Early alarm

 My alarm was not deliberately set. Nevertheless, it went off and woke me for the second time this morning. The first time was a rousing choral performance by Jasper as he worked through "Jerusalem", "Land of Hope and Glory", and "Ode to Joy". This vocal extravaganza started soon after 03:30 and continued until after the encores (and I had gone to the kitchen to open his breakfast bowl).

It has been a quiet day. Diane has been pottering in her study and I have been catching up on the last of the photo filing for 2023. I have also finished reading my latest book and started a new one for the New Year.

We won't be seeing the New Year in. We are both still feeling very rough and need to rest as much as possible.

God Bless you all, and I wish you a very wondrous, healthy, and happy New Year.

Suffering

 It was so nice to get a good night's sleep last night. It was 7:40 before I emerged into a semblance of consciousness. That's the longest I have slept in several weeks.

Diane and I are suffering from pernicious coughs and, in her case, a sore throat. I'm finding it quite exhausting, and I'm sure she is too.

I had my usual chat with the cousins, to start the day. All seemed well with them and we had a good chat. After that, the morning drifted somewhat as I caught up on the news and my emails. Then Di decided to do some tidying up in the Orangery and the corner where we keep rarely used drinks. I helped where relevant and now have a stack of things to return to the garage sometime next week.

The afternoon was spent with our Kindles. There is a very real sense that this year is petering out in this household. It is unlikely that we will screech into the New Year on two wheels singing "Born to be Wild" as we head for the horizon and new adventures. A cup of Lemsip and a blanket may be more appropriate.

Drop-out

 I was up early again so that Ellie could be dropped off. She was like a Zombie when she arrived and we hardly got a word out of her for the first hour or so. She had played up last night and the disruption to her usual schedule had clearly taken its toll.

Diane has developed a sore throat and sounds seriously rattly. My cough is not really subsiding. We decided it was time to contact the Sonning Crew and drop out of the planned New Year's Eve festivities. Neither of us will be clear by Sunday night and we don't want to spread the infection further.

While Di and Ellie got washed and dressed, I headed for the pharmacy to collect the meds Di had ordered, yesterday. From there I went to Sainsbury's to complete our weekly shop. The shop wasn't too busy, but clearly most of the people that were there had been donors in full frontal lobotomies. A patrol with a baseball bat would not have been an unreasonable response to the chaos they were causing... but Sainsbury's had clearly decided against this option.

We had a quiet afternoon as Ellie and Diane played "Operation" until Daren came to collect her. Nothing else is planned for the day.

Chillin'

 I was up early. We were expecting Ellie to be dropped off at 07:00 but in the end, it was gone 7:30 before she arrived. She asked to have a Pyjama day but by mid-morning, she had changed her mind and got dressed properly.

Ellie received a couple of Lego kits for Xmas. They were incredibly fiddly and one was quite complex. Grandpa was pressed into action. Some four hours later, one kit was complete and the other was half-built. I was going boss-eyed trying to identify the tiny little components and construct the model properly. This is something to which I will return once refreshed.

This afternoon was spent with Ellie watching movies on the TV until Darren came to collect her at 16:30. She needed some downtime and sitting quietly in the living room in front of the TV gave her a chance to rest.

Family

Ellie was dropped off soon after 07:00. She had only just woken up and was still only semi-conscious. I gave her a cuddle, then put her back on the living room sofa, covered her in a blanket, and promised she could sleep as long as she wanted. It was a good theory, but in practice, she only lasted about 5 minutes and then decided she wanted to go up and see Nana.

The morning was busy. We had to remove the excess chairs and Christmas detritus from the Orangery and prepare it for lunch today. Jane, Trevor and Mark were due to spend the day with us. I prepared the vegetables and put a leg of lamb in the oven. While the cooking was underway, I prepared the starters and Diane and Ellie laid the tables. I was finding it a bit of a struggle. My cold/cough had returned with a degree of vengeance and it was making me lethargic and I was finding concentration was hard.

