Enclosed

The porch is finally enclosed.

It was looking pretty good last night, but Paul still had two panes of glass to fit.

This morning, a flurry of putty and the tap-tap of beading being fixed saw the last gaps sealed and the porch water-tight. What with the outside lights that he has fitted - the overall effect is superb.

Meanwhile, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox pressed on with the painting in the utility room (now completed) and the kitchen. By tomorrow lunchtime that should also be complete - except for some touching up of the coving. Skirting boards are ready to be cut and fitted... as soon as the paint is dry.

London again

The Gorse Fox has been in London again. He is not amused. He dislikes travelling on Fridays - and particularly the Friday of a Bank Holiday weekend. In his experience, these are the days where the worst delays occur on the railways and roads. However, he was lucky. Everything ran to time... and even the client turned up on schedule.

The session with the client was very interesting and really demands more of the Gorse Fox's time than he can currently devote to it (a problem that he will have to address next week). It is clearly an unique opportunity and just the sort of thing GF likes to get get involved with.

Back home the rash of paint has spread to the kitchen and the glass finally turned up for the porch, which is nearly finished. At least GF will be able to help over the long weekend.

Encore

The Gorse Fox had to leave Paul and the Silver Vixen to their ministrations on the house. The glass didn't arrive for the porch, but there was still plenty to do and evidently they have been painting all day.

GF enjoyed his day in London spending the morning in one Starfleet location then wandering along the river bank to another one of the offices to meet up with a client.

Back in town

Wednesday saw GF on the train to London again. It was a busy day, and GF somehow managed to maintain his equanimity despite being patronised by a "girly" evidently not used to being challenged with logic or facts and expecting people to just roll over and do as she says.

Out West

The Gorse Fox had to head out west to help out with a couple of issues that had arisen at the last client. Interesting how short memories are and it was clear that it was proving an embarrassment that GF was able to provide the history behind some of the decisions that were made and that some of the issues resulted from ignoring the advice we gave.

Meanwhile back at home paint was being slapped on and progress was becoming more and more obvious.

Escape

The Gorse Fox escaped the building chaos at home and headed for London. There was planning and Solutioning to do.

GF also heard from his other opportunity. It sounds very positive and a very real opportunity. However GF has to use his time wisely and marshal other resources to help.

Back home the Silver Vixen continued with the painting, Paul continued working on the porch and the plasterers returned to skim the kitchen. By the time GF got home, the clean up was under way.

More paint

It may be our anniversary, but there was painting to be done. B&Q managed to relieve us of several hundred of pounds in exchange for various buckets of paint, and pieces of wood. Back home doors were masked, windows cills prepped and undercoats painted. Paul test-fitted the new front door.

Good day

Thirty nine

Well, it was 39 years ago today that the Silver Vixen was rash enough to wander down the aisle and marry the Gorse Fox. GF warned her - that he'd give it another 41 years, but might start looking around after that!

Sandpaper and paint

The weather has been superb. Wall-to-wall blue sky, 30C and the slightest of breezes coming off the sea. The Silver Vixen has spent much of the day at one of her covens, leaving the lads to get on with things.

Paul has spent the day finishing the framing for the new porch and the Gorse Fox has been masking an painting internal glass-panelled doors. Whilst not complaining, these 15-panel doors do take a stupid amount of time to mask-up.

Poor start to the football season with a 1-0 loss to Newcastle. Heigh ho! Spurs usually seem to lose the first game of the season, and haven't won at Newcastle for 8 years.

Building it up

It's all go.

The plasterer and his mate have arrived and are fitting out the utility room... and Paul (the Silver Vixen's brother) is cracking on with the porch.

Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox has been contacted by an independent buying agent who is looking for an appropriate property in this area - this meant writing his own brochure so that he could pass details on. It will be interesting to see if anything comes of it.

Movement

Ah ha! There's movement on the part of a colleague who is meant to be helping the Gorse Fox with his new consortium opportunity. He has finally got off his backside and phoned the client. Comparing diaries it became clear that if the did not meet tomorrow, it would be September. That was not acceptable so he has set up a meeting fro Friday morning. GF asked if his presence was required and where it would be.

"Oxford Services on M40" came the reply. Gorse Fox retracted his offer and said that he looked forward to the colleague's report!

Porch still making progress.

Contact from a Buying Agent interested in the house. Must respond tomorrow.

Progress

The leaden skies gave way to bursts of heavy rain, and the heavy rain gave way to blue skies and sunshine. The Silver Vixen's brother continued to work on the porch and things are coming together nicely.

Back in April, the Gorse Fox filled in the information online to get his passport updated. It occurred to him today that he still had not had any forms or update. He phoned. He spent several minutes negotiating the menu of options and finally found a magic key that allowed him to talk to a human being. Armed with his reference number and passport number he explained his dilemma. Without pausing for a moment's consideration the drone at the other end of the line said - "go to the Post Office and fill in the passport form manually; it probably got lost". So much for government technology.

Work was pretty successful - the bid response was completed and submitted, and though GF nearly got another "opportunity" dumped on him, a quick body swerve saw him safely through to the end of the day with less on his "to do" list than when the day started - a rare event!

Leaden

Leaden skies this morning. Gorse Fox suspects the forecast of rain may be correct,

Spitfire

The day started with a hop across country to the home of the Spitfire. Indeed, the Gorse Fox was in an oak-panelled  meeting room decked with engineering drawings of the aforementioned aviation masterpiece. Unfortunately, GF was there for more prosaic reasons and spent a couple of hours delving into the features and functions of document management systems. At the end, he was satisfied that he had the knowledge he needed and the contacts  to draw upon when the subject is raised with his exciting new potential client.

By the time GF arrived home at lunch-time. The Silver Vixen's brother had demolished the porch and the front corner of the house hung in mid-air, as if a chunk had been hacked out of it. Acros supported the gable and everything was being prepared for the building work to start tomorrow.

In the Gorse Fox's office he was hammering away at his keyboard. Far less satisfying, but necessary. Slowly the document took shape which would form part of proposal being sent to another client this week. Suspect that will pay a major part in tomorrow also.

Post Olympic lull

After staying up late to watch the Olympic Closing Ceremony, it was a bit of a struggle to get going and catch the early train to London. Evidently the Gorse Fox was not the only one to feel that way as the train, though busy, was not full - except with the sounds of snoring.

At work GF took his colleagues through his thinking regarding the project. He seemed to get immediate agreement and buy-in - somewhat unexpectedly. This saved a lot of time and debate. He also had a call regarding the client in Denmark that he was involved with a couple of months back. Interestingly it seems that the German colleagues are more involved that the Danes - who all seem to be on vacation.

GF sat on one of the promotion boards during the early afternoon. It's nice to see some of the more junior people coming through and showing their potential.

