Marinade

 We have the Sonning Crew coming round tonight. All Lateral Flow Tests are negative. The Gorse Fox has got the pork fillets marinating in soy, honey, and various spices ready to accompany some Hasselback potatoes and salad... which still need preparing.

The Gorse Fox has used some of the day to prepare next year's spreadsheet for the accounts. All of the effort put in for last year's spreadsheet has really paid off. Instead of fiddling about for days, the Gorse Fox has done it all in an hour or so.

Key Moments

 It has been a miserable day weather-wise. Grey, damp, and occasionally wet. As far as Thursdays go, it was fairly typical. We had the Ocado delivery and then did our Sainsbury's top-up. Urban-Cub has finally got a negative Lateral Flow Test but still has to remain indoors for another day. Fortunately, that takes her to the weekend, which she was scheduled to have off anyway.

The Gorse Fox probably mentioned that he had got thoroughly fed up with the keypad that he bought for the iPad. On the dot of 10:00 this morning, UPS arrived and delivered the Logitech replacement he ordered last week. It is a little heavier, a little more robust, and best of all it seems to work flawlessly. It also has a lovely key-feel (which was always something the Gorse Fox disliked about the Apple keypad). So far, he is very pleased with his purchase - particularly as it was half the price of its Apple predecessor.

The afternoon has been spent working on the family tree. Today's approach was a little different. The Gorse Fox started working through DNA matches and trying to link them up to our tree. There were several successes, and several where the Gorse Fox could get with one generation of the matching person. It does, however, flesh out some parts of the tree that were looking a little sparse.

Research

 The Gorse Fox has had a full day of research the family tree. It has been very successful in as much as he has connected several DNA matches and also nailed a few more of the stories that he had received from the Silver Vixen's aunt. At first, many of these seemed like a stream of consciousness rambling, but, bit-by-bit he is actually managing to find evidence that supports most of these.

Urban-Cub is still c19 +ve, so is unlikely to return to work until next week.

Nothing else to report.

Visitors

 As revealed yesterday, we had Denise and Dom visiting us today. They weren't due until lunchtime, so we had a fairly relaxed morning, and the graven squeezed in some more family tree research.

By midday it was time to start on final lunch preparations. The curry was gently reheated on the hob, then put in the oven until needed, rice was prepared, bhajis were heated and naan readied. The Silver Vixen's salmon was readied for the oven and then we just waited for the guests. Apparently traffic had been heavy and it had taken longer than expected to get here. It made no difference to us as lunch could be readied for any time.

It was nice to see them both and we soon settled down to a chat and something to drink. Lunch was served in the Orangery. The curry went down a storm. It was a huge success and the heat that had worried the Gorse Fox yesterday, seemed to have mellowed overnight. It was now just delicious. We lingered over lunch... until we heard from Urban-Cub. Ellie had returned from Pistol Pete's, and did we want to come and say hello. Well, of course we did.

We wrapped up and wandered round the corner to Urban-Cub's and let ourselves into the back garden. We remained outside and Urban-Cub stood inside the door. Ellie rushed in and out, and across the square to her friend Broadie. (She and Broadie now have walkie-talkies so that they can talk to each other from home... even help us - though the Gorse Fox suspects we are just out of range).

We didn't stay too long. We settled back at home with some tea and later, some Christmas cake. We just sat and chatted until well into the evening. We heard about their Christmas, Emma, Remi and Louis, and Becky (and her award and promotion at work). We told them about all of our news and Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit's new jobs. It was nice to be able to catch up.

They had an hotel room booked at the local Premier Inn and left us at about 21:30. They weren't sure whether they would head straight home in the morning, or detour via Trevor and Sue's in Brighton. They will make their minds up tomorrow.

Cooking

 It was a gently start to the day. There was a little tidying up from yesterday, but nothing that took more than a few minutes. The Silver Vixen was called into action to squirrel things away in their correct hiding places and the Gorse Fox did the rest.

Most of the morning was spent on genealogy. No new significant discoveries but a lot of additional data for some of the Silver Vixen's relatives.

At lunchtime the focus changed. We have Denise (the Silver Vixen's sister) and Dom (her husband) coming to visit tomorrow. The Silver Vixen suggested that the Gorse Fox prepare a curry. This seemed like the opportunity to try a new recipe. This one was featured on TV a few weeks back on the Nadiya Hussain. This was not a quick recipe. The Gorse Fox was in for the afternoon. Cashews and whole spices were roasted, then four onions were caramelised, before garlic. ginger, salt, and tomatoes were added. When that had cooked down, more spices: turmeric, cumin, chilli, and so forth were added and cooked until the oils started to separate. Finally a kilo of beef chunks was stirred in. Topped up with water, this was then simmered on the stove for three hours. 

Now, it is finished and has been transferred to a pot that will fit in fridge overnight, and can be re-heated in the oven tomorrow. A word of warning, however, it is "hot".

Looking forward to Friday (when we have the Sonning Crew here for NYE) the Gorse Fox has to finalise the menu for the main course. Whilst he knows what he has in plan for the meat - pork fillet - he still hasn't decided on the accompaniments. His act needs to be go together so that any shopping can be planned

Urban-Cub made contact. She had taken another lateral flow test at lunchtime. She's still positive for C-19.

Bad Apple

 The Gorse Fox has an Apple keyboard for his iPad. To begin with, it seemed to work well. Now, however, it is flakey, to say the least. He has looked online and it is clear that he is far from the only person having problems with these nifty keypads. He can start typing and several letters into a word it will just stop working. Restarting the iPad will usually fix it for a few minutes.

The Gorse Fox is no longer happy to put up with this nonsense. He has ordered a new Logitech keyboard as a replacement. He has had several of their keypads in the past and they have always been rock solid. Let's hope this new one will be as reliable. It is scheduled to arrive by the end of the week.

Feasting

 After the quiet of Christmas Day, we had a busy day scheduled for today. The Gorse Fox was up soon after 7:00 and started the day with a Lateral Flow Test... which was negative, thank goodness. (The Silver Vixen started her day in a similar fashion and she too was clear).

Jane, Trevor and the Mask were due for lunch along with Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit. The Gorse Fox had to be ready. Potatoes (several metric tonnes, thereof) were peeled and cut, carrots were prepared, Brussel sprouts were trimmed, parsnips were peeled and trimmed, the ham was carved. The turkey was made ready, and the ingredients for stuffing balls wrapped in bacon, and pigs in blankets were lined up. As the clock ticked by each pieces was moved onto the chess board of lunch. Hobs were fired up, ovens were heated, serving dishes were retrieved from their hideaways. The countdown had begun.

Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit were first to arrive, followed closely by J&T and the Mask. We had a lovely time as the table was dressed and prawn and salmon was laid out for starters. Clearing the starters away, the Gorse Fox served up the main course. It seemed to go down well and everyone seemed to enjoy it. The Mask and the Coventry Hobbit were locked in battle over the consumption of roasted potatoes. In the end the Coventry Hobbit was victorious with some 16 tucked away under his belt. The Mask will have to bring his A-game next year.

While the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen cleared away, Cousteau-Cub, the Coventry Hobbit, J&T and the Mask walked round to see Urban-Cub and Ellie. They could only stand and chat from the garden, but at least they had a chance to see each other.

We had a quiet afternoon and everyone was blessed with some lovely presents from Santa Claus. By six-ish, everyone had left and the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were left to a quiet evening.

Home Alone

 What a strange, quiet Christmas.

Plans had to change. 

We were scheduled to go and spend Christmas with Urban-Cub. Urban-Cub, however, came down with Covid-19. We adapted. We had the first Christmas at home, by ourselves since 1973. Just the Gorse Fox and the Silver Vixen, it was lovely.

The tree is dressed and remains untouched. A side of salmon baked in the oven. A bottle of Prosecco was shared. We exchanged our cards. It really was quite special.

The phone started to buzz. Urban-Cub was up and about and clearly feeling a lot better. We chatted with her and later with Cousteau-Cub.

Urban-Cub needed some extra provisions, so just as we were about to serve up our lunch, we popped round the corner with some eggs and some cream. But this time, Ellie was back from Pistol Pete. She was so excited by the "Barbie's Playhouse" she had received that she played with it the whole time that we were there (Urban-Cub stood out in the garden). Needless to say, it took a lot longer to get away than the Gorse Fox had expected. When we got home, the carrots had roasted themselves to charcoal. It didn't matter, we made do with the salmon, some roast potatoes, and courgettes. (After all, we need to pace ourselves, given the various visitors we are expecting over the next week).

Prep

 The Gorse Fox was up first. He had planned to lie in for a bit longer but Jasper started his Olympic Trampolining routine at boy 7:15 so the Gorse Fox got up in the vain hope that he wouldn't disturb the Silver Vixen.

There were chores to complete this morning. The most important was to get the ham on. This meant cracking out the stock pot that he purchased yesterday.

Onion, carrots, peppercorns, celery, bayleaf, five spice and several litres of Coke (yes, the Real Thing) submerged the ham and the stove was fired up. When it finally reached the right temperature it was left on simmer for two and a half hours. Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox prepared a marinade. It was meant to have maple syrup, but the Gorse Fox realised he didn't have enough... so he replaced it with honey.

Eventually, the simmering was done and the ham left to cool slightly. The rind was peeled off and the remaining fat was scored. The marinade was poured onto the ham and it went into the oven. Over the next 90 minutes it was basted several times. Finally, it was done. It is now wrapped in cling film and sitting in the bottom of the fridge until Sunday.

While faffing about this morning, the Gorse Fox also retrieved the "party" table from the garage and got it all cleaned and set up in the Orangery. It is this time of year that the Oranger morphs into a large dining room.

