Gaby Book 18 - Summery

 
“Don’t forget you’re training with Amanda later,” Dad called to my departing back.
“I know, tschuss!”
“Tschuss.”

I almost skipped around to the bakery, it’s pretty cool that me and Con are setting this up, well okay, helping set things up with her ‘rents money, but nevertheless it’s pretty cool.

“Hi Mr T.”
“Morning, Gaby, go on up, they’re not ready yet.
“’Kay.”

I made my way up to the Thesing’s apartment where I found Therese and at the kitchen table.

“Morning!”
“Someone's full of bounce today,” Mrs T observed.
“You want coffee?” Con offered.
“I guess,” I agreed pulling a chair out, “what’s this?”
‘This’ was a pile of papers covering much of the table’s surface.
“Tomas and Josef went up last night then spent half the night working out what’s what.”
Con handed me a beaker of caffeine laced beverage.
“Cheers, so what’s the low down?”
“Well obviously the priority is getting the kiosk properly secure, Joe reckons he can get that sorted in about three weeks.”
“Three weeks? We can’t do anything for three weeks?” I slumped, the wind taken from my sails.
“We can do a lot,” Therese advised, “it’ll take time to sort out the inside, we can be doing a lot of that while they sort the exterior stuff.”
“What about the ‘garden’?”
“Let’s concentrate on getting the hut open, we can do the fancy bits later.”

I guess that sort of makes sense, in my mind I've only ever envisioned it as a complete thing but I guess it’s not had the garden before has it?

We drove up and this time parked behind the kiosk, a space barely big enough to park the car. It all looked much the same, well apart from the new lock on the hut door, I guess they fitted that when they were up yesterday. This is just so cool!

Of course when we came Monday we poked around inside so today was a little less adventuresome. Being the smallest I was the least useful for measuring so found myself perched on the bit of counter utilising my limited artistic skills for the plans. Picasso I'm not although my rendition didn’t look much different, to translate it only had the barest resemblance to fact!

I think we measured everything that could be and some that seem, to me at least, a bit superfluous but after an hour Therese seemed happy we’d got enough.

“So any thoughts on what goes where?”

Had I got thoughts! Is the Pope catholic? I fished in my bag – how do boys live without them? Anyway I fished about and found my notebook and quickly flicked through to a page titled ‘KIOSK’.

“Geez, Gab, you didn’t have to write a book,” Con advised.
“It’s just a few notes.”
“Well it looks quite thorough,” Therese suggested, “so what do you think?”

I glanced at my squiggles, they make sense to me but maybe not to anyone else, then orientated myself.

“So we put the fryers and hot plate over here...”

I worked my way around the work area, the others asking questions as we went and pretty much agreeing with my observations.

“If we have the warm cabinet here in the middle we can use both windows if we’re busy.”
“Eis at one and würst the other,” Con suggested.
“Or whatever,” I agreed, “usually we’d just use the left one as it’s closest to the grill.”
“Well I can’t see any issues with any of that,” Therese told us, “we’d best have some idea of what we’re shopping for tomorrow, can you make the list Connie. So big stuff first, hotplate, fryers...”

“We’ll need cups and stuff like stirring sticks,” I suggested.
“Okay,” Mrs T agreed, “I'm sure there’s stuff we’ve missed but nothing too drastic.”
“Gott, there’s two pages here,” Con announced.
“Maybe they have an instant kiosk package at the shopfitter’s, just add euros,” I joshed.
“Would simplify things for sure,” Frau Thesing agreed, “so are we done?”
“I know it’s not a priority but could we measure outside while we’re here?”
“I guess it won’t take long, go get started, I've a couple of things to do before we go so we have power and gas when we need it.”
“Come on, Con,” I encouraged almost dragging my eyeball rolling friend in my wake.

I waited impatiently for Manda to get ready, to say I was keyed up would be putting it mildly. After I got home I started making a sort of model of the kiosk, well not the best rendition but it was only a raided cereal packet and it didn’t need to be brilliant. The sooner we get back from training the sooner I can get on with my masterpiece.

A clatter of cleats on concrete announced Mand’s arrival.

“You’re keen,” she opined.
I shrugged, “No point in dragging it out, you ready?”
“As I'll be.”

I pressed the door close button on my key tag, Dad fitted the electric door a bit back as I was struggling to get the old one to close properly and this is more secure which is good given the contents. With practised ease we both mounted our steeds and dropped down onto the roadway to start not quite our usual ‘Ring route but a longer loop that’ll take us down to the Rhein instead of back into the Ahrtal.

