G-Force

Urban-Cub was back at work today after her week's holiday. She dropped Ellie off with us first thing. Today is an INSET day, which means the school is not open for pupils. In turn, this meant that the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were in charge for the day.

Ellie was pretty good all day. We tried to get her to play with a spirograph, but the coordination proved too much at the moment. We switched to a jigsaw. This was much more successful. She also did painting, some craft work, and we did some reading with her as well as working on her numbers. She managed to unlock 7 more levels on the numbers app. This was a good performance. During the afternoon we took her to the park so that she could let off some steam.

Alongside all this the Gorse Fox managed to get in to the Post Office and send off his old Apple Watch for a refund and made it to the train station to reclaim the fares for the aborted trip to London for reunion he had organised and Storm Eunice had disorganised.

Clean Bill, and Sacrilege

The Gorse Fox had no football today. It was the only day where he could get an appointment with the Optician. This allowed a very slow and lazy start before he had to head off to Sainsbury's where SpecSavers have an implant. 

Because of his advanced age, the eye test was free - though and extra £10 provided a CT Scan of the back of his eye. For the sake of £10, he felt it was worth it. He was very happy. A completely clean bill of optical health and though there were signs of incipient cataracts the analysis was that it would be many years before they had any impact or needed any treatment. The Gorse Fox was very pleased, given the issues his little sister has had.

Not really too much to report for the rest of the day. The Gorse Fox spent a lot of time trying to work out why the Silver Vixen could not control, or even detect, the Sonos from her phone, but the Gorse Fox could from his. Several hours of research and several re-installs drew a blank. This is a problem for another day.

Talking of the Sonos, the Gorse Fox had a chance to listen to Beth Hart's tribute to Led Zeppelin. Wow! It may be sacrilegious but what an album. She is like a cross between Robert Plant and Janis Joplin and has a voice that is perfect for Led Zeppelin rock. The Gorse Fox is smitten. His analysis would say that the tracks are as good as the originals, and in a few cases (particularly "Kashmir") even better.

Spectacular

The Gorse Fox has managed to find an old pair of glasses. They are wonky. The short vision is the wrong prescription. They are uncomfortable. Thank goodness he has an appointment at the optician tomorrow. Another few weeks or even months without visual clarity would be quite trying. 

You win some...

 It was another lovely, leisurely start to the day. No hurry to get up so the Gorse Fox lay in until 7:30. At 9:00 it was time for the cousins' call. There was nothing much to report but one, who shall remain nameless, was clearly hung-over after a momentous session.

Urban-Cub had entered a competition with the local butcher. She won. This morning she managed to get along and collect £60 worth of meat. This was clearly too much for her, Ellie and Darren. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen benefited with a donation of a fresh chicken and 4 huge lamb chops (they called them Barnsley chops) which are the size of beef steaks. There we were trying to run down the freezer, but now it has been topped up again.

The rest of the day has been spent looking at the Canadian/Polish side of the family and trying to fill in more details for Agent Mulder's family. It was quite successful and additional information has now been added to the family tree.

Watch it

 The Gorse Fox allowed himself a lie-in. It was 7:40 before he found his way out of bed. Unfortunately, Jasper had decided to evacuate in the litter tray, so the Gorse Fox spent the first ten minutes sorting out a major dump and the accompanying smells. Once that was sorted out the rich aroma of good coffee overcame the residual smell of cat crap.

The morning was spent on admin. The most pressing item being the accounts, after a few days away. Everything balanced perfectly, so the Gorse Fox was pleased.

A message arrived. DHL would deliver his new Apple Watch today. Ooooh! Exciting! There was no real clue as to when it would arrive so he read the instructions for disabling the old watch and then decided to ignore it until the DHL courier arrived. As it happens he arrived by about 16:30 so the Gorse Fox is now the proud owner of a new watch and it has just finished its set-up process and restored its data from the Gorse Fox's backup.

Most of the rest of the day has been spent on the post-trip washing, by the Silver Vixen and her latest sewing project for Ellie. The Gorse Fox has been doing some family tree tidying up.

