10-VII-2010.
Lena and I went with my dad to the cemetery, to my grandmother's grave. He had to pay the masons who were fixing the coverboard, as it had cracked at the corners - the grave is near the wall, one of the last places to be used, and where they dug to get more soil when needed, then filled it with soil brought from elsewhere, and now it slowly settles, and the concrete cracks. And it's not really a stone board, it's a medium fine gravel put together with cement and lime, which can't withstand much stress.
Dad took a cab home (cabs being really cheap - a ride of a mile or so at only 1,50$ and the distances aren't much, the other end of town is at four miles), and we walked. Bought some toothbrushes, at probably the same place as five years ago, and a couple of shavers for me. Spotted a chemtrail on an otherwise pristine blue sky. Fuck their "open sky" agreement, this is a colony of EU and NATO.
In my old street they're building a new house, with underground garage, shops at the street front, apartments above. I took this shot, and another where it says "no access to unemployed" - the old error, shouldn't say "nezaposleni" (not employed) but "besposleni" (employmentless, i.e. those who got nothing to do, i.e. vagrants, loiterers, do-nothings) on a post on the fence. Someone noticed me, so a few days later there was another sign, with a camera crossed over. Nowadays anyone can take a decent photo with a phone, while pretending to read it, and nobody would know nor care, but anyone with a real camera is a spy. The spirit of Ilija Čvorović is alive and well.
Met Živa halfway home, waiting for a bus. Recognized each other without a hitch. He's retired now, doesn't have a car and says he doesn't need one, cabs are cheap and he's got a retiree bus pass, few € a year. That's my plan too, I said, I don't want to have a car. I'll buy a bike, though. He was curious about that digital photography, and was kind of shocked when I mentioned that I made about 20 thousand shots so far (and I was wrong - it's closer to 40 thousand).
Now there's a mixup in my head - was it that we visited a perfumery with exchange office, where on one end of the room we bought toothbrushes and paste and sold dollars on the other, or was it in 2005? I remember peeking into a monitor - a flatscreen, relatively large for the time, so perhaps not 2005 then - and noticing that they ran the shop in fox for DOS, the default colors from its old screen generator left as they were - bright white on dark purple background. So it wasn't anyone from my old shops, they'd have known better.
But then in the entry for Vera there's also a visit to her exchange office in the same part of my old street. Which was when? Maybe that was in 2005.
Of course, Zina came by. She had a skateboarding accident and broke a bone below elbow, had to wear the screws and whatnot for a few months, should be back for removal of the metal these days. She's grown nicely, should be around nine now. On the table, there are all the medical supplies we brought - vitamins, big packages of ibuprofen, ginseng etc.
Then they two went to oma to sleep. All due respect aside, she wouldn't sleep another night under the same roof with my mom. Frankly, I didn't like what she became, grumpy, ominous sounding, blackmail-by-illness etc. Most of the time since 1983. I was just indulging her, staying in conversation, keeping company, entertaining to an extent, but not discussing anything serious. Likewise, not taking seriously anything she said.
Mentions: fox, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Mića Brašin (Živa), oma, Vera Basta, Zina, in serbian