During the afternoon, the Gorse Fox had a chance to spend some quality time in the Silver Vixen's branches of the family tree. As a result, he has made several corrections, and completed several bits of outstanding research. He also compiled a 4-degree relationship book of the Silver Vixen's relations. This goes through the tree and works out the various degrees of relationship - 1 step removed: parents, siblings, children; 2 steps removed: grandparents, uncles/aunts, 1st cousins, nephews/nieces; 3 steps.... etc. The final documents was some 389 pages of A4. (The Gorse Fox didn't print it!)

Laps

The Gorse Fox was up at his usual time. Though the alarm was not set, he woke and rose at 7:00. There were no specific plans for the day. He did, however, think about the preparation of the ham. Was the saucepan big enough to immerse it? Would the fluid end up all over the stove? He decided to measure the joint. It would not submerge in any existing pan.

The Gorse Fox headed off to John Lewis. Whilst the car park was packed, the store seemed quite empty. The Gorse Fox perused the cookware and, in the end, selected a large stock pot. Now, when he says large, he has realised that the Silver Vixen can actually do laps back and forth across it, and the Gorse Fox would need a Scuba tank, a regulator, fins, and a mask to find the bottom. Oh well, at least the ham will now be covered.

John Lewis was followed by a quick dash round M&S for some milk and some vegetables. It was crammed in there, but as usual, the self-service checkouts were under-used so the Gorse Fox was out within a few minutes.

We have finally heard that Urban-Cub does, in fact, have C-19, but that Ellie is clear. This means that Ellie can go to Pistol Pete over Christmas to give Urban-Cub a bit of relief.

It's been a quiet afternoon. The Gorse Fox did some of Urban-Cub's ironing, then returned to his study for some more family tree research. It was a fruitful session, even if there were no major breakthroughs.

National Service

 The Gorse Fox received the digital copies of his uncle's National Service records from the RAF. Considering the price tag, he was spectacularly disappointed with what came back. Other than provided a couple of dates, it didn't reveal a single fact that the Gorse Fox did not already know. It certainly failed to confirm various stories that he remembers from the uncle's time in the RAF... not necessarily because they were untrue but more likely because of the paucity of the detail that was recorded by the RAF at the time.

Adapt, adapt, adapt

 Though we had changed our phones to allow overnight calls, we had heard nothing. We assumed that Urban-Cub and Ellie had survived the night without incident. We went down for breakfast and waited for news. 

Cousteau-Cub was first to make contact. Though we had offered for them to come to us on Christmas Day, they decided to stay at home, leaving it until Boxing Day. Eventually, we heard from Urban-Cub. There were still no results from her test, but we needed to get Ellie tested. She didn't have any symptoms, but in order for her to see Pistol Pete over the Christmas break, we needed to show that she was fit and healthy - what's more he could take care of her while Urban-Cub was still isolating. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox collected Ellie and whipped round to the local testing centre. Swabs taken and deposited, we now await the results.

Urban-Cub had planned to do her shopping at work. The kibosh was definitively put on that. The list was sent to the Gorse Fox and he headed out into the Wild West (actually east) that was Sainsbury's. It was an absolute zoo. People were absolutely oblivious of each other and there were severalMexican stand-offs and the carnage of gridlocked trolleys. The Gorse Fox maintained his calm, somehow, and filled the shopping bags. There were only a couple of items he couldn't find. He checked out and headed for Lidl. Bleach was finally located and purchase. Then he remembered he was meant to get raspberries. He headed across to Aldi. Raspberries were added to the trolley and he was done. It had been several hours, but at least the Urban-Cub should be set for the duration of her isolation. (Otherwise, the Gorse Fox will have to do another trip).

Now we just have to wait for the various test results.

Best laid plans

We were meant to be looking after Ellie all day today. The Gorse Fox was up at the usual time, and the Silver Vixen soon followed. By 7:30 Urban-Cub was at the door with Ellie (who had only just woken up). The day had started as expected. During the morning Ellie played with here magnetic letters, her "Numicon" number games, her phonetic flash cards and had started on "Numbots". This was the sort of day that the Gorse Fox hoped would fill the sponge of Ellie's grey matter, ready for more tomorrow.

The Silver Vixen went off to get her hair done, leaving the Gorse Fox and Ellie to get up to mischief. It was while we were working on her Numbots that the phone rang. It was Urban-Cub. She had just tested positive for C-19 on a Lateral Flow Test. It was her second test of the day - the first one being negative. She had been feeling very unwell, so decided to take another. That was it.

Urban-Cub headed home to collect Ellie. As she had been exposed to Urban-Cub, she didn't want her to further risk infecting the Silver Vixen or Gorse Fox. The whole day changed. Urban-Cub headed off for a proper PCR test... and the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had an unexpectedly quiet afternoon. We are obviously waiting for the results of Urban-Cub's PCR, but suspect that Christmas plans will have to change... and the Gorse Fox will need a further trip to the shops. At least Urban-Cub was able to get all her shopping for the holiday period, though we could pick up anything she needs while isolating.

Countdown

 It is the countdown to Christmas and the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen are looking after Ellie during the day, as school has now broken-up. This meant that we were up at the same time as on school days, but there was no rush to get everything done.

Once we were all ready, we drove in to Chichester. We had some more food shopping on our list as Ocado wouldn't be delivering this week. We created a single list and started at Lidl where we managed to see Urban-Cub and her boss before we left. We got more than half of the items there, then dropped them off at home and the Gorse Fox went back out to Sainsbury's to fulfil the rest of the list. Lidl had been quite civilised, but Sainsbury's was a bit of a zoo. It was very busy and infested by people wandering round in a trance-like state or blocking aisles as they stopped to chat with other shoppers. The Gorse Fox thinks that the little handsets that are used for their "Smart Shopping" experience ought to be adapted to contain a) an air horn; and b) a taser.

We've had a quiet afternoon with Ellie. To start with she wanted to do some writing, then some colouring, and finally wanted to go to a show. This latter item involved moving all the chairs into rows and sitting to watch the TV. We managed to give her dinner during the intermission!

Out of the Frying Pan

 A deliciously lazy start to the day. The Gorse Fox was up soon after 7:15, the Silver Vixen about an hour later. There was nothing planned. There was no reason to hurry. We read the papers and had our breakfast. It was the perfect start.

Frequent readers will have noticed that the Gorse Fox has not mentioned the football. We decided that, with the current resurgence of C-19 Omicron cases, playing indoors was probably asking for trouble. We cancelled the game. The Gorse Fox has, however, taken another lateral flow test during the day, and it has come up negative.

once up and about, we headed in to Chichester. The Gorse Fox was determined to change our current roasting pans and trays. A trip to John Lewis was the chosen solution. The Silver Vixen went off on her own to get some serving dishes, towels and plates. The Gorse Fox waded through the selection of cookware looking for the best or most sensible replacements for our ageing and decaying pans. It took a while to find the right solution, but in the end it seemed like an excellent choice.

The Gorse Fox did look, briefly, at the le Creuset roasting pan. It was £185 and had a lifetime guarantee. Now, the Gorse Fox is (rapidly) approaching 70. £185 seems like a lot of money when the Gorse Fox's lifeline will probably expire many years before that of the the roasting tin.

This afternoon we have been completing some domestic chores and doing a bit more family tree research. Pistol Pete dropped Ellie off and she stayed with us until Urban-Cub got back from work and her booster jab.

Amateur Research

 Another lovely lazy morning. There was the usual cousins' call but then, throughout the day there were the odd chores that needed attention, but most of the day has been focussed on the family tree.

Over the last few days the Gorse Fox has found the various side branches to the Silver Vixen's ancestral tree. He had made a quick drive through the generations to see where it would take us. As far as these families are concerned, we seem to be centred around Frome and Pilton. Today was all about going through those discoveries and filling in whatever details and accompanying evidence were available. It was frustrating at times, but we now have the documented evidence to support the assertions made yesterday. The Gorse Fox can feel the need for a road trip to take some photos and trawl through some graveyards.

On the the subject of evidence and doing "sense checks" - the Gorse Fox has complained before about the stupidity that is found in some online trees. Today he has found another example. He found a case were a certain Katherin did, according to 3 researchers, have her first child at the age of 9. Needless to say, the researchers had just copied each other and none of them had shown the slightest modicum of intelligence. In fact, when it comes to this family the Gorse Fox has concluded that it is a waste of time looking at the trees that "Ancestry" suggests are relevant. Firstly, they are poorly researched, secondly they have no credible sources, and thirdly they waste so much time. For goodness sake people - do it right or don't do it at all.

On a completely unrelated tack, we currently have the Water Board (or whatever they are now called) outside the house. Apparently, there have been problems "upstream" which they have been investigating and are now ensuring there are no further problems near our part of the "flow". The Gorse Fox has just been out to offer them tea, but they declined. It seemed the right thing to do as they were working on a Saturday evening. 

Still rolling

 It was a very relaxed start to the day. No alarm, no visitors, just the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox getting up and about as we were ready. The Silver Vixen had a coffee date with the Stitch Witch but the Gorse Fox had nothing planned.

Once a few domestic chores were out of the way and the Silver Vixen had left for here date, the Gorse Fox returned to his study.