Easing back

 We have been easing back into the swing of things today. After a very leisurely breakfast we went along to collect Jasper from the Cattery. He was his usual vociferous self for an hour or so, but has settled down now. Once Jasper was home and settled, we did the weekly shop. As we now have this down to a fine art, it only took about 30 minutes.

The Gorse Fox, still looking like a pretentious prat in his sunglasses, tried to book in to get an appointment at the opticians. Even taking a cancellation, the soonest he could book was April 1st at Boots. In the end he managed to get an appointment for this Sunday at SpecSavers. It will mean missing football, but he would rather get the glasses sorted out than run around chasing blurry figures.

Talking of glasses, the Gorse Fox did notice how expensive his glasses had become using the previous online supplier. They have doubled in price. After a little digging around, he did find another company who worked out even cheaper than the last supplier. He will hang fire until he gets his new prescription.

The rest of the day has been very quiet and relaxed.

Infamy

 Today is a day that will go down in history, a day of infamy. The psychopath Putin has given the order, invaded Ukraine and started a war in Europe the likes of which we have not seen of nearly 80 years. It is a day that will be remembered. It is one of the darkest days in Europe since Hitler.

Here in England we have seen a stirring speech in defence of Ukraine from our Prime Minister, Boris Johnson. We have seen a speech of support from the Leader of the Opposition, Keir Starmer. What is more worrying is that we have seen nearly a dozen Labour MPs sign a letter blaming the conflict on NATO and exonerating Russia. These MPs will also be remembered in history as unfit to hold office, a disgrace on the pages of history.

Too soon

 It was all over too soon. We started to pack before breakfast and The Gorse Fox even took a couple of loads to the car. At the appointed hour we met with J&T in the restaurant for breakfast. Outside, it was bright and sunny, but clouds seemed to be gathering inland.

With breakfast tucked away we finished the packing and loaded the car, Then the four of us took one last walk along the seafront to the end of the promenade and then back to the hotel. We did our goodbyes and J&T headed home via Dart’s Farm, and we headed up to Odcombe (near Montacute). It was a cross-county journey and was beset with diversions. The last of these meant that, in order to get back to the village, we had to traverse some of narrowest lanes and tracks we’ve ever been down. Fortunately the only two vehicles that were coming the other way, met us just as we passed field entrances, giving us room to slide past each other. In Odcombe, it took a few minutes to find the Mason’s Arms, but we got there eventually.

At the pub, we were meeting up with Badger and Mrs Tiggywinkle. The particular pub was chosen because it was (sort of) on our way home, and it was Mrs Tiggywinkle’s family pub. Her family used to come from Odcombe and her mother lived next door but one to the pub. They have family reunions there. It was quaint old pub that has been well cared for and nicely extended out the back.

It was lovely to see the two of them again. We must have known them since the 1980s when they too worked at Starfleet. We have kept in touch ever since. They never seem to change (nor age). As with all good friends, we seemed to pick up the conversations where we left off last time. We chatted about family, our houses (and the management committees for the developments), cars, and family trees (Mrs Tiggywinkle is an avid researcher, like the Gorse Fox).  

We had a lovely lunch but, all too soon, it was time to go our own ways. They headed back to Wellington, and we headed up to the A303 and back home via Salisbury. We finally got in just after 17:00.

The car was unloaded, suitcases unpacked, everything tidied away, and we sank into our armchairs for quiet evening and an early night. It had been a very lovely few days and the Gorse Fox had been thoroughly spoilt for his Birthday.

AMBIGRAM, Palindrome, Birthday

 Well it is an auspicious day. 22022022 a date which is: a palindrome (can be read forwards and backwards), an ambigram (can be read upside down - if you are using a suitable font), and the Gorse Fox’s birthday.

He started the day with various messages of good wishes and by breaking his spectacles. The lenses are fine, but one of the arms has sheared off. Fortunately, he had a pair of prescription sunglasses in the car… and is now wandering around looking like a pretentious prat wearing shades!

After breakfast, we all met up and drove into Exeter for the day. The prime purpose had been to see the Museum of the Moon exhibition in the Cathedral. The trouble was that all the timed entry slots were booked. We decided to go along anyway. We joined a short queue and voila… we were in.

It really was a very special exhibition with a huge model of the moon floating above the nave. People of all ages were there to see the spectacle (though not the Gorse Fox’s spectacles!) 

