Hello there,

after a few comments by acquaintances and family regarding my blissfully jobfree status at the moment, such as "What are you going to do all day?", and "Are you just going to be sort of a housewife/lady of the manor", etc., etc., I just feel like giving you a small example of parts of the many to-do-lists my writing pad is taken up with (lists are graded by importance, this is just this week's daily/for-the-next-two-weeks must-get-done-list):

• Organise workers - what are they doing, what will they do tomorrow, what materials will they need
• Wheelbarrow more broken tile bits to garden to make more garden paths
• Build a compost
• Mix mule manure in with the soil in garden
• Order soil and then get it distributed into flower beds
• Pick more carobs and sell them
• Prune the base suckers on 450 olives and put them into nice piles to be burned when we get fire permission again, clear other stuff under the trees to facilitate harvesting
• Cut and sew up the cloth for the kitchen cupboards
• Measure the upstairs floor and go and see the floor man in Tarragona
• Go and try to find lights for the big house so that the electrician can come and fit them
• Speaking of electrician, get ingredients for the squash chutney so I can use the ones he gave us before they go off
• Go to Tarragona and get Marley's certificate from Sanidad Exterior
• Pick more carobs
• Plant out about 100 plants before it gets cold
• Clean and treat upstairs terrace floor (only about 50 sq m)
• Clean and treat the window sill tiles again
• Find out where that leak comes from in downstairs shower
• Clean grouting off and treat downstairs tiles (only about 100 sq m)
• Sand down and treat all doors
• Pick more carobs
• Clear forest and fire corridor
• Design the base for upstairs and downstairs bathroom furniture
• Design living room shelves so that Dougie can start building them
• Find and buy a log burner

So, basically, there is more than enough to keep us busy :-). And this is the small list, for now. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE it. And to be able to see this place taking shape, stone by stone, plank by plank, tree by tree, plant by plant and tile by tile. with the hard labour of a bunch of workmen and Paul and me all together, creating it, is amazing and so rewarding. Do I sound like some sort of Oscar winner, waffling? Probably, but I think we deserve to be stoked about this after so many months (14 to be more accurate) of mainly nightmares both day and night. There is a light at the end of the tunnel - and it's most probably NOT a train, so there :-)