Change

Cousteau-cub had an appointment with the phlebotomist so the Gorse Fox cried off football in order to take her. Strictly speaking, he could probably have done both, but he doesn't like to rush!

The SilverVixen headed off to Pilates. She left strict instructions that the Gorse Fox should hang out the washing when he returned from the surgery. As it happens, it was pouring with rain when he returned, so he used his initiative (frightening as that may seem) and grabbed the airer. This was erected in the Orangery and the washing duly hung up.

It was time to get his haircut. Unfortunately, it was also, apparently,  time to wake up Agent Mulder and Scully. The Gorse Fox stuck his phone in his pocket and as he walked to the barbershop, he accidentally dialled and redialled Agents Mulder and Scully. This is all very fine, but they are in Connecticut and thus, five hours behind us. He was calling them, repeatedly, just after five in the morning. The Gorse Fox suspects he is not the most popular cousin on this side of the Atlantic.

The rest of the morning was spent on administrative tasks. Road Fund License, emails, accounts, all sorts of trivia was cleared.

The Silver Vixen returned with Ellie in tow. We had agreed to look after her during the afternoon so that Urban-cub could do some of her own administration without interruption. As usual, she was a joy but did actually crash out for a sleep for an hour or so.

Emergency

Cousteau-cub managed to get an emergency appointment at the doctor's this morning. This proved to be helpful because it was one of the partners, and she was able to authorise repeat prescriptions for Cousteau-cub's condition. The Silver Vixen was acting as chauffeuse so the Gorse Fox was able to go to football.

Football was limited fun. The problem was, again, the numbers. With 18 players we ended up with 9-a-side and that limits your freedom to move about. Fortunately the Gorse Fox had done four and a half kilometres on the running track before going down for the game. The game only added about 3 more kilometres... way down on what the Gorse Fox would expect. To rub salt into the wound he didn't manage to score, and to add iodine to the salt, there was no second session.

Back home Cousteau-cub is making the most of the medication and lying down with a view to being fit enough for work tomorrow.

Rebuild

Damp start to the day, but it brightened up nicely and we have a glorious, if windy, afternoon.

With the trials and tribulations of Two Hats' Raspberry Pi, the Gorse Fox decided he would rebuild his "falcon" from scratch using the same approach as we tried yesterday. Needless to say, it went without a hitch. The Gorse Fox did take the opportunity to modify the configuration slightly and in so doing has given himself a lot more flexibility. Though he did the whole process manually, he has been back through his configuration files so that he could do it again and run his configurator program. Very satisfying day.

Cousteau-Cub was in a lot of pain from her back this morning. The Gorse Fox is going to collect her from work and take her to the chiropractor. Hopefully, he can help. The problems she has is that she is running short on the meds and is not due back at the doctor until next week.

That went well. Not.

A quiet day. Pleasantly warm, if not actually sunny. The Gorse Fox was up soon after seven as Jasper had decided that he needed company, or failing that, a place to howl. There was no football today as we could only muster 7 players.

The morning was filled with little victories. The most significant was that the Gorse Fox finally managed to get the remote full-screen access working to his Raspberry Pi. He's not sure that he will need to use it too much, but it's nice to know it's there.

At lunchtime, he headed across to LA to collect Cousteau-cub, but once she was deposited back at home, he headed to Sainsbury's to pick up some essentials for tonight's roast.

The rest of the afternoon was spent helping Two Hats with his Raspberry Pi again and preparing our "roast" pork.

Rebuild

It was a nice slow start to the day. There was nothing specific on the agenda, but there were things that needed to be done.

The Gorse Fox was a bit concerned. He needed to wash the cars, which is not something he does with any regularity. The novelty of this activity might attract a crowd, and the Gorse Fox hadn't arranged for any seating or refreshments. He was quiet and quite circumspect as he prepared for the ordeal. This stealth approach clearly worked as he managed to get underway without any audience at all. It didn't take too long to get both cars bright and sparkly. The Fiesta is now buried back in the garage and the Qashqai is gleaming in the sun on the front driveway.

The other activity that consumed a few hours was sorting out the Raspberry Pi for Two Hats. We had to switch the 32GB Flash Drive for a 128GB device. This did not go smoothly. The Gorse Fox should have thought a little more carefully when he set it up to start with. He had mounted the original drive on '/home' and really should have dropped down a further level in the file tree, that way he wouldn't have run into the 'device in use' problems that were encountered when he started the attempted swap. In the end, a complete rebuild of the Pi seemed like the best way forward. This went without incident and the Pi has been returned to Two Hats with everything apparently working as designed, and the 128GB drive mounted where it is needed.

Ladies' Day

Yesterday was Ladies' Day at Goodwood. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen headed into Chichester for dinner and when we arrived we felt as if we were interlopers at some huge wedding. Ladies and gentlemen, dressed in their finery, wandered the streets of Chichester as they progressed from bar to bar or restaurant. We were decidedly underdressed for the evening in comparison with the erstwhile racegoers.

As we were a bit early, we had a sneaky drink in Trents' before moving on to Cote Brasserie. As usual, our meal was excellent and our server was absolutely charming.  The Siver Vixen started with a Prawn Gratinée which she followed with the Fish Parmentier with a tomato salad. The Gorse Fox went for their August Specials menu and started with Tuna Carpaccio followed by Hake Piperade. The food was wonderful and it was a very lovely evening.

When we had finished we took a leisurely stroll down South Street to the bus station and hopped on the bus back home. Within fifteen minutes were settling down in our living room for a quiet evening.

Plans change

It's been a glorious day today. There was hardly a sign of a cloud in the sky, and the temperature has been in the low 20s. Ellie woke us at 6:30 and we were up and about by 7:00. Between the Silver Vixen, Cousteau-cub and the Gorse Fox, we tag-teamed her overwatch throughout the morning.

At lunchtime, Ellie came with us as the Gorse Fox took Cousteau-cub into work. By the time we were on the way back, she had fallen asleep. Of course, the journey is only ten minutes usually, and that just wasn't long enough. She woke as the Gorse Fox tried to get her out of the car, and though she needed more sleep, there was no way she was going to succumb.

Urban-cub arrived mid-afternoon and stayed for a short while before bundling Ellie and her bags into the car and taking her home. We had planned to go out and meet J&T for dinner tonight at Chiddingfold, but we received a call to postpone it. It appears that Blade & Sophie, who had been due to move home yesterday, were in limbo as there had been some cock-up somewhere in the chain. It would now be next Tuesday before they could move in. They did, however, still need to move out of their current apartment. J&T were rushing around trying to sort out some lock-up storage for their things and manage the ensuing chaos. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox quite understand. The table was duly cancelled in Chiddingfold and we decided to eat out in Chichester, instead.

Driving around

It's been a pleasant enough day without being too warm or too cool. It started with Ellie calling from her bed, but once the Gorse Fox had brought her in to bed with us she dozed back off for half an hour. In the end it was gone eight before we actually emerged.

The Gorse Fox was pleased to have checked on Google before heading off to take Cousteau-Cub to the chiropractor. The Rustington by-pass had been closed by an accident and there were significant delays on most routes. He planned well. Firstly, he allowed plenty of time, then he checked the maps for some suitable side-roads. It worked perfectly. He completely avoided the traffic backlogs and we arrived with plenty of time to spare.

Having dropped Cousteau-Cub back at work, the Gorse Fox returned home for a relatively quiet afternoon. Ellie was having a nap and that gave us a little down-time. Late in the afternoon we grabbed Ellie's buggy and the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox took her along to catch the bus into Chichester. We went all the way to bus station and then walked to the car workshop on Terminus Road where the Silver Vixen's Qashqai was bing sorted out. It must be said that the job they have done on the alloy wheels is really superb. They look as good as new and there is not the slightest hint that they had ever been scraped.

Only one more trip tonight, and that's to collect Cousteau-Cub from work.

Less fun

A little overcast today and the odd spots of rain, but nothing that amounted to a shower. It was still very windy but was quite pleasantly warm.

With the Qashqai at the workshop having the alloys refurbished, the Gorse Fox had to take the Silver Vixen along to Pilates this morning. This meant that he arrived at the Sports Centre earlier than usual and was able to spend an extra ten minutes walking round the running track. It was probably just as well as we ended up with 9-v-9 football session. That's just too crowded and severely restricts the amount of ground that the Gorse Fox can cover. It rather takes the fun out of the game and losing 6-3 didn't help.

The Gorse Fox has spent some of the afternoon refining some of the code on Raspberry Pi ftp server. Now that he has provided code for Two Hats, he decided to amend his own code so that it pretty much parallels what he gave to Two Hats. While doing this he realised that the clock in "falcon" was adrift and found out that by default it doesn't enable the NTP service. He's rectified this. (Earlier models don't seem to have the problem, but the Model 3 does).

We're expecting Ellie later. She'll be with us until Friday afternoon.

Storage

Well, that was a bit of a change. The weather had changed overnight. There were gusty winds this morning and a few heavy showers rattled through. We were clearly lucky as other parts of the country got well and truly soaked.

The Gorse Fox took Cousteau-cub in to work then settled down for breakfast. The Silver Vixen was due at the dentist and the Gorse Fox had football scheduled. Nothing would happen until he had had his coffee and porridge though.

