On-Off-On

 It was a grey start to the day, but it was warm and dry. The Gorse Fox had football scheduled. At least it was. Then it wasn't. The it was, again.

The Gorse Fox  had sorted out the teams for the final incarnation of players. The game kicked-off and the Gorse Fox was worried he hadn't quite got the balance right. He was wrong. He couldn't have chosen two closer balanced teams. The Gorse Fox, himself, managed to score the opening goal for his team. By half time. it was an even 5 all. Unfortunately, the second half was a lot tighter and the final score was 7-6 against the Gorse Fox.

The Silver Vixen has spent the afternoon sorting out fat quarters in her sewing room while the Gorse Fox sat in the Orangery reading. Another book has been finished - that makes 18 books in the last 3 weeks. The Gorse Fox is embraced today that he does everything in bursts of activity, whether it be reading, sketching, family tree research... or whatever. Once his mind slips into the latest point of focus - that's it until he switches to the next.

Updates

 It has been another lovely summer's day. The temperatures have been in the mid 20s and there has been some occasional cloud.

We received a new floor steamer yesterday. (The old steam cleaner had packed up). The Gorse Fox spent an hour or so this morning steam cleaning the hall and kitchen floors. This was very successful and much better than the 'Flash" mop that we had been using. One of the features of this new cleaner is that it can be used (with a special fitment) on carpet. The Gorse Fox decided to attack several carpet stains that had eluded other cleaning methods. He can now confidently report that they has also eluded steam cleaning. In fact, they may have got worse! Oh well, that's a problem for another day.

The Gorse Fox also found that there was an update for the Skoda's SatNav which he could download and apply. Pah! So they say!

Following the instructions, he download the 26GB update to to the Windows machine. Then he tried to unzip it and copy it to an SD. Four hours later it was still predicting 15 hours to complete the copy. He switch to the Mac. The whole process took 15 minutes. He went down to the car and tried the update. The car couldn't identify the update, He tried again (on the Mac). Same results. In the end, after faffing around fro several hours, he decided that he wouldn't bother. He could walk to most places in Great Britain quicker than the Skoda update would complete.

The last hour or so of the afternoon was spent sitting in the garden, reading. Another book finished, and yet another book starter

Summertime and the Living is Easy

 It has been an immensely restful day. The weather has been perfect - not too hot, to too cool, not too sunny, not too cloudy. Mid 20s; perfect.

The Silver Vixen spent dome time this morning pottering in the front garden while the Gorse Fox worked on the accounts. Once finished, he spent time looking for candidates with which we might replace the Skoda next year. Lots of cars reviewed; moved onto the shortlist. The shortlist, incidentally, currently stands at 0.

We did hear from Cousteau-Cub. It looks as if she may be changing jobs within her current setup. This, predominantly, to give her more flexibility when she gets health flare-ups. It sounds like she has a very caring employer.

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent the afternoon in the Orangery reading our respective books.

That's it; nothing else to report.

The Crew

 It was a fairly normal Thursday. Coffee and breakfast while reading the news and then the delivery from Ocado (right at the end of the delivery slot). This was followed by the obligatory top-up in Sainsbury's and a stop-off at a local courier pick-up point so that the Silver Vixen could return some items delivered yesterday.

Once home the Silver Vixen tucked into some ironing while the Gorse Fox walked into the village to get his hair cut. There seemed to be a lot of young boys having their hair cut today. This kept the Gorse Fox waiting a bit longer than usual, but it was not a problem.

We had a quiet afternoon with our books before getting ready for the evening. We were going out with the Sonning Crew for the first time in ages. We met up at Old Bill and Lady Penelope's for a glass of fizz before heading off to catch the bus. For a change, we were towards Felpham, not Chichester. There was some disruption on the buses but ours turned up and got us to Fino's on time.

Fino's, even at 18:30, was buzzing. We were shown to our table and settled down to explore the menu options while enjoying a drink. Not everyone had starters. The Gorse Fox had some garlic ciabatta, whilst the others had whitebait.

The main course saw wide selection of choices among us. The Silver Vixen had sea bass, others had various selections, and the Gorse Fox, finding it hard to choose, plumped for a pizza. The food was excellent, as it has been on our previous visits. By this time, the restaurant was really filling up. The table next to ours was claimed by a coven of middle-aged ladies - who were clearly very excitable and very loud. This meant that for Two Hats and the Gorse Fox, who were sitting closest to them, the rest of the evening's chat with the Sonning Crew was completely drowned out.

Several of the Crew had a sweet, though the Gorse Fox did not. We settled the bill - which was remarkable inexpensive compared with some of the meals we have enjoyed - and headed for the bus stop.

We didn't have to wait for too long and the bus rattled through almost without a stop. We had to get off the bus by the Pink Pub roundabout as the A259 had been closed by an accident and the bus was having to divert by the Lower Bognor Road.

We arrived home before 21:30 having had a lovely evening.

Fridge

 It was meant to be another gentle start to the day. The problem was that the Gorse Fox woke during the night and realised that the Silver Vixen's car would need fuel before she set off for Pilates. He was determined to do this before anything else when he got up. He made the usual morning tea for the Silver Vixen then disappeared to fill the car. Once done, he could relax over breakfast.

