Old Friends

The Gorse Fox had a chance to set up his new compressed air nailer and try it out. He's very impressed with the power and performance. He's less impressed, however, with the batch of 5000 nails he ordered separately - they are (apparently) the right spec - 35mm, 18 gauge, F-type collated nails - but they don't actually fit the nailer. Drat! The Gorse Fox went along to screw fix with the nailer in hand. He asked the operative for several sizes of nails and tried each of them in the gun. These all fitted... so he paid his money and walked away clutching the boxes of refills.

At lunchtime we headed off to Bosham. Old friends were in the area. Cathy used to work at Starfleet with the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox and we only get to see her and husband Roy every now and again. We strolled along the quay and enjoyed catching up with the latest news as we approached Anchor Bleu. Cathy has been retired now for a couple of years and is thoroughly enjoying it, and Roy has recently retired also.

We wandered in to Anchor Bleu. We had eaten there before and were happy to find a spare table and settle done for lunch.  The Gorse Fox chose the fish and chips, the Silver Vixen had scampi. As before, the food was superb. Simple, but excellent.

Time whizzed by, and before we knew it it was time to return to the cars. By this time the whole quay was well under water as the tide had come in. Bosham Quay is famous for people parking on the quay, and then returning to find their car under water. We weren't so stupid, having parked in the proper car park - well clear of the waters.

Meters

The process of switching energy supplier is now reaching its conclusion - the Gorse Fox has today been asked for a set of meter readings from the new supplier. These will be used as closing reading for the old provider and opening readings for the new (according to a letter received last week).

Beautiful weather today. Wall to wall blue sky and temperatures about 16C. It felt a lot warmer than that in the sun, playing football. We had a good game today with 6 vs 7... and the odd player switching sides at half time. The Gorse Fox played in yellow, and at half time we were 1-0 up... but then lost the extra man. As the second half began, the oranges scored to even things up. But, as they say, it's not over until the fat lady sings. After some fairly intense defending yellow-Keith received the ball on the right wing. The Gorse Fox broke through the middle to give him a target for a cross. The ball came over, the Gorse Fox shot and it was parried by the 'keeper. The Gorse Fox was first to the rebound and curled the ball round and into the goal. Final score remained 2-1, and the Gorse Fox was pleased with his performance.

Back home a box of spare 35mm collated nails has arrived and also some dowel centre points. The gorse Fox is eager to get back out into the garage.

Prodigal returns

There was football this morning. Krakatoa Jack has served his sentence and was back in the fold today. It was a little tense at first but the Gorse Fox had a quiet word with KJ and another with Ref the Argonaut and in the end they kissed and made up. The football itself wasn't't too special - six games where the Gorse Fox payed adequately but not well. Despite this we won 4 games and lost only two.

Back home we awaited delivery of the compressed air nailer, which turned up mid-afternoon, and the man to retrofit a part on the gas fire, who turned up late in the afternoon. The nailer looks like a nice bit of kit, but will have to wait for the Gorse Fox to have time to set it up and try it out. That's likely to be Friday. As for the gas fire - that took the fitter about 10 minutes to retrofit the part, test it, take photos, clean up and leave.

Meeting of Arun Amblers, to discuss the new Walking Football rules from the FA, is scheduled for this evening. At least it's at the football arena rather than the rather grotty club where we usually hold such events.

Plan B

Well 'Plan A' had us heading across to Salisbury to have lunch with Mrs Tiggywinkle and Badger. Unfortunately, Mrs Tiggywinkle phoned to say she wasn't well so we have agreed to postpone for now.

We came up with 'Plan B'. As we were going to have gone out for lunch - why not do it anyway? So it was that we pottered in to Chichester and had a wander around - then reviewed menus of various eateries until we came to The Chantry in South Street. Urban-Cub had recommended it in the past, so we thought we'd give it a try. It was a fairly typical diner-style menu - lots of burgers, a few steaks, some pies, some pizzas, some grills and so forth. Not exactly 'fine dining' but certainly plenty to choose from - and something for everyone. We had a light lunch of southern fried chicken in a ciabatta with salad, some sweet potato fries, and a coffee. Good quality grub, nice staff, and very good value for money. Certainly worth a return trip.

On a separate note - the Council Tax bill has arrived for the upcoming year. The Gorse Fox was pleased to see that it hasn't gone up by very much - in fact by far less than he had budgeted. These things tend to be swings and roundabouts, though. He's in the middle of changing energy suppliers - which should save about £10 per month compared with last year (though that bill was about to increase)... and as he put that in motion, he got a new estimate for the management of waste water(**) - and that has eaten up virtually all those savings.

(**) We get our water supply from Portsmouth Water, but our waste water is handled by Southern Water.

And that's four

The Gorse Fox had his usual Sunday morning football. It was much better this week with a simple, uncrowded 5-a-side. The sides looked moderately well balanced to start with, but as the game progressed it was clear that the "yellows" were beginning to walk away with it. Fortunately, the Gorse Fox was playing in yellow and anchoring the defence. Despite his defensive role, he still managed to score 4 goals - 2 with each foot. Very satisfying but, in the end, one-sided with a final score of 16-3.

Pfffft.

The Gorse Fox has succumbed to a long held desire.

He's just ordered a (compressed air) nail gun.

Reviewing what he has to do, he has determined such a tool will make the assembly so much easier. Why not use a hammer you may ask...? The issue is that when trying to hold something square and pin it with a hammer and nail, the hammer continually disturbs (tries to dislodge) the components (and its a two-handed operation). A nail gun, however, fires a nail in a single explosive shot, without dislodging anything.

There are some very expensive options available. The Gorse Fox went for an entry-level device and compressor as it's a tool that will only be used occasionally.

Drawers

Drawers are now assembled. Again the Gorse Fox has to wait until the glue sets up before routing the slots for the runners. (You might have assumed that would be done before assembly, but the Gorse Fox is trying to mimic the exact construction of the existing dresser, and that means the slots need to be done after construction).

That's all for today. The Gorse Fox is trying to take his time to ensure that the finished article is A-ok.

Square

The Gorse Fox seems to remember the words of the great philosopher, Huey Lewis, "It's hip to be square". So it was that this morning was been spent trying to get the carcase to come together properly. At one stage the back was square - 110mm on each diagonal - but the front was way out and the top didn't fit.

The back was removed and carcase disassembled. Now it's been re-assembled and the front is perfectly square - and this time, the top fits perfectly. However, this is all dry-fit - no glue nor mechanical fixings - just friction and clamps. The Gorse Fox now has to decide how to move forward without messing it up.

It's clear he's really out of practise.

Clamps

The blessed Norm Abram* (Praise be Upon Him) often says that you can't have too many clamps. The Gorse Fox, despite his huge collection, has just run out of clamps. He has had to stop until the glue sets up on various components. Only then can he free up clamps to start carcase assembly.

*If you have never seen The New Yankee Workshop and have any interest in carpentry then you are missing a treat. Track it down and watch every episode. You will learn from a master.

Slow

Progress is a lot slower today. The Gorse Fox needs to think about the sequence very carefully. The last thing he would want is to have to undo something because he has the build sequence wrong. The other problem at the moment is ensuring the carcase is square as it gets assembled...

Sawdust

The weather was lovely today. The Gorse Fox spent the day in the garage - there was furniture to build. He got started by stripping down some of the wood to the right width using his band saw. This is the first time he's used it since moving from Foxearth - and whilst many of the other woodworking tools were sold, the Gorse Fox hung on to this. It's such a useful device.

By lunchtime the Gorse Fox had all of the main components cut to size. He was pleased with progress - everything cut and no mistakes!

After lunch the Gorse Fox started with the marking up for routing.

It didn't take too long, but unfortunately the penultimate cut went wrong. The router bit started to chatter and slipped such that it started digging deeper into the wood until it went right through to the other side. Blast!

The Gorse Fox looked at the damage and had a think. A quick bit of redesign solved the problem but it meant the back would be butted on rather than slotted in.

Redesign worked and the Gorse Fox dry-fitted the main components (all upside down for now). He's pleased with the results for day one.

Under the Sheets

The Gorse Fox was greeted with heavy rain this morning. Football was going to be rather wet. Never mind - at least he had time to have a breakfast of eggs, bacon, and chorizo and didn't have to go to work!

As it turned out, the rain stopped soon after we started our game so it wasn't too bad. It was a close run thing with a final score of 2-2. Again the Gorse Fox managed to get on the score sheet. It's been a good week (made even better by yesterday's result in the Arsenal-Bayern Munich game of 1-5 ending in an aggregate score of 10-2 to Bayern - not that there's any gloating coming from this contributor, nope, none at all).

As he was driving home, the Gorse Fox's phone rang  (hands free, of course). "Hello, it's Matt from Hendy Ford. Just thought I'd check if you've made up your mind about changing?" The Gorse Fox sighed. "As I remember it, Matt, you were going to get back to me with a list of possible models that met my spec, and were available before the change in road tax." There was silence. Then a clatter of keys at the keyboard "I'm just confirming what is available, now". Clatter, clatter, pause. "Ahh, there we go. We don't seem to have any available. I'll look for order cancellations..." pause, clatter, "Err, no". The Gorse Fox put him out of his misery. "Forget it, I'm not interested. My car has only done 8,000 miles and is pristine. Why would I bother." and with that we ended the call. (The Gorse Fox thinks that, at best, he could only award D+ for effort, though B+ for cheek).

