Not in plan

Best laid plans. The Gorse Fox would start the day with a plan of the activities and tasks to complete today. It started well with the Gorse Fox completing a backlog of admin.

Then a number of calls were exchanged with the coffee supplier and their distribution company. Surprisingly this seemed to do the trick as the coffee finally arrived late in the morning.

From there on things went down hill. A quick refresher - the Gorse Fox was chasing BT for phone and Broadband since early August. The development has been in place for a couple of years. Promised for 3rd Sept it slipped to 10th Sept and then to 17th - now BT tell the Gorse Fox that works won't complete until 3rd Oct and they will then re-book. The Gorse Fox is not pleased.

Next on the agenda was to install some bathroom furniture. Should have been easy. Oh no. In order to get the towel rails to be sturdy it took three attempts to fit, remove and re-fit. Eventually Gorse Fox had to use hollow-wall metal fixings that open up behind the plasterboard. Then it was clear that towel ring was on a solid portion of the wall - and that needed another fixing type. Finally the robe hooks were screwed to the door, and the screws bent as they went into the hard wood. These needed drilling out and then unscrewing with molegrips. Several trips to B&Q punctuated the day... and the final trip got some screws that sorted out the robe hooks in a couple of minutes. A job that Gorse Fox had expected to take an hour took most of the day.

Msg, txt, SMS

The Gorse Fox is easily pleased. Do what you say you are going to do, when you say you are going to do it. Coffee supplier is in the Gorse Fox's bad books. He is displeased. Coffee still hasn't arrived after a couple of weeks and several follow-up calls.

What did please the Gorse Fox was a little test we ran in the new car. The Silver Vixen sent the Gorse Fox a text message and the car picked up the message and read it out loud when prompted. Neat feature! (Not that the Gorse Fox gets many text messages). 

Much of the rest of the day has been looking for household bits and trying to decide on some light fixtures. Not an easy task - yet we only have a few lights to worry about. The Gorse Fox thinks we both have vague ideas of what might be nice and definite ideas about what we don't want.  Unfortunately the choice is huge.

Unboxed

That's it - all the boxes are now empty.

Things are squirrelled away all over the house and the family bathroom is full of stuff that is destined for one of the Gorse Fox's favourite local dumps. GF is always amazed at how the Silver Vixen can take a pile of things occupying several cubic kilometres (a size that would be visible from space), and make it disappear into a couple of small cupboards and a drawer.

Gorse Fox is beginning to wonder if it would have been quicker to have the removal men take everything to the dump and we just retrieve the bits we wanted!

Expedition

Today saw the beginning of the expedition. It had been planned for quite a few days. All was in place, we just had to pick a time when the weather was clement. The Gorse Fox kicked off, blazing the trail into the depths of the garage. The Silver Vixen gained access from a different base camp.

Bit by bit we hacked our way through box after box, reducing each to its flat pack equivalent and separating the useful trinkets, tools, and gadgets from the casualties of consumerism and hoarding which were quickly dispatched and given a suitable burial at the local tip.

The Gorse Fox is excited to report that this is yet another tip, with a whole new bunch of helpers to become known by. It's also only 2 miles from home, so is very convenient.

Lost shades

Quiet day - relatively. The Silver Vixen was due at the hairdresser's and the Gorse Fox thought it a good excuse to go and see Angus to get his hair cut also. This gave him a chance to take the new car for a little run, to see how some of the technology works, and to fill up. Oh, yes. Filling up means remembering the filler is on the opposite side of the car, it uses petrol, and has a smaller tank. So whilst he may have to fill up more frequently it is a bit quicker and a lot cheaper.

The Gorse Fox stopped off to see the designer who is working on plans for the Orangery. There were a few clarifications that were needed and some ideas to discuss. Interestingly he showed the Gorse Fox an orangery on a house in Felpham which had the exact design the Gorse Fox had drawn. We have asked to take a look at the finished article.

The Silver Vixen wasn't best pleased on her return from Chi... she had misplaced her prescription sunglasses and walked her feet to blisters as she zigged and zagged back through the town looking for them.

Fuel

As fuel to the Gorse Fox's Grumpy Old Git fire, the first appointment of the morning failed to turn up. Not s good start. When GF called to chase it was clear that the guy had no record of the appointment - so much for Office 365 and its cloud functions! We re-arranged and, to be fair, he turned up on time and was most helpful. The question we now have to address is whether we really want shutters, or not. We need to think on this - it would be a costly decision to get wrong!

Drawings have come through for the proposed Orangery - perhaps unsurprisingly, they look very similar to the drawings GF provided them. Looks ok, but we do need to see what the pricing would be.

New car has been delivered. GF was very sorry to see the Passat CC go, but it doesn't make sense to hang on to it. New car looks very smart so the Gorse Fox will spend the afternoon reading the manual while the Silver Vixen goes back to Fontwell to help with the first of the after-school sewing clubs of the new school year.

GF has also been invited to go and have a chat with some ex-colleagues about setting up an independent consulting practice. He will probably go along for the initial meeting, but isn't yet convinced he really wants to do any more "work", so doubts very much that he will get involved in anything other than an advisory capacity.

Grumpy Old Git

BT are rapidly turning the Gorse Fox into a Grumpy Old Git. Originally the commencement of service for the new phone was 3rd Sept, then it got moved to today, 10th between 0800 and 1200. This was confirmed by BT on Monday.

1130 this morning the Gorse Fox gets a call to say they are not turning up. There's still external line work to complete. They'll fit us in on Friday. Then Friday morphed into 72 hours during the call. Disgruntled Gorse Fox ended the call.

Then a text arrived, the 72 hours had morphed into a week. They will deign to call next Wednesday.

The Gorse Fox called them to express his displeasure. Thirty minutes later he had learned that Openreach still had line work to do and that would not complete until 14th. At that point BT would reschedule the engineer. Whatever the date given, they promised they would escalate to bring us forward as a priority. Yeah, right!

And the Gorse Fox missed the Walking Football

Installations

Yesterday was relatively quiet. Final clean at the old house and handed back the keys to the agent. It seemed quite cathartic - closing the book on that episode of our lives, now that we are working on the first chapter of the sequel.

Busy day scheduled - BT Engineer first thing to put in the phone line. Not sure how long that will take, but at least we will be able to send out the change of address cards once the number is confirmed. Hopefully, this will mean that we can get a Broadband service again in a few days. Then, if the engineer finishes early enough, the Gorse Fox is going to go across to Angmering to try the "Walking Football" that has featured in recent advertisements.

After lunch we should have the chap from John Lewis fitting the new TV and also the chappy to fit the satellite dish.

Green side up

The turf laid at the new house was not taking well. We did not have to mention it - the builder's Customer Care department spotted it. The whole back garden was stripped yesterday and today they have prepared and laid new turf for us. Looks very smart.

Unboxed

It has been another busy day. News has come through regarding Gorse Fox's new car so then he had to speak with the insurance company. As usual this was a fight through the telephone system before getting to a human and then fighting tooth and nail to stop loads of extra charges from being added.

Next the New England styled furniture, ordered last month, turned up and once placed allowed some more boxes to be emptied and the existing stuff to be shuffled about.

The afternoon saw a chap arrive to discuss our requirements for an Orangery at the back of the house. Give it a few days and we'll see his design,

Design Solutions

The Gorse Fox has been struggling with finding a good solution for housing some of his technology. The stuff in the study is no problem, but there is a cupboard under the stairs where all telephone cables enter the house and where the aerials all come together. It is the obvious location for the ADSL router / WiFi hub and the Sonos bridge. The Gorse Fox was looking for a flexible solution that would allow fairly simple access and the ability to move things about.

