Penny looking balefully out from inside her home-made Buster collar.

This is the door to the pump house. I think we shall need some steps putting in here.

Note the avocados on the tree in front. You can tell when these are ripe, if you shake them and can hear the stone rattling inside they are ready to pick.

If they drop off too soon you can put them in a drawer (not on a window ledge) and they will finish ripening in there.

This is the shallow end with steps going down into the pool.

'Tis a bit big, innit?

The circular holes in the walls are for underwater lights!

(Lukas looks on with interest.)

They've built a little retaining wall here to stop the rest of the garden sliding down into the pool.

The rest of it looks like this.

Next the pool 'deck', as Philius insists on calling it, (the backfilled area surrounding the pool) has been covered with reinforced concrete, including the roof of the pool house.

The reinforcing bars rest on the walls of the pool house and the wooden support will be removed once it has thoroughly gone off.

Oops!

The hole around the pool is now being back-filled.

Some of the earth Philius originally dug out was saved in large piles around he hole especially for this purpose. Unfortunately he didn't save enough and he's had to have a whole load more trucked in. This is in a huge heap at the side of the road and is having to be laboriously barrowed round the pool!

He isn't very happy about this!

Lukas and Fifi having a snog.

Shortly after this I noticed him carefully washing her feet. Very Biblical!

I took this photo of him from the balcony outside.

Splash the kitten stayed with us for a couple of days en route to his new home. He now belongs to Julius and Andrina's grandson and sleeps on his bed.

Some of the SLAPS pups that caused my 'Candid Camera' adventures.

I didn't realise what the one on the right was doing until I downloaded the pictures and looked at them on the computer!

These are the steps going down into the 'shallow' end.
There will be a ladder going down into the deep end, which will be 6'. I didn't want it deep enough for diving because I want my pool to be an oasis of tranquility.

Philius tells me that no hotel is now allowed to build a pool deeper than 4' in case drunken tourists fall in and drown! Don't they know you can drown in 6" of water?

This silvery thing is not, as someone suggested, where I keep the money I bring over from England, but the pool filter. It will live in the pump house.

It will be filled with a special kind of sand that removes particles of dirt as the water is pumped through it. Every now and again you have to clean the filter by reversing the direction of the water flow. I'm wondering how well it's going to cope with dog hairs!

And building the walls.

Laying the foundation for the pump house, where the pool filter and pumping mechanism will go.

The inside walls are now being plastered with yet more cement in preparation for the application of the Diamond Brite interior finish, topped off with ceramic tiles.

Cement was then poured in to fill the gap between the two walls and create a kind of 'crown' on the top.

If I venture to wonder whether the whole thing might be a little over-engineered, Philius tells me that water is very heavy and very strong and its container needs to be man enough for the job.

Fiberglass shells can only be used for small pools, not 'hotel sized' ones like mine, it seems.

Once inner and outer walls were completed, shuttering was erected around the top.

(The 'hole' in the front is for part of the filtration mechanism.)

Sheltering from the rain!

This is what the whole plant looks like. They seem to produce young shoots fairly readily, so we should be able to divide them later.

Isn't this gorgeous? Pat has brought me several for my garden.

Does anyone know what they are? They grow quite tall - about 4'. Lilies? Gladeoli?

Nobody here seems to know what they're called.

Pool Progress

The outer wall was built first and they are now in the process of building the second wall inside it.

When this is complete, shuttering will be placed all round the structure and concrete poured into the space between the two walls.

I think the pool is still going to be here for years after my house has fallen to bits!

Then the concrete was added. As you can see here there are also vertical steel rods to help support the walls. There are two concentric rows of vertical rods as well.

These were carefully threaded through the centres of the blocks with which the walls were built.

The bottom of the pool was covered with a membrane and on top of this was laid a double layer of steel rods forming a kind of grid pattern. These were to be the reinforcement for the reinforced concrete.

You can see here, I think that the pool is shaped like a grand piano!

Some faces to put to the names

The Boss - Philius The Pool Builder!

This is wonderful Pat, who does my garden, paints my house, cleans my gutters and roof tanks and generally looks after me. He also has an enormous wooden spoon - but I've never heard him say a malicious word about anybody.

We have agreed that from 1st July he will give me one day a week and just do whatever needs to be done. It's very reassuring to know I have someone so genuine and trustworthy to call on if I need help with anything.

PoolSaga Day 3

Unfortunately they had dug out too much earth and needed to put some back.

A truck was therefore summoned to do this and deposited a load of earth to fill in the deficits.

I don't know whether this was MY earth coming back from where it had been dumped, or not!

It then had to be barrowed to where it was needed.

Once the depth and level had been sorted out the earth had to be rammed down to make sure it was firmly compressed, with a kind of jack-hammer I've not seen before.

(This actually happened on Day 4 but it seems to fit in nicely here!)

PoolSaga Day 2

The balletic JCB driver did not live up to his reputation on the second day. He lost control of his fiery steed and mashed up (how I love that expression!) my fence big time!

Philius has promised to replace it, making it sound as though I shall be better off because of the destruction of the original! Problem is that the dogs are not now contained so they have to stay indoors and be taken out on the lead for 'bathroom breaks' during the day.

