I came on to the site, and saw the last date of Posting, and immediately went to apologise…Again!!! and thought, no I’m fed up of apologising, it’s just been a hectic three weeks, with computer problems as well, I’m afraid the Blog took second place.
Firstly the Balcony, Oscar and his crew took a break over Easter returning the week after to finish erecting the frame and roof to the Balcony.
We were really happy with the work, and made sure Oscar was paid. Jaime appeared, and arranged to come back with someone else, to redirect the guttering, in the mean time we had no option but for the gutter water to run straight down the balcony roof, and hope it didnt back up to the house wall.
Two days later, Jaime came back, and we cornered him, we wanted to know exactly where we stand with him, and as a result it turns out that he has committed himself to one Client, and when he calls, Jaime runs, but he has said he will complete the balcony, his part is to open up the house wall, insert the new doors and make good afterwards, we are hesitant, because if he disappears mid job we are stuck, a hole into the house, and we cant go any where, but I think we have decided that we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt, and just hope he doesn’t leave us in the lurch.
I have already decided that we are not relying on Jaime to re-felt the roof, that is just one step too far, and we have already contracted someone else to do that, when the weather is better, he has worked for us before, and is reliable…or he was!
The other job Jaime was supposed to be doing was laying the wooden decking on the balcony, but I decided I just didn’t trust him, so once all the wood was burned, in the same method as when I built the bunkbeds
It was then time to start installation,
After three mornings, I am half way, then medical necessities took over!
Last Thursday I had a double skin cancer biopsy, so that screwed the day up, as the appointment was late morning, then we had to take the sample over to the Laboratory on the other side of town, before going for a late lunch.
Marcela then received a call stating my Nerve block into the Knee joint would be 11am on Friday, that meant resting up for a week afterwards…
Marcela was due for an appoinment of her own at 1.30pm in the same Clinic, so it was working out well, until late Thursday the Clinic rang and changed Marcela’s appointment to 7am, normally that wouldn’t be a problem, but I couldn’t eat or drink anything until after my injection, so as we had to be up at 4am, it was going to be a long time until ‘breakfast’.
However, when we arrived at the Clinic, Marcela explained the issue, and they said they would see what they could do. Marcela went in for her appointment on time, and came out fifteen minutes later, immediately there was a call for me, and they said I was the only one to have arrived, so I was first up.
I went through, was prepped, and then as usual waited on a trolley, in the cold, for over an hour, at least they had bought some warmer blankets. I was then taken through to a new area for me, obviously they had learned that a minor process, didn’t need a full operating theatre, the Doctor arrived, I informed him that I had had the hip surgery and had a relatively new prosthesis, he went ahead, starting to inject in my upper leg, I stopped him, as I thought it was only into the knee joint, but he said he was doing both, and did the first injection.
He then told one of the male Nurses to flex my knee for the second, nothing gentle about it, the pain in my hip nearly made me cry. Then all was finished, and 9.15am I walked into the canteen for breakfast.
My worry now is the pain in my hip, is it temporary, or has he done permaent damage to what was a successful operation? with no hip pain in recent weeks, only time will tell.
Yesterday, we were invited to the Neighbour’s for lunch, they had invited the Mayor and his entourage, to be honest I wasn’t keen, but Marcela wanted to go, so we went, had our lunch, and waited, and waited, eventually the Mayor arrived, so we hung on for a chat, and then the skies started going black, so I came home, when the booze came out, the dogs were glad to see me, they could see us, but not being able to be with us was driving them nuts.
Shortly after I came home, the rain started, Marcela appeared, and then the heavens opened, I don’t think I have ever seen so much rain, and it wasn’t long before it was coming through the roof and through the window frames as well, we had four buckets as well as towels and the mop, it was horizontal, the roof might as well not have been on the balcony, all the timbers, those laid, and the pile waiting, were all soaked, I had to rescue my tool bag by hooking it with my walking stick, fishing out the elctric drill, and then tying the bag with the other tools onto the security window bars, with one of Marcela’s belts.
This morning we were up at 5.30am, because Marcela was going to her Mother’s for Mother’s Day, and coming back tomorrow, after the storms, we had no internet of cellphone signal, so I could see it being an interesting time ahead. I had promised I wouldn’t work up on the balcony whilst here alone, so decided that hedge trimming was OK, the sun was coming out, and I quite enjoyed it
Marcela wasn’t too happy when she saw another photo with the ladder in it, but as I said, I was only on the second rung.
8.30am the internet came back, so when I had finished, I packed up and headed into the Office. I mentioned, computer problems, well my ‘old’ desktop is five years old, which everyone tells me is ancient, despite it still having current sounding hardware, the versions were early and it was slowing down to the point that I was typing faster than it was appearing on the screen, which is slow!
I bought a new computer, but when it arrived, it wasn’t the one I had ordered so it went back, the latest one arrived this week, so I now have to get everything I need up and running. I emphasise, software I need, not the never ending additions I kept buying previously. So with two hard drives, a 250GB SSD for the Operating System and Program files, and a 1TB HDD for storage, I am hoping this one will last.
That I think, brings me up to date, hopefully I wont be so long before before posting again, in the mean time, stay safe!
An Englishman in Colombia 