We were a bit over confident last week regarding progress on the house build. The plumber only lasted one visit as, on arrival to take a detailed look at the plans, he was drunk and became quiet abusive when Jeff questioned some of his ideas. So we have another plumber called Starry who appears sober and keen to be part of the team.
The weather held out for the past 3 weeks and today we should have been casting the basement floor. However it is raining hard and we will now have to wait until Monday to try again.

St Lucia hosted one of the World Cup Cricket semi finals between Australia and South Africa on Wednesday so the place was very busy. Our small bay had 8 super yachts tied up, some of which were hosting the South African team. Their post-match party was understandably a little quiet, whereas we were on big motor yacht called Java where we had a very noisy party as all the crew were aussies! We had been invited to join them at 5am that morning for a pre-match ANZAC day sunrise ceremony. We dragged ourselves out of our bunks and crawled along to their boat, barely washed or dressed only to find an Australian TV crew were there to film it. The crew blasted out a recorded version of The Last Post and the Reveille from the top of their boat whilst we stood, looking suitably sombre, and afterwards Jeff said the bit about “They shall not grow old etc ” We then had ANZAC biscuits and tea whilst the TV crew did interviews. They gave us a copy of their piece but I think it is probably best that it was never aired on UK TV - bearded, T- shirted Jeff at 5 am doing ceremonials is not the way forward; especially as they had his name and rank etc. All very surreal. Soon after that most people left for the game and the bay was like a ghost town. The party at night was great fun as the crew had made their top deck look like a disco with rotating lights and thumping music. We danced and drank the night away..isn’t it great partying with winners?!!!

It was back to work as usual the next day - me doing boat and admin and Jeff on the lot. Next weeks tasks are mostly to do with paying people large deposits for wood, tiles and windows orders.

It is mango season and Jeff is given bags of them almost every other day. They are very sweet and juicy but there is a limit to how many you can eat and we have no facility to store, freeze or bottle so shall end up passing them on to other people. I have heard that this eventually becomes hard to do as there are so many around everyone is trying to off load them. I did manage to use the honeycomb that I mentioned last week. After I drained all the honey, I micro waved the comb on high to separate the bits from the wax and then added citronella to the wax and made some small night light candles that keep the mossies away.

Summer has come early apparently, the temperature has come up a few degrees and the days seem hotter. It is still very comfortable at night though; we just have a cotton sheet over us. There has been no rain at all which is great for building but the vegetation suffers quite quickly, especially our newly planted stuff.

It has been a week of mixed fortunes. We heard the sad news of a friend of ours dying suddenly at a young age. That is always a sharp reminder for us all to make the very best of every day and not put off doing the things we dream of doing.
On Sunday a friend of ours came through. He and a Joint Services crew had been sailing up from South America on a 67ft Challenge boat. They were near the end of their trip and some were keen to get on dry land and never sail again. It was good to see the skipper though, and he was glad to get away for a few hours to come and view the plot and have a quiet beer.

Monday came and it was back to work for Jeff. All of the 18 steel columns are now in place and even as I type the first blocks are being placed. We are about to order our next 1200 gallons of water for the site ready for the big floor casting next week. The electrician and plumber have been secured, after much negotiation and wrangling. The tile order has been sent, we are now just waiting for the granite size and then we can get a quote. The windows/doors quote has come in for upvc; we are now waiting for the hardwood quote and then we shall make the final decision on which product to use. The wood contract will be signed this afternoon and then it can be shipped from Guyana. The house is to be made of a tropical hardwood called greenheart whilst the balconies will be made of purpleheart.

I might have to come back to UK in the summer as we need some stuff to go in our container and the easiest way is for me to have a central collection point and then truck it to the depot myself. It would appear that some places like Home Base have difficulties with sending goods to storage depots. Any way it will be a good chance to see family and visit M&S.

Yesterday, Jeff returned from the site bearing gifts. The bee man had been up to sort out his hives - which are on a plot nearby - and he gave Jeff a black bag with something heavy in it. It turned out to be a large piece of honeycomb with honey dripping out of it. I have got it draining into a Tupperware. The honey has a wonderful flavour and is a light golden colour. The bee man says the colour turns darker later in the year when the bees start collecting pollen from the darker coloured flowers. It’s the first time I have had to deal with honey; is there anything to be done with the honeycomb afterwards?

                                              Jeff has finished his first week as a contractor. It was hard going but having had a successful start I think he is a natural. We have electricity and a meter on site, all water tanks are full, concrete footings are in place and they have steel towers sticking out of them. There are piles of concrete blocks, sand and cement lying in front of the hut ready to be used. Inside the hut are all the tools we have had to buy. These will be used for our build and then sold onto Kenrick for his next job. We have also got a gardener called Morrison. He is clearing the garden area ready for planting in the rainy season, which should start in June.

