Plans scrapped

 It is a bit fatuous to refer to our normal Thursday as being planned, but today we scrapped it. I had woken up early, as usual and went to get out of bed only to become immensely dizzy. Diane took charge, and I was told to lie down and stay put for a while. It was nearly 9 a.m. before I ventured out of bed with enough confidence to walk to the bathroom without holding the walls.

I ventured downstairs and sat quietly while Diane sorted out Jasper, cancelled Lottie, and checked the shopping list I had prepared yesterday. I decided we would get Sainsbury's to deliver and booked a slot for tomorrow. ~Diane popped out for a while to do some clothes shopping, and I tried to potter about the house. I certainly wasn't up to a proper walk.

After a lighter lunch than usual, I took my Kindle to the Orangery and settled down for a quiet afternoon. Upstairs, Diane was finishing off her latest sewing project. I was feeling a bit better and was able to move about with a lot more confidence. Mid-afternoon, the heavens opened and we had an hour or two of thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. It has certainly reduced the humidity.

I received a call from the Solicitor. Our new will has now been checked and filed and is now in force. The trusts that we have set up will take a little bit longer, but they will contact us when they are complete.

I am feeling a lot better now and have just cooked dinner, which we both enjoyed. In fact, Di asked if there was enough left over for tomorrow.

Well, that was a totally unexpected day. Very lazy, but hopefully restorative.

Consultation

It was promising a nice day. The sun was bright, and it was already warm when I got up. It had been a disturbed night thanks to a solid bout of hay fever hitting me at about 10 p.m. last night, and Jasper deciding to practice some of his football chants at 4 a.m. 

After breakfast, Diane drove across to Angmering for her Pilates session. I stayed put and returned to a coding puzzle I struggled with yesterday. I have a line of code that should delete a file... but doesn't. I circumvented the issue with an alternative command, but it bugged me. I opened up a discussion on the forum for the users of the language, and whilst I received lots of suggestions, nobody has got to the bottom of the problem. I can't believe I have found a bug in the language, but maybe I have. The discussion has gone ominously quiet.    

I set off on a walk. This one had to include the village as I needed to collect Diane's meds on the way through. As usual, I was out for an hour or so and got home in time to do some more debugging before grabbing lunch and settling down with my book. (Diane was home by this point and also settled down in the Orangery.)

The doorbell rang. It was Mark from DPD delivering my latest order of curries. This time, I ordered from "Chef Akila" so I could compare them with the last order. They are all tucked away in the freezer for now, but I look forward to trying them.

Playtime

The day started much as usual. Some light rain was forecast for the morning, but it didn't start until I was eating my porridge. I had no firm plans for the day, but Diane was going out with her friend Kathie. As Di set off for West Dean (where they were meeting), I headed for the study.

I had a couple of minor projects in mind. The most important, but the quickest, was to amend the program template from which I start all new programs. I have recently observed a condition that introduces an error into the code being developed. It only took about 10 minutes to change, test, and file the changes. This took me on to my second project, which I seeded from this new template. This was a routine that would run daily to clear out any accumulation of log files that were over a certain age. It is too easy for these files to build up and slowly choke the disk. By lunchtime, the code was written and tested, and the program was installed and scheduled to run just before midnight daily.

This seemed like a good time to go for a walk. The rain had stopped, and the pavements had dried up. I set off for a slightly modified route around the estate. As I walked, my audiobook chattered away in my ears. As usual, I was out for just over an hour and then headed back to grab some lunch and settle down with my Kindle. I only read for about an hour as I had the urge to play some more. I returned to the study and reviewed the way in which my external drives are mounted on the iMac. With a little research, I found a mechanism that was not dissimilar to the approach I had adopted on the Raspberry Pi's. This looks most satisfactory and seems to have worked consistently each time I rebooted the iMac. (The old method always seemed to miss one or two drives, and I had to handle them manually.)

Di got back from her day out soon after 17:00, and we have just finished dinner (pork loin steaks, since you asked).

What was once Found, then lost, is found

It was another lovely start to the day. I must say this has been a wonderful spring and summer so far. After the usual start to the day, I headed for my study. One of the automatic services that I had set up on "barnowl" had not triggered overnight. I had to get to the bottom of it, and so I spent an hour or so fiddling with the code and the commands until I found the error. Heaving a sigh of relief, I backed everything up, and returned to the family room.

Diane was keen to ensure that she had all of the correct cables, batteries, plugs, and adapters to maintain her electronics while away next week. We laid out the devices, and I selected all of the correct cables for each. I then showed her the plug adapters and how to charge the battery packs. It was while I was selecting all of the cables and adapters that I found my stabiliser/gimbal for taking video with the iPhone. I heaved another sigh of relief as this had been bugging me for a while now.

With Diane's pre-holiday admin complete, I set off for a walk. With my Jonathan Kellerman book chatting away in my ears, I walked the streets for an hour or so. Back home, I grabbed some lunch and then settled down in the Orangery with my Kindle, soon to be joined by Diane. My phone rang. It was my old school friend, Michael. He was following up on a message he sent me yesterday regarding how to set up a free email account for the management committee for his block of flats. We chatted for a while, and I sent him a link to the Microsoft site where you can sign up for a free Outlook email address. I'm sure he will manage to do this, but if not, I have agreed to talk to him through it.

Rain

After a lie-in until 07:15, I started the day with the caffeine jolt from a good coffee. As I settled down to read the news I was surprised the hear Diane moving about and she was soon downstairs clutching the hinge cup of tea I had prepared.

