Ssshhh

 Urban-Cub worked her first night-shift last night. Fortunately, it's the only one this week. She snuck in the front door soon after seven this morning and took herself straight to bed. Ellie had woken at six, but after a a spoonful of medicine (she has a bit of a cold) she settled back down until eight. The trick was going to be keeping her quiet so that Urban-Cub could sleep. Bizarrely, this worked well until mid-morning when she waltzed into Urban-Cub's bedroom and had a complete meltdown when she realised the mummy was home already.

It took some while to calm her down, but eventually she was back on an even keel and we took her back out to the West Park that we had visited yesterday.

Again she made her way round the various rides. Today she used the swing, as opposed to just pushing it with her imaginary friend. She was also intrigued by the slide, but couldn't get over her risk aversion for climbing the scrambling nets to get to the top. (One feels that a traditional ladder would not have gone amiss). 

There were quite a few children about, but it wasn't busy. She declared that she was going to the zip-wire so we trudged off behind her. Yesterday, Grandpa had to show her that it was safe, but could not cajole her onto it. Today, she decided she was willing to risk her cuddly bunny. So it was that she raced back and forth, holding bunny on the seat as it rushed along the wire.

We received a text message. Urban-Cub was awake. We gave it another 30 minutes then took Ellie back home. Urban-Cub and Ellie have now gone off to spend the afternoon with Cousteau-Cub.

Fun in the Sun

It was another lovely day. The Gorse Fox was up early - a couple of hours before anyone else in the house. When they finally emerged he went up to wash and dress and then went straight to the garden to taken the bins out. It was a good job he did. The bin men had already been, but were only a few houses away so actually came back for our bins (which was very kind of them).

Being Thursday we had the usual delivery of shopping from Ocado and the Gorse Fox did the accounts. Urban-Cub took Ellie out for a quick trip round Sainsbury's while the Silver Vixen got through a prodigious amount of washing.

By lunchtime, Urban-Cub had to go back to bed. She is on night duty tonight and needed some rest before setting off. We had promised to take Ellie out so she had some peace.

We loaded up the car and returned to West Park (where we went on Sunday). We spent a lovely couple of hours there, keeping a close eye on Ellie as she went from one ride or slide to another. There were a few people around but most seemed to be grandparents like us, with their charges, or a few young mums. After a while, we left the playground and took Ellie into Marine Gardens to see the fountain and have a stroll around.

Route critic

 It was a lovely warm day. Urban-Cub had left home very early to get to work and Silver Vixen and the Gorse Fox were on duty. Ellie was as good as gold and was soon washed, dressed, and had finished breakfast. The Silver Vixen had Pilates this morning so she took Ellie to child-minder, on the way.

The Gorse Fox had a quiet hour at home. The first task was to install Ellie's car-seat in the Fiesta. He would, after all, have to collect her later.

Being Wednesday, and back to a normal(-ish) schedule, the Gorse Fox headed across to Worthing for football. We had a good game, which was tightly fought. The Gorse Fox's Cornithian spirit got in the way. We now play a 3-touch game; i.e. you can only have three touches of the ball. Any additional touch concedes a free kick. Twenty-five minutes into the game with the score at 0-0,  the Gorse Fox intercepted a ball then as he moved it about he realised he had touched it 4 times. He shouted at the ref, and admitted the infraction. Everyone on the Gorse Fox's team stopped. The other team didn't and ran on through and scored. We waited at the spot for the free-kick to be awarded, but the ref said he had played "advantage"/ We were 1-0 down. The second half became a torrid defence of the goal-line. In the end we conceded twice more, but only pulled one back.

The Gorse Fox had a quiet afternoon with some code and also booking in for an "Experience Day". He is now scheduled to visit the Top Gear test track in October and drive a couple of Aston Martins. The Silver Vixen, meanwhile, was having afternoon tea with Cousteau-Cub at a rather nice restaurant in Bosham.

