Just Cruising

Well, actually not cruising until at least next year.

We had a quiet day with the usual delivery from Ocado. Then, with the family coming for Easter Sunday, we had a big top-up to do at Sainsbury's. The store seemed overrun with people who were totally oblivious to whatever was going on around them. The Gorse Fox did an about turn in several aisles and went the other way as zombies blocked the aisle as they shuffled back and forth and chatted to each other, and elderly ladies scolded their husbands for one reason or another. Clearly, they had unlocked the cemetery gates a bit earlier than usual today.

With some recent concern regarding availability of fuel, the Gorse Fox was pleased to see a very short queue on the garage forecourt. We needed fuel, so joined the queue. It didn't take too long and we managed to fill the tank.

The rest of the day has been quiet.

Out and about

 

With both of us Covid-clear and nice weather forecast, today seemed like a good day to go out and have a bit of a stretch.

Late morning we drove across to Upper Beeding with a view to a wander around Leonardslee Lakes and Gardens. It has been many years since the Gorse Fox was last there and the place has changed hands a couple of times in between. Fortunately, the current owners have restored the gardens, improved the pathways, and installed a new sculpture trail. After a coffee and blueberry muffin we headed out into the gardens, snaking our way down to the lakes.

The car park had looked quite full but despite that, the gardens seems empty. We passed the odd family here and there (with the children following a treasure hunt which would culminate in an Easter egg), and there were a few couples but there didn't seem like enough people to warrant the quantity of cars.

We made our way along the paths to the ribbon of lakes, crossing at one of the damns that separate them. Here and there there were further sculptures - some quite bizarre and others very beautiful.

The sun was playing hide and seek. Sometimes the cloud cover completely washed out the blue, others times the sun shone strongly and cast brilliant blue reflections.

We sat for a while and took in the view, marvelling at the tranquility and the mirror-like quality of the still water. It was one of those spots where you could easily linger for an hour or two.

A buggy silently pulled up behind us. It provides transport for people with mobility issues and calls at this spot every 30 minutes. We were in no hurry and could take our time wandering back out of the valley. We watched him drive off.

We discussed our next stop. The Camelia Walk was past its best, so we didn't bother. The Bluebell Bank seemed to be empty - maybe they are doing maintenance. We headed to the Rock Garden.

The Gorse Fox loves a good rock garden. This was a good rock garden, being very well established and having lots of paths leading up through the various features. We wandered back and forth, looking at the garden from different vantage points. It was lovely.

Eventually, we had seen what we wanted. Our "Stream of Consciousness" was enhanced and our should uplifted. It was time to go back to car and home.

(The Gorse Fox was amused by the sign written across the front of a motorhome parked near our car "Adventure before Dementia" - it seemed somehow appropriate).

Finally

 Well that's a relief. The Silver Vixen is finally testing negative for Covid. A degree or normality can resume. We both have residual coughs, but nothing too troublesome.

The Gorse Fox decided that, as his calves were as tight as violin strings, he wouldn't chance football today (and the roster is full for tomorrow).

The morning was spent on a number of admin tasks. Nothing too onerous, and certainly nothing interesting, but just stuff that had to be done. On a side issue though, the Notes app on the Apple devices, good as it is, would be so much better if is supported more formatting options or some for of markdown or scripting.

After lunch the Gorse Fox returned to family tree. He picked an ancestor at random and started to search for any new information. Sure enough, he found her baptismal certificate (in Latin) and several Census entries, leading eventually to her death at the age of 84. It has got him thinking about his great grandmother. The story was that she was a governess for a while, possible working in Belgium. This is a train of research is worth revisiting to see if any documentary evidence can be found. 

Booking

 The day has been filled with lots of bitty things. A bit of this, a bit of that.

We had accumulated, as a result of Ellie's Birthday, a huge collection of cardboard boxes. It was time for the Gorse Fox to set about them with a sharp knife and reduce them to cardboard sheets that could fit in the recycling bin. This took a while and was interrupted by an ongoing conversation, over messenger, with an old college friend. He will be in this area tomorrow and Wednesday - but with the Silver Vixen still testing positive we had to call a rain check on meeting up.

The Gorse Fox also spent time looking for some options for a separate getaway later in the year. We concluded, in the end, that the Summer was a non-starter - we just couldn't make the dates work with the Cattery and with Ellie's summer holiday. The Gorse Fox moved on to the Silver Vixen's birthday. This is far enough in the future that we should be able to sort out the logistics. The Gorse Fox has several options in mind, but the one he was leaning towards expects the full payment up front. That is not going to happen, so we will reconsider the options. We can always fall back on Sidmouth, but the Gorse Fox had fancied the New Forest for a change.

Studs up

 The Gorse Fox returned to a degree of normality. We had football scheduled. He went early, to ensure a parking spot, but there was no need as few other games were scheduled today.

We had a full 5-a-side turnout. The Gorse Fox started on the Orange team, but swapped to Yellow at half-time to try and even things up a bit. The first half had been a bit of a parade for the Oranges and we went in 12-5 ahead (including a goal and several assists from the Gorse Fox). Post-Covid he was finding that he was quite breathless, so had to pace himself and covered only a fraction of the distance that he normally would.

The second half didn’t really even up as well as he had hoped. Though he provided five or six direct assists and forced several saves from their goalkeeper, our goalie rolled the ball directly to the opposition on no less than 6 occasion - each of them resulting in a goal. Heavens knows what the final score was... but yellow definitely lost!

We have just had the first official notification from P&O regarding the rescheduled cruise in 2023. They started by rubbing in the fact that it’s only 75 weeks to go!

We have also heard from the owners of the Airbnb in Falmouth… so we are on the countdown for that.

Starting Again

 After this morning's cousins' call the Gorse Fox settled down to find an alternative for the cruise. After all, we already have the cattery booked and they have very little accommodation for other times in the summer. The keyboard glowed hot as the Gorse Fox compared hotels in Jersey and in Cornwall. Then he wondered about AIRBnB and scanned through hundreds of properties in Jersey, on the Isle of Wight, and in Cornwall. It took all morning, but eventually we decided on an Airbnb in Falmouth - right on the Quay. It looks very nice and it is right in the heart of the town, so everything is in a couple of minutes walk. We now have something to which we can look forward, again.

As for the cancelled cruise - the refund for the pre-booked excursions has been confirmed and we are just waiting too hear about the cruise fare refund. We have (or should we say, Trevor has) rebooked the cruise for September 2023... with the original itinerary and the same cabins we had originally picked. 

74 days and RESET

 The Gorse Fox has spent much of today looking at potential holidays in Jersey. The cruise, in June, is fixed - so now it is a matter of finding a break around our Wedding Anniversary.nThere seems to be a wide selection  available. The first decisions was to ignore airports and go by ferry. This will mean a quick trip across to Poole, then a 4 hour ferry journey. Then we have the flexibility to travel as we please while on the Island. Bit by bit, the Gorse Fox narrowed it down. He now has a shortlist of 4 hotels. What he doesn't have is fixed dates. This is dependent on the availability of the cat whisperer at the Cattery, and the Gorse Fox is awaiting some dates from him.

It was mid afternoon that the bombshell arrived. P&O have just cancelled our cruise. The countdown has just be stopped. They are redeploying staff across the fleet to cover for Covid sickness, and Arcadia is effectively mothballed until August.

To say that we are cheesed off would be an understatement. This cruise was originally booked in January 2020. It was originally postponed by Covid and now has been postponed again. Discussing this with J&T (who were also on the cruise) we decided to roll it forward. Trevor made the calls and we are now booked on the same cruise in September 2023. P&O are not endearing themselves to the Gorse Fox.

Now we must decide what, if anything, we will do this June in place of the cruise. There's always Cornwall or Devon but we have made no decisions as yet.

Normality

 For the Gorse Fox it has been a return to normality. For the Silver Vixen, still testing positive, not so much as she is still isolating.

We had our usual Ocado delivery this morning and then the Gorse Fox went to Sainsbury's for the top-up. It was nice to wander around without deliberately moving away from other people. There wasn't a huge amount to get, so he was soon home... unpacked and drinking tea.

As soon as the tea was slurped, the Gorse Fox returned to SpecSavers to collect his sunglasses. They have adjusted the frames to fit properly and the Gorse Fox is very pleased with them. They are an immensely restful colour and the polarisation eliminates any glare. Excellent.

