Thursday 29 December 2011

No Rest For The Wicked.

The LGB said he had really enjoyed today and was pleased with what we had accomplished!  I’m sure I used to have a day off on Boxing Day.  In fact it was a great tradition to spend it at the Club in Sonning-on-Thames.  Meeting up with friends, a few drinks, showing off your new Christmas jumper/scarf/bunny jacket (that was 1973ish, mine was yellow and Donna’s was pink!) you know, generally having a fun time.  No bunny jackets today just a donkey jacket - today I spent Boxing Day on site!

In France only Christmas day is a holiday.  Mind you they make up for it during the rest of the year with public holidays and strikes.  We have been caught out many times by closed shops.  The other thing that has caught us out is lunch-time closing.  Not long after arriving here we heard an announcement over the tannoy in the local builders’ merchants.  Of course we didn’t understand the message that they were closing for lunch and got locked outside in the yard.  The assistant who answered our banging was not amused to find us doubled up laughing like two school kids behind the closed shutter.

There are other annoyances here that make Brendan do his little war dance every so often; He can never find a straight piece of wood.  Every joist, batten or rafter is bent and twisted.  Getting a discount is nigh on impossible – one bag of cement is €6, ten bags cost €60 and one hundred bags cost €600 and so it goes on.  Mind you, we have had three free   t-shirts and two woolly hats from Priba where we buy most of our materials.  Stock control is almost non-existent with goods frequently being out of stock.  If you are lucky enough to find the item in stock it’s not priced and if it is priced it will often go through the till at a different price, usually more expensive.

Thursday was earmarked for the concrete pour, but that was scuppered when we went to order it to find the concrete plant is closed for Christmas.  Oooh there he goes again, the LGB doing a little dance, steam coming from his ears – not a pretty sight!

                                                               
''I knew I shouldn't have gone for the turbo zimmer.''

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