There's a whole load of stuff going on in this series of pictures! I'll try not to loeave it so long next time.
The "Left" side (out of my window) is just going up to the second story... the first few frames for the pillars are in place. Soon I'll not be able to see Fletcher's Croft (The Housemaster, Mr Loader's, residence) at all.


The "right" side is being prepared for the pouring of the first floor.
Huge amounts of plywood are fixed in place to have the steel reinforcements rested on before the concrete is poured over them. The whole lot is kept up by those yellow beams and steel supports.

"Now... you're SURE that this is the right way up??"

Scaffolding arriving as the work gets higher and higher!

Cranes and chains.... everything is still pretty much moved everywhere by the remote control crane.

Big palates of internal wall bricks are delivered.

Trimming the last bits of plywood to fill the gaps. Don't want any holes for the concrete to fall through!

YES! The path around the back of Bennetts is started!

Work on this went pretty quickly.

The build from another angle. The path goed down to School Lane via what was Mr. Loader's old garden gate.

More pillar framed up and ready for pouring.

The frames are removed from the set pillars and moved over ready for the next ones.

Gravely base for the path is laid.

Another "side on" picture of the building work.

This is a view of steyning from the top of the Bostal Hill. You can just see St Andrew's Church and the crane.

Lets zoom in a bit. There's the flat roofed Bennetts building to the left of the crane.

Back down from the hill.... and tarmac is going down! These guys really are FAST!

Flattening the path... love to have a go at driving one of these.

The guy delivering was keen on a little publicity. :-)

Another load of tarmac.

Raking it out.

Looking good! Nearly finished.

Virtually finished with posts for lighting at night.

Past Bennetts and down to School Lane.

Side view of the left side of the build.

Brickwork going up. These are the internal bricks. A layer of insulation will go onto these before the outer bricks will be built up.

Here's a really good look into the supports that keep the floor up whilst the concrete sets.

Nice "arty" view of the crane and scaffolding.

Most of the pillars on the left are in place of setting.

The right side being prepared for the first floor concrete pour.

And there we go... LOADS 'a concrete!!!....

.... all delivered by the huge pumping arm.

A bit more "casual" pouring.

The pour being levelled of with one of the "Flymo" thingies.

All getting ready for the next floor on the left.

On the right the pillar frames and a shear wall are all ready for pouring.
More scaffolding goes up.

Our old friend the Electricity Cupboard is still there from the old building.

Lots of "Thermalite" style internal bricks were delivered. Alan tells me these are high spec ones!

MASSIVE great mortar storage tank! And the work on this side's upper level is well under way.

Bolivia 1..... a parcel too far?

It arrived! In spite of the reputation of the Bolivian postal system, despite volcanic ash, regardless of Joe not wanting all his passport details photocopied onto it (but seems he relented at his identity card) "Bolivia 1" arrived!! Joe and Denise Holman sent me a parcel of stuff from Cochabamba in Bolivia where they are missionaries.

As you can see it was eagerly opened by Her Majesties Customs in search of drugs, contraband and illegal objects. What they should have realised is that NO-ONE from Bolivia would send anything high value like that in the post. That would just be silly! So having found only cool Bolivian stuff.... they resealed it with packing tape.

Inside was LOTS OF COOL STUFF. :-) A Bolivian notebook (I'll use that on my roleplaying holiday in the summer) and a CD (in dodgy Bolivian CD style) that I put on to play whilst opening the rest of the parcel.

Nice bag... likely have my packed lunch in it when I'm halfway up the Welsh Hills. (I would say "Mountains"... but when you see where the Holmans live I'm afraid that the Welsh ones are only hills.)

Nice shirt and a warm fleecy jumper.

The traditional South American pipes... which I managed to get a wheezy couple of notes out of. They are the proper job... I'm just not very (OK.. "at all") musical.

I LOVE these carved pens and the tube they came in. Llamas seem to get everywhere on Bolivian stuff.

Nice set of coasters and a cool cup!

Right.... NOW WE'RE TALKING! Bolivian Chocolates. Para Ti make the best chocolates in the country... I'd researched this before. The box is still unopened... but the basket is nearly all gone already. The peach creams and mint creams are really nice. Nom, nom nom!

Nice traditional pattern blanket + incredibly soft Aplaca scarf. (Could have use that on Monday in the wind and hail on the top of the Downs in Kent!) I really like that scarf.

A pair of en-Llamad gloves! There was a pencil holder/tub, a bendy rat/lizard thing (which is cool) and a wallet as well. (I was going to buy a wallet to put some of my roleplaying character cards in... so that has sorted that!)

Hope subtly hints at the superiority of the Hershey Bar. (Personally too sweet for my taste. But then I'm a dark chocolate & sour sweet fan myself.)

Faith promises to eat any candy (sweets to the civilized world) that I can send. Denise and the kids are experts at candy consumption!

Hope has caught the "Spirit of Bolivia" in this one I think. It's either a Bolivian guy (though usually the ladies wear the hats) OR me stealing kids. Hmm....

Joy has the heights about right... and the tache.

Patience has given me some quite spectacular hair!

Cool picture by Patience. I think that this is someone on top of a mountain... or it's Joe riding an Elephant. There's a secret agent code on it as well!

There we are then. Great parcel from Bolivia!! Loads of cool stuff. Not sure I'll ever pluck up the courage to wear that jumper... but the shirt is right up there with my roleplaying stuff. It's uncannily similar to a couple of shirts that I made for a friend..... looped tie neck string and all.

Thanks humongously to Joe and Denise and to all the Holman kids that drew or wrote stuff. I'll try to write back to David and Josh.... might mean one more R&W to squeeze through. Ben wrote a cool note and Joe's letter was really brilliant. (Joe... you have a real talent for that kind of stuff.) I also have to get to read the story that was included as well.

Soooo....... just under a month until the Holmans return to the USA for furlough. Nine months to a year back home to visit their sponsors & churches before heading back to Cochabamba in Bolivia. Plenty of time for my "Posting tin" to fill up!