All change

The Gorse Fox was first up, but Ellie followed him downstairs. Again, she settled down with a drink, some cereal, and the morning cartoons. The Gorse Fox worked his way through his first coffee and the day's news.

There was no real hurry today. As usual, Ocado would deliver our shopping, and the Gorse Fox had to take Urban-cub and Ellie up to the bandit country of Surrey. After all, she had to collect her new car! The Silver Vixen stayed at home, but we pottered up through Chichester and Midhurst and pulled into the dealer's car park. Paperwork was done, the new car seat was fitted, and we headed back onto the Queen's Highway.

Back home there was a trip to Sainsbury's and then the Gorse Fox fitted the new car seat to our car. All done. 

Mac

It was a cool bright morning. Ellie joined grandpa downstairs before anyone else emerged. She had her water and some toast; the Gorse Fox had coffee. She watched a cartoon, he read the papers online. This is becoming "our time".

The Silver Vixen was next to come down She had Pilates this morning so needed to get underway. She was also dropping E~llie at the child-minder on her way through, so Ellie needed to get washed and dressed. Urban-cub arrived and took control.

The Gorse Fox watched all of the chaos and then started on the week's Ocado shop. The Silver Vixen and Ellie had gone by the time he finished, and Urban-cub was upstairs getting dressed. She would spend the rest of the day completing her CV and send it off to all and sundry. The Gorse Fox had football.

The game was a pleasant and good-natured 7-a-side. It was clear from the outset that the Gorse Fox was destined to be on the losing team. The selection had been grossly lop-sided. We did what we could, and by half-time were only 1-0 down. The Gorse Fox was under concerted pressure and hardly strayed to the half-way line, let alone beyond. In the end, we managed to keep the score to 4-2. It had been a good hour's exercise.

This afternoon, the Gorse Fox went across to see Old Bill. He wants to buy an iMac. He had done some research and narrowed it down to one of four. The Gorse Fox helped him work through the options and finally select the most appropriate model for his requirements. Now let's see if he goes ahead!

Urban-cub and the Gorse Fox popped across to Halfords to get the new child car seat for Ellie. This is a nice model and is currently tucked in the boot of the Gorse Fox's car ready to be fitted in her new car tomorrow.

Double up

 There had been some rain in the night but by the time the Gorse Fox got up, the sky was clear and the paving was dry. Ellie was first to wake and join the Gorse Fox downstairs. She started the day with fruit juice, toast with ham, and and the Paw Patrol cartoons(*).

As the Gorse Fox was playing football today, he took Ellie to the child-minder on the way. There were a few tears at first but the Gorse Fox pulled himself together and we had a very quick ride across to LA. From there he moved on to Worthing and the Leisure Centre. He was chosen for the Light Shirts (1) team and, though we fought hard, we only drew the first game. We lost the next two games badly. From his point of view, it was a success as he's got the distance covered up to something semi respectable. He decided that he would stay on for the second hour.

The second hour was not walking football. It was, quite specifically, running football. He was concerned that after an hour of playing he would be too tired to give it a go. Despite his fears he played. Again we lost. Not badly, but we did lose. In the end the Gorse Fox had run over 8 km and was still feeling moderately human. Things are looking up.

It was a quiet afternoon with the Silver Vixen working on the Advent project, and Urban-Cub working on her CV. Late afternoon we went across to LA to collect Ellie. 

Supper done, we can now settle down for a quiet evening.

(*) The Gorse Fox is still worried about Paw Patrol. Where does Ryder get the money to create all of these vehicles? Where did the puppies learn to talk? Why does Adventure Bay rely on a kid and his menagerie for its security and rescue services? The public want to know!

Carless Whispers

The day started with the most spectacular red sunrise. The sort of celestial light show that lifts the soul and makes it soar. The Gorse Fox was expecting Ellie to follow him down - but no, she was still fast asleep. In fact it was Urban-Cub that came down next. She had a busy morning planned. In fact, when we discussed it it became obvious that the timings were not going to work. The Gorse Fox volunteered to take Ellie to the child-minder. This changed the schedule in such a way as to give her time.

The Gorse Fox disappeared off with Ellie and while he was gone, Urban-Cub set off for Portsmouth. She had looked online for a valuation of her existing car. Evans Halshaw came up with a good price, contingent on an inspection. Well, she had spent most of yesterday ensuring the car was pristine. She went across and they didn't quibble, offering her a valuation right at the top of their suggested range. They only deducted a small amount because it need a service and new tyres. (The tyres alone were worth at least four times the value of the deduction). She accepted the offer and the deal was done there and then. Log book was handed over and she was (whisper it quietly) carless. Her friend, the Princess, who lives nearby, collected her and they had a few hours and lunch together before the Gorse Fox drove across to Port Solent to collect her.

The Silver Vixen has spent most of the afternoon working on an advent calendar. The sewing machine has been at full revs.

The Gorse Fox had a quiet afternoon before taking Urban-Cub in to collect Ellie from the child-minder.

Decision

 It was a quiet morning after yesterday's late-is night. Having eaten later than usual, neither of us slept particularly well. No matter, there wasn't a specific plan for the day. As it happens, the Silver Vixen spent most of the day switching from her summer wardrobe to her autumn/winter wardrobe and storing the summer clothes away until next year.

Cousteau-Cub turned up at breakfast time, having dropped the Coventry Hobbit at work and taken Tyson for a walk. She was collecting the Urban-Cub so she could retrieve her car from Chichester, where she left it last night.

The Gorse Fox spent some time working with old photos, some time updating the family tree, and some time helping Urban-Cub. We did finally make a decision on the car seats. These are now on order.

Urban-Cub was cleaning her car ready for valuation tomorrow. This, for her, was a labour of love. She loves cleaning cars. Two Hats got involved and helped by removing a couple of tiny dings in the bodywork. The finished article looks as good as new. Tomorrow she will get a valuation and, depending on that, will relinquish the car or contact Kia and tell them to take it back. Hopefully, the valuation will be good because she will end up in profit.

The short ribs have turned out to be a big hit. The sauce, like yesterday's rub, had no quantities specified, so the Gorse Fox did it by guesswork. The ribs were then cooked in sauce for 4 hours. The Gorse Fox wishes he could have bottled the aroma that suffused the kitchen during the cooking process. It was sensational.

Car Seat

 Ellie has now reached the age and size whereby she can transition to the next size of car seat. As usual, such decisions are complex. Which has the best safety rating, which has the correct fittings, which makes are recommended for Urban-Cub's new car, and which for our car? After several hours we seemed to have narrowed it down, but Urban-Cub then went to Halfords and saw another model that she liked. We are currently on pause!

While she was at Halfords, she did manage to pick up a new Dash Cam mount for the Gorse Fox. His current suction mount keeps dropping off. She has managed to get an adhesive mount - and better still, they didn't charge her.

Urban-Cub went off to spend the evening with Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit. We stayed put as the Silver Vixen's Brighton cousins were coming to see us. We had a lovely evening and enjoyed another excellent take-away from Habib in the village. We caught up on all of the family news and heard about their recent camping trip (and its associated dramas and excitements). It was, as usual when we meet with them, a super evening.

More looking

 It was a lovely bright, if a little cool, day. The Gorse Fox heard form J&T that all was going well in Sidmouth, so far. From what he could see of the photos, they too had lovely bright weather.

The morning was a bit of a rush as Urban-Cub prepared everything for Ellie to take across to Pistol Pete for her weekend stay. She planned to go straight onwards to look at another car. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox decided that we would go along for the ride. Dropping Ellie at Pistol Pete's on the outskirts of Worthing, the journey took us up through Storrington, Pulborough, Midhurst, and on to Fernhurst in Surrey. Nestling along the High Street was a nice little garage with some lovely cars... and some absolute classics (old Mini Minor, a Mark 1 Cortina, a Marcos, loads of Mercs and Land Rover Discoverys etc.) The Cortina caught the Gorse Fox's eye. It was for sale at over £15,000 which must be about 15 times the original price. Urban-Cub had come to see another 1-Series BMW. This one was bright red, sport trim,  and had her name all over it! She took it out for a test drive while the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox went across the road for a coffee. She came back with her mind made up. When we got home, she phoned up and paid a deposit - by the end of the week it will be hers.

Back home, The Gorse Fox had a trip to Sainsbury's  to pick up a few items that were out of stock when he did the Ocado order. He also had to pick up some herbs and spices for a dry rub he was going to use on some beef short ribs. (This is a Tom Kerridge inspired recipe... but whilst he has the video, there are no quantities suggested so it will be done by guesswork).

