In the swing

 We are straight back and into the normal swing of things. We were up early so that Ellie could be dropped off. It's only been a few days, but it was lovely to see her again. We gave her breakfast and the Silver Vixen supervised morning ablutions and dressing for school. It was quite chilly this morning - only 1C - as we walked to school. At least it was dry and there was little or no wind.

Once home, the Silver Vixen went out to attend an appointment while the Gorse Fox got on with his breakfast and then attacked the accounts. There wasn't too much to do until the Silver Vixen returned, showered and was ready to head back out so that we could collect Jasper from the cattery. Jasper clearly enjoyed his spa break and spent the whole trip home and most of the afternoon telling us about it at the top of his voice.

The Gorse Fox collected Ellie from school and then she spent the rest of the afternoon doing some craft work with the Silver Vixen in preparation for book day at school, this Friday.

Home Again

 

The weather sneered at us. After a couple of grey days, we woke this morning to a lovely-looking sky and the clouds drifting away. Typical!

It didn't matter. We don't holiday in the UK and expect perfect weather. That is part of the charm.

We started packing, and the Gorse Fox took the first loads to the car, stopping to pay the bill before going to breakfast. By this time, the sun was pouring in through the windows, blinding the Gorse Fox. Fortunately, the couple at the next table left, and the staff were able to close the blinds.

After breakfast, we finished packing and said our farewells to the staff and to Betty and Barney Rubble. By now the clouds had disappeared and we had a clear blue sky from horizon to horizon. It seemed a shame to be leaving but the drive home crosses some fabulous scenery that would look wonderful on such a clear day.

The journey was quite extraordinary. There were neither delays nor hold-ups for the first 130 miles. The first time we had to queue was when we got to the Bognor Road roundabout at Chichester, 4 miles from home. Even that was but a few moments.

We have had a quiet afternoon, interrupted only by a phone call from Ellie to tell the Gorse Fox that Tottenham was beating Chelsea 2-0. These are the sort of priorities that are rightly instilled in her. We have just finished dinner (only one course tonight, not the five that we have been used to).

It was a lovely break.

Sat in Sidmouth

We had a laughter filled evening in the restaurant and lounge last night. It all started with the surreptitious lifting of a Bourbon biscuit from the table and its stashing into Betty Rubble’s handbag. A nearby lady of uncertain years watched from a nearby table. She gave a look that would turn you to stone. This started our laughter as Betty tried to be nonchalant. As we left the restaurant, the Gorse Fox went “Beep, beep, beep, beep” and one of the waiters (with a huge smile on his face) asked “Have you taken something?”, “Not me” said the Gorse Fox, “It was her”… and so the laughter started again.

We had another good night’s sleep and, again, it looks promising weather-wise today. Let’s hope that it tries harder today, as yesterday turned a bit grey and cloudy.

The Silver Vixen wanted to pick up a gift for a friend so we headed into town. several hours later, when every gift shop had been examined in minute detail, the right gift was found. At this point Barney and the Gorse Fox took the shopping back to the hotel then came back to join the ladies for coffee. All of the coffee shops that we had thought of were full, but we found one tucked away near the seafront.

Once suitable caffeinated, we headed along the esplanade towards the mouth of the River Sid and then walked away from the sea, along the riverbank. It was a gentle stroll but very pretty - even in winter. We turned when the Silver Vixen was starting to tire, then headed back to hotel for some refreshments.

Betty and Barney headed for the spa, and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox settled down with our books and the online newspapers.

Brighter, briefly

It was a bit brighter this morning. The sun was trying to break through some watery clouds but it was a nippy 3c out on our balcony. As we prepared to meet up for breakfast, we still had no particular plan for the day.

Over breakfast we agreed that we would visit Killerton House. We went there in November but since then they have mounted a new exhibition of fashion - which obviously interests the Silver Vixen.

We had a good drive across to Killerton but by the time arrived, the sun had slipped back behind the clouds. At least the wind had dropped. We strolled along to the House and made our way through the rooms and up to the exhibition.

Leaving the House we nipped into the restaurant for a coffee before going for a walk in the grounds. After a while we found a viewpoint with a bench where we could sit and look across the valley towards Dartmoor. We were in no hurry, so sat and chatted and watched the view for quite a while.

Eventually, we stirred ourselves and moved on. Walking back we could see the daffodils starting to bloom and some lovely drifts of crocus. Back through the shop (where resisted any latent temptation) and then on to the car. It didn’t seem to take long to get back to the hotel. Betty and Barney headed for the spa and we made ourselves comfortable in the Lounge with some tea and a beer.

Urban-Cub phoned this afternoon; apparently Ellie has been presented with the school baton for happiness. She has a scroll and as happiness is one of the school’s key values she is invited to tell them about it next Thursday.

Good Morning

 After a good night’s sleep, the Gorse Fox is reading the news online. The Silver Vixen is in the bathroom. There is tap at the door (and several in the bathroom). The Gorse Fox opens the door to a little old lady who greets him with:

“Good morning. Oh! I’ve got the wrong the wrong room.”

She shook her head and wandered away to knock on another door. People are so friendly here.

Second Home

We started the day by working through our last minute lists: empty the fridge, switch off the heating; empty the bins, finish packing etc. The Gorse Fox had time to go around and escort Ellie to school but as soon as he got home we finished loading the car and hit the road.

The journey down to Sidmouth was trouble-free. Even though it was mid-week, we had a clear run through. Despite a “wee and coffee” stop at Bridport, we were checking into the hotel just over three hours from leaving home.

Betty and Barney Rubble pulled into the car park just as we were walking to reception. Perfect timing. We warned reception about them, but they allowed them to check-in anyway. We settled in the Lounge and chatted over refreshments and sandwiches. It was two and half hours before we stirred. We went to our rooms (we are back in our preferred room, 104) and changed, then headed out into the grey afternoon for a stroll into town. We were out for an hour or so getting our allotment of fresh air and exercise. There was, however, a chilly wind and it was nice to get back into the hotel.

We met in the bar for a pre-dinner drink then enjoyed the usual 5-course dinner before retiring to the Lounge for coffee. Just as we were finishing dinner, the Gorse Fox’s dear Aunt phoned to wish him a happy birthday and to update him on all the family news.

We are now back in our room and will reconvene over breakfast tomorrow.

Messages

There was no immediate hurry to get up this morning. The Gorse Fox could wander around to Urban-Cub's in time for the walk to school - but didn't need to worry about Ellie's breakfast. The Silver Vixen did have to get up so she would be ready for her appointment at the hairdresser at 9:00.

It was when the Gorse Fox was opening the shutters that his phone vibrated. A message had arrived. He checked. It was a Happy Birthday message from his nephew Mark. Oh yes - his brain suddenly engaged - it is his birthday, he had not given it a thought until the message arrived. From that point onwards, messages appeared on all of the social media platforms. The Gorse Fox has tried to respond to each and every one.

After the school escort service, the Gorse Fox had some breakfast and retired to his study. He has spent some of the day editing and formatting old blog extracts. 

As we are going away for a few days, Jasper needed to spend some time in the Spa. Even though we had not varied our morning routine, nor retrieved our suitcases from storage, he somehow guessed. He buried himself under Ellie's bed in the most inaccessible place he could. In the end, we had to send a text to the Cat Whisperer to say we would be late. Jasper finally emerged and strolled into the kitchen with a proud swagger. "You couldn't get me, could you?" he seemed to be saying. The Gorse Fox shut the kitchen door and he was trapped. He knew it. He started his yowling, which continued until we dropped him off at the Cattery.

Back home, we had some lunch and then retrieved our suitcases. Everything is now ready for a prompt start in the morning - the plan is to leave around 9:00.

Intervention

 The Silver Vixen and Cousteau-Cub went across to Portsmouth last night in order to see Giovanni Pernice's show. The Gorse Fox was left as butler to both Ellie and Jasper. Jasper was not amused and he took himself off to our bedroom where he sulked until the Silver Vixen returned. Ellie, despite threatening mischief, went straight to bed and was asleep within seconds. The Gorse Fox retired to the lounge and watched TV while keeping an eye on the Silver Vixen's location. This proved interesting when she left the show. She followed the Satnav but found access to the Motorway was closed and ended up headed west towards Fareham instead of east towards Chichester. A quick about-face at Fareham saw her heading back on the correct road and, after dropping Cousteau-Cub and Chichester, she was home before 23:30.

There was an intervention in the Gorse Fox's dream. The patter of tiny feet and a nudge from Ellie was followed by "Grandpa, how long is it until my clock turns yellow?" Grandpa looked at his watch. "Ellie, it is 5:39, there are 50 more minutes to wait. Go back to bed and go to sleep" and, to be fair to her, she did.

