Another very warm day working on The Lady and then an evening taking the Howletts by my Rolls Royce to see Peter and Jean Wilmer to their house near Staughton for a good social event and SLD political discussion.
A good night and I was up quite promptly, having taken a swimming pool dip last night to avoid a shower this morning. I rather surprised Di at the breakfast table, as she had not finished cooking our normal Sunday fried breakfast. Then down to the river and to start work on The Lady. I propped up the port side of the sliding cockpit roof with two oars and then took off all of the mahogany sliding window trims, chiselling out quantities of the marine plywood that was rotten. This is the only part of The Lady that I had not renewed in previous years and I was glad to be tackling it at last. Tended the ducks and doves on a very bright and sunny morning, which was quite the hottest day that we had endured this year. Spend my morning and afternoon drinks breaks sitting under the large trees, with additional breaks for cold drinks as well. I put on a barrier cream to fend off sunburn and fared quite well. We had a nice chicken roast for lunch. Worked on until tea time, when I cleared up The Lady and swept it thoroughly of all the wood shavings. I had no tea, because today was the day that I had arranged to take Malcolm and Pauline Howlett to Great Stukeley to meet Peter and Jean Wilmer.
These are SLD friends of mine and it was a cross between a social party and a political discussion, which we enjoyed. Daniel and I had washed and vacuumed the Rolls Royce first thing this morning, before it became hot, and we decided to use it tonight to take the Howletts over there. Pity that they seemed a bit overwhelmed by this transport and company, which was a shame. Jean and Pete are much better company and very active in local affairs. He is a Magistrate, they are both School Governors and conduct and host a variety of charity events. They have a nice house, built as a bungalow on the outskirts of Staughton. We were home quite late and had no time to write up my journal or listen to the news. The house was so hot, it took all of our ventilation to cool it down.