As he drove across to Worthing he blasted through a number of showers and when he started lapping the running track he got truly soaked. Despite the weather, we had a good turnout today. The Gorse Fox played for the "black-bibs" and we did well with 2-0, 2-1, and 3-0 wins. A very good hour made all the more interesting by a very strict referee. In the second hour, we had a complete change of personnel. Again, the Gorse Fox ended up playing for the "black-bibs". We started with a disappointing 4-1 loss, but then won 2-1, and 2-0 and the Gorse Fox managed to add to his goal tally for the year.

Back home the Gorse Fox went to help Two Hats. The idea was to install the housekeeping routine he had written and to separately install a larger flash drive for archiving the images and clips. In the end, we only managed to install the housekeeping routine as the existing drive was already 100% full and the new drive he had available would only have given a couple of extra days storage. Clearly, the camera is consuming storage at a prodigious rate and the new drive would not give much respite. The plan is for Two Hats to look into getting an external USB drive that will give much more headroom. When he has decided and picked up the drive the Gorse Fox will return to set it up for him.

In, Out, In, Out, Shake it all about

Well it has been a day that hippies would be proud of. The Gorse Fox has been tripping most of the day. It started early with a trip to Chichester to take Cousteau-Cub to work. Once home he had some breakfast and got on with some domestic chores.

He had an hour or so before the next trip so headed to the study where he finished writing the code for Two Hats' housekeeping on the Pi. That went remarkably smoothly and is now ready to deliver, whenever Two Hats finds it convenient.

The blinds in the Orangery have been taking a battering in the wind when the doors have been open and when Ellie has bumped into them. Several of the vertical slats needed to be fixed so the Gorse Fox took them down for the Silver Vixen to sort them out. They were put back just as the Gorse Fox needed to head back out.

Back in Chichester he collected Cousteau-Cub and took her to Rustington for an appointment with the Chiropractor, then took her back to work afterwards. Back at home he grabbed a bite and discussed the plans for Ellie's car seat. Should it stay in the car, or should we take it out? The decision was to leave it in the car. So the Gorse Fox headed out to Chichester again. The Qashqai was left at Chichester Cars so that they could refurbish the two alloy wheels the Gorse Fox had scraped a couple of years ago. He walked back to the bus station and got the bus home and is now having a quiet half hour before he starts preparing supper and heads back out to Chichester to collect Cousteau-Cub from work.

Beta

It was a bright start to the day. The temperatures reached the low 20s, but there were plenty of clouds to keep the sky interesting.

The Gorse Fox had an appointment with a football this morning. He joined up with the "lads" and the teams were chosen. It looked like a fairly even split but our "yellow" team rushed into a 3-0 lead. After that, the "oranges" started to get their act together and by half time we had tied at 3-3. In the second half, the pendulum swung the other way. Before we knew what had hit us we were 7-4 down. Frankly, a lot of it was our own fault caused by wayward passes and poor clearances by the goalkeeper. In the last 10 minutes, the Gorse Fox started to make some telling interceptions and started to take a bit more control. He scored one from the edge of the area, then he scored another from a free-kick which he rolled back to his goalkeeper and then hit the return pass from the edge of his own area. Finally, he scored an equalizer bending a shot around a wall of defenders. In the dying seconds, he got the ball again and was lining up another shot when the whistle blew. A good game and a fair result, 7-7.

Back home Cousteau-cub has gone down to the seafront with some of her work colleagues and the Silver Vixen has been pottering in the garden. The Gorse Fox returned to the code that was troubling him yesterday. A report from the development team suggested the code was now functioning correctly. One of them had found an error and corrected it overnight. The Gorse Fox downloaded the latest build of the "beta" software (currently they are doing nightly builds). He tested it and sure enough, the problem has gone away. That's always a relief to find that it is not the onset of some coding dementia, but a genuine bug in the software. The Gorse Fox should trust himself more.

Wet start

There was heavy rain first thing this morning but it cleared up by lunchtime. The sun is trying to sustain a good shine now while fighting with the clouds that are intent on stifling it.

The Gorse Fox has been out and about. First, he had to take Cousteau-cub into work. This meant using a backroad again as the traffic reports suggested the usual route was clogged up. The Gorse Fox is glad he found this alternate route yesterday. Once back home he grabbed his bags and did a top-up shop at Sainsbury's. This was necessary because of the plan for the afternoon.

He headed back to Chichester to collect Cousteau-cub at lunchtime then settled down with his recipes. It was time to make up another batch of curry sauce. Onions, celery, carrots, and green peppers were chopped and the big pot was pressed into service as the vegetables and all the right spices were reduced over the hob for an hour or so. It smells wonderful as it sits and cools. It will be portioned out into containers and stored in the freezer later.

While that was going on the Gorse Fox retired to his study to write some code. He is writing some code to clean up the storage drive that Two Hats is using to save his CCTV images and videos. These are sent from the camera, using SFTP, to his Raspberry Pi for long term storage. Even still the storage needs to be cleaned up and the videos and the images over a certain age need to be purged, otherwise, the storge will just fill up.

The Silver Vixen is having a bit of a blitz on the kitchen cupboards as the Gorse Fox writes.  He is in no doubt that it will all be very neat and tidy once she has finished, but isn't convinced he will be able to find anything.

Duty calls

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were still on duty today. Fortunately, Ellie didn't stir until about seven-thirty so we had a comfortable start to the day. The Gorse Fox slipped downstairs and made some egg and bacon for Ellie and a large mug of tea for the Silver Vixen before sneaking back upstairs to perform his ablutions.

It was still warm today, but nowhere near as hot as it has been for the last few days. There high cloud keeping the sky a little grey, but it was very comfortable. The Gorse Fox whizzed Cousteau-Cub into Chichester. Unlike yesterday it was a simple twelve-minute run using a couple of back-doubles to avoid some roadworks at The Hornet.

Back home Ellie managed a sleep after lunch and then we took her along to the local play area so that she could enjoy the slides and the swings. The swings aren't really as good as they might be, for young children, but we managed to keep her amused. Pistol Pete came along to pick her up when he finished work.

The phone rang. It was the car dealership. The order for the car had been rejected by the factory. The engine choice was no longer valid. The Gorse Fox was not surprised. He had read in the price list that the combination of 1.5 TSI Petrol engine with 4x4 drivetrain was only available from stock. As it happens we weren't really interested in the 4x4 feature anyway so we are getting what we wanted originally, and it's saving £1700. Sounds like a result.

Gridlock

It was a record breaking day. Temperatures exceeded the historical record for July. Being near the coast we were spared the extremes.

We've been looking after Ellie again today. She played throughout the morning and was captivated by a YouTube video of the Peppa Pig album. The Gorse Fox had promised to take Cousteau-Cub in to work so she didn't have to suffer the discomfort of the bus. He checked the traffic on Google and it was clear that it would not be quick. Most routes round and through Chichester were gridlocked. In the end it took 90 minutes to do five miles, at which point Cousteau-Cub got out and walked. The Gorse Fox found a back road and headed home. Fortunately, the trip out of Chichester was infinitely better than the inward journey. As far as the Gorse Fox can tell, this was caused by some road works on the road to the Witterings and that was causing long tailbacks. Drivers were trying to avoid the problems and slowly but surely clogged up every artery in and around Chichester.

We kept Ellie indoors during the heat of the afternoon. We spent the time playing with Lego, reading books, and watching illustrated nursery rhymes on the TV. With tea over, she is still a bit hyper so the Silver Vixen is leaving it a bit longer before she gives her a bath.

The Gorse Fox is waiting for a call from Cousteau-Cub so that that he can go and collect her, but suspects that won't be until much later.

Bits and Pieces

Another cracking day. The temperatures were, again, in the low 30s and there was not a sign of a cloud in the sky. The Gorse Fox had cancelled football today as he needed to be available to take Cousteau-Cub to the doctor's. Meanwhile, the Silver Vixen went off to Pilates and the plan was that she would collect Ellie on the way back.

By lunchtime when the Silver Vixen got back the Gorse Fox had managed to talk with a Car Valeting company regarding ceramic finishes for the new car, and also the travel insurers regarding upgrades to our cover. A successful morning.

Once the Silver Vixen was back with Ellie we had some lunch and then spent the afternoon in the garden playing in water and with a water spray. In practise it was the only way to stay cool. Late in the afternoon we had the annual summer hog roast hosted by Berkeley Homes for the people on the development. As usual it was well attended. The drinks flowed and the hogs satisfied the hungry hordes. Ellie was very shy to start with but a neighbour brought her great granddaughter, whoo was about the same age as Ellie, and they got on like the proverbial house on fire.

Commitment

What a stunning day. The sun has been shining from the moment it came up and the temperatures are in the low 30s.

The Gorse Fox was up early and managed to see Cousteau-cub before she headed off to work. She is clearly struggling with her back but wasn't going to let it stop her. The Gorse Fox headed off to football soon after nine. We had a good turn-out today so managed to get a solid 6-a-side tournament. The Gorse Fox played for the white-bibs. We had a solid team and a good defence. We managed to win the first game 2-0, lose the second game 2-0 and then win the last game 2-0. It was hot out there and people were wilting.

Despite the heat, we managed to have a 4-a-side session in the second hour. Here the Gorse Fox was playing for the blue-bibs and had far more license to roam. As a result, we won the first game 2-0, drew the second game 2-2, and lost the last game 1-0. The Gorse Fox had covered over 10kms in the heat and scored two goals. A very satisfactory morning.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Cousteau-cub had called the Silver Vixen. She was having real problems with her back and needed to get to A&E at St Richard's. By the time the Gorse Fox got home, the Silver Vixen was there with Cousteau-cub waiting to see the doctor. They were there in total for several hours but she has been given some medication and they are on their way home now.

