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.