Handover

 Ellie was with us overnight, but slept through without a murmur. Indeed, the Gorse Fox had been up and about for quarter of an hour before she stirred, just as the Silver Vixen's alarm was about to go off. We sorted out breakfast and then walked her round to Dizzy Ducklings.

The bottom drawer of Ellie's wardrobe had got stuck. Intervention was required. The drawer above had to be removed and then it was clear to see that the back of the jammed drawer had split and broken. The Gorse Fox dismantled the runners and removed the drawer. The garage metamorphosed into a workshop and the back of the drawer (the failing piece) was removed. New, solid wood was selected. (The Gorse Fox is not impressed with a lot of flat-pack furniture built from compressed wood shavings).

The replacement back was measured up and marked. The router was retrieved from storage and a suitable bit selected. The groove for the drawer base was milled, then the back was cut to size. Finally, it was glued and screwed into place. The drawer was refitted in the wardrobe, and the drawer above was refitted. All done. What's more, it seems to fit better, and is certainly more robust.

The Gorse Fox managed to get an hour on the family tree. No great revelations, but a warning that if your surname is Law, then avoid the first name Nellie. A family in focus today had a first child Nellie, who died before her 1st birthday. They went on to have several further children, then ten years after Nellie, they had another and called her Nellie May. She died just after her 1st birthday. The turn of the 1800-1900s was a tragic time for infant mortality, and it was so clearly illustrated in this family.

Pistol Pete came along late in the afternoon. He was collecting Ellie for the weekend. She seemed genuinely pleased to see him, and went off without any problems.

Dispatches

 There is very little to put in today's dispatches. The Gorse Fox contacted Urban-Cub to check whether Ellie was well enough for DD, and as she was, he went round to walk with them to school.

Back home, we had the Ocado delivery and then we both went and raided Lidl and Sainsbury's. There wasn't much to get, so it didn't take too long. When we left we stopped at the car wash and joined long queue. What we hadn't expected was the speed at which the cars were taken through on the conveyor. So despite the queue, we didn't have to wait long.

The afternoon was spent on the family tree, but there were no real revelations.

We've just finished dinner, and Ellie is being dropped off for the night as Urban-Cub is on 5:30 am start tomorrow.

Until tomorrow...

Change

 There's been a change in the weather. At first it was a little grey and cloudy, but as the day has drawn one we have seen the odd, brief shower. The Gorse Fox noticed how much cooler it was in Worthing compared to back home.

Yes, he was in Worthing for the football. In general it was fun. We had two games today and both were drawn. There were the usual gripes from the usual suspects, and one chap with a typical "small man syndrome" started to throw his limited weight around. He had been allowed to get away with it for a while, but when he clattered into the Gorse Fox's back and then hacked at his shins, the Gorse Fox took umbrage. He cleared the ball back to the keeper, turned and remonstrated: "If you try that sort of move again... they will have to scrape you off the astroturf". As expected, he got all tough and threatening but the Gorse Fox stared him down until he slunk away. Oh well, at least the ref kept a very close eye on him for the rest of the game and played nicely. At the end of the game, several of the players came to speak to the Gorse Fox and thanked him.

Back home, the afternoon was spent back on the family tree. One of the strange anomalies of last week - the woman with a huge family was clarified. He found the 1911 census that clearly stated that she only had 7 children (not 20+). This made far more sense. All of the spares have now been erased!

Level crossing

 It was another lovely bright start to the day, and the day did not disappoint, remaining warm, sunny, and cloudless throughout. We got a message from Urban-Cub. Ellie was not well enough for Dizzy Ducklings. As Urban-Cub was on a lunchtime start, Ellie would stay with her throughout the morning and come to us for the rest of the day, when Urban-Cub had to go to work.

The Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for his football. The roadworks that are currently plaguing the A259 between Wick and Goring have seen the Gorse Fox switch routes and travel via Westergate, Fontwell, Arundel, and Durrington. It's 4 miles longer, but usually saves considerable time (according to Google's estimates). Well Google wasn't on the ball this morning and clearly didn't know there was trouble at the level crossing in Westergate. In the end, it took 15 minutes for the Gorse Fox to get through - it's a good job he always allows plenty of time to accommodate such realities.

Football was fun. The teams were well balanced and the game was competitive without being rough. The Gorse Fox had a couple of rasping shots saved by their keeper, and intercepted several shots on our own goal. We were the eventual winners, 4-3. The Gorse Fox felt as if he had played well and left the pitch satisfied.

Back home he just had time to have his shower before Ellie arrived. We have had a quiet afternoon, keeping her inside, away from the pollen. Her skin still looks a little angry, and her eyes are still a bit puffy, but she seems comfortable. We seem to have got through a large number of jigsaws, number games, and play dough during the last few hours, but she is watching YouTube Kids on the tablet at the moment.

