New Forest

The day started around seven. We both slept well, though in Di’s case, chemicals were involved. Though we are off for a few days break, there was no hurry to get going. We had a very leisurely breakfast and then pottered around until Lottie arrived. We were then distracted by the latest disasters and tales from her family.

I had charged the car to 100% overnight. This was the first time I had successfully done this. When I unplugged the charger it estimated that I had a range of 368 miles. When, however, we set out some time later, the estimated range had incresed to 406 miles. There’s no way the car would achieve that, but I admire its optimism.

I finally loaded the car and we set off at about 11:00. It was not a smooth journey! After 35 minutes, we were still on the Chichester bypass, less than 6 miles from home. Further on we hit the traffic filtering off the M27 because of the A31 closure (caused by the recent fires which have destroyed the equivalent os 240 fotball pitches of teh New Forest). From that point on, we were in a slow moving convoy all of the way to Brockenhurst. It wass gone 13:00 before we arrived at the Forest Park Country Hotel. We were too early to check-in, but sat in the bar with a beer and snack.

Refreshed, we went for a short walk to see the ponies who were sheltering from the blistering sun alongside walls, and under trees. They were quite content and very happy to hold up traffic when they were in the mood. Being on foot, this didn’t trouble us. We returned to hotel and checked-in properly. I fetched the cases up to the room and we unpacked. Then, we retired to the garden and sat in the shade of a large parasol and made the most of the glorious afternoon.

We had an early dinner, then went out for a walk in the forest. We found a quiet spot in an opena area and sat down to call Ellie and see how she was faring. SHe hadn’t slept well last night, and spots were still coming out, but she was feelng ok in herself.

We returned to the hotel and settled in the garden with our Kindles. I spent some time writing this blog post, only to find that I couldn’t get connected to the Internet. Pah!

A Break

We were up soon after seven. Di had not slept well, but that seems to be par for the course at present. She will be taking some Oramorph tonight to help dull the ache from the knee replacement. 

While we had a leisurely start, we were surreptitiously gathering Jasper's stuff together. By mid-morning, it was time to drop him into the carrier and take him to see the cat whisperer. Mark, at Treetops Cattery, was his usual caring self, and Jasper was immediately feeling at ease. He now has a quiet week's Spa break with Mark to look after him. I dropped off 10 boxes of cat food to ensure the flavours that Jasper has been ignoring were put to good use.

We had timed the trip well. By the time we headed home, the traffic coming towards us was queued for several miles (for no apparent reason). Once home, we did a full clear-up before stopping for some lunch. I then cleared out the fridge and filled the food-waste bin with food that will be out of date by the time we get home from our upcoming trip.

We had some Kindle time during the afternoon and managed to get our cases packed. It's not that we have an early start; it's just nice to get it done and out of the way. I plan to charge the car to 100% overnight in the hope that we may not need to recharge while we are away on our short break

Ellie is still feeling rotten as the spots continue to come out. Chickenpox is no fun, particularly in this heat.

We were going to take her out to watch this evening's eclipse, but have decided that it is not a good idea. We will go round to Zoe's and watch the feed from the BBC.

We'll have to wait until 2090 and watch the next one with her. (She might have to hold me up as I will be 138 by then.)

Damned Poultry

 The early part of the morning followed its usual path. Coffee and tea were consumed, breakfast was eaten, and we made ourselves ready to address the day.

I updated the accounts, and then we drove into the village so that Di could return some packages, post some letters, and collect her meds. Once home, I waded through a small pile of ironing. It was during this exercise that Zoe and Ellie dropped by. Ellie had a few marks which she put down to mosquito bites and also a sore arm that she put down to all of the cartwheels she had been turning. Zoe had arranged an appointment at the doctor's.

After lunch, we sat in the cool of the living room and enjoyed some Kindle-time. It was during this that Zoe phoned. It turned out that Ellie had a dose of chickenpox and was feeling particularly sorry for herself (as you would expect). At least she has a couple of weeks to get over it before returning to school. In the meantime, we can play "join the dots" on Ellie's tummy!

We are due to go away later in the week. We are staying in the New Forest - if we can get there. This week's dreadful heathland fires are blocking many of the obvious routes to our destination. It is pointless trying to second-guess what will happen over the next couple of days, but hopefully the Fire Brigade will manage to get things under control.

In and Out and Celebrate

 Today has been a bit of a yo-yo. We were up and about soon after seven, and the day started in its normal fashion. (I am assuming, here, that taking Jasper to the vet is a normal exercise, now!) We got him to the vet in time for his 10:00 appointment, but he wasn't seen until 10:30, by which time he was getting somewhat stressed. He seems to have stabilised after his recent troubles and isn't now due back until next month.

Back home, we cracked on with various domestic activities and even managed some Kindle time. Mid-afternoon, however, we were back in the car and heading for Chichester. Di had her appointment with the surgeon to review her progress. The appointment went well. He was delighted with her progress and signed her off. She was told the joint would continue to improve for the next 6-8 weeks, and then more slowly for the next 18 months. After that, it will be as good as it will get. His comment was that she can now do anything she feels comfortable with, and that there will be days when it aches because she has pushed too far, but not to worry that she has done or could do any damage. This was excellent news, and we are delighted with the outcome.

Today was also Zoe's birthday. She's changed a bit over the years!

Kim had been round to see her during the day, and they went out with Ellie and Poppy to Hotham Park.

We met up in the early evening and took them to Fino's in Felpham. We had a lovely meal, with Di choosing the Lasagne while I chose a Tagliata (beef slices on a salad).

Everyone dined well, and we had a lovely time. We took the birthday girl home just after eight.

Early Celebration

I was up at 6:30 and had a quiet hour or so with the overnight news and social media. Once we were both up and about and breakfast was finished, I returned to my study to complete the analysis of all of the photos in the photo library. Because of the sheer scale of this, I broke the task into 17 separate chunks, each handling a range of years. It took an hour or so, but eventually the whole library was processed, and I had a series of summary files holding the details. With that done, I shut down the iMac for the day.

Tomorrow is Zoe's birthday, so today we had invited her and Ellie, and Kim and Jon to lunch. As Ellie had her friend Poppy staying, Poppy came along as well. We had a pseudo-BBQ planned. We no longer have a BBQ as such, but we had bought the usual suspects (burgers, sausages and chicken drumsticks) and I was going to prepare them in the oven. I started by drying off the chicken drumsticks and tossing them in a bit of baking powder, then mixed them with a tablespoon of vegetable oil, and dusted them with paprika and garlic powder. Forty minutes in a 200C oven did the job nicely. With the chicken done, I then set about the rest of the meat (and also prepared a sirloin steak for Di, who doesn't like BBQ).

The family all arrived, and we chatted over a glass of Prosecco while setting out the table. The whole event was very casual (as befits a BBQ). Some sat inside, and several of us sat on the patio. We all drifted in and out of the next couple of hours. Kim had made a lemon drizzle cake, which was decorated with candles and brought out for the birthday girl. As it happened, the wind blew the candles out before Zoe got to them - but the thought was there. We even sang "Happy Birthday".

Everyone left soon after 16:00, and after a bit of tidying up, we settled for some Kindle-time while the dishwasher did the bulk of the work.

Not quite

 I was up just after 6:30. I snuck downstairs because Di was still out for the count. I grabbed a coffee and started looking through the news. I was interested in a piece about how Sweden had reduced their influx of illegal immigrants, and another on the folly of the current PM's council house building schemes. These, I thought, would provide grist for the mill when it came to the call with the cousins. As it happened, however, it wasn't up to me to wind up Tim; his brother Chris lit his blue (or should it be red) touchpaper, and we all sat there chuckling while he went off on a predictable diatribe.

Once the call was over, I went to Zoe's to have a look at the progress that was being made on the landscaping, and to retrieve our sack barrow. I must say the garden is looking very smart, even if the slabs have just been positioned directly on the earth for now. They will have to be taken back up so that the hardcore can be put down and tamped.

When I arrived home with the sack barrow, I shifted a couple of large pots that Di wanted relocated. Once that was done, I returned to my little project. I soon discovered another anomaly that meant I had to make a small change to the program I thought I had finished yesterday. It was not quite right. It now seems to be working as required, and I have spent the rest of the day developing the second program in this suite of utilities. This program has come on very well, and I must now knuckle down on the last points of the design.

Di spent the afternoon pottering in the garden. (It's a good job we had raised beds installed when we had the garden landscaped.)

Cracked it - I think

It was Boeing Time before I got up (7:07) and went down for my coffee and to make Di a tea. The first part of the morning followed the usual pattern. As I finished my breakfast, I completed the shopping list ready for a raid on Sainsbury's.

We stopped off at the local doctor's surgery on the way to Sainsbury's, but were pleased to see that the shop looked quiet (judging by the car park). We wandered around the store, slowly but surely, filling the trolley. We have a BBQ-style lunch planned for Sunday (and Zoe's birthday). This meant getting a whole lot of stuff that we don't usually consider. We don't even have a BBQ any more, so we'll have to cook it all in the oven.