The first task was to find and record extra detail of the people identified yesterday as the Silver Vixen's ancestors. This took a while, but I is nice to get the detail on record. Once this was done, the Gorse Fox ranged across several Genealogy sources to try and find additional details of the individuals in question. In so doing, he has managed, speculatively, to drive the family tree back two further generations. The difficulty is that the Gorse Fox still has to find evidence to change ti details from speculation to fact. The problem is that in the 1500s and 1600s there were few data architects who cared about recording data and linking it both forwards and backwards through generations. Fortunately, however, the families with which we are dealing stayed in a very small area over a number of generations. This, though, introduced ambiguity as they seemed to have very little imagination when it came to naming children. this means that we have, at any one time, several families with the same family name who have children with the same Christian name.The Gorse Fox is still try to work out how he will disambiguate these names.

For now he is happy that he has drive the research to the Silver Vixen's 9 x gt-grandparents who married in 1601in Pilton, Somerset.

On a roll

 Ellie had been coughing a lot during the evening, but finally settled. Though she coughed occasionally during the night, it didn't seem to disturb her. The Gorse Fox got up at the usual time, but we left Ellie to wake when she was ready. 

Urban-Cub popped by on her way to work. The school had dropped a video of Ellie's class performing a Nativity play. It was only about 11 minutes long but it was very sweet and it was clear that Ellie was thoroughly enjoying it. Unfortunately, the video is protected otherwise the Gorse Fox would take a copy for the family archive.

It was the last day of term and we wanted to be sure she was going to enjoy it. We dropped her round at school at the usual time. She was revved up and raring to go.

The rest of the morning went to plan - well, sort of. Ocado delivered and then we got ready for our trip to Sainsbury's. It was good to see that everybody was adhering to the mask rules, as we went round. The front doorbell rang. We ignored it as we were in Sainsbury's and hadn't heard it. Eventually, the Silver Vixen got a phone call. It was Cousteau-Cub. She was outside the front door. She had been too ill to remain at work and had been dropped off by a colleague. We, however, were still two miles away. We suggested she borrow a key from Tinkerbell and we would be back soon.

Cousteau-Cub was clearly suffering. Whether it was asthma or some other condition wasn't totally clear at the time. She was finding it an effort to breathe and her voice had almost gone. We got her to take a Covid test and took her blood oxygen reading. Meanwhile, she contacted the surgery and waited on a call back from the doctor. When he did call, he set up a face to face appointment for her, mid afternoon. She went to lie down for a few hours and we watched as the time ticked by and the Covid test finally reported back as negative. Later, the Gorse Fox took Cousteau-Cub to the doctor's surgery and once she had been seen, given a prescription, and filled it, the Gorse Fox drove her home. She won't be going in to work tomorrow and hopefully that will give the meds a few days to kick-in properly.

While Cousteau-Cub had been sleeping, the Gorse Fox got on with his usual admin and the accounts, then returned to the family tree. He was clearly on a roll. In the space of an hour he drove the Silver Vixen's story back two further generations. Though he hasn't yet got dates nailed down, he suspects we are now in the 1670s. He ran out of time with this research for today but will hopefully get some more time tomorrow.

Urban-Cub has just been along to collect Ellie. She has a day off tomorrow so Ellie will be with her. There has been an outbreak of Covid at the prison so Pistol Pete may not be available to take Ellie this weekend for G-Force are on standby.

Time machine

 The day started much as usual. There was no obvious rent in the space tome continuum. People were going about their business as usual. The Gorse Fox strolled round to Urban-Cub and escorted her and Ellie to school. Back home he changed and then headed out for his football. (The Silver Vixen didn't go to Pilates today, though she did meet up with "the girls" for a coffee).

As Jack had picked the teams for today, we had the usual problem of all the established attackers on one team and the defenders and less mobile on the other. Again it was a bit like The Alamo as we tried to defend wave after wave of attacks. We did fairly well, all things being considered. The Gorse Fox managed to get a foot or leg to three balls which then whistled straight into our own net. Not the sort of hat-trick to boast about. The final score was about 6-5 to the attackers.

Back home the Gorse Fox returned to the family tree until it was time to collect Ellie. With the Silver Vixen's Great-grandmother now identified, it was fairly easy to trace her family. They, like so many families, seemed to stay in the same cluster of villages over a number of years. As a result, the Gorse Fox has managed, without too much effort, to drive that branch of the tree back to 1754 and suspects he can go further but ran out of time before the school pickup.

Cousteau-Cub popped in this evening, on her way back from work. It was lovely to see her, and Ellie commandeered her until dinner was ready. Once we had eaten and things were on an even keel, The Gorse Fox gave Cousteau-Cub a lift home and the Silver Vixen finished a sewing project for Ellie to give to her teaching assistant tomorrow.

Pinball

 After a good night's sleep, the Silver Vixen's alarm came a s quite a shock this morning. It was only 15 minutes later the the Gorse Fox's usual alarm, but he had deliberately switched it off last night. We only had to get ourselves ready today and, once the Gorse Fox was decent, he wandered round to Urban-Cub to escort her and Ellie to school.

Back home, there was just time to change and switch his football kit between cars and then he was off. The roads were a bit quieter than usual, but there seemed to be a lot of indecisive drivers about. They tend to worry the Gorse Fox more than the speeders.

Football was a little trying today. We hadn't really got quiet enough for 4 teams of 5, so ended up playing 9-v-10. On a full sized pitch this would be fine. On a 7-a-side pitch, however, it is dreadful. The pitch is just too crowded and the ball pings around like a pinball. On top of this, it limits the amount of exercise you can get as the pitch is so crowded. Anyway, we had three games. The first was 0-0, the second was a 1-0 win, and the third was a 4-1 win, so it wasn't too bad. The Gorse Fox was pleased with the defending and the interceptions he achieved.

Back home the missing Marriage Certificate had turned up from the PRO. Did this shed any new light on Ellen Louise (the Silver Vixen's Gt-grandmother) - No. It confirmed what the Gorse Fox had already deduced but didn't provide any illumination. He has now got to the point that he has written up his analysis of said Ellen Louise.

There is much confusion surrounding Ellen Louisa. Her story has been traced back through the clues that we were given by her granddaughters, Queenie and Audrey. We know, without doubt, that in the 1950s she lived at a house called Dorval in Pennington, and her surname was Gough. She had been “married” several times and Lydia was her first daughter. 

Tracing back we discover that in 1939 she was married to David Gough and they had only married in the April of that year (in their 70s). She was clearly shown as Ellen Louisa Gough (formerly Crees) on their marriage certificate and in the 1939 Register.

Her granddaughters remember that there were other step-brothers and sisters to Lydia, namely Ellen (Nellie), Florence (Flossie), Henry, and Hilda and that Lydia had the surname Miller in early records even though her father died prior to her birth. We discover that Ellen Louisa Crees had Ellen (1896) and Florence (1898)  with a man named Miller. No marriage certificate can be found even though this was likely to be in the early 1890s. 

By 1903 Ellen Louisa Crees seems to have been living with Henry George Burt near Reading and had a son Harold George (1903) and the evidence suggests that daughter Florence has come with her and has adopted the Burt surname. There is no sign of Lydia nor Ellen.

By 1911, and this is where the speculation gets even more complicated, “Ellen” is living with the widower David Gough in Swanmore, Hants. The 1911 census says they have been married for 1 year and that both Florence and Harold are present in the house as David’s step-children. No marriage certificate can be found, and whilst “Ellen” is shown as the correct age and having been born in Nunney, Somerset - she appears to be recorded as Ann. Chasing the records, there is an Ann Crees. She is Ellen’s sister. She does, however, live near Cheddar at this time and remained there until the early 1950s. Our assumption, therefore, is that Ellen, for some reason is being called Ann. 

While living with David they have two children. Henry was born in 1912, and Hilda in 1915. Henry’s birth certificate records the mother as Ann Louisa Gough (formerly Crees). A DNA test of one of the descendants of Henry shows a 2nd-3rd cousin match with the Silver Vixen so this “Ann” must share DNA with “Ellen”… or be the same person.

By 1939, the name Ellen returns when they marry (and she is shown as “Spinster” and daughter of Josiah Crees). Similarly the record in the 1939 Register.  A month later, in October, David dies. 

Our research hypothesis is that Ellen Louisa Crees and Ann Louisa Crees are the same person and that she never married any of her earlier partners - just adopting their names for convenience. She only married David as he was in declining health and he wanted to make sure she was looked after - so ensured there was a formal marriage on record. 

Note: all of this may change if some further records surface that contradict this hypothesis, but at the moment it seems to be the only narrative that makes sense.

Stamped

 After the morning's school run with Ellie, we buried ourselves in the kitchen. It was grey and damp outside and certainly didn't encourage any excursions.

The Silver Vixen had a call scheduled with a girlfriend. The Gorse Fox used the time to stow all of the residual decorations and their containers back in the garage. He has this down to a fine art, using large plastic crates which slot into predetermined locations in the garage loft. It probably took less than ten minutes all together.

Orangery cleared, the Gorse Fox then plucked up the courage to make a start on the Christmas cards. The labels, printed yesterday, acted as a checklist and, one by one, he worked his way through. When the Silver Vixen finished her call she sat down and joined in the task. It took a few hours but, for the first time in years (if not ever) we got through the whole list in a single sitting. Those destined for the post are all stamped and awaiting a trip to the mail box. The others await hand delivery.

Virtual dust

 A very lazy start to the day. Though the Gorse Fox had lined up the Coventry Hobbit to play football, a late family emergency meant that another player dropped out. We decided to cancel today's game. Frustratingly, this meant that the at the Gorse Fox and Coventry Hobbit didn't get a chance to have a run out.

In a fit of pique the Gorse Fox returned to the family tree. A number of relationship[s still needed to be sorted out, now that the Gorse Fox had the new hypothesis regarding the Silver Vixen's great grandmother. This took a lot longer than expected, but now seems to be correct. He still awaits a number of certificates that will confirm or muddy his hypothesis further Trawling through these dusty archives, albeit virtually, can be both fun and frustrating. At least online archives don't make him sneeze.

