After three years...building work starts at the Greek Hovel. Laptop off!

I left Heathrow at midnight Greek time. Having picked up a stomach bug in London the flight and the bus journey from Athens that followed were less than comfortable. Wearing a jacket and winter coat from London I was feeling pretty awful by the time I arrived in 29 degree Kalamata at 10 AM.Thank heavens my hotel had a room ready for me to wash and dump my coat in. I headed straight to the Greek Hovel feeling extremely tired.

The good news is that after three years of planning woes work is now finally able to start. If there was an Olympic event in Government inefficiency, Greece would win gold, silver and bronze.

Gregori the Greek Albanian foreman and two assistants had already demolished most of the illegally added structures on top of the snake veranda. By the close of play tomorrow they will all be gone as will the, illegally added, platform on the other side of the house facing the deserted convent and the, illegally constructed lavatory, that does not work.

Tomorrow is a big day. For starters I join the work team. It is agreed, Gregori will kill any snakes we find with his bare hands. But with all the noise he and his two assistants are making the snakes will be in full flight to my neighbour's land. They will be working an eight hour day. My plan is to start at a couple of hours and build that up over the summer.

The other big news is that the Mrs, Joshua and the parents in law are arriving in the evening. We switch hotels to one in Kardamili. My commitments at the hovel might mean a bit less time with the mother-in law but we must all make sacrifices in life.

Anyhow, for the past three weeks I have been able to do a bit of financial writing as I do just a spot of manual labour. It is now full on work with a target of having one habitable room by late summer and the rebuild complete by the time of the Olive harvest in December. As such, that means less writing, I shall just keep my hand in with photo articles from the building site. You cannot get more exciting than that can you? That is what I call page bait!