On not counting your chickens

It's been a while since I was here. Well okay, it's been a Very Long Time. And it's a funny thing: the longer it is since I last blogged, the more difficult it is to blog - it's a bit like standing on top of the diving platform waiting to summon up what it takes to dive: the longer it takes, the harder it gets (and I should know - one Saturday when I was ten I spent no less than 6 hours hovering on the edge of the high board at my local baths ....).

It may of course also have something to do with the fact that I so do not want to write what I have to write, and I've been hanging on and hanging on to see if I could get away with not writing it. (Come on Kalba - stop being enigmatic and just ... jump ...). 

Okay. Here goes. In spite of everything I've said before, in spite of working seven long days a week for the last two years, in spite of the promises that we'd be ready by summer 2011 ..... I still can't give you a definite date for opening our guest accommodation at Grillou. I can't believe it, I'm really really sorry, and it's appalling.

We were doing okay. After my "Too many things to redo" rant, things started to come together remarkably quickly. We tiled and grouted showers and floors, finished plastering and painting, made and installed a set of oak steps, glazed doors and windows, restored various bits of old furniture and finished lots of other small but time consuming jobs. Out of the blue, a friend offered to make some curtains. By chance, we stumbled upon a newly set up artisan who could take on the remaining joinery work and start reasonably quickly; as a result I was able to take on some work elsewhere for three weeks while John pressed on with the jobs list. Things were looking good.

And then the plot was lost. The just-set-up joiner left the country just days before he was due to start his contracted work with us. At the same time the artisan who installed the water and waste systems pulled out of coming back to finish the work of testing it and doing the final connections. Splat!! That was the sound of a finishing date cracking into a thousand pieces on the floor .....

So there we were. Are. It's almost 1 April, the magical date when I'm supposed to be taking bookings. (Ah ... maybe that was the problem :-)). I've been away from Grillou for three weeks. We have a kitchen and two bathrooms with no water; we have a mega cupboard to build and a 5 metre long windowsill with highly irregular measurements to make and install; we have a plumber-electrician to find who doesn't object to signing off and commissioning someone else's work and can do so before 2012 (and no, that's not a joke). To say I'm unbelievably, insanely, homicidally mad might be a teensy weensy bit of an overstatement. To say I'm pissed off and disappointed, however, is most definitely an understatement.

Splash.