“That it?” Mand queried as we crossed the bridge in Altenahr.
“Yep, Kiosk zur Brücke,” I proudly announced.
“’S a bit grotty.”
“It won’t be,” I defended, “it’ll be all painted up, new sign and stuff.”
“And when’s this all happening?”
“Three, four weeks.”
“Really?”
“It’s mostly cosmetic stuff needs doing.”
“If you say so.”

It was more overcast this afternoon, not like rain but that sort of cloud cover that takes the edge off the heat but can make it more humid. We kept it at a good tempo along to Adenau then on Dad’s instruction attacked the climb up to the GP circuit. I quickly distanced de Vreen then settled into a more comfortable climbing cadence.

Even so I was puffing a bit by the drag away from Quiddelbach, not that the computer seemed to agree to my effort, defiantly hovering around thirteen kph.

“Nice day.”

I nearly fell off in shock as Mand glided past, how the? I snicked up a sprocket and gave chase, she wasn’t going much faster but on a gradient it doesn’t need to be.

“H, how?” I gasped out when I eventually got alongside her.
“You hare,” she pointed at me, “me tortoise.”

Whatever that means. I matched her tempo and soon enough we were on the fast road past the circuit and I could get my breath back fully.

“You always struggle on the climbs.”
“Not always,” she corrected, “if I can keep my own pace I can get up okay, I struggle to change though so when you give it some I can’t follow, keep it steady and I'll be there.”
“There’s more to it than that,” I accused.
“Maybe,” she hinted.
“What?”
“Your mum suggested some training drills, it’s what I was doing yesterday, I went up that stupid road out of Neuenahr three times!”
“Well it seems to work, maybe I should give it a go.”
“Maybe,”she replied non-committally.

We started a rotation and pushed it across to Kämpenich where we turned off to follow the old Vulkan Express railway down to Bad Breisig. I did manage to lose Mand on the lane down to Oberzissen but I waited for her once we got onto the main-er road. The speed stayed high, well over forty, most of the remaining distance, well it’s not a bad road and its gravity assist.

At Breisig we followed the cycle route along to Sinzig, the main road is busy and no fun to be on. We had over two hours on the clock by the time we reached the lane up into the Ahrtal, time to cease hostilities for the last few kilometres home. By now I'm sure I wasn’t the only one ready for something more than a claggy energy bar, why can’t they make them less, I dunno, glutinous?

“What’s this?” I queried when Dad plonked the plate in front of me.
“Try it and find out,” he suggested.
I poked and sniffed at the ‘food’ before loading some onto my fork.
“It won’t kill you,” Mand giggled.
“I suppose you know what it is?”
“Hummus right Mr B?”
“In one, Manda.”
“So what is it? I cautiously licked at my fork.
“Chickpeas mostly,” Manda advised.
“Those big white things?”
“You’re thinking of broad beans,” Mand suggested.
“Am not, they’re like knobbly peas but white.”
“I'll take your word on that, kiddo, I bought it like you see it.”
“So erm, why are we eating it?”
“It’s a good fat free source of protein and fibre.”
“If you say so, prefer some meat and potatoes myself.”
“How about you, Amanda?”
“It is a bit bland.”
“I could rustle up some sausages?” I offered.
Dad shook his head, “Go on then.”

“What’s that supposed to be?” Mand enquired.
“It’s the kiosk.”
“Really?”
I'd brought my ‘model’ downstairs to work on, there's more space on the kitchen table than my computer desk in the eyrie.
“Well obviously it’s not an exact replica.”
“That's for certain, what's this stuff here, I didn’t see anything when we went past earlier.”
“The garden, we’re gonna have like tables and chairs so people can sit and eat instead of walking off.”
“You’ll get anyone using them.”
“That’s true, we can put up signs, you know saying it’s for customers only.”
“What you need is a fence.”
“Fence?”
“Well if there's a fence it’s clear it belongs to the kiosk, most people won’t go in unless they are buying, you know like the restaurants in Bonn and that with the plants and rope things. Build a nice fence, a few pots of flowers, you’ll like attract people with kids, you could even have a sandpit for them,” she enthused.

I tried to imagine it, hmm, could work, cheers, Mand.

“So I was talking to Steff earlier.”
“Yeah?”
“What’s this about you and Max at the pool yesterday?”

I'll get you blabbermouth, Oldberg!

Maddy Bell © 17.12.16