On Duty

 Ellie slept well overnight. It was about 7:00 before she came in to us.

G-Force were on duty today - not just overnight. This meant that the Gorse Fox cancelled his football so he could tag-team with the Silver Vixen. To start with Ellie and Grandpa were playing with her imaginary friends in an imaginary restaurant - followed by a trip to an imaginary supermarket around which he had to push and imaginary trolley and pay the imaginary bill. She clearly has a view of his place in the pecking order.

From the imaginary games, she flipped over to the Silver Vixen and between them the baked a very nice (and real) cake. Then she decided on her face paints. The Gorse Fox was conscripted to be her canvas and sat there quietly with his eyes closed as she daubed various coloured paints and sparkles over his face.

The park was next on the agenda. The Gorse Fox and Ellie walked round to the nearest playground. A small kitten guarded the entrance and ran away as we approached. Ellie went straight to the slide and from the top she spotted where the kitten was hiding. She went over to stroke it and got a swipe for her troubles.  She had a minuscule scratch on her wrist - but that was it. She wanted to go home to Nana. So it was, five minutes after leaving home, we were back again.

Urban-Cub picked her up about 15:30 and took her home for dinner. She has just dropped her back with us  for another sleep-over.

Every day...

 When you are retired, every day is a Bank Holiday. 

We had a quiet start to day (other than Jasper trying to pass on the News headlines). The morning was taken up with some reading and then some domestic chores before the Gorse Fox returned to Condor and re-installed a couple more applications.

After lunch the Gorse Fox popped round to Urban-Cub's. She had a wall heater that needed installing in the garden. Can honestly say that the mounting instructions were along the worst that the Gorse Fox has ever come across. In fact, in the end, we ditched their diagram and did it our own way. Once that was done, a small corner shelf needed installation for her security system's hub. This was a very neat little corner shelf with very solid invisible fixings. Once this was done, the ribbon Ethernet cable needed to be run neatly round the room and tacked in place. It all took a couple of hours, but at least we got it done.

Back home, the nice man from Amazon had deliver a new 1TB SSD. This will be connected to the Thunderbird port and provide a target for MAC OS's TimeMachine backup.

Urban-Cub arrived about 17:30. Ellie had insisted that she wanted noodles for dinner and wanted to eat them at our house. As she was due to sleep overnight anyway, it made no difference.

Leonardo

 The Gorse Fox woke early. He was wide awake and any idea of drifting back off into the arms of Morpheus was clearly stupid. He got up. It was cool to start with and somewhat grey. It did, however, brighten up and turned into a lovely late Summer day.

The Gorse Fox returned to the nurturing of the fledgling Condor. Music was set up by connecting the default system to his existing music library. Whilst this took quite a while, it worked rather well and meant that he didn't have to waste space on Condor to re-host the library. Then he re-installed Da Vinci Resolve (the video editing program). It was a gentle day of installing and testing, and also of looking on Amazon for a suitable hub to provide USB Type A connections. This latter exercise proved rather fruitless... but fortunately, this is not something that is needed in a panic.

The Gorse Fox would just like to go on record to say that in terms of the Universal Truths, the Premiership Table this weekend is as close to perfect as it could be. Spurs are top.... 3 wins, no goals conceded; and Arsenal (the forces of doom) are bottom with no wins and no goals. This shows an agreeable balance in the Universe between good and evil. Long may it continue.

Normality

 A degree of normality has returned. By this, the Gorse Fox is referring to his weekly calls call with the cousins (having missed the last two weeks while travelling). It was nice to see them and have a quick catch-up and gossip. This was also the first time that the Gorse Fox had tried to use Zoom on the fledgling Condor. He's pleased to report that it went without a hitch.

Phone call complete, the Gorse Fox returned to his gradual rebuild of said Condor. The key items today were the addition of ooRexx and GoodSync. The discussion group for the former implied that the Gorse Fox would not be able to get it installed. He, however, had other ideas. With a bit of research, the alteration of a a couple of settings, and the correct responses to a couple of warning messages, it is now running rather well. The Discussion group has been updated with the correct incantations to help others with a similar problem.

As for GoodSync, the Gorse Fox was in two minds whether to continue with its use. It had been the heart of his old backup system but had been superceded during the interregnum. The Gorse Fox decided he would install it and take the opportunity for a free upgrade. At the moment there is no plan to use it for the major backups, but it will be used to synchronise between Condor and the NAS devices. (The backup between the NAS devices will continue to be managed by BarnOwl - a Raspberry Pi).

Just in case you thought the Gorse Fox was inside all day, he did in fact go out to clean the paths and patio.

This photo may give you a clue as to how much they had discoloured. A quick pass with the jet wash brought them up nicely - and left the Gorse Fox with very wet shoes and socks.

Bossing It

Ellie slept well overnight and came in to see us soon after seven. That is perfectly acceptable. We got going, rather slowly, as Ellie needed a shower and hair wash. The Gorse Fox was clear an out of the way long before all the splashing started!

The Gorse Fox, while listening to the chaos, was working on the next stage of Condor rebuild. This was the management of photos and was the responsibility of Lightroom Classic. This installed without issue, but the problem was how to get the old catalogues to point to a new location. Seeing Lightroom open with some 40,000 images missing is a little daunting. Eventually, with the help of Google, the Gorse Fox found the correct incantation and redirected the catalogue to a different root directory (on the NAS). There seems to be a little tidying up to do but it all worked a lot better than he had expected.

This afternoon, we took Ellie along to Lidl in Chichester to see Urban-Cub finish her first shift as the boss. As it happens she was two staff down all day and will have to go back into work later to try and get things straight, but that's what comes with responsibility and pride in your work.

Late afternoon we heard that Cousteau-Cub had managed to get an interview for the Coventry Hobbit with another supermarket and also get him a chance to go to the Rolls Royce assessment centre to see if there was an opportunity there. She is also looking for a new opportunity, so it is (potentially) all change.