Hacker collective

 We were up and about early. Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off at 7:20. The poor mite was not looking her usual self. Her eyes were all puffed up and she was clearly under attack from hay fever. Once we had given her breakfast we gave her some anti-histamine and she began to perk up. Ellie and the Gorse Fox sat on the floor and did some jigsaws until it was time for pre-school. She was determined to go to Dizzy Ducklings, despite the attack.

Once back home we had a quiet morning. The Silver Vixen was working on a pattern for a blouse and the Gorse Fox was back in the boughs of the family tree. As far as he was concerned it was not the most successful of mornings. He found various records that corroborated what he already knew (and had other records for), but could find nothing that shed light on some of the other names in his tree, where has less information. Most frustrating.

We collected Ellie from DD and then had some time in the garden playing with various blocks and puzzles.

Urban-Cub had managed to schedule a face to face appointment with the doctor, for Ellie. She came and collected her and whisked her round to the surgery. By the time she got back, clutching the medication that had be prescribed, the Gorse Fox had Ellie's dinner ready. Urban-Cub went back to work for an hour and left Ellie to her dinner.

Whilst the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had their supper, Ellie disappeared upstairs. After a while, we realised that everything was ominously quiet. The Gorse Fox headed up, only to be greeted by Ellie, emerging from his study "Grandpa, how do I get to the numbers on your computer?" The Gorse Fox went in. The iMac, Condor, was sitting at the login screen and she had clearly tried to enter random letters to hack her way into the machine. The Gorse Fox was so proud. He entered the magic code, closed down everything else, and started a fullscreen notepad for her to type to her heart's content. 

All Hands

 Apparently, Cousteau-Cub read this blog every morning, when she first wakes up. So, "Good morning. Have a wonderful day".

We had a very pleasant and very lazy start to the day. There was nothing on the agenda other than early morning coffee and some breakfast. The digital news was consumed, and the toxic wasteland that is "Twitter" was examined to see what everyone was up in arms about today. The Gorse Fox has learnt over the years that whatever may be the current "cause celebre" it is almost certainly a vitriolic exaggeration of some minor rumour or leak.

The Gorse Fox returned to the family tree. He started by renewing his subscription to "Find My Roots". There is a huge overlap with the data in Ancestry, but their coverage of the records of the Diocese of Westminster is much more complete (even if it is in Latin). The Gorse Fox returned to the family "Collison". One Jessie ~Collison was causing consternation. The Gorse Fox had made notes about her, but couldn't find the supporting documents. Sure enough, they were on Find My Roots; in fact, it showed the Gorse Fox had actually accessed the record before - but obviously didn't take a copy. It turns out that though she was recorded as the daughter of Edward and Mary Ann Collison, she was in fact their God-daughter. Her baptismal record quite clearly identifies the mother as Emma Prentice, and Edward and Mary Ann as the Godparents. Mystery (partly) solved. Though the Gorse Fox knows her actual birth date, he cannot find the official reference in the General Register... that can wait.

Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off for a couple of hours this afternoon. She had an "all hands" meeting at the store. Ellie was in a real strop at first, but gradually calmed down. Urban-Cub has just been in to collect her.

Delete

 Ellie was awake before 6:30, but stayed in bed chatting to her dolls. On the dot of 6:30 she came in to us to ask if she could watch YouTube Kids on the Gorse Fox's iPad. He fired it up and she trotted back to her room until well after 7:00.

It was another lovely day. Urban-Cub came round to collect Ellie and arrange to got shopping with the Silver Vixen. The Gorse Fox declined the offer. He did, however, have his customary Zoom call with the cousins.

Returning to the family tree the Gorse Fox noticed an inconsistency in the data regarding his 3rd great grandfather. He started to strip away at the data. In the end he concluded he had the wrong person. Thompson Collison had to be removed. The knock on effect of this, however, was that his wife had to go, and so did most of the siblings of his 2nd great-grandfather. He doesn't like errors in the tree and the one record that he could trust was the key to this purge. The Gorse Fox suspects he may have to return to this at a later date, and resubscribe to a different research site which has better Catholic records.

The other research that he did today was regarding his great grandfather. He had served in the British Army in the late 1870s and through the 1880s. Going back through his army records, the Gorse Fox was able to pick apart the various campaigns in which he played a part, and read up on the battle at Ahmed Khell and the action against the Marri in Baluchistan. He was subsequently transferred to South Africa at the start of Boer War, but it isn't clear if he arrived in time to participate in the two main battles in the Transvaal.