However we have a huge, stepped hole! This is where trust comes into it!

They measured, pegged and marked out the area that the pool would occupy.

PoolSaga Day 1

This was quite a scary moment - the JCB taking its first bite!

I had now passed the point of no return!

The JCB (backhoe, as they say here) comes onto my land and extends his bucket arm to draw up the next few scoops of earth.

Philius (standing on left of backhoe) is giving advice. You can tell which is Philius in the following pics - he's the one who never gets dirty!!!

He dug out slices of earth with the small end and then turned round and shovelled the loose earth to where he wanted it with the broad end.

I was transfixed both by the flexibility with which he simply swivelled his seat round and worked with the other end of the machine and also by the almost balletic precision with which he could place the bucket or the plough - he could move a small amount of earth in a small direction in the way you or I would use a teaspoon to straighten sugar in a sugar bowl!

There were a couple of tree stumps on the perimeter of the area to be dug out and Philius asked if I'd like them to remove these.

One of them had been a diseased Jackfruit tree and the other a coconut tree which was taking all the light and water from a neighbouring avocado pear. I love avocado so had asked Dixon to cut both trees down.

The JCB dug up both stumps with ease.

This is Philius (with his back to us) and Gibbs doing some measuring up as the digging proceeds.

End of Day 1. Note the depth they've dug down to - the height of the van!

As they hadn't finished, they left the JCB here overnight. There was nothing to keeep it in - the fence was down - but it seemed happy enought to stay here until tomorrow.

Danger! Men at work!

This is Pat and his son Manches (I'm sure you don't spell it like that but I remember it as the beginning of 'Manchester'!) painting my roof. Manches is the one waving to camera.

Roof is finished. The red roof below is the porch over Marcella's front door. This, and the roof of the gazebo, will have to manage with primer only at the moment as I can't afford to buy any more green paint!

Spot The Difference!

Hasn't Pat done a superb job here? He's now just started painting the roof, which caused a little discord. He wanted to paint it red, but I thought it would look like a Meccano house so I've bought the same green colour in roof paint, much to Pat's disgust!

He's always winding me up but is a very kind man and totally, totally honest. He also seems to have green fingers - and not just when he's been painting! I'm really lucky to have him around.

It's occurred to me that probably the majority of people don't know what my house looks like so here's a shot of the front and garage.

The white paint now looks decidedly shabby and needs re-doing. The bargeboards, or whatever the term here is for the woodwork round the roof, plus the green at ground level, will be repainted the same colour as the gate pillars.

Bit of Tarting Up

Pat, who cuts my grass, has rubbed down my gates, which were beginning to rust, done them with rust-preventer and repainted them. He's done a really good job as it's very, very fiddly work - the underneath surfaces of every bit of metal have to be painted.

I decided it was time the pillars were painted too and Pat and I decided on green. I had to have the colour specially mixed as all the standard emulsions are pale coloured.

When the house is repainted all the trim is going to be in this same green.

Letter from Romania

One of Pia's former schoolmates has just begun her second tour of duty in a Romanian orphanage. Pia has sent me Claire's first newsletter and I reproduce it here. This first-hand account is somehow different from anything else I've read.

Hi guys,

I have been here just over a week now and really settled in well. Everyone was so welcoming that it felt just like coming home. I have the same bedroom in the volunteer apartment and am back working at the same house. The girls were so excited to see me and kept jumping up and down and screaming. On my first day they even put on a little concert to welcome me back and when they were saying grace they thanked god(!) for sending me back and making them
all smile - it was really heartwarming. It really feels like I haven't been away.

The days have been mostly the same - doing chores round the house, gardening, walking them to workshop and school, showering them, learning Romanian etc.
There are a couple of changes - Constantin has moved to Casa Rachel - he was one of my favourites so I miss him but have been over to see him quite a bit. There is a new girl called Rodica who is really sweet. She used to be in the spital with the other girls but she got lost in the system and Bruce and Sandie have been looking for her for years. They eventually heard that she was in a spital in Ganast and immediately feared the worst as it is rife with TB and STD's.

When they went to collect her they thought she was mentally ill as she kept banging her head against the wall and screaming. Apparently she was quite violent at first but now she is the sweetest thing. She still gets up in the night and hides food in her bedroom - she obviously can't believe that there will always be something to eat and that you dont have to fight or steal from each other.

The village of Nicoresti hasn't changed too much still very run down - there are a lot less chickens as they all got bird flu - still some running around so i am trying to avoid them! The villagers have got it pretty hard – they are actually a lot worse off than the orphans (the animals are even worse off - I'd forgotten how skinny the horses are - and they have terrible sores from carrying around heavy loads).

Their day-to day lives are tough enough without all the extra problems that they have - everyday I hear another shocking story. Today I heard that the local policeman (who is married to the teacher) raped a 14 year old girl at gun-point. He got off cos there is a lot of bribery and corruption still. There is a new handy- man who is just 18 and came to sandy for help as his dad killed his mum. They also employ a girl who was in the spital but managed to escape and is now living rough - she was offered a place at casa elisabeta but was scared that it was like the spitals so refused.