Ellie was eager to get to school today. She was up and ready in plenty of time and she was among the first to rush in when the doors opened. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox strolled home and had some breakfast. The Silver Vixen got on with various chores during the morning. The Gorse Fox caught up on the accounts and then returned to the formatting and editing of blog extracts.

After lunch, we sat down with our books until it was time to collect Ellie. She had had a good day at school and had several stickers to show for her efforts. When we arrived home, she sat down to do some homework. This was all going well until she had to write a sentence terminating with a question mark. She went into a meltdown. She claimed she just can't do question marks and ran off crying. The Gorse Fox asked her to write the number 2. Then the number 2 without a tail, but with a dot under it. He pointed out that this was a question mark. Not good enough, apparently. This was a battle we were not going to win tonight. It was about this time that Urban-Cub arrived to collect her, on her way back from work.

G-Force

 It has been a while since we have had a full G-Force day. Urban-Cub was working all day but Ellie had an Inset day (where there is no school for the children). She was dropped off at 7:30 and has been with us throughout the day.

During the morning, the Gorse Fox popped out to fill the Skoda with petrol and put it through the car wash. It was filthy! Whilst the queue at the petrol station was negligible, the car wash was a different matter. The Gorse Fox joined a queue with at least 8 cars visible in front. Despite that, it didn't take too long and the car looks pristine again.

Since lunchtime, the Gorse Fox has been playing some phonics and word games with Ellie. This was at her prompting. She is getting really good at reading and rarely needs help.

This evening, the Silver Vixen is going out with Cousteau-Cub to see Giovanni Pernice at the theatre in Southsea. The Gorse Fox is now in charge and is sure that there is mischief to be had, if only we could think of some. Ellie is washed, her teeth have been cleaned and she is ready for bed. Currently, she is playing on her tablet, but the Gorse Fox will go and read her a story in a few minutes. She has been an absolute treasure all day.

Early Celebration

It was a quiet morning. The Gorse Fox didn't have any football scheduled because the Silver Vixen had arranged a family lunch to celebrate the Gorse Fox's impending birthday.

We met at "Fino's" - the Gorse Fox, Silver Vixen, Cousteau-Cub, the Coventry Hobbit, Urban-Cub, Ellie, and Darren. As usual, the restaurant was quite busy, but we had a lovely table reserved so didn't have to wait around.

The Gorse Fox was presented with some cards and asked if they should be opened immediately or kept until Wednesday. The consensus was that they should be opened immediately. He must say that he has done well. They presented the Gorse Fox with tickets to go to TV Centre and watch QI being filmed next month and in April they secured tickets to go and see Elkie Brooks at the Anvil in Basingstoke.  

It was a lovely lunch and there's nothing quite as wonderful as having all of the Gorse Fox's girls together in one place.

In addition to an early celebration for the Gorse Fox's birthday, today would have been his Grandfather's 121st birthday, so we raised a glass to him and his memory.

Grandpa was very honoured. Ellie had made him a Birthday Card. (Ellie had woken up this morning, crept into Urban-Cub's bedroom and asked "Mummy, can you wake up at 7:00 instead of 8:00" and then declared that she "needed something to wear for Grandpa's lunch. Can we go shopping?" So it was that at 10:00, Urban-Cub and Ellie were standing outside "Next" waiting for them to open. A new outfit was selected and she looked as pretty as a picture.)

Excursions

 As mentioned yesterday, we had a Zoom call with J&T last night. We examined the various excursions that are available during our cruise this Autumn. With a couple of exceptions we had come to a similar list and so agreed to go ahead and get them booked. Young Trevor did it immediately and the Gorse Fox booked ours this morning. It's nice to have that agreed upon and nailed down.

This morning the Gorse Fox had his usual cousins' call. Today was cousin Helen's birthday so she opened her cards live, on air. She's a year younger than the Gorse Fox.

One item on the "to-do" list was to fix Ellie's doll's cot. This has never stayed together very well and as it has flexed the bottom has dropped out on many occasions. It was time to fix this. Some strips of wood, some Gorilla Glue, and a handful of clamps soon created a lasting solution. (At least that's what we hope).

Most of the rest of the day has been spent formatting and editing the blog extracts.

Edit

Jasper can be a pain. Sometime during the early hours (the Gorse Fox could not be bothered to look at his watch) he started to walk all over us and meow to make sure that he had our attention. We ignored him for so long, and then the Silver Vixen ejected him, somewhat unceremoniously, from the bed. Enough was enough.

Jasper went off to sulk and we didn't hear from him again until we were eating breakfast.

During the morning, the Gorse Fox applied the latest updates to our Apple Watches, iPads, iPhones, MacBooks, and iMac. It took a little while but was still much quicker than the old Windows updates had been.

Once that was finished he returned to yesterday's research into possible excursions for our forthcoming cruise. We've now narrowed it down and will discuss it later with J&T. The rest of the day has been spent editing and formatting the 2018 blog extract. This took a couple of passes because the Gorse Fox decided to change the way in which photos were included. For consistency, he now must go back through 2019, 20, 21, and 22. That won't be quick! (He is thinking of adding a Table of Contents and an Index at the same time but dreads the amount of time that will take).

Round, round, get around

 It. had been wet overnight. When the Gorse Fox got up, it was still drizzling, it was great and the forecast suggested it would stay like that for most of the day. We had a quiet breakfast and awaited the usual Ocado delivery. We still had the Sainsbury's top-up to complete, but first, we had to retrieve the Silver Vixen's coat.

We headed across to Angmering. The traffic was malignant, with long tailbacks at every set of roadworks and most roundabouts. The coat was waiting for us in the office, and we got straight back into the car to head back. We would not sit in the traffic on the way back. A different route was needed. The A27 was a no-go as there was a long tailback at Crossbush. We took the A259 then switched up towards Ford, across to Yapton and Barnham and finally back down the A29. It may have added 5 miles or so to the journey but it was certainly quicker.

We stopped off at Sainsbury's. It seemed to be full of frail zombies who were blocking the aisles while having a chat with all and sundry. They were totally oblivious to the gridlock that they were causing and the Gorse Fox actually did an about-turn and walked around the long way in several trolley jams.

Back home the Gorse Fox caught up on the accounts and was glad to see that a book that he had pre-ordered last year had just been charged and delivered to his Kindle library. Talking of deliveries, the Gorse Fox had ordered some new chinos. They too turned up today and seem to be a very good fit.

The Gorse Fox spent some time looking through the various excursions that are available during the cruise we have booked for the Autumn. He's made a preliminary selection but we plan to have a Zoom call with J&T tomorrow in order to nail this down.

The afternoon was spent with our books.

Undercoat

 There was a bright start to the day, though some clouds had lingered from overnight. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox donned our gear and headed onto the highway. For the Silver Vixen, it was Pilates, for the Gorse Fox it was football. The clouds disappeared and we had a lovely sunny day. 

Jack had chosen the teams, as usual. As usual, he had picked a blatantly unbalanced squad.  We were under the cosh from the start. Having said that, we held out for quite a while before conceding. We kept trying to respond but just didn't have the players. The Gorse Fox had four or five shots stopped and managed to get the ball in the net once. That, however, was disallowed for an earlier infringement. Not too sure what the final score was, but suspect it was 7-0.

Leaving the sports centre, the Gorse Fox drove back to Angmering to collect the Silver Vixen. We loaded up the car and set off home. It was only as we arrived home and started to unload that the Silver Vixen realised that she had left her coat on the back of a chair at the Community Centre. A panicky phone call was made, the coat was located, and it was tucked away in the office for us to collect tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent lapping up the sun in the Orangery while reading (and in the case of the Gorse Fox dozing).

A Day Out

The forecast was good but the morning had started with a thick mist. We planned to go out but had not decided on a destination. The Portsmouth Historic Dockyard was our first choice but when trying to book the tickets the earliest availability was tomorrow. That doesn't help us today! In the end, we decided on a trip to Nyman's at Handcross. 

We finished our breakfast and prepared Jasper's lunchtime feast. Hitting the road, we drove up through Fontwell, Amberley, Storrington, Cowfold, across Plummer's Plain and on to Handcross. As we left the A29 and dropped into the Arun Valley the sunshine gave way to thick mist and the temperature dropped from 7C to 2C. It remained misty for most of the drive. This did not bode well for Nyman's. As it happened, the mist lifted just as we approached and it didn't trouble us again.

