Now how do I put this without appearing to gloat a little? and, in full knowledge of the dreadful weather that you are having in the UK just now. Well I’ve been paddling in the Med today, and it’s been in the mid twenties, in the glorious sun. I know it might hurt a little, but it does no good to beat about the bush on these matters.
We went down to Mojacar to get loads of hard nosed brass, from our bank, to give the builder, as our second of five stage payments on the house.
We breakfasted and then walked and paddled and then went to the bank. We were met at the door by a profusely apologetic Ramon the manager (here your bank manager speaks to you civilly, and in a very friendly manner, and not as though you’ve just dropped of the bottom of his shoe, as in the UK. We even borrow his office sometimes if we want to count out some money in a quiet place). Some flats above the bank are having sewage disposal blockages and the whole place smelt like ‘Esholt’ on a summers day. Cor’ did it pong!!! Well we got our brass and departed ‘toot, not so, sweet’.
On the building front, we were surprised to hear the arrival of the builders at just after eight this morning. They started knocking the shuttering clamp pins out and taking the shuttering down all together. The concrete obviously was dry enough to support itself and so they continued. Just as we left for Mojacar, a thundering great lorry arrived in a trail of camino dust, looking like it’s on the Dakar Rally. It delivered five loads of breeze block type bricks. When we got back from Mojacar the lorry had been backwards and forwards a few times delivering cement, gravel and sand. The lads had finished removing the shuttering on all except one pile which they had to top up with some more concrete this morning. Using a water tube as a level they then marked the base level right around all of the piles. This level denotes the height of the house’s surrounding bricks. They build to this level with breeze blocks and then fill the middle with gravel. This forms the base for the ground floor concrete. I estimate that with the piles, and the foundations, and then the floor concrete we will have about one hundred and twenty tons of concrete for the house to sit on. The enclosed pictures will tell a better story of the days’ developments than I can. All I can say is that from sunrise it has been a very exciting day. Sorry for the little gloat, but we hope you can understand our delight in today.

PS: After we had shut up shop for the day and after it had got pitch black tonight, there is a horn hooting outside and the agua (water) man arrives, after calling him for a week. He delivered abouth eighteem thousand ltrs of agua and charged €100, less than half a euro per 100 ltrs. It's a good job it was warm or I would have frozen to death in the half an hour it took to fill the hebe. It's good to have it full because the builders are needing a lot as they start to make and use cement.