We wandered around the moon for a while then, cratered out, we took the opportunity to tour the Cathedral. We had a lovely hour or so there. Gasping for a drink we headed back to the High Street, but unlike Chichester, there seems to be a dearth of places to stop for a coffee or snack and those that were there were full. We found our way back to The Ship - a pub near the Cathedral - and managed to get some coffee. We strolled back towards the car, with a brief detour into John Lewis, then head back to Sidmouth.

In the hotel room, the Gorse Fox was greeted by a huge box. This contained a set of balloons. The Gorse Fox had no sooner unveiled these than J&T turned up at our door with cake, Prosecco, and some presents for the old codger. We had a lovely celebration before going our separate ways prior to dinner.

Beer

 With breakfast not scheduled until 9:15 we had a very lazy start to the day. It was a lot brighter, but still windy. By the time breakfast was over the sun started to break through and it has remained sunny for most of the rest of the day.

The Gorse Fox ventured out onto our balcony. With the weather having blown through overnight, this was the view that we couldn’t have seen yesterday.

Our room is right at the corner of the hotel, looking east over the town. It has a huge balcony (much larger than that in the Stateroom we usually occupy). It also has a brilliant walk-in rain shower. This is a room we will request again in the future.

J&T went off and Di their own thing today and we took a stroll into town, did a bit of shopping, then wandered back along the prom to the hotel. There was no firm plan, but we decided that we would visit Beer. It was only 8 miles along the coast so wouldn’t take long to get there.

The concierge at The Vic told us to visit the railway exhibition at Beer. Besides various model layouts there was a beautiful garden and an old Pullman car in which we could have lunch. It seemed like a good starting point and offered lovely views across the village.

In practice, that was all it offered.The gardens were closed, the Pullman car was closed, only the shop and the model railway exhibition remained open. We scampered round the exhibition and then returned to car and headed down into the village.

Beer was very picturesque. Much more so than the nearby Seaton that we visited last time we were down here. It was also a lot quieter.

There is an interesting break in the red cliffs. At Seaton the soft red cliffs give way to thick chalk cliffs reminiscent of East Sussex.

As you can see. The Silver Vixen was well wrapped up. In sheltered spots it was really quite warm, but unless you found such a spot you would be battered by the wind. There were very few hardy would venturing onto the pebbly beach.

We found a seat in The Anchor pub and enjoyed a coffee and a sandwich before venturing back out for a quick patrol of the village to make sure we hadn’t missed anything. Back at the car we set the SatNav to The Vic and made our way back to hotel for quiet hour or so before we head for the bar and dinner.

Brighter

 We had a lovely evening, meeting up with J&T in the bar and then going through to dinner. It was the usual 5-course feast with the girls opting for chicken main course and the boys both choosing calves liver. After a very leisurely dinner we retired to the lounge for some coffee before bringing the evening to a close.

Neither the Silver Vixen nor the Gorse Fox slept very well. The bed was comfortable enough, but we had eaten so much later than usual. It looks much brighter (though not sunny) out this morning. There are no firm plans but we will sort something out over breakfast.

All Bluster

 We were up at the normal time for a “school day”. We grabbed some breakfast and tea (not coffee before a long drive). With the car loaded we set off towards the west. We had a lovely drive across country. The roads were quiet and. Whilst windy, it wasn’t as wet as we had expected.

We arrive at The Vic in Sidmouth before midday. The Porter took our luggage and we went for quiet drink in the lounge. About 10 minutes later, J&T arrived and come to join us. We sat and chatted over some drinks and some sandwiches, watching the wind scour the promenade and a few hearty souls brave the sea.

It was time to stretch our legs so we got togged up and headed down to the prom. Walking east was no problem. The wind drove us along. When we turned back, that was another story and the Gorse Fox had to tow the Silver Vixen along. As usual, we stopped at various shops in the town and a few items of clothing threw themselves onto the credit card.

Once back at the hotel we unpacked and grabbed some tea. We are now having a quiet hour before going down for dinner.