Hatching

Soon after eight o'clock this morning the nice man from DPD started the process of hatching the new Condor by delivering its cardboard egg. As usual there was exquisite packaging and the Gorse Fox soon had the new iMac on the desk, plugged in, and glowing. It took two or three minutes to complete the set up and then it was a matter of deciding whether to restore the backup from the old Condor, or rebuilding. The Gorse Fox chose the latter. That way he gets the chance to clean things up as he goes along. He had planned this a few weeks back and had a list of the applications that needed to be re-established. This will be a careful process that he will complete over a few days.

First observations are very favourable. It is incredibly quick, and the screen, though smaller than the old one, is wonderfully clear and crisp.

The doorbell rang. It was Ocado and therefore time to stop and get on with the shopping and when that was done the Gorse Fox had to head for Chichester to leave his car for its annual service and MOT. The Silver Vixen had driven in separately and we met up for a bit of Anniversary shopping and while we were in the town we popped in to Trents for lunch. They were very busy and warned us that the food would be at least 40 minutes. We were in no hurry so settled down The food, as forecast, turned up in almost exactly 40 minutes.

We went back along East Street to meet with Urban-Cub and Ellie. The Silver Vixen was going to take Ellie back in her car while Urban-Cub was getting her hair done. The Gorse Fox had to get back to the dealership to collect his car.

The good news for the day was that Urban-Cub got a phone call to confirm that she is now, officially, the Store Manager for Lidl in Chichester. She would have liked more that 13 hours notice, but is absolutely delighted.

On the pitch

Again, the day started bright, warm, and sunny. It remained pleasantly warm and almost cloudless for the whole day.

The Silver Vixen had a phone call scheduled with Betty Rubble during the morning. The Gorse Fox had football. He made his way across to the leisure centre and met up with the rest of the lads. He was playing in orange today but could see it would be a tough game. Yellows had three very mobile strikers. Our striker hadn't turned up so we had to make do. The Gorse Fox tried to help by roaming forward whenever he got the chance. On one occasion, with a slick interchange of passes, he broke through the middle. There was only the keeper to beat. He tried to slide it past him, and in so doing slid it past the post as well. He had several further shots, all of which were so high they were a danger to the International Space Station. Finally, with the score 4-0 against us, the Gorse Fox had one last attempt and managed to duck behind the referee and then drill the ball low and hard into the bottom corner. Very satisfying... but too late for a come-back. Final score 4-1.

Lady Penelope popped in this afternoon. She wanted to find out about last night's drama and hear about our holiday. It was nice to see her as we haven't managed to touch base with any of our neighbours since getting back. 

Drama

 There was a bit of a drama last night. Urban-cub's pregnant neighbour texted her to say she was being harrassed by young lads throwing things at the house. Urban-cub went out to remonstrate. This disturbed Ellie, so Cousteau-cub (who happened to be staying overnight) sent U-c in and took over. She tried to march them back to the home of one of the lads, but ended up in a strangle hold with her hands pinned behind her back. She persevered and got them back to the home of one of them only to be greeted by a very defensive mother. Neighbours, however, had observed and filmed the whole incident and she had to back down. C-c headed back to U-c. The police had been called and the evening was spent giving statements.

Not sure where things are going from here, but at least C-c was completely unfazed by the whole farce (and, as she said, perfectly capable of breaking free had she wanted so to do).

Coming along

 It has been a lovely warm and sunny day. Temperatures were in the low 20s making it immensely comfortable. The Gorse Fox's hay fever seems to have settled overnight and a tablet was taken as soon as he was up this morning.

He drove across to Worthing for Tuesday's football. The slight pull he experienced last week seems to have gone and gave him no problems today. We only had 26 players today, so it was easy enough to split into teams without requiring some to peel off and play in the cages. The Gorse Fox took up his usual position and in a hard-fought first game, we came out on top with a 1-0 win. The second game was destined to be hard. In the first half, the Gorse Fox managed to marshal the main threat and keep him quiet. In the second half, the Gorse Fox had to take his turn in goal. Though he made a couple of saves, the guy he had been marshalling (now running free) managed to score twice. A 2-0 loss. The final game saw the Gorse Fox back on the pitch. This was less tense. We scored early. In fact, we scored often. The final score was a 7-0 win.

Back home, the Gorse Fox returned to the work he was doing yesterday on the backup strategy. The script he had been working upon now works and is easily amended to add further directories. The next task will be to see how it can be automatically launched. The Gorse Fox knows the theory but now needs to put it into practice. 

Pouring

 A nice gentle start to the day, or so he thought. The Gorse Fox hadn't been up long before there was an immense explosion. He had clearly woken up with a severe bought of hay fever. The sneezing had started with a vengeance, and when he wasn't sneezing he was trying to control his nose which was running like Usain Bolt chased by a cheetah on steroids. This has continued throughout the day; brief periods of peace followed by storm-force sneezing and then the pouring returns.

The Gorse Fox tried to make a start on the ironing. That didn't work. He was more likely to drip all over it than press it.

He returned to the study. Today's focus has been on automating a push mechanism for critical folders to be backed up to the NAS. This is going moderately well but full automation is still proving elusive. The backups themselves are working but the automatic mount process for the target is still throwing up the occasional error.

If his nose stops pouring, the Gorse Fox is hoping to play football tomorrow.

Catching Up

 Gosh, we slept well last night. There's nothing quite like your own bed. The Gorse Fox finally dragged himself into the day as the clock approached eight. A very leisurely breakfast ensued, then, when the Silver Vixen had had her shower, we pottered across to Sidlesham to collect Jasper. The Gorse Fox had checked, in advance, whether he had used the minbar overnight. He hadn't, so the Gorse Fox settled the bill.