After wandering round B&Q for a while looking at plywood, at fixings, at corner blocks and goodness knows what else, he had a bit of an epiphany. There was a plastic peg-board designed for tool storage. A little bit of dynamic redesign and he strolled out with bits and pieces and a vague idea.

A couple of hours later the peg-board is held clear of the wall with magnetic catches to allow simple removal. In the gap behind the peg-board the cables are hidden, and on the front Gorse Fox has a 4-way power block, the Netgear router and the Sonos bridge. All very neat and very successful. Incidentally everything, font and back, is held against the peg-board with cable-ties so that everything can be easily removed or re-arranged.

Jasper de Gama

We had spent some time last night chatting outside the house with our neighbours. In the course of the conversation we had mentioned Jasper. we explained Jasper was a house cat, and though we let him out in the garden he doesn't stray. Jasper was clearly listening.

This morning we let him run about in the garden. Going in to make some tea we left him to it. He promptly disappeared. We searched but couldn't find him. A little while later our intrepid explorer was seen sitting on top of a shed five or six houses away. We called and he ignored us at first, then eventually deigned to leap down and stroll back to us.

Little devil.

Checking out

Today's clear objective was to finish all the tasks needed to release the rental property. The Silver Vixen hopped on board, bringing her broomstick to help sweep up round the garden. The Gorse Fox stopped at B&Q for decorating supplies and 10 minutes later we were pulling in to Fontwell.

The Silver Vixen headed out to the garden whilst the Gorse Fox masked up the areas that needed to be painted. First cutting in round the perimeter, the wall lights, and the plug sockets was carefully completed. Then the roller and tray came out and the wall quickly conformed to the intended colour across its whole landscape - rather than the few blobs where the Gorse Fox had tried to touch up some blemishes. From the study he went upstairs to apply a similar treatment in the Silver Vixen's sewing room.

While the paint was drying, the Gorse Fox did a final cut of the lawns. He must say they look very smart. Finally, the garage was swept clean and a second coat of paint applied in the study.

Dropping off our detritus at the dump we headed home. Urban-cub and Pistol-Pete were there waiting for us. Urban-cub was collecting Gorse Fox's old filing cabinet to help here organise all here paperwork. (A problem Gorse Fox no longer has as he has adopted a ruthless read-and-shred, or read-scan-and-shred approach to mail).

Care and feeding of your new home

Most of the morning seemed to be spent with the Customer Care manager from the builder. Boy he can talk. No complaints, though. It is good to have the face-to-face contact and know who we should contact for any after-care issues. It was good that he was also interested in our view of where the design could be tweaked to improve the house in the future.

The kitchen/family room is significantly larger than we have been used to, and with the planned locations of the various furniture items it is clear that there is really only one suitable location for a TV. Now, we have TV that used to squat in the kitchen, but the reality of ageing eyes and a bigger room brings the realisation that we needed a bigger TV to have any chance of seeing it. This meant the Gorse Fox found himself making some templates of different sized TVs so that we could assess the size and impact. Decision made, we headed off to John Lewis's. the Gorse Fox may have found a cheaper source, but he wanted the comfort of the JLP after-care if needed. Tv selected and demonstrated we added the wall bracket and a cable-tidy to the basket and requested the JLP Technical Services to come and install it. (The Gorse Fox would rather they had the responsibility in case anything goes wrong during the mounting process).

Having to rely on the 3G MiFi for internet access is a frustrating stop-gap. The Gorse Fox will be glad to get back onto real Broadband.

Amber nectar

Well as Harry Enfield's character used to say, "You didn't want to do that".

It started simply enough. Ocado delivered the groceries. The Silver Vixen started to put them away. Among the goods stood two four-packs of Fosters held in their cluster by plastic collars. She snipped the collar to separate them an then started to peel the collars from each tin. Time consuming, but up to this point successful. The Gorse Fox decided to help and grabbed a can. Freeing his trusty Swiss Army knife from his pocket he went slit the plastic collar.

Mistake. The knife penetrated the side of the can. The can exploded, splitting from top to bottom an spraying 440ml of Amber nectar all over the Gorse Fox, the kitchen unit, the floor, the ceiling, and two walls across the other side of the kitchen.

Several bowls of clean water, a sponge, and roll of kitchen roll later the problem has been retrieved and the mess cleared up.

Ooops.

Blemishes

Another very successful day - boxes continued to be emptied and piled up awaiting collection. Urban-cub and the Silver Vixen concentrated on the kitchen whilst the Gorse Fox made a start on his study.

The phone rang. The lady who runs the cleaning company that was scheduled to finish off the Fontwell house had been sent for some immediate scans - she would have to let us down. Houston, we have a problem. The Gorse Fox had to find an alternate company who could come in a short notice and do the job. he phoned the letting agent and they suggested an alternative. Five minutes later the Gorse Fox had arranged to meet the chap late on Thursday afternoon. Looks like Houston won't have to worry too much.

We had to pop over to Fontwell to let the removal men into the garage so they could finish the job from yesterday. Gorse Fox proudly showed the Silver Vixen the cleaning he had done as the removals men vacated the property, and promptly noticed that where he had touched up various paint spots - the paint showed as a different colour. Looks like he'll have to go back and repaint each of the walls where he touched up blemishes.

Finished off the day with an almost clear kitchen, the Gorse Fox's study ready for action and a trip to the local Indian take-away. Perfect.

Boxed In

32 boxes unpacked and distributed around the house so far. Bedrooms are usable, as is the kitchen and living room. At least 11 more boxes still to be emptied in the kitchen alone.

GF's study looks almost impenetrable. It may need to be emptied in order to start the sort-out.

GF's sister's card was the first bit of mail through the letter box.

Life support

As the Gorse Fox wanders round the house switching off various network segments and unplugging the devices it feels a bit like switching off his life support. All that's left now is the ADSL hub and the Mac. Even the network storage is offline and ready to be put in the car.

Packed and ready

Everything is packed in boxes and piled all over the old house. Soon the removals men will come and and start the final move. It should be quite a day. The Gorse Fox would point out that we are both quite excited.

Packing

The removal men arrive today to start packing up for us - though the Silver Vixen is going across with Jasper the Cat to the new house.  Having spent the last 30 minutes loading her car with the bare essentials - GF is considering asking for a rebate from the removals firm.

Blinds

Final coat of paint applied to garage floor this morning. It does look rather smart - but now Gorse Fox is wondering whether he shoud have painted the walls white also. That will have to wait now and become a future consideration or project.

With the Silver Vixen, Gorse Fox has been putting up the temporary window blinds so that we have a little privacy when we move in. As it is, Urban-cub is likely to be the first of us to sleep here. She is spending the day here and staying overnight on Monday so that we can move Jasper the cat over and limit the amount of disruption he gets from all the comings and goings during the packing and removals process.

Having become an expert in data centre moves, Gorse Fox has started the migration of the Fontwell data centre. He has chosen to do this by architectural affinity - thus, today, all the Windows PCs and laptops have been moved. This leaves only the IOS, osx, and remaining Linux systems to shift along with the network.

Floored

This is probably the last time the garage will look so tidy.

With the floor sealed this is the effect after a single coat of garage floor paint. There are a couple more coats to apply over the next day, but so far it is looking quite smart.

Signal

The MiFi seems to get a pretty good 3G performance at the new house, but the built-in 3G on the ipad (which uses O2) can only muster GPRS signals. Shame as Gorse Fox has quite a substantial data allowance on the iPad.