When the alarm went off, he headed to LA to collect Ellie. She was excited because it was the first time she will have travelled in Grandpa's "little car". On the wa back we chatted until we got close to home. At this point the Gorse Fox uses the Nort Bersted by-pass, whereas Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen tend to stick on the side roads.

"Where are we going?" called the voice from the back. 

The Gorse Fox explained that he uses this route. 

"Well," came the voice, "the girls go the other way." he was informed. 

The Gorse Fox explained that he preferred to use the bypass. There was a long pause.

"Well, I'm not sure I'm happy about this." said Ellie, bring the conversation to a close.

Hot

 It was positively hot today. This was fine for the Silver Vixen who was having picnic with a friend, but it was a bit hot for the Gorse Fox playing football.

Football was fun. We were split into 4 teams and played the usual round-robin. The Gorse Fox was playing for the white-tops and, as usual, tucked himself into the centre back position. On paper, our team looked average, but once we started to play we actually did quite well. We won the first game 2-1, drew the second game 0-0, and won the last game 1-0. Fitness still eludes the Gorse Fox but he has another game tomorrow and hopes it is inching its way back.

This afternoon was meant to start with a quick bit of photo filing. That went well, but the Gorse Fox thought he'd just run a cross-reference on the filer program. His xref program failed. He has managed to find another (really obscure) bug. That has taken most of the afternoon to track down... but so far he hasn't got to grips with it. That'll have to wait until later in the week.

Late afternoon, he got the the dinner under way as the Silver Vixen arrived back. Once everything was on the hob he then had to head out to LA to collect Ellie from the child-minder. Fortunately, the traffic was a lot less troublesome than yesterday.  

Taxi!

 Urban-Cub was back at work this morning. This meant that she snuck out of the house just after 04:30. G-Force were left in charge. Though Ellie woke soon after six, she amused herself in her room until nearly seven. She was no trouble, and was soon washed, dressed, and fed, leaving her time to play before the Gorse Fox taxi took her off to the child-minder.

Once back home and properly caffeinated, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox headed into Chichester. It was only a short trip to pick up some bits from M&S, but in the end the Gorse Fox came home empty-handed.

Overnight we had received the quote for the replacement of our deck. The Gorse Fox went through the details and decided it was a perfectly reasonable quote (i.e. it was less than he had expected). He wrote an acceptance letter and, as the company is based just round the corner, he dropped it off through their letter-box. (They said that in terms of when the work is scheduled, it is a case of first come first served, so the Gorse Fox decided that speed was the essence).

A chunk of the afternoon has been spent cooking, but once everything was underway the Silver Vixen started on the week's shopping list, and the Gorse Fox's taxi headed off to collect Ellie. She had obviously had a busy day and despite the Gorse Fox's best efforts, she fell asleep on the way home. This can often mean a grumpy half-hour when we arrive, but we were lucky today.

West of the Pier

 The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had decided to go for a walk down by the beach, but for a change, we would park near Aldwick and walk back towards the pier. Well, that was the plan. As it happened, Urban-cub's car was on the drive and blocking our car. This should be a perfectly manageable situation if, of course, she has left he car keys. She hadn't. Both set of keys were with her at Cousteau-cub's. A quick exchange of messages and Cousteau-cub leapt into action and drove Urban-cub home (with the keys).

We arrived at the beach and went to look at the West Fields play area (with a view to finding activities for Ellie). It looked really rather good. We then turned and walked down through the lovely Marine Gardens. Though the Gorse Fox is sure we have driven past them many times, this was the first time we had actually been in to have a look. They were really quite charming.

Carrying onwards we headed about one and a half kilometres to the far side of the pier. That east end of the Esplanade, however, was really quite busy so we decided to turn about and head back along the western promenade. We stopped for a while to watch them reeling in a rib at the Yacht Club. The winch cable ran from the club, under the promenade, and under the yacht ramp right down to the tide line.

