Less than 24 hours to go before myself and the other members of Decathlete Team C leave for Madrid, but it’s still too long! If you’ve been keeping abreast of the goings on on the Villa Solar through the brilliant Mr Blue, the H.O.U.S.E Facebook page, or through the blog and gallery on the Solar Decathlon page itself, then hopefully you’ll understand why I’m so keen to be out there!
From the sounds of things, the H.O.U.S.E itself assembled like an absolute dream – obviously our main concern, and a huge relief for all that we could clear such a major hurdle. No instead, the trickiest part of this initial construction period has of all things been the inclement weather! Despite packing bags full of shorts and tees to survive the expected sub-Saharan heat, the Decathletes have been hounded by the torrential rain on site.
Kindly, the Solar Decathlon organisers have offered both more time and expert help to the H.O.U.S.E team, to ensure the site – and the build itself – are safe and stable. And without jinxing anything, the weather looks to be on the turn for the better too… so fingers crossed all teams get to use their solar technologies to full potential once the competition starts in a few days!
For now, back to packing… see you on the other side!
Tom