26 October

Meeting with "Mr Laid-Back" - he was the more typical-looking philosopher: black pin-striped jeans, black shirt, black jacket, black wrap-round shades, pointy sideburns & flowing white hair. (Hell, what do I know about philosophers' sartorial habits; Nietsche may have bought off-the-peg suits from M&S and worn jumpers knit by his granny!)

The good news is:
At least we're not crying (yet?)...
The bad news is:
It's even worse than we thought!

How can that be? Well, till this morning, we didn't know the electrics were actually dangerous (not earthed; now particularly glad we came back the last time when we'd forgotten to turn the power off at the mains...). [Although John Knighton reckons it's not as dangerous as we'd been told - I'd need to stand in a bath of water holding an electric fan heater to be at risk; yes he's right, that is a horrible thought (probably why I'd edited it out!). Sorry for not making that clear (and hope it is now). But I don't know if there is an earth trip... Everything else seems to be done wrong!]

There is a glimmer of hope: we could take Dominique (D) to a tribunal that could order him to repay all the money we've given to him & then some more to pay to undo everything he's done before we start again from scratch.

As is necessary for every silver lining, there is a cloud: this will take a year, during which time we won't be able to do anything to the house. Well, at least it will give us loads of time to do a plan of action (17 or 3-point, depending on which maître d'œuvre we choose) and get quotes from different firms and draw up a contract!

Almost wish I hadn't started the garden; we could just drain down the water, lock the house & come back in 12 months, Napalm the yard & start the building works...