The shopping trip didn't take too long, but it took nearly as long again to stow everything away. Once that was done and I had made us some tea, we settled down for some admin. Di completed hers and was invited over to Zoe's to see the progress being made on her garden redesign. I stayed at home and finished the program that I have been writing for the last week or so. I then moved on to the next program, which will process some of the information captured by the first one. This took me the rest of the afternoon, and I still have a way to go. I am pleased, however, that I have learnt so much during this exercise. I'm sure it will prove useful in the future for other projects.

Once Di returned home (suitably impressed), I started preparing dinner. Tonight it was freshly made mixed salad with chicken Kyiv.

Out, out

 We had a normal start to the day. We are nothing if not consistent. We got on with a few domestic chores first thing, but there was no need to overdo it!

Mid-morning we launched ourselves onto the highways. The first stop was the vet's, where we had to collect some meds for Jasper. Then, much to the surprise of the car, we didn't head back home (it was, after all, getting used to the journey to the vet). Instead, we drove up through the Downs and up to Milford. We were heading for "The Refectory", where we were meeting with Jane and Trevor.

We arrived a bit early, but by the time we had used the facilities, J&T had arrived, and we settled down for a coffee. We then made our way to our table for lunch. Di chose the steak sandwich, and I had a southern fried chicken burger. With the decisions made, we got on with the important stuff - family news, general gossip, health, and Jane's proposed switch to an iPhone. In this last case, one of the things she was worried about was moving her notes from the Samsung to a new phone. I used this as an example of how Gemini (AI) could be useful, and asked it for suggestions as to how this could be achieved. It came back with a clear set of options, which I forwarded to Trevor. We had a lovely few hours chatting before saying our goodbyes and heading home.

We had a good run back and settled down for a quiet evening. Zoe called, just as I was shutting the laptop. Had we got a sack barrow? Well, of course. Could she borrow it? Well, of course. Could I take it round? Well, I did, and it gave me a chance to look at the progress in the back garden. I offered some encouragement and a few words of advice and then left her and Hannah to it. I think it will look very good when it is finished.

Another Quiet Day

 Seven seems to be the optimum time for starting the day at present. That's not to say that I wouldn't readily sleep for longer; it is more a case of my body bursting into life according to its own clock. After coffee, tea, and breakfast, I set about the family accounts before getting stuck into a surprisingly small pile of ironing.

I pottered for a bit before returning to my coding exercise. This, effectively, consumed the rest of the day. I am pleased to say that it seems to be remarkably robust. I still have a couple of small changes to make before moving on to start a companion program that will take the output from the first and use it to inform the Immich photo library.

Di has been working on the exercises recommended by her physio while awaiting a call from the vet, which at the time of writing hasn't occurred.

Round the corner, Hannah has started on Zoe's back garden. We await the finished article with interest.

More of the same

 There is very little to report. I was awake at 2:30 when our neighbours loaded the car to set off to the airport, but soon dropped back off to sleep. We were both up and about around seven-ish and enjoyed a quiet breakfast as we drank our morning beverages and read the overnight news.

Mid-morning, like yesterday, meant a trip to the vet. Jasper was booked in for some grooming and to have his blood pressure checked. I took my Kindle along and sat in the waiting room - my role is purely chauffeur and sherpa. Jasper is clearly not himself, so Diane is keen to get to the bottom of matters.

Back home, we called Zoe to inform her about Jasper, and she told us about the patio slabs that had just been delivered for her garden. Hannah, from Muddy Boots, is hoping to get started on the landscaping this evening.

After lunch, Di went up to rest (she hadn't slept well last night). I stayed downstairs and continued with my coding project. This consumed the rest of the afternoon. There is, of course, plenty more to do.

Bloods

We were up at the usual time... around seven-ish. It was clearly going to be a glorious day again. I really could get used to summers like this. It's very much like summer in and around Poughkeepsie.  We had the usual quiet breakfast and got on with some domestic chores.

Jasper hasn't been his usual self, and Di had managed to get an appointment at the Vet. We swept him up and put him in the carrier, then headed across to Oving. I helped carry him into the consulting room and left Di and the vet to it. They were there for a good 25 minutes, and various tests and blood tests were done. We are due back tomorrow for the results (and a bit of grooming). He has been very lethargic since we got home and really isn't eating the way he normally does.

Once home, I went off to the village to get some cash and to get my haircut. There was a new barber on duty when I arrived, and he gave me a fairly severe treatment. I'm sure it will grow back eventually! I wandered back home afterwards, having thoroughly enjoyed the first proper walk for a month or so.

I spent the afternoon writing and testing code. This always makes me feel great, even if I still have a long way to go until it is finished. Having dropped the manuals into Gemini-LM, I must say that the ability to ask AI how to do something is saving me heaps of time wading through the manuals.

Just Chilling

 Another day, another day off. I was up by seven and consumed my morning coffee and the overnight news before Di came down. She was a bit stiff after spending too much time on her feet pottering around yesterday.

Once breakfast was out of the way, I stripped the table and reduced it to normal size. We didn't put the protective cover on as Di had decided to give it a coat of wax. Meanwhile, I sorted out the bins and then attacked the top oven. It has been a while since we last cleaned it (though we don't use it much), and it was time! I stripped out the shelving and then coated the interior with oven cleaner. I dropped the shelves in the sink with a dishwasher tablet and some hot water and then left them while I went to do some coding. By the time I came back, the shelves just needed a wipe, and they were clean. The chemicals in the oven would take longer, so I returned to my coding for a couple of hours.

While I was tapping away at the keyboard, Di did some more on her Book Nook. It is coming along nicely, and makes a change from the Kindle.

I prepared a pork roast for dinner, with some lovely crackling. We have enough left for me to use for dinner on Tuesday evening.

The Long Bank Holiday

 There was no hurry this morning, but we were up at more or less the same time as usual. I guess that once you reach a certain age, the body clock is in full control. We had visitors due for lunch, so we spent the morning preparing. 

Denise and Becky were joining us to celebrate Denise's retirement. She has now joined us in the "Every Day is a Bank Holiday" club. Her firm had given her a wonderful send-off to end one era, and she was coming to us to celebrate the start of the new era. Zoe and Ellie came round to join us, and Kim stopped in for a while.

We had a lovely time chatting when everyone first arrived. I, meanwhile, finished preparing lunch. For Di, it was salmon with salad, but for the rest of us, I prepared a chicken Bhuna curry, with rice and naan bread.

I was worried that I had over-catered, but need not have been concerned; everything went.

After lunch we sat around chatting some more and Denise grabbed her laptop so that I could help her set up some software on it. We also helped set up her new iPhone (though that was predominantly Becky and Zoe).

Now that Denise has retired, we hope we'll see a lot more of her, and it was a shame to see them leave early evening. We were soon on our own again, and finished the clear-up (though, to be fair, Zoe did a lot of the after-lunch clear-up). 

It was a lovely day, and it's been a quiet evening.

Physio

 We were both up around seven-ish. Coffee was made, and tea was brewed; then we sat down to absorb the overnight news and prepare for the day. When breakfast was done, there were some domestic chores to clear, and I had to look at the tumble dryer, which didn't seem to be heating up. I rooted around, cleaned the heat exchanger, and scratched my head. That seemed to do the trick, as a test load was suitably warm when the cycle finished. We will have to keep an eye on this.

I returned to my coding project, and during the remainder of the morning I managed to solve several problems that had been left overnight. Early in the afternoon, I moved it forward some more but still have some structural changes to make either this evening or at the weekend. Once they are sorted, I should be on the final leg for this program. There will, however, be a subsequent program that processes the analysis completed by the first program.

Mid-afternoon, I drove Di to Chichester for her physio session. She is doing very well, and the physio has told her that she is ahead of the "gold standard". She doesn't need to return for 4 weeks, but has been given the go-ahead to return to the Cardiac Rehab sessions if she so wishes.

Detour

We had another gentle start to the day. Being Thursday, shopping was on the schedule, and Di was eager to come along, so she was up fairly early, too. I had charged the car overnight (the first time for nearly 3 weeks), so as soon as I was dressed, I unplugged the charger and ran my analysis program against the stats. We are still paying about 2p per mile, and over the life of the car we have averaged 3.7 miles/kWh.

Lottie arrived just as we were about to leave for the shopping. We had a brief chat and then buzzed across to Sainsbury's. We arrived just as the corpse bus arrived and deposited the Zombies at the door. What joy! We were in the store for an hour or so, being caught by some neighbours who wanted a chat. When we escaped, we managed to complete the list moderately quickly.

Once home, we unpacked, had a cup of tea and then set about some lunch. I then spent the afternoon back at the codeface. As I explained yesterday, I had defined a massive detour in my original thinking and today was spent working it through. Meanwhile, Di had some Kindle time, but I spent the time coding up until it was time to prepare dinner.

Dinner guest

I had a gentle start to the day. There was no train to catch, there was no commute, there were no conference calls, and I didn't have to prepare a presentation. I have retired, and despite still having work dreams, I am still not in the slightest bit interested in going back... besides which, the current government would take most of what I earn and spaff it up the wall on ridiculous ideas, or lazy people, instead of spending it wisely.