Jane, Trevor, and Mark arrived and we had a splendid few hours. Mark is so good with Ellie and they played with her various Xmas presents until it was time to eat. After lunch, we all retired to the living room and had a few hours of chat. Zoe got away from work at a sensible time, so was able to pop in and chat with us all before collecting Ellie and taking her home.

Lazy day

The cough that I have been fighting for the past week became particularly troublesome during the night. Worried that I would wake Diane, I decided the best thing to do would be to get up. So it was that at 05:00 on Boxing Day I was reading the news and enjoying my first coffee of the day.

The morning was suitably quiet. We finished the clearing up from yesterday, and I nipped to Sainsbury's to pick up some carrots and potatoes for tomorrow.

That was about it! We spent the afternoon in front of a film on the TV. A very lazy day. 

Marry Christmas

 There was no need to get up early. Everything was under control. Well, everything except my brain which switched on at 06:45 - and that was it. No lie-in today.

Once suitable caffeinated we started to potter. There were potatoes and carrots to peel. This threw my spreadsheet which had assumed "just in time" preparation - not "prepare hours in advance". The prep was done and the spreadsheet was adapted accordingly. Spare chairs were retrieved and a table was delivered from Zoe's. Tables were laid, snacks were put out, and everything was under control.

Kim and Jon arrived first, soon followed by Zoe and Darren, Ellie and Maddie, and Lorraine and Russ. Once drinks were served, there was an initial pass at the opening of presents. There were so many presents stacked up that we would have to rest, eat lunch, and then return to the chaos for a second pass. (Several 44-ton trucks were lining up by the side gate to collect the discarded wrapping paper and boxes).

Lunch seemed to go down very well. Darren and Zoe had prepared a starter of prawns, crayfish, and lobster. This was followed by the traditional turkey, ham, roast potatoes, parsnips, carrots, peas, and Brussels sprouts. I think we gave up at this point, vowing to return for dessert when we had rested.

By about 20:00, everyone had drifted away, leaving Diane and me to a quiet couple of hours in front of the TV.

It had been a lovely Christmas Day.

All Go

 The day started with the weekly cousins' call. It was nice to see everyone and have a chance to wish them a Merry Christmas.

With the call over, I started preparing the Gammon for tomorrow. It started with several hours of simmering away in various spices and herbs.  Then it was drained and left to cool. The rind was removed and the fat scored. A honey-mustard glaze was poured over the joint and went into the oven for an hour. It is now wrapped in foil and I will carve it in the morning.

Diane, meanwhile, has been on a cleaning frenzy. As always when we have guests, every millimetre of the house is cleaned within a nanometre of its life.

While all this was going on I prepared a spreadsheet with tomorrow's menu. Each stage of the cooking was estimated and bit by bit, the start times emerged. All I need is about 27 different timers! I'm now all ready for the morning.

Busy, busy

 Saturday morning started with the usual call with the cousins. A nicer and crazier bunch of people than you would be hard-pressed to find outside of an asylum. We had our usual 40 minutes of madness before wishing each other a Merry Christmas and switching off.

I had various chores lined up in my mental checklist. The first was to get the floors washed throughout the downstairs. With that done, it was time to bring the table in from the garage so that we could start to lay out the Orangery in preparation for the festivities. Next on the agenda was to assemble one of the presents we had got for Ellie. This was fiddly and must have taken well over an hour, but better it is done now that she is demanding it on Christmas Day. With that assembled,  we spent a further hour wrapping her final presents and then managed to get a quiet hour before dinner.

Queue

 Ellie and Grandpa were left to make mischief while Diane went to the hairdresser. Maybe we don't fully embrace the rock and roll lifestyle, but we managed to complete a jigsaw, she did some reading, practised phonics, did some maths puzzles, and looked through a dictionary and a science book. It was a good and productive morning. Just before noon, her friend Ariana (along with her dad, Victor) came to collect Ellie for a playdate.

