Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Monday, November 17, 2014
Deskbound
The Silver Vixen had a visit from Handy Mandy so the Gorse Fox made himself scarce and spent much of the day in the study. This gave him a chance to do some scanning of a batch of old photos, some recent mail, and some insurance certificates. The Gorse Fox has, as explained before, adopted a paperless approach to admin. Everything is scanned, filed, backed up, then the original is shredded. There is no longer any paper filing. This is proving very successful and does make it very easy to find documents.
Sunday, November 16, 2014
In memory
It is just over a year since we said good bye to the Silver Vixen's mum. Today, we had the opportunity to get together as a family and plant a tree in the churchyard of Buckingham Parish Church in memory of her. It was cearly an emotional moment for some, but for others it was a time to remember with fun and fondness.
Affter the tree planting we all met up for a meal at a local restaurant, to chat, to plann, and to look forward.
A nice day.
It was also the first opportunity to take the Silver Vixen's new car for a run. It was very comfortable, and cruised effortlessly. for such a big vehicle the Gorse Fox was pleased to see a return of nearly 57mpg.
Saturday, November 15, 2014
Mulling it over
It has been a quiet day. Most of the morning was spent going through and updating the financial spreadsheets - the Money Dashboard software has been upgraded to allow a download of the historical transactions (which it always used to do, but this feature was lost in a recent update).
The Silver Vixen needed a birthday card for a friend so we headed to Chi. John Lewis was heaving, but we persevered. (John Lewis was obviouslyunder stress as the lights failed a couple of times while we were there). Silver Vixen found a suitable card and then we wandered through the store. The Gorse Fox was wondering what could be used to serve mulled wine at the forthcoming carol service. In the end we discounted stock pots, punch bowls, slow cookers and heavens knows what else. We plumped fo a bucket-like jam pot. We still have to find some suitable glasses, but at leas we have a receptacle in which to prepare and heat the wine, and from which we can serve it.
Friday, November 14, 2014
Just Stuff
Nothing too earth-shattering today. The Gorse Fox started with a Skype session with a couple of ex-colleagues discussing a work opportunity. GF was glad to see the broadband was up to the challenge and the Skype session was very stable. He's not tempted to do any customer-facing work, but he might help them out with some back-room stuff and some designs.
After that, much of the day was spent dealing with a slight back-log of admin, scanning, filing, and shredding. GF also managed to work out and test the "send to car" feature of the SV's new car. This allowed him to send locations to the car's satnav from the PC. Neat feature.
Talking of locations, GF has also managed to get the street where he lives onto Google Maps... and get them to correct the error in the mapping of the access road. Very impressed by the speed at which they responded.
After that, much of the day was spent dealing with a slight back-log of admin, scanning, filing, and shredding. GF also managed to work out and test the "send to car" feature of the SV's new car. This allowed him to send locations to the car's satnav from the PC. Neat feature.
Talking of locations, GF has also managed to get the street where he lives onto Google Maps... and get them to correct the error in the mapping of the access road. Very impressed by the speed at which they responded.
Thursday, November 13, 2014
More Little Victories
The Gorse Fox got call from BT. It was his exec helper. We discussed the service provision and all of the bits that had now been put right. GF was satisfied for the call to be closed off. The exec contact said that she had calculated the disruption to service from the day we moved in right up to yesterday and GF was due a rebate. GF told her to leave it as a credit on his account.
Another smug little chuckle as another victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat... and effectively he has several months of free BT service as the credit gets consumed.
Another smug little chuckle as another victory was snatched from the jaws of defeat... and effectively he has several months of free BT service as the credit gets consumed.
Stitch up - foiled
The Gorse Fox, obviously, had to sort out insurance for the Silver Vixen's new car. As his own insurance was about to renew it made sense to try and look at both vehicles together. He phoned his insurance company and got a quote for the SV's broomstick. He was not impressed and told them he thought the quote to be high and shouldn't they try and do better. They were not interested... and were going to charge him for amending the policy.
He phoned the insurance division of his bank (a perk of his account, and a department within the same insurance company he had just be speaking with). He asked for a quote. They offered to pay any exit fees from the existing policy and managed to come up with a quotation that was less for both cars than the original quote for just one. Deal done.
GF phoned the original insurer back and told them to cancel both existing policies. The agent asked why and when GF told him of the the price difference he offered to try and beat it. Too late, explained the GF - you should have done that to start with, and not tried to stitch up a loyal, long term customer. He said he understood but said that a cancellation fee was due. GF told him that was fine because the other department of his company was going to pay it.
GF allowed himself a smug little chuckle as he put the phone down.
He phoned the insurance division of his bank (a perk of his account, and a department within the same insurance company he had just be speaking with). He asked for a quote. They offered to pay any exit fees from the existing policy and managed to come up with a quotation that was less for both cars than the original quote for just one. Deal done.