Just Looking

 The day started very early. Ellie was awake soon after three... but fortunately she amused herself in her bedroom until the Gorse Fox got up at seven. She then charged down the stairs with him and demanded fruit juice, cartons, and toast with ham. The Gorse Fox obliged, then staled down with his coffee.

Ocado turned up with the weekly shopping at their allotted time, then the Gorse Fox played with Ellie until Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen had showered and dressed. Next on the agenda was a car. With Urban-Cub's change of circumstances and expensive PCP car is not a sensible outlay every month. The question was what should be the replacement. Urban-Cub had seen a couple of BMW 1-Series that interested her. One was nearby in Chichester. We took Ellie with us and went and had a look. Would the child seat fit? Would the buggy fit? Yes. As it happens, they did. She took the car out for a test drive and liked it.

Leaving the garage we then went on to look at some further dealerships, but nothing caught her eye at the price point she had set. The Gorse Fox supposes that with a BMW, at least the indicators have probably never been used. Back home she checked the status of her PCP and found that she was far enough into the contract that she had no penalties for relinquishing the car. That was good news. She's going to look at another car tomorrow. So let's see how it goes.

The Gorse Fox also had time to go along and have a complete overhaul at the barber's.  For once, all the seats were in use and there was someone queued before him. He watched as the others we sorted, then it was his time. He had the full works (with the exception of the nose-wax), and then wandered off into the afternoon sun.

Tom Kerridge recently featured a short-rib of beef on his BBQ Series. This was dry rubbed and left for 24 hours before being slow cooked for about 4-5 hours. The Gorse Fox got the short ribs in this morning's delivery. He has now reviewed the video and noted all the ingredients for his dry rub and his sauce. Tomorrow will require a trip to shops, and then he will start on preparing these short ribs for Sunday.

Fight back

 Ellie was awake at six this morning. She was asking if Grandpa was downstairs... No he wasn't. He was pretending to be asleep still. She settled with her iPad for an hour and Grandpa managed to go downstairs and start on his first coffee before she emerged.

The Silver Vixen was off to Pilates, and Urban-Cub was taking Ellie to the child minder. The Gorse Fox had a quiet hour before he had to head off for football.

The Gorse Fox found himself playing for the yellow-bibs today. AT first sight this was going to be a hard game, and we had little chance of a win. By half time we had clawed back a 3-1 deficit to 3-3. Our movement and passing was beginning to give us the edge. By the end of the second half we had managed to win 6-3. 

It looks as if football will be changing. Jason, who runs the Walking Football, has resigned and is taking up a new role at Worthing Football Club. It's not immediately clear what will be happening about our regular sessions - though in the longer term we will probably transfer to Worthing Football Club.

When the Gorse Fox got back at lunchtime Urban-Cub had just heard that she hadn't been selected for an interview for an alternative role at Gatwick. She is, obviously, pretty devastated and is now trying to work out what her next steps will be. We will obviously help where we can, but we do feel for her as 2020 has been a bit of disaster for her. She has a feedback call on Friday so we will be interested to hear the excuses that will be used (bearing in mind she knows some of the poor performers who have succeeded, and some of the top performers who haven't - this is clearly a case of who you are mates with).

Too Ambitious

Firstly, the Gorse Fox should point out that today is Agent Mulder's Birthday. The Gorse Fox has spent a while today on WhatApp chatting with him nd catching up on all of the news. Certainly his first year of retirement has been a little more constrained than that of the Gorse Fox.

Ellie went off to the child-minder and the Gorse Fox, soon after, headed off to football. It was a full house today. Four teams of 6. The Gorse Fox was in "Light One" (one of the two teams wearing white shirts). We started well with some lovely passing, but actually lost the first game 3-2. We stuck to our strategy of pass-and-move and comfortably won the second and the third games. This left the Gorse Fox in a dilemma.

Was he feeling fit enough to stay on and play another hour. This hour was full running football. Well?

No chance. He still isn't up to that level of fitness... maybe next week.

There's another game tomorrow. Let's hope he pushes the fitness just that little bit further.

Drone Fairy

 Ellie joined the Gorse Fox for a quiet 45 minutes this morning before anyone else got up. We sat and enjoyed Match of Day's summary of the massacre at Old Trafford. Despite Pistol Pete, she will be brought up properly to appreciate Spurs.

Once everyone else was up, and sorted Urban-Cub took Ellie across to LA and the child-minder. The Gorse Fox spent the morning steam cleaning the hard floors and helping Urban-Cub go through some aptitude tests. They were a challenge, in that no answers were incorrect, it was only a matter of interpretation as to which answers they were looking for.

This afternoon, the Silver Vixen had her hair done and the Gorse Fox spent some time reading and preparing for Ellie's return. The Royal Mail had been, you see, and delivered a new toy that the Gorse Fox had ordered. The toy is a pink fairy. Not just any pink fairy. Oh no. This pink fairy was, in fact, a drone. Once charged it would fly (fairly randomly) until it crashed or ran out of charge. It took some practice, but in the end we could get it to hover, to dip and climb, and stay clear of obstacles. Needless to say, when Ellie goy home she loved it (and we are already charging it for the third time). The fairy has been named "Poppy". 

Visitation

 It was wet. It was so wet. The Gorse Fox was not going walking today! The day started with Ellie coming down to join the Gorse Fox while he had his morning coffee and to sit with him to watch her cartoons. As everyone else started to emerge, the Gorse Fox went up for his shower and by the time he returned,  Cousteau-Cub had arrived. She had dropped the Coventry Hobbit off at work, and had stopped off to join us for breakfast. She stayed for a couple of hours and then headed off for some shopping.

We had a very quiet day. Ellie played well for most of the day and spent some time doing "crafts" with the Silver Vixen. This culminated in her multi-coloured cat mask and a couple of pipe-cleaner spiders.  

Urban-Cub sat in the Gorse Fox's study developing her submission for another role in Gatwick. Fingers and toes are crossed, but it does appear that there has been a very large number of applicants.

Cousteau-Cub came back in the afternoon to join us for dinner, and hung on until the Coventry Hobbit was ready to be collected from work.

The day should not go go by with a mention of Spurs superb 1-6 score at Old Trafford. Let's hope this is an indication of how the rest of the season will proceed.

Jabbed

 There was some torrential rain overnight, and it was still raining heavily for the first part of the morning. Urban-Cub and Ellie were planning to go to see Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit to (belatedly) celebrate the Cousteau-Cub's birthday.

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had plans too. We were due to have our annual flu jabs. (Who says that oldies can't have fun?) Jabs done, we then treated ourselves to a quick spin round Sainsbury's. As before, we timed this well. When we arrived we went straight in. By the time we left, some 20 minutes later, there was a queue all along the side of the building.

The rain had cleared. The clouds were still looking pretty ragged and threatening, but the forecast suggest that there would be a few dry hours before the next front hit. The Silver Vixen had things to do, but the Gorse Fox decided to go for a walk. He headed down to West Field and then walked along the esplanade up past the pier,  on past Butlins and The Lobster Pot, and on towards Middleton. Then, turning on his heels he walked back the way he had come.

Perhaps one of the key things the Gorse Fox misses from Kingston Gorse is the ability to walk out of the door and onto the beach, or into the countryside and then walk for hours in relative peace. Walking along the front today was like that, but yesterdays walk was disturbed by the constant roar of the traffic.

Highways

 It was very wet overnight and the morning was a complete wash-out.

The Silver Vixen, Urban-Cub and Ellie went in to Chichester for some shopping. The Gorse Fox stayed at home and updated his knowledge of "Six Sigma" and "Lean". Not because the Gorse Fox is venturing back into the realms of work, but rather to help Urban-Cub. The department that she is applying to join have need of these skills and it would be beneficial if she can at least speak the the lingo!

After lunch, with everyone back home, Ellie was eager to do some baking. This seemed like a cue for the Gorse Fox to go out for a walk. He decided on a 5km loop. He passed the school on the estate, then down along North Bersted Street. This is the route of an old pre-14th Century highway between North Bersted and Shripney. It is now bisected by the Bersted by-pass and only open to walkers. It's a long time since the Gorse Fox last walked this route and he had forgotten how many lovely "chocolate box" cottages line the old road. Once at Shripney, the Gorse Fox looped back down the A29 towards Sainsbury's, then back across Aldingbourne Rife and back home.

When the Gorse Fox got home Ellie and the Silver Vixen were in in full "Bak-Off" mode. We now have a biscuit tin full of gingerbread men. Very tasty they are too!

