24-V-2014.
(Boća was the deejay... the high tech cockpit is suitably arranged... arround the place where we had electricity)
The big meeting of the suština's writing staff - which is Škrba himself (came with wife, sans daughter), Stinge, Boća with Piton, plus two other guys with wives and children and yet another one without (has them, though).
(accidentally, both Lena and I were demonstrating our supernatural abilities at the same time. I think Škrba shot this one, it's his low-contrast, silenced saturation style of processing for sure.)
We arrived a tad earlier; Boća was at Stinge's since the afternoon before ("we know you're down on your luck but you can at least afford a bus ticket; let us take care of the rest, OK?"). Everyone already appeared. One guy managed to get lost, even though Čankovo has just three streets. The instructions said „when you see a stork's nest on a transformer house, turn right“, but he saw one on an electric pole right from the bridge, so turned prematurely.
Then Lena called, in a kind of very down and gloomy mood. She's broken with Zlija again, this time probably (and hopefully) for good... To which I said "well come here and let's have some fun". Transportation? No problem, pack, let me arrange.
So I called Stinge and, just as I guessed, they were taking turns at the bathroom (with his purple LED lights and special waterproof speakers in the shower cabin). "Listen, man, you got one extra passenger... you know that gas station right after the SIV? Right across the street, got her phone? OK, TTYL". And so it happened, she came with them a couple of hours later.
(On this photo, Škrba and his wife tend the barbecue; IIRC I shot this with his camera - the file numbering and image processing is his, but then maybe the shooter was one of the guys, I remember him taking shots)
Škrba brought extra chairs (plastic - I bought exactly the same few years later) and barbecue grill, handmade of rustproof steel (why should we call it stainless?), we got the meat and sausages. This was the first time I noticed that Škrba has trouble carrying his weight - the combined heat from the fire, sun and the muggy weather hit him strongly; while he didn't fall and nothing bad actually happened, he wasn't in great shape - all sweaty and somewhat dizzy. A wet rag around his neck helped. He's way over 100kg now, not good, so few of us took turns around the fire. Everyone had a rather good day, and Lena's moods improved immensely, and the three kids just loved it.
(the backturned couple on the left are not personae dramatis here; further left Piton, Boća, Stinge and I; to the right she, Lena, and more non-personae)
Of all the brandy that I got (best apple, plum) everyone went for peach... which is good, maybe not as good as these, but curiosity got them, and they liked it. Nobody asked for any other. Boća gave us two liters of milfovača, the 40+ years old brandy (see article for the story).
On the way back, I first meant to sleep it off - I did drink. But then as I was blabbering all the time, most of it has evaporated, and I didn't drink anything for the last hour or two, plus the time it took us to clean up. Meanwhile, the nice weather turned into a nasty rain. We drove through a curtain when approaching the city - others, who went before us, mentioned something between a torrent and a shitstorm - but it lasted just a couple of kilometers. Interestingly, it's always the same two kilometers, about halfway to town. If there's a rain, it will rain there mostly, or only.
Mentions: Božidar Sokolović (Boća), Čankovo, Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Ilija Ćirilov (Zlija), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), milfovača, Piton, Stinge, suština, in serbian