The Silver Vixen headed off to Pilates and the Gorse Fox soon followed to play football. As usual, Krakatoa Jack had chosen some lopsided teams. As usual, the Gorse Fox was on the team that would be under continuous attack. Having said that, the Gorse Fox opened the scoring with an absolute pile-driver from the left wing. Unfortunately, though defending stoutly, we conceded and by the break we were 2-1 down. We swapped a couple of our players round in the second half but it made no significant difference. The final score was 4-2. It was all played in a good sporting spirit and was very enjoyable. The youngsters who were in the stands, waiting to use the pitch, were gob-smacked when we explained the rules that we play to and the fact that all but one of us are over 70.

Once home the Gorse Fox had a chat with Two Hats. They now have a new Mazda CX-30 which looks very nice. The Gorse Fox suspects it would be a little small for us, but it does look very smart.

The early afternoon was spent reading then the Gorse Fox drove down to Selsey. He was there to help the Coventry Hobbit. He and Cousteau-Cub had bought a large American-style fridge from a building site. While it needed some cleaning, it seemed to be in good working order. The Gorse Fox was there to help the Coventry Hobbit shift it and load it into the van that he had borrowed. Then he followed the van home and helped the Coventry Hobbit unload it and store it in their garage until it could be cleaned.

Knees

 It was a gentle start before heading off for football;. In fact, the Gorse Fox had a chance to read the paper and finish a book, He headed off to football while the Silver Vixen went to hairdresser before spending the rest of the day with Urban-Cub.

Football was a blast, as usual. We had enough players for two 6 teams of 6 and two teams of 7. The Gorse Fox was, as expected on a team of 6. the first game was a satisfactory 2-2 draw. The Gorse Fox's main contribution in this game was blocking shots from the opposition. One such block involved a kneecap-to-kneecap clash that left both of us limping for a while.

The second game was another satisfactory 1-1 draw. The final game, which looked the hardest, ended up as a solid 3-1 win. The Gorse Fox would not say it was one of his greatest performances, but it was adequate.

Once home, the Gorse Fox returned to his books and buried himself therein until the Silver Vixen returned. Another complete book was consumed, and yet another is part way through.

Call back

 It was a lazy start to the day. The Gorse Fox was up soon after 7:00 but sat reading while enjoying his first and second coffee of the day. The Silver Vixen came down when she awoke and, tea in hand, settled down to read the paper.

The morning became focussed on insurance. The Gorse Fox decided to look at the current car insurance policy and talk to the provider to discuss the impact of his recent impact on the front wing. Practically, it looks as if it would be sensible to claim it rather than pay privately. He went back round to the local bodyshop and asked them to provide a formal quote that he could submit to the insurers, should he decide to go ahead. That should come in overnight. In practice he reckons that once he has a replacement wing, it will take a week to complete. The Gorse Fox is leaning towards this solution.

Once that was sorted he tried to deal with the Travel Insurance renewal. They claim it can be renewed online. They lied (but they are insurers). He phoned. The put him in a queue. They did, however, say it would only be 15 minutes and if he didn't want to hang on, they would call hime back when he reached the top of the queue. He pressed "1" to request the call back. It is now 8 hours and he still has not received the call-back. They lied (but they are insurers). He downloaded their App. Using the App he was able to complete the renewal... but their instructions said you could do it online. To the Gorse Fox that means that you can do it through a browser. You can't. They lied (but they are insurers). Anyway, it is all sorted now, thanks to the App.

The Silver Vixen decided to have a blitzclean of the Orangery. The Gorse Fox tried to help but the steam cleaner was broken as was the Karcher window washer. Not a great help. New Karcher on order and stuff the steam the cleaner!

The afternoon was spent reading.

On Fire

 It was a gentle start to the day. The Gorse Fox headed off to Ford for the Sunday football session around 9:00 and waited for the lads to turn up. We were meant to have  5-v-5 session but one player failed to materialise so we had to juggle the teams. The Gorse Fox re-juggled so it was 5-v-4 with him on the team with 4 (orange).

The first half was very intense, but teamwork, passing, and determination saw us go in at half-time at 7-7, even. The Gorse Fox was pleased to have contributed 4 of our 7 goals. At half time, one player had to drop out. He was experiencing dizzy spells. He said he would give it 5 minutes and rejoin - the Gorse Fox put his foot down. He would not come back today. 

The second half was 4-v-4 so at least we were no longer outnumbered. Again it was very intense and the Gorse Fox found he was gasping for breath at times. We fought on, however, and ended up 12-11 winners with 4 further goals (or was it 5) from the Gorse Fox. He was very content at the end of the game, he had been on fire... but really needed a shower when he got home.

The rest of the day has been pretty quiet. A couple of brief visits from Urban-Cub, but the rest of the time pottering about or reading.

Swan Upping

 A lazy lie-in was only interrupted by Jasper. He was beginning to get a bit impatient and decided to let us know. The Gorse Fox wandered down to let him out and make a coffee. 

The usual cousins' call was well attended today. Maggie had just had a short break in Portsmouth so there was a lot of Naval banter and reminiscing among them. After the call the morning was quiet while the Silver Vixen go ready and the Gorse Fox read his book. We were meeting up for lunch with Jane & Trevor.

We headed up to Chiddingfold - our usual meeting spot. This time, instead of the usual lunch at the The Crown, we decided to return to The Swan. We had been there before but were not impressed the last time. Rgar was a number of years ago and it is now under new management. The menu, while not extensive, provided good coverage for most palates. The serving staff seemed a little vague, but the food was good. The Silver Vixen had plaice, Jane had fish and chips, and Trevor and the Gorse Fox had cod loin. It was all delicious and as we hadn't indulged in a started it left room for a sweet. It is certainly worthy of a return visit.

