New House

The started well. We arrived at the site in plenty of time, and got togged up in safety gear - steel-toed boots, hi-vis jacket, hard hat, and gloves. We were then given the first of several safety briefings. We were escorted along to site office where the construction manager greeted us and gave us another safety briefing before handing us on to the finishing foreman who proceeded to give us a further safety briefing.

The visit wasn't a snagging visit. It was just an orientation visit for us to see the plot and the building so far.

Finally we were on our way and got a chance to see the road where our house is. To the right is some public space that has been tastefully planted.

Our house is on the left towards the end of this section of the road.

This formal planting will provide a nice outlook from the front of our house.

Behind the hoardings at the back they will be building a block of apartments in the style of an old manor house.

We were surprised by how big the garden area turned out to be. It is all very fine knowing the measurements, but sometimes it is only seeing the space that you appreciate what the numbers mean.

There's still a bit of finishing off to complete, and they still couldn't give us an idea of a moving in date. But clearly, it won't be too long.

Oh yes, and it was thrashing down with rain - but then it is the English summer!

Smooth

Well, that first non-work work-day seemed to go smoothly enough. The Gorse Fox feels that he could get into the swing of this.

The morning was spent working on budgets... only interrupted by a call from the Bank Manager (always the opportunist). The Gorse Fox has agreed to go see him on Thursday. Meanwhile there is more work and analysis to complete on the budget data.

In the afternoon GF and the Silver Vixen went into Noviomagus. SV had a few items to pick up at the shops and GF was happy to tag along as bag-carrier... and he needed to pick up some new printer cartridges.

Tomorrow looks interesting with our first trip to the new house... but more about that tomorrow.

Care in the Community

The Gorse Fox often wonders whether some people should really be allowed out without a carer. Perhaps he could share a couple of recent examples.

Example 1.

The Gorse Fox is walking across the concourse at Waterloo Station (last week). An attractive lady (let's call her Olga) with a young child is asking another lady (say, Cressida) for directions. Her accent was almost impenetrable. Cressida asks in return "Where are you from?". "Russia." replies Olga. (So far, so good. Nothing extraordinary). Cressida then asks, in cut glass English "Oh, that's interesting. Do you speak Russian?"

The Gorse Fox nearly tripped over the person in front as he did a double-take.

Example 2.

We visit Bignor Roman Villa. This was buried under several feet earth until 1811. Visiting the room with the hypocaust this is particularly evident because there are notices bringing to your attention the level of the ground outside. In order to protect the find, a brick built hut has been constructed over the site, topped with a thatched roof. As the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen walk around reading the information plates, a couple walk in behind us (in keeping with Example 1, let's call them Frank and Doris). Frank starts to explain to Doris how the hypocaust works. Doris peers down at the void beneath the floor, nods then looks up at the thatched roof. "Was this the roof to the Villa, then?"

GF can only echo the sentiments of Old Father Time "Be afraid. They walk among us".

Classics

There was a classic car "show and tell" on in the car park park at Bignor.  It seemed to be arranged by the South Hants Vehicle Preservation Society. There were some absolute beauties on display.

What did they ever do for us?

To quote from some comedy sketch of recent years...

There was an 'event' at the Roman Villa at Bignor, just a few miles from home.

The Gorse Fox had visited before, on one of his walks, but the Silver Vixen had not seen it. As it was only 15 minutes away and the overnight rain had cleared, it seemed like a good opportunity.

Bignor, nestling under the north face of the South Down, just west of Stand Street, was discovered in 1811. A local farmer's plough caught against what he thought was a rock. It turned out to be part of an extensive Roman Villa.

The Villa was extensive, with some 70 rooms surrounding a central courtyard. In the northern range lies one of many surviving mosaics. This particular mosaic is some 24m long (out of 70m in all) and is the longest mosaic on show in the country.

In addition to the mosaics, they also had an exposed hypocaust - which was beautifully explained, and there was a museum displaying and explaining many of the finds that had been made on site.

As part of the "event" they had people dressed in Roman garb, wandering around. Soldiers, gladiators, servants, and the lady of the house. It was all done rather well, with each of the "Romans" able to tell you about their clothes, their role, and the general background.

A number of shows were being put on throughout the day. When we arrived there a gladiators practise session being staged in the arena.

The practise was great fun and the tableau explained the training, the different types of armour, and the different weapons.

They also staged several fights.

All in all it was great fun, good value, and local. Can't get much better than that

Powering down

The Gorse Fox has been very lucky. He has received some lovely comments and wishes and cards regarding his change of status. He has also received his first pension payment - and that seems larger than expected, which can only be good news.

We heard from the agents at the building development, yesterday. We have an appointment to go and visit the new house on Tuesday for a walk-around. It wasn't totally clear from the call whether this is a "snagging" visit, an orientation visit, or just a looksee. GF guesses we'll find out on Tuesday - but will be ready for anything.

Urban-cub came round after work (GF remembers work). She joined us for a celebratory meal at the local restaurant and then stayed the night, which was nice.

Today, the Silver Vixen is at a workshop. Interestingly it was within walking distance of our last house, but is a good 20 minute drive from our current home. GF dropped her off this morning and will collect her later. This saves wear and tear on her broomstick.

We seem to have a lot of ants wandering about outside the back door. The trouble is some decided to enter and investigate the kitchen. A batch of dishwasher salt last night seems to have suppressed them, but today GF wandered along to B&Q and has purchased a spray that should eliminate them.

(written on the resurrected, but still quite slow, Samsung netbook)

Architecture

Well that's it.

Farewell to Starfleet... and their London offices. A study in architectural brutalism if ever there was one.

The offices may be in a prestigious location, here on the banks of the Thames, but they are plug ugly. This was particularly noticeable after the Gorse Fox's recent trips to Sao Paulo and Madrid.

Anyway - laptop is returned, badge is returned, credit card is destroyed and returned. GF will reset his phone in the morning.

A new era begins.

1...

Well, wouldn't you know it? Plans have changed.

Whereas GF was expecting a quick trip to the Starfleet offices here in the Shire, a call yesterday evening has meant that he is heading for the offices up by the Thames.

Oh well, it's not as if he's busy!

Only thing on today's agenda is hand back his laptop, his Starfleet credit card, his badge, and his phaser.

Cleanup

The Gorse Fox has just finished with his laptop.

He has set his email "away from office" message and is now running a secure data disposal routine that will completely overwrite the hard-drive on the laptop to ensure no data can be retrieved.

Now he is relying purely on his phone for any last minute contact.

The shackles are falling away.

2...

The whole portfolio of documents is now complete and delivered. The Gorse Fox has left a legacy that will, hopefully, prove useful for many years to come.

Today will be dedicated to scrabbling through the remote corners of his laptop to try and find any morsels of useful personal information that he may have left, inadvertently on the device.

Nurse, Cancel all further Ops today

It started simply enough.

The Gorse Fox wanted a coffee. He went an switched on the Nespresso and as he went to insert the coffee pod, he realised the receptacle where discarded pods are collected was full. He went to the cupboard where we keep a plastic bag into which we save the discarded pods ready for recycling. This is where it started to go wrong.

The plastic bag had leaked coffee over the inside of the cupboard. He quickly dropped it in the sink and grabbed a cloth and some Cif. As he started to clean the shelf, the phone rang,

He dropped the cloth and made a dash for the living room - kicking over the cats dry food and water bowl.

Phone call complete, he returned to the kitchen and started to sweep up the food pellets and then mop the floor.

