It was quite a lot of work to fix the floor again, as it meant a few days spent on my knees, and me not exactly a spring chicken anymore, by the end of the first day, when I had filled all the holes with tile cement, they were red and swollen. The next day I could take a bit of a breather, as the cement wasn't quite dry, and as the bathroom floor was also damaged, I started sanding it down to be re-painted. The guys had mixed cement on the floor I think, as the paint had lifted, but at least no rocks were dropped on it.
As Jan had to go to Johannesburg again, I was left with the two kids, and no water in the bathroom, as the pipes were not connected yet. What a botheration, as I had to take the children over to their own house for a bath, and as it was so bitterly cold, it was not quite an idillic time for me or the kids.
When Jan came back Andreas went to have his casts removed, and he cried hysterically when he saw his thin arm and leg, and was miserable for about two days, not believing that it will ever come right again.
The winter holidays had now come to a close, and the two boys had to go back to school, Rene to boarding school in George. Andreas went with the little school bus, and had to be taken to the busstop before seven, when it was the coldest part of the morning, and when Jan was away it was quite an operation to get the baby in the car without him freezing, but I had found that one can always find a way to manage.
The people in Haarlem was wonderful during this time of stress, and some came regularly to see that I was okay with the kids when Jan was away.

There was this one delightful old lady, who told me she was going on for eighty nine, who regularly walked down from her house, about two kilometers up the road, to come and see how we were. I asked her in for a cuppa every time, but she always declined, until this day, when she said she would be glad for something to wet her dry tongue. She sat on the point of the chair, and looked at me without her eyes wavering once from the minute I put the tea down, then she took the cup and holding it oh, so daintily, she took small, elegant sips. I was entranced by her, as one just couldn't make out one special feature on her face, the wrinkles curling like small snakes all around her face, and her toothless mouth almost completely obscured by her chin! I thought her amazing.When taking sips of tea, her top lip would first emerge from somewhere between the chin and her nose, then the bottom one would peep out, and they would both disappear the moment she had taken a sip of her tea!
I had decided to re-paint all the walls in the almost destroyed room with the new door, so I put baby in the stroller to watch me, and he was quite happy for a while. He loved being outside, so when it was a nice day, I put him amongst my flowers, where he would sit gurgling for quite some time before starting to moan.
But with Jan away so much, it wasn't always so easy to do my reparation work, and it went much too slow for my very impatient nature.