Up!

  I was up early again to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. She, however, was barely conscious and went straight upstairs and got into bed with Nana and dropped off to sleep. I sat in peaceful solitude for 90 minutes before Diane came down. Ellie was still out for the count. I left it as long as I could before going up to get washed and dressed. She slept through it all. In fact, I was sitting in the Orangery on a Zoom call with the cousins before she finally emerged.

I spent much of the morning "consuming" documents into the "Paperless-ngx" document management system. Though it consumes the documents with ease, each one has to be checked to ensure the indexing is correct. It's tedious but it is worthwhile.

At lunchtime we organised a raid on Sainsbury's to pick up a new clock for Ellie's room from Argos. We weren't out for too long, but it was nice to emerge from our four walls.

I spent the afternoon consuming more documents. I now have all of my tax records, salary records, and pension records fully indexed and filed. I have now started on all of our insurance records. (Meanwhile, the integration with Gmail has been on hold. I need a concerted chunk of time to get back to that.)

Zoe collected Ellie soon after 16:00. A quiet evening with a film is planned.

Let there be light

I was up early to greet Ellie (and her friend Anaya) when they were dropped off soon after 6:30. Ellie would be with us until Zoe finished work, and Anaya would be with us until midday. It might sound stressful, but it was quite the opposite. Anaya is very well behaved, and the girls kept each other occupied throughout the morning. 

I retired to the study to get on with some more work on the document management system. I was soon reminded, however, that the light bulb in Ellie's bedroom was not working. I took the old bulb out with a view to getting a replacement. It was a peculiar square-shaped fitting with 4 bayonets. The light itself was a cluster of low-energy fluorescent tubes. B&Q had nothing similar. I returned home and ran some queries. These bulbs, though available, have been replaced with a new generation of LEDs. These, however, required a different pendant fitting. A suitable pendant and a set of 4 spare bulbs were acquired from Screwfix, and I set about replacing the whole kit and caboodle. The pendant had a much smaller diameter compared with the old light shade... that would need replacing too. I left that to Diane and Ellie to choose.

After lunch, I went for a walk, stopping in the village to collect Diane's meds on the way through. I never got back to the document management, but I did manage to finish another book during the afternoon. Ellie's back home now, so we expect a quiet evening (though she may decide to come back and sleep here rather than get up early in the morning).

Jasper seems to have picked up nicely over the last 24 hours. He's eating again (though not as much as he was) and seems less lethargic.

Better, but still a way to go

 Ellie ended up staying with us overnight. She said she didn't want to get up early and by staying with us, she could wake up as nature demanded, rather than what Mum needed. I was up soon after seven, Di at eight and we went and woke Ellie soon after nine. She had to get up and get going as we were expecting Lottie, and had to get to Sainsbury's.

We managed to catch up on Lottie's holiday before heading off to Sainsbury's. With Ellie and Di acting as runners, we seemed to complete the shopping much more quickly than usual.

After some lunch, Ellie and I went out for a walk. Well, I say walk, but she was on her bike and stopped at every junction to ask which way she should go. It was only a third of my usual route, but she seemed to enjoy it.

Jasper had seemed brighter today, but still hasn't recovered his full appetite. We had an appointment for him at 16:30. We took him to the vet and she gave him the once-over and some fluids. She has effectively signed him off unless we find that he isn't improving tomorrow.

Celebration, Encore une fois

We had a bit of a lie in, but still had to be up and about in time to take Jasper to the vet at 9:00. He was still feeling sorry for himself, but seemed a little brighter than last night. We dropped him off and the vet gave him a good check-over before we left. They agreed that he should stay with them all day and they would put him on a drip and check all his vitals. We signed a consent form for them to go ahead with scans if they deemed them necessary - as it happened, they didn't.

The rest of the morning was fairly relaxed. I pottered on with the document management system and checked that the backups were running correctly. My next task would be to integrate it with Gmail... but not this morning.

We went into Chichester to have a belated anniversary lunch at Côte Brasserie. We both had a very nice lunch. I started with Tarte Pissaladière, then for our main dishes, Diane had the Steak Frites Deluxe (which she said was the best she'd ever had at Côte), and I had Baked Dorade (which was excellent), to finish, Di had Caneles (which were sumptuous), and I had Tarte Citron. Côte Brasserie is rarely my first choice when selecting somewhere to eat, but I must say this was very good and it was a lovely way to celebrate.

We strolled back through the street market, but avoided any temptation, as we returned to the car. We settled in the Orangery once we arrived home. There was a bit of a stir as Zoe called to say there was a fire in a neighbour's house and two fire engines were in attendance. The young girl who lives there, and their dogs, were shelling out of the way in Zoe's back garden. The fire was quickly contained and there is no external evidence of what had happened. No doubt we will hear all about it, in time.

We went along to collect Jasper from the vet. He has started to eat little bits and seems brighter. Though the vet wants to check him over tomorrow, there should be no reason for him to stay all day... unless we are not happy with him overnight.

Celebration

 It should have been a celebration day. It is, after all, the 52nd anniversary of our wedding. Events conspired against us. We had to take care of Ellie, as Zoe was at work. This is no problem as she is very good. We also had to take Jasper back to the vet and leave him there. We had to be aware that they might phone with news and also had to factor in a return trip to collect him at the end of the day. So it was, we did nothing special.

I did manage to go out for a brief walk and stopped to get my hair cut while out. Diane did some laundry and Ellie played and watched her iPad.

Come the afternoon, Ellie's friend Jaxson had come to keep her company. I retired to my study and worked on the document management project. The recommended setting I received from the community last night worked perfectly, first time. Unfortunately, all of the files I had already filed were lost in the transition, but that's not too serious as I still have the originals and can resubmit them.

We collected Jasper from the vet at the end of the day. He's feeling very sorry for himself and still hasn't really eaten or drunk. We have to take him back first thing tomorrow for more tests and possibly a scan.

With 52 years under our belts I have committed to a further 48... but after that we'll review the situation.

It's been a day

I was up early to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. She was in a great mood, and we sat and had a cuddle while she told me all about her weekend with Pete and how they went to the new water park at West Beach in LA. After breakfast, we then played a series of number games until it was time for her to get dressed.

A chappie turned up at 10:00 (at my behest, I should add) to give us a quote for for installation of an irrigation system. He listened to what we wanted, took some measurements, and promised to come back with a quote mid-week. He also feels that it is a job he could do before we next go away. That was good news.

Jasper hasn't eaten for a few days, so Di and Ellie took him to the vets. After some poking and prodding, they decided to take some blood, put him on a drip and keep a watch throughout the day. Di and Ellie left him there. I, meanwhile, had walked to Sainsbury's to pick up a few things for Ellie's lunch. We all arrived home within a minute of each other.

Sue and Trevor, Alan and Val dropped in this afternoon. They had been house hunting for Alan and Val in LA and Bersted, so while in the area, it seemed sensible to drop in for a cup of tea. They didn't stay for long, as we had to get back to the vet. We did hear how much they had enjoyed their river cruise, and we heard all about the properties they had viewed today. 

Jasper is back with us now and is feeling very sorry for himself. We need to take him back in the morning.

My experiments with the document management system drove me to write a query/bug report on the website. I have had some wonderful feedback, and I will try to implement the suggestions when I get some time tomorrow or later in the week.

Best intentions

 It was a lovely start to the day, again. This really has been a delightful Spring and Summer, but I fear we are likely to pay for it at some point in the near future. I had every intention of going for a long walk today. It didn't happen. I feel guilty.

I had two things on my mental agenda that would need to be addressed before the walk. The first was a discussion with Zoe regarding the options she has as her fixed-term mortgage expires and her "Help to Buy"  loan starts to accrue interest. I laid it all out in a few paragraphs and squirted it into ChatGPT. I was very impressed with the data it returned and the clarifications it offered when I asked for further details. I printed it all and handed it to Zoe so we could discuss it. Then I ensured she had ChatGPT installed on her iPad and suggested she should rerun some of the queries with more up-to-date figures.  

The other item on my mental agenda was to install the component in the document management system that allows it to handle email files and MS Word files. I mistakenly thought this would be quick. So far, it has taken all the rest of the day and is still not working. I am close to giving up.

(I did manage an hour with the Kindle during the early afternoon, but it was only because I needed a break from debugging).

That is it

 We had a gentle start to the day. I had my usual call with the cousins at 9 am, and we all wished Maggie a Happy Birthday, along with the usual proceedings.

With the call over, I returned to my document management challenge, which had occupied the last couple of days. It was almost there when I switched off last night. This morning, with help from AI, I worked through the last few issues and now seem to have a fully working system. I started to test it with real data. It was at this point that I got a call from Diane. "The iron seems to be playing up. Can you take a look?". Always happy to help, I dashed downstairs and fiddled with the controls, left it to cool down, then fired it up to maximum. Nothing. Nada. Maybe it was the fuse? I changed the fuse. Same result (or lack of it). 

