I?d wanted a hot tub ever since moving here. But it was always more important to build structures with rooves that didn?t leak. Then in early May 2003 Jack Everett turned up for a Tai Chi teachers? retreat. ?What you need here,? he said, ?is a hot tub. I?ll look into it.? A couple of weeks later he called to say he?d found a company who had the last of a discontinued line of cedar hot tubs with an internal Snorkel stove. ?They want to get rid of it,? he said. ?It?s going for less than half its original price.?

And so Jack came with the hot tub in pieces. Henry and I had prepared the site and three days later we were in it. Amazing! It hadn?t even been on this year?s ?to do? list! Six weeks after Jack (known as ?Bamboo Jack? by his mates) installed some bamboo railings around the decking. And now Cae Mabon can boast sublime levels of luxury hitherto scarcely imagined!