Bowls empty, Jasper the cat arrived. GF refilled the dried food bowl, then refilled the water bowl and promptly dropped it as was putting it down.

GF retrieved the mop and started to clear up again.

Biorythms (remember them?) are obviously dictating a very clumsy day. GF does not do clumsy (as the cubs will attest). For this reason he has decided to withdraw from attempting any further brain surgery until at least tomorrow.

Safest thing to do is to return to the laptop.

3...

Not much left to do now.

One document to complete, the GF will wander through his files and contacts to see if there is any outstanding handover activity to complete.

Nearly done

Well Gorse Fox has saved the biggest document for tomorrow. All of the others are now complete and filed away.

GF sent his valedictory message to his friends and colleagues this morning. In it he summarised a few important points.

GF has no doubt that he has lived through one of the most exciting periods of technological change seeing computing move from the esoteric, hallowed, machine rooms spoken of in hushed tones and awe, to laptops and smart-phones accessible to the masses...

I wish you all he best for the future and I urge you to remember:

• Time is one resource you can never get back - If you GIVE Starfleet (or anyone) your time, that's it - it's gone. Do not work for nothing. The days when that counted in Starfleet are long gone.

• Respect for the Individual may no longer be one of the basic tenets of Starfleet (and more is the shame) - but it should be. Mutual respect was what made us great - the loss of that respect is corrosive.

• Do not be afraid to say NO (see bullet 1, above).

• Someone else's bad planning or stupid, ill-conceived commitment does not have to become your late night or lost weekend. (Your own, however, that's on your head).

• Look after your family - they should be the most important thing in your life. They want to see you (strange as it may seem), your time, your love, and your attention are the most precious gifts you can give them.

• Make contacts in Research and in the Labs - you need them, and they need you.

• Take care of your careers - nobody will do it for you.

• For those of you in the Pretorian Guard remember if you work 44 hours a week that is 7 hours longer than your contract - so a bonus at the end of the year is only going part way towards paying for all the over-time you have given away for nothing

• Starfleet is the greatest technology company on the planet - build on that strength, the strength of its research, and the strength of its methods.

• Fight bad behaviour, shouting,  and bullying. Fight it tooth and nail. It is becoming endemic in some areas. It is unacceptable and must be stopped (see bullet 2, above). You would not accept it in your private lives, you should not have to accept it at work.

• Look after each other - colleagues should be more than just acquaintances - they should be friends; I have been lucky I consider you all to be friends.

• If you are ever in the Chichester area - give me a call - we can grab coffee/drink/meal/ice cream as appropriate

It appears that this had a certain resonance as GF has been inundated with responses from his friends and colleagues. The basic message being how GF had hit the nail squarely on the head.

4...

The list is down to 3 documents left to complete - 165 have been written in the last couple of month. GF has a fighting chance of getting them finished.

No calls scheduled for today, so he should get a good run at them.

The Long Goodbye

This afternoon saw the Gorse Fox head up to town for a farewell drink with several of his old colleagues.

As the Gorse Fox arrived a bit early, he went in to check the venue - a well-known haunt for Starfleet. They had reserved the mezzanine for GF and the manager showed him round and asked about payment arrangements (a tab, or everyone for themselves) and whether we would also like any food.

Ordering a few platters and sorting out a tab, Gorse Fox said he was going for a walk and would be back in 20 minutes.

Though the clouds looked threatening, it was still warm and sunny, and the Southbank is always vibrant and interesting.

 There was evidently a theme of "Love" to all of the decoration around the Southbank. GF suspects it is left over from the Gay Pride weekend just past.

Certainly it was bright!

 From the bridge spanning the Thames you could see the colourful stalls that lined the river bank. Strangely, for during the Winter these often sell food and souvenirs, they didn't seem to be selling anything, but were just colourful booths in which to sit and watch the world go by.

 Heading up-river slightly the booths were replaced by a funfair and the entrance to Udderbelly comedy store. Just out of sight is the Millennium Wheel and the old Count Hall complex.
It is a lovely place to just go and wander about and watch the world go by.

As the Gorse Fox started his return journey he climbed up to the bridge level and, passing the Festival Hall, he was accosted by a young lad - probably 15-18 years old. The lad rushed up to him and asked if he could take a "selfie" with GF. Somewhat taken aback, GF acquiesced and the lad held out his phone and standing up close with GF, framed the picture and took the picture. He thanked GF and as he went to leave, GF asked "Why?" The lad explained he was just approaching people at random and taking these photos. GF was a random victim.

Gorse Fox headed back to venue and soon after he arrived, Deep Blue turned up. For the next few hours various colleagues arrived and we had a few drinks and nibbled at the platters they brought along.

Several colleagues couldn't make it - Starfleet demanding they be in Edinburgh, or Manchester, or stuck in office managing quarter-end. However, it really was a lovely couple of hours.

5...

The final run-down.

GF has a few calls scheduled and is then heading for London this afternoon where he is meeting up with some colleagues for a farewell drink.

Just Stuff

On this day many, many years ago. When electricity was still new-fangled, when London was monochrome, and quite possibly, Roman Centurions roamed the streets - GF was presented with a little sister. Happy Birthday, Sis.

Other than that, nothing too special about today - just stuff.

The stuff started with some more tidying up of the data backups. Over the years it had become a little convoluted and GF needed to rationalise some of the locations and copies that had built up over the years.

Mowing the lawns was more stuff... but as it has been so dry, the grass hadn't grown much. This was fairly quick. The Silver Vixen was trimming a vine in the garden, so GF still had a fair bit of rubbish to take along to the dump.

Other than that, there wasn't too much to report.

Data Security

The Gorse Fox is paranoid about data protection. As a result he frequently reviews his backup regime to ensure everything of value is copied to some backup device, and that it is also stored "off-site" in the "Cloud".

The role of managing backups has fallen to Eagle, his PC, for the last few years. It was however becoming a little convoluted and a good backup regime should be simple and easily understood. Also, Eagle is not switched on all of the time. It was time to move the backup controls to Condor, GF's iMac.

So it was that the new regime was designed (yes, GF applies architectural principles even to his home computers) and documented. Then GF downloaded a bit of software that was analogous to that run Eagle for Condor. The individual schedules were developed (different folders have different requirements regarding frequency or even destination of backup). Everything started to click into place and the new backups have started.

On a different subject, GF was glad to see Brazil get through to the next round of the World Cup - even if it was a penalty shoot-out with Chile, in the end. GF was not keen on Chile's play-acting and whining. Similarly it was great to see Uruguay given their come-uppance by Colombia.

Special Evening

It is the Gorse Fox's little sister's birthday this weekend. We had arranged to meet with them for dinner in Chichester. GF had booked "Amelie and Friends", based on the reviews in Trip Advisor.

The restaurant was busy - probably because of the Festival of Speed - but we were shown straight to our table where we went on to enjoy a superb meal. Appetisers of home made breads and of pork crackling; starters of bruschetta, of smoked haddock, and of crab; and main dishes of Onglet steak, and of sea bass. Everything was cooked to perfection and presented beautifully.

This was a good choice. Trip Advisor had provided good counsel.

When we finished the meal J&T came back to the house where we sat and continued our conversations from dinner - the news of the kids, their health, the new house, the England Football Team, the World Cup in general, and the family in Canada. It was a lovely evening, and all too soon they had to leave and head home.

