Spa break

It has been another lovely warm day with temperatures in the high 20s and plenty of sunshine. It was humid, however, so felt less comfortable than yesterday. I was just finishing breakfast when Zoe called from work. DPD had just announced they were about to deliver something, so I wandered around to wait for the delivery which arrived about 30 minutes later.

As soon as I got back, we had to get Jasper from under the bed and take him off to the Cattery for his spa break with the Cat Whisperer. We dropped him off and headed home, knowing that he would be well cared for while away. Once home, with no Jasper to worry about, we got the suitcases out. The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting out the packing and spreading it between the various bags to ensure none of them exceeded the weight limit. (I could have put everything in one case, but it would have been too heavy). 

Calm

 It has been a gorgeous day with temperatures hovering around 30C.

There was very little on the agenda today. After breakfast and a few chores, we made our way to Sainsbury's to pick a few bits to see us through the week and ensure we would have food in stock when we return from holiday.

In general, it was a very calm day. It was too hot to sit in the Orangery this afternoon so I spent my Kindle time in the cool of the lounge. Diane, however, was pottering in the garden until late afternoon.

Just stuff

 We have had a bitty day. It has been hot and sunny and we had all the doors and windows open from first thing. Jasper had wandered in and out, sheltering in the cool of the front bedroom when the heat got too much for him.

Diane was due to have a phone consultation this morning but the call never came. It turns out they were having problems with their phones at the surgery. Consultation has been re-booked face-to-face.

As it was such a nice day, Diane ploughed through the washing and soon had it drying on the line. She then cleared a pile of ironing.

I spent the morning doing admin. While doing this, I'm pleased to report that Royal Mail condescended to collect the parcel I had contracted them to take on Saturday. We also had the chap turn up to try and sort out the slight blemishes we found on the new sofas. I'm pleased to report that he did a splendid job and was soon on his way.

As an aside, I have ensured my battery packs are fully charged, and have started to collect all the cables and adapters we might need while away.

Pete shared a stunning photo of Ellie sitting on the beach at sunset. It set me off, again:

My Grandpa wrote a poem,
Especially for me;
I'd been sitting on the beach with Dad,
Looking out to sea.

We'd spent the day at Cheddar Gorge,
And deep in Wookie Hole;
But now the sun was setting,
and the sky was blue and gold.

Check-in

 We heard, late last night, that Paul and Cathy had arrived safely in Paris, though he said it had been quite an adventure!

I was up at my usual time quaffing my first coffee of the day and reading the news. Di emerged a while later and we enjoyed a quiet breakfast. My first task after breakfast was to rebook my Royal Mail collection - let's see if they can be bothered to collect tomorrow, as scheduled.

I'm always a bit twitchy about the cellular roaming costs when abroad. I spent some time reviewing some packages. As we both have up-to-date iPhones we can use eSIMs. In the end, I ordered an eSIM for each of us from Jetpac. I installed these alongside our existing eSIMs and can activate them when we arrive in Turkey. The package I have selected gives us 15GB. It seemed like a pretty good deal.

The new cabin bags which we ordered yesterday turned up at lunchtime. They seem ideal and I am confident that we will have no problems with our packing. We were "invited" to Zoe's to see her packing plans and give them the "ok". We took one of the new cases along as an exemplar. She is going to order one as a standby.

The next few hours were spent on the Wizz Air website trying to check in. Their site is, to put it politely, user-hostile. I made a mistake part way through the process and pressed the "Modify Data" button and it allowed me to return to where the error was... but wouldn't allow me to modify the incorrect field. I had to cancel everything, log back in and start again. The second time around, I managed to get further into the process where it asked for contact details for each of the travellers. It rejected my details saying the phone number given was already associated with another customer (it was probably me - one with my middle name and one without)... now the question was how to get around this. A service call "Hushed" allows you to have additional phone numbers so I signed up and claimed a new number. By this point, Wizz had timed out and logged me out. I was losing the will to live. I started again... and finally managed to get the check-in process completed and then printed the boarding passes. Then, of course, I had to go through the whole process again for the return journey... because it doesn't remember what you had just entered for the outbound flight.

I think a quiet evening is required... in a dark room with a wet towel over my head.

Not so cheap flights

We heard yesterday evening that the Eurostar that Paul and Catthy were planning to use to get to Parid had been cancelled. They were scrabbling around for alternatives. I suggested Eurostar to Brussels and then a train from Brussels to Paris. In the end, Lel managed to get them on a BA flight to Lyon, and Mark booked them tickets from Lyon to Paris by train. 