As we entered the grounds we took the route that led us around the perimeter of the gardens. It was lined with wonderful specimen trees and looped along a ridge that afforded brilliant views across the slightly misty Weald.

We were in no hurry so we made the most of the views and made our way, at a leisurely pace, to the more formal gardens in front of the skeleton of the ruined house.

Skirting around the ruins, we made our way to the small restaurant. We sat and enjoyed a coffee and the Silver Vixen had a lovely bowl of soup. The Gorse Fox made the mistake of selecting something simple - a Ploughman's Lunch. He finds it hard to comprehend how it is possible to make something so simple taste so bad. The cheese was nice. The bread was nice. The apple was tolerable. Everything else: pickles, jam, and salad was deeply unpalatable.

We moved on, stopping to look at a mediocre set of paintings in an exhibition, then back to the ruins themselves.

The ruins always inspire the imagination, reminding the Gorse Fox of old Gothic novels or 1960s horror films. We wandered back and forth, looking at the ruins from every angle and photographing most of them.

Eventually, gothic-ed out, we made our way out through the walled gardens to the NT Shop, then on to the car and home.

We were home in under an hour and spent the remains of the afternoon in the Orangery, soaking up the warmth and finishing our books.

Steam

 It was a grey start to the day but as time wore on, it brightened and the sun burst through. After a lengthy breakfast, the Gorse Fox stripped the kitchen then vacuumed and steam-cleaned the floors. The Silver Vixen went to the local pharmacy to collect her meds.

Later, the Gorse Fox returned to his editing on the 2018 blog extract. This occupied the rest of the morning. It made interesting reading as he got the chance to reminisce over Kim's brief trip home from Thailand, our first trip to Jamaica, a family wedding, and Ellie's second year. There are a further few months to process, but there is no hurry.

After lunch, the Gorse Fox sat in the Orangery, soaking up the warm sun, and finishing a book. The Silver Vixen went out to do some tidying up in the garden.

That's it for today. A gloriously uneventful day.

Brief Appearance

 The Gorse Fox snuck downstairs at 7:00, hoping not to wake the Silver Vixen. Unfortunately, Jasper had left an odorous parcel in his litter tray which demanded immediate attention. The Gorse Fox was as quiet as he could be, but suspects he disturbed the sleeping beauty.

At 9:00 the Gorse Fox headed off to the Arena for football. We had a new player today. The Gorse Fox had been warned that he was very good so he accommodated that in his team selection algorithm. We had a 6-v-5 turnout. Paul, the new guy, was allocated to the team with 6 players. The Gorse Fox made sure he was on the team with 5. The game started and it was clear that Paul was good and would fit in nicely with the Sunday crowd. After about 10 minutes the score was 3-3 and Paul was looking dangerous. Then, in the blink of an eye, he pulled up. He had pulled a hamstring. That was it. He went off and spectated for the rest of the hour. We changed the teams a bit at halftime, but the Gorse Fox's team still managed a 15-10 win. The Gorse Fox scored at least 3 of our goals (that's all he's claiming, but he thinks he got a 4th in the second half).

Back home and showered he settled down with the editing and formatting of the 2018 blog. He has only done the first three months of the year so far. Other than cooking the Sunday roast (pork), he spent the rest of the day reading, while the Silver Vixen got on with some sewing.

Condensed

 A gentle start to the day saw the Gorse Fox wander downstairs at 7:30 and put the coffee on. There was no agenda for the day. As he contemplated the meaning of life over the life-affirming coffee he delved into the day's news. There was movement upstairs. He switched on the kettle. The Silver Vixen would be greeted with a fresh cup of tea when she came down.

At 9:00, the Gorse Fox had the cousins' call. Whilst we had the usual banter, it was good to hear from Chris. He's a few hundred kilometres from the epicentre of this week's earthquake, and they could feel their apartment block shaking. They decided, for safety's sake to relocate to a country cottage for a couple of days but are now back home.

When the call was over, the Gorse Fox cracked on with the editing and formatting of the 2019 blog extract. This has taken all day but is now complete. It was easy to get up and leave it, then come back to it as various interrupts occurred. One such interruption was Darren. He came over to look at the vent in our bathroom. This has, on two occasions, dripped into the bathroom. The Gorse Fox concluded that it was the moist air extracted from the bathroom, condensing and dripping back into the room. This seemed likely as it had only happened on two days when the external temperature was well below zero. Darren made his way across the joists in the loft and examined the extractor. Sure enough, the vent pipe wasn't adequately insulated, and the ceiling vent was not a tight fit. The former problem was solved immediately by redistributing some of the loft insulation. The latter problem will need some silicon sealer and will be done later.

While Darren was in the loft, he noticed that a vent pipe was not connected to the roof vent. In fact, the roof connection was hanging upside down and not connected to the roof. He fixed that while he was there. He's a good lad!

While all this was going on, the Silver Vixen has been doing a blitz-clean of the Orangery. It has taken her much of the day, but she's finished now.

Young Love

Ellie was dropped off soon after 7 o'clock this morning. She was very excited, today was the last day before half-term and there was a Valentine's Disco after school. She had chosen her outfit and she was ready and eager to get to school.

 As it was quite icy, the Gorse Fox took Ellie to school. He didn't want the Silver Vixen to risk a slip on the pavement. When we got there, the Gorse Fox started chatting with one of the mums. Meanwhile, Ellie had been presented with a red rose, by one of her classmates. Another had given her a heart-shaped lollipop and an envelope containing some chocolate. Only Ellie and her friend Bonnie were selected for this sort of treatment. What it's like to be popular!

Back home, caffeinated and breakfasted, we realised that we were suffering from withdrawal symptoms, after yesterday's reckless change of habits. It was no good. We had to get our fix. We grabbed the bags and headed for Sainsbury's for the top-up shop. There wasn't much to get and we were home again in 45 minutes.

Once home, the Silver Vixen did some laundry while the Gorse Fox did the accounts. He then started formatting and editing the 2019 blog extract, until lunchtime. After lunch, we both retired to the Orangery with our books until it was a) getting a little chilly, and b) time to collect Ellie.

Ellie had clearly enjoyed the Disco and wanted to linger and go to the park. We, however, needed to get her home and give her dinner before Pistol Pete turned up to collect her.

She's with Pistol Pete now for the half-term week.

Sand Blasting

 As Ellie had been at home overnight, there was no hurry for us to get up this morning. As long as the Gorse Fox was ready for his school-run bodyguard duties, there was no hurry.

We had decided to live dangerously. We waited for the usual Ocado delivery but then, in a moment of utter madness, decided not to go to Sainsbury's. We would, instead, have a day of wild and abandoned fun. Thus, we put on our coats and headed to Chichester. The Silver Vixen wanted to raid M&S and the Gorse Fox had an appointment with the dental hygienist. Tradition, be damned. We were living life to the full.

The SIlver ~Vixen headed off to M&S while the Gorse Fox made his way to the dental surgery. The hygienist is a charming if somewhat condescending young girl who started by giving the usual lecture on the importance of dental hygiene. She then explained that she had a new machine which for an extra £10 she could use. This mixes warm water with a fine powder as it blasts your teeth clean (a bit like sand-blasting paint). The Gorse Fox decided to let her play with her new toy. As she and her assistant set to work, clouds of fine particles rose in the air above the Gorse Fox. It didn't take too long, and in the end, his teeth did feel immensely clean.

The Gorse Fox met up with the Silver Vixen as she was nearing the end of her raid on the Chichester shops. We headed off for some lunch. There was a 90-minute wait for a table at The Ivy, so we moved on. We decided to go to Crispin's. We have eaten there many times before and while it is simple fare, it is freshly cooked and always good value for money. We both selected their "Chilli con carne on a bed of potato wedges, with coleslaw and salad". Simple, but delicious. At least we will not need to eat again today.

Back home again, we spent what was left of the afternoon reading. Ellie popped in briefly on her way to, and later from the park with the Urban-Cub.

6:28

 It was 6:28. Ellie wandered into our bedroom and announced that her iPad(*) wouldn't let her do anything. The Gorse Fox looked at his watch and realised that the last week's changes would keep the tablet locked until 6:30. He sent her back to her room and explained that it would be ok in a couple of minutes. She disappeared and we didn't hear from her again until 7:00. Perfect.

Urban-Cub came around in time to walk with us to school. She has a day off today so Ellie will be back home overnight. The Gorse Fox wandered home and spent several minutes de-icing the car. With the Silver Vixen on board, he drove to Angmering to drop her off for her Pilates session. He then went on to Worthing in order to meet up for a game of football.