The weather forecast predicted rain. Pah! What did they know? Because of the forecast I decided to forego a morning walk and settled down in the study to rework my Raspberry Pi 4B (barnowl). That was it. That took all of the morning and the first part of the afternoon. It is now up to date and runs a lot faster than before. It will manage my backup regime, but may be pressed into action for other small projects.

After a bite of lunch, I spent an hour or so in the Orangery with my Kindle. Diane was still in her sewing room trying to complete her latest project.

We’ve just finished dinner (lamb shanks, since you asked) and we have still not seen a drop of rain. 

Surprise

 I was up at my usual time this morning and sat quietly over a cup of coffee while I read the news. Once Di had come down, I went for my shower, then came down to grab breakfast, which I enjoyed while on the weekly Zoom call with the cousins. The call seemed a little restrained this week; there was plenty of chat, but we didn't go off piste into flights of fancy like we sometimes do.

When I returned from my Zoom call, I was surprised to see that it had been raining and was still looking quite threatening. I would have to find an indoor project until it dried up. I returned to my video editing for an hour or so. I have now started on the material for 2022.

Once everything had dried up, I headed out for my walk. It was still looking a bit threatening, so I didn't stray too far, just looping round the estate a few times. My latest "Alex Delaware" novel by Jonathan Kellerman was playing in my ear as I walked. By the time I arrived home, the sky was looking ominous, so Diane brought in the washing. Despite her caution, there was no rain, but it's good to be sure.

I munched through a couple of small wraps for lunch and then settled with my Kindle (Diane was in her sewing room working on another project). Late in the afternoon, I returned to the study and started looking at the best approach for updating "barnowl", one of my Raspberry Pis. This will be a small side project to keep me amused.

Just hanging on the telephone

 I was concerned. My phone was working for inbound and outbound calls across the mobile network. Diane has an identical setup on her phone and could not make or receive calls. This had been going on since late afternoon yesterday. Reading the morning news, I discovered that chunks of EE, Vodafone, and Three had been having significant problems. Could this be the reason? If so, why was my phone working? I decided to leave it for a few hours and then try again, and if it didn't work, try some serious debugging.

I got on with normal admin, went for a walk, grabbed some lunch, edited some more videos from 2021, and read for a bit. I then returned to the phone.

I switched it off and on, and then went through every suggestion that AI could provide me. Nada. By 18:15, I had taken both phones to the study to call EE. I was on hold for 90 minutes before finally being put through to a nice chap in South Wales. We then spent the next 90 minutes going through every setting on the phone (again), resetting the network, then EE reset something at their end (twice), and we were escalated to a level 2 tech. The level 2 tech hadn't got a clue and said it was probably related to the network outage, and we would just have to be patient, and it should start working. Not very consoling!

In case it was not going to burst back into life, I started to review options for a new phone (in case it was a problem with the phone). Realising I still had time to pick a new phone from John Lewis in Chichester, or Apple in Brighton, before Di heads off to Greece, I decided to hang fire for a day or two.

Same old, same old

 Today followed a fairly typical pattern for a Thursday. The shopping list was crafted, and we made our way to Sainsbury's. Our raid on the store was delayed by meeting up with Chris and Maureen, and Zoe. Nevertheless, the bags were loaded, the bill paid, and the car's boot filled. We even crossed the road for a side raid on M&S.

When we arrived home, Lottie was beavering away cleaning downstairs. We stowed the shopping and both headed upstairs to get out of he way. I started on the selection of some media for another video. This one would document our holiday in Exmouth back in 2021.

I managed some Kindle time after lunch, while Diane returned to her sewing project. I headed out for a walk mid-afternoon and finished my latest audiobook as I looped through the village to collect some of Di's meds.

That's about it for today.

Theatre

I'm not a person who generally likes to go to the theatre. Diane, however, saw that "A Man for All Seasons" was having a short run in Brighton, and we decided to get tickets. Today was the day.

We chatted over breakfast and decided to take the train rather than fight with the traffic on the way to and from Brighton, and try to find a car park once there. We set off mid-morning, parked at Bognor Regis station, bought (First Class, offpeak) return tickets and settled on the train. The journey was comfortable and trouble-free, and 54 minutes after leaving Bognor, we were in Brighton. 

It was just after midday as we strolled down from the station towards the seafront. Our plan was to find somewhere to get lunch before heading to the theatre. I remembered a restaurant I had used several years back when meeting up with old college friends, but I had no idea whether it was still there. We were lucky, it was! The restaurant was called Fogo de Chão, and is a Brazilian Steakhouse. We settled down at our table and I chose the Grill while Diane went for the Salad - both are effectively bottomless in that you can keep refilling as often as you wish. Di loaded up with various salad and pasta portions while I waited for the chap to come around with the huge meat skewers from which he dispensed grilled pork and chorizo-like sausages. I had been handed a card to keep by me... as long as it was green-side up, they would provide more grilled meat, but when I turned it red-side up, they stopped. After the pork came beef rump slices, after that came beef in garlic, then chicken (plain or spiced), by the time they brought lamb, I was done, and the red side was showing. It was a super lunch.

We walked back towards the theatre, but were still a bit early for the performance, so we took a stroll through the North Lanes. As usual, they were heaving with visitors as people marvelled at the eclectic mix of shops.

We timed it to perfection, arriving back at the theatre just as the doors opened to the auditorium. We had super seats in Row L and a perfect view of the stage. Slowly, the auditorium filled as we approached kick-off.