I was awake early. Coffee was calling and who am I to ignore its siren call. Being Saturday, I had the usual Zoom call with my cousins. This was lively today, all but one agreeing how dreadful the Olympic opening ceremony had been. The chat went back and forth over several topics but seemed mainly focused on sports.

After the call, I settled down to look at social media, then remembered that I was planning to upgrade our luggage allowance for the forthcoming trip. I went online. The price had increased from £44 to £58 in the last couple of days. I then realised that though we had return tickets, this needed to be paid in each direction. Not going to happen!

I reviewed the rules for the existing baggage allowance. I realised (belatedly) that we actually had a fairly good allowance, spread over three small suitcases. I explained all of this to Di and we retrieved our various roll-on cases from the wardrobe and the loft. Each one was measured. Each one met the dimensions in height, width, or depth. None conformed to all three... and these "low-cost carriers" can be devils for finding ways to charge you extra. We settled down with Amazon and spent a couple of hours reviewing cabin bags that would conform - and were of sufficient quality to survive. It was remarkable how many claimed to conform to the measurements but the customer comments pointed out that they didn't and were oversized. We finally found bags that should fit the bill and ordered one each.

I haven't yet heard whether Paul and Cathy made it to Paris, but hopefully, they are in their hotel getting ready for their first events.

Royal Mail was meant to collect a package to return to Sky today. They confirmed it in an email - collection between 11:09 and 15:09, but obviously couldn't be bothered as it's still sitting by the door waiting for them at 18:05.

Sport

 We had a much brighter and warmer day today. Di had a planned phone call with Pauline (which was likely to run for hours). I had some admin to complete and then I looked at the latest news that most of the Olympic coverage was available on Discovery+ Premium. We have a D+ account - but to add Premium would be an extra £6.99 a month. I phoned EE... and an hour later I changed our existing package to include the sports channels and removed the Sky Cinema channels. As a result, we will pay £1 per month less than before. Seemed like a good deal as we never watch the Sky Cinema offerings. It should (have been) be active within 30 minutes.

I switched on the TV and tried to access the new channels. Nada. I would return to this, but first Di and I walked into the village so that she could collect her latest prescription. It was a pleasant walk in the warm (but not hot) sunshine.

I returned to the problem of getting the sports channels activated. I managed to get them on the iPad, but couldn't ripple it through to the TVs. I phoned EE again. After about an hour or so and discussions with 3 specialists, they decided to push a software update to our box. Finally, everything clicked and the sports channels burst into life. 

I heard from Trevor - they had watched an episode of Ted Lasso. That was enough to encourage them to subscribe to Apple TV. Quite right too.

Family

 It was a dull, drizzly start to the day. I checked the routes on Google Maps and we set off for the bandit country of Berkshire. Though it's not a long distance, it is always a tedious drive and takes considerably longer than you would expect. Never mind, visiting Jane and Trevor's always makes it worthwhile.

Today's visit was a family get-together. Paul and Cathy flew in yesterday and this was an opportunity for us all to meet up. It is several years since we have seen them so we had plenty to catch up on... and, of course, Jane and Trevor laid on a feast for our lunch. We heard about Andrew, in the run-up to his finals and his worrying trip to the ER the night before Paul and Cathy left for the airport. We hear about Laura and her recent change of jobs which means working much closer to home. Last but not least we heard about Michael and Emily and their good news - with a baby due in December. With Paul and Cathy's impending Grandparenthood, they will have some adjustments to make.

Tomorrow they are off to Richmond to look at some of the Ted Lasso locations. On Saturday they have an early start on Eurostar to get to Paris for the Olympics. (They are not participating - in their advancing years, that would be too much to expect - they're just spectating at various events throughout the week).

The afternoon seemed to fly by and too soon it was time to leave. We left in peak rush hour, but despite this, had a very good run home.

Preparation

 There was no hurry to get up this morning. I was irritated, therefore, when my bladder demanded attention at 07:00. Plumbing under control, I wandered downstairs for some coffee and to settle down with the overnight news.

When breakfast was over and we had cleared away (the staff had the day off), we went to Sainsbury's for our weekly shop. I checked, while there, whether they needed advanced notice for Foreign Exchange to Turkish Lira. It appears not. It is one of their standard currencies. We completed the shop without hindrance from the usual zombies and morons. Wednesday is clearly a better day to shop.

For the last few days, our dashcam has been hanging loose. The glue had failed - as it does in hot weather -  but fortunately I had a spare mounting plate. After cleaning the window with acetone, I fixed the new mount and checked the camera alignment. All is well and our trips can be recorded once more.

