Where to watch the curling

My parents are soon arriving to assist with the painting work and installing bits and pieces in the house... Well, that was the plan! However the Italian Builder Gods have decided against this and another delay has made me prolong my stay at the rented apartment and even added a second for my parents. (this with lots of help from the real estate agent) The delay was quiet obvious since the access road was not even ready and the toilet was fixed, or bearly. After a heated discussion between the constructor and the real estate agent (I was not present to see this soap opera)

I got the report that said that they thought the house was ready to move in... The real estate had a right fit and kicked some builders behind to come to some kind of agreement. This agreement is still to be confirmed and the new date will be the 1st of June. Although the builder believes that it will be most likely the 19th of May. This would be good but still a bit late. As noted in my dads email, he was thinking that I invested in a big LCD screen and that he could watch a huge variety of sportevents from Seborga. With the Giro d'Italia, F1 in Monaco, the champions league final and of course the World Champion Curling in Kazachstan...

A right shame of course! Even worse, he doesnt know that the rented apartment doesnt even has a television and he therefore is obliged to visit the region, dressed up in white trainers and a hawaii shirt and taking pictures of cultural things.
Mr Bos has to become a tourist instead of a sportist. Well, I hope that the house will be finished soon before the European Championships football start, I guess you need to have goals in your life...

Toilet not Yet

One of the most remarkable things missing in the house for the moment is the toilet and sink. Two elements that really are essential to increase the comfort of your own home and although (as you can see) they were delivered a while ago, nobody seemed to be bothered by them and certainly there was no intention to actually nail them to the wall. I was willing to give it a go but after a quick look in my Marketing books, I was not be able to find anything that relates to toilets.

But surprise surprise when I paid yet another visit to the site at around 20.30 in the evening. There was just about enough light (natural light) to notice that the bathroom had been pimped with a sink and a toilet on the first floor and a toilet and bidet on the second. Fantastic, they only thing was that it had not been hooked up properly nor fixed to the wall, which I reckon will take yet another 10 days or so... But it is funny to notice that the simple sight of a toilet can make you happy!
Now I just have to hope that I dont feel the urge to....because that would complete things a bit further.
Hurayyyyyyy for toilets !

Artful Mess

When you are on site it is quiet annoying to see what is wasted. The number of metal frames, tiles, wooden cases, plastic bits and pieces are scattered across the ground. Some will end up in the ground being buried by the builders ( I spotted this before and manage to get 25 kilos of metal frames removed afterwards) and others will be taken away and dumped somewhere.

I still find it strange that there isn’t a company that deals with these things and takes care of builders waste. ( I am not talking about the numerous beer bottles) The environment is mostly likely to suffer from this and I don’t like to stick my hands in the ground while gardening and ending up with my hands sliced by some left over parts. Since getting rid of the waste is expensive it is hard to actually convince them to do so. On the other hand, have a look at the photo and see how arty cut off terraces tiles are ! I am sure that Damian Hirst would be able to sell this at a top price and so solving the cost problem of getting rid of waste in a proper way.

Paint Faint

When your house is being built and the only thing your are adding to it is basically …Money, it is nice that you get the opportunity to do some else and painting is just that.With 30 liters of paint for the 1st and 2nd layer, plenty of brushes and other useful tools, the painting process started. The worst possible start is always the ceiling, that is tough to do and the 1st layer always seems to take forever. But with a fresh summer breeze and plenty of non smelly paint the ceiling got his first layer as well as the walls. Rewarding to see it being virgin white and with the left over paint I walked upstairs to do the staircase and the bathroom.

Sometimes it is good that the parquet floor and toilets are still missing, so that I can mess around with the paint without causing any problems. Although the bath room was challenging with the new tiles and bath, you need to be an acrobat to paint.
About 40m2 is done now which means that there is still plenty to do and it became clear that the living room and its ceiling will be the worst thing to do. The sheer size makes it a tough job that will take an amateur painter as moi very long so I guess this needs to be outsourced to somebody that actually knows what he is doing.
It is nice to contribute to the finalisation of the house but in the end…paying somebody to get it all sorted isn’t a bit thing either.

Sherlock Builder

Normally I was allowed to move in on Saturday providing that the exterior of the house still needed to be finished and I was therefore very happy to accept my delivery of electronic appliances on Saturday, after hours of waiting.
In the meantime I continued to scrutinize the house for the progress and things they have put in place since the last visit. Of course they know me by now and know ways to cover up but this time I came prepared! I dressed up as filter unit (as you can see in the picture) to blend in with the building equipment and to Sherlock my way through the two floors.

