Since the (now regular) butcher, where we used to buy a slab of bacon to take almost each time we went to Belgrade (the young couple are on keto diet, so we bring bacon and eggs each time - last time it was 13 cartons), has closed the shop "due to years of age" (i.e. older than 65, so has to stay at home)... ok this sentence is too complicated to complete :)
Let me start over.
We had some trouble finding a good butchery over the last ten years. It's not that much about meat - either fresh cut or packed is just fine and you see what you buy, so no problem there. It was the sausage, bacon, salami and other stuff, dear to our gut, that was the problem. Most of them, including the two larger chains (Mrkšić, Matijević) and promes while it lasted, love to do what wine merchants did thousands of years ago - to sell water at the price of their wares. The sausage is usually sticky in three days, as one cutter downtown said, "it's fast food - eat it fast before it goes bad". The bacon oozes some nasty brine-like liquid when cut. They inject emulsifiers everywhere, which makes the meat hold perhaps 30% more water than it would on its own. It's somewhat cheaper than competition's then, but still fucking expensive if you calculate the price of dry matter.
So for a while we had this "Fallen cattlegrower", who was great, his stuff was perfect, but he couldn't keep up. He didn't have enough of it to stack the shelves every time, so going there was a lottery, you didn't get what you went for, you got what he had at the moment. So he closed shop a few years ago - with four other butchers (including the abovementioned) in the same street, he couldn't last.
Then we heard about Neša, but got the instructions wrong and found Žika right behind the corner, halfway between Lesnina and ruža (which are 300m apart), and every time we'd go to Belgrade to visit Lena and Milan, we'd bring a slab of bacon from him, and as many eggs as we could gather - 130 last time.
Now this time we needed the bacon for ourselves, but Žika has closed. The current coup of the AV and his AirBnB (official names of the prez and PM at burundi) puts him in isolation, being above 65, so he closed the shop while this lasts. The other shop isn't far, so I got on my bike and went there. Found goood bacon, some sausage (actually better than Žika's, but no salami there) and čvarci! And it was funny cheap, the čvarci were at 600 din/kg, the prepackaged small ones at Lidl are 2000 (!). And they were excellent.
On the way back, my bike's chain derailed again - second time since I replaced the rear inner tire. Since I always have the combine screwdriver - 10mm wrench in my pocket (actually just a flat piece of metal), I managed to put it back without really getting dirty, but I got somewhat winded up. So I found myself standing right in front of Lesnina... so I pulled out my old nokla and called Dragana, "hi... come out to the window so we can talk". She's on the first floor, just above the little cheap grocery shop.
Amazingly, she wore no makeup (my dear was sincerely surprised when she heard). She's not leaving the apartment, even though technically she's not the legal confinement age, missing some three months to it, but stays at home for her own peace of mind. Her nephew lives just above and he's getting her the groceries. The curfew being between 20:00 and 5:00, and considering that last time we parted at 3:30, we could simply start a little later than usual and go at it until five... but no, she said, she's not going anywhere until the restrictions are lifted. Considering herself a member of three risk groups - had cancer, has some cardiovascular stuff going on, and age. Feeling fine, otherwise. The closing of the airport was mentioned, to which I objected - it's only partially closed. The PM said it is closed for international flights - everything else probably goes on unhindered. A lady passing nearby heard this and burst into laughter. There are only two other airports of any size in the country, Niš and Kraljevo, and the distance between them can be covered in three hours by car. So we chatted out the length of one cigarette and I rode off.