Bright, sunny, and fertile

 It has been another lovely bright, sunny day. Again there was a cool breeze, but though it meant a jacket was needed first thing, it was soon warm enough to wander about in shirtsleeves. As usual, the Gorse Fox popped round the corner to escort Ellie to school, with Urban-Cub. Ellie was, apparently, in a stroppy mood, but whilst not chirpy, she didn't seem too troublesome.

The Gorse Fox spent much of the morning working on the family tree. Again, he is working through the draft of the "Law" book he produced last week. This is fairly straightforward, if a little tedious. However you suddenly come to something that makes you sit up. 

One Mary Ann Law married a Mr Webb. They then proceeded to shell out at least 19 children (there may be more, but that is as far at the Gorse Fox has got). He was so bemused by this that he went back to official Government GRO Index. He search for any Webb child born in the relevant Registration District, whose mother's maiden name was Law. As he moved through the index in 5 year slots, the children just keep appearing. With numbers like this, the warning bells ring. Was there another Webb in the area? Well, yes. Was there a Webb who had married a Law living in the the area. No. He checked Marriage records. He checked census records. All of the sensible cross-checks came up negative. The Gorse Fox can only conclude that she was immensely fertile! (You may wonder whether the children survived the first few years - well, yes that did. Again he checked the GRO index. Every one of them survived into the 1900s).

Ellie is with us overnight tonight as Urban-Cub has to run the store through to close.

Filling

 It was another lovely day, but the clear blue sky and bright sunshine were deceptive. A chilly breeze was blowing and came as quite a surprise as we walked Ellie round to Dizzy Ducklings. (Urban-Cub had dropped her off with us at 7:30).

The Silver Vixen had an appointment this morning, so the Gorse Fox took care of the Ocado delivery and waited around for an Amazon delivery. Big Carl and his mate, Pete, came round to clean all the soffits and bargeboards and to clean the Orangery roof. By late morning the Silver Vixen was back, so the Gorse Fox left her in charge (as if she wasn't't, anyway) and headed off for the top-up shop. He was later than usual and his trip had obviously coincided with the local undertakers dropping off their zombies for their shopping. The idea of doing a quick shop soon evaporated as the Gorse Fox got trapped behind them as they shuffled up and down the aisles greeting each other time and time again, having forgotten they met in the previous aisle (and probably a previous life). The smell of formaldehyde was quite pervasive, and the in-store pharmacist threw up his hands and ran away to hide.

Back home, we again got a call to collect Ellie early. Her hay-fever was really troubling her. Fortunately, Urban-Cub had a good telephone consultation with the GP and had a prescription waiting. The Gorse Fox collected it ao that we could get her started. As these were eye-drops, it was not quite so easy. She was fine for the first drop in the first eye.... but that was that. She was not going to have the second eye done.

The Gorse Fox cooked some lovely thick pork chops for tea. They were delicious, but lethal. The Gorse Fox managed to lose a large filling (or half a tooth) as he relished the treat. Now he just has to hope it doesn't give any trouble before he can get it fixed.

Normal Service

 It's Wednesday. The weather is gorgeous, and it's bout 16C. That's not bad for April, particularly when you seen pictures from the US where they are still getting snow storms.

The Gorse Fox was up, washed, dressed, and making the coffee before Ellie woke. She had woken just after we went to bed, having fallen out of bed. The Gorse Fox suspects it shocked her a bit, but she went straight back down without a fuss. 

We walked Ellie to DD, then the Silver Vixen prepared for her Zoom Pilates, and the Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for football. Again, we played 3 thirty minute games. With fitness levels as they are, this is  not yet easy, though the Gorse Fox can still manage to put on a spurt of speed when needed. Not really sure what the scores were today, but think we lost 2-1, 2-1 and the drew 1-1. Normal service had been resumed. The Gorse Fox played a lot better than yesterday and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

We got a call at lunchtime. Ellie wasn't well. We went round and collected her from Dizzy Ducklings. She has developed hay-fever, and was clearly suffering today. It didn't help that the Council had been out on the mowers trimming all the verges and cutting the field and play areas all around the area. We brought he home and she had a very quiet afternoon.

Win

 It was a gorgeous day. Not a cloud dared show itself to sully the deep blue of the sky.

The Gorse Fox wandered round to meet Urban-Cub and walk Ellie to Dizzy Ducklings. She was beside herself with excitement to be back and see her friends. 

As soon at the Gorse Fox got home he did a quick change and headed off to Worthing for football. The team choice was little lop-sided, but for once, it was in the Gorse Fox's favour. He was playing on a team with 4 recognised attackers and found that marshalling the back was a relatively easy job. The Gorse Fox didn't feel that he played particularly well, but we managed a 4-0 win in the first game and a 6-0 win in the second. In the second game, the Gorse Fox actually played in goal for half the match. On the pitch behind us a coterie of yummy mummies were having a yoga session. As the session wound down and it was time for them to relax, the music was changed to "New Age" sounds and the leader of the session led them through the relaxation and wind down. During a break in the football the Gorse Fox pointed out that she was lulling him to sleep.