Diane returned from the hairdresser and went back out to collect her meds (the saga that began yesterday). She arrived at the pharmacy to find them queueing outside the door. Let's hope they have the correct prescription this time. Well, they didn't. Only because it was already out for delivery, so Diane could return home safe in the knowledge that she would have all the meds she required.

As soon as Diane returned, I nipped out in the car. I had to pick up some cat litter and then top up a few bits for the weekend. The Sainsbury's car park was an absolute zoo. I played my usual trick and deliberately selected a slot that was as far from the store as possible. I then walked and overtook most of the cars that had been ahead of me. It was pretty chaotic in the store but eased off after a while and was quite a leisurely shop.

Back home, Diane was wrapping presents. I got involved and before too long, they were all completed and stacked under the tree.

Ellie's friend brought her home just in time for Pete to sweep her up and take her home for the weekend.

Cousins

Ellie burst into the house. She was wide awake and eager to swing into the day. She was being picked up by a school friend for a playdate. So it was that at 9:30 she disappeared for the rest of the morning. Meanwhile, Diane went out to try and sort out a shortfall in her meds provision. Needless to say, this did not go smoothly. She will try again in the morning.

I started clearing the Orangery in preparation for the forthcoming celebrations.

I wandered around to collect Ellie from Sophia's then, when we had finished a snack lunch, we loaded the car. We had been due to visit Trevor and Sue last weekend but my cold prevented that. Now that I am fairly well recovered we could try again. We drove across to Brighton and joined the inherent chaos of their home at Xmas time. Ellie was delighted as her cousins, Cara and Emma, had arrived just before us. We spent a pleasant couple of hours with them all, catching up on family news and plans.

We left after a couple of hours and made our way back. The plan was to get back in time for the Rotary Santa Claus parade that is scheduled for this evening.

First Dentist

 Ellie was dropped off and we got ready for a trip to Chichester. Ellie had her first appointment with the dental hygienist at our Dental Clinic. Traffic was slow as we approached the town. It was clearly going to be busy.

Diane and Ellie peeled off to visit the dentist while I headed into the shops to pick up some perfume that Diane had requested. Boots didn't have the "Eau de Toilette" (which is what Diane had requested) so I returned to Superdrug, but they didn't stock any Miss Dior products. After an exchange of text messages, I returned to Boots and took the "Parfum". Sorted.

Ellie had got on very well at the dentist and they were pleased with her. The next check will be in 6 months. We returned to the car and headed home. The traffic heading into Chichester was almost in gridlock. I'm so glad we had to get there early and were now heading home.

After lunch, Diane and Ellie headed for the "Messy Church". This seems to be a craft session organised by the local church. Ellie came back clutching the various things that she had made. She'd obviously had a good time. Meanwhile, Kim had popped in to see me before heading to the Bognor Hospital for an appointment with the RA specialist. She was still here when Diane and Ellie returned, but only had a few minutes with them before she had to go.

Ellie stayed with us for dinner and was collected by Zoe as she came home from work.

Slide by slide

The main item on today's agenda was to complete the Xmas shopping - in regards of the food and drink. Zoe had volunteered to come along and give us a hand. Before we got a change to start on that, however, I was called to her house. Poppy the Elf had been inventive overnight and a huge hanging swing had magically found its way into the living room from the garden. It had to be moved and Darren was out at work all day.

Eventually, we did head to Sainsbury's where we met the local store manager. After a 10 minute chat, we finally ploughed in among the aisles. It didn't take too long - but we did fill two trolleys. We also made a significant contribution to Sainsbury's annual profits. 

We had a quiet hour or two in the afternoon. We had agreed to meet up with Zoe and Ellie and accompany them to the Light Trail in Hotham Park, and visit the funfair. Unfortunately, we had realised that the light show finished on Sunday. This explained why the park was so dark (and the car park so empty)!

We made our way to the funfair. There wasn't a huge selection of rides, but Ellie and Zoe went on the Runaway Train, and into the Ice Palace (which was a maze). 

Eventually, we plucked up the courage and got tickets for the skating rink. They provided some clever clip-on skates that Ellie could wear over her boots. Each boot then had two parallel set of blades for stability. I had a pair of hard plastic skates which clamped closed and bruised every bone in my foot.

