Yeah!  We’re on our way back to France!!!  And two weeks earlier than we had originally planned to.  Because once again the bloody builder has screwed things up (see my “going loco” post).  So here in Tortola we’re trying hard to ensure that we have done all that we can to cover the needs of our clients while we’re away (I’ve some business plans to write and a web site to create for some friends), preparing the house for hurricane season and so on.

Thanks to the unreliability of our inter-island airline service we have to leave home at 5 on Tuesday morning to catch a 7AM flight to Sint Maarten in order that we can make our 15:55 Air France flight to Paris.  We’d like to be able to trust the carrier, known locally as Leave Island Any Time or Luggage In Another Terminal, to have the 1PM flight running on time, but we can’t.  That’s another story.

We’re back to making lists, and lists of lists, and so on.  Prioritising jobs etc.  Fortunately for us my step-father, who is a master plumber, has agreed to take a couple of days off work in order to help us with finishing the so-called finished job.  Gordon’s snagging list appears to indicate that most of what has to be done is cosmetic – removing plaster from beams and wood floors, fine-sanding and finishing the patches in plasterboard walls, boxing in exposed pipes and, once again, applying gallons of paint.  However, I’m sure that there is more that we will only discover after we get to the house.

In the meantime we’re fielding threats from the builder.  We didn’t think that he was particularly bright – he’s either dyslexic or functionally illiterate to start with – but his decision to leave a message on our voicemail in which he threatens to use the key that he has for the house (obtained from Gordon on the grounds that he had some light-switch covers to replace) to remove our property was truly stunning in its stupidity.  Needless to say, this has been replayed to Gordon and saved for posterity.  At this rate I believe that we will be seeing him in court.

That lovely message prompted a swift call to the property managers asking that the locks for the front door to the house be changed immediately.  Thank you, Suzanne, for organising that as it gave us some peace of mind.

Oh well, never a dull moment!  So, this time next week I’ll be back to removing paint from my fingernails before making supper.  Don’t tell anyone, but I quite enjoy it!