Back home the Gorse Fox checked his lists and headed off to Screwfix and B&Q - there were several components he still needed for the upcoming project: 9mm router bit, 8mm dowels, size 0 beech biscuits, 2 x 6mm sheet of MDF, 2 x 9 mm sheet of MDF, and some PAR whitewood. Tomorrow should see delivery of the cabinet grade plywood and then the Gorse Fox can get started.

Run around

Lovely start to the day. Dry, mild, and bright. This looked like a perfect day for the football.

There was a good turnout and we had 4 teams of seven. The Gorse Fox was playing for "blues". A shaky start almost saw us conceding in the first minutes... but an immediate counter-attack saw us get the first goal. From then on we dominated in the first and second game. The Gorse Fox was pleased with his contribution - a surge from the back straight through the middle onto a loose ball and a very pleasing goal.

We lost the last game 1-0 but given the strength of the "yellows" we were pretty pleased it was only 1.

In the second hour it was a smaller 5-a-side competition with just the two teams. Again, we won the first two games - and agin the Gorse Fox scored... but again we lost the last game. It was hard work today, but good to get some exercise.

Ply

The Silver Vixen was out for the day at Standen House. This left the Gorse Fox and Jasper alone for the day. We debated what to do and Jasper suggested that the Gorse Fox got on with the furniture project that he was designing over the weekend.

So it was that most of the boring was spent building a spreadsheet with all of the components and their dimensions, and then a sheet cutting-sheet showing how a large sheet should be cut down, optimally, to provide all of the sub-components. (This used to be something the Gorse Fox would use Visio for, but no longer having a license he had to resort to Omnigraffle. This proved adequate but there is clearly a longer and steeper learning curve than Gorse Fox had reckoned with).

The afternoon was spent shuttling between possible suppliers. Travis Perkins has some adequate plywood, but don't provide a cutting service; B&Q provide a cutting service, but the quality of the plywood was very poor. Eventually, the Gorse Fox found himself at Covers in Chichester. There they had some lovely hardwood ply and provided a cutting service. They were a little pricey, but the quality was excellent and they were able to deliver.

There is still a short shopping list of required components, but they can be sourced from B&Q. The Gorse Fox is looking forward to getting started.

Pinball

There were fourteen of us at football this morning. Seven-a-side is really too crowded for the small cages in which we pay. This means that the game becomes more like pinball than football. It's good to see so many players, but it does take the gloss off the game slightly.

Back home the Gorse Fox had to get out the saw. There was a large offset from the old kitchen surfaces and Urban-Cub wanted part of it for a new worktop in her utility room. It didn't take too long and we were soon heading over to LA to have lunch with her and Pistol Pete. We had a lovely lunch and relaxing afternoon. Urban Cub only has about 4 weeks to go and is about the size of an airship at present. It will soon been a problem as her arms won't be long enough to allow her to sit at a table and reach the plate.

Design

The Silver Vixen wants a new dresser for the kitchen/family room. This is fine, in essence. We had taken a lot of time selecting the kitchen furniture and we like the simplicity of the New England style. The problem we have, however, is that the supplier has gone into liquidation. Wandering through the internet the Gorse Fox found nothing that really matched.

The Gorse Fox switched from hunter to gatherer. He took photos, he measured dimensions, and came up with a mental image of what we needed. A new version of Sketchup was downloaded (for 2017). Then the Gorse Fox set to work creating the exploded design diagram that will allow him to build the unit himself. This is the stage he finds very satisfying. This is the stage that leaves no mess. This is the stage that is still full of hope and good intentions.

Vouchers

There was a lot of heavy rain over night but it eased and stopped as the morning went on. We had a quiet start. The Gorse Fox spent some time looking to see if there were any savings accounts that would provide a better return than those currently in use. He didn't come to a conclusion as he became distracted by several other options which deserved research. It would appear that there is a Nigerian Prince who just needs our bank account details so that he can release some of the twenty million dollars he has tied up in a Swiss account and appears willing to share this windfall with us. But then the Gorse Fox asked himself, "What would you do with all that money?" and decided it probably would not bring happiness**

We took a drive across to the Hillier Garden Centre. We had a fairly significant voucher that would expire in a few weeks and it was time to see what we might purchase. Despite a long review and various discussions - there was nothing that we we needed. We had a coffee and then went and chatted to the manager. After a short call to HQ he managed to arrange for the soon-to-expire voucher to be commuted into a gift card, This in turn is valid for a further two years. Major result!

** Do not, under any circumstances believe that this crossed his consciousness for even a pica-second. Also, the Gorse Fox is not a trained Financial Advisor and this blog should not be thought of as an investment guide. The Gorse Fox has no personal relationship with said Nigerian Prince (but he writes a nice email).

Admin

If it's Thursday it must be admin.

So it was that the Gorse Fox finished his breakfast and headed up to the study. There was a review of the energy suppliers and confirmation that the changes of supplier was under way. We have decided to move from one of the big suppliers to Bristol Energy. It looks as if this should save about £10 a month - not a lot, but worth doing.

The Gorse Fox did manage to have an online chat with Cousteau-Cub. It was nice to catch up and to hear that the Coventry Hobbit is finally back to his normal self after a few weeks of illness.

Most of the rest of the day was spent wandering through the branches of the family tree and extending the citations and sources for the information  already on file. Through 'Ancestry' you do get the chance to see parts of other people's trees (assuming they have permitted access). What this shows the Gorse Fox is that many researchers are not rigorous enough in their work. Time and again he finds leaves of family trees that appear to overlap our - then on investigation it becomes clear that these are, at best, speculative, at worst - just guesses. The Gorse Fox is very careful that he can source all of the information in his tree - birth, marriage, and death certificates (or at least the index entries), census entires, electoral roll, Kelly's directories, probate records, baptismal registers, military records, and so forth.

Brave Little Soldier

The Gorse Fox, despite the tail-end of his man flu, was a brave little soldier. He headed out for today's football. The centre had asked for as many of us as possible to turn up so that there would be plenty going on for the TV cameras. As it worked out, there was a small army of 35 players split into 5 groups and rotating round the pitches. Two games being played at a time and one team practising ball skills. It was great fun and the Gorse Fox really enjoyed it. He has come home with a splitting headache, however.

Rumour has it that the film will be featured on March 20th... but we will have to wait and see.

Quiet afternoon watching Time Team discuss Isambard Kingdom Brunel's "Great Eastern" and its build and launch from East London. Very interesting programme. It's a shame there aren't more intelligent shows like that on the TV

Ark required

The Gorse Fox's cold is still in full flood. He's wondering if he should build an ark.

It goes without saying that football was a no-no. That would have been stupid. The Gorse Fox was, however, in need of some fresh air and took a walk round to the shops during the morning to post some birthday cards and pick up some more medication and tissues.

Lunch was a simple affair of soup (he's really glad that he bought this soup maker - it's turning into a well-used appliance). Today's effort was made from red pepper, courgette, garlic, broccoli, potato and chicken. A meal in a bowl. Delicious.

Another quiet afternoon spent dripping in front of the TV. The Gorse Fox hopes he feels better overnight as he's meant to be playing football tomorrow and the ITV cameras will be there to record it.

Full Flood

Man flu, meh!

The Gorse Fox's cold is in full flood. Nothing seems to stop his nose or eyes from pouring as he moves or looks down. This makes the day a little uncomfortable, but he did manage to finish transcribing another 10-page letter this morning. What was interesting about this letter was that it covered the birthday treat he had arranged for the Silver Vixen in New York back in 1986.

After lunch he decided to vege out in front of the TV again... this saw several old episodes of Time Team tick past through flooded eyes.

At the moment the Gorse Fox doubts he will be playing football in the morning. He has, however, arranged to meet up with an old college friend (from 1969-71) in a few weeks time. That should be fun and stir a few memories.

Cold

A bit grey and damp this morning. The Gorse Fox started with a proper breakfast then got on with some transcriptions of old letters until it was time to go to football. The Gorse Fox was feeling a little under the weather - and suspects a full blown cold is emerging. Despite this he headed out to football and enjoyed a very hard game. He played well and was very satisfied at the end - even though it ended up as a 6-6 draw.

Back home the cold started to come out so the Gorse Fox moved into vegetative mode. He sat in front of the TV and watched Spurs thrash Stoke 4-0. As the game was drawing to an end, the Silver Vixen arrived home. We settled down and watched the EFL (League) Cup between Man Utd and Southampton - which was an excellent game, though Southampton were unlucky to lose.

Letters

The Silver Vixen is has gone to stay with Betty Rubble until tomorrow. This left Jasper in charge and the Gorse Fox there to pamper to his every need.

The morning was spent transcribing some more entries from the 1983 diaries. This has got hime up to the end of March. It is tedious work, but very satisfying when done. After lunch, the Gorse Fox returned to the keyboard. This time he decided to pick on some letters written from Poughkeepsie back in 1986. Again this was satisfying and dredged up some interesting memories and some scurrilous descriptions of some of the Gorse Fox's colleagues when working on that specific project (writing a book).