Festival

This weekend sees Glastonbury taking over much of the airwaves. However, despite the hype, there is another festival. Here in Chichester we have the annual Festival of Speed. This means that the A27 becomes impassible for hours on end - but it also means that the Gorse Fox can wander into the front garden (as he did this morning) and watch the Red Arrows go through their display in skies between Goodwood and Fontwell.

6...

Yesterday was a huge step forward - 42 documents were added to the portfolio and that only leaves a handful. Gf will try to make inroads on them when he has woken up fully.

It wasn't me then

The Gorse Fox's Samsung Netbook is back. The Mr Fixit ordered a second new battery and that too failed to charge. He then swapped the battery with another Netbook he had hanging around - the alternate batter worked and charged fine in GF's machine; the new batteries failed to charge in either. The problem is evidently with the batteries.

Mr Fixit gave GF the alternate battery and Sammy is now home and happy.

7...

Back to the document portfolio today (after sorting out some stuff for Cousteau-cub).

There are a number of document defined within the portfolio that will essentially be blank canvasses for the author to write their own content. This is because the content is likely to be so unique to each project that model document is difficult to create, or because different projects will demand different interpretations of what should be included. This means that progress on these is very quick and GF is getting through a significant number of such templates in just a few hours.

8...

Today saw the Gorse Fox travelling up to meet with Jean-Luc Picard in Middle Earth. The journey north was remarkably trouble-free - and now GF's wheel-bearing has been fixed, wonderfully quiet again. GF will miss his stealth craft when he has to part with it.

The work was, to some extents, a status check and hand-over. J-L needed to know if anything would be left when GF goes, or whether he would have cleared the lot. He also reviewed some of the other details - like GF's style guide, and help guides. Those these were essentially created for his own benefit, these are now wanted as part of the overall portfolio.

Review complete, we headed to a nearby restaurant for a farewell lunch. We sat overlooking the countryside of Middle Earth, with the canal just below us. Canal boats pottered silently by as far as the lock where people leapt out to handle the gates. Just away to our east a mill could be seen among the trees. It was a lovely spot - and GF is amazed that this was the first time he had been there, after 30 years of travelling to and from Middle Earth.

Bidding farewell, GF got on the road and headed back to the Coast. It's all very fine going to Middle Earth, but it's a long way from the edges.

Ubiquity

The advantage of the relative ubiquity of WiFi and mobile phone signals is that when the Gorse Fox needs to get his car serviced (or a wheel bearing fixed - as in this case) - he can drive to the dealer, leave the car and settle down in their waiting room whilst remaining online and accessible to work, throughout.

9...

The day started with a request to convert an old file to GF's new format. There should be a straightforward way to do this, but MS Word has some quirks that do not allow a simple copy and paste from one template to another without compromising the styles that have been defined. Sometimes it works if the author has been consistent, but usually you end up with a mess that takes ages to unpick. GF adopts the approach that it is quicker to copy the data as unformatted text and then apply formatting-styles than it is to clean up the mess. It may have taken a couple of hours - but it is done, and complies with the template GF has defined (and all the US spelling has been corrected).

GF was pleased that Brazil finally switched up a gear and played some good football last night against Cameroon. The next round should be interesting with a Brazil-Chile game set up for the weekend

Gene pool

You have to worry about the quality of the gene pool. Customer Service Agents from Opodo have been revealing some of the complaints and questions they have received.

• When one customer's flight from the UK to Miami was cancelled, the man asked whether he could take the Eurostar to the American city instead.
• One customer called about the sand on the beach in Mexico claiming that it had too many pebbles, one of which had chipped her manicure.
• A thrill-seeker who had booked a trip to Universal Studios, Florida, requested a refund for his trip as one of the rides, the Incredible Hulk rollercoaster, had been too scary.
• A customer called about her holiday abroad as it was “too hot,” the food “too spicy” and “hardly anyone spoke English.”

Countdown begins: 10...

Ten working days to go. The Gorse Fox is has a distinct lack of motivation this morning. The weather looks glorious, and it would be much more appropriate to be sitting outside with a glass of sangria, than sitting in front of a screen trying to finish off some of the outstanding documents.

P.S. Was glad to see the Colonies did well in the World Cup last night. It's a shame the Portingales managed to equalise in the dying minutes.

Sunday Admin

It has been a good morning.

The Gorse Fox has spent time going through his "Money Dashboard" account and clearing up some previously uncategorised transactions. There were about 130 all told but he has it down well below 100 now - and may of them would be allocated if there was a suitable category. The one big draw-back of Money Dashboard though is the inability to manage and allocate categories as you would like.

We managed to have an online chat with Cousteau-cub. GF started the chat, and then handed over to the Silver Vixen as she hadn't chatted for a while. Meanwhile GF headed out to the mow the lawns. As it has been fairly dry over the past few weeks, the grass hadn't grown too much - fortunately.

Order, order!

The Gorse Fox decided today was the day. It was suitable close to the end of the quarter that he may be able to negotiate some deals.

First stop was to order the new car for the Silver Vixen. It took a few hours to get the deal done and the paperwork completed, but in the end GF was happy that he had negotiated a good deal, and he was getting the top of the range car for the price of the next model down.

Overall the deal is working out less than he had budgeted. The only issue now is how long it will take to deliver - given that it is a factory-build (i.e. no stock exists that matches our spec).

GF suspects it will be October before it is available - but at at least we get what we wanted.

After grabbing a bite of lunch we headed back out. It was time to order a car for the Gorse Fox.

Again, it was an opportunity to do a deal. Again, some straight-forward negotiation, and an approach that said "I understand you are in business to make a profit, but you need to try and compete with the online broker price" managed to get a good bargain with about 12% knocked off the price.

Again, the car is factory build - in order to meet the spec. required. GF suspects that, again, this is likely to mean October before it's ready. The beauty is that we aren't in any hurry.

It was good

Despite the trouble with the SatNav in his dream last night, the Gorse Fox has had a good day. Several calls interrupted his progress, but he has managed to create an assessment sheet that will automate the assessment of a nascent project and decide whether it can be considered as "Lite" or "Low Fat" from a workload migration perspective.

Why was this worth mentioning? Well GF has created a simple visualisation that effectively moves a button around a graph to show the scale and complexity of the task - according to the questions answered. Furthermore, the graph depicts some thresholds (which were an absolute nightmare to produce) to cordon off the "Low Fat" from the high octane (to mix metaphors).

A rhetorical question perhaps, but could Microsoft have made the creation and formatting of bubble charts any more difficult?

Meanwhile the Silver Vixen has been away with her coven at Sandown Park. GF is not sure whether any of the old nags won any of the races, but no doubt the quilt show kept them busy.

Where to?

The Gorse Fox seemed to spend an inordinate amount of his dreams last night trying to find the address of a venue to enter into his SatNav in order to attend a VM User Group in Buenos Aires!

The Silver Vixen is convinced it is because he has spent so long working that now he's retiring, he doesn't know where he's going! Personally, GF thinks it's just that he's unhinged.

Headlines

The Gorse Fox can only assume that the warmonger Blair is back in charge somehow. BBC Sports news reports: "England will attack Uruguay"

Come to daddy

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen's Nespresso coffee machine has just been returned. New pump has been fitted, and it now works a treat.

Normal service can now resume.

Printing

More progress made during the day - though it was at a snail's pace. Over 100 documents now nestling in the portfolio that GF will leave.