The teams were somewhat lop-sided. The Gorse Fox played in orange but the yellow team had the two most mobile (and youngest) players. We were soon under the cosh. Having said that, we did score the first goal. Our passing was good, but we were on a hiding to nothing. The final score was 7-4. The Gorse Fox had a few flashes of skill but in general, it was a mediocre performance.

After lunch, the Gorse Fox walked into the village to get his hair cut. He like to keep it short and had to keep encouraging the barber to take a bit more off. Back home, he had a quiet hour in the Orangery, making the most of the sunshine and then went up to the study to continue formatting and editing the 2020 blog extract.

(*) Ellie doesn't have an iPad here. She has a Kindle Fire Kids+, but she refers to it as her iPad. (She does have an iPad at home)

A few lines of Code

 At 6:45, Ellie bounced into our room to greet the day. The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were not ready and suggested that Ellie return to her room for 15 minutes. She did, and we got a few more minutes in bed. Once we were on the go, Ellie had some breakfast, got washed and ready for school, and then decided to stick some pictures on her bedroom door (we had told her not to stick anything on the walls). Unfortunately, all but three fell off during the day so she was less than amused when she got back from school and had to stick them back up. Urban-Cub popped in so that she could walk to the school with us. Then she disappeared for a long day at the store.

The Gorse Fox spent the morning looking back at the blog extracts. He decided that the program used to perform the extract needed some refinement. There are entries in the private section of the blog that contain no significant information - for example, old calendar entries from when the Gorse Fox was still working. These have now been filtered out of the extract. Once this was done, the Gorse Fox ran some more extracts and then started to format and edit the 2020 entries.

The weather was gorgeous if a little chilly. It meant that the Orangery was the ideal spot to sit and read for an hour or so before we collected Ellie. When we did meet her at school, we stopped off at the park for 15 minutes to allow her to let off steam.

Back home, Ellie helped the Gorse Fox prepare dinner. Then she promptly turned her nose up at it when it was put on her plate. That drives the Gorse Fox mad.

Ellie is staying with us overnight again tonight.

Editing

 It has been a beautiful day. No cloud has dared to sully the edge-to-edge blue of the winter sky. Having said that, it has been quite cool. The Gorse Fox escorted Ellie to school, along with Urban-Cub, then headed home for some breakfast.

The first order of the morning was to check and update the accounts. Then the Gorse Fox returned to his editing exercise. Bit by bit he is working through a couple of years of blog posts and formatting them for printing. On each pass, and there have been several, he finds a few more tweaks to apply. One decision that he made was to replace the nom-de-net nicknames with real names. No more anonymity in the printed version. Having said that, there is no reason for the printed version to ever leave the house. In years to come, however, the family will not know to whom these nicknames applied.

While this was going on, the Silver Vixen was busy with her patterns in the sewing room. An email arrived, ostensibly from UPS. She replied and provided the information requested. It was only a bit later she suddenly had doubts. The Gorse Fox checked, and sure enough, the addresses didn't resolve to UPS. It was a sophisticated phishing scam. We immediately froze her bank card. A long chat with the bank cancelled the card and a new one will be sent out. It is so easy to get caught out. It is good that the Gorse Fox has been drumming in a healthy dose of paranoia and that she got suspicious.

Ellie is with us tonight.

Logistics

 The Gorse Fox was thinking about how brilliantly some of the delivery companies are organised. Early afternoon on Friday, he ordered a new sweater. The order was acknowledged at about 13:30 and shipped to DPD for delivery. By 16:09 the sweater was in the Exetet hub. By 02:15 on Saturday, it was at their central hub in Hinckley. Just after 09:00 it reached Portsmouth and was put on a van for delivery. By 12:45, it was delivered. What's more, the Gorse Fox had been able to track it every step of the way.

Technology is wonderful when used well.

Full House

The Gorse Fox woke earlier than planned. He went downstairs and spent the first 10 minutes cleaning up Jasper's overnight additions to the litter tray. When the mess was finally under control, it was time for the first (in fact, only) coffee of the day. (The Gorse Fox limits himself to a single coffee before football). He settled down and worked through his emails, some social media, and the news aggregators until the Silver Vixen came down.

 We had a full house for football, 5-v-5, which is perfect. The initial team selection, on consideration, needed tweaking. One player was swapped between the teams and we got going. By halftime, the Gorse Fox's orange team were 3-1 ahead. He had not played well. Passes had been under hit, shots had been scuffed, and interceptions missed. In the second half, he started to click. The passes were more assertive and he threaded some nice balls through the attack. Goals were scored tit-for-tat. The Gorse Fox managed to tuck three goals in the net, and we finished off victors by one goal.

The Silver Vixen was finishing some ironing (predominantly Ellie's) and then managed to get started on a new project. The Gorse Fox read several chapters of his book, sitting in the Orangery, enjoying the warm sun. He switched off the Kindle and returned to his study. There was another blog extract to edit and format. He tried some different themes from yesterday. One looked very smart and much better than the original. So much so, in fact, that he went back and reformatted yesterday's extract for 2021. Once that was done, he made a start on 2022's extract. He has only got as far as May but will return to it during the week.

Publish and be damned

 There was no hurry to get up, this morning. The Gorse Fox wandered downstairs and made the first coffee of the day (after clearing up the mess Jasper had left in his litter tray - Not the most pleasant sight or smell with which to greet the day). The Silver Vixen followed some 45 minutes later (coming downstairs, that is, not using the litter tray).

We had the regular Saturday morning call with the cousins. It seemed to fly by this morning. As usual, it was 30-40 minutes of laughter and banter, Once the call was over, the Gorse Fox returned to the 2021 extract of this blog. Yesterday, he had started to post-process it using MS Word. Today he picked up where he had left off. He thought that it would only take an hour or so. It actually took six hours. Once the punctuation, grammar, and spelling had been corrected, he had to start back at the beginning and try to sort out all of the photos. The first 6 months of the year required each photo to be retrieved from his library and reinserted into the document. For some reason, however, the photos in the second half of the year were predominantly correct and required very little tweaking. The document was finally complete. A "pdf" has been created, documenting the whole of 2021. It runs to nearly 355 pages and occupies over 36GB of storage.

With 2021 complete, the Gorse Fox has started on the 2022 blog extract.

Late in the afternoon, the Gorse Fox received a phone summons from Urban-Cub. They have been fiddling with their living room layout and that involved rewiring the TV. She now appears to be able to get hundreds of channels but not the traditional terrestrial channels. The Gorse Fox pointed out that the newer Samsung TVs do not include FreeView and she would need to reconnect her Humax Freeview box. Connections were made and tested. Channels are now available. If there is another way to get the channels without that box, she needs to research it.

Football is confirmed for tomorrow morning. Hurray!

Kindle Kids

 The Gorse Fox was expecting a bit of a lie-in. Ellie was at home and he didn't need to get up to greet her. Jasper had other ideas. At 7:00 (ok, that's 15 minutes later than the normal alarm) he started to walk all over us. Enough was enough. The Gorse Fox got up and pottered downstairs to let him out and to make the first coffee of the morning.

The Gorse Fox performed his usual escort duties. Ellie was in a grumpy mood again this morning. She has a bit of a cough and it may be annoying her. She did, finally, snap out of it just as it was time to go into class.

Back home, the Silver Vixen had an appointment at the hairdresser. The Gorse Fox got on with some chores and checked the Premium Bonds (yes, we won again this month - not a lot but it was good to win). Next on his agenda was to take a look at Ellie's Amazon Kindle Fire Kids+ tablet. This has been complaining about a shortage of storage of late. The Gorse Fox had to work out how to clear the storage (particularly when he had forgotten his PIN). At first, he thought it would require a factory reset. He was lucky, however, and managed to remember the PIN. The storage was cleared out and the Gorse Fox installed an extra 32GB on a min SDCard. Everything is now working beautifully.

The Gorse Fox has extracted the whole of this blog for 2021. This has now been opened up with MS Word and is going through spellcheck (a bit late you might say) and some formatting. When finished it will be turned into a PDF file. In general, the process has worked pretty well, but the aspect ratios for all of the photos are wrong. That will take a second pass.

The afternoon was spent sitting in the lounge with the Silver Vixen reading our respective Kindles.

Grumpy

 Ellie pottered in to our room at 6:30 announcing that her light had turned yellow. The Gorse Fox suggested she played on her tablet until it was time to get up. By soon after 7:00 we were all up and about and when Ellie had finished breakfast and her ablutions, she go stuck in to her homework. This was all very fine until she misjudged the space left on the line and couldn't complete the word she was writing. A full-on grump set in. There was nothing the Gorse Fox could do - she was NOT going to finish that homework. (Fortunately, it isn't due until Monday).

