New Start

 It was another bitterly cold start to the day, but it was quite bright and sunny later on. It didn't take Ellie long to find where Poppy the Elf had ended up over night. She's clearly got stuck when sneaking back in after filing her daily report with Santa Claus.

For Urban-Cub it was a new start. Today was her first day as an employee of a well known discount supermarket, where she is being trained as a store manager. There was lots of ice to scrape from her car before she could get going, but once on the way she had a pretty good run through. She has had a wonderful day and is absolutely full of it. Today was a basic introduction at their regional office and distribution centre, but tomorrow she starts the in-store induction. Over the next few months she will be trained in all of the roles performed in the store from check-out operator through to shift-leader, then she will move on to train as deputy manager of another store, and finally get her own store. From what she has told us, they sound like a very good and caring employer - much as Starfleet was when the Gorse Fox first joined.

The Gorse Fox didn't go to football today. Ellie needed to be dropped at school, the Silver Vixen needed to prepare the Ocado list, the skip was being removed, and the Gorse Fox wanted to make sure everything was under control (He did manage to get out for a short walk after lunch, before we collected Ellie).

Simon the Landscaper started the day with the plate whacker. All of the new layer of hardcore was compressed down and levelled. Then, finally, he got started on the first of the tiles. Again, his meticulous approach meant that the first tile took a long time to fit to his satisfaction. Using that as a fixed datum, he was able to fix the next few tiles. It was then that he noticed a problem. The next tile he wanted to fit was out by 5mm. Measuring showed the tiles were all the correct sizes. He checked against the laying pattern provided by the supplier. He hadn't strayed from the pattern. His conclusion was that they had sent the pattern for another tile project. He contacted head office (his wife). She contacted the supplier. Sure enough they had sent the wrong fixing pattern. A new pattern was emailed through. A few minor alterations and everything was back on track.