I'm sure I won't be the only genealogy addict who's relieved to read that a recent study shows the Neanderthals weren't so much our ancestors as a failed branch. I've been at this ancestor-tracing thing nearly three years now. Well actually, I took a year off because it was getting out of control and I decided I had to go cold turkey. You always think you're one click away from solving a mystery. Next thing you know, it's 2am. I guess that's why detectives have such lousy home lives.

Plenty of unanswered riddles in my family tree, not least because there seems to have been a tradition of giving the new baby the surname of the latest lodger. And then ten years on, when the next census was taken, changing it to the name of some new 'uncle'. Nothing much by way of lucky breaks, apart from a couple of unusual surnames, and the fact that one of my ancestry twigs springs from Rutland, England's smallest county and therefore a slightly smaller haystack through which to to search.

All kinds of false alarms too. At one point I removed Elijah Phantom from the family tree because I though I'd taken a wrong turn, but no, it turns out he's one of ours after all. And so is my latest find, Skeffington Liquorish, which I think you'll agree is a name almost worthy of Mrs Astor's list. Unfortunately he was just another squat low-browed tiller of the earth. But not a Neanderthal. Which is something.

Bad attack of separation anxiety yesterday. My handbag. We were on a flight home from Dublin and Mr F didn't like our seats because they were non-reclinable. The flight attendant said we could move if we did it VERY FAST INDEED. I guess we'd have lost our take-off slot if we'd fannied around and then I'd have become the very kind of passenger I despise. So we moved and I was in row 28 and my bag was in the bin over row 9 and we had a bit of turbulence so the seat belt signs were kept on for hours which meant they were behind with meal service and the trolleys were blocking the aisle and I couldn't get my bag. And I wanted it. Not for any particular reason. I just wanted it. Waaaaaaahhhh!