We have had a few occasions when the iron has played up in the last month. Maybe it was time to replace it. We checked online and found a suitable candidate at Argos. We ordered it, there and then, and I went straight around to collect it. The iron was duly unpacked and handed over. At that point, I headed for the fridge to start on lunch. I opened the door and realised there was no light on. Could it be that a circuit breaker had tripped? I went to the man-cave. Sure enough, a CB had tripped. I reset it. The fridge lit up, and the iron started to work again! Oh well, we now have a spare iron!

After lunch, I returned to the study. I started to pump more documents into the document management system. It was now eating them up with no apparent problems. Bit by bit, I was working out the various controls that I had over the way in which the files were indexed and stored. I think this could prove to be useful, so I set up a backup system to ensure the whole subsystem was backed up as a single entity. I still need to test some of the more esoteric features and also the auto-timers that trigger events, but I can do that over the next few days.

Working, sort of

 Another delightfully gentle start to the day. Once breakfast was done, Diane wanted to spend some time in the garden, and I returned to the study and my little brain teaser from yesterday.

I had decided to strip everything out and restart. I checked everything with ChatGPT and slowly rebuilt the system. I soon hit problems, and as each one was reported, I received the "Oh yes, that's because..." type of response. If AI is so smart, why didn't it get it right the first time? Bit by bit, I edged towards success.

I stopped at lunchtime to go out for a walk, listen to my book, and grab something to eat.

I returned to the problem. By mid-afternoon, it was working, and I will experiment for a few days to see if it will really be useful or not. If not, I'll strip it back out.

Some kids have "liberated" some shopping trolleys and were using them as go-carts last night. When they finally ran off, the trolleys were dumped in the hedges. Ellie pointed them out to me. I have dragged them out of the hedges and reported them to a company that collects them.

Dock Strikes

After another peaceful and relaxed start to the day, we had the excitement of the weekly shopping raid on Sainsbury's. I don't know if the bright sun is keeping them in their lairs, but there was no sign of the usual zombies shuffling down the aisles. It was a remarkably smooth experience.

Before I retired, I was asked to present to IBM's Architects and IT Specialists on my view of the architect's job in 5 years. I started by explaining that whatever the job would be, I wouldn't be doing it as I was retiring soon. I then went on to discuss various aspects of the job and predicted that many of the boring tasks would be removed by containerisation of components and the deployment of pre-built, pre-tested building blocks (like building with Lego). 

I saw a document management application discussed in the technical press this week. I thought that this might be a useful addition to the "West Sussex Data Centre" (my study). It turns out that this application is delivered using a containerised delivery mechanism called Docker. I read up about Docker and found that, along with Kubernetes, it is the realisation of my predictions way back when! I prepared "barnowl" and downloaded the Docker container and went about the configuration (with assistance from ChatGPT). The theory was simple, and the installation should have been easy. In fact, it was a nightmare, and I spent all day trying to wrestle it into action. I exhausted my ChatGPT query allowance for the day and switched over to Google's Gemini. By the end of the afternoon, I gave up and will reset "barnowl" and start again tomorrow. The docks certainly were on strike. (The frustrating part is that I can see how easy it should be.)

Outing

It was warm but overcast and remained like that throughout the day. We had planned to go out for a mooch around the shops. We hadn’t decided where, however. Once the normal morning protocol had been completed we decided on Gunwharf Quays in Portsmouth.

There was the usual traffic as we tried to get around Chichester, but then we whizzed through to Portsmouth. The next few hours were spent wandering around and looking in various shops and outlets. Di picked up various tops and some shorts and I bought a couple of pairs of Skechers shoes - one to use as slippers, the other for general use. As we looked at the various restaurants to decide on our lunch venue, the sky seemed to darken and it became very still and humid. There was an almighty flash of lightning and instantaneous crack of thunder. It was so loud that you literally see people jump back. It was the loudest crack of thunder I heard in many years.

We took a seat in Wagamama’s. It was quite busy and there was a nice buzz about the place. We Bothe chose some Bao buns as a starter. They we quiet delicious, with the soft pillowy bun encasing Korean beef brisket (for me) and duck (for Di). After that, we both went for a rice dish with a curry. Di chose the Chicken Raisukaree (Chicken, coconut, and vegetables); and I had the Chicken Firecracker (Chicken, hot chillies, and vegetables). It was excellent and certainly filled us up such that we would need nothing further until breakfast tomorrow. When we finished lunch we continued our wander around the shops. It was mid afternoon before we returned to the car and headed home.

Once we got home we sat down with a cup of tea and our Kindles. It was a good day.

Workflow

 It was another cracking start to the day. The sun was already very warm, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. After ablutions and the usual breakfast routine, Diane went to Zoe's to check on the cut she acquired yesterday. I went to the study and returned to my video editing.

It's funny how quickly you (well, I) forget the workflow that had been worked out a few weeks ago. I had to keep referring to Google and YouTube to achieve what I wanted. It took most of the morning, but I now have a video of our Falmouth holiday back in 2022. I need to view the finished article because I fear that the volume of the background music may be a little overpowering. Even if that is the case, it would only take a few minutes to correct and refile it.

Di arrived home just as I finished the video, so I took the opportunity to go out for a walk. It was very hot, and I welcomed the shade afforded by my hat as I looped around the usual circuit. As usual, I was out for just over an hour.

After lunch, we both had some Kindle time until I was summoned by Zoe/Ellie to help. They set up a water slide in the back garden. This involved using the hose to fill the border of a smooth piece of plastic (runway). Evenly spaced holes in the border squirted water across the runway so the kids could slide along safely. It didn't take long to get it all set up, and as I left, Ellie and her friend Sophia Rose were running upstairs to put the swimsuits on.

We've just finished dinner and expect to have a quiet evening.

Returning to Normal

 Life is returning to normal. Diane is back in residence, and Jasper is following her around like her shadow. We had a very gentle start to the day as she started to tell me about their holiday while we drank our coffee. Once she started to unpack her suitcase, I retired to the study and began some video editing of a trip to Falmouth in 2022. I wasn't very inspired, so I saved it and went out for my morning walk.

Once home, I returned to the video editing and realised I had many of the clips out of sequence. This led me to YouTube to find the best way to resequence the component media. I made notes and again saved the project. I will return later in the week.

We had some Kindle time after lunch, but this was interrupted by Ellie calling to say Zoe had cut herself and could Nana come and assist. She had nicked her thumb on her new secateurs. Fortunately, being new, they were nice and clean, and Diane soon had things under control.

I think we will be having a very quiet evening and an early night. Diane is still very tired from the trip.

A Lie In

 I managed a luxurious lie-in. Jasper was quiet, and I was comfortable. It was nearly 7:15 before I dragged myself into the day. It was a day destined to be filled with a few chores and long periods of waiting. My list of chores grew as I considered the day over breakfast. Everything had to be spic and span for when Di got home. In addition to domestic chores, I also had a few items to pick up from Sainsbury's so that Zoe and Ellie had something for breakfast.

I cracked through the chores, vacuuming the carpets and stairs, cleaning the bathrooms and kitchen, completing my laundry, changing the cat litter and so forth. Once everything was done, I treated myself to an hour so walking the neighbourhood. I then settled down with lunch and my Kindle.

I started to get messages from the girls as they finished their packing and prepared to leave the resort in Zante. We were all looking forward to them arriving home. I tracked them as they took the coach to the airport, and Zoe told me once they had checked in for the flight and gone through security. I then tracked the flight as it left (32 minutes late) and headed to Gatwick.

After I had finished some dinner, I loaded a few bits in the car and made my way to Gatwick. I timed it perfectly. As I switched off the engine in the car park, I got a text from Zoe to say they had just touched down. In the end, they were only 3 minutes late arriving, so the pilot must have had his foot down to make up the time. I waited at the exit with a big sign saying "Welcome Home Ellie, Zoe and Diane". When they emerged from baggage reclaim, Ellie charged across the concourse to give me a big hug. They all looked really well and had clearly enjoyed their week. It was Zoe's birthday, and this seems to be a habit - her travelling home on her birthday,

The M23 was closed southbound, so we were diverted through Crawley and towards Horsham, where I picked up the A24. We had a pretty good run back. I dropped Zoe and Ellie at their house, then Di and I headed home. It was just before midnight when we got in. Jasper went into overdrive when he saw I had brought Di back with me. He was a happy cat again. 

Stories and Currys

Despite Jasper having a yowling session between 2:30 and 3:30 this morning, I felt as if I had slept well and was up and about soon after 6:30. The morning started with a shower, some coffee, and a review of the news, and then some porridge. I had my usual call with the cousins and we had a good turnout today. There was a lot of reminiscing and discussions about Margate and the environs. I listened, but could not contribute. 

After the call, I went round with the vacuum cleaner before heading off for a walk. I was out for just over an hour and got within a few minutes of the end of my latest audiobook. I left it playing when I got home so that I could hear the end and download another ready for my next walk.

After lunch, I went to read in the Orangery, but had to retire to the lounge as it was too hot in the Orangery. Over the next couple of hours, I finished the second book by Sato Ramu "The Grave in the Ice". Again, I thoroughly recommend it and can't wait for the 3rd book in the series (due later this year).

