It's harder than I thought it would be

Rozalin harassed the air con people and a man came on Monday. He got all the units running on warm and by Tuesday lunchtime the apartment had heated up to a balmy °20.

I have hopes it will warm up to maybe °22. They may all clag out again if it gets any colder outside but it is now quite comfortable.

Today we had some real snow for Sissi to play in but she was not too keen. She only stayed outside for about 30 seconds and then scuttled back inside. Monika is much more sensible and spends her time in the bathroom where the floor is warm.

I made my delayed trip to Frau Knickerbocker’s apartment to assemble the cupboard.

This in itself was quite a task as there was heavy snow and some of the streets had not been cleared. When I came home I used my ‘snow brush’ to clear the snow off the car and windows. This does not happen very often. 

The cupboard thing was even more horrendous than I thought it would be. The assembly brochure is 40 pages long and is – in large parts – incomprehensible and could well be be the assembly instructions for a Piper Cherokee.  They certainly do not appear to relate to some parts we have – but only time will tell.

But - there is no propeller in the many boxes she has so we know we are not building an aeroplane.

However we set about it with grim determination – she speaking only German (so as to improve my German) and me speaking English and German and understanding very little of what she said as she was using words I have never heard before – having never built a cupboard with sliding doors.

I would like to think we made some progress and indeed we attached some parts to the cupboard and built a door. This took us about three hours and then she had to go and teach a German class somewhere. We shall resume tomorrow.

It is an extremely difficult task. I do not think it would be possible to do it alone. One needs the guidance of another critical eye to make sure the right parts are being attached to each other – the right way around. There are many possibilities for error and ultimate catastrophe.

I am quietly confident because she is actually better at it than I am and needs me only for backup. We shall see.