The Gorse Fox made use of the time to pressurize the car dealership. It was quite successful and as a result, we have placed an order for a new car for the Silver Vixen. It's a factory order, so will probably take 10-12 weeks, but we are in no hurry (even if it would have been nice to have it by the time we went to Devon).

Flakey

A bit grey first thing, but it has turned into a cracking afternoon. This bodes well for the next few days.

The new network has been rock solid for all of our devices except the Macbooks. Both the Macbook belonging to the Silver Vixen and that used by the Gorse Fox have had real problems staying connected today. In fact, the Gorse Fox has had to switch back to the old WiFi network for the moment. More research is needed, but there appears to be a lot of users having issues with the BT Whole Home WiFi and Macbooks. Clearly, it's flakey.

We had an appointment with a car. The idea was to have a test drive of a potential new car to replace the Silver Vixen's Qashqai. In the end, we were with the dealer for a couple of hours but did enjoy a test drive during which we both got to try the car. It was really very nice and the Gorse Fox expects that we will go ahead a buy one if we can get a sensible deal.

Back home, the Gorse Fox returned to the spreadsheets and plugged in the numbers from the dealer. It looks quite sensible, but it would still be nice to drive a better deal. The dealer asked what we would need to commit to a purchase today. The Gorse Fox explained that he did not do business like that and that nothing would convince him to commit today. He did put the chaps mind at ease though and promised to make a decision within two weeks.

During the afternoon Two Hats called in. He was having problems connecting to his Pi. The Gorse Fox connected through to his network and managed to connect immediately. It would appear that Two Hats had misremembered the command that the Gorse Fox had been using. Once that was cleared up the Gorse Fox asked him to demonstrate the features of Apple CarPlay so that it was clearer what could be expected. It was really quite impressive.

Well there's interesting

It was a grey start, but as the day wore on the sun broke through and we now have a glorious afternoon.

We weren't particularly quick to get underway this morning. We had no specific plans and the Gorse Fox's football had been cancelled as there were insufficient players available. As we chatted over breakfast, the Gorse Fox suggested we head along to one of the car dealerships and give the Silver Vixen a chance to look at one of the cars that we had under discussion.

Traffic on the A27 around Chichester was dreadful so the Gorse Fox cut across and used the back streets to bypass all of the hassles. It worked beautifully. We were soon standing in the dealership admiring the shiny new cars. A young oik arrived to offer assistance. To be fair, he was very pleasant, knowledgable, and was quite charming throughout our visit. We concluded that the car we had come to see was a definite contender and vowed to return for a test drive. (The Gorse Fox has subsequently arranged an appointment for the Silver Vixen to test drive the vehicle in question).

On the way home, we stopped off at another garage for a look at their options. Again there were some lovely examples on display but when we looked at the financial practicality they quickly ruled themselves out. It was nice to dream though.

Back home we went through all of the options and think we have a preferred choice. Now it will be a matter of taking the test drive, reworking the appropriate spreadsheets, and making a sensible decision. To some degree, it's a shame that we are looking for an SUV. There are some stunning saloons available at the moment. Mmmmm, should the Gorse Fox change his Fiesta? No. It would make no sense.

Mesh

It was wet overnight and it took quite a while for the day to brighten up. It has turned into a gorgeous afternoon, if a little breezy.

The Gorse Fox started by considering the problem of cables in the family room. Currently there are some which are tacked to the skirting boards and when we redecorate we will need to address this. Plan A was to look at some trunking so that the cables were completely hidden, but the actual topography of the cable routes makes it a little difficult. Then the Gorse Fox reconsidered the purpose for each of the cables and realised that there might be an opportunity to remove some of them if he could strengthen the WiFi coverage. This got the Gorse Fox scuttling to the computer to look, once more, at Mesh WiFi networks. The consensus seems to be that the Netgear Orbi and the BT Whole Home WiFi are the two best systems out there. A decision was made and the Gorse Fox chose to buy the BT Whole Home.

Cousteau-Cub wanted to spend some time over with Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete, so the Gorse Fox drove her to LA and routed back via John Lewis. He is now the proud owner of the aforementioned mesh network. It only took about 15 minutes to set up and we seem to have excellent coverage throughout the house. It will be interesting to see if any of the occasional dropouts we were getting before will be eradicated. Unfortunately, it still doesn't seem to have solved the problem regarding SkyQ and Cousteau-Cub's iPad in her room. That may need some more thought!

Neighbourhood Watch

It was very wet today, but the Gorse Fox suspects it will be good for the gardens.

There was a simple plan. Help Two Hats set up his new Raspberry Pi. Several of us now have CCTV cameras and he has recently invested in a new one. He want to be able to capture and save the recording over time. beyond what is enabled by the internal flash drive in the device. This should be the perfect application for a Pi.

Set up a Pi at home is easy. Because it would be running with the Gorse Fox's network he can use his configurator to build the device from scratch. This new one will be running with the network at Two Hats' abode. The Gorse Fox decided the best approach was to start from first principles with the "Noobs" installer and the Pi connected to a keyboard and screen. This proved to be very easy (and was certainly an improvement over the earlier implementations). Once the basic configuration was complete, we installed the FTP server software and tested that everything was working. The Gorse Fox recommend that Two Hats acquired an large flash drive that he could use to capture the CCTV images, rather than use the built in "boot' drive.

Two Hats toddled off with a functioning Pi and a shopping list. An hour or so later he called. He had the additional flash drive and could the Gorse Fox help. The flash drive was formatted and and the /home filesystem was moved to it. The Pi's configuration tables were changed and the system rebooted. Everything worked beautifully. Well, so we thought. Certainly the Pi booted, the filesystem was where we expected it to (on the new flash drive), and FTP was still working. The Pi seemed to be functioning as designed. The problem was that we could not get the CCTV camera to send files to it. In the end we resorted to sending a query to the manufacturer. We'll have to see what comes back.

Not much

There was some overnight rain, which petered out to a fine drizzle during the early part of the morning. There was very little planned for the day so we had a suitably lazy start.

The Gorse Fox performed a factory reset on the old iPad and re-installed it for Cousteau-cub. This took a little while but kept him amused. Ocado turned up with shopping, so that got tucked away just before Cousteau-cub emerged. She had an appointment at the optician's this morning so had to leave earlier than usual for a Thursday.

After lunch, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox headed out to explore a bit. She wanted to find where a new hairdresser had a salon, and the Gorse Fox wanted to look at a car dealership. The hairdresser's was easy, but we started off by going to the service department rather than the showroom. Once we had found the right place we spent a while mulling over their selection of cars and deciding that one option was too small and another was too big. This left the one model that we quite liked. It gives us food for thought, but as usual with cars and their options, the exact selection that we would like isn't available.

Restless

Another very pleasant day. It was sunny and warm this morning, but we have some high cloud now. It's still warm and very comfortable.

The Silver Vixen headed off for her weekly Pilates session. The Gorse Fox is still convinced that it is just an excuse to roll around on the floor for an hour with a bunch of friends. He had better things to do.

The Gorse Fox headed over to Worthing for the football. He was there early enough to get a few laps of the running track under his belt before everyone else arrived. We had a very good turn out, in terms of numbers. There were eighteen of us, so that allowed for a 9-a-side game. The problem is, as the Gorse Fox has said before, that the pitch is too crowded at 9-a-side. The game becomes more like pinball. The other problem is that the crowding of the pitch means that we, typically, cover far less ground. Actually, the Gorse Fox managed to do well and covered over 7km during the hour-long session. If only the team had done equally well. From the very start, it was clear that we were likely to be under the cosh. So it turned out. We were 1-0 down within a couple of minutes but managed to brace ourselves and hold back the inevitable for a while. In the end, the score was about 5-1 which, all things being taken into account, was not a bad result.

It's been a quiet afternoon, but the Gorse Fox has been restless. He has been looking at some of the car brochures he picked up at the weekend. He's also been looking at some of the online brochures for other models. There's still no immediate intention to change either of our cars, but it's nice to have a look and see what is available.

It occurred to the Gorse Fox yesterday that with SkyQ we have the ability to transmit the TV to a mobile device such as a tablet or phone. (It's not that he didn't know this in the past, just that he had no particular reason to use it). As a result, he has pressed his old iPad into action and given it to Cousteau-cub. So far it seems to have been quite successful.

Covering the ground

It has been another gorgeous day. We've had wall-to-wll sunshine and only the finest whisps of cloud have been allowed to interrupt the perfect blue of the sky. Temperatures have been a very comfortable 22C and there is the slightest breeze to keep us comfortable. It's probably hotter inland, but here on the coast it is just about perfect.

The Gorse Fox pottered across to Worthing this morning. There was football to play. As usual, for a Tuesday, he tried to spend some time on the running track first, but then, well warmed up, he joined the lads for the game. There was a good turnout today, with 30 players available. We split into two teams of 7 and two of 8. The Gorse Fox was playing for the white-bibs, and we started with a 2-0 win. In the second game we were held to scoreless draw, and the third game we lost 2-0. The Gorse Fox didn't play badly, but didn't feel as if he was playing well.

In the second hour we were down to a 6-v-5 arrangement. Finally, the Gorse Fox seemed to be playing to the standard he expects. It didn't help. We still managed two losses and a draw. The Gorse Fox had got a fair bit of exercise, though, covering over 11km during the sessions.

It's been a quite afternoon as the joints start to complain about the morning's exertions. It will settle once the Gorse Fox starts moving about again.

