Morning all,
All remains reasonably quiet over here.
Air France have re-commenced flights so we can assume it’s pretty safe.
On the streets there is still an occasional military presence but nothing too concerning.
On the way to site, there is an armoured vehicle, like a Russian version of a stalwart for those who know what that is, which sits in the middle of one of the side roads near the military base pouring the contents of its sump all over the road.
I have a sneaking suspicion that they push it out in the morning and push it back at night.
It is accompanied by about 10 bored looking soldiers a third of whom are normally asleep.
We also now have a prime minister. Not sure who it is but this was announced tonight, so it looks like, so far anyway, the coup leaders are keeping their word.
Work continues on site in the heat and wind.
On Monday we poured 12m3 of wall section and a couple of pads in the strip footings.
Today we poured another 9m3 or so before the guys managed to break our vibrator as well. It has been less than a week since we lent it to them so we will not be lending any more.
Fortunately, they have one of their own back from the menders already, and another due back tomorrow.
See photos for wall sections curing nicely, and note in photo 2459 the cunning use of blocks to shutter the inside face under the floor slab in the freezer area. Good idea from John and far quicker and cheaper (given that we flogged them off the wall guy) than trying to cut ply and shove it in there and brace it all up. Obviously the blocks will stay in place after backfilling too.
Drainage work continues apace with pipes being installed, trenches being based up and up-stands for sumps being covered over and sealed. Line 5 is well advanced and line 1 is based up and ready to go. See photo 2454 of our welder, who has also now joined the pipe laying crew, demonstrating to Stan and Lindsay how the blucher cutter works.
Our laterite stockpile continues to grow and we probably have around 450m3 now on site.
As you know, Ralph has now left us, leaving behind a trail of laminated signs and a well organised filing system among other things.
Not to mention a swimming pool full of leaves. Even though he wasn’t that efficient in his part time role as pool boy it, he was still better than no-one at all.
Now we have the car at our villa for the night, we decided to drive him to the airport ourselves.
On leaving our house, the lights on the car were dim, but we could still just about see the road.
Unfortunately after we had been to the airport, slowing down briefly to let Ralph fall out of the car along with all his stuff, the main beam failed altogether.
It seems that again the African system of nothing working as it should came in to play.
The lease on the third villa has now been confirmed. I think I mentioned this before but this one has 8 bedrooms with en-suite and another couple with a shared bathroom.
On Sunday, we all went to the Museum/zoo/Artisan markets (Artisan being another word for tourist tatt) so that people could buy fine expensive souvenirs for people back home. Some of it was quite good but there was a fair bit of hassling going on too.
Some excellent negotiating was done by the Apollo/CCBS team I have to say.
The zoo part was a bit depressing for us all- a few birds in cages smaller than my office, a horse in a cage (??) and some hippos swimming around in a bath of their own urine and faeces.
To make it worse, we had to pay to get in and pay extra to take a bloody photo, and pay again just to look at the dinosaur skeletons.
Needless to say I had an argument with the ticket collector and only paid for 4 of us not 6 and also told him none of us would so much as look at the dinosaur.
Bit tricky this part given that its right in the middle of the place and stands about 15m tall.
Don’t tell anyone but certain people, who shall remain nameless, looked at the dinosaurs and others even took photos without paying.
It’s life on the edge here I can tell you.
Also on the domestic front, we tried camel for dinner tonight.
For the record, its chewy and tastes like a cheap cut of beef.
I can’t see us having it again.
Might try cat tomorrow.
Au revoir,
me