The rest of Thursday morning was taken up with the Ocado delivery, the Sainsbury's trip and the accounts. Nothing worth mentioning.

`Early afternoon, the Silver Vixen was tucked away in her sewing room. The Gorse Fox made the most of an hour or so to do some more reading before we had to collect Ellie. Like most either days this week, the Gorse Fox took her on to the park while the Silver Vixen headed home. There was a very chilly wind so we didn't stay too long.

Back home, the Silver Vixen supervised while Ellie completed the homework... but not before she went into another grump over the word of the final sentence. For some reason she just didn't want to write it. Eventually, she finished it but not before we had had tears and a cuddle.

Urban-Cub has just been along to collect her.

A Draw

Urban-Cub changed her shifts so, despite us getting up early to receive Ellie, we weren't needed until school time when the Gorse Fox walked round to act as escort on the school run.

Back home we loaded the car and headed across to Angmering and Worthing for the Silver Vixen's Pilates and the Gorse Fox's football. The teams today were remarkably well balanced and we had a really enjoyable game. Like last time, the Gorse Fox found himself playing more in midfield than defence. He enjoyed this as he was able to help control the play and spray the ball around the pitch. He didn't manage to score but he did have 3 assists.

After collecting Ellie from school, the Gorse Fox again took her to the park. It was still too chilly for the Silver Vixen to hang around so she headed home. We stayed at the park for about 20 minutes then headed home for a warm-up and for Ellie to get on with some homework that was set overnight and has to be in on Monday. She hasn't managed to finish it but she's a good half-way through.

As usual for a Wednesday, Ellie is staying with us overnight.

Ditto

 Well Tuesday was a replay of Monday (without the security alerts from Apple!). Ellie was dropped off a few minutes after 7:00 but was already dressed for school and only needed breakfast and to clean her teeth. She was full of the joys of Spring and burst into the kitchen like a firework.

After we had dropped her at school and had breakfast, the Gorse Fox returned to his Guide, adding a lot more information about our network and starting on the tablets and phones. The Silver Vixen did some laundry before finally sitting down in her sewing room.

The Gorse Fox again took Ellie to the park after school but the Silver Vixen went home because it was too cold for her.

Security and Location

 It has been a lovely sunny day with temperature up to double figures. Ellie was dropped off soon after 7:00 and we went through the usual morning rituals before escorting her to school. Once home we had a quiet breakfast and then got on with our day.

The Silver Vixen returned to her sewing. project (which is nearly finished) and the Gorse Fox returned to the Computer Guide. All the normal systems have now been documented, as has the Network. It took a couple more hours but progress is steady and satisfying. When the Gorse Fox returns he will launch into the write-ups for the iPhones, iPads, and other tablets.

There was a quiet hour or so with a book before we collected Ellie from school. The Silver Vixen headed straight home but the Gorse Fox took Ellie to the park for a while. While there, he got talking to a couple that we know. They are considering some form of extension for their property so the Gorse Fox told them about our Orangery. He's also invited them to drop in an take a look if they want.

Apple's security settings can worrying when combined with BT's network. The Gorse Fox got a message that a device was trying to sign in to his Apple Id from Manchester. He immediately declined it and went into the  change password procedure. Now his old password could not have been broken by a brute force attack. His new password is even less likely to be crackable (or memorable, unfortunately). Password was changed first on iPad. Then it was changed on iPhone - and the Gorse Fox got another alert (as expected) about the login attempt. Again, it claimed it was from Manchester. This is when the Gorse Fox realised that this is because of the way BT has set up our external links. Worrying at first, but then understood and accepted.

Lazy devil

 The Gorse Fox woke up at 7:00, took a look at his watch and decided that another 15 minutes was acceptable. The next thing he knew, it was 8:20. He shot out of bed, feeling guilty about lying around for so long.

Coffee was made, the online news consumed and, once the Silver Vixen had emerged, he was ready to start the day. Well almost. He needed another coffee and some toast first.

The Silver Vixen spent the morning on the phone to Betty Rubble. The Gorse Fox hid in his study and wrote some more of his Computer Guide. It took several hours to complete the discussion of "barnowl" but now all the Raspberry Pi's are finished and there is just the laptop "merlin" to do.  

The Gorse Fox managed to get an hour or two with his book this afternoon before starting on dinner (lamb shanks tonight).

Quiet day

 Saturday has been a very quiet day. A leisurely breakfast was followed by the Silver Vixen retiring to her sewing room and the Gorse Fox continuing with his Computer Guide. This guide is coming on well. Only two more systems to document - then the storage subsystem, and the network. 

The Gorse Fox managed to manage some more reading during the afternoon.

After supper we watched the FA Cup game between Spurs and Preston North End. It ended with a very satisfying three goal win for Spurs.

Frenzy

 Ellie slept through. There was no patter of tiny feet until after the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were up and about. Yesterday's PE at school and swimming lesson after school had clearly worn her out. Once all the usual morning protocol was complete we dropped her off at school and headed home for breakfast. There was no hurry. There was nothing specific on the agenda.

Nothing, that is except wishing Trevor a Happy Birthday as he counts down the last couple of months to retirement.

Once we stirred into action, the Silver Vixen (between laundry loads) retired to her sewing room. The Gorse Fox took the opportunity to steam clean the floors and then retired to his study. He wanted to clean up the Windows laptop known as "merlin". It would be a lot easier to write a guide for it once extraneous programs had been removed. While doing this, he also applied all of the latest Microsoft updates.

The Gorse Fox had his usual reading interlude before we went to collect Ellie from school. She was full of beans and asked to stop off in the park on the way home. As a number of her classmates were there we relented and allowed her fifteen minutes or so to let off steam.

Back home it was the usual raid on the fridge and then she played for a while before Grandpa got on with dinner.

Urban-Cub finished earlier than expected and turned up to collect Ellie just as the Gorse Fox was clearing away. She has the weekend off with Ellie and will be dog-sitting a friend's dog. Ellie is so excited that she has been working herself into a frenzy of expectation. The dog is the focus of her attention this weekend so we probably won't see her until Monday morning now.

In the swim

 It was 05:45 when Ellie wandered into our room. "Grandpa, when will my light turn yellow?" The Gorse Fox looked at his watch. "Not for another 45 minutes. Go back to bed." And she did! In the end we got up at the normal time and went through the usual morning procedures. Urban-Cub arrived in time to escort us to school before going straight on to work.

We had the customary Ocado delivery before heading out to Sainsbury's for the top up. Once we got home and everything was stowed away, the Silver Vixen returned to her sewing room and the Gorse Fox cooked some chicken breasts for later and then prepared some rice. They were quickly cooled and put in the fridge.

There was the usual interlude for some reading before collecting Ellie. Being Thursday, she had a swimming lesson scheduled. (Usually, this is all handled by Urban-Cub - but her shift didn't allow it this week). We gave her a snack and got her ready before heading out. Ellie's lesson went very well and it was good to see how much progress she is making. She was managing to do from crawl across the pool and also just kick her way across without using her arms. The teacher commented that is doing really well.

Back home, the Gorse Fox fired up a pan and added some of the curry sauce he made last week. He then carved the chicken breasts, cooked earlier, and added them to the pan to warm through. The rice was plated up and the plates microwaved. Within 10 minutes we were ready to eat.

Ellie is staying with us again tonight and is currently in the bath and having her hair washed while the Gorse Fox writes this.

Cold and damp

 It wasn't as cold as it has been, but it seemed damp today and that made it seem colder. The Gorse Fox went round to escort Ellie to school with the Urban-Cub. Then it was a quick hop back home for more coffee and breakfast.

There were several early morning chores to complete but then the Gorse Fox could return to his Computer Guide. He is now dealing with "tawnyowl" and "peregrine", which he started yesterday (or was it the weekend?) As he dropped into some of the more obscure functions provided on these machines, he realised that he had forgotten the passwords to some functions. This took a bit of hacking but eventually he got to the bottom of it and finished that part of the write-up.

After lunch, the Gorse Fox returned to his book (the Silver Vixen was still in her sewing room). He managed a couple hours before we had to collect Ellie from school. As soon as we were back (and she had raided the fridge) we sat down to complete her maths homework. It didn't take long but within an hour of uploading it, she had a response from the teacher to say it was excellent. That encouraged her and she sat down to start on some of her English homework (not due until the end of next week).

Ellie's staying with us over night

A small tip

 Ellie was dropped off at the usual time and we got her fed and ready for school. Once she was delivered, we sat down to a quiet breakfast with the online news (we have long since given up on the breakfast TV news).