I had a Chef Akila curry for dinner tonight. It was Pepper Chicken and was very good. I tried her Chennai Biryani earlier in the week, but found that dry and bland.

Quiet Day

It has been a quiet day. I was up at 6:30 after a good night’s sleep. I let Jasper out and grabbed a coffee while reading the news. Jasper had settled on a chair in the garden and seemed to be in no hurry to move. I don’t like to leave him outside if I’m going out, so I had some breakfast and cleared away. He strolled in as I put the last bowl in the dishwasher. Now he was in, I could lock up and go for a morning walk.

I took my usual route, adding a couple of small variations. One of the “Marlow Murders” played away through my AirPods as I looped around the circuit a few times. It was bright, but the sun hadn’t broken through, though it did promise to be a nice day, and even this early, it was delightfully warm. I was out for just over an hour and treated myself to a nice coffee when I got home. The rest of the morning was consumed by minor domestic chores and some research in the study.

The afternoon was spent with my Kindle before I made up a batch of salad and ordered a large helping of cod from the local fish shop. With dinner over and the dishwasher running, I headed out for another walk. By now, the sky was cloudless, and it was delightfully warm. It was the perfect evening for a nice walk.

By the way, today is Trevor and Jane's Wedding Anniversary... congratulations and Happy Anniversary to you both.

Shop on Repeat

Once up and about, with my first coffee coursing through my veins, I headed out for a morning walk. It was slightly overcast, and there was a suggestion of light rain. Fortunately, the suggestion was ignored, and I enjoyed a very pleasant hour wandering around my usual circuit while listening to my AirPods. As I looped around for the third time, I saw Lottie walking towards me. She smiled and said, “Oh no, I was hoping nobody would see me, I haven’t got any makeup on”. I was tempted to say that she shouldn’t take the chance of scaring the neighbourhood children, but in the end just pointed out “Don’t worry, I haven’t got mine on, either”. She’s off on holiday tomorrow, so I wish her a good trip, and feel a slight concern for the people of Crete who have no idea what is about to hit them.

Having completed the weekly shopping list, I set out on the usual raid at Sainsbury’s. I must say the staff all seemed so relaxed and cheerful… whistling and singing as they went about their work. They certainly seemed very relaxed knowing Zoe was away on holiday!

The trip to Sainsbury’s turned out to be two trips. When I got home and started to unpack, I realised I had left the “bag of bags” hanging on the back of my trolley. I returned to the store and was delighted to find that a customer had handed the errant bag to customer services. Clutching the bag of bags, I returned home and finished unpacking.

With everything put away, I made some lunch and then spent some time looking at some code on the computer. In two minds whether to embark on another project, I decided to defer the decision. I returned to the Orangery and, after downloading a fistful of new books, had some Kindle time.

I’ve heard from the girls in Zante, and they have been sharing their photos. It is clear that they are having a lovely time, and the resort looks very nice. Ellie has been enjoying the Kids Club and the evening entertainment. and having some very late nights.

Getting Better

Things had improved after yesterday’s bad start. At least it was 5:30 am before Jasper started yowling, and I was able to ignore him until 6:30 when I leapt from the covers, let Jasper out, prepared his morning treat (laced with pharmaceuticals) and went back up for a shower.

I limited myself to a single coffee, in case the Skoda garage called, while I read the overnight news and the “socials”. Sure enough, the garage called at 8:30. The parts had arrived. I finished some breakfast, exchanged a few messages with the girls in Zante, and set off with the car. It was a lovely morning for walking, so I thoroughly enjoyed the walk back through Shripney and along the medieval highway to North Bersted.

I topped up on coffee when I got home and then set about some admin, and then did some laundry before hiding away in the study for the rest of the morning. I had completely restarted the rebuild of “falcon”. I decided that there was a much more logical way of doing it. This was proved right, and I now have a much cleaner process that is easily reproducible. I stopped for some lunch and then returned to the study. I decided it would be nice to have a checkpoint - and an image of the completed system, before I embark on anything else. I found a set of utilities on a Raspberry Pi blog. Reading up on them, it was clear that they are widely used. I installed them and a few minutes later had an image of the Pi nestling in my backups folder.

A message came through. The car was ready for collection. I grabbed my keys and my AirPods and set off back to the Skoda garage. In exchange for half the national debt, they returned my car keys and the car. I headed home and settled in the Orangery for some Kindle time.

Early evening chores are complete, and I’ve been outside watering the garden. I still need to prepare a shopping list for tomorrow.

Some Days

It’s one of those days when the people of this nation should be grateful that I am not a brain surgeon or depended upon for anything of great importance. It all started soon after 2 am when Jasper began his yowling. This continued every few minutes until I got up at 3 to feed him. I tried to settle back to sleep, but just as I was dropping off, he started again (this time to inform me that he had finished his meal). That was it; sleep evaded me for the rest of the night. 

As it happened, I had to be up early to take the car in for a service, which I had booked on 21st July. I arrived a little early and wandered around their car park until the doors opened and I could deposit my key in the key safe. I plugged my AirPods into my ears and set off home. I had only got about 200 yards away when my phone rang… it was the service centre. “We see you have just dropped off your keys, but the manager has informed us that your parts have not arrived”. I was not a happy bunny. I have been let down like this before, so I made a point of this when I made the original booking and was assured they would send a note to the parts department immediately. Well, that worked! Not,

I’m back home with the car. They claim they can do it tomorrow… but will phone me in the morning to confirm the parts have arrived. It took me a while to stop spitting blood!

After some belated breakfast (I had to write a complaint email first), I returned to my study for much of the morning. I have a voltage problem on one of the Raspberry Pis (Falcon), which I am in the process of rebuilding. I have ordered a new power supply, but until that arrives, I have been trying out various configuration options. I have also rewritten my configuration manager program. This allows me to reliably reconfigure any of the RPIs by rerunning a series of command scripts.

With that done, I decided it was time to enjoy the lovely sunshine and go out for a walk. I timed the walk perfectly, stopping for some of Di’s meds on the way back and arriving home with just 7 minutes to run on my audiobook. I listened to that while making lunch. I have downloaded another book ready for my next walk (hopefully back from the garage in the morning). This takes me up to my 90th book of the year.

It will come as no surprise that, after a bit more time on the computer, I went down to the Orangery with my Kindle.

Pining

 It is quite clear that I am not fully accepted as a cat sitter. Yesterday evening, Jasper leapt onto my lap while I was watching TV, but after about 15 minutes, he decided I was not suitable and took himself off somewhere. When it was time for bed, he rushed down for a few bites of his dinner, and then, when I got into bed, he sat at the end of the bed, sphinx-like, glaring at me until he concluded that Diane wasn't around, and took himself off. To be fair, though, I didn't hear a peep from him all night.

I had a gentle start to the day. After breakfast, I cleared space in the garage so that the heating engineer could perform our annual service without hindrance. I then emptied the cupboard in the utility room to give him access to the tanks. With that done, I returned to my study. I had thought of an approach to debug my outstanding issue on "barnowl"... and an hour or two later, I was delighted to walk away with everything working as it should. 

I still had time before the engineer was due, so I went out for my first walk in a few days. The weather looked threatening, and though it was windy, it was quite warm. I was out for my usual hour or so (listening to my audiobook). It was nice to stretch my legs. I timed it well, as the rain started just after I got home. I grabbed some lunch and then went back to the study. It was time to rebuild "falcon", which had been offline for a little while. I made a start on that, pausing when the heating engineer arrived. He wasn't here for too long and gave us a clean bill of health. 

I spent the rest of the afternoon in the Orangery with my Kindle. I've heard from Diane and from Zoe. They have also sent lots of pictures. It is clear that they have selected well, and they are having a lovely time. 

Diane even spent time in their private pool this afternoon.

Home Alone

 We were up early. Diane had to finish her packing and have breakfast before we left to collect Zoe and Ellie. The car was loaded, the girls were in a party mood and we made our way towards Gatwick with a running commentary from Ellie, only broken by the occasional pause for breath. Leaving home at 9:00 on a Sunday morning worked out well. The roads were very quiet and we pulled into the car park at South Terminal just after 10:00. I escorted the girls through too check-in and up to Security. We said our goodbyes, and they headed through to departures while I made my way back to the car and drove home.

I sorted Jasper out with his lunch and then grabbed a bite to eat before heading up to the study where I spent a couple of hours working on a problem I have been having on "barnowl"... after a couple of hours, I decided to sleep on it and grabbed my Kindle for some reading in the Orangery.

I have just finished a delicious yellow lentil Dahl for my dinner and watched the progress of the girls flight as it approached Zakynthos. They took off an hour late but managed to make up some of the lost time. They are down on the ground now and I suspect it will be at least another 90 minutes before they arrive at the hotel. Meanwhile, Jasper and I will have a boy's night in.

