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.

Rough

Short blog today. Though the morning was similar to most Wednesdays and the Gorse Fox had football and the Silver Vixen had Pilates the Gorse Fox has been feeling very unwell this afternoon.

He cooked dinner for Ellie and then for Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen. Then he decided he was feeling so queasy that it would be better to sit quietly in the lounge.

Hopefully all will be well tomorrow 

Frost

 We had our first morning where frost decorated (outside of) the Orangery roof. We were lovely and warm inside, but it had clearly been very cold overnight. Urban-Cub dropped Ellie off and the usual schedule kicked in. We dropped her off at school then headed home. 

The Silver Vixen planned to take some clothes to the charity shop, so we switched cars and the Gorse Fox took his car across to Worthing. There were not as many players today as usual, for a Tuesday. There had been a tournament yesterday, so clearly some were taking a rest. The teams were chosen and the Gorse Fox knew he was in for a torrid time. He was playing, like a few weeks back, with a chap that has no concept of disciplined defending. As a result he often found himself outnumbered 3-1. It goes without saying that we lost all three games. The Gorse Fox was pleased with the way he played, having intercepted and blocked several certain goals.

We collected Ellie from school. She was in a playful mood and was happy to amuse herself with the toys after we had been through some phonics with her. She is doing very well with character recognition  and associating them with the correct sounds.

The Gorse Fox keeps asking, but it isn't clear when she starts on Engineering or Physics.

Her cough doesn't seem as pronounced this evening, so hopefully she is over the worst of it.

The Only Way...

 Ellie had a disturbed night. She has a bit of a cough and it was preventing her from dropping into a deep sleep. Both the Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox were up and about before she finally woke this morning. After the usual ablutions, breakfast, and some medicine, we walked her round to school - with the expectation that she would be sent home. She wasn't!

The Gorse Fox had another funeral to attend. This time it was for the husband of his eldest cousin. He hopped in the car, set the SatNav, and headed up to the wilds of Essex. Again, he was exceptionally lucky with the traffic. Despite several sets of roadworks and a broken down truck on the M23, he still managed the journey in a couple of hours.

The Gorse Fox had arrange to meet with J&T at "The Nag's Head". He had arrived first and parked up. He wandered in to the restaurant. A young assistant looked up and he started to say that there was a reservation. Before he had got a sentence out, she pointed out that they weren't yet open and the door should not have been unlocked. He responded that it had been a long drive from Bognor Regis and he hadn't realised they were not open. She took pity and sat him down in a quiet corner and gave him a coffee to keep him happy (and quiet) until J&T arrived.

We had a lovely lunch and chatted until it was time to move on to the crematorium. Other family members and friends began to gather as the clock ticked by. At the appointed hour we entered the chapel and had a very nice secular service of remembrance before the final committal. After the long farewell we gathered back at the same hotel we used two weeks ago and had some afternoon tea before dispersing to the winds.

It was rush hour when the Gorse Fox left, but despite that the traffic smiled on him and he was home in under two hours.