The Crew

 It was a fairly normal Thursday. Coffee and breakfast while reading the news and then the delivery from Ocado (right at the end of the delivery slot). This was followed by the obligatory top-up in Sainsbury's and a stop-off at a local courier pick-up point so that the Silver Vixen could return some items delivered yesterday.

Once home the Silver Vixen tucked into some ironing while the Gorse Fox walked into the village to get his hair cut. There seemed to be a lot of young boys having their hair cut today. This kept the Gorse Fox waiting a bit longer than usual, but it was not a problem.

We had a quiet afternoon with our books before getting ready for the evening. We were going out with the Sonning Crew for the first time in ages. We met up at Old Bill and Lady Penelope's for a glass of fizz before heading off to catch the bus. For a change, we were towards Felpham, not Chichester. There was some disruption on the buses but ours turned up and got us to Fino's on time.

Fino's, even at 18:30, was buzzing. We were shown to our table and settled down to explore the menu options while enjoying a drink. Not everyone had starters. The Gorse Fox had some garlic ciabatta, whilst the others had whitebait.

The main course saw wide selection of choices among us. The Silver Vixen had sea bass, others had various selections, and the Gorse Fox, finding it hard to choose, plumped for a pizza. The food was excellent, as it has been on our previous visits. By this time, the restaurant was really filling up. The table next to ours was claimed by a coven of middle-aged ladies - who were clearly very excitable and very loud. This meant that for Two Hats and the Gorse Fox, who were sitting closest to them, the rest of the evening's chat with the Sonning Crew was completely drowned out.

Several of the Crew had a sweet, though the Gorse Fox did not. We settled the bill - which was remarkable inexpensive compared with some of the meals we have enjoyed - and headed for the bus stop.

We didn't have to wait for too long and the bus rattled through almost without a stop. We had to get off the bus by the Pink Pub roundabout as the A259 had been closed by an accident and the bus was having to divert by the Lower Bognor Road.

We arrived home before 21:30 having had a lovely evening.