Closing

Well that was nice. Agent Mulder and the family turned up and we all headed off to Burpham to the George and Dragon. As usual, the service was impeccable, and the food was superb. The time was too short however as they had to make their way across country to see GF's nano-sis and family. The Audi A5 hire car proved to be a little obstinate in selecting a sensible route on the SatNav. A little bit of cajoling was all that was needed in the end.

Back home we had a quiet few hours before the Silver Vixen's brother turned up and we all settled down to watch the Olympics Closing Ceremony... and chuckle at the cynics, killjoys, and moaners on Twitter.  Whilst not up to the innovation of the Opening Ceremony it was ok, overall - probably rescued by Fat Boy Slim, the Spice Girls (GF is shaking his head, barely believing he said that), and the The Who.

Agent Mulder

Agent Mulder has brought the family over for the Olympics. Now the action is drawing to a close they are meant to be visiting us. A good day is expected.!

Carnage

The day started simply enough. There was a pile of building detritus gathering in front of the garage and this had to be disposed of. Once again the back seats of the VW were dropped and the car loaded for the first of several trips to to the local tip. The final trip involved a detour for some wood required for the kitchen, and for some of the elements that make up a BBQ.

Urban-cub and Pistol Pete had decided they wanted to put up their new tent once again, and thought it would be nice to have a BBQ. As it was such a lovely day, this seemed like a good idea.

Several cows, pigs, sheep and chickens - suitably jointed and anonymised by the butchers art and accompanying sauces - were stacked up by the grill and slowly carbonized ready for adding to a token salad leaf. This carnage was accompanied by the output of several small vineyards. Thoroughly enjoyable it was too.

Busy day

It was a busy day. GF had to exchange emails with the Admiral to clarify her direction regarding GF's priorities. By lunchtime the clarification was through and GF had managed to get some leeway to continue with the current opportunity.

Good day over all

In Town

Whilst the Silver Vixen's brother continued to work on the kitchen, Gorse Fox had to be in London.

A full day with clients to discuss something they evidently know nothing about - but have fixed opinions on how it should be done. Just what we need! However, it is an attitude that seems endemic in their parent organisation, so the Gorse Fox should not be surprised.

The Olympics are still keeping London quiet, making the travel positively enjoyable.

When the Gorse Fox arrived home, the worktops were all fitted and the hob and sink were in situ. Still some finishing off to do, but that can wait until next week. We're delighted with the results so far.

Worktops

Whilst the Gorse Fox got on with his new project/opportunity – speaking to colleagues about software, arranging workshops, briefing Partners, talking to other parts of Starfleet and generally beginning to form a solution – the work in the kitchen progressed further.

Worktops arrived and the first few are now cut to size and waiting to be bonded and fixed in place. We are without a sink, dishwasher, or cooker today – but the local Chinese Restaurant was glad to step in… and a hose in the garden served us for washing up.

Progress

The building works on the kitchen are proceeding well. New worktops have been selected and should be delivered tomorrow. A few decisions will need to await what we see when the old counter-tops are removed, but we are optimistic.

Work on GF’s new client is also going well. Shapes are beginning to emerge from the fog and candidate products for a later selection process are emerging. On top of this GF is under pressure to support another client opportunity on Thursday and to provide some supporting slides for the campaign. Deliberately leaving things late, GF acquiesced and prepared several slides for the event – and finally agreed to attend on Thursday.

Ghost Town

The Gorse Fox caught the early train up to to London. Again, the train was deserted, making for a pleasant trip. Arriving at Victoria and dodging the Olympic helpers, GF made his way to the tube – where a train was waiting. Though GF stood (as he usually does on the tube) seats were available, The dire warnings of chaos have certainly kept many people away – making the commute almost fun!

The day was spent helping some colleagues define a project much the same as the one GF has just finished. Remarkable how some of them thought their theoretical knowledge was more relevant the GF’s practical experience. Never mind, GF prevailed in the end… and has been asked to return in order to speak with the client. GF has decided to play hard to get.

White paint

The day seemed to be all about paint. Removing door furniture on one door so it could be finished, masking up another door so it could be started and keeping an eye on the Olympics.

The News reports of flooding and the evidence of torrential rain during the marathon in London served to remind us how lucky we are in this neck of the woods… wall to wall sunshine all day.

Lottery

Apparently you have to be in it to win it. So the Gorse Fox bought some tickets online – playing automatically for several weeks in advance.

Today he got some welcome news from last night’s Euromillions Lottery.

He won.

Barely able to contain his excitement he logged in to his account – and sure enough the money has already been paid in to his account.

The Gorse Fox is feeling very smug, and now needs to  consider how best to spend his windfall… or whether to save it as part of his pension pot. There are so many things that he would like to do, but can’t (obviously) do them all.

The boat is probably out of the question – not really practical as the Silver Vixen isn’t too good on the water… and £3.40 may not stretch very far.

Blast damage

The work continues. The kitchen tiles are being removed and it looks as if a fragmentation grenade may have gone off to assist in the process. Any hope that the walls could just be scraped, filled and painted has disappeared. What we need is a fairy godmother plasterer to come an wave his magic wand float.

Meanwhile Gorse Fox has been working on his new opportunity and managing his usual barrage of calls. A highlight of the day was when one of Starfleet’s European VPs related to the team how he had worked with the Gorse Fox in years gone by and how when Starfleet released a particular new product GF pointed out that its real value would only be seen when it was hybridised and and combined two particular technologies. The VP pointed out that Starfleet had finally come to the same conclusion and released the hybrid in the last few months – 20 years after GF pointed out its obvious value.

GF concludes that if people would only do what he says, when he says it, they would save themselves many years… and rip the competition apart.

Nothing Special

Work goes on on the utility room, and the Silver Vixen has been helping with some painting.

The Gorse Fox has had a busy day finishing the report on yesterday’s review and then moving on to analysis of the opportunity that arose from Tuesday’s meeting. Good solid day, but not filled with interesting stuff to talk about.

Good to see a few decent medals for the TeamGB today.

Reviewing the Situation

The Gorse Fox had another trip today. He had to make for Stockley Park, near Heathrow, to review some work that Starfleet was being asked to do.

The Olympic traffic meant that GF had a trouble-free journey and he arrived significantly earlier than planned. This was good as it gave him a chance to meet up with some old colleagues.

The review seemed interminable – it’s funny how some people are unable to summarise facts and then let you decide where you need to drill deeper. Whilst the guy had done an excellent job, he insisted on taking the Gorse Fox through every excruciating element of it.

Back home, the Gorse Fox’s sister, and brother-in-law were visiting and so we took the opportunity of going out for a quiet meal along with the Silver Vixen’s brother.

