The Carstone identities

I did write the following entry last night, well, in draft form at least. It took me an awful long time to settle on names to cover the real identities of my subjects. On more than one occasion, in fact, I have sailed perilously close to the wind, and I can only hope that anybody who rumbles me, and discovers the true identities of the characters that will be flitting in and out of my diary, keeps such revelations to themselves, because, obviously, posting such information on this blog (you know, I really DO prefer the term 'diary'; 'blog' is a rather horrid word; it gives me indigestion) would be akin to hurling a lit match into a fireworks factory.