You can come too, too, too

We were all up fairly early. We had a train to catch. The weather was not looking promising, so we loaded up with sweaters and jackets, just in case. There is a great advantage to having a buggy with us. It can be used to transport all of our stuff. We arrived at Exmouth Station with time to spare and plonked ourselves down in an almost empty carriage. Ellie was very excited. This was the first time she had been on a train (that she remembers).

The train chugged up the east side of the estuary and into Exeter, there the driver changed ends and we swept down the west side of the estuary passing Dawlish Warren, Teignmouth, Torre, and Torquay before arriving at Paignton. The trip was about 90 minutes but was a lot more relaxing than it would have been, had we gone by car.

At Paignton, we waited for a bus. (It’s nice that the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox’s bus passes work all over the country as the trip was free for us - and for Ellie, only Urban-Cub had to pay £2).  We had clearly just missed one and had a 25 minutes wait. The sun was still hiding and it was a bit chilly. When the bus finally arrived we hopped on and settled down for the 10 minute ride to the Zoo. The first stop was a medical centre where an old bloke got on and proceeded to explain to the Silver Vixen that he had had a pain in his testicle. (These locals do like to share).

It was coming up to midday by the time we arrived at the Zoo. The sun had broken through and it looked as if we would have a lovely afternoon. The first order of the trip was to wander past the the flamingoes,  find the restrooms and grab a drink. 

Then we were off on our adventures. In no particular order we visited the crocodile swamp, where the specimens seemed particularly unimpressed by the public and just dozed in their enclosures. We passed various exotic birds, including peacocks, rheas, and most impressively some huge spectacled owls. There were several aviaries that appeared empty, but we suspect the birds were just well camouflaged or in the nests.

Next on the agenda was a diversion to see the spider monkeys. They were quite amazing and really amused Ellie. One (grandpa, as she called it) just sat there on a branch observing the world, yawning, and having a scratch. The other was far more boisterous and charged around the enclosure, throwing itself across branches and ropes, and even climbing a brick wall. Just behind the monkeys was an enclose for red panda. This was causing a frisson of excitement as there had recently been some babies. One family claimed they could see them way up in a tree. Nobody else seemed to manage, so we wandered away.

There was a brief diversion into the soft play area before we resumed the visit. We went to find the big cats. Again, the lion was feeling shy and was a no-show, but the tigers were wandering about in their enclosure. One decided to grace the visitors by wandering right up to the viewing Perspex, turning round, and defecating (to the amusement of all the children).

The great apes were next on our tour. As we approached a young couple warned us that the queue was very long and that we would be better finding a viewing spot where we could see the gorillas when they were let out onto the island at 2:30. This seemed like good advice. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox settled by a viewing platform with the buggy to wait for 25 minutes, while Urban-Cub and Ellie went off for a wander to find another play area. After about 10 minutes the viewing spot was beginning to fill up fast. The Gorse Fox messaged Urban-Cub to return and they got back just in time. Three 18-year-old gorillas were released onto the island to forage for food (that had been spread out by the keepers), exercise, and generally look very impressive. After a while the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox backed out to let some others get a better view. Urban-Cub and Ellie followed after a few more minutes when Ellie started to get bored.

We headed for a large play area. Ellie could let off more steam and we could sit down for a cup of tea and a bite to eat (though, as they only sold pizza at this cafe, the Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub had to walk back to another cafe to get the food). We must have stayed at this spot for a good 45 minutes or more. When we left there, we visited the rhinos (who were indoors and particularly smelly) then on to find the giraffes. There were several enclosures on the way with various hogs and some more exotic birds. The giraffes were in their giraffe house which was closed, but we were able, from a distance, to see through the door and see one of the giraffes as he passed the open the door.

Last stop was to see if could find the cheetah. This, again, proved fruitless as he was obviously hiding or relaxing far from the various viewing areas. We headed back to the gift shop, and final restroom break, and off to the bus stop. We only had a five minute wait, and were soon back at the railway station. There we had another five minute wait, boarded the train, and made ourselves comfortable in an almost empty carriage. Ninety minutes later we pulled into Exmouth. Urban-Cub and Ellie headed straight back to the house while the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox stopped off at the M&S Food Hall for some essentials.