This afternoon the Gorse Fox has been looking at possible holidays for 2023. It will be our 50th Wedding Anniversary and we should celebrate in style. The trouble is that we have no idea where to go, at present. The Gorse Fox suspects this will be an ongoing project for a while.

Day 8

 We were up early. Urban-Cub had to get across to Southampton, so Ellie was dropped off just after 7:00. The Silver Vixen was all masked-up while helping Ellie get ready for school. The Gorse Fox, similarly, was masked when he took her to school.

During the morning he took a lateral flow test. At last he is showing negative, so has obviously shaken it off. He must admit that with the exception of a a couple of days, it really hasn't been too much of a problem. The Silver Vixen is still testing positive and has a few more symptoms than the Gorse Fox. She's not too bad, though, and is getting as much rest as possible.

The Gorse Fox collected Ellie after school and we held on to her until Urban-Cub got back from her meeting.

Day 7

The Gorse Fox has not done a test today. He is planning to test again tomorrow. Other than a bit of a cough, he feels fine. The Silver Vixen is still in the grips of Covid and was invited to join a trial of some new treatments. The Gorse Fox suspects that by the time she gets the details and the drugs, she will be over it. For now, however, she has lots of aches, and a slight ringing in the ears, as well as various other discomforts. Her sore throat has gone.

As we are trying to isolate, there is little to report. The Gorse Fox did double-mask for a quick trip to Sainsbury's. The place was deserted, so he is confident that he did no harm. That was, probably, the most exciting thing of the day. 

Not that we are counting, but only 78 days until our cruise!

Day 6

 The Gorse Fox did his Lateral Flow Test as soon as he was up and about. He thought it was going to be negative, but the positive line developed (faintly) after about 10 minutes. The Silver Vixen took her test. Blam! She too is now positive. That has changed the outlook for the week. Urban-Cub has had to sort out her shifts and arrange things with her friend Darren to ensure that we have as much coverage as possible for Ellie. We will still help out where necessary, but will certainly see less of her than usual. Fortunately, the Gorse Fox is feeling fine, so happy to take over.

Not much else to report.

Day 5

 The Gorse Fox feels as right as rain. The Silver Vixen's cold-like symptoms seem to have worsened overnight but her lateral flow test is still recording a negative result, thank goodness.

It has been an immensely quiet day. The Gorse Fox spent some time on the accounts and checking backups but really there was nothing significant. The Silver Vixen has been reading through and examine some patterns this afternoon.

Pistol Pete delivered Ellie back to us, late afternoon. Urban-Cub had a late afternoon all-hands meeting, so would be unavailable for an hour or so. The Gorse Fox spent much of that time going through her phonetics with her. It is amazing how well she is now doing and can work out some big words from their sounds - even if she doesn't know the word.

The chap from Amazon arrived. The Gorse Fox has now fitted a motion-activated LED light in the "man cave" to provide illumination until we have sorted out the intermittent ceiling light.

Milestone 11K - Day 4

This is a milestone post. This is the Gorse Fox's 11,000th blog post since he started back in 2004. It is satisfying to know he has managed to keep it up this long, without missing a single day.

It's Day 4 of Covid. The Gorse Fox feels absolutely fine. The Silver Vixen, however, has woken up with a sore throat. She tested, mid-morning, and the result came back negative. Let's hope it stays that way, bu the Gorse Fox suspects it is just a matter of time.

He had the usual cousins' call this morning. He selected this background for the Zoom call, explaining that, as he had Covid, he was calling from the terrace so that he would be in the fresh air. 

(He's not sure they fell for it).

Currently, we have a problem with a light that is intermittently not working in the "coat cupboard". The Gorse Fox tried to sort this out. He got a plug-in floodlight from the garage and then switched off the lighting circuits. As he started to dismantle the bulkhead light, the floodlight failed. He resorted to the torch on his phone. He finally removed everything and concluded that all of the wiring seemed sound, nothing was loose. There was nothing he could immediately do other than put it all back together and resolve to get help or replace it.

This afternoon, the Gorse Fox has been completing the exercise started earlier this week and has now managed to bring all of the photo files up to date in the local library. The backups will kick-in now and replicate the new files to all of appropriate backup devices.

Day 3

We signed up for Disney+, yesterday. We used it to watch "Death on the Nile" with Kenneth Branagh during the evening. The Gorse Fox must say that it was an excellent film - very atmospheric. He's lined up a few more films for future evenings.

He had a very good night's sleep (and so did Ellie and the Silver Vixen). Today, he feels back to normal, other than an occasional dry cough. As a result, he decided to take another test this morning. Unfortunately, it was still very positive. The Silver Vixen also took a test, but luckily hers still shows negative. The Gorse Fox seems to be able to control the cough with "Fisherman's Friends" so he double-masked up and chanced a quick trip round Sainsbury's. Because we were well organised, we were in and out in no time and carefully avoided getting close to anyone. Even at the self/smart checkout we were the only people there.

There is a 12 month offer with Sky-Q allowing us to gain access to Discovery+. As this includes "Diners, Dive-ins, and Dives", the Gorse Fox signed up. While cooking this evening's dinner, he enjoyed watching the start of series 23. It's nice to have it back... like an old friend that you haven't seen for ages.

The rest of the day has been pretty quiet, so there's nothing else to report.

Day 2

 Unusually, Ellie had a disturbed night. Getting up to go to the loo a couple of times, and having a dream that had her calling out in her sleep. This meant that the Silver Vixen also had a disturbed night. The Gorse Fox, however, had a far better night's sleep that the night before. By later evening, he had a niggling dry cough, so decided to have a drink of hot honey and lemon. This seemed to settled the cough and he had no problems overnight.

Today, C19-Day2 he feels fairly chipper. The cough has re-surfaced, but other than occasional sneezing, the Gorse Fox feels all right. We had our usual delivery from Ocado during the morning but decided not to do the top-up in Sainsbury's as there was no rush.

The rest of the day has been pretty quiet. The Silver Vixen had an appointment at the hairdresser. Urban-Cub has just dropped off Ellie as she will be staying overnight again.

The Knack

The Gorse Fox had an uncomfortable night. He had the hot dry throat that is, so often, the harbinger of a cold. By the time he went to bed, he had an unpleasant catarrh. Sleep was not forthcoming. When he did drift off, a bought of coughing would wake him. When he finally got up, he felt a bit under par and decided that football would not be a good idea. A quiet day at home was re-planned.

The Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub were going out for a day at Haskins Garden Centre. The Gorse Fox used the time to do some further refinements to his photo filer. He also took a Lateral Flow Test. The instructions say you should wait 30 minutes to see the results. The Gorse Fox's result had stabilised in about 5 minutes... "Dooby dooby do do...my Corona" (as The Knack once sang). Having avoided it for two years, he has finally succumbed. To be fair, he doesn't feel too bad... he still has his sense of smell and taste, he has a dry cough (but not all the time), and just feels a degree or so under the weather. He will, however, isolate at home until he is clear. (This meant cancelling our planned lunch with the Silver Vixen's sister and brother-in-law on Saturday).

We have Ellie with us over night, so the Gorse Fox will have to try and stay clear.

Birthday

 It's Ellie's fifth birthday. This meant that we both had to go round to see her before school and wish her a Happy Birthday and see the presents that she opened. She was very excited, but not to the point of being silly. We dropped her off at school and headed home. The Silver Vixen had arranged to go shopping with Urban-Cub. The Gorse Fox had football.

He headed across to Worthing. The forecast was not encouraging and it was spitting with rain as he left home. Actually, it had stopped by the time he had arrived and got changed. It was a bit chilly though. He was picked in a fairly good team again this week. Again, it was a team that moved well and worked hard. Despite that, we lost the first game 1-0. Our other full-back had stopped when the ball went out. The problem was that the ref didn't think it had crossed the line and allowed the game to continue. The Gorse Fox tried to get across from the other wing to intercept but wasn't quick enough. The second game was also a 1-0 loss, but we can't complain. It was a good, well-worked goal. The final game (against a team that'd just won two games on the trot 4-0) we seemed to come into our own. We were 3-0 up until the final kick of the game, when the finally clawed one back.

