I have been meaning to blog for the last two days, but have been caught in the situation where I have to finish this wall.....and then I'm timed out. So forgive me, dear readers, if the posts are a bit erratic - imagine me wielding my various painting tools, and don't be envious!

The work continues apace. The Anaemic one has done us proud with the new wall finished and the door in place. Even he is proud of his handiwork, and so are we. It is really solid.

Like it was alsways meant to be there.

He has now started on the reserve, now THIS definitely needs imagination to keep us going!

Ugh! This is as he starts to 'excavate' it. He found a rat skeleton under the freezer!!!! Yikes. I suppose it could have been worse....He has estimated an approximate 20cm difference in level of the floor from front to back which makes it a bit of a nightmare to try to get flat, but Dave and he have decided to have a step at the front and dig out the back a bit, so trying to minimise having a ton of dirt and rubble to get rid of. So they toiled all the day and finished digging it out by the end of the day and now it looks like this:

Better already!

However he will be temporarily be diverted next week back to the kitchen level where he will be putting down the final screed layer. Apparently the kitchen can't be finished off - skirting etc. until the floor is finished. I guess it makes sense. The two lads who have been setting up the kitchen and doing the elecs have been toiling away too, although they are nice lads, we do have a number of 'observations' to make about them: they go to lunch at 11.30 and get back around 14.20 - so I guess they count their lunch break as starting and finishing from their base in Prades - I wonder what happens if they go further afield! Olivier works straight through - has never taken a lunch break. Ahh, the difference between being self-employed and salaried, nicely highlighted there. They also have absolutely no finesse, and I think Dave should take pics of their finishes to show their boss, J-P - not for any malicious reason, but they just won't ever be shown how to do it nicely, if the boss doesn't know to teach them. But Dave doesn't want to rock the apple cart. However, it does mean that he is following them round to finish off properly - for example, they were cutting round holes in the plasterboard upstairs to put in the plastic round things (umm, don't know any technical words here!) where the wires all sit. Dave says it is the easiest thing in the world to cut a round hole with the drill thingy, but somehow they have broken up all the plaster around the hole and then tried to glue and screw a square plastic cover over it. In fact, Dave has told them just to get everything ready for the lights and plugs to go on and he will fit them all himself. A good decision, I think. However, they have fitted the spots in the kitchen ceiling - neatly, and I am pleased with those. They have also fitted all the wall sockets in the kitchen, so the cabling advances also.

I have been painting like a dervish - if dervishes ever did any painting. I have a couple of pics here, it probably doesn't look too impressive, but under the final coat are layers of undercoat and primer, so there! I am dead pleased with the colours.

And there's Dave grouting. I have also been painting the room that you can just see the doorway of on the right - the storage space - white, but that would make a bit of a dull picture.

 So it really is coming together, hurrah. I had a bit of an afternoon off on Thurs and went to Perps to get the tyres changed on the back. The garage had received them from the internet company, and they fitted them and did the valves and balancing for €30. Great system! It came in at €100 less than we were quoted by the garage who repaired the car. So that is recommended.

On a slightly different note, I was amused to read an article on Gordon Ramsay in todays Times Online - he is one of my culinary heroes. He is doing a lot of work in the US at the moment, and had these observations on American eating out mentality:

From The Times

September 6, 2008

Chris Ayres

It’s almost three months now since Gordon Ramsay’s new restaurant opened in Los Angeles, and it’s probably fair to say that, so far, the irascible British chef hasn’t fully warmed to the natives. “Hardly anyone drinks here,” he announces, with palpable disgust, after striding through the mirrored dining room of the awkwardly named Gordon Ramsay at the London, West Hollywood. “You’re on your second glass of wine and they’re like, ‘How long have you been an alcoholic?’ The most irritating thing is when you don’t finish your food and the waiter asks, ‘Do you want that to go?’ I say to them, ‘Sorry? I just had the Caesar salad. What the f*** do I want to take that home for?’ The salad lasts for 11, 12 minutes – you’re gonna take that slimy s*** out of your fridge 24 hours later and eat it? Bollocks!”

and

Alas, these aren’t the only aspects of LA life that qualify as “bollocks” in Ramsay’s book. Other examples include locals who crack jokes about British food (“You think, ‘F*** off; you’ve got just as bad food over here as we used to have back in the UK’”) and diners who insist on customising every order (“Can I have a BLT with no bread?” he mimics).

To read the whole article, go here: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/food_and_drink/gordon_ramsay/article4654260.ece 

it is SO TRUE. I would love to hear my sister-in-law's opinion, who lives out there 6 months a year. We do encounter the jokes A LOT about British food here - but it's perhaps more to be expected from here, as the French are so deeply smug about their culinary heritage. And I'm not saying they don't have anything to be smug about - just go with the times and acknowledge that other countries are now producing great cuisine. And the doggy bag mentality is creeping across the pond, too. Mind you, with the size of the portions in the US, it is probably worthwhile, but not over here......

The article finishes:  'Just the other morning, he was hatching yet more plans over breakfast with TV executives and his minders at the Endeavor Talent Agency. Ramsay, however, found the experience a little trying. “This agent says to the waiter, ‘I’ll have scrambled egg whites, please.’ I said, ‘Do me a favour: have a yolk.’ He said, ‘No, too much protein.’”

Ramsay’s response? “Just to piss him off I had proper f***ing scrambled eggs. With a f***ing sausage.”

I once had a group of Americans at our last restaurant, Le Trèfle A Quatre Feuilles, ask for an egg-white omelette. You can imagine what my response was. You don't need a restaurant for that, They should just stay at home!

 

I shall hop off the soap box and wish you all a good weekend!