It took a few minutes to gain some confidence on the ice. It is, after all, 52 years since I lasted skated. The biggest problem that I was finding was the lack of momentum as I had to keep pace with Ellie. She was doing very well. I half expected this to be a flash in the pan and she would stop after a couple of laps. Oh no! She was loving it. In the end we were probably on the ice for about 30-40 minutes. Better still, we Bothe escaped without bruises or injuries.

It was a shame about the light trail, but we had a good time any way.

Own Bed

I returned to my own bed last night. My cough eased to the point that I felt it unlikely to disturb Diane.

Once I was up and about with caffeine pulsing through my veins I checked on the latest status from DHL regarding my new MacBook. I was delighted to see that it had landed in the UK and was already nestling in the distribution centre in Southampton. At this point, I was hopeful it might get on tomorrow's delivery rounds (though it wasn't due until Wednesday). Within an hour I had a text message saying it would be delivered this morning. This was brilliant. The whole lifecycle has taken less than a week. I ordered it late on Monday afternoon. By Wednesday it had been dispatched from the factory in Chengdu. By Thursday it had cleared customs in China. On Friday it completed its clearance in Hong Kong. On Saturday it was in transit. By Sunday evening it was in the UK and en route for Southampton. At about 11:40 this morning it was handed over by the local courier.

With the new MacBook nestling on the kitchen table, I headed into the village. I had a few more Xmas cards to post and was in dire need of a haircut. I was expecting a wait as schools had broken up and we were in the run-up to Xmas. But no! I walked in and was immediately shown to a chair and processed.

Back home, I turned my attention to the MacBook. I went through the normal setup and then immediately upgraded MacOS from Ventura to Sonoma. Excel and Word were installed and I have a perfectly functioning MacBook

Self Isolation

My overnight self-isolation continues. My fits of coughing are still fairly explosive and would seriously disturb Diane. As it happens, Ellie's bed is quite comfortable, so sleeping in there hasn't been an issue. I'm still suffering from cold hands and feet and I am still quite achy and lethargic.

As the day ticked by, I wrote a few Xmas cards and sent all but one of the electronic cards.  This seems a more ecologically sound approach, other than the fact that the recipient cannot really display the card.

By late afternoon, my lethargy seemed to be lifting and I was starting to feel a bit more normal. I have also managed to go through the afternoon without any of the paroxysms of coughing that have filled the previous days.

Zoe has just dropped by. She presented us with 2 legs of lamb. They had been reduced from over £20 to £6 a piece. They are now nestling in the freezer. She is threatening to get some large beef joints, too.

Banished

I continued with my self-imposed banishment and slept in the spare bed. Though I was significantly better than the night before, I still woke with a cough which would have disturbed Diane. It made more sense to stay in the back of the house where there was a chance I wouldn't be heard. Despite the odd coughing fit and a trip to the loo, I slept well.

Today I feel a lot better but still ache from all of the coughing.

I had the usual cousins' call. Other than Xmas preparations, there was little to report. There was the usual socialist diatribe from Tim - convinced that anyone earning a large salary did nothing to deserve it. I took umbrage at this but before he could respond, the Zoom call timed out.

We managed to raid Sainsbury's after the call. At least we have something for Sunday lunch!

Diane has spent most of the afternoon in a cleaning frenzy followed by some further decorating for Xmas.

Shakin’ All Over

Yesterday, as the day wore on, I started to get the shakes and shivers. There were shivers down the backbone, shivers down the thigh bone. In fact, I was shakin’ all over. We decided that it didn’t make sense to share a bed and keep Diane awake with my spluttering and coughing. I moved into Ellie’s room but couldn’t drop off to sleep. After a while, I became aware of an intermittent quiet beeping sound. I put up with it for a couple of hours, then decided I had endured it for long enough. I started hunting the errant device. I wandered around the house. I checked the smoke detectors - they were fine. I eventually narrowed it down to my study. It was our old house phone. The battery was running down but it wasn’t one that I could remove. In the end, I put it in the back of the fridge and shut the door. Silence.

