New Beginning

So here I am. Writing on my new blog address. Different name, different intro, but hopefully some of the same sort of insight into my dual life in London and Carcassonne.

Why the new address? Well, it's a bit of a learning curve from the first blog really. Even though no names were named, there were people who were happy to be referred to, by implication or peusodym, in a good light but as soon as any mild or implied criticism appeared, toys were ejected in all directions. So, my new blog will have no names and anyone without a name won't be told that there is a blog that doesn't contain their name so that they can't take offence about something that wasn't written or implied about them - I do hope that's clear.

'The genius', my brilliant but introverted and racist builder is slowly coming back out of the black hole (that's ironic!) of depression into which he had fallen, which was, in part, fuelled by his inability to understand humour and the poetic licence of the written word - that is, he took offence at me calling him selfish for giving up drinking. It was funny - everyone who read it thought it was funny - get a grip man. (n.b. if he finds this and reads this I fear it will be all over between us). C'est la vie.

Today, I have a new recruit to our renovation project. For the sake of this blog I will call him Ed .....because that's his name. He is a Dutchman who we found by putting an ad on gumtree, a travellers job/contact website. He sounded ideal - lives in the Tarn (about 2 hours away), fifteen years building experience, fluent french/english/dutch - well worth a try I thought compared to the Estonian (none of his references answered the phone) or the many Brits with no actual relevant experience (what makes someone answer an ad for 'experienced builder required' when their only experience is an airfix model of a Lancaster bomber!)

So Ed turned up this afternoon after travelling down from the Tarn and I flew out from London after a few days of my big city life. Tomorrow we will see if he is any good at plastering. Today I found out he knows how to get plastered - hmm - not the most auspicious of starts to a trial period. While I cooked supper, he went out to explore the town, which basically seemed to mean he found his way to the Irish bar, met a couple of people and called me to say not to worry about supper for him! So, the jury is out so far - the test will come when he has to impress the moody genius in the morning - we'll see.