The hut is up!! It started of as a disappointing week when we heard that the carpenter/foreman that was to do our woodwork would not be able to do it. By the next day another one had been lined up, called Kendrick, and he was able to start immediately. It was such a relief as we were beginning to imagine the project slipping back and back. Since then the first cash has been handed over and we now have a hut for the guys to store their stuff. On Monday we get water tanks and pay for the initial filling, and after that we rely on rainwater. There is a generator on site to run the power tools. We also have to get the next load of cash to pay for cement and steel rods, as they are keen to get a move on and make use of the dry season.

One of the photos will be taken from the same spot each week so it will be easier to see any progress being made.

Life in the bay is quieter now that the season is coming to an end. All the big yachts are making their way back to Europe. The restaurants are also slow and even the band seems to be playing half-heartedly; it has a real end of holiday feel to the place. But that will be good as we have a lot of hard work ahead of us

We went local this week having been given four calabashes. These are round, hard gourd like fruit that are very tough skinned filled with foul smelling wet dough. Once they are sawn in half and scraped out, they are dried, sanded on the inside and then used as food bowls. Ours are at the drying stage. Some people paint the outside and then varnish them. This activity occupied a wet day in St Lucia. They will make great salad bowls.
On the horticultural side we have started the task of planting the garden. This wasn’t a planned activity, it was just because we have been given a small avocado sapling, and a calabash branch that is sprouting and we paid for some palms that were going cheap. The guy next door then gave us some small coconut palms to plant, so we were forced to find places for everything. In the meantime we had watermelon the other day and afterwards I popped some seeds into a yoghurt pot and they are now rushing up and will need to go into the ground.

Action shots of the team!

Apologies for the late and haphazard entry, but Blog has been unobtainable all weekend.

This week has been all about cricket and, contrary to the rumours circulating in Wiltshire, we had nothing to do with Freddie Flintoffs misdemeanours in Rodney Bay - although we were in the vicinity at the time!

We were asked to form a cricket team for the World Cup Wet Cricket in Marigot Bay. The rules were simple; no more than five people to a team, two of which must be women or children, and all would be required to bat and bowl. The palm trees acted as fielders and if you hit them without the ball hitting the ground first you were out. If you managed to hit the ball into the sea you could take as many runs in the time it would take to retrieve the ball. Our team was named the ‘Pitoneers’ – after the local beer – which meant that Jeff had to be captain (of course!) We were confident with our team as we had managed to persuade an Indian that used to play for Ontario to be our opening batsman. This worked wonderfully in the opening stages, however he had to leave for Trinidad on the day of the quarterfinals. However his brother volunteered to play instead and, as he he used to play for Canada until last year and now plays for St Lucia, it had to be in the bag - well almost. Unfortunately our ringer forgot about the match on quarterfinals day and we were forced to find a substitute at short notice. Where better to look than the local bar where a diver named Paul was having a few beers, and at that stage of ‘relaxation’ when all ideas sound great. Paul is not known for his cricket expertise but is a jolly good swimmer, can drink copious amounts of beer and he was a willing volunteer – all prerequisites for a place in the Pitoneers! . My job as manager required me to re-supply the team with beer before, during and after the match, shout encouragement and make sure that head gear was worn at all times. Our quarter-final was a close run thing and, despite reaching the second highest score of the competition, we were narrowly beaten. Never mind, next year things will be different!

The rest of the week was spent looking at final drawings, finding window suppliers and getting the builder to start next week. We are not sure that will happen – this is after all the Caribbean - but we are ever hopeful.

We have had a busy week enjoying ourselves and meeting up with old friends. On Sunday Gordon Paton was the Captain on the Virgin flight .We picked him up from his hotel and he spent a night on the boat and the next day we sailed him up to Rodney Bay. He helmed all the way and looked the part so we could have a budding sailor here.

Mid-week some parents( Leigh and Di Walker) from Dauntseys came through on their way to Rodney, positioning themselves for the cricket.

We had meetings with our shipping agent and made decisions about when to ship our container- October to be here for November. We also met up with the wood supplier to agree a price for the green heart and purple heart wood. The plot of land still looks the same, no builders hut or electricity but that should be happening soon.

On Friday a gang of us went to see England being beaten by New Zealand in the world cup cricket. It was my first cricket match and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't realise that cricket was all about drinking and eating and you didn't have to actually watch the game. I just made the appropriate noises when the ball was hit for six or someone was out. It was easy! The atmosphere was great, steel bands, sunshine and beer.

