Breathe In, and out

 The Gorse Fox has been a little under the weather since yesterday evening. Quite suddenly he was getting some pain near his shoulder and it was preventing him taking a deep breath. This got worse during the evening and overnight was a bit of a problem.

When he got up this morning the discomfort was still there, and a little more widespread. First order of the day, after making the coffee, was to wade through the NHS web site checking that a) these weren't ~Covid symptoms, and b) find out what they were. Well, the good news was that it it does not remotely match the symptoms of Covid; the bad news, however, was the he couldn't identify any particular diagnosis that seemed to fit.

He took a couple of paracetamol and decided to have a quiet morning. By lunchtime the symptoms were easing and this afternoon he has been out for a couple of mile walk. He still has to force a full lung-full, but at least it doesn't hurt any more. At the moment he is still planning to play football tomorrow.

Urban-Cub and Ellie spent most of today out with Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit. Ellie has returned, very tired, and very defiant.

Ooops, he did it again

 Further examination of the November prices for the hotel, convinced the Gorse Fox that it was too good to miss. He phoned, requested "our" room, and booked back in for a few days over the Silver Vixen's Birthday weekend.

While on the subject of booking, the Gorse Fox has booked for Tuesday morning's football session. This will be the first game back with the "Worthing crowd". It'll be nice to see them. He doesn't think he's fit enough to book for two sessions back-to-back yet, but hopes to get back to that quite quickly.

Commission

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen should be on a commission. This coming week Old Bill and Lady Penelope are off to The Victoria Hotel on our recommendation and, after a chat with his esteemed brother-in-law, he and the Gorse Fox's sister are now booked in for early October. That forced the Gorse Fox to look at the current rates. It may be necessary for us to return in November for the Silver Vixen's birthday.

Talking of the Silver Vixen, she has spent much of the day in the garden tieing up the climbing rose that now dominated our pergola. She's done a good job and it's looking very nice.

The Gorse Fox has had to modify the spreadsheet that we use to keep track of Ellie's childcare. Now that Urban-cub has a date for her return to work, and with the changes to her shift pattern, there were adjustments to make. The engineering is now done, it's just up to her to fill in the details.

The Instant Pot is about to activate. The Gorse Fox has had it set on a delay timer. The plan for tonight is pulled pork, but he is combining a normal slow-cooker recipe with the pressure functions of the IP. He hopes it is a successful exercise.

Nada

Well that was a non-day.

What did we do?

Nothing!

The closest that the Gorse Fox came to excitement was a trip to Sainsbury's to get some cat food for Jasper. The Gorse Fox did, however, bump into Two Hats and Tinkerbell while he was at the store. It was the first time since March that Tinkerbell had ventured to the shops.

After that, the Gorse Fox spent the rest of the day, with the Silver Vixen, reading in the Orangery.

Sorry there's not more to report, but it was an immensely relaxing (i.e. lazy) day.

Neighbours

 Today seems to have been focussed on neighbours.

After Urban-Cub took Ellie across to spend the weekend with Pistol Pete, we had a visit from a neighbour. He runs a landscaping company and we had invited him along to provide some advice and to get an further ideas for or deck-replacement plan. He's ever so nice and spend a lot of time with us, He's now going off to prepare a quote. We'll see what he comes back with.

This afternoon we were invited to have tea with Old Bill and Lady Penelope. They wanted all of the low-down on Sidmouth as they are off on Tuesday and are booked into "our" hotel - and in fact, "our" room. As usual they were immensely hospitable and we had a lovely afternoon.

Urban-Cub is out tonight with girlfriend from Barnham so we have a night top ourselves.

The Gorse Fox was pleased to hear back from our builders. They are sending an operative around on Wednesday to sort out the trim that came off during the storm. The Gorse Fox hadn't really expected them to help out, so he is pleasantly surprised that a very polite email to their customer services operation did the trick.

Piers

It was a bit grey this morning, but the forecast rain held off until early afternoon. The Gorse Fox started the day by handling a batch of requests for his new software. It's nice to see that there is an interest!

Once that was out of the way, we all went into Bognor to blow some cobwebs away at the beach. The car park was surprisingly busy and there were lots of people about. With a Bank Holiday weekend on the horizon, it's hardly surprising.