It had been a brilliant day.

Sand

It started bright and sunny. There was, however, a cool breeze. The plan for the day evolved based on the whims of a 4-year-old!

Loading up the buggy we walked into town. A skirt purchase yesterday was the wrong size, so the first stop was to get it changed. While Urban-Cub, Ellie, and Silver Vixen where in the shop, the Gorse Fox headed across to the Tourist Information office. He picked up a local map and spoke to the lady who ran the office. She was clearly a local, and had probably been in Exmouth for that last 150 years. This gave the Gorse Fox an idea. He explained that the Silver Vixen had lived here and went to school in the town. He explained where the Silver Vixen lived and that she remembered walking along some disused railway lines on the way to school. The lady emerged from her reverie and said “Oh yes, there used to be a short branch from the station down to the docks. That is now the route of a new road that was built, but here and there you can still see the rails.” This was a great relief as the Silver Vixen was wondering if she had misremembered. Clearly not.

We headed on down to the beach. The sun was playing hide and seek behind some clouds but, out the wind, it was quite pleasantly warm. We found a spot, sheltered by the sea wall and laid out our blankets. A brief trip to a shop saw the mandatory bucket and spade added to our inventory. We sat down to watch the world go by and count the waves as the tide came in.

Ellie started by playing with the sand but it was too dry and dusty. This meant that she needed to get some wetter sand from the water’s edge. In turn, this meant a further change of clothes and the Gorse Fox decided it was time to paddle. We went down the beach. The sun may have been shining but nobody had told the sea. It was bitterly cold. Any stray thoughts of putting on trunks and going for a swim rapidly receded - like the blood flow to his extremities.

Ellie played for a bit longer but declared she wanted lunch, and a swim in a pool, and to go back to the house, and to go the soft play centre. We took this as multiple choice opportunity with only one answer permitted. We went for lunch. We tried the pace where we ate yesterday, but they said there was an hour to wait for food. We politely declined and went round the corner to The Heavitree. This was a nice pub which had a good little menu. The. Silver Vixen had a cheddar and ham ploughman’s, Urban-Cub had a beef burger, Ellie had a ham sandwich (from which she extracted the ham and just ate some of the bread), and the Gorse Fox had a grilled chicken breast burger. It was very good and quite sheltered.

Leaving the pub we wandered down into the town. The Gorse Fox decided that the cool wind, by now better described as cold, was such that his light sweater was insufficient. A trip to Mountain Warehouse was needed. A little while later the Gorse Fox emerged with a warm zip-up fleecy sweater. We headed back to the house for a quiet hour or so before the Gorse Fox took Ellie back to the park for a last run around for the day.

Early-ish start planned for tomorrow.

Soft play

When we left the house it was about midday. We had no specific plan other than heading for the seafront. The weather forecast was changing by the minute. The idea was to wander along the beach if the weather allowed or to go to the Ocean Centre if the weather was too threatening. The Gorse Fox hadn’t realised until he read the guidebook, that Exmouth has 2 miles of sandy beaches.

As it happened we had a short sharp shower and we were likely to get more. We checked in and found that the soft play centre needed to be booked. We sat down and booked there and then. This was an immensely slow process as their website was poor. There was a 15 minute wait while they were finishing the cleaning after the previous session.

Ellie was the first child into the immense cityscape of slides, ball pools, tubes, climbing frames and heavens knows what. Once she was in, that was it. We hardly saw her for the next two hours. She surfaced briefly for a drink or mouthful of food, but that was it.

Eventually, the session timed-out and we escaped. We headed back into the town and stopped at a pub called The Merchant where we had a lovely Sunday roast. After lunch we headed back to the house and sat down on the balcony to have a quiet hour. Ellie was still “high” and in the end Grandpa had to take her to the park to let off some more steam.

With Spurs winning 1-0 against Man City, all in all, it has been a very good day!