After lunch, the focus turned to our forthcoming trip. The cabin bag I ordered yesterday arrived and Di wants to check whether she should get something similar. We were discussing the dining options for our arrival as we would be hungry but not eager to cook. Darren has sent more information regarding the location and accommodation. It is clear that there are plenty of restaurants in the town, and you can also have food delivered. I'm sure we'll check out these options in the next few days.

Quiet

As we went to bed, I managed to finish my 100th book of the year.  The excitement of yesterday was too much for Jasper - he slept through and we had an undisturbed night. It was nearly 07:30 when I finally woke up and we made the most of a day with no firm plans by doing very little.

We have realised that the size limits for cabin baggage for our forthcoming trip are far smaller than any of our existing bags. I spent time on Amazon looking for a suitable replacement and it should arrive tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent with our Kindles.

(I bet you are relieved there are no rhymes today!)

Oh What a Night

 I’ve found the switch within my brain
That makes it start to rhyme
It’s off for now, My brain’s at rest
Until another time

I wrote those lines as I went to bed last night. It was meant to be a night where the sleep was not interrupted by a buzzing brain. Well maybe the brain didn't buzz, but Jasper did. We couldn't leave him with food overnight, so he was hungry. Oh boy, did he let us know he wasn't happy... the switch in the brain flicked back:

We didn’t feed the cat last night
He’s going to the vet
He’s hungry so he’s prowling
And hasn’t settled yet

He wanders round and round room
And climbs up on the bed
Then wanders right across my wife
And settles on her head

He’s having anaesthetic
At least he’ll have a nap
Then we’ll go and fetch him
A woozy drugged-up chap.

So we got up early to get Jasper to the vet at 09:00. We left him in their care and went home for breakfast. By mid-morning we had received a call. Jasper's blood test had shown a low potassium level and that would mean the anaesthetic would be a risk as he is such an old cat. Today's dental treatment would have to wait and Jasper will have to take supplements for the next few weeks. We went and collected him and he's back with us, roaming around and checking we haven't changed anything while he was away.

The rest of the day has been quiet while Jasper slept off last night's wandering.

Friends

 I had a disturbed night. By 4 this morning, I had checked the plumbing and determined that it was working  and I should complete the night in the land of nod - no such luck:

I can't believe it's 4 a.m

And I should be asleep

Instead, I'm writing silly rhymes

Instead of counting sheep.

I need to find my brain's rhyming switch, it's driving me to distraction. Anyway, by 6 I had drifted back to a fitful doze and managed to stay put until 7.

We had a quiet morning before going out to lunch. We were meeting up with Jane and Trevor, and Carol and Ian (who we met on the River Cruise). We pottered along through the Sussex and Surrey countryside and met at "The Refectory" in Milford (near Godalming). It was a huge old barn that had been converted into an extensive restaurant. It was a bit big to be considered charming, but it certainly was impressive.

We pulled into the car park just behind Jane and Trevor and wandered inside. We were shown to our table and sat chatting until Carol and Ian arrived. It was lovely to see them again. They are such a sociable and interesting couple. We settled down to catch up on everyone's news and plans and tucked into a wonderful (and generous) Sunday Roast while we chatted. Time seemed to whistle by as plates were whisked away and desserts placed in front of us. Then we enjoyed some teas and coffees before finally settling the bill after some three and half hours. We had such a good time that we agreed to meet up again in a few months. (Meanwhile, we'll see Jane and Trevor later this week).

We had a lovely run back in the afternoon sunshine and then settled down with our books for a while.

Rhymes

It was a quiet start to the day. Though Jasper had been a pain during the night, he left us alone and it was 07:20 before I woke.

Once suitably caffeinated and with a backdrop of Koh Haa, I joined the weekly call with my cousins. It wasn't as frantic as usual (maybe because Sarah didn't have her grandchildren nearby). We discussed computer resilience after the worldwide outages caused by Cloudflare and went on to chat about family holidays.

I went back to the kitchen after the call. Something someone had said flicked the "rhyme" switch in my brain. While Di went upstairs for a shower, I started to write:

My Grandpa wrote a poem
I think it’s rather good
It’s all about a walk we did
And picnicked in the wood

We took with us a rucksack
It was bursting at the seams
Full of pies, and fizzy drinks,
And lots of custard creams

We put a blanket on the ground
And laid out all the treats
The ground was damp and we soon wished
We’d brought some comfy seats

Tiny woodland creatures
Watched us having lunch
And they wondered what we’d leave
So they could have a munch.