We managed to catch up on all the local news about the families and hear about possible holiday plans for Spring 2023 (a river cruise on the Duoro). As usual, the time flew by and we had to finally pay the bill and leave.

Canvas

 Urban-Cub dropped Elie off much later than usual. With Ellie about to spend the next fortnight with Pistol Pete, she was keen to get the most out of the last few hours. Ellie bounced into the house. She was completely hyper.  All she should talk about was going to the circus and going camping with Daddy. It was great that she she was so enthusiastic, and we just had to keep her  going until Pistol Pete collected her at lunchtime.

The Gorse Fox managed to keep her happy with some drawing and some colouring. More to the point he got her to write a journal entry and explained that this is something she should build up as she get older. (The Gorse Fox didn't offer to create a blog or digital journal for her.... but that is the logical conclusion).

During the morning we continued to do some colouring, some reading, and do some puzzles. She did very well and is particularly adept at spotting the differences between two similar pictures.

Pistol Pete arrived at lunchtime. Ellie couldn't set off quickly enough. We got her bags loaded into the car along with a Red Cross parcel of food that only she would eat. With a wave, she was gone.

The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had a quiet afternoon. The Gorse Fox waded half way through his latest book "The Monument Murders" while the Silver Vixen spent the afternoon sorting through her her sewing room.

Painting and Colouring

 Ellie was clearly tired last night. It was 7:40 before she woke and wandered into our room. She was still a bit confused. "Grandpa, I can't remember what I am doing on Friday" she said, sounding worried. The Gorse Fox explained that she would be with us until lunchtime and then Daddy would be collecting her. She relaxed, dived onto the bed, and started to torment the Silver Vixen.

We had the normal shopping this morning, with Ellie helping out with the unpacking of Ocado's delivery and fetching and carrying in Sainsbury's. Once back home she was excited to read her book to the Gorse Fox and then to start on a) Play Doh!, b) Painting, c) Paw Patrol toys, d) colouring, and e) eating. This randomly recurring sequence continued until Urban-Cub arrived to collect her.

The Gorse Fox must confess that he got involved with the colouring and found it quite therapeutic. The Silver Vixen had some adult colouring books (mandalas, animals, wildlife etc). The images were immensely intricate and required a great deal of mindful concentration.

Cooler

 It was a bit cooler this morning. Not by a lot, but 20C seemed cool after the last few 28C starts. The Gorse Fox went round to Urban-Cub and went with her to escort Ellie to school for the last time this school year. In September, Ellie starts in Year 1.

The Silver Vixen had Pilates scheduled and the Gorse Fox was due to play football. We headed off to our respective destinations. The Gorse Fox had to do some fancy manoeuvring to avoid a Jeep that drove straight out of a side road almost t-boning the Fiesta. Fortunately, the other side of the road was clear and the Gorse Fox avoided the impending collision. The postman who saw it all unfold shook his head in disbelief.

We had a good game of football today. On paper, the Gorse Fox's yellow team looked the weaker. We did, however, defend well and pass the ball well. The Gorse Fox managed to miss two or three clear opportunities in the first few minutes. He also had several shots saved. No mind, his team was managing to score. By the end we had won 6-4 and the Gorse Fox had got the final goal. It was a good run out and the temperatures were quite comfortable.

Back home we had a couple of quiet hours reading before we had to collect Ellie. Even then, she was only with us for a short while as she was going down to the beach with one of her school friend's family for an hour or so.

Ellie's back now. She didn't go in the sea as it was a bit choppy. She's had her dinner and is now getting ready for bed, and will be staying with us overnight.

Well done

 There was some vandalism at Ellie's school last week. A local resident has set up a "GoFundMe" page:

to raise some money for Bartons primary school who were recently targeted by local youths who jumped over the fence during the night and destroyed the childrens static canopy which covers the quiet area of the playground. 

The quiet area is very important for the children as it is a place to go if they are feeling sad or maybe a little down or just want somewhere to sit quietly with their friends. The canopy allowed them to be sheltered from the weather and made the space usable all year round. 

The local youths thought it would be funny to trespass on the the school grounds during the night and climb on top of the canopy and smash their way through it.

This is excellent and the Gorse Fox has donated. The target was £1000 and he was delighted to find that one anonymous donor had pledged £815. We have some good people in the neighbourhood.

Phew

It was another warm night and the morning showed clear blue skies.The Gorse Fox wandered out to the garden and had his morning coffee in the early morning shade of the patio. He had just finished reading the paper and catching up with Facebook when the Silver Vixen came down. By now the temperature was 28C and rising. Not too shabby for 8 a.m.

The Gorse Fox showered then went to escort Elie and the Urban-Cub to school. Urban-Cub had a day off and was looking forward to some downtime in the sun. The Gorse Fox returned home to join the Silver Vixen for a very leisurely breakfast. The Silver Vixen then retired to the sewing room and the Gorse Fox his study.

The Gorse Fox had a plan. He would write some code to add or modify the metadata that accompanies a photo. Why? Well, if the photos was sent via social media, the interesting metadata has been stripped.

