In the morning I applied my makeup and did my hair in the Josie style, before tying it into a high ponytail as Susie had taught me yesterday, thinking that I preferred the lighter makeup touch that I normally used. We had agreed that we would dress in very different styles to make it obvious to anyone following Josie which one of us was which, she was going to dress quite classic but I was to be casual and carefree. I dressed in a floral calf-length summer skirt and gypsy top, scarfed fedora hat, large sunglasses and sandals. packed my essentials in a small bag carried in a patterned canvas tote bag and was ready to go to our rendezvous with Josie.

I picked Susie up at the salon on the way and she took a quick look at me and burst out laughing.

“I like the 1960s flower-child look, I know you said you were going to dress casual and carefree, but I didn’t expect that.”

"i actually quite like this look, do you think I could wear this outfit for work."I replied, joking back with her.

We set off and soon arrived at the motorway services as agreed. Josie's car was already there so I parked next to it and transferred her suitcase to my car, which she would be using for the few days that she was away and we walked into the restaurant.

We saw her right away and pretending we were surprised to see her went over to greet her, putting on a show for anyone who might be watching her.

“Josie, fancy bumping into you here, haven’t seen you for ages. Are you in a rush or have you got time for a catch up? Can we join you or are you with anyone?"Susie said giving her a big hug, “This is my sister Sally, I don’t think you have met.”

As we were talking Josie gave a roll of her eyes and a nod of the head in the direction of a man sitting a few tables away to indicate that he was the one following her, warning us to be careful with what we said. I kept in the background of the conversation letting Susie and Josie catch up with everything that they had been doing since they last met.

When it was time to leave, and after Susie took a few ‘selfies’ of the three of us we stopped off in the Ladies restroom and while Susie kept watch Josie and I went into adjacent cubicles and swapped the clothes between us. When we came out, Josie rearranged her hair, put on the fedora and sunglasses, swapped our bags and contents, then Susie and her left to go to my car and drive away.

A few minutes later having brushed out my hair to match Josie’s , I touched up my makeup and admired myself in her white sleeved chiffon blouse and royal blue pencil skirt, feeling very sophisticated before I left too. I went to the shop to get some snacks giving the girls a chance to get clear and noticed that as I got into Josie’s car to drive home that I was being tailed, so our ruse had worked. As I pulled into my drive, I saw a car stopped just up the road, which pulled away as I went into the house.

"Hi Josie, that worked wonderfully, your tail followed me back to the house and is no doubt on the phone now confirming that I arrived here without any problems.”

“Ok I m having a long chat with Susie in a station cafeteria, before she gets the train home. She has done an amazing job on you, I am not surprised that my tail believed he was following me.”

"Great. Have a relaxing weekend with Ellie, and sort out what you want to do, and we’ll repeat the performance on Monday morning. Tell Susie to give me a call when she is on the train and I will pick her up at the station and take her home.”

"That’s brilliant, I haven’t had so much fun for ages, I think I could enjoy being a spy.” Susie giggled as I drove her home.

“Come round for dinner tomorrow, my treat as a thank you, you played a blinder today.”

Sunday morning I just dressed casual in my denim mini-skirt and spaghetti-strap top and made a trip to the shops to stock up for Susie’s visit, gave the house a quick tidy up and clean and was soon ready. I had felt really comfortable in the loose flowing ‘flower-power’ skirt that I had worn yesterday and decided to go back to to the shopping centre to see if I could find something similar. I was now used to browsing the racks in the stores and it did not take long to find what I was looking for, a skirt in a similar mid-calf style to Josie’s, but in a random geometric pattern rather than a floral print, and an ivory cap-sleeved cotton gypsy top to go with it, a perfect combination for a warm spring day.

I prepared our meal, a chicken lasagne with home-made focaccia, made up a tossed salad to go with it, put a couple of bottles of Chenin blanc in the fridge to chill, changed into my new skirt and top, freshened my make-up and was eagerly waiting for Susie. Looking out of the window for her, there was no sign of a strange car in the street, it seemed that my watchdog had been called off for the weekend.