Strolling

 Thursday has been very much part of a pattern. The Gorse Fox was up first, and was busy drinking his first coffee before he heard Ellie stirring. Usually she goes straight in to see the Urban-Cub but this morning she came down and joined the Gorse Fox. Cartoons were displayed on the TV as she sat on the Gorse Fox's lap and read the paper with him. Her analysis of the US (non) presidential debate was scathing.

Slowly, every one else emerged and the Gorse Fox went and got washed and dressed. Ocado turned up with the week's shopping and the Gorse Fox packed it all away. The Silver Vixen needed to top-up her meds so the Gorse Fox used the dry weather as a good excuse for  5km walk there and back to the pharmacy that handles her prescriptions.

This afternoon Urban-Cub took Ellie to a play centre to meet with one of her friends. This left the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox to have a quiet afternoon with their fabrics and spreadsheets respectively.

Throughout the day Urban-Cub has been preparing to submit her application for a different role within the airport. She has received a lot of helpful guidance and is scheduled to speak with someone else in a similar  role tomorrow. Application have to be in by Monday, interviews are on Wednesday and decisions on Friday. At least this won't be a long, drawn out, process.

Drips

 Again, there had been overnight rain but again, it had cleared by the time the Gorse Fox went down for breakfast. It was the usual Wednesday morning rush with the Silver Vixen getting ready to go to Pilates, Urban-Cub getting ready to take Ellie to the child-minder, and the Gorse Fox getting ready for football.

Urban-Cub left first with Ellie, then the Silver Vixen left. The Gorse Fox was in no hurry. The Wednesday game has now been put back until 11:30. He set off in plenty of time (though you would expect nothing else) and arrived in time to prepare in the car. Last week we got a stroppy email from the leisure centre reminding us about social distancing and asking that we wear a mask while transiting through the building. Yesterday, the Gorse Fox put his mask on and a staff member asked him why. He explained about the email. She said not to bother as we (the staff) don't wear masks. The Gorse Fox wore his mask anyway.

The football was tight with a 5-5 final score. It shouldn't really have been so close as our "yellow" team were playing some much better football. Our goalkeeper, however, was having a bit of a nightmare and managed to steer at least two (if not three) of the attacks into our own goal.

We had been under threat of rain and the Gorse Fox was expecting to get absolutely soaked. As it happens the rain held off. In fact, the Gorse Fox saw no rain until early afternoon but then it seems to have set in for the rest of the day.

This afternoon has been spent talking with Urban-Cub. Gatwick have now started to declare who is needed for each job. It's fairly clear that, at her level, it has been very much a case of "old boys network" (given that people with far poorer appraisals managed to maintain their position whilst she didn't). She was fairly resigned to this happening, and has taken it well. She has immediately applied for another role within the airport and has a call set up with the manager of that department on Friday.

The other background task this afternoon has been looking further into possible cottages for a family break in the Spring. The Gorse Fox's sister made a recommendation which, on investigation, looks very good. The only drawback seems to be lack of WiFi and (for BT Mobile) no phone signal. This, however, could be overcome with a Vodafone WiFi Hotspot (Vodafone seem to have very good area coverage there). Once things settle down for Urban-Cub, we'll discuss it and try to settle on date.

On the Score Sheet

 There had been rain overnight, but not a lot. It was still looking threatening though when the Gorse Fox was sorting out breakfast, but it didn't come to anything.

The Gorse Fox had football in Worthing this morning. By the time he got there, the clouds were drifting away and there was some warm sunshine that made the game a real pleasure. The luck of the draw today saw the Gorse Fox in a fairly strong team. Though we played some lovely football, we only won the first of our three games. The Gorse Fox was very happy to contribute our first goal with a bit of a pile-driver from the midfield. All the games were close, and all fought fairly, giving the referees very little to do.

Back home the Gorse Fox processed the week's shopping list which the Silver Vixen had prepared, then retired to the study for a bit of spreadsheet work and then some research. Now that we will have to consider school holidays, the Gorse Fox was looking to see if he could find a suitable cottage that we could all go to stay in during one of the official school breaks. This, obviously, boosts the price quite significantly but it would be nice to have a family break. The Gorse Fox has been looking on the Isle of Wight, Devon, and Cornwall. One potential candidate has bubbled to the top, but the Gorse Fox isn't too happy about the Terms and Conditions, so needs to think on it. It seems that a 30% deposit is required, and, even if you cancel, you are still liable for the whole amount. Given the current Covid circumstances, this seems unreasonable. Their answer is to make sure you have good insurance.

In the swing

 Back in the swing today.

The morning was taken up with some domestic chores and the accounts. Once they were tidied away, the Gorse Fox returned to the child-care spreadsheet for next year. It is time to start making it a little more sophisticated and next, the Gorse Fox will start developing some rules that will help determine the default child-care option for every day of the year (based on shift patterns, holidays, and any other predictable variable that he can think of).

Lunch-time saw a quick trip to Sainsbury's and a chance to top-up the fuel on the Silver Vixen's car. Then we had a quiet afternoon until Ellie arrived home. She, Urban-Cub, and Pistol Pete had been round to have a further look at the pre-school that she will be attending from November. It all passed muster, and is now a matter of waiting until after half-term. This, in its own right, is an eye-opener. the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen will, once again, have to consider school holidays when they schedule their own trips. This will be the first time that this has been relevant for about 22 years!

This evening the landscape chappie popped in with a sample of the porcelain paving we have selected. We both decided that it was ideal and gave him the go ahead. Hopefully, he will start in the second half of October and the work should take 2-3 weeks.

All is Quiet

It really has been a very quiet day. After reading the digital papers over breakfast, the Gorse Fox went back to filing photos. The primary job at the moment is identifying faces in old photos. He managed to add a lot of detail to some previously unprocessed images. There was, however, a batch of old photos from the Silver Vixen’s family that proved too challenging. Then he had an idea. There is a distant cousin in Devon whose father is still alive. She is very active in family research and may be able to help. The Gorse Fox sent her a link to the photos and now awaits any response with interest.

The Gorse Fox moved on from the photos. Urban-Cub was eager to get the child-care spreadsheet set up for 2021. It seems a bit early to the Gorse Fox but he’s always happy to work on a spreadsheet. Accordingly, the new spreadsheet has been created and takes into account (for the first time) school holidays as Ellie will be starting school next September.

Other than that, there’s nothing to report.

Late

We were expecting the Landscaper at 9 o’clock. He forgot. By mid-morning the Gorse Fox texted him. There was a most apologetic response and he is now scheduled to drop in on his way back from the current job. The Gorse Fox is a bit of a stickler for time-keeping so is not impressed.

Urban-Cub helped get Ellie up and about, and then retired to bed. She was scheduled work a night duty tonight and Pistol Pete was collecting Ellie for the weekend.

The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had a quiet morning and early afternoon. She then had a call from her sister that wiped out the next few hours. The Gorse Fox used the time to find out how to update his Apple Watch, given that it was claiming to have insufficient space for the code. What a palaver! It was a matter of unpairing the phone, then re-pairing it, restoring the backup and then restarting the update. It has taken a couple of hours so far.

Urban-Cub is now up and about. She has received a message from work telling her she is NOT to come in, as they have already managed to cover her shift. Frankly, it’s quite a relief. We’d rather that she stays put and rests.

Trips

 

Much of today has been about Chichester. It all started when Urban-cub's GP said that she should go to A&E. In case she needed to stay, the Gorse Fox decided to drive her rather than let her drive herself. So, that was the first trip.

Back home for a coffee and to play with Ellie for a while then the Gorse Fox was off back to Chichester. This time it was for his regular appointment with the chiropodist. The traffic had built up by this point and he was a bit pushed for time. He arrived with minutes to spare and Tom (the farrier) carved away at his feet until he was happy that he had infected enough pain and discomfort, and drawn enough blood for the day.

Back home for a quick bite of lunch and then the Gorse Fox prepared to take Ellie for a walk. The idea was to drop her enrolment forms in at the local pre-school, but just as we we getting ready the message came from Urban-cub. She was being discharged and was just waiting for her meds from the pharmacy.

Ellie and the Gorse Fox leapt in the car and headed back to Chichester to collect her. There was no hurry. The hospital pharmacy is renowned for its glacial pace, and the promised 20 minutes was nearly three times that. Eventually, she emerged. Ellie was delighted to see her mum and all was again right with the world.