Back home, with Jasper roaming around the house to reacquaint himself with the layout, the Gorse Fox hot the study. It was time to catch up on a couple of weeks of accounts. This took a lot longer than expected because the Gorse Fox hadn't been his usual organised self in terms of which cards to use for which payments, while on holiday. Never mind, it all balanced out in the end.

His replacement for Condor is due to arrive this week.  As you know, the Gorse Fox has developed a substitute backup system while Condor was unavailable. His 40+ years of working in IT kicked in and he has started to revise his data backup strategy and update the documentation he had developed. This has taken much of the afternoon and he would guess there is at least another half-day required to finish it. Like so many things to do with computing, documentation is essential but is so often ignored for home computing setups.

Plan comes together

 We were up about 6-ish. Urban-Cub packed her car and did a final sweep of the house for anything that had been missed. She woke Ellie and took her down to the car and was on her way well before 7. We were a bit more leisurely but by 7:15 we were on our way. It had been a good week.

The early start was a masterstroke. Ellie had fallen back to sleep and Urban-Cub was able to push right on through, getting home in under three hours. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen stopped at Rownham Services for a coffee and a roll but even still managed the the journey in 3hours and 10 minutes. There were no hold-ups, no delays, no traffic queues, not even any traffic lights against us. (Traffic in the other direction was not so lucky!)

By midday, we were unpacked, the washing was on, and the Gorse Fox had been to Sainsbury’s for the weekend shopping. Now for a quiet afternoon.

Last day

It’s the last day of the holiday. The day started very grey and threatening. By the time the Gorse Fox had had his breakfast, a fine rain had started. He had to pop round to fill the car with petrol but it didn’t relent.

Urban-Cub started to pack and clear her stuff and Ellie’s. Her plan is to leave early in the morning but she knew there would be no chance to clear things this evening.

The rain relented and the forecast for the rest of the day was dry. We decided to walk down to the beach and stroll along the Esplanade for as far as we could. Apparently, nobody had told the weather that it wasn’t meant to rain any more. By the time we approached the town, a fine drizzle had restarted. By the time we got to the seafront it had intensified. We stuck with it as far as the Ocean Centre. There Urban-Cub and Ellie peeled off with a view to going to the soft play again. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox continued to the new water sports centre which included a nice cafe and a restaurant run by Michael Caine (the chef, not the actor). We stopped for a coffee. The rain took this as a hint. It too, stopped.

The phone rang. It was Urban-Cub. There were no slots for the soft play session at 1 o’clock, so she had booked for three-thirty. She was hungry and decided she wanted lunch. We said we would join them. The first choice was Prezzo (one of Urban-Cub’s favourites) but they didn’t have any availability. Then we tried a Mediterranean restaurant called “Spoken” which is essentially tapas. We sat down, we checked the menu. We decided there was nothing that Ellie would eat. We gave our apologies and left. We walked up the hill and went back to The Heavitree. Ellie had a burger with chips, Urban-Cub had about two metric tonnes of mussels, and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox both had fish and chips. The portions were huge and certainly saved us from preparing dinner this evening.

Urban-Cub and Ellie headed back to the Ocean Centre. Meanwhile the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox headed back into town to hit the Library. Were there any books or maps that would shed more light on the Silver Vixen’s old home? Well, we found the odd snippet of commentary but struck gold with the map cabinet. (We had to request that this was opened for us). We finally found a map from 1972 showing the locations of the individual chalets at the old docks. Her number was there and exactly in the place she had described on Wednesday. The only outstanding issue is to find a photo of the old chalets. We looked through various archives, but didn’t really find anything of the right era. This will take some more thought and more research.

Back at the house this evening we have all been trundling around packing and generally tidying up ready to leave in the morning.

Celebration Day

Well it has been 48 years since the Silver Vixen was daft enough to walk down the aisle and not run the other way. The Gorse Fox still finds new things to love about her every day.

Urban-Cub and Ellie presented us with some cards (including one from Cousteau-Cub ) this morning. We were all getting ready to go out. Urban-Cub and Ellie were heading for Crealy Theme Park. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were heading for the train station to go into Exeter for a day of shopping. The trains here really are excellent. They are old rolling stock but run every 30 minutes from dawn until late at night. To get to Exeter takes only 30 minutes, and a return ticket for the two of us came to the grand total of £6.90. Why would anyone choose to drive when it is so convenient?

Exeter Station is only 3 minutes walk from the centre of the shopping district. We wandered around, zigging here and zagging there. Popping into this shop or that shop but not finding much that floated our boats. We did spend some time in Pandora and saw a necklace the the Silver Vixen liked but as there was only one assistant and a queue of people before us, we resolved to return later.

We wandered up to and through John Lewis then spun back. We made our way to Pandora - it had closed for the day and it was only about 2 o’clock. Not impressed. We will have to try the outlet in Chichester.

We stopped for a snack in M&S then moved on. A couple of bits were picked up, but little really grabbed us. We headed back to the station and Exmouth for a quiet hour or so.

This evening we went to little restaurant called Saveur. It really was very quaint and welcoming. The food was essentially European, and absolutely delicious. The Silver Vixen started with a roasted pepper out followed by a lovely ribeye steak. The Gorse Fox had some venison koftas followed by hake. Everything was cooked beautifully and served with quip and smile. A restaurant to recommend.

Back home, Urban-Cub had ordered a curry that turned out to be a bit too hot for her, and Ellie decided she wasn’t going to bed. As it is, and it is 9:15, she is still holding court (in fact the Gorse Fox has donned his headphones and switched on some Gregorian Chant so that he can concentrate).

Memories from the corners of her mind

Nostalgia isn’t what it’s cracked up to be. We decided to try some archeological exploration with a view to finding traces of the Silver Vixen’s memories of living in Exmouth. Meanwhile, Urban-Cub and Ellie went across to Newton Abbot for some shopping.

