December 5^th.

Drains inspection people come and fine the manhole is perfectly clear. Their guess is that there was a blockage somewhere in the street below my house and that it cleared overnight. So that’s all right then,

December 6^th

Drains 2. Well, the main drain under the house has been entirely replaced - which took the guys until 8 last night so that I wouldn't have to stay away again. So late! I protested. Let them go home and finish tomorrow, I can stay away another night. No problem, said boss builder, as he is wont to do. Followed by the inevitable, We are Polish. 
Anyway, I have had to be out of the building again today because various connections to the pipes have to be altered so it seemed a good reason to go to the Camden Archives to look up more stuff. It's Wednesday. Turns out they're closed on Wednesdays. Always check! What, always? Yes, always. Ok, then.

7^th December

The drains are in and the concrete round them is going in. On top of that the tons of lumps of clay that were dug out to make way for them, inside and outside the house, are also going back. Bartek is doing this hand by hand, lump by lump treading them down. Outside Sebastian is hammering at something solid – as you might a brick wall you were knocking down, although he isn’t, or so I believe. The concreting outside over the new main pipe has had to stop because of the rain.

Meanwhile the structural engineers (Irish and Italian) have gone head to head with the building control officer (Indian). He had sent them a stiff email complaining, in terminology impossible to understand if you are not in the trade, about the way their instructions were laid out and the dimensions of various steel beams and frames they were proposing. Miffed, stung, livid they zapped back: our proposals were laid out as normal, and impeccably; we have double-checked our dimensions and find them to be correct. It is their professional pride against his clout. Which will prevail? In the meantime, boss builder is fuming. He needs to order the steels and hasn’t been given the go-head.

It would seem diplomatic relations have broken down. I have rung the Italian engineer who says there has been so response to their livid email. He wants to wait for his boss to come in and discuss what to do next. I suggest that maybe boss builder can ring the Building Control Officer, since they ‘get on’. Not yet, he counsels. Let me get back to you.

This is a picture of the drain connection as it now is (and never before was) at the back of the house. It seems to stand high off the ground, which indeed it does but only because the ground was dug down so deep. In time, weather permitting, the ground will rise to meet the pipes. At least something will meet something on this project, even if engineers and control officers aren’t speaking.