The other focus has been the development of the Boxing Day menu. This has taken a little bit of thought, but the Gorse Fox thinks he has everything under control. New Years's Eve, not so much, but he has a focus for the dish even if he currently has no idea what will act as an accompiniment.

Lights

 The day started with the Gorse Fox's usual call with the cousins. This week, cousin Tim has set us a challenge based on the theory of 6 degrees of separation. Each of us was given a target. In the case of the Gorse Fox it was Maria Vane Der Zyl, Chairman of the Jewish Board of Deputies. Now the Gorse Fox has to work out how he would, through contacts (no more than 5), get message to her. A little brain teaser.

Once the call was over we swept into pre-Christmas mode. The decorations were retrieved from the garage and the loft. The Gorse Fox managed the external lighting and the Silver Vixen did what she does best. She worked here way round the tree, the living room, the kitchen, the orangery, and the hall and, bit by bit, the house was transformed. It still seems at least a week too early, but it is done.

Talking of being early, the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen are a tad late with our Christmas cards. While she was busy with the decorations, the Gorse Fox retired to the study and dug out the instructions that he had so carefully written last year. The idea was that these instructions would ensure that the printing of address labels would go smoothly this year.

A great theory.

Microsoft had clearly made another minor change to MS Word. The simple creation of the labels went smoothly, but the suppression of blank address lines again caused problems. With reference to Mr Google, the Gorse Fox is heartened to see that a) he is by no means the only person to have been affected, and b) there was a solution. Having got to the point of printing the labels, he then found that he had insufficient labels remaining. The nice man from Amazon should rectify that tomorrow.

Just to close the loop, the Gorse Fox has updated his instructions on label creation in preparation for next year, by which time Microsoft will, no doubt, have updated Word and changed the damned process again.

To close another loop, the Gorse Fox's cousin Sarah has filled in a document that gives the Gorse Fox permission to get the full detail of his uncle's RAF service history. The Gorse Fox has completed his part of the document and returned it to the RAF.

Confused

 It was a crisp, cold day. No cloud dared sully the crystal clear blue of the sky - if wrapped up warm, it was gorgeous. Ellie had ended up staying with us overnight. She played up for Urban-Cub at bedtime and, in the end, we told Urban-Cub to bring her back here so Urban-Cub could get some sleep. It took a while for her to settle, but she eventually dropped off and slept through until morning.

We dropped Ellie off at school then had a quiet breakfast before heading into Chichester. The Gorse Fox had a late morning appointment at the chiropodist and we planned to have lunch in town after that. Fortunately, the bus ran on time so we were not waiting for long in the cold. The Gorse Fox went and had his treatment then met up with the Silver Vixen and we headed to "ASK Italian". We had a lovely lunch, and as we had used the bus, the Gorse Fox could have a beer. The Silver Vixen chose the Pollo Milanese and the Gorse Fox had the Stromboli Pizza. Both were delicious and neither of us could have eaten another thing. Very satisfying. We strolled back to the bus stop. Four minutes later our carriage hove into view. Ten minutes later we were home.

Pistol Pete arrived just before 15:00. He had a day off and wanted to come along to collect Ellie from school. We hadn't told her that this was in plan so it was a lovely surprise for her when she emerged from the classroom. Once home, we loaded his car and the two of them headed off for the weekend. Apparently they have a panto scheduled for tomorrow in Worthing and then they are putting up Pistol Pete's decorations on Sunday.

Back on the Family Tree the Gorse Fox has been delving deeper. He is now beginning to hypothesise that the Silver Vixen's Gt-grandmother didn't actually marry some of her partners, and only married her final partner (just before he died) after they had been together for 20 years, and that she was known as both Ellen Louisa and Annie Louisa. It is confusing and seems strange, but the DNA facts that have come back from a distant cousin and the details shown on relevant birth certificates seem to support this hypothesis. The Gorse Fox is now trying to determine how he can prove or disprove it.

Progress

 Ellie slept well. She got a solid 12 hours and didn't emerge until the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen were both moving about. We went through the usual schedule and marched her off to school. Though she had completed her homework, she hadn't uploaded it to her SeeSaw account on her laptop. We had to stop off and collect the laptop from Urban-Cub's on the way home. It took a little bit of fiddling around, but the Gorse Fox able to submit the photographed homework without too many dramas.

The rest of the morning was taken up with the usual shopping delivery and top-up excursion.

After lunch, the Gorse Fox returned to his research. He wasn't able to discover anything in the hour or so before we collected Ellie. As we walked to the school he bemoaned the fact that it takes 4 days to get the PDF copies of the certificates and how he was getting impatient. By the time we got home, the PDF were nestling in his email account... two days early. He has had a quick look at the images and already discovered something new and confirmed some suspicions. The game is, once more, afoot.

As he was dealing with the new certificates he also got an email from the RAF genealogy coordinator. The Gorse Fox's request had been received and was being handled. It could take up to 8 weeks to get the documents, but would the Gorse Fox like them in paper or digital format. He obviously chose digital... and now he waits.

Ellie is back home tonight and we have just got back from walking her round. We had only been there a few minutes before Urban-Cub arrived home.

Caged

 The day started with the Silver Vixen's alarm. She likes to be up sharpish on Wednesday so that she can get ready for Pilates. The Gorse Fox takes a slightly different approach and, as Ellie wasn't here, he wanders downstairs to make the tea and coffee then read the news. Once the Silver Vixen comes down he returns to get ready for football, then puts on some normal clothes over the top in order to walk Ellie to school with Urban-Cub.

Silver Vixen headed off and the Gorse Fox soon followed. Football today was limited to 5-a-side so we played in one of the cages instead of the usual pitches. The Gorse Fox likes playing in the cages because the ball never goes out of play. It makes it a good and continuous workout. The game went well today. The Gorse Fox managed some stout defending, several assists, and a goal of his own in our 12-6 win. Very satisfying.

The afternoon was spent watching a YouTube video regarding book creation from Family Tree Maker. It was informative but about 6 times longer than it needed to be. While this was going on, he marinated some pork fillet, which we cooked for dinner this evening. This is a recipe he will do again, it was delicious.

Home Alone

 The forecast was dreadful. We had an amber weather warning as Storm Barra hit the coast. Having had his booster jab yesterday and not being in the mood to get soaked to the skin (for the second day running), the Gorse Fox decided to stay put today and not play football.

The Silver Vixen had plans. She was meeting with a girlfriend for Christmas lunch over at Eartham. She would clearly be gone for hours, so the Gorse Fox was home alone. He thought about building a series of booby traps but decided that Jasper wouldn't see the joke so he made use of the time by cleaning the oven then getting on with some admin. New driving licence was first on the agenda. This was a very simple online questionnaire and was soon tucked away. Next, he renegotiated his mobile phone service contract. Not a huge saving, but extra data and 5G service for a saving of 3GBP per month. (Not that either of our phones currently support 5G... but no doubt the next ones will). Finally, he erected the new Christmas tree that the Silver Vixen had purchased yesterday. It's not decorated, but it is up and ready for the tender loving care that will bestowed upon it next weekend.

Back in the study, the Gorse Fox returned to his research. This is going well and we now have driven the Silver Vixen's paternal grandmother's line back to about 1759. It was not a smooth process, but the Gorse Fox is happy with the results and can corroborate all the facts in the tree. There was one glitch during the afternoon, but a swift online chat with the developers rectified the problem. There are still some peculiar gaps in the story and the Gorse Fox has ordered some birth certificates to try and make sense of things. They will take 3 or 4 days to come through.

Talking of certificates. The Gorse Fox received the death certificate for his uncle today. This meant that he could go onto the government records portal and request a copy of his uncle's service records. That's all done and now he just has to wait.

Key Moments

 The week started in the usual fashion with Ellie being dropped off. She had been up early and was already dressed and ready for school. All we had to do was get her some breakfast and walk her to the school.

The Silver Vixen had plans. There were cards that were not going to buy themselves. Also, she was so taken with Urban-Cub's Christmas tree that she thought she would get a similar one. Off she went to Chichester, leaving the Gorse Fox to his own devices.

We had a slot booked at the local recycling centre. This meant digging out all of the detritus that we needed to dispose of. This was done in the pouring rain and soon the back of the car was loaded to the gunwhales. The time slot approached and the Gorse Fox headed off. He was the only person at the centre. Bit by bit the car was unloaded and the detritus sorted into the correct containers. The rain continued to pour and the Gorse Fox was getting very wet. Finally, the car was empty. 

This is where it all went a bit silly. The Gorse Fox should explain. He was worried that in the process of emptying the car and traipsing back and forth to the containers that he might drop the car keys. Now the Skoda a a neat little recess for the keys to nestle. It seemed like a good idea to leave them there safely. With the car finally empty, the Gorse Fox closed the boot and as he grabbed the front door it slipped from his wet hand and closed. There was an ominous click. The car had self-locked. The Gorse Fox was standing in the pouring rain and the car was sitting there smirking. Fortunately, his mobile phone was in his pocket. He called the Silver Vixen. She grabbed the spare keys and asked Old Bill to run a rescue mission. Ten minutes or so later the keys were handed over to the drowned rat and he was able to drive home.

This is a mistake he will not make again.

The final excitement for the day was the Gorse Fox going in to Bognor Regis and getting his Covid booster shot. He has been waiting for several weeks for this, and was particularly narked when he got both and email and text message from the NHS today. The gist of the message was "Oi, you are eligible and still haven't been jabbed. Get on with it". Given that the Gorse Fox has been trying to get an appointment for weeks, he was no best pleased.