Snippet

 It’s always interesting getting a snippet of a conversation. Sitting on our balcony, the Gorse Fox has just heard:

I haven’t seen Amy for years. She’s obsessed with her new boyfriend. He has very strange hair from Hereford.

Travel

 Looking back at yesterday, the Gorse Fox concludes that it worked well. The early start meant we missed the inevitable traffic jams and managed to get here early enough to have a full day here.

The forecast for today is that it will be overcast and there could be a sprinkle of rain mid-afternoon. Once everyone else is up and about we will forge a plan action.

Exmouth

With the alarm set for 5:45, the Gorse Fox was, of course, wide awake by 3:00. One habit left over from his working days is that when an alarm is set, he has to be awake before it goes off so that it doesn’t disturb the Silver Vixen. His internal clock buffer is, however, rusty from lack of use. It clearly went off prematurely.

Up and about, morning tea made, everything was now going like clockwork. The planned 7:00 start time was bettered by 15 minutes. Urban-Cub and Ellie were about 5 minutes ahead of us. We had a wonderful trip down to Devon. We had obviously left early enough to beat the traffic. Including a stop for a comfort break and something to eat we still managed to arrive at the AIRBNB by 10:30.

The accommodation is superb. It is a 3 year old town house on the edge of the Exe Estuary, just a few minutes north of the Exmouth railway station. There are three bedrooms (one en suite) and an open plan kitchen, dining, living room which opens onto a balcony overlooking the estuary. The whole place is beautifully decorated and has clearly been well cared for (mind you, it was a little pricey). 

Once we had settled in and unpacked we took a stroll into town. There was no specific aim other than getting our bearings. We stopped in the park for Ellie to play briefly on the swings, though the Gorse Fox suspects that Urban-Cub enjoyed them just as much  

We soon found the shopping centre and picked up the odd bits here and there. The Gorse Fox should point out that as we walked into town, we passed an old school house. The Silver Vixen, who lived in Exmouth for a while as a child, thought it might be her old school. We checked. There was no commemorative blue plaque and we couldn’t find anyone old enough who would remember her so we couldn’t be sure it was the right place. We might check the museum later in the week, he suggested. (That was just before he started nursing a smack on the back of his head).

We stopped for lunch at the Crusty Cob. We enjoyed some simple panini sandwiches and a drink before moving on. Tesco Express provided a top-up of decaf-tea and some coffee, then M&S provided more comestibles. We strolled back to the house along a different route and then leaving the Silver Vixen and Urban-Cub to unpack the buggy, the Gorse Fox took Ellie back to park to let off steam.

The evening we enjoyed the spaghetti Bolognese that the Gorse Fox prepared yesterday, then spent the evening on the balcony’s watching the sun set slowly behind the hills on the other side of the estuary.

Preparation

 Another very pleasant day on the South Coast. Lots of sun and a few clouds to keep it interesting. The temperatures were in the low 20s.

The first item on today's list was to sort out the Gorse Fox's music library on his phone. He thought it had all been transferred but a recent review showed that only some Apple-purchased music was actually there. A few minutes with the nice man from Google found some instructions and the Gorse Fox restored his music library, as it had been on Condor, to Harrier (his Macbook). Having done that (and been thankful for the speed of SSD devices) he then imported the lot onto his phone.

By now it was time to take Jasper to his latest Spa break at the cattery. For once, this went remarkably smoothly. The Gorse Fox had had time to close all of the doors to rooms where he could hide effectively. He marched in with the carrier, grabbed Jasper, and dropped him into the carrier. The howling started but soon died down. The Gorse Fox suspect he realised that he was off to see Mark at the cattery and would be pampered for a week. The traffic was very slow on the approach to Sidlesham, but we had allowed plenty of time and Mark was there to greet Jasper and get him settled in.

Once home, the Silver Vixen headed off to the hairdresser. The Gorse Fox dug out the suitcases and packed his stuff. Then, he set about preparing a huge container of Bolognaise sauce with mince to take away with us tomorrow so that we didn't have to worry about dinner when we arrived.