Back home, we had a quiet lunch and then went to collect Ellie from Dizzy Ducklings. By now, we had seen the list of children from DD that would be going to Bartons in September. There were quite a few and fortunately that included most of Ellie's friends. 

As we wandered back, with Bonnie, and her mum and sister we made our way into the field and the girls played on the carved tractor while we stood and chatted.

The rest of the afternoon has been the usual mix of playing (this included a pretend picnic in the lounge), dinner, and then the wind down to bed. As the Gorse Fox writes this, Ellie is in bed watching 10 (timed) minutes of YouTube for kids, and then that'll be it.

Super League

 Today saw the announcement that 6 of the country's biggest football clubs were breaking away to form a European Super League with teams from Spain and Italy. This got the Gorse Fox thinking. He ran through the various options and decided that we should put it to the club: "Should Arun Amblers apply to join the European Super League?"

Response from the team has been somewhat muted. He suspect the players are pondering the threat that they can no longer be called up for the national team, nor play in the World Cup.

Beyond the Law

 It's been a lovely day. The sun has brightened an uninterrupted blue sky. The Silver Vixen had plans and went off to LA to join up with a friend for a stroll and some coffee. The Gorse Fox knows well enough, that this would mean she would not reappear until dinner time!

The Gorse Fox squirrelled himself away in the study. It didn't start very well. The new laptop, merlin, would not start. The Gorse Fox phoned Dell. When he got through to a technician, quoted the serial number, and explained the problem the laptop burst back into life. No intervention was required. That was a relief.

Back at the code face, he is concentrating on a book of Laws (his mother's maternal family). At the moment this stretches back to the mid 1600s and an early draft of the book runs to over 300 pages. Today he has been working through the defat, page by page. As he goes, he rechecks the data and gathers more if he can. He also adapts the database so that when next compiled, the book will self-heal. The first draft covered some 360 individuals, but today's research has probably added another 20. This could be a long exercise as, so far, he has only got to page 65.

Binary split

 It's been a lovely day. The weather has been dry and bright, and after a leisurely start we have managed to drifty off into our individual hobbies. The Silver Vixen popped round to se Urban-Cub regarding some makeup, then returned to her sewing. The Gorse Fox continued to climb the various branches of the family tree.

It was interesting that the Gorse Fox was talking, yesterday, to one (Empson) cousin about another cousin from a different (O'Hara) branch of the family. This morning she popped up on his Facebook timeline, we made contact, and we exchanged messages for the first time since 1996. This drove the Gorse Fox to a different branch of his research and a different "book". He generated the initial rough cut, based on his research so far. Then he started to work through the book to see where there were inconsistencies, anomalies, or unsupported facts. That was most of the rest of the day gone as he rechecked data, found additional data, and delved further into the records.

Delving into old records was where the Gorse Fox used his computing know how and employed a binary split. He was looking for a record from a a microfilm. The microfilm ran to over 1000 images. He started by looking at image 500. That was clearly much too early for the data he sought. He then moved to image 700 (ok, it should have been 750 - but who cares). That was almost a direct hit. He backed up by one page and there was the data he was seeking. How lucky can you get?

The Gorse Fox has had a beef joint resting overnight in a dry rub. At lunchtime it went into the oven at 120C for 2 hours, then up to 140C for 30 Minutes, and finally up to 180C for a final 30 minutes before being taken out to rest. It was gorgeously succulent and a great success. Considering the joint was only £2, it was wonderful vale for money and Urban-Cub and Ellie cam round for dinner to enjoy it with us.

Nada

Some days are really successful. Then, of course, that has to be balanced out.

The Gorse Fox had his weekly call with the cousins, which, as ever, was fun. Then that was followed by a long "Signal" chat with Chris, the eldest of the cousins. It turns out that he is an equal opportunity hater; disliking most of the major countries and their citizens. He told the Gorse Fox that his children accused him of being racist, but his defence was that he hated everyone equally. For someone that was born in the UK, lived in Malta, served in the Royal Navy, and has lived in Switzerland and Israel before retiring to Turkey - that seems strange.

The rest of the day was fairly frustrating. The Gorse Fox has been trying to track down information regarding is grandmother's sister's descendants. For most, it is not a problem.  But there is one nice Patricia Edith that is causing consternation. In the end the Gorse Fox has written to distant cousins in the UK and the US to see if they can shed light on the situation.