He started the code. Early tests showed great promise. Then he thought "Someone must have done this already" and so a Google search began. Finally some code was located and tested. It sort of worked. One of the most interesting aspects, however, was setting the GPS coordinates. This did not work. It was meant to. It didn't though. By this time the Gorse Fox was bored with the whole idea and shutdown the computer.

The early afternoon was spent reading his latest book. Later, after the Silver Vixen had been to collect Ellie, we wandered round to Urban-Cub's and spent an hour with her, with Cousteau-Cub, with Dareen, with Ellie and three of Ellie's friends. One, Time, is returning to Poland with his family this week - so we had to say goodbye.

Scorcheroo

 It has been a hot day. In Wales, it has broken the all time temperature record - Welsh people have been seen staggering out of their houses wondering what the bright light was in the sky. Several have even taken off their usual rainwear. In parts of the England the temperatures have been in the hight 30s. Living here on the South Coast we have the great advantage of sea breezes to ameliorate the heat and it has only reached the low 30s here. It may be the sunniest place in the country, but that doesn't mean the most extreme. It probably is, however, one of the most comfortable.

Ellie was dropped off as usual and after breakfast we dropped here round to school. We then had a quiet day. The Silver Vixen managed to get some time in front of the sewing machine while the Gorse Fox filed some new photos and then settled down with his books.

We collected Ellie from school and after a snack she elected to go home where Darren could supervise her in the pool. This has given us an unexpectedly quiet evening.

Building

 The Gorse Fox was up around 7:30. It was another glorious star to the day. He took his coffee and his iPad and headed for the garden. The next hour or so was spent in almost total silence as the sun made its way round to hit the patio. The Gorse Fox managed to read the paper, to read Facebook, and to continue with his book. There was no football as the game had been cancelled.

This lazy start set the scene for the day. We sat and read, or in the Silver Vixen's case, pottered in the garden. Temperature moved into the high 20s, but we remained comfortable throughout.

That was really about it for the day.

Craven

 Ellie was awake early. She was good and stayed in her room until 7:00. She was wide awake though... there was no chance of a quiet 30 minutes! Urban-Cub came round soon after 8:00 and swept Ellie and her things up and took her home for the weekend.

The Gorse Fox had his usual call with the cousins but then he and the Silver Vixen had to get ready to go out. We had arranged to meet the Silver Vixen's sister and brother-in-law back in March, but had to cancel because we came down with Covid. Today was the first day that allowed our diaries to intercept. We had arranged to meet the half-way, which is near Newbury.

The first part of the journey was trouble-free but when we joined the bottom of the M3 we joined a queue that led all of the 9 miles to the A34 junction. At least with the car's adaptive cruise control, the Gorse Fox could relax and let the car take the strain as we inched forward. The queue must have added 25-30 minutes to our journey. The A34 was no trouble and we pulled off towards Highclere and then followed the side roads to Enborne.

The Craven Arms was set at a crossroads. It had a huge car park and large garden. The garden had a children's play area, outside seating, and several huge yurts, We elected to sit in the yurt, providing shade from the sun, but a pleasant breeze.

The menu was varied and provided a good choice. The Silver Vixen started with garlic mushrooms, Denise & Dom had prawns, and the Gorse Fox had Southern Fried chicken goujons. This was a very good start.

Their ribs were off the menu, which was a shame. Their burgers sounded super, and Dom had one of them. The Silver Vixen had ha, egg, chips, and peas (her favourite), and Denise and the Gorse Fox had a Beef Rendang.  The choices were well made. Everything was delicious, and the Silver Vixen and Dom failed to finish all that was on their plates.

We spent a good three hours or so chatting. We caught up with family news, with holidays (taken and planned), with work, with photos, and generally had a good laugh.

It was coming up to 17:00 by the time we left. The roads were empty and we were home in no time.

Cooler

 It was a little cooler today. It was still beautifully warm, but not quite as intense as the past few day. A few clouds punctuated the clear clear blue of the sky, but none dared cast a shadow near us. The Gorse Fox wandered round to Urban-Cub to accompany her and Ellie to school.

Once home he sat and enjoyed a quiet breakfast wit the Silver Vixen. Fed and watered, the Silver Vixen started on a cleaning whirlwind. The Gorse Fox headed for the study to catch up on the accounts.

Cousteau-Cub, who is currently on sick-leave, went round to Urban-Cub's. It was just to get a change of scenery, but having the back door key doesn't help when Urban-Cub has left the key in the inside of the lock. The Gorse Fox had to go round and open things up. At least it gave hime time to stand and chat with Cousteau-Cub.

The afternoon started with 90 minutes reading before we had to collect Ellie. Another book bit the dust and as the Gorse Fox moved on to the second book in the relevant series.

We collected `Ellie from school. She is staying overnight and is currently in the bath under the Silver Vixen's watchful eye.

Budding Sportsperson

 Ellie was wide awake by 6:10. The problem was that we were not. We provided her with some ideas and dispatched her back to her bedroom. To be fair, she pretty much stayed put until the Gorse Fox got up at 6:50. Once she was fed, washed, dressed and ready for school she and the Gorse Fox went through her phonics red words until it was time for school (For the uninitiated, red words are those that cannot be split into their phonic components easily... e.g. was, yours, and so forth).