Yesterday another air force friend pitched up on his boat in the Bay so we were required to go out to eat and drink. We have now decided that it will be a week of quiet contemplation, no alcohol and a diet of one bean on toast for the foreseeable future.

We have been having too much fun!! On Thursday we heard that we had planning permission, subject to moving our driveway 2ft to the right, and that John had got a promotion for next year. So these bits of news were celebrated at Chateau Mygo. We just popped in for a sundowner at 5pm and didn't get back to the boat until midnight. On Friday it was my birthday and I had chosen to go to an Indian restaurant in Rodney Bay. It was great, just like a UK indian meal! Yesterday we had a planning meeting with our builder, Mr Brown, which was very exciting as we are now talking about real building in the next few weeks, once we have electricity to the site and the site hut is erected.

After our meeting, a local guy called Alex, who now lives in London, had arranged for six of us to go on his fishing boat down the coast to a deserted beach for a BBQ. It was a lovely sandy beach, with BBQ already set up and goat and fish on the menu. We had cold boxes full of beer and cokes and a couple of bottles of rum. The guys who normally fish on the boat were there to help out, both rastas, and they quietly got stoned and chilled as the afternoon wore on. The weather was glorious and there were trees to sit under that allowed a little shade. One of the highlights was a small 8 week old puppy that smelt the food and hung around for scraps. She was so cute, I'm surprised she didnt come home with us but Jeff was firm and handed her back to the owner just before we left. We got back to Marigot at sundown, so all had more beers to watch the sunset with.

We were thinking it's time to dry out for a while, but our friend Gordon Paton is flying in this afternoon and we have tickets for the England New Zealand match on Friday, so it could prove difficult this week. Next pictures should be of a contruction site - watch this space!

We have pictures to prove it - the lot has been excavated! The big digger with the spliff smoking operator arrived today to do his stuff. He came with good recommendations - apparently the more stoned he is, the better his work. He smokes a spliff the whole time he excavates and seemed very happy in his work. We now have to await the Planning Inspector, but once he has been on site and given the OK, then we can start the building. Our builder – Mr Brown - has to build a temporary hut with a big roof and two tanks to catch the rainfall and then we have to order 2 electricity poles to get some power on site. We will have no mains water - there is none to be had on the hill(!) - but we will have huge underground tanks that will be collecting rainwater all year. Our tanks will hold 10,000 galls and we are told that this will be more than enough water to see us through even the driest of times. Our fruit tree area is well away from the building site so we are going to drive up to a place called Union where the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Commission offer guidance on appropriate trees and sell them at about £10 a throw - that is for a grafted 3 year old mango that should bear fruit within 18 months. It’s just a shame that all our gardening tools are in storage in UK.

Jeff has had a lot of fun this week with his chain saw. He was felling 40ft high trees and getting most of them to land where he wanted. He came back with a nasty cut on his hand on the first day and a black eye from a falling branch on the second. Since then I have not allowed him up there without supervision - that’ll be me! I take a folding chair and watch his every move. I even videoed a couple of the trees going down but I can’t find a way of putting them on the blog.

I have busied myself with the normal household chores, plus swimming in the hotel pool, hanging out with my friends and generally having a good time. I really quite like this early retirement.

I was going to tell you that the papaya tree had made a miraculous recovery and was sprouting up and down its trunk, but alas ‘spliffy’ and his excavator finished him off today. We shall definitely get a female replacement in the near future.

Our dog plans for the future have moved on too. Our chance meeting with Lawrence Dallaglio led us into a conversation about dogs and he just so happens to have a Rhodesian Ridgeback, which is our preferred breed for out here. He got it as a puppy from the Wasps trainer who breeds them and has e mailed us to say that more puppies will be ready by Christmas, which is perfect timing for us. How cool is that(?) our dogs will be related!! It will need a passport and all that that entails but it could travel out with Fi at Christmas time.

We are fully expecting frustrating times ahead as the bureaucratic process is slow however we will keep anyone who is interested up to date. We are now off to the plot to tidy up after the digger and Jeff has spotted a couple of rogue trees that need sorting. Tonight it is a beach BBQ at Chateau Mygo for the permanent members of our small community, so we are looking forward to that.