Spa

 Despite having no reason to get up, the Gorse Fox was awake and roaming the house by 6:45. Several coffees kicked him into gear for the day. There wasn't too much planned but there was the morning call with the cousins. As usual, this was fun and provided the Gorse Fox an opportunity to poke fun a those living up north. He explained that we had had a power cut to remind us what living up north would be like... but it only lasted a couple of hours as we had our people fix it.

The next thing on the agenda was depositing Jasper at the cattery. Well, Jasper clearly knew something was afoot. He went into stealth mode. We finally found him digging defensive trenches beneath Ellie's bed. We ignored him. He eventually concluded that he was wrong and nothing was happening. He came down for a snack then went back upstairs to snuggle down in the Gorse Fox's wardrobe shelves. Got him! He was transferred to his carrier and we took him across to the cattery. Once there, he settled down immediately, knowing that his spa treatment would be worth it (the Gorse Fox had suggested to Mark, at the cattery, that he got in some champagne and oysters for Jasper).

Once home, having stopped at the farm shop en route, we had a quiet afternoon and managed to get our packing done. We should be able to make an early(ish) start in the morning.

Plans, why bother

 Storm Eunice was upgraded to Red Alert in our part of the country and across London. Flights from Dublin were cancelled (where one friend was coming from), trains were cancelled or disrupted all across the country. The Gorse Fox’s long planned get-together was clearly a non-starter. As the cancellations came in the Gorse Fox put out a notice to one and all. It was cancelled, but he would rearrange the event for the Spring. The Gorse Fox phoned the restaurant’s owner and explained. He understood and looked forward to our new date. Now the Gorse Fox just has to start the whole process again.

The cancellation was probably a good thing. The local school decided to remain closed. This was probably a sensible solution. The Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen spent the day with Ellie and working through her various exercises, She was very good, though did find it hard to concentrate at times. All of her homework was recorded on “SeeSaw” and her teacher has already seen and marked the material.

Best Laid Plans

 The Gorse Fox thought he would have a lie-in. There was no hurry to get up for Ellie as she was at home. In the early hours, he woke and remembered that he hadn't put the recycling bin out. That was the end of matters with regards to the lie-in. He had to keep waking and ensure he got down to put the bin out at 7:00.

The morning improved after that. No more rushing around and not even an Ocado delivery. As we will be away for a few days, it hardly seemed worth it. A small top-up from Sainsbury's was all we needed.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks dreadful. Amber and red warnings are in place across the south. The Gorse Fox is meant to be going to London to meet up with his Band of Brothers. As the warning became more strident, old friends started to drop out. The original dozen is now a mere handful. The Gorse Fox still plans to go, as long as the trains are running. In fact, he went along to pick up his train ticket earlier on. With people having made the effort to get here from France and from Ireland, the least he can do is try to get to London from West Sussex.

Storm Dudley

 It was a quiet start. Ellie was back home and Urban-Cub had a day-off. Gorse Fox had a lie-in until 7:10 (there's no sense in over doing it). At the appropriate hour, he wandered round the corner to escort Urban-Cub and Ellie along to school.

Football was on the agenda. The Gorse Fox drove across to Worthing and paid his match fee. Teams were chosen and the Gorse Fox ended up on the Orange team. One look at the mix of players and it was clear that we had our work cut out for us and we would be very lucky to get anything from the game. Despite that, we had held the score to 2-2 at half time. What was nice was that Bone Crusher (Dudley) was back with us for the first time in a couple of years. He has been suffering from problems with his balance and had a great deal of investigation and treatment. He's back, and in the second half he scored one of our goals. Unfortunately, he didn't score more but the yellow team did. The final score was 7-6 to the yellows. The Gorse Fox isn't too disappointed, he felt that the had played well and with the players we had, that was a very good result.

It has been a quiet afternoon. The Gorse Fox was feeling a bit pooped from the morning so he spent much of the afternoon reading before retiring to study for 30 minutes on the family tree.

Sorted

 Ellie threw herself onto our bed at 6:30. She snuggled down under the quilt and lay fairly still until the alarm went off. She was up and about quickly and after breakfast, wash, and dressing she settled down with a large sheet of paper and started copying anything she could see written down anywhere. She is intent on writing and will copy anything she can see, even if it makes no sense.

