14-V-2021.
13th, Nina and I went to Lena and brought her the first 10K€ for the downpayment for the apartment. Nina had a wisdom tooth extracted. Picasso is eating the road like crazy, 68 minutes from key in to key out on the way back, the new world record of our street. Didn't drive it at night yet, so I still don't know whether it has those behind-the-corner headlights, and out fifty-some gadgets described as "your vehicle may be equipped with" it has about half.
14th, Lena and Milan came for the remaining 50K€ (some of it in RSD) to wiggle out the downpayment. Said it will be written as 9900€ downpayment and the rest not written at all, so they fall below radar regarding checks on financing terrorism. IOW, for any money now they need to have proof of origin, if it amounts to some amount. Whoever held their savings long enough, has a problem out of nowhere now.
They'll try to schedule the wedding for 8th of july.
Then on 15th they said they got the pre-contract signed, that it's practically all settled, just to complete the dealings with the bank, see where to take the loan, how big a loan etc. This will take a few months, just long enough for them to earn another dozen percent of the value.
On 17th, the usual frendz parti (47th), nothing too serious, until 1:30. Sanda and Linda were the main stars, to the last minute. Borko tried again (after I nudged him) to make us enter into investing into some guy so he keeps on growing grapes, "here I'll shove 100€ into it and I'll get 50 liters of wine of choice". Dragana peed herself live* when I said that "I totally agree and support the idea that you shove 100€ into it and get 50 liters of wine".
On 18th I notice that it's been nine days and the municipality Vračar didn't send me anything, while the guy did say we'll do all that via mail. Now it's a no go, they don't send anything... well at least the guy dictated me all the data for the virman. But said I'll have to come, tomorrow or day after, to pick the confirmation paper. Well I can't come, that's why we're doing it like this in the first place... may daughter come? She may. Okay... let's get this done.
I went to the pay kiosk, which doubles as an exchange office, held by uncle** and aunt of Milena (whom we saw perhaps twice in the last year), and pay that. Then I see that she typed my name with -vic in the end, as if I was, forbid, a polish Jew, and opština Vračar turned out to be opstina Vracar. Well well, so the haircut latin script is good enough for me? Okay, note taken.
Same day she went to schedule the wedding. It will be on tenth of july, a saturday. She officially invited all of our squad meeting (aka family chat). Ten minutes later Boba called, said he's got a job, not as a pravnik*** but as a tester. Work some from home, some in the offices, which are in the Dedeor building (DDOR, the insurance, between church and komitet, smack downtown).
On 20th I caught Lena on skype and she went to that tax authority Vračar/Vratzar, Njegoševa 77 - ah, she said, "that's from Njegoševom ulicom devojke idu" (girls are walking Njegoševa street), which I completed with "neka gledaju u sliku mog lika" („may they watch the image of my likeness"... wow, that song is now exactly forty years old, how did she remember that... Anyway, next day she went there and almost couldn't get it, but charmed the guy into surrendering the two sheets (the decision of how much to tax me, and the confirmation that I did pay). Well nice, in two easy steps we went from "we can do it all by mail" to "can't do nothing, must come to us in person". There's no state defined, there's just the clerk, that's all that exists, and it all depends on who he is, which one you get, in what mood is he that day. Now I'm waiting for that paper to arrive so I can take it to get registered to my name, with local tags.
First real spring day on 21st, no rain, sitting outside. Darkec had kittens, two blacks two grays one pied. And had them on the hill, outside, then took them in into the box with walnuts. They don't seem to mind hard surface. Or it seems they don't mind.
Violet's birthday on 22nd. Last year we had a big party with a dozen kids from the street, this time just a little candle blowing, and that before lunch (it's a first!), the kids were impatient. Linda and Sanda sang appy brzday quite nicely.
Went to Čankovo again the next day. The grass is meter high again. Mowed as far as we managed. The new neighbor on our right has a hull for the foundation - tore down the old house - and an electric pole and a camera on it. Our still shed was broken into - or perhaps opened with a key which was easy to find in the house, obvious place in the kitchen, above the fridge. Judging by the bottles left, they drank the two liters of žilavka (leftover from the 21-IX-2019. party), some unlabeled wine - someone's homemade contribution - and a carton of laško svetlo beer, same day, expired in april 2020. For a good pig there's no bad swill. There's also a bottle of some industrial plum [brandy], unknown label, don't remember seeing that. Nobody brings us brandy, they all know ours is better.
On the way back, some three guys on bicycles ride in parallel, taking half the road. I honk them from afar, just to announce myself; by the custom, they should line up, but these guys don't fuck 5%****. I lay it on the horn and keep at it while approaching and just watch how long do they intend to keep at it. Well, when I was at about 10m. This is a first such case in these eleven years, so I described the case on burundi and got a two day dispute on whether I was the uncultivated peasant and cattle, or it was them. Even the law says they should ride within 1m of the right edge of pavement, but Bela Maca, my main opponent, somehow found that even having law on my side makes me guiltier (!). Two or three folks were neutral (i.e. equally against her and me), most of the rest were on my side. There's entertainment over nothing.
On 24th I messed with Byo a lot - added the MRU list and the two combos (for type and country) into the python/Dabo version, though the MRU combo sort of works... but doesn't trigger any events, so I can't get it to do anything from either doubleclick, valuechange... nothing. Had to add a button which will act on its behalf. Started translating articles on people/places/things (yes, the table is named ppt) which are mentioned in the parts translated so far (up to 1989, and anything newer than last december), came to klaanca. In the evening, the girls were somewhat nervous, didn't have their run around, still too full of energy, so she said we should go to rejnbou haus (rainbow house), i.e. Springfield. It was 20:15 when we started walking, and it's 1km to there. Made a bunch of good shots, true that, and the girls loved their first taste of night life. Amazed with the full moon rambling behind clouds.