Thomas More was played by Martin Shaw, and Gary Wilmot played numerous roles as servant, boatman, juror, gaoler, and executioner (ooh, did I give too much away?). The play was superb and illustrated the struggles that More had with his conscience and his strength of morality. It also showed the perfidy of Cromwell and the moral turpitude of Henry VIII. I could not help but draw comparisons with President Trump and his seedy cult of sycophants. After the intermission, we were treated to some ad-libbing from Gary Wilmot as a torrential thunderstorm added to the brooding background. The whole play was superb and I am convinced it will do well when it hits the West End... even if the moral stance of Thomas More will be completely lost on many modern audiences.

As the play finished, Di took one last gulp from her water bottle, missed her mouth and managed to fill her lap. Her white and pale blue trousers were not an ideal camouflage for such an incident. Her cardigan and long shoulder bag were strategically placed as we made our way out. We headed back up to the station and were delighted to see our train was due in just a few minutes. Again, we sat in First Class, which was quiet and comfortable, though the rest of the carriage was heaving. We were back in Bognor about 50 minutes later. We certainly couldn't have done that in the car!

It had been a brilliant day.

Sticky

 I was up soon after 06:30.  There was no imperative beyond bladder pressure that forced me into action, but it was no problem. Diane got up soon after. Clearly, it was an early start for both of us.

During the morning, I spent time editing a new family video. This was a record of our anniversary break to ~Sidmouth in 2020. It took a while to get right, but I'm happy with the outcome. I then headed out for a walk. The forecast suggested rain, so I stayed fairly close to home so that I could divert back if the heavens opened. I was out for about an hour and didn't feel a single drop of rain.

The afternoon was again spent at the computer. This time, I was working on a video recounting our trip to Carlyon Bay back in 2021. It took a while to construct, but I think the finished article is fine. (As an aside, I still haven't found the stabiliser/gimbal, but I continue to look as I remember different locations where I may have stashed it).    

Di took Jasper to the vet this afternoon. The vet was very happy with him and thinks the current food/medication regimen is working.

I cooked a large joint of pork for Sunday lunch this week. Half was left, unsliced. I decided I would cut it into cubes, coat it in a fine batter, and fry it. Then I would coat it in a sticky sauce which I had prepared from honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, tomato ketchup and various spices. I would allow the sauce to reduce down and become sticky. Well, sometimes a little experimentation works out. This was absolutely magnificent, and I certainly will make it again.

What Was Once Found, Is Now Lost

 We had a suitably gentle start to the day. After a long breakfast, we started on the chores for the day. Di did some laundry, and I finished up the review of some legal documents. I then updated the accounts before I could switch over to some more entertaining tasks.

I spent a while trying to replicate the old title template for my videos. Over several hours, I managed to get something close to what I wanted, but it wasn't identical. I still have a few ideas to try, but they can wait for another day.

Late morning, I went out for a walk, stopping to post the legal documents as I went through the village. It was very warm and humid, so I felt a little uncomfortable by the time I got back.

The afternoon was spent classifying several years of photos into distinct albums that will be the source for forthcoming video projects. As I wandered through the media library, I saw a number of videos I had recorded using my DJI stabiliser/gimbal. That got me thinking... I really must use that again and try to get more confident with it. I went to the corner where I kept it. It wasn't there. It must be in the study; in fact, I could picture it on one of the shelves. I went straight to it and opened the pouch. It wasn't there - it was a set of headphones. I'm stumped. I have no idea where it might be hiding. This will haunt me until it reappears.

Video killed the editing star

 I was up at my usual time... i.e. around 7-ish. There was no necessity; I was just awake, and my brain was beginning to fire on all cylinders. There had been rain overnight, but it was drying up by the time I came down.

After lots of coffee and plenty of porridge, I decided that a walk was in order. I set off to loop around the estate a few times. It was breezy, but the temperature was very pleasant. When I got home, Diane was seconded in her sewing room, and I headed for my study. I wanted to get back to the editing of old video clips and try to keep a "brand image".  After several hours, I gave up on the brand image and got on with the basic editing. It was frustrating, but I managed to create a short video about a trip to Winkworth Arboretum in 2020. This has taken most of the day, so there has been no Kindle time.

Zoe popped I while I was preparing dinner. She wanted me to check that she completed all of the prerequisites for the upcoming holiday to Zante (with diane and Ellie). With all of that sorted, she went away happy.

Damp Squib

Not that I'm complaining, but the a weather alert for thunder. lightning, and torrential rains turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Though we had some heavy rain overnight and into the early part of the morning, we didn't get any "fireworks". This was a good thing as we were expecting Jan and John and they had deferred their decision until the morning in case of any flooding.

Rain or no rain, I still had my morning Zoom call with the cousins. The attendees list was a little sparse this morning, but we still had a good chat. It would appear that though we didn't get too much rain, Maggie did over in Margate. Her water storage in the garden went from empty to 630 litres overnight. She was delighted as they had a hosepipe ban in the area.

When the call was over, I returned to the refresher exercise I had started on video editing. Bizarrely, the basic edit process for the media is not the problem. It is the consistency "branding" of the videos that I'm trying to achieve (which I had clearly managed the last time I did some editing). I didn't get very far before Jan and John arrived. We sat down for some coffee and biscuits, and an initial catch-up on health and family news.