The Gorse Fox thinks he has mentioned a medical emergency that occurred on the pitch a few weeks ago. The victim came in to see us and to thank everyone for their intervention and support and explain what had happened. Apparently, his heart muscle was fine, his valves were fine and his veins and arteries all looked very healthy. He was fit, and he had no warning signs. As he said "One minute I was enjoying a game of football and the next thing I knew I was in the back of an ambulance" (and that was 90 minutes later). It turns out that he had the same syndrome that caused Christian Ericsson to collapse during last Summer's Euros. The electrical impulses that drive the hear "short-circuited". He now has a form of pacemaker and defibrillator in his chest and is well on the mend. He won't be returning to football, however.

This afternoon, we decorated the family room ready to have a little family tea party for Ellie. We had several presents here for her, and it was chance to celebrate with Urban-Cub and Cousteau-Cub. 

Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub collected her from school and Cousteau-Cub arrived just as they were getting home. She opened her presents and having played with the items themselves, also decided that there was mileage in the boxes in which they were packed.

There were lots of snacks and nibbles, some scones, some sausage rolls, and some cake. We had a lovely hour or so. They have all gone home now. Silence has descended and we have just finished clearing up and tidying away the decorations

Photos

A nice easy start to the day. The Gorse Fox went round to take Ellie to school and then hung on to see the parents of Ellie's friend Tyke. It's his birthday today and we had a little present for him. They were clearly running late and in the end the Gorse Fox brought the present back home. It could be handed over at the end of the day.

The Gorse Fox retuned to the photos. He tidied up and simplified the code and started to test. The code seemed to do everything that was asked of it during the testing. Then, he ran it against a real download of photos for the library. It started but then hung. He tried to fund the culprit. Eventually, he tracked down a small cluster of files that caused the problem. But why? After some digging about he realised these photos didn't have any "exif" data. They had originally been sent via social media, then uploaded by Urban-Cub. The trip through social media (WhatsApp) had stripped all the useful information. This was a case for which the Gorse Fox had not planned. In the end, the code was changed. These files are now reported and no attempt is made to file automatically. These will require manual intervention.

Mothers' Day

 As it was Mothers' Day we had no football today. Instead, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had a quiet morning. The Silver Vixen pottered in the garden and the Gorse Fox returned to the study to file away some of the recent photos. This latter task revealed some anomalies. The way that the original information regarding the photo "jpg" had been stored was not being extracted as it should. The Gorse Fox had to return to his code. It took a while to track down, but eventually the problem was resolved. ~When he gets some time he will return to the code and retest all of the variations.

We were scheduled to go out for lunch mid afternoon. The Gorse Fox went and collect Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit so that they didn't have to worry about the car. 

Urban-Cub and Ellie came round and then we all headed off to "Fino" at Felpham. It was a super Italian restaurant run by acquaintances of Zoe's friend. We settled down at the table and waded through the menu. The Silver Vixen started with the tomato and mozzarella salad, followed by lasagne. The Gorse Fox started with a (frito mixto) sharing platter of fish, then had the pepperoni pizza. The Coventry Hobbit and Urban-Cub also had pizza, while Cousteau-Cub had sea bass. Ellie had chicken with chips. It was an absolute feast. Clearly, we were not the only ones who thought so, as the restaurant was packed and remained so all afternoon.  

It really was a very lovely afternoon, having the whole family together to celebrate this special day.

Party Time

The Gorse Fox started the day with the customary cousins' call. 

Today, he chose this as his Zoom backdrop. It was, after all, a chance for the cousins to see his potting shed in the garden!

The call went well and we had the usual banter, which always makes the call worthwhile.

With the call over, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen prepared for bedlam. Today, Ellie and her young friend Tymek were holding a joint party to celebrate their impending birthdays. 

We arrived in plenty of time and those present were Uber-excited. The Gorse Fox was beginning to wonder if ear-defenders would have been appropriate headwear. 

It was a little disappointing that several of the friends couldn't make it, but this that did had good fun in the soft-play area and at the table. Certainly everyone was on a sugar-rush by the time they left. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves, which is what counts. The Gorse Fox took plenty of photos and videos and has shared them with those that matter.

The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen had a quiet afternoon in the garden, enjoying the sun and the peace.

Multizone

 We had the usual start to the day, with Ellie being dropped off at about 7:15. After she had enjoyed breakfast, Grandpa had to join her upstairs to play with Peppa Pig toys until the Silver Vixen was ready to get her washed and dressed. We dropped her at school without incident.

The Silver Vixen had a day out with Cousteau-Cub scheduled. She headed off and left the Gorse Fox to his own devices. In this case they were the iMac (Condor) and Nest thermostats and Smart plugs. First on his agenda, however, was to book for the upcoming Over 65s' Lunch for the Old Columbans.

That done, the Gorse Fox delved in to the mysteries of the the Nest thermostat. He determined that he needed a multilane device - not just dual zone. He watched various videos and read what he could find. In the end, he phoned a chap that had been recommended by a neighbour because his own conclusion was that this would be an expensive change that would reap few (if any) benefits. The chat with the Nest engineer confirmed his own conclusion. For a house, like ours, with five separate thermostats and zones, this would be an extraordinary outlay and would be unlikely to break even, let alone save money. Plan B was required. The Gorse Fox is now trying to develop said plan.

While researching, the Gorse Fox saw a description that he liked. It was of "vampire devices". These are electronic devices that consume energy even when you are not using them or needing them. The Gorse Fox has a number of these devices and now that, as a rule, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox are by ourselves, we can predict our usage of such devices. He spent some time looking for some smart, programmable plug sockets that he can set to power down when they clearly are not needed. The nice man for Amazon should bring some tomorrow and the Gorse Fox can start experimenting.

Finally, the Gorse Fox sought some further backdrops for Zoom for tomorrow's cousins' call. Several have been downloaded and he will choose in the morning.

Now that was lazy

 Though Ellie leapt into bed with us just before 6:00 this morning we licked her out by 6:30 as she would lie still. We managed another 30 minutes before starting the day. Everything seemed to run like clockwork, and we were one of the first at the school.

Back home we had had a lazy breakfast waiting for Ocado. They turned up towards the end of their delivery slot so we were running a little later than usual when we headed off to Sainsbury's. Once we had completed the top-up, the Gorse Fox went back to SpecSavers to look for some sunglasses. His old pair were alway too tight and now that he has a new prescription, it was worth changing them. He tried on several pairs. Some were too tight, and some didn't feel right. In the end he found a pair that he liked and of which the Silver Vixen approved. The assistant took the relevant measurements and card was flashed. In 10 days, the Gorse Fox should have a nice new pair of sunglasses.

Back home, the accounts were the top of the agenda, followed by some lunch, and then a quiet hour in the Orangery with the Silver Vixen. She went off with Urban-Cub to collect Ellie from school. Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox returned to Polish parish records. Ninety minutes later he was going boss-eyed and hadn't found any relevant records. He's beginning to wonder if he needs to search further afield.

Park life

The Gorse Fox walked round to Urban-Cub to escort her and Ellie round to the school. The Silver Vixen was meant to have an appointment with her hairdresser, but Covid has intervened so the appointment slipped to next week.

The Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing for football. His legs felt heavy after yesterday, but he soon got moving and loosened up. It was a hard game. Our team really only had two mobile players. Jamaica Mark led the attack, and the Gorse Fox managed the defence. The other stood like statues at various parts of the field. The Gorse Fox found himself filling in the attack then shoring up the defence. By half-time he was really feeling it. Scores at half-time were 2-2. As the second half began, the other team seemed to spread their play better. This, however, meant that they were leaving gaps. The Gorse Fox exploited these and three times managed to thread the ball to front for one of our number to slot it away. Final score was 5-2 to us.

We had a quiet afternoon until we collected Ellie. We took her to the park by the school and let her play with her school friends for a while to let off steam. Once we got home we did some numbers (simple arithmetic) and some reading with her. She really is progressing well.

HMCS Ontario

 The Gorse Fox's father was in the Royal Navy and was assigned to HMCS Ontario as his first ship. As a result he spent at least a year or 18 months assigned to the Canadian Navy. The Gorse Fox wrote to them before Christmas asking for details of his posting. They have finally got back.  

Nada. 

Not a thing. 

As far as they are concerned they have no records of his, or his twin's time on board.  This is deeply frustrating. It seems that even the Gorse Fox has more knowledge of the Minotaur class light cruiser and its first mission in the Far East than the Canadian Naval records.

Early

 Jasper decided to yowl just after 5:00 this morning. The Silver Vixen told him to be quiet. It was no good, the damage was done. The Gorse Fox was awake. He forced himself to stay in be until 7:00, but should really have got up immediately. He get a bit stiff and aches if he lies in.