Once Ellie was at school we sat down for coffee and breakfast and waited for Ocado to deliver. We then headed off to Sainsbury's for the top-up and a 15 minute chat with Old Bill and Lady Penelope who we bumped into in the pasta aisle. He has been declared cancer-free but still needs to have his gall bladder removed. It was a huge relied to us all.

Back home, the Silver Vixen got on with some ironing while the Gorse Fox returned to the code for managing the digital home phone's directory. It took a couple of experiments but the Gorse Fox soon had the incantation and accompanying rules right. The phone now has a valid phone directory sourced from Google contacts.

Thew afternoon was spent reading. 

Urban-Cub called on the way back from Ellie's swimming lesson. She had just gout her certificate and been promoted to the next level. In doing so, she had swum a width on her front - and come first in the class. As the Silver Vixen, Cousteau-Cub, Urban-Cub, and the Gorse Fox are all good swimmers, this was something we are very proud of and made sure that we told her. This adds to her performance at the school sports day  (while the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were away in Cornwall). Ellie came 1st, 2nd, and 3rd in the races in which she was involved. It is great to see that she has such athletic prowess as the the Gorse Fox believes that sport is a great discipline and an outlet for stress. As such it is great for your overall mental health.

Directory

 It has been another lovely hot day. We've had some cloud cover but that has made it a little humid. 

Ellie was dropped off soon after 7:00 and the normal sequence of events followed. She has her iPad with her. This is a problem as she becomes totally deaf to anything else when she is watching it. We don't mind her watching the Amazon tablet (it doesn't have iTunes) but the iPad is like a child-magnet.

Having dropped Ellie off at school, the Silver Vixen headed off to Pilates and the Gorse Fox stayed home as the football had been cancelled. He used the time to catch up on some admin then decided to look at the new digital home phone.

It seemed daft that the new digital home phone had no app to allow bulk addition of entries in a phone directory. The directory is, however, stored in the broadband hub. It can also be backed up and restored. This gave the Gorse Fox an idea. If he could work out the format of the files then he could create some code to populate the directory.

It took a bit of fiddling about and because of the Mac's "helpful" habit of processing downloads rather than filing them and letting the Gorse Fox look at them, he switched to his Windows machine to examine the formats. With that done he went to Google Contacts. Here he selected the subset of contacts for whom it would be sensible to have directory entries. These were exported to a CSV file. The Gorse Fox then wrote some code to select the relevant data and format it into a file that could be loaded into the hub to populate the  digital home phone. It took several hours but is now almost there. The first few items load correctly but then it stops. The Gorse Fox has a little further debugging to do.

Ellie is with us overnight tonight.

Respite

 Today there was some respite from the heat, at least there was here on the coast. Temperatures were in the mid 20s and there was some cloud cover.

Ellie was dropped off at 7:15 and we snapped into our usual drill. Once Ellie was delivered to school, we did the car dance and the Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for football. The Silver Vixen had a morning planned, with a girl friend, at Haskins.

We had a good turnout, managing 4 teams of 7. The Gorse Fox, on Blue-1, appreciated the lads on the team but looking at our opponents decided we were probably in for a torrid hour. That's not how it worked out. Blue-1 moved well and passed well and threatened the goal time and again. The Gorse Fox and Mo', at the back, held firm and defused every attack. We managed to win 2-0. The next game was destined to be the hardest. Green-2 had an ex-professional up front with some younger attackers. Again, we managed to defuse and block everything that came our way. Slowly, our passing started to make the difference and we ended up 3-0 winners. The final game was another hard one, but again we prevailed, with a 2-1 win. All due respects to our goalie who was superb throughout the morning. It was a really enjoyable morning.

Back home the Gorse Fox grabbed some lunch and then did some reading until the Silver Vixen got back. He then started to examine how he could efficiently preload the contacts directory on the household digital phone. He's almost cracked it, in that he can bulk load data, but so far is struggling with the correct incantation to register people with home and mobile phones. It is only showing the home phone. A little exercise for tomorrow.

More blue

 The Gorse Fox slept well. In fact when he woke, he felt very well rested and was confused that it was still so dark. He checked his watch: 1:30. That must have been a deep sleep. He turned over and went back to sleep, staying in the land of nod until 6:50 when the alarm roused him. Ellie was dropped off at 7:30 and everything clicked into place. She is suffering from a sore gum at present and we suspect it is the incipient adult teeth making their presence felt.

We dropped her off at school and returned home for a quiet morning. The sky was a clear blue and only the bravest of clouds dared to briefly sully the sky before, like Icarus, burning out. The Silver Vixen spent time on a new sewing project and the Gorse Fox started looking for holiday ideas for 2024. Ideas are plentiful, but decisions are scarce!

After a spot of lunch the Silver Vixen returned to her sewing and the Gorse Fox settled down in cool of the front room with his latest book. It was noisy. The windows were open and a team from Openreach and Kelly Communications was trying to lay fibre for Two Hats and Lady Penelope's broadband. They were have significant problems and the job must have taken them several hours. It appear s that there was a kink in copper cable that ran through their communication duct and it was preventing them from running the fibre. In the end they had to use camera to find a way through. Two Hats is happy now that it is all working.

We collected Ellie from school and she has been a joy for the last couple of hours - colouring, doing puzzles, reading her phonics book, and getting ready for bed for when Urban-Cub collected her.

Wednesday's football has been cancelled - insufficient players available.

Even Bluer

 Another glorious start to the day. The Gorse Fox was up and about soon after 7:00 but left the Silver Vixen reading in bed for and hour or two. 

