it would have been £22.50. Not a lot, but it was a matter of principle. The Gorse Fox told them to stuff it.

(Oh yes, and he put some dubbin on his new football boots ready for tomorrow's game at Ford Arena).

Promises

BT have promised Broadband connection on Monday. Forgive a degree of scepticism, but the Gorse Fox will believe it when he sees it.

Taking it more seriously

New football boots for astroturf pitches - at the age of 62. The Gorse Fox is beginning to get the hang of retirement!

Mall

Over the past decade or two the uk has embraced a few of the US-styled Shopping Malls. The most famous are probably Bluewater, Lakeside, Westfield, and the Trafford Centre. Today we plan to head for the closest we have on the South Coast - WestQuay at Southampton.

(Very happy with the blinds that were installed yesterday. It is only psychological, but somehow it made the house feel even more cosy last night. Only a few more weeks to go before the shutters arrive. Apparently, they take about 9 days to make, but then spend 6 weeks on a ship between China and Southampton - so the Gorse Fox expects they are on the high seas at present).

Blinded by the light

Apollo is due at 08:30. He will start the process of providing us some privacy by fitting blinds at all of the side and rear windows. It will probably take him most of the day, but the Gorse Fox is fairly certain he will do a good job (compared to some of the fittings done by other suppliers in neighbouring houses. 

Yesterday's football went well, though the Gorse Fox only managed one goal. Next week we have a competitive match against against a team from Littlehampton. That should be a bit of a blast.

We also heard that the Coventry Hobbit had tried to defy the laws of physics and experimented with the effects of trying to destroy road surface with human tissue whilst try to see if a moped could defy the laws of gravity. Empirically, it is now clear that roads and their bordering vegetation tend to deal with the impact of a human head and appendages rather better than the aforementioned collection of tissue (what we used to refer to as wetware). We wish him a very speedy recovery, and trust that he is not too much discomfort. I guess this tarmac surgery will merely add to his rugged good looks!

A la mode

Walking around the housing development yesterday, it occurred to the Gorse Fox how fashion changes. In the old days, every house would have net curtains and curtains at the windows. Slowly, the popularity of net curtains seemed to wane. Indeed the Gorse Fox only noticed two houses with nets yesterday.

It isn't just nets that have diminished in popularity. The Gorse Fox would estimate that 80% of all the houses had eschewed curtains and chosen blinds - be they venetian or vertical.

Funny how styles change.

Fruitful day

It's been a fruitful day. BT called and are now trying to sort out our broadband service and a number of other service options. Hopefully all will be sorted out in a couple of days. What is better still is that the new contracts are all significantly less monthly than the previous service.

The Gorse Fox went to pot a letter and had a serendipitous meeting with the site manager. It gave hime an opportunity to explain the issue regarding the chimney, and point out that a nearby house had a lining installed only yesterday. This was followed up a few hours later when the Gorse Fox bumped into the Customer Care manager. He is looking at scheduling us some access to their cherry-picker when it is on site for other tasks in the next few weeks,

Connected

Finally we are connected again. Well, to the phone network anyway (not Broadband yet). However, they have assigned us a different number from that we had sent out to all our friends and family. Hopefully, this is just a temporary measure and we can get the other number re-instated.

The engineer claims the Broadband may be switched on by midnight. The Gorse Fox is hopeful, but not optimistic!

Inching forward

The Gorse Fox has noticed we now have a dial tone. None of the numbers we have been told about will ring it yet... but at least there is a dial tone. (To be fair the engineer is due this afternoon).

Absolute deluge again over night - but despite this, there is no standing water nearby. Obviously the drainage is well-designed (thank goodness).

Ssh

It's Sunday. It's a quiet day. So quiet in fact that we though we were the only people left in Bersted. Not a sound could be heard from the garden. Well, not until the Gorse Fox decided it had dried up enough to mow the lawn, anyway.

Gorse Fox has also been looking at the best way of labelling the storage boxes he has in his storage unit. He decided on a simple Location, Theme, Content schema. Location is defined by position in study (i.e. "E" represents the storage on the eastern wall) then simple x-y coordinates. Thus E-4-5 is a box stored in the eastern storage system, in the cubby hole that is 4 columns across and 5 rows up. (Mmmm, maybe he should have used an Excel-like co-ordinate system - No he'll stick with it). The labels are printed on card and slotted into adhesive labe holders in the front of each box.

The Gorse Fox, still living on the edge!

Yes

It's been a quietish day, though we did head to the shops for some descaler for the coffee machine. (Who says retirees don't live on the edge?). 

Whilst out we also managed to find some bedside lights for our room - something that we had not both agreed on in the past. We had found some, but not agreed. This time they leapt off the shelf at both of us. Sorted.

Tonight we have Trevor (Rick Wakeman) and Sue coming to visit and share in some Indian-based repast. Should be great fun (though Gorse Fox suspects it will be a late one).