Ellie was dropped off - but we kept her well clear of me. At 09:30 she went to play with her friend Maddie, and stayed with her until early afternoon, when Darren collected her. 

I spent the morning rebuilding Ellie's laptop for the third time. The previous two attempts had made no difference to the problem Zoe originally reported. This time it all burst back into life and seems to have recovered from its sulk.

I went bacl to bed for a while. Diane made a start on the Xmas cards. I should have gone to Sainsbury's but just didn't feel up to it. That will have to wait for tomorrow. Currently, I'm not shivering but if I put my head down, my nose and eyes pour like a bath tap. I'm hoping they will dry up overnight.

Dinner and Dentist

I parked on the west bank of the River Arun and took this picture as I walked across the bridge to the venue for the club's Xmas Dinner. We had a good turnout with about 25 or 30 attendees. The Arun View did us proud with an excellent Xmas dinner with all the trimmings. The club paid for the food, but we bought our own drinks. As I had the car, it was cheap. I stuck to water.

I'm sure some club members went to sample the nightlife of Littlehampton as we broke up. I said my goodbyes and wandered back across to the car and was home just after 22:00.

Darren took care of the school run this morning, so we had a quiet start. (Though I do appear to have a mild attack of plantar fasciitis). Ocado delivered a little late so we could not hit Sainsbury's before it was time for us to go into Chichester. Diane had some shopping to do, and I was due at the dentist. I had a few minutes to spare when we arrived, so made the most of it and bought a new tracksuit at Sports Direct. After being given a clean bill of health by the dentist, we met up for a coffee before heading home.

By the time I got home, I was running a full-flood cold that seemed to attack from nowhere. I daren't stray more than a few feet from the box of tissues at present.

Ellie has just broken up for the Xmas holiday, so I suspect we will be seeing her most days now.
 

Goal(s)

 We had the usual Ellie drop-off. She had already had breakfast so she was eager to play and to do some reading for school. We let her read and then filled in her progress book before taking her off to class.

Diane had Pilates in Angmering, so I dropped her off on my way through to Worthing for football. We had a good 6-a-side game. I was playing for the Orange team. I opened the scoring having pounced on poor clearance from the yellow goalkeeper and hit it past him before he could react. By halftime we were 3-0 up (including another assist from yours truly). In the second half the yellow team swapped goalies. They started to claw back into the game. It was close run thing, but it ended 5-5 (including my second goal of the day).

I picked Diane up on my way back and we had some lunch before grabbing a quiet hour before collecting Ellie.

I have the football club Xmas Dinner tonight. Hopefully, it will all go smoothly and there will be the bare minimum of arrests.

Better

Zoe told us that Ellie had slept well, was feeling better and was eager to go to school. I trotted around to the house and we walked Ellie to school as usual.

After some breakfast, I started the unpacking of the decorations.  I had to track down the lights and determine which set goes where. Then I had to wait to find the clips for hanging the lights. Eventually, I was ready. The problem was that it had started to rain. The lights could wait for a break in the weather. The tree was next and was soon standing proudly in the corner of the living room. Diane would spend several hours dressing the tree while I managed to finish the lights between showers.

I got a call from Zoe. She had applied an update to Ellie's Microsoft Surface and seems to have lost most of her icons and the taskbar. I went around to see what I could do to help. After much fiddling, I concluded that I needed to get a clue. I suggested a factory reset and rebuild. She agreed. I have now spent the last several hours doing a factory reset and cleaning the disk before doing a rebuild. The rebuild is now complete and I have set up a new account for Ellie. The taskbar is still blank. The screen looks the same as it did 4 hours ago. Doh! I'm not a happy bunny.

Diane and Kim are out for the evening at the ballet. They have gone to see "The Nutcracker" at Havant.

Ooops. Order!

