The DIGGER. First came the digger.
Once the basic shape of the pool had been dug, a concrete lorry arrived to deposit the concrete base over reinforcing which had been laid by the Portuguese macons. It had a very clever extending arm (with a conveyor belt), enabling it to drop the concrete where needed. The driver, though, seemed a bit bolshy. I suspect he didn't like being ordered around by Portuguese. The French tend to be very sensitive about foreign workers who work twice as hard for half the money (in France the equivalent of the Irish navvies are the Portuguese, but they are generally much nicer and easier to understand - than the Irish). At times it did look as though the concrete might end up being poured down one of our intrepid Portuguese artisan's necks.
I went and had a friendly chat with the lorry driver, and enthusiastically complimented him on his skills with the boom, and soon we were the best of friends. He seemed to accept that, as these guys were the ones building the pool, they did have some input into where the concrete should be laid. I think he also had a healthy regard for who was the client and, with me hanging about, it probably was not a good idea to encase the workers in concrete (even if they were foreign).
The concrete was spread all over the reinforcing mesh, whilst lifting the steel bars with their spades to ensure the reinforcing was in the middle of the concrete, rather than simply sitting underneath it, where it would be pretty ineffective (but an all to common fault).
Soon the base of the pool (and the steps) was complete. It took two lorry loads of concrete and when the driver returned an hour or two later, it was like reuniting with long lost friends. You can also see the vertical reinforcing bars, which the hollow concrete blocks for the pool sides fit over. These are subsequently filled with more concrete.
The day after, another lorry arrives with a very cool crane operator, sporting Paco Rabanne shades. These, however, gave him a bit of a Stevie Wonder look, but it turned out he wasn't blind after all and placed large piles of concrete blocks with great skill and dexterity. The Portuguese macons weren't there this day so he probably presumed the artisans were French compatriots and very helpfully spread the blocks evenly around the pool (we are using a French pool company, but they have taken on this excellent group of Portugeuse macons to do most of the building work).
Even before the blocks had finished being unloaded, up roars Mr COOL himself; our (French) digger man. No need here for designer sunglasses to demonstrate/prove his coolness He had two different piles of different sand in the back of the lorry. Up went the back; then he moved smartly forward just the right amount, and two (distinct and separate) piles of sand dropped right next to the mixer. He makes even Jean-Paul Van-Damme look gauche.