Moving on, we looped back into the Marine Gardens (taking another route through them). After about 90 minutes we arrived baved back at the car and pottered home.

Quiet

Saturday has been a remarkably quiet day. We all had a bit of a lie-in (well, it’s not as if we have school or work today!)

Urban-Cub had to take Ellie to Pistol Pete, but had promised to take her for a ride on the narrow gauge train in a local park first. They got there to find that the train had been booked for a private party and wasn’t available until 11:15. This left Ellie in tears, so Urban-Cub called Pistol Pete and agreed to deliver her a bit later so that they could hang around and ride the train.

The Gorse Fox spent some time on one of his coding projects while all this was going on. Then the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent the afternoon in the Orangery reading until Cousteau-Cub arrived for a chat and to collect Urban-Cub who would be staying with her overnight. (The Coventry Hobbit has spent the day in London, meeting up with a bunch of fellow reprobates from Thailand).

Fish and Chips

 What a lovely afternoon and evening. The Gorse Fox's little sister and b-i-l came to visit after a day at Portsmouth Naval Dockyard. They had enjoyed their trip and had a chance to see the new aircraft carrier Prince Of Wales (though not tour it).

We had a lovely few hours of chat and catching up culminating in a gourmet spread from the local fish and chip shop. (Who says we don't push the boat out?)

Fixed

The chappies turned up this morning to reattach the errant trim above our window. At last.

Spick and span

 Thursday has been fairly uneventful. We were a little slow off the mark this morning and before we knew what was happening Ocado were at the door with this week's delivery. It was interesting chatting to the driver. He explained that when Ocado was first set up they approached M&S for a partnership, but Stuart Rose (the chairman of M&S at the time) wasn't convinced it would catch on. Ocado then went to Waitrose and struck a mutually beneficial deal. Now that deal has expired the, Stuart Rose happens to be in the Ocado Boardroom, and surprise surprise they have just switched allegiance to M&S.

Urban-Cub and Ellie went out for much of the day, leaving the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox to their own devices. The Gorse Fox returned to his code.

At lunchtime a nice chap called Dave turned up (as arranged) to clean our ovens. What a job he did. He was with us for a good three hours or so. The oven was all but dismantled and various bits dropped into a degreasing tank while he concentrated on the oven and oven doors. He was absolutely meticulous and we had an interesting ongoing conversation throughout. We would certainly use him again.

The Silver Vixen had a new stool delivered. This will go into our bedroom. The box, in which it arrived, was sturdy and warranted saving for Urban-Cub when she eventually moves. Well, we say Urban-Cub, but young Ellie found it to be an ideal plaything.

Celebrations

 Wednesday has been a good day all round.

Urban-Cub took Ellie to child-minder in LA. The Silver Vixen went to Pilates in Angmering, and the Gorse Fox had football in Worthing. The only problem was that we were informed of a delivery that was scheduled while we were out. Fortunately, Lady Penelope was in and happy to receive it. We left a note on the door for the delivery man, redirecting him.

Football was a little sparse with 6-v-5, but again we had an official ref from the Leisure Centre, and this made the came much better. It just stopped any random interpretations of the rules and provided some consistency. This was the Gorse Fox's third game back and, at last, he was beginning to get his passes on target, and also managed several accurate shots on goal (one of which went in). In the end we ran out 6-2 winners, so the Gorse Fox was very satisfied.

Arriving home the Gorse Fox picked up the delivery from Lady Penelope. It turned out that the notice on the door had worked as there were 4 deliveries all together. The most important one was the birthday present for the Coventry Hobbit.

Urban-Cub had been on a conference call with work. For the past few weeks she has been concerned (stressed) regarding the impending redundancies at Gatwick. It is clear that, as a result of the call, she is a lot happier about the situation and, whilst there are not guarantees, she feels relatively confident about the long-term.

As it was the Coventry Hobbit's birthday we had to celebrate. We all went into Chichester for dinner at Pizza Express. Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit pulled into the car park behind us and we strolled across to the restaurant. 