The Gorse Fox could get his usual Tadka Dahl from Ocado this week. As a result he has cooked his own. It turned out to be very tasty, but not as spicy as he would have liked. Fortunately, there was enough left for two more meals. He will have to remember to add some more chillies.

The other the Gorse Fox did, while preparing dinner, was to create a dry ru for the beef joint that we have planned for tomorrow. The joint is now suitable smeared in the dry run and nestles in the bottom of the fridge unit the Gorse Fox retrieves it for a long low and slow cook tomorrow.  

Well that was confusing

 You would thought that with a name like Sarah Ann Gould Bolt, it would be easy to find the various relevant genealogical information. Oh no. There were two Sarah Ann Gould Bolts and they lived in the same area. In fact they were cousins. It took the Gorse Fox most of the day to unpick the various records and work out which record belonged to which Sarah. Most confusing, but now the Gorse Fox is happy that he has it right.

Talking of genealogical research, he sent a message to clarify something. Within half and hour, he got a phone call from one of the Silver Vixen’s aunts. It was nice to talk with her and get just a few more morsels of info.

Light headed

 It has been a fairly ordinary day. No Hollywood stars came to visit, no politicians phoned for advice, and there was no call from Daniel Levy for the Gorse Fox to go a shore up the defence at Spurs. Instead, we had the delivery from Ocado, the bins were emptied, and life pottered on.

the Silver Vixen had arranged to go an help Urban-Cub sort out all of the boxes in her garage. The Gorse Fox, in the meantime, had to finish the weekly shopping at Lidl and Sainsbury's. The, on the way back, he stopped to see if there was much of a queue at the barbers' shop. There was. He went home dragging his locks with him. He put the shopping away and did the accounts, then set off on foot back to barbers'.

There was only one person waiting when he arrived, and one of the barbers was cleaning down and sanitising his work station. The Gorse Fox was called, the other guy was waiting for one of the other customers to finish, not a haircut. The Gorse Fox settled down. Slowly the operative hacked his way through the long, flowing locks. He trimmed the beard. He wrapped the Gorse Fox in hot towels and directed a flow of steam in his face. Finally he gave a facial massage. It was wonderful. The Gorse Fox is now feeling quite light-headed (and very cold around the neck).

Back home, the Gorse Fox had to wait for an Amazon delivery, but once that had arrived he wandered around to meet up with Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub. He was set the task of constructing Ellie's garden swing. He thought this would be fairly easy and fairly quick. Oh no, not on your nelly. It was a bit of a nightmare to put back together - not helped by Ellie asking if it was ready every 30 seconds, and her insistence on playing with the bits and pieces that the Gorse Fox needed. Never mind. In the end it was complete and secured to the ground with special pegs.

Hat trick

 It was a lovely morning for football. We had 3 thirty minute matches scheduled and shuffled the personnel between games. In the first two games the Gorse Fox was playing in yellow and we managed 1-1 drowse in both games. In the last game he was playing orange. We won this 4-3... despite the Gorse Fox who managed to get his foot to all three of the goals we conceded, claiming a hat trick of own goals! He did also score a cracking goal at the correct end, rifling the ball from just inside the halfway line. The problem was that the ref, tripping over his white stick, was disorientated and claimed the ball had followed a trajectory that took it above the height of the cross-bar, before dropping into the goal. The Gorse Fox and his team disputed this, pointing that was not possible as the ball was still rising as it clattered into the net. The goal did not count, The Gorse Fox was not amused.

We popped round to see Urban-Cub this afternoon. She had a couple of window troughs to mount, so the Gorse Fox decided it was safer and quicker for him to do it than allow her to try. 

That done, the Gorse Fox returned to Condor. He started by looking at the various systems and services that start when the machine boots. He would, by a process of elimination, try to determine which one was causing the problem. 

• Sophos was disabled - no effect. 
• Network drives were scanned for errors - no errors.
• Google Backup/Sync was disable - no effect
• GoodSync was disabled - no effect
• OneDrive was disabled - voila!!!! Things started to work again

Now the Gorse Fox isn't sure if everything is back to normal, but the few tests he has run so far seem to run successfully and lay the blame squarely on Microsoft OneDrive (a clear can of sabotage). The Gorse Fox will see how things progress over the next few days. He is hopeful.

Things that make you go hmmmmm

 It's Tuesday... that means, for the Gorse Fox, it's football and for the Silver Vixen its an appointment with the hairdresser. Much excitement all round.

The Gorse Fox set off for Worthing. As he arrived at the level crossing a message flashed on his watch. His delivery from Dell would be delivered at 10:45. That was a shame. Nobody would be home. The Silver Vixen would have left for her appointment by then. Now, the package was only a mouse, but he wasn't happy to have them leave it out. As soon as he got to Worthing he logged onto the DHL website and changed the instructions to "Leave with neighbour". Now he could relax.

