Star of the Week

The Gorse Fox was awake soon after 06:00. He was expecting Ellie to wander in and ask the time. She didn't. In fact, it was 06:50 before she emerged. How civilised. 

It was Red Nose Day so the children were allowed to attend school in their own choice of clothes, rather than school uniform. Ellie made the most of this but did keep the "red" theme going. We took her around to school where her classmates were all dressed in red-themed outfits.

We returned home for some breakfast and more coffee. Then, the Silver Vixen attacked Ellie's ironing pile, while the Gorse Fox retired to the study. His objective was to refine the code that extracts the blog posts and then reprocess 2013. That done, he started to work through the year, month by month.

He had forgotten what a foul year that had been, working with RBS and NatWest and the Starfleet outsourcing crew. The only (and he means ONLY) saving grace was the opportunity to spend time in Edinburgh. Looking back, what is most satisfying is the fact that everything he warned of came to pass. Eventually, the arrogance of RBS/NatWest and the misplaced certainty of the Starfleet outsourcing thugs managed to completely fail. The Gorse Fox may not have been perfect, but he wasn't stupid, and his advice and warnings were ignored.

We collected Ellie from school and let her play in the park, making the most of the warm Spring sunshine, before heading home. Back home, she loaded up with snacks before Urban-Cub arrived to collect her. She's at Pistol Pete's this weekend.

Rockin' and Rollin'

 Ellie woke us with the news that her light had already turned yellow. The Gorse Fox acknowledged this and told her she could watch her iPad. She trotted back to her bedroom and the Gorse Fox grabbed 20 minutes more in bed.

Once the morning protocol was complete and Ellie delivered to school without incident, the Gorse Fox returned for breakfast and more coffee. This was followed by the usual Ocado delivery and the top-up at Sainsbury's. Once all of the shopping was packed away the Gorse Fox retired to the study.

The frustrations of the past few days, centred around MS Word, fell away as the Gorse Fox switched to a master document with sub-documents. This worked perfectly and provided the basis for several hours of editing and formatting. 2014 is now complete and 2013 is underway. We are rockin' and rollin'.

Urban-cub had a day off today. This meant that she could collect Ellie from school and give her dinner. She is working an early shift in the morning, so Ellie will still be sleeping here overnight.

Homework

It was a cold night. A thick frost had coated the Orangery roof, but the house was pleasantly warm. We had some breakfast and the Gorse Fox wandered around to collect Urban-Cub and Ellie and walk with them to school.

Being Wednesday, the Silver Vixen had Pilates and the Gorse Fox had football. Because of all of the roadworks, it took a while to get across to Angmering and Worthing and we resolved to find an alternate route home.

The football session was good with none of the troublemakers playing today. The Gorse Fox isn't sure of the final score but thinks there was only one goal in it. He managed to score a goal, driving the ball low and hard into the bottom corner. He was ribbed that "the only reason that went in was that everyone was looking up in the sky expecting it to be one of your usual shots".

Collecting the Silver Vixen, we came back via the A27. The Gorse Fox isn't sure it was quicker, but at least we kept moving the whole time.

After lunch, we had a quiet hour or so before collecting Ellie. Once she was home, we sat down with her to make sure her maths homework was completed. Then, after dinner, we played "hide and seek" with rubber Easter eggs and then "teachers" with the Gorse Fox as a student!

Master

Ellie was dropped off by Darren, soon after 7:00. Urban-Cub had been called in to cover for an employee whose wife was giving birth. Pretty inconsiderate really. She could have waited.

Once Ellie was here, the usual choreography kicked in until we walked her around to school.

Home saw some breakfast and some chores before the Gorse Fox retired to the study. He has finished editing each of the quarters of 2014. The objective was to roll these sub-documents into a master document for the year. That may have been the objective, but so far it has failed. Checking with our good friend, Google, it sees that there is a view that master documents with sub-documents are prone to errors. One comment was "if you are not having problems with master documents yet, just wait, you will". This is not good news..., particularly when you realise that we could do this faultlessly using DCF/GML, 40 years ago.