He received a call from Springbok, a colleague with whom had worked last year. Springbok is deeply disillusioned by work in his division of Starfleet. He has been interviewed by one of the managers in GF's division and was asking for the Gorse Fox's opinion. GF laid it on the line:

• He would have professional, full-time managers, not professionals who had to fit in the management role round a full time-fee-earning role.
• He would be expected to work hard, but he is measured against his 37 hour contract, not some arbitrary 44 hour expectation
• His utilisation targets would be lower (55-70%, not 85%)
• His division would be focussed on technology, and technologists were respected - as opposed to being cannon fodder in practise full of self-opinionated, ill-informed, project managers and fly-by-night consultants
• Only expected to be away 3 nights a week, if at all
• Some interesting roles in the pipeline

Seemed like a no-brainer to the Gorse Fox.

During the afternoon GF re-installed Silver Vixen's printer, switching it from USB to Wireless mode. This revealed that it had an Airprint feature, allowing printing directly from iPhones or iPads. Nice little bonus.

Talking of bonuses - GF received a voucher from Prezzo, the restaurant chain. This seemed like a good excuse, so GF and Silver Vixen headed for Arundel and enjoyed an Italian-themed meal. The surroundings were beautifully laid out in what was once a wine bar, if GF remembers correctly. Light oak panelling, lots of mirrors and a large orangery at the back, over what was once a courtyard. Very tastefully done. The food was good too!

Answer

In answer to the Daily Telegraph's headline "Why are so many goals being scored in Brazil?" the Gorse Fox would venture: "Because that is where the World Cup is being played at present".

Disappointed

Well, GF has been looking at Belgium as a dark horse for the the World Cup, but tonight's display was disappointing. They won the game (against Algeria) but really made heavy weather of it. They will need to improve a lot to be in contention.

Having said that, Brazil (the favourites) were stemmed back by Mexico and despite their lapse into a typical South American style of play-acting (cheating) there seemed to be nothing Brazil could do to break down the disciplined Mexico team.

Not much to report

Tuesday has been quiet. GF was glad to see the US had won their World Cup match last night and was looking forward to the Belgium game and the Brazil game later. The Silver Vixen was out with her coven for the day, and the Gorse Fox continued to develop the documents he has been working on for the past month or so. Not exactly riveting stuff, but it feels good to get them out of the way - one by one.

Deep Blue called. He had been scoping out a possible venue for the GF's farewell drink. Sounds like the ideal place - but shame about the fact they want a guaranteed spend of £1000 in order to reserve us an area of the bar. Now GF and his colleagues have been known to have a thirst, but he suspects that is just a fantasy. He has volunteered to review a couple of further venues so that GF can compare.

Passphrase

Starfleet has a deserved paranoia regarding the security of its systems and this extends to smart phones that provide access to Starfleet's mail system. This paranoia expresses itself by insisting on an 8 (or more) character passphrase to unlock said phone before it can be used. This renders a very useful device about as irritating as shutting your fingers in the car door.

Today, an alarm went off. The Gorse Fox had a scheduled call in 5 minutes. He gracefully finished what he was doing and grabbed the phone. He entered the passphrase (mistyping it the first time). The phone stared at him blankly then popped up the message that it was time to change his passphrase. There had been no previous warning - but it had to be done NOW.

Despite having just entered his old passphrase, he was asked to enter it again. Then he had to set a new passphrase - the first attempt at which broke some rule or other and another had to be selected. That had to be repeated to make sure GF really meant it. By this time, the phone was in  danger of becoming a projectile. The passphrase was accepted and the phone presented itself, finally, as a usable device on which the Gorse Fox could have his teleconference with Jean-Luc Picard.

GF will not be upset when he can strip all this Starfleet security from the phone and he can return to the standard security measures.

Picnic

The forecast had been for a nice day - the forecast was optimistic. It was overcast and a little chilly. We had, in ancient English tradition, decided to have a picnic in the grounds of Petworth House along with Urban-cub and her family. The decision was made a week or so back, and ratified yesterday.

The first problem was that arriving in Petworth, access to the House was blocked by a road closure for a cycle race. We hit the mobile phone and intercepted Urban-cub and re-directed her to Parham House.

The second problem was that Parham House was hosting the Sussex County Fair, or some such event. As a result we were directed into a field far away from the House and Gardens. Here we parked and were filtered towards the main entrance to the event. One look at the prices told us, tents, and fairground told us that this was not what we had in mind.

We returned to the cars, exited the field and drove back onto the Estate. This time we ignored the signs and headed for the House. Much better.

The weather was at least staying dry, so we got out the picnic things and sat overlooking the House and Church whilst we munched through our various snacks. Urban-cub had presented the GF with a lovely canvas featuring the photographic highlights of our last trip to Thailand. - it was super, and featured several photos the Gorse Fox had not previously seen.

Once the picnic was finished and packed away, U-c and her family left, and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox went for a stroll around the gardens. These were quite beautiful - but with some sunshine, would have been stunning.

Purring about Pirlo, Pah!

The Gorse Fox is frustrated about the way the pundits purr about the Italian midfielder Pirlo. That is not to detract from his undoubted skill. GF would observe, however, that anyone can look slick and commanding if every time they receive the ball, the opposition backs off and gives them space.

The papers are full of positive reports regarding last nights World Cup game in Manaus. There was, certainly, much to be positive about. However, there is the basic problem of letting the Italians have the ball. The Holland team, the night before, showed that if you get in among the oppositions and disrupt their play, and give them no space and no time to dwell on the ball - then you can break them down. We seemed to accept that whenever the Italians got the ball we would back off and try to defend around the box - a deeply flawed tactic. Defend high up the pitch - keep them pinned back.

Cosy

When we finally move in to the new house there will be a gaping hole in the living room. The house has a chimney and a space for a fireplace - but no actual grate or fire surround. It was time we gave this some consideration.

So it was that we headed to Ford where there is a large fireplace showroom. When the Gorse Fox says large, he means astonishingly large. We wandered around for an hour or two looking at the various offerings and trying to decide what would best suit the room. Unsurprisingly we both had similar thoughts and liked the same designs - but in a place that big, that didn't narrow things down significantly. We spoke with one of the assistants and he, clearly passionate about his job, took us back and forth between models explaining the features, the pros and the cons of each fire and each fire surround that fitted our ever developing criteria.

In the end we had chosen - now all we need is to get to the house so they can sort out the survey and fitting. GF is not sure how often the fire will be used, but it will be nice to have it there for the odd occasions we may need to top the heating up.

Meanwhile, back at home the Gorse Fox has finished going through the pension forms, and has had a chat with the HMRC to ensure he understands the tax position. He has one more number to complete on one form - which he will do on Monday after speaking to the Starfleet Pensions Trust... and then it will be sealed in an envelope and returned - decision made.

Numbers

Finally the numbers have come through for Gorse Fox's pension. Now he has to decide how to take the fund. Due to a) the disgraceful and disingenuous behaviour or Starfleet over the pension scheme (and as censured by the British Courts); and b) the theft of over £100Bn pounds from UK pension funds by Gordon Brown, Gorse Fox isn't getting as much as he has planned on 20 years ago. However, he is lucky compared to many.  

Now he just needs to determine how much to take as a pension, and how much to take as as tax-free lump sum. Now this is not an arbitrary decsion... one wants to be comfortable, yet have flexible options for the future. He called his brother-in-law as a sounding board and got some good advice.

Now, the sums have been done. The tax implications have been considered. The monthly and annual budgets have been estimated. Now Gorse Fox needs to sleep on it and revisit all the calculations tomorrow.

