01-VII-2021.

On 27th we went to Čankovo and picked the cherries. The clump in the middle, which once made the bulk of the crop, is now shriveled to a quarter of the once, it's all tiny and shrunk. Industrial kind. To counter that, the row on the street, which we planted some in 2011 more in 2014 is now in full fruition. We finished in four hours, and then visited our regular brzožder (fastdevour, ie. fast food joint), and took a kilo of ćevapčići and a kilo of chicken kebab (which is chunks of chicken wrapped in thin bacon, how else could you have chicken kebab). In the afternoon, though we said we won't even try in the afternoon, we still tried to go to Peskara in Čurda, but we only managed to pass through the crowd, without even scratching anyone nor driving over any toes. What now, Sanda and Linda are gonna becunt if we don't go anywhere... so let's check out the swimming pool, it's along the way. Can't park there either, but this is my stomping ground, we don't have to park right there. Wanted to park by the old novogradnja there, but it's unwieldy, the curb is too tall, so I drove on and parked right across the entrance to the movie (which turned out to be a test, when telling it like a this, does anyone know at all that there was a movie once, hint: „the one next to kantina“). Walked the 250m through the park, no matter.

It was quite okay at the pool, they liked it. So we went again the next day, only this time she stayed at home and Nina went with me and the girls. Was good again, we sat under the same overripe cherry, the girls ate two packs of fries. We stayed until closing at 18:00, which sounds a tad early, but it was always like that on this pool, someone needs to practice some important sport, and the citizens should please vanish at the time. Nina even met a schoolmate, who said she was just taking her daughter to practice.

On 30th we gradually gathered for another swim - first I moved the stuff from the van into Joda, because Violet was still asleep. By the time I finished that, she woke up, so I moved all the stuff back into the van... and there's a bundle of that - floats, buckets, shovels, towels, straw mats), and we all went to Peskara. We entered from the other end and found a slot amazingly close, almost closer than at the pool. We all tanned well already, specially the kids. The phillipine genes it must be, they watch a postcard for five minutes and they're tanned.

Then in the evening Boba and Milena came. I did the barbecue in a bit of a rush, didn't put enough coal, so I finished the ćevapčići and the pljeska (similar to burgers but NOT the same), while the neck steaks and the sausage I did not, she finished them next day in a plek in the oven. Still, it was good.

Boba is in much better mood now, the first salary should lay soon, some 600€, which is almost twice more than he'd be getting, had he any luck insinuating himself into the prosecution. The company is jewish, been there done that, nothing wrong with it. What little he worked in the court, here and as an stažer in that commute last year was... completely different. Says „the judge enters, all rise, I want to take a break, I have to report to secretary that I left, then to report when I return... so here; over there, I insert my card into the puncher, everything's written down. Here I asked to whom should I report for a break, they say what do you mean report, just go when you need to“.

Since her job is also downtown, less than 300m between them, they manage to see each other for breaks. One can't know who has tanned better - she, tanning in the garden and only spraying herself with water, or we who visit the pool and Peskara and the garden. „Wow, you tanned even the armpits!“ „That's from cherrypicking, it's all above head“. He's the only one left with monitor tan.

We agreed to get all of us in the van for the wedding, unless Milena manages to fix hers, by some miracle. Her car is just about how saxo was this winter - if it was fully operational, it would be worth below 1000€; to fix it would take 500€ and then it's a matter of how long would it last afterwards. For now he's using his mom's car when really needed (as this evening), but that's without AC, so the difference is the same. We can't all fit into Joda, so van it will be.

Today, all day went on making cherry brandy. Got four liters. Nothing to brag about, but not bad enough either.

This on UA, to someone who was using some Amazon seller API (yes, Api) and now two fields in the process don't get populated, and these are related to the recipient of the goods sold (one is address) so the delivery is now impossible.

While I'm now almost two years out of the game, at least I'm happy that I understood almost everything you wrote. Yes, they all do it - publish a service that you arrives with recommendation of braver people who tried it while it was fresh, the API is actually simple and you can build your interface to it in less than a week, and even the documentation looks right - what it says is true to the reality in the field. Until the day it stops working because they changed something and told nobody. Because they probably became a training center (i.e. anyone hired there will be a senior within a year - more than half will be hired after him), the knowledge and good practices have left the building and the company you're signed with is not the company you signed with, it's some other people now. You couldn't know that in advance, and neither could they.

Now whether the fields in case were removed, renamed or whatever, and whether whoever did that was aware of what it'll do to the API and the customers who rely on the names staying welded, and how will that be resolved... you can only help their motivation by finding a phone number and being very loud, persistent and threatening.

That's my understanding of the problem..