Growing up

So Ellie is learning from a young age that laptops can be used in a number of comfortable positions 

Smashed it

 Urban-cub arrived back from work; it was easy to see that she was quite happy. As the story unfolded she told us about the presentation and interview. It was clear that she absolutely smashed it. Considering she hadn't done a presentation before, the preparation we had done and the run-throughs that she did in the car park obviously set her up well. Now we just have to wait to hear the outcome.

Slide

 It was wet to start with, but then it dried up and we had a bright, if breezy, morning. After the Ocado delivery, the Gorse Fox was press-ganged into building a wooden railway, watching Paw Patrol, then building a tower with Lego. This was all punctuated by trips to get drinks and snacks for Ellie. Finally, she had had enough and suggested a trip to the park. The Gorse Fox grabbed coats and we set off to walk round to local play area.

Ellie loves the play area, and we had the whole place to ourselves. Ellie headed for the swings to start with, but we noticed they were higher than usual. The Gorse Fox fiddled about and realised someone had been rotating the seat and thus twisting the chain. A reverse twist sorted things out. Ellie promptly ran off to the slide, then the roundabout. We had a lovely hour as she ran from one piece of apparatus to the next and back. In the end the cool wind got the better of us and we headed home.

Urban-Cub had her big presentation at lunchtime. She gave us a quick call afterwards to let us know it had gone fairly well, but we’ll hear more later.

The afternoon seems to have been spent updating MacBooks, iPads, and iPhones. As the Gorse Fox mentioned in the previous post, he is very impressed by the new Scribble app.

This is rather interesting - Scribble

 

The Gorse Fox has updated his iPad to IOS14. One of the features of this new release is an app called Scribble. Scribble interfaces with several Apple products such as Pages or Notes and allows the user to write with cursive text on the screen using the Apple Pencil and it automatically reads and converts the handwriting to typed text. So far the Gorse Fox has found this to be very accurate and quick. Where there have been errors it has been because of his handwriting rather than anything he would blame on the program. This complete blog post has been handwritten with the only corrections being punctuation.

Powepoint

 Wednesday so it must be Pilates for the Silver Vixen and football for the Gorse Fox. Ellie was at the child-minder and Urban-cub was busy preparing for a big presentation at work tomorrow. The Gorse Fox helped out a bit before heading off to the game.

Football was greeted by some torrential rain, but fortunately, it didn't last too long. The game was a busy 8-v-8 which is a bit too crowded. It was close and at half-time, it was all square at 2-2. During the break, we had a vote on whether we should limit numbers to 7-v-7 in future and it was agreed with all but one vote. The second half kicked off and the other team scored twice more to our single response. 

Once home, the Gorse Fox returned to the presentation material for Urban-cub. It was really quite good fun to help put together a presentation again after all these years. Selecting the images, crafting the messages, discussing the background commentary, and so forth. He called Urban-cub and we had a long Face-time chat as she made the changes he suggested. The rest of the afternoon was taken up with some further background reading and then collecting Ellie.

After dinner, when Urban-cub arrived home, we returned to the presentation. The Gorse Fox presented it to her so that she could video it, and then replay it several times to help her get the flow and context together. After that, she was off to bed as she has an early start in the morning.

Celebration

It has been a pleasant day. The weather was warm in the morning but by early afternoon, some cloud or mist had settled over the Downs and it was a bit cooler.

The Gorse Fox had football in the morning. The teams were split, as usual, into 5-a-side (though it's usually 6-a-side) and we got started. It wasn't an auspicious start. We lost the first game 2-1. We then seemed to find our mojo and despite the stronger opposition, we won the second game 5-2 (and the Gorse Fox had a goal disallowed). In the final game, we again managed a hard-fought win 3-1. A good morning!

Back home the Gorse Fox got showered and changed and with the Silver Vixen and Urban-cub set off into the Downs to meet with Cousteau-cub and the Coventry Hobbit. Today is, after all, Cousteau-cub's birthday. This needed to be celebrated. (It's hard to believe that little bundle of joy is now such a big bundle of joy).

They had been up to The Trundle for a picnic and then headed to Charlton to meet us in the garden of "The Fox Goes Free". We had a lovely couple of hours with them and enjoyed an excellent lunch.

Once we were back home the Gorse Fox sat down with Urban-cub to help her gather her thoughts for a presentation she has to deliver on Thursday. Then, after collecting Ellie, he helped her start to format and illustrate the material. This is something she will need to sleep on and refine, but it's looking quite good so far.

Tags

 It's been a lovely day again. By mid-morning the washing line was full and it looked like a perfect drying day. The Silver Vixen was meeting a friend for lunch so the Gorse Fox got on with some chores before retiring to the study to do the accounts.

He returned to Lightroom and the face-tagging. He has now cleared the bulk of the missing names (at least for the folders he has looked at so far). He also spent a great deal of time working with the tags to categorise them - Family, Friends, School, Work, and so forth. This took a lot longer than expected, but when you have 45,000 photos (in this library alone) the Gorse Fox doesn't find it unreasonable.

Urban-Cub collected Ellie from the child-minder and took her to look at a pre-school here on the development. She was very impressed and Ellie clearly loved it. As a result, it looks highly probable that Ellie will start three-days a week at Dizzy-Ducklings from the end of next month. Ellie seems very excited by this.

Western Front

 As summer comes towards the end, we had another lovely day today. Urban-Cub was off out for the day, so the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had the day to ourselves. As it was so nice, we chose to go down to the promenade again. Again we chose the western side of the Prom (between the pier and Aldwick). It is so much quieter there as most of the tourists seem to concentrate at the eastern end of the beach front.

We had a lovely walk from West Field down to the Pier, along the almost deserted Promenade and then on to the bandstand. This is currently being renovated, and is surrounded by scaffolding. There was an interesting plaque on the hoardings explaining the history of the bandstand and how it was originally erected in Cheltenham outside their Winter Garden, and then transferred to Bognor after the War. We sat on a bench for a while before turning and retracing our steps to the car. It had been a very enjoyable interlude.

During the afternoon, the Gorse Fox filed some more photos. While doing so he accidentally pressed a button and it displayed the facial recognition that has been completed for the photo library. What concerned him was that it also showed the faces that had been found but not identified. There were hundreds of them. This then destroyed the next couple of hours as he tried to "fill in the blanks". He's nowhere near finished, but the next batch can wait for another day.

Quieter day

 It’s been a quieter day today. Ellie didn’t stir until eight and was clearly in a very good mood and, once, fed and bathed, Urban-Cub took her off to see Pistol Pete for the rest of the weekend. 

The Silver Vixen spent the morning cleaning and doing laundry, the Gorse Fox vacuuming, spot-cleaning the carpets, and steam-cleaning some of the hard-floors. There was a quick trip to Sainsbury’s for cat food, then the Gorse Fox settled down for some photo editing and filing of recent photos and then some family tree research. It is clear that some new Canadian records have come online recently so the Gorse Fox has been able to fill in a few more blanks for that side of the family.

Ssshhh

 Urban-Cub worked her first night-shift last night. Fortunately, it's the only one this week. She snuck in the front door soon after seven this morning and took herself straight to bed. Ellie had woken at six, but after a a spoonful of medicine (she has a bit of a cold) she settled back down until eight. The trick was going to be keeping her quiet so that Urban-Cub could sleep. Bizarrely, this worked well until mid-morning when she waltzed into Urban-Cub's bedroom and had a complete meltdown when she realised the mummy was home already.

It took some while to calm her down, but eventually she was back on an even keel and we took her back out to the West Park that we had visited yesterday.

Again she made her way round the various rides. Today she used the swing, as opposed to just pushing it with her imaginary friend. She was also intrigued by the slide, but couldn't get over her risk aversion for climbing the scrambling nets to get to the top. (One feels that a traditional ladder would not have gone amiss). 

There were quite a few children about, but it wasn't busy. She declared that she was going to the zip-wire so we trudged off behind her. Yesterday, Grandpa had to show her that it was safe, but could not cajole her onto it. Today, she decided she was willing to risk her cuddly bunny. So it was that she raced back and forth, holding bunny on the seat as it rushed along the wire.

We received a text message. Urban-Cub was awake. We gave it another 30 minutes then took Ellie back home. Urban-Cub and Ellie have now gone off to spend the afternoon with Cousteau-Cub.

Fun in the Sun

It was another lovely day. The Gorse Fox was up early - a couple of hours before anyone else in the house. When they finally emerged he went up to wash and dress and then went straight to the garden to taken the bins out. It was a good job he did. The bin men had already been, but were only a few houses away so actually came back for our bins (which was very kind of them).