The sky grew dark as clouds rolled in
We packed away our stuff
The wind soon rustled in the trees
The weather got quite rough

We headed back the way we came
Racing to our car
The rain was clearly on its way
It wasn’t very far.

We were soaked when we got home
It really was a pain
We hadn’t made it to the car
When it began to rain

It’s always fun to venture out
Even in the rain
I can’t wait until we go
A-picnicking again.

With that done, I sent the poem to Ellie.... but my brain was still in gear. I wrote another but decided it was not appropriate for Ellie:

Mary had a little lamb

Whose fleece was white as snow

She fed it lots of laxatives

To see if it would go.

It poo’d across the farmer’s field

And all across the yard

It really caused a dreadful stink

And cleanup was quite hard

Oh well... that exhausted the time to rhyme and after some admin and some lunch, we settled down for some Kindle time.

Last Day

It is the last day of the school year for Ellie. She was at home, and Zoe had a 9 a.m. start, so we didn't have to set an alarm. I wandered around to do the school walk, and clutching presents for the teachers, dropped Ellie at the classroom.

After some breakfast, I headed to Chichester. I wanted to speak to someone at Nationwide. I had a standing order meant to credit a new ISA each month. The money was being taken from the account but didn't appear to arrive in the intended ISA. I spoke to a very helpful lady in the bank. The money, she confirmed, was being deducted from the account but it was going into an old ISA. At least the money was still in one of my accounts. After a chat, I was happy with the situation and headed back home.

After lunch, we had our usual Kindle time but I had to give up in the Orangery - it was too hot. I moved into the lounge which seemed delightfully cool in comparison.

At the end of the school day, we went along to collect Ellie and she munched her way through various snacks and drinks until Pete arrived to collect her to stay with him for the next couple of weeks.

Fire TV

 I was in the bathroom before Ellie woke and came in to see Nana. We had a fairly leisurely start to the morning but still walked her to school on time.

Back home, we had some breakfast and then pottered off to Sainsbury's for our weekly shopping. Even though the Zombie bus had not yet deposited its contents, there seemed to be a significant number of morons shuffling around the aisles. Despite this, we managed to complete the trip in a sensible time and I managed to avoid ramming anyone or yelling at them. I was quite pleased with myself.

We had some Kindle time after lunch but Amazon delivered a package just as I was getting into my latest book. I unpacked the package and installed a new "Alexa" in our Orangery, then installed an Amazon Fire TV stick in the Orangery's TV. This installed easily, but again I had to sign back in and enable all of our streaming services. By the time this was done, I had to collect Ellie from school. We stopped off at the park on the way home but didn't stay for long as she was getting quite flushed as she ran about in the heat.

ZOe has been along to collect her and they are going out for a meal this evening.

TV Again

 I was up soon after 07:00. Zoe has a day off so there was no drop-off. I wandered around the corner for the school run. Ellie was in a great mood and buzzing to get into school and get started. She had even been doing some schoolwork prior to the walk.

Back home, Diane had an appointment at the hairdresser. I waited at home for the arrival of an engineer from EE to look at the EETV system that has had the occasional glitch during programmes... particularly on the BBC! I described the problem to him and he checked the routers and signals. He then suggested connecting with a wired connection rather than WiFi. Funny that, that's what I had suggested when talking to the techie at the support centre two weeks ago. We performed a reset on the box and connected a direct ethernet cable.

Time will tell whether it has worked. So far, I can confirm that the picture quality has improved. I can also confirm that it took me quite a while to reconnect all of the various streaming services.

We had a quiet afternoon with our Kindles, enjoying the comfort of the new sofas.

We are expecting Ellie soon. She will be staying with us overnight.

What degrees?

 I wandered downstairs soon after 07:00. Zoe wasn't due to start until 09:00 so Ellie would not be dropped off. I made my first coffee and settled down with the news. The phone rang. I took it on the iPad and realised it was Facetime and Ellie was calling. "Grandpa, what degrees is it today? I need to decide between my leggings and shorts for PE." I blinked for a moment as I absorbed the greeting. "Good morning, Ellie. Did you sleep well?" I responded, meanwhile, I looked up today's "degrees" which is Ellie's description of the weather forecast.  Having brought her up to date with the news from the Bersted Met Office, she explained that "Mummy is still asleep." While we were talking, Diane came downstairs and took over the call. It must have been 20 minutes or more before Ellie hung up. (We later found out that she then called her friend Maddie, and they got ready for school together over Facetime). The joys of this connected world!