I had booked a table at "The Ship Inn" at Itchenor. Itchenor is on the eastern side of Chichester Harbour, just north of West Wittering. Though it isn't far, as the crow flies (7 miles), we didn't have a crow and so we took the car (12 miles). Itchenor is an affluent and picturesque village of some 500 souls. It is quiet, scenic, and quintessentially English. The Ship Inn is on the main road that leads down to the small harbour.

We took our seats in the pub and selected from the menu. There wasn't an extensive choice, but we all found something to our liking. Diane had scampi and chips (the first time she had had scampi for years), and I had cod and chips. The portions were huge and extremely hot and crispy. We all ate well, and the bill was extremely reasonable. It wasn't exactly fine dining, but it was more than adequate. 

We left the pub and strolled down to the harbour where we could gaze across the water to Bosham Hoe (though we couldn't see as far as the picture-perfect Bosham Quay).

The tide was out, and the view towards Chichester was a forest of sailing boat masts. Maybe the dire warnings about the weather kept many of the weekend sailors at home.

After strolling about, we headed back home and settled down with some tea and desserts. While they were here, we got Jan and John to witness our signatures on our Wills so I can now get them sent off for finalisation.

John was tiring, so they left us just after 16:00.  We cleared away and grabbed our Kindles, retiring to the Orangery for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

End of Times

 Today was the last day of term for Ellie. Zoe had the day off, so I wandered around to join the walk to school. All of the children were clutching presents for the teachers, and the parents were looking on in trepidation, realising they had the kids to themselves for the next 6 weeks or so! As Zoe headed home, I set off on my walk. I didn't go as far as usual, having realised after one lap that I needed to stop at the loo.

Back home, Diane and I grabbed breakfast before heading off to Sainsbury's for the weekly shopping raid. The car park was busy. This did not bode well. We were right to be concerned as the shop was very busy with customers wandering aimlessly into the aisle and then dumping their trolleys where they could cause optimum chaos while they wandered about searching for some item or other. I almost prefer the Thursday zombies.

Once home and unpacked, we set out on a joint mission. Diane had asked Lottie to do a different batch of cleaning yesterday, so today Diane vacuumed the hard floors, and I followed behind to wash them. 

After lunch, we had some Kindle time until the clock ticked around to the end of the school day. Diane went to collect Ellie and take her straight home so that she would be ready to be picked up by Pete. She'll be with him for the next 2 weeks, the second of which will be down in Somerset.

I need to process a batch of family videos. The problem I face is remembering how I did the last set. If possible, I would like to keep the style consistent... but did I use Da Vinci, iMovie, or bits of both? I fear I have a little bit of experimentation ahead of me before I get started.

Success

I was up early to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. She was already washed, dressed, had her hair done, and had eaten breakfast. All we had to do was provide sanctuary until it was time for school. I made her some tagliatelle with sliced hot dog sausages for her packed lunch, and Di prepared the other snacks and nibbles. We walked her to school at the allotted time, and Di went back for breakfast while I went out for my walk. 

Di had an appointment at the hairdresser's. She drove off just before Lottie arrived to do some cleaning. I hid myself in the study and continued playing with the new Raspberry Pi. ChatGPT and I have struck up an easy friendship, and it saved me so much time by telling me what I should do, rather than me researching and trying it by trial and error. Today, I managed to set up a Dynamic DNS service through "duckdns.org" so that I could configure remote access to the Jellyfin media server. The idea was to set up secure remote access using HTTPS to the Jellyfin server using DuckDNS and Let’s Encrypt, with a reverse proxy via Caddy. This took me a while as I needed to configure each component, but I managed to get it working and even tested it from the school gates when I went to collect Ellie. I'm feeling rather smug.

After some lunch, we retired to the Orangery for Kindle time, but after a few chapters, I went back to the study. Di read for a while, then had a rest, so I left her to it when I collected Ellie. Ellie wasn't with us for long as Zoe had finished work soon after 15:00 and came to collect her.

I feel the need to do some programming. I just need to come up with a project!

At Play

Jasper had his howling session just before 04:00. He only quietened down when I went downstairs to open his feeder. I crawled out of bed to start the day properly just before 07:00. Zoe had a 9 am start, so there was no hurry to get going. I wandered around to join the walk to school, and we dropped Ellie off at the classroom. I went off for my usual morning walk. 

After breakfast, I headed for my study. Diane was going out for lunch with her Pilates crew, so the morning was spent getting ready. I spent time with the computers. The first task was to complete the automation of the NAS device mounts. Then, I decided that I wanted to clone the microSD Card from which the Pi was installed. The first attempt appeared to work, but wouldn't boot. I resorted to the approach I had taken in the past, and while slow, this worked. I then decided to use the same approach to clone onto a 500GB SSD drive that I have spare. Much to my amazement, this worked the first time. I now have the new Pi (eagleowl) running from that.

(Just as an aside, I was using ChatGPT to help me, and while some things didn't go to plan, I updated the AI bot with the errors I had found and the circumventions I had applied.)

The last part of today's installation was "jellyfish", which is a media server. I have that working in single-user mode from my browser. I must explore further as I get the opportunity.

There was no need to collect Ellie from school today. She was going straight out on a playdate, down to the beach with her friend Jaxson. She would be dropped home at Zoe's when they return.

Taking turns

After the dreadful night's sleep I had on Sunday night, it was Diane's turn last night. She was still reading her Kindle late at 1 a.m. and was again disturbed by another bout of Jasper's howling in the early hours. I got up at 06:30 to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. I told her that Nana was still asleep, so she remained downstairs and sat quietly while I made her breakfast. Di did come down a while later, but I told her not to worry about joining me for the school drop-off, as I would do that.