Being Thursday we had the usual delivery of shopping from Ocado and the Gorse Fox did the accounts. Urban-Cub took Ellie out for a quick trip round Sainsbury's while the Silver Vixen got through a prodigious amount of washing.

By lunchtime, Urban-Cub had to go back to bed. She is on night duty tonight and needed some rest before setting off. We had promised to take Ellie out so she had some peace.

We loaded up the car and returned to West Park (where we went on Sunday). We spent a lovely couple of hours there, keeping a close eye on Ellie as she went from one ride or slide to another. There were a few people around but most seemed to be grandparents like us, with their charges, or a few young mums. After a while, we left the playground and took Ellie into Marine Gardens to see the fountain and have a stroll around.

Route critic

 It was a lovely warm day. Urban-Cub had left home very early to get to work and Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox were on duty. Ellie was as good as gold and was soon washed, dressed, and had finished breakfast. The Silver Vixen had Pilates this morning so she took Ellie to child-minder, on the way.

The Gorse Fox had a quiet hour at home. The first task was to install Ellie's car-seat in the Fiesta. He would, after all, have to collect her later.

Being Wednesday, and back to a normal(-ish) schedule, the Gorse Fox headed across to Worthing for football. We had a good game, which was tightly fought. The Gorse Fox's Cornithian spirit got in the way. We now play a 3-touch game; i.e. you can only have three touches of the ball. Any additional touch concedes a free kick. Twenty-five minutes into the game with the score at 0-0,  the Gorse Fox intercepted a ball then as he moved it about he realised he had touched it 4 times. He shouted at the ref, and admitted the infraction. Everyone on the Gorse Fox's team stopped. The other team didn't and ran on through and scored. We waited at the spot for the free-kick to be awarded, but the ref said he had played "advantage"/ We were 1-0 down. The second half became a torrid defence of the goal-line. In the end we conceded twice more, but only pulled one back.

The Gorse Fox had a quiet afternoon with some code and also booking in for an "Experience Day". He is now scheduled to visit the Top Gear test track in October and drive a couple of Aston Martins. The Silver Vixen, meanwhile, was having afternoon tea with Cousteau-Cub at a rather nice restaurant in Bosham.

When the alarm went off, he headed to LA to collect Ellie. She was excited because it was the first time she will have travelled in Grandpa's "little car". On the wa back we chatted until we got close to home. At this point the Gorse Fox uses the Nort Bersted by-pass, whereas Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen tend to stick on the side roads.

"Where are we going?" called the voice from the back. 

The Gorse Fox explained that he uses this route. 

"Well," came the voice, "the girls go the other way." he was informed. 

The Gorse Fox explained that he preferred to use the bypass. There was a long pause.

"Well, I'm not sure I'm happy about this." said Ellie, bring the conversation to a close.

Hot

 It was positively hot today. This was fine for the Silver Vixen who was having picnic with a friend, but it was a bit hot for the Gorse Fox playing football.

Football was fun. We were split into 4 teams and played the usual round-robin. The Gorse Fox was playing for the white-tops and, as usual, tucked himself into the centre back position. On paper, our team looked average, but once we started to play we actually did quite well. We won the first game 2-1, drew the second game 0-0, and won the last game 1-0. Fitness still eludes the Gorse Fox but he has another game tomorrow and hopes it is inching its way back.

This afternoon was meant to start with a quick bit of photo filing. That went well, but the Gorse Fox thought he'd just run a cross-reference on the filer program. His xref program failed. He has managed to find another (really obscure) bug. That has taken most of the afternoon to track down... but so far he hasn't got to grips with it. That'll have to wait until later in the week.

Late afternoon, he got the the dinner under way as the Silver Vixen arrived back. Once everything was on the hob he then had to head out to LA to collect Ellie from the child-minder. Fortunately, the traffic was a lot less troublesome than yesterday.  

Taxi!

 Urban-Cub was back at work this morning. This meant that she snuck out of the house just after 04:30. G-Force were left in charge. Though Ellie woke soon after six, she amused herself in her room until nearly seven. She was no trouble, and was soon washed, dressed, and fed, leaving her time to play before the Gorse Fox taxi took her off to the child-minder.

Once back home and properly caffeinated, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox headed into Chichester. It was only a short trip to pick up some bits from M&S, but in the end the Gorse Fox came home empty-handed.

Overnight we had received the quote for the replacement of our deck. The Gorse Fox went through the details and decided it was a perfectly reasonable quote (i.e. it was less than he had expected). He wrote an acceptance letter and, as the company is based just round the corner, he dropped it off through their letter-box. (They said that in terms of when the work is scheduled, it is a case of first come first served, so the Gorse Fox decided that speed was the essence).

A chunk of the afternoon has been spent cooking, but once everything was underway the Silver Vixen started on the week's shopping list, and the Gorse Fox's taxi headed off to collect Ellie. She had obviously had a busy day and despite the Gorse Fox's best efforts, she fell asleep on the way home. This can often mean a grumpy half-hour when we arrive, but we were lucky today.

West of the Pier

 The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had decided to go for a walk down by the beach, but for a change, we would park near Aldwick and walk back towards the pier. Well, that was the plan. As it happened, Urban-cub's car was on the drive and blocking our car. This should be a perfectly manageable situation if, of course, she has left he car keys. She hadn't. Both set of keys were with her at Cousteau-cub's. A quick exchange of messages and Cousteau-cub leapt into action and drove Urban-cub home (with the keys).

We arrived at the beach and went to look at the West Fields play area (with a view to finding activities for Ellie). It looked really rather good. We then turned and walked down through the lovely Marine Gardens. Though the Gorse Fox is sure we have driven past them many times, this was the first time we had actually been in to have a look. They were really quite charming.

Carrying onwards we headed about one and a half kilometres to the far side of the pier. That east end of the Esplanade, however, was really quite busy so we decided to turn about and head back along the western promenade. We stopped for a while to watch them reeling in a rib at the Yacht Club. The winch cable ran from the club, under the promenade, and under the yacht ramp right down to the tide line.

Moving on, we looped back into the Marine Gardens (taking another route through them). After about 90 minutes we arrived baved back at the car and pottered home.

Quiet

Saturday has been a remarkably quiet day. We all had a bit of a lie-in (well, it’s not as if we have school or work today!)

Urban-Cub had to take Ellie to Pistol Pete, but had promised to take her for a ride on the narrow gauge train in a local park first. They got there to find that the train had been booked for a private party and wasn’t available until 11:15. This left Ellie in tears, so Urban-Cub called Pistol Pete and agreed to deliver her a bit later so that they could hang around and ride the train.

The Gorse Fox spent some time on one of his coding projects while all this was going on. Then the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent the afternoon in the Orangery reading until Cousteau-Cub arrived for a chat and to collect Urban-Cub who would be staying with her overnight. (The Coventry Hobbit has spent the day in London, meeting up with a bunch of fellow reprobates from Thailand).

Fish and Chips

 What a lovely afternoon and evening. The Gorse Fox's little sister and b-i-l came to visit after a day at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard. They had enjoyed their trip and had a chance to see the new aircraft carrier Prince Of Wales (though not tour it).

We had a lovely few hours of chat and catching up culminating in a gourmet spread from the local fish and chip shop. (Who says we don't push the boat out?)

Fixed

The chappies turned up this morning to reattach the errant trim above our window. At last.

Spick and span

 Thursday has been fairly uneventful. We were a little slow off the mark this morning and before we knew what was happening Ocado were at the door with this week's delivery. It was interesting chatting to the driver. He explained that when Ocado was first set up they approached M&S for a partnership, but Stuart Rose (the chairman of M&S at the time) wasn't convinced it would catch on. Ocado then went to Waitrose and struck a mutually beneficial deal. Now that deal has expired the, Stuart Rose happens to be in the Ocado Boardroom, and surprise surprise they have just switched allegiance to M&S.

Urban-Cub and Ellie went out for much of the day, leaving the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox to their own devices. The Gorse Fox returned to his code.

At lunchtime a nice chap called Dave turned up (as arranged) to clean our ovens. What a job he did. He was with us for a good three hours or so. The oven was all but dismantled and various bits dropped into a degreasing tank while he concentrated on the oven and oven doors. He was absolutely meticulous and we had an interesting ongoing conversation throughout. We would certainly use him again.

The Silver Vixen had a new stool delivered. This will go into our bedroom. The box, in which it arrived, was sturdy and warranted saving for Urban-Cub when she eventually moves. Well, we say Urban-Cub, but young Ellie found it to be an ideal plaything.