Preparation

 We were both up and about soon after 07:00. Di had things to do and things to prepare before her trip tomorrow. Thus, she spent much of the morning pottering. I had my usual call with the cousins. Much of the call was spent reminiscing about "the good old days" in Margate, where they were brought up. I listened to the tales, but not having any relevant background, didn't contribute. I was distracted during the call as I was trying out some software on one of the Raspberry Pis.

The experiment with the Pi did not go well. It partially worked, but not wholly. I have disabled it for now and may play again later next week.

We had some Kindle time after lunch, but as the afternoon wore on, Di started to collect her items for packing, and we both awaited Pete and Ellie. It was about 17:00 when he arrived, and Ellie burst into the house. I'm not sure who was more excited, her or us. It has been two weeks since she went away, and we have missed her dreadfully.

Di is finishing her packing as I write this. I'll be taking them all to the airport in the morning.

Improving

 Whatever knocked me for six yesterday seems to be abating. When I got up this morning, I was still feeling a bit foggy, but at least I wasn't dizzy. As the day wore on, my head cleared, and now, at dinner time, I feel back to normal.

I deliberately had another quiet day. I did the accounts, did some ironing, and dabbled on the computer. Again, I skipped any walks. Hopefully, I'll get back to that tomorrow.

The afternoon was spent in the Orangery, finishing another book. This is one that I thoroughly recommend, called "The Clues in the Fjord" by Satu Rämö. It takes place in Iceland and sucks you into the narrative very quickly.

There is little else to report, though we are expecting a delivery from Sainsbury's in the next 30 minutes.

Plans scrapped

 It is a bit fatuous to refer to our normal Thursday as being planned, but today we scrapped it. I had woken up early, as usual and went to get out of bed only to become immensely dizzy. Diane took charge, and I was told to lie down and stay put for a while. It was nearly 9 a.m. before I ventured out of bed with enough confidence to walk to the bathroom without holding the walls.

I ventured downstairs and sat quietly while Diane sorted out Jasper, cancelled Lottie, and checked the shopping list I had prepared yesterday. I decided we would get Sainsbury's to deliver and booked a slot for tomorrow. ~Diane popped out for a while to do some clothes shopping, and I tried to potter about the house. I certainly wasn't up to a proper walk.

After a lighter lunch than usual, I took my Kindle to the Orangery and settled down for a quiet afternoon. Upstairs, Diane was finishing off her latest sewing project. I was feeling a bit better and was able to move about with a lot more confidence. Mid-afternoon, the heavens opened and we had an hour or two of thunder, lightning, and torrential rain. It has certainly reduced the humidity.

I received a call from the Solicitor. Our new will has now been checked and filed and is now in force. The trusts that we have set up will take a little bit longer, but they will contact us when they are complete.

I am feeling a lot better now and have just cooked dinner, which we both enjoyed. In fact, Di asked if there was enough left over for tomorrow.

Well, that was a totally unexpected day. Very lazy, but hopefully restorative.

Consultation

It was promising a nice day. The sun was bright, and it was already warm when I got up. It had been a disturbed night thanks to a solid bout of hay fever hitting me at about 10 p.m. last night, and Jasper deciding to practice some of his football chants at 4 a.m. 

After breakfast, Diane drove across to Angmering for her Pilates session. I stayed put and returned to a coding puzzle I struggled with yesterday. I have a line of code that should delete a file... but doesn't. I circumvented the issue with an alternative command, but it bugged me. I opened up a discussion on the forum for the users of the language, and whilst I received lots of suggestions, nobody has got to the bottom of the problem. I can't believe I have found a bug in the language, but maybe I have. The discussion has gone ominously quiet.    

I set off on a walk. This one had to include the village as I needed to collect Diane's meds on the way through. As usual, I was out for an hour or so and got home in time to do some more debugging before grabbing lunch and settling down with my book. (Diane was home by this point and also settled down in the Orangery.)

The doorbell rang. It was Mark from DPD delivering my latest order of curries. This time, I ordered from "Chef Akila" so I could compare them with the last order. They are all tucked away in the freezer for now, but I look forward to trying them.

Playtime

The day started much as usual. Some light rain was forecast for the morning, but it didn't start until I was eating my porridge. I had no firm plans for the day, but Diane was going out with her friend Kathie. As Di set off for West Dean (where they were meeting), I headed for the study.

I had a couple of minor projects in mind. The most important, but the quickest, was to amend the program template from which I start all new programs. I have recently observed a condition that introduces an error into the code being developed. It only took about 10 minutes to change, test, and file the changes. This took me on to my second project, which I seeded from this new template. This was a routine that would run daily to clear out any accumulation of log files that were over a certain age. It is too easy for these files to build up and slowly choke the disk. By lunchtime, the code was written and tested, and the program was installed and scheduled to run just before midnight daily.

This seemed like a good time to go for a walk. The rain had stopped, and the pavements had dried up. I set off for a slightly modified route around the estate. As I walked, my audiobook chattered away in my ears. As usual, I was out for just over an hour and then headed back to grab some lunch and settle down with my Kindle. I only read for about an hour as I had the urge to play some more. I returned to the study and reviewed the way in which my external drives are mounted on the iMac. With a little research, I found a mechanism that was not dissimilar to the approach I had adopted on the Raspberry Pi's. This looks most satisfactory and seems to have worked consistently each time I rebooted the iMac. (The old method always seemed to miss one or two drives, and I had to handle them manually.)

Di got back from her day out soon after 17:00, and we have just finished dinner (pork loin steaks, since you asked).

What was once Found, then lost, is found

It was another lovely start to the day. I must say this has been a wonderful spring and summer so far. After the usual start to the day, I headed for my study. One of the automatic services that I had set up on "barnowl" had not triggered overnight. I had to get to the bottom of it, and so I spent an hour or so fiddling with the code and the commands until I found the error. Heaving a sigh of relief, I backed everything up, and returned to the family room.

Diane was keen to ensure that she had all of the correct cables, batteries, plugs, and adapters to maintain her electronics while away next week. We laid out the devices, and I selected all of the correct cables for each. I then showed her the plug adapters and how to charge the battery packs. It was while I was selecting all of the cables and adapters that I found my stabiliser/gimbal for taking video with the iPhone. I heaved another sigh of relief as this had been bugging me for a while now.

With Diane's pre-holiday admin complete, I set off for a walk. With my Jonathan Kellerman book chatting away in my ears, I walked the streets for an hour or so. Back home, I grabbed some lunch and then settled down in the Orangery with my Kindle, soon to be joined by Diane. My phone rang. It was my old school friend, Michael. He was following up on a message he sent me yesterday regarding how to set up a free email account for the management committee for his block of flats. We chatted for a while, and I sent him a link to the Microsoft site where you can sign up for a free Outlook email address. I'm sure he will manage to do this, but if not, I have agreed to talk to him through it.

Rain

After a lie-in until 07:15, I started the day with the caffeine jolt from a good coffee. As I settled down to read the news I was surprised the hear Diane moving about and she was soon downstairs clutching the hinge cup of tea I had prepared.

The weather forecast predicted rain. Pah! What did they know? Because of the forecast I decided to forego a morning walk and settled down in the study to rework my Raspberry Pi 4B (barnowl). That was it. That took all of the morning and the first part of the afternoon. It is now up to date and runs a lot faster than before. It will manage my backup regime, but may be pressed into action for other small projects.

After a bite of lunch, I spent an hour or so in the Orangery with my Kindle. Diane was still in her sewing room trying to complete her latest project.

We’ve just finished dinner (lamb shanks, since you asked) and we have still not seen a drop of rain. 

Surprise

 I was up at my usual time this morning and sat quietly over a cup of coffee while I read the news. Once Di had come down, I went for my shower, then came down to grab breakfast, which I enjoyed while on the weekly Zoom call with the cousins. The call seemed a little restrained this week; there was plenty of chat, but we didn't go off piste into flights of fancy like we sometimes do.

When I returned from my Zoom call, I was surprised to see that it had been raining and was still looking quite threatening. I would have to find an indoor project until it dried up. I returned to my video editing for an hour or so. I have now started on the material for 2022.

Once everything had dried up, I headed out for my walk. It was still looking a bit threatening, so I didn't stray too far, just looping round the estate a few times. My latest "Alex Delaware" novel by Jonathan Kellerman was playing in my ear as I walked. By the time I arrived home, the sky was looking ominous, so Diane brought in the washing. Despite her caution, there was no rain, but it's good to be sure.

I munched through a couple of small wraps for lunch and then settled with my Kindle (Diane was in her sewing room working on another project). Late in the afternoon, I returned to the study and started looking at the best approach for updating "barnowl", one of my Raspberry Pis. This will be a small side project to keep me amused.

Just hanging on the telephone

 I was concerned. My phone was working for inbound and outbound calls across the mobile network. Diane has an identical setup on her phone and could not make or receive calls. This had been going on since late afternoon yesterday. Reading the morning news, I discovered that chunks of EE, Vodafone, and Three had been having significant problems. Could this be the reason? If so, why was my phone working? I decided to leave it for a few hours and then try again, and if it didn't work, try some serious debugging.