Down at the front the esplanade was closed to vehicles as they are busy setting up all of the rides and booths for the Bank Holiday Fun Fair. It is always impressive what a well-oiled machine this process is, as the riggers and drivers manoeuvre everything into position and construct all of the rides.

We started off at the little play park at the beach. Ellie loves it there and had a great time on the swings and slides and, as usual, made a little friend. From there we moved back towards the pier and the little rides.

There she played for a long time on the bouncy castle and then on the roundabout where she was intent on driving the Disneyland bus. It was clearly great fun, but it was getting a bit chilly standing around watching. Once she was done, we headed back towards the town for a few bits of shopping. It was just starting to spit with rain as we got back to car and we were home before the heavens opened and the real downpour began.

This afternoon the Gorse Fox has been adding a couple of features to his software ready for the next release.

Back to some semblance of normal

 After yesterday's gales and last night's adventure with the uPVC panel, today was bright and sunny and the wind had dropped to a pleasant breeze.

Urban-Cub took Ellie to meet with a friend in the park while the Silver Vixen did her Zoom Pilates and the Gorse Fox prepared to go to football. 

Yes! Today was the first game since February or March. It was lovely to get back together with the lads. We gathered outside the sports centre where we were added to a register for Covid-19 tracing, should it be necessary. Then, following the one-way system we looped through the sports centre to the football pitches. We had a proper referee who monitored the game and intervened if the ball was touched by anything other than your football boots. He would rush onto the pitch, spray the ball with a sanitiser, and restart the game.

The rules had been tweaked. We had to limit ourselves to 3 touches of the ball, and were not allowed to tackle, only block. We were also expected to stay at least a metre from any other player. It sounded complicated, but actually worked very well and the independent referee really helped. The Gorse Fox was clearly rusty. Several times he completely mistimed a ball and it went straight under his foot. He did, however, mange four shots on goal. One hit the left post, one hit the right post, and one hit the cross-bar. The other shot was a beautiful curling ball that just snuck round the outside of the right hand post.

He suspects he may suffer for this tomorrow. It's not as if he is match fit, and his recent coding exercises have not done a great deal to keep him in shape.

Bang

There we were, sitting in the lounge watching the late night local news. The gales were still blowing, but other than that it was peaceful and we were winding down ready for bed.

There was an almighty crash and something hit the front wall of the house. The Gorse Fox's first reaction was to assume it was one of our tall plant pots. He went and opened the shutters. There was the plant pot, exactly where it should be. This warranted further investigation.

The Gorse Fox ventured out into the night. An arc of uPVC panel, about 8 feet long, was nestled against the house. 

The Silver Vixen came out and we debated where it had come from. The first assumption was that it had blown across from the building work being completed on Sonning Place. It was not evident, however, where such a shape would have been fixed. As we turned to go in, the Gorse Fox glanced up. There, above our bedroom window and below the soldier course, was an arc of brick and blockwork that he had never seen before. This was clearly the home of the errant uPVC panel.

The adhesive has clearly failed in the high winds. Now he has to get it fixed.

Refund

 At last.

The bulk of the refund for our cancelled holiday to Jamaica finally arrived in our account today. It's been 119 days. This is somewhat longer than the 7-14 days that it is meant to take, by law. The Gorse Fox is not  worried, however, he was lucky enough that he could afford the delay and got the money eventually.

There's still the deposit refund outstanding but that'll probably arrive in the next few days.

Storm

Another named storm is hitting us today. Again, we have been lucky. There has been very little rain, but the wind has been relentless.

The weather meant that we were pretty much confined to barracks. The Urban-Cub and Ellie did pop round to Sainsbury's at one point, but they weren't gone for long. The Silver Vixen has been preparing the Ocado shopping list and a couple of week's of menus.

The Gorse Fox returned to yesterday's little conundrum. It occurred to him that the most important date for photos and videos (whatever their source) was the original creation date. A neat little tool called "ExifTool" can extract all sorts of information from a media file., including the original creation date. Now, if he could call up that information in his existing filer program, he can check and if necessary reset the file date. It took a little fiddling about to determine the right logic, but soon the program was humming away processing media files whether they arrived from Google Photos or from Mac's Photos application. Job done.