It poured with rain as we prepared to walk to school, but we didn't get too wet. I decided that any walk could wait until later, and went straight home for breakfast.

The first order of business for the rest of the day was the renewal of our travel insurance. This involves ticking the "Over 70" box for each of us and going through the medical declaration for Diane. Knowing how pernickety insurers can be, I decided I should check the answers I gave last year (after all, I knew I had them in an email attachment). Whoa there! Not so fast, compadre. The file was encrypted, and I could neither remember nor find the password. This meant a phone call to Allianz. They were very helpful, and after all the security checks re-sent the password. All was well, and the policy has been renewed for another year.

The rest of the morning was spent trying different approaches to accessing my NAS drives from the new Raspberry Pi. Some worked, some didn't, but I eventually came up with a strategy that I thought would work. Rather than fiddling about, I explained the strategy to ChatGPT and asked it for its analysis. It responded: 

"You’re implementing a reliable, resilient, and non-blocking mount mechanism that avoids the risks of /etc/fstab + hardcoded credentials.

Your thinking is sound, and your design is both safe and flexible."

Well, that'll do for me. I have nearly finished the changes and tested what I have done so far. I should be able to finish this in the morning.

I did manage to get out for a walk at lunchtime, looping through the village so that I could collect Di's meds on the way round.

I collected Ellie from school and helped her carry all of her classwork and books home (as the term ends this week). She wasn't with us for more than a few minutes before Zoe turned up to collect her.

Admin

We had left some windows ajar overnight. This was all very fine, but as the wind picked up, the draft started to move the blackout blinds in the back of the house. Every time they moved, they tapped against the window, and every time they tapped against the window, it disturbed me. So it was that from 01:10 this morning onwards, all I could manage was fitful dozing. This was exacerbated when Jasper went into a full-blown howling session, which only quietened down when I went to the kitchen and opened his breakfast.  It was almost a relief when I finally got up at 07:10.

Zoe had a 9 o'clock start, so I was in no particular hurry. I wandered around the corner in time to join them for the walk to school. After Ellie disappeared into class, I headed off for my usual walk. I returned about an hour later and grabbed some breakfast before settling down with the accounts. In addition to the usual ins and outs, I had to deal with the transactions I processed over the weekend for the ISAs. This took a while to document.

With the household accounts complete, I discussed the ISAs with Diane. As she set about a pile of ironing,  I grabbed her MacBook and set up a Trading212 account for her. Then I opened a Cash ISA and set up a seed deposit to get things started. We will probably move some more of her savings to top this up over the next few days.

DHL arrived with my new Raspberry Pi Model 500. The device is embedded in its own keyboard, and is really quite neat.

After lunch, I connected the device to a screen, the WiFi, an Ethernet cable, and a power supply and started the initial installation. The process has improved in leaps and bounds. There are some simple choices offered, and before you know it, the system is restarted and you have a working Pi.

I have a fair bit of configuration to do in order to have the system how I like it. Then I can try installing the new media server... but more about that in the coming days.

Drip, drip

We had another gentle start to the day. I was drinking my coffee and reading the news before 07:30, and Diane came down about 30 minutes later. It looked as if we were in for another cracking day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there was no appreciable breeze. Living as close to the sea as we do, we could at least rely on the onshore breeze to keep us cool.

During the morning, I updated my accounts spreadsheet to accommodate the new Cash ISA that I opened yesterday. I also adjusted the budget for the remainder of the year to feature regular deposits into the ISA.

By lunchtime, I was ready for a walk, despite the heat. I plugged the AirPods into my ears and set off around the estate before diverting, like yesterday, to Shripney and back. I finished my AudioBook and regretted that it was the last in the Dr Richard Pryor series from Bernard Knight. They were excellent books. I pressed a couple of prompts on the iPhone and started a new book. It is the latest from Michael Connelly and features a new central character called Stilwell. I must say that the book has started well. As I was approaching home, at the end of my walk, I could see the Red Arrows doing their display over Goodwood. It was fun to watch them as I ploughed on towards home.

After some lunch, I had planned to settle in the Orangery for some reading. Diane, however, was still pottering in the gardens and wanted some help with the hose (how far would it stretch around to the front? I dragged it through and could see that with an extra 8m it would cover the whole front garden. I spent some quality time with the nice man from Amazon and ordered an extension, then ordered a heavy-duty hose connector. I was about to head for the Orangery, but Di wanted me to research domestic (drip feed) irrigation systems. I spent some quality time with my AI friend, ChatGPT, and got some recommendations for suppliers and also some hints about layouts. I will have to return to this in the next day or so.

Kim and Jon (and the dogs) have gone away for a week's holiday.  They are staying near Bicester at an Alpaca farm. I hope they have a wonderful week.

Investments

 We had a gentle start to the day. I had my usual call with the cousins, which was a little less boisterous than usual. The highlight of the call was Sam, who, inspired by Maggie, had invested in a slimline water butt for her garden. It was only when it arrived that it occurred to her that she didn't have any downpipes from the gutter because she is in a mid-terraced house. Doh!  

After the call, I went out in the garden and cleaned the rill. A great deal of blanket weed had formed, but as the rill was nearly dry, it was moderately easy to scoop much of it off the cobbles. I then refilled the rill and started the pump using a fine filter to catch the water as it fed back into the rill. This proved very successful. 

