Behind You

Ellie was perfectly happy to amuse herself with her iPad until we got up at very respectable 7:30. The Gorse Fox was a man on a mission. There was the weekly shop, combined with the Christmas shop, to do. As soon as he was suitably caffeinated and sustained with some scrambled eggs, he donned his survival gear and headed to Sainsbury’s.

The store was quieter than expected, possibly because it was only 9:00. As the Gorse Fox shopped, it did start to build up. Not in the usual way, where single shoppers or pairs of shoppers wandered round in an ordinary fashion. No today they seemed to have invaded in huge family groups so that they could block the aisles while standing around debating who would eat what and who likes what. Despite this, the Gorse Fox completed his task within an hour, cashed his Nectar points and headed for the car.

The Gorse Fox is very proud of himself - despite every temptation, he did not “go postal”, he did not use the trolley as a battering ram, he did not scream at the zombies as they wandered aimlessly around the store. There were no arrests and he was not carted away in a straight-jacket.

Back home, Ellie was counting down to 3 o’clock. Every few minutes she would check how much longer it was… and there were several hours to go. We kept her occupied with “hide and seek” and “hunt the egg”. Eventually, it was time so we headed into Bognor.

We had tickets for the pantomime “Beauty and the Beast” at the Alexandra Theatre on the seafront. We arrived in plenty of time and had some excellent seats. (Having said that, all the seats have a brilliant view and the seats are quite comfy). Ellie was a bit subdued. She was worried that she would be frightened by the Beast. 

When the show started, it was very loud, and she wasn’t too happy. After about the first 20 minutes or so, she started to relax and get into the story. She started to join in and laugh, dance, and shout. The spell was broken and she really enjoyed it in the end. To be fair, we too enjoyed it. There was plenty of subtle humour for the adults as well as the more slapstick humour for the little ones.

We dropped Ellie back home after the show, and after a quick drink, went home ourselves for a quiet evening.