Cold front

 I was up at my usual time. It was decidedly grey this morning, and though the temperature was higher, the wind had changed direction, and it felt significantly colder than the last few days. Following our normal schedule, we walked around to Zoe's to collect Ellie for school. She was very subdued. She clearly has an allergy to cut grass, and her face has erupted in little sub-surface spots. It makes her feel a bit self-conscious.

After dropping her off in class and explaining what was going on to her teacher, Di headed home and set off for my walk. I had not dressed for the weather and felt quite chilly, but it did, however, encourage me to up my usual pace. When I arrived home, Di explained that she was going to take Ellie (and Zoe) to the doctor to have Ellie's allergy checked. I stayed put, had my breakfast, and got on with several domestic chores.

Back from the doctor's, Di confirmed our diagnosis that it was an allergy to cut grass. An increased dose of her hay fever medicine has been recommended. I hope it works, as I well know how miserable hay fever can make you feel.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time until it was school pickup time. Today we had the opportunity to go into class to see the work the children have been doing in school. I went through Ellie's Geometry, Maths, and English workbooks. She is doing really well.

By late afternoon, rain set in. It hadn't been scheduled until 21:00, but decided to arrive several hours early. Rude!

Short cut

It was another glorious start to the day, but the forecast suggests that this is coming to an end over the next few days. I was up at 6:30, and Di came down at 7:00. The early morning followed the usual pattern, and by 8:20, we were walking to Zoe's to collect Ellie for school. She was feeling sore after yesterday's fall, and had some trouble getting enthused about walking to school. Despite this, she went into class without any trouble, and Di briefed her teacher about what had happened.

Di headed home while I set off on my morning walk. My audiobook chatted away in my ears as I lapped the estate. I was surprised that there were not more people about, but I did pass and greet several of my regulars.

Back home, I enjoyed breakfast and then set about my (short) to-do list. The accounts were updated, and I did some research into some technology options before calling a supplier for some details. While I was sorting this, Diane was catching up on some ironing and dealing with the laundry.

After lunch, there was Kindle time in the Orangery until we had to collect Ellie from school and take her to Chichester for her regular appointment. The traffic was dreadful, and we were in danger of not making the appointment on time. I remembered a shortcut that I had discovered several years ago when dropping Kim off in Chichester. I turned around and nipped up a side street onto the route. There were no further hold-ups, and we arrived right on time. By the time we left, an hour later, the hold-up had been cleared, and we whizzed straight through.

Grandpamedic

 It was another beautiful day. The overnight air frost had left a fractal landscape to decorate the Orangery roof, but it was soon dissipating in the bright sun. I rose at 6:30 and had a quiet 90 minutes before Diane was woken by her alarm. I washed, dressed and went out for my morning walk. An hour or so later, I returned home desperate for a coffee and a bowl of porridge.

The rest of the morning was fairly quiet. I spent much of it reviewing some videos and YouTube streams. Just after lunch, the phone rang. It was Zoe. Ellie was out with a friend, Poppy, at the other end of the estate and had fallen and cut her knees. (They had been out for a picnic with a couple of the young boys from their class). Poppy took Ellie back to her mum, who did some first aid and then called Zoe. I put on the blue flashing light and hurried around to collect Ellie and bring her home. I knocked on the door and announced the grandpamedic had arrived, and we bundled her into the car. She had certainly scuffed her knees, and they had bled profusely. She was feeling very sorry for herself.

When I got her back to Zoe's, Nana was just arriving to provide whatever TLC might be necessary. Ellie snuggled down on the sofa next to Zoe. She asked for the pouffe and put her legs up. What a pair they made, Ellie with both her legs up, and Zoe with her leg up. There won't be much dancing there this evening.

Party time

 The advantage of Ellie being eight, going on nine, is that her birthday party is a daytime affair. We were up at the usual time, but by nine o'clock we were driving to Zoe's to collect Zoe, Ellie and her friend Poppy, along with some party bags and a cake, to head for the party venue. Twenty minutes later, we were waiting outside "Tenpin" in Chichester for the doors to open. Though it is not Ellie's birthday until next weekend, she will be with Pete on the day, so Zoe had arranged a party for today.

We were ushered into the bowling alley and allocated a couple of lanes. Over the next 15 minutes, her friends turned up. At 10:00, it kicked off, and the kids (split into two groups of five) started to roll the bowls down the lanes. With many other parties going on simultaneously and the background music, it was really quite deafening. Over the next couple of hours, both lanes completed their games (Ellie came second), drank lots of squash, and ate lots of sweets.

I took Neve out for a walk when the noise was getting too much for her, but that little break was enough for her to return and finish the games, the cake, the pizza, and all of the other trimmings.

It would have been nice to get a group photo, but frankly, it was like herding cats. The best I could achieve was this photo (which didn't include Neve).

We packed up at midday and took the presents and the remains of the cake to the car. We were home in no time, dropping Zoe, Ellie and Poppy, then going home ourselves.

We settled in the Orangery for some Kindle time, but before long Zoe called, asking for Di to come and have a look at a rash that Ellie had developed. She went on round and concluded it was an allergy to grass. Zoe's neighbour had mown her lawn today.  After some TLC from Nana, she was okay and went out playing again. 

Di left them to it and has just come back for dinner. We are hoping for a quiet evening.

Visited

 I was up at 6:30 and was greeted by another stunning morning. The sun was shining, and no cloud dared sully the firmament. It was about 6 °C, but the temperature would quickly rise. After our usual morning preamble, we walked to Zoe's to escort Ellie to school. There was an initial drama over the shorts that she was going to wear, but after several changes, Ellie made a decision, and we set off for school.

I set off for my usual walk as Diane returned home for her breakfast. It was a gorgeous morning to be out walking, and I was tempted to just keep going, but my need for coffee and some porridge took precedence. 

Di spent the morning on the phone with Denise. I spent the time giving some consideration to the challenge that Zoe has been given. She has been asked to do some analysis and some research into the general subject of home deliveries. Whilst I don't know the details, I can advise her on how to go about handling a challenge like that. I spent the morning providing an outline for a "consulting" document that defines the problem, explains the approach taken, the participants, the solutions considered and so forth. Hopefully, that will provide a structure for her response.

Just as I finished, Kim arrived. She had a day off and wanted to catch up after missing Mother's Day because of work. She was with us for a good couple of hours, and it was nice to just sit and chat. When she left us, she went on to Zoe's to keep her company for a while. We retired to the Orangery with our Kindles until it was time to collect Ellie from dancing and take her home.

We are home now and have just finished dinner.

Bright and Clear

 I was up soon after 6:30. Coffee was taken, and the news was consumed. The day looked bright and clear. What more could you want? Diane pottered downstairs for a tea as I pottered up to complete my ablutions and dress.

We went to Zoe's to collect Ellie for the walk to school. As usual, we dropped her off in class, and Di went home while I set off on my morning walk. I was out long enough to complete another audiobook. When I arrived home, I had breakfast and completed this week's shopping list.

Lottie arrived just as we were preparing to go shopping. We, of course, stopped for a chat before setting off. Sainsbury's seemed to be the focus of a Zombie Apocalypse today. It wasn't the quantity of Zombies that was the issue; it was the mental acuity. With a huge amount of self-control, I managed to complete the shop without resorting to violence (as tempting as it was).

Back home, we unpacked the shopping and then stopped for some lunch before retiring to the Orangery to sit in the sun and consume the next chapters of our respective Kindles. We collected Ellie at the end of school, and I took her to the park so she could let off steam.

Spring

I know that it is still a few days until (astronomical) Spring starts, but today was a very fine dress rehearsal. The sun shone throughout the day, and it was delightfully warm. I had emerged from bed at 6:30 and started my day, as usual, with coffee and news. When Di came down for her tea, I went to shower and dress.

We walked to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. She was very chirpy this morning. As she charged into class, Di went home for breakfast and to head off to Pilates. I went for my usual walk. It was so nice walking in the morning sunshine, with just a light jacket. I arrived home about 75 minutes later and sat down for my breakfast.