Ellie was wedged between Urban-Cub and Cousteau-Cub but was very well behaved as we enjoyed a lovely meal. It was so nice to have the whole family together.

Service

 Another prompt start today. Again, Ellie was due to be at the child-minder so Urban-Cub had to get her up and going. Once Urban-Cub had left the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox did the "car dance", whereby the Silver Vixen's car is shifted off the drive to allow the Gorse Fox to get to his car. The first activity was to remove all of the plastic bags from the boot. Perhaps the Gorse Fox should explain. Each week the Ocado delivery comes in a series of plastic bags. In the time "BC" we were charged for these, but reimbursed for every bag we returned the following week. During the pandemic Ocado stopped the bag collection and suggested we store them for when they restart. We have some six months of bags compressed into bundles and stored in the boot of the Fiesta.

After a really hard year, where the Fiesta has clocked up nearly 750 miles, it was time to get it serviced and get a DVLA MOT. The Gorse Fox whizzed the car into Chichester and eventually found somewhere to park it at the dealership. Waving a cheery goodbye he left them to it and strolled back to the bus station to get the bus home.

Back home, The Gorse Fox spent some quality time developing some new code. He has two versions (based on yesterday's conundrum) a Plan A version, and a Plan B version. Both versions now work perfectly - but there's still some documentation to complete.

Mid afternoon, the Gorse Fox headed back to the bus stop. Getting into Chichester a bit earlier than planned he leapt off the bus early so he would have a longer walk to the dealership. As he got within 100 yards of the garage, his phone rang. It was the service manager phoning to confirm the car was ready. Timed to perfection.

Needless to say, the car passed its MOT. The frustrating part was that this was a scheduled major service. So despite it being the scheduled 75,000 mile service, the car has only done 15,000 miles in 6 years and only 750 of those were this past year. Despite that it still managed to drain £460 from the bank account. (They were very expensive those 750 miles!)

Ratchet

 Everyone was up early. Today was Ellie's first day back with the child-minder. Urban-Cub had to get her across to LA for just after 09:00 and by the time she has faffed about over breakfast, and faffed about over clothes selection, and faffed about over getting washed, plenty of time needs to be allowed. It all got done, and all of a sudden the house was quiet.

The Gorse Fox spent the morning on several chores. The most time-consuming was steam-cleaning the floors throughout downstairs. Once that was done, he had to return to the cupboard that houses the tumble dryer. A strap that secures the aforementioned appliance on top of the washing machine was not on tightly enough. The result was that when the spin cycle started the ratchet on the strap would;d bang incessantly against the side of the appliance. Everything had to be stripped out again before the Gorse Fox could adjust the ratchet and tighten everything within an inch of its life!

It's the Coventry Hobbit's birthday this week. After discussions with Cousteau-Cub, we have come up with a suitable present so the Gorse Fox spent some quality time with Mr Amazon selecting the correct item an getting it ordered. The rest of the afternoon has been spent doing some coding. It started as an ostensibly simple update to an existing program. It turned out, however, to be a bit of a head-scratcher as test runs gave different results despite there being no code changes. The Gorse Fox has a Plan B (of course) but would really like Plan A to work.

Not every day

 It was a bright and sunny start to the day. It was also quiet and leisurely.

With breakfast and the morning papers finished (well the digital versions, thereof), the Gorse Fox had to take Urban-Cub into Chichester to collect her car from Cousteau-Cub's where she spent yesterday evening. 

Dropping her off, the Gorse Fox popped on through to Sainsbury's for a few bits and pieces (most important of which was eggs). Leaving the store, clutching the various purchases the Gorse Fox was amused by the sight of a real classic in the car park. You certainly don't see one of these Singers every day, month, or even year (unless, of course, you happen to own one). The Gorse Fox looked around to see if Poirot or someone was collecting his shopping, but no such luck.