Sammy, again

The Samsung Netbook is back with Mr Fixit. The charger has been checked and is delivering the right voltage, the pins on the motherboard are also delivering the right voltage - so the problem must lie with the new battery... so the Gorse Fox left it with him to get replaced and checked out.

On a brighter note, the chappie came with the stand-in Nespresso machine and took ours away to be fixed. At least GF should be able to get his fix! Unfortunately the replacement doesn't have a milk steamer/frother so the Silver Vixen will have to rely on copious amounts of hot milk.

News-speak

The Gorse Fox notices the headline: "UN deplores militants' capture of cities" in reference to the events in Iraq this week. He would imagine that the militants are quaking in their boots at such censure!

While we ponder the full impact of the UN's displeasure, the Gorse Fox would note the following use of English in the media:

Irritation becomes Fury or Rage
Annoyance becomes Disgust
Bug become Massive Flaw
Problem becomes Crisis
CCTV becomes Spy camera

Panic

A sense of panic has set in. The Nespresso coffee machine has just failed after the Gorse Fox went through the descale cycle.

Phoned the technical help desk and they are collecting the machine tomorrow - and providing a replacement while it's being fixed. Still, the Gorse Fox has to complete the day without the requisite infusions of coffee-based caffeine.

While talking of panic, GF notes the email he received from Old Father Time(OFT) this morning (subject was GF's impending retirement):

"Well done Granddad, you've made it.
Be warned, it's a holiday at first, then the shock sets in. You become a 'non-person' outside society, no status. Being 'Retired' carries a stigma... 
A hobby won't suffice, no interaction with colleagues, no mutual respect.
After a year I looked for work. Agencies told me I'd be a threat to whoever was reading my C.V. - No have chance, you will have to lie in the C.V. or work for a charity.
Don't despair, it passes... Then you start to not give a (expletive deleted) when you realise most retired people are hard up and you ain't! 
Good luck mucker... Going out with your slippers on and fly undone becomes a habit."

Perhaps a little cynical - but that's OFT for you!

Imprimatur

The Silver Vixen has been suffering with an intermittent problem whereby her laptop seems to lose sight of the printer. Once this has happened there seems to be almost no way of resurrecting the connection. The frustrating thing is that the laptop can ping the printer and gets an immediate response.

Gorse Fox has decided enough is enough and ordered a new printer for the Silver Vixen that can be directly attacked to laptop. No excuses.

Whilst talking of frustration, a new charger arrived for the Netbook. It isn't a cheap knock-off it is a genuine Samsung charger - but having said that it doesn't actually fit the plug in the side of the Netboook, so GF is having to return it. Pah!

Pros and Cons

The Gorse Fox was woken by the furry alarm we refer to as Jasper. Jasper started whining just before six and started walking up and down the bed soon after. GF had no option but to get up and let him out and feed him.

The advantage of this early start was that it is such a beautiful day. Wall to wall blue sky. It makes the spirit soar.

Back to bite

Regular readers will know that last year's appraisals were tense. One appraisal that GF had to deliver was not as good as the colleague expected, and whilst GF explained the reason for the the rating given, the person in question would not accept the appraisal.

An informal review was held, giving the Gorse Fox a chance, once more, to revisit the rating and explain the reasoning behind it. The person in question again rejected the appraisal and ultimately raised a grievance that GF had not explained why the particular rating was given.

Today the case was finally heard, and GF spent an hour or so on the phone answering a battery of questions. Without pre-judging the outcome, GF feels fairly strongly that he will hear no more - and he has been completely vindicated.

Meanwhile - back at the day job - GF has managed to plough on and create templates for a significant number of documents today. If he can keep this rate up - which he doubts - he will complete the portfolio by early next week.

The Right Stuff

The Gorse Fox met a chap during the week that is evidently made of the Right Stuff. He was a German colleague who, like the Gorse Fox, has worked for Starfleet for a long time. Indeed he was on assignment in the same part  of the Starfleet US estate as GF used to visit regularly. We chatted about old haunts and great restaurants and generally reminisced.

He then went on to explain he had a car like that driven by the Gorse Fox, but that he had been working in the automotive sector. He had developed some stuff for Mercedes-Benz that had brought in many tens of millions of euros for Starfleet. He had recently been assigned to BMW. The Exec he was working with objected to his car in the BMW car park and took him to one side and suggested he "got a premium brand".

My colleague returned to Starfleet and searched through the pool. Next time he visited the he parked a top of the range E-class Mercedes in the car park. The Exec again took him to one side and said "I thought I told you to get a BMW" to which my colleague responded - "No - in fact you said a Premium Brand; and by the way Mercedes spend more than ten times what you do with Starfleet every year - when you match that I may get a BMW"

Definitely the Right Stuff.

Sammy

The Gorse Fox has just got his old Samsung Netbook back from the chap who has been fixing the keyboard. Problem is that it hasn't had any updates for over a year, and it has taken all day today to get all of the security updates downloaded and applied. While this was going on GF cleaned off some of the old stuff that was no longer required. It does seem slow after the Mac.

Unfortunately it seems to have a further problem - it won't charge and hold the charge on the battery. This is a new battery, so the problem is obviously with the charger, or with the circuitry in the Netbook that manages charging. GF has ordered a new charger to see if that solves the problem.

Threatening

The weather forecast spoke of thunderstorms and flash floods for today. It certainly looks threatening at present. We'll see what emerges.

And as if by magic - there is a huge rumble of thunder!

Closing out the week

The Gorse Fox is back home for Friday. There was no way he was going to sit through a further day of lectures by the two colleagues that had so comprehensively bored him yesterday afternoon.

One of the first mails to arrive contained an estimating spreadsheet that Jean-Luc had wanted adapting to use the Gorse Fox's standard template. This should have been a fairly straightforward task.... but as the details were copied across, GF started to understand the construction of the data. This is when he noted how different the approach to spreadsheet construction had been from that which the Gorse Fox would have used.

The simple copy and reformat task became a copy and restructure task. It took longer this way, but at the end the spreadsheet was much better.

Pain

GF and Jean-Luc Picard have finished and handed over to some Starfleet colleagues from the US to tell us about a tool they have developed.

This is painful... their presentation technique is dreadful - bordering on utterly useless and the tool - which was meant to be the great panacea for our projects, barely scratches the surface of the problems we have to address.

The good thing is that it should make the class appreciate Jean-Luc and Gorse Fox!

Day 3

Well yesterday's class finished well and we arranged a class dinner at a local restaurant in Middle Earth. It was thrashing down with rain, so whilst GF had planned to walk the couple miles from the hotel to the restaurant, he ended up taking a cab.

The meal was excellent, considering there was such a large group. GF's colleagues were great fun and we had a really interesting evening.

We are now into Day 3 of the class and GF is waiting for the class to finish the first exercise of the day. He only has one more session to deliver... and then will listen whilst Jean-Luc finishes off the final sessions.

GF has changed his plans and will head home at the end of the day as tomorrow's agenda (a separate subject) really holds little value for the Gorse Fox.

Day 2

Day one went very well and Gorse Fox even had dinner with several of the students. This actually gave hime a chance to clarify some of the questions they had outstanding from the day. It also gave a chance to talk (to German colleagues) about the World Cup.

Day 2 is well under way with the class split into their syndicate rooms to complete the second of this morning's exercises. GF has also completed his first lecture of the day and now has a couple of hours of Capt. Jean-Luc Picard to listen to before he is next up on his feet.

And so it begins

The Gorse Fox is in Middle Earth. Starfleet colleagues have arrived from all over Europe and we are now several hours into Day 1 of the class.