The morning was spent with some domestic chores and then some admin. Nothing of note. When Di arrived back, we sat down for a light lunch and then sat in the Orangery to enjoy the sun and consume some more from our Kindles. We went to collect Ellie from football practise, then took her home.

All-in-all, an uneventful day.

Own Devices

 I was awake stupidly early again. There was a damp, grey start to the day. Di pottered down at seven, and we had our morning drinks and prepared to take Ellie to school. We left to walk around to Zoe's a few minutes earlier than usual. In doing so, we bumped into Paul (our next-door neighbour). He announced that, having been trying to sell his house for a year or so, he is finally moving out next week. It will be a shame to see him go. He and Ali have been perfect neighbours.

We took Ellie to school and then Di went home for breakfast before heading off to Ramster to meet with Kathie. They had a day planned at an exhibition being held there. I went off for my usual walk. As I walked, the greyness gave way to blue skies, and it turned into a lovely morning.

When I arrived home, I had breakfast and then went back to Zoe's. She had left her freezer door ajar the other night, and now we had to ditch all of the contents. She, of course, could bend properly to empty it, so I provided a helping hand. When I returned home, I was clutching Ellie's iPad. She wanted me to show her how to make a presentation. I installed PowerPoint and checked that it was all working in preparation for a quick lesson after school.

I went for another walk as it was such a lovely day, then grabbed a bite of lunch before settling with the Kindle until it was time to collect Ellie. I brought her back here, and we set about creating a presentation. We prepared the first slide together and included some graphics that we captured as a screenshot from Amazon. Once she had seen how to do this, she created the next slide without any intervention from me. She's a quick learner.

I took her home, then returned to prepare dinner for when Di got back.

Mouth Mining

 I was up just before seven. It was dry, but light rain was forecast. I grabbed a coffee and read the overnight news.  di wandered down and completed her occasional blood test while I went up to wash and dress.

We walked around to Zoe's and collected Ellie for the walk to school. Dropping her off in class, we both headed home for breakfast. What? No walk, you exclaim! No, I had an appointment with the dental hygienist this morning, and there wasn't time to include a walk in the schedule.

Once back from school, we had breakfast, and I prepared for my trip to Chichester. I took the bus and then waited until the hygienist was ready. With trepidation, I entered her lair. That was when the "treatment" started. (She referred to it as treatment; I would re-categorise it as sadism or torture.) As I left, there was a queue of prisoners who had just been brought from a black site or Guantanamo Bay to wait for her ministrations.

Once the bus had delivered me back home, I spent some quality time with the accounts before getting on with some research. This continued into the afternoon. We went to collect Ellie from school and take her to Chichester for her weekly appointment. Traffic was remarkably light this afternoon, so we had no delays.

After dropping Eliie back, we returned home, where Di did some work on her latest sewing project while I prepared dinner for us both.

Mothers' Day

 I was awake very early, but stayed in bed until 6:30. I have no idea why I have been waking so early, but I don't let things like that bother me. It was another bright, if chilly, start to the day. I sat in the kitchen, with my coffee and watched a few YouTube videos that I had been meaning to catch up on.

Once Di had come down, we chatted over breakfast and then got on with the day. Being the 15th of the month, there was admin to complete. (I do the main household admin on the 15th, just as I pay most monthly bills on the 15th). I finished off with some research, then started preparing lunch.

Being Mothering Sunday, we had invited the girls. Kim, unfortunately, couldn't make it as she is suffering at present, has had a foul week at work, and has a significant essay to complete for University. We told her we would rather she didn't come, so she wouldn't stress over the "lost" time for the essay. She did, however, phone and had a long chat. After the call with Kim, Diane went to collect Zoe. She was able to have lunch with us, and we had a lovely few hours before taking her back in time for Ellie to return from Pete's.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent with our Kindles.

During the evening, we heard from Jane. Cousin Liz has just become a great-grandmother. Grandson Harry's wife, Eunyoung, has given birth to twin boys (in Seoul). What a lovely bit of news on which to end the day.

Gentle day

I was up at a stupid time. Having checked the plumbing at 4:15, I could not get back to sleep, so at 5:30 I was sitting in the kitchen with a steaming mug of coffee and my Kindle. As the sun came up, it was clear that there had been quite an air frost, and the Orangery roof had the tracery of ice fractals sprayed across the ceiling.

Once Di emerged, as the clock ticked around towards eight, I went for my shower and then returned for breakfast before my weekly call with the cousins. There was all the usual jollity, and it was good to see Chris back home in Turkey after his trip to Switzerland. We heard all the latest gossip from Tim's family and collectively censured Trump for his idiocy (that'll teach him).

There was little else of great importance during the day. We cleaned the inside of the car between us. This also involved borrowing a vacuum cleaner from Zoe as ours needed charging. We then found that Zoe's also needed charging. What did become clear was that the two greatest sources of dirt on the carpets were a) Ellie's snacks, and b) Zoe and Ellie's cat, Beau. Clearly, the (white) cat's fur gets onto Ellie and also onto our shoes, and gets carried into our car.

During the afternoon, we popped out for a few hours for a bit of change of scenery.

Anudda Nada

It was another uneventful day. I was up soon after 6:30, and we followed the usual pattern until going to Zoe's to collect Ellie and take her to school.  Dropping her off in class, Di went home to prepare for her Cardiac Rehab session, and I went for my usual walk. During my loops of the estate, I finished the Jonathan Kellerman audiobook and started another, this one by Sally Rigby. I may be a mere 15 minutes into the story, but I am suitably hooked.

Back home, I grabbed breakfast, updated the accounts, and spent the remainder of the morning doing research. I will reveal the outcome in the near future (should it come to anything).

The rest of the day followed the usual pattern, with Kindle time and then a run to school to collect Ellie after her dance class. We dropped her off with Zoe and then returned home for a quiet afternoon and evening.

Nada

Today was a typical Thursday. I was up before seven and enjoyed a coffee while reading the overnight news. When Di came down for her tea, I went to get ready, and then when the time came, we went to Zoe's to collect Ellie and take her to school. Leaving her as she walked into class, Di headed home, and I went for my usual walk. I am now within about 35 minutes of the end of my audiobook, and can't wait for tomorrow's episode. For anyone who hasn't read any of the Alex Delaware series of books by Jonathan Kellerman, I think you are really missing out on great stories.

We completed our shopping list and headed out to Sainsbury's. Zoe had given us some paperwork to drop off with Jason (the Manager), and a list of bits that she needed us to collect for her. There seemed to be some problems to start with regarding the handheld scanners, but we managed to sort that out and get started. The usual Zombie didn't seem to emerge this week, so we shopped relatively quickly. I dropped Zoe's list and Di back at Zoe's and went home to pack our shopping away.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time, before I went to collect Ellie from school. I left Di at home to have a rest, as she had been on the go sorting out stuff at Zoe's earlier.

There's nothing else of note to report.

Just bits

 There seemed to be a lot of movement overnight, with car doors opening and closing. This kept waking me. In the end, I got up just after six. I went down to quaff a coffee and read the news. When Di stirred, about an hour later, I made her tea and went up for my shower. 

We both went to collect Ellie and take her to school at the allotted time. She was very excited this morning as they had a class trip to see the Mary Rose at Portsmouth. Di headed home for some breakfast and to head off to Pilates, while I went for a walk. My route was different this morning. I only did one of my usual three loops, but then crossed the main road and took the back route into the village. I stopped at the Chemist's to pick up Di's meds, then at the Post Office to return something Di was exchanging. I then crossed the road to the Barber's shop and had my flowing locks trimmed to a manageable length.

Back home, I grabbed some breakfast, then got on with some admin and some domestic chores. Zoe called. She was trying to complete some spreadsheet work on her iPad. It was not working properly, so I took Di's MacBook around to her so she could use that for now.

After lunch, we settled down in the warmth of the Orangery and had some Kindle time. We heard that there had been major disruption on the A27. This would affect Elli's class trip. The coach arrived back well over an hour late, so we waited outside to collect her and take her home. The sun may have been out, but there was a nip in the air. We were both glad when the coach finally arrived.