Ellie was dropped off and we we followed the usual schedule. Once she was at school, the Gorse Fox changed into his football gear and headed for Worthing. Th Silver Vixen was meeting up with a friend in LA so we were sorted.

The teams were selected slightly differently today. It worked well. They seemed to be more even than usual. The Gorse Fox was on the green team and took up his usual position at the centre of defence. It was a hard game requiring plenty of blocks and interceptions from us at the back. Meanwhile, our attack had managed to score and the game finished 1-0. The second game was also hard. We scored a couple of times, but they responded each time. We got the final goal, hover to finish the game 3-2 winners. The final game was "all in". This means that we don't play this 3-touch nonsense and can get on with some real football. Agin, it was hard fought. Again, as we scored our first, they responded. Then the Gorse Fox got a chance to surge through the middle and from a lovely cross, bury the ball in the back of the net. We had control, and this time we didn't let it slip. We finished off with one more goal as the final whistle blew. 3-1. Over all it was a very good session and immensely enjoyable.

Nine

 It's an important day. Not only is it the beginning of Spring, but it also Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit's ninth wedding anniversary. An auspicious day by any reckoning. The Gorse Fox tried to call them, but they are obviously out and about. He just hopes that they have had a wonderful day.

Messages

 We have long had a problem. The Silver Vixen's iPhone would not sync and would not handle iMessages from the iPads to Android devices. The Gorse Fox has looked into this on numerous occasions and every solution he tried failed. He tried again. He found a different suggestion on Google and followed that. Two check boxes later and everything burst into life. At last.

It's been fairly quiet today. Ellie was dropped off before school and we went through the usual morning process and then took her to school. The Silver Vixen was out at an appointment for much of the morning. The Gorse Fox pottered about with some household chores. As he completed those he found a problem with the mesh network. It wasn't linking to the internet router correctly. He went into debug mode. It didn't take too long and restart was all that was needed.

We collected Ellie from school and gave her dinner, Then we took her home to get ready for bed. Urban-Cub arrived a few minutes later.

Up and Out

 Some might expect the Gorse Fox to have a lie-in after last night's dinner. Not a chance. The Gorse Fox was up, showered, dressed and packed soon after 7:30. The hotel breakfast sitting wouldn't start until 8:00, so it was time for another walk.

He headed straight for the Abbey. The peel of bells provided a background to the wonderful morning. The precincts were almost empty and the Gorse Fox could wander round in utter serenity.

The Gorse Fox loves St Albans.

As the bells chimed 8:00, the Gorse Fox headed back to the hotel and settled down for breakfast. The room quickly filled up. The hotel, small as it was, was clearly full. After the full English, he checked out and got on the road.

The journey home was a lot quieter than yesterday and he was home by 10:30.

This afternoon we were invited round to Urban-Cub's for Sunday Lunch. Urban-Cub doesn't do a roast lunch by halves. Huge trucks were brought in to provide the potatoes, the parsnips, the cabbage, the peas, the pork, and the crackling. A tanker delivered the gravy. It was a feast and it was absolutely delicious.

Reunion

 Well, yesterday's school reunion was a splendid evening. The Gorse Fox took a taxi from the hotel and arrived just as another group went in. Once signed in, he was offered a tour of the school but having done that a couple of years ago, he declined.

The Gorse Fox made his way through to the Alumni Hall and started to chat with all and sundry. Some, from his class, some from the years above him, and many from the years below. Beer and wine were on tap to ensure everyone was kept hydrated.

We made our way through to the canteen and settled down for a feast. The Gorse Fox chose a starter of Smoked Salmon & Mackerel Scotch Egg, Horseradish & Herb Salad; this was followed by Herb Crusted Salmon & Horseradish Beurre Blanc; and to finishSticky Toffee Pudding & Butterscotch Sauce (after all, it was a school meal).

It was lovely to sit and chat for two or three hours and to reminisce about our school days and catch up on the inventing 52 years.

Everything started to break up around 11 p.m. The Gorse Fox was offered a list by an old friend and was back at the hotel by 11:15 and in bed by 11:30.

He would certainly make the effort to attend any further event of the same type.

Up North

The day started quietly. The sun was shining and there was no sign of any clouds. We had wall-to-wall blue. It was perfect.

The Gorse Fox had his cousins’ call. It was time for another windup, so he searched out a suitable Zoom background and then presented himself in a huge open plan living room with panoramic views across Table Bay. When Tim saw it, he commented on our Filipino maids wandering into shot. The Gorse Fox explained they had strict instructions that he should not be disturbed and should remain below stairs until the call was complete.

The Gorse Fox also explained that he had to head up north. It is, after all, the school reunion for his and the two subsequent years (thanks to Covid). He headed off soon after lunch and a couple hours later he was checked into one of the smallest hotel rooms he has ever been in. In fact, in the en suite the ceiling is so low that his head brushes it if he doesn’t duck. (The bath has been sunk into the floor to allow room for a shower).

The Gorse Fox has wonderful memories of St Albans and, by arriving early, he had time to wander around. He remembers how, after getting off the bus at the top of Holywell Hill he would walk (on nice days) down past the Cathedral. Usually, at the time he went by, the choir would be practising. It was wonderful. The entry to the Cathedral through Sumpter Yard is directly opposite his hotel. That was first stop. As if they knew he was coming, the choir was there practising. It brought a lump to his throat.

After touring the Cathedral (the Gorse Fox always things of it as the Abbey, not Cathedral for some reason) he wandered into the town up past French Row and into the market square where there was a full Saturday market in progress. He stopped every now and again to try and remember the old shops (now replaced) and chat with some of the older market stall holders. He headed back down St Peter Street to where he would catch the bus. The old Cinema, in whose foyer he would shelter in bad weather, has long gone and been converted into a number of shops.

He headed back to the park surrounding the Cathedral and tried to retrace his route to school. He found the path down to “Ye Olde Fighting Cocks” (reputedly the oldest Inn in England having been occupied sine Roman times) then along towards the lake and then school. He couldn’t complete the old walking route as they have now built an athletics track and a golf course across the old fields and footpaths he would use.


He is back at the “The White Hart” and has a couple of hours before he needs to head to school.

Vomit

Ellie didn't stir until 6:45. Even that seemed early, given the disturbed evening we had with her. Lesson: don't allow her to drink coke after swimming.

Urban-Cub arrived in time for her and the Gorse Fox to escort Ellie round to school. By the time he got back, the Silver Vixen was heading out to the Optician in order to collect he new glasses. The Gorse Fox used the time to catch up on the accounts and write to the landscaper about some work we want done in the garden.

Later in the morning we headed in to Chichester. The Silver Vixen wanted to look at some shoes and the Gorse Fox had an appointment with the chiropodist. The Silver Vixen was unable to find any shoes that she liked. She did, however, have her feet scanned and analysed in Shuropody. This was very interesting and showed that she rolled one of her feet as she walked.

Lunch was next on the agenda. We stopped at Crispin's. It is always good value and excellent food. The Silver Vixen had a huge Belgian waffle whilst the Gorse Fox enjoyed a Chicken and BLT.

Back home, the first order was to deal with all of the cat vomit. Jasper had clearly been unwell. He had left his outpourings in the hall and all over the living room. (In fact later, the Gorse Fox found that he had also "blessed" the Silver Vixen's sewing room). This was no small "gift". This was epic. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen spent the next 30 minutes trying to return the carpets to an acceptable state. Suufice it to say, that there was more to come later in the day... and will will clearly have to monitor him.

Old Bill and Tinkerbell arrived back from Jamaica. We had their security fob, so they popped in to see us. The Silver Vixen was out collecting Ellie from school with Urban-Cub. The Gorse Fox dealt with them and heard their analysis of the holiday, some of which was a little concerning for the future of SRP... greed, however, tends to overtake good taste and refinement. Time will tell whether their plans will work. 

Talking of fish

 Well, Ellie slept through until just before 7:00. In fact the Gorse Fox was about to get up anyway. The morning followed the usual agenda with the exception that Urban-Cub managed to pop in to walk with us to school. She had already done several hours work, and would be going to work later.

After breakfast we had the usual shopping delivery and then headed off for the top-up shop at Sainsbury's. The school is doing a collection for Ukraine, so while we were at the shops we picked up a load of additional items that we could donate.