The attendees were a bit quiet to start with, but have now got over their initial shyness and are fully engaged in the class. 

Cracking through

The Gorse Fox has been on a mission! He has cracked through another handful of documents that will form part of the overall portfolio of documents and templates he plans to leave as his legacy. Slowly the number outstanding is decreasing... but whether it is feasible to complete the whole canon is yet to be seen.

GF is off to Middle Earth for the rest of the week where he will be teaching, so whilst he may get the odd bits done here and there, he suspects progress will be slow.

Feeling satisfied

The lawns got done, the hedges were trimmed (where they encroached on neighbours, or the paths), and the edges were whipped into shape.

Twelve bags of trimmings were loaded into the car and deposited at the tip.

Now a quiet afternoon with a the Silver Vixen, sitting in the sun and enjoying a jug of sangria. The only thing missing is the lapping of the waves on the beach... but living some six or seven miles inland now, that seems like a tall order.

Trouble

The trouble with being an early riser is that when you are at your most productive and itching to do things - you have to wait until a sensible hour so that you don't disturb neighbours and loved ones. The Gorse Fox has been for quite a while and wants to get out to mow the lawns - but feels, for the sake of the neighbours - he needs to wait until at least 10:30 before firing up the mower.

Check

We went to check on the new house. The agents had told us the hoardings had been moved and the scaffolding was down. The builders still will not allow us anywhere near the house, but there is a vantage point from which GF can take his long distance photos.

We arrived at the vantage point. Some of the hoardings were indeed down - but not those which obscured the ground floor of our house. From what we could see, the tiled sections of the walls was complete and everything was looking fairly clear.

Reality check.

The Gorse Fox had another reality check this morning. An official-looking letter dropped through the letter box. He opened it with a certain degree of trepidation, wondering if there had been some problem with his taxes or NI payments.

No.

It was an invitation from the DWP to apply for the Winter Fuel Payment for 2014/15. Pah!

Err, you know you...

The Gorse Fox got a call at lunch time.

"Hello, it's Captain Jean-Luc Picard here, how are you?"
"Fine thanks. How can I help?" GF replied.
"Well. It's just a thought but...."
"Yes. Go on." GF's warning antennae started to twitch
"You know you are retiring on 4th July."
"Yes."
"Well, you wouldn't fancy coming back on contract for 6 months or so. would you? We'll make it worth your while."

He then went on to quote the contract rates for someone like the Gorse Fox. And it would probably mean spending a fair bit of time in Madrid, which is an attractive thought (if the Silver Vixen could come along - but then what about the Jasper the cat). It was hard not to be tempted, but then the Gorse Fox isn't driven by money. He promised he would think about it, but in the next breath suggested that Deep Blue would be another very capable candidate.

Thinking about it, Jasper the Cat could probably take on one of the Project Management roles. Based on recent experiences he would be just as effective.

GF and Deep Blue had a long chat over Facetime. GF felt he should brief him, in case the call came in. In doing so he found out that the Scottish Project is worried they don't have a particular strategy defined - and here they are 12 months into the programme. GF pointed out they do - because GF wrote it, and pointed Deep Blue at the document. A few minutes reading and it was clear this addressed just the sort of things they wanted - but because they never listened to a word GF said - they didn't know they had it. If only Jasper the Cat had been there!

Middle Earth

The Gorse Fox had an early start. He had a meeting in Starfleet's offices in Middle Earth. He was delighted by how quiet the traffic seemed - forgetting that it was half term and therefore many people were on holiday.

Once he had arrived in Middle Earth, breakfast was the first priority and whilst heading for the restaurant he bumped into the Mighty Atom. It was nice to see him, though we didn't have long to chat. Maybe next week we will get longer as GF is teaching in Middle Earth for much of the week.

The meeting that GF was there to attend went well and it is clear that the work he has been doing was well appreciated. We went through the outstanding items, and agreed a policy for each of them and also prioritised the key documents.

The journey home was less successful - a broken down lorry on the slip road from the M40 to A34 causing a 90 minute delay.

Progress

An email just arrived from the house builders. The email carries a photo which is a view of the chappie laying the floor in the hallway of the new house. The photo is a little dark, but it looks good so far. Clearly the plastering, painting, and second fix electrics are done in the hallway - though the photo doesn't show any other parts of the house.

It's nice to see progress.

Re-certify

One of the great things about Starfleet's "Architecture" profession is the rigour which is applied in the process of advancing through the various grades. This is further enhanced by the requirement to re-certify every three years - and this means showing that you have attended relevant education, showing that you are using and extending yours skills, and showing that you are giving something back to the profession.

The Gorse Fox is at the highest level of certification, and this morning has received an email reminding him that he needs to re-certify before November to retain his qualification. (Yes, you can drop back down through the ranks as well).

He chuckles to himself as he deletes the email. Another hoop through which he no longer has to jump!

Benefits

One of the benefits of the Gorse Fox's advanced age is that he is now eligible for a Senior Railcard. This affords him a significant discount on railway travel (off-peak). Examining this for a trip to London next month, GF was pleased to see that with tube and bus travel included it was only £15.50 return, and if GF wanted to tie himself to a specific train, he could get to London for £5.30 and get home for £3.30.

The Gorse Fox can't complain about that! To make things even cheaper, if GF books through Starfleet's Rewards program, he can get a further discount.

Now that's a Relief

Gorse Fox has problem with the web server on his MAC. This means that he cannot use his private blog until it gets resolved. However, he has written a number of programs over the last few years that can access the underlying database. Checking these out during the morning, he realises he can still place entries in his private blog, even if he currently can't see them.

He concludes that the sooner he moves this function off the MAC and onto a dedicated Raspberry Pi, the better. Having said that - while he might dabble a bit - he doesn't plan to get too far into that until he retires and has lots of time.

ADF

Well the cat got the Gorse Fox up and out of bed at six-thirty this morning. It was a gorgeous morning so he wasn't too troubled by the unearthly hour. He has spent much of the morning going though old files and scanning documents that have some inherent long-term interest or value. He must say that he is glad of the "automatic document feed" feature of his device as he has been able to load it up and let chug away in the corner.

Paper reduction therapy

Let's start by stating quite clearly: "the lawns need mowing".

But it had been wet overnight, so GF had to wait for it to dry out (hoping that we would not get more rain). He retired to his study and a little paper reduction therapy. Papers were examined and either discarded, shredded, or scanned-filed-and-shredded. Several hours later the computer's hard drives were many tens of megabytes more full, the shredder had been emptied several times, and the waste bin was overflowing.

Most therapeutic.

Knowing how long it takes us to select furniture and furnishings, we headed out to start the selection process for a new living room suite for the new house. Not easy as we have not yet got the feel of it and thought about how we would use it - in practise. It was worth starting the process though. It has enabled us to determine what we don't want, even if it hasn't helped find what we do want.

We got back home. It still hadn't rained. In fact the sun was shining. Out came the power cable and the lawn mower. Gorse Fox wandered up and down, and finally got the lawns back to a presentable length.

Less therapeutic, but satisfying none-the-less.

Bile

The Gorse Fox worries about the effect of social media. It has so many positive aspects, but it does seem to draw some desperately unpleasant behaviours out of people.

The Election on Thursday was a case in point. Reading through some of the comment on the social media it was depressing that so much vitriol and bile could be spewed at anyone who took a differing view from that of the commentator.

GF believes his views are fairly middle-of-the-road and balanced, but is interested to see reasoned debate on alternative views. All he actually saw was demonstrations of filthy language and bullying.