Back home the Silver Vixen had moved the cleaning operation to the Orangery. The Gorse Fox offered to lend a hand, but ended up getting the dinner prepared and set on the delay-timer. He also took the opportunity to make some more changes to the childcare spreadsheet (as request by Urban-Cub). He suspects it now covers all foreseeable eventualities.

Spring Cleaning

 Ok, we got the season confused. It's autumn (or will be in 16 days). The Silver Vixen woke up and decided that today would be the day to give the kitchen a deep clean. It's a shame because the weather was glorious and the Gorse Fox was going to suggest a long walk along the promenade and lunch at The Lobster Pot. Oh Well.

The Silver Vixen got started while the Gorse Fox filed some old photos and sorted out the facial recognition on some recent ones. Some suggested names seemed even more bizarre than usual, but he finally sorted it out. (Trevor, if you are reading this, it suggested that you were Ellie... and Jane, it suggested you were Claire Badeski).

Back in the kitchen, the Gorse Fox got involved and helped with the deep clean. It amazes him how greasy the tops of cupboards can become - particularly when we don't really fry or cook in much oil.

Urban-cub has been working on the child-care spreadsheet this afternoon. With Ellie due to return to the child-minder on Monday and Urban-cub due to return to work the following Monday we are now trying to get everything sorted.

Tumbling dice

We concluded yesterday, that the tumble drier was dead. If it hadn't been strapped to the top of the washing machine, it would have been pushing up daisies. It is no more. It has done well, though, being some 20 years old. A saunter though the online aisles of John Lewis revealed all of the latest and greatest possible replacements. After a brief bit of research and seeing the feedback, we decided on a Samsung that matches our washing machine. Money exchanged hands electronically and disposal of the old appliance and delivery of the new one was set up.

We paid a bit extra to have the new tumble drier delivered today (rather than wait until the middle of next week). An email came through first thing to give us a two-hour time slot. This gave the Gorse Fox plenty of time to strip the cupboard out of the utility  recess, vacuum, and sanitise the area. Then Two Hats came round to lend a hand moving the old tumble drier out of the way. 

While the area was clear the Gorse Fox took the opportunity to check the pressurisation of the sealed heating units and topped them up. (He can only really reach the controls while everything is out of the way).

The chappies turned up in the allotted time slot. The old machine was removed and the new one was manhandled into place. It is clearly a lot heavier than the old one. With a wave they left... and Ellie stood by the door waving back. The new drier was indeed heavy. The Gorse Fox had to level it up and that meant adjusting the feet, but to do that he had to lever the whole machine up to take the weight off the adjustable feet. Eventually, it was done and everything put back in place. Let's now hope that we're happy with it.

Urban-Cub still needed to rest, and the Silver Vixen was attacking some ironing. 

The Gorse Fox offered to take Ellie to the park. She's beginning to get picky and tried to dictate which park we would visit. The Gorse Fox had other ideas. If it wasn't in walking distance, we weren't going. In the end he proved more stubborn than she was and we headed off. 

As usual, Ellie, managed to make friends with another girl (who seemed about 7-8 years old), and played with her and her dolls on the various swings, slides, and roundabouts. This interrupted the lecture that the Gorse Fox was giving her on the subject of momentum and friction and Newton's Laws. The Gorse Fox is not sure how much she took in, but he'll be asking questions later.

Eventually, with the clouds beginning to look a bit threatening, we headed home.

Urban-Cub has just taken Ellie to spend the weekend with Pistol Pete. There's a lot of excitement brewing as she is back with the child-minder on Monday.

Out and about

 The day started with a trip to Chichester. Urban-Cub had an appointment at the hospital and the Gorse Fox took her along. It's clear that people are getting back to work. The traffic queues on the way into Chichester were almost back to the BC(*) levels. We got there in plenty of time though.

