Not so cheap flights

We heard yesterday evening that the Eurostar that Paul and Catthy were planning to use to get to Parid had been cancelled. They were scrabbling around for alternatives. I suggested Eurostar to Brussels and then a train from Brussels to Paris. In the end, Lel managed to get them on a BA flight to Lyon, and Mark booked them tickets from Lyon to Paris by train. 

I was awake early. Coffee was calling and who am I to ignore its siren call. Being Saturday, I had the usual Zoom call with my cousins. This was lively today, all but one agreeing how dreadful the Olympic opening ceremony had been. The chat went back and forth over several topics but seemed mainly focused on sports.

After the call, I settled down to look at social media, then remembered that I was planning to upgrade our luggage allowance for the forthcoming trip. I went online. The price had increased from £44 to £58 in the last couple of days. I then realised that though we had return tickets, this needed to be paid in each direction. Not going to happen!

I reviewed the rules for the existing baggage allowance. I realised (belatedly) that we actually had a fairly good allowance, spread over three small suitcases. I explained all of this to Di and we retrieved our various roll-on cases from the wardrobe and the loft. Each one was measured. Each one met the dimensions in height, width, or depth. None conformed to all three... and these "low-cost carriers" can be devils for finding ways to charge you extra. We settled down with Amazon and spent a couple of hours reviewing cabin bags that would conform - and were of sufficient quality to survive. It was remarkable how many claimed to conform to the measurements but the customer comments pointed out that they didn't and were oversized. We finally found bags that should fit the bill and ordered one each.

I haven't yet heard whether Paul and Cathy made it to Paris, but hopefully, they are in their hotel getting ready for their first events.

Royal Mail was meant to collect a package to return to Sky today. They confirmed it in an email - collection between 11:09 and 15:09, but obviously couldn't be bothered as it's still sitting by the door waiting for them at 18:05.

Sport

 We had a much brighter and warmer day today. Di had a planned phone call with Pauline (which was likely to run for hours). I had some admin to complete and then I looked at the latest news that most of the Olympic coverage was available on Discovery+ Premium. We have a D+ account - but to add Premium would be an extra £6.99 a month. I phoned EE... and an hour later I changed our existing package to include the sports channels and removed the Sky Cinema channels. As a result, we will pay £1 per month less than before. Seemed like a good deal as we never watch the Sky Cinema offerings. It should (have been) be active within 30 minutes.

I switched on the TV and tried to access the new channels. Nada. I would return to this, but first Di and I walked into the village so that she could collect her latest prescription. It was a pleasant walk in the warm (but not hot) sunshine.

I returned to the problem of getting the sports channels activated. I managed to get them on the iPad, but couldn't ripple it through to the TVs. I phoned EE again. After about an hour or so and discussions with 3 specialists, they decided to push a software update to our box. Finally, everything clicked and the sports channels burst into life. 

I heard from Trevor - they had watched an episode of Ted Lasso. That was enough to encourage them to subscribe to Apple TV. Quite right too.

Family

 It was a dull, drizzly start to the day. I checked the routes on Google Maps and we set off for the bandit country of Berkshire. Though it's not a long distance, it is always a tedious drive and takes considerably longer than you would expect. Never mind, visiting Jane and Trevor's always makes it worthwhile.

Today's visit was a family get-together. Paul and Cathy flew in yesterday and this was an opportunity for us all to meet up. It is several years since we have seen them so we had plenty to catch up on... and, of course, Jane and Trevor laid on a feast for our lunch. We heard about Andrew, in the run-up to his finals and his worrying trip to the ER the night before Paul and Cathy left for the airport. We hear about Laura and her recent change of jobs which means working much closer to home. Last but not least we heard about Michael and Emily and their good news - with a baby due in December. With Paul and Cathy's impending Grandparenthood, they will have some adjustments to make.

Tomorrow they are off to Richmond to look at some of the Ted Lasso locations. On Saturday they have an early start on Eurostar to get to Paris for the Olympics. (They are not participating - in their advancing years, that would be too much to expect - they're just spectating at various events throughout the week).

The afternoon seemed to fly by and too soon it was time to leave. We left in peak rush hour, but despite this, had a very good run home.

Preparation

 There was no hurry to get up this morning. I was irritated, therefore, when my bladder demanded attention at 07:00. Plumbing under control, I wandered downstairs for some coffee and to settle down with the overnight news.

When breakfast was over and we had cleared away (the staff had the day off), we went to Sainsbury's for our weekly shop. I checked, while there, whether they needed advanced notice for Foreign Exchange to Turkish Lira. It appears not. It is one of their standard currencies. We completed the shop without hindrance from the usual zombies and morons. Wednesday is clearly a better day to shop.

For the last few days, our dashcam has been hanging loose. The glue had failed - as it does in hot weather -  but fortunately I had a spare mounting plate. After cleaning the window with acetone, I fixed the new mount and checked the camera alignment. All is well and our trips can be recorded once more.

After lunch, the focus turned to our forthcoming trip. The cabin bag I ordered yesterday arrived and Di wants to check whether she should get something similar. We were discussing the dining options for our arrival as we would be hungry but not eager to cook. Darren has sent more information regarding the location and accommodation. It is clear that there are plenty of restaurants in the town, and you can also have food delivered. I'm sure we'll check out these options in the next few days.

Quiet

As we went to bed, I managed to finish my 100th book of the year.  The excitement of yesterday was too much for Jasper - he slept through and we had an undisturbed night. It was nearly 07:30 when I finally woke up and we made the most of a day with no firm plans by doing very little.

We have realised that the size limits for cabin baggage for our forthcoming trip are far smaller than any of our existing bags. I spent time on Amazon looking for a suitable replacement and it should arrive tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent with our Kindles.

(I bet you are relieved there are no rhymes today!)

Oh What a Night

 I’ve found the switch within my brain
That makes it start to rhyme
It’s off for now, My brain’s at rest
Until another time

I wrote those lines as I went to bed last night. It was meant to be a night where the sleep was not interrupted by a buzzing brain. Well maybe the brain didn't buzz, but Jasper did. We couldn't leave him with food overnight, so he was hungry. Oh boy, did he let us know he wasn't happy... the switch in the brain flicked back:

We didn’t feed the cat last night
He’s going to the vet
He’s hungry so he’s prowling
And hasn’t settled yet

He wanders round and round room
And climbs up on the bed
Then wanders right across my wife
And settles on her head

He’s having anaesthetic
At least he’ll have a nap
Then we’ll go and fetch him
A woozy drugged-up chap.

So we got up early to get Jasper to the vet at 09:00. We left him in their care and went home for breakfast. By mid-morning we had received a call. Jasper's blood test had shown a low potassium level and that would mean the anaesthetic would be a risk as he is such an old cat. Today's dental treatment would have to wait and Jasper will have to take supplements for the next few weeks. We went and collected him and he's back with us, roaming around and checking we haven't changed anything while he was away.

The rest of the day has been quiet while Jasper slept off last night's wandering.

Friends

 I had a disturbed night. By 4 this morning, I had checked the plumbing and determined that it was working  and I should complete the night in the land of nod - no such luck:

I can't believe it's 4 a.m

And I should be asleep

Instead, I'm writing silly rhymes

Instead of counting sheep.

I need to find my brain's rhyming switch, it's driving me to distraction. Anyway, by 6 I had drifted back to a fitful doze and managed to stay put until 7.

We had a quiet morning before going out to lunch. We were meeting up with Jane and Trevor, and Carol and Ian (who we met on the River Cruise). We pottered along through the Sussex and Surrey countryside and met at "The Refectory" in Milford (near Godalming). It was a huge old barn that had been converted into an extensive restaurant. It was a bit big to be considered charming, but it certainly was impressive.

We pulled into the car park just behind Jane and Trevor and wandered inside. We were shown to our table and sat chatting until Carol and Ian arrived. It was lovely to see them again. They are such a sociable and interesting couple. We settled down to catch up on everyone's news and plans and tucked into a wonderful (and generous) Sunday Roast while we chatted. Time seemed to whistle by as plates were whisked away and desserts placed in front of us. Then we enjoyed some teas and coffees before finally settling the bill after some three and half hours. We had such a good time that we agreed to meet up again in a few months. (Meanwhile, we'll see Jane and Trevor later this week).

We had a lovely run back in the afternoon sunshine and then settled down with our books for a while.

Rhymes

It was a quiet start to the day. Though Jasper had been a pain during the night, he left us alone and it was 07:20 before I woke.

Once suitably caffeinated and with a backdrop of Koh Haa, I joined the weekly call with my cousins. It wasn't as frantic as usual (maybe because Sarah didn't have her grandchildren nearby). We discussed computer resilience after the worldwide outages caused by Cloudflare and went on to chat about family holidays.