Celebrations

 Wednesday has been a good day all round.

Urban-Cub took Ellie to child-minder in LA. The Silver Vixen went to Pilates in Angmering, and the Gorse Fox had football in Worthing. The only problem was that we were informed of a delivery that was scheduled while we were out. Fortunately, Lady Penelope was in and happy to receive it. We left a note on the door for the delivery man, redirecting him.

Football was a little sparse with 6-v-5, but again we had an official ref from the Leisure Centre, and this made the came much better. It just stopped any random interpretations of the rules and provided some consistency. This was the Gorse Fox's third game back and, at last, he was beginning to get his passes on target, and also managed several accurate shots on goal (one of which went in). In the end we ran out 6-2 winners, so the Gorse Fox was very satisfied.

Arriving home the Gorse Fox picked up the delivery from Lady Penelope. It turned out that the notice on the door had worked as there were 4 deliveries all together. The most important one was the birthday present for the Coventry Hobbit.

Urban-Cub had been on a conference call with work. For the past few weeks she has been concerned (stressed) regarding the impending redundancies at Gatwick. It is clear that, as a result of the call, she is a lot happier about the situation and, whilst there are not guarantees, she feels relatively confident about the long-term.

As it was the Coventry Hobbit's birthday we had to celebrate. We all went into Chichester for dinner at Pizza Express. Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit pulled into the car park behind us and we strolled across to the restaurant. 

Ellie was wedged between Urban-Cub and Cousteau-Cub but was very well behaved as we enjoyed a lovely meal. It was so nice to have the whole family together.

Service

 Another prompt start today. Again, Ellie was due to be at the child-minder so Urban-Cub had to get her up and going. Once Urban-Cub had left the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox did the "car dance", whereby the Silver Vixen's car is shifted off the drive to allow the Gorse Fox to get to his car. The first activity was to remove all of the plastic bags from the boot. Perhaps the Gorse Fox should explain. Each week the Ocado delivery comes in a series of plastic bags. In the time "BC" we were charged for these, but reimbursed for every bag we returned the following week. During the pandemic Ocado stopped the bag collection and suggested we store them for when they restart. We have some six months of bags compressed into bundles and stored in the boot of the Fiesta.

After a really hard year, where the Fiesta has clocked up nearly 750 miles, it was time to get it serviced and get a DVLA MOT. The Gorse Fox whizzed the car into Chichester and eventually found somewhere to park it at the dealership. Waving a cheery goodbye he left them to it and strolled back to the bus station to get the bus home.

Back home, The Gorse Fox spent some quality time developing some new code. He has two versions (based on yesterday's conundrum) a Plan A version, and a Plan B version. Both versions now work perfectly - but there's still some documentation to complete.

Mid afternoon, the Gorse Fox headed back to the bus stop. Getting into Chichester a bit earlier than planned he leapt off the bus early so he would have a longer walk to the dealership. As he got within 100 yards of the garage, his phone rang. It was the service manager phoning to confirm the car was ready. Timed to perfection.

Needless to say, the car passed its MOT. The frustrating part was that this was a scheduled major service. So despite it being the scheduled 75,000 mile service, the car has only done 15,000 miles in 6 years and only 750 of those were this past year. Despite that it still managed to drain £460 from the bank account. (They were very expensive those 750 miles!)

Ratchet

 Everyone was up early. Today was Ellie's first day back with the child-minder. Urban-Cub had to get her across to LA for just after 09:00 and by the time she has faffed about over breakfast, and faffed about over clothes selection, and faffed about over getting washed, plenty of time needs to be allowed. It all got done, and all of a sudden the house was quiet.

The Gorse Fox spent the morning on several chores. The most time-consuming was steam-cleaning the floors throughout downstairs. Once that was done, he had to return to the cupboard that houses the tumble dryer. A strap that secures the aforementioned appliance on top of the washing machine was not on tightly enough. The result was that when the spin cycle started the ratchet on the strap would;d bang incessantly against the side of the appliance. Everything had to be stripped out again before the Gorse Fox could adjust the ratchet and tighten everything within an inch of its life!

It's the Coventry Hobbit's birthday this week. After discussions with Cousteau-Cub, we have come up with a suitable present so the Gorse Fox spent some quality time with Mr Amazon selecting the correct item an getting it ordered. The rest of the afternoon has been spent doing some coding. It started as an ostensibly simple update to an existing program. It turned out, however, to be a bit of a head-scratcher as test runs gave different results despite there being no code changes. The Gorse Fox has a Plan B (of course) but would really like Plan A to work.

Not every day

 It was a bright and sunny start to the day. It was also quiet and leisurely.

With breakfast and the morning papers finished (well the digital versions, thereof), the Gorse Fox had to take Urban-Cub into Chichester to collect her car from Cousteau-Cub's where she spent yesterday evening. 

Dropping her off, the Gorse Fox popped on through to Sainsbury's for a few bits and pieces (most important of which was eggs). Leaving the store, clutching the various purchases the Gorse Fox was amused by the sight of a real classic in the car park. You certainly don't see one of these Singers every day, month, or even year (unless, of course, you happen to own one). The Gorse Fox looked around to see if Poirot or someone was collecting his shopping, but no such luck.

Back home the Silver Vixen had moved the cleaning operation to the Orangery. The Gorse Fox offered to lend a hand, but ended up getting the dinner prepared and set on the delay-timer. He also took the opportunity to make some more changes to the childcare spreadsheet (as request by Urban-Cub). He suspects it now covers all foreseeable eventualities.

Spring Cleaning

 Ok, we got the season confused. It's autumn (or will be in 16 days). The Silver Vixen woke up and decided that today would be the day to give the kitchen a deep clean. It's a shame because the weather was glorious and the Gorse Fox was going to suggest a long walk along the promenade and lunch at The Lobster Pot. Oh Well.

The Silver Vixen got started while the Gorse Fox filed some old photos and sorted out the facial recognition on some recent ones. Some suggested names seemed even more bizarre than usual, but he finally sorted it out. (Trevor, if you are reading this, it suggested that you were Ellie... and Jane, it suggested you were Claire Badeski).

Back in the kitchen, the Gorse Fox got involved and helped with the deep clean. It amazes him how greasy the tops of cupboards can become - particularly when we don't really fry or cook in much oil.

Urban-cub has been working on the child-care spreadsheet this afternoon. With Ellie due to return to the child-minder on Monday and Urban-cub due to return to work the following Monday we are now trying to get everything sorted.

Tumbling dice

We concluded yesterday, that the tumble drier was dead. If it hadn't been strapped to the top of the washing machine, it would have been pushing up daisies. It is no more. It has done well, though, being some 20 years old. A saunter though the online aisles of John Lewis revealed all of the latest and greatest possible replacements. After a brief bit of research and seeing the feedback, we decided on a Samsung that matches our washing machine. Money exchanged hands electronically and disposal of the old appliance and delivery of the new one was set up.

We paid a bit extra to have the new tumble drier delivered today (rather than wait until the middle of next week). An email came through first thing to give us a two-hour time slot. This gave the Gorse Fox plenty of time to strip the cupboard out of the utility  recess, vacuum, and sanitise the area. Then Two Hats came round to lend a hand moving the old tumble drier out of the way. 

While the area was clear the Gorse Fox took the opportunity to check the pressurisation of the sealed heating units and topped them up. (He can only really reach the controls while everything is out of the way).

The chappies turned up in the allotted time slot. The old machine was removed and the new one was manhandled into place. It is clearly a lot heavier than the old one. With a wave they left... and Ellie stood by the door waving back. The new drier was indeed heavy. The Gorse Fox had to level it up and that meant adjusting the feet, but to do that he had to lever the whole machine up to take the weight off the adjustable feet. Eventually, it was done and everything put back in place. Let's now hope that we're happy with it.

Urban-Cub still needed to rest, and the Silver Vixen was attacking some ironing. 

The Gorse Fox offered to take Ellie to the park. She's beginning to get picky and tried to dictate which park we would visit. The Gorse Fox had other ideas. If it wasn't in walking distance, we weren't going. In the end he proved more stubborn than she was and we headed off. 

As usual, Ellie, managed to make friends with another girl (who seemed about 7-8 years old), and played with her and her dolls on the various swings, slides, and roundabouts. This interrupted the lecture that the Gorse Fox was giving her on the subject of momentum and friction and Newton's Laws. The Gorse Fox is not sure how much she took in, but he'll be asking questions later.

Eventually, with the clouds beginning to look a bit threatening, we headed home.