Garage floor has now been painted a nice shade of light blue and it awaits another coat when dry. Gorse Fox brought some AAA bateries for his energy sensor only to find one of the units uses AAA but the other uses AA... some a quick trip to the shops is on the agenda.

Sealed

The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen arrived at the Sales Office. A plaque greeted us, welcoming us to the development and we were presented with a bottle of bubbly and a bunch of flowers. Photos were taken and we were handed the keys and taken to the house.

More photos were taken and then we finally crossed the threshold.

We started to shuttle stuff into the house from the car. After all, we needed to be able to make tea even if we couldn’t do much else.

The Gorse Fox set up a Raspberry Pi at the study window to start taking photos of the view and how it changes over time. Then the name plaque for the house was fixed before the Gorse Fox started on the garage.

A gentle sweep (so as not to raise to much dust) and then the floor-sealer was put on with a roller. Gorse Fox was surprised at how far it spread and found that he had only used about half of what he had expected. It takes several hours to dry, so he will consider whether to put on a second coat before painting the floor over the weekend.

Meanwhile the Silver Vixen had been sorting out the kitchen and measuring up the “blinds in a box” that we intend to use at first. These are paper blinds that affix to the window-frame and provide a temporary solution until we have decided what our longer term window dressings will be.

Complete

Solicitor has just phoned to say that our house purchase has completed.

Home owners, again. At last!

Contrasts

The Gorse Fox is struck by contrasting articles in the papers today. 

On the one hand we find American soccer moms suing FiFA and US Soccer about the risks of heading the football. (The Gorse Fox notes that all the rest of the world, who have been playing soccer for many many years have had very little problem with this - the risk being very small).

In contrast we learn of the 9 year-old who shot and killed her gun-instructor. The Gorse Fox would observe that playing with guns is demonstrably more dangerous (nearly 9000 deaths in 2012) - yet there is no suit against the NRA or or manufacturers.

One might question, based on this simple analysis, whether there is really anything of great value that needs serious protection in the cranial cavities of these people. How about banning the big risks first then worry about the lesser and some would say optional risks.

New Postcodes

Moving to an established house in an established postal code is relatively easy in comparison to the hassle of moving to a brand new post code. So few online systems provide support for the case where a new post code has been allocated. This means that Gorse Fox has had the opportunity to spend much of the day listening to various "hold music" and diving through multi-level phone menus. In almost every case the systems insisted on telling him that he could save time by doing this online.

NO HE CAN'T

If he could he would have, but because you can't keep your PAF up to date, GF is having to call you to update the details.

Never mind... all is now done.

Blitz

The Silver Vixen has established a blitzkrieg on the house. Cupboards are being emptied, sorted, and cleaned. There is production line of articles being ditched or sent for re-cycling, and this morning the Gorse Fox was caught up in process. Dispatched to the garage he set about doing a high-level down-selection of stiff to keep and stiff to ditch.

It took two trips to the re-cycling centre to get rid of all of the material - old chairs, old tools, empty boxes, old parasols, waxes, detergents, oils, spirits and heavens knows what else. Fortunately, the guys at the tip were not very busy so they set about sorting out the contents of the car boot and ferrying it to the correct disposal points. (Very accommodating staff in Chichester).

MiFi

Knowing that we will be without Broadband for a while, GF looked at getting a 4G MiFi but for PAYG it seemed prohibitively expensive. In the end he dug out his old 3G MiFi and switched it on. He wasn't expecting any response as he had been told the sim-card is deactivated after 6 months of non-use.

Clearly this is not the case.

The MiFi burst into life and said the account needed topping up (it is a PAYG account). £10 later, all seems to be working. So we should be set - as long as we don't try to do some massive downloads.

Morals

The Gorse Fox was pleased to make contact with Cousteau-cub yesterday - only to find out that they had been burgled twice in the last week and lost a laptop, the Nexus 7 we bought her, and one of their motor bikes.

Apparently this happens when there has been a poor low-season. Indeed C-c said it had happened to most of her friends over the years - so she had been lucky up until now.

The Gorse Fox finds such behaviour morally repugnant and cannot conceive of what makes people prey on others likes this. He has sent C-c a link which may help her locate the Nexus and if not, may at least lock and erase it.

Bank Holiday

Bank Holiday Monday. At least there's no work today.

Oh yes, just remembered - every day is a Bank Holiday. Feeling insufferably smug.

Wet

Well it appears that the forecast was correct. It is wet this morning. Jasper, the cat, wants to go out but takes one look at the rain, imperiously raises his tail and does an about turn. He isn't getting his coat wet. No sir!

Forecast

The weather forecast for Monday and the early part of the week predicts rain. This was reason enough to schedule time in the garden today.

Lawns were done and the Silver Vixen did some tidying and pruning/ GF helped out with some brambles and tidying all the cuttings into bags for his regular trip to see his mates at the local tip. It has been a while since the last trip so GF was expecting a guard of honour, and a human chain to empty the bags from the car. He was miffed to find it was quite busy and GF had, therefore, to work alone.

On another note, the timelapse photography application GF established for the Raspberry Pi seems to be working well. GF suspects that if this is to remain a long-running project, he may need to get a UPS so that the RPi could survive power cuts.

Timelapse

The Gorse Fox is feeling smug.

The front of the new house will look out NNE towards the South Downs. For the moment, the view is fairly uncluttered - a hoarding in the foreground, a little bit of building activity and then the fields all the way to the Downs. This will change as the development continues and, after a year or two, the hoardings will come done and further houses will spring up.

GF thought it would be interesting to see how this develops over time. To that end he has spent the morning connecting up an old webcam to one of the Raspberry Pis and has knocked up a little code to take a photo once an hour, on the hour, between 0900 and 1700 every day. When we move in to the new house this can be set up at GF's study window and we will see a time-lapse storyline building up as things change in front of us.

Code completed, tested and running. (Though currently monitoring change in GF's study).

Quiet day

Well we are heading for a Bank Holiday weekend. As a retired person, it lacks the usual expectation. Every day is now a holiday... And the Gorse Fox is loving it.

Pretty quiet day really, other than a short trip to Chi to sort out some direct debits which had been set up with incorrect account details.

Should be meeting up with Jane an Trevor for dinner tonight at Chris Evans' restaurant in Chiddingfold.

Typical

Typical.

the Gorse Fox went along to Screwfix. He waded through the catalogue and found that the only Forstner bit that would do the job came not as an individual purchase but as part of a set. And wouldn't you know it - not part of the 5-piece set, but part of £40 16 piece set.

Oh well... it's done now and the desk is back up and fully functional - though 9 inches smaller than before.

Cut, cut, cutting...

The Gorse Fox's desk is in fact two five-foot desks side by side. This will not fit in the room we have designated for the study in the new house. After yesterday's inspection, Gorse Fox was able to measure the space accurately. This morning the agenda was set to adapt one of the desks so that it was 9 inches smaller. Taking the old desk apart, it was a matter of measuring the positions of the fixings as they were, the diameter of the holes and their depth. The Gorse Fox then dug out his big handheld circular saw and performed surgery on the desk.

Almost everything is now ready to put the desk back together, but Gorse Fox needs to pop along to Screwfix and get a 14mm Forstner bit for the last two holes. 

Not bad

Well the 90 minute induction appointment lasted 3 hours. No surprise there then.

We worked our way through the house room by room - wall by by wall, window by window, plug by plug. In the end we had a very short list of things that required attention and commitment that they would all be addressed before we move in. It was very satisfying that there were so few snags to address - a testament to the quality of the build and their inspection process.

Inspection

Today we have a viewing scheduled at our rented house - but more importantly we have the induction and inspection of our new house. A modicum of excitement is creeping in.

