06-X-2020.
On 29th Nina had another tour of the dentist on Novi Beograd. Lena came with Api to meet us, then took him back. Milan was busy with something so we didn't see him this time.
Lena is now officially an assistant at the college that she's about to graduate soon - passed two exams recently, and the rest of it is more or less a formality - she can use her previous work to show. We went to Pitch as usual, the waiter already knows us from several times, including last year when there were four more of us. The van served perfectly, except that one moment when it started blinking some lights when we were halfway through the city on our way in. Ah, the cooler thermostat is suboptimal, turn it on via manual switch. Didn't forget to turn it off when we parked. The remote for the locks is acting up, will have to see what's wrong. Also, the guy at inspection said it's leaking steering fluid, slowly, missing about 2dl so far.
The prospective job with the guys from the previous job sounded attractive, would pay almost the same (or could it be that the Germans are underpaying her?), but she asked around, called people who know the guys and who'd probably be also invited. And they said they got no guarantee that it wouldn't end like the last time - the positions being awarded on best pals basis, not on ability or merit or knowledge. And it's the fucking HR, one of the slimier branches of human endeavour, with even the cynical name out in the open. So, no go.
And it was about the last day of the first miholjsko leto (indian summer). The next day it rained, and then the whole week was mostly rain, interspersed with a day or two of just cloudy, or even some sunshine at times.
The backyard where we go out to smoke.
On 1st we took the girls to Springfield first. The usual - we had a coffee each, they swam in the ball pit, climbed the monkey rack, baba had to climb with them all the way up. There was a kind of accident, some other girl peed while up there, and peed a lot, so it was slippery in places, and the girls' socks got wet. They settled down for two bags of snacks off the rack in the corner. While I was looking for a waiter (the guy who brought coffee finished his shift, came to charge us), so it was probably around 15:00 (yup, 15:20), not knowing to whom to pay the snacks, Vesna came - she's the evening shift. Then we took them to Lidl, to buy whatever we had to (which wasn't much, but was kind of urgent or else we wouldn't go for just that). We had sarma on friday, saturday and then monday - because after this we went to the little shop where they sell produce by the crate (the girls were with us), and bought a crate of apples and one of mandarines, and then noticed they have sour cabbage heads, vacuumed, from Futog - which is the cabbage capital around here. So it's about time to get our guts into winter regime, starting with sarma. A podvarak (rice, chopped sour cabbage, bacon, smoked meat, in oven) came next. And the cabbage was just right, not like last winter when once Nina said "oh no, Violet shat in her bed again" - "um, no, I'm cooking sarma".
Almost ready to have some fish... soon.
The aquarium is getting in shape. There's some talk about, perhaps, different water, as the distilled one from the clothesdryer is pure, but then it's too pure, lacking minerals. The tap water is... we don't know, the water factory is turned on again (sixth time or so) and the water isn't so yellowish anymore, but then we don't know what kind of chemistry they apply and... while we can survive for years by using it just for coffee and cooking (and drinking it very rarely), Nina isn't so sure about the fish. Still researching, i.e. googling the local forums as to what water would work the best. BTW, the ceramic pots on the bottom are the wedding present we got from Inge (not at the wedding, she wasn't there, but at first visit), and while I love the design, they are just too small to eat soup from, and don't stack well, so they are now relegated from the status of shelf decoration to underwater decoration.
On 2nd it was another lovely day, still not much mud around, the soil is thirsty after a six week draught, so we got the girls on bikes and went to the little park at Lesnina, after visiting the butcher at ruža. Sanda, of course, recognized the place and led her straight to the chinese shop to buy something - a pair of shades (again) this time. Two pairs, then, one for Linda. Afterwards, we two went to Čankovo, probably last time this season, to load the last of the pumpkins (and sure, the few small ones still on the vine were gone - later we heard from a neighbor here that he saw exactly the kind on the market, sold by some Gypsy).
(... 15 words...) The rosemary behind it was recently trimmed (by Nina) and I've flattened the soil on the other side of the path. The first serves so we can finally open the garage door all the way - it grew at least half a meter over the path. The other is mostly for drainage, as the soil was taller than the path and eventually some rainwater would get into the garage (despite the insulation layer under the door threshhold)(double aitch, you illiterate morons!).
Mine managed to stay awake. This is about 1,5 km from home.
On 4th we took the girls downtown on bicycles, while the weather holds. Walked them a lot, to the point where we more carried them than they used their feet. On the way home they were mostly okay, except Linda fell asleep again. Last year Sanda was my passenger; this year it's mostly Linda, except in last few months when it's her on the way there, then they switch for the return trip.
The little remote for eos70 was acting up, so I replaced the battery. It didn't have much of a range a month ago, couldn't get it to work at more than two meters. I took it to the terrace and made a few shots.
On 6th it was Borko's turn to be the host for 29th frendz parti. It was barbecue, greek salad and baklava again; I brought another 1,5 l of plum brandy this time, and she got into Lidl to buy a liter of wine. It went more or less the usual, except I didn't make any jokes of the kind involving anything that Dragana would find in bad taste (turns out I got immune to those when I was learning to eat everything - so nothing is disgusting nor capable of spoiling my appetite, so I lost the feeling of what kind to not mention). At certain moment I tried to make another round of shots with the remote and discovered that I can't find it. I had the new shirt from Lidl, linnen allegedly (part cotton, so not quite) and, fuck, it has no pockets. The other one does. I don't use that pocket for much, just the lighter and sometimes the phone. This time I stuffed everything into my jeans (even though I took the jacket, but as an afterthought) - phone, lighter, two tozna with cigarettes, and the remote, car key, my faithful screwdriver/10mm wrench, cards (debit, drivers', ID), a thumb drive with stuff prepared to take upstairs and copy into cimet and some change were already there. When we started walking, I pulled out the lighter and cigarettes, after a lot of rummaging, and that's probably when it fell out. Too bad.
The point of the evening was his vision of what's the purpose of education - to teach kids how to think. Which took a long time to explain, because he basically repeated the speech he must have held dozens of times in the class, with all the repetitive rephrasing, expanding, recapping, saying the same thing again in different order, bla bla bla. It was so gratifying to hear it - fuck it, I could have ended being, worse: speaking like that, had I stayed in education any longer. I got out in time, smart move. And I just loved it when I could deliver a counterpoint into the discussion (mostly between him and her, as Dragana was half asleep) in some extremely terse punchline, deflating his hundred words with just four. Interesting, altogether.
As usual, he escorted us to the corner of 25. maj facing Lesnina. We then walked with Dragana, I called a cab, all as usual. It was just after 02:00.
Mentions: 25. maj, Api, cimet, Čankovo, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), eos70, frendz parti, Inge tanti, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Lesnina, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Pitch kettle, ruža, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sarma, Springfield, tozna, Vesna, Violet, in serbian