My trip to the stove-setting cooperative PGH (Produktionsgenossenschaft Handwerk) was equally devastating.
‘Of course we’ll set you new stoves,’ the friendly chairman said in response to my request, ‘but in two years at the earliest, because we’re hopelessly overloaded.
I’ll be glad to help you out with some cover plates and some clay to seal your old stoves.’ With the material and an appointment for the day of never-never, I moved away.
At least, with the materials and the well-intentioned expert advice of the chairman, I managed to bring one of the three tile stoves to life. The other two remained cold and had to be replaced by electric heaters for the time being.
Despite all the problems, many things in the apartment had changed for the better. A good colleague had replaced the ugly iron sink under the faucet in the kitchen with a double sink with a swivel faucet, and an electric instantaneous water heater provided hot water.
He also hooked up the new two-burner gas stove and fixed the instantaneous water heater in the toilet so the girls could bathe whenever they wanted. Things were progressing in the apartment, albeit slowly.
Despite all the seemingly insoluble problems in the old villa, I would have already separated from my wife at this point if I had had the certainty that we would raise Jacky together on good terms.
But my marital experiences had taught me otherwise, and so I hesitated, knowing that in the end I could not avoid the decision. To make matters worse, the next challenge was waiting for me in the office.
Our combine was in the process of laying the enormous, buried cooling water pipes from the Baltic Sea to units four and five, which were under construction, at the Nord nuclear power plant.
The oversized pipes and fittings for this were manufactured in a pipe factory belonging to the combine.
Apparently, there had been repeated difficulties in the timely production of the large-diameter pipes and fittings, because I received the order to ensure, together with the plant’s production manager, that the construction site would be supplied on schedule in the future.
This was easier said than done, because the plant’s production capacity had long since reached its load limit. That’s why I had to regularly give an account of the production and delivery status achieved in a central on-site construction consultation.
The monthly consultations began early at eight o’clock. Depending on the weather, I set off in the morning between two and three o’clock by car in the direction of the Baltic Sea. Despite the great distance, I was not late once. 𝓣𝓸 𝓑𝓮 𝓒𝓸𝓷𝓽𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓮𝓭…
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