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My worrying absence

I appreciate that August wasn't exactly a bumper month for fans of WARTE. Many apologies. I've been prioritising my birthday madness (see www.p40b.com) and spending time on my hols. Austria produces some excellent material for a blog of this kind, so watch this space for an update soon.

In the meantime, I thought I'd mention that I tried out the new website developed at UCL in London which allows you to trace the geographical origins of your surname. I was disconcerted to discover that there are more Woodfords in Australia than anywhere else, which can only mean one thing: criminal ancestry. It's worrying to discover stuff like this at the age of 39, when you've quite happily been sailing through life assuming your lineage to be pure as the driven snow.

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