‘If I Had a Hammer’ in Ambergris Caye, Belize.

It actually felt a bit like being back at work this morning and -not that I hanker for this kind of feeling on a full-time basis – I quite enjoyed it.

It involved some use of communication skills to try to make use of the return leg of the flights we booked with United Airlines when we moved to Ambergris Caye, Belize last May. We had managed to accumulate enough Mileage Plus rewards to fly Business Class with the return flights ( which we had no immediate plans to make use of) being Economy.

Our plan was ( hopefully still is) to convert the ‘return’ tickets to allow us to fly to Dallas for our ‘home fixtures and fittings’ inspection trip and book ( and pay for obviously) the return flights.

I started off by ‘phoning the United Airlines’ office in Belize City and managed to get a response after a couple of ‘no answer’ attempts. I ran through what I want to do but was dismayed when the chap told me that we can only use the tickets for the booked route i.e.from Belize via Houston to London. No good for us because we don’t want to go back there (well not yet).

I have not given up though because I have completed ( and submitted) the highly restrictive (in the sense that it does not allow you to fully describe your requirement) on-line form. I now wait to see if this works. I somehow think though that we will be buying both the outbound and inbound tickets. Worth the try though.

Anyway, enough of my flirtation with trying to make use of communication skills and on with an update on our build in Ambergris Caye, Belize.

As Rose and I were pulling in to our land to park the golf cart we saw a delivery of – yes, you guessed it – rebar.

Will this be enough for the First Floor?

By way of mitigation for mentioning rebar again I have a compensation.

A real couple of birds in love.

As we walked towards our build in Ambergris Caye, Belize we knew that work was seriously underway on putting in the forms for the concrete pour for the First Floor. All we could hear was the sound of hammers hitting nails.

Banging a support in place for the western (lagoon) side veranda.

With the form boards being fitted we could more clearly see the shape and size of the veranda.

So much better than trying to visualise what it will look like from the plans.

We could also see that the stairs to the First Floor were starting to take shape.

This time next week we will be walking up them!

Piles of wood were being carried and placed near to our build in Ambergris Caye,Belize.

Pile of wooden supports on the western side.

Alfredo carrying the next support pole for fixing.

The plywood sheets stacked on the eastern (road) side of the house were being moved for fixing as the base for the forms.

And another one.

Just as quickly as they were being stacked they were being moved up to be fixed.

For the western side veranda.

Daniel Camal, our building contractor, making sure that it is hammered into place correctly.

One for the northern side of the house.

Getting it in to position.

Hammering the nails in place.

We couldn’t get in to the Ground Floor to look around because of the scaffolding but we knew from the sound of the hammering that boards for the First Floor were being fitted. With luck we will be able to take a look on our next visit.

For the health and safety conscious here’s a photo showing how they cut a support pole to fit.

We expect to hear the sound of the hammer again tomorrow but if the fine weather continues the pour of concrete for the First Floor should take place on Saturday.

The headline is based on the song by Trini Lopez ( I know that there were earlier and later versions but this is the one that I remember from when I was young) which was released in 1963. It reached number three in the US Billboard Hot 100 and number four in the UK Singles Chart and number one in thirty-six other countries.