When I was home from the school run I cleared the old IKEA POANG chairs and footstool from the Orangery and settled down with some admin until the new sofas arrived. The delivery was very slick. We had paid for their premium service. They unloaded the boxes and brought the sofas into the Orangery where they assembled them and tested the electronics. All of the delivery detritus and boxes were gathered up and put back in the truck and they drove off into the sunset (well, rain actually). 

It was only after they left that Diane's eagle eyes spotted a small, faint stain on one armrest of each sofa. I called customer services and explained the problem. The assistant sent me a link and asked me to upload photos of the problem and then call back. I did this and talked it through with a new assistant. They are sending out an "operative" to clean and remove the stain. If that doesn't work to our satisfaction then I am to call back. Seems fair.

We had Ellie with us for dinner again this afternoon. Zoe was finishing at 18:00.

Hang Over

I was up early, forgetting Ellie was not being dropped off this morning. I settled down with my iPad and a coffee and was surprised when Diane came down soon after. I had obviously woken her when I got going. At the allotted time, I walked to Zoe's and prepared for the school walk. Ellie was clearly exhausted from the weekend, and despite nearly 12 hours of sleep, was almost catatonic. When we got to school it became clear that most of the kids were in a similar state having stayed up late to watch the Euros Final.

Back home, my main task for the morning was to clear the Orangery and then steam clean the floors in readiness for the new furniture, due tomorrow. This went quite well as it was dry outside and I could move everything out onto the patio, Rain was, however, forecast. Halfway through, I had to refill the water reservoir on the steam mop. That's where things went awry. The internal hose came away from the fill cap. It took me a good 15 minutes of fiddling with tweezers to finally capture the hose and reconnect it. I finished the floor without further problems and had just brought all the furniture back inside as the rain started. (it was like "range anxiety" when driving an EV... would I beat the drain - or in my case rain).

We had some Kindle time this afternoon and, when we had collected Ellie from school, so did she (though it didn't last long). She's been doing some homework with Nana while I prepared dinner. Zoe should be along to collect her before long.

Build up

 We had a gentle start to the day. I came down first for some coffee and to read the news; Di came down a bit later.

After seeing something on Facebook, my brain clicked into gear and started to think about a program for producing timelines from a database. I spent several hours looking at simple options using Excel, and other tools but couldn't find an existing solution that fitted my requirements. What requirements? you may ask. Well, there's the rub. There are no real requirements, it was purely a mental exercise with no "real world" pressing need. After a couple of hours, I gave up - other than designing the underlying database. I can feel the need to write some code soon. Whether it has anything to do with this or not is a different matter, but I need to write some code.

We had a quiet afternoon with our books so that we were chilled and ready for the excitement of the England vs. Spain final of the Euros.

Crane

 For some reason, we both woke up early. Di managed to stay in bed longer but I only managed to stay put until about 07:00. I came down for coffee and read the news online until Diane emerged.

I had the usual call with my cousins. It was quieter than usual - maybe because Tim had to drop off early. Having said that, Sarah had her usual background conversations with her grandchildren which stopped everyone else from talking. She should learn about the mute button - I even use it when Jasper is mewling.

After some admin with the accounts, I went to the garden to place the ornamental cranes (or are they storks?) for Diane's approval. Once everything was agreed, I hammered in the anchors and they now guard the rill.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent with our Kindles. It was interesting to hear from Zoe that Ellie has taken to hers, and was reading it when she woke up this morning. I'm glad she's getting interested in reading as it broadens the vocabulary and the imagination so much. Indeed your reading age in relation to your actual age is a key determinant of IQ. The more you read in your early years, the higher your IQ is likely to be.

Report

 It was wet overnight but was drying up by the time I went downstairs. After an initial coffee and a shower, I wandered around to Zoe's to provide my usual school escort service.

Once home and breakfasted I returned to a problem that has recurred on EETV. It randomly stops, and sometimes the only button that works is "Off". This is irritating at the best of times, but with the final of the Euros coming up, it does focus the mind. (Having said that, we can watch it through the aerial without any problem... so we have a Plan B). I called EE and asked to be transferred to my chap at the Newcastle Tech Centre (as he had instructed). I was promptly told that they couldn't do that. I was very patient and explained my problem (again) to this new agent. She soon gave up and said she would send an engineer. It will be Wednesday next week, but at least it is scheduled.

With little faith in the engineer, I decided to return to the problem myself. I measured the WiFi signal strength at various points around the TVs. It was not as strong as I expected so I moved one of the Mesh repeaters. I also noticed that my old Mesh was still competing in that corner of the room. I eliminated it by powering down all of the old Mesh repeaters. Now I have a strong WiFi signal by the TV and we will wait and see if it makes a difference.

