Monthly Archives: October 2004

The first week of my three week visit to Europe I spent having a serious jetlag. During my better periods I visited various friends and handed out Banana Guards in all colours.

I arrive in my mother’s house and she is there as well, brought there by my sister for probably her last visit. She can’t live in that house anymore because it can’t be adapted to wheelchair access. We haven’t seen eachother in a while and we raise our glasses in celebration.

Marijn pointed out I had a big bruise on my arm. I hadn’t noticed it myself because it only hurts when you press onto it. It is probably cause when I fell of the ladder while trying to hold myself onto a clamp. Unfortunately the clamp was not firmly attached to I fell backwards from the ladder. Only 60 cm high but not very smart. Yes, physical labour is more dangerous than sitting behind a computer screen. But although I’m exhaused I like doing it.

The closet is almost completed but I can’t finish it completely because I have to catch a plane to go to The Netherlands. So my client needs to have some patience. In the meantime she’s going to paint the parts that are done.

Still to do: hanging the doors, fitting the moldings around it and making the secret compartiment that will fit in the hole in the bottom.

After many months I finally have found a doctor. In Montréal there is a tremendous shortage of Family Physicians. This has several causes, one of them that after your graduation as a doctor the Québec government wants you to work for a couple of years in rural areas (where there is even a bigger shortage of doctors). If you stay in the city you are fined by a 30% cut in your income. Another reason is that because the workload is very high many doctors are retiring early.

Anyway, I have one now and after conducting a complete physical exam he wanted to do some blood tests. I had to go to the hospital for those and of course there were huge lines. I had to wait for three hours, not fun when you have so much work to do.

Beacuse this house is old and all the walls and floors are crooked I have to level the base were the closet walls will be based on. A good base is important since otherwise things won’t won’t be level higher up. I’ve spent countless hours the past couple of days to prepare all the elements and today I transported them in the car (mightly overloaded) to the client. And when the base is finished I will put them together. I hope they fit.

Before I can install a new closet, the old one has to be removed. And since this is an old house in the Plateau neighbourhood, it has walls made with a lot of wood in it and a lot of plaster as well. I hate plaster, it really dries out your skin and gets everywhere.

Boring one of approximately 5000 holes. I’m building a big closet for a client and it is, as always, more work than estimated.