Having dropped Ellie back home, we headed home for dinner and a quiet evening.

Taxi!

 It has been a day punctuated by car trips between brief interludes of peace. I was up at my usual time and followed the normal morning schedule before walking to Zoe's to collect Ellie for school. Leaving her in class, Di headed home, and I set out on my usual walk. My audiobook chatted away through my AirPods, and I became quite lost in the story.

Once home, and with breakfast finished, I did some quick admin, then returned to the problem I was having with the in-car hotspot. This doesn't affect Di or me, as our phones have direct access through their mobile signals. Ellie's iPad, however, needs a WiFi connection, and the car's hotspot should provide this. I researched, I fiddled, and I faffed. Three times, I went out to the car to try different solutions. On the last occasion, everything burst into life. It was finally working.

Di was going out to lunch at The Oystercatcher with Pauline. I drove her across and then headed home for my own slice of stale bread with some gruel. I finished another book after lunch and then went to collect Zoe and take her to the hospital for an X-Ray. Leaving her at reception, I then drove across to collect Di. We got back to Zoe's just a few moments after she had arrived home by taxi. Almost immediately, we had to head to the school to collect Ellie, and when we got back, we did some of her chores before heading home.

 A few minutes after getting home, Amazon delivered my parcel. I have bought an Ottocast device that automatically connects with my phone when I get in the car, and starts CarPlay on the infotainment system (without needing to plug in a cable). This only took 30 seconds to install, and it seems to work seamlessly. I'm very impressed so far.

I had a quick dinner (Black Lentil Dahl), and then we drove back to Zoe's so that I could drive her to school for Parents' Evening. Ellie's teacher is clearly quite delighted with her. She had no concerns and commented on how kind and helpful Ellie is and how well she participates in class. She's also very pleased with her maths, her reading, and her project work.

Play Misty for Me

I was up just before seven. The first 90 minutes followed the usual pattern, and then we walked around to Zoe's to collect Ellie and take her to school.  It was remarkably misty. After we had dropped Ellie at school, Di went home, and I went for my walk. The mist was thick, and several times during the walk, I had to pause to clean the water droplets from my glasses. I completed my normal route without any of the discomfort that I had felt yesterday morning. Obviously, the rest had done the trick.

When I had returned home and finished breakfast, I had an hour of Admin, then contacted Zoe to find out whether the Sainsbury's petrol station had fuel. She confirmed they were fine (she has been coordinating pricing of the supply across the region while she is laid up at home). I took the opportunity to whizz around the corner and fill the tank. With luck, that will see me through until next month.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time before going to collect Ellie. It was bright, and the sun seemed to be trying to break through. It wasn't trying hard enough. The mist persisted, and when we took Ellie to Chichester for her weekly appointment, it was even more noticeable.

We dropped Ellie back at home, then headed home ourselves. We've just finished dinner, and a quiet evening is planned.

Old Friends

My knee was stiff and a little sore when I woke up. I quickly decided that I would give it a rest today and not bother with a walk. I wandered downstairs and settled with a coffee and the overnight news until Diane came down. 

After breakfast, there was a bit of a cleaning frenzy as we were expecting visitors. Once everything was ready, we settled down and awaited the arrival of Jan and John. Old friends are like favourite sweaters, they are just comfortable. We settled down over a coffee and some biscuits and had the usual catch-up on family news. Then, we popped across to The Lamb Inn at Pagham for lunch. Di and Jan had chosen the plaice, but they had run out, so Jan chose a vegetable wellington while Di chose salmon. Jon and I both had the roasted pork belly. As usual, the portions were hearty, and the food was excellent. By the time we left, the restaurant was full, with people waiting to be seated.

Back home, we settled with some tea and a lemon cheesecake while the conversation carried on. We chatted about some of the short city breaks we did with them over the years, and they commented on how much they were looking forward to their forthcoming river cruise in Portugal. (They head off, just as we get back from our cruise on the Moselle.)

We had a lovely afternoon, but John was getting tired, so they left soon after four. We settled down for some Kindle time and a quiet evening.

Final Cut

 It was a grey day, but at least it was dry. There had been some overnight rain, which had deposited a fine Saharan dust on the cars. I had the usual start to the day, involving coffee and news. When Di came down, I provided tea, then went for my shower. 

I had my weekly call with the Empson cousins, with all of the usual banter and some discussion of our family consensus on the USA's attack on Iran. (The view being, we don't support it and think the PM was correct in his caution - having said that, we were also in agreement that the past 30 years spent winding down our armed forces, and particularly the Navy, have been disastrous.)

After the call, I returned to my edit of the Norway cruise video. Over the subsequent few hours, I completed the edit and added the background soundtrack. It won't win any Oscars, but it's finished, and I'm fairly happy with the 12 minutes of cinematic history. It now nestles quietly in the Family video library (accessible to the family through Jellyfin). I suspect the next project will be one of the river cruises.

Zoe and Ellie were coming for dinner, so I spent a couple of hours preparing. Zoe, Ellie, and I would have curry, while Di would have salmon. I made two separate curry dishes, a butter chicken for Ellie (using a Patak's sauce), and a chicken bhuna for Zoe and me. Di went and collected the girls and brought them back to us for dinner. When it was finished, I helped Zoe finish building a doll's cabin bed for Ellie's latest doll. This was a fiddly task, and with Zoe's inability to bend her knee properly was proving awkward. Having said that, she did most of the assembly. I just helped out with some of the final steps.

After Di had taken the girls home, we settled down for a quiet evening in front of the TV.

First Fix

 I was up at my usual time, and it wasn't long before I was enjoying a coffee and reading the news. Di followed me down after a while and, having made her a tea, I headed for the bathroom and made myself presentable for the day. We wandered around to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. As usual, it was all a bit chaotic, but we managed to get everything on track and dropped Ellie in class when the doors opened.

Di headed home before going to the Community Centre for her Cardiac Rehab. I set out on my customary walk with Jonathan Kellerman's novel unravelling in my ears. Once home, I started on breakfast as Diane arrived home. We sat and chatted and got on with some admin as the morning ticked by. I managed to add a number of novels to the spreadsheet, recording the books I have read. I have now managed to recall 752 books from over the years. I am certain there are many more, but until the relevant boxes in my mind spring open, they will remain a mystery.

I returned to the task of video editing. I have now completed "first fix" for the video recalling our cruise to Norway. There is still much to do, but the bones of the story are now in place. I still have to add "transitions" where appropriate, balance the sound, and add a background track with appropriate music.

During the afternoon, Diane took Zoe to the Doctor. She has been signed off for a further 2 weeks and has been referred for more X-Rays, MRIs and so forth. Clearly, this injury will not be quick to heal. While Di nd Zoe were at the doctor's, I collected Ellie from her after-school dance class. I got her home a few minutes after Di and Zoe got back. Zoe has arranged a lot of activities to keep Ellie busy over the weekend. We will, however, see them tomorrow when they come to dinner in the evening.

Northing Exciting

 There was nothing that could be construed as exciting today. I was up at my usual time, consumed my coffee, read the news and made some tea for Di. We both walked around to Zoe's so that we could escort Ellie to school. Today was World Book Day, so the kids had to dress up, and this year's theme was adjectives. Elli went as "sleepy" and went to school (with her friend Poppy) in their pyjamas. Some kids were more imaginative, but I must say that it did look funny outside the classrooms this morning.

Di headed home, and I set off for my usual walk. The weather was gorgeous (as befits West Sussex), and it was a real pleasure being out and about. Back home, after some breakfast, we finished the shopping list and then headed to Sainsbury's for our weekly raid. With the current troubles in the Middle East, it came as no surprise that there were huge queues at the petrol station. Fortunately, we do not need fuel at present, so we slipped into the store and completed our usual attack on their stocks.

This afternoon was split. We started with some Kindle time, but then Jasper had to take Diane to the vet, so that he was chaperoned for his monthly injection. While they were gallivanting in Oving, I collected Ellie from school and took her home to Zoe. I arrived back home a minute or so before Jasper arrived back with Di. We settled back down with our Kindles.