I went back to the kitchen after the call. Something someone had said flicked the "rhyme" switch in my brain. While Di went upstairs for a shower, I started to write:

My Grandpa wrote a poem
I think it’s rather good
It’s all about a walk we did
And picnicked in the wood

We took with us a rucksack
It was bursting at the seams
Full of pies, and fizzy drinks,
And lots of custard creams

We put a blanket on the ground
And laid out all the treats
The ground was damp and we soon wished
We’d brought some comfy seats

Tiny woodland creatures
Watched us having lunch
And they wondered what we’d leave
So they could have a munch.

The sky grew dark as clouds rolled in
We packed away our stuff
The wind soon rustled in the trees
The weather got quite rough

We headed back the way we came
Racing to our car
The rain was clearly on its way
It wasn’t very far.

We were soaked when we got home
It really was a pain
We hadn’t made it to the car
When it began to rain

It’s always fun to venture out
Even in the rain
I can’t wait until we go
A-picnicking again.

With that done, I sent the poem to Ellie.... but my brain was still in gear. I wrote another but decided it was not appropriate for Ellie:

Mary had a little lamb

Whose fleece was white as snow

She fed it lots of laxatives

To see if it would go.

It poo’d across the farmer’s field

And all across the yard

It really caused a dreadful stink

And cleanup was quite hard

Oh well... that exhausted the time to rhyme and after some admin and some lunch, we settled down for some Kindle time.

Last Day

It is the last day of the school year for Ellie. She was at home, and Zoe had a 9 a.m. start, so we didn't have to set an alarm. I wandered around to do the school walk, and clutching presents for the teachers, dropped Ellie at the classroom.

After some breakfast, I headed to Chichester. I wanted to speak to someone at Nationwide. I had a standing order meant to credit a new ISA each month. The money was being taken from the account but didn't appear to arrive in the intended ISA. I spoke to a very helpful lady in the bank. The money, she confirmed, was being deducted from the account but it was going into an old ISA. At least the money was still in one of my accounts. After a chat, I was happy with the situation and headed back home.

After lunch, we had our usual Kindle time but I had to give up in the Orangery - it was too hot. I moved into the lounge which seemed delightfully cool in comparison.

At the end of the school day, we went along to collect Ellie and she munched her way through various snacks and drinks until Pete arrived to collect her to stay with him for the next couple of weeks.

Fire TV

 I was in the bathroom before Ellie woke and came in to see Nana. We had a fairly leisurely start to the morning but still walked her to school on time.

Back home, we had some breakfast and then pottered off to Sainsbury's for our weekly shopping. Even though the Zombie bus had not yet deposited its contents, there seemed to be a significant number of morons shuffling around the aisles. Despite this, we managed to complete the trip in a sensible time and I managed to avoid ramming anyone or yelling at them. I was quite pleased with myself.

We had some Kindle time after lunch but Amazon delivered a package just as I was getting into my latest book. I unpacked the package and installed a new "Alexa" in our Orangery, then installed an Amazon Fire TV stick in the Orangery's TV. This installed easily, but again I had to sign back in and enable all of our streaming services. By the time this was done, I had to collect Ellie from school. We stopped off at the park on the way home but didn't stay for long as she was getting quite flushed as she ran about in the heat.

ZOe has been along to collect her and they are going out for a meal this evening.

TV Again

 I was up soon after 07:00. Zoe has a day off so there was no drop-off. I wandered around the corner for the school run. Ellie was in a great mood and buzzing to get into school and get started. She had even been doing some schoolwork prior to the walk.

Back home, Diane had an appointment at the hairdresser. I waited at home for the arrival of an engineer from EE to look at the EETV system that has had the occasional glitch during programmes... particularly on the BBC! I described the problem to him and he checked the routers and signals. He then suggested connecting with a wired connection rather than WiFi. Funny that, that's what I had suggested when talking to the techie at the support centre two weeks ago. We performed a reset on the box and connected a direct ethernet cable.

Time will tell whether it has worked. So far, I can confirm that the picture quality has improved. I can also confirm that it took me quite a while to reconnect all of the various streaming services.

We had a quiet afternoon with our Kindles, enjoying the comfort of the new sofas.

We are expecting Ellie soon. She will be staying with us overnight.

What degrees?

 I wandered downstairs soon after 07:00. Zoe wasn't due to start until 09:00 so Ellie would not be dropped off. I made my first coffee and settled down with the news. The phone rang. I took it on the iPad and realised it was Facetime and Ellie was calling. "Grandpa, what degrees is it today? I need to decide between my leggings and shorts for PE." I blinked for a moment as I absorbed the greeting. "Good morning, Ellie. Did you sleep well?" I responded, meanwhile, I looked up today's "degrees" which is Ellie's description of the weather forecast.  Having brought her up to date with the news from the Bersted Met Office, she explained that "Mummy is still asleep." While we were talking, Diane came downstairs and took over the call. It must have been 20 minutes or more before Ellie hung up. (We later found out that she then called her friend Maddie, and they got ready for school together over Facetime). The joys of this connected world!

When I was home from the school run I cleared the old IKEA POANG chairs and footstool from the Orangery and settled down with some admin until the new sofas arrived. The delivery was very slick. We had paid for their premium service. They unloaded the boxes and brought the sofas into the Orangery where they assembled them and tested the electronics. All of the delivery detritus and boxes were gathered up and put back in the truck and they drove off into the sunset (well, rain actually). 

It was only after they left that Diane's eagle eyes spotted a small, faint stain on one armrest of each sofa. I called customer services and explained the problem. The assistant sent me a link and asked me to upload photos of the problem and then call back. I did this and talked it through with a new assistant. They are sending out an "operative" to clean and remove the stain. If that doesn't work to our satisfaction then I am to call back. Seems fair.

We had Ellie with us for dinner again this afternoon. Zoe was finishing at 18:00.

Hang Over

I was up early, forgetting Ellie was not being dropped off this morning. I settled down with my iPad and a coffee and was surprised when Diane came down soon after. I had obviously woken her when I got going. At the allotted time, I walked to Zoe's and prepared for the school walk. Ellie was clearly exhausted from the weekend, and despite nearly 12 hours of sleep, was almost catatonic. When we got to school it became clear that most of the kids were in a similar state having stayed up late to watch the Euros Final.

Back home, my main task for the morning was to clear the Orangery and then steam clean the floors in readiness for the new furniture, due tomorrow. This went quite well as it was dry outside and I could move everything out onto the patio, Rain was, however, forecast. Halfway through, I had to refill the water reservoir on the steam mop. That's where things went awry. The internal hose came away from the fill cap. It took me a good 15 minutes of fiddling with tweezers to finally capture the hose and reconnect it. I finished the floor without further problems and had just brought all the furniture back inside as the rain started. (it was like "range anxiety" when driving an EV... would I beat the drain - or in my case rain).

We had some Kindle time this afternoon and, when we had collected Ellie from school, so did she (though it didn't last long). She's been doing some homework with Nana while I prepared dinner. Zoe should be along to collect her before long.

Build up

 We had a gentle start to the day. I came down first for some coffee and to read the news; Di came down a bit later.

After seeing something on Facebook, my brain clicked into gear and started to think about a program for producing timelines from a database. I spent several hours looking at simple options using Excel, and other tools but couldn't find an existing solution that fitted my requirements. What requirements? you may ask. Well, there's the rub. There are no real requirements, it was purely a mental exercise with no "real world" pressing need. After a couple of hours, I gave up - other than designing the underlying database. I can feel the need to write some code soon. Whether it has anything to do with this or not is a different matter, but I need to write some code.

We had a quiet afternoon with our books so that we were chilled and ready for the excitement of the England vs. Spain final of the Euros.

Crane

 For some reason, we both woke up early. Di managed to stay in bed longer but I only managed to stay put until about 07:00. I came down for coffee and read the news online until Diane emerged.

I had the usual call with my cousins. It was quieter than usual - maybe because Tim had to drop off early. Having said that, Sarah had her usual background conversations with her grandchildren which stopped everyone else from talking. She should learn about the mute button - I even use it when Jasper is mewling.

After some admin with the accounts, I went to the garden to place the ornamental cranes (or are they storks?) for Diane's approval. Once everything was agreed, I hammered in the anchors and they now guard the rill.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent with our Kindles. It was interesting to hear from Zoe that Ellie has taken to hers, and was reading it when she woke up this morning. I'm glad she's getting interested in reading as it broadens the vocabulary and the imagination so much. Indeed your reading age in relation to your actual age is a key determinant of IQ. The more you read in your early years, the higher your IQ is likely to be.

Report

 It was wet overnight but was drying up by the time I went downstairs. After an initial coffee and a shower, I wandered around to Zoe's to provide my usual school escort service.