"Hi Jo, or should I call you Josie just in case anyone is listening in, you are looking really summery today, that style definitely suits you.”

“Glad you could make it Susie. I like this style, it is really comfortable and so feminine. As you said when we started all this, I need to over-emphasise my femininity just to compensate for any minor male traces still in me.”

"There are virtually none of those left now, I can’t even picture you as Joey anymore. Anyway, let’s forget all that, and just enjoy our evening together. I had a good chat with Josie on the journey back yesterday and she told me all about the problems with Jack’s mother, and I have an idea.”

"Ok, do tell, I haven’t come up with anything yet. Let’s discuss it over dinner, just give me a few minutes to serve up.”

“She needs to get Jack away from the influence of his mother and have a good talk with him about her concerns. What does Jack do for a living, is there a chance he could get away for a few weeks.”

"He normally works from home, he develops web sites and specialist computer programs, he started doing it for his father’s companies, but then turned it into a commercial concern, and according to Josie, he is very successful at it. I suppose he could work online from anywhere, what are you thinking?”

"Why don’t they go over to your parents’ place in France for a few weeks. They can tell Jack’s folks that they need to discuss wedding plans with them. They can turn it into a bit of a holiday too, after all, it is a while since she has seen them and they have never met Jack.”

"That sounds great to me, after dinner I’ll phone Josie and see what she thinks.”

"Josie, I’m with Susie and she has had a super idea. We think that you need to spend some time with Jack, sorting things out between you, without the domineering presence of his mother. Why not go over to visit Mum and Dad for a few weeks? It will be good for them to meet Jack and to see you again. I believe it is a very picturesque rural area where they are, on the banks of the Dordogne, and you and Jackcan have a relaxing holiday time together.”

"That’s better than anything I have thought of yet. I have been trying to think of a gentle excuse to get him away from home, that should not upset anybody.”

"Are you still on for going back to Jack’s tomorrow or do you need to spend a bit more time with Ellie?”

"No, after that suggestion, I am now much happier, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, same place and we will do the reverse swap. Bye”

"She really liked your idea Susie, thank you so much. I am going to change over with her tomorrow, she can go back to Jack’s, get him to agree, and make the arrangements.”

"Glad to be of help. Anyway, it is time I was leaving, keep in touch and let me know what is going on.”

As we were having a goodbye hug on the doorstep, i noticed that the watcher’s car was back, obviously checking that nobody was staying the night with me. As Susie drove away, the other car pulled away too in the opposite direction, obviously satisfied that I was behaving myself.

In the morning, I dressed in my favourite blue dress of Josie’s that I had worn for the interview as she wanted to have that with her, and left for the rendezvous, followed closely all the way by the watcher. As I was driving, i thought to myself ‘I can understand why she is worried, i couldn’t live in a goldfish bowl like that.’ and was glad for her that she may have found a way to get away from Jack’s mother.

Before I went into the restaurant I gave her a call to make sure that she was ok and she told me that she had spoken to Jack and he had agreed to go to France with her to meet Mum and Dad.

I had expected to see Josie wearing my flower-power outfit, but she had dressed in white capri pants, a floral tunic top and a baseball cap, with her hair in a ponytail. I walked past her straight into the Ladies and she soon followed me. We quickly exchanged clothes, restyled our hair, she passed me a bag containing my clothes and I left first to go to move her suitcase back into her car. I was glad to see the watcher follow her out a few minutes later and drive off after her.

With my hair tied back and with my makeup at its usual subtle level rather than at Josie’s more intensive styled I changed into my work clothes, and a lot later than normal I went out to the site to see if there had been any progress. I found that Emma and Jane had settled in well and had taken over my investigation of the spoil heaps .They had unearthed a few more medieval coins and a brooch and torc necklace from the viking era, which still needed to be cleaned up, but at least it was something for me to show and talk about on my vlog,

The main dig around the building structures were taking place in two locations, one where a section of wall had been exposed by the farmers and one down by the estuary high-waterline. At both locations they were still working down the wall lines and whilst exposing some decent stonework, there was nothing yet that would excite the general public. so I went back to the girls to get them to do a video interview with me about their finds for the vlog, which really pleased them and they insisted that I let them know right away after it was posted.