With the rill clear, I went up to the study to review my existing documentation on the Raspberry Pis. I updated both of the key documents in preparation for the new build next week. I also allocated an IP address and a hostname, "eagleowl", for the new device. There is nothing else I can do until everything is delivered.

I went out for a walk and tramped around the estate before diverting up Berry Lane and onto North Bersted Street, where I turned east and made my way across to Shripney and back. It was a good choice of route because so much was shaded by the trees. 

Di had spent the morning pottering in the garden, but by mid-afternoon we had settled down in the sunshine with our Kindles. My brain was wandering, and eventually I had to give up the book and look at my Stocks & Shares ISA. I reviewed the current investments and made a few more over the next hour. The trades won't happen until Monday, but I think they are good long-term investments.

Crazy again

With Ellie staying overnight, there was no need to get up too early. In fact, I had to wake her to have breakfast and get ready for school. Zoe, who had a late finish at work yesterday, came around just in time to do Ellie's hair and walk with us to school. She then went home to get ready for another late shift, and I set off on my customary walk.

Once home, I grabbed some breakfast, and Diane settled down for a long phone call with Pauline. I retired to the study to look into an alternative to the Plex media server I currently use. I'm not totally happy with it, nor the level of control it gives me over remote clients. With the help of ChatGPT, I eliminated Kodi as an alternative but concluded that JellyFin looked like a very good solution. I thought about my current configuration and decided to leave it alone. I would order a new Raspberry Pi and install that as my new media server. A new Pi was selected, and the order was placed. I have to wait until next week before I can do anything further.

Zoe had called me during the morning. She had set up a new account for Ellie's funds. I suggested that she should exploit it and set up a regular transfer into some form of savings that would earn interest. I spent some time looking for the best options, but most were only available for children from 11 years old upwards. I phoned Trevor and asked for his thoughts. As it happened, he was planning to do some financial planning this afternoon and said that he would investigate and get back to me.

After lunch, it was too hot to sit in the Orangery and read, so we settled in the lounge, which had remained nice and cool. The Kindles kept us quiet until it was time to collect Ellie. Ellie came home with us and, after a drink and a snack, headed out to play with her friends. She was back just in time for dinner.

After dinner, we all headed down to the seafront. We started with another game of crazy golf. With Nana playing along with us, it was great fun, particularly when she got a hole-in-one. After the golf, we strolled out onto the pier to look down on the families enjoying the evening sun. The tide was way out, and there was barely a ripple on the surface.

We then strolled along the promenade and stopped for a doughnut (for Ellie) and, after fending off the seagulls, moved on to the play park.

I dropped Nana and Ellie at Zoe's so that Ellie could get ready for bed and Nana would wait for Zoe, due home in about 30 minutes.

Date Night

Zoe had a late start, so there was no need to get up early. After some coffee and porridge, I wandered around the corner and joined Zoe and Ellie on the walk to school. 

There was no walk after the school run. I had to get back to take Di to the railway station. She was catching the 09:26 train to Victoria, where she would meet up with Jane and Trevor. I dropped off some bags of clothes at the charity shop on the way home, then completed the week's shopping list. I headed off to Sainsbury's (I was allowed to shop on my own, with no female supervision) and loaded the trolley in record time. When I got home, Lottie was there, so we ended up chatting while she finished cleaning and I unpacked the shopping. With the accompanying chat, it took nearly an hour to get everything stowed away.

Meanwhile, up in town, Di was enjoying lunch at Côte Brasserie near Covent Garden before going to the Aldwych Theatre to see "Tina: The Musical"  (the musical story of Tina Turner). They had chosen to go to the matinee so that Di could get a sensible train back home.

I grabbed some lunch and settled down for 30 minutes with the Kindle before going out for a walk. I had timed the walk so that I would arrive back at the school gates just in time to collect Ellie from school. It was hot (about 28C), but it was a pleasant walk.

Ellie was my date for the evening, with Nana being away. We had a quiet hour or so, then Ellie went to get changed and do her hair. We were going out to dinner, just Ellie and Grandpa. We drove to a well-known South African/Portuguese restaurant - Nando's, where I escorted my date into the establishment and requested their finest table. We sat and discussed their menu and selected the dishes we would have them prepare for us, while we sipped from their best vintage Sprite. We had a delightful hour or so before heading home.

While Nana was making her way back from London (we were keeping a close eye on the train's progress), Ellie went to wash and get ready for bed. Then we settled down and (at her request) she did some reading to me, then we practised her times tables, which she seems to have mastered now. Just before 20:00, we drove to the station to collect Nana. She had clearly had a wonderful time but had trouble getting a word in edgeways as Ellie bombarded her with her general news of the day.

Ellie is staying with us overnight and has finally settled down. We will have a quiet hour in front of the TV before going up.

Barely Awake

I was up early for Ellie's drop-off. They crashed through the door at 6:35, and Ellie was barely conscious. She went straight to the lounge and snuggled down in Nana's recliner. After a few minutes, I cajoled her sufficiently that she could speak, and she made her way upstairs to Nana. The usual ritual was followed and, at the allotted time, we all walked to the school. Ellie was wide awake by this point and exhibiting her usual joie de vivre.

Diane headed home, and I set out on my morning walk. My audiobook, set in the mid-1950s, brought back lots of memories - though I was a toddler, I remember the cars, the lack of telephones, and the absence of TVs (in most homes). It is a book that, in addition to an excellent storyline, provides nostalgia in spades. Just as I was approaching home, I saw Diane driving off to her Pilates class. I had a quiet breakfast by myself and then went to see Chris. He had popped in yesterday to ask if I could help him download some software for his new car. I can understand why he wanted help. It wasn't that the process was difficult - it was the fact that the website was dreadful. Once we had found the right instructions for the right Entertainment System, the download process only took a few seconds. I left him clutching the USB stick with the software as he headed for the car, and I made my way home.