As if that wasn't enough there is a high rate of skin cancer amongst the villagers - in the last 2 days 3 have been told they are dying - they either can't afford treatment or the treatment isn't available. There is a rumour that its because of Chernobyl which is just 500 miles away - it could also be because they spend so much time outside working and wouldnt even dream of using suncream. Its all very depressing so I try not to dwell on it too much.

The weather has been really good - snowed on first day but hot ever since so have spent a lot of time outside and already got sunburnt! It was really bad just before I arrived - lots of snowstorms and power cuts! The river has flooded and so I have to wade through it about 5 times a day! On my first day I had a nightmare - Mariana, who is paralysed down one side, fell over and was covered in muddy water - luckily she found it funny! Petrica lost his boot and then I got my boot stuck in the mud, when I tried to get it out I lost the other boot! I am an expert at it now though!

There is one other volunteer here called Emily she is nice but she leaves tomorrow - its her computer that I am writing this on which is why the emails so long as not sure when I'll get to an internet cafe. 3 volunteers arrive tomorrow 1 girl and boy about my age and a man in his 50's - he is a born-again christian so a bit worried about him! He has a car though so he may be my new best friend! Emily and I made it into Tecuci (the nearest town) last night. We hitchhiked in! It was the first time I'd tried to hitchhike so i was quite excited - we only had to wait about 5 minutes and 2 nice guys stopped for us - they even offered to wait for us and bring us back! It was a lot quicker and more reliable than the bus so Ill def do that again. We went for a pizza and I was really excited about having a Romanian beer but all they had was Carling! The whole meal cost us a fiver – cheaper than the taxi home!

I think thats enough news for one email. I'd just like to say a big thankyou to everyone that has donated - they are putting the money towards an extension on Casa Rachel so they will be able to take in more boys so your money really has been appreciated. I'd also like to say thanks to all those that came to my various leaving do's - it was great to see everyone again and I'll see you all again in August.Take care - and keep emailing me your news - I'll try to reply individually.

Lots of love

Claire

More Bedtime Stories

I lifted Penny's bed onto the sofa whilst I mopped the floor. Didn't seem to make any difference to her!




Creatchie, Merphi's dog, makes himself at home in our house. Here he is asleep in Lukas's bed!

More SLAPS pics

This old lady from Pigeon Island was brought in to the last clinic for spaying and found to have a chronic pyometria. She was very weak and could hardly walk but antibiotics, good food and tlc have worked wonders. She still wobbles a bit at the rear but has made herself very much at home at SLAPS and sings a lovely song of welcome when someone arrives to feed her. She has been given the original name of Old Lady.

With her, and below, is Frisky, one of a pair of pups found in a dumpster and brought in to SLAPS. Her sister was weaker and has damaged knees but both have done wonderfully well.

A Small Miracle

Mr F K (Feral Kitty) came in as a tiny, hissing, spitting ball of tabby fur. He remained at SLAPS when he'd been neutered - just somehow stayed. He did not like people - friendly approaches were met with flattened ears, hissing and, if you got too close, a strike with extended claws. Food had to be pushed quickly into his cage and removing his litter tray for cleaning was a life-threatening exercise!

After a while it was decided to give him a bit more space. He was let out of his cage and given the run of the cat room. He made his home in a little wooden house on a pole (really a bird house!) and retreated there, hissing away, whenever anyone entered the room.

Everyone who went up to clean and feed the animals spent time in the cat room, mostly just sitting on the floor getting him used to our presence. Slowly, slowly, he became more accepting and would come out and eat his food whilst we were still in the room. He would play with a long peacock feather if we waved it around for him - as long as we didn't come too close.

Gradually he lost more of his fear and would eat from a dish quite close to us and then came the wonderful moment when he actually took food from our fingers! Then he allowed us to stroke his back.

More kittens - domesticated ones - were brought in for neutering and rehoming and Mr F K took to them very quickly. They showed no fear of him and he never showed any signs of wanting to hurt them. In fact he seemed to miss them when they were rehomed.

A decision had to be taken about what to do with him. He couldn't stay at SLAPS for ever, we didn't want to release him to fend for himself but he was too wild to be rehomed with a family.

The person with whom he was most comfortable was Elaine and a strong bond began to develop between them. Elaine began to toy with the idea of taking him home, the problem being that she already had three beautiful, sleek, adult cats. Although she often took home kittens that needed special care and her own cats were fine with these, a feral kitten was a different proposition.

Eventually she decided to take the plunge. Mr F K was taken home in a large cage. After a while Elaine opened the door to the cage and left it open. Mr F K emerged and cautiously began to explore his new surroundings. The other cats were initially a little wary but didn't attempt to hurt him and they gradually began to get used to each other.

Now, weeks later, Jasper the female is still a little haughty about this upstart but Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee, the male cats, have completely accepted their feral housemate and the three of them play together.

The photo shows Tweedle Dee and Mr F K 'resting' together. Nobody who knew Mr F K as he was when he first came to SLAPS would have believed this possible. It is perhaps the knowledge that things like this CAN sometimes happen that keeps us persevering with animals against all the odds!