Colours

It was a bit overcast first thing, and not as warm as it has been. It perked up during the day, however, and by mid afternoon was very comfortable in the low 20s.

There were a few domestic chores to clear first thing, bu then the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox headed out to the local DIY stores. It is approaching the time to redecorate the kitchen/family room. We had a few pre-conceived ideas regarding colours but thought it sensible to go and look at the various colour charts. We started at B&Q but then moved on to Wickes. It was there, in one of their kitchen displays we saw some colours that we both liked, though completely different from our original ideas. Back home we used the Dulux Visualizer to see what it it would look like “for real” - if augmented reality can ever be considered real! Actually, it looked pretty good and the Gorse Fox suspects that a decision is now made.

The Silver Vixen was out for a while this afternoon, so the Gorse Fox took the opportunity to walk to Sainsbury’s to get the odd bits and bobs that would be needed for tonight’s supper. The choice was chicken cacciatore or butter chicken. He made sure he had everything necessary for both, but in the end decided on the chicken cacciatore.

Ha ha ha ha

(The title probably only makes sense if you understand a little Thai)

Football was fun this morning. The sides worked out at 5 each. The Gorse Fox played for the yellow bibs and we had two mobile players and two fairly static players. The other team had a fully complement of fairly mobile players. It was tough and intense but in the end the 5 yellow players scored 5 goals and 5 orange players scored 5 goals. Honours were even. (Yes, the Gorse Fox scored 2 of them).

Swapped

Well that’s the beauty of John Lewis. After football and a shower, the Gorse Fox whizzed along to JL with both pencils and an iPad. He explained the problem, and demonstrated the problem. The immediate response was “straight replacement”... and there it was, the Gorse Fox left clutching a replacement pencil. No hassle, just good customer service.

The new pencil is charging at the moment and the Gorse Fox will try it in a little while.

Pain

Well that’s a pain. It seems that one of the two Apple Pencils that the Gorse Fox purchased yesterday doesn’t work at all. He’s tried it on several iPads and it doesn’t seem to function at all. It pairs correctly with the iPad, but won’t draw or write on the screen. The other one works without a problem. A return trip to John Lewis is clearly required.

There’s some football to play first, though.

Apple and SUV

Another lovely day and the Silver Vixen is making the most of it by going to an Embroiderers’ Show at Ardingly with a friend. Cousteau-Cub and the Gorse Fox have been left to their own devices.

Talking of devices, the Gorse Fox popped in to John Lewis and bought the Smart Keyboard that pairs with his new iPad. (He’s using it to type this blog entry). It is quite good in that it provides a cover for the iPad and keyboard that gets its power directly from the iPad, so there’s no need for extra charging cables. The Gorse Fox suspects that purists who touch type may not like it, but for a “hunt and peck” typist like the Gorse Fox it’s absolutely fine. While he was at JL he also picked up the Apple Pencil which allows him to write on the screen. That’s charging at the moment (but again will charge directly from the iPad), so he hasn’t yet tried it.

While he was out he also wandered in to the local Toyota dealership to have a look at their range. He picked up a couple of brochures, but can’t say there was anything there that seemed an obvious replacement for the Qashqai.  He moved on and tried the Skoda dealership. Here they had a couple of nice models, the Karoq, and the Kodiak; these did seem like possible upgrades, but unlike the Toyotas did not offer any hybrid version.

Hide

The summer continues with another lovely day. The temperatures were in the mid 20s and there was a smattering of cloud to provide the odd bit of cover and to make the sky more interesting. There were no major plans for the morning. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen both got on with various domestic chores, and the Gorse Fox popped round to Sainsbury's for some cat food, then on to M&S to pick up some new swimming trunks that he had ordered.

We were on duty during the afternoon. We went round to Urban-cub's house in LA in order to look after Ellie and allow UC to go to the hairdresser's.

Ellie was transfixed by the film "Frozen" when we arrived, but after a while she disappeared into the hallway and returned with her shoes. "Popping to shops, Bompa" she said. The Gorse Fox took that as a hint. While we had no reason to go to the shops, the Gorse Fox did need to go to the post box. We headed off through the estate with Ellie holding the Gorse Fox's hand. We stopped at each road and he asked her to check if there any cars coming. When we knew the road to be clear we crossed, holding hands. She was very good.

On the way back from the post box, Ellie announced "Park, Bompa". So it was that we diverted and the Gorse Fox was led to a park that he didn't previously know. Ellie got onto the swing and demanded to go higher. Then almost immediately asked for he r dummy and Nana. She wanted to get off and go home. She did not want to walk, however. The Gorse Fox ended up carrying her all the way back, where settled don on Nana's lap and went to sleep.

Once Urban-cub had returned we left and stopped off at the fish and chip shop for our supper. It was late for us, but the fish was delicious as usual, even if the chips were a bit anaemic.

Giggling

It was another superb day. No clouds, a slight breeze and temperatures in the mid to high 20s. The Gorse Fox commented to the Silver Vixen that from a weather perspective it was perfect.

We had gentle start to the day with a mid morning visit from Ocado. This week the order was correct and was soon put away. We waited until Cousteau-Cub was ready and all headed in to Chichester. The Gorse Fox had an appointment at the chiropodist and the Silver Vixen wanted to mooch around until the Gorse Fox was finished.

We noticed that the shoe shop "Hotter" had reopened after their recent refurbishment following an arson attack. We took a look, but we really didn't need anything.

Once sufficient mooching had been completed we headed along to the Giggling Squid. It had always been our intention to grab lunch, the only question had been where?  We settled down with the menu and a drink.

Whilst they do lunchtime tapas, we both ignored that option. The Silver Vixen had some satay chicken to start and then a Thai red curry with coconut rice. The Gorse Fox chose salt and chilli squid followed by chicken gra par. We were both delighted with our choices and lingered for a couple of hours... enjoying a cheesecake and further drink before leaving.

We hopped on the bus and were home in about 15 minutes. So convenient.

Consistency

Another lovely warm day today - though not quite as sunny.

The Gorse Fox had football this morning and though on the weaker side, we ran out 4-1 winners, somehow. No goals for the Gorse Fox but he did defend with flair and gusto!

Now, he has spent a lot of time in the past few days looking at the family tree. This has been triggered by a distant cousin giving him access to her research. This filled him with hope that he was about to open up a whole new chunk of the family. Well now that he as looked at the details more carefully, he has to conclude that it is, at best, speculative, and at worst, just wrong. For example if you know that Thomas was married to Catherine, and Thomas came from Ireland and Catherine came from Essex, why would you file a Census record that say Thomas (from Ireland) is married to Mary (from Ireland)? Furthermore you know that Thomas was plasterer, but the Census says he was a waiter. This is just sloppy and makes the Gorse Fox doubt the veracity of any of her research. He has a simple rule - if you can't prove a fact with documented evidence - then don't record it. If you can derive a fact from several sources - document it and explain how you came to conclusion.

On another note, we sat and watched The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo last night. It was really very good and very close to the original book. It reminded the Gorse Fox how much he enjoyed the trilogy when he read it. A fourth book was added in 2015, and as if by magic, a new book has just been advertised today... The Girl Who Takes and Eye for an Eye, it's almost as if we knew! (Obviously the new books were written by a different author as Stieg Larsson died a while back now). Apparently a further book will be published this August, The Girl Who Lived Twice. The Gorse Fox has some catching up to do.

UPS

It was 7:20-ish and Cousteau-Cub had just left for work. The Gorse Fox was sitting at the laptop checking his emails. All of a sudden the general background sounds of the house disappeared. There had be a momentary power cut and an eerie silence encompassed the kitchen. As quickly as it had stopped, it clicked back on and the compressor on the fridge burst back into life, the Echo Dot rebooted, the clocks on the cookers flashed with their factory defaults. The Gorse Fox reset the cookers and sat back to await the re-emergence of the WiFi and broadband. Much later he checked the big Mac (Condor) and that was down. That was rebooted. Then he checked "peregrine", his production Raspberry Pi. The UPS had done its job. While everything else had failed, peregrine carried on ticking and has now been running without interruption for 891 days.

The Gorse Fox had football this morning. There was a very good turn out and we ended up with two teams of 7 and two teams of 8. The Gorse Fox was playing for the "whites" and saw he was in for a torrid time. We played well, but conceded a late goal in the first game. Similarly, in the second game we conceded a single late goal following a poor back pass from a new chap. In our last game we did actually manage to score a goal. Unfortunately, they managed to score two! Not our finest hour.

The Silver Vixen is out at the Embroiderers' Guild today so the Gorse Fox has a quiet afternoon with the family tree. He received the death certificate for his 3 time great grandmother today. This confirmed some facts that the Gorse Fox had assumed... but still gives no clue (though you wouldn't really expect it to) to her elusive maiden name. Back to the archives.

Reboot the week

A lovely day today. Lots of sunshine and temperatures in the low 20s.

The day started with a leisurely breakfast and wander through the papers online, and Facebook. It was while doing this that the broadband modem decided to reboot. Now, in itself this isn't a major issue. Lives don't depend on it. It won't hit the media. It won't feature on the evening news. It was however the second time this has happened in 10 days. This caused a small alarm to start ringing at the back of the Gorse Fox's mind. He got on with some domestic chores and then sat down to do some research.

An hour or so later the Gorse Fox was none the wiser. He had read of many similar incidents, he had read through the event logs, he had run the BT line tests, but he had not found any reason this should have happened. Now he will just have to wait and see if this is the start of some exotic problem.

