Putting up the window shutters

“Another flaw in the human character is that everybody wants to build and nobody wants to do maintenance.” - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

We are counting down the days to the Oktoberfest! Four days to go! Oktoberfest = Maintenance. We have so many things to do and the list doesn´t seem to get any shorter.

Andrey always has the difficult work. He needs to fix things and I have the easy job: finding work for him. A good example will be the window shutters.

I think women tend to simply things. I look at the window shutters and see the final product. Beautiful, wooden window shutters blocking out the sun. It shouldn´t be too difficult. Cement them into the wall, tweak a little here and a little there and the job is done. But unfortunately it doesn´t work that way. That I have learnt from experience. What looks like a one day job, turns out to be a lot longer.

Andrey inspecting the window shutters

There are always complications and the job takes up more time than expected. The window shutters were no different. Andrey managed to finish the work today. It was a big job with a lot of drilling, cement and tweaking. It is done!

A couple of finishing touches and then it is done!

Ru, our dog, was keeping an eye on Andrey but eventually gave up and went back to sleep.

Ru our Hostel Dog, friend and supervisor

Unfortunately for Andrey there are four windows more...but that can wait until later!

Well done Andrey!

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Oktoberfest 2009!

It was with great excitement that we awaited the 2009 Octoberfest. It was the official opening of Hostel Tinktinkie!

When we received the enquiry in August to accommodate a group of 14 people, we were excited and nervous at the same time. This will be our first big group and the question was can we do it? How do we keep a big group happy? Later in the week we received another booking for 3 girls and the number increased to 17 people. We were officially fully booked!

We had our work cut out for us. We still had one room to finish! We asked the carpenter to make extra beds and I started to make the duvets and bedding. Writing about it now does not seem like allot of work but believe me it was. We looked at the room with great pride and joy when it was finished.

2 weeks before the Festival I received another email from Sebastian asking us to accommodate 2 more people. Impossible I thought, we have no more space! But Andrey came up with a solution. We have 2 blowup mattresses. Were they prepared to take it? YES!! So the number increased to 19!!!

Tinktinkie was buzzing and the vibe was great. The guys watched the soccer match between Argentina and Peru and the spirits were high when Argentina won the game. Then off to the Beer Festival for the guys!

Breakfast and showering were challenging. If you snooze you loose.It is a big family and you have to be quick! Breakfast consisted of freshly baked medialunas and facturas and coffee. Breakfast was served in the kitchen and it was wonderful to hear all the laughter and conversations around the table. Overall they entertained themselves, playing some chess or Truco (a card game) or just relaxing in a group drinking some mate. Then hard partying at the beer festival.

We would like to thank Sebastian and Majo for the bookings made at Tinktinkie. We hope you all had a fantastic time...we sure did. The Oktoberfest 2009 will always be carved in our memories and we will remember this time fondly!

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