The Gorse Fox headed off for football. The car park was already festooned with badly parked cars, so the Gorse Fox selected a spot down the side of the building, in the shade. At least the car wouldn't be like an oven when he returned to it.

Slowly the lads old codgers started to arrive. Team colours were allocated but even before kick-off we decided to switch a couple of players. This worked out fairly well and the score remained quite even. 

Unfortunately, one player tweaked his achilles tendon and had to sit out the rest of the game. We traded players again. The scores remained tight. The Gorse Fox did manage to score a couple of goals even though he had deliberately started gently in a very defensive role. ( It is several weeks since he has played and it is important not to overdo things until you have reacclimatised.)

As the game wore on he started to cover more and more of the pitch and picked up speed. His first goal was memorable in that it poleaxed the goalkeeper, catching him square in the face before rolling him and the ball into the net. We checked for signs of life. Slowly the goalie returned to what passes as full consciousness. The game continued and eventually finished with an 8-8 score.

The afternoon was again spent reading in the garden. The Silver Vixen sitting in the sun, the Gorse Fox sitting in the shade.

As you can see from the photo, there wasn't much to sully the unbroken blue of the sky. The Gorse Fox loves days like this. They make the spirit soar.

Kinda Blue

 

There are some days that are so perfect that they need to be framed. So it was today. The sun has shone from sunrise to early evening and looks as if it will continue, unabated, until sunset. The odd, whispy cloud bubbled up occasionally but then burned away..

For the Gorse Fox the day began with his traditional call with the cousins. Tim the Red having selective memory over the lies and spin of the Blair years was bemoaning the untruths that have emerged regarding the Johnson administration. It is always interesting to hear their side of the story and the belief in tory corruption when there are (as the Gorse Fox writes) 46 labour MPs and councillors convicted of, or being investigated of corruption and fraud. But hey ho!

The rest of the morning was spent reprocessing the photos from the holiday to ensure the GPS coordinates were applied. This took a while, but once done, the Gorse Fox filed them in his master photo library.

By lunchtime it was time to raise the parasol in the garden and get the cushions for the garden furniture. The Gorse Fox's current book was calling... and that was it. The afternoon was gone in a flash as page after page flashed through the Kindle. It has been a while sine the Gorse Fox has become really engrossed in a book. In the last couple of weeks, however, he has read two book by Richard Osman and is now two thirds of the way through book one of a series by Jodi Taylor. So far there are 13 books in the series. He likes the quirky narrative and inventive premise upon which they are based.

Football tomorrow.

Fabulous

 It has been a fabulous day. The sun has shone since sunrise and no cloud has dared sully the rich blue of the Sussex sky. It reminds the Gorse Fox of a secretary he once had in Poughkeepsie. She and her husband moved from Poughkeepsie to Tucson. After a year or so she demanded that they return to the Mid Hudson Valley. Why? She was fed up with waking every morning and knowing that the sun would be shining, there would be no clouds, and the temperature would be 70F or more... be it Summer, Autumn, Winter, or Spring. The Gorse Fox suspects that he could put up with such a trial.

Ellie was dropped off about 7:30 and we snapped into the usual regimen, terminating with her being dropped at school. We returned and had a very leisurely breakfast.

The Gorse Fox spent the morning doing some admin and starting to look at cars to replace the Skoda when the contract expires next year. So far, there is no front runner. In fact, so far there is no car that matches what we currently heave, though further investigation is required.

The Silver Vixen decided she wanted to clean the inside of the car after the holiday. This escalated into parts of the body as well. While doing this, Two Hats emerged and dealt with a small crease in the drivers's door that had clearly been caused by a door in a car park. It was almost invisible, but his eagle-eye spotted it and out came the tools. Tim minutes later it was pristine.

This afternoon was spent reading until it was time to collect Ellie from school. The Gorse Fox prepared her dinner whilst the Silver Vixen helped her wrap some presents for a friend's birthday party at the week-end. Pistol Pete came and collected her soon after dinner.

Order, order!

 Ellie was dropped off soon after 7:00. She took a few minutes to burst into life, but was her normal self once the usual morning regimen commenced. We dropped her off at school. She was very excited because her friend Bonnie was back after a bout of chicken pox. Heaven help the teacher today.

We returned home for breakfast and to await delivery of the Ocado order. This turned out to be chaotic. The order we had placed seemed to have been completely ignored or lost and we got our default order. We didn't want the default order. There were two and half cucumbers (we already have one and half in the fridge), there were two large hands of bananas - we are not currently consuming bananas.... so it went on. Chaos. We returned what we could immediately. The rest has been tucked away for future use.

The Ocado cock-up (as it will be known henceforth) meant that the Gorse Fox had to reassemble the Sainsbury's list. It was late morning by the time we got there. We managed to pick up everything we needed.

The Gorse Fox spent some time,                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      this afternoon, deleting all of the predictive lists that Ocado seems to have generated. He also resubmitted the core list for each Thursday in the following month. At least if that goes wrong, we will receive stuff we actually need most weeks.

The Gorse Fox spent the afternoon reading while the Silver Vixen chatted to the Gorse Fox's sister, Jane.

As we have so many residual lemons, after the order of Ocado Chaos, the Gorse Fox decided that he would cook lemon chicken for dinner this evening. The Gorse Fox can report that it was delicious and that the Silver Vixen has asked that he do it again in the future. Praise indeed.