A Lovely Day

We started our special day with a trip to Fishbourne Palace. - to remind us of our youth :)

Fishbourne Palace is the largest Roman Villa ever discovered on British soil, and stands just to the south-east of Chichester. Whilst, in some ways, the mosaics are not as impressive as those at Bignor; the sheer scale of the site is what astounds anyone with a a rudimentary imagination.

Developed in a number of stages the buildings surrounded an internal courtyard garden that would have been almost the dimensions of a modern football pitch.

After a coffee an sandwich we headed across to the Chichester Canal Basin.

Until 1906, ships were able to bring their cargo up the Chichester Channel and along the canal into the heart of Chichester. Now the canal basis is given over to leisure - with the hire of rowing boats, kayaks, and canoes. Additionally, and more importantly for us, they run narrow-boat trips down the canal.

We duly bought our ticket and waited for our boat.

 A trip on a narrow boat is immensely relaxing. Theres is nothing you can do except watch the world drift by - at a slow walking pace.

The scenery along the canal was lush and a haven for wildlife. Any bird-watcher would have a field day as the various feathered friends swooped, dived, fluttered, or paddled along the route. At one point we saw a terrapin (ok, that's not a bird) sunning itself on the bank.

Passing Hunston junction and on past the tracks of the old Selsey tramway, the canal comes to halt (at least as far as the narrow boat is concerned). An elegant three-point turn saw us reverse the route and head back towards Chichester and the Canal Basin.

Of course, the canal has a towpath. This is a haven for walkers, joggers, anglers, cyclists, and dog walkers.

Talking of dog-walkers, we noticed this as boat was gliding along. The Gorse Fox feels that this approach to "taking the dog for a walk" is not what is normally intended by the phrase and could be the reason for canine obesity.

Back at the basin, we hopped in the car - popped home to change and then headed back out to the local "Amelie and Friends" for a celebratory meal.

A splendid day all round.

Anniversary

Well it's 41 years today since the Silver Vixen took pity on the Gorse Fox and decided to look after him. He confesses that he is still somewhat shocked that she said "yes" and wonders what he did that attracted such good karma.

Here's to the next 41 years.

Production Line

Photograph: Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters

According to the local dealer, the Gorse Fox's new car should be built today.

It would be interesting to know how long it takes from start to finish.

It would appear that a new Fiesta rolls off the production line in Cologne every 86 seconds






Here's a quick look at the build process:

Clarity

The Gorse Fox likes clarity. He was concerned the spreadsheet on which he had been working was not really showing the full picture adequately. This meant that he spent much of the day restructuring and refactoring the information.

He's still not quite convinced - but feels it is better than it was.

We have received the final account from the Solicitor for the house purchase. That'll knock a bit of a hole in the finances - but a hole we have budgeted for and expected all along. It's still a bit of a chock though when you write cheques that big.

Friends

It's always nice to hear from old friends.

The phone rang. A number we didn't recognise. It was Mrs Tiggywinkle - who, in the great scheme of things, is a few weeks ahead of us - having just moved sett with Badger. It was interesting hearing their tales as they so closely matched many of the issues and frustrations Gorse Fox has been experiencing over the past few weeks.

The important thing is that they have settled in now. We agreed to meet up soon after we are in the new place - whether up here, down there in the West country, or somewhere in between.

Views

After a morning of admin for both the Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen, we had to make ourselves scarce as the local Estate Agent was again showing some house hunters round the current house.

We popped across to the outskirts of Chi and GF wandered into Staples to try and get some more storage boxes for his study. Now back in the study, having loaded the new boxes, GF realises that he still needs more - and that some items just don't fit in the boxes.

Opening

Yesterday evening saw the opening of Sonning Place. It was a chance to see the part of the development that has, up until now, been behind hoardings.

 Along with our new neighbours and those already living on the development we had a chance to meet, chat and get to know each other a bit.

 The development, as a whole, looks very smart, and "our" little corner looks lovely. There has obviously been quite a push in the last few days.

We had a chance to chat with the Site Manager and he was convinced that we had picked the best of the plots because of our outlook front and back.

As commented above, Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had a chance to meet the neighbours. We are all going to be moving in with a a couple of weeks of each other. It was fairly clear that it is going the be a bit of a riot as there are some very nice people all around - a head teacher, an ex-Maths teacher, and ex-Deputy Head, someone who is a driving force at Goodwood, and some retirees.

Yep, Gorse Fox thinks it is looking very promising.

Odds, Ends, and Openings

Not too exciting so far - mainly odds and ends.

A late brunch was followed by a trip to the DIY store where GF picked up some new hoses for the washing machine (just in case the old ones had perished whilst not in use). Whilst there, using his healthy Starfleet discount voucher, he was offered a card that could give a further 10% off on Wednesdays - him being over 60. Obviously, it took a lot of convincing that he was indeed eligible, but eventually he left clutching the card.

Then we headed for Chi to complete a few more items before enjoying a coffee and cake at John Lewis's and heading home.

After a quiet hour we are preparing to head out for the Grand Opening of the phase of development (called Sonning Place) that incorporates our new house. Should be fun, and may meet some of our new neighbours.

(PS. GF notices BT have already slipped their appointment, to connect the services to the new house, by seven days).

Pillar to Post

Well more like Pillock to Phone.

The Gorse Fox got back on to BT - given that we were assured everything was now set up. He's glad the contact number is freephone - as it took 75 minutes during which he was passed from pillock to another - without any warning he was being transferred - and in most cases without the new person being briefed as to why they had been put in the hot seat.

It was particularly concerning at one point to hear there was an order against our account to transfer the services to a postal code GF had never heard of! In the end a very efficient lady took control of the call and eventually everything got sorted. Unfortunately this will mean that we get a new phone number - but at least we will have one.

Transfer of the Broadband isn't quite so straightforward. That cannot be arranged as this is a brand new service and it is not until the phone has been active for a few days that they can assess the suitability of the line for Broadband - so looks like GF and the SV will be relying on 3G when they first move in.

Digit Extracted

Silver Vixen has heard from the Site Office. Openreach have extracted their collective digit and everything should be available tomorrow for GF to go online and arrange the transfer of services.

Fingers are, metaphorically, crossed.

Meanwhile GF has spent much of the day moving Direct Debits. He has adopted a 3 account approach; one main account, one account for monthly expenses, and one for annual expenses. This allows for a little more clarity and also makes optimal use of the various interest rates and cashback options available with the different accounts.

On the subject of cashback - GF found some old premium bonds last week and had them aggregated into his recent holding. This added the vast sum of £12 - but also revealed that £12 invested in 1957 has won no prizes whatsoever in the intervening 57 years.

Relapse

Seing the news that Labour have a 7% lead in the polls is a depressing thought. It is like the country has been an alcoholic and hasn't touched a drop in the last few years - but is about to have a spectacular relapse just as they beginning to get better and their liver is recovering.

Communication breakdown - it's always the same

The Gorse Fox phoned BT to arrange the transfer of services to the new property. It all seemed to be going rather well. The agent wasn't perplexed by the fact the post code had not yet been updated on their system. She asked for the developer, the plot number, and kept trying to help. In the end she had to give up, explaining that BT Openreach had to put the basic developer information on their system to start with. She suggested GF contact Openreach and gave hime the freephone number.

The Gorse Fox tried the Freephone number - which just would not connect. He decided this was something the developer should be doing and phoned the Sales Office to explain the dilemma. They said they would look into it and several hours later the Gorse Fox received a copy of an email where they were cajoling BT Openreach to see if they had further work to complete as the developer had provided all the basic plans and plot numbers long ago.

