Polished floors! 

Still no running water. No bathroom. No kitchen. But we have bedrooms, we have a (large) living room. We have beautiful floors. 

This morning I spent two hours with metres of fabric and a woman called Annabel who is going to turn the fabric into curtains. When we were in India we spent a moderately amusing hour in a sari emporium in Madurai choosing fabric for curtains. Albie had been very sick and needed the toilet every five minutes. The other two were just bored and determined to communicate this fact. They perched on stools and swung wildly against the counter, singing lustily. Large fans blew hot, humid air around the room. Desperate, we grabbed at saris as they were proffered by helpful salespeople, pulling the fabric over the counter, looking at each other with eyebrows cocked. Like it? I'd ask Cyril. Many nos later he nodded as I held out an orange sari, embroidered with gold and banded with a deep crimson edge. The saleslady draped it over my shoulder, nodding gravely. 'It suits you very well, madam', she said. 'I'll take eight', I said. She glanced back at me, somewhat surprised. 

We left with a small suitcase (whose zip broke almost immediately) filled with twelve individual boxes, each one holding a beautifully-folded sari. I opened them again for the first time today, unfurling them like enormous flags over the newly-polished floors.