Too many working men

Today was not the day I wanted several men in my apartment.

So ten minutes to nine this morning we had an Chinese man here. John had not left for work yet so he could talk to him and I could nod while not understanding their poor English. The man unscrewed every cupboard door and then screwed them back on. Then he tightened the cabinet in the bathroom. While doing this work another man came in, I wonder if he were here to help or just to stare. The second man, Indian, mostly went in and out of the door and talked in short terms with the working man.

Another man came in, this one with purple hair. He had been here before and told us that the coldest water we could get was the coldest we could get (John had the impression that water could get colder. I agree, but I guess that in Asia the water can not be as cold as it is in northern Europe). This time the purple man stood by and watched as the Chinese man worked. After a few long minutes another Indian man came in through the door, not the previous Indian. The purple man goes:

"I messaged you fifteen minutes ago! Did you come all the way from India? Huh?"

So, yeah. The not-enough-offended-guy "hung" from some device stuck to the mirror in the bathroom to probably check how well it was secured. After that he stood on an upside down bucket to reach all the way around the mirror with glue. The Chinese man continued the work on the cupboards. The Indian glued the mirror. The second Indian man peeked inside but left quickly. The purple haired man asked about Ymir and I did not want to have them there at all.

Eventually they left. Yippie! It was close to eleven and I could finally get some peace and quiet for my need to write. It went slowly. I tried to get up to speed, reading a few pages and thinking what I wanted more to happen in this chapter. Just as I was getting into it the intercom rung. I answered, asked who it was but got no reply, so I chose not to open the door downstairs.

Yet I suspected someone might knock on the door either way so I scouted through the peek-hole and waited. Soon I saw a maintenance man coming around the corner. After he used the not-functioning doorbell I opened the door like it had actually worked. His English was worse than the others. Said something about balcony and oil. Very sceptical I let him in; he did not appear to want to leave without doing what he came to do.

Out on the balcony he saw the wire mesh we had put up the day before. Said he needed to remove one piece so that he could reach whatever he was supposed to reach. I really did not understand much. Quite annoyed I let him clip away the wire mesh. He said he would put it back when he was done. I sat in the sofa to observe what the hell was going on but whatever he did did not make sense to me. First he hammered, then use a machine to perhaps file, then took a photo of it and a cardboard with our apartment number on it, used another machine to do something else and then finally used the oil he told me he would use.

Ymir the cat was very brave. He got scared of the machines but was mostly curious about the men. I locked him inside the bedroom while they were running around but took him out for short minutes just to let him see what was going on.

After almost an hour the guy was done, packed his things and left. I did notice that he did not put up the wire mesh. Even if he would I would have stopped him and said we would do it. I did not trust this guy.

Finally alone. Perhaps I can write a few pages now?

The brave kitten.