11th April

In the office I get a call from Steve the site manager who's back from his holiday. We discuss the problem we're facing with the decorators who have gone bankrupt. The bloody bank have called in their overdraft of £150k even though the director has offered his £1.5m personal collateral. The bankers over here are real shits and I really don't think that this is the end of these types of problems for small businesses. It leaves us with a major problem as we need to get this work done before the carpets start going in. He gets in touch with his head office and we figure out the way forward.

I then have my 1:1 with Cherie. She's quite complimentary about my work on the refurbishment and the ICT contract. I don't really need it but must admit that its nice to be recognised for your efforts. With a bit of luck that'll be translated into a money reward! Chance would be a fine thing!

We have a really good chat about the last year. She and I meet on a 1:1 on a regular basis so there are no surprises but its good to look back over the last year and look ahead to what's coming next. She's good. A bit young and still learn in but has a bloody good brain, has some damn good ideas and has a good way with people. A bit too much of a control freak but she's learning. I like working with her and its mutual.

I find Derek the electrician as I need to speak to him about the bloody lights in the ground floor problem area. We go downstairs and I explain whats needed. He agrees to sort it out tonight. I also chat to him about his brother who normally skippers the electricians but has been taken into hospital with an undiagnosed problem including a high temperature which the docs are concerned about. Its a real worry but we can only watch from a distance.

Back home we have full house. Pascale, Alex and Colin are there. They have come to pick up the mobile home as they're heading for North Norfolk for a few days. Mike Grout is also there - to look at our boiler which has been giving us trouble for the last couple of days. We met him when he married Pascale's piano teacher. Lovely man who has a hart problem now and has virtually retired. He's a heating engineer and looks after us whenever the boioer gives trouble. He knows it quite well and services it for at 'mates rates' I.e. a bloody good price. We all chat to a bit but then they all head off in their own directions leaving us to bask in our newly heated house!