Canvas

The Gorse Fox had noted that Pistol Pete and the Urban-cub were deliberating over a new tent and whether they could afford a holiday. Sneakily he ordered the tent without telling them and it arrived today.

GF phoned requesting they popped round to “help shift something”. The subterfuge worked and they turned up ready for action. GF pointed to the boxes containing the camping equipment and told them to shift them. They were delighted – and promptly took the equipment out to the back garden to set it all up… giving us hours of early evening entertainment as this monster tent slowly arose.

Dire Warnings

The scare-mongering and dire warnings of transport melt-down have obviously been heard. The Gorse Fox observed that his train was devoid of normal commuters – they hare evidently all on vacation or working elsewhere. Starfleet, for example, has shut its premier London location for the duration.

Arriving at Waterloo, expecting chaos, GF was able to stroll across the concourse and along the road to Blackfriars without any let or hindrance.

Similarly, after his meeting was over, he wandered the slumbering streets and took the tube back to Victoria. It was (almost) a pleasant experience!

The meeting was interesting – revealing an interesting new business model, and a stream of funding and investment in futures that takes the breath away. What we still need to clarify is the extent to which Starfleet will be involved in supporting this.

Hamster Wheel

The hamster wheel continues to turn with Gorse Fox galloping round inside. Today was dedicated predominantly to staff reviews, but also extending tentacles (do hamsters have tentacles?) to find new project.

One exciting opportunity has arisen, so GF is off to London tomorrow to explore a completely new “green field” opportunity. From the short briefing he has been give so far it sounds a) very exciting, and b) very valuable. Could be big enough to view as a good swansong!

Wednesday will also mean travelling up to the big city to do a review of another programme.

Primer

Two of the new doors were masked up and Gorse Fox managed to get some primer/undercoat on them. Still one face to go, but fairly successful.

Plan had been to hit Brighton this afternoon, by GF was feeling a little under the weather, so we stayed put and watched some of the Olympics, the Hungarian Grand Prix and the Team GB football against UAE. On the latter subject, there is a danger that this Team GB may actually turn into a credible unit if they play together much more.

Progress

Good progress is being made – the utility room has now been gutted, the old wall removed, new doors hung and prepared for painting. A plasterer came round to give us a quote for the finishing work (though we will wait for a second quote). An early trip to the tip got rid of twelve sacks of rubble.

Consideration is now being given to the kitchen – though work has has not started, yet.

Mourning

The Gorse Fox decided to pay the parking fine as he cannot be bothered to fight the bureaucracy. He informed Hounslow of this…

Dear Sir or Madam

I am in receipt of your "Rejection of Representation" note regarding the above PCN. Thank you for taking so long to deliberate, your humanity and understanding do you, and the Council credit. If I was wealthy I would take this further, but cannot afford to waste the time and effort. I would, however, make the following point in response to your standard response note:

1. The yellow line and stripes were accompanied by the white "No Loading" signs.
   It is quite clear that I was neither loading nor unloading.
2. The kerb stripes mean that I was not allowed to park - even to load and unload - at certain times.
   I had not parked.
3. The double stripe means it applies 24 hours a day.
   I appreciate that, and as I was in the vicinity for less than 2 minutes, this point is moot.
4. A single stripe means the rule applies some of the time....
5. I was sent the notice because evidence shows my vehicle parked at a time when the rule applies.
   No it does not, it shows my vehicle was stationary. I was not parked, I had just done a 3-point turn (to get out of the cul-de-sac), I was in full control of the vehicle, the engine was running, and the handbrake was not applied.
6. The "purpose of this rule is to improve traffic flow and safety at busy times"
   It is a cul-de-sac - there is NO through traffic - any traffic entering the road must do a three point turn as I did.
   It was Sunday afternoon - hardly a busy time.
   Even your CCTV shows no other vehicle impeded and I was therefore not having any impact on traffic flow. The only pedestrian was on the pavement several yards from the car.

Yours, in mourning for the death of common sense,

It will have no effect – but GF felt better for sending it.

Stuff and nonsense

The Gorse Fox’ appeal regarding his penalty charge has been denied.

He should explain, that he wrote to the department, as follows:

Dear Sir or Madam

Whilst I do not contest that the vehicle shown is mine, and that I was driving. I do contest the circumstances whereby this PCN was issued. I do not accept that I have contravened any of the restrictions.

Fortunately, I use Google Latitudes to maintain a history of my journeys.

I had left home to collect my daughter from the Premier Inn in Bath Road. This was shown to be at 15 Bath Road. Programming this into the Sat Nav, it directed me to Hounslow.

As you can see, at 15:48 I had just missed the turn

A minute or so later I turned back (at 15:49)

Turning back (going round the block and waiting for the lights) at 15:52 I was again approaching the turn towards the Bath Road

I then turned into Lampton Road

Where I slowly turned round (as the road was empty and I was not delaying traffic, nor blocking anyone) and looked to find 15 Bath Road. I would assert that I was not waiting (nobody left or joined the vehicle) was not loading, or unloading nor contravening the traffic enforcement, but searching for my destination.

It was at this point that it became clear that there was no Premier Inn at 15 Bath Road so I realised I needed to be at 15 Bath Road in Hayes. By two minutes later I was up near the Catholic Church on the A3006.

I therefore respectfully request that this PCN be cancelled.

It would appear that there is a lack of common sense and humanity and the Gorse Fox will have to pay up – unless he fancies taking this to court. He is not amused, but is not wealthy enough to pursue this through the courts (which is what these people count on).

Piles

As the day has gone on piles of bricks have been collecting outside the garages, and sacks of rubble nestle in their shadow. One day in and partition wall has gone.

Doors need to be replaced, and that is the next task – selecting doors that fit the bill.

Whilst all of that was going on, GF had returned to work (albeit from home). This meant catching up with ten days of emails, and preparing mid-year reviews. In the background, Urban-cub had asked for some advice regarding a spreadsheet – and what should have been an easy task, turned out to be slightly more complicated.

Red Thai fish curry on the eastern terrace, accompanied by a glass of wine, seemed like the perfect end to the day.

Eve of Destruction

We have heard from Cousteau-cub  she and the Coventry Hobbit have safely arrived in Hong Kong and were getting ready to see Stone Roses before setting off on the next leg of their return trip.

Silver Vixen has had a few appointments so GF started to catch up on Thank You’s and taking several car loads of stuff to the tip.

The Silver Vixen’s brother has arrived and we have emptied the utility room ready for the destruction to start – as one wall comes down and the whole room gets properly wired, plumbed and plastered.

Parting is such sweet sorrow

No it’s not. It’s a pig.

Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen have just got back from taking Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit up to the airport for their return trip to Thailand, via Amsterdam, Hong Kong, and Singapore.

It’s never easy to see her go – but at least, travelling with the Coventry Hobbit, it somehow didn’t seem quite so bad.