Answers

The Gorse Fox was working in the study. It was clear that Urban-Cub was a) in full flow, talking to the Silver Vixen, b) was getting towards the end of her tether with Ellie, and c) being interrupted for the nth time.

"I really don't know why, when I'm talking to other people, you keep interrupting!" came the exasperated cry from Urban-Cub.

Calmly, Ellie responded "I do".

The Gorse Fox is not sure but there may have been a strangled scream at that point.

Photos

The Gorse Fox is temporarily troubled. A feature of Google Photos that he uses a great deal seems to have become a bit flakey. He should explain. He uses Google Photos as and aggregator for all of his photos from various sources. He has learned over the years that he should never trust a single supplier or repository. As a result, on a regular basis, he selects all the recent photos that have accumulated in Google Photos and downloads them to the iMac (Condor). This has worked pretty seamlessly for months, if not years. Of late, however, it has started to barf when asked to download more than a single photo at at time. That is no use to the Gorse Fox who regularly takes many tens of photos. Today, for example, he had 132 photos to download. He was not going to do that one-by-one.

Once the photos are downloaded they are picked up by a program that inserts them into a folder structure based on the date on which the photo was taken. (This date was set by Google and respected in download process).

He then saw an item online saying that in the latest updates to Google Photos you were limited to a single photo at a time. That is not acceptable.

The Gorse Fox started to look for a Plan B. As it happens, all of the photos being taken are available in the Mac Photos app. He can export them from there. Well, he can but though the internal metadata is correct, the file date and time is set to the when you download them, not when they were taken.

This has taken an inordinate amount of thought. The Gorse Fox suspects that he is now focussing in on a solution based on the extraction of the EXIF metadata - but a chunk of code needs to be cut.

Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox returned to Google Photos and tried one more time to download a couple of weeks of photos. Blam! It worked. The Gorse Fox is confused and irritated. He thinks that he will write the code for Plan B as a backup solution.

Ruby

It is an important day. Today sees the 40th Anniversary of the wedding of the Silver Vixen's cousin - big Trevor and Sue. Their son, Fireman Jon, had arranged a surprise BBQ/Garden Party for them up in Faringdon.  

So it was that the Silver Vixen, Urban-Cub, Ellie and the Gorse Fox found themselves motoring across country into the Oxfordshire countryside. 

The SatNav had chosen a ridiculous route and took us on numerous side roads to get there. In the end the journey took two and half hours. Having said that, Ellie was as good as gold the whole way and we saw some lovely countryside.

When we arrived it was all a bit emotional (but then we have that effect on people). 

We sat and chatted with family and with some of their old friends. The children played and the BBQ started to heat up. Clouds scudded across the sky, and we had a few drops of rain. It didn't come to anything and we didn't even seek shelter. More people arrived, including cousin Beck. 

It was lovely. Everyone seemed to have a really good time and the BBQ was excellent.

We started to say our "goodbyes" and when it was time to go the Gorse Fox selected a different route home. It added about 12 miles to the route, but saved about 40 minutes on the journey time. Ellie had slept most of the way home, so we allowed her to stay up for a bit to let off steam. The Gorse Fox took the opportunity to upload and share the photos and videos from the day.

A degree of normality

 With the exception of the fact that Urban-cub and Ellie were staying at Cousteau-cub's overnight. We were back to normal. The Gorse Fox was up first and then after breakfast, he retired to the study to catch up on various bits of admin, while the Silver Vixen dived into the week's laundry

The admin was interesting in that part of it was a response to Virgin Holidays to ensure that their repayment went to the correct account. The countdown is really on! Once that was handled the Gorse Fox moved on to Barclaycard. The refund he has been expecting from Jamaica still hasn't arrived so he started on the official dispute process. This meant filling in their dispute form and providing loads of documentary proof of the claim. This had to be posted and as it was a heafty wedge of paper, the Gorse ~Fox had to run it round to the post office. The last item of admin was a form from the local Police. Their evidence officer had determined that the USB stick on which the Gorse Fox submitted some CCTV evidence of an attempted vehicle break-in was no longer needed. The Gorse Fox could come and claim it, or sign a disclosure allowing the police to dispose of it. He chose the latter option.