Once we had finally stirred into activity, the Silver Vixen went across to the pharmacy for her latest meds and while she was gone the Gorse Fox gathered all the stuff that needed to go to the tip. There were the two old mirrors from the bathroom, some old computer speakers, the old PC "eagle", and various wires and cables. The Gorse Fox also had the old hard drive from "eagle". That was attacked with a drill to ensure that there was no way to recover any data, and then that too was added to pile.

Once the Silver Vixen was back, the Gorse Fox loaded the car and finally disposed of all the detritus at the tip.

Back home, the Gorse Fox returned to writing his computer guide. He added a lot of new information, but kept thinking of new items to add. This is turning into a monster.

After a spot of lunch, it was time to sit down and get in an hour or so with the Kindle before collecting Ellie from school.

Mirror, mirror on the wall

 

The bathroom mirror saga has finally reached a conclusion. Darren came round at lunchtime and helped the Gorse Fox mount the new mirrors back onto the bathroom cabinet. 

For the first time in several years the left hand cabinet is closed and the internal lights have switched off.

Result!

Secrets

 We we up at the standard school day time... and ready to greet Ellie when she was dropped off, soon after 7:00. She was a little moody at first, but after a few minutes she clicked into her usual happy mode. It had been a very cold night, so the Gorse Fox told the Silver Vixen not to venture out and took Ellie to school by himself.

As he was reading the news aggregators over breakfast he noticed an article regarding "LastPass". This is a password manager which integrates with all your devices and only stores your various accounts and their credentials, it also fills them in for you as you traverse the web. The problem is that they have had a breach. It shouldn't be a serious problem, but ever cautious, the Gorse Fox spent the morning looking at alternatives and watching YouTube videos discussing the breach and the alternatives. He concluded that "BitWarden" was one of the best alternatives.

The afternoon was spent downloading BitWarden to all the various devices and trying it out. Would it do what was wanted? Is the interface usable? Can he share information with the Silver Vixen? All of the answers were a resounding yes. He will now disable LastPass for a few days and see how well he gets on with BitWarden, before making a final decision. (One thing in its favour is that BitWarden is Free).

Writer's Block

 After a pleasant lie-in the Gorse Fox wandered downstairs to make the coffee and catch up on the overnight news. The Silver Vixen wandered down a while later. There was no hurry. There was nothing on the agenda. Once breakfast and coffee was over, the Silver Vixen retired to her sewing room and her latest project. The Gorse Fox retired to his study to categorize his Kindle books into collections (see previous post). Once that was done, he should have returned to his writing of the Computer Guide but, frankly, he couldn't be bothered. Instead he settled down with his latest book and spent the day reading, making tea, drinking tea, reading, and making dinner.

That's it. A quiet Sunday.

Collector's Item

 Why has the Gorse Fox only just discovered the "Collections" feature on the Kindle? It's so useful. He can now group books together by series or by author or by any other random category that he might dream up!

Doh!

Reflections

 The Gorse Fox had a fairly typical start to day for a Saturday. A leisurely coffee and some toast was followed by the cousins' call. We had both of the usual Aussies on the call today, for the first time since Christmas.

Long time readers may remember the ongoing trouble we had with the mirrored doors in the bathroom. The correct doors were finally delivered this week. Darren has offered to help the Gorse Fox get them installed. In preparation for this, the Gorse Fox spent some time installing the hinges onto the anchors that had been bonded to the glass. The first one was immensely fiddly as the Gorse Fox tried to work exactly how they are fitted. Once he's sussed it out, the other were installed in no time.

After the demise of eagle (mentioned yesterday), the Gorse Fox finished his clear-up and is proud to announce that some portions of the desk top are currently visible. It probably won't remain like that for long, but it feels good for now.

In the study he returned to the computer guide for a couple of hours. He has now progressed to documenting the Raspberry Pi based systems. After a break for a couple of hours reading in the sun-kissed Orangery, he returned and managed another hour of documentation.

No football tomorrow, we have insufficient players.

RIP

 We were up and moving about before Ellie surfaced this morning. We went through the usual morning checklist and the Gorse Fox took her round to school. (It was too icy for the Silver Vixen to venture out).

Back home we had a quiet breakfast and then got on with some chores. Finally, the Gorse Fox could return to his documentation. It was time to compose the write-up for the PC "eagle". The contents of his desk were shuffled and the keyboard pulled into the open. The power button was pressed on the screen - it hurts into life. The power button was pressed on the PC, the disk started to whir and nothing. Nada. It just sat and whirred. The Gorse Fox reviewed his options and thought about the last few times he had used the machine. There was nothing on it that was anything other than transient... it was a test machine, after all. The decisions was made. It was retired. It is no more. It is now defunct. It has joined the choir invisible. It is, metaphorically, pushing up daisies. 

The Gorse Fox has pulled it out, cleaned the desk, and dismantled the PC to remove the hard drive. The hard drive will be destroyed by drilling through it a few times then everything will be taken to the tip.

The lovely bright day meant, once more, that it was warm enough to spend the afternoon sitting in the Orangery and reading.

Quiet Day

 After the usual school delivery, the Ocado delivery, and the trip to Sainsbury's, the Gorse Fox settled down to realise that he had forgotten the eggs. They would have to wait.

The rest of the morning was spent on admin and adding more text to the computer guide. This involved firing up some old machines after searching out their various power cables. Inventory done on a couple more of the beasts and document suitably updated.

Urban-Cub took Ellie swimming after school and has just dropped her in to us for an overnight stay. (Urban-Cub is working through the night tonight).

Restless

Ellie can be a restless sleeper. This is how we found her at 10:45 when we went up to bed. She was in a deep sleep but had clearly been moving about.
 

Cosy

 Though bitterly cold outside, the sun was streaming through the Orangery windows and doors. It was pleasantly warm and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent a couple of hours enjoying the sun and reading before heading out to collect Ellie.

Once home, we sat down with Ellie and encouraged her to get her homework done. This was a some self-research on the pioneer Amelia Earhart. While Ellie coloured in some pictures and wrote some sentences about her, the Gorse Fox drew and cut out a basic aeroplane made from foam board. When Ellie had coloured it and written its registration numbers on the wings, we stuck it all together ready for a short flight to school tomorrow.

Party Time

 Another sub-zero night and early morning. The Gorse Fox went round to escort Ellie to school then returned for breakfast. Normally he would be heading out for football but he decided that he had no wish to sit in huge traffic jams (A27 is still closed) so he cancelled.

Ellie has a birthday coming up in March. Urban-Cub is ahead of the curve and wants to get a venue booked for the party. With this in mind, the Gorse Fox walked round to the Bersted Park Community Centre to see if they had availability on the day in question. They have. Details of the booking administrator were given and a suitable email sent. We now await the response.

Walking to the Community Centre took the Gorse Fox past the football pitches. Looking at the state of them, he suspect they are better suited for ice hockey, or if the ice is too thin water polo.

Cold

 It was another cold day. The Gorse Fox strolled round to Urban-Cub's to walk with her and Ellie to the school, then headed home for breakfast.

The Silver Vixen had a phone call scheduled with a girlfriend followed by lunch with Urban-Cub and Darren's mum. The Gorse Fox retired to the study to do some more writing, thanking his lucky stars that he didn't have to venture onto the roads. What with recent flooding, roadworks, and collisions Bognor Regis was virtually cut off. The A27 was closed, the A29 was closed, the Lower Bognor Road was closed, Chalcraft Lane was blocked and all traffic was diverted onto the A259. It was chaos. It dawned on Urban-Cub that the planned lunch was really a non-started as nobody could get anywhere. Lunch was cancelled, but the Silver Vixen went round for tea and a chat.

Back home the Gorse Fox was delighted to finally receive the replacement bathroom mirrors. This time they look like the correct size. Darren has threatened to help install them later in the week.

Late in the afternoon, the Silver Vixen had a long phone chat with her sister while the Gorse Fox prepared dinner.

Road trip

It was very cold overnight following heavy rain. The Gorse Fox was glad he didn't have to go out on the roads first thing. Darren dropped Ellie off soon after 7:00 and we followed the usual procedure to get her ready and deliver her to school.

The Silver Vixen had an appointment so left the Gorse Fox to his own devices for a couple of hours. He spent a little while on his computer guide to start with. We had been asked if we could take Ellie along to the Urban-Cub's new store at Hayling Island after school. This meant that dinner would have to be ready when we got back. The Gorse Fox spent the rest of the morning preparing a batch of curry sauce. Some of this would be frozen for the future, and some could be heated up with some cold chicken when we got back from Hayling Island. (A batch of rice was also prepared).