I spent some more time this morning editing the cruise itinerary that I had started yesterday. I wanted to add some photos to illustrate the ports of call and the excursion we had selected. Finding free, non-copyrighted photos was a bit of a faff, but I'm pleased with the results.   

Di arrived home as I was finishing my lunch. We spent the afternoon in the Orangery, though I left her to rest while I went to collect Ellie from school and take her to the park.

Itinerary

We had another gentle start to the day as Zoe had a day off. I wandered around to join them for the walk to school. Ellie seemed very subdued this morning, but that could be because she had a late night - in fact, I had had to go around to calm her down as she was somewhat volatile at bedtime.

Leaving Ellie in class, I set off for my customary walk. It was a gorgeous morning with a pleasant breeze to keep the temperature very comfortable. Back home, with breakfast finished and cleared away, I went to my study. We had been discussing aspects of our forthcoming cruise and, whilst I had lots of notes on the itinerary and excursions, they were scattered across different entries in Apple Notes. I decided that I could consolidate them into a Word document. (Di prefers to read paper rather than notes on the iPhone or iPad). It took me the rest of the morning to complete the task, but we now have a comprehensive document for reference.

The afternoon saw quality time with our Kindles until school pickup. Di went along to meet with Zoe, and they collected Ellie, stopping off back here on the way home. 

We are back to early starts for the rest of the week.

A Degree of Normality

 Zoe had a 9 a.m. start today, so that meant that we didn't have to be up for a drop-off. I had a leisurely start and after a couple of coffees and a wander through the news, I walked around to Zoe's and joined the walk to school. We had a lot of rain overnight, and it was still spitting as we arrived at the school gates. Possibly because of the weather, all of the classrooms were already open, so Ellie could go straight in. She was greeted with great enthusiasm by her class teacher after her week away.

Despite the threat of further rain, I set off for my morning walk. The rain never amounted to anything, so I was delighted to get home without getting wet. Diane was due to meet a friend in Rustington for coffee and a chat, so she left soon after I got in. I finished my breakfast and did some work on the accounts before heading out to the village for a haircut and another walk.

I was reading my Kindle by the time Diane got home for her lunch. We had a quiet 30 minutes before going to collect Ellie from school. She came back with us for a snack and then went out to play for a while (tracked by her watch). Zoe collected her at 17:30.

All in all, it was a day that had returned to a degree of normality after last week.

Pressing Matters

  We both had a very leisurely start to the day as we drank our teas and coffee and munched through toast and porridge while reading the news and social media. We had a lot of rain overnight, and though it was dry after breakfast, the forecast suggested more rain was imminent. I abandoned my plan for an immediate walk. 

There was a pile of laundry sitting quietly in the corner. Nicely ironed clothes are important, I decided that I should deal with these pressing matters (did you see what I did there?) and set up the ironing board and fired up some chillout music while ploughing into the waiting pile.

A couple of hours later, the pile had dwindled to just a few items that Di wanted to deal with. This seemed like an excuse to get my walking shoes on and head out for an hour or so of plodding around the estate. It was very humid, but nice to get out, get some exercise, and listen to more of my audiobook. There's only about an hour left now and I can feel it coming to a crescendo.

Once home, I grabbed some lunch and settled down with my Kindle. Di was about to join me when the phone rang and Zoe started to chat. After a while, I took her a "medicinal" drink and I started preparing dinner.

Pete dropped Ellie off just before 17:00 and Zoe collected her soon after. We now have a quiet evening planned.

Shuffle

 We were both awake early. I went down to make coffee and bring a tea back up for Diane. It was a gentle start to the day. I joined the Zoom call with my cousins at 09:00, and we had our usual 40 minutes of banter and news.

My plan had been to go for a walk before the forecast rain set in. As I was finishing another coffee while updating the accounts, I got a call from upstairs, "Can you spare me 10 minutes?". And so it started.

Diane had been pondering the layout of her sewing room and the inconveniences of shifting her various sewing machines around as she moved from one to another. Was there a better layout for the room? Could we swap the positions of the two cabinets in such a way that the sewing machines can remain poised and ready at all times? We hummed and hawed and wandered back and forth with the tape measure. A plan was hatched. I'm not convinced that it was the best plan, but it was Di's plan and therefore worth trying. The next hour was spent clearing space and shifting cabinets before double-checking the cable runs for power to the machines.  With the shifting complete, I returned downstairs while Diane spent the rest of the day "sorting things out".

During the afternoon, I finished another book before starting another.

Dinner on Saturday evening is traditionally salmon, chips and peas for Diane and curry for me. I usually work my way through batches of curry that I have made up. Tonight was a bit different. There are several Indian/Bangladeshi chefs who advertise their curries online and send them out in frozen packs. I ordered a mini curry box from "Aktar at Home". This comprised 1 chicken, 1 beef, 1 lamb curry, and 1 vegetarian curry, along with some naans and pilau rice. Tonight I tried the chicken "bhuna" with a naan and must say that it was delicious. I look forward to trying the other curries over the next few weeks.