The Silver Vixen returned. She had changed the colour of her hair. The Gorse Fox was, momentarily, taken aback as it was so different. It is nice, however, and makes her look younger. All of this change was brought about by the discolouration that she was seeing in her old colour. This had been attributed to chlorine or copper in the water. Whatever it was, it needed to be addressed. The Gorse Fox has sent water samples off to a lab in Germany for analysis. The results should be available in about a week to ten days. Once we know, we can try to counteract the effects.

Our bags are pretty well packed. The plan is for an early start tomorrow.

Hi di Hi

 We had a little rain overnight, but it was drying up when we came down for breakfast. It was pleasantly warm, if overcast.

The Gorse Fox got a text message. His John Lewis order had arrived. He whipped in to Chichester and was back inside 30 minutes clutching his new AirPods. These were put on charge and left alone.

Late morning we met up with Urban-Cub and Ellie and headed for a Butlin’s. It’s only 10 minutes away, and we had a day pass. We found our way into the main tent and then wandered around so that Ellie could choose what she wanted to do. She started by clambering into the soft play area, where she stayed until it was closed for regular cleaning. Form there, she moved on to a small carousel, then we went outside and she found some more carousels and rides that she wanted to try. 

One by one, we watched her try all the rides that interested her. Everything she tried seemed to delight her!

We stopped for lunch, but even then she was clambering over the play area while we waited for our order.

After lunch we returned to the main tent. Again, there were rides on the carousels and a couple of tours of the soft play maze. Then we saw Peppa Pig and George wandering in and headed for the small studio. 

That was it! Urban-Cub and Ellie queued up to get a photo with one of her TB heroes. (Thank goodness Paw Patrol didn’t turn up).

Once Peppa Pig was over, it was time to go to the “Splash” pool. This has been recently rebuilt and is now a state-of-the-art centre for water play (not swimming). There were flumes, slides, sprays, fountains, tipping buckets, and heavens knows what else. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox watched from the side for a little while, then said our farewells and headed home, leaving Urban-Cub and Ellie to get wrinkly in the water.

Fair Enough

 Urban-cub had a hair appointment so Ellie was dropped off soon after 8 o'clock. She had only just woken up and was still struggling to start the day. The weather was nice and we had a plan.

A free funfair had been set up in Chichester's Priory Park. The plan was to take Ellie along and for Urban-cub to join us when she had finished. Parking was a bit of a nightmare but once that was sorted we headed for the sounds emanating from the park. It was very busy and people were making the most of the weather and settling down on the grass for picnics without even visiting the funfair. We picked our way through the bodies and found our way in. It was a sea of people.

We wandered around but there wasn't much that excited Ellie. Well, not until she saw the inflatable castle and slides. Needless to say, there was a lengthy queue, but to be fair it was moving fairly quickly. We arrived at the front of the queue, Ellie stripped off her shoes and she was gone! Through the obstacles, into a tunnel, down a small slide, and then back around. Then she ventured up the big slide. The first time, she got halfway up the steep steps then backed out. She steeled herself and tried again. This time she got to the top and then hurled herself down the slide. That was it. There was no fear. She went around a few more times before her allotted time expired.

That was it. She had had enough. So much for the Fair! She wanted to go to the adventure play area at the other end of the park. Off we trotted. It was heaving. She was a little hesitant but did get to play on a few items of apparatus before Urban-cub arrived. Then she decided she had had enough (again) and wanted to go home.

We didn't go home. We headed into the city centre and settled down outside a small restaurant for some lunch. The world and his wife and her dog all wandered by as we drunk our tea and munched on our paninis. Chichester really is a very nice place to while away an hour or so. Eventually, we split up. Urban-cub and Ellie headed home and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox wandered back to the car via several shops.

Birthday

We met up at lunchtime and headed for The Old Stables at Fontwell. There was the Silver Vixen, the Birthday Girl Urban-cub, Ellie, and Cousteau-cub. The Coventry Hobbit joined us there. We had a lovely table over in one corner and sat down to choose from the menu.

