  Do builders work? On Monday some builders turned up, loitered around for the morning and didn't do any work. Nobody could find their foreman. When someone eventually suggested phoning him they found that he was on another job and couldn't come, so they all went home. Meanwhile we spent the morning shifting furniture and stock around to make their "job" easier. Yesterday the builders came and loitered around all day. In the afternoon the foreman decided that we needn't fence off the whole area, just a few metres square of it - so two blokes put up some metal barriers around the area they are going to initially concentrate on.
Then they went home. Today, no one is doing anything. Again. We need a firedoor built into our library and that was supposed to be their first priority - but nobody has turned up, and nobody has told us when they intend to start. We'll only know when someone starts drilling though the wall. I don't understand how they can get paid for not being here, or paid for being here and not doing anything. I know I have a hard time justifying my job sometimes, but at least I actually do some work each day and sometimes I do loads.
Well, let's just forget that little moan for now, it's not me paying for it, so I shouldn't really be too bothered - and when they do start working it's going to be so dusty and noisy that I'll wish they hadn't! Had a nice time in Cheltenham over the weekend. Went out for a curry with Liz and Kel on Friday and they seemed to really appreciate having time alone with me, rather than Graham being there, or me inviting half of Cheltenham along like I always manage to do when I come back for such a short time. We went to Taylors afterwards to meet up with Liz's bloke Leeroy and friends - they have been together a year and this is the first time I've met him.
People seemed to want to go clubbing, I didn't want to, but they didn't want me to go home so we ended up compromising and going to the Two Pigs instead - which turned out to be a mistake as everybody wanted to be in different rooms (there was drum and bass out the back, cheesy chart downstairs, and indie hiphop and punk upstairs) and the guys were too drunk to really enjoy any of it.
Bumped into someone I really didn't want to (Abi's ex James) who insisted on buying me a drink and talking to me, but all he did was slag Kelly off so I made my excuses and gave the drink he bought me to Leeroys friend Maxi (as it was his birthday). Later on James bought Kelly a drink, possibly to apologise for being horrible to her, but she freaked out and thought he had spiked it with something (possible, he is a bit of a weird one) - so I just told her to leave it.
Saturday was a bit more civilised. Went round to have a look at Clare's flat that she moved into on Wednesday - it is very small and in a location that she never really wanted to be in, but it's all she could afford (it was £95,000 as it was). It's great that she's got a place of her own after so long and she's really pleased to have her freedom. We drove to Montpellier to visit Caz, whom neither of us had seen for 2 years. Her rented flat is lovely - right on Montpellier Park - she and Mark have bought a house near Clare and will be moving shortly, and the are also getting married next August.
It was really nice to chat with her and I hope to see her again soon - we shared a bottle of wine and then I went back home to see Graham and to help mum prepare for the BBQ. It was a perfect evening for BBQing and the food we made was nice - the only problem was that next door had an 18th birthday party going on for the twins in their garden so we had to compete with their music! On Sunday we went out to a new Thai restaurant for lunch. The inside was very well done, with a waterfall in the entrance, wood panelling, gilt and elephants everywhere. They did a brilliant buffet with a wide selection of food, really nicely presented, and the service was very attentive. We all enjoyed it, apart from the fact that most of the food was pretty spicy so there wasn't enough contrast to the chilli taste that built up in our mouths! All in all a very pleasant weekend. 