Back in the office later, I finished the vlog and website News update, showed them to Jacqui who liked what I had done and posted them up. I was really beginning to get to grips with the computer technology.

Once again, as I got back home, Maggie called me over, she must have heard the car and seen me arrive.

"Hi Jo, that was a great interview with Emma and Jane on your vlog, I’m so glad that you got them involved up at the dig. Do you fancy a cup of tea while you can tell me more about what they found?”

"Let me go home get changed and cleaned up and I will be over in about 20 minutes.”

I cleaned up, brushed out my hair and tied it back in a high ponytail, changed into a light summer dress and was soon sitting with Maggie in her garden enjoying her home-made scones and a cup of tea.

"Jane has been on to me, she is so thrilled about being on your vlog, and is really grateful for you getting her the job on the dig.”

“Oh, it’s all my pleasure Maggie, her and Emma have settled in well up there and are doing a good job.”

"I forgot to mention it to you earlier, but I happened to notice a car parked up the street quite a lot over the last few days, and the man in it seemed to be keeping an eye on your house, is everything ok?”

"Thanks for that, er…, it was someone looking for Joey for some reason, he was very persistent, but I think he has probably realised that he is off on his travels and it is a waste of time for him to keep looking for him. I don’t expect him to be back, but if you see the car again, please let me know.”

We didn’t have a neighbourhood-watch scheme in place, but Maggie was just as effective, any strange noises and she was at her window or door keeping an eye on things.

"I will do that. now tell me more about what you are finding at the dig, I am getting really involved with watching your vlogs, but I am sure that there is more going on than you are telling everyone.”

Maggie was pleasant enough company, but she was obviously a bit lonely and was glad of someone to talk to, so I stayed for a couple of hours before making my way back home.

On Friday, I got a call from Josie just as I was about to leave for work.

"Hi Jo, just to let you know Jack and I are now at Dover and are about to get on the ferry to France to go to Mum and Dad’s place. Jack kept asking me about my trip home, and in the end I told him all about you, what you were doing and how you helped me. At first he didn’t really believe me, but when I showed him the photos of us together, he burst out laughing ‘ Wow, what a guy, or should I say girl, if ever you get tired of me, just pass me onto Jo.’ He has promised not to say anything to his parents, or anyone else, but he would like to meet you sometime when we get back. Just in case either of us let it slip talking to Mum and Dad are you ok if I tell them about your life as my cousin Jo? Apart from them wanting to get all the personal stuff out of the way, I am sure that they will be proud of the success you are making of your life and will want to follow your vlog.”

"I suppose they will have to be told sometime, especially with the wedding coming up and me being your Chief Bridesmaid. Let me know how you get on.”

On arriving at the dig site, I was told that they had a successful morning and went to find Professor Carter for more details,

"Good Morning Jo, we are in exciting times. On the first building being excavated, we are now down to floor level and in getting there have begun to find traces of the Roman occupation, coins, small items of jewellery and lots of pottery shards from amphoras, large jugs for transporting wine and olive oil. They are exciting finds for us as now there is no doubt that we have found a Roman site, now we just have to prove that it is in fact Ostia Septentrionalis and not just a villa and outbuildings, although even that would be a wonderful discovery.”

In the hope of personally finding something of interest I joined the dig team at the building clearing away and sifting through the debris that had collected over the centuries. It was my lucky day.

"Professor, what do you thing of this."I asked, carefully handing him what appeared to be a small sword, deeply encrusted with mud and rust from being buried for hundreds of years.

"We’ll have to get it cleaned up so that we can have a good look at it, but it appears to be a Gladius, the typical short battle sword of the Roman army. Show me exactly where you found it, and we’’ll get a team sifting through everything carefully. Other than the extent of the buildings themselves, this could be our best find to date. Well uncovered Jo.”

Before sending it off for a deep clean using specialist solvents, the Gladius was given a quick gentle wash on site and I managed to get a few photos of it and some of the other recent finds to publish. The rest of the day was spent updating Jacqui on how things were progressing and preparing my vlog.