After breakfast, I worked my way through the pile of clothing that required ironing. It didn't take me too long, but it was good to see the pile disappear. I also sent some legal documents off (electronically), so that our kids will be protected, as much as possible, from various taxes that the government have in mind.

Most of the rest of the day was spent working on my program to analyse the photo library. ~A huge amount of progress was made, but then I had one of those Eureka moments when I asked myself if I was approaching the problem the right way. I soon decided that I wasn't, and thus I have a lot of work building up for tomorrow.

I had bought some family-sized Turner's Pies on Monday, while in Chichester. As Zoe is home alone this week (with Ellie in Somerset with Pete), we asked her round for dinner. I prepared the chicken and ham pie with some roast potatoes and honey-roasted parsnips. We had a lovely dinner and a long chat before she headed home.

Jabs

 I was up about seven and made our morning tea and coffee while disposing of the overnight package that Jasper kindly left for me. We had a quiet breakfast before I delved into some domestic chores.

Mid-morning, I took Jasper and Di to the Vet. I would add that the treatment was for Jasper, not Di. He had his monthly arthritis jab, and I took him back to the car while Di sorted out the fees and future appointments.

Back home, after a cup of tea, I returned to my code. This, with several interruptions, took most of the rest of the day. I did, however, manage to extract the data for which I was searching. I also refined the code several times. I must say that I am rather pleased with the way it is working out. I think that in another day or so, I should have the full analysis of the photo library in place. I then have to decide what I will do with that information.

I managed a bit of Kindle time before starting on dinner. I may do some more coding this evening.

Fill in the blanks

 I was up soon after 6:30 but spent the next ten minutes clearing up after Jasper had left me an overnight parcel. It's such a lovely way to start the day! I made some tea for Di and one for me. As I was due at the dentist, I didn't want to present with coffee breath.

Never being too certain of the Chichester traffic, I arrived earlier than necessary and sat with my Kindle until Magda was ready for me. Today's adventure was to be on the receiving end of a replacement filling after I lost a large one back in January. I settled down, ready for the torture to begin. She gave me an injection, which I didn't feel. Within a minute or so, she started drilling away. I could hear it, but did not feel a thing. The old tooth was rebuilt, and I was dismissed. I had not felt a thing. I was deeply impressed (and thankful).

Leaving the dentist, I stopped off at Turner's Pies for a couple to put in the freezer. Then, I diverted to Aldi on the way home. The objective was to see if they had a good selection of wholemeal sourdough bread. It may have been advertised on their website, but it certainly wasn't available in our store. I later stopped into Sainsbury's for some freeer bags large enough for the Turner's Pies.

Back home (finally, with a coffee inside me), I returned to my study and the experiments I have been doing with the photo library. I realised that if I was about to scan the whole library, there may be other things I should check as I traversed the photographic history. The test code I wrote yesterday was adapted, and further aspects of the library were extracted so they could be tested and changed where necessary. Once I was happy with the concept, I left it. I will return during the week.

We managed some Kindle time during the afternoon, though not as much as I would have liked.

Incidentally, Ellie has gone away with Pete to Burnham-on-Sea for the week. With her new phone, we are getting plenty of updates and chatty phone calls.

Small Successes

 I woke up at seven, only to find that I had missed about a dozen messages from Ellie on her new phone. She had been begging for extra time on various apps (which we limit) but had forgotten that all my devices go into sleep mode at 22:00. She'll learn.

Once the leisurely breakfast was over, I decided to try a new toy and went to wash the car with a cordless power washer, which gets its water from a bucket. (This would be a useful feature if we had a hosepipe ban - but we don't). Having rinsed the car well, I then attacked it with a snow foam and left it to slump off before rinsing the car. I deliberately did no more than that, just to see how well it worked as a concept. I must say I was very impressed (though I really should go back and redo the roof).

After that, I spent some time in the study looking at the long-term feasibility of Immich as a replacement for Adobe Lightroom. The biggest question mark hung over the facial recognition. I have spent years trying to get that under control in Lightroom. Could this be migrated to Immich? Well, after a lot of research, the answer is yes. The details are stored, not in Lightroom, but in the photo's metadata. This isn't recognised or used by Immich, but with help from ChatGPT, I managed to import that data. Now, in the case of a couple of test photos, that's all well and good, but for 80-90,000 photos, that will need to be automated. I can feel some coding coming on!

I spent some time in the garden. We have a large circular table with a glass top over the woven tabletop. Something has hit this glass, and it has shattered into millions of pieces. (It was laminated glass.) I made a concerted effort to shovel up all of the shards and dump them into sturdy cardboard boxes for disposal. I suspect we will be finding more shards forever, but the bulk is cleaned up.

A quiet evening is planned... dentist in the morning!

Playing

 I was up soon after seven. Yes, I admit it. I was lazy. I sorted out some tea for Diane and settled down with a coffee and the overnight news. When Di came down (a coffee was ready for her), I went up to shower and dress before the usual call with my cousins.

After the call, I settled down to experiment. ChatGPT held my hand as I installed Docker Desktop on the iMac, and then we spent a couple of hours (or so) installing Immich in the Docker container. Immich is an open-source (free) photo library manager. In the work that I am doing to ensure my family have everything they need to know when I have gone, I realised that the current "Adobe Lightroom" is a monthly expense they don't really need. So I asked what the alternatives might be. Immich came out as the best alternative. With Docker ready to receive Immich, I paused.

Zoe came round. She had bought Ellie a new iPhone and wanted me to put a screen protector on. We sat and chatted as I sorted out the protector. We also added WhatsApp and made sure that the "Find My" location app allowed us to see where Ellie was. It took a bit longer than we had expected, but once it was done, Zoe took the new phone across to Ellie (as she is going away with Pete for the next week).

I returned to Immich. It took most of the afternoon to install and test each feature. Eventually, it was in total control of a test folder filled with random photos and videos from the last 10 years. It's not perfect, but it is pretty close to it. If only it would import the facial recognition data from Adobe Lightroom. I have left that as a challenge for ChatGPT to solve (even though I expect I will have to write some code if we decide it is feasible). I want to solve as many problems as possible before I let it loose on my full photo library of nearly 90,000 photos and videos.

Physio

 I was up early again. In fact, I'm beginning to admit that this is not early; it is my usual time. So it was that soon after 6:30, I was making coffee and tea and preparing to read the overnight news. By 7:30, Di too was up and about. After a lengthy breakfast, we moved into the day.

I had a few minor domestic chores to complete (most involved cleaning up after Jasper). Once that was out of the way, I returned to my estate planning. This is moving towards completion, but it is also flagging areas where there are alternative approaches to my current strategies. I will have to examine these in detail, with an eye to the future and how I should optimise things for Diane and the girls.

This afternoon, we had to go into Chichester for Di's Physio appointment. He is very impressed with her progress and said that she is well ahead of expectations in terms of recovery. I am not, in the slightest, surprised.

When we got back from physio, we had a quiet hour with our Kindles before I started on dinner.

Construction

 I was up early again. I was greeted by an overnight package from Jasper that needed immediate attention, but I could then make some coffee and tea. Having finished her tea, Di pottered downstairs at about 7:30, and I set about my morning ablutions and made breakfast.

I drove around to Sainsbury's just after 9:00 and had a really pleasant shopping experience. The shop was fairly empty, and I could whizz about without let or hindrance. I seemed to be home and unloading in no time.

I managed to get some more of my "estate planning" document completed, but have a lot still to do.

Kim popped in to see us during the morning, and we had a lovely chat. I was able to explain the Probate Trust to her (as she will be one of the trustees). She's currently working one night a week at the hostel for disturbed young adults. Listening to her tales, she is certainly having some challenges.

We managed some Kindle time after lunch, then Di returned to the construction of the Book Nook. Progress is slow, but it's steady, and it is already looking really good.

I suspect there are several more hours of work over the next few days to get it finished.

Strolling

 I was awake early, so I snuck downstairs for a coffee and to read the news. Di wandered down an hour or so later, and we had a quiet hour or so with our breakfast.

This morning focused on household chores. There was ironing to clear (including the covers for our duvet)  and a couple of large loads of laundry.  When all of the chores were done, I returned to my "estate planning", which I dip into several times a day at present.

After lunch, we went for a walk. Each day we try to add a few hundred metres to yesterday's route. Today Diane managed 1.2 km, and we will probably repeat this later.

We had some Kindle time during the afternoon, then I returned to my documentation, and Di started to build her "Book Nook".

Clever

 It was a gentle start to the day. It was gone seven before I wandered downstairs for my first coffee of the day. An hour later, Di came down and the day started for real.

Once news and social media had been consumed (along with breakfast), I got on with some laundry, then took Di for a walk. We extended yesterday's route and planned to follow it again later. Once home, I dug into the admin. I had received several documents from a legal company. These included our draft Wills and a Probate Trust. I had to review these and will have to get back to them in the next few days. The complexity of the documents was such that I was having difficulty assuring myself that I understood the implications. I phoned the company to ask some questions, then I loaded the documents in Gemini-NotebookLm and asked it to create a mind map and an overview video.  It did a splendid job, and really got to the heart of the documents. I was most impressed.