Will probably spend the evening grazing on food left over from Saturday. A glass of wine might even pass our lips.

Dinner with the Commonwealth Cousins

 Lovely evening last night with GF's cousins from Canada

Catching Up

Today has been a matter of catching up with ourselves, having been in a proverbial spin all week. Glasses had to be returned to Sainsbury’s, food had be assessed, shuffled between fridges, or discarded. Photos had to be processed, and card and gifts opened.

The Gorse Fox has been immensely lucky. Amongst the gifts was a beautiful cut-glass brandy goblet that had been given to his grandfather fifty years ago – at his 60th. This will take pride of place. People have also donated towards a painting that we have planned for the new house… and there is enough champagne to re-run the Tour de France.

Late in the day we met up with our Canadian cousins and the Gorse Fox’s sister and brother-in-law. We had a super couple of hours at a local restaurant (as if we needed more food!).

Cracking

It really was a cracking day yesterday. People arrived from Birmingham, Devon, Cardiff, Buckingham, Brentwood, Swanwick, Willingham, Cambridge, London, Thailand, and San Francisco… and we had a ball!

There was food enough to feed a small city, drink enough to float a battleship (or scuba dive in). Everyone mixed well, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

It was so nice to see so many old friends and relatives – some of whom the Gorse Fox had not seen for years.

The Gorse Fox made a speech… and the girls Urban- and Cousteau-cub made a speech and nearly reduced the Gorse Fox to tears.

At the end everybody chipped in to help clear the venue and we left the place spic and span on the stroke of eleven. Back home it took and hour or so to unload and find homes for everything, then we collapsed into the armchairs and chatted into the early hours.

Absentees

A few last minute apologies received due to illness. Great shame but it is more important that these friends get well rather than turn up and feel dreadful.

Drumsticks

Seven thirty and the oven was on, and now several hours later there is a pile of cooked chicken pieces that you could hide a car in. Gorse Fox has been to Sainsbury’s in LA to pick up wine glasses and now there is a bit of a lull until we gain access to the venue.

At that point we will try and set up a convoy, like those that took equipment to Bagdad, to try and transport all of the plates, tablecloths, drinks, jellies, snacks, tea, coffee, salads and heavens-knows-what to the Centre.

Concern turns to Panic

Only one day to go and still working through lists – the real problem being that we are not relying on frozen foods and now as we approach the day the fresh foods are now becoming available.

A trip to Tesco was required and Urban-cub helped as we filled another trolley to overflowing. Back home and unloaded we then set off back to Sainsbury’s for another car full.

Fridge is full, spare fridge is full, freezer is full, garage is full, and hallway is full. Still more stuff to get at the last minute tomorrow  - and, of course, we will need to cook the chicken portions.

I suspect that, after the disappointment of the GB-vs-Brazil football just now, we will have an early night.

Revving up

The week is revving up. Much preparation has to be left until late as we need the food to be fresh, the frozen stuff to be cold, and the hot stuff to be warm. Today concentrated on the last drinks trip. The garage is slowly filling up with Cokes, lemonades, fruit juices, squash and the odd can of beer and a bottle of wine with 90 straws.

The Silver Vixen has been cutting tablecloths from a roll and ensuring that everything will be ready in terms of layout and so forth.

Urban-cub was not impressed as she had paid extra to ensure a morning delivery of a dress – and it did not turn up. She then spent hours on the phone trying to track it down. All was well in the end as the dress turned up during the afternoon.

The Gorse Fox has a suspicion that tomorrow and Saturday morning will be frantic.

Drains

Dishwasher soap is not a subject on which the Gorse Fox would normally blog, nor hold forth in polite company. However, we have suffered from a blockage of the drains, and whilst expecting this would take a few minutes to clear – has actually taken two hours.

Two hours during which the Coventry Hobbit has been reaming the drain with rods, and hosing it with high pressure jet. Meanwhile the Gorse Fox has been up to his arm pit in cold, greasy, standing drain water trying to find the source of the problem.

It turned out to be coagulated dishwasher soap that had turned back into soapy bricks and jammed completed sealed the drain.

This was not how the Gorse Fox had planned to spend his vacation… and is fairly sure this was not high on the agenda of the Coventry Hobbit when he left Thailand with Cousteau-cub.

Even after several visits to the sink with differing soaps and cleaners GF’s arm still has a most unpleasant fragrance.

Strategic Outsourcing

As “the kids” practised their Wii skills, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox headed for the venue where the weekend’s event will be held. GF had not seen it close-up and the manager needed to instruct us on the use of the AV equipment and the various kitchen facilities. It is all looking very good and should serve us well.

Next stop was Sainsbury’s to outsource the sandwich making to someone more familiar with mass-production than we are. This was somewhat delayed by the inconsistencies between their order list and the price lists – but this will be sorted.

The wet weather had abated, the sun was breaking through so we all headed into Worthing for a bit.

Musical playlist is under development for the weekend – one MP3 CD should cover it…. about 10 hours of music.

Spent the evening with Urban-cub and her wolf.

Torch

The day was essentially wet. There was no plan for the day – after all the travelling and excitement at the weekend, a quiet day seemed like a good idea.

Sausages, mushroom, bacon and eggs got us started – we were setup for anything the Wii could throw at us.

Pistol Pete and Urban-cub turned up with their wolf, Scrumpy and Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit dressed up in winter gear to go with them and walk the dog. Not long after this dripping mass of humanity (and the wolf) returned – cold and wet.

Preparations for the coming weekend are still progress. This meant that we had to start collecting together the various bits and pieces necessary for the day. Tesco was the target of our raid. Disposable plates and bowls, napkins, party-poppers, squash, snacks, and goodness knows what else leapt off the shelves and nestled in our trolley.

The trip to Tesco took longer than expected and the idea of going to see the Olympic Torch as it passed through Worthing had to be shelved for another sixty years or so.

Home

The family is complete once more – Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen collected C-c & C-H from Heathrow and brought them back home where U-c was preparing a magnificent roast dinner. (Shame we had sold the table and chairs and consequently had to eat off trays).

The evening descended into a degree of chaos as an XBox Connect and a Nintendo Wii were pressed into action and all and sundry joined in the various games on offer.

Lovely evening.

Countdown

The countdown to meeting up with Cousteau-cub near Heathrow has begun. This meant a shopping trip to ensure we have enough food to feed the Glastonbury hordes, and careful synchronisation with Urban-cub who has volunteered to cook dinner for us all.

Stand down

The Gorse Fox is now officially on vacation. AT home, but on vacation. Now, the point of this break is to spend time wit Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit and to prepare for a family party. Fortunately, it looks as if emporium of J. Sainsbury will be pressed into service to provide various platters of sandwiches and so forth; we will just have to fill in round the edges.