I got on with normal admin, went for a walk, grabbed some lunch, edited some more videos from 2021, and read for a bit. I then returned to the phone.

I switched it off and on, and then went through every suggestion that AI could provide me. Nada. By 18:15, I had taken both phones to the study to call EE. I was on hold for 90 minutes before finally being put through to a nice chap in South Wales. We then spent the next 90 minutes going through every setting on the phone (again), resetting the network, then EE reset something at their end (twice), and we were escalated to a level 2 tech. The level 2 tech hadn't got a clue and said it was probably related to the network outage, and we would just have to be patient, and it should start working. Not very consoling!

In case it was not going to burst back into life, I started to review options for a new phone (in case it was a problem with the phone). Realising I still had time to pick a new phone from John Lewis in Chichester, or Apple in Brighton, before Di heads off to Greece, I decided to hang fire for a day or two.

Same old, same old

 Today followed a fairly typical pattern for a Thursday. The shopping list was crafted, and we made our way to Sainsbury's. Our raid on the store was delayed by meeting up with Chris and Maureen, and Zoe. Nevertheless, the bags were loaded, the bill paid, and the car's boot filled. We even crossed the road for a side raid on M&S.

When we arrived home, Lottie was beavering away cleaning downstairs. We stowed the shopping and both headed upstairs to get out of he way. I started on the selection of some media for another video. This one would document our holiday in Exmouth back in 2021.

I managed some Kindle time after lunch, while Diane returned to her sewing project. I headed out for a walk mid-afternoon and finished my latest audiobook as I looped through the village to collect some of Di's meds.

That's about it for today.

Theatre

I'm not a person who generally likes to go to the theatre. Diane, however, saw that "A Man for All Seasons" was having a short run in Brighton, and we decided to get tickets. Today was the day.

We chatted over breakfast and decided to take the train rather than fight with the traffic on the way to and from Brighton, and try to find a car park once there. We set off mid-morning, parked at Bognor Regis station, bought (First Class, offpeak) return tickets and settled on the train. The journey was comfortable and trouble-free, and 54 minutes after leaving Bognor, we were in Brighton. 

It was just after midday as we strolled down from the station towards the seafront. Our plan was to find somewhere to get lunch before heading to the theatre. I remembered a restaurant I had used several years back when meeting up with old college friends, but I had no idea whether it was still there. We were lucky, it was! The restaurant was called Fogo de Chão, and is a Brazilian Steakhouse. We settled down at our table and I chose the Grill while Diane went for the Salad - both are effectively bottomless in that you can keep refilling as often as you wish. Di loaded up with various salad and pasta portions while I waited for the chap to come around with the huge meat skewers from which he dispensed grilled pork and chorizo-like sausages. I had been handed a card to keep by me... as long as it was green-side up, they would provide more grilled meat, but when I turned it red-side up, they stopped. After the pork came beef rump slices, after that came beef in garlic, then chicken (plain or spiced), by the time they brought lamb, I was done, and the red side was showing. It was a super lunch.

We walked back towards the theatre, but were still a bit early for the performance, so we took a stroll through the North Lanes. As usual, they were heaving with visitors as people marvelled at the eclectic mix of shops.

We timed it to perfection, arriving back at the theatre just as the doors opened to the auditorium. We had super seats in Row L and a perfect view of the stage. Slowly, the auditorium filled as we approached kick-off.

Thomas More was played by Martin Shaw, and Gary Wilmot played numerous roles as servant, boatman, juror, gaoler, and executioner (ooh, did I give too much away?). The play was superb and illustrated the struggles that More had with his conscience and his strength of morality. It also showed the perfidy of Cromwell and the moral turpitude of Henry VIII. I could not help but draw comparisons with President Trump and his seedy cult of sycophants. After the intermission, we were treated to some ad-libbing from Gary Wilmot as a torrential thunderstorm added to the brooding background. The whole play was superb and I am convinced it will do well when it hits the West End... even if the moral stance of Thomas More will be completely lost on many modern audiences.

As the play finished, Di took one last gulp from her water bottle, missed her mouth and managed to fill her lap. Her white and pale blue trousers were not an ideal camouflage for such an incident. Her cardigan and long shoulder bag were strategically placed as we made our way out. We headed back up to the station and were delighted to see our train was due in just a few minutes. Again, we sat in First Class, which was quiet and comfortable, though the rest of the carriage was heaving. We were back in Bognor about 50 minutes later. We certainly couldn't have done that in the car!

It had been a brilliant day.

Sticky

 I was up soon after 06:30.  There was no imperative beyond bladder pressure that forced me into action, but it was no problem. Diane got up soon after. Clearly, it was an early start for both of us.

During the morning, I spent time editing a new family video. This was a record of our anniversary break to ~Sidmouth in 2020. It took a while to get right, but I'm happy with the outcome. I then headed out for a walk. The forecast suggested rain, so I stayed fairly close to home so that I could divert back if the heavens opened. I was out for about an hour and didn't feel a single drop of rain.

The afternoon was again spent at the computer. This time, I was working on a video recounting our trip to Carlyon Bay back in 2021. It took a while to construct, but I think the finished article is fine. (As an aside, I still haven't found the stabiliser/gimbal, but I continue to look as I remember different locations where I may have stashed it).    

Di took Jasper to the vet this afternoon. The vet was very happy with him and thinks the current food/medication regimen is working.

I cooked a large joint of pork for Sunday lunch this week. Half was left, unsliced. I decided I would cut it into cubes, coat it in a fine batter, and fry it. Then I would coat it in a sticky sauce which I had prepared from honey, brown sugar, soy sauce, tomato ketchup and various spices. I would allow the sauce to reduce down and become sticky. Well, sometimes a little experimentation works out. This was absolutely magnificent, and I certainly will make it again.

What Was Once Found, Is Now Lost

 We had a suitably gentle start to the day. After a long breakfast, we started on the chores for the day. Di did some laundry, and I finished up the review of some legal documents. I then updated the accounts before I could switch over to some more entertaining tasks.

I spent a while trying to replicate the old title template for my videos. Over several hours, I managed to get something close to what I wanted, but it wasn't identical. I still have a few ideas to try, but they can wait for another day.

Late morning, I went out for a walk, stopping to post the legal documents as I went through the village. It was very warm and humid, so I felt a little uncomfortable by the time I got back.

The afternoon was spent classifying several years of photos into distinct albums that will be the source for forthcoming video projects. As I wandered through the media library, I saw a number of videos I had recorded using my DJI stabiliser/gimbal. That got me thinking... I really must use that again and try to get more confident with it. I went to the corner where I kept it. It wasn't there. It must be in the study; in fact, I could picture it on one of the shelves. I went straight to it and opened the pouch. It wasn't there - it was a set of headphones. I'm stumped. I have no idea where it might be hiding. This will haunt me until it reappears.

Video killed the editing star

 I was up at my usual time... i.e. around 7-ish. There was no necessity; I was just awake, and my brain was beginning to fire on all cylinders. There had been rain overnight, but it was drying up by the time I came down.

After lots of coffee and plenty of porridge, I decided that a walk was in order. I set off to loop around the estate a few times. It was breezy, but the temperature was very pleasant. When I got home, Diane was seconded in her sewing room, and I headed for my study. I wanted to get back to the editing of old video clips and try to keep a "brand image".  After several hours, I gave up on the brand image and got on with the basic editing. It was frustrating, but I managed to create a short video about a trip to Winkworth Arboretum in 2020. This has taken most of the day, so there has been no Kindle time.

Zoe popped I while I was preparing dinner. She wanted me to check that she completed all of the prerequisites for the upcoming holiday to Zante (with diane and Ellie). With all of that sorted, she went away happy.

Damp Squib

Not that I'm complaining, but the a weather alert for thunder. lightning, and torrential rains turned out to be a bit of a damp squib. Though we had some heavy rain overnight and into the early part of the morning, we didn't get any "fireworks". This was a good thing as we were expecting Jan and John and they had deferred their decision until the morning in case of any flooding.

Rain or no rain, I still had my morning Zoom call with the cousins. The attendees list was a little sparse this morning, but we still had a good chat. It would appear that though we didn't get too much rain, Maggie did over in Margate. Her water storage in the garden went from empty to 630 litres overnight. She was delighted as they had a hosepipe ban in the area.

When the call was over, I returned to the refresher exercise I had started on video editing. Bizarrely, the basic edit process for the media is not the problem. It is the consistency "branding" of the videos that I'm trying to achieve (which I had clearly managed the last time I did some editing). I didn't get very far before Jan and John arrived. We sat down for some coffee and biscuits, and an initial catch-up on health and family news.

I had booked a table at "The Ship Inn" at Itchenor. Itchenor is on the eastern side of Chichester Harbour, just north of West Wittering. Though it isn't far, as the crow flies (7 miles), we didn't have a crow and so we took the car (12 miles). Itchenor is an affluent and picturesque village of some 500 souls. It is quiet, scenic, and quintessentially English. The Ship Inn is on the main road that leads down to the small harbour.