Once everything was packed away, the Gorse Fox had to do something about our corner of the Sahara. He hoped the hose would be enough, but that proved totally inadequate. Out came the jet-wash. Slowly, the patio reverted from a pinkish covering of sand to the black porcelain that it was designed to be. Once the patio was done (and the patio furniture), the Gorse Fox headed out to the front to give the cars a good hose down. Soaked, but satisfied he tidied away.

This afternoon we had to collect Ellie from school then take her to her swimming lesson. She did really well. She was able to put her head in the water, to go under, to move round on her back though not quite float. SHe's not quite a fish yet, but she'll get there like Urban-Cub and Cousteau-Cub.

Goodbye and thanks for all the phish

As yesterday evening wore on, a message came in. 

Barclays: A payment attempt of £489.49 to Apple Inc was declined, if this was NOT you. Please visit: https://barclays....

The Gorse Fox did a double take. Why would his card be declined? What had he bought from Apple (this time)? 

Then it occurred to him... this is a phishing scam. But he still had nagging doubts. In the end, the Gorse Fox called the Barclaycard fraud line and chatted with them. They do not send out texts. There was no attempted activity on his card. This was an attempted fraud. The Gorse Fox was delighted that a) there was no attempt to use his card, and b) he recognised an attempted phishing scam.

Today has been fairly typical for a Wednesday. The Gorse Fox headed off to Worthing where we played 5-a-side football. The match was very one-sided. Unfortunately, not in our favour. This was predictable from the outset, but the organiser had set the teams wasn't in a mood to change them. In the end the Gorse Fox claimed that should he visit the Alamo again, he would scratch his name in the monument as he now understood how they felt.

There is a plume of Saharan dust high in the atmosphere. The rain we have had today has deposited several dunes and a small oasis on the car. It is pointless trying to clean it until the plume has cleared the country.

Ellie is with us again tonight. Urban-Cub's week goes from bad to worse as the break-in is followed by several more of her staff going down with Covid (on top of those already off with it). The problem is that Lidl run lean and mean and there is nobody to take up the slack or step in. 

Urodzonych

 Well that was an interesting night. Unusually Ellie did not sleep through. In fact, at 1:28 she came and plonked herself in our bed. The Silver Vixen determined that she was cold. After a while, once warm again, the Silver Vixen took he back to bed and tucked her in. She slept through from that point.

She was the lucky one. Soon after 2:00, Urban-Cub received a call from the alarm company. Her supermarket had been broken into. The police were on their way and she had to ge and meet them. So it was that he day began many hours earlier than scheduled. The worst part was, other than the damage, the whole incident was for the theft of a few bottles of vodka, several of which got dropped and broken in the escape.

We had no idea this was going on. It was only when we were sorting Ellie's breakfast that we got the call from Urban-Cub to tell us. There was nothing we could do, so we continued the usual morning protocol and got Ellie off to school.

With Old Bill and Lady Penelope returning from Jamaica in the next 48 hours, the Silver Vixen went and retrieved their milk from the freezer and left it to defrost slowly, so that they could make some tea when they got home. The Gorse Fox, meanwhile, sorted himself out and headed across to Worthing for football.

Football was interesting. It was clear from the start that our team was the weakest. We fought hard but lost the first game, 2-0. The second game was a similar score. The worrying part was that our attack hadn't had a single shot in either game. The Gorse Fox, however, had had four our five shots, coming through from defence. (They were all saved, or off target). In game 2, the Gorse Fox turned to find a player on all fours. The play had not been close to him. He was suffering a dizzy spell. We stopped the game and forced him to leave the pitch - refusing to restart the game until he had gone. The silly so-and-so sat out the next few minutes but then rejoined the action in the 3rd game.

The Gorse Fox played a few minutes in goal, during the last game. He saved several blistering shots, but also let a few in. The problem was that our team were tiring and there was, quite literally no defence. It was encouraging that as the Gorse Fox took one thunderbolt in the chest, his watch switched into emergency mode and checked that he hadn't fallen, and was all right. If he hadn't;t cancelled it, it would have called emergency services.

Bay home this afternoon, the Gorse Fox has been looking at Polish parish records (particularly birth - urodzonych- records). Fortunately, many are written in Latin, which the Gorse Fox can interpret moderately well. The Polish ones, however, are another matter. The problem he has is that the specific records for which he is looking are remaining hidden at this moment

(The Silver Vixen has been out with a friend all day. They went up to an exhibition at Ramster Gardens and she only got home at about 17:15).

Sad news

 The doorbell rang during breakfast. It was Tinkerbell. She was clearly distraught. Apparently, her next-door neighbour (on the other side) had passed away overnight. It was not unexpected, in that she was suffering from terminal cancer. Expected or not, it is always a sad time for the family and they will need a lot of support over the coming weeks.

Success

 It was a quiet start as Urban-Cub wasn't due into work until a bit later. This meant that the Gorse Fox could wander round to escort them to school at about 8:30, but could chill until then.

Once breakfast was over, the Silver Vixen disappeared upstairs and the Gorse Fox pottered round to the barber shop. The Kurdish barber (who speak excellent English) was on a 3-way call with his father (who doesn't) and their energy company. He was busy prompting his father through the various menu options until they got to a customer service agent. At that point he dropped off and left his father to it. The Gorse Fox suspects that was a difficult call for the agent.

As usual, the Gorse Fox received the full treatment from the barber and left feeling renewed. (Though it was a bit chilly round the ears).

The Gorse Fox put an entry on a Polish Genealogy forum. Within the hour he had a very useful response and copy of the certificate that he was seeking. This afternoon, he delved further. Several further certificates were forthcoming. Agent Mulderski's family is beginning too make sense (but only beginning).

We collected Ellie from school. She will be staying with us overnight.

Under Seige

The Gorse Fox had a quiet start to the day but by 9:00 he was heading across to Ford for football. It was just as well that he left early. The car park was already filling up and the last thing you need is to be searching for places to park.

The Gorse Fox forecast that he was in for a torrid time. The way the teams had fallen, he knew that he would be on the wrong end of a tonking. As is so often the case, it started well enough. Their best player started in goal. We managed to hold things at 3-2 for half time (one of those goals being from the Gorse Fox). In the second half, their best player came out onto the pitch. All hell broke loose. Goals were flying in all over the place. The Gorse Fox was trying to defend and to help attack. He almost doubled his usual caloric burn for the session. In the end, we lost 13-9. It could have been worse, but not a lot!

The Gorse Fox has had a very lazy afternoon. He spent most of it sitting in the Orangery and some of it reading the fine print on the inside of his eyelids.

A quiet day

 The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen have had a quiet day. There was the usual cousins' call at 9:00 but nothing else sullied the schedule. On the call., it was good to hear that one of the Aussie cousins has got his flights booked to attend their reunion. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen will also be there, and it will be nice to meet them all in person. Zoom, somehow, doesn't quite make the grade.

The Silver Vixen was intent on tidying up the front garden. The Gorse Fox doesn't get too involved, unless there is something that demands his intervention. Today his focus was on unwrapping the back garden. Chairs and tables were moved back into position, and waterproof covers were laid out to dry and then folded and stowed until next winter.

The rest of the, glorious, cloud-free day was spent working on the ancestors of Agent Mulderski. The Gorse Fox has to conclude that he (Agent Mulderski) has far more cousins than he could have imagined. The biggest problem remains that facts that a) access to Canadian vital records is crap; and b) there is even less online access to Polish records.

On a completely separate note, the Gorse Fox has football in the morning and having run his team selection algorithm, he has no doubt that he will be on the losing side tomorrow.

Conundrum

 Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off this morning, soon after 7:15. Unfortunately, Jasper had been awake and prowling all over us from about 6:00 so we were awake earlier than necessary.

There was a craft day at school today, so Ellie didn't have to wear uniform - they were likely to get mucky. As we have had a lot of rain today, she got wet as well. Anyway, we dropped her off at school and headed home for breakfast.

Once we were suitably caffeinated and fed we popped around to the community centre to drop off some more supplies destined for Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. The collection didn't seem as busy today, but it was good to see that people were still contributing.

Back home the Silver Vixen returned to her sewing project and the Gorse Fox to his research in Agent Mulderski's family. He has come across a conundrum.

We have a conundrum regarding the Mulderski family at the time of their emigration to Canada from Britain.