Tree climbing and other things

The Gorse Fox has spent most of the day in his study.

Part of this was climbing around the branches of the family tree - rather unsuccessfully - but at great length. The rest was triggered by the arrival of the post and a new missive from Starfleet regarding the changes to his pension now that he reached pension age. This latter missive proved to be confusing. It seems that his Starfleet pension will go down by X now that his state pension will contribute Y - but the Starfleet pension will also go up by Z. Oh, and by the way the State pension isn't taxed directly - that is taxed via the Starfleet pension. Can the Gorse Fox work out his budget based on these? Not on your nelly. He'll just have to wait until the next payments are made and see what happens.

Arborealist

The Gorse Fox has spent much of the day indoors. Storm Doris wasn't too bad down here in the south, but the winds were very strong and gave the garden a bit of a battering. The covers on the garden furniture were blown clear of the tables and chairs. The Gorse Fox had to go and sort that out so that nothing was lost. When in doubt use cable-ties. He started by securing all the chairs to each other round the table. Then the covers were replaced and, in turn, they were tied down to the chairs. Hopefully that will last.

As he said, much of the day was indoors. This was spent working away on the family tree. The morning's work was frustrating and achieved nothing. The afternoon, however, was much more successful and both his own tree and that of the Silver Vixen have had a further direct ancestor located and filed.

Tapas

The Gorse Fox had a wonderful evening. He and the Silver Vixen met up with the Sonning Crew for some nibbles and bubbles and then took the minibus into Chichester. We had a table booked at El Castizo. We have been there once before and enjoyed it immensely. We were hoping it would be as good.

It was.

We had a wonderful evening as we selected various tapas and worked our way through some nice wines. There was a lot of laughter and banter and the food was as good as we remembered it. Charming little restaurant and well worth another return visit.

Ooops

Well that wasn't the plan.

We headed in to Chichester to do a bit of shopping. The Gorse Fox wanted a new sweater and had a voucher to spend. Sounds simple. In essence it was. We did, however, walk past the Whitewall Gallery on our way to the target shop. We were drawn in by the displays... and somehow, after much discussion, ended up buying a very nice triptych. It will be several weeks until it arrives and has cost as much as our proposed cruise (which is no longer proposed!!!), but we have just the spot for it and are happy that we have finally found the right picture for the wall in question.

Well, plans are there to be changed.

Sis

Another surprisingly mild day.

Roadworks at Comet Corner on the A259 delayed the Gorse Fox on his drive across to Worthing... but he still arrived in time for the football. Though half-term week for many, we had a good turn-out and the Gorse Fox enjoyed the run out. He provided 3 assists and scored one goal himself. The first few games were played on the big 7-a-side pitches, but the last ones were on the smaller 5-a-side cages. The Gorse Fox likes the smaller cages as the game never stops as the ball never goes out of play.

Back home for a shower and some soup then a message arrived from the Gorse Fox's sister to say they were on their way. The Silver Vixen was still out - she was attending the funeral of a friend's husband and would be a little while yet.

The Gorse Fox's sister and brother-in-law arrived. Tea was brewed and we spent quite a while discussing the kitchen and kitchen designs. They are about to embark on an extension at home and that involves a new kitchen. There was much to think about and much to debate. As the discussions continued, the Silver Vixen arrived home and more tea was brewed. Then the Gorse Fox started preparing supper. Some bubbles broke free from a bottle and we had a lovely evening. It's always nice to see them and there's always so much to talk about.

Jab

Another mild day - though overcast throughout the morning.

Quiet start to the day with some tidying up of recent genealogy research before the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox headed off to the medical centre. Because of our extreme age we are now eligible for pneumonia jabs. The practise nurse spent a few minutes telling us about the possible side effects and what to do if we experienced them. Then in the blink of an eye she buried the syringes into our respective arms and the vaccines were done.

Back home the Gorse Fox returned to the genealogy research whilst the Silver Vixen prepared this week's online shopping list. Then we fired up the pyrolytic cleansing function of the new oven to see how that would work out. Now that it has all cooled down the Gorse Fox has opened it up, wiped off the ash and is very impressed with the results.

Lunch

It was incredibly mild, though overcast. The Gorse Fox had football to play. It was the usual hard fought affair with 6 vs 5 and the extra player switching sides at half time. This kept the game flowing well and required a great deal of movement. In the end the game finished 7-7. The Gorse Fox managed to score one of his team's goals.

Back home lunch had been cooking and the Silver Vixen was preparing the vegetables. Urban-cub and Pistol Pete were coming for lunch. His knee was moving ok after the operation and he was quite chirpy. We had a lovely few hours as we demolished a shoulder of pork and had some alcohol-free sparkling wine.

Lovely day.

Pushing Back

It's been a lovely day. Temperature was about 12C and the sun was pouring in through the Orangery. We had a few bits and pieces to sort out during the morning and had to pop along to the shops. We are not sure, at this stage, whether or not Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete will be over for lunch tomorrow. As he had his knee operation yesterday, he may not feel like venturing out. We had to go and get a joint that would be big enough for the family - just in case.

The Gorse Fox has spent much of the afternoon working on the family tree. As a result of a hint that was provided by the Ancestry software, he was able to push back another generation on his mother's side of the family. So that's his G-g-g-g-g-g-granparents identified. It's nice to make a little breakthrough like that. Having said that we still have the enigma that is the Silver Vixen's grandmother. The only primary source we have found for her was her marriage certificate. We have never tracked down a birth certificate and the death certificate cannot be trusted as it is based entirely on what the family have declared - and in this case different members of the family had totally different histories for her. Oh well... the Gorse Fox will not give up. It will remain on the back burner and will be investigated every now and then.

Farewell

It was a long drive. It was time to say goodbye to the Silver Vixen's uncle. He had died at the age of 89 and today was the opportunity for the family to come together and celebrate his life.

It was a long trek up to Cambridge - but at least the rads were kind to us and we managed the trip in about two and half hours or so. We stopped in the car park and had a bit of a picnic while waiting for everyone else to arrive.

The committal was a short service for family only, but then we headed to the village where there was a separate service of thanksgiving for a wider group of friends and acquaintances. It was lovely service though the Gorse Fox didn't recognise a couple of the hymns. Also he had to chuckle as the reading was punctuated by somebody's mobile phone bursting into life. (The person in question nearly jumped out of her skin and was utterly mortified).

Afterwards we all got together for a buffet and and some tea. It was a chance to catch up with family news and show solidarity and support for the immediate family.

Friday afternoon is not the best time to be on the roads. We knew the journey home would take longer than the drive up... so made a start late afternoon. It was slow, but we did manage to keep moving most of the way. It took over three and a half hours in all - but that was less than the Gorse Fox had expected.

Research

It has been a quiet day. There was the usual admin during the morning and it was during this that the phone rang. The first time it was the Ocado driver who was lost again. The Gorse Fox put him right and the weekly shop arrived a few minutes later. The second call was from a friend of the Silver Vixen. She was having some bizarre problems with her MacBook and it was preventing her from getting through to Flickr. The Gorse Fox tried to access Flickr from his machine - without issue. What could be the problem? In the end the Gorse Fox wondered if she had a problem with her DNS setting and suggested she looked at that, though at this point he doesn't know if it solved the problem.

A wander round the M&S Food hall provided a welcome distraction during the afternoon, but then the Gorse Fox returned to his computer. He has a spark of an idea. This has blossomed into something much larger - but at this point the Gorse Fox is spending the time doing some research into the background architecture to see if it is a practical project. (At the moment it is destined to be tested out on the Raspberry Pi known as Falcon - but if everything works out, it might need a further RPI).

Pause for thought

There was football again this morning. A good turnout with a comfortable 6-a-side. The game was hard fought but very even, finishing 1-1 after an hour. The Gorse Fox's legs were a bit heavy after yesterday, but soon loosened up. Thoroughly enjoyable morning.

An email received late yesterday, however, gave us all pause. "Chopper" Harris had been in touch. He had looked decidedly unwell after our game against Winchester last week. It turns out that he was having a heart attack. He didn't realise at the time and it was only when he saw the doctor later that the blood tests showed the problem. He's only just been released from hospital but, though taking it easy, is feeling a lot better now.

There is a collection of friends and acquaintances from around the world that the Gorse Fox refers to as the VM Old Gits. These are people who were involved with the VM/370 operating system and the Rexx language through the years. The Gorse Fox has been trying to get some sort of reunion organised and has sent out some information to these "old lags" today to see who can make it and what sort of cuisine they prefer. Based on experiences throughout the 1970s and 1980s the Gorse Fox would be surprised if the answer is anything other than Indian!

Whilst in an organising mood, the Gorse Fox has also sorted out the plan for and evening in Chichester with the Sonning Crew. Restaurant is booked and taxi (minibus) is booked. The Gorse Fox is feeling very efficient.

Wipe Out

Jasper decided to wake us at some ridiculous hour by vomiting all over the landing. This disturbed the Silver Vixen who got up to deal with it (so it wouldn't stain the carpet) - and in turn, her ministrations woke he Gorse Fox. We did manage to settle back down for a while, but by 06:30 the Gorse Fox was getting fidgety and Jasper was becoming demanding. A good breakfast was needed all round.