It was a lovely lunch, though the service was a bit slow.  Between us, we tried homemade fish-cakes (with lobster), sirloin steak, pizza, and sea bass. All of it was delicious.

It was during lunch that Urban-cub announced that she had experienced a vivid dream last night in which the family had been informed that the Gorse Fox had dementia. He supposes it is better to be ready for these things... and throughout the meal, they insisted on explaining that he had already said that or done that and had clearly forgot! Such abuse.

Anyway, it was lovely to have the family together.

Cover

 It is Urban-cub's Birthday. That was our focus for the day. We had arranged a family lunch at a nearby restaurant.

But first, there were things to do. The most pressing was to complete the renewal of the Travel Insurance we carry with our bank. The Gorse Fox logged in to the membership benefits site and started the process. A battery of questions flashed up. Completed. Another battery of questions flashed up. Completed... and so it went on. Eventually, a battery of questions flashed up that gave several options: 

• Do you....
• Have you...
• Is there...
• No to all of these.

For us, it was No. The problem was that whilst the was a tickbox in front of the first 3 questions, there wasn't for the fourth option. Stymied. The Gorse Fox could make no further progress. He picked up the phone and dialed the customer services number. He would update it over the phone.

• Press 1
• Press 1
• Press 1
• Press 2

"We are experiencing a high number of calls...... blah blah"

"Your call is important to us; the current wait time is about 5 minutes. If you like we can call you back when you are next in the queue".

The Gorse Fox fell for it. He left his number. He hung up. He waited. Six hours later he gave up and called them back. He got through and after ten minutes, everything was sorted.

Stoned

 Noah called. He wanted his deluge back. We seem to have acquired a rain cloud overnight. It had decided to disgorge biblical amounts of rain across this section of the South Coast. Fortunately, it got bored and decided, by mid-morning, to move on and torment somewhere else.

We had a few plans to execute. The first was to take the water samples and get them sent off to the lab in Germany for analysis. Hopefully, this will reveal what lurks within our water that might be causing the Silver Vixen's hair to take on a slightly green hue.

We are planning to have some of our landscaping changed. Originally, we put down Cotswold chippings. The problem is that these are porous limestone and, over time, they have discoloured. 

We viewed a display of about 40 different types of stone. Some small gravel, some large cobbles, some rough chippings, some smooth pebbles, some bright but porous, and some was coloured and hard. We took advice from the staff and, in the end, chose a stone called "Flamingo".

The Gorse Fox has now emailed our landscape chappie and told him what we want. We now need to see when he can start work.

Rain and Research

 The morning was blessed with incessant heavy rain. We had no plans to venture out, so retired to our respective study areas. The Silver Vixen cracked on with her project, and the Gorse Fox returned to the Family Tree.

There was no specific research plan, today. The Gorse Fox picked one of the Silver Vixen's ancestors, almost randomly, and tried to fill in some more details. He worked across Ancestry, FindMyPast, and FamilySearch.com. There were a few promising leads but nothing about which he felt confident enough to commit to the database. He is still stuck at the Silver Vixen's (paternal) Great-great-grandfather. Whilst the family lived in Deptford in the late 1830s, they were born in Ireland. That is where the trail runs cold. Also, bearing in mind we know their whereabouts in 1839, they don't appear to be listed in any of the subsequent Census returns. It seems that the family of the Silver Vixen enjoys being historically enigmatic.

Mid-afternoon, the Gorse Fox received a call from Urban-cub. She needed to top up the oil in her car. She had bought the correct type of oil but wanted to make sure she put it in the correct place. The Gorse Fox went round to help. While he was there, he added a missing cam-lock to the cabinet that we built last week. There was one cam-lock missing in the self-assembly pack, so the Gorse Fox ordered some replacements from the nice man at Amazon. He wasn't too sure of the correct size, but it turns out that he guessed correctly, and the final drawer in the cabinet is now fixed properly.