Once home and breakfasted I returned to a problem that has recurred on EETV. It randomly stops, and sometimes the only button that works is "Off". This is irritating at the best of times, but with the final of the Euros coming up, it does focus the mind. (Having said that, we can watch it through the aerial without any problem... so we have a Plan B). I called EE and asked to be transferred to my chap at the Newcastle Tech Centre (as he had instructed). I was promptly told that they couldn't do that. I was very patient and explained my problem (again) to this new agent. She soon gave up and said she would send an engineer. It will be Wednesday next week, but at least it is scheduled.

With little faith in the engineer, I decided to return to the problem myself. I measured the WiFi signal strength at various points around the TVs. It was not as strong as I expected so I moved one of the Mesh repeaters. I also noticed that my old Mesh was still competing in that corner of the room. I eliminated it by powering down all of the old Mesh repeaters. Now I have a strong WiFi signal by the TV and we will wait and see if it makes a difference.

Zoe phoned after collecting Ellie from school. Ellie had brought her end-of-year report home.  Zoe read it out to us and we were all absolutely delighted with her performance.

The Morning After

 I went around to Zoe's to join them on the walk to school. Ellie had stayed up to see the first half of yesterday's Euros Semi-Final between The Netherlands and England. In fact, she phoned us when Harry Kane scored his penalty to say how excited she was. Half time was bedtime. When she came downstairs this morning she asked who had won. Zoe told her and she replied, "Really, Mum?". She can be as sceptical as the rest of us!

The kids were quite subdued at the school gates. I suspect that most of them stayed up to see the whole game and were now suffering from the late night. I think the teachers will have a quiet day. After the school run, I went home for breakfast and Zoe went home for the first of several days off. She has decided to order a Kindle so that she doesn't have to cart a load of books around on holiday.

I wandered into the village to get my hair cut. They have a new barber and I'm not convinced he did as good a job as the others I had before. It's not too bad; certainly nothing a balaclava can't hide. I stopped off in the pharmacy to collect a prescription for Di, on the way home.

The rest of the day has revolved around some admin, reviewing and editing of the Home Computing Guide, and some Kindle time. 

Insurance

 I was up and pottering in the bathroom before Ellie emerged this morning. She always seems to sleep well when she's here. We went through the usual breakfast, ablutions, and dress protocol and then headed to school.

Back home, I was pleased to see an email from Oak Furnitureland confirming they had actioned the refund and it should be back in our account in a couple of days. We then completed the weekly shopping list and set off to Sainsbury's. Again, Zombie-free Wednesday was a perfect shopping experience and we were back home in 45 minutes.

The next major activity was to respond to a prompt from the Bank regarding our Travel Insurance. This is due to expire next month and, as the Bank has changed its Insurer, I had to go through a long call to renew. The age-related supplement was easy enough, but the pre-existing conditions and medications took quite a long while. Eventually, we arrived at the price. There should be cover for a heart attack induced by their quote.

Di gave the Orangery a spring clean while I was completing the admin. I returned to the Home Computing Guide and updated a few more diagrams and some more of the text. I also printed the document so that I could give it a good read and mark up any further editing that was necessary.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time. We didn't have to collect Ellie today, as Zoe was finishing early, so we read through until it was time to find Jasper and take him to the Vet. As you would expect, he had hidden in the most inaccessible spot under our bed. We had to take all of the storage boxes out and then use a broom to push him through to the other side. Once he was in his carrier he settled fairly well and we whisked him to the surgery. We weren't there for more than about 15 minutes, but Jasper had a mani/pedi (claws clipped), and had his teeth checked. The Vet commented that he seems to be a very healthy cat.

Wet

 It has been a very wet day since about 9 o'clock. It was dry for the school walk this morning but went downhill from there. I was lucky that it dried up when it was time to collect Ellie, but it started to rain again as soon as we got home.

The first job on my agenda was to review the energy tariffs. Our existing tariff is due to expire next month and it was time to see if I could find a better deal. After a bit of hunting around I found a new deal with E.On and it looks as if it will save me £30 per month.

I returned to the issue of diagrams. Having ditched the idea of Visio I looked at LucidChart again. I have used this in the past. I signed up for their 7-day trial but after 30 minutes, I decided it wasn't what I wanted and cancelled it. I then decided to look for an iPad app. This was looking promising and, in the end, I downloaded and tried a couple. I have now ditched one but kept FlowDia and paid for the full licenses (£9.99) which is a one-off payment that was less than the monthly subscription for Lucid. That seems like a result.

Jasper has a feeding station. This is a wooden platform onto which we put his food bowls and water bowl. It was constructed to stop him from chasing his bowl around the kitchen and under the chairs where he could get to it. It was looking a bit tired and grubby so I sanded it down and gave it a coat of the paint we used for the coffee table. It looks very smart.

(Just as an aside, I noticed today that this blog has now been read over 1,024,000 times).

License

Despite a poor night's sleep, I was up early so Ellie could be dropped off. Darren announced that she was complaining of a sore throat and that her tummy hurt. We ignored this, and within ten minutes she was her usual self. We dropped her off at school and then returned for breakfast.

The first order of the day was to check the latest Oak Furniturelan sales. Sure enough, the sofa we bought yesterday had dropped by £200 overnight. I phoned the store (as the sales agent had suggested) and he confirmed that he would contact the accounts department and get the difference refunded. That was a good start to the day.

I mentioned that I had acquired a Visio license to allow me to do diagramming through a browser using my favourite diagramming tool. Well, try as I may I couldn't get it to work. I phoned Microsoft customer support and was connected to an agent in India. She listened patiently to my description of the problem and proceeded to prompt me through a number of hoops for the next hour or so. Each hoop ended up back. where I had started. I was no further forward and when the line dropped, I decided that enough was enough and I cancelled the license. (She asked at one point if she could remotely connect to my system! You won't be surprised to hear that I declined).

Next on the agenda was a trip to B&Q for some grey paint. With the new sofas on order, we decided that the coffee table needed tidying up. I sanded down the old wood finish and painted it with grey paint (which will go nicely with the sofas and the blinds). I'm very pleased with the outcode.

We collected Ellie from school and she stayed with us for dinner. Originally she was going to stay the night, but Zoe's shifts changed so she went home. We had some post-prandial Kindle time before settling down in front of the TV.

Metaphors

 After a comfort break at 05:00, I slept through until 07:30. That's what comes with a clean conscience. Once up and about and suitably caffeinated, Di and I headed to Hedge End. Our destination was Oak Furnitureland. Diane had seen a sofa that she wanted to replace the IKEA chairs that we currently use in the Orangery.  Our objective was to find out if the said sofas were as comfortable as they looked.

Hedge End was an absolute Zoo. There were cars everywhere... and yet there were plenty of parking spaces in the car parks. We drove through and found a convenient spot without any problems. We entered the shop and were pounced upon by a salesman. Having sent him packing we found the suite that Diane had set her heart on. It was perfect. We sat on it and checked its suitability. Perfect.  W~e decided to go ahead and summoned the sales drone to take the order. All seems to be well and we should get delivery in about 10 days.

Coming home we were stuck in traffic. In a metaphor for the new Government, we sat watching a 4-lane motorway reduced to a single lane while there was no work progressing in the closed lanes. It reminded me of the Portugal-France match in the Euros... where Portugal did all the work, but France ended up as victors.

Finally, back home, we managed some Kindle time before I started on dinner.

Bits and Pieces

 I was awake early, but a trip to the bathroom to relieve the bladder pressure allowed me to stay in bed until 7:30. That was a good result.

I had my usual call with cousins and allowed Tim to crow over the Election results without too many responses. It was actually quite good fun, and to be fair, he was gracious in victory.

The rest of the morning was spent completing various items of admin... firstly Ellie's Premium Bonds, then the accounts. I helped Diane set up or refresh her online banking app so that she could complete her Premium Bond donation to Ellie. I then subscribed to the Microsoft Visio plan that allows me to use Visio through a browser. Having said that, the login has not yet burst into life.

The reason I subscribed to Visio was to update my online guide to our computer systems. I have updated much of the text, but not the diagrams, so far. I will try to log in tomorrow and update the diagrams accordingly.

Democracy

The trouble with democracy is that sometimes you do not get the outcome that you would like. After yesterday's elections, we have a Labour Government with a large majority. Whatever my perception of this result, they are now the Government of the UK and I would make the following observations...

• I hope they do a good job for the country.
• I hope that, for once, they manage our finances sensibly.
• I hope that, for once,  they do not leave office with higher levels of unemployment than when they entered.
• I hope they do not allow the Trades Unions to hold the country to ransom by weakening the strike laws.
• I hope that they treat legal immigrants with sensitivity.
• I hope that they are kind to people who are unable to work through illness or disability but are ruthless with those who can't be bothered to work.
• I hope that they put an end to two-tier policing and treat everyone equally, be they farmers, Muslims, veterans, or whatever.
• I hope they put an end to the misogyny of "trans" rights, which disenfranchises women.
• I hope they invest in the UK's defence, as it has never been more important.
• I hope they genuinely do something about the NHS - but fear that all they will do is pour more money into a bucket with a hole in it.
• I hope they will put the country and families ahead of trendy ideals and apply a sense check to some of the policies espoused by the glitterati.