What was obvious was that the Sales plot number and the developers plot number were very different. GF decided to call BT again and go through the process once more - this time with the other plot number. Again a very helpful chap tried but failed to get any information that would allow him to enter the order. Again he suggested BT Openreach were the source of the problem and agin provided the Gorse Fox with the Freephone number.

Gorse Fox tried the number and once more it was unobtainable. A little bit of research however revealed a direct number for our local office. GF called and started to explain. The lady at the far end was not happy. GF was told that BT should not have provided the number and that anyway they could always enter the order against an unknown address. Gorse Fox maintained his equanimity and thanked her profusely for the help she had provided. She hung up.

Still haven't managed to arrange BT services at new house.

Trickle down

No - not the rain. That stopped several hours ago. It is still quite windy but other than that the weather has returned to normal.

No, Gorse Fox was referring to the Postal Code. It is clear that it is starting to trickle down. He has, today, managed to sort out the transfer of the TV license from here to the new address (something you can do up to 3 months in advance - as long as you have the post code). The code was immediately recognised and the transfer actioned.

So it was that, in a fit of optimism, GF logged in to BT to try and effect the transfer of the phone and provision of Broadband. Clearly, BT aren't so quick off the mark and the new address is not recognised. (The website starts to deal with this by displaying a message saying that if the address isn't found you should click on a certain "radio button" - which it promptly forgets to show on the displayed page, so you cannot comply). Pah!

Clearly the trickle has not yet become a flood.

Rain

It's absolutely thrashing down with rain. This is what it must be like living in Wales, or up North.

Just a few bits and bobs

The Gorse Fox had woken during the night. He realised there was an error in his spreadsheet. His gut was telling him the answer to his sums was out by a fairly significant amount. First thing he re-cast the whole page. It took an hour or two, but in the end it was much clearer, much easier to understand, and confirmed GF's unconscious detection of an error.

By late morning, GF had taken the Silver Vixen through the sums and we were satisfied that we had clarity. It was time to use some of the estimated costs and go to order some more of the furniture we had modelled for the new house. We returned to the New England furniture store and placed an order for some bedside tables (on which the Gorse Fox managed to drive a deal), a chest of drawers, and a coffee table. All are scheduled to be delivered the first or second week in September.

Then we pottered off to the fireplace showroom and confirmed our selections from the previous trip and arranged for a survey of the lounge. Again this is scheduled for the first or second week of September. It looks as if we will be busy!

Watched the Spurs vs Schalke04 match on TV. Good to see another pre-season win. Let's hope the season will be more successful than last. Whilst watch the game we got a text message from Urban-cub to tell us that as a result of her 8-mile walk yesterday (down in Dorset) she has a stress fracture of the foot and needs to go to hospital on Monday morning to determine whether a plaster is necessary.

Service

You may not associate good service with the Civil Service. Whilst it does, indeed, provide shelter for the indolent and talentless - it also has many brilliant, hard-working,and dedicated individuals. (Gorse Fox has mentioned before that he worked with one Government Agency which had offices around the country - and many of those offices had a 30% absentee rate).

Today GF phoned the DWP. He decided that with the recently announced changes to the State Pension and various rules about contracted-in or contracted-out pensions, GF decided that the best way to be sure of what he will be entitled to receive was to ask. Afetr a long wait a very nice lady finally took the call, asked all the relevant questions and promised that she would look into it, calculate GF's entitlement and call him back on 26th August between 12:00 and 14:00. Apparently, the computer systems have not yet been written to provide printed estimates - hence the manual calculations and return phone calls.

On a different subject - Gorse Fox got a call from the car dealership. It seems that GF's new car is scheduled to be built on 18th August and will be in the dealership at the end of the first week in September.

Accounting

As mentioned earlier in the week, the Gorse Fox had recognised that opening a ~Santander 1-3-3 account could actually be moderately lucrative - give 1%, 2% and 3% cash-back on various common expenditures. Indeed, it looks as if we could get a "rebate" of several hundred pounds per year - which is not to be sniffed at!

This afternoon we met with a nice Russian girl called Kate at Santander (the bank, not the port). After about 45 minutes of discussions, and form filling we walked out with the appropriate accounts in hand.

Clearing House

The Gorse Fox greeted three chaps as they rand the doorbell. They were from Stonepillow - a charity that provides goods for people who cannot otherwise afford them. We had a list of items for them to pass on. Over the next 45 minutes we loaded their van with a larder fridge, a dishwasher, a single bed and mattress, a double bed, a full length mirror, a pine cabinet, an ottoman, and a DAB Radio.

Let's hope that they go to people that can make good use of them.

Trouble at t'mill

Seems like there is a problem posting to the blog from normal interface. This is a "mail-in" entry to see if the problem is endemic to the blog, or limited to the normal blogging interface.

Clinging to the Edge

Urban-cub had broken the Nexus 7 GF had bought for her last birthday. Well, strictly that isn't true - her dog leapt on it and cracked the screen.

GF is going to get this fixed as her birthday present this year. He has found an outfit who do such repairs and took a walk into the charming village of Walberton to drop the device off at the Post Office.

Despite some overnight rain, it was quite hot still and the 5km walk was a pleasant stimulus!

GF has also ordered a Kindle, today, for the Silver Vixen. It should turn up at the weekend and hopefully will fit the bill.

Living on the edge

It is clear that, now retired, the Gorse Fox is living on the edge. He has read the papers, drunk some coffee, checked some web-sites, written a letter to the Premium Bond people, and transferred some more money between accounts.

As if this wasn't enough excitement, he has also retrieved a hold-all from the loft to lend to Urban-cub as she prepares to go off on holiday tomorrow.

More Admin

It is frustrating that the GF cannot get more done, but so many things are dependent on the post code file - the master might have been updated but until that rolls out to the online service and PAF clients, GF is picking his way through the tasks that can be completed. In doing this, he has discovered another insurance policy that could be cancelled. There is little point insuring an appliance that we no longer have!

He also spent some time on the phone to HMRC. It appears that whilst they have recently changed his tax code - they sent the notification to Starfleet instead of Starfleet's Pension Trust. As a result GF is still on the wrong tax code. This, in its own right triggered some questions regarding the Silver Vixen's accounts and the benefit of an HMRC R85 which stops tax being deducted from the accounts of non-tax payers. Talking of accounts - Santander seem to have a very good deal with the 1-2-3 account which pays interest and gives cash back on a number of regular expenditures. Looks like a very good deal, so we have made an appointment to go to Chi and open said account.

Again GF's attention wandered. He started to look at the cost of energy. The new house is likely to be more efficient than this one. But by judicious account switching, GF can already see nearly £300 - £400 of savings annually - based on current consumption.

Very quiet Sunday

The Silver Vixen had some sewing preparation to do, and the Gorse Fox had nothing specific on the agenda. The SV disappeared up to her craft-room, and the Gorse Fox spent some time in the study.

GF had a book on the go. This has been ignored for the past month, so he plugged in his earphones and spent the afternoon finishing "Th Flood" by David Hewson. As he had his earphones in place he was able to get on with other things. A nice piece of gammon was simmered in Coca Cola, onion slices, cloves, and red peppercorns. After a couple of hours it was set aside to cool. Then it was roasted slowly at 150C for an hour whilst being basted in honey every 15 minutes. Hugely successful.

Quiet

A viewing had been booked this morning, so after a quick run round with the vacuum cleaner and tidy-up we made ourselves scarce so that the agent could do his job. We took the opportunity to go out in the car and try to stitch together a few roads that could prove useful when we have moved - in that they provide alternative routes out of Bersted.