We also have a Plan regarding the sale of the house. We have decided to invest a small amount to improve the porch, kitchen, and utility room… then to get new photos taken and re-start the marketing push. With this in mind we spent some time wandering around our local DIY store seeking ideas and prices.

SIM

Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit were due in. Their trip had started with a trip to Singapore, then to Amsterdam, and finally into London. However, as they were meeting up with the Hobbit’s brother, Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were not there to greet them. Indeed we weren’t even sure of their arrival time.

The day drew on and GF kept checking for text messages, facebook entries and so forth… Nada.

Late afternoon the phone rang – it was Cousteau-cub. She had managed to get a free SIM card and just bought some credit – Contact.

All had gone well and she and the Hobbit were checked into their hotel in Middle Earth and meeting up with the family in Hobbiton. It was lovely to chat and know that she was nearby… even we won’t see her until Sunday.

Line Out

The Gorse Fox had a good day. It started with a trip to the next village to collect a colleague and then head up to Twickenham. The journey, which would normally be tedious, was a relaxing chat in a pair of comfortable armchairs – that just happened to be mobile.

On arrival and registration at the “event” we milled around the coffee stands with several hundred colleagues; catching up with old friends, and getting the latest news from pet projects.
Eventually the throng settled into an auditorium and the presentations commenced with a healthy dose of thanks, exhortations to achieve even more, and an underlying hint of humour. Nicely balanced.

Breaks were taken for coffee and eventually lunch. Not the usual “event buffet” – but individual bowls of Caesar salad, individual mug-sized containers of fish and chips, and schooners of jelly. Portions reflected technology – constant miniaturisation, but astute raiding of the waiters’ trays as they emerged from kitchens allowed sufficient calories to be consumed to allow the afternoon to continue.

After lunch the keynote speaker left the Gorse Fox with his head in his hands. Brilliant opportunity for some real inspiration – but the speaker completely dropped the ball and ended up talking for an hour about stuff we’d all seen on TV documentaries.
The Gorse Fox was next of the agenda as the throng split into smaller elective groups. He had been concerned that he still handed forged the mental pathway through the material he had prepared, but once he got started the adrenalin kicked in and the mouth seemed to operate on auto as the brain ran on ahead and prepared the way. Seemed to down very well.
AT the end of the event the weather had set-in again and we had slow drive home, but though the traffic was heavy  at least we kept moving.

Winding up

The Gorse Fox was working from home. The plan for the day was firstly to finish the draft of the report he has been writing, and then to finish his preparation for tomorrow when he is giving a presentation at an event at Twickenham.

Everything went remarkably smoothly and the plan played out. It really was a most successful day.

Pardon?

The Gorse Fox headed for London to meet with an Exec. He filled in the morning with more research and more writing. Very successful start. Then at lunchtime, with thirty minutes before the scheduled meeting said Exec pops in and says "I've double booked myself. Can we reschedule for tomorrow, in Coventry".

The Gorse Fox contemplated for about a nanosecond. "no" he said.

Flummoxed by someone who didn't back down, the Exec juggled his diary and GF got his meeting, albeit a little late.

Coming together

The research of last week is beginning to come together. After a torrid few hours catching up with expenses at the start of the day, the Gorse Fox started to construct his report. As ever, structure is everything, and once that emerges, the actual writing comes quickly. There is still a fair bit to do, but so far GF is happy.

All in all, a very successful day.

Tomorrow sees the last interviews during a trip to London.

Alone

With mother-in-law back in the wilds of Buckinghamshire, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox are back on their own. A quiet day was the order of the day. Very little to report.

Shame to see Murray lose to Federer, but it was quite clear in the third set that his mind was not in a winning frame.

Return

The Silver Vixen’s mother has been staying while she recuperates from a hip replacement. It is time to return her to the twee villages of Buckinghamshire in the wastelands north of the M4.

Will try to find an outboard motor to supplement Toyota’s engineering of the RAV4 in order to deal with the torrential rains that seem to be affecting other parts of the country.

Sneak Peek

Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen got a sneak peak at the development plans that surround Plan C (as revealed last week). The agent has managed to purloin some drawings and, with suitable caveats, has shared them. During this process some accidental photography may have caused images of the plans to be recorded on phone of the Gorse Fox (he cannot imagine how this might have occurred).

Outbreak of Common Sense

There is a company that manufactures a widget called a “Gripple”. The founder of the company explains about his success in today’s Daily Mail.  It is an interesting article and flies in the faces of modern business practices.

Perhaps one of the most telling quotes is:

And then there’s the Hugh Facey doctrine on accountancy: “If you’re running a cricket team, you send in a batsman to bat and a bowler to bowl. You don’t send in the bloody scorer. Accountants are great at keeping books. But don’t let them run the bloody business”

Better still:

Accountants, for example, are banned from all key company decisions – on the basis that they throttle innovation.

This is entirely consistent with the Gorse Fox view that most great companies start with great entrepreneurs or innovators and as the company progresses the entrepreneurs and innovators slowly get replaced with “professional managers” and accountants – and with that starts the inevitable decline to mediocrity or complete self-destruction.

Just a reminder

As Milliband and Balls continue to lecture on the economy

The ultimate defamation to our historical appreciation of gold occurred between 1999 and 2002 when Gordon Brown sold 395 tonnes of Britain’s gold, at the lowest price for 20 years.

Oh well, no harm done, eh?

An average price of $275.60 an ounce was achieved in the gold sales. Since that time gold’s price has increased six-fold. In contrast the values of the dollar, yen and euro have each dropped significantly thanks to inflation and poor monetary policies.

Doh!

(Quotes from therealasset.co.uk)

Coasting

Today's agenda saw the Gorse Fox heading back along the coast to Starfleet near Portsmouth. He was scheduled to meet with a colleague for some more data gathering as part of his ongoing review.

Nothing too much to report. Everything went to plan and slowly the data is coming together.

In the North

The Gorse Fox had to head North today. He had meetings with colleagues in Starfleet premises in London, and the further meeting with a client nearby.
Timing worked out well and GF was able to get an early train home.
The meetings were fruitful and the data gathering is coming along well. The issue GF faces is how to develop some credible hypotheses and write up a report that makes sense.

Interesting

The Gorse Fox has had an interesting day. First thing he managed to have a quick chat with Cousteau-cub. We are all getting pretty excited with her due home in a couple of weeks. Let's hope the weather improves for her trip.

Work started with a review of a bid which needs to be released in the next day or two. Then it was a quick trip along the coast to Starfleet to meet up with some colleagues to help with the cost review he is conducting at present. This proved to be enlightening but failed to reveal a silver bullet.

Zipping back home GF got on with the preparation of a presentation that he will be delivering late next week at an event at Twickenham. Not finished yet, but it is getting there.

