Going blue

 Ellie slept well but wandered into our room at about 6:40. She was chirpy and clearly ready for the day. We went through the usual breakfast routine and then she got washed and dressed. Soon after, Urban-Cub arrived (she has a day off) and finished Ellie's hair before we headed off on the long walk to school (about 200 yards).

Normally the Gorse Fox would the change for football and head across to Worthing. Not today. He had decided that a number of administrative items needed attention. That, combined with a sore knee, convinced him that an extra day without a game would not be an issue. First on the agenda was to renew the passport. It isn't about to run out (there are 8 more months to run) but given that we are going away in June, the residual time on the passport could be a problem. New passport was ordered online with a new passport photo. It will be interesting to go back to the old blue-covered passports after burgundy of the EU.

From there the Gorse Fox attempted to attend to the age extension necessary for his travel insurance. He again had trouble and was unable to process the upgrade online. He had had enough. His dander was up. He wrote:

After your recent letter I have tried to purchase the age extension for my travel insurance. Couldn't do it online so I rang. After 40 minutes you answered and told me I couldn't apply until I was within 31 days of my birthday. It is now 28 days until my birthday and your NatWest Travel Insurance website still ignores any click on "Age Extension" or "Upgrade". I do not intend to spend a further 40 minutes listening to inane and meaningless messages from your call centre. Please contact me soonest to arrange upgrade.

It will be interesting to see if there is a response.

Much of the afternoon has been spent trying to work out why the Silver Vixen's iMessages were not being consistently synchronised across her MacBook, iPhone, and two iPads. In doing this he also took the opportunity to ensure they are all bang up-to-date. Things are looking as if they are resolved now, but only time will tell.

To make life just that little bit less tolerable, Ocado seem to have a problem accepting payments from some institutions. Institutions that the Gorse Fox has used consistently, week after wee, for years are suddenly claiming there is a verification problem. A long chat with a service agent explained it was a change in the way some companies are implementing a new security protocol (PSD2?) and their technical people are trying to solve the issue. Payment was taken online, but the lesson for next week is to complete the shopping list on a computer than can use ApplePay, which is not affected, apparently.