We had some Kindle time during the afternoon, as you would expect.

Other than that, there is little else to report.

Satisfactory

That was a very satisfactory weekend, football-wise. Firstly, the England team beat France 6-4, achieving the bronze position in the World Cup. This game was played in a great spirit of fair play and competitiveness. At the end, the players all shook hands and had a chat. Perfect. Then last night, Spain beat the thugs and cheats from Argentina and were rightly crowned the World Champions. They were certainly the best team that I saw throughout the tournament. Somehow they managed to maintain their cool in the face of sheer thuggery and cheating from the opposition. At the end, the Argentine team embarrassed themselves even further by attacking the Spanish in what was nothing less than a brawl. Despite this, fair play won. The contempt in which I hold Argentina has reached a new level which I believe will never be equalled.

Back on earth, it has been a quiet day. During the morning, I popped to Sainsbury's to pick up some items that were not available (due to freezer problems) last week. Once back home, I went for a walk with Diane. We had extended our recent route, doubling the distance. She managed it without incident, and we plan to repeat this during the evening.

Chris, our neighbour who has been so unwell, went to collect some softener salt. He offered to collect some for us at the same time. I asked for a bundle of six, which he duly delivered, and we all stood outside chatting as I carried the salt through to the Orangery. We have resolved to go out for lunch some time in the next couple of weeks.

Di went to rest and do her exercises on the bed after lunch. I sat in the lounge with my Kindle and delved further into my current book.

We've had dinner now, and a short walk beckons.

Oh Yes!

 After last night's late night, watching England beat France 6-4 in the third-place play-off of the World Cup, I had a lazy start to the day. It was nearly 07:30 before I rose to greet the day. Coffee was brewed, and tea was made for Diane. There was nothing specific on the agenda; we could just float on the whims of our imagination for the day.

Once Di was up and about, and breakfast was cleared away, we went for a walk. We didn't go too far, but it gave Di the opportunity to stretch her knee and build up some resilience. 

Between various chores (and the walk with Di), I was working on a document with a working title of "Oh dear, I'm Dead". This is meant to provide all of the information that will be needed when I shuffle off this mortal coil. It is based loosely on several commercial templates which suggest the sort of things that will make life easier for nearest and dearest when the time comes. I seem to be making good progress, but there is still a way to go.

We had some Kindle time in the Orangery today. It was the first time that the temperature has been comfortable for several weeks.

Nothing to report

It has been a quiet and uneventful day. I was up just before seven and greeted by a package that Jasper had delivered in his litter tray. This, I thought, did not bode well for the day ahead. Having cleared up, I made tea for Diane and coffee for myself before wading through the overnight news.

I joined the weekly Zoom call with the Empson cousins. There was little worthy of comment.

The rest of the morning was occupied with minor domestic chores and an initial attempt to sort out the garden table. I should explain. We have a circular garden table with a glass top on the woven table top. In the last week or so, something has hit this glass, or the parasol has been shifted by the recent high winds, and the circular glass top has shattered. Being laminated glass, it has shattered into a million pieces, though many are still slightly connected by the lamination. Now that I had found a suitable, sturdy box, I began collecting the broken glass. After an hour or so, the box was full, but the glass tabletop was still 80% shattered and in situ when the box was full. When I have found a suitably sturdy box, I will continue this,

We had some Kindle time during the afternoon and plan to watch the 4th-4th place play-offs in the World Cup this evening.

End of Term

I was up early to greet Ellie on the last day of term, and her last day in Year 4. She burst through the door at 6:35, already dressed and well-pumped for the last day. She was an absolute pleasure for the next couple of hours. We headed for school, clutching the bags with the presents that Zoe had collected from the other parents. Mrs Reynold was retiring, and the parents decided a joint gift would be better than loads of individual gifts. Kelly, one of the other mums, organised and collected the donations, then gave them to Zoe to sort out. She, in turn, got a voucher for afternoon tea at The Ivy, and a collection of gifts for the garden (which is one of Mrs Reynolds' passions). I carried the gifts to school, and we presented them when the classroom doors opened.

Back home, I grabbed some breakfast, then did a few minor household chores. I headed back to Sainsbury's for a couple of things I couldn't find yesterday, and picked up Di's meds from the pharmacy in the village. Once home, the rest of the morning was quiet.

After lunch, there was Kindle time for me, though Di headed upstairs to do her exercises on the bed. I tried to sneak out quietly to go to the school for Ellie's last few moments in Year 4; Zoe managed to get there with a few seconds to spare, so Ellie was delighted that Mummy had been there to collect her. Ellie is off to Pete's for the next couple of weeks, so I said my goodbyes and left her to go home with Zoe.

I think it will be a quiet evening.

Disappointment

I was up well before seven, and Di wasn't far behind me. She had her regular INR blood test to complete first thing. I walked to Zoe's for the school run. Poppy had slept over last night so that the girls could watch the football. I asked them if they had enjoyed the game, and they both said no. Well, that's hardly surprising. Having exposed the Argentine weaknesses down the wings, we finally scored, and then, stupidly, decided to take off one of the wingers and replace him with a defender. Has nobody ever heard that the best form of defence is attack? As soon as that change was made, I knew the eventual outcome.

I took the girls to school, then headed home for breakfast and to prepare for the usual shopping trip. I had to drop Di at the hairdresser's first, but then went on to Sainsbury's. I completed the shop, headed home and stowed all of the shopping away. As I finished, Di phoned to say she was ready for collection. Perfectly timed.

Back home, we tormented Lottie for a while, until she left, and then settled down for a cup of tea and some lunch. Early afternoon was spent with our Kindles before I had to go and collect Ellie from school.

Ellie is back home with Zoe now, and we have a quiet evening planned.

Nada

 I have almost nothing to report. It was a quiet start to the day at 6:30; by 08:00, Di was up and about, and I had showered and dressed. I walked to Zoe's and took Ellie to school. Today, she wanted me to come in with her. The kids (including Ellie) were all dressed in England football kits. Two kids turned up in Argentina kits and were chased around the school until the doors opened.

Back home, there was little or nothing to report. I used the time to write some code while Di went to shower and dress.

The afternoon saw the usual Kindle time until I had to collect Ellie from after-school football. She was with us for about an hour before Zoe collected her.

We are preparing for the England / Argentina semi-final of the World Cup. I only hope it turns out to be a great game that does the team proud (win or lose). I thought the Spain team from last night was simply breathtaking. Whoever wins tonight will have their work cut out against Spain.

Pressing Engagement

I was awake early. In fact, by 6:00, I was getting fidgety, so I got up and went downstairs for a coffee. It was a further 2 hours before Diane stirred. I just had time to perform my ablutions and dress in time to walk to Zoe's and escort Ellie to school.

Back home, I grabbed my usual breakfast of porridge, a banana, and coffee and then, set up for the day, I set about a pile of ironing. This took a couple of hours, but it is always satisfying to see the pile of freshly pressed clothes growing by the side of the ironing board.

The rest of the day has been remarkably quiet. I spent some time learning a new technique on one of my computers, and spent some Kindle time until I had to leave to collect Ellie. As Zoe had a day off, she was there at the school gates, and when we had collected Ellie, I headed back home as they set of to their house.

We've just finished a light dinner, and plan to watch the World Cup semi-final between Spain and France during the evening. I'm looking forward to this game as I have no particular favourite, and so I can watch the game and just enjoy the spectacle without the stress of supporting one of the teams.

Just a typical day

I was up early to greet Elie when she was dropped off at 06:30. She was awake and wanted a cuddle, but then headed upstairs to get into bed with Nana. She went back to sleep, and it wasn't until I went to wash and dress at 7:30 that she woke up and went down for breakfast.  An hour later, I walked her into school as usual and then returned home for breakfast,

We had a couple of loads of washing during the morning, and these needed to be dried. I, meanwhile, got on with some admin. I had to update the accounts, then contact Allianz regarding our travel insurance. I was concerned that the travel insurance would go up significantly after Di's knee surgery. As it happened, there was no additional cost. In fact, the overall cost of travel insurance, including our age supplements and DI's medical history, was exactly the same as last year - to the penny!

After lunch, and a quiet hour, I collect Ellie from school. We hot-footted it home, then grabbed a snack (that I had already prepared) and headed into Chichester for her last appointment with the counsellor. Traffic in Chichester was dreadful, but we managed to arrive within 60 seconds of the appointment time.

I dropped Ellie back at Zoe's and then headed home. Di was chatting to Denise on the phone, and when they had finished, I made some chicken and prawns in red wine and tomato sauce on tagliatelle. We now have a quiet evening planned.

Gardener's World

Despite the very late night, I was up (thanks to my body clock) before seven this morning. I took Di a cup of tea and settled down with a coffee and the overnight news. ~Di emerged before eight, which seemed pointless, but her body clock is as accurate as mine!

After breakfast, I returned to my study to look at the results of the synchronisation of my media files overnight. It had not gone well. Instead of copying A to B, it made a new copy of B in A! I spent some time debugging it and tried again. I can now report that all of the files on A have been replicated to B. I now need to tidy up the rogue files copied yesterday.