A message appeared on the phone. Could I walk Ellie around to he friend Poppy's? Five minutes later, Ellie presented herself at our door, and I walked her to her friend's house. It was only when I. got there that it became clear that this was something the girls had arranged between them, and Poppy's mum knew nothing about it. After a few awkward moments, I agreed to leave Ellie there and come back to collect her in 45 minutes. I went home and started preparing the vegetables for our dinner, and marinating the chicken in a soya, honey, and sweet chilli sauce. By the time I was finished, I had to head back and collect Ellie and take her home.

We are all tucked up in our own houses now and have no intention of venturing out until the morning.

Spying

I was up at 6:30 and spent the first 10 wakeful minutes dealing with a package that Jasper had so kindly left for us to deal with. With the package disposed of and copious amounts of air freshener deployed, I made my first coffee of the day and settled down with the overnight news. Di was up and about soon after seven.

With our ablutions completed, we headed to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. Once she was safely nestled in class, Di headed home and then off to Pilates, while I took my morning walk. I finished my audiobook during the final lap of my usual route. I was prepared. The next book was dropped into the player, and I started on a new Jonathan Kellerman story.

Back home, I had my breakfast and then updated the accounts before heading to the study to do some more editing of material for the Norwegian Cruise video. Over the next couple of hours, I managed to introduce the material for another 3 or 4 days of the cruise. There is a long way to go. So far, I have not added any transitions or zoom of relevant images. I want to get the raw material constructed first.

After lunch, I received a call from Zoe.  Could I retrieve her sun lounger from her garage so that she could at least sit in the sun? I duly wandered around the corner and got her sorted. I returned home to the Orangery and my Kindle (finishing my latest book), and I started another.

The phone range. It was Zoe again. She was concerned about the petrol station at Sainsbury's and how quickly their stocks are dwindling. Could I go and check the price being advertised by our local Esso station? I headed off and took a photo of their price banner. Their price had increased by several pence per litre during the day. Zoe reported back... and has been asked to coordinate the region's intelligence regarding local fuel prices. That will give her something to do while laid up!

We collected Ellie from football practise and took her home, then we headed home ourselves to have supper and settle for the evening

Sharing

 I was up at 6:30. There was no particular reason for such an early start, but my brain was engaged, and my body was eager to move about. I topped up my caffeine stream and read the overnight news until Diane emerged. After we were both washed and dressed, we walked around to Zoe's to collect Ellie and take her to school. After the school drop, Di returned to Zoe's to see if there was anything that needed doing, while I went off for my usual morning walk.

Once back home, we had breakfast and cracked on with some admin and some chores. Then Diane. went out to the garden to potter for a while, and I returned to my video editing. I must have spent nearly 90 minutes working on a single 4-second clip from the Norwegian cruise. I was trying to overlay a text slug which would identify the location and date of the following clips. I could not construct a clip that fulfilled the image that I had in my head. I decided that enough was enough for today. I will return to this in the days to come.

With the 40+ videos I now have stored in the family video library, I thought it was time to open the library to Jane and Trevor. I have set them up an account and sent them details of how to access the library using Jellyfin. Hopefully, they will find this interesting.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time until we had to collect Ellie. She was in a very chirpy mood as she charged out of class. We took her home to Zoe, while I returned to start on dinner. Di would collect Zoe and Ellie and bring them home to dinner. I constructed a macaroni and meatball dish, which was very popular.

Spring has Sprung

I was up early, and so was the sun (though not quite as early as me.) The sky looked clear, and it promised to be a nice day. In fact, it turned out to be lovely. The skies were blue, and only the occasional contrails of passing jets broke the continuity of the canvas. 

I wandered around to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. Zoe was not going to attempt the walk (quite rightly). She was, however, going to pop into work to sign off on the payroll and enable access for working at home. Diane drove around to take her to Sainsbury's and then went on to the vets. I completed the walk to school with Ellie and then headed out for my walk, arriving home a few minutes after Diane.

The morning was spent on domestic chores, but with them out of the way, I returned to my editing suite. I decided to make a start on the video recalling our cruise to Norway in 2023. This occupied a good few hours and has only covered the first three or four days. There's much yet to do, and it should keep me out of trouble for several days.

We picked Ellie up from school, whipped her home to collect a snack and took her to Chichester for her regular appointment with Hannah. While she was being seen, we sat and read our Kindles in the waiting room. Afterwards, we were astounded by how quickly we managed to carve our way through the late afternoon traffic to get home.

Video Travelogues

 I was up just before seven. Di was awake, so I took her a cup of tea in bed. I settled down with a coffee and the overnight news. It appears that the moron Trump, who wants a Nobel Prize for Peace, has furthered his case by bombing Iran. I'm not sure that I ever held a politician with such contempt as I do Trump.

After my coffee, I had planned an early morning walk. The weather decided that heavy rain should fall. I postponed my walk, and after breakfast, I worked through a pile of ironing while Di had her shower.

It's John's birthday today. I had sent him a video during the week, recalling our short break in Granada. He commented that he had enjoyed it and would like to see one of our trip to Barcelona. I sent him the relevant video, and also another of our trip to Florence. That got me thinking, so I started to compile another video covering last summer's break at the Carlyon Bay Hotel. This took me a few hours, but I was pleased with the finished article, which I subsequently sent on to John.

With Zoe laid up, we will probably need to change things about over the coming weeks. The first step was to transport many of Ellie's school clothes back to Zoe's. Di took them around and then spent a few hours keeping her company. I took the opportunity, as it had dried up, to go for my postponed walk. When I got back, I settled down with a cup of tea and my Kindle until it was time to start on dinner.

Fragments

 Today seems to have existed in fragments. I was up just before seven, and read the news while consuming my first coffee. I had a quiet hour before Diane stirred, and I fired up the kettle for her life-affirming cup of tea. After a shower, I prepared breakfast and got ready for my call with the cousins.

The call followed the usual course, most easily mapped by a bowl of spaghetti dropped on the floor from a great height and then agitated by a kitten with ADHD. What did become evident was that Tim appreciated my write-ups and videos of our trips. He regards me as his travel advisor. This became an issue when he spoke of a trip to Madeira. After the call, I extracted a travelogue of our 2018 trip to Madeira and set it to him. I then started to develop a video of the trip. 

Time overtook me. I had to go to Zoe's, help her shift some stuff around the house, and then take her to work. I left her in the capable hands of her manager, who swore she would not leave the office and would not walk the aisles.

I returned home and realised that the video of Madeira was pointless. I had already made this video. I sent the original video to Tim and deleted the version I had started earlier. This did get me thinking, however, so I took some time to develop a video of our trip to Jersey.

Di had spent much of the day in the garden. She had been tidying up and chatting with passing neighbours. When she had finished, we settled in the Orangery for some Kindle time before dinner.

Strange day

 It turned out to be a strange day. I was up around seven and sat drinking my coffee as I read the news. Diane came down a few minutes later - she had he Cardiac Rehab session this morning, so needed to get breakfast out of the way. I wandered around to Zoe's to join the walk to school and, after dropping Ellie in class, set off for my usual walk while Zoe, who had a day off, headed home.

By the time I arrived home from my walk, Diane was already at the Community Centre for her exercise session. I settled down for some breakfast and skimmed the social media. D~i arrived home, and we chatted while starting on our various admin tasks. These took most of the morning.

It was during our admin session that Zoe turned up. Her knee had "popped", and she wanted a knee brace. Needless to say (did you see what I did there?), we had one, and she went back home. A little while later, she phoned. The GP had told her to go to the hospital and get an X-Ray. I collected her from home and dropped her at the War Memorial Hospital. 

After we had some lunch, we settled in the lounge with our Kindles. I was awaiting the call from Zoe to say she was ready to be collected. As all was quiet, I went to collect Ellie from dance practice. It was while I was waiting for Ellie that Zoe called to say she was ready. Ellie and I hot-footed it to the hospital and collected Zoe, who has a damaged Medial Cruciate Ligament. The doctor tried to sign her off for 6 weeks, but she was having none of that. She intends to work, even if she is confined to the office.