While thinking about the problem he also looked at comments regarding the WiFi. He has split the network into 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz subnetworks. Most of the Apple devices love to link to the 5Ghz service which should provide much greater speed... however, while it is great for transferring data round the house, we have problems getting out to the internet. Again the Gorse Fox found plenty of 5Ghz problems discussed on the web, but none really addressed his scenario. Frustrating really.

The Silver Vixen is going out to Embroiderers' Guild tomorrow so spent a while doing this week's Ocado list... before pottering in the garden. The Gorse Fox realised that the curry he had planned for this evening would be a little sparse as we were out of rice. As it was such a nice afternoon he grabbed a bag and walked round to Sainsbury's and back. (Yes there are several shops that are much closer and would sell rice, but he fancied the exercise). It was a nice 6km round trip and by checking the labels, he managed to save some money by getting an "own brand" for £3 instead of the named brand we usually get which would have been £8.50.

Farewell Old Friend

Apparently it had been forecast, but the Gorse Fox was surprised to wake up and find it raining. Not just a bit, but properly raining. SO it continued throughout the morning. Fortunately, it remained quite  warm.

The Gorse Fox had football this morning We played at our usual venue, but this time shared it with dozens of girls football teams who were there for a big tournament. They were playing outside, but as usual, we were on the inside pitches. The Gorse Fox found himself with the yellow-bibs. It was a hard fought game, but we ended up 3-1 winners and the Gorse Fox contributed 2 goals along the way.

Leaving the sports arena he headed across to LA and collected Cousteau-Cub who had stayed overnight at Urban-Cub's.  As Pistol Pete is still injured, Cousteau-Cub took on the task of walking the dogs... in the pouring rain.

Back home we had a quiet afternoon. Unfortunately the Gorse Fox had to bid farewell to trusty, long term friend. The tangerine coloured plastic colander we have had since we got married 46 years ago, finally gave up the ghost. The side snapped as he drained the potatoes. Though we have nursed it for a long time, it was finally time to bid a fond adieu. It has been afforded a solemn burial in this week's trash.

Seats, Eats, and Laines

It was another very warm day with temperatures into the top half of the 20s. Hay fever, which clobbered the Gorse Fox yesterday, seemed better today.

The morning was filled with bits and pieces. The one that took the longest was a comment that there seemed to be an error on the spreadsheet that the Gorse Fox had developed to manage Ellie's childcare responsibilities. Sone of the algorithms were, apparently, not making the automatic assignments that were expected. Needless to say this need fixing. Unfortunately, the formulae in question were quite complex "if" statements containing nest ANDs and ORs which had to be picked apart bit by bit. In the end the Gorse Fox concluded that the spreadsheet was right and something else was wrong. Indeed that turned out to be the case. The problem lay in the change over between child minders, and the fact that the new child minder does not take over fully until September - her unavailability hadn''t been recorded - as soon as it was, the spreadsheet did exactly what was expected. The Gorse Fox was vindicated.

Next came a discussion with the travel agent... a new airline reference, and the Gorse Fox went online and booked our seats for next May's trip. He chose the same seats that they travelled back in a few weeks ago. They had proven to be excellent.

We headed out to Brighton. We were meeting with Sue and Trevor and Auntie Jean.  We had an incredibly quick drive across, considering it was a lovely warm sunny summer's day. The expected traffic was nowhere to be seen. We settled down with a cup of tea and had a chinwag, catching up on the family news from both sides... Eleanor's health, Jon's & Caroline's pregnancy, new house, and work arrangements, and Alan's new girlfriend, agency, and gigs.

We had an early table booked at Danny's. We have eaten there before several times and the Chinese buffet is always excellent. As Trevor guided the Gorse Fox through the maze that is the back streets of Brighton and Hove, he had a bit of a wobble... and suddenly realised that he wasn't quite sure where we were going. Sue Googled the address and we homed in on the venue. As usual the food was superb. We started with a shared platter of various Chinese favourites, then a course of crispy duck and crispy lamb, then the ladies chickened out and went to dessert and coffee while Trevor and the Gorse Fox both had a main course - in the case of the Gorse Fox it was Szechuan Chicken and Chow Mein. A super feast all round.

Leaving the restaurant we headed into Brighton and parked up. Jean had her disabled stickers which allowed us to park in a disabled bay. We wandered through the North Laines awards the sea. In the regeneration that has been going on, a new section of Laines has been discovered and they have been refurbished and opened up. It's so new that the various shops are still awaiting tenants, but it really adds to the Brighton experience - and was very impressive. There are some really nice new restaurants there, which have opened and seemed to be doing a roaring trade.

We didn't spend too long exploring, but it was nice to see the new areas that had been hidden for so long. Apparently there are still further Lines that are yet to be opened up.

We headed back to the house for more chat and some coffee. As usual the Gorse Fox and Sue ended up chatting about genealogy and exploring some old maps of Brighton. It was a lovely evening and it was gone half ten before we left. Agin we had a fabulous run through to get home and we were in bed  well before eleven thirty.

Promotion

Well the good news is that Pistol Pete had not broken any ribs. He has, however, received extreme muscular bruising and has been told not to try lifting anything for  few weeks. He's very uncomfortable.

Ellie gave us a good night's sleep, not waking properly until gone seven this morning. She then proceeded to eat us out of house and home - egg, bacon, cheese, porridge, and toast. Once full she was ready to make mischief... and we had a lovely morning.

The Silver Vixen and Cousteau-Cub headed off into Chichester around eleven. the Silver Vixen had a hair appointment, and Cousteau-Cub was due at work.

The Gorse Fox received a battlefield promotion - he was now in charge. He loaded the car and headed off (with Ellie) down to the beach.

The tide was in, so there was no sand available, but we strolled along the prom, stopping at the play park where Ellie insisted on being pushed higher, and higher on the swing. Eventually she was enticed away and we headed further along the prom. She was riding her scooter by now, but was son engrossed in what everyone else was doing that we made very slow progress. In the end the scooter was abandoned and the Gorse Fox had to carry it on the back of the buggy.

We stopped for a while so Ellie could have a drink and a snack. Then made our way back the way we had come. Another stop at the play area was permitted before we arrived by the pier. The Gorse Fox took his charge out along the pier so she could see the water beneath and look back at the beach. She seemed genuinely intrigued by it all.

Eventually we headed back to the car, home, and Ellie went straight to her cot. That lasted all of 5 minutes before she called out and wanted to come down for some lunch! After she had eaten she disappeared into the garden and demanded that bubbles were produced. The bubble wand was duly retrieved from its storage space and bubbles rose in the warm afternoon air.

It was mid afternoon before the Silver Vixen arrived home and Pistol Pete came along soon after. The Gorse Fox loaded Ellie into the car (as Pistol Pete couldn't) and then, all of a sudden, it was quiet again!

A good ribbing

The Silver Vixen had arranged to go across to LA and see Urban-Cub and Ellie. The objective was to go and see the new child-minder during one of Ellie's introductory sessions.

The Gorse Fox was left under the supervision of Jasper and Cousteau-Cub, though she was off to work by mid-morning. The Gorse Fox waited for the arrival of the Ocado order so that it could be packed away before he made any further plans. The Ocado delivery was a bit of a surprise in as much as it didn't feature many of the items that he thought the Silver Vixen had ordered. It turned out, later, that the most recent changes to the order hadn't been recorded and we just received our default order.

Once the shopping was filed away, the Gorse Fox walked in to Shripney. There were a few bits and pieces that he needed from Sainsbury's and as it was such a nice day it seemed silly to take the car. After all it's only 3km each way.

Back home the Gorse Fox fired up Audible and continued to listen to the book he had been absorbing when on holiday. There was only about 2 hours of narration left and he was able to have it on in the background as he pottered about.

The phone rang. It was the Silver Vixen. Pistol Pete had been involved in a training exercise at work and it looked as if he had got one or more broken ribs. Plans were metaphorically thrown in the air and the Silver Vixen loaded Ellie into the car and brought her home to us so that Urban-Cub could get Pistol Pete to the hospital. No news so far, but he was clearly in a great deal of discomfort. Ellie will stay with us overnight.

Dusty bytes

The lovely spell of weather continues. The Silver Vixen was going to spend the day with Urban-Cub and the Gorse Fox had football scheduled. We both left home soon after nine, leaving Cousteau-Cub to quiet morning before her afternoon shift.

Football was pretty good, all things being considered. Ron (he who knows it all) was there for the first time in a few weeks so there was plenty of moaning going on, but most of just ignored him. By the end he was getting frustrated and throwing himself into some fairly reckless tackles. The Gorse Fox had a quiet word with the ref and he was warned. The game itself worked out 5-4 in our favour - but again no goals for the Gorse Fox. He was, however, pleased with the way he played today.

Back home there was a quick sale for lunch and then the afternoon was spent research the McDonald branch of the family tree. Some new information has been suggested by an apparent 5th cousin in Atlanta. The Gorse Fox was eager to get proof and fill in some further blanks. Unfortunately it was a deeply frustrating afternoon digging through the dusty old bytes of the digital archives. The Gorse Fox was unable to corroborated any single fact or assertion. That doesn't mean they are incorrect, just that (as yet) there is no real evidence. The hunt goes on and, no doubt, emails will flash back and forth across the Atlantic.

Sports Day

It was another cracking day. The blue backwash was punctuated with clouds to break up the monotony. Some were fluffy and white, some had a dark underbelly. It was a sky that you could just sit and watch and never get bored. A light breeze heaved the clouds around, without them ever seeming to merge or race.