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen started off be walking down to what used to be called The Docks, and is now The Marina. It has clearly gone upmarket. We wandered around looking for landmarks by which should could recognise where she had lived. The old chalets are long-since gone and replaced by the plush marina development. We found where the swing-bridge had been, and we found the slipway from where she would drop down to the sheltered beach.

From there we walked along the front and then looped back into town. We headed for the museum. We were greeted at the door and introduced to what was covered in the museum. We explained what were were looking for and, as we started to look around, she went ferreting through her books and papers to see if there was anything that would help us find pictures of the old dockside chalets. As small town museums go, it was quite interesting, though some of the stewards were a little boring. By the time we had completed our circuit, there seemed to be several people researching on our behalf. We found some material, but nothing that could be considered a breakthrough.

From the museum we continued to the school and took some photos before heading back into town to see if there were any books in W.H.Smith that covered what we wanted. (The library was closed, by the way). No luck, again.

Back at the house Urban-Cub and Ellie had been struggling with a kite. They had almost got it right, but the tether and string was on the wrong side. The Gorse Fox sorted it out and took Ellie back out to try and fly it in the park. We did manage to get it airborne, but it just went into a spin and nose-dived each time it caught the wind. We gave it a number of tries and then mutually decided to go back to the house.

You can come too, too, too

We were all up fairly early. We had a train to catch. The weather was not looking promising, so we loaded up with sweaters and jackets, just in case. There is a great advantage to having a buggy with us. It can be used to transport all of our stuff. We arrived at Exmouth Station with time to spare and plonked ourselves down in an almost empty carriage. Ellie was very excited. This was the first time she had been on a train (that she remembers).

The train chugged up the east side of the estuary and into Exeter, there the driver changed ends and we swept down the west side of the estuary passing Dawlish Warren, Teignmouth, Torre, and Torquay before arriving at Paignton. The trip was about 90 minutes but was a lot more relaxing than it would have been, had we gone by car.

At Paignton, we waited for a bus. (It’s nice that the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox’s bus passes work all over the country as the trip was free for us - and for Ellie, only Urban-Cub had to pay £2).  We had clearly just missed one and had a 25 minutes wait. The sun was still hiding and it was a bit chilly. When the bus finally arrived we hopped on and settled down for the 10 minute ride to the Zoo. The first stop was a medical centre where an old bloke got on and proceeded to explain to the Silver Vixen that he had had a pain in his testicle. (These locals do like to share).

It was coming up to midday by the time we arrived at the Zoo. The sun had broken through and it looked as if we would have a lovely afternoon. The first order of the trip was to wander past the the flamingoes,  find the restrooms and grab a drink. 

Then we were off on our adventures. In no particular order we visited the crocodile swamp, where the specimens seemed particularly unimpressed by the public and just dozed in their enclosures. We passed various exotic birds, including peacocks, rheas, and most impressively some huge spectacled owls. There were several aviaries that appeared empty, but we suspect the birds were just well camouflaged or in the nests.

Next on the agenda was a diversion to see the spider monkeys. They were quite amazing and really amused Ellie. One (grandpa, as she called it) just sat there on a branch observing the world, yawning, and having a scratch. The other was far more boisterous and charged around the enclosure, throwing itself across branches and ropes, and even climbing a brick wall. Just behind the monkeys was an enclose for red panda. This was causing a frisson of excitement as there had recently been some babies. One family claimed they could see them way up in a tree. Nobody else seemed to manage, so we wandered away.

There was a brief diversion into the soft play area before we resumed the visit. We went to find the big cats. Again, the lion was feeling shy and was a no-show, but the tigers were wandering about in their enclosure. One decided to grace the visitors by wandering right up to the viewing Perspex, turning round, and defecating (to the amusement of all the children).

The great apes were next on our tour. As we approached a young couple warned us that the queue was very long and that we would be better finding a viewing spot where we could see the gorillas when they were let out onto the island at 2:30. This seemed like good advice. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox settled by a viewing platform with the buggy to wait for 25 minutes, while Urban-Cub and Ellie went off for a wander to find another play area. After about 10 minutes the viewing spot was beginning to fill up fast. The Gorse Fox messaged Urban-Cub to return and they got back just in time. Three 18-year-old gorillas were released onto the island to forage for food (that had been spread out by the keepers), exercise, and generally look very impressive. After a while the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox backed out to let some others get a better view. Urban-Cub and Ellie followed after a few more minutes when Ellie started to get bored.

We headed for a large play area. Ellie could let off more steam and we could sit down for a cup of tea and a bite to eat (though, as they only sold pizza at this cafe, the Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub had to walk back to another cafe to get the food). We must have stayed at this spot for a good 45 minutes or more. When we left there, we visited the rhinos (who were indoors and particularly smelly) then on to find the giraffes. There were several enclosures on the way with various hogs and some more exotic birds. The giraffes were in their giraffe house which was closed, but we were able, from a distance, to see through the door and see one of the giraffes as he passed the open the door.

Last stop was to see if could find the cheetah. This, again, proved fruitless as he was obviously hiding or relaxing far from the various viewing areas. We headed back to the gift shop, and final restroom break, and off to the bus stop. We only had a five minute wait, and were soon back at the railway station. There we had another five minute wait, boarded the train, and made ourselves comfortable in an almost empty carriage. Ninety minutes later we pulled into Exmouth. Urban-Cub and Ellie headed straight back to the house while the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox stopped off at the M&S Food Hall for some essentials.

It had been a brilliant day.

Sand

It started bright and sunny. There was, however, a cool breeze. The plan for the day evolved based on the whims of a 4-year-old!