I dropped Ellie and Zoe back home. Ellie is with Pete for the weekend. Zoe intends to rest, but will discuss work with the store manager, Jason, in the morning.

Editing

 Though there was no pressing need, I was up soon after 6:30. Coffee was taken, and the news was consumed. Once Di had come down. I performed my morning ablutions and prepared for my assault on Zoe's. I walked around to Zoe's and joined the girls on their walk to school.

Leaving Ellie in class, I headed off for my morning walk. It was grey, cool, but bright. I enjoyed the hour or so, and finished my latest audiobook and started another. As I arrived home, Diane left to go to the hairdresser's. I tucked into my usual breakfast, and as I finished, Lottoe arrived for her weekly cleaning session. After a brief (well, not so brief) chat, I headed to my study and started to work on the source videos I had received from Alex and Mary Louise. Today, my focus has been on videos featuring my Uncle James and his wife and family. This has taken many hours and still awaits some form of music track, but that must wait until I have improved the video from the original cine data.

After lunch, we settled in the lounge (it was a bit too cool for the Orangery) and read our Kindles. I finished a book and started a new one before we had to go and collect Ellie from school. Once home, she went to her room and spent an hour or two reading her latest school book. Zoe turned up soon after 5 pm and collected Ellie. I started preparing dinner as soon as they had left.

Booking

I was up before the 6:30 alarm (but not by much). Ellie was dropped off, but was barely conscious. She went straight up to Nana and went back to sleep. Jasper decided that sleep was not an option and started to yowl. Ellie was not amused. (Now she knows how we feel.)

The rest of the run-up to school followed the usual pattern, and we dropped her at the classroom door. Di headed home for some breakfast and then to head off to Pilates, while I enjoyed my usual morning walk. This was completed in the warm sunshine for a change.

Di had left for Pilates by the time I arrived home. I grabbed some breakfast and then, after completing the accounts, I set about a stack of ironing. This took the rest of the morning.

After some feedback from Brian, one of the Band of Brothers, we decided to have our Spring Lunch at The Betjeman Arms in St Pancras Station. I booked the venue and sent out the invitations to my distribution list. During the afternoon, I had RSVPs from all of the regulars. I'm hoping for a few responses from the "irregulars", but nothing has come through so far.

Once Di was back from Pilates, we grabbed a quick lunch and then headed off to Sainsbury's for the weekly shop. It may have been a day early, but it was an excellent time to shop. The store was deserted. Once we had arrived home and unloaded and stowed the shopping, we had a quiet hour before I started on dinner. Di, meanwhile, had a telephone call with her friend Pauline.

Sunshine

It seems strange to get up at 6:30 to greet Ellie. It has been a while since I last had to do that. I was suitably delighted by the small package that Jasper had left for me to clear up before I got around to making my coffee. Just as I started the coffee maker, Ellie arrived, gave me a cuddle and headed upstairs to get into bed with Nana. The rest of the morning procedure ran on time, and it was lovely to see sunshine when we left for school.

The sunshine lasted most of the day and certainly made my morning walk enjoyable. Everyone I passed seemed to have a spring in their step, and we exchanged a hearty "Hello" as we passed.

Once home, I tucked into my porridge, then, as Di went up to her sewing room, I went to the study. Di spent much of the day rearranging the sewing room. I helped when a bit of muscle was required. The rest of the day, I spent working on my video editing. Well, actually, it wasn't so much video editing as creating a simple way of creating a common branding for my title pages. I had tried this yesterday, and it wasn't bad. Today, I wanted to refine the process and document the whole thing for the future. I explored several different approaches, and I am now fairly happy that I have found a good method.

We collected Ellie from school and stopped off at the park for a while on the way back. We were not there for long, as Zoe was ready to collect Ellie and take her home. After they had gone, we settled down in the Orangery (which was delightfully warm) for an hour before I started on dinner.

Video

Jasper was noisy again last night, but not quite as noisy as the night before. He woke us both several times through the night and snuggled down on Diane's pillow between his overnight periods of roaming. Ellie seemed to sleep through it all. I was up and about (clearing his overnight deposits) soon after seven. I wrote my blog entry for yesterday while enjoying my first coffee.

We left Ellie to sleep, but once I was dressed, I headed out for a morning walk. This allowed me to get back into my audiobook while strolling around the estate. Once I was home, I had some breakfast, then settled down to do the accounts. Di took Ellie to Bognor to get some new school shoes and to collect her medication on the way back home. It was while she was there that Zoe revealed that she had been hacked at the pub yesterday lunchtime, and her Santander accounts had been emptied. This is the problem with public WiFi, and why I use a VPN when connecting to anything other than my home network.

While Di and Ellie were out, I returned to my video editing. I watched another YouTube presentation and then got stuck into the short video that I was producing as an exercise. One problem that I had on previous exercises was the ability or technique to create a title page that looked like those I had used in the past. I like the idea of some common branding. This was my target for the day. It took me a couple of hours to crack the challenge, but I am now confident that I can reproduce it at will.

Zoe collected Ellie soon after three and took her to Chichester for her Monday appointment. We had a quiet hour in the lounge with our Kindles before I prepared some linguine with prawns in white wine and cream sauce.

The Ageing Process

As my birthday dawned, I realised that the ageing process is not helped by a cat yowling "Happy Birthday" all night. After numerous interruptions to my beauty sleep, I gave up just after 6 am and went downstairs for some coffee. I had a quiet 90 minutes with my coffee and the overnight news before Diane came down. This was the opportunity to start opening all of the Birthday cards that had accumulated over the past week. I must say that I received a great deal of abuse in the cards, but suspect it was well deserved!

I spent much of the morning trying to refresh my video editing skills. This involved watching several YouTube videos and playing with some sample video clips. Much of the general workflow is coming back to me now, but I do have many hours of video to work with.

As lunchtime approached, we drove across to Pagham, where we met up with Kim, Zoe, Ellie and her friend Poppy for lunch at The Lamb. By booking an early table, we had no trouble parking, nor waiting for our meal.

Previous visits had told us what to expect. We were not disappointed. There was a wide selection available for Sunday lunch, and it seemed that everyone chose well. Certainly, all the plates were scraped clean. (Diane and I both chose the roast pork, Kim had some Sea Bream, and Zoe had roast beef).

As we sat and chatted over lunch, the restaurant filled up and got quite noisy (and that wasn't due to Ellie and Poppy).

We had a lovely couple of hours there, and I was immensely blessed with the gifts, cards, and love that I received from everyone. We said our goodbyes and headed home.

The afternoon was spent with our Kindles in the lounge. Late in the afternoon, Zoe called. She was performing the usual school uniform check to ensure that the right items of uniform were (or would be) available throughout the coming week. Ellie asked if she could sleep at our house tonight, so that she wouldn't have to get up early tomorrow. (Tomorrow is an INSET day, so there is no school.)

Unravelling

I slept in until about 07:15. Other than making coffee, the first order of the day was to complete yesterday's blog. That took me longer than expected, and by the time I had finished, Di had come down for a cup of tea to start her day.  

I had the usual call with my cousins. After the news about Andrew Mounbatten-Windsor this week, we had the entirely predictable anti-monarchy diatribe from Chris (who has lived abroad for about 30 years) and Tim. We let them rant and duly ignored them.

With the call out of the way, we headed to the Cattery to collect Jasper. As usual, he had been well cared for, and we had a long chat with Mark. Our route to and from was somewhat circuitous due to the flooding, but we managed without incident. Jasper, however, kindly presented us with a toxic, foul-smelling gift as we got within a mile or so from home. The less said, the better.

Chunks of the day have been spent downloading old cine film (which has been digitised) from Alex & Mary-Louise's NAS. The idea is that when I get time, I will try to clean it up and cut the huge recordings down into manageable chunks. My rule of thumb is that they should be less than 15 minutes, and ideally less than 10.

Sainsbury's kindly delivered our weekly shop at lunchtime. After we had eaten, we retired to the lounge for some Kindle time. 