Wet

Bright start deteriorated into wet afternoon- GF actually has the light on in his study. Crazy. If he wanted miserable weather he’d live up north!

Very successful day – reviewing and being reviewed.

Meetings and calls set up for most days in the next week or so. Lots of data gathering – then need some huge burst of analytical energy to turn that data into something useful.

Taking root

Plan C seems to have legs… sleeping on it overnight allowed the collective subconscious to consider many aspects of the choice and conclude it looked good.

GF returned to the marketing suite for further information and to take some photos of the site plan and model, to ensure that we were not missing something obvious. As usual – all depends on selling the current house, and seeing some more definitive plans of the houses to be built. We await developments.

The Final of the Euros was a super spectacle with the Spain team making Italy look ordinary. It was a master-class in football and surely one of the best footballing sides that the Gorse Fox has ever seen.

Plan C

There’s something a little disconcerting when the the Gorse Fox realises that if everything had gone to plan, we would now have been in our new house for a couple of months… but because everything fell through we remain in limbo. This has meant looking for a Plan B, in case the house we had reserved is sold by the builders – fed up with waiting.

A few weeks ago, Plan B emerged with an excellent local alternative.

Today we went further and discovered a Plan C. Plan C looks absolutely perfect – though may be another 9-12 months before it is available… but given that we have yet to sell up here, that may not be a show stopper.

Got a call during the afternoon from Beloved Aunt… it was lovely to hear from her, particularly as – after a change in medication – she has been unwell. The bad news is that she will be unable to come over for the Gorse Fox’s party.

Getting Started

Friday has been like the first day of a new school. A whole new bunch of people to know, a new layout, new rules, and the optimism that the Gorse Fox always feels when faced with new challenges.

• How will he gather the data he needs?
• Who should he interview?
• What are the political ramifications?
• How will he analyse what he finds?
• How will he draw the right balance in coming to his conclusions?
• A mind map starts to form

…and so it begins.

Disappointed by last night’s football. Really though Germany would go all the way – but they didn’t deserve to win last night, so cannot really complain.

Now whilst in this optimistic mood, perhaps the Gorse Fox should just go through his trust checklist:

• Politicians, no (see expenses scandal and virtually anything promised to the electorate);
• BBC, no (see treatment of Global Warming, anti-Government bias, anti-Israeli bias, etc.);
• Climate scientists, no (see corruption of the scientific method, politicisation of process, stifling of debate);
• Journalists, no (see Leveson inquiry);
• Lawyers(*), no (see ambulance chasers who have created the whole compensation culture through their own greed);
• Bankers, no (see credit crunch and rigging of LIBOR interest rates).

A parlous state of affairs.

(*)The Gorse Fox distinguishes between Solicitors who tend to be trusted advisors and agents acting during major life events and who, by and large, are fine and upstanding individuals – and Lawyers who are parasitic pond life and have created a sub-culture of blame and litigation that has done more to corrupt the optimism and joy of living than anything since the great flu pandemic.

Fine day

Well it turned out to be a fine day. The briefing on the next piece of work was very interesting but the timescale is challenging.

GF was pleased that the chap he interviewed for a position in Starfleet turned out to be a real find. Starfleet will make him an offer.

Early start

Ready to catch to train and make an early(ish) start on the way to Starfleet offices alongside the Thames.
Briefing for new project this morning.
Interviewing this afternoon.

They think it's all over...

Well as far as this contract is concerned, "it is now". The Gorse Fox has been working down in Bristol since April last year, but now the problems are solved, the designs are in place, and the team are in place to deliver the solution. GF can walk away completely satisfied with a job well done. He has to ask himself, how many people on leaving their client actually get a hug from the slightly teary contracts manager?

Bristol

Well the Gorse Fox has completed his penultimate day in Bristol on this project. This meant being around to deal with any residual issues whilst colleagues taking over from the GF handled the day to day meetings that he normally attends.

Looks like there is new short project bubbling on the horizon. GF should get details on Thursday when he has to visit Starfleet in London to conduct some interviews... And make use of the spare time in between to be briefed.

Tivoli

The little mermaid, the Tivoli Gardens, Helsingborg... Denmark for the tourist.

Monsoon rains, flooded roads, tiny hotel room, taxi to the office and then from the office to the airport. The pleasures of business travel.

Never mind, GF is home.

Travel

The Gorse  Fox finds himself sitting in a bar in Copenhagen in the middle of a monsoon. No TV here to watch the game so may have to repair to his room.

Admin

Expenses cleared, and hotel booked for this week. Latest Java update to laptop has stopped expenses system launching from Chrome, but it does launch from Firefox.

Planning to travel light – no laptop, just iPad and phones.

Try out

Gorse Fox has bought a new phone and this is his first attempt st blogging from the Samsung Galaxy S3.

Encore

Well that was a satisfactory end to the week. Another excellent day, a load more admin cleared, a load more research done. Meanwhile, in London Starfleet colleagues are putting the finishing touches to a bid that GF has had a hand in.

The viewing scheduled for this evening was a wash-out. The couple did not turn up, and did not have the common decency to let us know.

Never mind, the Germany vs Greece football match came to a satisfactory conclusion. I suspect that Germany will will the tournament overall.

Hilarious Graham Norton show featuring Will.i.am, Miriam Margolyes, and Greg Edwards – haven’t laughed so much in ages.

On a roll

The Gorse Fox seems to be on a roll. It was another really good day. It started with a review of a large document and then some minor changes to the paper written yesterday. Next GF had to craft some contractual terms for an agreement with another supplier.

The afternoon was more creative with further development of a reference model for broadcast media.

Cloud

The Gorse Fox spent much of the day researching different approaches to "cloud" provision and then writing a paper on how this can be exploited by media clients.

Alongside this, GF finally got Starfleet's authorisation to go to Copenhagen to help with a workshop for another media client. This meant that, finally, he could book flights and the hotel. Needless to say the price has gone up by £100 since last week. GF needs to find time to prepare a talk on the changing face of broadcast systems and what Starfleet can do to help with transition to broadcast in a socially connected world.

Slow

A little slow off the grid this morning, but once GF got moving he had a really good day. Outstanding issues were wheedled down, the MI was handed over and the ongoing battle over whether GF is going to Copenhagen continued as escalation after escalation tried to get the right funding in place to allow authorisation for travel.

Managed to get home in time to watch the football.

Better

The journey across country was 90 minutes quicker than last week during the storms and floods. Much better.

Quiet day in the office as Gorse Fox starts his hand-over ready to move on.

Climate

Now and then the Gorse Fox has to say a few words on the the whole climate change issue.

• Firstly, he should make it clear where he stands – the climate is changing. It’s what climate does.
• Is it warming or cooling? There are scientist who espouse both beliefs – and he uses that word deliberately.
• Is it man-made? No.
• Does man contribute? Yes, of course every person on the planet contributes in some way.