After lunch we sat down for an hour of reading before collecting Ellie from school. Once she was home, and changed, we set off. It took about 30 minutes to get there and the Gorse Fox must admit that it is very impressive store - much larger than the Chichester store, where she was. We had a good wander around, and Ellie helped out on the tills for a while. Once done we all left together - Ellie went with Urban-Cub and we drove back by ourselves.

The weather overnight had caused havoc. Several main routes were flooded and this was filtering all traffic onto the only remaining road - the very road we wanted. The journey home seemed endless. From the Bognor Road roundabout to home (a distance of 4 miles) it took us and hour and 20 minutes. On a normal day this would have been about 6 minutes (a bit longer for rush hour).

The Gorse Fox was glad he had the curry all ready to heat up and serve.

More tapping

 With no football this morning, the Gorse Fox had a lie-in until boy 7:30. It was a couple of hours before we had finished breakfast and stirred ourselves into action. For the Gorse Fox this was a swift retreat to the study and some more time developing the computer guide. He is still on the first computer, but is very pleased with the progress as this is probably the lynchpin for his computer use.

The Silver Vixen got togged up with a view to tidying up the front of the house. There was some weeding, a lot of fallen leaves and some general plant maintenance. The Gorse Fox helped by washing down the soffits and the white paintwork surrounding the windows. He also cleaned up the garage door. With a cold snap forecast, we wouldn't want to do this during the week.

The Gorse Fox was summoned by Urban-Cub. She had a problem trying to print some photos. It took several tries, but eventually we found the correct incantation. The Gorse Fox left her to it.

After a bit more work on the computer guide he sat down in the lounge and got a couple of hours of reading under his belt before doing dinner.

The patter of tiny keys

 Though we slept well, we awoke to a dark morning being continuously rinsed by heavy rain. The Gorse Fox had his traditional cousins' call first thing. It was a nice 40 minutes of laughter and banter.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent in the study. The Silver Vixen was in her sewing room pottering, and the Gorse Fox was tapping frantically at the keyboard. Slowly a document is taking shape. It identifies the various devices that we have and is taking the reader through their use and their backups. It has been immensely satisfying. So far, the Gorse Fox is about 70% through the first system, the iMac condor. The document already runs to 15 sheets of A4 and there are 16 further computers to address. It's a good exercise because it gives the Gorse Fox a chance to review each system and how it is used.

No football tomorrow. We could only scrape 7 players together so it wasn't worth the effort.

Writing

Ellie was dropped off soon after 7. She was in a great mood this morning, full of the joys of Spring. Once all the usual stuff was complete, we took her to school. Though lovely a bright, there was a noticeable nip in the air.

Back home, we had breakfast and then had a fairly quiet day. The Gorse Fox got some chores out of the way, and updated the accounts. The Silver Vixen spent some time selecting paint for the downstairs cloakroom, then drafted an epistle to Mrs Tiggywinkle. We tried to pick up the paint in question at our local supplier, but they only sell this particular shade/finish online. When we got home the Silver Vixen ordered it for delivery on Monday.

The Gorse Fox started on the new documentation that he had envisaged yesterday for the "West Sussex Data Centre". It is planned to be a complete manual on the systems that the Gorse Fox has installed here, what they are, how they are organised, where they are, and how they are protected. He spent several hours on the task and is pleased with the progress and the content. This, however, is not a quick project. It will take quite a while to complete a first draft.

We collected Ellie from school and brought her back to get changed and to have dinner ready for Pistol Pete to collect her. She will be with him over the weekend.

Wakeup Call

 E~llie gave us the wake-up call at 6:45 again this morning. That's perfectly acceptable. The usual pre-school choreography took over. Breakfast, wash, teeth, uniform, shoes, coat, book bag, lunch bag.... and off.

We returned for breakfast and to await Ocado. Clearly Ocado were running a little late (though still within our delivery slot). The Gorse Fox decided to accelerate matter. He went up to the study and opened the accounts spreadsheet. This is the rain dance for Ocado deliveries. Within moments he pulled up outside and we could continue the Thursday programme of events.

Sainsbury's was next, and we took Lady Penelope with us. Though Old Bill is now driving again, the effort of wandering round the aisles of a supermarket would still be too much. He is, however, threatening to attempt it next week.

Once home, the Gorse Fox finished the accounts and then had a quiet hour or so with a new book. The book that he had been reading was the second in a 20 book series. Whilst he liked the main characters the underlying storyline was based around perpetrators who practised some for of devil worship and were threatening the main character's family. The Gorse Fox has a redline for stories, be they written or film. The family is sacrosanct. These books crossed the redline.

The new book was from a different author and was a much more cozy murder mystery (if murder can ever be cozy).

Two Halves

 It really was a day of two halves. The morning was bright, sunny, breezy and a little cool. The afternoon was dark and very wet. In fact we had some thunder and lightning late in the afternoon and the rain was so heavy that it was bubbly up through the drains on the Chichester Road.

After taking Ellie to school the Gorse Fox returned home to collect the Silver Vixen and take her across for Pilates. He carried on to Worthing for football. The sun was bright, but low in the sky and it made the identification of players on the south side of the pitch almost impossible. All we could see was shapes and shadows against the background sun..

It was a good game. Teams of 6 vs 7 with only player switching sides at half-time. It was, like the day, a game of two halves. We lost the first half 4-0 (though the Gorse Fox was not playing as a defender), but in the second half we won the half 2-0 (and the Gorse Fox was playing as a defender). The lesson is that the Gorse Fox is a better defender than he is midfielder.

After we picked Ellie up from school, the Gorse Fox was thinking about this evening's menu. He asked Ellie if she had ever had fish and chips from the fish shop. No she hadn't, but she has them on Friday at school. Does she want to try? Oh yes! So it was that the Gorse Fox ordered fish and chips for there three of us. Ellie lapped them up and said she would definitely like to have them again. Result.

Urban-Cub has an early shift in the morning so Ellie is staying with us tonight.

Like the old days

 Ellie, though a bit late going to bed and settling last night, slept through until 6:45. From then on, the first part of the morning followed the usual pattern. Urban-Cub was able to pop in and walk with us to school - but given the heavy rain, the Gorse Fox suspects she wished that she hadn't.

The Gorse Fox, having seen the weather forecast last night, had decided to skip football today. He knows he is likely to get wet tomorrow and was certain he would get soaked to the skin today. Not fancying two soakings in two days, he chickened out. Instead he spent much of the day at the computer. It was like the old days. Diagrams and documentation and now that the Backup Strategy is back up to date, he has realised that the is a more holistic way in which he could have written this had he started from scratch. This is a serious temptation.

Two Hats messaged. Was the Gorse Fox busy and could he spare some time. The Gorse Fox presented himself at the door. The migration of his old PC files to the new MacBook had appeared to go well but now he couldn't find the files. The Gorse Fox delved into the machine. The files were not there. Well, we could recopy them from the old laptop. No we couldn't - he had wiped it. He had, however, taken a second copy of the files on an SDCard. He handed over the SDCard - there were no PC file on it - only DashCam footage! We searched through his box and finally found a likely candidate. Whew! The files were there. The Gorse Fox copied them to his MacBook and then gave the usual lecture on backups. For simplicity he has suggested getting an SSD that he can attach and use as a TimeMachine repository.

Tip

 A gentle start to the day, though the temperature was a few degrees down on last week. The Gorse Fox wandered round to Urban-Cub's and escorted her and Ellie to school. 

After some breakfast the Gorse Fox grabbed the step-ladder and started stacking the Christmas crates away in the garage along with the tree and various bags. Then, feeling smug, put the car away and headed upstairs. The last few items are stored in the loft so that they don't get damp. While he was up there he finally disconnected an old NAS drive that hasn't worked for several years. This got him thinking about a review of the backup strategy... but that would have to wait.

We have been storing various items in the garage and the Orangery which needed to be disposed of at the local tip. Today seemed like the perfect day. The car was loaded and an appointment made (yes, you need an appointment to use the local recycling centre). The Gorse Fox pulled up, gave his secret reference number, and parked up. He did, needless to say, park in the spot that turned out to be farthest from all of the skips that he needed. Never mind, it was good to get rid of it all.

