Adapt

 We were up early as we expected Ellie to be dropped off soon after 7:00. The front door opened and we listened for the usual whirlwind as she charged in. Nothing. Instead it was Urban-Cub. She had already been in to work at Billingshurst, then had to turn back to Chichester because of staff shortages. Meanwhile, Ellie had woken with a streaming cold and couldn't go to school. Urban-Cub would stay with her for a couple of hours and then Darren would free himself up from work so that he could take over when Urban-Cub had to return to the store. With none of the usual school based processes, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had a lazy breakfast before heading out.

Being Wednesday, the Silver Vixen had Pilates and the Gorse Fox dropped her off before continuing on to Worthing. We had a 6-a-side match today. The Gorse Fox was playing in Orange. The teams were fairly well balanced and it took a while before there was a breakthrough. Terry passed the ball from the wing and the Gorse Fox stroked it past the goalkeeper. It was well-worked and very satisfying. A few minutes later, the Gorse Fox score a second goal with, what the Americans would call, a daisy-cutter, rifling the ball along the grass from the halfway line into the bottom corner of the goal. It was bit lucky, but a goal is a goal. At halftime it was 2-1 to us. In the second half the yellow team changed their tactics and pushed different players into attack. They equalised, then went ahead before we finally drew level. Final score 3-3.

When we got home, we stood chatting to the neighbours before going in. Old Bill had a nice Lexus on loan for a test drive. It was very smart but far more money than the Gorse Fox would spend.

After a bite of lunch the Silver Vixen retired to the Orangery and phoned her sister while the Gorse Fox wandered into the village to get his hair cut. The rest of the day has been spent with our books.

Mixing

 Ellie was a bit better so the Gorse Fox went round to escort her to school. The Silver Vixen is planning to go along to meet her at the end of the day.

Once back home we did the car dance so that the Gorse Fox could go across for football. The Silver Vixen had plans to meet up with Gracie Fields for coffee in Arundel, so she would be needing her car. The Gorse Fox had a quick run through and getting his boots on soon after 9:30. We had a problem that one of the two pitches on which we normally play had been locked off. The surface is so worn that it is becoming dangerous. Technicians have been called, but it will be several days before they can intervene.

We split the squad into 4 teams. Early arrivals (like the Gorse Fox) played on the big pitch, and latecomers were relegated to the 5-a-side cages. The games were such a contrast to last Tuesday. Today we saw no rain while we were playing and the sun even popped out briefly. The sides didn't seem very well balanced at first glance and the Gorse Fox's team were doing a Stirling representation of The Alamo as we repelled wave after wave of attacks. Our team even managed a breakaway goal. The first two games were 1-0 in our favour, then 0-0. In the final game we all loosened up a bit and the final score was 4-3 to the other side. All the games were very enjoyable.

Soon after the Gorse Fox got home the heavens opened again and we had a torrential downpour that lasted and hour or so. That, however, seemed to clear the air and it has been dry since. The Gorse Fox got a message from Cousteau-Cub. It would appear that the Coventry Hobbit has changed his car. He now has a very smart looking Merc SLK hardtop convertible. She sent some photos. The Gorse Fox is very jealous... but suspects that in reality neither he nor the Silver Vixen could lower ourselves into it, nor lift ourselves out of it - so it is best with the kids.

Isolating

 We are still isolating from Ellie as we need to be sure she has shaken off her cold before she comes in contact with the Silver Vixen.

We've had some torrential rain again today.

It was quiet day, just pottering around the house. A new vacuum cleaner was delivered yesterday evening so the Gorse Fox fired it up and went through upstairs and downstairs. It seems to do a good job, but time will tell. The Silver Vixen took the opportunity to clear the cupboard under the stairs (man-cave) so that we had somewhere to store the vacuum.

This afternoon featured a trip to the hospital so that all of the checks could be completed prior to the Silver Vixen's upcoming procedure.

Senile

 It has been a quiet day. We discovered, yesterday, that Ellie has developed a cold and as a result, Urban-Cub has re-arranged several things this coming week to ensure that the Silver Vixen is kept clear of her. We don't want any viruses or infections. This is the same reason that the Gorse Fox has stopped playing Sunday football. As the Sunday game is indoors, the chance of picking up some pathogen or other is heightened and he is not willing to take that risk.