Zoe phoned after collecting Ellie from school. Ellie had brought her end-of-year report home.  Zoe read it out to us and we were all absolutely delighted with her performance.

The Morning After

 I went around to Zoe's to join them on the walk to school. Ellie had stayed up to see the first half of yesterday's Euros Semi-Final between The Netherlands and England. In fact, she phoned us when Harry Kane scored his penalty to say how excited she was. Half time was bedtime. When she came downstairs this morning she asked who had won. Zoe told her and she replied, "Really, Mum?". She can be as sceptical as the rest of us!

The kids were quite subdued at the school gates. I suspect that most of them stayed up to see the whole game and were now suffering from the late night. I think the teachers will have a quiet day. After the school run, I went home for breakfast and Zoe went home for the first of several days off. She has decided to order a Kindle so that she doesn't have to cart a load of books around on holiday.

I wandered into the village to get my hair cut. They have a new barber and I'm not convinced he did as good a job as the others I had before. It's not too bad; certainly nothing a balaclava can't hide. I stopped off in the pharmacy to collect a prescription for Di, on the way home.

The rest of the day has revolved around some admin, reviewing and editing of the Home Computing Guide, and some Kindle time. 

Insurance

 I was up and pottering in the bathroom before Ellie emerged this morning. She always seems to sleep well when she's here. We went through the usual breakfast, ablutions, and dress protocol and then headed to school.

Back home, I was pleased to see an email from Oak Furnitureland confirming they had actioned the refund and it should be back in our account in a couple of days. We then completed the weekly shopping list and set off to Sainsbury's. Again, Zombie-free Wednesday was a perfect shopping experience and we were back home in 45 minutes.

The next major activity was to respond to a prompt from the Bank regarding our Travel Insurance. This is due to expire next month and, as the Bank has changed its Insurer, I had to go through a long call to renew. The age-related supplement was easy enough, but the pre-existing conditions and medications took quite a long while. Eventually, we arrived at the price. There should be cover for a heart attack induced by their quote.

Di gave the Orangery a spring clean while I was completing the admin. I returned to the Home Computing Guide and updated a few more diagrams and some more of the text. I also printed the document so that I could give it a good read and mark up any further editing that was necessary.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time. We didn't have to collect Ellie today, as Zoe was finishing early, so we read through until it was time to find Jasper and take him to the Vet. As you would expect, he had hidden in the most inaccessible spot under our bed. We had to take all of the storage boxes out and then use a broom to push him through to the other side. Once he was in his carrier he settled fairly well and we whisked him to the surgery. We weren't there for more than about 15 minutes, but Jasper had a mani/pedi (claws clipped), and had his teeth checked. The Vet commented that he seems to be a very healthy cat.

Wet

 It has been a very wet day since about 9 o'clock. It was dry for the school walk this morning but went downhill from there. I was lucky that it dried up when it was time to collect Ellie, but it started to rain again as soon as we got home.

The first job on my agenda was to review the energy tariffs. Our existing tariff is due to expire next month and it was time to see if I could find a better deal. After a bit of hunting around I found a new deal with E.On and it looks as if it will save me £30 per month.

I returned to the issue of diagrams. Having ditched the idea of Visio I looked at LucidChart again. I have used this in the past. I signed up for their 7-day trial but after 30 minutes, I decided it wasn't what I wanted and cancelled it. I then decided to look for an iPad app. This was looking promising and, in the end, I downloaded and tried a couple. I have now ditched one but kept FlowDia and paid for the full licenses (£9.99) which is a one-off payment that was less than the monthly subscription for Lucid. That seems like a result.

Jasper has a feeding station. This is a wooden platform onto which we put his food bowls and water bowl. It was constructed to stop him from chasing his bowl around the kitchen and under the chairs where he could get to it. It was looking a bit tired and grubby so I sanded it down and gave it a coat of the paint we used for the coffee table. It looks very smart.

(Just as an aside, I noticed today that this blog has now been read over 1,024,000 times).

License

Despite a poor night's sleep, I was up early so Ellie could be dropped off. Darren announced that she was complaining of a sore throat and that her tummy hurt. We ignored this, and within ten minutes she was her usual self. We dropped her off at school and then returned for breakfast.

The first order of the day was to check the latest Oak Furniturelan sales. Sure enough, the sofa we bought yesterday had dropped by £200 overnight. I phoned the store (as the sales agent had suggested) and he confirmed that he would contact the accounts department and get the difference refunded. That was a good start to the day.