Too Good to be true

 A gentle start to the day followed by a drive across to Ford for the obligatory football. It t was an interesting mix of players today. Most were good, without being exceptional. This made for a good friendly game with no egos on show. The Gorse Fox had selected the teams and his algorithm had created an attack/dense imbalance. The Yellow team were predominantly attackers. The Gorse Fox's Orange team were predominantly defenders. With today's make up, this meant the Gorse Fox had to attack far more than usual. The final score worked out 6-4 in the Orange teams favour. The Gorse Fox managed a hat-trick, had one ball roll along the goal line, hit both posts, and hit the cross bar. It was nice to wander across the halfway line for a change.

Back home he returned to the Silver Vixen's enigmatic grandmother. As the Gorse Fox suspected, yesterday's breakthroughs were too good to be true. Some of yesterday's hypotheses and finds unravelled but in so doing they started to tally with the reminiscences that the Silver Vixen's Aunt Queenie had written down. Whilst some of the original thoughts weren't quite correct, the information started to stack up. There are still some anomalies that need to be bottomed out. The Gorse Fox is, however, convinced he is on the right track. He has to keep reminding himself that the DNA doesn't lie... but suspects he will never find her great-grandfather on that side of the family.

Lost and Found

 A very lazy start to the day... with a call to the cousins. It is clear that living up North has its problems as young Tim sat there in his fleece and bobble hat to fend off the cold of a failed central heating system. The Gorse Fox resisted the temptation to say how bright and sunny it was here in the South.

The Gorse Fox returned to the family tree. Despite his determination, yesterday, that he would pursue the Silver Vixen's grandmother no further, he got distracted. He started to try and record some of the DNA matches, however tenuous, in his database. One of these clearly linked through the Silver Vixen's Gt-grandmother. This got his thinking. Is there an obtuse route by which he can start to solve the enigma. DNA at least gives a confirmation of familial links. What about starting with a DNA match and working back?

This took a full day of research and the development of a timeline for the family over 100+ years. What became clear was that the Silver Vixen's Gt-Grandmother married her deceased sister's husband. Thereby lay the confusion. The research is not complete, but the Gorse Fox is fairly sure that he finally has a solid set of defensible sources that identify her Gt-grandmother without any doubt. There are still gaps that need to be filled, but he is (finally) happy that he understand that part of the Silver Vixen's pedigree.

A message came in, mid afternoon. Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit had "lost" Harley (their dog). It had run off while they were up at Goodwood and despite a couple of hours of calling and chasing, they had not managed to find him. This was, obviously, very upsetting and they asked for help on Facebook. As it happens "a dog and owner that we know from the park found her near the car park at Goodwood and bought her back to Florence Park". Panic over. This perhaps being a lesson not to let the dogs run loose... or to endow them with an Apple Tag (or similar) so that they can be tracked at all times.

Done.

 Ellie slept solidly for a good 12 hours. In theory, this should mean that we too slept solidly. In practice, Jasper decided that he should start his training for the National Trampolining Competition soon after 5:00. By 5:45 the Gorse Fox had had enough and went down to see whether he had forgotten to set the timer on the automatic feeder. He hadn't. In fact, if he had left it another 60 seconds it would have opened without intervention. He intervened. He snuck back to bed for another hour.

The usual morning routine kicked in. Breakfast, ablutions, school clothing (gym kit today) and then off to school. When we got back we had breakfast and got on with various domestic chores before the Gorse Fox  sat down with the accounts.

All of the business out of the way, he returned to the enigmatic Nan. He searched newspaper archives, he searched electoral roles, he search census turns, he search births, marriages, and deaths. He re-read the letters from the Silver Vixen's aunt. He has concluded that banging his head against a glass encrusted brick wall would be far more relaxing and probably satisfying in comparison. He has been unable to find one single corroborating fact all week. 

He is well and truly done. 

Enough. 

That's it. 

She can sit and wait in the notebook util the Gorse Fox next has the urge to have another swing at it.

Spaghetti logic

 It was a lovely cold and crisp day. Bright blue skies and plenty of sunshine bathed the South Coast - all was as it should be.

Ellie slept through and exploded into life soon after seven (she's like her grandfather for that). Dropping her at school the Gorse Fox returned for breakfast and the usual domestic activities for a Thursday morning.

Once everything was done, the Gorse Fox returned to the research. The links examined yesterday had unravelled. The Gorse Fox was back at first principles again. This time, he added some old letters to the starting data. These letters were written by the Silver Vixen's aunt (daughter of the enigmatic Nan). These letters ramble on for pages in a punctuation-free stream of consciousness. Unpicking them is a nightmare. After an hour or two the Gorse Fox had reacquainted himself with some of the ancillary facts. Whether they will prove useful or not, time will tell. (After all, the Gorse Fox has gone through this process several times before). The stage is set for the next exercise of genealogical futility.

Records

The important news today is that Cousteau-Cub starts her new job. We hope that it goes well and she enjoys it - hopefully we'll get an update later. 

It was milder today. The Gorse Fox had the usual escort duties for Urban-Cub and Ellie's trip to school. Then after a quick breakfast, the Silver Vixen headed off to Pilates and the Gorse Fox headed off to football.

Football was a 7-v-7 game in bright sunshine. The sun is low in the sky so the Gorse Fox had trouble distinguishing the colours of players if they were between him and the sun. He wasn't alone. It seems that most of us had a similar problem. The first half was very tight, finishing 4-3 to the Gorse Fox's orange team. The second half wasn't quite so successful. Despite a handful of critical blocks from the Gorse Fox we still managed to concede a few more goals. In the end we lost 8-6. It has one;y been 2 weeks since he played, but his passing was off, even if his defending was pretty good. Hopefully another game will see some accuracy returning.

After lunch the Gorse Fox returned to the family tree. The first task was to complete some forms for the Canadian Archives and get them sent off. Hopefully, he will get his father's Naval records back before long. He then returned to the mysterious grandmother and her ancestors. Yesterday, he thought he had found a thread that was worth investigation. Today he pulled on that thread and everything started to unravel. He needs a good and intensive session, but fears this is one enigma (with many variations) that will never be solved.

Once we had collected Ellie from school we got back to creating her fire safety poster. She and the Silver Vixen did a very good job of sticking the various warning pictures to a roll of wallpaper. When it was finished, the Gorse Fox fired up the video so that her school teacher could see the poster and Ellie could explain it.

At Long Last

The cold weather that was prevalent for the last few days seems to have gone. Today it was a bit milder, but felt damp. Ellie had, apparently, been troublesome at bedtime last night and it was nearly midnight before she settled. She was rather quiet when we left her at the school.

After breakfast the Silver Vixen had to visit Sainsbury’s and the Gorse Fox stayed at home to prepare this week’s Ocado list and await the chaps from Outside Interests.

The roof panel had failed back in July or August, but finally they were going to replace it. As it happens, one of the fitters who arrived was one of the chaps that worked on the original construction. He commented how nice it was to come back and see the finished and furnished article. He also commented on how many extensions they had constructed around the estate, but ours was the biggest and the design changes that we had made really made it stand out.

It only took them about an hour to replace the compromised panel with a new one. It was definitely a two man job though. It was alarming to see how much flex there was in the failed panel, and it would have been easy for the remaining pane of glass to shatter.

During the afternoon, the Gorse Fox returned to first principles when it came to researching the Silver Vixen’s nan. What certificates do we have? What do they say? Work back again from there and apply the family stories as possible cross-checks. This led the Gorse Fox down another path (he’s not yet sure if it’s a rabbit hole). Unfortunately, he timed out and we had to collect Ellie. He will return to the hunt as soon as possible.

After dinner we took Ellie home and the Silver Vixen got her bathed and ready for bed. Urban-Cub arrived back from work and the plan was for us to sneak out as Ellie drifted off. She didm’t drift off. She had a melt-down and it took the Silver Vixen about an hour of super-human patience to settle her down.

Disgrace

 

It was a disgrace. We woke up to ice and snow. If we had wanted ice and snow, we would have lived up North, or moved to Alaska.

Clearly, the snow wasn't too bad but the ice was certainly troublesome. The pathways between home and Ellie's school were treacherous. Whilst Ellie and the Gorse Fox could mange this, we decided that the Silver Vixen should stay at home and not take any chances.

Once Ellie was delivered to school the Gorse Fox went home for some breakfast and coffee with the Silver Vixen. We sat and chatted and read the online papers before heading off to fulfil our plans for the day.

For the Gorse Fox, one plan had already been thwarted. His phone had rung during the school run. The chappies coming to replace our compromised roof panel in the Orangery wanted to postpone for 24 hours. This wasn't a major problem, but did mean the Gorse Fox wouldn't be going to football tomorrow. He retired to the study and updated the accounts before returning to the family tree.

The Gorse Fox has, on many occasions, mentioned the problems he has with the Silver Vixen's grandmother and her ancestors. Despite years of trying he still has been unable to find definitive records that support any of the potential relations as we look back. He thought, today, that another attempt was worth a try. This seemed to go well and based on an early bit of information he managed to force his way back through the records for several generations. What's more the supporting information seemed to confirm the conflicting stories that he had recorded from the Silver Vixen's aunts. Progress was being made.

Or was it?

The Gorse Fox started his cross-checks, using other data sources. The hypotheses didn't seem to stack up. In the end, with his head spinning and his whiteboard covered in arrows, dates, and names, the Gorse Fox gave up. He will return to this tomorrow and start with a totally different hypothesis.

Interesting day

 It has been an intestine and entertaining day.

The Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen had a very pleasant and lazy start to the day. Nothing was planned and no one was expected. We were free of commitments. The Silver Vixen sat and read in bed ad the Gorse Fox read the latest news then got stuck in to the family tree. He managed to find some references to his uncles James's time in the RAF and this prompted him to request his full service record. Half way through, they demanded his Death Certificate. The Gorse Fox doesn't have copy of that. He flipped to the GRO website, looked up the information, and hopefully will have the the certificate by this time next week. He can then have another attempt at requesting the service records..

This afternoon, the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox had tickets to see the recording of a podcast. This was "Something Rymes With Purple" and featured a fairly free-form afternoon discussion of the English language with Gyles Brandreth and Susie Dent. 

It turned out to be a really interesting and stimulating afternoon with two people who genuinely love and understand the English language and its foibles, nooks, and crannies. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox presented themselves at the Chichester Festival Theatre and settled down in their seats. We had a perfect view of proceedings.

It was over by five, and it took longer to get out of the car park that it did to get home. We have just enjoyed some lamb shanks, some rum, some wine, and will soon settle down for the evening.

Stormy Weather

 Storm Arwen struck the North-east overnight. There were extensive power-cuts and heavy snow in some locations. Down here in the South the only inconvenience was a strong blustery wind, the occasional showers, and temperatures hovering around 3C.

We had plans. Both having taken lateral flow tests, we checked with Betty and Barney Rubble and all concluded it was safe to meet up. The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox set off and, sticking to the main roads, made our way up to the wilds of north-east Hampshire. It was very noticeable how strong the wind was, knocking some 15mpg off the car's usual consumption - at least it should work the other way on the way home.

We settled down with coffee and biscuits and caught up on the various news of the families and what we had all been up to since we last met.

At lunchtime we headed off to the The Hoddington Arms. We have been there many times before and it is always very good. Today, not quite up to its normal standard. The Silver Vixen had fish and chips but the chips were over cooked. The Gorse Fox had a spare rib burger - which sounded delicious but was dry and chewy and quite a disappointment. They were immensely busy, so we will give them the benefit of the doubt and conclude it was just a bad day at the office.

Back to Betty and Barney's for tea and cheesecake and more chat - air-source heat pumps, EVs, nuclear energy, health, sport, and education were all covered and put to bed.

As the wind started to whip up again, we left to head home. Again, the Gorse Fox decided to stick to the main roads. It adds 8 miles to the route but is far less likely to be littered with fallen trees or debris. We were home before seven, and settled down for a quiet evening in front of the TV.

Better

 Ellie had another very disturbed night because of her coughing. Whilst this wakes the Gorse Fox there is nothing he can do to help. At night, only the Silver Vixen is good enough. We debated whether she was well enough to go to school, deciding that she should but we had to be ready to collect her should the school call.

The Gorse Fox was a little concerned about the "cold" he had. He decided that, as cold symptoms could also be Covid-19 symptoms, he should have a test. He dug out the Lateral Flow Test kit and went through the process. Thirty minutes later he was given the all clear. It is a cold, it is not Covid-19.

Slowly, throughout the day the Gorse Fox has been feeling better. He is still congested, but feels a lot brighter in himself. He has, however, already cancelled football for Sunday. That would be asking for trouble.

Most of the day has been spent working on the family tree. There were no breakthroughs, but that wasn't the objective today. Today was all about ensuring that that some of his paper information was scanned and provided as digital evidence for various facts asserted in the tree. This also meant that the Gorse Fox had to get his big A3 scanner working. This has not been accessible since the new Condor was installed. It occurred to him that the Dell laptop may still support the device. A few minutes later everything started to hum and glow and the scanner started to consume the various paper documents one after the the other. Sorted.

Interesting

 Thursday morning followed the usual pattern. School, Ocado, and Sainsbury's.

AT lunchtime the Gorse Fox received an email from a chap with whom he has previously corresponded regarding a partial DNA match. Steven has finally tracked down his father and completed a "tree" to show where we intersect. The Gorse Fox decided to review the details as there were several names that did not seem familiar. Essentially, it looks as if his link is sound and we intersect at the Gorse Fox's Great-great grandfather. Digging deeper into the records (to verify the work that had been presented) the Gorse Fox realised his 2G-grandfather remarried after his first wife (the Gorse Fox's 2G-grandmother) had died. Steven is linked through this second wife.

The research was interesting because while verifying the information the Gorse Fox dug up several new relatives that were previously unknown, and realised that Steven had misaligned a few people.

Newspapers

 The Gorse Fox's cold woke him early again. He was up before 5:00 this morning so that he didn't disturb the Silver Vixen. By 7:00 Ellie was awake so the Gorse Fox took some tea up to the Silver Vixen and got showered.

Once Ellie was at school we had our breakfast and then the Gorse Fox retired to the study and started wading through more archives. This time his focus was on newspapers. Could he find any supporting articles which would reveal more about the people in the family tree. In short, the answer wasn't encouraging. He found some picture in Tatler which featured his uncle and aunt (before they were married), and a lot of articles about his Uncle Teddy (all of which he already had). Other than that - nothing.

During the afternoon he made several more passes through the book he had compiled yesterday. It's starting to hand together quite well. He is thinking of sending it off to his sister and some cousins so that they can provide some more information.

Little steps

 The Gorse Fox woke soon after 4 am. By 5:30 he was still wide awake and he was getting fidgety. He got up and made some tea and read the overnight news. At 7:00 he took some tea to the Silver Vixen and Ellie soon emerged. 

He decided there would be no football today. His cold is troublesome and it would be pointless pushing his luck.

After the school run, we settled down for some breakfast and then the Gorse Fox retuned to the family tree. Today was focused on one branch of the family. It started with a first draft of a book and then there followed several passes of tidying up the text and the supporting documents. Each pass was a little step forward. While at it, the Gorse Fox went back to the various data sources to see if any new information was available. After several hours of searching and a lot of lateral thinking, he concluded there was nothing new. It seems that all branches of his family that stem from Ireland disappear somewhere in the Irish Sea as he can find no relevant records, prior to their arrival in England or Scotland, in the North or South of Ireland.

His cold hasn't improved much during the day so the Gorse Fox has emailed his apologies and cried off tomorrow's football as well.

Sniffing about

 The Gorse Fox seems to have developed a cold. It's not really surprising after the cough that Ellie had last week but it is frustrating. Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off as usual and we went through the usual morning routine and got her off to school on time.

Once home and suitably caffeinated the Gorse Fox and Silver Vixen pottered. He hit the study and continued to sniff about among the boughs of the family tree. There were no huge revelations but a few small items bubbled to the top and were duly recorded. As is so often the case, the trails seem to run cold in Ireland. It may be different if we had any clue at all regarding the part of Ireland, or better still, the Parish where these people lived but no, there are no clues... and the names that are being sought are far too common to provide any certainty.

The Gorse Fox has spent much of the afternoon on the phone to his Aunt. It is quite a while since we had spoken and so she had lots to tell in order to bring us up to date with the comings and goings in her family. So we now know who is at which seat of learning, who is starting a job next week, who runs his own record label, who changed college without telling his parents, who won't leave the house for fear of Covid, who is going the army, and so forth. It's nice to catch up.

Birthday Lunch

 Today is the Silver Vixen's birthday. The Gorse Fox left her to enjoy a cup of tea in bed and open her cards and luxuriate in a quiet and lazy morning.

We had arranged to meet up with the girls for lunch at the Giggling Squid. We arrived first and settled down in the booth to await the others. Urban-Cub had collected Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit on her way through and they all wandered in with presents, flowers and cards.

We examined the lunchtime menu and the main evening menu and selected dishes from both. Cousteau-Cub and the Gorse Fox asked for their dishes to be "wound up a bit, Thai style". The Silver Vixen asked for hers to be wound down, and the Coventry Hobbit and Urban-Cub both took theirs as it came.

We had a lovely couple of hours chatting about what had been going on, Jon's new job, Ellie, Cousteau-Cub's pending job and so forth. It was a fun family time and it's always nice to all get together.

Superb

 Well that was a very nice evening, yesterday. The Sonning Crew popped round for some bubbles and nibbles before we hopped on the bus into Bognor Regis. A 25 yard stroll from the bus stop took us to the restaurant and we were shown to a very comfortable table in the already busy restaurant.

As all previous visits, the food was simply superb. The Gorse Fox started with asian styled pork belly followed by chicken-stuffed halibut. It was wonderful. The others had the salmon (which the Gorse Fox tried last time) and beef cheeks which had gone down so well last time.

For the sweet course, the others all went for creme brûlée whereas the Gorse Fox chose the treacle tart with salted caramel and ice cream.

We stayed and chatted until it was time to stroll back to the bus stop. Ten minutes later we were home. 

All Clear

 Ellie had a few bought of coughing during the night, but seemed to sleep pretty well. She was awake and raring to go, soon after seven. We got the news from Urban-Cub that she had received confirmation of Ellie's PCR Test results - Negative, thank goodness. This meant that she can go to Pistol Pete overnight after all.

The Gorse Fox had his cousins' call, as usual, and soon after Urban-Cub arrived to collect Ellie. The rest of the day has been fairly quiet. Silver Vixen went to catch up on some rest and the Gorse Fox delved into some family tree research for a correspondant who was researching a derivative name. In the end he found quite a lot and has sent it back to her.

He also had the opportunity to do some more testing on some software. He has detected a few minor problems and reported them back to the author. 

We are planning to meet up with the Sonning Crew this evening. It is an appropriate time to celebrate the Silver Vixen's impending birthday.

Improving

 Ellie had a better night last night. She still had a few boughts of coughing but essentially slept well until just after seven. She still cannot return to school and must remain at home until she gets the (negative) results of her PCR test.