We were up and ready for Ellie to be dropped off. It was clear, when she did arrive, that she was not fit for school. Her temperature kept spiking but a dose of Calpol seemed to bring it back down for a while. Despite feeling rough, she has been a chirpy would throughout the day. We have done jigsaws, written her Christmas cards, played her version of boules with some foam eggs, done pages of sums, played word games with the dictionary, and done pages of spelling. Darren came along to collect her at 17:00 and as long as her temperature remains stable, she should be back at school in the morning. 

Alongside entertaining Ellie, we have refined our Xmas card list - which is always a challenge. I opened up the MacBook to start on this. Nada. Nothing happened. I recharged it. Nothing happened. I tried every trick I could think of but they all failed. I clearly have a dead MacBook. This is not a tolerable situation, but I consol myself that it is very old (but aren't we all?)

 There was nothing for it but to order a new one. After due consideration, I ordered a new MacBook Air which should arrive before Christmas.

Restless

We both had a restless night. I didn't seem to drop into a deep sleep, floating on the edge of consciousness throughout the night. Never mind, I was comfortable.

We had a lazy start to the day, with a very leisurely breakfast while reading the news. I then had to return to a task I had started yesterday. I was looking for the details of a TV we bought when we moved here and subsequently gave to Kim and Jon. It took a bit of hunting, but my records are well organised and after a while, the receipt and all of the details emerged from my digital archives.

I returned to my cross-checks on the network, stemming from Friday's change of router. Everything still seems okay, but barnowl (while online) seems to be hiding. I will need to resolve this later.

I dug all of the Xmas decorations out of the garage this afternoon so that we can start on them when we are ready. We have also finalised the Xmas Day attendee list so that I now know how big the mountain of food needs to be.

Out for Lunch

I woke with a start. It was 7:45. That is a lovely surprise but always makes me feel guilty for being so lazy. After some breakfast, I had the cousins' call. 

We had plans. We were to meet up with Denise, Dom, and Rebecca for lunch. Google Maps had warned of delays on the M3 due to a collision. I kept a check on alternatives and in the end, we chanced the M3 route. It was a good decision. We had a brilliant run, arriving 1 hour and 20 minutes after leaving home. We were meeting at "The Craven Arms" and Enborne, again. 

We settled down with some coffee and awaited the Buckingham contingent. Once we were all together the inevitable chat started and lunch was ordered. Diane had soup to start with and followed up with scampi. I started with southern fried chick strips and followed up with a BBQ pork burger. It was all delicious and the portions were huge. While we ate we caught up on all the news from the family. It was a lovely few hours.

By 16:00 it was time to go. Some photos were taken around the Christmas tree and presents were exchanged in the car park (in the traditional way). Then we said our goodbyes and hit the road. We had another excellent run home.

Early doors

 It was 04:04 and I was awake. I tried to settle, but couldn't. I was incensed by the fact that Royal Mail had accepted a contract from EE to deliver my new equipment within 24 hours. The equipment was dispatched on Tuesday evening.  It wasn't until Wednesday that it left Yorkshire. On Thursday morning I was told it would arrive by 19:00. At 17:38 the tracking system said it had been rescanned for delivery on Friday. So it had been in their system for 48 hours and still hadn't been delivered. What galled me was that an engineer was due to arrive at 10:00 on Friday to install the equipment that still had yet to arrive.

By 06:00 I gave up. I got up and went down for a coffee. At 08:00 I phoned the Royal Mail and after sitting on hold for 25 minutes got through to a chap with an indecipherable accent to ask if I could go and collect the errant delivery. He didn't seem to know or care and suggested I go to the Delivery Office and ask...

I tried to contact BT/EE and intercept the engineer. No luck. They couldn't make changes within 24 hours of the appointment.

I went to the Bognor delivery office. I finally met someone who cared. She listened to the problem, checked the status and saw it had just been loaded onto a van for delivery this afternoon. She charged out into the yard and stopped the van. The package was retrieved and handed over. I could breathe.