Once dropped off at school, Ellie disappeared into class and we headed home. The Gorse Fox had decided to skip football today. He wanted to spend the time sorting out the problem with the family tree software. As it happens, that didn't turn out to be a problem. He removed the software and reinstalled from scratch. Voila, everything started to work again. He has spent the rest of the day trying to correct all of the mis-labelled locations.

Urban-Cub phoned. Her latest inventory at the store went well. It wasn't perfect, but it was more-or-less what she had expected.

The Gorse Fox received his new (Navy Blue) Passport today.

Frustration

 Ellie woke at about 6:30 and came into our room and launched herself onto the bed. We did manage to get her to lie still for about 20 minutes, but that was as far as it went. Once she had eaten breakfast she played with her Numicon number shapes and we worked on number bonds for the the number s 9 and 10. By the time that we had to leave for school her brain was properly warmed up.

After some initial admin, the Gorse Fox returned to his research. In the process of wandering through the data he noticed some inconsistencies in the definitions of places. Now the software has a facility to work through and standardise these. Well  that's what he thought. The problem was that it didn't work on the iMac  (Condor) in the way he thought it did. He switched to the Windows laptop (Merlin). It worked as he had remembered it. He then tried the MacBook (Harrier). It worked perfectly on there too. He went onto the support site. No help. He has started to debug it himself. He re-installed a backup copy of the app. No luck. He has now contacted the developer in Germany about disconnecting the software that the Gorse Fox has been testing for him. He awaits a response. It's just like the old days... working through the possibilities and documenting each step of the process.

Ellie had a play date after school. We now have her back with us overnight.

Early Celebration

 Today was a bit of a change from the usual Sunday. The Gorse Fox was not playing football. His dear Aunt and cousins had invited him and the Silver Vixen to meet them in Arundel for lunch as an early celebration of his forthcoming birthday.

The rain started just as we left home. It was a bit of a faff getting a parking spot in the car park, but we managed to get the last but one space. With the rain set in for the day, it was good that we the restaurant was only a few shops away, along the High Street. We met up in La Campania. It gets good reviews in TripAdvisor. and they were well deserved. It was a cosy little spot with a wide ranging Italian menu. The Gorse Fox chose some pancetta wrapped scallops to start, then a Penne Alfonsina as his entree. Both dishes were delightful. Others chose pizza, salmon and prawn salad, and several other dishes - they were all demolished in quick time. 

We sat and chatted (or in the Gorse Fox's case - listened) for a couple of hours. We heard about the new apartment, the fact that nobody talks to dear Aunt because they all keep to themselves, the fact that one of her neighbours invited her for tea (thus not keeping to themselves), the fact that there is only one shop in the village, then a description of at least seven shops in the village... there were several further topics (cycled round several times). It was nice to see them all, but it would have been nice to chat with the cousins.

Leaving Arundel we dropped off at Urban-Cub's house to collect some stuff for Ellie. Pistol Pete would be dropping her off to us and she is staying overnight.

Keen as

 It was another lovely dry and bright day. The Gorse Fox was up and about and ready for his weekly cousins' call. It went, much as usual, with trivia, banter and silly stories. As usual, it was over too quickly.

Betty and Barney Rubble were due, but the Gorse Fox had an hour to do some family tree research. Not much was achieved, but some tidying up was a by-product. Once Betty and Barney arrived we settled down for a chin-wag over coffee and biscuits. We caught up on all the family news and ailments and their current exercise of buying a new car. They seem to be intent on driving a good deal and downsizing to a single car. The current main (only) contender is the Toyota Corolla.

We all headed into Bognor Regis and parked on the front. We had a table booked at Mustard's. We had a lovely lunch. The Silver Vixen started with ham hock followed by fish and chips; the Gorse Fox started with Thai fish cakes followed by calves' liver and mustard mash. We sat and chatted for a couple of hours over lunch then made our way home.

Back home the Gorse Fox put on some tea just as the phone rang. The Silver Vixen answered. It was a dear Aunt. A dear Aunt who is not known for her brevity. A dear Aunt who is known for her repetition. A dear Aunt who we will be seeing tomorrow. The Gorse Fox carried on with some tea and a dessert for Betty and Barney until the Silver Vixen was able to extricate herself and rejoin us.