I didn\’t sleep at all well last night, only getting about three hours, don\’t ask why, I have no idea!
Last night we had found that whoever had been working on the car, had gone through all our belongings, I keep an emergency tool kit in a bag with all the legally required equipment to be carried in a car, and it had been emptied, not stolen, just emptied and the tools chucked back in the bag. There were other bits and pieces, but this morning in daylight, I found that the bonnet is twisted, up on one side, down on the other at the front, allowing water to gain access, it definitely wasn\’t like that when it went into Hyundai, so Marcela has been haunting the workshop all morning, as a result we have got to take it back in.
We left the house at 8.15am and arrived at the towbar, trailer fitters about 9am, the first thing to hit me in the face was the trailer, it was huge…well, OK it was bigger than I had ordered, I had ordered 2m x 1.2m trailer bed, this was 2.5m x 1.7m not what I had expected or wanted, living in a Vereda with a single lane road, and also storage is another factor, had I still been in Cadiar, other than access it would have been no problem, but this is going to restrict the number of vehicles that can park. When I queried it, I couldn\’t get angry, because he just said \”You\’ve got value for your money!\”
Marcela in the mean time had gone off in a taxi to do some business of her own, however it was no problem, because they still hadn\’t finished wiring the car, on her return …. hours later!!!! Eventually they managed to get it sorted, however there was one other problem, or at least I thought there was. When they had built the trailer it was with a post leg, in place of a jockey wheel, over here, jockey wheels are not the norm. I wanted a jockey wheel, so I had asked for the change, however all that had been done was that a jockey wheel had been bolted to the post base, and in my opinion was not going to give enough road clearance, both Jhon the owner, and Marcela said they thought there was enough, out-voted again!
So we set off home, and every traffic calming bump we came to, I felt the jockey wheel make contact as the car cleared it, eventually I had to stop as the wheel had started to come loose, back home, I made the decision that the wheel would have to come off, there was no way of getting it any higher, because unlike the EU the post does not have a separate adjustment.
After lunch we set off with Pépe to the house, the idea being to give him a run, and leave the trailer there, as it would be more secure. Believe it or not, my fears were realised, the trailer travelled brilliantly without the jockey wheel, and on the access road, we met a bus!!!!!!!!!!!!! fortunately by driving into the gulley, we were are a wide enough part for it to pass.
At the house, I managed to back the trailer in, only causing a traffic jam for a minute or two, but then we could not let Pépe loose, because John and his team of two, had just laid some fresh concrete at the side of the house. John thought the trailer was great, it will certainly mean, that for the most part, we wont have to pay for deliveries any more.
Work is continuing at a pace, all the downstairs is now plaster-boarded, or as they prefer to say here dri-walled, the old Pantry access has been bricked up, and the new one cut out. We have overcome one problem that had cropped up, and that was John had installed all the electric sockets to run above the base units in the kitchen, but before tiling he had not put one higher for the microwave. John said it had been resolved with the Kitchen Designer, and he would run a cable over the plaster-board from the Pantry. I suggested, that as the new window had not been installed, it might be easier to drill from the opening, behind the tiles, to the first sockets, and then embed the cable in the window opening, and in behind the upper units, this went down well, as it was far easier, and as the oven and hob are going beneath the window opening, it meant that all cooking facilities would be together.
John then gave me the quote for my workshop, he went through how he was going to build it, what materials etc. he was winding me up, and then he said, \”The price is where there is pain\”, I cringed until he gave the price, then I could have hugged him, it was well below what I had imagined, considering it is to be brick built with wood and then tiles, with windows, double doors, air vents, and electric, and I had been quoted 12,000,000 Pesos for a wooden single garage 6m x 4m without transport, suffice it to say, I have saved at least a third, on that price.
We then returned home, but Marcela was far from happy, her clothes has grease stains on them, from the car, so we went to a lad in the next road who cleans cars, and he spent three hours cleaning it, and it was only £6, which for here is damned expensive 🙂 🙂
An Englishman in Colombia 