The problem is that Climate Change has moved from a scientific hypothesis – yet to be proven, to a religion. It is no longer science, it is politics, and it is big business. As such it is almost certainly corrupted.

Now in today’s newspaper we see the headline that “A quarter of over 55s are sceptical of Climate Change and thing threats to the environment are an exaggeration”. The Gorse Fox is surprised the number is as low as a quarter. particularly in view of the report that:

A US government-funded survey has found that Americans with higher levels of scientific and mathematical knowledge are more sceptical regarding the dangers of climate change than their more poorly educated fellow citizens

and it goes on to explain

The results of the survey are especially remarkable as it was plainly not intended to show any such thing: Rather, the researchers and trick-cyclists who carried it out were doing so from the position that the "scientific consensus" (carbon-driven global warming is ongoing and extremely dangerous) is a settled fact, and the priority is now to find some way of getting US voters to believe in the need for urgent, immediate and massive action to reduce CO₂ emissions.

Ooops

Perhaps a more worrying development is the news reported this week that “UN Climate Scientists plead for immunity from Criminal prosecution”. As John O’Sullivan reports:

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) issued it’s formal request for immunity from prosecution to “protect” researchers who have provided “evidence” supportive of the man-made global warming scare story.

and towards the end of the article:

Now the penny drops with the UNFCCC. They understand that climate scientists have failed to prove their man-made global hypothesis and are facing increased legal scrutiny. Lawyers are sharpening their legal minds to dissect from the UN’s bloated climate science body the malignant tumor of man-made global warming.  If the UNFCCC  legal immunity gambit can be resisted we may yet see criminal prosecutions for the worst offenders in the climate fraud.

Why, oh why, would any scientist doing genuine research, using auditable numbers, and mathematics want immunity?

It makes you wonder if the BBC are getting twitchy?

Steps

The problem statement was simple – how does an elderly lady get out of the shower when there is a 9 inch step and she has just had a hip replacement?

The Heath-Robinson approach, which first came to mind, involved pulleys and counter-weights and a chair suspended from a cable and guided by bluebirds. This proved a little ambitious.

Plan B involved two large sofa cushions – however the compression caused by the interaction of gravity and the carbon-based life form proved too great – though had to be endured for today.

The Gorse Fox took things in hand and made his way to the local supplier of wood to the discerning. Car loaded, he returned home to construct two steps that could be used individually or together. Having recently cleared the garage, the adhesive he thought to be lurking in the corner had in fact be stored safely at the local tip… so the final touches will have to await the return of the Silver Vixen from her sortie into the local village.

Ooops

The Gorse Fox had ordered a print of his family tree. He checked the softcopy and was happy – but the printed version arrived today. The quality was super, but the print itself failed at some point and only three quarters of the entries got printed. The rest was blank space.

GF phoned the supplier. He checked the soft copy and assured the Gorse Fox that it was correct – GF assured him is wasn’t. Printout now being returned to have it corrected.

Research

Another excellent day working from home and spending a significant chunk of the day doing research for a presentation that the GF has to deliver in early July. This in turn led to LinkedIn where the Gorse Fox’s profile had languished, unloved and untouched for years. A major re-vamp followed.

Shame to see the Ireland football team so comprehensively thumped by Spain. It really was boys against men. The gulf was huge.

There’s nice for you

The Gorse Fox had the pleasure of working from home today. This meant that there were very few interruptions and he could bury himself in the matters of the day. This included discussion of a DoU with another line of business – who always seem to have a knack of wriggling off the hook when most needed; and adaptation of a spreadsheet. The latter, surprisingly, has been changed to use a slightly different approach to the problem but delivers the same outcome. It even looks exactly the same. The difference is that it is only two thirds of the original size… and it can now dynamic change shape to accommodate additional content. (Most satisfying).

In the background the Silver Vixen and her mother pottered about, and during the afternoon even got a chance to sit out in garden. Convalescence seems to be going well, and the check-up at the surgery received glowing results.

Dry

Despite the dreadful floods of yesterday and the closed roads across Sussex, today was pretty benign. Certainly by the time GF had to drive home the roads were dry and clear.

A little damp

The rain started last night, and fell throughout the night and into the morning.  The Gorse Fox set off at his usual time but soon ran into deep standing water. It presaged a long journey. So it turned out. The A27 was closed near Chichester and the first 30 miles took well over two hours. Fortunately, as the GF headed west the flooding lessened - though the rain continued. In the end the journey took well over 4 hours. Ominous start to the week!

Once at work, things went remarkably smoothly. It was quite a good day.

It was clear when he left work that traffic was backed up all over the place. GF allowed his in-built sense of direction to take over and deliberately headed out of the car park by the back exit. This allowed him to whizz round the back and follow the railway to drop him down in front of the traffic.

Managed to see the second half of the England - France match. Was impressed with the discipline shown. It seems to the Gorse Fox that if you cannot play the tick-tack football of Barcelona, then the best approach is solid, disciplined defence and the ability to break quickly with good strikers. Not as exciting as tick-tack, but a good scientific approach.

News from Sussex reports that the rain continued and the water is, in places, several feet deep and many roads are closed. Here in the west country, the rain stopped several hours ago and it doesn't seem too bad.

Tree

More of today than is healthy has been spent doing work-related tasks. The Gorse Fox notices that the “work-life balance” epithet is a thing of the past. Now it is more like: “work if you still have life and want to balance your cheque book”.

Had to update the GF CV. His name is being put forward to help a well known media company, by Starfleet.

With salary planning and mid-year reviews coming up, it looks as if it will be a busy few weeks.

Back down to Bristol tomorrow

Returned to the long term project that is the family genealogy. With a family event on the horizon GF has been looking for a way of printing the whole family tree on some kind of banner. After a lot of Googling GF finally found a service that looks as if it will do the job. File duly uploaded – and now awaiting contact to all GF to view the outcome before paying.

Parole

The Silver Vixen's mother has been discharged from hospital. It took most of the morning to get confirmation, but eventually we headed up to High Wycombe to collect the her for her convalescence.

It took a long time to load the car once we were there, but we were soon back on the road and heading south.

So it begins

Each year Starfleet’s leading technologists in the UK and Ireland hold elections to select new members of their group. Some members have a tenure for three years, to ensure a continual change in overall membership; some (like the Gorse Fox) are permanent members. Nominations are open across the various divisions of Starfleet, but in the Gorse Fox’s Division there are so many potential candidates that we run a pre-selection process to ensure that we do not dilute the voting and that we have picked the very cream of the crop. For the last few years, the Gorse Fox has run this process and as the 2012 election process swings into gear GF is setting up weekly calls to manage this years list.