Alarmed

 I had forgotten that Ellie was being dropped off early this morning. I hadn't set an alarm... it was ~Ellie trying to open the front door just after 6:30 that woke me and had me flashing around like a headless chicken. We had a cuddle (to settle me down, more than her), and then she went up to see Nana. As she wasn't going to school, we could dispense with the usual rituals and just get ready when we felt like it.

At 10:00, I took Ellie to Bognor Regis and we had a couple of hours of fun ahead. We did start, however, with a walk to the station to get a ticket for Diane's trip to London next Thursday (she's meeting Jane and Trevor to go and see Tina Turner, The Musical). From there, we headed down to the beach and the small playground. She made her way straight to the zip line and then the swings. We listened out for her classmates, but had to conclude they were at the far eastern end of the beach near the Lobster Pot, as we couldn't hear certain noisy friends.

We left the playground and walked along to the pier, and strolled out over the sea. The tide was out, and the waves were almost non-existent. The water was crystal clear (and quite inviting). We chatted as we wandered about and had great fun.

Leaving the pier, we crossed the road and went to the crazy golf. We paid our green fees, accepted our clubs, and chose the coloured balls. Ellie kept score on the scorecard. I started with a hole-in-one, followed by a couple of twos. That was when she started to click.

By the end of the 18 holes, she wiped the floor with me and got her name on the "Best Score of the Day" board.  We also got featured in a photo on Facebook from the Crazy Golf. 

We left the golf and headed along to Sweet Flamingo, the ice cream parlour at Place St Maur. Ellie selected a waffle cone with bubble gum ice cream and marshmallows. The ice cream was so big that she couldn't finish it.

We wandered back through the shopping arcade to the high street, where she raided Claire's Accessories and then New Look. She was delighted with her purchases and ready to head back to see Nana. We walked back to the car and whizzed home.

After some lunch, Nana took Ellie up for a shower and hair wash, ready for the weekend, and when they came back down, they baked a cake which came out of the oven just as Pete arrived to collect Ellie for the weekend.

That's Better

 Zoe called while we were eating breakfast. Ellie had slept really well and had woken up feeling a great deal better. Her temperature is back down to normal, and she was beginning to feel stir-crazy. She still wouldn't be going to school today, but maybe she could go along on the outing to the beach tomorrow... if Grandpa can go along to keep an eye on her. (I said I would be happy to go along).

We went to Sainsbury's for our weekly raid. We were surprised that, as we walked in, Kim was waiting by the entrance. She was killing some time while the A/C in her car was being re-gassed. She wandered around the store with us, chatting as we went and helping with the trolley. It was a nice surprise and made a change from the usual Zombies who wander around the store on a Thursday morning.

We dropped some shopping off for Zoe before going home to unload and grab some lunch. We then took our Kindles into the Orangery for the afternoon.

Mid-afternoon, Zoe and Ellie turned up. Ellie was upset. They had heard from the school, and the school said that they didn't feel comfortable with Ellie joining the trip tomorrow as she had been unwell, and they were likely to be out in the sun all day, and, if last year is anything to go by, will probably walk about 22,000 steps. I gave Ellie a cuddle and promised that I would take her down to the beach tomorrow and we would have our own outing.

Not there yet

We had another very disturbed night with Ellie. I was, again, relegated to the back bedroom so that she could sleep with Nana. I wouldn't mind if the mattress were a bit firmer, but with my weight, it seems very soft, and I wake up with a back ache. 

We had had some rain overnight, and it continued through the morning until nearly 11:00. I was up at my usual time, and Diane came down some 90 minutes later. Ellie didn't emerge until well after 10:00. I spent some time doing more research into her paternal ancestors and found a few more G-grandparents. This particular branch of the family was geographically static in a small cluster of Wiltshire villages for many generations. It does make research so much easier. This afternoon, I printed out a pedigree chart stretching back 13 generations on my A3 printer. I still had to splice the 7 separate sheets together, but it might just fit on Ellie's bedroom wall (if not, Zoe will have to get a bigger house).

Ellie was a lot better today, but still not ready for school. We did convince her to do some maths practice online today so that her teacher would see she hasn't been idle. Hopefully, she'll be all right for Friday (when her class has an outing to the beach).

At lunchtime, I went for a walk. I had a birthday card to post and some of Di's meds to collect. It gave me an opportunity to catch up on the audiobook that I had been listening to... and to finally get some exercise after the last few blistering days.

Ellie is back with Zoe overnight... so I should get a chance to sleep in my own bed (fingers crossed).

Slight Improvement

 Ellie had a very bad night again. She insisted on sleeping with Nana, so I was relegated to Ellie's room. I could hear her fidgeting and muttering in her sleep. She was also coughing and waking herself up. Diane, in full nurse mode, coped with it all and provided both comfort and medication as it was required. It was 10:00 this morning before Ellie emerged, but she seemed a bit brighter and had some bounce in her step.

I was up soon after 07:15 and had a coffee while reading the paper and waiting for the sounds of activity from upstairs. Di came down soon after 08:00, and we sat quietly with our morning reading until I had to sneak upstairs and get washed and dressed. I was due at the dentist, and it would be frowned upon if I arrived in my PJs.

I checked with the online app, and it seemed that the buses were running late. I decided to take the car and whizzed through to Chichester in no time. The dentist (as always) was about 10 minutes late in calling me through. She gave me a good once-over and declared all was fine. The next appointment is scheduled for 6 months.

Ellie was playing quietly (though she did rope Nana in for a game of chess!), and I spent some time finishing my latest book. Zoe arrived and collected Ellie, though she will be back again to sleep here overnight.