So it was that the Gorse Fox had a quiet morning at home. The Silver Vixen spent much of the day preparing documentation for her visit to the hospital tomorrow. The Gorse Fox spent time on the computer dealing with a batch of old family photos that cousin Sarah had sent. Each one had to examined. Who was featured? When was it taken? Where was it taken. All of this had to be recorded in the metadata, then the photo filed correctly and a backup taken.

Talking of the backups, the Gorse Fox uses "barnowl" to control these backups. As these were photos from bygone years, they would not be picked up by the standard backup (which focusses on this year). There is, however, a clever routing that the Gorse Fox can run which, given a year, will update the backups for the year in question and hoover up the new files. Well that's the theory. The Gorse Fox made a meal of it because he had forgotten the login sequence for barnowl. He must be getting senile. It was several hours later, while he was eating dinner, that had that Eureka! moment and remembered the correct format for the command. Problem sorted and all relevant backups have been updated.

Out of Stock

 It was a leisurely start. In the case of the Gorse Fox, that means that he got up at 7:05 rather than 6:50. Even then, it was because that was when he woke naturally.

As usual, he had his morning Zoom call with the cousins. For today he chose a backdrop of cousin Sarah's illustration of Southwold seafront. This proved to be a good subject for further conversation.

Urban-Cub dropped by mid-morning. Ellie had come down with a cold (or at lest, that was what we hoped). She needed some medicine to see her through. We, of course, had what was needed. Urban-Cub, conscious of the Silver Vixen's state of health, went home and re-arranged cover for most of the coming week.

We popped in to Aldi, briefly (and fully masked up) to see if they had any Air-Fryers still in stock. They didn't. We left 5 minutes later, empty handed.The rest of the day has been very quiet.

Calm

There were no disturbances overnight. Ellie slept through until 6:50 when she padded into our room and asked if she could watch her tablet. As the Gorse Fox was about to get up, he handed it over and asked her to keep the volume down.

Ellie was excited this morning. They could wear their own clothes (as opposed to uniform) today, and the school day would be immediately followed by a disco! She had already selected her outfit and insisted that Nana did a side ponytail for her hair. She knows what she wants. We deposited her at school and wandered home.

We had a quiet day. The Gorse Fox caught up on some emails, spent some time on next year's budget, and responded to the company that claims it can solve our problem with the bathroom mirrors. He also spent a great deal of time researching Air Fryers and whether they would be a sensible addition to our kitchen (the jury is still out).

The rest of the day has been spent with our books with the exception of a nice phone call from the Gorse Fox's old friend Mike (who now lives in France and we were due to visit in May). It was nice to have a chat, particularly as it confirmed a memory that the Gorse Fox had regarding an old teacher of ours who had recently been misidentified in a school obituary as Bro. Luke whereas the Gorse Fox was certain he was Bro. Lawrence. Mike confirmed that Gorse Fox wasn't yet senile!

Disturbed

 It was another stormy night, though not as bad as the night before. Something clearly disturbed Ellie because, by soon after 1:00, she was tucked up in our bed between the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox. She kept whispering to the Silver Vixen and it was an hour or so before she dropped off to sleep. Fortunately, she didn't fidget too much.

The Gorse Fox got things going at 7:00 and we followed the usual morning routine to get Ellie ready and take her to school.

The rest of the morning was occupied with the usual shopping events and the update of the accounts. 

With the heating firing up yesterday, the Gorse Fox planned the schedules for the four zones in the house and then set about programming them. This was all very fine, in principle, but he wanted to change the mode so that instead of programming four heating events for each of 7 days, he could programme them for Monday to Friday as one group and Saturday and Sunday as another group. This worked fine for one of the zones, but when tried on the second zone the thermostat just went blank. Not good. In the end, the Gorse Fox did a factory rest on the thermostat. What he hadn't realised was that this is not instantaneous and when was present with a blank screen when trying to re-enter the data, he started to panic. It took a good 5 minutes or so for the reset to complete and the behaviour retuned to normal. Eventually, all the zones have been set and we now need to monitor them to check they are comfortable enough without being profligate.

Curry favour

We had the usual start to the day with Ellie being dropped off. She was very bubbly this morning and couldn't wait to get to school.