The Gorse Fox has not (yet) given up. He has a couple of further ideas to try.

Morning Chorus

 For some unknown reason, Jasper decided to start singing at the top of his voice at about 05:30 this morning. This did not endear him to either the Silver Vixen or the Gorse Fox. In fact, with assistance from the Silver Vixen, he may have taken a flying lesson.

We stayed put. In fact, it was 07:15 before the Gorse Fox launched into the day. As usual, he went around the corner to escort Ellie to school, then returned for further caffeine and some toast. The Silver Vixen settled into a morning feeding the washing machine, or hanging up the laundry. The Gorse Fox vacuumed all the floors and settled back at the computer.

The editing of extracted blog posts was more complex today. There were a number of long chat transcripts from Cousteau-cub's time in Thailand that needed a great deal of attention to format correctly. In addition, there was the residual issue of file size (assuming this was the root of yesterday's problem). The Gorse Fox has now created a master document which embeds a document for each 3-month section of the year. This seems to be working well.

In passing, the blog extract that was the focus today was the period covering the Gorse Fox's retirement. He was quite choked when he re-read the various thankyou notes he was sent at the time.

Size isn't everything

 The Gorse Fox emerged soon after 07:10. There was no hurry today, but he was wide awake. As football was planned, only a single coffee was permitted. It was, however, enjoyed!

The Gorse Fox left soon after 09:00 and headed to Ford. The car park was already filling up but he was early enough to get a space. One by one the "lads" arrived and were allocated to their teams and we kicked off 4-v-5 at 10:00. The Gorse Fox was playing on the team with 4 players (he always makes sure that he plays on the team that is disadvantaged). By halftime, we were (somehow) 3-2 ahead. The Gorse Fox had hit the crossbar and both posts (and several passing satellites), but not scored a goal. In the second half, we redoubled our efforts and though the opposition started to score more freely, we managed to stay ahead. In fact, the Gorse Fox scored 4 goals, and we ended up winning 9-7.

This afternoon the Gorse Fox returned to the formatting and editing of the 2014 blog extract. Well, eventually. To start with, the file he had worked on yesterday wouldn't open. MS Word just sat and sulked. In the end, the Gorse Fox ran the extract again - this time in 3-month chunks. His thinking was that storage or the retrieval of all the embedded web images may be the problem. Three-month chunks seem to have worked. January through to the end of March has now been processed successfully.

For dinner tonight the Gorse Fox roasted some salmon and made a mixture of potato cubes, bacon, roasted red pepper, and onion. This proved to be a delightful accompaniment to the salmon (and salad). 

The Gorse Fox will make this again.

Reminiscing

 After the usual cousins' call this morning, the Gorse Fox returned to his task of editing, formatting, and, frankly, reminiscing as he worked through the 2015 and initial months of the 2014 blog extracts. He must admit that it has occupied the whole day, but has been a joy to review as it surfaced one memory after another.

The Gorse Fox looks forward to completing 2014 as it was a transformative year when the Gorse Fox worked for 6 months with Starfleet, then had his first 6 months of retirement.

Cousins

 

With the weather that was reported during the week, the Gorse Fox decided that he should show his northern cousins what life is like here on the south coast.

As they shivered in Kent, Norfolk, and Derbyshire, he sat and sweltered in his polo shirt in front of the white sandy beaches of Bognor Regis.

Fairly calm

 It has been a fairly calm and quiet day. Ellie was dropped off soon after 7:00 and we gave her breakfast, got her washed and dressed, and took her around to school.

Back home it was time for (more) coffee and some breakfast before the Gorse Fox went to his study to complete the accounts for the week. Once that was done, he returned to the formatting and editing of the blog extracts.

Lunchtime saw a trip to get some cat litter (who says pensioners can't have fun?), pick up an order from Next, and raid M&S for a steak pie for tonight's dinner. Back home, we had a quiet couple of hours before collecting Ellie.

Ellie had started on some geography homework last night. As she would be with Pete over the weekend, we were determined that she should get the homework finished before she left. There were no arguments from her, she just got stuck in. She, with the help of the Silver Vixen, had designed a poster to respond to all of the questions being asked. Bit by bit, the answers appeared on the poster and it was finally finished. The Gorse Fox created a video of the finished article and uploaded the homework to the 'SeeSaw" site. 