Zoe has taken Ellie and her friend, Poppy, to see the laser show at Chichester Canal Basin this evening.  I'm sure they'll have a great time. It's a shame, however, that it is drizzling.

Around and About

I was up just before seven. It was our last day in Jersey, but our return flight was not until early evening, so we had a full day. I opened the curtains, and the sea was battering the sea wall beneath us. Someone had obviously topped it up again overnight. At least it wasn't raining, and there was sky to be seen beyond the clouds.

We went down to breakfast. Clearly, the hotel had a lot of new guests in the preceding 24 hours, as the dining room was quite busy by the time we were ready to leave. Alina, the woman in charge of the dining room, came to give us a hug, wished us a safe journey and hoped we would be back. I think that it's fairly certain that we will! We returned to our room (250) and packed our suitcases, then went to reception to check out and to leave our cases with the concierge. It was pointless carting them around with us all day.

We took a walk along the promenade, soaking up the sun and watching some brave souls swimming. We later found out that there was a sauna near the cafe, and the brave swimmers would head straight for the sauna as they came out of the surf.

Near the cafe was a lovely little garden scattered with benches where you could sit and absorb the view. It was very peaceful and an ideal spot for a tranquil coffee in the morning.

We crossed the road to the bus stop and hopped on the 12A into St Helier. We hadn't got a specific plan, but thought we'd mooch around the town for a few hours.

The first order of the visit was to find a little gift to take home for Mark, the Cat Whisperer. We walked along to the main shopping area and found a store that specialised in Jersey produce. The assistant, who was recovering from a personality transplant (clearly she was the donor), helped us select some honey and chocolates. We moved on, zigging and zagging through the streets and squares. 

Approaching midday, we stopped at a cafe for some coffee. This was near the waterfront and was evidently very popular, nestled at the foot of several modern office blocks.

With a fresh shot of caffeine coursing through our veins, we crossed to the waterfront. The view across St Aubin's Bay was excellent, and with the tide out, the vast expanse of sand was very inviting.

We walked along the wall that protected the Marian from the worst of the weather. A strong (and chilly) wind was blowing, and despite the sunshine, it felt cool.

We walked to the end nearest to the Elizabeth Castle. Elizabeth Castle is a large historic fortress built on a tidal island in St Aubin’s Bay by the marina. It's cut off twice a day by the tides. It was built in the 16th Century and named after Queen Elizabeth I, and it was the home of Sir Walter Raleigh during his tenure as Governor of Jersey. It also provided refuge to King Charles I during the Civil War.

It is only open from March through to October, so we were unable to visit. 

We wandered back to the bus station and made our way back to the hotel. The clouds had swept back over the island, and rain was expected. We settled down in the lounge with a sandwich and our Kindles. Our taxi arrived just before five and whisked us to the airport. As we went through the security checks, Diane was stopped, and the honey we had bought for Mark was confiscated as it was over 100ml. That was a shame, particularly as it was thick, not runny honey. We started to walk to the lounge when the security operative chased us down and handed the "honey" back to us, explaining that it was honey at all; it was a honey-scented candle! Well, you wouldn't want to spread that on toast.

Considering how empty the flight to Jersey had been, the return flight was full. We took off a few minutes late and headed north over Guernsey toward Southampton. As we approached the airport, it became obvious that the people who install the potholes in our local roads had been moonlighting and doing the same in our bit of sky. The plane was chucked about all over the place as we descended to terra firma.

Once we had collected the suitcases, we walked through to the car and headed home, where we were greeted by Zoe, a very excited Ellie, and her friend Poppy. We had a mad 15 minutes, and then they left us to relax. It had been a superb few days.

Castle

It was high tide when we woke up this morning. There was a strong wind blowing, and the waves were crashing against the sea wall below. Seaweed and debris were being thrown up onto the promenade and even onto the hotel’s terrace. The forecast suggested that the rain would stop around ten, but that it would remain windy all day. The forecast also seemed to take great pleasure in telling us that the temperature would feel like -4 °C.

We were in no hurry, so we strolled down past the Spa for a leisurely breakfast and sat chatting over our toast, fruit, yoghurt, eggs, bacon, sausage, potatoes and whatever else we fancied. At least we wouldn’t need anything else until dinner. 

We returned to our room and got ourselves ready for today’s adventure. We had decided to visit Gorey on the east coast.

We caught the bus outside the hotel and discovered we could buy a ticket that was valid all the way through, including the change of buses in St Helier. (I wish I had realised this yesterday.) We only had a couple of minutes to wait at the bus station before climbing aboard the No.1, which took us the last leg of the journey. The overnight rain had stopped, but the wind was gusting up to 40mph, and it felt very cold. The forecast suggestion of -4 °C seemed pretty accurate. We climbed off the bus at Gorey Pier and strolled along towards the shops, stopping at a store that specialised in knitwear from Guernsey, Jersey, France and also had a wide range of Barbour clothing. We stood chatting with the proprietor for ages. I think we got her whole life story, from birth in Jersey, childhood in France, and the fact that her mother is Norwegian. Diane kindly bought me a lovely sweater for my birthday before we left the shop.

We found our way to the steps, which took us up to the medieval Mont Orgueil Castle. This was an imposing fortification dating back to the 13th century and built on a rocky outcrop surrounded on three sides by the sea and cliffs. From the battlement, you can see France, just 14 miles away. It had, in fact, been used as a defensive location since the Iron Age. French attacks and sieges during the 13th and 14th centuries led to improvements and a strengthening of the garrison, and a number of improvements and renovations have been made over the years. It was an intriguing place to visit, and we had free rein to wander virtually anywhere we wanted. The battlements and wards were exposed to the biting wind, and whilst they offered some stunning views, they were too cold to linger for long.

We clambered back down the steps (equivalent to 10 flights of stairs) and found our way to a small Cafe where we sat down for a cup of coffee and a slice of millionaire’s shortbread. We lingered for a while, but then hopped on the bus back to St Helier and changed for the bus to St Brelade’s Bay. The whole journey back took about 65 minutes. (I must say that I’m very impressed with the Liberty Buses on Jersey; they seem to run on time, and there is a flat fare for all trips. If a trip requires a transfer and that is within an hour of starting your first trip, the fare can be covered on the first ticket.)

We ditched our outside gear and went down to spend some time in the lounge. Di enjoyed a pot of tea and some fancy cakes, while I enjoyed a glass of beer. We stayed for about an hour, then returned to our room. Like yesterday, the cloud seemed to be breaking up near the horizon, but this afternoon we seem to have gained a rash of surfers braving the cold wind. 

(Unfortunately, the surfers only appear as black dots in the surf in this photo.)

We went down to the lounge for dinner. Today's special was a lovely chunk of cod, grilled and served on a bed of vegetables. We both chose the special, and it was delicious. We finished with some ice cream before returning to our room for the evening.

Tunnels

It rained heavily throughout the night. Either it was high tide or the sea was full when we woke up just before seven. We had a quiet hour or so in our room before going down to breakfast. We are used to having a good breakfast selection when staying at The Victoria, or Carlyon Bay, but they were no match for the breakfast menu here at L’Horizon. We were in no hurry, so we lingered over breakfast.

Because of the intensity of the rain, we decided that a trip to the Jersey War Tunnels would be a good idea (after all, it doesn’t rain in a tunnel). We caught the 12A bus, then the No.8. It was a good job we had dressed in our waterproofs, as we were soaked by the time we had walked to the entrance.

The tunnels were dug out over two years by forced labour. Over 14,000 tons of rock were removed, and the walls were lined with 4,000 tons of concrete. Originally, the tunnel complex was destined to be a munitions barracks, but was repurposed as a main casualty receiving station. At one point in the tour, we stood some 60 metres inside the cliff, and 33 metres below the surface. The tunnels were well worth the visit. Somehow, they managed to personalise the predicament of the Occupied Islanders and brought the story home in a very real fashion.