Whilst all of this was going on, Zoe phoned Di. Hannah, from Muddy Boots, had been round and they had designed Zoe's back garden between them. Di was asked to attend and give her seal of approval. I walked her to Zoe's and left them to it. I had an anomaly in my accounts spreadsheet that I needed to clear.

I waded through all of the statements for this year, eventually finding a payment that I had made, but failed to record. All was correct once that was in the spreadsheet. ( I used the CoPilot AI features of Excel; I asked it to create a table from the separate sheets, recording each month of the year. It needed to show certain columns, but only if they were not empty. It worked brilliantly and made the cross-referencing with the statements so much easier). 

By the time I had finished, Diane was ready to come home, so I walked around the corner to collect her. They had tweaked the original plan, and were quite excited by what they had come up with. Hannah is hoping to get started in the next few weeks.

We have had a quiet afternoon (well, as quiet as it can be with Jasper in full voice). Dinner is now done, and we are preparing to settle for the evening.

Whew

 We had a gentle start this morning. The first thing of note was my call with the cousins and the tales from Down Under regarding Sarah's broken shoulder and hospitalisation, and Rolly's wife, Helen's, gallstones. It seems that I am not the only one touring local hospitals this year.

I spent a while in the study, working on my storage rationalisation. Whilst I found it interesting, nobody else would care, so I'll move on.

Di had a long chat with Jane, catching up on all of the gossip after their holiday in Portugal.

After dinner, we watched a film on TV up until the World Cup quarter-final between Norway and England. It didn't kick off until 22:00, and with extra time, it ran on into the early hours. Like so many England games, it was torture to watch. Though we won 1-2, I agree with the manager that we were lucky and just not good enough.

Reports

 We had another quiet morning where I could take my time and stroll to Zoe's just in time to walk Ellie to school. She was full of the joys of spring (summer) and charged into school, having dismissed me at the gate.

I cleared some domestic chores before we had to leave to take Diane for her first post-Op physio appointment. I was a little concerned about the traffic, being the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend, but we were going against the traffic and had no problems. We sat and waited in the cafe area of the Nuffield Health Centre until Dean turned up. He whisked Di away, and I sat and read my Kindle. About 45 minutes later, they returned. He was delighted with how well she was doing, and it was clear she was well ahead of where he had expected her to be. She was already doing some of the advanced exercises that he would not have expected. She still has to use her crutches when out and about, but can ignore them when pottering around the house. She was very relieved, and I was not in the slightest surprised.

Back home, I returned to my storage rationalisation. I have now changed all but two of the Raspberry Pis to use the new storage for their code libraries. I may take this further over the coming weeks.

I collected Ellie from school. She came out of class clutching her report card. When Zoe arrived to collect her, she opened up the report and read out the highlights. Ellie is doing brilliantly in so many different aspects of her lessons, scoring "1" (the highest) in several of the subjects and behaviours. Best still, she scored 100% in her Maths. We are so proud of her.

We had a quiet evening and watched the Spain / Belgium game from the World Cup. I think it was the best game we have seen so far.

Perambulating

 It was another glorious start to the day. Zoe had a day off, so there was no hurry to get going. I did wander around in time to conduct the morning walk to school, however.

The morning followed a typical Thursday pattern, in that I had to raid Sainsbury's. I was a bit earlier than usual, which meant that I was in and out before the delivery of zombies. The local roadworks that have (and continue) to plague us have moved to the next section of road. This means that we can now get in and out of the estate via the main spine road, and turn left towards Bognor Regis. This makes the trip to Sainsbury's a lot quicker than the diversion we have had to use for the last few weeks.

Once the shopping was tucked away, Di went to do her exercises, and I returned to the job of rationalising my data storage. I did some experimenting and believe I may have come up with the ideal solution. Whilst it has worked perfectly, I will return to this tomorrow as I think it is very elegant.

I didn't have to collect Ellie from school, as Zoe was available. I did, however, take Di for several laps of the Italian Gardens. She was fair galloping around as she becomes more mobile and more confident.

More... you want more!

 Ellie was dropped off at 6:30. She had a lot more sparkle than yesterday morning, and we embarked on a couple of hours of general chat while she was fed and she prepared for school. She had decided that, as she had an evening performance of the school production, she wouldn't go to the after-school girls' football club. By the time we left for school, she had changed her mind.

After breakfast, I got on with various domestic chores, filling the washing line with a couple of loads from the machine. Once the chores were finished, I returned to my study to continue with the implementation of the new NAS drive. I had a couple of outstanding problems with the way in which my backup was using it, but after a short bit of bug hunting, everything burst into life. It will now probably take about 24 hours to populate the drive from other backups.

I took Di for several laps of the Italian Gardens. Her walking is getting better every time we go out. She wanted to get this walk in before she removed the last of the wound dressings. When we got home, she removed the dressing to reveal her scar in all its glory. I think she said that she had counted the sites of 34 staples along its length.

I met up with Zoe outside the school. We had seats in the 2nd row for the performance of "Oliver!". Ellie was one of the street urchins and was on and off the stage throughout the performance. The show was excellent, and it is incredible to think these nine-, ten-, and eleven-year-olds can perform with such accomplishment. Photos and video were taken, but we were asked not to share with Social Media, as parents had not been asked for their consent. Fair enough.

The show finished at 19:20, we collected Ellie from the classroom and headed home. She was absolutely buzzing, and I expect. it took Zoe a while to bring her down so that she could go to sleep.

Storage

Ellie had an early drop-off this morning, though she wasn't awake enough to realise it. She wandered straight upstairs and got into bed with Nana. She was still there when Nana came downstairs, and I had gone up for my shower. She woke up slowly and hadn't really switched her brain on until we arrived at the school gates (where I had to leave her, again).

After breakfast, I got on with some domestic chores to get them out of the way, giving me a fairly clear day. DPD had messaged me to say my packages would be delivered by 10:00, and I wanted to play! Just after the packages arrived, Kim arrived. She had been for some blood tests, and dropped in on the way back. We had a lovely hour or so, chatting and hearing about their recent holiday on the riverside near Ripley. As she has finished University and her various placements until September, we hope to see a lot more of her during the summer... though she is taking on some bank work.

I finished unwrapping my parcels and set up the new NAS device during the afternoon. Having changed the layout of the storage (from the old, failed drive), I spent some time tinkering with the backups so that I could get the most from them and simplify the way in which the storage was laid out. I hadn't finished by the time I had to collect Ellie, so this is something that I will return to tomorrow.

We watched the Argentina / Egypt match from the World Cup. I was sorry to see Egypt lose. They had played so well, and their goals were so well taken.

Dressing

I am really enjoying this lovely sunny weather. Knowing the peculiarities of the UK weather, however, I suspect it will all collapse as the school holidays begin. Zoe had a late start this morning, so I was in no hurry. I wandered around to Zoe's to collect Ellie. I was instructed by Ellie that I should walk her as far as the school gates, but she could then go in by herself. This was to acclimatise us in preparation for next year when she can walk to school by herself! I, of course, did as I was told.

Today was a significant day in Diane's recovery. I took her to the hospital at lunchtime so that they could remove her main dressing and the staples stitching the wound together. They then re-dressed the wound with a smaller, more flexible dressing. It didn't take long, and she was walking a lot better as soon as she came out.

We had a quiet hour or so before I collected Ellie and took her into Chichester for her regular appointment.

Come the evening, we watched the highlights from the England / Mexico football game last night. It was good to see such a significant win. Let's hope the team is finally beginning to tick, but I'm glad I didn't stay up through the night to watch it. Tonight, we are watching the Spain / Portugal game.

Stroller

 We had a very lazy start to the day. The sun was shining, and it was clearly going to be a lovely day. There was nothing specific on the agenda.

I cleared a few domestic chores and popped to Sainsbury's to get some Ibuprofen (just in case), then settled down to take another look at options for replacing the failed backup drive. I dwelt on the options over a couple of hours, and in the end, ordered a new Synology NAS and a Seagate HDD. These should arrive during the coming week.

Di was eager to take a walk, so we wandered around the Italian Gardens a few times. She did very well, but did need to lie down when we got home. We did repeat the walk later in the afternoon. It's good to see her getting about, and to see the swelling going down.

Not much else to report. We won't be staying up to watch the Mexico / England game in the early hours. We are trusting that they can do the job without us yelling at the TV.

Not the Plan

 Well, that wasn't the plan... but we'll come to that in a moment.

Firstly, on this lovely sunny day, I am celebrating the completion of 12 years since I retired. Some may moan about their retirement, but not me. It has been 12 years of joy, family, travel, and generally doing whatever we want. I commend it to the reader.

Now, whilst I didn't have a plan for the day, I certainly was not expecting to spend it the way that I did. I guess I should start at the beginning. On Thursday evening, I developed what seems to be referred to as an "ice-pick" headache. This is a stabbing or shooting pain that lasts for a second or so, but repeats randomly. This lasted all evening and night. Paracetamol did not touch it. On Friday, the pain had gone, and there was no recurrence, even overnight.

