Day 12 - When September Comes

After the massive storms of Thursday night, there were a few repairs to be conducted on the house first thing in the morning. Basically the water and electricity didn't work, but that was all sorted over a coffee . . .

Temperature dropped after the storm to about 24 degrees, very pleasant for us workers, especially when it had been 35 degrees 24 hours a day when we first started our endeavours . . .

As a visual indicator, from this aerial photo taken from the east, Eric's casa is at the far end of the island and the workshop is about 3km away in the centre (in the narrow bit between the two lumps)  . . .

But if you get to the lighthouse in La Mola at this end of the photo, you have gone too far . .

On the drive into first breakfast we observed one of the oddities of island life. With a few spots of rain still in the air, the locals are all out taking a walk in the morning. On a typical hot day, they can't be seen at any time . . .

Oddly, Jaime is today playing an Australian music radio channel in Es Glop. But his English isn't so good, so he may think this is the English 'pirate radio' he saw in the movie 'The ship that rocked' . . .

On the subject of idiosyncrasy, Bartolo, the local plumber who seems to do most of his work at Es Glop (they must have some serious plumbing problems!), had his weekly haircut to celebrate the 'tempesta' . . .

After second breakfast we arrive at the workshop and get working on sanding, buffing etc. But the key morning task was the delicate art of dropping molten wax into the tiny gaps at the ends of the frets, without getting any on the fretboard. A bit like that fairground game with the hook and the electrified wire . . .

Then the bodies were prepared to have the neck cavity routed, which is probably the OTHER riskiest/scariest part of the whole process. If this isn't a tight fit you will end up playing a sponge with strings rather than a guitar . . .

It can go VERY wrong, as in 'does my neck look big in this?'

But luckily, all went well in this case . . .

In a spare moment I was thumbing through some guitar magazines and saw some of Eki's work reviewed. He seems to get pretty good ratings, which is good news, if a bit late . . .

We returned a casa for lunch and some fine rose wine and fundador, but I was rudely awoken from my after lunch siesta by the law of gravity. I was in a deep sleep, and I can tell you, that's not a pleasant wake-up call . .

In the evening working session my guitar looked like it required first aid . .

But luckily, this was me temporarily attaching my electrical cover to the body to drill the holes for more permanent attachment. I also drilled for the tone, volume and toggle controls (the 'pots' if you are trying to be 'down with the kids') . . .

Then my tricky bit came as I set myself up to get routing my neck cavity . . .

But I think I will leave the hard stuff till morning. A couple of beers and back to the casa for a fine dinner, wine, fundador and CRASH . . .

Shit, we missed Chimichurri at the Irish tonight . . . but rumour has it we have a gig there next Saturday night . . .

Hasta !