Diane went off to Cardiac Rehab and soon after she left, the engineer arrived and installed the kit. He wasn't here for more than 20 minutes and when he left I went around the house and checked the status of all of the WiFi and Ethernet-connected devices. Everything seems to be working and I seem to be getting a 930Mbps download speed with 110Mbps uploads. The best part is that I am getting all of this for £10 per month less than before.

The other major activity for the day has been to cook another batch of curry. It has been bubbling away quietly for 5 hours this afternoon and tastes fantastic. Seven further portions have been put into the freezer for subsequent weeks.

Wet, wet, wet

It was a normal start to the day with Ellie being dropped off. She had breakfast and then went to play in her bedroom until it was time for school. The weather forecast had predicted heavy rain, but we were still dry when it was time for the school run.

Ocado was a little late this morning, but once stowed, we headed for Sainsbury's and the weather was still dry. It didn't last. We had quite a long list to attend to, and by the time we left, it was raining. By the time we got home, it was pouring down and continued like that for the rest of the day.

I collected Ellie from school, and she stayed with us until Zoe collected her at 17:40.

It should be a quiet evening, but I am expecting a delivery of EE broadband equipment in the next hour. I won't play with it. It can wait until the morning when their engineer comes to "help" with the installation.

Teamwork

Ellie was dropped off soon after 07:00. She was a bundle of joy this morning, having slept well last night. After the Elf had been found and breakfast finished she took herself up to her bedroom and played quietly until it was time for school.

Once back from the school run, we had a quiet 30 minutes before heading out into the wide blue yonder. Diane had an appointment with some Pilates and I had a football match. The football was a 5-v-6 / 6-v-5 game with one player swapping sides at halftime. I started on the team with 5 and had to play as an attacking midfielder - not a position I normally occupy. As it happens the other team scored first but we responded within minutes with a well-worked goal from Mark. Then I scored, and by halftime, the score was 3-1. In the second half, we had the extra man. Our teamwork continued to dominate the pitch. We scored 4 more goals without a reply. One of those goals was mine. It was a good game and we all had fun.

I collected Diane and we headed home for some lunch and a quiet hour for recuperation. Diane went to surgery during the afternoon to get her shingles jab. I caught up on some admin while she was gone.

We didn't have to worry about collecting Ellie today. She was going home with her friend, Maddie. We'll see her first thing in the morning though.

Browsing

I was on escort duty this morning. Zoe had a day off so I reported at the door and we marched off school. Ellie has two performances of the play today. She was pumped up and ready.

Back home, Diane and I hopped in the car and headed for Shripney. We started at the M&S Food Hall where we wandered the aisles looking for inspiration for Christmas meals. I think we were both disappointed. All of the traditional fair was there, but there was nothing that made you stop replan Christmas. From M&S we moved on to Aldi. Again, we were a bit underwhelmed. Maybe we are still a week early for the seasonal goodies.

Diane met up with Zoe after lunch and they made their way to the school for the afternoon performance. I stayed behind and waded through the various supermarket websites looking for inspiration. I failed. I have a menu in mind, but something a bit different would have been fun.

I've printed the first pass of the Xmas card list. This is for editing before I start printing the envelope labels. (You would almost think I am organised - you would almost be wrong).

Early

I will start by reminding you that I have retired. I make this point to justify my assertion that 04:45 in the morning is a ridiculous time to wake up and realise that the little gearwheels in my brain have started to turn. That was it. I was awake... and have been ever since.

Ellie was dropped off at her usual time and started the hunt for Poppy the Elf. The elf had been sneaky and contorted herself into a mason jar and hidden in the fridge. It didn't take long for her to be found. We could call off the West Sussex search volunteers. Today would see the first performance of the school play. Ellie was very excited and would be playing the part of an angel. We dropped her off at school at the usual time and then went home for breakfast.

Diane was going out for the day with her friend Kathie. The plan was to meet up at Petworth House and tour the Christmas displays. I set up the SatNav and off she went. I then spent several hours trying to change some of the settings on our TV. I wanted to get a Bluetooth keyboard connected, but try as I did, I just couldn't get them to pair. I did, however, experiment with swapping the Internet connection from Ethernet to WiFi. This worked, so I will leave it running for a few days to see if there are any downsides. With the impending changes to my Broadband service, I revisited the section in my documentation (Our Home Computing Guide) that describes our existing network. This will help when the new network is commissioned and the document will clearly need some revision.