Back home, most of the rest of the day was quiet. GF contacted Arun DC to inform them of the move. That was straightforward as they already had details of the new postcode. However, BT are still in the dark and whilst GF spoke to a very nice man with a broad Belfast accent, the chap couldn't do anything until they get the postcode. He promised to keep a check on it and get back to the Gorse Fox. (GF may be a little cynical, but somehow he is not expecting that call back!).

We went through the address book and highlighted those people who we would need to inform of the move - deciding who would get a card, who would get an email, or who would get a phone call. Once we have have details of the phone (whether or not we can keep the number) - GF can get that process under way.

Chi

The Silver Vixen had an appointment in Chi.

The Gorse Fox had some errands to run, so dropped off the SV and headed out to the recycling centre (where he was greeted like an old friend). Then stopped at Staples for some envelopes. The family will know that letting the Gorse Fox loose in a stationary store is at best reckless, at worst disastrous. GF managed to keep himself at the reckless end of the scale and ended up walking out with more envelopes, cards and what not than was ever intended.

Then GF headed back to Chi - and observed that there was a better class of busker than one is used to wandering the town. First stop was NatWest where he had to deposit a cheque. The queue stretched to the door so GF decided to use the automated teller. He filled in the details and place everything in a rapid deposit envelope. Unfortunately he then put this in the wrong machine - rendering that machine out of service. Eventually he spoke to a member of staff and owned up to breaking their machine; getting assurance that they would sort it out and handle the deposit.

Next stop was the Halifax where he closed an old account that has been dormant for many years. List completed, he wandered around until he could meet up with the Silver Vixen for lunch. As it is "Glorious Goodwood" the town was quite busy, so we sat in the rear courtyard of Pizza Express and spent the proceeds of the now closed Halifax account.

It was lovely afternoon and the courtyard was quiet and sheltered. We sipped some cold white wine, ate our main dishes, which we both thoroughly enjoyed, and were then tempted by the sweet menu. Gorse Fox is not (generally) one for sweets - but cannot resist a summer pudding. Summer Pudding with marscapone was the first item on the menu. How could he resist? Well, as you can see, he didn't. The Silver Vixen enjoyed a sorbet with cappuccino... but GF is sure it wasn't as good as the summer pudding.

That's it - no more food for us today.

Admin

Basic admin today.

Finances being moved around bit-by-bit to ensure funds for new house are all in one place when needed. (They had been spread all over the place in order to afford them some degree of protection from Bank failures).

Contacted Royal Mail to get new address included on Post Code database. Was surprised how quickly they responded... and complied. This should mean that the Gorse Fox can start talking to BT about moving the phone and broadband.

Lawns mowed.

The Silver Vixen spent much of the day ironing.

The nice man from Amazon delivered the new shredder. This was a much more robust unit. When operating it has all the subtlety of a jet engine - but boy it gets though the paper. Yesterday's pile has disappeared and there is now a sack full of chippings waiting to be taken to the tip.

Observation - after nearly a month of retirement you might expect GF to be well-known at his local pub, local restaurant, and even (heaven forfend) local gym. Actually, he is only known at the local refuse recycling tip (and is expecting an invite to their Christmas party). As he leaves the facility, the gateman asks what time he should expect the Gorse Fox on the next day! A clear indication where priorities currently lie.

Progress - sort of.

The shredding proved too much for our shredder. It has given up the ghost. It is no more. If it wasn't plugged in, it would be pushing up daisies. I has gone to meet its maker.

Mr Amazon will be delivering a replacement in the next day or so.

Meanwhile - a bit of a strop-a-gram seems to have woken up the builders. They have now confirmed our completion date as 29th August. Now the fun really begins.

Call me Fred

The Gorse Fox has a pile of paper several inches thick. All of it is confidential. All needs to be shredded. Given that the shredder only handles 10 sheets at a time, and only operates for 60 second bursts - this could take several days.

As usual, however, such a clear-out has revealed some interesting stuff (including all the school reports for Urban-cub and Cousteau-cub)... and a bank account that GF forgot he had (unfortunately there was no fortune squirrelled away for a rainy day).

More stuff

The Silver Vixen had set aside a car load of clothes, material, and knick-knacks for the local charity shop. This was first stop on today's itinerary. Then we continued across to Bognor Regis again. A bed we had seen last week would fit nicely in the spare room... And there were only a few days left in the sale.

That sorted, we stopped off for some sealer and some paint for the garage floor (Gorse Fox doesn't want to leave it to the last minute and find they don't have any).

Back at home we contacted Stonepillow (a charity for homeless people) and offered them the other items we won't need. They were very eager and will come along next week to see what is on offer. We also contacted the removal company and invited them round to give a quote. Gorse Fox isn't sure if they are having a quiet time, but was delighted when they could come this afternoon.

It is clear we are changing gear. (Let's hope the builder is, too)

Numb bum

The Gorse Fox has spent all day at the computer. He has modelled bedside tables, multi-drawer cabinets, a coffee table, and a fireplace.

These are all based on the actual designs of the articles we have selected, and it enables us to ponder where they should be placed.

The coffee table was a bit of a devil as it had four flutes on each face of the legs. Final version, however, is a very passable facsimile of the item in the brochure.

The fireplace was also quite a challenge as there were some details that were quite awkward to get right.

Again the finished item is very close to the brochure-picture and when placed in the house-model is obviously a good choice.

All-in-all, a very satisfying day made even better by the certain knowledge that the Gorse Fox is not back at work in the morning.

(Just for interest the furniture modelled today is from New England Lifestyle Company and the fireplace is from W&H Supplies Ltd.)

Disposal and decisions

We concluded that there is still a good deal of stuff that needs to be disposed of. A small fridge went onto Freecycle, but the rest we are looking to give away to a charity. We found one in Adur, but they don't come across as far as Fontwell. They recommended a Chichester organisation - but they were not open. We will try them on Monday.

We still had to decide what to do about the existing lounge suite and various chairs we have scattered about the house. These all got modelled and were added to the 3D model to help us choose. Again it took several hours to determine the various options and try them out. Eventually we concluded that most of the seats are to be retained initially.

That brought us on to the bedrooms and again some simple comparisons and options were examined. We now have a fairly clear view of our way forward. Lots of fine grain modelling to do to finish off. That can wait for another day.

Models

Yesterday's trip to the New England furniture store has resulted in a day of modelling so that we can visualise the placement of the dresser in the house.

It has taken a bit of fiddling about, and some guesswork regarding the exact measurements of the various panels and draws, but this is a reasonable facsimile. Importantly the external measurements are accurate.

The beauty is that it now exists as a 3d entity in virtual space and we can move it, rotate it, and place it anywhere in the model of the house with absolute certainty that it will fit in real life.

The Gorse Fox thinks Sketchup is the bees' knees.

Eyes Wide Shut

We have had several ideas regarding the new house. Let's face it, we have had long enough to think about things, and some of these ideas may actually come to fruition.

Today, it was the turn of shutters. We have been rather taken with the idea of having shutters rather than curtains to dress the windows on the front of the house. GF had researched a number of options and we slid into the car and headed out. The first two suppliers we visited were primarily offices rather than show rooms, but we persevered. The last supplier was quite impressive. The actually manufactured the shutters themselves, on-site - rather than ordering them and shipping them in from China. The twice-retired gent who showed us round explained the pros and cons of all of the various options. Once we have access to the house we will contact them and get a proper survey and quote.

