A new arrival today - a good looking blonde 20+ year old surfer dude called Sam. Marcus seems to have gone for a while. From watching Simon and Sam work together it would appear that Sam is the muscle for the day as he spent most of his time filling the wheelbarrow with chippings and then covering up the drains. Now that we have building inspection for the drains they are being covered up both with chippings and earth so that the process of wheeling lots of concrete along the narrow passageway can begin again. This second lot of concrete is for the slab and is being reinforced with a steel mesh - lots of discussion between the workmen as to whether they were going to use standoffs between the mesh and the insulation boards (now with carefully silver taped over joints) or if they would lay some concrete, then put the steel in and continue to pour concrete until the appropriate level is reached. It is such a small area anyway that no-one thinks that the steel is necessary anyway. Should Tony locate some Readimix for the slab today I expect he will come over for another wedge of cash. I am expecting him anyway as we have to pay the workmen at the end of this week and we need to know how much money to draw from the bank.

Had a little bit of excitement today when a delivery man arrived with a good sized box that was about laptop dimensions, however it turned out to be just the carry case that I had ordered to lug it around. Hilary was a little surprised that I had ordered a case as well as she doesn't seem to think that we will transport it much. Little does she know! It's just turned 1.00pm and the laptop hasn't arrived although according to the CityLink carrier's website it was loaded at 10.41am for delivery today. Hilary is out all day today shadowing another lady in preparation for her new job working with old folk so it has been up to me to continue with the packing. Quite a voyage of discovery in the attic with lots of old telephones, kettles and one or two computer parts I had quite forgotten about. All the hippos are out of the bathroom and stored in a nice dry part of the shed along with books and other items that we don't need for the immediate future. That reminds me I must book a rental van for next Tuesday so that we can move the beds and linens out.

9.00pm and a final update for the day. The laptop didn't arrive even after many phone calls by me to the delivery people, it is now promised for tomorrow - I have asked for compensation. The Readimix wasn't available either so Simon and Sam left us early to go and work on the house next door which still isn't finished. I reminded Tony that we needed to know how much we need to pay the builders but he still hasn't advised me, if he leaves it too late then the workmen won't get paid this week. All in all a very unproductive day, the only good point is that it stayed dry all day apart from a small drizzle and this allowed Sam and Simon to cover over the drains with more of our chippings and a layer of mud ready for the wheelbarrow circus of cement to start again tomorrow.