The Gorse Fox reviewed his backup strategy. The text was all correct but he realised the diagram was way out of date. This got him thinking (always a dangerous thing). When he was working (all those years ago) he would use Microsoft Visio for these sorts of diagrams. There isn't a version that runs directly on the MAC. There is, however, a version that run in a browser. While looking at the details (cost) he also noticed a tool called "Lucidchart". It too runs in the browser and whilst you can pay for additional features, the functions that were needed are all in the free version. Browser was pointed at the site and the Gorse Fox got stuck in. It was immensely simple to use and he created the diagram that he wanted just as quickly as he would have in Visio. The document has now been updated... and the Gorse Fox will use Lucidchart again in the future.

Urban-Cub has just dropped Ellie off. She will be staying with us overnight.

Overrun

The Gorse Fox had football this morning. We had a late drop-out so he decided not to choose the team in advance but to decide by consensus when we had all gathered. This worked out fairly well. We had the 3 of the most mobile players on one side with a less than average player. These 4 would play the other 5, all of whom were pretty good. It was hard work, playing for the yellow team of 4 but we managed to go in at half time with the scores and equal 3-3. In the second half we switched one player between the teams, but we were tiring. Slowly they started to get goals - and even more slowly, so did we. None of us had a clue what the final score was, but the assumption was that the Orange team had won by 2 goals. The Gorse Fox did manage to get 1 goal in our tally.

Back home the Silver Vixen had started squirrelling the decorations away into the various boxes within boxes within crates. It was pouring with rain by the time she had finished so the Gorse Fox stacked everything in the Orangery ready for taking to garage tomorrow.

Order restored

 After a superb curry last night and an evening of channel hopping - trying to avoid programmes that the Gorse Fox would watch with the Silver Vixen, he had an early night and read before switching the light out. Jasper had spent the evening climbing onto the arm of the Gorse Fox's chair, staring meaningfully into his eyes, and wondering where his normal perch - the Silver Vixen - was.

The Gorse Fox was up and just finishing his first coffee before going up for a shower. The doorbell rang. That was inconvenient! It was DPD with a delivery for a neighbour who had clearly not heard, or ignored the bell. It wasn't a problem - the Gorse Fox was, after all, up.

The first item on the agenda was the cousins' call. Nothing too much to report - just 30 minutes of inane banter, as usual. The Gorse Fox then returned to decorations. A final sweep to find the one item that always gets forgotten. No sight of it. It will remain hidden until everything is packed away. Then there was the annual "stuff the Christmas tree back in its box" exercise. This should be an Olympic sport as it involves a number of skills including wresting, tying, stuffing into a box, wrestling the box closed and tying it closed. This is something for which there should be a training program and points awarded for speed, neatness, and storability.

After lunch the Gorse Fox watched the FA Cup game between Spurs and Portsmouth. A 1-0 win for Spurs. He then watched the Silver Vixen and Cousteau-Cub make their way home from London by following their GPS trace online. 

The Silver Vixen is now home and the fabric of the Universe is, once more, complete. It is clear that they had a wonderful time... and recommend the Premier Inn at Wimbledon South as a good base from which to raid the capital.

Own devices

 Ellie was awake soon after 6:30. Normally she would just play in her room but this morning she needed grandpa to unfreeze her tablet. Once that was done, she went back to her room until 7:00. Once we were all up and about Ellie had breakfast and got ready for school. The Gorse Fox took her round to class and deposited her for the day. Urban-Cub would be collecting her later.

Back home, the Silver Vixen was getting ready for some mummy/daughter time. She would be leaving to collect Cousteau-Cub and they would drive up to Wimbledon. The plan is that they will check into a Premier Inn and park the the car there. Then it's a tube up to Charing Cross and a short walk to The Colosseum. The stopped for lunch at Prezzo (opposite the Colosseum) then went across for a performance of The Nutcracker. Messages exchanged during the interval indicate that they were having a great time. Subsequent messages, now that the ballet is over, inform the Gorse Fox they are off to Covent Garden now. When they have finished all their gallivanting, they will get the tube back and stay overnight at the Premier Inn.

While under Jasper's direction and watchful eye, the Gorse Fox has taken down all of the Christmas decorations. Tomorrow he start to pack them away, leaving the fiddly ones for the Silver Vixen's return.

Curry is on order for tonight.

Farewell

The morning was unremarkable. It was the usual procession of rise, breakfast, school, and the home for the Ocado delivery and then the trip to Sainsbury's.

The afternoon was different. Urban-Cub would be collecting Ellie and taking her swimming. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox joined up with Tinkerbell and Two Hats and went the Chichester Crematorium to say farewell to one of our neighbours. With several roads closed, the route to Chichester was very busy, but as we were in front of the "principals'" car we didn't worry too much. The service was very tasteful and it was sad to say goodbye to one of the world's genuinely nice men. One saying of his that was quoted was based on his personal demand for punctuality. "Leave early, if you arrive and have time to spare - waste it".

We didn't join the family and friends at the reception. There were mourners from all over the world and it was a time for family and close friends.

Back home the Gorse Fox collected some fish and chips. This was the first time for many months. It's easy to forget how good they are. As we were clearing away, Urban-Cub arrived with Ellie who would be staying overnight again tonight.

Yes Chef

Ellie was dropped off. It was clear she was still not fully awake as it took several minutes before she uttered a sound. Slowly she surfaced. Then BANG! she was back to her usual self. We dropped her off at school then went home to get our kit together.

The Gorse Fox drove us across to Worthing. The Silver Vixen was dropped off for Pilates and the Gorse Fox continued on to play football. Todays game was 5-vs-6 on a large pitch. The Gorse Fox was playing as a midfielder for once. It was a good game with one player swapping sides at halftime. In the end we lost 7-6, but at least the Gorse Fox can console himself with the memory of a nicely taken goal.

This afternoon, after a restful hour, we went and collected Ellie. She can be a little fussy with her food and the Gorse Fox decided that he would try to get her back onto pasta and bolognaise by asking her to help cook it. So it was that Ellie became chef for dinner. We cooked the mince, then prepared all the veg. The veg was cooked until soft, the mince added back in, then a bottle of sauce added. She did a very good job (closely supervised throughout). As she had cooked it all, she was happy to eat it, and tucked in to a large portion. The Gorse Fox will have to try this with some other recipes.

Ellie is staying with us tonight and is currently enjoying a batch under the watchful eyes of the Silver Vixen and Jasper.

Term time

 Ellie slept well, not stirring until 6:45. She then exploded into life, ready for the start of the new school term. We went through the standard operating procedures for a school day - with the new deadline of 8:30. The school is starting all classes 10 minutes earlier this term.

With Ellie deposited at school we strolled home, arriving just as the rain started,  and then had breakfast over the news aggregators. After breakfast we got on with some household and administrative chores until lunchtime.

It was still raining mid-afternoon, so the Gorse Fox left the Silver Vixen in warm and dry and went off to collect Ellie. As usual, she was ravenous when she got back, but once she had eaten she was intent on playing some board games with us both until the Gorse Fox had to prepare dinner.

Urban-Cub has just collected Ellie. It was her familiarisation day at her new, much bigger store. She starts there full time next week, but had to go through the hand-over today. She is very excited and it sounds as if it will be a huge improvement in terms of staff.

Recovery

 Another beautifully slow start to the day. By the time we were both up, fed and caffeinated it was time to do some quick chores before Ellie was dropped off.

Just after Ellie arrived, Lady Penelope and Old Bill knocked. It was so good to see Old Bill after his torrid time with his health over the last few weeks. It was nice to see him on the mend, though it will clearly be some time before he is fully recovered. Small steps.

Ellie was with us for most of the day. She is eager to get back to school tomorrow. So eager, in fact, that she insisted on sitting at her desk and playing "teachers" most of the morning and early afternoon. It was good that she worked her way through page after page of a workbook she was given for Christmas.

Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox seems to be coming down with a cold or has an allergy that is causing him fits of sneezing and runny nose and eyes. Frustrating!

Firing Up

 Well the New Year managed to sneak in without our intervention. In fact, switching off the Kindle at 11:30, the Gorse Fox went straight to sleep and didn't wake until 7:15 this morning (the great benefit of a clear conscience).

The Silver Vixen pottered down when she woke and had breakfast together and read the new aggregators. That done, The Gorse Fox retired to his study to shut down last year's accounts and fire up the new spreadsheet for 2023. This is always an opportunity to clean things up and to refines the spreadsheet further. This consumed a couple of very contented hours.

Having finished the first book of the year (started yesterday), the Gorse Fox got stuck in to the second book and has spent most of the afternoon flipping the Kindle pages.

The Gorse Fox has just finished dinner. The chicken, the beans, and the Brussels were fine, but the potato concoction that he made in the Air Fryer was dreadful. This particular dish needs more work!