Checking out

 Ellie was dropped off just after 7:00 this morning. Urban-Cub had a meeting in Southampton, so needed to get on the road. We followed the usual regime and somehow found ourselves well ahead of schedule. Well, that didn't last long. As it approached time to leave for school it became apparent that we didn't have Ellie's shoes. The Gorse Fox whizzed round the corner and searched for them - in the cupboard, under the living room curtains, under the table, in the laundry cupboard, in Ellie's bed (?), on her floor, among her toys... but no, there was no sign of them. Ellie would have to go to school in non-regulation footwear.

After dropping Ellie at school we returned to her house and continued the search. Eventually we found them. They were on a table in her bedroom, hidden under a box. Of course! Why didn't the Gorse Fox look there the first time? Shoes were dropped off at school and the day could continue.

The Silver Vixen spent the morning doing the ironing while the Gorse Fox did some vacuuming, filled the car with petrol, and did some admin. This afternoon we went along to check out collect Jasper from the cattery. He checked out sulkily, having clearly been spoilt for the last two week,  and he meowed the whole way home in the car. He needn't think he will be getting champagne and oysters back home, not butler service.

The Gorse Fox has just booked a short break at the end of November to celebrate the Silver Vixen's birthday.  We are just popping down to Sidmouth for a few days. If it is like a previous trip, the hotel will be fully decked out for Christmas, and quite magical. The lady on the reservations desk was very helpful. We asked for a specific room. It was already booked. "Hold on" she said, "let me see what I can do". There was a moment of quiet, then "It's all right, they are first time guests and din't request any specific room, so I moved them. The room is yours." It clearly helps that we have been there several times before. 

Update

 The Gorse Fox went back to collect Lady Penelope and Old Bill from the hospital. He had endured a day of tests without a definitive diagnosis. He will be called back for further tests soon, but for now was allowed home

Hospital

 The doorbell rang at lunchtime. It was Lady Penelope asking if the Gorse Fox could take her and Two Hats to the hospital. He has been having several episodes that have forced him to go back to bed. After blood tests  it was clear something was amiss, so the consultant requested he attend the hospital for further tests and a possible short stay.

The Gorse Fox, of course, said yes and we whizzed into Chichester. He has offered to pick them (or just Lady Penelope) up later - but they were adamant that they would use a taxi. 

Fingers crossed that everything is all right and this is just a minor bug.

Parking

 It was a lovely morning and though overcast a bit later, it has remained warm and dry throughout the day. Ellie charged into our room just before 7:00 this morning. She had slept well and was full of the joys of Spring. We went through the usual rituals and Urban-Cub turned up in time to walk with us to school. (She was on a late shift last night, but day off today).

Back home, with no plans for football, the Gorse Fox started with a phone call to Darren's friend who has a body shop. The Gorse Fox had sent him a photo of the damage and he said he could help but it was likely to be 10 days before he could give a quote. S~o that the Gorse Fox had something to measure against he went along to a body shop nearby. The chap had a good look at the damage and explained what would be needed. The answer seems to be about £1250. The Gorse Fox still has the option of involving the insurance company but want to know the alternatives.

Back home and smarting from the £1250 cost of parking badly, the Gorse Fox opened up the accounts to check off all of the expenses from last week. It was strange, the Gorse Fox didn't spend any cash whatsoever. Everything was paid for on the phone - and consequently he had a record of every transaction. That made life easier.

A bit of a fuss

 Today is the 8th Anniversary of the Gorse Fox retiring from Starfleet. It is remarkably nice of Americans to make such a large fuss over this auspicious event which he has named Independence Day.

Age

 It must be an age thing. The Gorse Fox was as right as rain when he got up and made the morning tea and coffee. He was all right when he got washed and dressed. Then he managed to tweak his back while trying to put on his trousers. He was locked for a few seconds but then managed to straighten up. As long as he has been up and about on his feet, he has remained fairly comfortable but every time he has spent any time sitting, it has stiffened up again. Pah!

After walking Ellie to school he came home to get some porridge and another coffee. The Silver Vixen was out for an hour or so so the Gorse Fox busied himself trying to reconfigure the WiFi mesh. This has been a bit flakey since we upgraded the broadband and the Gorse Fox moved the master device for the mesh. It took a couple of hours to come up with the right solution but using hardwired connections we shouldn't see the problems that we had before.

After lunch, the Gorse Fox popped round to Sainsbury's for some of the items that we need to see us through until we shop properly... mainly milk, bread, and post-school snacks for Ellie.

Ellie is staying with us overnight.

It looks as if the cat-whisperer may have some availability in August. We will scramble around and see if there is a possibility of another short holiday.

Home - Thank you Google

 As planned, we set off early-ish. We got all of the cases and bags ready outside the cottage and then the Gorse Fox went up to get the car. He wasn't going to risk going through the arch again, so left the car at the entrance and we quickly loaded the car in the hope that nobody would use the road for a few minutes.

The first 15 miles was a little slow, but once we hit the A30 we were able to cruise at a steady speed for the next 85 miles. The SatNav predicted that the would get home just before 14:00. The Gorse Fox maintained his speed and as we approached Exeter decided whether to take a comfort break. We voted No... and carried on. The Gorse Fox had already decided against the Jurassic route and planned to stay on the A30/A303. 

