ANOTHER RELATIVELY QUIET day. I ended up sleeping in 'til 10:30 am. I felt badly but it was great to have so much rest. We had breakfast (I ate mine as they'd eaten already). I helped clean up then I filled in the journal for the day before. I picked up a cookbook and looked for some new recipes but found nothing new. I picked up a Readers' Digest to glance through it but we soon got ready to leave.

We got into the car and headed to Stuart's. On the way, we stopped at a walled garden. There were huge beds of flowers, reeds, ponds and ivy on the brick walls. I'd have taken a picture of the beautiful garden but I didn't have a camera, plus it was too dark due to the mist that had come down. The garden was in the style of the english country garden. With the mist, everything had a very green and hazy look to it. A good camera would have given photos with great character.

We continued on and soon arrived at Stuart's. I met James, Helen and Sarah who are four, two and one, respectively. They're very cute and very clever. James showed me the boat and pointed out numerous things inside and how they worked. Stuart was working on a wooden cabinet on the boat. He was using a router so I asked him a few questions about their use. I told him about my desk and having to do some routing. He also suggested that rather than putting a side panel over the holes, that I could patch them with pieces of oak. I may just try it if I have any pieces that I could use. Then I won't have to have so much wood.

Then he took out his 34-year-old Morris Minor which he'd rebuilt by himself. We went for a little ride in it around the block. Back at the house, we went in for tea and cucumber sandwiches. We talked for a while then it was time to return.

On the way back, the route took us along the river and past Southend pier. Had there not been any rain, we'd have gotten out to take the train on the world's longest pier, but we decided to try for a dryer day.

We made supper and ate, then watched a mastermind show from the British Museum. What happens is that four players are each quizzed in the subject of their own choice. The questions were almost impossible, if you ask me! Then there wasn't really anything on TV so I went to bed as I was quite tired. I was asleep in a few minutes.