Service

 The Gorse Fox had a quiet 45 minutes before Ellie stirred this morning. This gave hime time to chop the chorizo, bacon, chillies, and spring onions ready for some breakfast egg fried rice. Yummy!

As everyone else emerged the Gorse Fox showered then headed off into Chichester. It was time for the first service on the Silver Vixen's Skoda. He dropped the car off and then headed into town. About twenty years ago he bought a Berghaus "Mera Peak" jacket and a fleece that zipped inside it. After twenty years of hard work, the drawstrings on the jacket are beginning to perish and the the zip on the fleece has developed a mind of its own. The idea was to stop in "Black's" and "Cotswolds" to see if the fleece could be replaced. "Black's" had a few Berghaus fleeces but none of the size the Gorse Fox needed. He went on to  "Cotswolds" but they were closed. He leapt on the bus and headed home.

The Gorse Fox then spent several hours looking at various fleeces through online shops - Berghaus, North Face, Jack Wolfskin, and so forth. The question that kept nagging him was whether any new fleece would actually zip into a 20 year old jacket.

A video came through from Skoda. The car had been given a clean bill of health. In fact the comment was that it was "like new". Soon after, the text message arrived to say the car was ready. The Gorse Fox got his old Berghaus jacket and headed for the bus. As he approached the stop the bus came along so he waved it down. The bus driver looked at him and sailed by. This reminded him of being a schoolboy and seeing bus drivers sail by the stops because they were late and couldn't be bothered to stop. He smirked, and thought that the joke was on the bus driver. He thought he was inconveniencing the Gorse Fox; whereas the Gorse Fox couldn't have cared less. He just stood and waited for the next bus.

In Chichester,  he stopped into "Cotswolds", which was now open. They only had a single Berghaus fleece, but it was enough for the Gorse Fox to check that it zipped into his jacket - it did. They only had it in black however, and that was apparently, the only colour they would have this year. The Gorse Fox didn't want black, so said his goodbyes and headed for Skoda.  With the car collected, he headed home.

Back home he logged on to Berghaus and ordered the fleece that he wanted - now certain that it would fit in his existing coat.