On 15th we went to Peskara. Found some fastmunch* where they had some sort of taco, though Nina said it is more like... not enchilada but something of the kind, forgot the word. No matter, it was swept. And two icecreams, and two tornado chips (potato on a stick, helical cut, deep fried, 100 din, house specialty). Raja had a nosebleed while we were still en route, so we gave him whatever we had to keep his nose shut, including a pack of paper handkerchiefs that came with the van and were still in my door pocket. Then we used his t-shirt, then she got hers off and gave him.
When we arrived, there was lots of parking space, as it was slightly overcast. Tan is not a problem, we're all tanned, and the kids have those philipino genes, only Nina comes across as a bit pale in comparison.
Saw our old saxo parked nearby when we were leaving. It has the P (capital cyrillic) sticker, a beginner's mark, in the rear window. So the boy passed the exam and went straight for the beach.
On friday (16th) Lena came to take a new single-use ID - as she can't change both name and surname at the same time, one is by personal request and the other automatic at marriage, can't mix. She just wants to be officially called the way everyone calls her. True, we practically never used her official name, it was nickname from day one.
Some drizzle was on. While she was waiting at the police, I went shopping - to detelina for menagerie forage, to our old fastmunch to get a kilo of ćevapčići and kilo of chickenbab (well, not quite, it has to have cheese inside and a thin bacon wrap around, as chicken breast is quite dry) and half a kilo of sausage. Then I found out that she's still waiting, so I went to keep her company. I paid the parking three times (a SMS to 8232, 30 dinars an hour, or is it 40 now) illegally - they shouldn't be charging for it, because it's not a real parking, it's a lawn destroyed by wheels and then the resulting puddles filled with slag or crushed brick, the citizens already complained and a lawsuit is in the works. There are two strong and valid reasons why they do charge: they can do whatever they want and they love the money. Which is exactly the reason why I avoid the place and, when I do come, I take the bike, it's nearby. This time, however, because of the rain. She was finished by 14:30 because, she said, they added a complication to the procedure, the usual virman won't work, you need one they pre-print so it's two visits, or pay it online (which she did from her phone, while waiting). The other reason for the wait was the incredibly slow software. She could see in the clerk's glasses how long everything takes. Literally whole seconds between pressing enter and anything happening onscreen, and it seems she had to wait for such events a dozen times, for each customer.
On 17th we went with the girls to the butcher's shop near ruža but it's closed in the afternoon, it's a saturday. We settled for the little park at Lesnina and of course had to visit the chinese junk shop, in the space the furniture salon once occupied. This time it was some bouncy balls of soft plastic, which peep when squeezed and flash internal LEDs when smashed against the ground, and fans. Chinese junk, indeed - Sanda's ball didn't flash, and Linda's fan lost one leg, all within the 50m from the shop to where I waited. Well at least they got properly tired and suddenly we were packing to go home. When we arrived I found that we forgot the tozna on the bench. Well, no matter - got on the bike, rode back there, found it where we left it and Linda's fan too. Had a smoke on the spot, came home. Had good wind in the back and the rain seems to be over.
The next day we took the girls to Čankovo. It was very muggy - sun hit after copious rain - so we didn't do anything, just she picked the blackberries, from what she planted few years ago behind the fence to the former chicken yard. There's also a fig, perhaps a year older, which finally has some decent sized fruit, almost ripe (didn't eat it - it was gone next time we came, with a little help from our neighbors). From the one at home we at least ate this year, even Lena got some the day before (and knew what it was!), just didn't know how to eat it. The last fig at home I picked on 21st, and that's the spring crop; the fall crop has already grown walnut sized.
On the way back we realized we didn't stay long enough, so we stopped by Springfield. Had a coffee (cold nes, in winter we take it hot). It's getting crowded, not as empty as it was this winter. During one smoke break I witnessed a real summer shower, while the owner was cutting the weeds (wiki says it's duckweed), from the cracks in the pavement, with a spatula. Umm, my driveway could use some such work, though I got just ordinary grass there.
On nineteenth I took Joda and made a tour. First to the butcher (bacon, the shoulder, smoked, better than ham, and some of his sausage, too bad there's always leftovers for supper so these don't get enough attention. Some drizzle was still on. Wen't to old house and picked the bunch of bills accumulated, which then she put together and went to Milena's aunt, who has the exchange office - payment service behind the community centre, to pay them all. There's a new fastmunch in their previous kiosk, which they are renting now - "what's he stoking in there, there's no smell" - "charcoal, but had to install some special filter, being next to the fence of obdanište" - "yeah right, and the Chineses build that dingle dongle out there and they need not even a building permit, for whoever is big enough everything goes".
Meanwhile I took to taking inventory of brandy, to see where to pour the next tutifruti. We're finished with cherries and cherries (and the mix) and now we pause until the plums, pears and apples ripen. I found we have one empty cask where plum was, and some space in an apple cask so perhaps we could put the two apples together and release the smaller cask. Just when I thought we should stop bringing brandy for degustations to our sessions, now it turns out that we need to make room asap. I poured a liter and a half of the apple for the next sitting, and one more liter for upstairs, and luckily she tasted it a bit, from the cork, and that's not the quality we keep. The apple is just too old, from before 2017 when we started hitting proper quality. We poured the 1,5 back into the cask and then discovered that we haven't tasted the 2020.3 tutifruti, some crate was leant to it so it passed unnoticed. Okay, that's the selection. And the apple... well, we can split it into the plastic water bottles, 6l each, and then redistill it gradually.