While the Gorse Fox was sitting in the car park waiting for Urban-Cub to emerge, the phone rang. It was the Estate Agent who handled the marketing of Foxearth. "Hello, is that the Gorse Fox? This is Sharon from Sellem and Run in East Preston. We see that you were a client, do you still live in Foxearth?". Clearly, their finger is on the pulse of the local property market. The Gorse Fox explained that a) we moved from there in 2013, b) they failed to sell it twice for us, and c) the property has been completely rebuilt and renamed. There was a pause. "Ah, ok. We'll take you off our list, shall we?" The Gorse Fox confirmed that would be a good idea and hung up.

Back home, Urban-Cub needed some rest so after things had settled and Ellie was starting to get boisterous, the Gorse Fox took her down to the play-park. She insisted on wearing her new Minnie Mouse Backpack (even though grandpa ended up carrying it - at least he had dispensed with the hair band by then).

The play ground was quite busy, but she played on the swing, the slide and the roundabout. Her main interest today seemed to be pushing an empty swing, rather than sitting on it. The Gorse Fox started to wonder if it was an opportunity to start explaining angular momentum, but she didn't seemed interested. It obviously tired her out because grandpa had to carry her back on his shoulders when she had finished playing.

This afternoon the Silver Vixen needed to collect a prescription but the Gorse Fox volunteered to walk round to the pharmacy in order to get some exercise. It's only a couple of kilometres each way, but it's a fairly pleasant walk.

(*)BC - Before Coronavirus 

Never too sure

The thing about having a three year old granddaughter living with you is that you can never really be sure when you might need to wear a hairband, as the Gorse Fox has discovered this morning.

For the record, it's blue and has a bow.

Elf 'n' Safety

 The Gorse Fox could not play football today. The troubleshooter from our builders was coming to fix the decorative panel back on the house. We'll get back to that!

The Silver Vixen had her usual Zoom Pilates (though this is the last week it is being provided as they are returning to bum-to-face meeting next week. Urban-Cub and Ellie went off down to the seafront and then met up with the Coventry Hobbit for some lunch and shopping.

Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox waited in for the builder. He was scheduled to arrive at 11:00. The Gorse Fox was loathe to get stuck into anything major so spent the time reading until he arrived. In the end the Gorse Fox had to phone head office. He was some two hours late. 

Eventually he turned up. He took one look at the problem and uttered the immortal words "I'm not doing that." He sucked on his teeth. "Heath and Safety would have my guts" he went on, "I'm not putting myself out any more for that bunch. Sorry". He then agreed that the work would require scaffolding or a cherry picker, and he would inform the head office and send photos. The Gorse Fox is now awaiting their response.

Back in the swing

 A good day. Whatever the Gorse Fox was suffering from seems to have lifted and he was raring to go this morning. The Silver Vixen was planning to meet up with a friend at West Dean Gardens, Urban-Cub was planning to take Ellie to Hotham Park, and the Gorse Fox was heading out to football.

At 09:15 we did the car dance. Urban-Cub moved her car, the Silver Vixen moved her car and the Gorse Fox went into the garage to move his. He was, after all, meant to be the first one out. The trouble was that when he turned the key, nothing happened. He gave it a moment and tried again. A slight groan, then Nada. He gave it another moment or two and tried a third time. The little engine burst into life. Whew! The Gorse Fox made sure that when he was driving across to Worthing, he was using as few electrical gadgets on the car as possible. Hopefully, the alternator would do its job and recharge the battery a bit.

Football was most enjoyable. It really was nice to see the guys from Worthing after so long. The Gorse Fox really isn't match-fit. He couldn't shoot straight if his life depended on it. Then, when he finally got a nice clean strike, on target, the goalkeeper got his fingers to it and turned it past the post.

This afternoon, the Gorse Fox had to spend some quality time on the phone with HMRC again. He had a query over the new tax code that he had been assigned. After a long discussion, the Gorse Fox was satisfied that the new code was correct and understood why it differed from the code he had been quoted 10 days ago.