Football was good fun. The Gorse Fox lost 2-1 and 2-1, then won 4-2 (with 2 assists). It was only in that last game that our forwards started to use the midfield to cycle the ball to people in better positions. It made all the difference as the Gorse Fox had moved upfield and taken on the midfield role. We had also ditched the 3 touch rule and were able to play some more flowing football,

Back home, he showered then went to collect his package from Tinkerbell before popping round to see Urban-Cub and his little sister who was visiting with TDP. He said his hellos, then left them to it while he headed off to catch up with TDP and Ellie who had gone to play in the park. It was so nice to see family again after so long.

After a bite to eat, and after his sister and TDP had left, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen returned to Urban-Cub's. The Gorse Fox was there to help get the security system set up - though, frankly, Urban-Cub had done it all herself. We did fail to get the doorbell camera working, but concluded we had ordered the wrong one. It wasn't compatible with the base station that controlled all the rest of the security system. Replacement is on order.

The Gorse Fox finally got back and was able to start on a rebuild of Condor. This took an hour or so and seemed be fairly painless. Well, painless until the Gorse Fox tried one of the processes that had been failing. It still failed. He rebooted the system in "Safe" mode. The problem went away. He rebooted the full system. The problem returned.

He is flummoxed. 

He suspects the next action will be to run diagnostics on each of the network disks and then detach them one-by-one to see if it is related to that setup. That, however, can wait until tomorrow.

Still sulking

 The Gorse Fox's iMac is still sulking. He has had to reboot it several times today, and there are various common tasks that fail every time, now. He fears that he may need to plan a complete rebuild in order to keep it going until he replaces it later this year. Fortunately, the MacBook is behaving impeccably and can be used as a an interim solution.

The Silver Vixen had her second jab today. The Gorse Fox went along with her, on the off-chance that he might be done also. No such luck. Though there were spare doses, the chap in charge said that because it was under 9 weeks since our first jab, he would be questioned as to why he gave me an unscheduled dose. The Gorse Fox will just have to wait for his call-up. (There was no problem for the Silver Vixen, as she had had a formal invitation).

No fresh family tree research today because the amount of time spent nursing Condor.

Sulking

 The Gorse Fox's iMac "Condor" is sulking because of the new laptop. As a result it seems to have become fairly unstable today and the Gorse Fox has had to intervene and reboot it several times. Top add insult to apparent injury he has been unable to restore a backup taken on "Merlin" to Family Tree Maker on "Condor". This should work, and certainly works in the opposite direction. In its own right, this has caused consternation and frustration. It has wasted most of the day with very little to show for it.

One thing the Gorse Fox was able to do was to create a book of the Silver Vixen's ancestors. This, hopefully, will trigger some more memories and provide some additional stories and and some corrections.

Now, back to the debugging.

And Smile

 The Gorse Fox received his new laptop at tea-time yesterday. Despite specifically asking for McAfee not to be installed, the Gorse Fox had to remove it as he went through the set up. Merlin, as it's now called, certainly seems eager to please. Today, it has generated the "the Empson book" in under 3 minutes and, trying another complete book stretching back over 90 families, it finished about 300 pages without a murmur in about 5 minutes. Osprey couldn't even generate the second book. Osprey had to break it into 5 volumes!

Much of today (after the regular cousins' zoom call) has been spent re-acquainting the Gorse Fox with the incantations, frustrations,  and chants required to run Windows. Alongside this, he has been filling in more blanks in the family tree.

Talking of cousins, the Gorse Fox got a message from a cousin, Austin,  that he doesn't think he has seen since the early 1960s. He too is researching his side of the tree. The Gorse Fox has sent him the 300 page summary of his own research into that part of the family (what a good job he compiled it this morning as an experiment). Hopefully, he will find it useful, and may be able to fill in some of the more recent details.

Logic

 The Gorse Fox is looking at the records to find further details of his 10-time-Gt Grandmother. He has found very little and where others have found some data, they have not cited their sources. The Gorse Fox doesn't trust data without sources... particularly when they "claim" that she died in 1613 and the record, which they do reference< specifically refers to her as "The Window Margaret Gifford". The reason this is not to be trusted is that her husband is documented as dying in 1614. 

Time Travel

 The Gorse Fox decided to look into the order in more detail. He now understands that there are two components. The laptop (delivery by Dell) and the mouse (delivery by Syncreon).

The mystery doesn’t end there. He was astonished, if a little impressed by the Dell manufacturing...