I want the UK to benefit from its government... so Good Luck to them.

A Decade, Really?

 It is a day of celebration. Indeed our American cousins get rather over-excited, but I'm flattered that they make so much fuss to celebrate the anniversary of my retirement. It's 10 years ago today that I dropped out of the rat race and I have never looked back. I miss many of my colleagues and some of my clients but I do not miss the work, the lost nights, the lost weekends, the pointless conference calls, and being away from home so much. Having said that, that was what paid for a comfortable retirement.

I was up early to start the celebrations by greeting Ellie as she was dropped off. I made her a festive breakfast of strawberries and cherries with a marmite crumpet to follow. Once she was washed and dressed, she continued the celebration with some cheerleading in the lounge until it was time for school. 

We dropped her at the classroom door and headed straight to the Polling Station to cast our vote. We are pessimistic about the result, but we have done our bit. 

Back home we settled down for breakfast and then we popped to the pharmacy and then M&S. There were a few bits to collect. Once home, I returned to the Excel program that I wrote last week to find the best meeting point for a group of people. I decided to add some code so that it calculates the distance for each person to travel to get to the calculated meeting point. It took a little longer than expected to get the code working and I still have an anomaly when two sets of people live within a couple of miles of each other. I will return to that another day.

While I was faffing with Excel, Di was tidying up some shrubs in the front garden.

The afternoon saw the usual Kindle time before we went to collect Ellie from school. Plans have changed. She was due to stay with us overnight, but Darren is no longer needed in Folkestone, so he can drop her off as usual.

Meanwhile, I must return to my retirement... there's so much to do!

Roll me away

 We were up in time for Ellie's drop-off. She turned up on roller skates and informed me that she was going to wear them on the way to school. After some breakfast, she went to wash and dress and then came back down to do some reading with Grandpa before school.

Once we were back from the school run and had munched our way through breakfast we prepared for a trip to the shops. We made a radical change to the weekly trip. It wasn't just that we shopped on Wednesday, it was the fact that we had an M&S chaser. We love the Southern Fried chicken tenders that they sell, and we were running low. Whilst in the store I picked up a Korean salad and noodle bowl for my lunch. The Korean bowl was delicious and I will certainly have that again.

Back from the shops, there was some traditional admin to complete. Finally, we managed to get some Kindle time. I did, however, cut it short so that I could return to the guide I was writing for our EETV setup. I finished that just in time to collect Ellie from school.

Ellie was full of beans when she got in but has just been collected by Zoe.

TV Guide

We were up early so that Ellie could be dropped off. Getting up early wasn't an issue as Jasper had enjoyed a crazy 15 minutes soon after 5 a.m. and we were both dozing for the rest of the night.

Ellie had her breakfast and then went to wash and dress. Once she was ready she headed to the lounge to spend some time listening to music and dancing. I hid in the kitchen and read the news. Once E~llie had been dropped off at school, we returned home for breakfast.

The morning was spent doing admin. One outstanding item was to get the central heating controls working from Diane's phone. I spent an hour reading background data so that I could reset the password on the control unit. Finally, with an idea of what was needed, I fired up the app on Di' phone. Bang! It worked the first time and all my research had been unnecessary.

After lunch, I started to write a guide on using the TV now that we have EETV in control. This was predominantly for Diane's benefit so that she could control things when I was not available. 

After some Kindle time, I went to collect Ellie and had the opportunity to go into class and see the work she had been doing. It was impressive how much they have done and it was nice to see a chart showing how many points the children had earned through the year. Ellie was well into the top half... but a fair way from the top. As we left, we met up with Zoe who had managed to leave work early. 

Surely Not

I was awake at 04:30 and delighted to see I had more than two hours before I needed to get up. At 06:45 the alarm went off and scared seven bells out of me. My heart was still pounding as I reached the bathroom to begin my ablutions. Ellie, meanwhile, hadn't even woken up until 07:00 and I was washed, dressed, had her breakfast prepared, had emptied the dishwasher, and was halfway through my first coffee by the time she was dropped off.

Once she was dropped off at school, we had our breakfast and prepared for the day. I had two main tasks on my list for the day. Firstly, I wanted to complete the proper activation of Discovery+ on the EETV system. The second was to pay for the new heating controls and contract for a maintenance service.

The activation of Discovery+ was a problem. I tried again but, again, ended up in a loop. I phoned the helpline and they admitted that I was doing everything correctly but they (Discovery) clearly have a problem with the Safari browser on Apple devices. "Can you download a different browser?" asked the rep. "Not a chance" I replied. I ran upstairs and fired up the Windows laptop. Nothing happened. The battery had run out. I plugged it in and started again. This time I managed to log in and access the correct system using the "Edge" browser. The whole activation worked the first time, as advertised. I was a happy bunny. It is bizarre, however,  that in this day and age, we have to resort to this antique operating system to complete the activation.

I then set about the invoice for the completion of the heating controls. That got paid and I then followed up by requesting the maintenance service and setting up the monthly payment... which worked out roughly half the price of the old British Gas contract.

Di went along to the surgery this afternoon for the second dose of her shingles vaccine. We then settled down for some kindle time until it was time to collect Ellie. When she was back here with us, we got her to complete some of her outstanding homework until Zoe came to collect her.

Quiet Day

 I did remember to disable my wake-up alarm last night. It was 07:20 before I became conscious and wandered down for a coffee. Di came down a while later and we had a quiet breakfast as we consumed our toast and porridge and read the morning papers.

The morning was spent fiddling with software. To start with I wanted to disable the VPN when I was at home. It seemed to be consuming a lot of battery and there isn't really a threat within my network. Once that was sorted I tried to install the Bosch central heating app on Dis phone. This started well enough and correctly identified the main controller... but then it asked for a password to pair with that controller. I have no record of this and no recollection of what I set. I reread all of the manual and online help texts but couldn't find the magic incantation. This will have to wait until next week.

The afternoon started with Kindle time but eventually, I broke away to start on dinner and watch the coverage of the England-vs-Slovkia game in the Euros. I am really struggling to understand why the national team is still playing a style of football that is 5-10 years out of date... and what's more it a style that none of the players use at their own clubs. My main observations are:

• If you have possession, the opposition can't score.
• If you continually pass sideways or backward, you can't score.
• There are no points for possession, only for goals.
• If you don't shoot, you won't score.
• If you try to walk the ball into the net, someone will get in your way.

Alarm

 I stupidly forgot to switch off my alarm this morning. It was totally unnecessary, but I was up at 07:00 and soon enjoying my first coffee of the day. I had my usual Zoom call with my cousins. The attendance was a bit low today, but we still had fun and I was able to wind up Red Tim at the drop of a hat.

When my call was finished, Diane had a call with Jan from Odiham. We were eager to get news of John as he had been unwell. Progress seems to be slow and we will have to see if the meds make a difference as they kick in over the next few weeks.

After lunch, we had some Kindle time. High clouds had watered the sunshine and the Orangery didn't become as hot as it may have done.

Diane was collecting Ellie and taking her along to Sainsbury's to meet with Zoe and pick up various items for the upcoming holiday. While she was there I tried to activate the Discovery+ channel on EETV. Try as I may, I could not get this to work. I have Discovery+ working with the free version, but the basic subscription won't take at present. I faffed about for a while but eventually gave up. I will have to give them a call and sort it out. 

Run, run, run

 We had a fairly gentle start to the morning. Ellie was at home so there was no need to hurry. We did, however, need to get breakfast and head off together to escort Ellie and Zoe to school. Unlike most school drop-offs, we were staying. Today was Sports Day, so we set up our chairs and blankets by the edge of the running track after seeing Ellie into class.

We had about 45 minutes to wait. There were lovely patches of sunshine but they became less frequent as the wind picked up and cloud covered the sky from edge to edge. As the morning wore on it seemed to get cooler and cooler and after three hours we were frozen. Next year we will have to remember to bring cold-weather gear.

The races themselves were fun as the children tried their hardest for their various houses (Phoenix, Unicorn, Dragon, and Pegasus). Ellie is in Unicorn. It was a while before Ellie's first race - which was a sack race, where she came third or fourth. Her second race was a relay, where she did well and I think her team came second. Her last race was the sprint and she again came second, but was only a smidge away from the win.

Once we got home and had warmed up, we settled down to catch up on the news only to find we seemed to have some issues with the WiFi connection. It took me a while to track it down but it seems there were two "mesh" devices that were too close and were interfering with each other. Once I had moved them, everything burst back into life.