What we know

John Mulderski’s memoirs (written in 1941) tell us about their stay in England and Scotland (1876-1884):

1. A baby, Mary, was born while they were in Cheshire. She survived and ended up in Chicago.
2. A second child was born, but died soon after being baptised.
3. The family moved to Leith, Scotland
4. Another child was born, and Christened Magdalena
5. A further child was born but did not survive and is buried in Leith

Why we are confused:

1. The UK General Register Office (GRO) has a birth registration for MARYA MAGDALENA MULDERSKI in 1881 and a death registration under the same name, the same year (same quarter); this would correspond with event 2, above
2. Parish register for Middlewich, Cheshire shows the baptism of a MARGARITA MULDERSKI in July 1881. (This is the same quarter in which MARYA MAGDALENA was born/died).
3. No further registration or baptismal information is evident from the GRO or Parish Registers in a 5 year period.
4. Were MARYA MAGDALENA and MARGARITA, in fact, the same child. Registered with one name, but christened with another? Or did MARGARITA become known as Mary?
5. Where does Mary (latterly of Chicago) come into the equation?
6. As mentioned in 4, above, the Scottish Public Record Office (PRO) has a birth registration for MARGARET MAGDALENA MULDERSKI in 1883, in Leith.
7. No further records can be found for the baby mentioned in 5, above.
8. The passenger list for the Steamship Lake Winnipeg shows 2 infants in the party: Margaret, and Maria - the assumption is that this Margaret was the child born in Leith… and Maria is the Mary who became a resident of Chicago

The Gorse Fox is not quite sure what his next course of action will be. It is not uncommon to reuse the names of infants who had died… but the sequence seems wrong.

Plywood

Ellie slept in a bit later this morning. It was nearly 7:00 before she arrived in our bedroom and threw herself onto the bed. 

Despite such a relaxed start, the morning schedule worked like clockwork. When it was time to leave for school, we headed off clutching Ellie, her book bag, her water bottle, a box, and a sheet of plywood. The box contained items for their craft day on Friday, and the plywood was also destined for that. They have a "wild" area in the grounds and the objective seems to be to allow the children to get creative in this outdoor area. We look forward to seeing what comes of it... but somehow the Gorse Fox suspects it won't be featured on Chelsea, this year.

We had our usual shopping delivery and top-up run, but the rest of the day has followed the usual pattern. The Silver Vixen pottered and the Gorse Fox researched. No huge Polish breakthroughs, but several conundrums that need more attention.

Goal

 This morning's start was much as yesterday. The Gorse Fox went round to Urban-Cub and escorted her and Ellie to school then headed home. There was a quick change and then the Gorse Fox headed off for football.

We had a very relaxed 7-v-7 today. Some good football was played by both sides. The Gorse Fox marshalled the back line and we held out until about 5 minutes from the end, when we finally conceded a goal. It was just the one, though, and we were already 2 goals ahead (one of which was scored by the Gorse Fox). There were some wild shots today. We lost 3 separate balls over the fences and onto adjoining pitches. We were running out of spares. (At the end of the game all the balls were retrieved.)

This afternoon the Gorse Fox spent about 30 minutes on the Polish links. He suspects that he has identified Agent Mulderski's 3rd and 4th greta grandparents. This, however, can only be verified by getting access to some Polish certificates. He must find out out if there is a good way to do this.

Ellie is with us overnight, tonight.

Oh Canada!

 As someone who spends an unholy amount of time researching family records, the Gorse Fox would just like to go on record to say how appalling the Canadian records are. There seems to be nothing equivalent to our access to vital records (births, marriages, and deaths).

As if to highlight the problems with Canadian archives, the Gorse Fox wrote (months ago) to the military archives in Canada seeking information regarding his father's time in the Royal Canadian Navy. Today, he has received a response to say that the request has been received. It also went on to say that they are still dealing with requests from 2018... and blamed it on Covid-19. The Gorse Fox makes no judgement... but would pint out that he's 70 and is concerned he will time-out before the information is released. (At least this email was straightforward - the previous email had be signed by some wokeflake who insisted on defining the pronouns by which he/she/it should be addressed).

Burning

The Gorse Fox's knee joints were burning overnight. He decided that football would not be a great help, so cancelled his original plans. He wandered round to Urban-Cub and escorted her and Ellie round to school.

Once home he had some breakfast as the Silver Vixen went off to the optician. She had some shopping to do once that was finished, so the Gorse Fox had the morning to himself. It was good to hear that she got a clean bill of health for her eyes, like the Gorse Fox did. She did, however, need a new prescription. As she can't wear varifocals, this meant two pairs of normal glasses (short and long sight) and two pairs of sunglasses. That was a painful expense for her account.

The Gorse Fox spent the morning reading an initial translation of the memories of Agent Mulderski's great grandfather. It was very g=hard to read as the quality of the typescript was poor and the scanning process had hardly enhanced it. Many pages later, the Gorse Fox had a new understanding of the tribulations of  the family in the Prussian parts of Poland. It was riveting reading and, bit by bit, the Gorse Fox was able to fill-in more blanks in the family tree. He even found that two of the family we born ere. One in Winford, Cheshire, the other in Leith, Midlothian.

This afternoon G-Force have helped Urban-Cub. Firstly she needed some car-sitting in case Autoglass turned upon while she was collecting Ellie from school. Then she needed some Ellie-sitting while Urban-Cub went to the parents' interview with the teacher. The Gorse Fox did the first one, and the Silver Vixen the second. The feedback from the parents' evening was excellent. It is clear that Ellie is doing really well at school and is very kind, and very helpful, and everybody likes her. This is good, since at least two of the boys in the class want to marry her. (It would probably be as well to wait until after her 5th birthday party).

To było interesujące

Mmmm.... that's made you think!

We had a quiet star to the day, but once the Gorse Fox had been round to escort Urban-Cub and Ellie to school, we were able to potter about.

Overnight, the Gorse Fox received and email from Agent Mulderski containing more information about his Polish ancestors. This was very interesting and allowed the Gorse Fox to fill in more details in the database. It did, however, come to halt when we got back as far as Poland. It was then that the Gorse Fox started to deep dive. He finally found reference to the marriage of Agent Mulderski's 2nd gt grandfather in Mikstat. The problem was that the certificate was not online. It was just an entry in and index. The entry did, however, say where the document was. The Gorse Fox chased the link to some Polish archive in Poznan. Then with the data he already had and using Google translate he wrote, in Polish, requesting a copy of the certificate. Heavens knows what will happen, but he is making some progress.

Interestingly Agent Mulderski's Gt-grandfather was schoolteacher in Canada. He wrote his memoirs. These, apparently run to several hundred pages of beautifully handwritten Polish. The heritage centre in the village where the family first settled has acquired these and back in 2015 was trying to get them translated and published. The Gorse Fox has also written to the lady who was in charge of that to see if it was ever completed and whether he can get a copy.  

Poles Apart

 What a splendid, lazy start to the day. The Gorse Fox got up after a lie-in at 7:30 and the Silver Vixen, after reading in bed, came down after 9:00. That is a good start to a Sunday.

After some basic chores, we both set about our hobbies. The Silver Vixen disappeared into the sewing room and the Gorse Fox into the study. The focus for the Gorse Fox, today, was the Polish side of the family and their migration to Canada. Firstly, they came to England, landing in Hull. Then after a few years they set sail from Liverpool to Canada. Bit by bit he unpicked the information. This was not helped by the huge variation he found in the spelling of the Polish names once they were recorded in English and French in Canada. In some cases there must have been 5 spellings of the same name for the same person and they weren't even consistent when written on the same day for the same event. Anyway, bay by bit he has started to unpick the history of that side of the family and, as usual, found some huge inconsistencies and errors in other people's research.

This afternoon, the Silver Vixen went round to spend the afternoon with Urban-Cub and have a mother-daughter afternoon. The Gorse Fox spent the time cooking a lovely joint of pork that virtually fell apart when it was time for dinner. (This was a very inexpensive joint from Lidl and the Gorse Fox cooked it at 170C for two nd a quarter hours in a sealed pan - it really was sensational).

Butcher

 With a title like that, this could so easily be a monologue on Putin, the Gorse Fox will, however, resist. Whatever polemic he can produce will be of no value and have no impact on the situation.

It was a leisurely start to the morning for the Gorse Fox. The Silver Vixen, however, seems to have been the subject of multiple "interventions" from Jasper throughout the night. She was not amused.

The morning started with a walk around to the butcher's truck. He is there every Saturday morning and delivers some wonderful meat. The Gorse Fox wanted to get some of his bacon and some Lincolnshire sausages. For a change, there was a very short queue. Several kilos of bacon and sausages later, the Gorse Fox stumbled home to restock the larder.