Jeff spent his lunch hour counting out money for their pay packets and I prepared the cold box of beer to be taken up to the lot at the end of the day. On Fridays we buy the team lunch (a roti and cold drink each) and they finish a little earlier and have a beer..just like the Air Force!

Next week will be more of the same, we need to secure a plumber before we start casting cement and we need to get the wood and windows/doors ordered. The building hold ups are usually because people run out of materials or money, so we are trying to stay ahead of the game – for the former at least!!. Jeff works hard all day alongside the men and is deadbeat when he returns to the boat. After a shower and a few cold beers he is as right as rain. I feel a bit useless at times, as I have nothing useful to contribute to the building programme, so maybe once the garden is more obvious I can do my bit there.

We have just heard that a friend of ours will be sailing in from Barbados tomorrow so I shall have to get a wiggle on and get the boat ship shape for inspection.

We had a very pleasant weekend. Five of us went to the east coast, supposedly to swim and have a picnic but it was also part of a recce to look at some land for sale. This coast is on the Atlantic side of the island, it is wild and windy and the few trees to survive such winds lie on their sides as if they have had their branches covered in styling gel and blown dry into a 1950’s quiff. The seas are big and the rollers thunder onto the sandy beaches throwing up driftwood and seaweed. We have no intention of buying any more land; it was one of our party who was looking at investment opportunities. We met up with an Indian guy called Rambe, who had previously been in charge of our excavating, and he showed us all the best spots and knew about all the future plans for the area. After we visited lots of great beaches we were invited back to his house for lunch. This was totally unexpected but he had obviously planned it as his wife had put on a great feast. The table was groaning with dishes from Trinidad as well as the more traditional Easter fare of turkey and ham. We ate very well indeed and the idea of swimming was put aside for another day. On the way back north we stopped of at the fish market but there was none to be had and we couldn’t be bothered to wait for the last boats to come in so we drove back to Marigot through banana plantations and down tracks - just to see where they went - and discovered some stunning scenery and breath taking views.

On Easter Monday we had an invitation to the opening of a new tile centre in Bexon, just down the road from us. Once again there was food galore, sweet drinks and loud music, all very Indian/Caribbean. The owners of this new enterprise are Doreen’s niece and her husband Ish (he is the ex-Canadian cricketer who didn’t turn up for the quarter finals - but we have forgiven him). They had good tiles, all imported from China at a reasonable price, so we are now measuring up to ensure our order arrives in plenty of time.

The top photo shows the view we will take each week to show any progress.
These are the palms we planted at the end of the plot well away from the building site. If you double click on the photos they become full screen.

Now for this weeks bulletin…

This week started with 5 days of non-stop rain with everyone who had paid vast amounts for an Easter break confined to their hotel rooms. However, we are now back to normal with the NE Trades re-established and temperatures back into the eighties.

The roller coaster ride on the house build has started in earnest. After last weeks hiccough of losing the foreman/carpenter, this weeks major setback was that Mr Brown the builder/contractor decided after 3 days that he had too much work on, and that he was already so stressed he felt that he shouldn’t continue with our project. We had a meeting on the boat to discuss ways of moving forward and it was decided that Jeff would become the contractor and be responsible for the men’s wages, insurance, finding and employing sub-contractors etc, etc. Ideal work for an ex General Duties officer in the RAF!!! Kenrick would see to the daily running of the project and will also decide on what materials will be needed and when they should be delivered. Mr Brown will continue to buy and transport the materials to the site and we shall pay him for his time and costs.

Its not perfect as it means Jeff will have a lot to do and in effect has come out of retirement to build a house. Our idea of being able to sail away when we fancy seems unlikely now until the project is finished at the end of the year – we hope!! On the positive side, the site crew work fast and efficiently and girls, let me tell you, the rippling six packs of these young men are certainly worth the odd glance. Jeff, on the other hand, has been working along side them this week, bending and cutting steel rods and then wiring columns together ready for the concrete casting next week. His hands are ripped to pieces and his back is aching. Next week the digging of footings begins so I expect he will have a new set of skills/injuries by then.

The bureaucratic side of things has moved on a pace, our drawings have been stamped and signed and are now on site in case an inspector should come by, and our land application has at last been signed by the Cabinet Secretary and is now in the process of being registered in the Land Registry Office. We are told that is the final bit of paperwork and then we are all legal. The process has been long - about seven and a half months - but at least we didn’t wait for the last bit of paper before we started the building process.

There seems to be an increasing amount of interest in buying land here at the moment. Some friends we met a month ago are flying back today for a 4 day stay just to look at what’s available and hopefully make an offer if anything suitable comes up.

On a lighter note it has only just come to my attention that we are living in a country that doesn’t “do” Easter – not an egg in site!! No chocolate bunnies, no chocolate eggs, no cream eggs, nothing! What’s a girl to do? Back to the fresh fruit and pina colladas I suppose.