Urban-Cub has just taken Ellie to spend the weekend with Pistol Pete. There's a lot of excitement brewing as she is back with the child-minder on Monday.

Out and about

 The day started with a trip to Chichester. Urban-Cub had an appointment at the hospital and the Gorse Fox took her along. It's clear that people are getting back to work. The traffic queues on the way into Chichester were almost back to the BC(*) levels. We got there in plenty of time though.

While the Gorse Fox was sitting in the car park waiting for Urban-Cub to emerge, the phone rang. It was the Estate Agent who handled the marketing of Foxearth. "Hello, is that the Gorse Fox? This is Sharon from Sellem and Run in East Preston. We see that you were a client, do you still live in Foxearth?". Clearly, their finger is on the pulse of the local property market. The Gorse Fox explained that a) we moved from there in 2013, b) they failed to sell it twice for us, and c) the property has been completely rebuilt and renamed. There was a pause. "Ah, ok. We'll take you off our list, shall we?" The Gorse Fox confirmed that would be a good idea and hung up.

Back home, Urban-Cub needed some rest so after things had settled and Ellie was starting to get boisterous, the Gorse Fox took her down to the play-park. She insisted on wearing her new Minnie Mouse Backpack (even though grandpa ended up carrying it - at least he had dispensed with the hair band by then).

The play ground was quite busy, but she played on the swing, the slide and the roundabout. Her main interest today seemed to be pushing an empty swing, rather than sitting on it. The Gorse Fox started to wonder if it was an opportunity to start explaining angular momentum, but she didn't seemed interested. It obviously tired her out because grandpa had to carry her back on his shoulders when she had finished playing.

This afternoon the Silver Vixen needed to collect a prescription but the Gorse Fox volunteered to walk round to the pharmacy in order to get some exercise. It's only a couple of kilometres each way, but it's a fairly pleasant walk.

(*)BC - Before Coronavirus 

Never too sure

The thing about having a three year old granddaughter living with you is that you can never really be sure when you might need to wear a hairband, as the Gorse Fox has discovered this morning.

For the record, it's blue and has a bow.

Elf 'n' Safety

 The Gorse Fox could not play football today. The troubleshooter from our builders was coming to fix the decorative panel back on the house. We'll get back to that!

The Silver Vixen had her usual Zoom Pilates (though this is the last week it is being provided as they are returning to bum-to-face meeting next week. Urban-Cub and Ellie went off down to the seafront and then met up with the Coventry Hobbit for some lunch and shopping.

Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox waited in for the builder. He was scheduled to arrive at 11:00. The Gorse Fox was loathe to get stuck into anything major so spent the time reading until he arrived. In the end the Gorse Fox had to phone head office. He was some two hours late. 

Eventually he turned up. He took one look at the problem and uttered the immortal words "I'm not doing that." He sucked on his teeth. "Heath and Safety would have my guts" he went on, "I'm not putting myself out any more for that bunch. Sorry". He then agreed that the work would require scaffolding or a cherry picker, and he would inform the head office and send photos. The Gorse Fox is now awaiting their response.

Back in the swing

 A good day. Whatever the Gorse Fox was suffering from seems to have lifted and he was raring to go this morning. The Silver Vixen was planning to meet up with a friend at West Dean Gardens, Urban-Cub was planning to take Ellie to Hotham Park, and the Gorse Fox was heading out to football.

At 09:15 we did the car dance. Urban-Cub moved her car, the Silver Vixen moved her car and the Gorse Fox went into the garage to move his. He was, after all, meant to be the first one out. The trouble was that when he turned the key, nothing happened. He gave it a moment and tried again. A slight groan, then Nada. He gave it another moment or two and tried a third time. The little engine burst into life. Whew! The Gorse Fox made sure that when he was driving across to Worthing, he was using as few electrical gadgets on the car as possible. Hopefully, the alternator would do its job and recharge the battery a bit.

Football was most enjoyable. It really was nice to see the guys from Worthing after so long. The Gorse Fox really isn't match-fit. He couldn't shoot straight if his life depended on it. Then, when he finally got a nice clean strike, on target, the goalkeeper got his fingers to it and turned it past the post.

This afternoon, the Gorse Fox had to spend some quality time on the phone with HMRC again. He had a query over the new tax code that he had been assigned. After a long discussion, the Gorse Fox was satisfied that the new code was correct and understood why it differed from the code he had been quoted 10 days ago.

Breathe In, and out

 The Gorse Fox has been a little under the weather since yesterday evening. Quite suddenly he was getting some pain near his shoulder and it was preventing him taking a deep breath. This got worse during the evening and overnight was a bit of a problem.

When he got up this morning the discomfort was still there, and a little more widespread. First order of the day, after making the coffee, was to wade through the NHS web site checking that a) these weren't ~Covid symptoms, and b) find out what they were. Well, the good news was that it it does not remotely match the symptoms of Covid; the bad news, however, was the he couldn't identify any particular diagnosis that seemed to fit.

He took a couple of paracetamol and decided to have a quiet morning. By lunchtime the symptoms were easing and this afternoon he has been out for a couple of mile walk. He still has to force a full lung-full, but at least it doesn't hurt any more. At the moment he is still planning to play football tomorrow.

Urban-Cub and Ellie spent most of today out with Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit. Ellie has returned, very tired, and very defiant.

Ooops, he did it again

 Further examination of the November prices for the hotel, convinced the Gorse Fox that it was too good to miss. He phoned, requested "our" room, and booked back in for a few days over the Silver Vixen's Birthday weekend.

While on the subject of booking, the Gorse Fox has booked for Tuesday morning's football session. This will be the first game back with the "Worthing crowd". It'll be nice to see them. He doesn't think he's fit enough to book for two sessions back-to-back yet, but hopes to get back to that quite quickly.

Commission

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen should be on a commission. This coming week Old Bill and Lady Penelope are off to The Victoria Hotel on our recommendation and, after a chat with his esteemed brother-in-law, he and the Gorse Fox's sister are now booked in for early October. That forced the Gorse Fox to look at the current rates. It may be necessary for us to return in November for the Silver Vixen's birthday.

Talking of the Silver Vixen, she has spent much of the day in the garden tieing up the climbing rose that now dominated our pergola. She's done a good job and it's looking very nice.

The Gorse Fox has had to modify the spreadsheet that we use to keep track of Ellie's childcare. Now that Urban-cub has a date for her return to work, and with the changes to her shift pattern, there were adjustments to make. The engineering is now done, it's just up to her to fill in the details.

The Instant Pot is about to activate. The Gorse Fox has had it set on a delay timer. The plan for tonight is pulled pork, but he is combining a normal slow-cooker recipe with the pressure functions of the IP. He hopes it is a successful exercise.

Nada

Well that was a non-day.

What did we do?

Nothing!

The closest that the Gorse Fox came to excitement was a trip to Sainsbury's to get some cat food for Jasper. The Gorse Fox did, however, bump into Two Hats and Tinkerbell while he was at the store. It was the first time since March that Tinkerbell had ventured to the shops.

After that, the Gorse Fox spent the rest of the day, with the Silver Vixen, reading in the Orangery.

Sorry there's not more to report, but it was an immensely relaxing (i.e. lazy) day.

Neighbours

 Today seems to have been focussed on neighbours.

After Urban-Cub took Ellie across to spend the weekend with Pistol Pete, we had a visit from a neighbour. He runs a landscaping company and we had invited him along to provide some advice and to get an further ideas for or deck-replacement plan. He's ever so nice and spend a lot of time with us, He's now going off to prepare a quote. We'll see what he comes back with.

This afternoon we were invited to have tea with Old Bill and Lady Penelope. They wanted all of the low-down on Sidmouth as they are off on Tuesday and are booked into "our" hotel - and in fact, "our" room. As usual they were immensely hospitable and we had a lovely afternoon.

Urban-Cub is out tonight with girlfriend from Barnham so we have a night top ourselves.

The Gorse Fox was pleased to hear back from our builders. They are sending an operative around on Wednesday to sort out the trim that came off during the storm. The Gorse Fox hadn't really expected them to help out, so he is pleasantly surprised that a very polite email to their customer services operation did the trick.

Piers

It was a bit grey this morning, but the forecast rain held off until early afternoon. The Gorse Fox started the day by handling a batch of requests for his new software. It's nice to see that there is an interest!

Once that was out of the way, we all went into Bognor to blow some cobwebs away at the beach. The car park was surprisingly busy and there were lots of people about. With a Bank Holiday weekend on the horizon, it's hardly surprising.

