Diarikom : (C++) - From My English Country Garden

Monday 7 December 2015

(C++) - From My English Country Garden - A letter from Builder Michael

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From my English Country Garden – by Builder M. Michael

Some time ago, I visited two very good friends in Hungary, Jenö and Marika. Jenö is a carpenter and makes doors, window frames and other wooden things for a living, and he spends his spare time re-building their house, which, by the way, is also built out of wood. And, in the evenings he likes looking at pictures of Scandinavian wooden houses.

Marika, on the other hand, is completely different. She’s a brilliant cook; she works at the local school and her interests include travelling, art, history and many other cultural things, too.

But, Jenö and Marika both have one thing in common. They both love doors.

Yes doors. And, it is this very unusual passion that has turned their house from being what it once was into what it is now. It used to be a very nice little home. It had a back door, a front door, a garden in the front and one at the back. All very normal. Now, it is different. It has many new doors.

The first new front door came just three months after they had moved in. They put it in the side of the house – which then became the new front of the house - because it was nearer to where they parked their car; quite sensible when you think about it. So, they now had one back of the house, and old front of the house, a new front of the house and one side instead of two! And the dog, which used to be tied up at the back of the house, was now, without being moved, chained up at the front!

Now, It wasn't until the following summer that the next door appeared. Jenö and Marika, now not being able to park in front of the new front door because of timber deliveries, were now having to park in front of the last remaining side of the house which was neither the front nor the back. And so, just to make life easier, this last remaining side without a door became the new front of the house. Three fronts and one back! But, that wasn't all.

Again, to make life easier, they put a door in the first floor – directly above the original front door (which is now the new back door), so, that in the morning, when everyone’s in a hurry, they haven’t got so far to go to get to the kitchen and can save one or two seconds by using the new flight of steps which takes them down the outside of the house to where the new back door is. This, of course, works perfectly well - providing that the back door isn’t looked - which it usually is, so nobody uses it!

But, the biggest challenge of all is the bell! The doors are connected to the same front door bell, so, when people come calling, Marika has no idea at all as to where her guests actually are. And so, she has to run around the house until she finds them. And, because people are, on the whole, generally impatient, they start going around and ringing on all the other doors, too, and so the confusion continues.

And, so it still is, and, I’m sure that the new front door won’t be too long in coming.

Yours Very Truly – Builder M. Michael