Irma and the kids came on the Friday, bringing Hendrix, Irma's loveable Labrador with, and we spent a lot of time with him at the river, as of course, being a Labrador, he was a real waterbaby.
Hannes came on the Saturday, bringing me a cheap sponge mattress for the iron bed, as I was sick and tired of the hard tresles, and was going to sleep in my own house from then on.
I bought some wood at the co-op to make a frame for the window in the one bedroom. The sun had really played havock with the previous one, of which nothing of course was left, and the hole was closed with a rusted piece of zink plate, propped up with an even rustier iron pole. I just had to do a better job of protecting my stuff, as I would be away for about eight months all in all, and it was to easy to just push the plate away. Danny, the guy living on the other side of the road approached me and wanted to know whether I wanted burglar proofing done in front of my windows, and I was so glad for that, as I would then go away with a much lighter heart!I asked him to do it within a day or two so that it was done for when my furniture arrived, and he agreed to get the rods and stuff on the double.
So, knowing that there would be something to keep the thieves out, I finished the frame for the window, covered it in thick calico, then gave it a coat of acrylic paint. Of course I measured the blasted thing about five times, me not the best of measurers, but it was still too short, so I took a piece of plank and fastened it on the top with the only nails I found, that being about five inches long, but it would just have to do, I decided!
With the windows and security sorted, I was ready to move in, only two days before leaving for Scotland!
That night Irma decided, after eyeing me jealously putting the thin mattress on the bed, that she was sleeping with me, as she was also tired of the hard camping mattresses, and my bed, with the fresh linen I brought, looked inviting indeed! The kids would sleep on the floor in my sittingroom, with Hendrix to keep them company.
During the afternoon we had a wonderful surprise when Hannes who was always fiddling with something, found out that a tap on the outside was feeding the geezer when opened. So, very hopefully, he suggested that I put on the geezer at the mains. We had lunch, and after about two hours I opened the hot water tap and voila, beautiful hot water spurted from the tap! And all this months we thought that the geezer was busted! We almost parted ways as enemies, as Hannes vowed that as he found that the geezer took in water, leading to me putting it on, he had first rights to a shower. I again felt that it was my shower, so I was to have the first shower, and Irma and Manda, both undercover city slickers at heart, thought that they needed a shower most. So in the end, the shower as big as a dance hall, Hannes and Manda had the first shower together. Then it was my turn, and I stood for ages revelling in this luxury, then got into my iron bed. It was not good, and I had to balance myself on the bar running from top to bottom about a foot from the side, not to roll to the middle, and was then quite comfy. That was until Irma had her foam bath, and not believing me that the springs were bad, got into bed, disregarding my plea to be carefull and stay to the side! Like a bally giant fish the mattress just collapsed in the middle, swallowing us like the giant monster that swallowed poor Jona, and there we lay, unable to move, like a huge overfilled  and tightly packed sandwich! The girls were hysterical, but managed to pull us from the clutches of this man-eating monster, and we decided that it would be much safer to sleep on the floor after all, so we put the mattress on the floor and to heck with the bed!
The next day I asked Danny if he could fix the bed, and he welded some rods across, making it safe and comfy!