Down at the front the esplanade was closed to vehicles as they are busy setting up all of the rides and booths for the Bank Holiday Fun Fair. It is always impressive what a well-oiled machine this process is, as the riggers and drivers manoeuvre everything into position and construct all of the rides.

We started off at the little play park at the beach. Ellie loves it there and had a great time on the swings and slides and, as usual, made a little friend. From there we moved back towards the pier and the little rides.

There she played for a long time on the bouncy castle and then on the roundabout where she was intent on driving the Disneyland bus. It was clearly great fun, but it was getting a bit chilly standing around watching. Once she was done, we headed back towards the town for a few bits of shopping. It was just starting to spit with rain as we got back to car and we were home before the heavens opened and the real downpour began.

This afternoon the Gorse Fox has been adding a couple of features to his software ready for the next release.

Back to some semblance of normal

 After yesterday's gales and last night's adventure with the uPVC panel, today was bright and sunny and the wind had dropped to a pleasant breeze.

Urban-Cub took Ellie to meet with a friend in the park while the Silver Vixen did her Zoom Pilates and the Gorse Fox prepared to go to football. 

Yes! Today was the first game since February or March. It was lovely to get back together with the lads. We gathered outside the sports centre where we were added to a register for Covid-19 tracing, should it be necessary. Then, following the one-way system we looped through the sports centre to the football pitches. We had a proper referee who monitored the game and intervened if the ball was touched by anything other than your football boots. He would rush onto the pitch, spray the ball with a sanitiser, and restart the game.

The rules had been tweaked. We had to limit ourselves to 3 touches of the ball, and were not allowed to tackle, only block. We were also expected to stay at least a metre from any other player. It sounded complicated, but actually worked very well and the independent referee really helped. The Gorse Fox was clearly rusty. Several times he completely mistimed a ball and it went straight under his foot. He did, however, mange four shots on goal. One hit the left post, one hit the right post, and one hit the cross-bar. The other shot was a beautiful curling ball that just snuck round the outside of the right hand post.

He suspects he may suffer for this tomorrow. It's not as if he is match fit, and his recent coding exercises have not done a great deal to keep him in shape.

Bang

There we were, sitting in the lounge watching the late night local news. The gales were still blowing, but other than that it was peaceful and we were winding down ready for bed.

There was an almighty crash and something hit the front wall of the house. The Gorse Fox's first reaction was to assume it was one of our tall plant pots. He went and opened the shutters. There was the plant pot, exactly where it should be. This warranted further investigation.

The Gorse Fox ventured out into the night. An arc of uPVC panel, about 8 feet long, was nestled against the house. 

The Silver Vixen came out and we debated where it had come from. The first assumption was that it had blown across from the building work being completed on Sonning Place. It was not evident, however, where such a shape would have been fixed. As we turned to go in, the Gorse Fox glanced up. There, above our bedroom window and below the soldier course, was an arc of brick and blockwork that he had never seen before. This was clearly the home of the errant uPVC panel.

The adhesive has clearly failed in the high winds. Now he has to get it fixed.

Refund

 At last.

The bulk of the refund for our cancelled holiday to Jamaica finally arrived in our account today. It's been 119 days. This is somewhat longer than the 7-14 days that it is meant to take, by law. The Gorse Fox is not  worried, however, he was lucky enough that he could afford the delay and got the money eventually.

There's still the deposit refund outstanding but that'll probably arrive in the next few days.

Storm

Another named storm is hitting us today. Again, we have been lucky. There has been very little rain, but the wind has been relentless.

The weather meant that we were pretty much confined to barracks. The Urban-Cub and Ellie did pop round to Sainsbury's at one point, but they weren't gone for long. The Silver Vixen has been preparing the Ocado shopping list and a couple of week's of menus.

The Gorse Fox returned to yesterday's little conundrum. It occurred to him that the most important date for photos and videos (whatever their source) was the original creation date. A neat little tool called "ExifTool" can extract all sorts of information from a media file., including the original creation date. Now, if he could call up that information in his existing filer program, he can check and if necessary reset the file date. It took a little fiddling about to determine the right logic, but soon the program was humming away processing media files whether they arrived from Google Photos or from Mac's Photos application. Job done.

Answers

The Gorse Fox was working in the study. It was clear that Urban-Cub was a) in full flow, talking to the Silver Vixen, b) was getting towards the end of her tether with Ellie, and c) being interrupted for the nth time.

"I really don't know why, when I'm talking to other people, you keep interrupting!" came the exasperated cry from Urban-Cub.

Calmly, Ellie responded "I do".

The Gorse Fox is not sure but there may have been a strangled scream at that point.

Photos

The Gorse Fox is temporarily troubled. A feature of Google Photos that he uses a great deal seems to have become a bit flakey. He should explain. He uses Google Photos as and aggregator for all of his photos from various sources. He has learned over the years that he should never trust a single supplier or repository. As a result, on a regular basis, he selects all the recent photos that have accumulated in Google Photos and downloads them to the iMac (Condor). This has worked pretty seamlessly for months, if not years. Of late, however, it has started to barf when asked to download more than a single photo at at time. That is no use to the Gorse Fox who regularly takes many tens of photos. Today, for example, he had 132 photos to download. He was not going to do that one-by-one.

Once the photos are downloaded they are picked up by a program that inserts them into a folder structure based on the date on which the photo was taken. (This date was set by Google and respected in download process).

He then saw an item online saying that in the latest updates to Google Photos you were limited to a single photo at a time. That is not acceptable.

The Gorse Fox started to look for a Plan B. As it happens, all of the photos being taken are available in the Mac Photos app. He can export them from there. Well, he can but though the internal metadata is correct, the file date and time is set to the when you download them, not when they were taken.

This has taken an inordinate amount of thought. The Gorse Fox suspects that he is now focussing in on a solution based on the extraction of the EXIF metadata - but a chunk of code needs to be cut.

Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox returned to Google Photos and tried one more time to download a couple of weeks of photos. Blam! It worked. The Gorse Fox is confused and irritated. He thinks that he will write the code for Plan B as a backup solution.

Ruby

It is an important day. Today sees the 40th Anniversary of the wedding of the Silver Vixen's cousin - big Trevor and Sue. Their son, Fireman Jon, had arranged a surprise BBQ/Garden Party for them up in Faringdon.  

So it was that the Silver Vixen, Urban-Cub, Ellie and the Gorse Fox found themselves motoring across country into the Oxfordshire countryside. 

The SatNav had chosen a ridiculous route and took us on numerous side roads to get there. In the end the journey took two and half hours. Having said that, Ellie was as good as gold the whole way and we saw some lovely countryside.

When we arrived it was all a bit emotional (but then we have that effect on people). 

We sat and chatted with family and with some of their old friends. The children played and the BBQ started to heat up. Clouds scudded across the sky, and we had a few drops of rain. It didn't come to anything and we didn't even seek shelter. More people arrived, including cousin Beck. 

It was lovely. Everyone seemed to have a really good time and the BBQ was excellent.

We started to say our "goodbyes" and when it was time to go the Gorse Fox selected a different route home. It added about 12 miles to the route, but saved about 40 minutes on the journey time. Ellie had slept most of the way home, so we allowed her to stay up for a bit to let off steam. The Gorse Fox took the opportunity to upload and share the photos and videos from the day.

A degree of normality

 With the exception of the fact that Urban-cub and Ellie were staying at Cousteau-cub's overnight. We were back to normal. The Gorse Fox was up first and then after breakfast, he retired to the study to catch up on various bits of admin, while the Silver Vixen dived into the week's laundry

The admin was interesting in that part of it was a response to Virgin Holidays to ensure that their repayment went to the correct account. The countdown is really on! Once that was handled the Gorse Fox moved on to Barclaycard. The refund he has been expecting from Jamaica still hasn't arrived so he started on the official dispute process. This meant filling in their dispute form and providing loads of documentary proof of the claim. This had to be posted and as it was a heafty wedge of paper, the Gorse ~Fox had to run it round to the post office. The last item of admin was a form from the local Police. Their evidence officer had determined that the USB stick on which the Gorse Fox submitted some CCTV evidence of an attempted vehicle break-in was no longer needed. The Gorse Fox could come and claim it, or sign a disclosure allowing the police to dispose of it. He chose the latter option.

This afternoon we had a bit of shopping to collect for a family celebration tomorrow. That done, we settled down to await the return of Urban-cub and Ellie. We didn't have long to wait before the peace was shattered and everything returned to what passes as normal in this house.