This afternoon we had a bit of shopping to collect for a family celebration tomorrow. That done, we settled down to await the return of Urban-cub and Ellie. We didn't have long to wait before the peace was shattered and everything returned to what passes as normal in this house.

All Done

What a night. 

The gales blew relentlessly across the Devon coast. The Gorse Fox slept through the storm but at one point the balcony furniture was upended with a crash that woke the Silver Vixen. When we got up this morning the gale was still full of fury as it whipped up the waves and hurled them against the breakwaters and beaches.

Today was check-out day. We had most of our packing done before breakfast. That way we could take our time and enjoy a leisurely feast before setting off. That was another lovely break at the hotel that is rapidly becoming one of our real favourites. The Gorse Fox has no doubt that we will be back before too long.

He should mention the lengths to which the hotel have gone to protect their guests and staff from Covid-19. As you enter there is a sanitiser station and the reception desk is protected by a large perspex screen. All of the staff wear face screens. Wherever you go in the hotel you must wear a mask (though you can remove it if your are sitting down to eat or drink), and further sanitiser stations are available on entry and exit of every public space. Meals are taken in three sittings to enable social distancing. In the suites, you have to ensure that all personal items are packed away before leaving you room so that the staff can service and re-sanitise the room. As you occupy any table that contains a blue "sanitised" label, the label was removed and swapped for a red "Requires Sanitisation" label. As you left the table (be it in restaurant, the bar, or one of the lounges) the staff descended on the area and sanitised the table and the chairs, then replaced the blue "Sanitised" label. It really was a very well-oiled machine.

Finally, with the car loaded, we hit the road. The car's SatNav suggested it might take about 3 hours. The car's SatNav needs to get its act together! It was a Friday in August. The traffic was going to be foul... and certainly was! Bridport, Dorchester, West Moors, and Ringwood were all snarled up. Even Chichester had almost gridlock on the bypass. The Gorse Fox nipped round the back, through the town, and out the other side. It probably took us less time than it would have to get to the first roundabout. That was a result, but even still the whole journey had taken us about four and a quarter hours.

It was nice to get home and have Ellie leap on us. She was clearly very pleased to see us and was very chatty and playful. She and Urban-Cub are off to stay overnight with Cousteau-Cub tonight so the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen have the place to ourselves.

Drying Weather

Today has been, what Nan Mac would have called, good drying weather. A stiff wind has swept the cobwebs from every nook and cranny throughout the day. It has meant that clouds came and went in quick succession. When the sky was clear.it was lovely and warm, but when there was cloud cover the wind felt a bit cool.

The question for the day was “What should we do?”. We decided that we would start by walking off breakfast with a wander up to the Connaught Gardens. The gardens have, year after year, won awards for Britain in Bloom (or something similar). The Gorse Fox noticed that it hasn’t won for the last two years. It was not really surprising. Whilst it was still nice for a stroll, and offered some wonderful views, the gardens were neat and tidy but hardly a riot of colour. 

We sat for a while, looking out over the beach to the west as families set themselves up for the day, and frolicked in the edge of the surf. As you look west you can see a number of stacks that have been created by the sea breaking through the soft Triassic mudstone (which also accounts for the reddish brown colour of the sea). 

We wandered back along the Jacob’s Ladder walkway. It was clear the beaches would be well used today. We returned to the hotel to get the car.

The Gorse Fox had an urge to explore Seaton, about 10 miles to the east. He had a vague recollection of driving through it once, many years ago. We found our way across and parked in the short stay car park. The village seemed rather quaint as we made our way down to the promenade. 

The sea was totally different at Seaton. Obviously there was a pocket of chalk, and the sea was no longer discoloured. The wind continued to blow and cast a fine spray across the pebbles as we walked along the front. Deciding after a while that there was very little else to see, we turned back and looked for somewhere to get a coffee.

Seaton has a tramway. This drew us to find out more. There is an impressive tram terminus where you can get tickets for a 25 minute journey along the banks of the Axe, through the wetlands, to Colyton. We thought about taking the return journey, but there was a bit of a queue and it did look a bit “cosy” on the tram. Whilst masks were mandatory, there really was no opportunity for social distancing. We decided this would be a trip for another time.

