Smart

 It was grey but dry. The sun tried to breakthrough but was not up to the job, today. Urban-Cub dropped Ellie round to us and headed off to work. Ellie had only just woken up was still a bit groggy when she arrived but soon snapped into action. In fact, by the time she was washed and dressed, she was eager to work on one of her number games before school.

Once Ellie was at school, the morning was fairly quiet. The Gorse Fox spent quite a while examine wiring diagrams and documents regarding the central heating system. He was trying to work out the best approach for installing the Tado Smart Thermostat. In the end he concluded that it would take some deeper investigation - on another day.

We were having smart meters installed today. It was necessary to clear some space in garage for the change of gas meters, and to switch off all the relevant household hardware in preparation for the power to be off. With the number of machines the Gorse Fox has, this took a little while and triggered the though that he should develop and automatic shutdown cascade for all the systems.

The chap turned up and both meters were changed, checked, and activated within 90 minutes. It is interesting (and occasionally sobering) to see the breakdown of gas and electricity consumption in terms of pence per minute. The Gorse Fox was chatting with the engineer. He had come across from Southampton, explaining that the local depot had sacked most of its staff for pilfering fuel... claiming 2000 miules-worth of fuel for less than 500 miles of actual travel. Stupid.

We spent the late afternoon with Ellie and her homework. She was eager to get into it as soon as she got home, so the Gorse Fox took the first shift, the the Silver Vixen took over when it was time for the cooking to start. The Gorse Fox does hope this eagerness to learn grows with her.