When we had finished our tour of the tunnels, we went up to the cafe for a coffee and a scone, then made our way down to the bus stop to head into St Helier. We walked to the museum (it was still pouring with rain) to see The Occupation Tapestry, only to find we were at the wrong museum. We did an about turn and headed for the maritime museum. When we arrived, we found it was Pirate Week for the school kids’ half-term holiday. The Tapestry room was infested with loads of kids being entertained by two adults dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow and his sidekick. We ignored them and made our way around each of the tapestry panels. They were quite stunning in their content and their detail. The stitch count worked out to 256 stitches per inch; across the panels, there are over 7.5 million stitches. This photo shows just one of the many panels that were created by each of the participating parishes.

We walked back to the bus station and grabbed the 12A back to the hotel. By the time we arrived, the rain had almost stopped, and there was a break in the clouds to the western end of St Brelade’s Bay. We changed out of our wet weather gear and headed down to the lounge for a drink. By the time we returned to our room, the sun was just visible over the western end of the bay as it sank below the cliffs.

We chatted about dinner and decided to stay put in the hotel again. We chose comfort food tonight. Diane had a shepherd's pie, and I chose their salmon dish of the day. It was hardly haute cuisine, but it was immensely tasty and a perfect end to the day.

A short break

 The alarm went off at 05:00, and we attacked the day with vigour. With a hot drink inside us, we hit the road at 06:15, and by 07:00, we were parking at Southampton Airport. It took a full 2 minutes to walk from the car to the bag drop-off, and a minute or two later, we were sitting in Costa Coffee with another hot drink and a croissant while watching the sun drag itself over the eastern horizon. 

Our plane was only one-third full, and we managed to leave early. 35 minutes later, we touched down in Jersey. It had taken us longer to drive to the airport than it had to fly to the Island.

We grabbed a taxi to take us to the hotel. It only took about 10 minutes, and the driver was eager to hang on and take us on a tour into St Helier. We politely declined as we had not yet got a firm plan for the day.

Though it was only just after nine, our room was already available, and the porter/concierge, Greg, took us to our room and gave us a thumbnail sketch of the Island and most of his life story since leaving his home in Budapest.

The view from our room is superb. The sun was shining, and our balcony was quite sheltered. We stood there admiring the view for a while, then decided to make the most of the conditions and go for a walk along the promenade.

We turned right out of the hotel and walked towards a church. Some beautiful gardens were being lovingly tended by a couple of gardeners. There were also several restaurants and cafes. We stopped for a coffee and took it back to a bench in the gardens where we could drink in both the coffee and the view.

We didn't walk as far as the church because the promenade ended several hundred yards short, and we didn't want to walk along the narrow roadway, as there was no pavement. We turned around and headed back the other way, stopping to chat to one of the locals outside another cafe.

We returned to the hotel and checked the bus times and where the buses stop. We had a 20-minute wait, but caught the 12A bus into St Helier. It was about a 30-minute trip, but once we were there, we found our way to the visitor centre (at the museum), then wandered back through Liberation Square. Liberation Square is a central public square in the heart of St. Helier, close to the harbour, shops, cafés, and Liberty Wharf. 

The sculpture depicts jubilant islanders lifting a Union Jack, symbolising the joy and relief of freedom after years of occupation.

We found an Asian restaurant called Izakaya in Liberty Wharf, where we stopped for some lunch. We both chose the Chicken Katsu burgers and shared a plate of chips. We had chosen well. The burgers were lovely, and they filled the hole left by skipping a proper breakfast as well as providing lunch.

After lunch, we walked up to the main shopping area and zigged and zagged the whole length of the road and those running off and parallel to it. I wouldn't say there was anything that stood out, though there was a large department store called Voisins. 

What did stand out, however, was the covered market that we found behind the main drag, off one of the side streets. The Central Market is a Victorian-era covered market hall right in the heart of St Helier. Though the market itself has roots in the island’s trading culture going back centuries, the current building was largely rebuilt in 1882 in typical Victorian style, with metal and glass architecture that makes it one of Jersey’s architectural gems.

The market reminded me very much of the covered markets we had seen in Spain and the Canary Islands. It had significantly less farm produce (though it did have some), but had more craft,  curios, gifts, bakeries, and patisseries. It was charming.

High cloud had drifted in, and the temperature was dropping. Rain was expected. We made our way back to the bus station and headed back to the hotel.

We spent the last part of the afternoon looking at the maps and guides we had collected during the day, and, of course, read our Kindles. 

This evening, we went down to the lounge bar, rather than the restaurant. We weren't very hungry after the burgers we had for lunch. In the lounge, we settled down, and Di had a sandwich with some applewood-smoked cheese while I ordered a chicken Caesar salad. It was simple, but it was all we needed.

We were back in our room by eight, and I suspect it will be an early night after today's early start.

Starting Grid

 I was up earlier than necessary, but I was wide awake and getting fidgety, and I didn't want to disturb Diane. I sat in the kitchen with a coffee and wrote yesterday's blog post before starting on the overnight news. I then made my to-do list for the day. With a trip planned, I wanted to ensure that I had thought of everything and that everything was in hand.

I checked in for our flights, checked the route to the car park at Southampton Airport, and worked out our timings for an early start. Then, after breakfast, I started to pack and trim, i.e. select items of clothing, then decided against half the items I had selected.

There were several further items on the list, and I worked through these during the morning. I then headed out for my walk, with a detour to the post box en route. The rest of the day was spent refining the packing and then catching up on Kindle time.

We're set.

Family

 Gosh, it was wet. It was raining heavily when we got up, and that was destined to last well into the afternoon. We had a quiet start to the day, but we had an event to attend at lunchtime.

Dressed and presentable, we climbed into the car (though a canoe might have been more appropriate) we headed east. The rain was unrelenting and made the conditions deeply unpleasant. We arrived at Cousin Simon and Marie-Claire's after about 80 minutes, at exactly the same time as Jane and Trevor, and then a minute or two later, Sarah and Lucy arrived. We all gathered in the hallway and shed our coats as we greeted each other, along with Alex, Harry, and James, who were already there. 

As we went through to the lounge, we were greeted by Simon and Marie-Claire and the next hour was spent with everyone circulating and catching up with the latest news from each side of the family. The event was to celebrate the (posthumous) 100th birthday of our twin Dad's, John and Peter. (Sarah and Lucy were Dad's younger brother, James' girls).

It was great to hear how well everyone was doing, and nice to see that everyone was looking fit and well. Marie-Claire had laid on an absolute feast. We queued, buffet-style, to. help ourselves to Dauphinoise potatoes, beans, freshly carved ham, salad, cous cous, and heaven knows what else. 

We then settled around their huge dining table to chat and eat. It was a riotous affair with everyone in great form. Simon showed us some photos of himself guarding His Majesty, the King, at an event earlier in the week. He also went on to explain that his son Charlie is putting himself forward for selection within his regiment for some special duties. Sarah told me how well her gallery exhibition went last week and how nice it was to show alongside Gilia.

Jane had brought the Ancestry book that I had prepared for her birthday. This created a great deal of interest, and Marie-Claire would like me to prepare one for her. I agreed, but asked her to provide me with updates regarding her Charlie, Annabelle, and Lizzie.

We finished the luncheon with the mandatory group photo of the cousins. (Now I would point out that Dad also had a sister, and Angela's boys weren't present, so there are six further cousins missing).

After lunch, we gathered back in the lounge. Seats had been brought through, and the TV had been rigged up to a laptop. For the next hour or so, we watched a collection of old Cine and Video films that Uncle Peter had taken over the years. There were clips from our childhood, from various weddings and holidays, and even some brief clips from our wedding.

From a genealogy perspective, Simon is obsessed with our Irish link, and we discussed getting a genealogist who specialises in Irish records to try and crack the current research block we have. I said I would be more than happy to help.

We carried on chatting until people started to drift away and get back on the road. It was about a quarter to six when we left. The rain had stopped, and the sky was clearing. We had a much better drive home than this morning's adventure. We pulled onto our driveway just before seven and settled down for a quiet evening.

It really had been a superb day.

Lazy Day

Though I was up early, it was a lazy day. It started with coffee and the newsand then breakfast while chatting to cousins on my weekly Zoom call. There was nothing of note during the call, with the possible exception of Rolly announcing he had bought a pop-up sauna. I would have thought that the temperature in Australia was sufficient that a sauna was completely superfluous.