GF phoned the original insurer back and told them to cancel both existing policies. The agent asked why and when GF told him of the the price difference he offered to try and beat it. Too late, explained the GF - you should have done that to start with, and not tried to stitch up a loyal, long term customer. He said he understood but said that a cancellation fee was due. GF told him that was fine because the other department of his company was going to pay it.
GF allowed himself a smug little chuckle as he put the phone down.
Wednesday, November 12, 2014
Shiny
The weather had not been clement. Though dry, the ground was slipy and mushy. Too slippy and mushy to safely play football (without studs). As a result we just played some simple drills and then proactised shooting - or in the Gorse Fox's case saving. The Gorse Fox volunteered to go in goal and let all of the other take shots. Out of the 35 shots taken he only conceded 2 goals... though many were off target (so they weren't all saves).
After a quick shower we had to head back out. The Silver Vixen's new car was ready to be picked up. As usual this process took longer than expected - but she was confident enough to drive away immediately. Heading straight to Chi, we had a wander round Lidl (a first for us) - and managed to pick up some lobster. Then, stopping at John Lewis, we picked up the new TV and then headed home.
Tuesday, November 11, 2014
Playing
The Gorse Fox has been playing with the TV we installed in the family room last month (or was it the month before). It has a number of "smart" features which required exploration (an should be available on the new TV we collect tomorrow).
This morning GF has managed to find out how to link the TV with our network storage and thus was able to play music from our library, watch our old family videos, and display photos. What became clear immediately, was the excellent quality and clarity of video that we had taken on the little FlipCam in the past few years. Now, GF knows he has the FlipCam somewhere... but cannot remember where he has hidden it. He must keep an eye open for it.
Talking of video - we are also able to screen-cast from the iPhones. This lead to the embarrassing realisation that the video footage that the Silver Vixen had taken on her iPhone showing her brother and the Gorse Fox playing walking football could be seen on the screen. It is clear there is no hiding.
This morning GF has managed to find out how to link the TV with our network storage and thus was able to play music from our library, watch our old family videos, and display photos. What became clear immediately, was the excellent quality and clarity of video that we had taken on the little FlipCam in the past few years. Now, GF knows he has the FlipCam somewhere... but cannot remember where he has hidden it. He must keep an eye open for it.
Talking of video - we are also able to screen-cast from the iPhones. This lead to the embarrassing realisation that the video footage that the Silver Vixen had taken on her iPhone showing her brother and the Gorse Fox playing walking football could be seen on the screen. It is clear there is no hiding.
Monday, November 10, 2014
Bugs
Well there has obviously been a spate of failed TVs. When the Gorse Fox arrived at John Lewis's at 9:30 this morning there was already a cluster of people seeking to purchase new TVs. Indeed when GF asked if there were any in stock or when they could be delivered the chappie said there were none in stock and there were over 1000 of this model waiting to be delivered to customers... GF would have to wait 2 weeks. The Gorse Fox then asked about their click and collect service. Using that he can collect it on Wednesday. The deal was done.
After lunch the BT Openreach engineer arrived. A little bit of testing and re-wiring later and the broadband speed had increased by another 3-400Kbps. The problem he had was that his tests were indicating another fault on the line. With the faceplate on the master socket there was a fault, with the faceplate off, the fault disappeared. Different faceplates were tried and the results were consistent. In the end we decided the fault was probably with the automated test equipment because all of the local equipment showed up as clean.
Needless to say, the line-speed seems to have dropped slightly since he left. But we'll see how things progress.
After lunch the BT Openreach engineer arrived. A little bit of testing and re-wiring later and the broadband speed had increased by another 3-400Kbps. The problem he had was that his tests were indicating another fault on the line. With the faceplate on the master socket there was a fault, with the faceplate off, the fault disappeared. Different faceplates were tried and the results were consistent. In the end we decided the fault was probably with the automated test equipment because all of the local equipment showed up as clean.
Needless to say, the line-speed seems to have dropped slightly since he left. But we'll see how things progress.
Sunday, November 09, 2014
Blast
Well, at least it's not Christmas. As a rule, when a TV fails for the Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen, it is Christmas time. This afternoon the Gorse Fox went to turn on the TV, but depite all he tried it would not spring into life.
Looks like the Gorse Fox has to go out and get a new TV tomorrow.
Convert
The Silver Vixen's brother stayed overnight, and this morning joined the Gorse Fox for a session ow walking football. He did very well and proved to be a good member of the team. We managed a 5-a-side session this week and the Gorse Fox's team won 8-7 which include a couple of goals from Gorse Fox.
Despite wearing the Gorse Fox's trainers - several sizes too big - Silver Vixen's brother is hooked and has already committed to get some trainers to bring with him on his next visit.
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