He's To Blame! He Dunnit!

Ages ago, when I was working at Millbank Tower, my boss (known as The Dragon Lady) once murdered us all because she had made a mistake in some briefing she had prepared for some big cheese or other. Sounds bizarre, I know, but her logic was that none of us had told her that she had made a mistake so it was all our fault. Notwithstanding that none of us had been given the opportunity to give her efforts the once over - she'd wanted to do it all herself so she got all the credit. And in her paranoid delusion she'd now convinced herself that we were to blame. Well, people are the same the world over. Someone else must be blamed.

The builder says it's the architect's fault because the architect didn't tell him he was doing it wrong. The architect says it's the builder's fault for not following the plans. The sub-contractor says it's the builder's fault for not explaining it to his workers properly. The architect says it shouldn't be necessary for him to check basic things such as where a wall goes. The builder says he thought the architect told him to leave room for a water tank. And so on and so forth. It's all somebody else's fault. Why not just own up and we can get on with sorting it out?

The meeting between us all to discuss the way forward was quite, errm, dynamic with lots of shouting and bickering and recriminations between the builder and architect. At one point El Presidente had to speak rather firmly and tell them to stop it and calm down,  pointing out that this was supposed to be a 'business meeting'. The highlight was when the builder said he was going to walk out because he didn't like discussing money as it upsets him. I asked why, if he didn't like discussing money, he had submitted a bill for an extra €8,000 the day before.

El Prez and I had the psychological advantage - she chaired the discussion whilst I took the minutes and whispered occasionally to her, or passed scribbled notes. (The idea was make them wonder whether in fact I understand da lingo and actually know what they're blathering about). El Prez was on top form actually, well prepared with a checklist and everything. 

So we'll see how we go. There certainly was a difference yesterday, with three separate teams of workers busily doing this and that. Don't get your hopes up, but we might get the drains finished in the next day or so!