We took our seats in the pub and selected from the menu. There wasn't an extensive choice, but we all found something to our liking. Diane had scampi and chips (the first time she had had scampi for years), and I had cod and chips. The portions were huge and extremely hot and crispy. We all ate well, and the bill was extremely reasonable. It wasn't exactly fine dining, but it was more than adequate. 

We left the pub and strolled down to the harbour where we could gaze across the water to Bosham Hoe (though we couldn't see as far as the picture-perfect Bosham Quay).

The tide was out, and the view towards Chichester was a forest of sailing boat masts. Maybe the dire warnings about the weather kept many of the weekend sailors at home.

After strolling about, we headed back home and settled down with some tea and desserts. While they were here, we got Jan and John to witness our signatures on our Wills so I can now get them sent off for finalisation.

John was tiring, so they left us just after 16:00.  We cleared away and grabbed our Kindles, retiring to the Orangery for the rest of the afternoon and evening.

End of Times

 Today was the last day of term for Ellie. Zoe had the day off, so I wandered around to join the walk to school. All of the children were clutching presents for the teachers, and the parents were looking on in trepidation, realising they had the kids to themselves for the next 6 weeks or so! As Zoe headed home, I set off on my walk. I didn't go as far as usual, having realised after one lap that I needed to stop at the loo.

Back home, Diane and I grabbed breakfast before heading off to Sainsbury's for the weekly shopping raid. The car park was busy. This did not bode well. We were right to be concerned as the shop was very busy with customers wandering aimlessly into the aisle and then dumping their trolleys where they could cause optimum chaos while they wandered about searching for some item or other. I almost prefer the Thursday zombies.

Once home and unpacked, we set out on a joint mission. Diane had asked Lottie to do a different batch of cleaning yesterday, so today Diane vacuumed the hard floors, and I followed behind to wash them. 

After lunch, we had some Kindle time until the clock ticked around to the end of the school day. Diane went to collect Ellie and take her straight home so that she would be ready to be picked up by Pete. She'll be with him for the next 2 weeks, the second of which will be down in Somerset.

I need to process a batch of family videos. The problem I face is remembering how I did the last set. If possible, I would like to keep the style consistent... but did I use Da Vinci, iMovie, or bits of both? I fear I have a little bit of experimentation ahead of me before I get started.

Success

I was up early to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. She was already washed, dressed, had her hair done, and had eaten breakfast. All we had to do was provide sanctuary until it was time for school. I made her some tagliatelle with sliced hot dog sausages for her packed lunch, and Di prepared the other snacks and nibbles. We walked her to school at the allotted time, and Di went back for breakfast while I went out for my walk. 

Di had an appointment at the hairdresser's. She drove off just before Lottie arrived to do some cleaning. I hid myself in the study and continued playing with the new Raspberry Pi. ChatGPT and I have struck up an easy friendship, and it saved me so much time by telling me what I should do, rather than me researching and trying it by trial and error. Today, I managed to set up a Dynamic DNS service through "duckdns.org" so that I could configure remote access to the Jellyfin media server. The idea was to set up secure remote access using HTTPS to the Jellyfin server using DuckDNS and Let’s Encrypt, with a reverse proxy via Caddy. This took me a while as I needed to configure each component, but I managed to get it working and even tested it from the school gates when I went to collect Ellie. I'm feeling rather smug.

After some lunch, we retired to the Orangery for Kindle time, but after a few chapters, I went back to the study. Di read for a while, then had a rest, so I left her to it when I collected Ellie. Ellie wasn't with us for long as Zoe had finished work soon after 15:00 and came to collect her.

I feel the need to do some programming. I just need to come up with a project!

At Play

Jasper had his howling session just before 04:00. He only quietened down when I went downstairs to open his feeder. I crawled out of bed to start the day properly just before 07:00. Zoe had a 9 am start, so there was no hurry to get going. I wandered around to join the walk to school, and we dropped Ellie off at the classroom. I went off for my usual morning walk. 

After breakfast, I headed for my study. Diane was going out for lunch with her Pilates crew, so the morning was spent getting ready. I spent time with the computers. The first task was to complete the automation of the NAS device mounts. Then, I decided that I wanted to clone the microSD Card from which the Pi was installed. The first attempt appeared to work, but wouldn't boot. I resorted to the approach I had taken in the past, and while slow, this worked. I then decided to use the same approach to clone onto a 500GB SSD drive that I have spare. Much to my amazement, this worked the first time. I now have the new Pi (eagleowl) running from that.

(Just as an aside, I was using ChatGPT to help me, and while some things didn't go to plan, I updated the AI bot with the errors I had found and the circumventions I had applied.)

The last part of today's installation was "jellyfish", which is a media server. I have that working in single-user mode from my browser. I must explore further as I get the opportunity.

There was no need to collect Ellie from school today. She was going straight out on a playdate, down to the beach with her friend Jaxson. She would be dropped home at Zoe's when they return.

Taking turns

After the dreadful night's sleep I had on Sunday night, it was Diane's turn last night. She was still reading her Kindle late at 1 a.m. and was again disturbed by another bout of Jasper's howling in the early hours. I got up at 06:30 to greet Ellie when she was dropped off. I told her that Nana was still asleep, so she remained downstairs and sat quietly while I made her breakfast. Di did come down a while later, but I told her not to worry about joining me for the school drop-off, as I would do that.

It poured with rain as we prepared to walk to school, but we didn't get too wet. I decided that any walk could wait until later, and went straight home for breakfast.

The first order of business for the rest of the day was the renewal of our travel insurance. This involves ticking the "Over 70" box for each of us and going through the medical declaration for Diane. Knowing how pernickety insurers can be, I decided I should check the answers I gave last year (after all, I knew I had them in an email attachment). Whoa there! Not so fast, compadre. The file was encrypted, and I could neither remember nor find the password. This meant a phone call to Allianz. They were very helpful, and after all the security checks re-sent the password. All was well, and the policy has been renewed for another year.

The rest of the morning was spent trying different approaches to accessing my NAS drives from the new Raspberry Pi. Some worked, some didn't, but I eventually came up with a strategy that I thought would work. Rather than fiddling about, I explained the strategy to ChatGPT and asked it for its analysis. It responded: 

"You’re implementing a reliable, resilient, and non-blocking mount mechanism that avoids the risks of /etc/fstab + hardcoded credentials.

Your thinking is sound, and your design is both safe and flexible."

Well, that'll do for me. I have nearly finished the changes and tested what I have done so far. I should be able to finish this in the morning.

I did manage to get out for a walk at lunchtime, looping through the village so that I could collect Di's meds on the way round.

I collected Ellie from school and helped her carry all of her classwork and books home (as the term ends this week). She wasn't with us for more than a few minutes before Zoe turned up to collect her.

Admin

We had left some windows ajar overnight. This was all very fine, but as the wind picked up, the draft started to move the blackout blinds in the back of the house. Every time they moved, they tapped against the window, and every time they tapped against the window, it disturbed me. So it was that from 01:10 this morning onwards, all I could manage was fitful dozing. This was exacerbated when Jasper went into a full-blown howling session, which only quietened down when I went to the kitchen and opened his breakfast.  It was almost a relief when I finally got up at 07:10.

Zoe had a 9 o'clock start, so I was in no particular hurry. I wandered around the corner in time to join them for the walk to school. After Ellie disappeared into class, I headed off for my usual walk. I returned about an hour later and grabbed some breakfast before settling down with the accounts. In addition to the usual ins and outs, I had to deal with the transactions I processed over the weekend for the ISAs. This took a while to document.

With the household accounts complete, I discussed the ISAs with Diane. As she set about a pile of ironing,  I grabbed her MacBook and set up a Trading212 account for her. Then I opened a Cash ISA and set up a seed deposit to get things started. We will probably move some more of her savings to top this up over the next few days.

DHL arrived with my new Raspberry Pi Model 500. The device is embedded in its own keyboard, and is really quite neat.

After lunch, I connected the device to a screen, the WiFi, an Ethernet cable, and a power supply and started the initial installation. The process has improved in leaps and bounds. There are some simple choices offered, and before you know it, the system is restarted and you have a working Pi.

I have a fair bit of configuration to do in order to have the system how I like it. Then I can try installing the new media server... but more about that in the coming days.

Drip, drip

We had another gentle start to the day. I was drinking my coffee and reading the news before 07:30, and Diane came down about 30 minutes later. It looked as if we were in for another cracking day. There wasn't a cloud in the sky, and there was no appreciable breeze. Living as close to the sea as we do, we could at least rely on the onshore breeze to keep us cool.

During the morning, I updated my accounts spreadsheet to accommodate the new Cash ISA that I opened yesterday. I also adjusted the budget for the remainder of the year to feature regular deposits into the ISA.