This morning the pain started again while I was on my usual Zoom call with the cousins. The frequency had increased to about 13 seconds between "hits". After the call, I went online to 111 and went through their questionnaire. It said I should go to our Urgent Treatment Centre. I was sceptical and chatted with AI. It said I should contact AI and go to my Urgent Treatment Centre. That was unanimous then. I checked Di had everything she needed and headed for St Richard's. I was triaged fairly quickly, then waited to be seen. Several hours later (by which time the pain had gone), I was seen, and after some tests, the doctor suggested a couple of possible causes, but blood tests would be needed to provide some more clarity. A nurse took an armful of blood and sent it to the lab. I went for a walk and grabbed a coffee. The results came through within about 15 minutes. It was, however, a couple of hours before another doctor had the chance to review them with me. Blood tests were all clear. This meant that the most probable diagnosis was Trigeminal or Occipital Neuropathy. A letter was sent to my GP, and I was told to visit the GP if the problem recurred. In the meantime, if Ibuprofen helped, then use that.

I have had a few isolated "hits" since, but it hasn't been too bad. That was six hours that I wouldn't really wish to repeat.

Off duty

 Zoe had a day off today, so Grandpa was off duty. There was no school run, and he didn't have to attend the school sports day. Di and I had a quiet morning. She was able to shower for the first time since the operation, now that the swelling had diminished sufficiently to get the waterproof cover on her leg. I, meanwhile, worked through the pile of ironing and did several loads of washing, making the most of the glorious day to dry everything outside.

Zoe popped in to tell us how well Ellie had done, but reported that her hay fever was playing up and she had come up in a rash on her arm. She was felling decidely sorry for herself.

We had a quiet afternoon. In my case with my Kindle. In Di's case, she did her physio exercises on the bed and then, no doubt, spent some time with her Kindle. She really does seem to be doing well and is now pottering around without the aid of her crutches.

Nine Schools

It was a normal start to the day. It was a little overcast, but that soon burned off. After the statutory teas and coffees were distributed, I wandered to Zoe's to take Ellie to school. Ellie was very excited because she was one of the kids who had been selected to represent the school in an Athletics Meet this afternoon.

Once home, I got on with a few chores before collecting Maureen and setting off for Sainsbury's. (Though Chris is back from hospital, he can't drive yet.) The shopping trip was remarkably quick. We didn't seem to have as much as usual this week. I stopped in to say "Hello" to Chris when I dropped Maureen off with her shopping. He is looking very well, considering the seriousness of his recent episode. He is hoping to be driving (at least for short trips) again next week.

I stowed all of our shopping away and then pottered for a while. After lunch, I managed a quiet hour with the Kindle before getting ready for the afternoon's excitement.

I collected Ellie from school, and we drove across to Felpham. There, on a huge school field, the pupils from 9 junior schools were gathering in their groups. Ellie's school was one of two schools classified as "small". We had arrived early because of the expected traffic. This worked well, but it did mean we had about 45 minutes to wait for the activities to start. Ellie was scheduled to do the (standing) long jump and the relay. This meant a lot of waiting around. (I should mention that there was a very impressive turnout of parents, along to cheer on the children.) It was clear that some of the larger schools had some very fine young athletes. What was nice, however, was the way all the children were cheered on, even those at the back.

Ellie did well in the long jump. There was no official statement by the time we left, but the results were to be sent to the schools. In the relay, she had a lot of ground to make up after the previous runners had dropped several places. Ellie managed to claw those places back and gain another, but the last legs of the race couldn't maintain what she had gained.

It was a lovely couple of hours in the sunshine, and I grabbed an ice cream for her as it all broke up. We were soon home, and now she just has to prepare for tomorrow's Sports Day at school.

Defend for Goodness Sake

July started gently. There was no need to be up at 6:30. I was anyway. I took Di some tea, and slowly the day came together. I wandered around to Zoe's and took ~Ellie in to school. She was particularly chirpy this morning. 

Back home, I grabbed some breakfast and then got on with some domestic chores. (Which reminds me, I think I have a load of washing sitting in the washing machine - I must hang that up). 

Jasper had an appointment at the vet. Di decided to venture out and come along with me, so we all piled into the car and took the furry thing for his monthly jabs and to have some of his matted fur clipped. We were there for about 30 minutes, but he was very calm and quiet. (If only he were like that at home).

When we got back, Di had a chat with our neighbour, Ken, who had also had his knee done. They shared their experiences for a while, but then she came in and went upstairs to rest. I, meanwhile, grabbed the failed irrigation controller and drove to City Irrigation. True to his word, the chap behind the counter examined it, then replaced it with a brand-new device. I soon had re-fitted it and have set up and working.

I picked Ellie up after her school football club and brought her home, only to find that Zoe was already waiting for us. Everybody, it seems, wanted to be home in time to watch the England / DR Congo game from the World Cup. Zoe and Ellie headed home, and we sat down to dinner in front of the TV. The redeeming feature of the game was that England won. They don't, however, make it easy viewing for the fans, and the defence is dreadful. Unless they sort that out, I can't see them progressing much further. 

Viking Raid

 It was a cool start, and there was some early rain. It was all finished within a couple of hours, and it turned into a nice day. Ellie was dropped off a little later than usual. All was fine until she decided she wanted her school skirt rather than her summer dress. Grandpa had to hotfoot it to Zoe's and bring back the aforementioned grey skirt. (He had checked on its whereabouts before leaving). Grandpa brought the skirt back, only to be told it was the wrong one. (Well, actually, it was the only one in the location I had been given.) I was given the silent treatment from then on, until I dropped her at the classroom.

There was a list of chores to clear first thing, but then I took Di along to The Nuffield to have her dressing removed. We were in and out in about 15 minutes. The nurse cut off the bandage that had been applied last week. All looked well on the wound dressing itself. That has to stay in place until early next week.

The rest of the day followed a familiar pattern. Di did her physio exercises, then rested. I grabbed a bite to eat and then spent some time with my Kindle; then I went along to collect Ellie and bring her home. Zoe wasn't far behind, collecting Ellie and all her clothes and school things.

We settled down with some dinner and watched the Norway / Cote d'Ivoire football match from the World Cup. I was delighted to see the Norway team score a late winner.

Cruising

 Di didn't have a good night. She was awake for all but about 3 hours. I did better than that, but not brilliantly. Ellie was being dropped off an hour later than usual, but I was up at the usual time out of habit. The weather was a bit cooler, but it was still a lovely day when we walked to school. She was very excited that they had a rehearsal for the summer production today.

Once home, I got on with some admin after helping Di up the stairs. When she was settled, I popped to Sainsbury's and M&S for some items I couldn't get at the weekend, then stopped off at Chalcroft Nursery. I went to see the guys at City Irrigation and explained that I was having real problems with the irrigation controller. It was eating batteries too quickly, it wouldn't keep time (often drifting by several hours overnight), and wouldn't allow the manual override. He asked when it was installed, and when I told him last October (it was actually September), he told me to bring it in, and he would sort it out or replace it if necessary. That was good news. Later in the afternoon, I disconnected the unit and will take it in to them tomorrow or Wednesday.

We heard from Maureen. Chris had been discharged, and they were just settling down at home. That must be a huge relief for them both. He had been so poorly.

Denise phoned and had a chat with Diane. She and Becky have reviewed the details of the cruise we have booked, and wish to join in. I sent them the details of Sue, who does our bookings, and then phoned Sue to give her a "heads up". Later in the evening I heard from Becky to say it was all in progress.

My saintly sister celebrated her birthday today. Saintly? Well, it is the feast of St Peter and St Paul, and she was born in St John and St Elizabeth's hospital. I hope she had a wonderful day. Trevor sent us a picture from their evening in Portugal, explaining that Jane believed I should have a uniform such as this, when serving tea.

I responded that I did, indeed, have such a uniform. She didn't believe me for some reason and demanded photographic proof.

Proof was provided.

Roaming

 Despite the late night, having watched the England vs Panama World Cup game, I was up early. Jasper was getting noisy and I wanted to distract him and let into the garden, so that Di could rest. She didn't, but she did stay in bed nursing a cup of tea until it was time to come down for her morning injection.

After breakfast, Di went up to complete her physio exercises, and I made myself comfortable in the study. I had some final documentation to complete regrading the latest configuration work. After that, I started to review my backups - after all, with a new configuration, I had a new item to backup. It was while doing this that an amber light illuminated on one of my backup drives. That is not a good sign. It indicates the internal diagnostics have detected problems. As the drives are 10-12 years old, and are never switched off, I can't really complain. I now have to consider the most appropriate replacement. (Fortunately, I do still have two further copies of the data).

During the afternoon, Di wanted to stretch her legs a bit so we took a walk, doing several laps of the Italian garden. She was fairly galloping around. She is doing so well.

I had received a message from Maureen to say there was a parcel by her front door, and could I grab it and hold it for her. When she stopped by on her way home from visiting Chris at the hospital, We invited her in to have dinner with us. She's had a couple of weeks of trekking back and forth to the hospital (she doesn't drive), and I suspect that getting home and then cooking dinner for one can get tiresome. She jumped at the invite and we had a lovely hour or so chatting and joking.

