25-V-2018.

(... 2 words...)

Having finished the car registration the day before (the guy complained about the rear seats missing... ha, they were only rolled down; the rear brakes weren't catching properly because they were too new), we drove to Belgrade in the morning. First went to Blok 70, aka Chinatown, (... 43 words...). Then went to Lena just to deliver the eggs, sweet cherries (went the evening before and rapidly picked as much as we could, managed to avoid the rain) and frozen beans leftovers (confirmed to be terrific, in the evening).

Ate at Pitch, as usual, just didn't order shepherd's dream (did that twice before, wanted some change) so we got bbq'd tip ribs (no young beef that day), and I kind of liked their pogača, smelled like real bread. Well not quite bread, more like the slava cake, so I had them pack a half of one in the end. (... 29 words...) this flatbread was nowhere near the real deal. It went stale by the evening, and tasted like any other industrial bullshit. (... 16 words...)

Did make a shot of the undercarriage of their garden table, as we do this almost everywhere, to see which construction would be the easiest to reproduce.

Came home quite early, because Lena had her driving lesson around 14:00. The saxo is running really fine, new tyres, shock absorbers, and the polyurethane foam (not so new) in the lower doorframes and hoods. Still, by the time we got home I was just tired and took a good nap.

Went downtown to see the IV₄ gang, they have the usual spring meeting (yeah right, how come I didn't know about this for the last seven years?). Turned out there was some money left from the pile from last time (09-IX-2017.) so this was the occasion to spend it. And, appropriately, this is the Youth day of yore, used to be celebrated as Tito's birthday. Planned to walk all the way, but it was humid worse than in Virginia, so I took a cab from the bus station, hoping to get my shirt unstuck by 19:00. Went to lift some cash from the serekeš, met Arpi with Milan in a stroller. Then I saw Dragana, Miljka and Milica coming, so I joined them. At the Proleter shoe shop, where we used to hang out after class (it was renamed at least twice since then, but still stands and is the same company - that's where I'm bying my shoes, they do leather only), there were already few others: Jozda, Žuca, Jasmina, Vladimira, Vlada and more. After waiting the academic 15 minutes, we went to check if the hotel garden is open - nope. There should be some body in the local government to protect the places of cultural importance, like the štrafta, hotel Central (where many a director exited legs first, having died on the heap) and a couple of others. Tried the city garden, just behind the city hall, but the gate was closed.

Ended up in the Bridž cafe (yup, named in english), which I'd never do on my own, I generally avoid places named in english. If my language is not good enough for you, you aren't good enough for me. And the trouble with having fifteen people in a cafe is that they have little round tables which just don't fit together like square do, so we had the olympic circles, then six circles, in the middle. At least they weren't quite together so the waiter managed to squeeze in between them. Ksenija and Gavra came later - she mostly standing, because since she retired, all the aids she had as a sports doctor weren't at hand, and her problem with lack of cartilage in the pelvic area got worse.

Had just two drinks (wine and mineral water, they don't serve proper furniture, aka špricer), so made it up when I got home. The hare trišnja (sour cherries - višnja, sweet cherries - trešnja, 3:1) brandy has a distinct taste. Which I didn't feel when eating sweet cherries (sour have more sugar and make more brandy, but which has almost no taste) until the next two days, when we mowed most of the garden in Čankovo and ate a lot of sweet cherries (the sour would ripen really soon now).

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Mentions: 09-IX-2017., 07-XI-2022., 17-III-2023., Arpad Gunaroši (Arpi), Čankovo, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Gavrilo Taroški (Gavra), IV₄, Jasmina Vlajin, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jovan Zdanić (Jozda), Ksenija, Milan Umljanić, Milica Zubatović, Pitch kettle, saxo, serekeš, slava, Smiljka Grajin (Miljka), špricer, štrafta, Vlada Markanić, Vladimira Brkljević, Živana Armatović (Žuca), in serbian