Last night Elayne and I went down to Albox to a fairly new Chinese Restaurant called The Wok. In there you can have a set meal of as much starters as you want (the starter courses offered are the equivalent of the cheaper end of the main menu in the UK) including soups, deep fried prawns, roast duckling and sauce with Chinese pancakes and a myriad of other things around a self help bar (a Chinese version of the Pizza Hut salad bar). Then you go to another bar an select your main course meats (from chicken to prawns to calamari to ribs to beef to pork chops) raw, take them to a counter where fish etc is fast boiled and then everything stir fried in a huge red hot wok. This wokking bit is done with much flamboyance and fire eating sized leaping flames, by a man with no eyebrows. The heat makes every one retreat back from the counter a step or two. Then there is a good selection of fruit sweets or help yourself to ice cream from the fridge. Elayne had a half a bottle of wine whilst I had a couple of beers. The bill for all this was €28.50 which is about £8.90 each. It was really good, but I said that probably if we went again I would be happy to go to the starter bar twice rather than bothering with the main course. Now that’s made you all hungry hasn’t it?
Coincidentally yesterday morning we went to two ferriteria (DIY shops) in Albox. In one we were going to buy some small pieces of metal pipe with which to try to direct the sound and the fumes from the new genny away from the caravan. We found two small sections that seemed to be off-cuts from some longer sections. With some other items we went to the one and only till, first ones there for a change. Well these pipe sections had no price on, so an assistant was called. I suggest that €1 each would be OK by me but this was met with a blank we are not amused stare, the lady in the queue behind, with a smile, said it was worth a try. Whilst this negotiation was going on several others joined the queue. By the time the assistant returned we had about six couples behind us all looking agitated and with us shrugging our shoulders at every one, like you do when you cause a problem. They then wanted to charge me €15 for the pieces, to which I refused and handed the pieces back, much frowning from the check out rottweiler. We said sorry for the delay to the people behind us and left. At the next ferriteria we got talking to a splendid elderly chap and his wife who were looking at generators. We compared notes and when I mentioned to them about our new noisy genny he said that we should go to a motor bike shop and get a cheap motor bike silencer, what a good idea. Anyway we couldn’t find a silencer that would fit the exhaust outlet pipe in the end and said that we would go down next week to find a tyre stockist and see if they had any used but serviceable and cheap silencers from cars. When we arrived at the restaurant last night both of these couples were sitting within two tables of where we chose to sit, neither of them knew each other but both remembered us. Also in there were our friends Pam and Bob, Gill and Malcolm and Tia and Mark. We spoke to the elderly gent and his wife and then as the other couple, whom we had kept waiting in the queue, got up to leave they came across and the man said, with a twinkle in his eye, that if we are going to the ferriteria anytime again, would we please tell him and then he can go somewhere else, what a laugh we all had. With such a good atmosphere in there we took over two hours with our meal before we headed home.
The house inspection last night revealed something that we had hoped for but not actually said anything about. The walk ways from the main hall to the two smaller bedrooms and their bathroom passes through two wall sections. We had hoped that they would add an arch to the part from the hall into the small passage way that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom. We found that they are going to put an arch to both walk through sections. We are quite chuffed about this. The pictures will show you how simply they do these arches, bearing in mind that these are not exterior or load bearing walls. I am also taking daily time lapse pictures of the house and as the outside walls are now built I was feeling that this was just taking the same picture day after day with no changes. However when I look at these pictures you can see pallet loads of bricks, placed after delivery, and then over the next few days these are diminished and more are delivered that take their place. So there is change but it’s a little more subtle just now. When they turn back to the roof section to finish it then the pictures will change.
Right that’s it for Saturday. I have to watch three 6 Nation rugby games this afternoon so I’d better limber up a little in preparation.
Coincidentally yesterday morning we went to two ferriteria (DIY shops) in Albox. In one we were going to buy some small pieces of metal pipe with which to try to direct the sound and the fumes from the new genny away from the caravan. We found two small sections that seemed to be off-cuts from some longer sections. With some other items we went to the one and only till, first ones there for a change. Well these pipe sections had no price on, so an assistant was called. I suggest that €1 each would be OK by me but this was met with a blank we are not amused stare, the lady in the queue behind, with a smile, said it was worth a try. Whilst this negotiation was going on several others joined the queue. By the time the assistant returned we had about six couples behind us all looking agitated and with us shrugging our shoulders at every one, like you do when you cause a problem. They then wanted to charge me €15 for the pieces, to which I refused and handed the pieces back, much frowning from the check out rottweiler. We said sorry for the delay to the people behind us and left. At the next ferriteria we got talking to a splendid elderly chap and his wife who were looking at generators. We compared notes and when I mentioned to them about our new noisy genny he said that we should go to a motor bike shop and get a cheap motor bike silencer, what a good idea. Anyway we couldn’t find a silencer that would fit the exhaust outlet pipe in the end and said that we would go down next week to find a tyre stockist and see if they had any used but serviceable and cheap silencers from cars. When we arrived at the restaurant last night both of these couples were sitting within two tables of where we chose to sit, neither of them knew each other but both remembered us. Also in there were our friends Pam and Bob, Gill and Malcolm and Tia and Mark. We spoke to the elderly gent and his wife and then as the other couple, whom we had kept waiting in the queue, got up to leave they came across and the man said, with a twinkle in his eye, that if we are going to the ferriteria anytime again, would we please tell him and then he can go somewhere else, what a laugh we all had. With such a good atmosphere in there we took over two hours with our meal before we headed home.
The house inspection last night revealed something that we had hoped for but not actually said anything about. The walk ways from the main hall to the two smaller bedrooms and their bathroom passes through two wall sections. We had hoped that they would add an arch to the part from the hall into the small passage way that leads to the bedrooms and bathroom. We found that they are going to put an arch to both walk through sections. We are quite chuffed about this. The pictures will show you how simply they do these arches, bearing in mind that these are not exterior or load bearing walls. I am also taking daily time lapse pictures of the house and as the outside walls are now built I was feeling that this was just taking the same picture day after day with no changes. However when I look at these pictures you can see pallet loads of bricks, placed after delivery, and then over the next few days these are diminished and more are delivered that take their place. So there is change but it’s a little more subtle just now. When they turn back to the roof section to finish it then the pictures will change.
Right that’s it for Saturday. I have to watch three 6 Nation rugby games this afternoon so I’d better limber up a little in preparation.
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