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.