Rather than just a plain account of what had been found, I included a lot of personal details of a typical life of a Roman soldier and explained that many of them were not even from Rome. When they conquered territories, the people in those countries added to the ranks of the army and in many divisions, only the main commanders were true Romans. As it was an exciting day for us all , my vlog was a lot longer than usual and to enhance the story of the short sword, I described many of the battle techniques that they adopted, the Phalynx, the Testudo and the Hollow square, and how each man protected those by his side as well as defending themselves, and tried to bring it all to life for my followers.

The vlog following was gradually increasing and seemed to be attracting over half of the town, but that included many students and academics from elsewhere as well as locals. Jacqui was particularly impressed with how well it was all going.

"Jo, your vlog is so watchable and is appealing to many people that would not normally show any interest in such things. In fact we have had an enquiry from the local TV station news programme, Anglia East, they want to do an interview with you at the site, seeing what you have found and talking to the people involved.”

"Shouldn’t that be Professor Carter’s job, I don’t want to tread on his toes, he is the main lead on the project?”

"Normally yes, but he is content to deal with all the academic presentations, he says he is not comfortable in front of cameras. At the university, as you know, he comes across forceful and knowledgeable, but he says that he is camera-shy and tends to dry-up and mumble. The other thing is that you are much more telegenic, young, attractive, and enthusiastic, generally much more appealing to the general public, and it is you that the TV station want to use.”

"When I started working at the museum I had assumed that it would be a back-of-house role, where I could remain unimportant and almost unknown and unrecognised, but between the vlog and now with the proposed TV appearance it has become anything but. I am normally a shy person and am not used to being so publicly high-profile, I am not sure if a TV appearance would suit me.”

"Don’t be silly Jo, have you seen how many followers your vlog has got and some of the very complimentary comments. People out there relate to your easy-going and chatty presentation style, you have nothing to worry about, enjoy it while you have the opportunity.”

‘OK. I’ll do this one, but if I am not comfortable there will not be another”

I just could net bring myself to tell her that the reason I was so uncertain was nothing to do with the interview and the cameras, or talking about the project, My main worry was that the more my image was ‘out there’, the more chance there was that someone would realise who I really was.

As it happened the TV interviewer and crew were so easy to work with. I walked them around the site, explaining what people were doing, what we had found and answering their questions. They already had a prepared draft for the interview, but as I showed and told them things, I could see the director, Jim Marshall making lots of notes and changes to his script. When Jim was working away reorganising everything, the interviewer, Carol Cameron, who I knew and recognised from her regular appearance on the local news, settled me down and advised me on how to change my makeup to suit the cameras and the lights. nothing too drastic, after all I was being introduced as the council’s site coordinator and my image was to be as if I was getting dirty digging on site all day, and could not be expected to be a glamour-puss model.

Before the interview The director ran through with Carol the changes he had made, the questions to ask and which locations he wanted us to visit showing the most interesting aspects of what we had found and discovered’

“I am here today on the site of the archaeological dig at what is known as Ostia Septentrionalis, with Jo Johnson, who many of you may recognise from her excellent vlog, which is keeping us amused educated and informed about this project. Jo, can you please give us a brief outline of what you are expecting to find, and what you already have, that indicates you are going in the right direction.”

I had expected a quick five minute discussion but even without many retakes, along with some camera shots of the site the whole process took almost two hours.

"Is it always like this Carol, we only ever see quick interviews on the news and I didn’t realise how much time and effort goes into it all?”

"This was quite quick, considering what we are intending to do. It was helped that we only had two retakes, you made it easy, you are a natural in front of the camera.”

"What do you mean, ‘considering what we are intending to do’ , I thought this was just a short interview to fill in time on the local news slot.”

“That was the intention, but when the director saw what you were doing and how easily and well you talked about it all, he added a few things and now has more than enough to follow that up with a mini documentary showing a lot more details. Obviously, for that we will need you to come into the studio to help us present it, if that is ok.”

"Oh, crikey, this is getting worse,”, I thought “if it goes on like this and I keep getting more and more in the public eye someone is bound to work out what I am doing.”

To be continued.