We've been away for a few days with Virginia's sister Justine in Frinton, and a very restful time it was. Perhaps 'attractions' have tended to go to nearby Walton-on-the-Naze, or Clacton which isn't that far, and so left Frinton becalmed. Perhaps Frinton has a psychic balance of peace which repels those who ooze stress. It is very tranquil wandering along the sea front, admiring the beach huts (available for rent or purchase). Quite a few people are employed keeping the numerous beach huts in trim. We walked to Walton one day which is only a stone's throw away. The pier there was closed, as was the RNLI shop Virginia and I got cards in on Tufty Club outings. The Round Table fish and chip place that we normally frequent on Tufty Club outings was also shut, but we had sandwiches at a place along the seafront in Walton sadly exposed to cigarette smoke. Virginia did detect some delicious doughnuts for us to have on the way back. Mealwise much nicer was a visit to Parker's Garden Centre in Frinton, we ate inside a tent all having a welcome hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. We strayed to Clacton one day, the pier there has quite a few attractions but the place felt down market. The tide was in quite a lot, with the spray shooting up over the sea wall, but we did go walking on the beach when the seas had receded. Justine collected some small sea shells to adorn her garden with our aid. There is plenty of beach in this area, but happily we were out of season so there was space to walk on it. During the stay we tried to do a large 1000 piece jigsaw of a Thomas Kinkade painting but didn't get that far. In the evenings we played games in the sunny conservatory at the back of the house we were staying in. Monday night was "Scrabble" then Tuesday we tried "Ratrace" which Justine won as she did "PayDay" we played Wednesday night. "PayDay" was better but we were learning the rules with most of the games. Thursday's "Go For Broke" was rather too elaborate and not so successful. The last night (Friday) we played "The Worst-Case" a game of getting the right answer as to what to do in various disaster scenarios, we had to abandon this. Justine was disappointed that a box labelled "Cluedo" turned out to be a jigsaw not the game. We did venture along Frinton High Street, dipping into the charity shops partly to see if we could find the game "Cluedo" which we failed to do so. I admired the skill of the guy in "Costa" who provided us lunch one day. There was also The Olde Sweet Shop which provided us with a variety of ice creams to consume - I embarrassed myself by managing to drop a coconut ice cream on their floor! There are some very expensive places in Frinton along the sea front, for instance the Round House which almost has a moat. This abode displays prominently a picture of two over-endowed nudes for all to see. The over-endowed rich trying to raise the common cultural level?

So we used up another of the days of holiday I had to use before the end of the year. Let's go to Mountfitchet Castle, that'll be a nice outing I thought. It was when we got there, and discovered the car park full, that we realised half term week was not a great time to go there. The place was heaving with children, both under parental control and under teacher control (there was a large school party there). I remembered the toy museum on the hill - I'm a sucker for places like that. I didn't remember it had so much war memorabilia in it. And I certainly didn't remember the dinosaurs guarding the entrance with water cannon. You had to time your dash for the door to the toy museum carefully or you got soaked with water. Glad dinosaurs are now extinct. We wandered around the reconstruction of a Norman wooden castle site. There is a lot of information there, it does give an impression of those times. Not good times for the villeins and serfs and poachers. The lords really lorded it over everyone else. The cafe was heaving so we had lunch somewhere else, ending up at our nearest Beefeater the "Travellers Rest".

I used up one of the days of holiday I had to use before the end of the year and we went to Audley End. It was late in the season for the gardens, but there was still colour in the parterre, nature forced into unnatural lines and arcs. A fountain fitfully and thinly spouted. The house is impressive, some stunning rooms. A pea green bare room where once they could dine and admire sunsets over the landscaped vista. This room like others had fake doors, here added for the sake of symmetry. Another room with red soporific silk wall hangings. Rooms full of stuffed animals, a raptor forever clasping a rabbit in its talons. A marquetry topped table with a complex diagram telling of all the kinds of wood used in it. A nursery the only room photographs were allowed. A gallery of coal. We went on the pantry tour which told of Mr Lincoln, a butler to the landed gentry here. Round the pantry was a display of the silver, including a large tankard with a hundred coins on it. In those days the servants were supposed to be little more than robots, at the call of a bell all the hours of the day, not having a life outside. Mr Lincoln on the census was declared as single yet managed to have a wife and sons. The staff were knowledgeable and friendly. There were plenty of cars in the car park, but it didn't feel crowded out. Happily we avoided a school party who were there too.

Virginia's grandmother used to run a Tufty Club (a long gone organisation for teaching children to cross the road safely, Tufty was a squirrel.) This Tufty Club had an annual outing to the seaside which kept happening even after the Club itself became moribund. Virginia's mother has kept the outing going, and I felt I should go once to experience the experience. The outing goes to "Walton on the Naze" (typical English seaside town.) Decent gently sloping beach (no treacherous undercurrents but the tide comes in surprisingly quickly.) A pier that's seen better days with an amusement arcade of dodgems and old style roller coasters. Stalls where you can buy cheap kites and postcards and inflatables and buckets and spades. We walked to the Naze Tower and tried our hand at flying kites, but the wind was spasmodic. It had been gusty enough to blow Virginia's straw hat into the sea which didn't do it any good! We had a pleasant enough lunch in a pub which wasn't as crowded as I feared. Took two hours each way travelling which wasn't so nice, it was a crawl reaching Walton itself. Also on the downside was getting the windscreen cracked on the motorway (as the crack is spreading better get that seen to!)