John Lewis provided a stop-off point for a coffee and some cake before we went across to the local supplier of furniture in the New England style. Outside it was 31C, so their showroom provided a little respite from the heat. GF took lots of photos of various items of bedroom furniture which we will have to consider, and we put down a deposit on a dresser. A very successful trip.

Overload

Well, that turned out to be an interesting exercise. The Gorse Fox had saved nearly 81,000 emails since 1996, and the archive was over 11,000,000 lines long.
Next part of the exercise will be to construct a suitable SQL table to allow easy access to the data.

JAFLOC

There is an acronym in programming "JAFLOC" - this means Just a Few Lines of Code... and is the traditional answer to any problem posed.

The Gorse Fox has 24 archives of emails stretching back to to 1996 that need to be extracted so that he can mine them for useful historical information. This is a classic JAFLOC... but like most JAFLOCs it is a little more complex than it first seemed. Firstly it is a matter of detecting the transition from one email to the next - which GF finally worked out as the "0C"x code. Then each email seems to have a number of keywords - but the keyword list does not appear to be consistent. Before GF can decide on a final storage mechanism, he needs to isolate the keywords to decide how to handle them.

His code is currently mining its way through several million lines of text searching for the definitive list of keywords that will have to be handled. GF has processed over 40,000 historical emails so far... but the code is hammering onwards.

Mobile Apps

One of the features of Mobile Apps is the difficulty in determining what might be wrong when they do not behave as expected. The Silver Vixen usually complete the weekly Ocado order by wandering about with her iPad and creating/amending the order as necessary. Of late this has become problematic, interminably slow, and sometimes will not work at all.

GF resorted to class problem determination:

1. Any obvious setting wrong? - No 
2. Any problems with WiFi - No
3. Any known problems reported on internet? - No
4. Close it down and retry - any better? - No
5. Upgrade IOS to latest version - any better? - No
6. Is it working from the iMAC? - Yes, but that's a different interface.
7. Does it work from the other iPad? - Yes !!!

Ok, so the problem was isolated to SV's iPad, the question is how to solve the problem. GF erased the app entirely from the iPad and re-installed it from scratch.

Everything now seems to work. Harmony is restored.

Decision made

Our landlord has decided to sell the house we are renting, once we move out. This triggered some calls and a visit from the agent. This morning she turned up to take photos, so we had made sure everything was ship-shape and Bristol fashioned.

Well Saturday's planning of the new living room layout resulted (finally) in a decision and today the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen headed back into Bognor Regis to order the furniture.

For the uninitiated, Bognor Regis has all the faded charm of Pompeii, albeit without the pyroclastic debris and body casts. If ever a town needed some investment - this is it. It makes Worthing seem classy! (Though isn't quite as bad as Lancing). However, it does have a traditional old furniture shop with a stunning display of stock and salesmen who actually know about their products and provide sensible advice and guidance.

Well that wasn't expected.

The Gorse Fox went out to the back garden to clean up some garden chairs. Over to one side of the lawn he found this little chap.

Jasper, the cat, seemed very interested in the little bundle, but was still keeping his distance.

He seemed uninjured, but obviously was too young to fly. Looking round carefully we ascertained that there were no nests nearby, so concluded he must have been dropped by some predator.

Not sure quite what to do we guessed it was some kind of duck, from its shape, so GF put it in a box and took it along to the village pond. He eased it down into the water - and it promptly sunk. Lifting it back up GF let it collect its thoughts, and tried again - again it sunk. Again the Gorse Fox retrieved it. Obviously it wasn't yet ready for water, so GF took it round to a shaded area where there were some reeds. As he was about to release it a nearby fisherman asked to have a look. GF explained what was going on.

"And he sunk" stated the angler. GF answered in the affirmative. "Probably because it's a pigeon." he said, dismissing GF.

Now GF feels dreadful have tried to drown the poor thing, thinking it to be a water bird. He doesn't suppose it will survive, but at least it has a better chance being out of the water and out of the range of Jasper.

Planning

The Gorse Fox cannot believe how much time it has taken to come up with, what should be, a simple decision. Do we have a chair, a 2-seater, and 3-seater sofa; a chair and two 2-seaters; two chairs and 2-seaters; and any combination or permutation thereof. The trouble is how best to lay out such a selection in a room which logically has the focal point of a fireplace, a second focal point of a TV, and a bay window. A room that you wish to be a sociable space, not one dedicated to the altar of televisual images.

Sketchup provided a canvas for trying the various options, but it seemed that whatever we chose was a compromise in some way. (We also resorted to paper and pencil - as a cross-check that GF hadn't got the measurements wrong in Sketchup). Eventually, with a little bit of "out-of-the-goggle-box" thinking we came to a conclusion... though in the fullness of time this will mean some further design work to accommodate the TV the way we envisage.

Another by-product of the decision is that we will plan to provide all video from a media centre - thus ditching the need for DVD storage or CD storage. Music is already stored on our network storage - the trick will be to transfer all the DVDs as well. This may take some time. Gorse Fox has already tried some this afternoon, but though the transcoding works well, the metadata regarding the films is lost. Will have to did deeper before embarking on a mass transcoding session.

Suite

A few weeks ago we started looking for a suitable suite for the new house. It seemed a fruitless exercise even though we were looking a specialist shop.

A few years ago we bought a recliner from a furniture store in Bognor Regis. We decided to give them a try so pottered down to the coast. The store is laid out over 4 floors and there was a vast selection from which to choose. Several hours later we had several firm candidates in mind and needed to go back to the plans to decided what configuration would suit the room best. The other store may have been a specialist warehouse, but you can't beat a good old-fashioned store when you are looking for something special, and just that little bit different.

Bit by bit

Aha! News from the dealer. The Silver Vixen's car delivery has moved forward to November. This is progress. The last estimate we got was early 2015. Now we just need to synchronise with her Birthday and get it wrapped up with a big ribbon. 

Despite two calls to the Ford dealer, Gorse Fox still has no outlook on his car. He supposes this is what  you expect with Ford. Gorse Fox has been spoiled by his loyalty to VW over the past decade or so.

The Gorse Fox is enjoying a quiet afternoon in the garden. He seems to be getting a real flair for being retired.

Middle Earth

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had arranged to head into Middle Earth and tidy up the garden at Mother-in-Law's old house. It was a 240 mile round trip, but it had to be done. It was a lovely day and the traffic was kind to us.

There was one moment when we realised we had left without the key to the afore-mentioned property, but a brief call to Becks reminded us that the Estate Agents would have a key. Panic over.

Once there it only took about an hour to get everything done, and then we set up our picnic chairs for an impromptu lunch, before packing everything away and heading fro Bicester Village.

Now, much is said about Bicester Village, and certainly it is impressive in terms of size and the range of outlets they attract. The problem, for the Gorse Fox, is that it also attracts legions of shoppers. Legions arriving by car, by coach, and even train. It is a tourist destination and was completely overrun. Today there seemed to be two-thirds of the population of Beijing shopping there, and as you entered any of the outlets they just seemed to swarm like ants all over you and the shop.  GF found such crowds to be an unpleasant experience, even though he is sure the Village was probably quite nice.

Slindon

With the Silver Vixen out with her coven, and the primary chores completed, GF considered his options. Top of the list came a walk... after a nano-second of thought all further options were dismissed.

Within a few minutes walk from the house, The Gorse Fox plunged into Slindon Woods.

The dappled shade made it quite pleasant despite the summer heat.

The Gorse Fox kept to the footpath that ran just in the edge of the woodland, looking across the fields.

The summer breeze swept waves across the crop and was quite hypnotic.

Crossing Mill Lane, GF entered the National Trust land and stayed along the bridleway to the next proper road where he turned left and made his way up to the A29.