The Gorse Fox was back at Worthing for football today. It was the first two-hour session for quite a few weeks. He lasted well and played well, and it was nice to see the lads from Sharks and Strikers. The first hour saw the Gorse Fox on the green team and managed two draws and a loss. The second hour saw him on the yellow team with a draw and two wins. A satisfactory morning.

The two hour session and early start clearly took it out of him as he was completely wiped out for the afternoon.

BKK

If the Gorse Fox remembers correctly, Cousteau-Cub is off to Bangkok for a week of yoga with various yogis starting tomorrow. He hopes she has a really good week and enjoys the break.

Filtered

It's been a quiet day. The Silver Vixen had an appointment at the dentist, and Jasper had an appointment at the vet to get his claws clipped. The Gorse Fox, not wanting to feel left out, made an appointment to get his hair cut. That's what life is like, when you live right on the edge.

The warning light had appeared to tell us the water filter needed changing on the fridge. As the normal household water is never cold enough (without running it for ages) this was a task to be addressed. The nice man from the Amazon arrived mid-morning clutching two filters. The Gorse Fox proceeded to change it. The fridges was pulled away and the water switched off. The old filter was unclipped from the wall and the Gorse Fox tried to release the inlet and outflow pipes.

Could he do it? He pulled and he twisted and he use pliers to grip the pipes and pulled some more and twisted some more. Nothing would free the pipes. In the end he had to cut them. It was at that point that he had a thought...

There were two clips that had to be removed (and had been) they hold a collar away from the body of the filter. He wondered if these collars when pushed towards the filter may release the pipes. Voila - they did. Once pushed in the pipes slid free quite easily. Oh well, you live and learn. He will have to remember this lesson for when the filter next needs changing in six months time.

Posts

Chilly start to the day - but at least the Gorse Fox got up in his own time - and wasn't dragged out of bed by Jasper.

There was football this morning. A hard game of 6-a-side that ended up 8-7 to the orange bibs. Unfortunately the Gorse Fox was playing for the yellow bibs. He did manage to score a goal - but really needed a couple more to ensure the win.

Back home for a shower and a snack then the Silver Vixen retired to her study to play on her new machine and the Gorse Fox retired to his study to transcribe some more old diary entries. Unfortunately he got distracted by a niggling problem with an excel file and that wasted some of the afternoon rather unproductively. He did, however, manage to complete the documentation for the program he wrote yesterday for managing bulk edits in the blog.

Out and about

There were some snow flurries this morning. Nothing significant, but it serves to remind us that February tends to be the coldest month of the year. It was also typical that the Gorse Fox had an appointment in Chichester first thing. As it happens, the Silver Vixen also wanted to pop in to a couple of shops so she wrapped up warmly and came along. The Gorse Fox dropped her and then headed on to his appointment.

You see, it all started with a phone call. "Is that the Gorse Fox? Do you still have your car?" said the voice, identifying himself as a salesman from Hendy Ford. The Gorse Fox responded in the affirmative. "Well we have a customer who really wants a car with you spec and we would be willing to give you a very good price for it - and could do a significant deal with discounts towards a replacement". So it was that the Gorse Fox thought he'd go and listen to the deal. To be fair, the price offered for his car was nearly 2K more than he was recently quoted at another dealer. They were also willing to provide a 500GBP test drive discount and an 1800GBP deposit... but the Gorse Fox would still need to replace the car (like for like). If this was going to cost a lot, this was not going to happen. The Gorse Fox made this clear. If, however, it's just a couple of K then he might consider it. He left the salesman to research and come up with a deal. He should hear early next week.

Returning to the town centre, the Gorse Fox caught up with the Silver Vixen as she raided Mothercare. Clutching various tiny clothes, we left and headed back to the sewing shop where she had started. A new sewing machine had been carefully boxed up for her. The Gorse Fox was there to pay and to carry the box to the car. (He knows his place).

Back home saw the ceremonial unboxing of the sewing machine. It also saw the realisation that they had forgotten to provide its power cable. A phone call was made. The Gorse Fox was dispatched back to Chichester to collect the cable.

The afternoon saw the Gorse Fox at the computer and the Silver Vixen at her new machine. This was interrupted by a visit from a neighbour to ask about the landscaping we had had done, and in the middle of this, the arrival of Urban-cub, Pistol Pete and the kids.

All is now quiet again, except for the distant thrumming of the sewing machine.

Another Change of Plan

Pistol Pete was due at the hospital. After putting up with a problematic knee for months, if not years, he was scheduled to have keyhole surgery to sort it out. Urban-cub duly dropped him at the hospital and then came on to spend the day with us.

An hour later,  the phone rang. It was Pistol Pete. There had been a major trauma and his operation had been cancelled. He would have to wait.

The very nature of plans is that they change.

Change of Plan

The Silver Vixen's broomstick was scheduled to be at the garage this morning. There was a slight noise that had been causing us concern and it was time they sorted it out. On top of this there is a recall on the vehicle for a check on the rear wheel arch covers to ensure they are not loose and wearing against the brake pipes. The Gorse Fox left the broomstick at the garage and walked home.

The rest of the morning was spent with the usual admin and domestic tasks. The plan was to have some soup at lunchtime, collect the car and then go over to see Urban-Cub. We had the soup (mushroom, ham, chicken, lentil, and butternut squash) and waited for the call...

Eventually we called the garage. We were informed that it was likely to be another couple of hours. The Silver Vixen was not amused. A plague of frogs was called down upon them then she called Urban-Cub to change the plans - we wouldn't be visiting after all.

Eventually the call came. There was a distinct sound of "ribbit, ribbit" in the background. The broomstick was ready. All was now well with the world (if you discount war, famine, terrorism, plague, pestilence, and the Labour Party) and before long the broomstick was parked next to the house.

Matinee

It was a really nice day. The Gorse Fox started with an hour or two of genealogy, updating his software to the latest release and working through some recent changes. He always finds this to be very satisfying.

We met up with Old Bill and Lady Penelope and drove up to Woking. We grabbed a coffee and a snack before making our way to the theatre. (The theatre overlooks the Starfleet Offices so the Gorse Fox couldn't resist a peek through the windows to see if there was anyone there that he recognised - there wasn't). We had tickets for a matinee performance of "Not Dead Enough" - a play derived from a book by Peter James. The story was very good and worked pretty well as a play. As the Gorse Fox hadn't read the book, the denouement came as a surprise.

The Gorse Fox, though thoroughly enjoying the play, has concluded that he isn't a "theatre" person. The nature of acting on a stage requires voice projection and a degree of exaggeration of normal gestures. He understands this is necessary in order to make the play accessible to large audiences who may be some way from the stage. However, the Gorse Fox found it difficult to  switch off from this artifice. It wouldn't stop him from going to the theatre, but it would mean that the performance would need to be something that really interests us.

We had a good run back from Woking, stopping off for a bite to et at The Gribble Inn. A lovely day blessed with good company.

King Alfred's Foot Soldiers

The Gorse Fox had a football match today. It was a friendly against a team from Winchester featuring "Chopper" Harris from Starfleet. We laid on a couple of pitches and ran two parallel matches - then after it was all over we laid on some bacon and sausage baps for all. It was a very sociable event and great fun. This was enhanced by the fact that Arun Amblers won 6-4 (though the game was a lot harder than expected). Great fun, though and all played in the spirit of the game.

The Gorse Fox was a little worried afterwards - "Chopper" seemed a bit unwell and was feeling faint. We kept an eye o him while he recovered and Gorse Fox has contacted him since and he confirms that he got home without incident.

Surprise Visit

It was a very cold start to the day, but pleasantly lazy. We had decided on a course of action but were in no hurry to get started. The Gorse Fox retired to his study and continued to work on his diaries.

The doorbell rang. We weren't expecting anything - though Gorse Fox thought it may be Amazon. Nope. It was Gorse Fox's brother-in-law. He had a client meeting near Southampton and was en route to another client meeting in Crowborough later in the day. We were a convenient stopping off point on the trek across country. It was nice to see him and sit and chat over a coffee. They are about to embark on an extension to their kitchen and were interested in our thoughts and what we have done. All very exciting - though not due to start until March.

After he had left, the Gorse Fox cleared some items from the garage that had been left over from the work last week. A trip to the tip saw the garage empty and the car carefully put to bed for the first time in a week.

The Crew

It was a a fairly normal start to a Sunday, though the Gorse Fox's football game was 30 minutes earlier than usual. There a big junior football tournament scheduled and we needed to be out of the way before it all kicked off. Though on team of strikers, the Gorse Fox was on the losing side 7-3. Having said that, 2 of our goals were contributed by the Gorse Fox. He was pleased as they were both good goals... though disappointed that we had lost overall.

Back home and showered the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox met up with the Sonning Crew to wander down to the Pink Pub for a small libation. It was a pleasant couple of hours as we caught up with all the recent comings and goings and the gossip from the families. The Gorse Fox did not partake of the fine ales at his disposal. He had decided that with the exception of Jan 4th (Old Bill's birthday) he would not drink any alcohol until his own birthday towards the end of February. So it was that he nursed a Beck's Blue as the others enjoyed a tipple.

Quiet afternoon followed, in front of the TV.

Doris

Storm Doris finally got her act together and we had some very heavy rain overnight and first thing this morning. Now, however, the skies are clear and blue and, though cold, it looks lovely out.