The empirical evidence of these outpourings show the total intolerance that those on left seem to have, and their ability to ignore or deny facts whilst spreading disinformation. Gorse Fox is sure it is not limited to those supporters of the left... but they were by far the majority involved yesterday. It always worries the Gorse Fox that there is a group in society who seem to base their ideology on sharing the wealth of others, without the aspiration of working to achieve wealth of their own. This destructive "politics of envy" is divisive and self-defeating, and like the emotion of hate it feeds on its followers.

Tick

That's another week done. Only six to go. Three of those GF was meant to be teaching, but Starfleet's accountants have deemed education to to be superfluous - so now there will be only one week of teaching.

Gorse Fox has also "announced" his retirement to his circle of friends within Starfleet (hoping he hasn't missed anyone). He is now trying to arrange an opportunity to meet with them all for a farewell drink.

Sssh

Quiet day working at home. Only a few teleconference calls to break the silence - well, that and the hail and thunder that has punctuated the periods of sunshine.

We heard from Cousteau-cub, who is - of course - in Thailand. She was writing to tell us not to worry about the military coup; but that she may have limitations to her internet access. As she said, it is the third or fourth such incident since she first went out there - and it doesn't really affect them too much on the islands (though TV goes off at 7pm). Also there is a curfew in place - but it doesn't really have any impact on them as they are tucked up at home by the time it comes into force (and there's probably no military on the island to enforce it, anyway).

Result

Well that was a result.

Firstly, despite having to be at Starfleet by ten, the Gorse Fox had a terrific run through and had time for a coffee before the workshop started.

Secondly, the workshop went really well. It makes such a difference when the sales drones shut up and let the technical staff talk and discuss what needs to be done. As a result we seem to have closed the deal in terms of the client's due diligence - now the commercial functionaries have to release the prices.

(Meanwhile GF is resisting getting sucked in to a meeting next week to cover the same material again).

Workshop

The Gorse Fox is heading back to the Starfleet Offices near Heathrow for all day workshop. He took a call last night from a sales drone who insisted on giving him lots of advice regarding the his document (which will be the subject of the workshop). GF has studiously ignored every word.

London Calling

The Gorse Fox seems to have been on the end of a silly number of calls from colleagues in London. Evidently his intervention yesterday has triggered a flurry of "help" from some of Starfleet's commercial and sales troops. As a result he has spent most of the day explaining some basics to them, or slapping them down when they got silly.

GF will have to head back up there tomorrow.

At last

The Gorse Fox has finally received his confirmation from Starfleet that he can retire on 4th July as hoped.

Saved

Looks like Gorse Fox saved the day. The client meeting went well, and now Gorse Fox has a couple of days work to do, but looks like we have a deal.

All Change

Panic text message over the weekend changed the Gorse Fox's plan for the day. He would have to head up to Starfleet's centre near Heathrow. It was clear that several things had conflated to cause some concern at the end of last week - and GF was in the frame to try and sort it out.

Fortunately, he did not have to be there until mid morning, so left home towards the end of the rush hour. This made the journey far more palatable.

Having spent the morning debating and preparing GF now awaits the arrival of the client.

Cross country

We had a hearty breakfast and then packed our things. We had decided to head home across country.

We drove through Bredon and down towards Pershore and from there across to Broadway.

At Broadway we took a detour to go and see the famous Broadway Tower. The views were immense.

Then it was on to Stow-in-the-Wold and Bourton-on-the-Water, Cirencester, Marlborough, Hungerford, Winchester, Cheriton, Petersfield, South Harting. Lavant and home.

It was a beautiful drive, taking in some wonderful scenery and some beautiful villages and towns.

Over all, it was a great weekend.

Making a Meal of It

Evening was approaching. What would we do for dinner? A cream tea had punctuated the afternoon, but that would not see us through until morning. The Gorse Fox looked at various "apps" for advice and plumped for a restaurant call My Great Grandfathers.

He called and whilst they were fully booked, one table was available until eight-thirty. So if we were happy to eat early, they could accommodate us.
We like to eat early, so this was no hardship. We leapt into the car and headed to Tewkesbury. The restaurant was almost opposite the Abbey and we were the first patrons for the evening.

Well, GF knows Tewkesbury fairly well, and cannot believe he had not eaten here before, but had always assumed it was a tea room rather than restaurant.

What a find it turned out to be. The food was absolutely exquisite, and the service was attentive, yet discreet. GF highly recommends it, but advises you to book ahead.

After dinner we need to let the meal settle, so took a gentle walk round Tewkesbury.

Countryside 2

The walk continued down the Severn towards Tewkesbury and crossed to the Avon at The Mythe.

On the Avon side, the views were much more bucolic. Having said that, the Gorse Fox did divert his planned route at one point when an angry sheep started bellowing at him. He left the planned path and took an alternative for a few hundred yards before cutting back to the original route - way beyond the irritable ovine.

There were more people using the River than GF had seen on the walk. This view was taken, looking back towards Tewkesbury.

One of the advantages of a good zoom lens is the ability to pick out features of distant shapes. The Gorse Fox could see this church nestling between the trees, but could not really pick up any detail. Now he can look at the photo on the big screen, it is much clearer.

The hot weather was taking its toll. It had been a long tome since GF had been on a decent walk and he was out of practice. The route was heading inexorably towards Twyning, and the Gorse Fox has become acquainted with a good pub by the Rivera at Twyning.

A long cold cider was calling across the fields and GF quickened his pace; it would be rude to keep it waiting.

After a refreshing stop, GF carried on through the village and back up to Puckrup, where he had started.

Countryside 1

It was a stunning day. We went down to breakfast and watched a few golfers wandering aimlessly about the course under an unblemished canopy of blue. The sun was beating down and it was already getting quite warm.

The first thing on the agenda was to take the Silver Vixen across to Malvern for the Quilt Show. We headed off and soon got stuck behind a silver Renault Clio who was so worried about exceeding a speed limit, that the hat that was driving reduced speed to 5 mph beneath the limit. As we entered a series of roadworks with and advisory 20mph limit, this became silly. The Gorse Fox had instantly assessed where this person was headed; and so it was that we followed her all the way to Quilt Show.

Having dropped off the Silver Vixen, GF headed back to the hotel and donned his walking boots. It was time to take a stroll.

He headed down Puckrup Lane towards the River Severn, turning south just after the old, disused railway bridge. The ground was still a bit squelchy here, where it had obvious flooded during the winter, but it soon firmed up as he headed across the fields.

Because of the routes of the Public Footpaths and Bridleways, GF was a bit further from the River than had hoped, but the views were lovely, and so quintessentially English.

Everything was so lush and the green was so fresh and vibrant. Being May, the trees were in blossom.
The GF had been going for some 30-40 minutes and had not seen another human being. This, somehow, makes you feel as if everything in view is yours - you do not have to share it.

Looking back they way he had come, the fields were dappled with drifts of buttercups, and in the background the Malvern Hills kept watch over the Worcestershire and Gloucestershire countryside.

As the Gorse Fox followed the paths, the route got more challenging. This section followed the old railway embankment and was quite overgrown. Nettles grew above waist height, and in a number of places there were trees or branches down across the path.

The Gorse Fox had to scramble across and balance upon a number of fallen trees, and managed to finally emerge at the far end with only a moderate number of stings and scratches.

This afternoon

We are staying in a lovely spot near Tewkesbury

and went to a nearby pub by the river for our evening meal.

