Good grief

Sorry I was absent this week. There were two reasons for this. Firstly there was no news to relate about the house. We naively thought we might be able to start painting the newly-plastered study the weekend after plastering was finished. In the event, it took almost a full week to dry out properly. This process was aided by the warm weather, but also inhibited by the increasing humidity as the week went on. I never realised plaster drying was an atomic process. It's like it had a half-life. Half the plaster was dry in a day, and then half of the remaining wet parts were dry in another day, then half of that much, etc. By yesterday we were left with three small patches of darkness in an ocean of light: underneath the smaller window; around the top of one chimney breast; and at the very bottom of the rearmost corner of the room. We began to wonder if we'd even be able to start painting this weekend! In the end by tonight these dark patches had faded enough to be called dry ;o)

The second thing keeping me away was work. When I first planned to have two weeks off either side of our party, we hadn't won our big contract and in any case the project plan showed my holiday comfortably after the initial burst of design activity. With delays in the procurement introduced by the customer, delays in the decision, and more delays before the contract was signed, the project plan slipped further and further back until by the time we could start, my holiday coincided with weeks 1 and 2 of the project. It was too late to change though - Paul's flights and the plasterers were already booked so the best I could have done was cancel two days of a two week holiday.

I was missed, apparently. I returned to 250 emails but that was just the start. What I wasn't prepared for (and should have been, had I given it even a moment's thought) was the tsunami of questions that would be fired at me over the course of the week. And like a true tsunami, the initial very large wave of questions was followed shortly after by another smaller wave, and then another, and another. By Thursday I was beginning to realise that my life over the next couple of months at least is going to consist of answering people's questions and trying to fit the work I have to do to deliver the architectural framework of the project in around that.

Which doesn't leave much time for blogging.