By lunchtime, I was ready for a walk, despite the heat. I plugged the AirPods into my ears and set off around the estate before diverting, like yesterday, to Shripney and back. I finished my AudioBook and regretted that it was the last in the Dr Richard Pryor series from Bernard Knight. They were excellent books. I pressed a couple of prompts on the iPhone and started a new book. It is the latest from Michael Connelly and features a new central character called Stilwell. I must say that the book has started well. As I was approaching home, at the end of my walk, I could see the Red Arrows doing their display over Goodwood. It was fun to watch them as I ploughed on towards home.

After some lunch, I had planned to settle in the Orangery for some reading. Diane, however, was still pottering in the gardens and wanted some help with the hose (how far would it stretch around to the front? I dragged it through and could see that with an extra 8m it would cover the whole front garden. I spent some quality time with the nice man from Amazon and ordered an extension, then ordered a heavy-duty hose connector. I was about to head for the Orangery, but Di wanted me to research domestic (drip feed) irrigation systems. I spent some quality time with my AI friend, ChatGPT, and got some recommendations for suppliers and also some hints about layouts. I will have to return to this in the next day or so.

Kim and Jon (and the dogs) have gone away for a week's holiday.  They are staying near Bicester at an Alpaca farm. I hope they have a wonderful week.

Investments

 We had a gentle start to the day. I had my usual call with the cousins, which was a little less boisterous than usual. The highlight of the call was Sam, who, inspired by Maggie, had invested in a slimline water butt for her garden. It was only when it arrived that it occurred to her that she didn't have any downpipes from the gutter because she is in a mid-terraced house. Doh!  

After the call, I went out in the garden and cleaned the rill. A great deal of blanket weed had formed, but as the rill was nearly dry, it was moderately easy to scoop much of it off the cobbles. I then refilled the rill and started the pump using a fine filter to catch the water as it fed back into the rill. This proved very successful. 

With the rill clear, I went up to the study to review my existing documentation on the Raspberry Pis. I updated both of the key documents in preparation for the new build next week. I also allocated an IP address and a hostname, "eagleowl", for the new device. There is nothing else I can do until everything is delivered.

I went out for a walk and tramped around the estate before diverting up Berry Lane and onto North Bersted Street, where I turned east and made my way across to Shripney and back. It was a good choice of route because so much was shaded by the trees. 

Di had spent the morning pottering in the garden, but by mid-afternoon we had settled down in the sunshine with our Kindles. My brain was wandering, and eventually I had to give up the book and look at my Stocks & Shares ISA. I reviewed the current investments and made a few more over the next hour. The trades won't happen until Monday, but I think they are good long-term investments.

Crazy again

With Ellie staying overnight, there was no need to get up too early. In fact, I had to wake her to have breakfast and get ready for school. Zoe, who had a late finish at work yesterday, came around just in time to do Ellie's hair and walk with us to school. She then went home to get ready for another late shift, and I set off on my customary walk.

Once home, I grabbed some breakfast, and Diane settled down for a long phone call with Pauline. I retired to the study to look into an alternative to the Plex media server I currently use. I'm not totally happy with it, nor the level of control it gives me over remote clients. With the help of ChatGPT, I eliminated Kodi as an alternative but concluded that JellyFin looked like a very good solution. I thought about my current configuration and decided to leave it alone. I would order a new Raspberry Pi and install that as my new media server. A new Pi was selected, and the order was placed. I have to wait until next week before I can do anything further.

Zoe had called me during the morning. She had set up a new account for Ellie's funds. I suggested that she should exploit it and set up a regular transfer into some form of savings that would earn interest. I spent some time looking for the best options, but most were only available for children from 11 years old upwards. I phoned Trevor and asked for his thoughts. As it happened, he was planning to do some financial planning this afternoon and said that he would investigate and get back to me.

After lunch, it was too hot to sit in the Orangery and read, so we settled in the lounge, which had remained nice and cool. The Kindles kept us quiet until it was time to collect Ellie. Ellie came home with us and, after a drink and a snack, headed out to play with her friends. She was back just in time for dinner.

After dinner, we all headed down to the seafront. We started with another game of crazy golf. With Nana playing along with us, it was great fun, particularly when she got a hole-in-one. After the golf, we strolled out onto the pier to look down on the families enjoying the evening sun. The tide was way out, and there was barely a ripple on the surface.

We then strolled along the promenade and stopped for a doughnut (for Ellie) and, after fending off the seagulls, moved on to the play park.

I dropped Nana and Ellie at Zoe's so that Ellie could get ready for bed and Nana would wait for Zoe, due home in about 30 minutes.

Date Night

Zoe had a late start, so there was no need to get up early. After some coffee and porridge, I wandered around the corner and joined Zoe and Ellie on the walk to school. 

There was no walk after the school run. I had to get back to take Di to the railway station. She was catching the 09:26 train to Victoria, where she would meet up with Jane and Trevor. I dropped off some bags of clothes at the charity shop on the way home, then completed the week's shopping list. I headed off to Sainsbury's (I was allowed to shop on my own, with no female supervision) and loaded the trolley in record time. When I got home, Lottie was there, so we ended up chatting while she finished cleaning and I unpacked the shopping. With the accompanying chat, it took nearly an hour to get everything stowed away.

Meanwhile, up in town, Di was enjoying lunch at Côte Brasserie near Covent Garden before going to the Aldwych Theatre to see "Tina: The Musical"  (the musical story of Tina Turner). They had chosen to go to the matinee so that Di could get a sensible train back home.

I grabbed some lunch and settled down for 30 minutes with the Kindle before going out for a walk. I had timed the walk so that I would arrive back at the school gates just in time to collect Ellie from school. It was hot (about 28C), but it was a pleasant walk.

Ellie was my date for the evening, with Nana being away. We had a quiet hour or so, then Ellie went to get changed and do her hair. We were going out to dinner, just Ellie and Grandpa. We drove to a well-known South African/Portuguese restaurant - Nando's, where I escorted my date into the establishment and requested their finest table. We sat and discussed their menu and selected the dishes we would have them prepare for us, while we sipped from their best vintage Sprite. We had a delightful hour or so before heading home.

While Nana was making her way back from London (we were keeping a close eye on the train's progress), Ellie went to wash and get ready for bed. Then we settled down and (at her request) she did some reading to me, then we practised her times tables, which she seems to have mastered now. Just before 20:00, we drove to the station to collect Nana. She had clearly had a wonderful time but had trouble getting a word in edgeways as Ellie bombarded her with her general news of the day.

Ellie is staying with us overnight and has finally settled down. We will have a quiet hour in front of the TV before going up.

Barely Awake

I was up early for Ellie's drop-off. They crashed through the door at 6:35, and Ellie was barely conscious. She went straight to the lounge and snuggled down in Nana's recliner. After a few minutes, I cajoled her sufficiently that she could speak, and she made her way upstairs to Nana. The usual ritual was followed and, at the allotted time, we all walked to the school. Ellie was wide awake by this point and exhibiting her usual joie de vivre.

Diane headed home, and I set out on my morning walk. My audiobook, set in the mid-1950s, brought back lots of memories - though I was a toddler, I remember the cars, the lack of telephones, and the absence of TVs (in most homes). It is a book that, in addition to an excellent storyline, provides nostalgia in spades. Just as I was approaching home, I saw Diane driving off to her Pilates class. I had a quiet breakfast by myself and then went to see Chris. He had popped in yesterday to ask if I could help him download some software for his new car. I can understand why he wanted help. It wasn't that the process was difficult - it was the fact that the website was dreadful. Once we had found the right instructions for the right Entertainment System, the download process only took a few seconds. I left him clutching the USB stick with the software as he headed for the car, and I made my way home.

I spent some more time this morning editing the cruise itinerary that I had started yesterday. I wanted to add some photos to illustrate the ports of call and the excursion we had selected. Finding free, non-copyrighted photos was a bit of a faff, but I'm pleased with the results.   

Di arrived home as I was finishing my lunch. We spent the afternoon in the Orangery, though I left her to rest while I went to collect Ellie from school and take her to the park.

Itinerary

We had another gentle start to the day as Zoe had a day off. I wandered around to join them for the walk to school. Ellie seemed very subdued this morning, but that could be because she had a late night - in fact, I had had to go around to calm her down as she was somewhat volatile at bedtime.

Leaving Ellie in class, I set off for my customary walk. It was a gorgeous morning with a pleasant breeze to keep the temperature very comfortable. Back home, with breakfast finished and cleared away, I went to my study. We had been discussing aspects of our forthcoming cruise and, whilst I had lots of notes on the itinerary and excursions, they were scattered across different entries in Apple Notes. I decided that I could consolidate them into a Word document. (Di prefers to read paper rather than notes on the iPhone or iPad). It took me the rest of the morning to complete the task, but we now have a comprehensive document for reference.

The afternoon saw quality time with our Kindles until school pickup. Di went along to meet with Zoe, and they collected Ellie, stopping off back here on the way home. 

We are back to early starts for the rest of the week.

