'fallaces sunt rerum species'

There is a library here on Montesol that opens every Wednesday morning. As well as it being a place to loan out (for a small fee) books and films etc it is also a good venue for most to meet up and share their little bit of Coronation Street as it were, you know kind of catch up on all the local gossip a la soap-opera.

I am not one for sitting around letting the grass grow under my feet – in fact I get quite obnoxious at times when I’m bored and have nothing constructive to do. We have been working hard on the house and have had other problems to sort since we’ve been here and that has kept me & J almost completely occupied for most of the time here so far – so no problem there then?
Well (a long drawn-out 'well' that is) I hoped that I would find myself a little job once I got settled which would keep me out of trouble. Strange thing not being at work – we moan about it all of our lives but it is bizarre how I’ve missed it. I’ve applied to do some voluntary work but it’s in Barcelona and I’ll need to study a Spanish course first.


Anyways - whilst J was at the biblioteca this Wednesday indulging in her weekly little bit of “East Montesol Street” someone was asking whether they knew of anyone who could be a handyman come lacky for a couple who live locally in a renovated & converted flour mill. Well I thought, right up my boulevard, just what I’ve been looking for.

Made a phone call yesterday, no answer so we drove over to their place (about 15 minutes from ours) and left a note on their gate, what a fabulous place; you can see it has been a real labour of love, quite stunning, a big spread by the river obviously - with large mature trees and water sluices etc etc.

Last night I got a phone call from the owner and he kind of told me to be over there at 5 o’clock Saturday evening.
Well they say that you can tell a cockney – but you can’t tell him much lol and being TOLD to be there at five, kinda put my back up a bit to say the least, & being TOLD by a northerner - man I’m now pissed orf.

I have now judged this book by it’s cover and I’m having conversations with the better-half on what he is going to be like, what he’ll say, what he’ll expect of me; what I’ll say how he is going to get up my hooter, how our personalities will clash. He’ll be the superior-want-me-to-work-like-a-slave-for-a-pittance kind of boss, you know that cockney versus big-money boss sorta thing.

I am normally a good judge of character, normally, but this time I could not have been more wrong. What a lovely couple they turned out to be, they are totally genuine and have a real desperate need of some help at their place. Most of the work in renovating the mill was done by themselves just the two of them, apart from the heavy building work that is – rather like how me & J work. Six years they have been there and the project is still on-going but through no fault of their own they have come to a complete halt, because…. Brian the owner has been diagnosed with cancer and is now unable to cope. So I’ll be helping them out on a weekly basis just to do the outside maintenance stuff and that.

We walked over the place this evening, the 4 of us – what a truly fantastic place and what a real devastating shame that has brought their dream to this unbelievable shuddering shut-down.
And how wrong can one be eh? - 'fallaces sunt rerum species'