1. Order received 8-Apr
2. Order confirmed 8-Apr
3. Order in Production 8-Apr
4. Order Shipped 7-Apr

He re-read the information twice. Indeed the laptop seems to have been shipped the day before he had ordered it. He wonders if this is a result of the 5G chip that was clearly implanted in his arm when he got the Covid-19 vaccine.

No Idea

 The Gorse Fox has no idea what is going on. 

• Yesterday, he received a message from Dell that his machine will be delivered by DHL
• Yesterday, DHL said they would deliver on Monday.
• This morning, he received a message that it had left the manufacturing facility and to track it he should look at the Syncreon website. 
• He looked at the Syncreon website and they said ETA was Tuesday.
• Ten minutes later he received an email from DHL saying they plan to deliver late afternoon today.

The Gorse Fox has no idea what’s going on... but looks forward to seeing what arrives, and when. (Tuesday, incidentally, would mean the Gorse Fox having to cancel football. He’s not amused by that prospect).

Radio Silence

 The Gorse Fox was twitchy. It seemed strange that, with a new laptop expected tomorrow, he had heard nothing. He kept checking the Dell website, but there was no sign of his order. (There was a warning that it could take 48 hours before it showed up on the account). He was twitchy. It was a case of complete radio silence from Dell.

An idea popped into his head. He would check his credit card. It said "Current Balance 0.00"; that's not what he expected. In the end the Gorse Fox phoned Dell. The chappie at the other end tried to find the order based on post code - nada; based on email address - nothing; based on name - nothing; based on mobile phone number - nothing. The only conclusion was that the order was never placed successfully. Frustrated, the Gorse Fox went back through the process and re-ordered. This time, he immediately got email confirmation, and the order appears on their system. The only outstanding problem is that it doesn't arrive until Monday.

The rest of the day has been fairly typical for Thursday... Ocado delivery, followed by top-up trip to the local supermarkets. Nothing too taxing or too exciting.

The Gorse Fox did pop round to Urban-Cub this afternoon. She had some pictures she wanted hung. They turned out to be a bit fiddly as they had no fixings and no obvious means of hanging. The Gorse Fox extemporised and we soon had everything sorted.

Clunk

 The Gorse Fox had planned to give his little Fiesta a run and take it to football today. He went out to the garage and tried to fire it up. Nothing but a clunk. Clearly the battery was dead - but then it’s been sitting there, unused, since before Christmas. The Gorse Fox should not be surprised. Time being short, he returned to the Silver Vixen’s Skoda and took that.

Arriving at the leisure centre the Gorse Fox went to the desk to query why his app wouldn’t allow him to book. It turned out that his membership expired last week. He renewed, there and then, but pointed out that a) there was no warning that his membership was due; and b) there was no way to renew it through the app. This is what is called a UX-fail (user experience failure).

Football was hard work today. It was bitterly cold, with a biting wind. The Gorse Fox played three games back-to-back. So after 90 minutes he managed to leave the pitch having failed to win a single game, and only managing one shot that brushed the post. Oh well, better luck next week. He was quite pleased with the way he played and the number of interceptions and tackles he completed, but the teams were just too lop-sided.

Back home, with a bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwich tucked away, the Gorse Fox went and plugged the battery charger into the car. An hour later it fired up without a problem. He took it out for a quick run round the load all area and up to Chichester and back. Hopefully, that will have given the alternator time enough to drop some charge into the battery.

Finally, the Gorse Fox has decided that the new laptop (due on Friday) will be known as “Merlin” on our network. A merlin is another bird of prey (as well as wizard)... and all of the systems in the house are named after birds of prey.

Oops

 Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off soon after 7:00. Her original palns for the week, which involved a friend and her daughter coming to stay, went awry when they both came down with colds. As a result, some last minute changes were needed.

the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox have spent the day playing with Ellie, who has been very good. There has been a session with dolls, a session with old Fisher-Price characters, a session with Paw Patrol, a session with Play-Dough, and the continual backdrop of episodes of Paw Patrol from the TV.  We have just taken her home in time fro Urban-Cub to arrive back from Chichester.

In other news, the Gorse Fox couldn't pre-book next week's football session as it says his account isn't active. There is no way to get assistance. Phone calls to the support number are answered with "Sorry we're not here", the App has no useful links nor menu items, and places are getting booked up quickly. The Gorse Fox is most frustrated. Fortunately, he is due there tomorrow, so will hopefully be able to speak with someone.

On other matters, the Gorse Fox got a replay from CrossOver. They basically said, sorry, but no can do. It appears that they have been trying on and off for years to get Family Tree Maker to work under their regime, but they are getting no support from the authors. This was a shame. It has meant the the Gorse Fox has accidentally had to order another laptop. This time he has selected a Dell (as they have a sale on at present and it has saved hime a couple of hundred quid). Hopefully, it should arrive on Friday.