Pete came along to collect Ellie and left the Silver Vixen to a quiet evening with the Gorse Fox.

Little Star

 The Gorse Fox is impressed.

There is a website called "Twinkl" which provides educational material for parents and teachers. The Gorse Fox has been a subscriber for a couple of years. Yesterday he needed some material to support Ellie's latest Geography homework. He searched the site, filtering for her age group, and found just the material he wanted. It was only when he printed it and we started to review the information that he realised that they had spelt Edinburgh incorrectly on their map. The Gorse Fox left a feedback message. Within a few hours, they had responded, thanking him for his input, and correcting the source material.

Very impressive.

Things that make you go, Errr?

 The Gorse Fox was up before 7:00 as Ellie was due to be dropped off soon after. We went through the standard procedures and the Gorse Fox walked her to the school. We then had the usual Thursday delivery from Ocado and the top-up shop at Sainsbury's.

During the morning, the Gorse Fox received a message from Trevor. "How can I back up a conversation from Messages on the iPhone?" The Gorse Fox immediately thought it should be simple and set about trying it on his own iPhone. Well, it isn't simple. This falls under the category of "things that make you go Errr". If you have an Apple infrastructure then the messages can be captured on a MacBook or iMac without any effort. If you don't and rely on Windows, it isn't so easy. In fact, you need to install an app and use that to capture your Messages conversations and then save them as a PDF, CSV, or print them. These apps are fairly expensive unless this is something you wish to do on a regular basis. The Gorse Fox has provided Trevor with the information and now we wait to see what he will choose.

The Gorse Fox picked Ellie up after school and took her home. The Silver Vixen then helped her with her Geography homework while the Gorse Fox prepared "Grandpa's Curry" for dinner. Urban-Cub has just been along to collect her, but we will see her again just after 7:00 tomorrow morning.

Wintery

 There was snow overnight. By the time we awoke, however, the rain had swept in and washed it away. Across the Downs, north of Chichester, it had settled, but our coastal strip was clear.

Ellie woke at 6:05 but went back to her room when the Gorse Fox explained there was a further 25 minutes before she could play in the bedroom. She finally emerged and jumped onto our bed at 6:50. That's acceptable. We followed the usual morning protocol and Ellie was "ready to rock" at 8:30. The Gorse Fox insisted the Silver Vixen stay put as it was cold and damp. She didn't argue, and Elli and the Gorse Fox wandered around to school.

The Silver Vixen had not slept well. She decided that Pilates was a non-starter today, and went back to bed. The Gorse Fox headed across to Worthing for the usual football. It was a hard game. The teams were unbalanced, and the Gorse Fox's orange team had to feed off scraps as they were under constant pressure. The final score was about 7-5 against us, but at least the Gorse Fox scored a good goal.

When he got home, soaked to skin still from the game, Cousteau-Cub was there. She had been to Bognor Regis and stopped in on her way home. She stayed with us for a chat and a bite of lunch.

The Gorse Fox was weary from the morning's football, so we had a quiet afternoon in the lounge until it was time to collect Ellie. Again, the Gorse Fox insisted that the Silver Vixen stayed put, in the warm, and he went to collect Ellie by himself. Ellie burst into the house and wanted something to eat - as she always does. By the time she had had a snack and got changed, she only had a few minutes to start her homework before Urban-Cub arrived to collect her.

Nostalgia

 Some heavy rain clattered against the front of the house in the early morning. By the time we got up, however, the rain had lessened to almost nothing. The Gorse Fox went around to escort Ellie to school. Then came home for breakfast.

The Silver Vixen had a busy day planned. Firstly, she had an appointment with the dentist and hygienist, in Chichester. When she got back, she had time for a cup of tea, then headed out to the hairdresser. As soon as she returned, she went with Urban-Cub and Ellie to look at the hall that we have booked for Ellie's upcoming Birthday Party.