Cousins

 It was a day for cousins. The morning saw the regular Zoom call with the Empson cousins, but for a change, we had one of the Law cousins on board as well. Once that was over, the Gorse Fox got on with some Family Tree research - to no avail. Sometimes you get lucky, sometimes there's nothing. Today there was nothing.

In the afternoon, the Silver Vixen's cousins from Brighton dropped in. We settled down for some tea and cake and a chat, then ordered some Indian food for dinner (while the Gorse Fox cooked salmon, chips, and peas for the  Silver Vixen and her Aunt). We had a lovely evening catching up on all of the family news and from the Peoples Republic of Brighton. After dinner, Sue and the Gorse Fox delved into some family research, giving the others a chance to settle in the lounge for a gossip.

It was a very pleasant evening.

Bit of a Giggle

 It has been predominantly bright and sunny but very windy throughout the day. We had a quiet morning with just some general pottering about. 

At lunchtime, we went into Chichester. A few weeks ago the Gorse Fox took Old Bill to the hospital for his treatment. This took several hours and, as a way of thanking him, Old Bill and Lady Penelope took us to the Giggling Squid for lunch. We had a lovely time and a wonderful meal (as usual). We also met the new manager, Libby, who has taken over from Helen who, in turn, has now taken over the chain's training role.

An update is due. The Gorse Fox explained about the disambiguation of the date for the appointment to sort out the failed panel in the Orangery roof. He forgot to provide a follow-up. On Wednesday this week, he received a call from the company.

"Hello, is that the Gorse Fox? This is Griselda at the Orangery Company. You are expecting Shay to visit tomorrow afternoon..."

"No;" replied the Gorse Fox "I am expecting him between 09:00 and 10:00, as scheduled".

"Ah, well, he has tested positive for Covid-19 and has to isolate. He will be unable to attend. He will contact you when free to set up a new appointment"

So, we are back to square one.

Assembly

 Despite the forecast, the morning was quite bright and sunny. It was only in the afternoon that we had some rain which seemed to make itself comfortable and snuggled down overhead. It did, eventually, clear and now everything is drying up nicely.

Ellie slept well overnight and didn't venture in to see us until 7:15. She was very chirpy and had clearly slept well. Urban-cub, who had worked late last night, popped round to collect her and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox returned to our normal Thursday morning schedule with Ocado arriving first and then a top-up trip to Sainsbury's.

Urban-cub had ordered a new cabinet with a couple of drawers and a cupboard beneath. This arrived in the last couple of days but she was not very confident about assembling it. The Gorse Fox went round to help and the Silver Vixen came along for company. It was time that Urban-cub got over her reticence so the Gorse Fox directed operations while she actually constructed the unit. It all went together very well. She did a good job. The cabinet now nestles in her understairs cupboard as a repository for cables, chargers, DVDs, and, most importantly, her printer. It took a while, but the finished result was worth the effort.

Playground

 It was another lovely day. Though there was a smattering of clouds in the morning, the afternoon had clear blue skies from end to end.

We had a nice chat this morning with Cousteau-cub. Her teeth are still giving problems but the acute problem caused by the abscess had eased. It looks like she will need to have a tooth removed and a denture provided. Despite the problems, she sounded quite chirpy.

The Gorse Fox headed across to Worthing for football. We had a good turn-out. This meant that we had to split into three teams and play a round-robin. The Gorse Fox was able to sit out the first game, but then played in the remaining games. Unfortunately, we lost both games 2-1. The Gorse Fox was not too dispirited - he played well, intercepted a lot, and managed to stray into the attacking half occasionally.

He beat the system. The Gorse Fox always looks at Google maps when he prepares to leave. this determines the route he will take home. Today, no routes looked sensible. There was a huge tailback at Crossbush, and the roadworks around Angmering were at a virtual standstill. The Gorse Fox used his local knowledge from 14 years at Kingston Gorse. He switched off the A259, slipped along to the level-crossing, then headed through the edge of East Preston towards Rustington. Then he looped back onto the A259 having missed all the traffic. The expected 49 minutes run home was reduced to 35 minutes. Result.