Once Ellie was delivered to class we headed home to get ready for our Wednesday exercises. The Gorse Fox drove the Silver Vixen to Angmering for Pilates and then carried on to Worthing for football. At first glance, the teams suffered from their usual imbalance. We, however, were immensely disciplined in defence and the whole team passed the ball well. We might have been the underdogs but by half-time we were level at 1-1 and by the end of the match we had won 3-1. Most satisfactory... and pleasantly dry after yesterday's soaking.

Back home we managed a couple of hours with our books before the Gorse Fox went to collect Ellie from school. When we got in, the Gorse Fox asked her what she wanted for dinner. He was most proud when she said she wanted a curry with yellow rice. An hour later we all settled down to a curry cooked from scratch.

We have finally succumbed to the inevitable and switched on the heating.

Stormy

 We had a few children call for Trick or Treat last night, but mainly friends of Ellie... and it was all done and dusted by about 19:00. It's probably just as well. Soon after a storm set in and we had significant rain and ever increasing wind. The gale howled well into the night and was still quite active when we got up.

Our garden furniture is quite sturdy and fairly heavy. It was no match for last night's wind, however. The table stayed put, but all of the chairs were blown across the garden and several of our pots had been toppled. The Gorse Fox picked them all up and tidied up. By the time he got back from football, they had been redistributed once more.

Ellie was dropped off and we got her ready for school. There was a break in the weather while we walked her there and returned home. The break lasted until the Gorse Fox walked out on the football pitch. It started to spit with rain. Then the wind picked up. Then the rain picked up. It was monsoon-like. The rain was so heavy that the Gorse Fox could not make out the goal at the far end of the pitch. What's more, the wind was driving it so hard that it actually stung as it hit bare skin. It didn't stop us. We played on and lost the first game 1-0, drew the second game 1-1. and drew the final game 0-0. As the games drew to a finish, the rain stopped. The Gorse Fox could not have been wetter if he was scuba diving.

More football tomorrow, so let's hope the boots dry!

Trick or treat

 Ellie was sleeping here overnight. Her body has clearly not understood the concept of changing the clocks. So it was that at 6:05 this morning she pattered into our room and got into bed with us. Fortunately, she lay still and stayed quiet for about 20 minutes... but then she was wide awake and therefore we were also.

After the usual morning pattern we dropped Ellie off at school and then wandered home for a leisurely breakfast. There wasn't a lot planned for the day. The Silver Vixen got on with some washing and the Gorse Fox steam-washed to hard floors. That was about it until the Gorse Fox went to collect Ellie from school. One of the mum had dressed up as a witch for the school run. That got the kids into the the right frame of mind. Urban-Cub came along to collect her and take her trick or treating, but we will see her again in the morning. (Frankly, we'll see her again tonight as she is sure to knock at our door).

Reception

 It has been a very quiet day. Firstly, the clocks went back, which meant that that the Gorse Fox had to force himself to stay in bed for an extra hour. This would not be an issue for many people, but for the Gorse Fox is was a real effort.

There wasn't much scheduled for the day, but even now we are not sure whether Ellie will be with us overnight. The Gorse Fox didn't have football today. It's not that there wasn't any, it is because the Gorse Fox is avoiding the indoor games at present because he wants to reduce the chance of picking up a virus or infection while the Silver Vixen is awaiting tests or interventions from the cardiac team. He will probably still play outdoor games, but will skip the indoor games. It's a shame, because he prefers the indoor 5-a-side games - but he has tone ultra-careful to protect the Silver Vixen. (Nothing on this planet is more important than that).

The Gorse Fox has just received an email from Amazon. Apparently, the order that he had request had been delivered "to reception".  Interesting. Firstly, the Gorse Fox has been "in" all day and within spitting distance of the front door, secondly, we have no reception, and thirdly standing a package in front of the front door (without ringing the doorbell) does not constitute "left at reception".

Chillin'

The Gorse Fox had problems aligning his thought processes to the fact that it was Saturday. Having, mentally, been ahead of himself all week by a day, he woke up this morning a day in arrears. It was not Friday, however much his brain kept telling him that it was. Caffeine was taken onboard, the Silver Vixen was greeted with fresh tea, ablutions were completed and the the cousins's call was initiated. Brain was rebooted.