Loading up the buggy we walked into town. A skirt purchase yesterday was the wrong size, so the first stop was to get it changed. While Urban-Cub, Ellie, and Silver Vixen where in the shop, the Gorse Fox headed across to the Tourist Information office. He picked up a local map and spoke to the lady who ran the office. She was clearly a local, and had probably been in Exmouth for that last 150 years. This gave the Gorse Fox an idea. He explained that the Silver Vixen had lived here and went to school in the town. He explained where the Silver Vixen lived and that she remembered walking along some disused railway lines on the way to school. The lady emerged from her reverie and said “Oh yes, there used to be a short branch from the station down to the docks. That is now the route of a new road that was built, but here and there you can still see the rails.” This was a great relief as the Silver Vixen was wondering if she had misremembered. Clearly not.

We headed on down to the beach. The sun was playing hide and seek behind some clouds but, out the wind, it was quite pleasantly warm. We found a spot, sheltered by the sea wall and laid out our blankets. A brief trip to a shop saw the mandatory bucket and spade added to our inventory. We sat down to watch the world go by and count the waves as the tide came in.

Ellie started by playing with the sand but it was too dry and dusty. This meant that she needed to get some wetter sand from the water’s edge. In turn, this meant a further change of clothes and the Gorse Fox decided it was time to paddle. We went down the beach. The sun may have been shining but nobody had told the sea. It was bitterly cold. Any stray thoughts of putting on trunks and going for a swim rapidly receded - like the blood flow to his extremities.

Ellie played for a bit longer but declared she wanted lunch, and a swim in a pool, and to go back to the house, and to go the soft play centre. We took this as multiple choice opportunity with only one answer permitted. We went for lunch. We tried the pace where we ate yesterday, but they said there was an hour to wait for food. We politely declined and went round the corner to The Heavitree. This was a nice pub which had a good little menu. The. Silver Vixen had a cheddar and ham ploughman’s, Urban-Cub had a beef burger, Ellie had a ham sandwich (from which she extracted the ham and just ate some of the bread), and the Gorse Fox had a grilled chicken breast burger. It was very good and quite sheltered.

Leaving the pub we wandered down into the town. The Gorse Fox decided that the cool wind, by now better described as cold, was such that his light sweater was insufficient. A trip to Mountain Warehouse was needed. A little while later the Gorse Fox emerged with a warm zip-up fleecy sweater. We headed back to the house for a quiet hour or so before the Gorse Fox took Ellie back to the park for a last run around for the day.

Early-ish start planned for tomorrow.

Soft play

When we left the house it was about midday. We had no specific plan other than heading for the seafront. The weather forecast was changing by the minute. The idea was to wander along the beach if the weather allowed or to go to the Ocean Centre if the weather was too threatening. The Gorse Fox hadn’t realised until he read the guidebook, that Exmouth has 2 miles of sandy beaches.

As it happened we had a short sharp shower and we were likely to get more. We checked in and found that the soft play centre needed to be booked. We sat down and booked there and then. This was an immensely slow process as their website was poor. There was a 15 minute wait while they were finishing the cleaning after the previous session.

Ellie was the first child into the immense cityscape of slides, ball pools, tubes, climbing frames and heavens knows what. Once she was in, that was it. We hardly saw her for the next two hours. She surfaced briefly for a drink or mouthful of food, but that was it.

Eventually, the session timed-out and we escaped. We headed back into the town and stopped at a pub called The Merchant where we had a lovely Sunday roast. After lunch we headed back to the house and sat down on the balcony to have a quiet hour. Ellie was still “high” and in the end Grandpa had to take her to the park to let off some more steam.

With Spurs winning 1-0 against Man City, all in all, it has been a very good day!

Snippet

 It’s always interesting getting a snippet of a conversation. Sitting on our balcony, the Gorse Fox has just heard:

I haven’t seen Amy for years. She’s obsessed with her new boyfriend. He has very strange hair from Hereford.

Travel

 Looking back at yesterday, the Gorse Fox concludes that it worked well. The early start meant we missed the inevitable traffic jams and managed to get here early enough to have a full day here.

The forecast for today is that it will be overcast and there could be a sprinkle of rain mid-afternoon. Once everyone else is up and about we will forge a plan action.

Exmouth

With the alarm set for 5:45, the Gorse Fox was, of course, wide awake by 3:00. One habit left over from his working days is that when an alarm is set, he has to be awake before it goes off so that it doesn’t disturb the Silver Vixen. His internal clock buffer is, however, rusty from lack of use. It clearly went off prematurely.

Up and about, morning tea made, everything was now going like clockwork. The planned 7:00 start time was bettered by 15 minutes. Urban-Cub and Ellie were about 5 minutes ahead of us. We had a wonderful trip down to Devon. We had obviously left early enough to beat the traffic. Including a stop for a comfort break and something to eat we still managed to arrive at the AIRBNB by 10:30.

The accommodation is superb. It is a 3 year old town house on the edge of the Exe Estuary, just a few minutes north of the Exmouth railway station. There are three bedrooms (one en suite) and an open plan kitchen, dining, living room which opens onto a balcony overlooking the estuary. The whole place is beautifully decorated and has clearly been well cared for (mind you, it was a little pricey). 

Once we had settled in and unpacked we took a stroll into town. There was no specific aim other than getting our bearings. We stopped in the park for Ellie to play briefly on the swings, though the Gorse Fox suspects that Urban-Cub enjoyed them just as much  

We soon found the shopping centre and picked up the odd bits here and there. The Gorse Fox should point out that as we walked into town, we passed an old school house. The Silver Vixen, who lived in Exmouth for a while as a child, thought it might be her old school. We checked. There was no commemorative blue plaque and we couldn’t find anyone old enough who would remember her so we couldn’t be sure it was the right place. We might check the museum later in the week, he suggested. (That was just before he started nursing a smack on the back of his head).

We stopped for lunch at the Crusty Cob. We enjoyed some simple panini sandwiches and a drink before moving on. Tesco Express provided a top-up of decaf-tea and some coffee, then M&S provided more comestibles. We strolled back to the house along a different route and then leaving the Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub to unpack the buggy, the Gorse Fox took Ellie back to park to let off steam.