The Silver Vixen had collected Ellie. She will stay with us until the morning. After some lunch, we took her to the playground where she started playing on the apparatus before switching to running games where she hurtled around the park with the Gorse Fox in tow. This carried on until some more kids arrived and then she joined in with their games. It was lovely to see that though they were clearly of Afro-Caribbean origin, she just merged in with their games without a thought and similarly, they accepted her without a thought. While this was going on, the Gorse Fox chatted with their dad.

Sheared

It's been another lovely day by the coast. The sun has been shining and a few clouds have provided mobile punctuation in an otherwise clear blue sky.

The Gorse Fox went across to Worthing for the Tuesday football. We had another great turnout, with some 35 old codgers stripped and ready to play. Ten were peeled away to play in the 5-a-side cages and the rest of split into four teams. The Gorse Fox was in a team that peaked early. We played a superb first game, winning 2-1. The second game wasn't so good as we only managed a 2-2 draw. This game annoyed the Gorse Fox. A chap he had never seen before was attacking for the other team and the Gorse Fox was marking him as he took a wild kick at the ball and skyed it over the bar. He then claimed the ball had come off the Gorse Fox's chest - which it hadn't, in order to claim a corner kick. The Gorse fox pointed out that he had not touched it and was accused of "not being honest". Anyone who knows the Gorse Fox would know that a) that would wind him up, b) it was a lie, and c) the Gorse Fox always puts his hands up to confess to any infringement - even when it has been spotted by anyone else. A bit narked, the Gorse fox marked said individual with greater vigour and attention for the rest of the game and don't believe he actually touched the ball again.

The Gorse Fox should complete the story of our decaying performance. In the last of the three games, we were outnumbered by a very competent, mobile, attacking team. We lost that game 3-1 and there was very little we could do about it.

Back home, having showered and lunched, the Gorse Fox entered the week's shopping list (prepared during the morning by the Silver Vixen) and then wandered around to the village and "Golden Blades". He only had to wait for a few minutes and then the chap with the shears was ready and he set about making the Gorse Fox look beautiful.

Houdini

 Since the last escapade, the Gorse Fox has had a toolbox blocking the catflap in the Orangery. Yesterday, the Gorse  Fox needed some of the tools so took the whole box into the workshop. Last night, soon after we went to bed, Jasper decided he would make a run for freedom. This went undetected by his guards (us). Coming down this morning, the Gorse Fox went through his usual routine to open up. He noticed Jaspers dinner and breakfast were both untouched. As he opened the blinds in the Orangery, there was Jasper. He gave the Gorse Fox a withering look and marched over to the door to be let in. As he crossed the threshold he howled his disapproval and went straight to his feeding bowls. (This would all be so much easier if he realised he cam come back in through the flap, as well as exit). The cat flap is now covered again.

The Gorse Fox dug out the instructions for the bandsaw. He had been on the right lines, but missed one step. Bandsaw blades are vicious and unwieldy articles so he grabbed his thick gardening gloves and slowly fitted a new blade. It was as well that he was wearing the gloves as the blade took a lot of persuasion and fiddling to get it all aligned.

J&T arrived late afternoon. They had been down at the Naval Dockyards at Portsmouth for the day. Clearly, they enjoyed the day and spoke of a further visit to catch some of the exhibits they missed today. We settled down with some tea and cake and enjoyed a chat, Urban-cub popped in to say hello, but couldn’t stay. She had to get back to work to complete a cash audit. We’re ordered a fish supper and sat down to enjoy the usual cod and chips all round. It was a lovely few hours, and good to hear thatThe  Mask seems to be recovering from his bought of Covid.

Bandit

It was a lovely morning and the early afternoon was still bright and sunny, but it clouded over mid-afternoon and we had a short shower of rain.

Like yesterday, the Silver Vixen has been in her sewing room and the Gorse Fox in the workshop. Though he is making good progress he has ground to a halt this afternoon when the bandsaw shed its blade. He has a spare blade, but can't remember exactly how to change it. He'll have to dig out the instruction manual and take it from there. That, however, can wait for another day!