I mentioned that I had acquired a Visio license to allow me to do diagramming through a browser using my favourite diagramming tool. Well, try as I may I couldn't get it to work. I phoned Microsoft customer support and was connected to an agent in India. She listened patiently to my description of the problem and proceeded to prompt me through a number of hoops for the next hour or so. Each hoop ended up back. where I had started. I was no further forward and when the line dropped, I decided that enough was enough and I cancelled the license. (She asked at one point if she could remotely connect to my system! You won't be surprised to hear that I declined).

Next on the agenda was a trip to B&Q for some grey paint. With the new sofas on order, we decided that the coffee table needed tidying up. I sanded down the old wood finish and painted it with grey paint (which will go nicely with the sofas and the blinds). I'm very pleased with the outcode.

We collected Ellie from school and she stayed with us for dinner. Originally she was going to stay the night, but Zoe's shifts changed so she went home. We had some post-prandial Kindle time before settling down in front of the TV.

Metaphors

 After a comfort break at 05:00, I slept through until 07:30. That's what comes with a clean conscience. Once up and about and suitably caffeinated, Di and I headed to Hedge End. Our destination was Oak Furnitureland. Diane had seen a sofa that she wanted to replace the IKEA chairs that we currently use in the Orangery.  Our objective was to find out if the said sofas were as comfortable as they looked.

Hedge End was an absolute Zoo. There were cars everywhere... and yet there were plenty of parking spaces in the car parks. We drove through and found a convenient spot without any problems. We entered the shop and were pounced upon by a salesman. Having sent him packing we found the suite that Diane had set her heart on. It was perfect. We sat on it and checked its suitability. Perfect.  W~e decided to go ahead and summoned the sales drone to take the order. All seems to be well and we should get delivery in about 10 days.

Coming home we were stuck in traffic. In a metaphor for the new Government, we sat watching a 4-lane motorway reduced to a single lane while there was no work progressing in the closed lanes. It reminded me of the Portugal-France match in the Euros... where Portugal did all the work, but France ended up as victors.

Finally, back home, we managed some Kindle time before I started on dinner.

Bits and Pieces

 I was awake early, but a trip to the bathroom to relieve the bladder pressure allowed me to stay in bed until 7:30. That was a good result.

I had my usual call with cousins and allowed Tim to crow over the Election results without too many responses. It was actually quite good fun, and to be fair, he was gracious in victory.

The rest of the morning was spent completing various items of admin... firstly Ellie's Premium Bonds, then the accounts. I helped Diane set up or refresh her online banking app so that she could complete her Premium Bond donation to Ellie. I then subscribed to the Microsoft Visio plan that allows me to use Visio through a browser. Having said that, the login has not yet burst into life.

The reason I subscribed to Visio was to update my online guide to our computer systems. I have updated much of the text, but not the diagrams, so far. I will try to log in tomorrow and update the diagrams accordingly.

Democracy

The trouble with democracy is that sometimes you do not get the outcome that you would like. After yesterday's elections, we have a Labour Government with a large majority. Whatever my perception of this result, they are now the Government of the UK and I would make the following observations...

• I hope they do a good job for the country.
• I hope that, for once, they manage our finances sensibly.
• I hope that, for once,  they do not leave office with higher levels of unemployment than when they entered.
• I hope they do not allow the Trades Unions to hold the country to ransom by weakening the strike laws.
• I hope that they treat legal immigrants with sensitivity.
• I hope that they are kind to people who are unable to work through illness or disability but are ruthless with those who can't be bothered to work.
• I hope that they put an end to two-tier policing and treat everyone equally, be they farmers, Muslims, veterans, or whatever.
• I hope they put an end to the misogyny of "trans" rights, which disenfranchises women.
• I hope they invest in the UK's defence, as it has never been more important.
• I hope they genuinely do something about the NHS - but fear that all they will do is pour more money into a bucket with a hole in it.
• I hope they will put the country and families ahead of trendy ideals and apply a sense check to some of the policies espoused by the glitterati.

I want the UK to benefit from its government... so Good Luck to them.

A Decade, Really?

 It is a day of celebration. Indeed our American cousins get rather over-excited, but I'm flattered that they make so much fuss to celebrate the anniversary of my retirement. It's 10 years ago today that I dropped out of the rat race and I have never looked back. I miss many of my colleagues and some of my clients but I do not miss the work, the lost nights, the lost weekends, the pointless conference calls, and being away from home so much. Having said that, that was what paid for a comfortable retirement.

I was up early to start the celebrations by greeting Ellie as she was dropped off. I made her a festive breakfast of strawberries and cherries with a marmite crumpet to follow. Once she was washed and dressed, she continued the celebration with some cheerleading in the lounge until it was time for school. 