The Gorse Fox did some cleaning up after Jasper had been trying to repurpose the side entrance as an outside loo. It was not pleasant but he refuses to clean up after himself. The Silver Vixen spent some time cleaning up the fallen leaves from the front of the house. This was interrupted by a long chat with Old Bill and Lady Penelope who were passing by on their return from a walk.

The afternoon has been fairly quite with some Kindle-time in the Orangery and the Silver Vixen  having a phone call from her sister. 

Replacing Valves

 It was a normal start to the day. It was dark, but it was dry and quite warm when the Gorse Fox got up and made his first coffee of the morning. There wasn't much scheduled for the morning so we had a very slow breakfast and then just pottered about. The Gorse Fox used the time to start carving out the accounts spreadsheet for 2023. It is, of course, a copy and adaptation of the 2022 version. New budgets have to be assigned and regular payments renewed (or cancelled) if required. There will be several further iterations before this is ready for prime time, but it is well on the way.

We had a quiet hour or two after lunch before making our way to hospital. The Silver Vixen had an appointment with the heart consultant. Well, that's what here letter said. The receptionist was confused when we arrived, apparently the consultant did not have a clinic today. She phoned the cardiac department and they said they would send someone to talk to us. 

It turned out that the person sent to speak to us was the consultant that the Silver Vixen was due to see. He was "on call" but made time to see us. He went through all of the information that had been collated and explained that the Silver Vixen would need surgery. Initially she would need an angiogram and then the surgery. He answered all of our questions and gave us an idea of the timescales. Whilst a little frightening, it is good to know that she is now in the system and waiting times are not unreasonable.

We stopped off to see Cousteau-Cub on the way home from the hospital. She seems fine again and is in the middle of a run of night shifts. It was nice to chat with her and with the Coventry Hobbit who is having a quite time at work at the moment as they get ready to ramp up for their next busy season.

Who ate all the pies?

 We had a slow start this morning. The Gorse Fox didn't emerge until 7:30. It didn't matter, there was nothing  that required an early start. Being Thursday we had the usual shopping delivery and then top-up at Sainsbury's. We also dropped some donations in to the local charity shop.

The rest of the day has been fairly quiet, though Ellie did drop in briefly with Urban-Cub and a classmate. They weren't here for more than about 5 minutes. It was long enough, however, for Ellie to notice that we had bought some mini pies... and she wanted one.

Talking of pies, we are not great consumers of pies though occasionally we will treat ourselves to a "Turner's Pie". Today we picked up a couple of individual pies while in Sainsbury's. One was chicken, the other steak. We have just had them for dinner and they were delicious.

Whitewash

 We had a lazy start to the day and enjoyed a quiet breakfast before getting ready for our Wednesday exercise. The weather was bright and sunny, but very windy as we headed towards Angmering so that the Silver Vixen could do her Pilates, and on to Worthing so the Gorse Fox could play football.

Today, the Gorse Fox was playing in Orange. The title says "Whitewash" but orange-wash may be more appropriate with the team selection Jack had dreamt up today. We managed to hang on for about 10 minutes, but then then the yellows started scoring at will. It is so frustrating when the four best players on the pitch are all assigned to the other team and you know that whatever you do, you are on a hiding to nothing. We got a hiding and we scored nothing.

The Gorse Fox collected the Silver Vixen on the back home and we had a quick lunch before going off to John Lewis for some new bedding. Traffic was dreadful, but we managed to get what we wanted and return home within the hour. The rest of the afternoon was spent with our books.

Ticker

 It seems that Cousteau-Cub was finally discharged from the hospital at 2:00. The view was that the anomalies they had found were not threatening and could be dealt with in Outpatients. She got a taxi home and the first that the Coventry Hobbit realised was when he woke up this morning. Cousteau-Cub slept through until early afternoon and will continue to rest as much as possible. She isn't due back on duty until Wednesday night - so hopefully she will be fit by then.

Because of the uncertainty regarding Cousteau-Cub, the Gorse Fox didn't play football this morning. As the weather broke and the heavens opened he admitted he was not sorry to be missing it. Overnight, Apple release the new Ventura version of MacOS, and IOS 16.1 for the iPhone and iPad. The Gorse Fox spent a couple of hours this morning install the updates on all of our devices. The installations are a little slow, but nothing too inconvenient. He did each device separately so he could test each one before moving on. So far he hasn't detected any problems.