The morning was occupied with the cousins' call and some chores. The cousins' call was fun. Comrade Cousin, who lives in the Midlands (far North) is a bit of a champagne socialist. The Gorse Fox tends to tease hime about how much better it is in the South. Comrade Cousin's opening gambit today was that he had only just got out of bed. The Gorse Fox's response was that he had been up for hours as we had a busy day ahead. It was, after all, the first day of the year on which we would take our yacht out. There was a bit of spluttering from the other end. "Are you just pottering around in the harbour, or going further afield?" The Gorse Fox explained that as it was the first outing of the season, we would stay in and around the harbour/marina. It was just a bit of a shake-down to check everything had survived the winter, after all! Comrade Cousin then asked how big the yacht was. The Gorse Fox had to admit that it was only 8-berth, but it suited us. The other cousins on the Zoom call kept quiet. The other cousins had been briefed that this was a wind-up. There were knowing smiles, but nobody gave it away.

Later in the morning the Gorse Fox wrote to Comrade Cousin

I thought you might like to see some photos of my yacht….

Then I remembered that you may not approve…
…and then I remembered I don’t actually have a yacht and it was a wind-up (your sisters knew).

After that bit of fun the Gorse Fox returned to the Canadian/Polish side of the family tree. This occupied the rest of the day. It revealed that Agent Mulder has far more cousins that he thought he may have and also that Candian online research is pathetically supported. To research within the last 100 year in Canada really limits you to Newspaper and Church archives. Fortunately, Agent Mulder also had some documents and certificates that he forwarded on. The most interest was a page of recollections from his Great-grandfather both his own life, starting in the Russian part of Poland, migration to England, then a few years later migrating on to Canada. Riveting stuff.

Long countdown

 It was a quiet start to the morning. Ellie was at home, so the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen could get up without any specific time constraints. The Gorse Fox did pop round the corner to escort Ellie and Urban-Cub to the school but then wandered home for breakfast.

After taking our donations round to the collection point for the Ukraine, the rest of morning was spent on chores and some admin. The winter had clearly taken its toll on the paintwork round the front of the house. It was really quite grubby in a way not seen before. Ladder, bucket of soapy water, and sponge in hand, the Gorse Fox attacked the ceiling of the porch, the soffits, the window trims, the supporting pillar and everything else that was grubby. An hour later it looked as good as new. Job done (and Gorse Fox soaked).

Two Hats called. He needed help fixing an awning over his French doors in the back garden. The Gorse Fox grabbed his ladders and went round to do his bit. He realises that these awning have to be sturdy but was surprised by just how heavy the awning was. It didn't take too long to fit and looked quite good when we unfurled it to the check it was ok.

Next was the admin. The Gorse Fox continued to work through the plans for the summer's cruise. He contacted the chauffeur service we have used in the past. They came back with a quote that was not just competitive, it was cheaper than the alternative of taking our own car and parking for the duration of cruise - let alone the additional cost of an overnight stay. Chauffeur is booked. Having sorted that out, he contacted the travel agent. After all, the balance of the fare was about due. He timed it to perfection. Balance was paid over the phone and now we just have to sit back and wait.

We collected Ellie from school this afternoon. She was a bit hyper, but wanted to do some maths on her Numbots. She did well at first but was soon getting over-excited and making silly mistakes. The Gorse Fox pulled the metaphorical plug. We sorted out her dinner and, just as she finished, Pistol Pete arrived to collect her for the weekend.

I can see clearly now...

 Ellie acted as our alarm call at 6:35. There was no chance of a further 20 minutes of peace. Today she was AWAKE, and we too were expected to be. We went through the usual morning protocol and eventually delivered her to school.

Back home, the day was filled with admin. The Silver Vixen was dealing with washing and we were both seeking out suitable clothing donations that could be taken to the nearest collection point for Ukraine. It is not much but, hopefully, it will help someone.

During our top-up shopping trip to Sainsbury's, the Silver Vixen went along to SpecSavers to book an appointment. The Gorse Fox tagged along in the hope they may be able to fix his broken glasses, not knowing how much longer the new glasses may take. The chappie there really didn't seem interested and fobbed the Gorse Fox off. He did check on the progress of his new glasses, however, and provided the very helpful update that they were "in the process".

Back home the Gorse Fox returned to his study. There were accounts to update and he wanted to dig out any further information regarding the cruise. This latter task proved frustrating as the particular bit of information that he sought was nowhere to be found. A phone call is probably the best solution, but that can wait until tomorrow. He also spent some time looking at the John Lewis website with a view to changing our gas hob to induction. Now, there are electrical considerations which have to be checked, but first he needed to determine what size hob was needed and whether it would fit within the void currently occupied by the gas hob. Initial measurements are not filling him with warm fuzzy feelings. This too needs a return visit and some more accurate measurements.

The phone rang just after lunch. It was a lady with a strong Eastern European accent. She worked at SpecSavers and was calling to report the new glasses were ready for collection. (So much for "in the process"). The Gorse Fox hot-footed it round to the store. A nice lady presented him with two pairs of glasses and made sure that a) they met his prescription and he could see; and b) that they fitted him properly. He is delighted. He can now see clearly again... and as he thanked the young lady and turned to walk out the store he had to make a huge effort to stop himself from blowing a raspberry at the chappie from this morning.

Incident

 Ellie slept well but decided to throw herself into our bed at 6:30 this morning. She was pretty good and didn't really start to fidget for a good 20 minutes. After the usual start to the day, we took Ellie to school and headed home. The first order of play was the car dance. The Gorse Fox was heading off to football before the Silver Vixen was heading for Chichester and the shops.

The Gorse Fox met up with the lads. He was sorry to hear that there had been a bit of an incident at Tuesday's game. One of the players had collapsed, about 10 minutes into the game. Assistance was called, and the Sports Centre started to work on him until the ambulances and paramedics arrived. It would appear that between them they worked on him for about 90 minutes before he was stable enough to be moved to the hospital. He has subsequently sent everyone a photo of him sitting up in bed, well on the mend. He thanked everyone for saving his life. A sobering incident.

Today's football was incident-free, thank goodness. We just had a good game. The Gorse Fox was playing in yellow and we won, 3-1. No goals from the Gorse Fox but he did deliver 2 assists and forced two good saves from the goalie.

As the Gorse Fox left the Sports Centre, he received a text from Darren (Urban-Cub's friend). He had been round and had re-fixed the roof tile that had been dislodged by Storm Eunice - and also cleared the gutters while he was at it. The Gorse Fox was very thankful and called him immediately to express his thanks. He must take him down the pub to express it more forcefully!

The afternoon has been spent thinking about the logistics for the June cruise. Should we stay overnight, the night before? Should we take our car and park at the port or hotel? Should we get a chauffeur driven car? The research has started, but no decisions made at this point.

Ellie is back with us tonight.

Tariff

 With the impending raising of the cap on energy prices, the Gorse Fox was alerted yesterday evening by a Tweet from Martin Lewis. He was recommending a particular tariff from E.On (our energy supplier). The Gorse Fox decided the morning was better spent investigating this than playing football. So it was that he logged in to his E.On account. He was immediately bounced out. He tried again. He was bounced again. This carried on for nearly 30 minutes. He went off and read some emails.

He tried E.On again. This time he got on. He searched for the recommended tariff. Ppppphhhht! It had gone. It was clearly too popular and was closed down at midnight. After some consideration, the Gorse Fox chose the replacement tariff. It was 15% more expensive, but it was still cheaper that the variable tariff was likely to become when the cap is raised. The Gorse Fox feels desperately sorry for those who can't afford such a huge uplift.

The Silver Vixen was out with a friend for much of the day, so the Gorse Fox pottered around on various inconsequential tasks. Urban-Cub has just dropped Ellie off with us for the night. She has an early start in the morning.

G-Force

Urban-Cub was back at work today after her week's holiday. She dropped Ellie off with us first thing. Today is an INSET day, which means the school is not open for pupils. In turn, this meant that the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were in charge for the day.

Ellie was pretty good all day. We tried to get her to play with a spirograph, but the coordination proved too much at the moment. We switched to a jigsaw. This was much more successful. She also did painting, some craft work, and we did some reading with her as well as working on her numbers. She managed to unlock 7 more levels on the numbers app. This was a good performance. During the afternoon we took her to the park so that she could let off some steam.