After lunch, I went to the school to watch the first performance of the school play. Unfortunately, Ellie was somewhat hidden except when she was on stage. They all did a brilliant job and it was a very funny send-up of Strictly Come Dancing with the Nativity as a retrospective theme. Zoe and Diane will get to watch it tomorrow. After the show, I just had time to walk home, have a cup of tea, and walk back to collect Ellie at the end of the school day.

Diane arrived home at about 16:15 having had an excellent day at Petworth. Darren arrived soon after and collected Ellie.

All Change

Jasper had a disturbed night. This means that we had a disturbed night. Maybe it is the Christmas Season and he was practising his carols, or some Christmas plainsong but I can assure you that it was not welcome throughout the night.

While parts of the country had woken to heavy overnight snow, we were greeted by rain. It was not a passing greeting. It was a greeting that came and went throughout the day. Stuck indoors, Diane did some spring (or is it winter) cleaning. I chipped in with a deep clean of the window shutters upstairs. Once that was done, I phoned BT. There appears to be a push to move people from BT to EE for domestic services. This was confirmed by my conversation with Wayne, from the Cornwall Loyalty Centre. BT are moving domestic services to EE and retaining commercial services themselves. After an hour-long conversation, I started the process of switching our services to EE. This means a £10 per month reduction in monthly bills, an increase in Broadband speed from 500mbps to 900mbps, an increase in mobile phone data from 20GB to unlimited, and the consolidation of the bills into one. Seems like a win.

Not much else to report. Have a great day.

Early Breakfast

As we prepare for bed, I put out a bowl of cat food for Jasper and load the timed-release bowl to open up for breakfast at about 06:00. Last night it was clear that Jasper wasn't impressed with his late-night supper. He ignored it. This meant that he became hungry overnight. By two-ish, he was mewling and walking all over us. By three he was chanting, walking all over us, and I suspect carrying a placard saying "Feed Me". By 03:30 I had had enough. I went down and opened his breakfast bowl. Within minutes, all was quiet. Fussy little so and so.

I had the usual cousins' call in the morning and then spent the rest of the morning making further refinements to the accounting spreadsheet and learning about a function that I never previously knew; "Formulatext". This has improved the annual set-up for a new year's spreadsheet. It analyses a particular set of formulae and ensures that I have remembered to update them for the current month of the current year. I'm really rather pleased with the way that has worked.

Early afternoon saw the delivery of a new Kindle for Diane.  Her (very) old one was beginning to have problems, so I decided to replace it with the latest model. As usual, it took a little while to get set up. I must say that it seems very crisp and has controls that allow control of the backlight for night reading. Seems quite impressive, so far.

Just pottering

It had been a sub-zero night. Ellie was dropped off at her usual time and we sorted out her breakfast while she sought Poppy the Elf and told us about her own Elf back home. Once breakfast was finished, Ellie went upstairs to join Nana, brush her teeth, and get her hair done. I whipped outside to start the car and sit in it while the front and rear defrosters did their job. Diane would be going out and I wanted to ensure that she wouldn't be delayed. We walked Ellie to school, and then Diane headed off for some additional cardiac rehab. (This proved to be very low intensity and she has decided to step up to the higher level next week).

While Diane was out, I got on with breakfast and then cleared the family room so that I could steam clean the floors before she got back. The rest of the morning was spent chatting and pottering around until lunch. I took the opportunity to cook a gammon joint, and once it was cooled, I ran it through my slicer for a big plate of ham slices.

We had our usual quiet reading session until it was time to collect Ellie. Today, collection would include a tour of the school's Christmas Fair - this is not my scene, so I left this in Diane's capable hands. Despite the Fair, they were back sooner than expected. Ellie had a mad half hour before Zoe arrived to collect her.