Which?

It was a positively foul day. The rain was sheeting down, it was dark, and there was a strong and gusty wind. It was good that we had nothing scheduled for the morning.

The Gorse Fox called Old Bill. He subscribes to Which? magazine. With a decision needed regarding the washing machine, it seemed like a good cross-check to make. So it was that the Gorse Fox spent an hour or two reading through various reports and tables only to conclude that we had chosen well. Order was submitted and new machine is scheduled to be installed at the end of the week.

In the afternoon we did have to venture out. We were scheduled to visit the Silver Vixen's cousins in Brighton. We clambered into the car (life vests and distress flares were checked along with the muster points) and set off into the storm. It was a very nasty drive but we arrived without incident.

As we sat down for some tea, the Gorse Fox revealed that had remembered to bring his USB stick with Ubuntu. (This had been a bit of a joke as the last few times we had met up Rick Wakeman was meant to have brought his old laptop or the Gorse Fox was meant to have brought the stick). After a bit of discussion a complete overwrite/build was decided on. It was a fairly slow old machine, but 30 minutes or so later it was a slow old machine that had been completely resurrected with clean new operating system.

We had a table reserved at The Giggling Squid in Hove. We all piled back into our car and set off. The storm had not abated in any way. We managed to park opposite the Town Hall and then walk round the corner to the restaurant. It wasn't far, but those 50 yards or so were enough to soak us all to the skin. We dripped into the restaurant and quietly steamed in warmth as we selected our drinks and our food. This was the first time that the cousins and aunt had tried Thai food (properly) and the selection took a while, but in the end everyone seemed happy with their choices and thoroughly enjoyed the meal.

By the time we had finished the rain had stopped and the wind had dropped a bit. We returned for a coffee and chat before setting off home. It had been a very pleasant evening (even if the Silver Vixen did manage to leave her umbrella behind).