We had the usual Kindle time after lunch until Di went to collect Ellie. I went to fix the new QwikHose connector only for it to eject the spray head and soak me. It took a long time and several attempts to finally get the spray head to fit properly.

Heating

 I was up and about before Ellie surfaced this morning. She had slept well and woke with mischief in her eyes! Having said that, she was no problem and we marched her off to school at the allotted time. We returned for breakfast. I had to hurry as we were expecting Ross, the heating engineer, and I was due at the dentist soon after 10:00.

Ross turned up with an arm full of boxes and a spring in his step. "We're going to finish this." he declared and buried himself in the cupboard under the stairs. The old control panel was removed and a new one was installed. The manifolds for the underfloor zones were changed. He then started on the new smart thermostats. These proved challenging as the pattress was not quite deep enough. He had to raid the nearest parts factor and get a collar to provide a few extra millimetres of depth. He cracked on throughout the day and finally completed the project. We now have a new, highly efficient gas boiler with smart controls installed on our phones. Given how many problems he hit along the way, I suggested he write up the whole process as it was clear that the technical support staff at the manufacturers were clearly out of their depth.

While all this was going on, I managed to get to the dentist for my 6-monthly checkup. Fortunately, I received a clean bill of health and was home within the hour.

I have received a new Smart WiFi Plus extender from EE. The idea is to add it to the household mesh close to the EETV Mini box. That is easier said than done. The reason it is needed is that the corner is a WiFi blind spot. Guess what, the extender won't work there because it won't mesh because it's a black spot.

Shaking it up

The sun was already warming the oven that is our village by the time I got up.  I was up in time for Ellie to be dropped off... her strawberries had been prepared, the ham laid out and her fruit smoothie was on the table. She burst into the house and demolished the lot. We took her to school and then wandered back for our own breakfast.

As I am scheduled to visit the dentist tomorrow morning we decided to shake things up a bit. We went to Sainsbury's. Yes, we really know how to live. Being Wednesday, the Zombies weren't present so the tour of the aisles went quickly and without incident. At no stage was I called upon to use a cattle prod or some well-chosen sarcasm.

The temperature continued to rise throughout the day. Like yesterday, it was too hot to read in the Orangery so again we retired to the relative cool of the lounge to read until it was time to collect Ellie. She wasn't here for long before Zoe collected her, but she would be back later to stay the night.

By the way, I'm getting fed up with messages from Royal Mail telling me that my package will arrive "today between 11:15 and 3:15" and then not turning up at all. It happens time and again.

Coffee

 We were up early so that Ellie could be dropped off. This entry should be in praise of coffee because I skipped my usual morning intake and went for tea. It's good, but it's not the same. Despite the lack of caffeine (our tea is decaff) we managed to get Ellie off to school on time and without incident.

Our plan was to hit the metropolis that is Chichester (hence the tea to minimise the need for a comfort break). Diane had a couple of shops she wished to raid and I was happy to act as the getaway carrier. After the first few stops in South Street, we were debating our next stop. Unfortunately, we lingered too long and were trapped by the South Street Black Hole. It drew us inexorably closer until it ejected us through the portal into Crew Clothing. The only escape was to purchase some items that acted as a shield to allow us safe passage towards North Street. Eventually, the shopping was finished and we stopped at a new coffee shop on East Street. The shop, called 17Grams is really nice and relaxed and they roast their own coffee daily. We enjoyed a late-morning caffeine hit and some pastries then headed home.

I spent about 45 minutes on the phone with a techie from EE TV. There were a couple of anomalies I wanted to iron out. He hopes he has got to the bottom of it and is sending me a further mesh device for the family room. This should reduce the latency that the EETV is experiencing. We'll see.

It was too hot to sit in the Orangery or the garden so our Kindle time was taken in the cool of the lounge.

Tunnelling

 We were up early for Ellie to be dropped off. I had forgotten to slice the ham yesterday so that was the first task once I had made coffee. (Ellie loves sliced ham for breakfast along with some fruit). Out came the slicer, thickness was set, power was switched on and a chunk of ham was gradually reduced to several dozen slices. Ellie was happy.

We dropped her off at school and then came back for breakfast before starting on our chores. My first task was to steam-clean the floors while Di started on the laundry. When that was done I retired to my study.

When I worked at IBM we would tunnel into the internal network using a form of VPN (Virtual Private Network). I have been considering installing a VPN to secure all my network traffic by encrypting it and tunnelling all the traffic to its destination. This is of particular interest when connecting to the internet via public networks, or when travelling. 

I spent several hours reviewing some of the big providers in the personal VPN marketplace and narrowed it down to three. I then asked AI (using Gemini) to compare the three. It did a pretty good job and its comparison gave me enough to rule one of them out. I then went back to the read reports on the remaining two. I chose SurfShark and opened an account. Within a few moments, I had downloaded and installed the software. My iMac, MacBook, iPad, and iPhone are now protected and the software seems to be completely transparent. If I find no issues over the next few days I will install it on Diane's devices.

We had some Kindle time after lunch and then picked Ellie up from school and took her home as Zoe had managed to finish early.

No Egrets

 We had a gentle start to the day. Diane had bought some twisty, shiny mobiles and installed them in the garden to try and discourage the local squadron of pigeon command from practising their various manoeuvres in our garden. In the early morning sunshine, the kitchen was illuminated with flashes of sunlight as the mobile rotated. It was like having glitter balls in the garden without the prancing and dancing.

Once we started on the day, I finished setting up some missing channels on the new TV service. Di headed out to the garden. She had purchased two ornamental cranes, storks, or maybe egrets which are destined for the back garden. Firstly, however, they needed to be varnished so that they wouldn't rust like the existing one that is being replaced. While she did the varnishing I removed the old egret after extracting the huge anchors that had held it steady in the coastal winds.

We had Kindle time this afternoon before I prepared dinner.

Stoned again

 We had some rain overnight. That's not a problem, in fact, that's when it should rain so that it causes the minimum inconvenience. I will recommend this to our next MP.

At nine o'clock I had my Zoom call with the cousins. We had a good turnout and it was nice to hear about Sion's recent holiday in southern Africa... Victoria Falls, safari, the Blue Train, Cape Town and so forth. It sounded wonderful.

When the call ended, I settled down to finish filing 615 photos from the last few months. They had been filed in the correct locations and backed up regularly, but the facial recognition hadn't been applied. It took an hour or so, but eventually, everything was done and the metadata was updated.

Diane had started in the garden. She was potting up a rose. Our rill had become coated in blanket weed and the water level dropped significantly. Di wanted the cobbles removed and ultimately replaced. I grabbed some rubble bags and nitrile gloves and set about emptying the rill. It was messy and took about an hour but the cobbles were removed and 9 rubble bags were partially filled. 

We had some Kindle time in the afternoon before I started on dinner. Trevor WhatsApp'd me to say he has configured Time-Machine on his iMac and asked for some additional advice. I was delighted he had Time Machine in place and explained the risks and gave him some advice regarding the Anti-Virus on the iMac.

Fete

 Ellie was dropped off as usual. She had only just woken up and wanted a cuddle to get her jump-started. She tucked into the breakfast I had prepared and then headed up to complete her ablutions and get dressed and ready for school.

When we got home and finished our breakfast we started on our chores. Di cleared out the utility cupboard and the understairs cupboard, giving them a good clean. I emptied several of the kitchen cupboards and gave them a thorough clean. Finally, I set about the water filter on the fridge. This is always troublesome. I pulled out the fridge and switched off the water before removing the old filter. I then fitted the new filter and switched on the water which promptly poured all over the floor.  The water switched off, and I tried again. Same result. I went through this several more times before finally getting it right.

We were pleased with the EE TV service last night. I decided to bite the bullet and I removed all of the Sky equipment and reinstalled the EE TV kit in the spots vacated by Sky. I then had the pleasure of phoning Sky and cancelling the service. When I explained why, the agent had the temerity to say that they recommend Sky Stream for all of the people having the problem we did. Well, they didn't suggest it to me, but clearly know all about it. Oh yes, and he said the satellites were due to be switched off in the next couple of years.

After lunch, we had Kindle time before Diane went to collect Ellie from school and take her to the Summer Fete. Zoe managed to get there soon after and they seemed to have a good time.

EE by gum

 Ellie was dropped off soon after seven and settled down for breakfast before going to wash and dress.  We took her to school at the usual time and wandered back for breakfast.

I had niggle. It is moderately simple to find a mid-point for two couples to meet up. It is slightly more complicated when there are three. When, however, there are more participants how do you find a meeting point? The answer, according to AI is to calculate the average latitude and longitude of their starting points. How do you do this? Using What3Words I could easily convert an address to Lat/Long coordinates. Then I could calculate the average latitude and average longitude. Finally, I can convert this point back to a W3W location and view it on a map. I had to download a W3W Excel extension, but once I had activated it, the code was written in no time.