The Gorse Fox streamed across the Sussex countryside to Worthing, sticking to the A27 in case the roadworks were continuing near Ferring. He had left a little earlier so he could get in a few more laps of the track before the football started. As he dropped down of the A27, down Durrington Hill he pondered the fact that the school sports day hadn't yet taken over the track at Worthing, as it did this time most years.

Th Gorse Fox's prescience had been uncanny. As he pulled into the sports centre he was greeted by the sight of several hundred teenage girls in their red polo shirts and blue shorts gathered all round the track. The Gorse Fox was not going to get his laps in! He made do. He lapped the football cages six or seven times until he had at least a couple of kilometres of "warm-up" under his belt. The rest of the lads started to gather. There had been a tournament yesterday, so the the numbers were curtailed. In the end we played 8-v-8 in three separate games. The Gorse Fox was playing for the blues and we lost the first game 2-0, but after that we managed to win the next two games. The Gorse Fox did not manage to score any goals today. In fact he didn't feel as if he had played particularly well. Never mind, there's always tomorrow.

The afternoon has been spent with the book "Spitfire" again. Considering the speed at which the Gorse Fox reads, he finds this book requires a certain reverence and mist not be rushed. It's partly to do with the episodic style of writing, and partly the subject matter, but this must not be rushed.

The knives are out

It's been another lovely day. Again the temperatures were in the low 20s and though there were clouds to punctuate the clear blue sky, it remained quite lovely.

There had been no plans for the day but we decided that it would be nice to pop out for lunch. We grabbed the bus and headed for Chichester. The Silver Vixen had some birthday cards to select and a present for her hairdresser, who is about to leave to have a baby. The Gorse Fox didn't really have anything particular in mind, but knowing that the Steamer Trading Company was about to close down, he went along to see if there were any bargains. Well, it turns out that there were. In the end, over two trips, one before and one after lunch we walked away with a couple of new santoku knives and a new knife block in which to keep them along with our old knives.

For lunch we stopped in at Crispins'. Regular readers will know that we have been there many times before. The food is always good, freshly prepared, and excellent value for money. There's nothing that the Gorse Fox would consider "special" on the menu, but it's good honest fare. The Silver Vixen had a quiche with new potatoes and salad, and the Gorse Fox had a chicken and bacon Caesar salad. Simple, but very satisfying.

Back home we've had a quiet afternoon in the Orangery. The Gorse Fox has continued to read the book about the Spitfire, just concluding the section that related the defence of Malta. Amazing stuff really... and it really should be mandatory reading for today's "generation snowflake".

The Girls

Well the temperatures have eased. It was in the low 20s today but there was a very blustery breeze along the coast and that took the edge off a bit. In fact The Gorse Fox found that sitting in shade he was too cool and had to head out into the sun.

Football was a bit later today. This meant that the Gorse Fox had longer to work on the family tree. He decided that he would focus on his 3rd gt-grandfather with a view to finding out exactly when he died. He almost wished he hadn't bothered now. It is clear that he was a troubled man and had been sectioned in an asylum on several occasions. The last time was for 10 years and that only ended with his death. It must have been so difficult for his family.

Football took the Gorse Fox's mind off of things. We had a nice open 5-v-5 today. The sides looked pretty well balanced. The Gorse Fox was playing for the orange bibs. We moved ahead in the first half with 2-0 at half time. The Gorse Fox had shot high, wide, and at the goalie; he had also hit the post and the crossbar. It was not looking good. The second half started and the Gorse Fox was clearly having trouble as he hit the other post and scuffed a couple of shots. The goal tally from the rest of the team began to rise, and finally the Gorse Fox found the target. In the end we finished 7-2 winners... and the Gorse Fox was glad to have scored his 60th goal of the year.

After a light lunch we headed to LA to spend the afternoon with Bompa's girls. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had a lovely afternoon with Cousteau-Cub, Urban-Cub, and Ellie. Urban-Cub also prepared a lovely roast dinner for us to crown it all off.

Crackling

It's been a fabulous day. Temperatures have hovered around the 30C mark here on the coast and the sky has been  cloudless.

Urban-Cub turned  up with Ellie after breakfast. She had come to collect Cousteau-Cub who will be staying with her over the weekend so she can see her dog, Tyson. After the whirlwind visit, the Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox were left alone to get on with being retired! The Silver Vixen tended some of her plants and the Gorse Fox returned to the family tree.

The family tree research was interesting in as much as it revealed a number of siblings of the Silver Vixen's great grandmother. The Gorse Fox had never found these people in previous research and they have opened up a new chunk of the tree. He also found another title mystery that needs to be solved... is Ada a sister of Alice, or is Alice also known as Ada? Only time will tell, but at the moment the Gorse Fox suspects they are the same person.

The afternoon was just too nice to stay indoors with the family tree. The Silver Vixen went and sat in the sun, and the Gorse Fox sat outside in the shade of the parasol, reading. One of his presents from J&T earlier in the year, was a book by John Nichol called Spitfire. This tells the story of the iconic plane from the point of view of the people who flew them and maintained them. This isn't fiction. This is a book of reminiscences from the pilots and aircrew... and is absolutely riveting.

On a separate note, the Gorse Fox tried the speech to text facilities of his iPad and iPhone. This proved to be extremely accurate and may feature in future blog posts.

On yet another separate note, today is the Birthday of the Gorse Fox's little sister. Not giving anything away, but the Beatles did write and appropriate song for the occasion. "When I get old and..." etc. Little sis is away on holiday in Portugal at the moment, but we hope she has a brilliant Birthday.

New toy

Well the weather continues to impress with afternoon temperatures in the high 20s. There is a little cloud about but it’s hotter than yesterday.

We had a lovely evening last night. The crew headed into Chichester and started off by having a drink at The Nags Head at St Pancras, then we wandered across the road to Giggling Squid. As usual, the food there was lovely... though Old Bill thought his green curry was a bit watery. The Gorse Fox had Gao Pad with chicken and an extra bit of chilli and it was outstanding. Cousteau-Cub came and joined us when she finished work and we all came home together.

Friday was focused on the domestic. The Silver Vixen caught up with some ironing And the Gorse Fox hopped to the shops with Cousteau-Cub for some hay fever medication. Cousteau-Cub headed off to work and the Gorse Fox returned to the family tree.

After lunch he decided it was time to upgrade the iPad and zipped across to John Lewis where he picked up a new iPad Air. The setup has been a doddle and now, just because he can, he’s writing this blog post on it.

Starting to sizzle

Another cracking day today. We had wall to wall sunshine and the temperatures were in the mid-20s. The Silver Vixen made the most of it and spent much of the day outside. Not so the Gorse Fox. He was distracted by some family tree ideas and ended up spending much of the day in front of a computer. It was, however, a successful exercise as he has managed to fill in a few extra bits of missing information on both sides of the family.

The Gorse Fox has also been processing a few old photos - trying to place them geographically and trying to date them. There's still a fair bit of work to do there.

There's a Sonning Crew outing scheduled tonight. We are celebrating (slightly belatedly) Tinkerbell's birthday.

Warming up

The sky started overcast and there was a cool breeze. The forecast was for it to get warmer as the "Saharan Bubble" (as the media have called it) rolled into the country. Sure enough the clouds have burnt off, and the temperature has reached 25C here on the coast. (It's no doubt hotter inland). The media reports of several deaths in France which are directly attributable to the heat). It's funny that this should hit just as the Gorse Fox has established email exchanges with this new relation who lives in Phoenix. They know how to do heat there!

The Silver Vixen went off to Pilates this morning and the Gorse Fox headed for football. He must have had a sixth sense as he decided at the last instant to travel via Fontwell and Arundel instead of the A259. It seems that roadworks have again been put in place and were causing significant congestion - the Gorse Fox, however, just sailed through on his route.

The game started with 8-v-8, the Gorse Fox playing for the yellow-bibs. Unfortunately we had another outbreak of childishness and two players stormed off in a huff.  Neither was blameless and things quietened down once they had gone. It was a close game in the first half and the score remained 2-0 at half time. In the second half, however, the yellow-bibs hit our stride and whilst we conceded 4 goals, we scored five more - running out 7-4 winners (with two goals from the Gorse Fox).

Back home we are enjoying a quiet afternoon in the sun.

Chim Chiminey

No football today, we were having a day out. The overnight thunderstorms missed us entirely and whilst there had clearly been bit of rain it had amounted to nothing. By the time Cousteau-Cub left for work, the pavements were dry and it was warming up nicely. In fact, though it remained fairly overcast throughout the day, the temperatures reached the mid 20s.

We hopped in the car and went across to Lewes where we we scheduled to meet with Badger and Mrs Tiggywinkle for lunch. It was a surprisingly good run across the south coast and we were there  and looking for a good car park in an hour.

We strolled up the hill to the High Street and then sought out the restaurant. It was right next door to the Courts. We had reserved a table, but asked to move out to the roof terrace as the weather was so nice. The views across the rooftops of Lewes to the Castle made it quite quaint.

We had a lovely and leisurely meal. The choice wasn't vast, but it was very good. Between us we tried their fishcakes, black bream, calves liver, and fish and chips. Every one of these dishes was presented beautifully and was excellent. The Gorse Fox would heartily recommend you stop off at "The Rights of Man" if ever you visit Lewes.