Alongside all this the Gorse Fox managed to get in to the Post Office and send off his old Apple Watch for a refund and made it to the train station to reclaim the fares for the aborted trip to London for reunion he had organised and Storm Eunice had disorganised.

Clean Bill, and Sacrilege

The Gorse Fox had no football today. It was the only day where he could get an appointment with the Optician. This allowed a very slow and lazy start before he had to head off to Sainsbury's where SpecSavers have an implant. 

Because of his advanced age, the eye test was free - though and extra £10 provided a CT Scan of the back of his eye. For the sake of £10, he felt it was worth it. He was very happy. A completely clean bill of optical health and though there were signs of incipient cataracts the analysis was that it would be many years before they had any impact or needed any treatment. The Gorse Fox was very pleased, given the issues his little sister has had.

Not really too much to report for the rest of the day. The Gorse Fox spent a lot of time trying to work out why the Silver Vixen could not control, or even detect, the Sonos from her phone, but the Gorse Fox could from his. Several hours of research and several re-installs drew a blank. This is a problem for another day.

Talking of the Sonos, the Gorse Fox had a chance to listen to Beth Hart's tribute to Led Zeppelin. Wow! It may be sacrilegious but what an album. She is like a cross between Robert Plant and Janis Joplin and has a voice that is perfect for Led Zeppelin rock. The Gorse Fox is smitten. His analysis would say that the tracks are as good as the originals, and in a few cases (particularly "Kashmir") even better.

Spectacular

The Gorse Fox has managed to find an old pair of glasses. They are wonky. The short vision is the wrong prescription. They are uncomfortable. Thank goodness he has an appointment at the optician tomorrow. Another few weeks or even months without visual clarity would be quite trying. 

You win some...

 It was another lovely, leisurely start to the day. No hurry to get up so the Gorse Fox lay in until 7:30. At 9:00 it was time for the cousins' call. There was nothing much to report but one, who shall remain nameless, was clearly hung-over after a momentous session.

Urban-Cub had entered a competition with the local butcher. She won. This morning she managed to get along and collect £60 worth of meat. This was clearly too much for her, Ellie and Darren. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen benefited with a donation of a fresh chicken and 4 huge lamb chops (they called them Barnsley chops) which are the size of beef steaks. There we were trying to run down the freezer, but now it has been topped up again.

The rest of the day has been spent looking at the Canadian/Polish side of the family and trying to fill in more details for Agent Mulder's family. It was quite successful and additional information has now been added to the family tree.

Watch it

 The Gorse Fox allowed himself a lie-in. It was 7:40 before he found his way out of bed. Unfortunately, Jasper had decided to evacuate in the litter tray, so the Gorse Fox spent the first ten minutes sorting out a major dump and the accompanying smells. Once that was sorted out the rich aroma of good coffee overcame the residual smell of cat crap.

The morning was spent on admin. The most pressing item being the accounts, after a few days away. Everything balanced perfectly, so the Gorse Fox was pleased.

A message arrived. DHL would deliver his new Apple Watch today. Ooooh! Exciting! There was no real clue as to when it would arrive so he read the instructions for disabling the old watch and then decided to ignore it until the DHL courier arrived. As it happens he arrived by about 16:30 so the Gorse Fox is now the proud owner of a new watch and it has just finished its set-up process and restored its data from the Gorse Fox's backup.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent on the post-trip washing, by the Silver Vixen and her latest sewing project for Ellie. The Gorse Fox has been doing some family tree tidying up.

Easing back

 We have been easing back into the swing of things today. After a very leisurely breakfast we went along to collect Jasper from the Cattery. He was his usual vociferous self for an hour or so, but has settled down now. Once Jasper was home and settled, we did the weekly shop. As we now have this down to a fine art, it only took about 30 minutes.

The Gorse Fox, still looking like a pretentious prat in his sunglasses, tried to book in to get an appointment at the opticians. Even taking a cancellation, the soonest he could book was April 1st at Boots. In the end he managed to get an appointment for this Sunday at SpecSavers. It will mean missing football, but he would rather get the glasses sorted out than run around chasing blurry figures.

Talking of glasses, the Gorse Fox did notice how expensive his glasses had become using the previous online supplier. They have doubled in price. After a little digging around, he did find another company who worked out even cheaper than the last supplier. He will hang fire until he gets his new prescription.

The rest of the day has been very quiet and relaxed.

Infamy

 Today is a day that will go down in history, a day of infamy. The psychopath Putin has given the order, invaded Ukraine and started a war in Europe the likes of which we have not seen of nearly 80 years. It is a day that will be remembered. It is one of the darkest days in Europe since Hitler.

Here in England we have seen a stirring speech in defence of Ukraine from our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. We have seen a speech of support from the Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer. What is more worrying is that we have seen nearly a dozen Labour MPs sign a letter blaming the conflict on NATO and exonerating Russia. These MPs will also be remembered in history as unfit to hold office, a disgrace on the pages of history.

Too soon

 It was all over too soon. We started to pack before breakfast and The Gorse Fox even took a couple of loads to the car. At the appointed hour we met with J&T in the restaurant for breakfast. Outside, it was bright and sunny, but clouds seemed to be gathering inland.

With breakfast tucked away we finished the packing and loaded the car, Then the four of us took one last walk along the seafront to the end of the promenade and then back to the hotel. We did our goodbyes and J&T headed home via Dart’s Farm, and we headed up to Odcombe (near Montacute). It was a cross-county journey and was beset with diversions. The last of these meant that, in order to get back to the village, we had to traverse some of narrowest lanes and tracks we’ve ever been down. Fortunately the only two vehicles that were coming the other way, met us just as we passed field entrances, giving us room to slide past each other. In Odcombe, it took a few minutes to find the Mason’s Arms, but we got there eventually.

At the pub, we were meeting up with Badger and Mrs Tiggywinkle. The particular pub was chosen because it was (sort of) on our way home, and it was Mrs Tiggywinkle’s family pub. Her family used to come from Odcombe and her mother lived next door but one to the pub. They have family reunions there. It was quaint old pub that has been well cared for and nicely extended out the back.

It was lovely to see the two of them again. We must have known them since the 1980s when they too worked at Starfleet. We have kept in touch ever since. They never seem to change (nor age). As with all good friends, we seemed to pick up the conversations where we left off last time. We chatted about family, our houses (and the management committees for the developments), cars, and family trees (Mrs Tiggywinkle is an avid researcher, like the Gorse Fox).  

We had a lovely lunch but, all too soon, it was time to go our own ways. They headed back to Wellington, and we headed up to the A303 and back home via Salisbury. We finally got in just after 17:00.

The car was unloaded, suitcases unpacked, everything tidied away, and we sank into our armchairs for quiet evening and an early night. It had been a very lovely few days and the Gorse Fox had been thoroughly spoilt for his Birthday.

AMBIGRAM, Palindrome, Birthday

 Well it is an auspicious day. 22022022 a date which is: a palindrome (can be read forwards and backwards), an ambigram (can be read upside down - if you are using a suitable font), and the Gorse Fox’s birthday.

He started the day with various messages of good wishes and by breaking his spectacles. The lenses are fine, but one of the arms has sheared off. Fortunately, he had a pair of prescription sunglasses in the car… and is now wandering around looking like a pretentious prat wearing shades!

After breakfast, we all met up and drove into Exeter for the day. The prime purpose had been to see the Museum of the Moon exhibition in the Cathedral. The trouble was that all the timed entry slots were booked. We decided to go along anyway. We joined a short queue and voila… we were in.

It really was a very special exhibition with a huge model of the moon floating above the nave. People of all ages were there to see the spectacle (though not the Gorse Fox’s spectacles!) 

We wandered around the moon for a while then, cratered out, we took the opportunity to tour the Cathedral. We had a lovely hour or so there. Gasping for a drink we headed back to the High Street, but unlike Chichester, there seems to be a dearth of places to stop for a coffee or snack and those that were there were full. We found our way back to The Ship - a pub near the Cathedral - and managed to get some coffee. We strolled back towards the car, with a brief detour into John Lewis, then head back to Sidmouth.

In the hotel room, the Gorse Fox was greeted by a huge box. This contained a set of balloons. The Gorse Fox had no sooner unveiled these than J&T turned up at our door with cake, Prosecco, and some presents for the old codger. We had a lovely celebration before going our separate ways prior to dinner.