Interesting Proposition

So the Gorse Fox met up with his old colleagues. They have come up with an interesting proposition and business model. The Gorse Fox listened attentively and agreed that it sounded great and he would love to be involved. This was particularly helped by some of the names (of old friends) they have already managed to get on board. However, the Gorse Fox was not interested in going back out to clients. He would willingly help with reviews, with creation of assets, with developing strategies or architectures, and so forth - but he is not interested in the client-side work at present.

He expected that would be the end of the conversation, but no, they were interested in a model that would accommodate people with constraints such as this.

We'll see where it takes us.

Progress

The Gorse Fox has just been informed the phone line should be activated (re-activated) on Monday. This is a 9-day improvement, so should be considered real progress. Now we must also chase the activation of the Broadband component.

Meeting up

The Gorse Fox is looking forward to meeting up with some old colleagues at lunch time. These are chaps that the Gorse Fox has known since the 1980's and worked closely with when he started his project at Polygram, then Universal Music. They were heady days - and great fun, so it will be nice to have a pizza and a coffee and catch up on old times.

Action

The Gorse Fox's Executive Complaint Resolution Officer has phoned "from the Chairman's office". She is now owning Gorse Fox's  problem and is talking directly to the Director of Services. She has given the Gorse Fox her email address and her direct phone number, and has promised that she will get our services sorted out.

The Gorse Fox is beginning to feel a modicum of hope.

Movement

Writing to BT managing Director seems to have triggered action. 

The Gorse Fox has received an apology and a promise to sort it out from the Executive Level Service Team

Pah!

After several calls with BT yesterday, the Gorse Fox can expect a quiet day today as they have condescended to call him on Friday. This was the trigger that caused the Gorse Fox to write a formal letter of complaint, which, if posted will be dealt with within 14 days. The letter was converted to an email and submitted. The Gorse Fox thinks he has the email address of the head of Customer Service and Care... he will dig this out and resend the email to him.

He doesn't hold out a lot of hope. Everything BT have said since the beginning has been reneged upon.

On a brighter note, the walking football was great fun again yesterday. The Gorse Fox scored a few goals and felt that he got a really good workout.

Expectation, nil

The rain has started again. It will be wet under foot for the walking football. The Gorse Fox might be better with fins than trainers today.

The saga with BT continued. Despite assurance of a service by 11 Oct, the confirmatory emails arrived with 22nd Oct and the wrong portfolio of services. The Gorse Fox called back (he seems to have most of his retirement on the phone to BT). Again it has been escalated to the expedite team. Again the Gorse Fox has been promised a call-back on 8th (today) - again he has little expectation of satisfaction.

Descent into madness

Some time in the future, the poets will write an epic poem on BT and how it brought about the repopulation of our insane asylums. Care in the community will be overwhelmed by the number of gibbering wrecks rendered simple by their attempts to interact with BT.

So it was that this gibbering wreck called BT again this morning. Again they promised to call back within the hour - which they did (to be fair). 

The following 60 minutes were spent trying to solve the basic problem of our phone going offline and still no broadband. It would appear our number is allocated to a closed account. It would appear our order had been cancelled. It would appear they need to enter a completely new order - and we rejoin the queue. It would appear we will get a new number - having just sent change of address cards with the original number to all our friends and relatives. It would appear that it has been escalated to the "expedite" team... and they might call the Gorse Fox on Thursday to set a date.

Brick wall, meet head. Head, meet brick wall.

Barely credible

Usual issues continue with BT. In a new "leaves on the line" moment they called the Gorse Fox back, and asked him to call them in 4 hours as their computers are down!

Deluge

What a deluge we have had today. The rain started soon after the Gorse Fox got up. It then steadily got heavier and heavier and the wind got gustier and gustier. Jasper, the cat, went to the door and looked out. The Gorse Fox opened the door enough for him to go out. He sniffed, looked up at the Gorse Fox, rolled his eyes and walked back away as if to say "you have to be kidding". 

There was something pleasing about sitting indoors in the warm, watching the weather mayhem outside the window.

Deluge

What a deluge we have had today. The rain started soon after the Gorse Fox got up. It then steadily got heavier and heavier and the wind got gustier and gustier. Jasper, the cat, went to the door and looked out. The Gorse Fox opened the door enough for him to go out. He sniffed, looked up at the Gorse Fox, rolled his eyes and walked back away as if to say "you have to be kidding". 

There was something pleasing about sitting indoors in the warm, watching the weather mayhem outside the window.

Doing 90

What a lovely, but very long day. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox went to a Birthday Party. The Silver Vixen's Uncle Charlie was 90, and that is something to celebrate.

We headed out, following the SatNav with a mild degree of trepidation after last week's troubles. We need not have worried. It delivered us, nearly three hours later to the doorstep, in the village of Willingham (near Cambridge). The house was rapidly filling with aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, girlfriends and other ne'er-do-wells. The table was groaning under the weight of food that had been prepared. As always with these family parties everyone got on like a house on fire and we had a wonderful day. This was topped, for the Gorse Fox, by the fact that all of that side of the family are Arsenal supporters and insisted on watching the game - a game they lost to Chelsea. The Gorse Fox restrained himself. Not a word was said, but a warm feeling of satisfaction suffused his being.