Time wore on and the car park times were winding down. We returned to the cars and headed onwards to Michelham Priory at Upper Dicker. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had been here before, but it was a first for Badger and Mrs Tiggywinkle. It turns out that the Priory is a part of Historic Houses Association, so being members we all gained entry for nothing (saving about £10 each).

We only had about 90 minutes before they closed but had a lovely time wandering round.

We entered through the crypt and then made our way throughout the house, reading the various explanatory plaques and listening to the stories from the guides.

Having exhausted the inside, we headed outside and wandered round the gardens, chatting as we went. It really was a very lovely day.

We said our goodbyes and went our separate ways at about five o'clock. The Gorse Fox was a little worried at the thought of the rush hour traffic, but whilst heavy, it was no real problem and we were home before too long... just in time to see Cousteau-Cub cycling off to get herself a kebab!

Ticking over

This morning was focused on domestic activities. There were floors to be cleaned and washed and the kitchen to be given a bit of a clean after yesterday's splattering from the pork joint. Meanwhile, the Silver Vixen was upstairs cleaning the bathrooms. Finally there was a bit or ironing to clear, which we shared.

The Silver Vixen is out this afternoon with Lady Penelope, and though the Gorse Fox had intended to get some extra exercise, he's locked in front of the computer doing some family tree research. There are some new people to add to the tree (if not actually link them in yet), and there is a chunk of the family who moved to Canada for whom we have almost no information whatsoever. This is a bone of contention and the Gorse Fox returns to this bit of the family time and again in the hope some new records have become available. So far - nothing.

New boys

It's been another lovely warm day. A bit overcast and muggy, but delightfully warm.

The Gorse Fox had football this morning and as we gathered there were a few new faces. Several chaps came along from a group who play at Pagham. They swelled the numbers and we ended up with a 6-v-5 / 5-v-6 game. It was a very close game overall and the new chaps fitted in well. Typically the Sunday games can be quite high scoring because of the small pitch and the non-stop nature of the game, but it was so close that we fought to a 2-1 win. The Gorse Fox scored one of the goals but spent most of the game trying to provide a stalwart defence.

Back home he settled back down with the photo book that Agent Mulder provided. The Gorse Fox was able to fill in many of the gaps in the story. He settled down and started to write up the missing bits, name the unnamed people, place the photos, and date some of them. He sent a copy off to little sis to see if she could add more... and will tidy it all up and send it back to Agent Mulder.

Urban-Cub turned up mid-afternoon to collect Cousteau-Cub. She was going to spend a couple of hours with them over in LA before Pistol Pete would bring her back.

Life and times

It's been a glorious day. Pretty much was to wall sunshine, and whilst lovely and warm it was not too hot. A perfect day for Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete to have their little "do". We headed across to LA and let ourselves in while Pistol Pete was still setting up the chairs and gazebo in the garden. Ellie was charging around and playing on her new swing and slide. The Silver Vixen immediately started an inspection of the new planting that Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete had been up to, and the Gorse Fox helped with the furniture.

J&T turned up soon after having had a frustratingly tedious drive down to the coast... but they were here and could relax. We started to catch up on the latest news and gossip - an exercise that would continue throughout the day. Pistol Pete fired up the BBQ and several mountains of meat were slapped on the grill. As usual, there was a veritable feast... and certainly more than enough for us all (and several regiments of the British Army).

After we had cleared away J&T presented us with two identical books from Agent Mulder. These were photo-books recalling and recording the life and times of Beloved Aunt. It was clearly a huge undertaking and it took us a long time to sift through the pages. There were many photos in there that the Gorse Fox had never seen before. It was a wonderful way to remember a most cherished and sorely missed Aunt.

Talking of family, we received a notification from Ancestry that there was a new DNA match for the Silver Vixen. When we checked it claimed that this person was almost certainly a first cousin, or perhaps a second cousin. This was intriguing so the Gorse Fox delved deeper. It was someone that we had never heard of, with a name that doesn't appear anywhere in the family tree. The problem was that the person hadn't submitted a tree of her own, so there was no easy way to check other than sending her an email, which is what he did. We now await a response to see who this mysterious cousin might be.

Will he never learn?

The Gorse Fox is typing this entry with one eye closed, but streaming. He never learns. Having prepared a marinade for some lamb that he plans to cook tonight, he has just wiped his eye. Despite having washed his hands thoroughly there was evidently some residual spices which he has transferred to his eyeball and it is now in full flood.

The Gorse Fox is not saying that it's been quiet today - but that may very we the most interesting thing that has happened. It's been bright and sunny with a cool breeze and given that the nights start drawing in from this evening it's about time the summer sorted itself out. Much of the morning was spent reading up on mesh networks and looking at the various offerings available. They seem to be a bit pricey but the Gorse Fox suspects that the price will drop over time. There's no frantic hurry, but it would be nice to have more transparent WiFi roaming across the house, garage, and garden without any dead spots.

Had a quick trip to Sainsbury's after lunch. There's a bit of a "do" over at Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete's tomorrow and we needed to get some contributions to take along. It also gave the Gorse Fox a chance to stock up on a few herbs he needed for tonight's supper. This is planned to be a lamb biryani.

Crash

We woke up this morning to find reflective glass scattered across the road in front of the house. Clearly there had been a coming together, but one that was not loud enough to disturb us. The area is not covered by our CCTV but Old Bill had a look at his and thinks it happened between 21:30 and 22:00 last night. Now the Gorse Fox remembers being disturbed while watching TV last night but thought it was just the neighbour parking up. He should have gone to check. Oh well, he's done the decent thing and swept up the shiny shards.

Urban-Cub popped in with Cousteau-Cub and Ellie this morning. Cousteau-Cub had stayed with her overnight and needed to get ready for work and Urban-Cub and Ellie stopped for a quick chat before heading to Portsmouth to meet with Princess Steph and her brood. Needless to say Ocado arrived right in the middle of all this, just to add to the chaos.

Now that Jasper seems moderately settled on his new feeding regime, the Gorse Fox headed off to the farm shop to pick up some more wet food. We have cut this to once a day now, as he was leaving so much of the lunchtime feed. He seems pretty content with it all so we'll stick with this plan for now.

The Gorse Fox managed to get an appointment for a haircut this afternoon and made it part of his walking route. Though it had looked a bit threatening and he had taken an umbrella, he remained dry (and much more streamlined after the haircut).

Talking of crashes, it looks as if Condor (the big iMac) had crashed at some point in the last 24 hours or so. It may have been during the thunder, but the Gorse Fox isn't sure. Anyway everything is back up and running. He must say that it's immensely rare to have a problem on the iMac, so he puts it down to some external factor.

That's better

The Silver Vixen headed off for Pilates and the Gorse Fox went along to football. There was a degree of trepidation in the trip. Yesterday, we published the new ruleset (including the sanctions) for the game. The Gorse Fox was interested to see how they would be accepted and whether we would see proper adherence. Initial feedback, as we were gathering before the game, was mainly positive. There were several questions regarding interpretation, but we ironed those out.

The game started with and 8-v-7 which changed to 7-v-8 as Crusher switched sides at half time. The Gorse Fox was playing for the yellow-bibs. The game was so much better than last week's. Players were clearly trying to play within the rules and the Ref was interpreting them with a sensible degree of latitude. Nobody was hurt, nobody complained, nobody argued with the ref, and all in all it was a pleasurable hour.

The game itself was quite tight in the first half. The yellows did manage to poach a couple of goals without replay in the first half. This was a little surprising as the Gorse Fox thought the attack from the orange team were, at least on paper, better than us. In the second half the yellows were at a one man disadvantage but managed to stretch the lead and ended up with a comfortable 6-0 win. (The Gorse Fox did manage to get one of these goals).

It's been a quiet afternoon and Cousteau-Cub is off to stay with Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete over night, so we have a quiet evening ahead - unless we organise a last minute rave.

I've seen fire and I've seen rain

Well maybe not today for the fire. It started off brightly enough but by mid morning it was looking menacing and there were occasional rain showers. By mid afternoon the rain was incessant and very heavy, accompanied on bass by some distant thunder.

The morning was taken up with a couple of hours of football, preceded by several laps of the running track. By the time the "lads" had gathered we had a 6-a-side competition. The Gorse Fox was playing on the team with yellow-bibs and we looked a pretty well balanced squad. We won the first game 3-1 (which included a goal from the Gorse Fox), then won the second 3-1, and the third 3-0. That was a good hour... and we obviously came top of the league.

The second hour dropped to 5-a-side and was a little more sedate. The Gorse Fox was playing for the blue-bibs this time and we lost our opening game 3-1. It picked up for the second game which we won 3-0, and then the third game (where the Gorse Fox played in goal) ended up as 0-0 draw. Overall it was a good couple of hour exercise and the Gorse Fox managed to cover 10.5km (and his knees are now reminding him that he's not 25 any more).

Trip

If it's Monday it must mean a trip to Chichester. (Well that seems to be the way of things in recent weeks). It was bright and sunny today and after getting some domestic chores out of the way we hopped on the bus. Though it was a a lovely day, Chichester was surprisingly quiet. That could have been because people were stuck in the traffic on the A27 however.

The Gorse Fox had to visit M&S to change the polo shirts that Urban-Cub had got him. They were lovely shirts, and just the right colours, but the sizes were a little optimistic. He was lucky, for one of the shirts only a single item remained in his size... so he whipped it quickly before anyone else found it.

Meanwhile, round the corner at M&S Womenswear, the Silver Vixen was looking for some replacement swimsuits. It seems that too many swimsuits nowadays assume that the wearer has a backside the size of Wales. This is clearly not the case for the trim and prim Silver Vixen. There were a couple items that caught the eye, but in the end she only chose the one.