We had our usual trip to Sainsbury's and arrived before the Zombies had been delivered. This meant the whole shopping experience was much quicker and much easier.

The afternoon started with some Kindle time but then the doorbell started to ring at regular intervals as various deliveries arrived. The important one was the EE TV set-top boxes. I unpacked the main box and installed it without a problem. We seem to have everything we wanted. I'll give it a few days and if there are no problems, I'll ditch Sky. I installed the mini-box in the kitchen. That also was trouble-free. I'm impressed so far.

As I write this, the England -vs- Denmark game is in progress and I'm trying my hardest not to shout and scream at the inept performance to which we are being treated. It's the hope that kills you!

Do Not Disturb

 I was awake early. In fact, I resorted to my Kindle and read for 30 minutes before it was time to get up. Ellie was dropped off, just after seven. She had her breakfast, got washed and dressed, but then wouldn't log on to do her times tables practice. In fact, she dug her heels in and whinged until Zoe arrived. We took her to school as usual,  Zoe headed back to work, and I came home for breakfast.

During the morning we headed for the garden centre to get some compost so that Diane could plant a rose we had received for our 50th.

The rest of the day has been immensely quiet, though Di went along to collect Ellie from school. As I was preparing dinner, Di had a telephone call with Denise.

Sky

Zoe dropped Ellie to us before seven this morning. She is in charge of the store for a few days after the manager suffered a loss in the family. Ellie was her usual chirpy self and once fed, washed and dressed, she announced that she was going into the lounge to do some dancing. Who am I to argue?

Once we had dropped her at school we returned for breakfast and then Di settled down for a telephone call with her friend Marilyn. I returned to my Sky-Q conundrum. The question I posed myself "Is there an alternative that will deliver the channels we like, reliably?" I made a list of the channels we use frequently and started to research. I phoned EE and chatted with a nice man called Evan. They have EE TV and deliver by streaming over the internet. They can even record shows. The more we looked, the better the option seemed. I went ahead and have 14 days to change my mind. That should give me plenty of time to evaluate it and probably cancel Sky-Q - saving us plenty of money each month. A very successful morning.

After our Kindle time this afternoon, I went along to collect Ellie from school. While it was very warm, the skies were threatening so we didn't stop off at the park.

Taking the Mic

There was a lovely bright start to the day and it was warming up nicely. I went to Zoe's to join the trek to school. I collected Ellie's iPad while there. She had been having some problems and I thought I would try and sort them out. When she tries to use Facetime, she can hear the person at the other end of the call but they cannot hear her. Using my friend Google I looked up various problems that had been reported and tried most of the fixes. None seemed to do the trick. I was not going to be eaten. I took a break for a cup of tea. Years of debugging have taught me to return to "first principles" if stuck. I carefully removed the iPad from its keyboard case. There, blocking the microphone was a small wodge (technical term) of paper that had been caught between the keyboard case and the iPad. The iPad was de-wodged. The mic was clear... and we had solved the problem.

While in the mood for debugging, I returned to the issue we had been having with Sky-Q. With the box now, apparently, working I was lulled into a false sense of security. We have now had three occasions when it has locked up and the fans have switched on to wind-tunnel mode. This is what I had been trying to cure with the replacement box. I returned to Google and thought back to when the issue started. This appears to have been when we switched from the BT hub to the EE hub for our Internet router. I added "EE" to my search - behold! I am not the only one. There seems to be a significant number of Sky-Q users who have had this problem since switching to EE. Unfortunately, nobody has come up with a solution yet.

After chatting with Trevor on WhatsApp we had downselected the river cruises I had researched. There were only 2 or 3 that would suit us. Di reviewed the details and we may have accidentally gone ahead and booked a trip on the Rhine next Spring.

I collected Ellie from school and we stopped off at the park on the way home. Once home she settled down to some homework which had been allocated online. I set up the Apple Pencil for her iPad and she was able to complete the work online.

Father's Day

 It is Father's Day and I woke up to a very bright and pleasant morning. We were expecting the girls (and Jon) for lunch so once ablutions and breakfast were complete, I started on lunch preparations. I had a large leg of lamb that needed to be roasted along with all the trimmings.

The girls turned up at midday and I was treated to a couple of new shirts and a bottle of spiced black rum (which I will have to put away, as it will be a great temptation). I am a very lucky man.

While Kim entertained Ellie (who was practising on roller skates), Zoe took over the final stages of lunch preparation. Jon had been explaining the latest project they are working on which involves building components for a forthcoming world water speed record attempt. It sounds very interesting and has an accompanying video on YouTube (search for ThrustWSH).

After lunch, we had a quiet hour or so in the garden before the girls all left.

We had a quiet evening watching the England -vs- Serbia football from the Euros.

Eject, eject

 We had some Tempura Chicken last night. It was clear that something was wrong. It tasted ok "-ish" but the tempura wasn't crispy and tasted more like a normal batter. During the evening we watched the football (Germany vs Scotland) but, by half-time, I asked Di if she felt ok. She did. I didn't.  I went to the loo and within a few seconds had ejected the whole of my evening meal, As it happens, Di's metabolism is slower than mine. It was this morning that her body rejected last night's dinner... though it did eject through a different orifice!

I was up early this morning, and to be fair, felt as right as rain. Talking of which it poured down for the first half of the morning. After breakfast, I had my usual call with the cousins. There was nothing of great import to report.

During the morning and some of the afternoon I spent time trying to work out what to do with our data access during a forthcoming trip to Turkey. After a lot of research, I have a couple of options for providing data roaming using an eSIM.

Chri and Maureen dropped in to say thanks for my help during the week. It seemed a bit overkill, but they donated a couple of nice bottles of wine.

I had a call from Jane. She has details of Paul and Cathy's forthcoming trip to the Paris Olympics via London. We now have to work out when we can all meet up.

Vision On

 I was up and about by the time Ellie awoke. She was her usual chirpy self as the normal morning protocol played out. We walked her to school and then went home for our own breakfast.

My domestic chores today focused on filters and cleaning. The dishwasher filter needed its regular cleaning and the dishwasher was asking for a "clean" cycle. With that underway, I returned to the vacuum cleaner, having realised that there was an additional filter I hadn't dealt with earlier in the week. The filter was removed and cleaned and replacement filters arrived from Amazon so I could swap the old ones.

The viewing card arrived from Sky. I set to work trying to coax the new Sky-Q box into life. It seemed to start ok - so clearly had communication with the TV, but then failed when it tried to initiate the Sky service itself. I stripped everything out of the cabinet and set it up separately on a spare TV. No change. After trying all of the debugging I could think of, I called Sky and a very patient technician took me through a process which allowed the system to burst into life. We now have the service running again - though I still have one "Power On" anomaly to fix, though I have a perfectly good workaround at present.

As I was finishing the Sky installation, we got a call from Maureen. Chris had been discharged from the hospital and could I take her along to collect him. It wasn't as quick as the other evening because it was the end of the school day and there was a lot of traffic around the back streets of Chichester, but it didn't take too long. Chris was clearly delighted to get out of the hospital, having sat waiting for his meds for several hours. In fact, he had given up and resolved to come back for them another day. As it happened, they arrived just as he was leaving.

No Signal

 Yesterday evening was strange. For some reason, the TV would not play any terrestrial TV channels. It just claimed there was no signal. This was a pain as we are still waiting for the Sky-Q viewing card. Fortunately, the various streaming services were all functioning. It was as we settled down to watch them that the phone rang. It was our friend Maureen who had been visiting Chris in hospital where he had an operation in the morning. As she left the hospital, she tripped and fell flat on her face and had been whipped back into A&E for stitches in her lip and would need to see a dentist, having chipped a tooth. I jumped in the car to go and collect her. Once she was home we reverted to a normal evening.

I went along to join the march to school this morning, then came back for breakfast and to finish the shopping list for our weekly excursion to Sainsbury's. Clearly, we had arrived early enough that the Zombies hadn't yet been delivered. As a result, we were in, out, and back home within an hour.

I settled down in the lounge to debug the issue with the TV... only to find it was working perfectly this morning.

We had some Kindle time after lunch but it started to turn a bit chilly in the Orangery. In the end, I grabbed a sweater before I ventured out to collect Ellie from school... just as the rain started.

Filtered

 I had to be up early this morning. Ellie was being dropped off and I like to be washed, dressed, and have her breakfast on the go before she explodes into the house. She was delighted with her new bed and slept well. She had insisted on making her bed before coming around to us. (Long may that continue). Once usual ritual was complete, we took her to school and then came back for our own breakfast.