After the call, we prepared all of the gear that had to accompany Jasper on his Spa breaks. Timed feeder, automatic water dispenser, vets' records, feeding regime, and so forth. Once we were ready, Di snuck up on him, and we dropped him into the carrier, but not before he wee'd over the carpet, Di's trainers and my hands. Joy of joys! We loaded the car and drove to the Cat Whisperer's. We avoided the usual route because of the flooding, but the longer route we took seemed quicker than our usual route. Mark welcomed Jasper, and he was soon settled in. We had the usual chat and walked away clutching some chocolates he had given me for my birthday (Mark, that is, not Jasper).

Once home, we had a bite of lunch, and I headed off for a short walk. When I arrived back, we settled in the Orangery for some Kindle time. Though it was very cold outside, the sun had really warmed up the Orangery, and it was gloriously comfortable.

New cousins

 I was up early. Though it was before seven, it was already getting light. What's more, it was dry! I grabbed a morning coffee and read the news before Di Di came downstairs. She had a Cardiac Rehab session this morning, so had already gone by the time I returned from post-school run walk. During my walk, I finished my current audiobook and started another.

After breakfast, I settled down with the accounts before returning to my family tree research. Like yesterday, I picked one of Diane's DNA matches and tried to find the link to my tree. Like yesterday, it was a matter of wading through 4 generations, but I managed to find and document the whole branch of the tree, revealing more distant cousins. It was most satisfying and added a further dozen or more individuals to the family.

Having had a couple of successful hours, I decided to try to locate vital records for my great-grandparents. They hailed from Ireland, and despite a recent new release of Irish records, I could not find anything new.

After lunch, Di settled down with her Kindle. I spent some time trying to work AI magic on some photos. It was fairly successful, and I'm sure I'll return to it in the future. I joined in Kindle time for much of the rest of the afternoon.

Ellie had a Valentine's Disco after school. Di went round to Zoe's to help marshal the girls and shoo them out of the door on time.

Growing Tree

I was up before seven. I sat down with some coffee and my iPad and worked through the overnight news. Di wandered down a while later. She hadn't slept well, and I wondered if it had been some of thespice that was used on the Nando's last night. At the allotted time, I went to join Zoe and Ellie on the walk to school. There was a fine, misty drizzle soaking things more than you would expect. I headed off for my walk as soon as Ellie was safely in class.

Back home, I grabbed some breakfast and a second coffee, then settled down to complete the shopping list. As I was finishing, Lottie arrived, and it was my duty to torment her, as usual. Our trip to Sainsbury's was surprisingly quick. We did notice, however, that there were shortages of some fruits and vegetables. This, apparently, is because of the weather, which has been a problem for distribution, particularly for items imported from Spain.

After some lunch, I buried myself in the study and started to examine some of the recent DNA matches for Diane's side of the family. One set of matches revealed a branch of the family that I hadn't previously examined. After an hour or so, I had added a further 20 individuals to the family tree, each with supporting documents and confirmed by the DNA. 

We managed a little Kindle time before dinner.

Rained Off

 It was dry when we woke up. Bearing in mind the recent weather, that is something to celebrate. There was no hurry this morning as Zoe was on a 9 o'clock start. I walked around the corner to join the trek to school and then, leaving Ellie rushing into class, headed off for my morning walk.

The flooding in the area has left few navigable roads, and they are gridlocked. It would have been pointless Di attempting to get to Angmering for Pilates. She would have spent the whole morning sitting in traffic.

I spent some time on the family tree research and nailed down a few recent DNA matches. One has posed a conundrum which will require some research and a bit of lateral thinking. That's a problem for another day.

After lunch, I returned to an idea I had overnight. This meant trawling through lots of photos and asking AI to do some clever editing. I then started to merge some of these photos onto a single sheet. I achieved a basic version of what I was attempting, but it could do with some serious refinement.

After lunch, we had a bit of Kindle time, then I collected Ellie from football practice. We took her shopping to Matalan for an outfit to wear at the school's Valentine's Disco on Friday... and then we all had dinner at Nando's. While at Matalan, I noticed a sign "£5 and Under Baby Event". I looked around, but in the end I had to ask how many babies they have in stock, as there were none on the shelves - but at that price, they were probably selling well.

(No warning lights in the car today. Fingers are firmly crossed,)

Fixed, I hope

I was up soon after 6:30. Ellie was awake and pottering around in her bedroom. It was dry, for a change, but the forecast suggested that it wouldn't last. We followed the usual morning pattern, and we walked Ellie to school, leaving her in the class once the doors had opened.

I skipped the early walk. I was expecting the chap to come and collect the car, but there was no fixed time. I got on with my breakfast, did some admin, and did a bit of ironing. The chap arrived at 11:00 and took the car away to have a new ABS sensor fitted (needless to say, the car didn't reveal any of the warnings this morning).

Expecting the car to be gone for a couple of hours or more, I put on my shoes and headed out for a walk. I was out for about an hour, and when I returned home, the car was already sitting on the drive. I was amazed at how quickly they had dealt with it. They emailed an invoice and phoned me to confirm what they had done. I was delighted. Hopefully, there will be no further problems (at least from the ABS sensor).

The afternoon followed the usual pattern. We had an hour of Kindle time, and then I went to collect Ellie (it was raining quite heavily, so I told Di to stay put). Ellie buried herself in some snacks to keep her going, and then Zoe turned up to collect her.

Poster girl

 To avoid an early start this morning, Ellie stayed with us overnight. I let her sleep through until 7:30, and even then, she took a while to start functioning normally. We took her along to school, as usual, and then Di went home, and I set off for my walk. I mixed things up a bit by walking the back route into the village so that I could collect Di's meds from the pharmacy when they opened.

Back home, I settled down for some breakfast and to read the social media feeds. I wasn't able to linger for too long, as we had planned to go out for lunch with Jane and Trevor

To the sound of warning chimes and a display of random warning messages, we started our drive to The Refectory at Milford. Fortunately, all the warnings ceased after the first couple of miles, and the car behaved perfectly for the rest of the trip. I will be glad to get this fixed tomorrow.

We had a lovely lunch. Di had chosen a Crispy Beef Asian Salad, while I had a Wild Boar, Pork, and Parsnip pie. We both chose well, though Di would have preferred to have the dressing on the side. The Refectory was packed (probably because people were using up the vouchers we were given at Christmas) and as a result, service was slow. Normally, this doesn't trouble us, but we had to keep an eye on the time so that we could collect Ellie from school.

We were a bit late leaving the restaurant, and it was touch-and-go for the school pickup. We made good time and were on Drayton Lane before the traffic came to a halt. We still had 20 minutes for the last 3 miles. We made it, with 5 minutes to spare.

Ellie had dinner with us and then cracked on with some homework. I helped by showing her how to generate images using AI (Google’s Gemini). We used these images for a poster showing her recent baking exercise when she made some delicious scones

As Zoe has another early start tomorrow, Ellie is again sleeping here overnight.

(Just as an aside, Dad would be 100 years old today. Remarkably, his twin brother would also!)

Boots or Fins

 I was up by seven. For a change, it was dry, but it was incredibly misty. I made my coffee and took a tea to Diane in bed, then I settled down with the newspapers. Many newspapers charge a subscription fee to read them online. I can, however, read. them without a subscription through my local library. The library provides access to many UK, European, and worldwide newspapers through an app called PressReader. This will either display page images from the paper or a list view of all of the articles. It's brilliant.

Once Di had wandered down, I put on my shoes and headed off for a walk. I followed the usual route and, as predicted yesterday, finished one audiobook and started another.

As I walked back past the community football pitches, I noted that there were no games being played. Maybe waterpolo would have been more appropriate, or a swap from football boots to fins.

Once I was home, I enjoyed my usual breakfast, then as Diane went to her sewing room, I went to my study.

I spent much of the rest of the day working on the family tree. Some recent DNA hits opened up a few further areas of research. By the end of the session, I had added a further 18 cousins to the tree. It has been a good day.