Cousteau-Cub is on an early shift today, but is off to the optician when she finishes work. Her eyes have been giving her some discomfort for a couple of weeks. It's probably the lighting in the office and the fact that she is stuck in front of a computer screen most of the day... but hopefully they can come up with some glasses or lenses that will suit.

The Gorse Fox has a meeting of the committee tonight to discuss the current state of our walking football... and what to do about the unedifying behaviour of some members on the pitch. (The Gorse Fox might be considered extreme, but he thinks the ref should be given a whistle and a baseball bat).

Fathers' Day

It's Fathers' Day and for the first time in many many years all the family are available to meet up. It started with rain, and more rain. In fact the rain was fairly constant throughout the morning. There was no football today, so the Gorse Fox spent the time on the computer.

Cousteau-Cub presented the Gorse Fox with a lovely card and some aprons to wear while preparing food. These were not only very nice, but immensely practical as the Gorse Fox has a habit of splashing food on himself when cooking.

Urban-Cub had been on early shift at Gatwick but got away at a sensible time and managed to get her head down for an hour or so. We headed across to LA to meet with her, Pistol Pete, and Ellie. Again the Gorse Fox was presented with gifts and some lovely cards from Ellie (whose handwriting is astonishing!) and Urban-Cub. Ellie had managed to select a book about Peppa Pig's Grandpa (soon to hit the best seller lists, to be sure) and Urban-Cub had selected a couple of colourful polo shirts. Between all three of his girls, the Gorse Fox has done very well, but more importantly we were all together.

It was a lovely afternoon and Urban-Cub cooked a huge leg of lamb with all the usual trimmings. Amber and Jake joined us for dinner but by the end of it, Ellie was clearly beginning to tire. We headed home early evening - it had been a superb day.

Friends

A bit of a grey day again and rain was forecast for the afternoon. The forecast was correct - but at least the rain wasn't very heavy.

Betty and Barney Rubble were due to visit but the Gorse Fox did have time to do some research during the morning. The problem he faces is that the family tree software he uses has an add-on feature called Family Book Creator. All of the examples and write-ups are very impressive and the gf would like to use it. The problem is that the software only runs on Windows systems and whilst a Mac version is promised, there is no indication as to when. The Gorse Fox was considering running Parallels so that he could install a version of windows to run pithing his Mac. It seems extreme, but at least he has started to evaluate whether it is worth the trouble.

Betty and Barney arrived and settled down with coffee and biscuits to catch up on the latest family news from both sides before heading out to lunch. The Gorse Fox had looked for somewhere new to try. TripAdvisor had provided reviews of the local restaurants and we decided to try the No.1 choice in Bognor - Mustards Restaurant and Bar. The reviews had been good and the place looked quite nice. We had chosen well. It was a sleek little restaurant, down a side street. The decor was tasteful and the staff were welcoming. The menus offered choices of "Lite Bites", fixed price, or a la carte... and the choices were really excellent with something for everyone - whatever their taste.

The food was lovely and between us we tried the grilled whole plaice in caper butter, the beer-battered cod on crushed minted peas, and a stilton, leek and asparagus tart. It really was delicious. The beer-battered cod was made with huge thick chunks of cod, and was cooked to perfection. This restaurant was another really good find and one to which we will certainly return.

Back home we spent the afternoon chatting and driving tea, generally putting the world to rights until they left late in the afternoon.

Domesticity

Friday has been a very domestic day. The weather was a bit iffy first thing but as the day wore on the sun came out and it's been a lovely afternoon.

Cousteau-Cub has been home for six or seven weeks now and we (i.e. she) has things well under control. Driving license now has correct (married) name and our address, she has a couple of bank accounts, she has a job (that she quite likes), she's been offered two other jobs (which she has turned down), and today we finally got her registered at the local doctors' surgery. (There are some advantages to working on a two shift pattern: 2-days early, 3-days late; it gives you time to get things done in the mornings!)

After Cousteau-Cub headed off to work the Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen went round to the farm shop to get some food for Jasper. We still haven't found a definitive mix of wet and dry foods that he will consistently eat, but we do seem to be narrowing things down. From there, it was off to Sainsbury's for a fish mix. The Gorse Fox had decided that we would have a Thai red fish curry for supper and needed to get some fish pieces.

The afternoon saw a raid on the rill. Again the blanket weed was getting out of control and the Gorse Fox managed to extract a couple of kilos of weed... and then two hours later another kilo of weed from the water.

With the exception of one of the acres, the garden is looking very good. We have decided that come the autumn, we will actually replant the remaining potted acres in the ground.

Duty calls

Not too much to report today. Ellie has been with us and that dictates our schedule to a degree. She woke around 7-ish and was soon asking for breakfast. Clearly she had worked up an appetite overnight as she demolished egg and bacon, an  individual apple pie (don't ask!), some porridge, and some cheese. She then proceeded to work it all off during the morning as she charged about.

By lunchtime she was hungry again - two sausages and a complete tin of ravioli sorted that out. AT this point she was getting fractious so the Silver Vixen took her up to bed and she just crashed for and hour or so. She's spent the afternoon playing in he sandpit, right up to the the arrival of Pistol Pete to collect her.

A rum and coke for the Silver Vixen and a G&T for the Gorse Fox seem like an adequate reward for the day's efforts... as a large pan of ragu bubbles away on the stove.

Armistice

It's Wednesday so the Silver Vixen had Pilates and the Gorse Fox had football. There had been some early morning rain but it had cleared by the time we set off.

The Gorse Fox had a good session. None of "the usual suspects" turned up today so we had a really enjoyable game. There was no arguing, no moaning, and no dubious tackling, just good enjoyable football. The way the teams were picked, however, did mean that the Gorse Fox was pinned back most of the time. He did venture forward a few times, but each of his attempts on goal was parried by the goalkeeper. Never mind, it was a very enjoyable session and though the Gorse Fox failed to score we did manage to win 6-3.

The journey home was made more interesting by a torrential downpour and the fact that there was some for of "incident" near Flansham. Three ambulances and there police cars were in attendance and traffic was snarled up in all directions. It wasn't clear what the incident had been as though there were several parked cars nearby, there was no obvious damage to any of them.

This afternoon we had to p[op back to LA in order to collect Ellie. She'll be staying with us overnight as Urban-Cub and Pistol Pete's shifts are clashing. She's clearly very tired (and keeps telling us as much) but we have kept her going. Ellie had a nice video call with Urban-Cub just now and she's now in the bath and will be in bed soon. Hopefully she'll sleep well.

Anniversary

The Gorse Fox has just realised that it was 50 years ago this week that he returned from a year studying in US. it had been a good year in Rhode Island, but it was time to come home to the UK.

Isn't it quiet

Jasper decided that the Gorse Fox should be up and about at 6:30 this morning. No great hardship as he was already awake and it meant he got a chance to see Cousteau-Cub before she went off to work. She's been a bit under the weather for the last few days, but seemed a bit better this morning. Clearly a good night's sleep has helped.

The Silver Vixen had plans for the day. She was meeting up with a friend for lunch then going on to the Embroiderer's Guild for the afternoon. The Gorse Fox, of course, had football.

There was a very good turnout today so we had four teams... 3 or 7 and 1 of 8 players. The Gorse Fox played for the white-bibs for the first hour. We were a defensively strong team, but didn't really have a cutting edge. We fought hard and managed 3 0-0 draws. From a defender's perspective that was a good result, but it did take a lot of discipline and there was no opportunity for the Gorse Fox to roam forward.

In the second hour, the team were 6 a-side. It was a bit more open and therefore more fun. Again, we put on a disciplined defensive display and won all three games 2-1, 2-0, and 1-0. The Gorse Fox didn't cover as much ground as usual, but overall it was a good show.

Back home, the Silver Vixen is still out, and Cousteau-Cub is going out with friends from work when she's finished. A very quiet afternoon... only interrupted by the beeping of the Instant Pot as it cooks a 2kg chicken. The Gorse Fox has made use of the time to catch up on some scanning and filing and checking that "Lightroom" is able to handle the ".heic" photos from the new phone. (It is!)

Hello, hell, hello again.

Filthy wet day today. This is what it must be like living in Wales.

The Gorse Fox had an early trip to Sainsbury's planned - the car needed diesel and Her Majesty's Constabulary needed a USB Flash drive. What? you might ask.

The Gorse Fox received his fourth call from the Police regarding the attempt to gain entry to our car last week. This time they wanted to come round and take a formal statement and wanted a copy of the CCTV footage on a flash drive... which (of course) the Gorse Fox had to provide. He wasn't that bothered by this; if it helps to get this woman convicted it was £6 well spent.

The PCSO arrived late morning and viewed the footage. He commented that he now understood why the Gorse Fox had been given the name of the suspect. It was very clear and he recognised he immediately. We then went on to do the statement. This was all done on his special mobile phone... but instead of just recording what the Gorse Fox had to say, he laboriously typed it out on the screen's keyboard. As he was finishing the Gorse Fox commented that there had been another incident over night. This was reported on the local Facebook page and had been reported to the Police online. He read through the Facebook data and commented that our suspect had been released on bail, and he doesn't believe in coincidences.

It was a quiet afternoon waiting for the British Gas engineer to arrived and perform the annual boiler service. He was a nice chap and got the job done without any fuss. He also came in and bled a couple of our radiators in the bathrooms.