Baby Emil was becoming a delightful wee thing, very friendly, and smiled a lot. But oh my, I dared not show him his bottle before it was absolutely ready, as when he had a glimpse of it, and I decided it was maybe a little warm, he would scream himself blue in the face, and I could see that he was born with a bit of a temper!
It was the first winter I have spent in my house, and it was hellishly cold, as the doors and windows all had gaps as the house was very old, and maybe the walls have sunk a bitty through the years, and now everything was a bitty scew. As I had to go out and run the length of the house to go for a shower or use the toilet, it soon became apparent that I would need to have a door put in between the old part and the newer built.
But to try and somebody who had the nerve to tackle this job was a bit of a problem, as the stone walls were about half a meter thick, and as the house was so old, they were all scared that the wall would cave in, seeing that the stones was enormous.
During this time Jan got a builder called Johnny, who was going to built up half of his stoep (veranda). In due time Johnny and his helper, one of the Kampang youngsters arrived, and it seemed that they were both good builders. I think Johnny's helper knew quite a bit more than himself, but as he was not an over intelligent young man, he took Johnny's orders in his stride, and did all the hardest and most mundane jobs, while Johnny waved the septer.
It soon became clear that up to lunchtime the building went well, and the walls were perfectly straight, but after lunch everything went haywire, and Jan was aghast when he took a smokebreak and had a look at the new wall, to find it leaning dangerously to one side. Johnny and helper were both two different beings from the pre-lunch guys, talking and laughing a lot. I knew they were smoking pot, as they sat under the old oak tree across the road, and the aroma that blew to my house was pungent and very recognizable! He told them to take down the wall to where it started going scew, and they were both very indignant, walking up and down the stairs to see what Jan meant.
By the time they had that done, it was tjaila time (stop), and they went home looking quite upset, not laughing so much anymore.
The next morning they were both quiet again, and just got on with the job. The bit that they did before lunch again was perfectly straight, but after lunch the same thing happened, and the wall resembled the tower of Pisa, and the two builders were as happy as larks again.
So Jan got tired after the third day, as he had to pay them for the full day, and it took them half a day to break down their mess, and he told them that from now on, they will work only till lunch time, and come back in the morning, and the two mornings would count as one full day!
I asked Johnny whether he could see his way open to do my door, and he had a good look, looked at his helper for support, and the helper shook his head up and down, and it was decided that after Jan's walls were done, they would tackle my problem!