The evening we enjoyed the spaghetti Bolognese that the Gorse Fox prepared yesterday, then spent the evening on the balcony’s watching the sun set slowly behind the hills on the other side of the estuary.

Preparation

 Another very pleasant day on the South Coast. Lots of sun and a few clouds to keep it interesting. The temperatures were in the low 20s.

The first item on today's list was to sort out the Gorse Fox's music library on his phone. He thought it had all been transferred but a recent review showed that only some Apple-purchased music was actually there. A few minutes with the nice man from Google found some instructions and the Gorse Fox restored his music library, as it had been on Condor, to Harrier (his Macbook). Having done that (and been thankful for the speed of SSD devices) he then imported the lot onto his phone.

By now it was time to take Jasper to his latest Spa break at the cattery. For once, this went remarkably smoothly. The Gorse Fox had had time to close all of the doors to rooms where he could hide effectively. He marched in with the carrier, grabbed Jasper, and dropped him into the carrier. The howling started but soon died down. The Gorse Fox suspect he realised that he was off to see Mark at the cattery and would be pampered for a week. The traffic was very slow on the approach to Sidlesham, but we had allowed plenty of time and Mark was there to greet Jasper and get him settled in.

Once home, the Silver Vixen headed off to the hairdresser. The Gorse Fox dug out the suitcases and packed his stuff. Then, he set about preparing a huge container of Bolognaise sauce with mince to take away with us tomorrow so that we didn't have to worry about dinner when we arrived.

The Silver Vixen returned. She had changed the colour of her hair. The Gorse Fox was, momentarily, taken aback as it was so different. It is nice, however, and makes her look younger. All of this change was brought about by the discolouration that she was seeing in her old colour. This had been attributed to chlorine or copper in the water. Whatever it was, it needed to be addressed. The Gorse Fox has sent water samples off to a lab in Germany for analysis. The results should be available in about a week to ten days. Once we know, we can try to counteract the effects.

Our bags are pretty well packed. The plan is for an early start tomorrow.

Hi di Hi

 We had a little rain overnight, but it was drying up when we came down for breakfast. It was pleasantly warm, if overcast.

The Gorse Fox got a text message. His John Lewis order had arrived. He whipped in to Chichester and was back inside 30 minutes clutching his new AirPods. These were put on charge and left alone.

Late morning we met up with Urban-Cub and Ellie and headed for a Butlin’s. It’s only 10 minutes away, and we had a day pass. We found our way into the main tent and then wandered around so that Ellie could choose what she wanted to do. She started by clambering into the soft play area, where she stayed until it was closed for regular cleaning. Form there, she moved on to a small carousel, then we went outside and she found some more carousels and rides that she wanted to try. 

One by one, we watched her try all the rides that interested her. Everything she tried seemed to delight her!

We stopped for lunch, but even then she was clambering over the play area while we waited for our order.

After lunch we returned to the main tent. Again, there were rides on the carousels and a couple of tours of the soft play maze. Then we saw Peppa Pig and George wandering in and headed for the small studio. 

That was it! Urban-Cub and Ellie queued up to get a photo with one of her TB heroes. (Thank goodness Paw Patrol didn’t turn up).

Once Peppa Pig was over, it was time to go to the “Splash” pool. This has been recently rebuilt and is now a state-of-the-art centre for water play (not swimming). There were flumes, slides, sprays, fountains, tipping buckets, and heavens knows what else. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox watched from the side for a little while, then said our farewells and headed home, leaving Urban-Cub and Ellie to get wrinkly in the water.

Fair Enough

 Urban-cub had a hair appointment so Ellie was dropped off soon after 8 o'clock. She had only just woken up and was still struggling to start the day. The weather was nice and we had a plan.

A free funfair had been set up in Chichester's Priory Park. The plan was to take Ellie along and for Urban-cub to join us when she had finished. Parking was a bit of a nightmare but once that was sorted we headed for the sounds emanating from the park. It was very busy and people were making the most of the weather and settling down on the grass for picnics without even visiting the funfair. We picked our way through the bodies and found our way in. It was a sea of people.

We wandered around but there wasn't much that excited Ellie. Well, not until she saw the inflatable castle and slides. Needless to say, there was a lengthy queue, but to be fair it was moving fairly quickly. We arrived at the front of the queue, Ellie stripped off her shoes and she was gone! Through the obstacles, into a tunnel, down a small slide, and then back around. Then she ventured up the big slide. The first time, she got halfway up the steep steps then backed out. She steeled herself and tried again. This time she got to the top and then hurled herself down the slide. That was it. There was no fear. She went around a few more times before her allotted time expired.

That was it. She had had enough. So much for the Fair! She wanted to go to the adventure play area at the other end of the park. Off we trotted. It was heaving. She was a little hesitant but did get to play on a few items of apparatus before Urban-cub arrived. Then she decided she had had enough (again) and wanted to go home.

We didn't go home. We headed into the city centre and settled down outside a small restaurant for some lunch. The world and his wife and her dog all wandered by as we drunk our tea and munched on our paninis. Chichester really is a very nice place to while away an hour or so. Eventually, we split up. Urban-cub and Ellie headed home and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox wandered back to the car via several shops.

Birthday

We met up at lunchtime and headed for The Old Stables at Fontwell. There was the Silver Vixen, the Birthday Girl Urban-cub, Ellie, and Cousteau-cub. The Coventry Hobbit joined us there. We had a lovely table over in one corner and sat down to choose from the menu.

It was a lovely lunch, though the service was a bit slow.  Between us, we tried homemade fish-cakes (with lobster), sirloin steak, pizza, and sea bass. All of it was delicious.