Restocking

 There was some thunder and rain overnight. I didn't hear it, but Di had a disturbed night and was able to report on the overnight weather when I woke up. I went down to make her some tea and to grab my first coffee. I then settled down with the news until she was ready to come downstairs. (I'm happy for her to potter around on her own, but won't allow her to do the stairs with me being present.)

I had my usual call with the cousins. The highlight for me was when Red Tim explained that he had bought an air conditioning unit for £500. He went on to say that it wasn't too expensive when you think he would pay £50 for a good night's sleep, and consequently, it would pay for itself in 3 nights! While you think about the maths behind that statement, I suggested to him that he clearly has the credentials to be our next Chancellor of the Exchequer.

With the call finished, I completed this week's shopping list. Having checked there was nothing Di needed me to do and extracted a promise that she would be sensible in my absence, I collected Maureen and headed for Sainsbury's. (With Chris still being in the hospital, she has no transport, so I offered to take her along when I went.) Despite the horrendous problems that Sainsbury's has had with their freezers and chillers, most things seemed to be back to normal. There was no frozen food (but I didn't need any), but everything else was available. 

I dropped Maureen and her shopping, then went home to unpack and stow all of our stuff. By the time I was finished, it was time to help Diane downstairs for some lunch.

We had a quiet afternoon. Di did her physio exercises, and then chatted with Kim on the phone. I grabbed some Kindle time until it was time to start on dinner.

Dressing

 After another hot and steamy night, I was up at 6:30, ready to enjoy a very cool shower. Once dressed, I made a tea for Diane and sat down with my coffee. She came down in time for her morning injection and a coffee.

As usual, I went to Zoe's to collect Ellie. There was a bit of a panic when Zoe couldn't entice Beau back in the house, so eventually she decided to leave her back door open, knowing that her neighbour was home and would keep an eye on the house. We also checked that the security cameras had the approach covered.

I dropped Ellie off at school and went home for breakfast. My plan was to work through the ironing, but first I had to help Di back upstairs so she could get washed and dressed. It was later in the morning, as I was finishing the ironing, that she called down. There was some seepage from her dressing, and there seemed to be a split in the dressing itself. After a very brief debate, she phoned the hospital, and they made an appointment for her to have it checked, mid-afternoon.

We had some time to kill, so I helped her wash her hair before we grabbed some lunch. When we arrived at the hospital, she was seen almost immediately. The old dressing was removed, everything was checked and given a clean bill, and the wound was redressed with a similar dressing protected with a compression bandage. We have to return on Tuesday for a "wound check".

Back home, Di went upstairs to do her physio exercises and have a rest. Soon after, Kim arrived. She had been to the doctor and was due to return for a test later, so she came to see Mum. She wasn't with her for long as the doctor phoned to bring forward the time of the test. No doubt we'll hear more from her later.

Adjusting

 We slept well last night, despite the heat. I was up soon after 6:30 and took Di a cup of tea. Di was ready to come downstairs at 7:30 as she had to take her morning injection before 8:00. Soon after, I left her when I went to collect Ellie and take her to school. It was remarkable (and rather pathetic) how many parents had decided to keep their kids away from school because of the heat. The absenteeism was so bad that the school have cancelled tomorrow's sports day, even though the temperature is forecast to be in the mid-20s, which is nothing special. The epithet "snowflakes" seems remarkably appropriate at this juncture.

Di went upstairs soon after I returned. Once washed and dressed, she settled on the bed to do her exercises and to stay out of Lottie's way while she cleaned the ground floor. I sorted out a couple of loads of washing and got them out on the line to dry, then settled at the computer to update some of my Raspberry Pi documentation (now that NetAlertX is working properly).

We had a quiet afternoon. I went to collect Ellie and brought her home to see Nana. Zoe wasn't far behind, and she popped in for a chat before leaving with Ellie. Di continued with some physio exercises and spent a while walking around the lounge and family room. She is clearly making good progress and seems to have the pain under control.

Home Free

It was a hot night, but I slept pretty well. I was up soon after 6:30 and pottered about until it was time to walk to Zoe's and collect Ellie for school. She was a bit concerned by the heat, but I convinced her that there was little you can do to change it, so try to ignore it. The more you think about it, the more it will trouble you. 

I headed straight home. There was some vacuuming and some tidying up to do so that there were no obstacles on the floor when Di came home. I was nearly caught out when I got a phone call at 10:30 to say that Di had been discharged. I grabbed my sunglasses and car keys and headed off to Chichester. They were just finishing a briefing on the meds when I arrived. We packed her stuff and loaded the car. A porter wheeled her down, and we whizzed off home.

Once home, I took the bare essentials upstairs, and Di went up for a rest. Fortunately, she was able to sleep and though she had a bad night last night was able to get about 4 hours during the afternoon. Soon after she woke up, Denise called, and they had a brief chat. She has resolved to call again tomorrow.

Meanwhile, at Sainsbury's, there was chaos as the fridges and freezers had broken down and the gas canisters had drained. Zoe would be delayed, so I had to collect Ellie from school and bring her back here. Ellie was not amused. However, after some time with Nana, she snapped out of it and was her usual self. I gave her dinner, and as she was finishing up, Zoe arrived. All was well in Ellie's world.

We had a very quiet evening, having moved some furniture so Di could sit on a more appropriate chair than the usual Stressless recliner.

Physio

I was up early. I was showered, dressed and drinking my first coffee before six. Why? I have no idea. Ellie was dropped off 30 minutes later, and after an initial chat, she had some breakfast. She went upstairs to wash and dress, and came back down to watch the highlights of yesterday's World Cup games before school. It was clearly going to be another hot one today, so I made sure she had suitable hydration with her.

Back home, I grabbed breakfast and looked at my overnight mail. I had received a note from the author of NetAlertX. It seems that I was chasing a known problem, inasmuch as the code will not work in the Safari browser. I downloaded Firefox and bingo, everything worked.

At lunchtime, I went to the hospital to catch up with Diane. She had experienced a rough night as her blood pressure had been quite low, and they ended up calling the on-call doctor, who, in turn, called the anaesthetist. After about 4 hours of interventions, she was stable again. When I arrived, she was eating lunch and had already been up and about with the physio. She was also freshly back from the check X-ray.

During the afternoon, we saw the physio again, and he was amazed by how well Di was doing. Even after he had gone, Di asked me to take her for a walk along the corridor and back. She did tire during the afternoon, and I suggested she had a nap while I finished my book. Needless to say, she was soon disturbed by the next request for observations, but she did try again later.

The way things are going, the doctors and physios are fairly convinced she will be coming home tomorrow.

I left soon after six, only to be greeted by another one of Jasper's packages when I got in. Once that was dealt with, I cracked open a beer and cooked my dinner.

Another scam message arrived: "NatWest Verification £456.63 sent to Nationwide acct ending 4726 is pending confirmation. Reply YES to approve. Not recognized? Call 0800 088 4909." 

Guess what? I suspect that NatWest is unlikely to message me from Morocco (+212). Additionally, Google informs me: "widely reported as a common Wangiri (one-ring) or international phishing scam."

Knees up

 We were up early. Di had to have a slice of toast and a cup of tea before seven. After that, she could only sip water. At least we didn't have to be at the hospital for seven!

It was clear that today was going to be a hot one. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and it was already in the low 20s at 08:30. I went to Zoe's to collect Ellie and take her to school. She was a bit subdued at first, but soon perked up.  Having left her walking into class, I headed home for some breakfast while Di was in the shower (as she couldn't eat, I didn't want to torment her with my porridge and banana).

We spent a quiet morning checking that she had everything she would need for her spa break. We drove to the hospital at midday and checked in. There was then a procession of visitors... her nurse, the ward hostess, the pharmacy assistant, the pharmacist, the anaesthetist, and finally the surgeon. Loaded with all the information we could possibly want, we just had to sit and wait for a couple of hours until it was Di's turn on stage.

At 15:20, they came to take her to the theatre for her cameo performance. I then had a couple of hours Kindle-time while waiting to hear the thunderous applause as she took her bow and returned triumphantly with her new knee. The surgeon had commented that the whole procedure went smoothly and offered no surprises. The bed was wheeled back into the room and, much to my amazement, Di was awake and quite alert. Once her butler and various acolytes had left, we chatted for a while. I could see she was tiring, so I left her to rest and came home. I will return tomorrow after lunch.

Family Day

 Today has been Father's Day, but I see it more as Family Day. It's not about me, as a father; it's about the pleasure of being a father and the pride and love that I feel for my girls.

Unfortunately, Zoe was working, but Kim was able to come along with Jon and join us for lunch. We sat and chatted for a few hours, and having finished lunch, migrated out to the garden. Eventually, they had to leave to get home for the dogs, who had been shut inside all day.

Zoe had planned to pop in when Ellie got back from Pete's. She was called back into work, however, and Ellie got dropped off with us. Eventually, Di took Ellie home for a shower and hairwash and to wait for Zoe. Fortunately, she wasn't too long.

There has been confusion over the time at which Di has to present at the hospital tomorrow (conflicting emails from the hospital). She managed to get through to the ward and check. We now have some clarity and she doesn't need to be there until lunchtime.

