April 2011 .......A Rant from the Front!

Hi Finn,

This is just a quick blog from the front, the Dar Finn Front, where we are stuck deep in the trenches of disillusion and pushing heavy weights up hill, a hill made all the more resistant by the weight of others pushing on the other side!!

Yes I am going slightly mad! But I’m laughing at myself also.

You see today is just another day, but it’s like every other day in that one is permenantly fighting with others to get a job done, and it takes so long to get jobs done, with every other job being a new negotiation. It’s so fucking boring, and then there is the permenant problem of language, which is another tool to ensure misunderstanding, or to use to explain why there was a misunderstanding, which is of course our fault, for not speaking deriga, even if what we are saying is as clear as day and agreed, understood and shaken upon….until it has gone wrong..at which point it is…yes, our fault!

So what am screaming about? ......You've seen this image before...that's because nothing has changed for months!

Well, we’ve had a façade done by a very good carpenter for the ground floor salon which will be a room. We’ve stood and discussed, drawn, walked and pointed to all the complexities of the work and we have explained in full, that there is a certain height that the ceiling needs to be. Unfortunately when the work arrived, this discussing, drawing, walking and talking goes out the window, and IT’S FUCKING WRONG. In reality this will not…or should I say, should not, be a problem. The carpenter is very good and the problem is solvable.

BUT, it’s along side any numerable other similar issues.

We’re waiting for wood to do the chainage of the garden floor, which is to say the laying of the reinforced metal structure that will support the floor. It should have arrived, but it hasn’t and has required yet further negotiations re price. It will come tomorrow, but late, which delays everyone else.

Then there is the fountain/pool. It’s illegal, we’re bending rules and will probably get caught, but we’re trying because it’s ridiculous that we aren’t allowed a pool in the first place…see Marrakesh. But the “expert team” we have worked with before have just upped their price ridiculously, so we have to start again…more negotiations!

Then the masons are working like snails, and what can we do, say they should be working faster..and then they walk out and we start the search again for new workers who ultimately will do the same.

And then we have the in house carpenter who needs up to 3 days in the “macina” to prepare his wood, which means he has spent almost the whole week there and have we advanced…?

It depends what you call progress!

Anyway, just a quick rant and now I am off to see you, your mum and relax…you and Beccie still make everything better, but it’s bloody hard work, and always in bloody deriga!