Crossing the A29, the Gorse Fox dropped back through the fields to the edge of Slindon Village.

There is a quaint Community Hall, The Forge (which seems to double as tea shop and village store, and an orchard.

The village green was crowned by a magnificent willow, bestowing its shade

Leaving the lower part of the village, Gorse Fox walked down Park Lane and back towards Fontwell.

It was only about 5 and bit kilometres, and took about an hour - but it was very nice.

Sad Farewell

The Gorse Fox has bid a sad farewell to his boy's toys. He has had to dispense with:

• Table Saw
• Thicknesser/Planer
• Dust Extractor
• Morticer
• Compound Chop Saw
• Router Table
• Heavy duty Router

There just won't be enough space in the new house (even if there would be enough time, finally). Rear Admiral Dabbler and his XO came round this morning with a trailer. Thirty minutes later it was all loaded and disappearing down the road.

Raring to go

Awake: check.
Shower: check.
Coffee: check.
Breakfast: check.
Email to local MP: check.
Letter to Prime Minister: check.
Clear garage: check.

Good start to the day!

Frantic

It has been a frantic start to the week.

The Gorse Fox read the paper then had some breakfast with the Silver Vixen. We chatted for a bit and had some coffee. Then GF managed a few emails and a bit of tidying up in his study.

We pottered into Chichester so that GF could get some clothes and change the SIM in his phone. (The latter taking significantly longer than expected).

Exhausted from such stress, we stopped off in Prezzo for some lunch and a coffee before heading home.

The pace of life, once retired, is relentless!

Quiet Day

It has been a quieter day today. The forecast had been a bit mixed - but it turned out to be a lovely sunny day.

The Silver Vixen went through a pile of magazines, deciding which could be passed on to other crafts people, the Gorse Fox played around with the model of the new home to try and get some view of what an orangery may look like, and what its dimensions should be; how many doors, how many windows, and what size of "lantern". It was interesting to see the options evolve, but frustrating how long it took to work out the best way to model the glass roof.

Supper over, it is time to get ready for the World Cup Final. GF is, unashamedly, hoping for a significant German win. (Unfortunately, that is often the kiss of death).

Parham

It was the annual Garden Show at Parham House. The weather was fabulous, and it seemed like too good a day to miss.

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen headed across the Downs. He was a little surprised by how busy the Show was, even fairly early on.

He was concerned that some of the Silver Vixen's friends had got there first. He was lucky. Though similar models to those used by her coven, these were the 2014 models on display. (GF should have noticed).

Once inside the crowds seemed to melt away. Though there were plenty of people around, it didn't seem crowded.

At first a brass band played in the background as we wandered from stall to stall.

There were flowers of every colour and type, there were old galvanised sinks and buckets and other bric-a-brac to make a garden look "twee", there were food concessions, and goodness knows what else.

We wandered on past the exhibits and along through the borders.

These were awash with colour, with smells, and with bees and butterflies. It was a very inspiring.

Eventually we found our way down through a walled garden and out into the Park itself.

Outside the walls we we approached the lake. You can only walk along one side as much is fenced off, but it was immensely tranquil as we sat on a bench and watch the butterflies as they swooped and hopped from flower to flower.

We dragged ourselves away and back to the "Pleasure Garden" where there were refreshments.

GF queued for some tea and salad and then again for a burger. These burgers were wild boar with apricot, or venison. Nobody flinched as they order wild boar, or venison, but when the Gorse Fox requested a "Bambi burger" everyone when "Aaaaaaawwwwww!".

As we sat down with our refreshments a Jazz duet started to play. Somehow, it seemed perfect... a quiet summer's afternoon, a drink, some mellow jazz, and bits of Bambi dripping from the side of the mouth.

Progress, perhaps

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen fought their way through stupid Friday afternoon traffic to meet with the solicitor in Rustington. GF had allowed twice the time for the journey as you would expect it to take - but still arrived a couple of minutes late.

The good news is that the forms we had to sign have been transferred from the standard conveyancing department at the Developer's to their Completion Department. This is progress. Progress measured in geological time, but progress. Even our solicitor acknowledged that he has never known such a long delay between Exchange and Completion.

We stopped off, on the way back, at a showroom that featured conservatories and orangeries. The upshot of this is that we think we may have found a possible solution for the extension that we had been thinking of.

Technology, eh? (the sequel)

Gorse Fox just tried to log on to the Online Banking app to make some changes to some regular payments.

The service is down at present. (snigger)

Technology, eh?

The Gorse Fox had a very interesting chat with the bank manager yesterday. Among other things he told GF about some of the features of their mobile app. GF has made very little use of the NatWest mobile app, up to this point.

The feature that impressed him most was the ability to pay people by phone. You go into the App on your smartphone and elect to "pay a contact". This throws up your address book from which you can select the recipient. Then you enter the amount, and a message an press the confirm button. Et voila. A message is sent to the recipient and they just follow the instructions to deposit the money onto their account.

Budgets

The morning has been spent on the budgets. The Gorse Fox started this a while back and had a fairly good handle on things, but today he has gone back through every transaction in the past year and ensured they were all correctly categorised and there was a clear distinction between ad hoc payments, monthly payments, and annual payments.

It has been an informative and cathartic exercise. GF is feels he is now "in control" of all the facts and all of the comings and goings from the accounts. Very satisfying.

Racing - a new approach

Fontwell Park is a small racecourse east of Chichester. There are regular meets where horses career round the track - urged on by race goers and gamblers.

Judging by these posters they are branching out and extending the races beyond the normal race horses. This could make for interesting sport, particularly if the going is soft, and high-heels are worn.

GF is not sure that the Silver Vixen would be up for it, but maybe some of her coven could enter.

Eastergate and Walburton

The Silver Vixen was out. She had gone to meet up with her layabout friends (The Gorse Fox should immediately stop digging and explain that these are friends from Pilates, which as far as GF can tell, consists of a lot of laying about, squeezing, clenching, and giggling).

It was too nice to stay indoors, even though GF has lost of things to get done on the computer.

A walk seemed like a sensible plan.

Grabbing the OS Map (on the iPhone/iPad) GF quickly decided on a route. It's only 5.5km, but seems like a nice stroll on a sunny summer afternoon.

Fontwell - Eastergate - West Walburton and back to Fontwell.

Nothing too strenuous, but a pleasant walk nonetheless.

GF had oft noticed the village pond, by the green at West Walburton, when sweeping by in the car. It was nice to get up close on foot. Clearly, it is a very beautiful spot.

GF plotted the route on his OS App on the iPhone - but at this point has not worked out whether he can extract and include it in the blog.

Nudge

Evidently yesterday's visit to the house has been part of a lurch into action. Our solicitor has received a notification from the builder's solicitor, requesting us to sign a transfer deed.

Still no news on dates, but things are obviously stirring.

Hampton Court

Hampton Court was one of Henry VIII's great palaces. Every year, the Royal Horticultural Society run one of their big flower shows in the gardens of the Palace.

It seemed like good idea to make the most of a "Members' Day" as the Silver Vixen is an RHS member.

As we had been to the new house in the morning, it was was approach 3pm by the time we got there and found the entrance and the ticket booth. At three, the price drops from the full day price to a discounted price - which was a bit of a result.

As might guess, the Gorse Fox took hundreds of photos. Far too many to show here, but he thought this little collage may give an inkling of the afternoon.

We had a lovely time, though the weather did get rather wet late in the day. We left the gardens at about 7pm and started to stroll back to the car for, what turned out to be, a surprisingly quick and trouble-free journey back home.