That morning it was even clearer than in my denial phase…I would not be able to set foot in this for a number of weeks. With no parquet floor, fuse boxes hanging out of their sockets, no actual electricity, hot or cold running water and no inside painting and this was just the inside.

The outside access was now a big long grave that had welcomed a number of funky coloured tubes but still not sure for what. The toilet etc had arrived but was still sealed on a pallet in front of the house. I got in the car and drove back to prepare myself for the Abfab wedding.

When I arrived home I got a text message of the real estate guy confirming my worst fear…the builder has come clean and admits that they are well behind schedule and that the 1st of May isn’t possible and that the 1st of June is more likely. Fantastic… with deliveries scheduled, parents flying in, painting in full progress etc I now need to be more patient again.
On Monday I will meet with the builders to get compensation for the 1 month rent and I will ask them to paint the inside too, which seems fair because they had confirmed a fortnight ago that it all would be fine. Let’s wait and see what will be the next surprise.

I guess that the disappointed only is stronger when you can actually see the finish line but in any case the line has not disappeared it merely moved a bit further.

Wash up Man

With Superman, Spiderman, Batman and of late Ironman, there are a lot of superheroes around that are helpful! However the majority are just men dressing up in silly outfits and trying to save the world. But the AsterCorperation has come up with a complete new superhero that is useful and can be purchased in every respectable Supermarket.

It is the Wash Up Man ! A powerful Michelin like man with a pointy hat that when you squeeze him the right way, will produce just about enough of green liquid that does marvels when it is mixed with water. I tried it on plates, knifes, cups and saucers and the result is amazing. Finally a Superhero that I can appreciate and that delivers results ! And that for a price inferior of that of a ticket to see Ironman! Wash Up Man coming to a sink near you soon!

Operation Goat

Creative people have creative ideas and when you need to get a present for creative people we tend to go through great lengths to be creative too. At JuniorSenior this is no different and when we needed to decide to get AbFab a wedding present, the team decided that this should be two goats. Yes very creative indeed :)

So, just a couple of days before the big day I receive an email explaining me the decision making process and the end result and basically I was voted to find them the goats. Well, as everybody know, the Goat d’Azur is very well known for its goat population and there are Goat ‘r Us Shops on every corner of every street…
First stage, Goat Google. Results quiet limited and very often not really related to the issues, although the closest I could find was Goat Kebab, not really the shape nor form I was planning on giving them.

The second stage, getting the info from experts, on the phone, per email etc
A kennel had two but didn’t wanted to sell them. Another person might sell them to me but I needed to drive for 4 hours and wasn’t sure that they would have the right ones. I mean, they needed to look like the new owners…
I visited all the possible Animaleries on the Cote d’Azur, wearing a suit and asking for goats made people suspicious and on numerous occasions I was given a real Gestapo interrogation.
Be careful because they need to be milked, they will eat everything and destroy your land, the have special needs for food and shelter, be careful that you don’t stress them etc etc.

But still goatless! I was then referred to the Agricultural Cooperative in Antibes that sells to companies and farmers and as everybody told me the last possible option. I parked my car in between some tractors and asked the lady at the reception that let me wait for 10 minutes discussing the program on last nights television. When I explained the problem she has one simple answer, sorry we don’t have those. But my bad luck was about to turn when all of a sudden a strange looking man popped from behind a pair of shelves asking me The question; Are you looking for some goats ? Yes, Sir! Well, I have them! Fantastic, two please. But I wont sell them to you! Oh, that is helpful. The guy (at closer observation) was covered in goats number two and probably cuts his hair while wearing a flowerpot, seemed less of a savour. But he said, I know a place where there is a bulletin board and I think I have seen somebody that wanted to sell goats. Great ! Lets go. We ended up staring at a board with no goat adverts on it but just a Brebis, which I forgot …but is the female sheep. That will do! I called the guy, got the usual 10 Questions to get a pseudo goat and scored 10 out of 10. I was be able to pick them up (with the future owners) and a big cheque cos the supply and demand and the subprime crisis is apparently also hitting hard on the goats market.

Now I hope that the couple will like them, cos otherwise I am obliged to take them myself, although I could make kebab…