We also have a new Prime Minister today. Some of the comments from party members are really quite vitriolic. It is a shame. Whether you like the way he came to power or not, he is still our PM and we should support him and want him to do well for the sake of the Country.

Apparently Ellie went to cinema with a classmate this morning. We are looking forward to hearing all about it when we see her next.

Most of the rest of the day was spent reading.

Patient transport

 The day started quite normally. That didn't last. Cousteau-Cub called. She had fainted at work overnight. After a discussion with the surgery this morning they had told her to go to A&E. The Gorse Fox hopped in the car and went along to take her to the hospital. He was happy to stay with her, but she insisted he went home. He told her to call when she needed a lift home.

It was a quiet at home. The Silver Vixen was on the phone to a girl friend so the Gorse Fox settled down with a book. That's how things stayed until mid-afternoon. Cousteau-Cub's phone battery was dying, the Coventry Hobbit didn't know what was going on, and intervention was required. Urban-Cub dug out a suitable charging cable and a power bank and dropped it round to the Gorse Fox. He headed back to hospital and settled down to sit with Cousteau-Cub until something happened. Nothing happened. In the end, the Coventry Hobbit returned from work, picked up the messages that had been left, called the Gorse Fox and headed in to hospital to wait with Cousteau-Cub. By the time the Gorse Fox left, Cousteau-Cub had been in the A&E system for 9 hours... We await news.

Storm

 There was a bit of a storm overnight. The rain clattered down against the house and the thunder rumbled around in the distance. By the time the Gorse Fox got up, just after 7:00, it was easing but it was still very wet. The rain actually stopped by the time the Gorse Fox headed off for football. The bizarre thing was that all of the kids games had been cancelled. For goodness sake! It's only water. When the Gorse Fox was young, nothing stopped us playing. The Gorse Fox would be willing to bet the kids would have played without a thought but their snowflake parents and coaches didn't want to spoil their hair dos or get their Range Rovers wet.

W~e had a great game. It was 5-a-side and the Gorse Fox's Orange team were a couple of goals adrift within the first 5 minutes. Then we began to pass the ball around and move into space. By half time we had turned things round and were 7-4 in the lead. The second half was much more "cat and mouse" and both sides scored several time. Even the Gorse Fox finally managed to grab a goal. Final score was a win for the Orange team, but nobody is quite sure the score.

Once back home, the Silver Vixen was in her sewing room and the Gorse Fox returned to his books. 

Very quiet

 Today has been immensely quiet. The Gorse Fox was up just after 7:00 and read the daily news and the social media before the Silver Vixen came down, He then had his weekly cousins' call. There was nothing startling to report.

Most of the morning was spent exchanging emails with a Skoda dealer, trying to get a deal on replacing the current car. In the end, the Gorse Fox concluded that it made little or no sense to change from our existing car. Now the question he faces is whether to see out the PCP deal or to end it early. Ending it early saves a few pounds but dips into our savings a bit. The Gorse Fox can feel a spreadsheet coming on.

Most of the afternoon was spent in the warmth of the Orangery reading our books.

Deep Joy

We had to be up a bit sharpish this morning as Ellie was being dropped off soon after 7:00. She was in a bubbly mood and brightened the dull morning for and hour or so before we had to take her to school.

The Silver Vixen had an appointment at the hairdresser and pottered off for much of the morning. The Gorse Fox made use of the time to steam clean the floors, update the Silver Vixen's MacBook, and update the accounts.

News was trickling in on social media regarding the selection of the new leader of the Conservative party and thus, Prime Minister. The Gorse Fox is keeping his powder dry, but was amused at the fury that the talking heads were venting regarding the possible return of Boris Johnson. The vitriol and threats being expressed at the possibility of his return make the Gorse Fox's heart soar... because if he does return and get in the sorts of people that will be cross are the sorts of people (along with the media) who stabbed him in back to begin with. It is quite clear from social media that he is the people's favourite. It will be interesting to see if he stands.

It has been a quiet afternoon, in the warmth of the Orangery, munching your way through our books. We collected Ellie from school but Urban-Cub was back within 20 minutes to collect her.