The big tworthday (dvođendan sounds exactly right in serbian) - the twins are now three years old.
The character who now owns Prleski we met a few days ago in Lidl, he recognized me despite the mask (well he saw the hair, the beard isn't quite covered, and the twins are buzzing around us), while I did not him, so he swiped it for a bit and said "buy cakes from us". Ah, it's you. Well the one last time wasn't quite... dunno, too much glitter and whipped cream, not enough dough. (Didn't tell him that half was left uneaten, we just threw it away.) "Just say which way you like it" "It's not my say, the lady has some ideas of her own...".
Yesterday we drop by detelina to see if they have a smaller mold. Sure they have, even heart shaped, take that and don't think. And during the day she prepared the dough, something along the lines of the chocolate mud cake that then vietnamese guy, downstairs neighbor in A-burg, once brought. Just add a chocolate glaze around, piece of cake.
Of guests we had Lena, Milan and Stojan - who didn't visit here since about three years ago, and hasn's seen the twins since their first winter here, when we sat at Pitch. He didn't feel like coming until she convinced him that this is not the kind of birthday he imagined. Luckily she did, because he really liked it, and he was astonished with the twins. Said, "they look like an advertisement for having kids, can't do better than this". Lena replied "challenge accepted". Fingers crossed (actually, in serbian, it's "we're holding thumbs").
The girls now skilfully blow the candles, so we had to light them several times. My thumb got sore from that lighter from Lidl, the spring is quite hard to press to kick the piezo, which is a safety feature against children - much better than those little brakes that require an extra move.
Luna managed to pinch her helium baloon, for all the times she hit it with the magic wand that came with the dolls which Lena brought as a present.
Went to Springfield again on monday (they call it "rainbow house"). It was still a bit cold, and we thought they must be organizing a birthday party, for all the parking slots were occupied, so I had to drive around the block to find a place from the other side. If they had one, it was upstairs, nothing was heard. The layout is still somewhat jumbled, the cafe tables are now replaced with one for tennis, and the play machines with a pool table. The space for children's play is just two square meters less than before, almost unnoticeably smaller. The little chubby waiter already knows to bring two warm nesses (ness coffee, i.e. instant), though this time we also took a small pizza for the girls (they didn't eat much) and a kilo of meat patties to go, which vanished until morning. We thought Raja wouldn't eat them, as this was the classical recipe, with chopped onios kneaded in the meat, not the burger type, but he just pulled out a couple of bigger ones and ate one whole and a part of the second. Violet was no problem, she eats like blizzard these weeks.
Then I hopped solo to Lidl to take a couple of yoga mats, so now Nina, Sanda and Linda can do it together, in their room.
In the evening we took our time going to Borko, 39th frendz parti, I brought the last year's tutifruti (from 2nd cask, we didn't like the 1st), just wiped off the two digits on the bottle and updated the year, the bottles are now recycled. Even without any hurry, we arrived at 19:29, incredible. We rang, he wasn't opening. By the time we rang the third time, we already caught our breath, it's the fourth floor, nope, zilch, still doesn't open. Dragana climbs up, finally caught that on a shot.
We drank some of leftover apricot from who knows which year, a weaker thing, interesting smell but not quite pekmez, just thereabouts. Slides smoothly, warms the lungs but not as much, aftersmell is fruity but not quite apricot. Whatever it was, we helped it vanish, and it helped us feel good, then after dinner switched to roze. As a cook he easily surpasses me, I am clueless (except barbecue), and he surpassed himself that evening. Took shots with some hats - a small straw hat, and a camouflage military cap. Dispersed quite early, the photos look right, we didn't go crazy enough.
On wednesday (17th) went to Springfield with the girls again, with the car again because of a drizzle. "Deda, fik fi!" - turn on the windshield wipers, including the rear one. This time they did have a birthday scheduled for 16:00 so when the guests started arriving, we moved to the cage, i.e. the glass enclosure on the sidewalk, where the girls had a big dose of fries.
The next day drove Nina to the dentist again. Looks like she's playing sokoban with her jaw - push from here, now push from here. The jaw is now lined up properly, it's not centered right, so a millimeter to the other side, please. Had a long programmers' chat with Lena, shorter with Milan as he had to walk Api. It's not that he's avoiding us, it's that we didn't announce the time on time.
In the evening we tested the third cask of tutifruti, went for four shots, excellent. We got ourselves finely done, fell asleep like pigeon's sucklings, heads clear in the morning, all fit. It passes.
On friday the main news was that Đorđe Balašević threw the spoon (i.e. kicked the bucket). Pneumonie, with corona or not, doesn't matter. On burundi they managed to cunt on each other the very same day (and the fight is still not over by tuesday), ranging from those who found him a disgusting political spineless one and altogether the panonian shittor (as per his song "Panonian sailor") to those who agree that there are none of his fans on the forum but that many here had periods when his music meant something to them. Which is all so, not mutually exclusive. And to differ from that march 2015, when Vlada Divljan threw his spoon, when the forum's reaction drew a tear from my eye, this time it was so... mnyah, nothing. What he did for the last 20 years is of no interest to me, it's a bucket of shit poured over the previous 23 years, poured solidly like nobody else could.
The fortieth "frendz parti" (as the girls call it) was here, on 22nd. This time we diverged in drinks. After one or two tutifrutis, the two of them switched to wine, she to beer and I stayed on tutifruti, until 3:15. The girls woke up just when we sat, and stayed with us until at least 1:30. Raja and Violet hit the hay early, as they were the night shift, they got up anytime between 3 and 5 this morning. We heard a few of the same stories again - his how that chubby ophtalmologist from IV3 spent the night on Dojran lake (with some quite distant cousins of his), or how J.M. turned out to be a rather bad lawyer who at some stage fucked up her process (while costing some 5000€ altogether), and then I remembered his sister, M.M. - she said she's still in Norway. Um, yes, with face like that she can pass for native. Dragana said I always with some blondes (no the verb isn't missing, but imagine an "are" in there). If you only knew, what a statistical anomaly I am on the matter.
The previous charge in the battery in eos70 endured for 1073 shots. There.
In the morning we got up quite early - me around 7:30, she even before that - and felt fresh. No hangover, no headache. Did the photos and put them on dropbox by 10:45, emailed the link, everything as it goes. Took a half hour nap after lunch (had warmed up yesterday's, of course, still excellent). Right said she, these evenings are good for enriching the menu, one experiments, ideas are crossbred.
Real springtime, +14. Sunny.