Overall, there are parts of Seaton that were quite pleasant and the seafront was quite nice, but it seemed to lack the charm of Sidmouth. We hopped in the car and returned.

We had planned to sit on our balcony and soak up the sun. As soon as we got settled, the clouds swept across again and it was too cool to stay out in shorts and light t-shirts. We are now sitting in “our” prime position in the lounge enjoying an afternoon cream tea.

Anniversary

At least the weather was lovely 47 years ago when the Silver Vixen was silly enough to marry the the Gorse Fox. Today it should have emulated that day, but no. Today we are locked in the horned of Storm Ellen (the remains of Tropical Storm Kyle). The rain is almost horizontal as it it blasted across the the beach and into East Devon.

We had a hearty breakfast at the hotel and then decided that we needed to find an indoor venue for the morning. Several years ago Barney Rubble took the Gorse Fox to an impressive farm shop in the area. The Gorse Fox could not remember where, but looking back through old photos from that trip, he found a relevant photo that had been GPS tagged. A minute later the SatNav was programmed and we were on our way to Dart’s Fram. I seem to remember it as being a bit larger, but it was still impressive. We wandered round the Cotswold Outdoor shop first, but we didn’t buy anything. Then we went to the main entrance to the farm shop and joined the queue to go in. (They were managing the flow of people in order to maintain some social distancing). We found an interesting bottle of Coconut Rum so had to grab a bottle to try.

We headed back to Sidmouth then wandered down into town. The rain had let up, but not stopped. The wind, however, had really picked up. Once we left the Esplanade and headed into the lanes we were well sheltered. We started with a coffee at Costa, which because of the Government Eat Out to Help Out scheme only cost £2.75 for the two of us. We then wandered around the shops, stopping finally at Crew Clothing where we finally had a suitable credit card melt-down.

Back at the hotel it was time for afternoon tea as we sat perched in to prime spot of the lounge looking both out to sea and down across the town.

Time passed and the Silver Vixen wanted to shower before dinner so we returned to the room (showering in the Lounge is frowned upon). The Gorse Fox spent a quiet hour reading until she was ready and then we pottered down to the bar for a pre-dinner drink. Dinner, at our usual table, was excellent. The Silver Vixen had prawns to start and then plaice, the Gorse Fox had mackerel to start and then liver. For dessert we both had panna cotta which was served up on plates with “Happy Anniversary” scribed in dark chocolate. A nice gesture.

Rain

The rain has been hammering across the seafront all morning. What a change from yesterday when we arrived.

Back in Sidmouth

The Silver Vixen spent the morning packing and then we headed off to Chichester where she had a dental appointment. The Gorse Fox waited in the car until she was finished and then we headed west for a short break in Sidmouth.

It was a very easy drive across and whilst Google suggested it would take three and a quarter hour, we were there in an easy and relaxed three hours.

The Covid precautions that the hotel had put in place were excellent, even to the point of ensuring the pen we signed in with was taken by the Gorse Fox from a sanitised envelope and then given to him to keep. Everything is sanitised and then as soon as it is touched or used, it’s red flagged for sanitisation. We unpacked in the room and then headed out for a walk along the Esplanade. (The forecast for the next few days is dreadful, so it was good get out while the sun was still shining).

The Gorse Fox took lots of photos as we strolled around. It was good to see people enjoying the beach and swimming in the sea. The Silver Vixen commented that she wouldn’t be in the slightest bit tempted. The water near the shoreline is a browny-red from the underlying rocks, and there was a fair bit of seaweed. Neither would encourage her to dip her toes in. Similarly, neither would stop the Gorse Fox.

We returned to the hotel and sat on the terrace in the afternoon sun. It seemed like the ideal time for a rum & coke and glass of beer.

Returning to our room, we changed for dinner and headed down to the bar. In a change from previous trips, they actually took our dinner order while we were enjoying a pre-dinner drink. We had a prime table at dinner, and our waitress from a previous trip, which was nice. The food was, of course, excellent and we are now sitting in the lounge enjoying an after-dinner tea/coffee.

A short break

It's nice to be back in genteel Sidmouth for a few days. Weather forecast isn't great but we'll make the best of it.