Squat

 We were up early. Urban-Cub dropped Ellie in to us, then went on to work. Today was her first day in the store at Chichester. This means that she is going into a period of more intensive training, but she is really looking forward to it.

Elli was with us for a couple of hours until her old child-minder, Andrea, and her daughter Lilly, came across to collect Ellie and spend the day with her. This left the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen to their own devices for the rest of the day.

The Silver Vixen got on with one of her sewing projects, and the Gorse Fox returned to the Family Tree and his book production.

For the Gorse Fox, the first priority was sorting out a photo. This photo has been troubling him At first it wouldn't print, then, the it finally printed the aspect ratio was all wrong, making the people look short a fat. It took a bit of tracking down, but the Gorse Fox finally found an optional setting which needed to be disabled. Once done, the photo printed perfectly.

Talking of photos, he raided his library and found several more photos relevant to the book that is under production. These too, were added.

It then occurred to the Gorse Fox that some software called "CrossOver" may allow him to run the Windows version of Family Tree Maker and Family Book Creator on his iMac. He installed a trial version then started to install the FTM software. What was noticeable was how quick it was, compared with Windows. What was also noticeable was that the installation failed. The Gorse Fox packaged up the logs and sent them to the authors of Cross Over to see if there is any hope for a solution. He suspects not.

During the afternoon, while trying to resolve place names in the software, the Gorse Fox has been poring over maps from the 1870's trying to locate roads that no longer exist and then trying to estimate their GPS coordinates against today's maps. It's been great fun.

Left jab

 The Gorse Fox may have mentioned that the Silver Vixen was invited for her second vaccination, but though she has been trying every day this last week, there were no slots available. This morning a bunch of new slots opened up and she is now booked in for Monday-week. Now, we just have to wait to see when the Gorse Fox will be invited (and given that he is older than she is, he wonders why he hasn't heard anything).

Much of the morning was spent on the family tree, again. The Gorse Fox has received some new info and pictures from some of the cousins and this needed to be added to the database. Then a quick sample print, and voila... a problem. It seems that one of the photos will not print. A caption is created, but the photo isn't displayed. After a huge amount of fiddling about, the Gorse Fox has now managed to get the photo to print, but only as a rotated image... making it look as if Rolly and Helen are lying down as he holds up his Emmy. Not quite the required result. Further investigation is required.

The Silver Vixen has spent much of the day with Urban-Cub helping her sort out her garden. The Gorse Fox popped across to help by fixing her hose cassette to the wall. He's going back later for dinner.

Books and Leaves

 The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen have had a very quiet and relaxing day.

For the Gorse Fox, the fist order of the day (after the obvious coffee) was a call with the cousins. One of the topics this week was an imaginary dinner party. The Gorse Fox had decided that of the 6 gusts he could invite, Sandi Toksvig, Gyles Brandreth, and Richard Feynman would be on the list. (Clearly, being an imaginary dinner party, it made no difference whether they were still actually alive). What surprised the Gorse Fox was that Sandi Toksvig only registered as a presenter on the kids' TV show "No 73", until he pointed out that she hosted QI. He also found an immediate push-back on Gyles Brandreth, until he pointed out that Gyles had an anecdote for everything and that there would never be a break in the conversation. Most worryingly, however, is that not one of the cousins had even heard of Richard Feynman. Do we really have the same DNA?

The rest of the day has been spent working with the family tree and the the Family Book Creator. The essence has not been about finishing any particular book, but rather on experimenting with different techniques to see if better results could be achieved by playing with different options.

Snot

 Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off with us just after 7:00 (forgetting that, as it's Good Friday, the roads would be empty). Ellie had only just woken up, so was very quiet to start with. Her cold is in full swing, and if snot was a saleable commodity we would be quids in!

All of the day was spent with one or other, or sometimes both, of us keeping Ellie amused and keeping her nose visible beneath the ever flowing gunk.

There really is nothing else to report. Urban-Cub collected Ellie around 18:30 and took her across to Pistol Pete for the weekend.

On duty

 The Gorse Fox popped round to Urban-Cub as soon as he was up and dressed. Ellie had insisted that Grandpa should come and get her so that mummy could get off to work on time. That would probably have worked a lost better had Urban-Cub not missed her alarm!

We took Ellie to Dizzy Ducklings, the returned to the normal Thursday tasks of sorting the Ocado shopping delivery and then heading out for the top-up from Lidl and Sainsbury’s. Almost as soon as we were back we had to collect Ellie. It had been arranged that she would finish early today.

Ellie was absolutely full of cold and we had a very quiet afternoon as she just wanted to watch TV and sleep. 

We took Ellie home after dinner and waited for Urban-Cub to finish work. 

All in all, a very quiet day