Istanbul - Thursday May 19, 2011

Thursday May 19, 2011

Today was a national holiday, so most Turkish people did not work. The road outside the hotel that is usually very busy was empty of traffic. We take the underground/ metro / tube to the installation site, but the metro was very busy and filled with folks celebrating the holiday. All over the city that we saw were large flags hung out on the multi-story buildings, and even the local busses had flags flying. Large pictures of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish republic were on display.

Even our new hotel the Divan had multiple flags hung out from its top floor. This was the view of the Divan hotel as we exited the metro station.

We worked from 9:00 a.m. until 7:00 or 8:00 . . . Today we worked all day on installing the middle of 3 identical red glass chandeliers in the main lobby. All seemed to go very well, with the chandelier growing more beautiful with every piece we added. 

But then disaster struck, when one piece fell off the top tier and crashed to the floor. Thank goodness no one was hurt. But then another piece fell from the second tier. Unfortunately it bumped Jay on the head and arm, giving him minor cuts! I went up the scaffold to help Julianna with the installation of the second tier. We decided to take a Starbucks break, and when we came back there was more broken glass on the floor!

Jay and I had to figure out how to make sure that none of the pieces on the top tier were touching each other, so as not to put any weight on the pieces below them. We raised the top back row of the chandelier with shims, and let the front pieces on the top tier fall a little forward to create spaces between all of the glass pieces. Hopefully this has solved the problems so we can proceed. No more pieces fell while we were there tonight!

Robert, Luc, Juliana and I left Kathy and Jay up the scaffolding to head back to the hotel for an early dinner at 8:00 p.m.! They stayed to make sure that none of the large glass pieces in the top layer were touching each other, or putting any weight on each other, and completed putting in the shims and separating the glass pieces.

So, hopefully tomorrow morning, when we go in to work, there will not be glass on the floor! If the floor is clear of broken glass, we can proceed and finish this one with the final 3 tiers!