It was during lunch that Urban-cub announced that she had experienced a vivid dream last night in which the family had been informed that the Gorse Fox had dementia. He supposes it is better to be ready for these things... and throughout the meal, they insisted on explaining that he had already said that or done that and had clearly forgot! Such abuse.

Anyway, it was lovely to have the family together.

Cover

 It is Urban-cub's Birthday. That was our focus for the day. We had arranged a family lunch at a nearby restaurant.

But first, there were things to do. The most pressing was to complete the renewal of the Travel Insurance we carry with our bank. The Gorse Fox logged in to the membership benefits site and started the process. A battery of questions flashed up. Completed. Another battery of questions flashed up. Completed... and so it went on. Eventually, a battery of questions flashed up that gave several options: 

• Do you....
• Have you...
• Is there...
• No to all of these.

For us, it was No. The problem was that whilst the was a tickbox in front of the first 3 questions, there wasn't for the fourth option. Stymied. The Gorse Fox could make no further progress. He picked up the phone and dialed the customer services number. He would update it over the phone.

• Press 1
• Press 1
• Press 1
• Press 2

"We are experiencing a high number of calls...... blah blah"

"Your call is important to us; the current wait time is about 5 minutes. If you like we can call you back when you are next in the queue".

The Gorse Fox fell for it. He left his number. He hung up. He waited. Six hours later he gave up and called them back. He got through and after ten minutes, everything was sorted.

Stoned

 Noah called. He wanted his deluge back. We seem to have acquired a rain cloud overnight. It had decided to disgorge biblical amounts of rain across this section of the South Coast. Fortunately, it got bored and decided, by mid-morning, to move on and torment somewhere else.

We had a few plans to execute. The first was to take the water samples and get them sent off to the lab in Germany for analysis. Hopefully, this will reveal what lurks within our water that might be causing the Silver Vixen's hair to take on a slightly green hue.

We are planning to have some of our landscaping changed. Originally, we put down Cotswold chippings. The problem is that these are porous limestone and, over time, they have discoloured. 

We viewed a display of about 40 different types of stone. Some small gravel, some large cobbles, some rough chippings, some smooth pebbles, some bright but porous, and some was coloured and hard. We took advice from the staff and, in the end, chose a stone called "Flamingo".

The Gorse Fox has now emailed our landscape chappie and told him what we want. We now need to see when he can start work.

Rain and Research

 The morning was blessed with incessant heavy rain. We had no plans to venture out, so retired to our respective study areas. The Silver Vixen cracked on with her project, and the Gorse Fox returned to the Family Tree.

There was no specific research plan, today. The Gorse Fox picked one of the Silver Vixen's ancestors, almost randomly, and tried to fill in some more details. He worked across Ancestry, FindMyPast, and FamilySearch.com. There were a few promising leads but nothing about which he felt confident enough to commit to the database. He is still stuck at the Silver Vixen's (paternal) Great-great-grandfather. Whilst the family lived in Deptford in the late 1830s, they were born in Ireland. That is where the trail runs cold. Also, bearing in mind we know their whereabouts in 1839, they don't appear to be listed in any of the subsequent Census returns. It seems that the family of the Silver Vixen enjoys being historically enigmatic.

Mid-afternoon, the Gorse Fox received a call from Urban-cub. She needed to top up the oil in her car. She had bought the correct type of oil but wanted to make sure she put it in the correct place. The Gorse Fox went round to help. While he was there, he added a missing cam-lock to the cabinet that we built last week. There was one cam-lock missing in the self-assembly pack, so the Gorse Fox ordered some replacements from the nice man at Amazon. He wasn't too sure of the correct size, but it turns out that he guessed correctly, and the final drawer in the cabinet is now fixed properly.

Cousins

 It was a day for cousins. The morning saw the regular Zoom call with the Empson cousins, but for a change, we had one of the Law cousins on board as well. Once that was over, the Gorse Fox got on with some Family Tree research - to no avail. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes there's nothing. Today there was nothing.

In the afternoon, the Silver Vixen's cousins from Brighton dropped in. We settled down for some tea and cake and a chat, then ordered some Indian food for dinner (while the Gorse Fox cooked salmon, chips, and peas for the  Silver Vixen and her Aunt). We had a lovely evening catching up on all of the family news and from the Peoples Republic of Brighton. After dinner, Sue and the Gorse Fox delved into some family research, giving the others a chance to settle in the lounge for a gossip.

It was a very pleasant evening.

Bit of a Giggle

 It has been predominantly bright and sunny but very windy throughout the day. We had a quiet morning with just some general pottering about. 

At lunchtime, we went into Chichester. A few weeks ago the Gorse Fox took Old Bill to the hospital for his treatment. This took several hours and, as a way of thanking him, Old Bill and Lady Penelope took us to the Giggling Squid for lunch. We had a lovely time and a wonderful meal (as usual). We also met the new manager, Libby, who has taken over from Helen who, in turn, has now taken over the chain's training role.

An update is due. The Gorse Fox explained about the disambiguation of the date for the appointment to sort out the failed panel in the Orangery roof. He forgot to provide a follow-up. On Wednesday this week, he received a call from the company.

"Hello, is that the Gorse Fox? This is Griselda at the Orangery Company. You are expecting Shay to visit tomorrow afternoon..."

"No;" replied the Gorse Fox "I am expecting him between 09:00 and 10:00, as scheduled".

"Ah, well, he has tested positive for Covid-19 and has to isolate. He will be unable to attend. He will contact you when free to set up a new appointment"

So, we are back to square one.

Assembly

 Despite the forecast, the morning was quite bright and sunny. It was only in the afternoon that we had some rain which seemed to make itself comfortable and snuggled down overhead. It did, eventually, clear and now everything is drying up nicely.

Ellie slept well overnight and didn't venture in to see us until 7:15. She was very chirpy and had clearly slept well. Urban-cub, who had worked late last night, popped round to collect her and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox returned to our normal Thursday morning schedule with Ocado arriving first and then a top-up trip to Sainsbury's.

