The fence is up. The components have arrived and the invitations have been printed. 9.00am Monday, Bedford Sq. Let the final assembly of the pavilion begin!

So what happened to us in the past week? Everything and nothing.
We all passed our final presentations with great success, and with our third-year students passing on a high pass mark. We came back to our old habits and old routines and are settling back in London.

We took a few days off from the pavilion in order to gather our strength before starting building it on site, at Bedford Sq. Tomorrow the fencing arrives and the following day the trucks from Hooke with all the components and it seems like our next few days are going to start at 8.00am on site with our steel-toe boots and hard hats.

After the past 10 days of hard hard work and lots of visitors - Lip and Francis from AGU, a sweet rep from Maeda, straight from Japan, Press from BD and Bridport and some AA admin people, we have reached the finishing line, two days ahead schedule.

The first part of the group left Hooke today, while the rest are staying to relax, and prepare for the end of the year presentation. But all in all, it is now safe to say - pre-fabrication is over and done with!

We finished the week with a bang. First, the trial fitting went better than expected. The first 1/8 of the pavilion fits just right. The ornaments piece is also done and looks gorgeous. Finally, it is so rewarding to see all the components fitting together, and now we are safely cruising towards the last stages of the work at Hooke - putting together the "bouquets" of ornaments, painting the metal plates, and then varnishing the pieces.

And the icing on the cake - Naiara's birthday party at Chesil beach. BBQing, taking a dip in the icy water, shooting foam rockets, best pebble competition, more food, a walk on the gorgeous strip towards the swan lake, more steaks and sausages and flamed marshmellows. It felt like it was everybody's birthday.

We are oh-so close to completing cutting all the pieces, what's left are 250 more pieces of Flange 8 and then we are done with the cutting.

And the first trial fitting was extremely successful. We have beam 01/02 with the metal plates in, all with the huge bolts and screws and we even purchased some paint to stain the metal plates and protect them from bleeding rust on the timber.

First ornamentation bouquet is also done so the end of the week seems much more promising then its beginning.

Now what's left is to plan the trip to the beach and Naiara's 20th birthday party and we are all happy campers.

Charles and his two boys are here for reinforcement. And the work is progressing pretty well. Amandine and Tessa drove today to Yoevile to get some multi-purpose saw that may save the day. Though what we really need is a little more time to actually finish this project. Although we have done a lot, some big steps are still ahead of us - the trial fitting that is scheduled to start on Friday, the assembly of the ornamentation and to follow - the shipping of the big pieces and the real assembly in London and on and on and on.

At the same time, we are over the mid-point of construction at Hooke, and it is quite amazing to see ourselves surrounded by the pavilion, albeit in pieces. And we definitely settled in here in the woods. Routine walks are organized in the evenings, the DVD collection had quadrupled and the thought of being here right until the End Tables doesn't seem to scare anybody. Working on our portfolios? What portfolios?!?!?!?