A Degree of Normality

 Zoe had a 9 a.m. start today, so that meant that we didn't have to be up for a drop-off. I had a leisurely start and after a couple of coffees and a wander through the news, I walked around to Zoe's and joined the walk to school. We had a lot of rain overnight, and it was still spitting as we arrived at the school gates. Possibly because of the weather, all of the classrooms were already open, so Ellie could go straight in. She was greeted with great enthusiasm by her class teacher after her week away.

Despite the threat of further rain, I set off for my morning walk. The rain never amounted to anything, so I was delighted to get home without getting wet. Diane was due to meet a friend in Rustington for coffee and a chat, so she left soon after I got in. I finished my breakfast and did some work on the accounts before heading out to the village for a haircut and another walk.

I was reading my Kindle by the time Diane got home for her lunch. We had a quiet 30 minutes before going to collect Ellie from school. She came back with us for a snack and then went out to play for a while (tracked by her watch). Zoe collected her at 17:30.

All in all, it was a day that had returned to a degree of normality after last week.

Pressing Matters

  We both had a very leisurely start to the day as we drank our teas and coffee and munched through toast and porridge while reading the news and social media. We had a lot of rain overnight, and though it was dry after breakfast, the forecast suggested more rain was imminent. I abandoned my plan for an immediate walk. 

There was a pile of laundry sitting quietly in the corner. Nicely ironed clothes are important, I decided that I should deal with these pressing matters (did you see what I did there?) and set up the ironing board and fired up some chillout music while ploughing into the waiting pile.

A couple of hours later, the pile had dwindled to just a few items that Di wanted to deal with. This seemed like an excuse to get my walking shoes on and head out for an hour or so of plodding around the estate. It was very humid, but nice to get out, get some exercise, and listen to more of my audiobook. There's only about an hour left now and I can feel it coming to a crescendo.

Once home, I grabbed some lunch and settled down with my Kindle. Di was about to join me when the phone rang and Zoe started to chat. After a while, I took her a "medicinal" drink and I started preparing dinner.

Pete dropped Ellie off just before 17:00 and Zoe collected her soon after. We now have a quiet evening planned.

Shuffle

 We were both awake early. I went down to make coffee and bring a tea back up for Diane. It was a gentle start to the day. I joined the Zoom call with my cousins at 09:00, and we had our usual 40 minutes of banter and news.

My plan had been to go for a walk before the forecast rain set in. As I was finishing another coffee while updating the accounts, I got a call from upstairs, "Can you spare me 10 minutes?". And so it started.

Diane had been pondering the layout of her sewing room and the inconveniences of shifting her various sewing machines around as she moved from one to another. Was there a better layout for the room? Could we swap the positions of the two cabinets in such a way that the sewing machines can remain poised and ready at all times? We hummed and hawed and wandered back and forth with the tape measure. A plan was hatched. I'm not convinced that it was the best plan, but it was Di's plan and therefore worth trying. The next hour was spent clearing space and shifting cabinets before double-checking the cable runs for power to the machines.  With the shifting complete, I returned downstairs while Diane spent the rest of the day "sorting things out".

During the afternoon, I finished another book before starting another.

Dinner on Saturday evening is traditionally salmon, chips and peas for Diane and curry for me. I usually work my way through batches of curry that I have made up. Tonight was a bit different. There are several Indian/Bangladeshi chefs who advertise their curries online and send them out in frozen packs. I ordered a mini curry box from "Aktar at Home". This comprised 1 chicken, 1 beef, 1 lamb curry, and 1 vegetarian curry, along with some naans and pilau rice. Tonight I tried the chicken "bhuna" with a naan and must say that it was delicious. I look forward to trying the other curries over the next few weeks.

Alarmed

 I had forgotten that Ellie was being dropped off early this morning. I hadn't set an alarm... it was ~Ellie trying to open the front door just after 6:30 that woke me and had me flashing around like a headless chicken. We had a cuddle (to settle me down, more than her), and then she went up to see Nana. As she wasn't going to school, we could dispense with the usual rituals and just get ready when we felt like it.

At 10:00, I took Ellie to Bognor Regis and we had a couple of hours of fun ahead. We did start, however, with a walk to the station to get a ticket for Diane's trip to London next Thursday (she's meeting Jane and Trevor to go and see Tina Turner, The Musical). From there, we headed down to the beach and the small playground. She made her way straight to the zip line and then the swings. We listened out for her classmates, but had to conclude they were at the far eastern end of the beach near the Lobster Pot, as we couldn't hear certain noisy friends.

We left the playground and walked along to the pier, and strolled out over the sea. The tide was out, and the waves were almost non-existent. The water was crystal clear (and quite inviting). We chatted as we wandered about and had great fun.

Leaving the pier, we crossed the road and went to the crazy golf. We paid our green fees, accepted our clubs, and chose the coloured balls. Ellie kept score on the scorecard. I started with a hole-in-one, followed by a couple of twos. That was when she started to click.

By the end of the 18 holes, she wiped the floor with me and got her name on the "Best Score of the Day" board.  We also got featured in a photo on Facebook from the Crazy Golf. 

We left the golf and headed along to Sweet Flamingo, the ice cream parlour at Place St Maur. Ellie selected a waffle cone with bubble gum ice cream and marshmallows. The ice cream was so big that she couldn't finish it.

We wandered back through the shopping arcade to the high street, where she raided Claire's Accessories and then New Look. She was delighted with her purchases and ready to head back to see Nana. We walked back to the car and whizzed home.

After some lunch, Nana took Ellie up for a shower and hair wash, ready for the weekend, and when they came back down, they baked a cake which came out of the oven just as Pete arrived to collect Ellie for the weekend.

That's Better

 Zoe called while we were eating breakfast. Ellie had slept really well and had woken up feeling a great deal better. Her temperature is back down to normal, and she was beginning to feel stir-crazy. She still wouldn't be going to school today, but maybe she could go along on the outing to the beach tomorrow... if Grandpa can go along to keep an eye on her. (I said I would be happy to go along).

We went to Sainsbury's for our weekly raid. We were surprised that, as we walked in, Kim was waiting by the entrance. She was killing some time while the A/C in her car was being re-gassed. She wandered around the store with us, chatting as we went and helping with the trolley. It was a nice surprise and made a change from the usual Zombies who wander around the store on a Thursday morning.

We dropped some shopping off for Zoe before going home to unload and grab some lunch. We then took our Kindles into the Orangery for the afternoon.

Mid-afternoon, Zoe and Ellie turned up. Ellie was upset. They had heard from the school, and the school said that they didn't feel comfortable with Ellie joining the trip tomorrow as she had been unwell, and they were likely to be out in the sun all day, and, if last year is anything to go by, will probably walk about 22,000 steps. I gave Ellie a cuddle and promised that I would take her down to the beach tomorrow and we would have our own outing.

Not there yet

We had another very disturbed night with Ellie. I was, again, relegated to the back bedroom so that she could sleep with Nana. I wouldn't mind if the mattress were a bit firmer, but with my weight, it seems very soft, and I wake up with a back ache. 

We had had some rain overnight, and it continued through the morning until nearly 11:00. I was up at my usual time, and Diane came down some 90 minutes later. Ellie didn't emerge until well after 10:00. I spent some time doing more research into her paternal ancestors and found a few more G-grandparents. This particular branch of the family was geographically static in a small cluster of Wiltshire villages for many generations. It does make research so much easier. This afternoon, I printed out a pedigree chart stretching back 13 generations on my A3 printer. I still had to splice the 7 separate sheets together, but it might just fit on Ellie's bedroom wall (if not, Zoe will have to get a bigger house).

Ellie was a lot better today, but still not ready for school. We did convince her to do some maths practice online today so that her teacher would see she hasn't been idle. Hopefully, she'll be all right for Friday (when her class has an outing to the beach).

At lunchtime, I went for a walk. I had a birthday card to post and some of Di's meds to collect. It gave me an opportunity to catch up on the audiobook that I had been listening to... and to finally get some exercise after the last few blistering days.

Ellie is back with Zoe overnight... so I should get a chance to sleep in my own bed (fingers crossed).

Slight Improvement

 Ellie had a very bad night again. She insisted on sleeping with Nana, so I was relegated to Ellie's room. I could hear her fidgeting and muttering in her sleep. She was also coughing and waking herself up. Diane, in full nurse mode, coped with it all and provided both comfort and medication as it was required. It was 10:00 this morning before Ellie emerged, but she seemed a bit brighter and had some bounce in her step.

I was up soon after 07:15 and had a coffee while reading the paper and waiting for the sounds of activity from upstairs. Di came down soon after 08:00, and we sat quietly with our morning reading until I had to sneak upstairs and get washed and dressed. I was due at the dentist, and it would be frowned upon if I arrived in my PJs.

I checked with the online app, and it seemed that the buses were running late. I decided to take the car and whizzed through to Chichester in no time. The dentist (as always) was about 10 minutes late in calling me through. She gave me a good once-over and declared all was fine. The next appointment is scheduled for 6 months.

Ellie was playing quietly (though she did rope Nana in for a game of chess!), and I spent some time finishing my latest book. Zoe arrived and collected Ellie, though she will be back again to sleep here overnight.