I can see the sky!(again)

So the last 5 weeks have been a bit of disaster with rooms going up and down like a lift in a japanese department store and now ceilings being concreted and then being cut out again. At last though things seem to be happening ,the roof is being cut the rubble thrown down for infill and then vangelis can come and flattend the ground ,push the soil back in to place and then the bullding can go to the next stage-Yannis and the bricks can arrive! but a lot of the process is being held up by mikhalis who sems to be going through one of his jack nicholson phases. as someone told me he’s ok as long as he’s only drinking beer! Anyway if he stalled more often he would look like Newmarket on race day and i cant A/. work out why and B/. get him to do anything about it! its very strange he has been off working on other jobs i know but he only has 2 days work at my place and i cant get him to finish. I make them turn up on sunday to prepare for mondays concrete pouring and they do on a staggeringly beautiful day 18c cloudless and still but of course there is a problem the machine cant turn up on monday (he hasnt booked it -mikhalis idea of forward planning is to get up in the morning and see what happens) it will be there on tuesday though which as long as the site is clear of all his wood,iron and rubbish for vangelis to flatten the land on wednesday there is no problem!I tell him if his stuff is still there on wednesday i will push it down the hill with the JCB, he gets the message and i do some olive tree pruning till i get too hot and go and jump in the sea which is still reasonably warm.! Of course by tuesdayits grey and threatening and with koshi we gather up mikhalis and take him to the land where things are progressing .The boys are cutting the roof out and ms lads are pouring the cement into the electricity post which we have to build. This requires a large scaffolding pole to be placed in the middle and i watch fascinated as they en group choose the most obscure and dangerous route possible, to achieve this simple task.Two of them stand on the upstretched digger bucket of the moving concrete maker with the pole like a battering ram and try and implale it into place while several other hang from the structure and try not to fall off/get run over/impaled by the post. it looks reminicent of the
triumphalist picture (doubtless set up) of the americans raising the flag in japan! Read the rest of this entry »