More Practise

Another pre-retirement practise day today.

Right to forget

It seems that the Court has made a ruling regrading the people's right to be forgotten. That is they can ask to be removed from the search results on various search engines. Already there has been a flurry of requests to Google from all manner of knaves and ne'er do wells. Given that one such knave was an MP who has asked for unfavourable articles to be removed - its seems to me that it only a matter of time before Blair and Brown ask to be eradicated from history.

By the way - the ruling does demand that the articles which report or criticise are removed - only the links from the search engine. So this means:

1. knaves, cads, perverts, and villains can ask to be removed from Google's search - but what about all the other search engines? Will they have to ask each separately.
2. Should the requests be subject to freedom of information styled requests.
3. The article is not removed, so you can write your own search to crawl the net for information (something we used to do a lot in the early days of the web). It may be slow, but it should still work.

Updates

One of the enduring challenges of working with computers, and this is very noticeable in Starfleet, is the need to keep them up to date to ensure that security is maintained and that you have the latest (ROFL) features available to allow you to complete your work.

To this end, Starfleet have started to roll-out the latest version of one of their more prevalent packages. This involves an 800MB download and the completion of several arcane rituals. Three hours later GF is still watching his laptop go through the process - for the second time as the first one didn't work. This is no great hardship as he doesn't feel disposed towards handling his email at present.

Talking of updates - something has changed on GF's Mac and in so doing has broken his private blogging software. This is a bit of a pain as he now has to start debugging that when he gets time.

Funny Old Day

It's a funny old day - moments of intense activity, and periods of relative boredom. Contract writing is now finished, and GF has given some advice regarding presentation to the client. GF has now washed his hands of this work.

Urban-cub turned up. The Gorse Fox had bought tickets for the Silver Vixen and Urban-cub to go and see the dancers, Vincent and Flavia. The tickets have been stuck to the fridge for months - but the day has finally arrived. They headed off to Woking, late morning. GF got an email from U-c a few minutes ago to say what wonderful seats they had and they were getting quite excited.

U-c also returned the old Samsung Netbook she had been borrowing. She had warned the Gf a while back that some liquid had been spilled and the keyboard was not working. GF has found a local business that will refurbish it for him, so he'll drop the Netbook off on Friday. It will be nice to get it working fully again, now that he's got it back... and will have to return his work laptop soon.

GF is finding it hard to "get stuck in" this afternoon.

Cutting

The Gorse Fox was buried in the contract. The first two calls of the day were over and it was time to tidy up the main parts of the contract. It drives the Gorse Fox mad to find, yet again, that the people who put the template together really have no idea how to use MS Word, its language locale, or its styles. This made the job tedious as the paragraphs switched form UK English to US English, and some headers were styles, whilst others were normal text that had been rendered bold and expanded. For goodness sake, this is a basic tool of our trade - Learn how to use it!

The doorbell rang. Gorse Fox opened it to a big chap in work overalls who introduced himself as Andy. It turns out that he is the brother of the landlord and had been dispatched to assess what needed to be down regrading the hedges and shrubs. We wandered round the grounds and the Silver Vixen passed on her recommendations. He nodded, he assessed, he measured and concluded there was a lot to do. (Well there would be, we have been asking the landlord to attend to this since July last year). Andy needs to check back with his brother, but expects to return over a weekend to get it done. At last.

Starfleet had another mandatory online training course. Gorse Fox had avoided it for too long. Finally he got round to completing it. It took a lot longer than expected, but as far as these courses go, it was one of the most practical and useful.

Monday, ahhh Monday

The Gorse Fox is beginning to savour Mondays. After all there are only a few more to go before they become part of his weekend. Today was no different - GF was committed to help out by writing up the contract for the bid he has been reviewing... and throughout the morning he was sent a number of previously used samples. This made life a lot easier as he didn't have to invent from scratch. He made good progress, but there is more to do tomorrow.

He finished the day responding to an email from Taiwan. It's funny how the problems we are dealing with here seem to translate all over the world. The issue to addressed was the same as that we are handling here in the UK, the same as that GF reviewed in Madrid, the same as that GF reviewed in Brazil... and now seems to be a challenge for Taiwan.

Talking of Brazil, Roy Hodgson named the England squad for the World Cup in Rio. I must say that I think he has made some good and brave decisions. There is a small cadre of experienced players to provide stability - but also a large contingent of new young players who have done well this season in the domestic game. I think it could be an interesting tournament... and can't wait for it to start.

Domestic Day

As we struggle on without any domestic staff (you just cannot get people of the right calibre any more), the day has been dedicated to chores.

There was no mechanic available, so GF took the larger wagon down to a nearbyMotor Garage in order to check the amount of air that was nestling within the tyres. Then we had to return and GF helped the Silver Vixen with some mail - as she no longer has a secretary to relied on. Having printed various forms regarding the sale of her mother's country residence, Gorse Fox left he to it.

Then without a housemaid, GF mucked-in to help with some ironing. He did this whilst watching the football, so it was no real hardship.

It is clear that this is unsustainable, however, and next time GF travels to the north, he will have to see if he can employ some more domestic staff.

Highlight of the day was a call from Beloved Aunt. Just a general chat and catch-up, but really must try to find an opportunity to head to the distant areas of the Commonwealth and visit her.

Out Visiting

It was day of changes - a strong south-westerly was sending the clouds scudding across the sky. With them cam short sharp showers, but in between it was bright and warm.

We headed out from Fontwell, crossing the Downs between Lavant and South Harting and onwards through Petersfiled and Alto to Old Basing. Betty and Barney Rubble have just sold their bungalow there, so it may be one of the last times we follow that particular route.

After an initial coffee and chat we headed off to "The Leather Bottle" at Mattingley for an early lunch. Over the years we have often eaten here, but the Gorse Fox would observe that recently it has really stepped up a gear and serves some fantastic dishes. Even several hours later he is savouring the pleasure of the bread and butter pudding with apricot sauce and clotted cream.

Back in Old Basing we spent an afternoon chatting and gossiping about all and sundry - new houses, flooring, family, laptops, sewing, friends, education, multi-culturalism and heaven's alone knows what else. Absolutely lovely day.

Had a very quick run home and during the evening GF saw a tweet from Clive Harris regarding a walk in Mohonk. GF used to walk in the Mohonks and nearby Minnewaska (Shawungunks) when he was working in Starfleet's Mid Hudson Valley offices. He tweeted back his recommended routes... but was appalled to find that he cannot track down any of the photos he took during those walks.

Non-productive

The Gorse Fox had not planned to achieve much today. He was expecting a very busy day handling calls and reviews related to bid he has been discussing.

As it happens, there were no significant calls and no reviews. Indeed the one call there was went something like this:

 "Hi Gorse Fox, can you be free to present to the client next week? We want to put the Programme Exec in front of them" was the opening gambit. 

"Well, the Gorse Fox could make time to present to the client, but not as the PE." came the counter. 

"Oh! Why is that?" the voice said, gearing up for an argument. 

"Well, the Programme is slated to start on 1st of July, right?" queried the Gorse Fox 

"Yes" came the reply 

"Well Gorse Fox retires on 4th July." Checkmate.

There was a stunned silence at the end of the phone. Then a sheepish "I can't really argue with that, can I?"

Anyway, being geared up for calls and discussions, GF has not really been mentally attuned to the continued development of his project asset portfolio. As a result he has only managed to add about 5 items to the "done" pile... leaving 128 to work through. Today, clearly, is not going to be the day.