The Gorse Fox spent the bulk of the day in the study. He has finished editing the 2017 blog extract and has now made a start on the 2016 extract. It is very time-consuming but makes it really interesting reading, and reviewing each year.

Just editing

Ellie woke at 6:10 but settled in her room until the Gorse Fox leapt from under the duvet at 6:50. From that point onwards, the morning progressed as usual until Ellie was at school. 

Back home we both had breakfast and then the Silver Vixen popped around to the pharmacy to collect her prescription while the Gorse Fox finished reading the news and vacuumed the stairs. After that, the Gorse Fox retired to his study and spent much of the day formatting and editing the first 8 months of the 2016 blog extract.

We collect Ellie from school at the usual time and, while she was waiting for Urban Cub to collect her she tried to eat us out of house and home.

Scam Alert

 As the Gorse Fox drove back from football, yesterday, he received a text message, ostensibly for "Pay". In a worrying alert, it said: "Apple pay was suspended on your device, to continue using please re-activate by visiting: xxxxx".

Now, the Gorse Fox uses Apple PAy extensively, so the initial thought was "What is going on?" His first actual reaction, however, was to go and have a shower - he was, after all, on his way back from football! Once presentable, he fired up Google and searched for the text from the message. Sure enough, there have been plenty of incidents of a scam based on this, or very similar, wording. His conclusion is that it is an attempted scam or phishing attack, No action is needed,

(He will, however, take actual plastic credit cards with him next time he shops, just in case).

Honours even

 Despite having no particular reason to wake early, the Gorse Fox was up and about well before 7:00 this morning. He crept downstairs, grabbed a coffee, and settled down with the overnight news. The Silver Vixen wandered down, an hour or so later. 

The Gorse Fox had football this morning. One player had dropped out through illness, so we had a 5-v-4 game. The previous owners of the indoor arena have just sold up. The Gorse Fox had the opportunity to meet the new owner, Katy, this morning. The Gorse Fox lead the yellow team of 4. We conceded our first goal within a few seconds, due to a mix-up between Peter and our goalie, Danny. It was hard work, having a 1-man deficit, but by halftime, we were honours-even at 4-4. We had the opportunity to change personnel during the break but decided to leave things as they were. The second half was hard work but again ended even. The final score was 8-8, and the Gorse Fox was pleased to have contributed 3 of the yellow team's goals.

Back home, and showered, the Gorse Fox spent a couple of hours finishing the editing of the 2017 blog extract and starting on the 2016 blog extract. Then he headed for the kitchen to start on dinner: chicken, roast potatoes, and salad.

Urban-Cub brought Ellie around just as we were clearing up from dinner. Ellie will be staying with us overnight as Urban-cub has an early start tomorrow.

Halfway

The Gorse Fox took his first caffeine infusion soon after 7:00. He had slept well, but was now wide awake and raring to go. His coffee accompanied the ritual reading of the news aggregators and social media. Then, as the Silver Vixen appeared, he prepared for the cousins' call. The photographic backdrop this week was a view of the River Sid (taken last week). The call was the usual mix of laughter and random banter.

After the call, the Gorse Fox returned to his blog extract for 2017. This is slowly being knocked into shape. What a momentous year that was. The most memorable event was the birth of Ellie.  It seems incredible that it was almost 6 years ago that she first showed her smiling face, and has been a source of joy ever since.

We had planned to meet up with J&T for lunch. They had been in Christchurch for a few days, so the plan was to meet them about halfway, on the route home. The Gorse Fox had booked a table at "The Hiltonbury Farmhouse" at Chandlers Ford. This was a good spot for them to break their journey and was only a 50-minute drive for us.

It was a charming pub/restaurant just off Hursley Road at Chandlers Ford. It had a good menu and some very good write-ups on TripAdvisor. We arrived a few minutes early and had just ordered a coffee when J&T turned up. It turns out that the hotel at which they stayed in Christchurch was one the Gorse Fox has considered a few times for a short break away. We now have a recommendation to encourage us!

We ordered our food and, though the service was a little slow, the food was excellent. The slowness didn't trouble us. We were likely to be chatting all afternoon. In fact, we were. It was well after 16:00 before we left but we had a good run home, arriving in time to feed Jasper and settle in for a quiet evening.