The Gorse Fox has spent the day at the computer transcribing further diaries, journals, and letters. He's also been proof-reading some of the older transcriptions. It's time consuming, but fun. The highlight today has been the 26 page (A4) letter that the Gorse Fox wrote detailing his trip to Long Beach when he was Technical Support Manager for British Aerospace - back in 1983.

Not much

Storm Doris hasn't come to much so far. It's grey, a bit wet and a little breezy, but either she hasn't arrived yet or she took a very different track from that forecast. The morning was spent with some domestic chores.

The first was to re-attach the wire basket on the back of the under-sink cupboard. This wasn't hard, but the waste pipes for the new sink are much lower than the old ones and this means that things need to be carefully stowed away before the door can be closed. Next on the agenda was to clean the floors after all of the traipsing in and out that has gone on this week. Fortunately we have a machine for that - it lays down a film of water with a detergent in it and then rotating brushes clean the floor as the fluid is vacuumed back up into a waste tank. Simple, but effective.

The Gorse Fox can't remember if he's mentioned it before, but we recently invested in a Tefal soup maker. This has proved to be a very successful bit of kit. For lunch the Gorse Fox chucked a yellow pepper, a courgette, a sweet potato, some lentils, some ham, and some water into the device. Closed the top and pressed the button for creamed soup. Twenty five minutes later we had a delicious thick creamy soup ready for lunch. Very satisfying.

The afternoon has been spent upgrading the software the the Gorse Fox uses for managing his genealogical research. This proved 90% successful. It looks as if the final link won't work until next week because there is maintenance activity under way at Ancestry.com.

Pension

Well DWP have finally made contact and confirmed to the Gorse Fox what State pension he will receive and when it will start. It revealed no surprises as he had already done the calculations and they agreed with the numbers. It's nice to know, however, when the whole thing kicks in.

Talking of pensions the Silver Vixen had a bit of a surprise when tax was deducted from her pension. A call to HMRC sorted this out and today she has confirmation from them that it was a cock-up and a correction has been applied to her pension this month. So all is now sorted.

It has been a day for admin. The Gorse Fox has extend his budget/accounts spreadsheet now that it was clear that the January sheet had worked well. This has now been rolled out through the year. It's nice to have things under control.

Spectacle - not

Well the plumber came early and the sink is all finished. We now have a fully working kitchen again. His early arrival meant that the the Gorse Fox was free to go and play football after all.

It was a miserable wet and misty morning. The rain was constant, though not heavy. It was so wet that the Gorse Fox dispensed with his shatter-proof glasses and played in a myopic miasma. The specs would have been useless as they would continually need cleaning. It was good game with the teams evenly matched. There was some debate over the final score with claims it was 5-5. The Gorse Fox believes it was actually 5-4 - but it doesn't really matter as we only play for fun.

The Gorse Fox has had contact from another local team wishing to play us in a friendly. He is busy trying to set that up for March.

So close

Well it was so close to being finished.

The hob was reconnected but the sink couldn't be plumbed in last night. The plumber is returning this morning to complete that job. Never mind, it gave us an excuse to go out to dinner last night as we had nowhere to wash up if we had cooked at home. The only question now is whether he will be finished in time for the Gorse Fox to go to football today.

Fitted

Well the fitters have finished.

The work tops are in. The sink is in, and the hob awaits reconnection.

Unfortunately the sink needs to be plumbed in still and that may actually be a snag. The Gorse Fox's gas chappie said he will take a look an see if he can help when he comes to do the hob. If not it may have to wait until tomorrow.

Fitters

The fitters have arrived and the new work tops are being fitted.

They have given us a small chopping board made out of the same material. It is incredibly heavy... so goodness knows how heavy the 3.2 metre run must be.

Flushed with success

The engineer called. He was exactly on time, he was polite, and he removed his shoes as he entered. The tap that had been causing the occasional leak had been dormant for a few days, but exactly on cue it started to leak copiously this morning. As the tap was moderately expensive and still under the 5 year warranty, the Gorse Fox had called the manufacturer. Hence the arrival of the engineer.

He took one look at the problem and explained that it the o-rings, not the valve. It it had been the valve, the tap would drip; but as it's the o-rings the barrel leaks.  It didn't take him long to rectify the situation and his diagnosis was that the water pipes hadn't been flushed through properly when the house was built and small bits of grit had got in to the mechanism. Seemed plausible, particularly when he dug out just such a piece of grit. All sorted now - just in time to have the worktops fitted tomorrow.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent writing code. There are a few things that the Gorse Fox wanted to tidy up in the blog and it is easier to write a program than to go through each relevant entry and make manual changes.

Four

Well that was interesting. We had such a good turnout at the football that we had to have three teams and play a round-robin. That's the first time that has happened on a Sunday.

The Gorse Fox was playing in yellow and in the first game, lost 2-1. He was pretty happy with his game, and the fact that he scored the only yellow goal. It would have been better to win, though. We then sat out the next twenty minutes whilst the others played. We made use of the time playing on a spare pitch to keep from stiffening up. Finally we came back on to play the last game. We won this with a convincing 6-2 scoreline and the Gorse Fox was delighted to have scored three of the goals. So overall, he scored four goals which he believes is the most he has ever managed and as a dyed-in-the-wool defender he is pretty happy with that.

We have a game scheduled with a team from Winchester in about 10 days. "Chopper" Harris, now retired from Starfleet, is their top scorer. It will be nice to see him again, though I suspect he will drive across from Winchester rather than use his chopper.

Home Alone

The Silver Vixen has one of her events today. The covens from all over the South will swoop in on Ardingly show ground. Broomsticks will fill the park and the sounds of people queuing for tea will drift across the Sussex countryside.

The Gorse Fox has his usual football this morning... and must say that he is looking forward to it. Because of the kitchen works he has missed one of his games for each of the last few weeks and will miss it again this coming week.

UPS - installed

Well that was simple. The UPS has been installed and tested on "tawnyowl" and works nicely. All tests have passed and alerts are successfully handled and logged. The unit has now been moved to "peregrine". That was fun.

Power

That nice man from Amazon just dropped a package through the letter box. Though ordered on Wednesday, it had come all the way from Hong Kong by Saturday. Very impressive. The package contains an intelligent battery pack that can act as a UPS (Uninterruptible Power Supply) for the Raspberry Pi known as "peregrine" which runs the Gorse Fox's private blog. He will test it all out on "tawnyowl" first but assuming it works that will provide power for breaks in the main electrical supply for 12-16 hours... and certainly long enough to allow the system to be closed down gracefully.

Nothing to see here

It's been a fairly quiet day - nothing too exciting to report. The Gorse Fox started with a trip to his kitchen worktop supplier. He had agreed to a substantial discount but we had never actually seen the bottom line (obviously we knew the full price). As the Gorse Fox will have to withdraw some funds, it was time to get the actual numbers. He was pleasantly surprised. Indeed, very pleasantly surprised. The Gorse Fox phoned the bank manager to ensure there would be problems and was assured everything was just hunky-dory.

Tuesday is the big day when the new worktops will be fitted. The Gorse Fox has mailed the gas chappy to try and schedule the reinstallation of the hob on Tuesday afternoon... but even if we have to wait another day or so, it won't be a major issue.

Other than that, most of the day has been fairly lazy. There has been a number of household chores to work through - but thats all finished now. Now the Gorse Fox is preparing a 'Spanish Chicken" tray bake whilst he writes this. He has no idea what it will taste like, but the recipe seemed promising. It is interesting trying to go for a week without the use of a hob. You tend to become inventive with the oven.

The Gorse Fox can't sign off without mentioning the fact that it is his brother-in-law's birthday today. He's only a youngster at 60, but the Gorse Fox hopes he's had a wonderful day.

Break a Leg

The Silver Vixen is an ardent follower of the author Peter James and his books. One of his early books has been developed as a play and is scheduled to be presented in Woking and in Brighton next month.

We tried to get tickets for one of the Brighton shows, but there was nothing available. A little bit of discussion and a little thought and we tried the Woking run. No problem. Good tickets have been ordered for a matinee in February.  Looking forward to it.

Trip

A bit of excitement in the household today as Cousteau Cub confirmed her flights for a visit home. She managed to get a really good price on some BA flights in June. Looks like she'll be home here for 3 weeks.

Scammers

The Gorse Fox is normally a trusting individual. This, however, does not extend to his various interactions on the web. So it was that the Silver Vixen came to his study with her MacBook which had an error message and a verbal warning regarding a virus.

First warning sign is that the Gorse Fox has an anti-virus program installed on the Silver Vixen's machine. Second warning sign was that it asked her to phone an 0800 number to get help to remove it.

The Gorse Fox hit google and sure enough found that it was a scam which was probably part of the payload in some Ad. He followed the instructions on the Apple website and the problem seems to have gone away. He's now running a full anti-virus check to satisfy his innate paranoia. He wonders how many people would have been caught out by this... it was quite convincing.

Balls and Calls

It was misty, damp, and cold. Not the most inspiring weather for today's football. The Gorse Fox had been looking forward to the game, having missed out yesterday whilst waiting for the Neff engineer. We had a good turn out and the Gorse Fox appointed two captains and we soon had the sides ready and raring to go. As always it was a close fought game, ending 3-2 in favour of the orange team (for whom the Gorse Fox was playing). He didn't score any goals today, but felt that he had a really good game anyway.

