Today the hotel is nearly empty, only 10 rooms have guests in so we are trying to get some maintenance work done. This is not proving to be easy even though Eve arrived today, the painters haven't been paid yet and have done (badly) several rooms and the restaurant already so are basically striking until they get some money, I guess they think we won't pay them anything if they don't do this, which seems like it's not too unreasonable considering the credit we seem to have run up. Vincent's Pepsi fridge is still broken as apparently we owe Pepsi money so they won't deliver us stock or fix the fridge. Typical. The frustrations of this place and the slap dash way it is run got to me last week as I was still trying to progress in some way then. We have looked at flights to China and are still trying to get Chinese visas, but that may not happen for some time - at least a few weeks, so in order to reduce my stress I've 'gone native'. Yesterday at work I read a book, lay on a sunbed and we popped into town on our moped to buy some orange juice and eye drops. Very productive J although at 9pm I did scrub out the cyber café and re arrange it so that we can go online again. More selfish than conscientious I'm afraid as I wanted to send emails. Today Eve is here so I have been in meetings with her most of the morning discussing problems. The main problem appears to be that there is no kind of paper trail for this place. Wages are paid in cash, purchases are made in cash, most guests pay in cash and much of that cash is filtered off almost certainly by Sam and (it is rumoured) also by the DeMello's themselves to finance other businesses in Bombay. None of this is very surprising. We are due to be paid today, also in cash, but haven't seen any of it yet. Wages being paid late is a major reason for good staff quitting round here, that and when they do come the wages are low. It is such a beautiful resort in a great location so it could be really nice, but we are getting to learn why it isn't and may never be more than 1* at best. Cheap and nice is Sam's favourite saying, but we seem to see more of the cheap and less nice when he is around.I thought seeing as today I'm writing this instead of working J I'd begin our run down of the people in the resort. There are so many characters here.Dinky is the GM. He is ex air force and looks like it. He is well dressed, has neatly clipped hair and speaks perfect English including jokes/sayings/sarcasm etc. He is at war with Sam although it is never clear who is winning as he plays it clever while Sam plays it in your face with many rumours etc. Dinky often makes us laugh and is one of the reasons we haven't given up yet. He is always late to work and drives a battered little white car he can hardly get into, but when he arrives you know he's around - either because he is shouting at someone or because he is in his office reading the paper with his feet on the desk! He was meant to be a solution to the discipline problems and is scary enough when angry to scare the boy, but really he's not that scary which can be a problem as he doesn't face up to unruly guests, he slammed the door of his office In the face of one guy who was shouting then hid in his office. Possibly the lack of conviction in his superiority is why Sam feels he can war with him.Next down is me and Vincent, before yesterday Lancy was under Vincent but now he is acting GM so I guess he comes next. When we were told to expect a graduate Indian who had studied in the US we were glad we might have someone to talk to. Lancy proved that we can talk to him easily but he isn't the typical graduate, he's about 50 or so and has kids our age. He can sometimes forget that we aren't kids but is generally an OK person to chat to, although we couldn't go out with him I don't think. He is trying to sort out Sam and is even more at war with him than Dinky as Sam is refusing to come up with receipts for anything and Lancy is meant to be controlling stock. He is a little aimless and can be easily distracted into getting involved in everyone else's work but does get on with things. He is making a relatively quiet GM as it is only for a week.Sri Jeet used to be next in line but he only lasted a week, which was a real shame as he was the same age as us, had a lot of drive and also knew how to have fun. He disappeared one night and the rumour is that he is looking for other people to work here in Bombay and will return laden with useful members of society to work for peanuts in this resort. I think he's done a runner - although am sad he didn't say goodbye as he became a friend in the short time he was around.Next in line is the head of maintenance Vincy. He is a Mr Man! He always wears the same blue shirt and trousers and has a round belly, I think its Mr Forgetful he reminds me of, which would be great as although he isn't forgetful as such his favourite saying (which we now laugh at then laugh even harder when he looks blank and doesn't know why we laugh) is 'I don't know anything.' he also says his 'f' as 'b' as my sister used to when she was young, most famously re-christening Mr Forgetful as Mr Burgaptul. Appropriate. He does sort of know what he is doing although probably electrocutes himself many times a day through absent mindedness. He is very sweet and although he mutters under his breath in a grumbly way sometimes its obviously not meant harmfully.After the heads of department come Sam and Cajy. Sam is purchaser and Cajy is simply his sidekick - officially stores. The story goes that Cajy is on the run from the mafia in Bombay and Eve gave him and his family (who all ride on 1 moped even though he has a wife and 3 kids!) sanctuary out here. If that's so he should be more grateful and actually do some work in my opinion.(Taking a break from typing to iron 50 or more pillow cases while listening to UB40.) (Took a break of a day or two!)Sam is Mr 'cheap and nice' however he is more about the cheap which poses endless problems when he goes shopping for the resort and doesn't buy what we want only what he thinks is cheap. When we ask for 10 things we usually get one or two and the rest is cheap tat that we didn't want but that he thinks is great because it didn't cost much - it isn't understood that it does matter how cheap things are if you don't want them then you just don't want them, this principle is adhered to by the street sellers 'no I don't want that' is just met with lowering the price. Vincent often tries to explain that it doesn't matter how cheap it is we just don't want it - that is never understood!Sam is a bit of a player and he tries to feed everyone rumours, he told us everyone was jealous of how much we were getting paid and told others things we had 'said' about the - luckily everyone knows what he is like and ignores him. He can be totally frustrating and has no memory at all, but is also very friendly and fun and loves to play loud country music on the sound system, so at leats we know when he is on site.