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.