On 5th I mostly sat and wrote Byo. Got as far as january 1995 with... well with both texts, I simply created the date records as per passport stamps, and am now combing the code I wrote then, day by day, trying to reconstruct what did we do then. In the afternoon she took the girls to Springfield, and I went to Roda to get knjaz - they didn't have that brand in Lidl yesterday, and nobody likes the PoS they sell. Joda was already quite dirty, there was a light rain which just picks dust from the air and sticks it to every surface. I remembered that Springfield also has a carwash, so why not... and it has a better system than that one on former bager, don't have to buy tokens (though there are slots for them), you just insert a banknote and it starts the timer. Which means the money is gone, spray it or not... which means you need to have a couple of hundreds, and let it bark while it lasts („dok traje, nek laje“) and when that expires, I can employ the brush... okay, I need to know, the van is due a thorough wash this week.

The girls had a pizza, played with the pool table a little. Some two girls were there for a while, couple of years older, blonde and with such a smile, resembling several local faces, that I kept wondering whether I knew their grandmother. And then I heard them speak some germanic language, which I didn't make.

Then we went to Borko, for the regular sitting and drinking... Dragana was down again - that idiot is suing her again, his charges are downright dumb and idiotic, all quite easy to refute or dismiss, but she said she knew the legal system here and anything is possible. On the other sound, the ultrasound found something on her liver, but then scanner didn't, so she doesn't know where she stands with that, so magnetic is next, but with a wait until september. And the screw in her leg, the one she once crushed, is on the move, her ankle is swelling. Though, she does have wide ankles, and the calves go straight up from there, no narrowing above the ankle, but this time it's visibly swollen.

We sat on the terrace, after having finished eating (three kinds of roast, all from a marinade, excellent), because his AC doesn't reach the dining room, and its remote was on strike so lowest setting was 25°. We met our cabbie at 2:05.

On evening of seventh we sat and sipped. She reminisced various things from her carreer, I recorded that on the phone, need that for Byo - I'm so far missing her side of the story for the whole eighties and nineties - and she remembered how her first boss, dr Nevenov, sent her to various technical approvals, where she appeared in team with the construction and few other inspectors, and it was customary that, once the approval was signed, they all go have a lunch at the company expense... to which she'd just thank and go home. So one construction guy criticized her later, saying she can't leave just like that in the middle of working hours (while he can sit and stuff himself and drink himself silly...). And, she said, his son specialized, surgery... or was it urology. Kurology?* - I jumped in. Well some specialist he was, eternal student. So how did he get to specialize? Well, with dad an inspector... and my dad was a baker and could have been the director of LebarProm but he didn't want to be... Well, I said, I could have been the director of DBA and didn't want to. There, you see, it runs in the family, this clutching to... failed cases :).

On eighth Nina and I dropped by Lena... that is, she went to the dentist first. In two weeks she's getting her railway off and getting a transparent restraint instead or whatever. Lena says she won't be able to change both the name and surname at the same time, because one goes by personal request with extra paperwork, and the other is automatic, don't mix them two to me. Well, it's your habit of having disposable IDs...

She almost finished her wedding gown, needs just some straightening at the hem, tightening in a couple of places and to insert the lining. She made a working model of simpler material, sewed it tentatively, some even before they went to Istra (they came back on sunday, but we didn't know until yesterday, at which she grumbled a bit for not hearing from them in a while), then unsewed it and repeated it for real, with the right cloth. Demo was successful, let's move that to production. When a programmer makes her own wedding gown.

She is, of course, sewing something for herself, recycled. Some gown of, wait for it, american manufacture, bought who knows when and for what wee sum in a sekendica, now gets a crocheted bust, and will be shortened to just below knees... the miracles.

On ninth I finally washed the van, even ran the rag around each doorframe, where the compressor doesn't see - and then ran it to the carwash. Then got urgently into Joda because I got an SMS on nokla - it's not what I thought, that I got enough money in the phone but the current plan was expiring (which did happen a couple of times in the beginning, to forget to renew and thus forfeit the unused money, but their software finally got it and put me on automatic renewal; now I only need to make sure there's always money on it). But no, this was from the bank - the retirement just landed. But, neverheless, thanks for getting my attention to it, so I went and paid for the phone. I got 789 minutes now. Wrong, that was after I paid. The automatic extension kickedn in later in the afternoon, 889 minutes.

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* anything beginning with kur- is a straight hint to kurac, i.e. dick. Very apt in this case.

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Mentions: Api, bager, Byo (Byo), Čankovo, Čurda, ćevapčići, DBA, Dobrivoj Gunaroši (Boba), Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, Kantina, LebarProm, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milena Požarić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nokla, novogradnja, plek, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), saxo, sekendica, Springfield, staž, training center, UbiquAgora (UA), Violet, in serbian