We left late in the afternoon and started to the return journey. Again, it took about three hours, though the traffic was much heavier during the return trip.

Once home, we settled down. Urban-cub rang.  She is clearly not well at present and was delivered some sound advice by the Silver Vixen. Hopefully, some medical intervention tomorrow will get her on the road to recovery.

BT Despair and Despond

The Gorse Fox has a growing sense of despair. Urban-cub phoned on the Gorse Fox's mobile; apparently the landline was not working. Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had just left to get some light fittings, so were in no position to check or address the issue. on our return, however, we did check. Our number is unobtainable. Our line is dead.

The Gorse Fox phoned BT. They were of course very busy and offered to call back within the hour. They didn't.

The Gorse Fox phone back. This time he got through to someone and after explaining the issue was told it had to be handled by the Futurevoice group - and was duly transferred.

Future voice asked what number I was calling about and for security, what name was on the account. The Gorse Fox was then informed that a totally different name was on the account for our number. The discussion moved forward to a point where the agent was flummoxed. He needed to talk with his manager. He would call back. (The Gorse Fox has fallen for that one before, but agreed).

True to his word he called back. They were confused. Our number only showed on one system and that was against a request for fibre-based voice services. The Gorse Fox pointed out that there was no fibre on the estate - so that seemed daft. He decided he needed a further huddle with his manager and would again call back. Again Gorse Fox hung up and waited.

Futurevoice phoned back - they were stuck. There was nothing they could do without access to the ordering system and the order group were only available Mon-Fri. He was very apologetic, wrote up a copious explanation on our customer record, and flagged it for attention on Monday. This was reinforced with a separate email. There was little else Gorse Fox could do... but pointed out that the number that we had been allocated and were using has been sent out - and it would but unacceptable for it to be changed at this stage.

Is there a less organised or less efficient utility company in the country that BT?

Friends

It was nice to have Betty and Barney Rubble come to visit today. Barney has been in the wars, but was looking hale and hearty again, so is clearly recovering quickly.

We found our way in to Chi for lunch at Prezzo. This is a fine enough establishment, but seemed completely flummoxed by a request for bitter lemon. This was then compunded by the completely blank look we got when Betty asked for a sherry. You would have though she had asked for a glass of fresh unicorn tears.

Anyway, lunch was very good and after a quick spin round the shops we all headed back to Bersted where we had tea and scones at home and discussed the new homes all-round as they also have 9or recently had) house moves. Lovely day.

Just stuff

The furniture store rang. All their stock of the bed range we had chosen is suffering from the same defect as the one we rejected. they invited us to go and choose an alternative or accept a refund. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen went back to the shop. There was no suitable alternative so they refunded our money without quibble. Now we have to find a bed that will suit the spare room.

As the Silver Vixen went off for her after-school sewing club, the Gorse Fox headed in to Chi to try and find a bracket that would allow Gorse Fox to hang a cut-glass mirror safely. He went to Covers. This is a builders merchant and seems to stretch for hundreds of yards alongside the railway. The Gorse Fox felt like a id in a sweet shop. He could have wandered around for hours - then moved on to the next of the warehouse blocks, and then again, and again. The Gorse Fox suspects he will become a regular visitor.

Back home the mirror was soon installed. Then the Gorse Fox took a call from the fire-place supplier's technical surveyor. We debated and discussed the issues over the provision of a gas fire venting into a 250mm square flue. He had not managed to come up with any fire that would work efficiently - but had one more manufacturer to try. The Gorse Fox suspects he will have a crusade on his hands, trying to convince the builder that their is a flaw in their design.

Fangs for the memory

The Gorse Fox has a confession to make. He isn't very good at going to the Dentist on a regular basis. In mitigation he would point out that as a kid (who didn't eat sweet things, or drink sugar laden juices) he seemed to have fillings and dental exploration every time he went. as he approached and entered adulthood this seemed to continue. he then left it a while - and despite the hiatus, needed no more work than when he went regularly. So it was that this morning the Gorse Fox had to confess to his new dentist that he had not visited any of his colleagues for more than a decade. He made no judgement, and just said he would take a look. Twenty minutes and a few x-rays later, the Gorse Fox left with a clean bill of health. Whilst not a universally acceptable approach, there is a lot to say for good oral hygiene and leaving your teeth alone.

After the dentist, it was time to dash across to Angmering for the week's walking football. Another thoroughly enjoyable session with 30 minutes of drills and exercises to warm up the old joints and muscles, and then about 30 minutes to play a 4-aside match. The Gorse Fox managed to score a couple of goals in the 5-5 draw, and managed some good saves at the end of the game to keep the scores equal.

Back home, the local furniture store delivered the long awaited suite. This looks lovely - though does demand that we sort out some of the other furniture and seating in the lounge. They were also delivering the spare bed (frame). The Gorse Fox had to reject this, however, as the frame was clearly splitting in a number of places. Let's hope they have another in stock.