October 2010

Still waiting for the DUP! Towards the end of the month, we discuss with Dušan how to proceed, and agree that a meeting with Mrs Catović would be useful.
Meanwhile our landlord embarks on a major re-modelling of the stone house. This involves the extension of a balcony for the upstairs apartments, which of course includes the one we use as a bedroom. We awake every morning at 7am for several weeks to the sound of hammering, a cement mixer and other builders’ noises (as we mention elsewhere, Balkan conversation is carried out at a far higher decibel range than in UK or northern Europe). Eventually we move into another of the apartments, which already has a door on to the pre-existing part of the balcony, so that in our one a door can be knocked through the half-metre thick stone wall. It will be a much nicer apartment once it is complete, but the initial promise that it would only take a couple of weeks is of course complete nonsense. We might be back in by Christmas. The weather doesn’t help. Normally one can expect a so-called ‘grandmother’ summer – Indian summer in UK – in the latter part of the month, but rain stops play and work.