New bike, new flatmates, busy times
It has been a busy week. After my earlier bicycle problems, I am now once again mobile after assembling a working bicycle from a non-working one salvaged off the street, combined with bits of the old one. As I had a meeting in town on Thursday morning for which I needed some transport, and because I only got the bits together on Wednesday evening, this meant some late-night bicycle repairs on the street while trying not to wake the neighbours. No-one complained about my hammering and sawing, which in any case was drowned out by the roadworks which have been being carried out at night for the last few weeks.
My new bike runs like a dream, and I am very happy with it. The other new arrivals were some new flatmates, since Kjetil’s short-lived stay with us has been cut short by homesickness for Norway and his girlfriend. His replacements are a German couple who we got to know “via-via”, and who seem like a friendly pair. One extra person in the house will make it a bit crowded perhaps, but we’ll manage.
I’ve also been busy sorting things out for next week’s DAI week. This has involved trying to finish off the concrete greenhouse which I had mentioned last week, an enterprise which has been fraught with complications. I finally got the thing out of its mould this morning, only for half of it to crumble into dust in the process. This I managed to remedy with a quickly-assembled cardboard mould and quick-setting cement, but the thing is very far from how I would like it to be. Still, I do have some work to talk about in Enschede, which is more than can be said for most of the last few months.