Back home there was a snack lunch then the Silver Vixen started on the weekly shopping list and the Gorse Fox headed for his study. It was at this point that the phone rang. It was Cousteau-cub. We had a lovely long chat - though it was interrupted several times by the internet connection failing. Once we had caught up on all of the news we discussed when she might pop home for a visit (to see Urban-cub and her cub, when the time comes). In the end we decided that leaving it until June was probably the sensible thing.

The rest of the afternoon has been occupied with the 1991 diaries. These are now complete and digitally saved. Each book ticked off the list is a great relief.

Relief

Well that's a relief. The problem with the oven was really quite minor and the engineer fixed it very quickly. The electrician, it appears, had failed to tighten the screws which held the terminals into the power supply in the wall. It could only be solved by removing the unit, so was not something the Gorse Fox could have sorted himself. The chap did have a very useful appliance. It was a stand, on wheels, with a screw jack that allowed a table-like surface to be raised or lowered. This was raised to the level of the oven and the oven was simply pulled out onto the appliance and oven out the way. Simple, and a single person job.

Sorted.

Powered Off

The Gorse Fox has powered off the West Sussex Data Centre again. The Neff engineer is due today and the Gorse Fox expects the power will take an interrupt at some point. It will, however, be nice to have the new combination oven working again. Ten minutes is all it's managed so far. That seems a little short in terms of its built-in cycle of obsolescence.

And breathe

It all started at nine o'clock. The kitchen/gas chappie knocked on the door and started to disconnect the hob. Twenty minutes later as he was finishing, the kitchen fitters arrived. As we ushered out the gas man, we ushered in the fitters.

The fitters looked around. Drank some tea and coffee, sucked on their teeth and then launched into the task of dismantling the old work tops.

They had been well fitted and were not going to come out easily. A little bit of persuasion (with hammer and chisel) made all the difference and soon the cabinets stood free and topless.

Two Hats and Tinkerbell are having the same outfit do their kitchen so the fitters went next door to get started. Jasper came to investigate and curiosity demanded he have a wander around in the top of the units.

A few minutes later one of the fitters returned. He had left his mate to destroy dismantle next door's kitchen and he had come back to start creating the templates for the new work tops. This was essentially a manual task, using traditional skills. Large acrylic sheets were laid on the cabinets and manoeuvred to created the semblance of the new work tops. Measurements were taken, the sheets were marked up, and slowly the vision started to take place. Overhangs were calculated, corners rounded and fixing points identified. It took him about an three quarters of an hour, but  the Gorse Fox was impressed with the care that was being taken.

Soon it was done and whilst the template chap went next door, the demolition chap returned to replace our old worktops. It was done. Now we just await the stone to be cut and the chaps to return next week and finish off.

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent a while returning everything to their respective cupboards and making the kitchen moderately serviceable again.

The afternoon involved some thought about supper and how we will cater for the next few days with no hob. Tonight will see roast vegetables, baked potatoes and the remains of yesterday's chicken casserole. Meanwhile a meatloaf is cooking in preparation for tomorrow.

Nostalgia

Another very chilly start to the day. The Gorse Fox was pleased that today's football was scheduled for the indoor arena.

The game itself was fun - though, at 7-a-side, was a little busy in the short-form pitches. When the teams were first selected it looked like another case of defence versus attack - but the Gorse Fox's team of defenders did ok and ran out 5-2 winners. The Gorse Fox was pleased to score a fine goal with a volley from the half-way line. Very satisfactory.

Back home there was preparation needed. Tomorrow the fitters come to remove the existing work surfaces and create a template to describe the new work surfaces to be cut and installed. This meant a going through and emptying the top shelves of all the units and cupboards. Fortunately we have the Orangery so the kitchen doesn't look too cluttered - but there was a lot of stuff to shift.

The rest of the afternoon has been spent working on old diaries, again. This, while not categorised as 'fun', is at least an opportunity for a little nostalgia. The Gorse Fox may be making progress, but it is very slow and there are many more diaries still to go (some years the Gorse Fox was fairly terse but other years he was expansive in his description of the day) - it's going to take a long time.

Engineer

After some to-ing and fro-ing this morning the Gorse Fox has managed to secure the visit of a Neff engineer to try and sort out the failed oven. As we are likely to be without our hob for a week or so (while the worktops are replaced, it would have been nice to have a working microwave).

Meanwhile, the rest of the morning was spent coding. An existing program has been radically extended so that it fulfils a much wider brief than its original design requirement. Merging code from several routines made it a lost easier, and the fact that the Gorse Fox always follows a particular style and standard makes the merger very simple. Code is now running and has triggered a whole slew of further ideas. In its own right the code added a further 186 entries into the Gorse Fox's private blog - so progress is being made.

Blast

Combi oven managed to microwave one batch of rice then, while doing the initial burn in of the oven features, it packed up. Not amused.

Will phone John Lewis and/or Neff in the morning.

Pooh!

Ready, steady, go

It had been a quiet morning, waiting for the electrician. Then suddenly the pace changed.

The doorbell rang - it was delivery of the Silver Vixen's  new Passport. The Gorse Fox settled back down...

The doorbell rang - it was Two Hats. He was returning to the work surface supplier with Tinkerbell to have one more look. Thin, he wanted to tell them to go ahead and was checking whether we had any constraints. We told him no, go for it.

While Two Hats was discuss ing this with us, the door bell rang - it was the electrician. He and his mate set straight to work and 20 minutes later all was working and we had a fully functional Combi-Oven.

While the electricians were at work, the door bell rang - it was the nice man from the Amazon with a delivery. Things were getting busy, but settled back down as quickly as they had started. We had to get into Chichester so headed off, only to join a huge queue of traffic. We did an about turn and took an alternative route through Runcton - arriving with a few minutes to spare before our various appointments. The phone buzzed. It was Two Hats. They had given the go ahead and the fitters want to start on Monday.

The Gorse Fox spluttered. "Yes, ok" he said, then worried about whether he could cajole the gas fitter to come and disconnect the hob in time. A frantic email and follow-up phone call confirmed that it can be done.

Excitement over for the day.

Power off

All the powered computers and drives have been powered down. Only battery driven systems are still up. Electrician is due soon to sort out the wiring that the oven installer cocked up.

Lunch

It was another very cold morning but as we had no need to go out early it wasn't really a problem. The usual admin kicked off the day and that was augmented by completion of a few more historical diary entries from 1989. This was one of the years when we created a treasure hunt for the cubs to find their Christmas presents. Reading the diary entries (and the clues) brought back some excellent memories.

Once the admin was done we headed out to Urban Cub's house. We had arranged to meet up and see how she was getting on. They certainly have been busy and the house already looks straight. Only one or two boxes are left to unpack. We sat and chatted for a while, then all went off to the local garden centre for a lunchtime snack.

On the way home we dropped in to the work-surface suppliers for one last check on the choice of colours. Seeing the choice that Tinkerbell and Two Hats had made yesterday caused us to question our initial choice. Examining the two samples side-by-side convinced us that we had chosen well and we stuck with our selection. We are a bit busy tomorrow, but hopefully we can trigger the whole process on Monday.

Wheeling and Dealing

Football was on the agenda. It's a week since the Gorse Fox has played and he's suffering withdrawal symptoms. It was bitterly cold, but the sun was bright and as soon as we started to move about we warmed up. The Gorse Fox had selected two captains and told them to pick the teams. They seemed to have considerable difficulty understanding the concept of taking turns and building a balanced team. In the end we had a team of strikers playing a team of defenders.

It was a good natured and very close game. It ended 4-4 and two of our goals came from the Gorse Fox. The first was a break-away goal, on-one-one with the keeper and the Gorse Fox bent the ball round him into the back corner of the goal. The second was direct from a corner kick. The Gorse Fox chipped and bent the ball over the goalie's head straight into the back corner of the goal. Very satisfying - though completely accidental!

Back home Tinkerbell and Two Hats came in to ask about or research regarding the kitchen surfaces. We gave them a summary and directed them to our favoured supplier. We suggested that if they were interested they should ask if they could do a deal as we would do both houses at the same time and would be happy to pay cash. A couple of hours later Tinkerbell and Two Hats knocked on the door - they were happy. They had selected a surface. They had asked about a deal, and there was one there to be finalised. The ball is back in our court now. We have to arrange for the disconnection of our gas hob so that the process can begin. The Gorse Fox is on it.

Sparks

Some people fill you with confidence. Others, not so much. The John Lewis delivery chaps turned up again to install the new ovens. This chap was far more inspiring than the chap who bottled out last time. It took them about an hour, but they got both of the ovens installed and did some simple testing. They took away the old ovens, packed up their tools and departed.

First job was to fire up the oven and let any lacquers or solvents burn off. The Gorse Fox followed the instructions and set the timer, temperature, and mode. He retired to the study. There was a click and everything went quiet. The RCD had blown. Somewhere they had done something wrong and the circuits had tripped. The Gorse Fox phoned his electrician. A bit of basic problem determination isolated the problem to the Grid Switch. This meant that it was the wiring to the Combi-Oven that was at fault. Isolated, now everything else is working ok. The electrician, however, cannot get to us until Friday.