I had several items on my "to-do" list. The first was to perform some maintenance on the vacuum cleaner. Di reported that it had been overheating and cutting out. I took the various components apart and cleaned them up - most were heavily clogged with Jasper's fur. When I got to the filters - I had never worked out how to get to them before today - it was clear what this issue had been.  I cleaned them as well as I could and refitted them. Putting everything back together, the device sprang back into life. Job done. (I ordered some new filters when I had finished).

Next on my agenda was an update to the Accounts, but that didn't take too long. Finally, the replacement viewing card for Sky has failed to arrive. I phoned them and explained, only to be told that the chap I spoke with last week had not followed the correct process and the card had not been sent. Today's chap went back through the process and confirmed the card had been ordered. We should receive it in 3-5 days. He was good enough to apply a credit to the account as compensation for the loss of service.

I went out for a walk and collected Di's meds as I passed the pharmacy. I also finished my latest audiobook and must find another. After a spot of lunch, we had some Kindle time before collecting Ellie from school and taking her to the park on the way home.

I've agreed to organise a "Band of Brothers" lunch in London, in the Autumn. I have just sent out the initial generalised invite. Let's hope we get some interest.

Home

As much fun as it is to travel, it's lovely to be home with Di. Ellie was staying with us overnight and wandered into our room at 06:45. I was already awake so having told her where the iPad was, I leapt out of bed for a shower and shave.  Once coffee was on the go, I prepared some watermelon for her, followed by ham. Zoe arrived in time to take her around to school with me.

Back home, I was tucking into breakfast when Zoe summoned me to help assemble Ellie's new double bed. The carpet fitter had just left, having laid a lovely new carpet. We emptied the boxes of components and ferried them all upstairs before reading the instructions (yes, really) and getting started. It all went very smoothly and a couple of hours later it was all done. At this point, Zoe realised she had ordered the wrong-sized mattress. It's not quite wide enough. I don't know what she plans to do about it, but it will do for now.

Back home Di had spent the morning ironing. We stopped for lunch and then had some Kindle time. This was rudely interrupted by a rain shower that sent us scurrying into the garden to bring in the washing.

Di met up with Zoe to collect Ellie from school and it allowed her to pop up to Ellie's bedroom and see the new carpet and bed.

Last Day

I was awake by 06:00 but stayed in bed for another 15 minutes. I then tidied the room and did the bulk of my packing for the return home. By 06:45 I was washed and dressed and sneaking into the kitchen to make a coffee… only to find that Charlie was already there with a similar mission - though he went back to bed.

It was very cloudy and quite cool, though the forecast suggested it would brighten up later. Slowly, the others emerged and we settled down for a breakfast of crumpets and croissants… and a group photo!

With breakfast done, and tidied away, we headed to the cars for a trip to Moissec (some 15km away). We hadn’t got long as we had to have lunch and head for the airport. We parked by the Canal du Midi and walked along the bank, stopping to look at the boats that were moored alongside. Two of them were own by Brits and we stopped for a quick chat with each of the them.

Moissec is on the Camino del Santiago and the Abbey is one of the stopping off points. It is famous for its cloister (described as being the most beautiful in the world). Unfortunately, we didn’t have time for the cloisters, but did get to wander around the Abbey Church itself (dedicated to St Peter).

With time getting on we headed back to the cars so that Liz could finish preparing lunch. We had some Toulouse sausage, mash, cheesy mash, and cauliflower cheese. The sausage was sensational. At 13:00 we headed for the airport. The traffic was kind to us and we had no delays on the roads, nor at check-in. The plane boarded on time and we took off only a few minutes late. Next stop Gatwick.

We landed in Gatwick ten minutes ahead of schedule. We whistled through passport control and I went through to baggage collection where I said goodbye to my companions. My bag came through fairly quickly and I headed for the train and was early enough to get the train before the one I had planned to catch. Diane and Ellie were waiting for me when I got to Bognor Regis and we were home for 18:30.

Carcassonne

 We were all up fairly early this morning. It was a lot more cloudy than yesterday, and cooler at 16C. We had some breakfast and then set off. Brian, Barbara, and Liz headed off in one direction, Mike, Charlie, Maggie and I headed in another. The drive to Carcassonne took about an hour and forty minutes. As we headed south the clouds looked more threatening but it stayed dry.

Carcassonne is a 13th Century fortified city or stronghold. If I get time I will return to this and explain a bit more of its history.

We parked outside the walls (but a lot closer than this photo implies). 

We strolled through the gates and started to weave through the narrow streets of the city.

At the top of the Main Street we came to the entrance to the route through the castle and its ramparts. The route took us around the walls and defensive towers, and on through the museum. In all this took well over an hour.

The wind whistled through the ramparts and I had to use the chinstrap on my hat to make sure it didn’t blow away. Some of the views were astonishing and I loved the complexity of the roof lines and walkways.

When we finally emerged back onto the street we met up with Mike. It had just started to rain, but it wasn’t too heavy. We found a small, sheltered courtyard and stopped for a drink and a snack for lunch.

We moved on through the narrow streets to the church. It was very impressive, displaying some stunning stained glass windows and an impressive pipe organ.

We walked onward through the streets and stopped to take a photo of this merry band (other than the fact that I was taking the photo so missed out).

We left Carcassonne and started the long drive home along the A61. We stopped off on the way to grab a coffee by the Canal du Midi then finally got back to the house around 17:00.

Liz had prepared a lovely boeuf bourguignon (using beer instead of red wine). It wasn’t warm enough to eat outside, so we ate around the table before splitting off to read, write, or play cards. It will not surprise anyone who knows me that I declined the opportunity to play cards.

Montauban

We had a lot of thunder overnight. I waited until I heard Mike moving around before I got up, showered and dressed. It was an hour or so before others emerged. It was already quite warm (23C) so I sat on the deck and watched the world revolve while enjoying a cup of tea and view to the distant Pyrenees. As everyone else arrived we sat down to have breakfast by the pool… croissants and baguettes, and of course, coffee.

The plan for the morning was to visit the market in Montauban. It was only a 25 minute drive and quick circuit of the town centre to get to the car park. The market had to be seen to be believed. The first street of 200m was predominantly clothing and accessories. The next stretch, returning on the first, was food stalls offering every type of European food you could imagine. (There was no Chinese, but there were Middle Eastern, Moroccan, and Spanish). Moving onto a side road there stood hundreds of stalls selling fruit, vegetables, herbs, wines, and cheeses. I am not known for my love of shopping, nor markets, but I would visit this weekly if it was near us at home. 

From the market we walked down several side streets to a lovely open square where we settled down for a coffee. On the way back to the car we stopped and bought some cases of wine to replenish Mike’s stocks after last night!

We had a light lunch back at the house and then sat and had a quiet few hours. The pool was used (though not by me), old photo albums were brought out, old stories were recounted, some even went for a nap. The temperature was a very pleasant 28C.

Late in the afternoon we went for a walk into the village to look out from the escarpment over the plains below. The heat had created a haze so the distant sights were obscured. From there we walked down to the lake below the village. They have been doing a lot of work around the lake and the security fences have only just been removed to allow us to walk right round. It was a delightful (if rather warm) and we were probably out for about 90 minutes. We returned to the house and chilled for an hour before going out to dinner.

We walked from the house to the end of Rue de Levant and occupied our reserved table in the back of the local restaurant. The menu provided numerous types of pizza, some stunning burgers, and various grills. I chose one of the pizzas and was not disappointed. It had a firm but very thin crust and delightful cheese, tomato, and chorizo topping. The discussion over the meal ranged across many subjects beyond our reminiscences. Most interesting was probably hearing the story about how Mike’s dad finally came to England from Lithuania after the war.

We strolled back to the house where a foursome sat down with playing cards to play Canasta. The rest of us stayed out by the pool enjoying the warm evening.

Lautrec?

I woke early and rolled out of bed to get washed and dressed before anyone else emerged. By the time I ventured down to the kitchen, Mike was making some tea. He is clearly an early riser also. We left everyone else in bed and walked into the village to the Boulangerie for our morning croissants. By the time we got back, there were a few stirrings from elsewhere in the house.

After breakfast, we loaded up the cars and headed for a day in Toulouse. We parked up at the Park and Ride and took the Metro downtown. Emerging in the central district we strolled across the square and down some of the side streets towards the River Garonne which runs through the city and the whole region. We stopped at the Basilica and had a look around. It was quite impressive but very dark, which gave it a sombre feel.

Leaving the Basilica we dropped down to the river bank and stopped at a small cafe for some lunch. We had a couple of cheese platters and a couple of charcuterie plates between the 7 of us. It was a nice snack to keep us going.

From there we headed for a convent where there was an amazing display regarding the Cathars, a beautiful cloister, and a church the size of which had to be seen to be believed.

We stopped for an ice cream in the main square and then headed for a shopping centre with a roof garden… which turned out to be closed for a private function. We moved on to see the covered market and by the time we got there, It was closed. Doh!

