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.