Oh well, it was never going to be easy.

The Kitchen Sink

It was a dull, wet, chilly Monday. The sort of day that makes you long to be on Koh Lanta with Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit. We weren't, however, so had to make do. The Silver Vixen had an appointment in Chichester and the Gorse Fox was determined to go and get his hair cut.

Once these important tasks were complete, we headed for Fontwell. It had been a while since we last had lunch at The Old Stables and as we needed to get over to Walberton, we decided lunch was a sensible call (particularly as the GF's "Gourmet Card" ensures a 25% discount at said restaurant). We had a lovely, leisurely lunch, then moved on to Walberton.

We wanted to chat through some of the thoughts we had been having regarding the possible replacement of the kitchen worktops and what options were available. The company we had spoken to before Christmas had been helpful, but it was time to start nailing down some the choices we had to make. We started with stroll round the showroom and chat with one of the owners of the business. Then we progressed on to the office where we could talk about more technical fitting questions with another of the owners. This proved very useful and helped us resolve a number of matters (including the supply of a new under-mounted kitchen sink). Only a few more bits and pieces to sort out and we should be able to go ahead.

Back home, the Gorse Fox checked the Time Machine backups. The switch from NAS to a USB-connected drive seems to have done the trick and everything has been running without problems since yesterday... which is quite a relief.

Key-tied

There was no football today. We couldn't muster sufficient players (and besides which, the Gorse Fox really should rest his knee a little longer).

The morning was spent tied to the keyboard as the Gorse Fox experimented further with his code and the extracted scrapbooks. This showed up a number of typos that needed to be addressed in the old blog text. In turn that reminded him of photos that could be inserted to illustrate the text better, and so it went on.

Since the last update to OSX on the MAC, the Gorse Fox has been seeing an occasional problem with the built-in "Time Machine" backup system. This is a "belt and braces" backup that GF takes alongside his normal backup regime (Paranoid? Moi?). This then has taken some additional research and as yet no definite solution. What GF has done, though, is to repurpose an old USB-drive and switch the Time Machine target to that drive.

We popped out for a while. We wanted to look at the furniture displays in Homebase. Clearly, that was not going to happen. Where there used to be an extensive display of Habitat furniture - there is nothing. Disappointed, we did look around at the kitchen displays and layouts, but whilst informative and in some cases inspiring - it was not why we had ventured out.

The afternoon was spent back at the code-face.

Coded

A lovely quiet day today. The Silver Vixen spent much of the day catching up on her admin and looking through websites for a new unit for family room. Unfortunately the supplier we have used in the past, who specialised in New England style furniture,  seems to have gone out of business.

The Gorse Fox retired to the study and finished coding his latest program and then ran through all the tests on the test machine (tawnyowl). Everything now working he started running against the live (but private) blog and completed several bulk updates as a result. Very satisfying. In the end, as an experiment, he extracted a week of posts from 1988 and created a document which documented our family holiday in Cornwall in May, 1988 (complete with photos). It's like being able to extract scrapbooks of family events, at will.

On another topic, the problem with the Gorse Fox's knee seems to have pretty much settled. There is, however, no football tomorrow - so he will be able to rest it for a few days more.

Moving

It was a busy day. Urban Cub was moving out. This meant that we spent a while loading up the cars with her stuff. Loaded, she headed off to her new house to await the removal men who were bringing the contents of the old house. Pistol Pete and the kids were already there.

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox left it an hour or two and then went across to help. We had timed it well as the removal crew had only been there about 10 minutes. Boxes were being unloaded from the van at a prodigious rate. Urban Cub, the Silver Vixen, and the Gorse Fox got started immediately on unpacking in the kitchen. This turned out to be a significant problem as, clearly, the old kitchen had far more storage then the new one. There was stuff everywhere. Fortunately the Silver Vixen has various spells that she can use in such circumstances. Bit by bit the stuff started to disappear and the insides of cupboards and drawers filled... and when full, she waved her wand and the insides grew to accommodate even more. Finally the kitchen was done.

The Gorse Fox helped in the kitchen, then helped Pistol Pete put the bed together, then retired to the living room so that he could put all the technology/media devices together and link up the communications (limited at this time to the phone). Talking of the phone, there were phone sockets scattered round the room. The Gorse Fox tested them all. None worked. Only the master socket in the hallway was active.  The last job on the Gorse Fox's list was to put up the blackboard in the kitchen. This didn't take too long - though tracking down suitable pan headed screws took a little while.

Soon after five we had all decided that enough was enough. Everything else could wait for another day. Urban Cub and the family would order a take-away... and the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox headed home.

It had been a busy day, but Urban Cub seemed happy with the progress and seemed settled in her new "nest". The Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox start another chapter - but will certainly miss having her around.

Joints and joins

The Gorse Fox seems to have twisted his knee. He's not sure how or when, but it started to get uncomfortable yesterday afternoon. Overnight it woke hime a couple of times, and today is really quite uncomfortable. Some Ibrufen gel is called for, and a little rest.

Urban-cub was away at the new house with Pistol Pete as he built flatpack furniture and she organised paperwork and so forth. The full move is scheduled for tomorrow, then the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox will be on their own again. It will seem strange not having her here.

The Silver Vixen went off to Chichester for a hair appointment, leaving Jasper in charge and the Gorse Fox there as a helping hand (opening the tin of tuna for lunch as the lazy cat still hasn't figured it out, nor developed an opposable thumb). The Gorse Fox has spent much of that time re-organising the code he wrote yesterday after having a bit of an epiphany. This has meant a lot of re-coding and a serious bash at mastering the "inner join" syntax of MySQL. This now seems to be working in a test harness but has a long way to go before being run-ready.

Code again

Wednesday started early, thanks to Jasper. It was 6:30 when he finally dragged the Gorse Fox out of bed. Being Wednesday there would be football to play... but before all the Urban-cub appeared (she had an early appointment at the hospital for her scheduled scan), then the Silver Vixen emerged - so we were all up and about by 7:30.

Pistole Pete arrived for Urban-cub soon after eight and they headed off to the hospital. The Silver Vixen got her stiff together and headed off to Pilates. That just left the Gorse Fox and Jasper. Jasper had, by then, retired to the bed for his morning sleep. The Gorse Fox grabbed his kit and headed to Worthing for football.

It was a good game - very close indeed. In fact there was some debate at the end as to whether it finished 1-1 or 2-1 (the debate centred on whether Concrete John was in or out of the box when he scored). The Gorse Fox was no better than yesterday. He played ok, but that's about it. Let's hope he improves on Sunday.

Back home he prepared a beef casserole that would bubble away quietly all afternoon. The Gorse Fox retired to the study. There was code to write. He wanted a mechanism for doing bulk updates to the categories and labels in the private blog. A few hours later the code is beginning to look good. Early tests seem to show that all the conditions tested to date are working as designed. There are, however, still some test conditions to work through.

Raring to go

The Gorse Fox was awake early and up with the cat. He was raring to go. Tuesday means football, and in preparation for the game, the Gorse Fox treats himself to a cooked breakfast. As it was lunchtime yesterday since his last meal, he was getting peckish. Nothing too fancy, you understand, no eggs benedict, no kedgeree, no kippers and roe. No this was just a couple of eggs, a couple of rashers of bacon and some sliced chorizo. Simple, but perfect.

He made his way across to Worthing - still raring to get going. The teams were picked and the games commenced. It was at that point that the Gorse Fox realised that he was, at best, mediocre today. Passes went astray, and his judgement regarding interceptions was a fraction of a second off. Oh well. The first three games were lost.

The second hour saw a change over of personnel and three more games. The Gorse Fox was finally getting into his stride. That doesn't mean that he showed any talent - only that he wasn't quite as bad as in the first games. We had three more games, drawing two and winning one.

The Gorse Fox has had contact from an ex-Starfleet colleague. His walking football are wanting a friendly match with us. The Gorse Fox has written back and offered to host an event  towards the end of the month (when hopefully, most of his players will be back from their travels).

So Long, Farewell

Today it was time to say farewell to a distant relative of the Silver Vixen. He was the husband of a cousin of the Silver Vixen's mother.

We headed off towards the West and had an astonishingly good run through, passing Portsmouth, Southampton, Salisbury, and Wilton then on towards Trowbridge. We had timed it to allow time for lunch at a nearby pub and pulled into the car park just before noon. The pub was The Somerset Arms, in Semington. It had a good write up on Google so seemed like it was worth a try. Only two other people were in the pub - and it turns out that they too were going to the funeral.

We settled down to some lovely coffee and a plate called a "trio of steaks". This was three 4oz steaks of pork, gammon, and beef with tomatoes, mushrooms, and "gourmet" chips. Simple enough, but beautifully prepared and absolutely delicious. It was also sufficient to last us the rest of the day.

We moved on to the funeral at the nearby Crematorium. The service was very moving. It is clear that this distant uncle had had an interesting life in the Commandos (seeing action in Singapore, Borneo, and North Africa), then back in civilian life as a driver for  Tesco. The Bath chapter of the Commando association provided a guard of honour and the Eulogy revealed what a joker he had clearly been. In fact the whole service had concentrated on his humour and mischief, which was lovely. At the committal a bugler played the Last Post. It was very touching. In a complete contrast, we filed out to "Oh Lord It's Hard to be Humble" (by Mac Davis) - which had everyone chuckling.