Bugging

 Though warm and dry, today didn't really become bright and sunny until the afternoon. We had a quiet morning, with the exception of my call with the cousins. The primary subject of contention during the call was Chris's ongoing problems with the passport office. I tuned out. There was little I could say that would have added value.

Di had a plan for the day. There was a short list of tasks (predominantly in the garden) she wanted to clear prior to Monday's hospital trip. One of them, the clearing of blanket weed from the rill, I could help with, so I dug a couple of kilos of green sludge from the rill and topped it up with fresh water.

The rest of the day was spent in front of the computer. I was trying to fill in more details regarding the home network in the NetAlertX monitor. This took ages. The final problem that I hit was that when it tried to draw the network, it wouldn't complete the names of the devices. It only showed the "wiring". This was bugging me, so I spent several hours trying to solve this and, in the end, broke the whole system. I resolved to start again tomorrow, went into the kitchen, and poured a beer.

That was it for the day. 

Summer Fayre

 We were up at our normal time. Well rested, but up and about early. We had a quiet hour or so before wandering to Zoe's to collect Ellie for school. She was running a bit late, having decided at 8:25 that she wanted some toast, and we usually leave at 8:30. ~Despite this, we got her to school just as the classroom doors opened.

Di went home to prepare for her Cardiac Rehab session while I set off for my walk. The sun was beating down, it was a comfortable 19 °C,  and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. It was a delightful walk as I looped around the estate a few times. When I arrived home, I had some breakfast and then got on with some domestic chores. Once Di had returned, I took the car to Zoe's and gave her a lift to Sainsbury's so she could get a Father's Day card for Ellie to give to Pete. We spent some time chatting with Jason, her manager, and then I dropped her off at home.

As I pulled up, Di was just leaving to help Zoe with the vacuuming upstairs. I sorted out a few more domestic chores and then returned to the work I had been doing on my network monitor.

After we had some lunch, we retired to the lounge (the Orangery was too hot) for some Kindle time. Today, the school had its Summer Fayre, so we collected Ellie and waited to be allowed into the festivities. They had put on a good show, with plenty of stalls, some selling treats, some offering challenges of various types, and there was an ice cream van and a pizza van. We hung around and tried our hand at various challenges. After 30 minutes or so, we left and took Ellie back to Zoe's so that she would be ready when Pete picked her up for the weekend.

Windows

 I was up at 6:30. There was no real need, but I was wide awake, and it seemed pointless to just lie there when I could be drinking coffee and reading the news. Di came down soon after seven. In theory, there was no need for the school run. Ellie had been at Poppy's overnight and went to the school's breakfast club with her. Theory is all very fine, but when Ellie forgot to pick up her school shoes, it meant grandpa had to collect them from Zoe's and deliver them to Ellie at the breakfast club.

We were able to head to the shops much earlier than usual. For some reason, we seemed to spend far more than usual. The car's boot was packed and, having dropped Di at Zoe's, I wrestled the shopping into the correct cupboards, fridges, freezers, and drawers by myself... completely unsupervised!

Di had been vacuuming and washing the floors at Zoe's. By the time I was able to go and help, it was all but done. My main contribution was retrieving the bins after they had been emptied this morning. We headed back home for a cup of tea and some lunch. We had about 30 minutes of downtime before having to collect Ellie for her appointment in Chichester. As we prepared to leave, the heavens opened. Whilst there were several heavy bursts, the rain was mostly sporadic.

Having dropped Ellie at her appointment, we strolled along to a nearby cafe and enjoyed a decent coffee and some very tasty Danish pastries. An hour later, we collected Ellie and took her home. While there, I tried to fix a faulty latch on one of the windows, but concluded it needed a professional. Zoe will have to call a fitter.

We cooked dinner for Zoe and Ellie to try to keep her off her leg. Di collected them and took them back, and I managed the cooking and clearing up. Teamwork at work.

Knees Up

 oe was off work today, so that meant we had a leisurely start. We nipped around to collect Ellie for school.  She was not her usual chirpy self, and by the time we were ready to leave, she burst into tears. She knew Zoe was due at the hospital for her knee procedure, and she was worried. We calmed her down, and by the time we got to school, she was calm and, whilst not chirpy, was at least ready for the day.

There had been some debate over whether Di was going to Pilates. The issue was that she was having some meds delivered. They phoned at nine and said they would be with us between eleven and twelve. That quashed any hopes for Pilates, as I would be at the Nuffield with Zoe. We adjusted the day's schedule and sat down for a quiet coffee.

I collected Zoe and took her to the hospital. We had to wait for a little while, but she was soon called through to radiology. There, they used ultrasound to guide the procedure. The cyst was aspirated, and steroids were injected into the site. Fifteen minutes later, she walked out (on crutches) and declared, "That's it. Let's go home." She chatted to Diane on the phone the whole way home, and I helped to get her settled.

Back home, Di's meds had arrived, so we had a gap in the schedule until we had to collect Ellie. I used the time to return to a problem I had been having with the new network monitor I had installed. It took about an hour, but I finally got to the bottom of the issue, and the monitor seems to be running well now.

We had some Kindle time, and I finished another book, then we went to collect Ellie from football. We took her to her friend, Poppy's, where she will be staying overnight, going straight to school from there in the morning. (We did leave Poppy's mum our phone numbers in case Ellie had a wobble, in which case she could come back here.

Molar Mining

 There was no need for the alarm clock this morning, partly because Jasper had started yelling at us at five, and also because Zoe had a late start.  At the appointed hour, we trundled off to Zoe's and collected Ellie. We dropped her off at school, then headed home for breakfast.

There was no early walk today as I had a dental appointment. I enjoyed my morning porridge and then drove into Chichester. Surprisingly, the dentist was running to time, so I was dragged in and strapped down while she checked all of my teeth. This included a set of X-rays. I had pointed out a tooth that had lost its filling back in January. She examined it and decided it needed some attention, so I have been booked back in for late July to have the tooth rebuilt.

There was a lot of stress this morning. Some injections that Di has to start taking had not been delivered. Worse still, when she chased them, the pharmacy (at Haywards Heath hospital) said they only received the request yesterday (though it was marked as urgent). This is a process that Di started on the 1st of June. Anyway, after much to'ing and fro'ing, the situation now seems to be under control. The meds should be delivered tomorrow.

Talking of meds, Di also had a batch waiting for her at the local pharmacy. I used this as an excuse for a walk. I'm glad I took a large shopping bag with me, as she seemed to be refreshing the whole stock.

We had some quiet time after lunch. I then went to collect Ellie from school and take her home. I was going to take her to football practice this evening, but she has decided not to go.

Ache

We could have done without an early start after the very late night last night. That's not how life works, however. So it was that I was up at 6:30 to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. Everything went fairly smoothly until Ellie had finished breakfast and started complaining of a tummy ache. In the end, she was quite distressed, so we kept her out of school for the morning. Fortunately, she felt better after a while, and we were able to take her in at lunchtime.

We heard from Maureen. Chris had been operated on during the night and would have a further operation today. He was being kept sedated in the meantime.

I went for my morning walk, and by the time I got back, Diane was on one of her regular phone calls with her friend Marilyn. Ellie was watching some TV, doing some drawing and even playing some chess. It was clear that she would be fine to go to school later.

We deliberately had a quiet afternoon with our Kindles. We might even have succumbed to a nap. We collected Ellie from athletics club and took her home. The doors are now locked, and we don't expect to emerge until morning.

A&E

 We had a nice, lazy start to the day. There was nothing significant on the schedule; we could just please ourselves.

Diane pottered around, but was interrupted by Zoe calling for a long chat. In the end, it was nearly midday before she managed to get upstairs to wash and dress. I, meanwhile, had settled in the study. I fiddled some more with the NetAlertX monitor and completed the documentation for its build. I then set about installing (via Docker) a product called "PiHole". This sits on the home network and takes over the role of DNS server, but in doing so, it checks a list of blocked domains and discards any data from them. This has the effect of discarding the vast majority of advertisements that usually populate many websites. Once installed, I tested it from the MacBook and iPad and also Diane's iPad. I will leave it for a day or so, and assuming no problems arise, I will implement it across the home network. With that finished, I documented it, then performed a full system backup of "snowyowl".

During the afternoon, Di pottered in the garden while I had some Kindle time.

As we were finishing dinner, we got a call from Maureen (our neighbour). Could we take Chris to A&E? Well, of course. The trouble was I had had a couple of beers, so Di had to do the driving. Chris (who had had significant surgery a couple of years back) was in absolute agony. We got him to the hospital as quickly as we could and wheeled him into A&E. As soon as he was taken through (as an emergency) we left, giving Maureen instructions to call us when she was ready to come home.

Back home, we settled down and watched the World Cup football and several follow-on programs. In the end, it was gone 1 o'clock before Maureen was ready to come home. They were going to operate on Chris, and there was nothing she could do until morning. She had called one of their sons, and he was coming down to be with her overnight and take her back to the hospital tomorrow. We climbed in the car and collected Maureen to bring her home. 

It was nearly 2 o'clock before we got to bed, but at least Chris was in good hands, and Maureen was safely home.