The Gorse Fox went along to the school at the usual time so that he could collect the homework that Ellie would have received. We spent the morning working through the phonetics, drawing the letters and spelling simple words before moving on to simple counting and arithmetic. This seemed to stimulate her and she powered through a load of online exercises. She did very well.

During the afternoon, Ellie and the Silver Vixen made some gingerbread biscuits until Urban-Cub got back from work. Normally we would expect Ellie to go off to Pistol Pete for the weekend at this point. He, however, said that because of her unknown Covid status, he couldn't have her. It would, apparently, mean he would have to isolate for 10 days before returning to work. Everyone else having to adjust their plans, Urban-Cub took Ellie home for dinner then brought her back to us for the night as she has an early start in the morning. She is expecting to be finished by mid-morning, though, so should pick Ellie up then.

Disturbed

 Ellie has a cough. In fact it is quite bad. After a bath and hair wash last night (and the accompanying steam) she settled easily. By eleven, however, she had started to cough. It was incessant and we really had to feel immensely sorry for her. She didn't make a fuss, but was essentially awake through until nearly 4 a.m. (and consequently, so were we). It was clear that she would be in no state to go to school so, once she did settle, we left her to sleep until she woke naturally.

The cough hasn't been so bad during the day, but is clearly still present. The school rang Urban-Cub. Ellie wouldn't be allowed back until she had had a negative PCR test. (Apparently, lots of children were off at present). Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen set off to Tangmere to get the test performed. We await the result.

The Gorse Fox was invited, by email, to get his booster jab. This was a couple of weeks ago but all online bookings seemed to expect him to travel to Portsmouth, Brighton, or beyond. He dropped in to the surgery. "Are you still texting people about their booster  jabs, like you did for the Silver Vixen last month?" Well, the answer was a very guarded yes... probably meaning no. The harpy at the desk did, however, provide the Gorse Fox with a phone number to call every day until he managed to book his own local appointment. When he got home, after his subsequent Sainsbury's raid, he tried the number. He got straight through. His booster is now booked for Bognor.

Ellie's cough seems to be getting worse this evening. Hopefully, a warm bath and the accompanying steam will give her some relief.

Play Misty for me

 It had been quite chilly overnight but hadn't reached frost point. As the sun came up a fairly thick mist formed. The Gorse Fox wandered round the corner to meet Ellie and Urban-Cub and escort them to school.

Once home, it was a quick change and then the Silver Vixen went off to Pilates and the Gorse Fox went to football. We had a 5-vs-6 game today with the extra player swapping sides at half-time.  It had been going pretty well and we were defending against the extra man, stoutly. Then our goalkeeper did his usual trick of rolling the ball out straight to the opposition, giving them a simple tap-in. He never learns. Overall it was a good game though the Gorse Fox seemed to be wearing sand-wedges instead of boots. Every shot he tried soared over the cross bar. We started to get worried messages from the International Space Station, who thought they were under attack. In the second half our goalkeeper succumbed to his other regular trick. He lost sight of the ball as it hit the post, then the rebound bounced into the goal off his back. In the end we lost by a single goal, but it was fun.

We have finally heard from the energy company that will pick up our account after our previous supplier went to the wall. We are now back with E.On, who were our supplier several years ago. The Gorse Fox has set up the account and authorised a direct debit. It will be interesting to see by how much the bills have risen.

Ellie was clearly hungry after school. We gave her some crisps while dinner was cooking. Then she had fish fingers and a healthy portion of rice. Then she wanted more rice (good job the Gorse Fox had prepared plenty). She finished the lot. Then she wanted a banana. Then we sat down to some pasta with chicken thighs cooked in vegetables and a creamy chicken sauce. She plonked herself on the Silver Vixen's lap and proceeded to eat the pasta off her plate and some of the chicken. Then she asked for ice cream... we said no. She had eaten quite enough!

She's staying with us overnight.

A Little Excitement

One day last week we noticed a couple of Police cars and a Police van parked at the corner. They were speaking to a sheepish looking chap outside a neighbour's house. We found out today what had been going on.

Apparently the sheepish looking chap had clipped a car and taken off its wing mirror - and just drove off. What he didn't realise was that the occupants were two Police Officers and the car was an unmarked Police vehicle. Said Police reported the incident and chappie was stopped out the neighbour's house. He tried the old "I don't speak English ploy" but given the large Polish and Russian community in the area, that doesn't wash.

Oh yes, he's an Amazon driver too!

Crisp

 It was a bit chilly overnight and it came a s a shock to the system after the recent mild spell. Having said that, as soon as the sun was up the day soon warmed up.

The Gorse Fox had his usual football today. There was a glut of players, but not sufficient to peel some off for the 5-a-side pitches. This meant that we ended up playing 9-a-side which, quite frankly, is dreadful. There is no room to play and it is more like pinball. After last night's England team win 10-0 over over San Marino the Gorse Fox started to feel quite sorry for the losers, particularly when our games started and we were on a similar drubbing. Our team was like a schoolyard team. Everyone wanted to be the hero, everyone wanted to score, nobody (except the Gorse Fox) was will to defend. There were occasions when he was trying to keep out 5 attackers while his team were yelling at him to cover this chap or that chap, while standing on the halfway line. The score ended up about 8-2. In our second game we dragged someone else into defence and managed to hold the game to 1-0. In the final game, Pete (the organiser) change a couple of players between the teams... lo and behold, we actually won.

It was not the most satisfying session. The Gorse Fox felt as if he could have done better, but also felt the balance of the teams was way off.

Retail Therapy

 Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off just after seven. She had a busy day scheduled at work and wanted an early start. Once we had supervised the usual ablutions, breakfast, and dressing we took Ellie round to school.

We had planned a trip to Gunwharf Quays. It is the Silver Vixen's birthday at the weekend. It was time for a shopping trip. We had a good run through and the place was pretty deserted when we arrived. We worked our way around the mall, shop by shop. The Silver Vixen browsed the various rails of clothes and tried on a couple of stunning dresses. Unfortunately, as nice as they were, they didn't fit so we left without them. We did find a Radley bag that she liked, and resolved to collect that on the way back to the car.

They have got a small Christmas Market on one of the squares, and their decorations are looking lovely (though one suspects they would be more impressive once it get dark). There was fudge, there were chocolates, there was a bar, there was a stall selling Yorkshire adding wraps (?), and there was a bratwurst stall selling the biggest German sausages you could imagine. It was all so tempting.

We stopped off at Loch Fyne for lunch. We were among the very first people in, but it soon filled up. We both selected from their "specials" board. The Silver Vixen had a salmon pate to start, followed by a pan fried sea bass. The Gorse Fox had scallops on a bed of haggis as a starter, followed by tuna on bed of artichoke and n'duja risotto. These really were exceptional. We both finished off with the creamiest cheesecake (blueberry) that we had ever tasted.

After a very leisurely lunch, we did one more tour of the shops (and stopped off at Radley for the bag). Then we made our way back to the car and cruised home in time for a cup of tea and half an hour "feet-up" before collecting Ellie from school.

Circuitous

 Oh boy! it certain;y was a lazy start to the day. There was no football scheduled (we could only muster 8 players) so there was no real impetus to get up and going.

Once breakfast was sorted the Gorse Fox returned to the family tree. He had had an idea and pursued a different route into the Irish records. This proved fruitful. He eventually found access to the Irish records and, with a bit of patience, he found several marriage certificates for his 2nd Get-grandparents. This, in turn, revealed further details about them and their fathers. It was satisfying to find this new information, but still frustrating that he couldn't drive the information any further. Anyway, it was interesting to find that his 2nd gt-grandparents were both school teachers.

Frustration

 The day started with the weekly call with the cousins. None of the Aussies were on the call today but though sparse it was good fun.

After the call the Gorse Fox plunged back into the family tree. There was an immediate breakthrough - he found the names of his 3-times Great grandfathers in Ireland (Patrick Kane, and Joseph William Temple). This breakthrough was bound to open up a huge treasure trove of information, wasn't it? NO. It opened up six hours of pouring through records in English and Latin and not finding one single additional morsel of information. The Gorse Fox knows he has been doing this for 30 years now but even still it always looks so easy when you watch "Who Do You Think You Are?". In practise it can been the most immensely frustrating hobby imaginable.

Spirit Level

 It was a a slightly later start. Ellie was at home, so we didn't have to get her going, fed, washed, and dressed ready for school. The Gorse Fox did, however, have to be ready to escort her and Urban-Cub to school, as is customary.

Once home, there was a leisurely breakfast and a run through the papers and social media. Then the Gorse Fox headed over to se Old Bill. Along with Two Hats we were set to help him move a huge mirror. This should have been fairly straightforward. Remove large mirror from wall, remove fixings from mirror, fit a French cleat, mount the mirror at the the top of the stairs on the cleat that had been pre-installed. It was not straightforward. The existing fixings had been stripped and need some significant persuasion to remove them. Then it became clear that the mirror had a a backing which stood proud of the frame. This would interfere with the French cleat. We had to pad the frame before fixing the cleat. Finally, we manhandled the mirror up the stairs and hung it. It was crooked. The Gorse Fox suspected it was the cleat that had been pre-installed on the wall. The mirror was removed. A spirit level confirmed the Gorse Fox's suspicions. Cleat was remove and re-sited. Eventually, we were ready to retry the mirror.  This time it worked and everything looked level. We heaved a sigh of relief and went our separate ways.