On 25th dental job again, the new lady dentist, as the guy who did me last year has quit in december and she jumped in. As much as he was serious and official, she's all kicks and fun, good company. I even managed to contribute to the atmosphere by, at some point, pulling out my old nokla and making a selfie. No anaesthetic, the nerve was successfully killed last time, didn't hurt at all, and she said it may just be the smell of jod (iodine) that may be unpleasant. Well I said what's wrong with jod, I don't mind. Sure, she said jod is cleanliness, it's good. Yeah, except I remembered the yellow variant, which was used for wound disinfection once. This is some dental compound, I felt the smell in my mouth for quite a while (two days at least).
During lunch, not quite in the middle of the soup but rather between soup and meat, the paperwork that Lena sent finally arrived. I can register the car.
Afer lunch, to Čankovo again. News - a glass on gonk was broken in. It's just one of the dozens of small frames, but enough for a child to squeeze through. And we found traces - broken twigs etc - on their old path, where we rebuilt the wall last summer. Ooookay, then. I did drop by detelina on my way home from the dentist, got food for hens and cats, and also bought a tube of rat glue. So she went there and smeared the branches where the obvious handholds would be, plus the upper edge of the wall, on our side. Next step is to turn that place into an iron junkyard - which was by the still's wall so far - and to bring the old chainlink fence, what with barbed wire on top - from the other end of the yard. And other obstacles.
We tried to make the hand pump for water work again, it's just a gasket replacement, which took five minutes last time, but either the new gasket was too thick, or there's too much rust on the inside now, just couldn't fit it in. And the hidrofor's pump won't pull until there's water in the vertical pipe, which was always filled by the hand pump. So we still carry bottled water to make coffee, and use the barrel with rainwater to wash our hands, though that barrel is a whole ecosystem by now.
Met the new neighbor. Not the Montenegrin from Borča who said he'll get here when he retires, but some guy from here, well, guy, his kids were playing with the thief's daughters, and he knew the guy by reputation, and the next guy in line, house on the corner, used to be a chief of something in the police, is a cousin of his. "And I told him if he's ever found in the field of this camera, I will not call my cousin, I will not call any cops, I'll come have a word with him personally, alone". And he seems capable of carrying the thief guy under his arm.
It used to happen to me, even before, that I just decide not to try to pass some slowbeat, because he'll turn soon and clear the road... and he does so at the next sideroad. Dunno where does the feeling come from, the guy is not slowing down, he's driving so for a while already. When that happens, I just do the Obi Wan horizontal swipe... I explained to her that it's the jedi trick, here the last three trips there was a tractor twice, and on that first curve it kept straight on, to the old road (before the curve was smoothed), to its garage. This time there was a driver's school vehicle, which went into the curve... and then entered that old road from the other side, making almost a u-turn. She said "that's like Joda" (Yoda). "That's because I've got so much joda (iodine) in my mouth".
And in the evening when we sat to drink, I felt it again. I was decanting the 2016 plum from a 25l cask into the old handblown cask of about 20l, and it got full, and I used 2l of it to make a new batch of Rtanj tea (summer savory) tincture (which I use for sex's sake, which worked fine until a few weeks ago, and still works somewhat), and I filled one of them 1,5l sangria bottles, which I carry to our monday sittings (and this one was already marked as plum, with that silver marker, just wrong year - 19 instead of 16) - and still there's some left in the cask. We'll need them casks soon.
Around the third shot the taste of jod abated a bit. At least five jokes on jod/Joda (iodine/Yoda) we made (Yodaspeaks these days natural comes).
And finally, on 26th in the morning I got to my car registration/inspection shop, they fill my paperwork, I walk 50m further to the cops HQ, wait about an hour (not much of a crowd, but the girl had a break and the other two were busy with something else) and finally got the new tags... the next one in line was ending in -JC, which I didn't like, so I asked for one of the next. No can do, she said, they must go sequential. I said I didn't mean one from next month, just skip this one and give me a different one from the stack. I meant JG (short for jebiga, i.e. fuck it, but then it could be jedi govna - eat shit) but she offered the next one, JD... well okay, JD is fine. And the digits in the middle are the same as I had on the saxo, only the zero is now on the right, was on left. When I got home with new tags, she asked "JD, that's for Joda?". "You just named it. Joda it called will be".
And, BTW, while I was waiting outside the cops HQ, autolala came by. Always the same good moods, asks about the girls, does she still do acupuncture. I see him once a year, and he never changes, no tears no patches.
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* "live pee" is the slang for "laugh ass off". Milan says it's generational, he never heard anyone below 50 use the expression. Well Lena does.
** "stric" is the uncle which is father's brother (as in this case), "ujak" is mother's brother; "teča" is a parent's sister's husband. We cultivate the distrinction in the language.
*** "pravo" - the right, i.e. the legality, so one graduates law school (pravni fakultet) and becomes pravnik... I asked burundi for translation, and will add it here if it comes... and it did, said "asshole".
**** IOW, don't give a 5% fuck - why 5% I never understood. I know there was an implied (and spoken, once upon a time) "not even a 5%".
Mentions: 21-IX-2019., autoLala, burundi, Byo (Byo), Čankovo, detelina, Dobrivoj Gunaroši (Boba), Dragana Vitas (Dragana), gonk, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, klaanca, komitet, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milan Nastić, Milena Požarić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nokla, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), Springfield, Violet, virman, in serbian