Urban-cub had ordered a new cabinet with a couple of drawers and a cupboard beneath. This arrived in the last couple of days but she was not very confident about assembling it. The Gorse Fox went round to help and the Silver Vixen came along for company. It was time that Urban-cub got over her reticence so the Gorse Fox directed operations while she actually constructed the unit. It all went together very well. She did a good job. The cabinet now nestles in her understairs cupboard as a repository for cables, chargers, DVDs, and, most importantly, her printer. It took a while, but the finished result was worth the effort.

Playground

 It was another lovely day. Though there was a smattering of clouds in the morning, the afternoon had clear blue skies from end to end.

We had a nice chat this morning with Cousteau-cub. Her teeth are still giving problems but the acute problem caused by the abscess had eased. It looks like she will need to have a tooth removed and a denture provided. Despite the problems, she sounded quite chirpy.

The Gorse Fox headed across to Worthing for football. We had a good turn-out. This meant that we had to split into three teams and play a round-robin. The Gorse Fox was able to sit out the first game, but then played in the remaining games. Unfortunately, we lost both games 2-1. The Gorse Fox was not too dispirited - he played well, intercepted a lot, and managed to stray into the attacking half occasionally.

He beat the system. The Gorse Fox always looks at Google maps when he prepares to leave. this determines the route he will take home. Today, no routes looked sensible. There was a huge tailback at Crossbush, and the roadworks around Angmering were at a virtual standstill. The Gorse Fox used his local knowledge from 14 years at Kingston Gorse. He switched off the A259, slipped along to the level-crossing, then headed through the edge of East Preston towards Rustington. Then he looped back onto the A259 having missed all the traffic. The expected 49 minutes run home was reduced to 35 minutes. Result.

The Silver Vixen had collected Ellie. She will stay with us until the morning. After some lunch, we took her to the playground where she started playing on the apparatus before switching to running games where she hurtled around the park with the Gorse Fox in tow. This carried on until some more kids arrived and then she joined in with their games. It was lovely to see that though they were clearly of Afro-Caribbean origin, she just merged in with their games without a thought and similarly, they accepted her without a thought. While this was going on, the Gorse Fox chatted with their dad.

Sheared

It's been another lovely day by the coast. The sun has been shining and a few clouds have provided mobile punctuation in an otherwise clear blue sky.

The Gorse Fox went across to Worthing for the Tuesday football. We had another great turnout, with some 35 old codgers stripped and ready to play. Ten were peeled away to play in the 5-a-side cages and the rest of split into four teams. The Gorse Fox was in a team that peaked early. We played a superb first game, winning 2-1. The second game wasn't so good as we only managed a 2-2 draw. This game annoyed the Gorse Fox. A chap he had never seen before was attacking for the other team and the Gorse Fox was marking him as he took a wild kick at the ball and skyed it over the bar. He then claimed the ball had come off the Gorse Fox's chest - which it hadn't, in order to claim a corner kick. The Gorse fox pointed out that he had not touched it and was accused of "not being honest". Anyone who knows the Gorse Fox would know that a) that would wind him up, b) it was a lie, and c) the Gorse Fox always puts his hands up to confess to any infringement - even when it has been spotted by anyone else. A bit narked, the Gorse fox marked said individual with greater vigour and attention for the rest of the game and don't believe he actually touched the ball again.

The Gorse Fox should complete the story of our decaying performance. In the last of the three games, we were outnumbered by a very competent, mobile, attacking team. We lost that game 3-1 and there was very little we could do about it.

Back home, having showered and lunched, the Gorse Fox entered the week's shopping list (prepared during the morning by the Silver Vixen) and then wandered around to the village and "Golden Blades". He only had to wait for a few minutes and then the chap with the shears was ready and he set about making the Gorse Fox look beautiful.

Houdini

 Since the last escapade, the Gorse Fox has had a toolbox blocking the catflap in the Orangery. Yesterday, the Gorse  Fox needed some of the tools so took the whole box into the workshop. Last night, soon after we went to bed, Jasper decided he would make a run for freedom. This went undetected by his guards (us). Coming down this morning, the Gorse Fox went through his usual routine to open up. He noticed Jaspers dinner and breakfast were both untouched. As he opened the blinds in the Orangery, there was Jasper. He gave the Gorse Fox a withering look and marched over to the door to be let in. As he crossed the threshold he howled his disapproval and went straight to his feeding bowls. (This would all be so much easier if he realised he cam come back in through the flap, as well as exit). The cat flap is now covered again.

The Gorse Fox dug out the instructions for the bandsaw. He had been on the right lines, but missed one step. Bandsaw blades are vicious and unwieldy articles so he grabbed his thick gardening gloves and slowly fitted a new blade. It was as well that he was wearing the gloves as the blade took a lot of persuasion and fiddling to get it all aligned.

J&T arrived late afternoon. They had been down at the Naval Dockyards at Portsmouth for the day. Clearly, they enjoyed the day and spoke of a further visit to catch some of the exhibits they missed today. We settled down with some tea and cake and enjoyed a chat, Urban-cub popped in to say hello, but couldn’t stay. She had to get back to work to complete a cash audit. We’re ordered a fish supper and sat down to enjoy the usual cod and chips all round. It was a lovely few hours, and good to hear thatThe  Mask seems to be recovering from his bought of Covid.

Bandit

It was a lovely morning and the early afternoon was still bright and sunny, but it clouded over mid-afternoon and we had a short shower of rain.

Like yesterday, the Silver Vixen has been in her sewing room and the Gorse Fox in the workshop. Though he is making good progress he has ground to a halt this afternoon when the bandsaw shed its blade. He has a spare blade, but can't remember exactly how to change it. He'll have to dig out the instruction manual and take it from there. That, however, can wait for another day!