A Bavarian Farmhouse

Tuesday. Nothing is happening today. Nothing at all. No Dagobert No Mario No Luigi No Tom of Finland and no Yoshi So here is a picture of the "Office". It is presently serving as base camp and galley. Note the essential coffee machine and Microwave Combi.

Saturday (ikeaday) I'm sure it was barely more than 7 °C last night and as usual it was warmer outside. Today the thermometer reads 15 °C but it feels pretty cold in the living room. 7:30 Dagobert timidly buzzed the doorbell, but so lightly and for such a short time that I decided to ignore it. About ten minutes later he re-appeared with Tom of Finland, the concrete man and someone else. One of them obviously had sufficient strength to press the doorbell to the acceptable civilised human standard. I answered everyone with a "Guten Morgen," to which Herr Toadsworth almost managed a cheerful (for him) grunt. They retrieved the Hilti Power Chisel and subsequently dissappeared downstairs conducting an ad hoc works conference on the way. Tom came back about fifteen minutes later and resume chiselling parts of the kitchen and bathroom into chunks that would have whetted the appetite of that Frenchman who used to eat entire bicycles. The Lions daughter (who is a sort of project...

TGI Friday 7:30 am. The man that does the concrete turned up as bright as a button and finished off all the holes with their second coat of R-Bar and concrete. Almost as soon as he was finished and another member of the Dagobert Demolition team appeared with a Hilti Power Chisel that was worthy of Tom of Finland (NSF!) and he proceeded to cut the bath and the bathroom doorway to very small chunks. By the afternoon the bath was gone, the door was gone and so was the false ceiling. Not only that but the new door frame (or ceiling frame possibly, we shall have to see!) was already waiting to be fitted. Clearly Toadsworth is at the top of his game now, cos that pace of development has accelerated - perhaps it is a neurological process similar to that of the Brontosaurus powering up the second brain in it's ass. Even the painters were back downstairs in the Lions Den, slapping up wallpaper like a team of Heinzelmännschen on crystal meth. A skip even appeared outside the apartment bu...

Builders working like Trojans this evening 17:33 and some of the builders are still here. There repairing the holes cut during the last few days with reinforced concrete now that the drains and pipes have been installed. The base for the shower and the heating pipes are already in the offices waited with baited breath for their installation. 4:30 am Dagobert knocks on the living room door and when I answer, he says he thought he was downstairs(?) Good Riddance to old Rubbish 13:20 pm Mario appeared and quickly removed the old gas heater. Seeing the back of this piece of junk is a joy to behold. We now have a great deal more room in both the office (Buro) and the living room (Wohnzimmer). We should be able to get a bookcase in the space. The place was built in 1907 and managed to survive the Allied bombing (possibly with the exception off the roof which looks post-war) so one suspects the gas heating system has been here since at least 1947. The speed of refurbishment appears to be gat...

Dagobert Cometh . Temperature 15°C 8:25 am A delivery man rings the door buzzer looking for Mario. I suggest he might be upstairs in the old Lion's Den. 8:30 Dagobert Toadsworth appears, rings the door bell and runs away. This children's game is known as " Rap, Tap, Ginger " ( though goodness knows why) or " Monkey come down the close " (which is more informative) in Scotland . It has a Bavarian analogue but I shall have to enquire of this from The Squirrel when she finishes work. I call "Guten Morgen" as his polished antique dome disappears down the stair well. He mutters a sentence possibly containing the word 'Stadt' and Leiht but this would make no sense at all unless 'City Lends' is a new show on BWR for the confused elderly. The temperature this morning is 15 C in the front room with the main pc on. Perhaps I should fire up the server later this evening to keep the room habitable. 10: 00 am. I take the dirty dishes downstair...

We've had the builders in. Well we are in the middle of having the builders in. That's in the middle (possibly) of the whole project and at the start of having the builders in. The builders were supposed to begin at the start of August- at exactly the moment we were off on holiday. However, contrary to the popular stereo-type project management is more often observed in South Germany by it's absence. I am not sure why this is, I suspect it is the side affect of another anthropological phenomenon I have commented on before - the reluctance of any individual to take responsibility and to make an independent decision. Any way by the time the workers arrived at our apartment chaos had reigned for over three weeks. Currently we are encamped in the living room with only the bedroom as the one other room that is habitable by humans and cats. The office is stripped and we are using it as a temporary food station with the microwave, the coffee machine and the kettle. The fridge is i...