GF had to review the current media bid today. It helps, having been involved for a couple of days. At least GF had a good understanding of what was required and what was being put together. The team had done a good job.

Yet again, Silver Vixen’s mother’s discharge from the hospital has been delayed which saved a trip to High Wycombe, and meant that the Silver Vixen could go out with her coven during the evening. They had a speaker who turned out to be very inspiring so SV was pleased the way things had worked out.

GF watched the opening matches of the Euros. He wasn’t overstruck by the Poland team or the Greece team, but thought that the Russia team looked dangerously impressive.

Mixed

It was a mixed day.

Work went well and some of the changes that Gorse Fox has been working are coming to fruition. Now he ill just use an existing media bid to test out the final version.

GF is still having trouble getting the final agreements for the funding of his trip to Copenhagen in a bout a week’s time. Suspects that it will all collapse before the event.

Great news of the day was that an old friend from Starfleet, now resident in California, is coming over for the Gorse Fox’s big birthday party next month. Whilst we have kept in touch – it is many years since we have seen him. It’ll be great fun to catch up.

Cousteau-cub posted some photos of the horrendous storms they have been suffering in Koh Lanta. Bars, road, even swimming pools washed away. Dreadful. Thank goodness they are ok.

Silver Vixen’s mother still not well enough to leave hospital. Looks like it will be the weekend before she escapes.

Viewing

Well it was all hands on deck. The agent called and asked if they could do a viewing late in the day. The clearing and preparation for Silver Vixen’s mother had paid off – there was little to do, but the Silver Vixen had a busy afternoon planned so things had to be squeezed in.

GF spent much of the day dealing with work calls – just because he had not gone down to Bristol, didn’t mean that work did not carry on.

The agent turned up with the viewers – who turned out to be neighbours. It all seemed to go well, and soon after they left there was a call from the agent to say they had made an offer. This was excellent news, though the offer was not sufficient. But GF expressed his thanks and suggested to the agent that whilst we were willing to negotiate – the opening offer was not sufficient.

Let’s see what happens

Plan Change

A delay in the recuperation of Silver Vixen’s mother means that she remains in hospital a bit longer. This mean that the Gorse Fox will have to cancel this week’s trip to Bristol and work from home so that once her release is scheduled he can play ambulance driver and fetch her.

Patriotism

The Jubilee weekend has re-awakened a sense of patriotism across the country. In solidarity with that feeling the sausages, bacon and eggs are cooking for a proper English Breakfast.

Shuffling

With the Silver Vixen’s mother due to convalesce with us for the next month or so, the morning was spent returning one of the bedrooms to a habitable state. With everything piled and stacked, ready to move, it was neat and tidy – but uninhabitable.

We then decided that the use of some spare crates would be a neater solution to the storage released from the sideboard when it was sold. A major move around followed in the living room – much to the confusion of Jasper the cat.

After the execrable coverage of the Rive Pageant by the BBC, we chanced our sanity by watching the coverage of the Concert at the Palace. You would have thought, in this day and age, that they could have actually spent more that 30 seconds adjusting the sound levels and attempted to get them right. You would also have thought that they might have got some performers who new roughly where the notes were meant to be. It was quite clear from some that they only had a cursory familiarity with the right notes.

GF has never been fond of Rap music – Will.i.Am reinforced this with his rhythmic verse, set to music, and permanently off-key.

At least, as the evening has worn on, the quality has improved and it has ended up on a celebratory high.

Pageant

We spent the Diamond Jubilee much as we did the Silver Jubilee – in hospital with the Silver Vixen’s mother. She had had her hip replaced (with an artificial one – we had suggested a roller blade or something useful like a Swiss Army knife, but this was rejected).

With most of the nation at the River Pageant, or watching it on TV, or at Street Parties – the roads were empty as we made our way up to High Wycombe. The brilliant sunshine that we left on the coast deteriorated into torrential rain as we skirted the capital.

Though pale, SVs mother was quite alert and chatty so we stayed fro a few hours before loading the car with the various items of apparatus she would require when convalescing with us on her release.

Brighton

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen pottered for most of the day, but headed across to visit family in Brighton during the late afternoon.

With a Fat Boy Slim concert scheduled, and a Protest March in progress we expected some hold ups and diversions – but in the scheme of things, we buzzed along and arrived in no time. A cup of tea and a chance to catch up on family news was the first order of the day. It seemed that several recent health scares had come to nothing – though news of the Silver Vixen’s mum’s hip operation was arriving during the evening.

We headed down to the town centre and our usual haunt “Day’s” – The buffet selection means that each of us can find things that we like and have a very pleasant feast.

What became clear was that this was also the first stopping off place for various Hen Parties and Birthday Parties. Thus we were subject to regiments of hormonal young women almost dressed in clothes that would be more appropriate for hanging around on street corners in major ports. Unfortunately the scene exuded an aura, not of fun, joy, and hope; but rather of decadence and depravity.

It is clear that the Gorse Fox is getting old.

It was a long day

The Gorse Fox got the second train of the morning up to London to meet up with the team crafting a response to one of the big media companies. GF is considered a bit of a specialist in this area and they clearly needed help.

Allowing a veil to pass across the day itself, GF finally escaped from the build a while after seven. Checking train times, he decided to head for Waterloo and try to intercept his train at Clapham Junction. It would be touch and go.

The train pulled out of Waterloo, stopped briefly at Vauxhall to pick up the spies from MI6, and then headed onwards to Clapham. As we passed under the viaduct carrying the Victoria trains, GF looked up to see if his train was there – but no. There was a chance he would make it! A few seconds later we drew alongside a train on the next track and started to overtake. It was GF’s train… and we pulled into Clapham alongside it. The doors seemed to take an age to open, but GF was well positioned and exploded from the carriage and down the stairs, turning left into the tunnel and the right up the stairs to Platform 12. Bursting back into the light he watched the train doors close and the train pull away.

Oh, well. It gave him 30 minutes to stand and ponder the meaning of life, to search for the Higgs Boson particle (it wasn’t in his pocket after all), and to curse the way so many bids end up consuming peoples’ non-work time, observing that some of his colleagues are going to be working through the weekend – and are unlikely to get any thanks or recognition for their effort.

Waste

The Gorse Fox was working at home – he had promised today and tomorrow to help a bid team with their work. Despite several chasers, instant messages and emails, they failed to make good use of GF’s offer until 17:45 when they wanted his considered input to the design of a massive storage system and the supporting network. Doh!

Much of the rest of the day was spent polishing one of GF’s famous spread-sheets that is being used by the bid team to construct the technical operational model… so the day wasn’t wasted. It’s frustrating however that GF could not have contributed more – but if they are too busy to speak to him there is little he can do.

At the end of the day we had a couple come to view the house. They seemed very positive, so we will have to see what comes of it. AT the moment their house is on the market, but not yet sold.