We returned to the Metro and back to the cars at the Park and Ride. We headed home through the Friday afternoon traffic and settled down by Mike’s pool with a glass of wine. 

Dinner followed an hour or so later. Four of the party have settled down with a board game, Liz has gone to bed, Barbara and I are ignoring the antics around the board game.

D-Day 80

It was another lovely start to the day. We had the early drop-off and Ellie tucked into her breakfast before going upstairs to get washed and dressed. Today, at school, they have been remembering the 80th Anniversary of D-Day. All of the children turned up for school in appropriate WWII dress. Ellie was dressed as a “Land Girl” and looked the part, all she needed was her own tractor. As we took her to school we marvelled at the different costumes the kids were sporting.

Back home, Diane went to the hairdresser and left me to my own devices. My most important task was to finalise my wardrobe for my trip and then get the suitcase packed. Would it be hot? Would it be chilly? Would we go out touring? Would it be wet? I had to make some decisions and pack accordingly. In the end, I was happy with my selection and the suitcase was closed and locked. I then started on my hand baggage. I was determined to limit this to my “man bag”. It took some shuffling, but in the end I was set.

We had a proper lunch so that it wouldn’t matter whether I had anything else later. Then we managed an hour of Kindle time before Diane took me to the train.

The journey to Gatwick only takes about 75 minutes. Unfortunately, despite trying to read, there was an elderly man holding court to a poor unsuspecting Swedish businessman who was too polite to walk away. The elderly chap was an Evangelical Christian and kept weaving The Bible into his diatribe on the government, Israel, and the end of days. I was glad when we arrived at Gatwick and I could escape into the chaos.

The bag drop and the security Fast Track worked well. In fact, as I was writing the scanner, I bumped into Charlie. Once through to the departure lounge, I met up with Brian and Barbara. Soon after, Charlie and MAggie emerged from Duty Free. Our place was delayed by 20 minutes… or at least, that’s what they claimed. In the end it and hour late taking off.

We landed in Toulouse after a pleasant flight and were quickly through Passport Control and baggage reclaim. Mike and Liz were waiting as we emerged and we headed for the cars. Liz has a Mini Convertible and Mike has an SUV. As I had never met her before, I decided to travel with Liz and our little convoy headed out onto the highways and byways. The convoy was soon dispersed by the traffic and there were road closures on the usual route, so I had to fire up Google Maps to navigate. It was about an hour’s drive and pulled into the driveway of their home about 2 minutes after them.

Once we were settled in our rooms, we opened some fizz and sat chatting until åabout 1 o’clock, when we decided it was time to call it a day.

Shaking it up

 Ellie was dropped off to us this morning. We followed the usual morning process before walking her to school.

We decided that we'd mix things up a bit to inject some excitement into the week. With that in mind and a list in hand (no, not a bucket list - we have plenty of those in the garage) we headed for Sainsbury's. We would shop a day early! We could hardly contain our excitement as we sped up and down the Zombie-free aisles.

In the middle of the evening, yesterday, the fire alarm burst into life, scaring the hell out of us. It only lasted about 10 seconds, but then did it again a few minutes later. I disabled the alarm and did a thorough inspection of the house, seeking out any hotspots, smoke, or any other source of combustion. Nothing was found. I left the disabled alarm in the Oranger so that its tweeting couldn't be heard. I had assumed the problem was a dying battery. Today, back from Sainsbury's with a new Duracell 9V battery clutched in my hand, I reassembled (and tested) the alarm. All was well and we were protected again.

We had some Kindle time this afternoon before I collected Ellie from school. We gave her a snack and let her get changed. Zoe arrived soon after and Di, Zoe and Ellie headed into Chichester for Ellie's dental appointment. Now home, Di reports that she was very good and did very well.

More things

 Zoe had a day off so there was no hurry to get up. I wandered around the corner at 8:20 and presented myself for escort duties. Zoe was raging. The school caterers had, again, cocked up Ellie's lunch orders. Fortunately, Zoe had taken screenshots when she submitted the orders and thus had proof that it was their problem - indeed half of the school were affected yesterday.

Back home, breakfasted and caffeinated I headed into the village for a haircut. On arrival, I received a message that my delivery from Sky was due in 20 minutes. It's a good job I have a limited amount of hair to cut. I was home in time to take the delivery and send back the old failed box. Talking of failure, they remind you to take out your viewing card before returning the old box. Despite these reminders, I realised as the DPD driver turned out of our road that I had, indeed, forgotten. A phone call to Sky followed. A new viewing card is due in the next day or so.

Diane wanted to go along to Port Solent. It seemed like the ideal day for such an outing. Traffic was almost non-existent and we arrived in no time. She found the store she wanted and found what she was after. Clutching her purchases we strolled along the boardwalk to "Wildwoods" where we had some lunch and a coffee before heading home.

We had some Kindle time and then Di went with Zoe to collect Ellie. I settled on the floor of the lounge and started to wire up the Sky-Q box. I made a few adaptations to the cabinet in which it is housed. The adaptations were primarily to allow an easier cable run than before. I think I have done all that I can until the replacement viewing card arrives. All the usual Terrestrial TV channels and streaming channels are set in the TV itself, so the lack of Sky for a few days is not a major inconvenience.

Getting things done

 Zoe was due to start work at nine so it was a lazy start for us. I just had to present myself at the door at 08:20. It was a lovely, bright, sunny morning. Ellie was feeling a bit sorry for herself as she had a scrape on the top of her foot. She needed a dressing and wasn't comfortable in her normal school shoes. A switch to her trainers solved the dilemma and we marched off to school at the usual time.

We had a chap scheduled to come and clean our driveway and all of our paths and patios. This meant that I had to stay put so that I could shift things out of the way for him (he had just been discharged from the hospital and couldn't lift anything heavy). I made use of the time to catch up on some tasks that have been drifting on my "To Do" list. Top of the list was to cancel Diane's seats on the upcoming trip to and from Toulouse. This turned out to be an epic struggle as everything pointed back to the website, but there was no way on the website to achieve a cancellation. In the end, I found a phone number and called customer services. The operative (once I got through) was very helpful and the cancellation was processed immediately. I've now managed to check in for the flights and paid for Fast Track at Security.

Next on my list was to chase an order I placed back. on May 14th. Again, finding a phone number was a bit of a hunt, but again the operative was immensely helpful once I got through. It turns out that they are awaiting a shipment from Canada, but it is expected this week. She said that they would ship my order "Express" once it had arrived.

The last of my "must-do" tasks was to call Sky and report the problem I have been having with Sky-Q (which I think I have discussed before). After some diagnostic questions, the technician gave up and said they would ship a replacement box in the next 48 hours. Seems like a result!

I collected Ellie from school and despite her injured foot, she still wanted to stop off at the park on the way home. They have been discussing the 80th Anniversary of D-Day in class. The teacher has asked if any of them have photos of their Gt or Gt-gt-grandfathers from the war years. I dug out and printed a few photos of Dad,  Di's dad, Uncle Teddy, and Di's Uncle Charlie. 

Shripney

 It was nearly 8 o'clock before I awoke. I felt guilty waking up so late - particularly when it was such a gorgeous morning. The sun was out and the cool breeze of yesterday had dropped. After a lazy breakfast, Di was planning to do some gardening. It would take her a while to get going, so I went out for a walk.

My walk stuck to the neighbourhood, looping around the lake then heading up to North Bersted Street and then along this ancient highway to the outskirts of Shripney. It is a nice relaxing route since there is no traffic or hum of traffic. The only exception is the crossing over the bypass, but that only features for a few seconds. As I walked I continued with my current audiobook (Victims, by Jonathan Kellerman). As the book approaches its climax I must start to consider what I listen to next.

Back home I helped Di with some lifting and shifting in the garden before we settled down for some Kindle time.

With dinner out of the way, the dishwasher on, and the sun still pouring through the windows, I suspect we'll have some more Kindle time before settling down for the evening.

Sunny

 We woke to a gloriously sunny morning. There was a cool edge to the breeze, but it was a lovely day. I had the usual call with my cousins. It was slightly more sombre than usual as one of them recounted the problems he was currently having with his grown-up son.

With some domestic chores ticked off, I headed out for a walk. The route had to include the local pharmacy to collect Diane's meds, and the Post Office to get some stamps and send some mail. This constrained the route but managed to keep me away from busy roads.

After lunch, we took a drive to the local garden centre so Di could pick up a few plants and some compost.  Then we settled down for some Kindle time. Later, I went online to order my train tickets for my upcoming long weekend in France. As Di isn't coming, I will get the train to and from Gatwick. Since I last ordered train tickets a few weeks ago, they now support downloads directly to your Apple Walllet. This was much better than having to collect them at the station on the day.

As it was still so nice after dinner, we went back to the Orangery for some more Kindle time.