05-VI-2018.
I was actually working most of the day, having solved a few cases, and then during the change request meeting got a call from Lena - on the landline, so I know it's her, only she calls that apart from the telemarketers, who do so in the morning, said the keyword (the name of the last village, so I know she's got about 10 minutes to here, by bus). Got into the car, parked on my side of the station (the parking on the other side now being demolished by the lawn around the future Lidl gray box, which takes six forevers to open, it's unfinished at least a year). Saw a bus from the expected side arrive, but that's not it, it's too small an bears the name of the other village (not exactly on the road, there's a detour around it). But no, that was it, I heard them when they were almost right behind me.
So we got home - Lena, Nick and Kees. And they brought some gifts - a bottle of Connemara whiskey, and a pair of swedish clogs (prearranged, my current clogs developing a bug just a couple of days ago, fixed later by a bit of string, but generally being worn out and some piece of wood missing from the back edge on the right one, served me well for five years or so).
Kees also brought a bottle of vodka (not proper votka, vodka), by some Smirnoff guy. First, when I see a surname ending in -off or -itz, I grab hold of my. Second, fuck any vodka made outside of the Poland-Russia biangle. Third, it says on the label it was filtered 17 times. What shit was it made from if you had to filter it so many times?
Started with milfovača, then Go's wedding brandy (still a lot left), then progressed to last year's apricot. By that time we decided it's time to go downtown. The girls (i.e. she and Lena) decided to walk and we took a cab - with five of us there wouldn't be enough room. Took the guys for a little tour of downtown, then we heard from them being real near and decided to dine at pivnica, however it didn't get open yet. Seems to have a new owner and the register is still not working. They'll get it right real soon now, yeah, what matters is that we got their advertising delivered on time. So we went to zanatlija, never fails except some weekends. Kees seems to hold his drinks decently, i.e. knows when he's had enough and then switches to coke :).
This is where some details about Laura's quitting Firriver came clear. She didn't return to the clinic, but went to work for competition, another software outfit making an app for fertilizing clinics. When there's no contract, there's no non-compete clause. And she couldn't return to a clinic because before this she never worked, she was fresh from studies. Her being able to fuse us all into thinking she had practical experience, well, kudos for that. It happened during some dinner with David, Suez and perhaps one more (Norman?), can't remember now (2021), where she was offered a position after an hour's chat.
Mentions: David Berton, Firriver Fertility (Firriver), Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Kees de Cock, Laura O'Hare, milfovača, Nicolas O'Keefe (Nick), Norman Shen, pivnica, Suez Lima, zanatlija, in serbian