The Gorse Fox has spent the rest of the day working on the accounts and the family tree. The former were straightforward, the latter  required concentration. The Gorse Fox created a "Descendant" book of some 400 pages and compared it to the original he had created months ago. It was spot on. Then he created a 650 page "Ancestor" book. Again, it looked spot on - with one exception. The one difference seemed to be a single photo which had bee displayed with the wrong orientation. This will require some research before the Gorse Fox contacts the author and reports a bug.

User Error

 Ellie slept well. In fact, we had to wake her so that she would have time for breakfast before getting dressed for school. Urban-Cub was still unwell, but at least the vomiting had stopped. She called to chat chat with Ellie before school.

Once we were back, it was the usual schedule for Thursday. We had some breakfast and coffee then awaited the the man from Ocado. Once he had delivered and everything was stowed away, we hit Sainsbury's for the top-up. Where this differed from the usual was a separate trip to M&S and Pets at Home. Who says that we boomers don't know how to have fun?

The Gorse Fox has spent much of the rest of the day working with the family tree software that he is helping to test. He thought he had found a fairly significant bug... which he reported. It was only afterwards that he realised that it was his own error! Grovelling apology sent to author. Software is looking pretty sound.

Having collected Ellie from school we got her changed and and the Silver Vixen took her back to Urban-Cub. She still can't return to work but is now well enough to look after Ellie.

New boy

 Ellie was good overnight and didn't disturb us until 6:40. By this time, The Gorse Fox was getting fidgety anyway, so he got up.

We dropped Ellie off at school and set about our business. A message had come through from Urban-Cub that she was unwell and seemed to have developed the vomiting bug that Ellie had had. We told her to take care and that we would sort Ellie out. This means she is staying with us again tonight.

We had a new chap at football today. He was quite good and though the first half felt a bit like the Alamo, in the second half we started to develop a lead. The Gorse Fox was disappointed that two cracking shots had been blocked by the goalie - and suspects the the second one will have left bruises - it was struck so cleanly.

this afternoon the Gorse Fox has been doing some more testing on the genealogy software that he has been  asked to help with. This new code-drop is a lot better than that of last week. He has some more use cases to try, but so far it is looking very positive.

Quiet day

 It has been an unexpected day... Well, the fact that it was Tuesday was not unexpected - in fact we had that written on the calendar. It was more the way the day turned out...

Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off, first thing. Then, the Gorse Fox had to take her to work while her car remained here for a friend to borrow. We then took Ellie round to school, only to be told that she shouldn't be there as she has to give it a full 48 hours, after sickness, before she can return. The Gorse Fox cancelled his football and Ellie returned home with us. We did various lessons with her and kept her occupied. She was very good.

Ellie is staying overnight as Urban-Cub has an early start in the morning.

A Pocketful

 Ellie had been unwell overnight and Urban-Cub had decided, rightly, to keep her off school. Fortunately, Urban-Cub had a day off, so was able to take care of her... our only involvement was the Gorse Fox having to drop off our carpet cleaner, before we went out.

We had a trip planned. We were heading east from the safety and civilisation of West Sussex and would be meeting up with the Silver Vixen's cousin over in the badlands of Kent. He had arranged a table at a restaurant in Rye Harbour.

Well, that was a drive. Despite looking at Google and the maps, the Gorse Fox still found it hard to compute that an 80 mile drive was likely to take more that 2 hours. In fact, it took 2 hours and 20 minutes. As you would expect, the Gorse Fox had allowed plenty of time and we arrived with an hour to spare - only to find that Trevor and Sue had arrived 30 minutes earlier still!

Rye is an absolutely gorgeous town. Rye Harbour, however, is downstream from the town and while quaint, lacked some of the chocolate-box qualities of its neighbour.

We settled down for some coffee and a chat in "William the Conqueror". Time ticked by as we caught up on the family. Then we hit the menu for lunch. Their specialities seem to be Cypriot dishes. This suited us. The Silver Vixen had a moussaka, and the Gorse Fox had a Cypriot Plate - souvlaki, Cypriot sausage, grilled prawns, flatbread, and tzatziki; it was wonderful. It really needed to be washed down with some wine, but the Gorse Fox won't indulge when he has the car.

We had a lovely time and carried on chatting and admiring photos until nearly three o'clock. Then it was time to head back. We said our goodbyes and hit the highways. We were clearly going to hit rush hour, so had no real expectation as to how long it would take - but we were home in about 2 hours and 40 minutes. Not too bad.

It had been a lovely day... and various mysteries and stories had become clear.

Win

 The Gorse Fox didn't set his alarm. His plan was to to sleep until he woke naturally. He woke naturally five minutes before his alarm would have gone off. Pah!

He left early for football. This week it proved to be the right decision as parking spaces were few and far between. There were plenty of matches being played on the outdoor pitches and all of the players and followers had come by car.

The Gorse Fox had set the teams up pretty well this week. The algorithm was pretty close. He did swap two players as both goalkeepers ended up on one side initially. We also had an imbalance to handle with 6-vs-5 which we adjust at half-time to move one player and make it 5-vs-6. At halftime, the Gorse Fox was 3-1 down but one of our key strikers had asked to play in goal. n In the second half we moved him onto the pitch and soon started to claw things back. In the end the game was a comfortable 7-3 win of the Gorse Fox's orange team.

This afternoon has seen the Gorse Fox doing a lot more work on the family tree. He has been trying to fill in some gaps in his records for one particular cousin's information. More details were found but he has not really got as much information as he would like.

Better

 Well yesterday's input was limited to a slice of toast with honey and a small bowl of porridge early in the evening. Things were clearly on the mend when the Gorse Fox experienced some hunger pangs just before bed.

This morning he has woken up feeling his normal self (whatever that is worth). As Saturdays go, it was fairly typical. There was the morning call with the cousins... always fun, but lifted this week by Helen dressing as a pirate for the call. There is now talk of doing a pirate based call in the New Year. The Gorse Fox must consider his options.

It was interesting, on the call, to hear of Chris's experiences in Turkey where they have to scan in to most venues for track and trace, but also to show their vaccine status. Without a clear response they cannot enter various establishments or use public transport. Apparently, it works like clockwork.

Once the call was done, the Gorse Fox caught up on the accounts (which had been ignored for a few days) and then switched to the family tree. On Monday we are meeting the Silver Vixen's mysterious cousin and the Gorse Fox thought she might appreciate some additional background to her family. He has produced several reports, but in the end decided that there was only one that was worth printing.

Talking of family trees, the Gorse Fox's non-cousin - but pseudo cousin - Tina had asked about her family when we met at the funeral last Monday. The Gorse Fox decided to delve into his data and see what he could find. Unfortunately, because of her Irish heritage, it was very difficult to dig up a lot of information. By switching between research tools, however, the Gorse Fox did manage to drive her family back another generation. He does find it tiresome that some priests, along with writing in Latin, had dreadful handwriting. With family names like Scanlan and O'Kelly getting much further is like searching for a needle in a haystack that's been hit by a tornado. He has sent her the information he does have.

Cousteau-Cub and the Coventry Hobbit dropped in for a while this afternoon. It was lovely to see them. Though we have spoken and exchanged the odd messages, it it probably the first time we have seen them since we went out for dinner on Cousteau-Cub's birthday. She's having a bit of rough time at present with her back and was just on the way back from the chiropractor. She's also still waiting to get a start date for her new job... which is dragging on and on.

Still rough

 The Gorse Fox is still feeling rough. Without going into too much detail, things seem to be passing through... completely unhindered. Again, he has been drinking tea, but hasn't ventured to eat anything. He may try some toast and honey later.

The Work of the Devil

 The Gorse Fox continued to feel rough during the day. He was worried that he would be unable to go the the evening's night out. He tentatively tried a little porridge for breakfast, but had no real enthusiasm for the thought of food. He did, however, drink copious amounts of tea.

The Silver Vixen had an appointment for her annual blood tests first thing. This meant that the Gorse Fox was trusted with walking Ellie to school. Having said that, we did nearly leave the house without her school books and water bottle. It was Ellie who reminded him.

Ocado delivery, as usual, but we decided to delay the Sainsbury's top-up until tomorrow. There was nothing for which we were desperate.

A software developer who has a very fine product that runs on Windows, is in the latter stages of bringing out a MacOS version. He contacted the Gorse Fox and asked if he could provide an early copy for comments, testing, and feedback. The Gorse Fox, of course, said yes. It is now nestled on Condor, and some initial tests have been run. It is looking promising.

The plan fro the evening had been that the Sonning Crew would take the bus to Bognor Regis, have dinner, then attend a show. Two Hats and Tinkerbell had pulled out. This just left 4 of us. As the Gorse Fox still wasn't feeling too great, he suggested we take the car - which would be more convenient for getting back home later. We started off at "Mustards" for dinner. The food was, as expected, superb. The Gorse Fox was very careful what he chose - sticking to something light and easily digested with salmon. The others all went for beef cheeks (which looked wonderful). We sat and chatted for a couple of hours before making our way to the theatre (all of 50 yards away).

We had purchased the tickets for this event back in May and settled down in expectation. The show was called "The Work of the Devil" and was a brilliantly crafted show from Simon Evans. Simon came on stage and immediately engaged with the audience. His humour was witty, quick, and intellectual and the first 50 minute segment whistled by, in no time. There was a brief intermission before he resumed. The second half was about the same length but slowly wove an incredible personal story into the narrative. Time and again, themes from the first half were picked up and given context. It really was a masterclass in holding, educating, and entertaining an audience. It was also a masterclass in keeping people laughing, and then surprising them.

When it was all over, we waited in the lobby to say hello. After all, the Gorse Fox often exchanges Tweets with him... and we have common ground in that he also went to school in St Albans.

It really was an exceptional night out.