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Chris Ashfield

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October 2020

Regular visitors might remember that in January 2017 a significant programme of refurbishment work was initiated at my home. For the first few months the work proceeded at a steady pace and everything was looking great. However, in April there was an unexpected and rather severe outbreak of apathy and the renovation work came to an abrupt halt! Not long afterwards, the entire workforce left the job site and went on holiday to Majorca. I had expected that - after a refreshing break in the sun - the decorating work would soon start again and that the house would look fantastic in just a couple of months. How wrong I was!

Rather than being reinvigorated by the foreign break and ready to return to work it seems that the staff would just prefer to go to the cinema and watch a film - or more often than not, two or three movies in the same day - or alternatively just lounge around in the garden reading books or, as the warmer weather arrived, sunbathe! Oh well, I thought, once the summer is over, and people get bored, the project would continue. Wrong!

Far from feeling guilty and eager to get back to the task at hand it soon became apparent that the idea of doing nothing in the sunshine, going to the movies or watching Hastings United play football were all of far greater appeal to the painter and decorator! That autumn (that's the Fall for my American readers) additional beach vacations were taken. Firstly, there was a visit to mainland Spain and this was soon followed by a trip to the Canary island of Fuerteventura.

Unfortunately, this pattern of the workers taking holidays, watching football or movies rather than doing any actual physical work continued throughout the following year (2018) and also for the entirety of 2019 and even extended into January of 2020 when Tenerife was the chosen destination for an all-inclusive sabbatical.

Well, obviously, life is now very different and this horrendous year of 2020 has been tough for all of us. Best wishes to everyone who has been affected by illness and disease.

As I'm writing this update, in late October, it's very difficult to find a value-for-money beach break and therefore I'm very pleased to report that the staff have returned to site and that the long-awaited make over project has been restarted in earnest!

© C Ashfield 2020