As we filed out we made ourselves known to the tav's distant cousin, but as it was cold and wet, we headed straight for the reception. We sat with the couple who had been at the pub when we were there... and chatted about the deceased and his family. After a while the family arrived and the Silver Vixen went along to greet her aunt - who she hadn't seen for 40+ years. She immediately recognised her and commented how much she looked like her mum. From then on, she was in full swing and managed to chat with her aunt, and her cousins and catch up on what has been going on in family.

We made a start for home and had a good run through until we approached Southampton. Then we joined traffic which slowed us up for about 30 minutes. Once past Soton, the roads opened up again and we had a trouble-free run from there on.

Just stuff

Sunday started early. Jasper was determined that we should be awake and in the end the Gorse Fox gave up and brought him downstairs at 6:45. Coffee, eggs, bacon, and chorizo made the Gorse Fox feel ready to greet the day.

There was football this morning. We ended up 6-a-side and this included two new players. Things were fairly even between the two sides and at half-time it was all square at 4-4. In the second half we re-jigged the team and the Gorse Fox fanged forward a little more. We took control and ended up 8-6 winners... and the Gorse Fox was pleased to score one of the goals and made a couple of the others.

back home, he had received a message from Old Bill. He had been to his wine merchant and had a case for us.  This is now nestling in the wine rack... but will probably remain pretty well untouched for a while.

Edit

There were jobs to be done today. Most important of these was to squirrel away all the boxes of Christmas decorations so that they were out of the way but easy to access next December. This took a while, but all is now stowed. Glitter littered the floors so next task was vacuuming and then washing the floors. The Gorse Fox is very glad he bought a Vax machine for doing the floors - this made quick work of it and dried it off quickly.

The Gorse Fox then got a chance to return to some coding. Nothing special - in fact it was more about trying out a new editor than it was about coding. As a result of a "tweet" he saw from some ex-colleage at Starfleet he decided to download and try "atom.io". Well, after an hour or two of play, the Gorse Fox is quite impressed and is delighted it even has a live parsing scheme for Rexx.

Sparks

The electrician rocked up at about 9:30. This was a couple of hours earlier than planned, but that was not a problem. The old oven and old combo-oven were removed along with various drawers and the fun began.

The oven had to be re-wired as it had, evidently, been done badly when the house was built. This was then moved to the new 16A circuit demanded by the new oven. Then the existing microwave circuit was moved to handle the hob, and the hob circuit was re-run through to the the combi. This again was protected by a 16A circuit. (The Gorse Fox, in consultation with the electrician, drew diagrams). The electrics were now ready to receive the new equipment when delivered in about 10 days.

The electrician and his apprentice were only young - but were very conscientious, clean, polite, and clearly competent. The Gorse Fox has kept their details on file - he knows who to call if work is needed in the future.

The big disadvantage to this work was that we had to switch off the power temporarily. This meant that the Gorse Fox's private blog server actually shut down for the first time in about 180 days. Shame.... he was hoping to keep it going and see how long it would run without intervention.

While the oven housing unit was empty, the Gorse Fox took the opportunity to measure the niches where each of the new devices will be housed.

The "technician" (and the Gorse Fox uses that word with a degree of sarcasm) from John Lewis had assured him that the middle shelf would have to be moved up by 5mm to accommodate the new oven. Looking at the way the housing was constructed, this was clearly going to be a problem. The Gorse Fox completed his measurements.

Referring to the Neff website, the GF checked on the specifications of the new devices. This turned out to be a smart move. The technician clearly didn't know what he was talking about, or just didn't want to do the job. The aperture we have in the existing housing meets all of the Neff specifications. No modifications are required.

The Gorse Fox is both relieved and irritated. Relieved that everything should fit, and irritated that the "technician" didn't know his job (despite phoning his "auditor" for confirmation).

Not so busy

It was a lovely quiet day. Nothing too much on the schedule and a chance for the Gorse Fox to close off last year's budget spreadsheet and open up the new improved version that he has prepared for 2017. He always enjoys cracking open a new spreadsheet.

There was a little online banking to do - just to rationalise some accounts but nothing too taxing. (And of course, the Gorse Fox no longer has to worry about tax forms).

A trip across to Whiteley, near Fareham, this afternoon and on our return the Gorse Fox has retrieved all the boxes and crates from the garage ready for taking down the decorations tomorrow (12th night).

Aging

It's Old Bill's birthday today. He's the first of us to reach the exalted age of 65 and so deserves a degree of respect. He deserves it, but probably won't get it as we meet for a drink and then go out for a curry with the Sonning Crew this evening.

(Urban-Cub won't be joining us, she is staying in to finish the macaroni cheese that Gorse Fox cooked last night and rest before returning to work in the morning).

Loaded

We had planned a trip to Southampton with Urban-Cub. This was intended as an opportunity to get her (belated) Christmas present (in the sales), and to pick up a wardrobe she had ordered for her new house from IKEA.

We had a trouble-free run across and decided to stop first at Babies-R-Us. There "equipment" that would soon be required. There was bedding, there were mats, there was a bath, there was a "travel system", and who knows what else. We wandered round checking out every item in the store and picking up those deemed appropriate. The Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub seemed satisfied. We had got everything that we had intended - and those items that were out of stock would have to be ordered online and delivered.

The Gorse Fox then started a variation of the game Tetris. In this case it wasn't blocks that were coming down and had to be stacked - it was all of the items that had piled up by the checkout. The back seat of the car was lowered. Boxes started piling in, and slowly but surely the car sank on its shock absorbers (much as the credit cards had a few minutes earlier). IKEA would have to wait. There was no further room for the wardrobe. In fact there was no further room for an envelope (if it had a stamp on it).

We set off home, stopping off at Urban-Cub's new house to unload. It had been a success.

Crisp

It was very chilly over night and the car was white with a thick frost. The Gorse Fox had taken precautions. Thick tracksuit, thermal base layer, football shirt, and sweat shirt over the top.  When he ran out onto the pitch he was also wearing gloves and woolly hat. It might be the first game of the New Year, but the Gorse Fox was not planning on getting cold.

As it happens, the mix of the teams was such that the Gorse Fox would not have the chance to get cold. He was teamed with some less mobile and less experience players and in the end began to feel like Davy Crockett at The Alamo - under overwhelming attack. Six games - four losses and two draws was best he could achieve today.

Back home he continued with transcription duties... dealing with the first few days of our trip to St Petersburg Beach in Florida back in '89.

Not the plan

Whilst the Gorse Fox had no specific plan for the day - spending the morning fiddling under and over the kitchen sink didn't feature in any list he could have come up with. We have had a minor, occasional, seepage round the bottom of the kitchen tap. This morning the minor seepage became a significant seepage and intervention was clearly required.

Kitchen cupboard was emptied, sink traps removed, water turned off and tap disconnected. No sign of the problem. Clearly the Gorse Fox would have to take the monoblock unit apart. He had a diagram of all the components but it was only when Two Hats came in to give a hand that we managed to prize the unit apart and find a slight leak in a ceramic valve. We reseated this and put everything back together. The leak was cured (at least we think it is).

It was then a matter of putting the sink traps back in place. Simple in concept but in practise this turned out to be a nightmare. The Gorse Fox couldn't get a tight seal and the water dripped when the sink was emptying. In the end a trip to B&Q was required so that a new seal could be obtained. Even with this new seal it took several attempts to actually sort it out.

Definitely not in today's plan.

Moving

The Urban-Cub now has the keys for the new house that she is moving into in a couple a weeks. We took the opportunity to go an meet her at the house whilst she and Pistol Pete were doing the inventory. It's a nice house with plenty of space and has been well cared for by the landlord. They are clearly very excited by the house - and quite rightly.

When we left, we stopped off at the DIY stores to look at the options available for replacing our kitchen sink. There seems to be quite a large choice - but it is a matter of getting something that is both practical (unlike the current sink) and will actually fit. We seem to have narrowed the choice down, but none of the options is perfect.

We also looked at some cupboard inserts that allow the shelves to slide in and out. These looked perfect but when we got home an measured up, it became clear that the existing cupboards are a non-standard size and these inserts would not fit. The Gorse Fox suspects he will have to make something himself.

Clean slate

Happy New Year

A new year begins - a clean slate on which to write the story of mankind. The Gorse Fox hopes that this is a chapter that makes mankind proud. A chapter where we move together instead of wallowing in our differences. A chapter where the cowards of ISIS lay down their weapons. A chapter where we focus on our strengths and opportunities instead of spreading fear and uncertainty.

We saw the New Year in with the Sonning Crew. It was a lovely evening where we sat and chatted and joked while waiting for the Chinese food to be delivered. Then we sat down to the feast and enjoyed the variety of dishes that had been selected. While we were with the Sonning Crew, Urban Cub was back at home. Her cold wasn't shifting and she just wanted to stay put and get an early night.

At midnight we watched the fireworks from London - these were the best that Gorse Fox had seen. The last few years have been very similar - but this year they had clearly had a rethink and had been re-choreographed.