Our place has been at the centre of a whirlwind of activity which almost swept me away and so I missed the blog last week. The new drainage pits have been created in situ (very thick concrete around a wooden box mould that is later removed and the drain fitted on top) and the driveway has been poured and is now walkable!!! Well, that is to say 90% of it has been poured... There is a gap of about 20 metres at the top to allow access for the plumbers who still have to connect up the water supply for the new house. Here are some pics of the colourful cement truck and the willing team of concrete layers (apparently alot of builder's cleavage was on view that day) all pulling together to make it happen.

We have had a couple of run-ins with the neighbours. The council sent us a letter to say they had received complaints of sediment. We assumed they meant the dirt was being tracked onto the roadway by the builders - but when we went to investigate we couldn't see any on the road. The mystery was solved when the inspector told us that our neighbour down the back was not happy about the huge mountain of dirt that she has to look at every morning as she eats her vegemite toast. As it is on our property and no way near the boundary, he told us we don't have to worry our heads about it.

On the day of the concrete-pouring some of the workers' utes were parked across our neighbour's driveway and when the lady of the house returned from work she couldn't get in. Sharp words were exchanged and P took a call from our outraged neighbour who had worked herself into a lather and was barely coherent. P apologised profusely and contacted the builder straight away to report the situation. We received a letter the other day which could only be described as a 'sorry, but...' letter in which our neighbour friend apologised and then proceeded to voice her outrage and justify her anger. P has decided to approach the situation with caution and diplomacy and will be sending a soothing missive with our apologies once again and assurances that the builders will not be parking there anymore. We have also decided to lavish boxes of chocolates on our long-suffering neighbours once the furore has died down and all traces of dirt and other rubbish have been cleared away.