Mythical Creatures

 Yesterday was "Book Day" but today is the day when the school celebrate the event. This meant that Ellie woke up early, very excited, and at 6:09 asked Grandpa how long it was until she could play in her room. Grandpa explained that a further 21 minutes had to tick by before her light would turn yellow and she could play. Ten minutes later, Ellie reappeared. "How long is it now, Grandpa?" He explained that a further 10 minutes or so had to expire. She pottered back to her room. On the dot of 6:30, she presented herself at the bedside. "My light has turned yellow. Can I watch the iPad?" and so the day began.

Urban-cub turned up just after 7:00. She has a day off, after a very late night at the store yesterday. She had come to help Ellie get ready for the book day. The theme being Mythical Creatures, she was dressed as a fairy, complete with wings, when she went off to school. Halfway there she decided she wanted her bobble hat (despite having told the Gorse Fox she didn't want it because it would spoil her hair). Urban-cub turned around and went back for the bobble hat. (What a good job we are only a couple of hundred metres from the school). Ellie was happy, now. The drop-off went to plan.

The Silver Vixen went around to see Urban-cub during the morning. They had to plan Ellie's upcoming Birthday party. The Gorse Foix left them to it. He stayed home and worked on the 2017 extract of the blog. That has taken most of the day and will need a few more hours of effort to complete it.

Not quite

 The Gorse Fox was up and about soon after 7:00 and had a quiet coffee before the Silver Vixen came down. He popped around the corner to take Ellie to school at the usual time then returned to have some breakfast. 

It's Thursday, so Ocado delivered - but after phoning to check it was all right, arrived nice and early. The Gorse Fox managed the Sainsbury's top-up on his own as the Silver Vixen was expecting a delivery. It was all over and done within 30 minutes  - though, to be fair, there wasn't a lot to get.

Much of the rest of the day was spent making up a big batch of curry base gravy, steaming some chicken, and cooking some rice. As Ellie seems to enjoy "Grandpa's Curry", it seemed like a good menu choice for this evening. We did manage to get an hour or so in the Orangery to enjoy the sunshine and rattle through some chapters of our respective books.

The Gorse Fox stopped off with Ellie at the park on the way back from school, but once she was home the Silver Vixen helped her prepare a mask for tomorrow's school celebration of books containing mythical creatures. Once that was finished, she did some reading with her. Then Ellie turned to the Gorse Fox to do some phonics, and when he messed about, she threatened to send him to the "Head Mischief". How perfectly apt.

Politeness

 Ellie wandered into our bedroom just before 6:30. "How long before my light turns yellow, Grandpa?" The Gorse Fox grabbed her for a cuddle and asked if she had slept well. She had. "Your light will turn yellow in a minute or two" he explained and she turned to go. Then stopped. She turned and asked, "Did you sleep well, Grandpa?" As his heart melted, he replied in the affirmative and she returned to her bedroom until it was time to get up. Politeness at that time of day is something to be cherished.

We had the usual pre-school protocol to complete but left in plenty of time to deliver her to school.

Once home, and prepared, we headed off. The Gorse Fox dropped the Silver Vixen at Angmering for Pilates and then drove on to Worthing for football.

The first look at the teams was not promising.  The Gorse Fox thought it would be a hard game, but not impossible. He was right. In fact, his yellow team drew first blood with a goal from the Gorse Fox. He also had several further strikes on target, which were (unfortunately) saved. The final score was 6-4 in our favour and even though the Gorse Fox had not really been in the mood, he thoroughly enjoyed the game.

After lunch, the Silver Vixen had a medical appointment and the Gorse Fox stayed home with his book. The Silver Vixen was home in time for us to collect Ellie from school. She really wanted to stop at the park, but it was bitterly cold. The Gorse Fox sent the Silver Vixen home and took Ellie to the park for fifteen minutes. He was glad to get home into the warm when her time was up.

Urban-Cub collected Ellie soon after 16:00. She will be at home tonight, so the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen have a night off.