We stopped for a comfort break at Podimore. The Gorse Fox then switched from car's SatNav to Google Maps. It immediately suggested the we would be better dropping down through Salisbury - saving more that 20 minutes compared to going via Winchester. Forty or so miles later, just as we were preparing to turn towards Salisbury it warned of serious congestion and delays in and around Salisbury. Should it find an alternative? Yes, of course it should. Google got us to zig here and zag there. Before we knew it we were out the other side of Salisbury without any delay or incident. Brilliant. Thank you Google.

The rest of the journey was very smooth and we pulled onto our driveway at ten minutes to two. Perfect.

We unpacked the car and then went to see Urban-Cub and Ellie. They had invited us round for BBQ so that we didn't have to worry about cooking. We had a lovely few hours with them. Darren had been in. charge of the BBQ and the tandoor and we had a lovely selection of chicken, sausage, burgers, pork loin, and accompanying salads. Delicious.

We left soon after six, and we are enjoying a quiet evening at home.

Plan B

Bit of a cock-up on the garden front. After the early morning rain, we decided to head for a NT garden just outside Penzance. It seemed like a good plan. We headed out from Falmouth, round Helston, through Marazion and on to the outskirts of Penzance. We followed the signs to the gardens and we soon there. The trouble was that they were closed. (We, stupidly, hadn’t bothered checking).

Sitting at the deserted entrance we debated about switching to Plan B. We agreed that is what we should do. The problem was that we didn’t have a Plan B. We hatched a cunning plan. We called it B.

Plan B (it’s always worth having a Plan B) was a trip to Land’s End. It was only an extra 9 miles from where we were, and the roads were pretty good. We pulled into the car park and wandered into the visitor’s complex. A cup of tea and a pasty was the first order of things. There appeared to be at. Least two outlets where pasties were available. We suspect that we chose the wrong one - judging by the queue that had formed at the other one by the time we left.

Sustained, we took a walk around the cliffs. It was still cloudy, there was a good breeze, but at least it was dry and warm. We stopped here and there for photos, but one bit of distant horizon looks much like another at the tip of Cornwall.

We headed back to Falmouth, grabbed a beer, then returned to the cottage. It was time to do the bulk of the packing. We plan to leave early tomorrow, so don’t want to leave too much for the morning.

Packing done, we headed off for dinner. We were booked back in at Amanzi. As before, the food was wonderful. The Gorse Fox stuck with his previous choices. The Silver Vixen started with some deep fried Cornish Brie and followed p with the catch of the day, which was Lemon Sole.

We took a post prandial stroll up to the main quay where we sat and watched the boats bobbing back and forth in the harbour. We then headed back to cottage and settled in for the evening.

Wet start

 It has been a very wet start to the day, but seems to be drying up now. The Gorse Fox had his usual Saturday morning call with his cousins and is now pondering the plan for the rest of the day.

Dodgems

The day looked promising and the forecast was good. The Silver Vixen was a little shakey, first thing, so we decided not to do anything too strenuous.

During our last trip, we had taken a boat trip down to the Helford River and up towards Frenchman’s Creek. It had looked pretty from the boat, so we decided to drive to Helford and have a look round the village. The SatNav selected a route and we began our journey down the county lanes and single tracks that led round the Helford River to its south side. The whole route seemed to be an exercise in dodging or stopping for oncoming cars and farm vehicles. Helford is 5.1 miles as the crow flies. Our route was about 20 miles by road and took almost an hour.

We parked up and took a gentle stroll into the village of Helford. It really is a picture postcard spot. The tide woes low so the creeks were almost empty, but it took very little imagination to see what it would be like in flood. 

It will come as no surprise that we stopped at The Shipwrights Arms for a drink. We sat in the sunshine, out on one of their terraces. We watched as boats bobbed at anchor and the occasional motorboat puttered along the River.

Moving on, we took the path along to the Ferry. This is a small passenger ferry which shuttles pedestrians back and forth across the River. We had no intention of using it, but though we should explore.

We returned to the car and decided that as we were in the general vicinity we would head down to The Lizard. After the first few miles, this got us onto a decent road and we seemed to arrive in no time.

Having parked we asked the attendant if there was tea room - as you do. We were given instructions to follow the path and directed to a couple. We decided to stroll up to the lighthouse first, then grab a tea. We didn’t climb the lighthouse but did have a wander about before heading for the tea room. 

This is where it went south (well, The Lizard is the southernmost tip of England). We followed the path as directed, but then it clearly became quite steep as we could see the tearooms down below us. It was too steep to risk for the Silver Vixen. Going down might have been all right but coming back up would have been a challenge. We returned to the car and drove back to the village where we grabbed tea, a pasty, and an ice cream and sat in the sun watching the world spin by.

We plotted a less challenging route to get us back to Falmouth. We stopped for some groceries and to fill up with petrol, then headed to our parking place. This is where it all went a bit wrong. The Gorse Fox turned into the spot at the wrong angle and managed to catch the wheel arch on the parking bollard. Having spent the day dodging all and sundry, he ended up hitting something that was stationary! He wasn’t happy… this will need some popping out and a splash of paint!

We had a quiet hour or so before heading out for dinner. We chose Pizza Express tonight. The food was entirely predictable, the views were wonderful, but it was incredibly noisy. So much so, that when Urban-Cub phoned, we had to give up and call her back later.