We dropped her at the classroom door and headed straight to the Polling Station to cast our vote. We are pessimistic about the result, but we have done our bit. 

Back home we settled down for breakfast and then we popped to the pharmacy and then M&S. There were a few bits to collect. Once home, I returned to the Excel program that I wrote last week to find the best meeting point for a group of people. I decided to add some code so that it calculates the distance for each person to travel to get to the calculated meeting point. It took a little longer than expected to get the code working and I still have an anomaly when two sets of people live within a couple of miles of each other. I will return to that another day.

While I was faffing with Excel, Di was tidying up some shrubs in the front garden.

The afternoon saw the usual Kindle time before we went to collect Ellie from school. Plans have changed. She was due to stay with us overnight, but Darren is no longer needed in Folkestone, so he can drop her off as usual.

Meanwhile, I must return to my retirement... there's so much to do!

Roll me away

 We were up in time for Ellie's drop-off. She turned up on roller skates and informed me that she was going to wear them on the way to school. After some breakfast, she went to wash and dress and then came back down to do some reading with Grandpa before school.

Once we were back from the school run and had munched our way through breakfast we prepared for a trip to the shops. We made a radical change to the weekly trip. It wasn't just that we shopped on Wednesday, it was the fact that we had an M&S chaser. We love the Southern Fried chicken tenders that they sell, and we were running low. Whilst in the store I picked up a Korean salad and noodle bowl for my lunch. The Korean bowl was delicious and I will certainly have that again.

Back from the shops, there was some traditional admin to complete. Finally, we managed to get some Kindle time. I did, however, cut it short so that I could return to the guide I was writing for our EETV setup. I finished that just in time to collect Ellie from school.

Ellie was full of beans when she got in but has just been collected by Zoe.

TV Guide

We were up early so that Ellie could be dropped off. Getting up early wasn't an issue as Jasper had enjoyed a crazy 15 minutes soon after 5 a.m. and we were both dozing for the rest of the night.

Ellie had her breakfast and then went to wash and dress. Once she was ready she headed to the lounge to spend some time listening to music and dancing. I hid in the kitchen and read the news. Once E~llie had been dropped off at school, we returned home for breakfast.

The morning was spent doing admin. One outstanding item was to get the central heating controls working from Diane's phone. I spent an hour reading background data so that I could reset the password on the control unit. Finally, with an idea of what was needed, I fired up the app on Di' phone. Bang! It worked the first time and all my research had been unnecessary.

After lunch, I started to write a guide on using the TV now that we have EETV in control. This was predominantly for Diane's benefit so that she could control things when I was not available. 

After some Kindle time, I went to collect Ellie and had the opportunity to go into class and see the work she had been doing. It was impressive how much they have done and it was nice to see a chart showing how many points the children had earned through the year. Ellie was well into the top half... but a fair way from the top. As we left, we met up with Zoe who had managed to leave work early. 

Surely Not

I was awake at 04:30 and delighted to see I had more than two hours before I needed to get up. At 06:45 the alarm went off and scared seven bells out of me. My heart was still pounding as I reached the bathroom to begin my ablutions. Ellie, meanwhile, hadn't even woken up until 07:00 and I was washed, dressed, had her breakfast prepared, had emptied the dishwasher, and was halfway through my first coffee by the time she was dropped off.

Once she was dropped off at school, we had our breakfast and prepared for the day. I had two main tasks on my list for the day. Firstly, I wanted to complete the proper activation of Discovery+ on the EETV system. The second was to pay for the new heating controls and contract for a maintenance service.

The activation of Discovery+ was a problem. I tried again but, again, ended up in a loop. I phoned the helpline and they admitted that I was doing everything correctly but they (Discovery) clearly have a problem with the Safari browser on Apple devices. "Can you download a different browser?" asked the rep. "Not a chance" I replied. I ran upstairs and fired up the Windows laptop. Nothing happened. The battery had run out. I plugged it in and started again. This time I managed to log in and access the correct system using the "Edge" browser. The whole activation worked the first time, as advertised. I was a happy bunny. It is bizarre, however,  that in this day and age, we have to resort to this antique operating system to complete the activation.

I then set about the invoice for the completion of the heating controls. That got paid and I then followed up by requesting the maintenance service and setting up the monthly payment... which worked out roughly half the price of the old British Gas contract.

Di went along to the surgery this afternoon for the second dose of her shingles vaccine. We then settled down for some kindle time until it was time to collect Ellie. When she was back here with us, we got her to complete some of her outstanding homework until Zoe came to collect her.