I took the eos70, we can do one series per season, made a few good shots along the way, including a few Chineses on bikes. They are gradually conquering the city, so far they have bicycles, so Roda, Lidl and the chinese restaurant at Eva's, in former debelamačka space. They live in container dorms, somewhere behind the Carska Bara road, but there are some which are closer. The construction workers.
We arrived at Dragana's pretty much on time for the 51st frendz parti, though the girls delayed us, they wanted to go too, and she also dropped into a shop along the way, to buy some sweatshirts for Raja (and I waited outside, more photos) - and again Borko came behind our backs, and didn't reveal himself until she opened the door. The evening was the same as usual, same stories, we did ourselves moderately (three shots two beers for me), looked nicely on the photos ("and we didn't get much older since last time" was Dragana's comment later), we got our cabbie, everything regular.
On 20th Zina called, announcing self with her full name so she couldn't quite get who was calling, until she mentioned the street. There's a registered mail notice for me, the postman gave it to them, and she put it into our mailbox, so there, I should go see what was it.
So the next day I got on the bike and went to the little post office at Lesnina. Nice weather, cool breeze but strong sun, so any shade you can get is good. I had two cigarettes outside while waiting. Wasn't much of a queue, I was fourth when I arrived, it's just that the guy being served had a bunch of stuff to send. And what did I get - the notice from hungarian retirement fund that, in case when they can't find the file or whatever, if it's not my fault, bla bla... two more forms to fill and send. They need my TÁJ number and a few other things - nice, if anything I write now doesn't fit with what they have... Well who fucks your mother, how much is it that I may get - 40, 50, 500 dinars extra a month? In ten years it wouldn't heap up one month of my earnings. Well carry yourselves, I don't need you.
Went downtown with the girls on bikes in the afternoon. Finally made it into the city park, i.e. city hall's backyard. She said she used to be at home in the building, all those years when she worked there, and now it feels like she was never there. Well I likewise completely forgot the utility company in Njujork - when we registered Lena's house seven years ago, I went into that white house and even remembered the confusion with goldstar teevees, katastar (cadaster) and wordstar - while being 10m away from their door, and completely forgot not only that I visited them regularly for a while, forgot they existed.
Then we went to vodotoranj for an icecream, then met Pasa, who got completely confused about the order in which our grandchildren came, and from which daughter. Of course, while we chatted with her, the girls performed their swimming on concrete. Don't know what amazed her more, that they were doing it or that we aren't reacting. Why not, we had four days of rain, it's all as clean as it gets.
In the evening we tried that apple, just in case. Because the old programmers' adage says that if test fails, check the test first. You wrote the test when you were already tired and had enough, so chances are rather on the fuckup being in the test itself than the thing you tested. And it was good indeed. The first sip acts a bit strange, and probably even stranger from a stopper so the evaporation under the nose is different.
Well now if that apple is so good, then we may run out of casks this season. No problem to buy more, it's the space, where to put it.
On 22nd Nina had a dentist again, was supposed to remove the braces and take the mold of the jaw, but one lower tooth got moved too far out, so she'll have to wait until the tooth returns from the trip and the dentist from vacation. Lena came back with us, because she needs to do the passport too - which she'll be able to do now with this temp ID - and the passport will also be one-time, they want to make another trip to Istria. She'll also submit the name change request. I remembered that the little disk drawer stayed with her, and she miraculously found it in a minute. That wasn't touched since 2016. Here's my report to burundi:
Here's my blast from the plast**... got an SSD in the box that I don't quite need because it's just 120G and I already got another 2T one, so this one could be the portable, copying movies to fleška*** takes too long. The drawer, however, stayed with daughter, when the old Intel's 240G drive kicked the bucket. Well yesterday she dug it out and gave me. I plugged it into the current box just to see whether the machine would recognize it.
Not only recognizes, it just runs like mad. There's six bad sectors and that's all. It wasn't used since 2016 because I gave up on it, had hundred problems with it. I had set them windowzes then to boot from it, and it worked nicely for year and a half, until that disk started vanishing. Turns out the windowze turns it off so the motor wouldn't use power (!) and doesn't wear its bearings, and then they didn't quite agree on the wakeup signal. Aha, right, how did it work that year and a half then? Then found the bad sectors and concluded that Intel stiffed the Russians with šklj class of product. So I bought this SATA drawer and used it as portable for a while, and then the windowze stopped recognizing it altogether.
And look now, it works, exactly in the same shape when it was thrown away.
Just in case, I plugged it into nanovo, and it doesn't see it. zmajček sees it, cimet sees it. And it was formatted under windowzes. Fuck m$, truly.
On 23rd Lena passed the cops within hour and a half, has the temp ID now, submitted the request for temp passport, went downtown to matricular office to submit request for name change, all ship shape. We had paprikaš for lunch, per her request, took repeats twice. Took her to the station, and then we all went to Peskara. Amazingly, we didn't stay long - hour and a half in the water, then had something to eat. Two langoš for the girls, a burito for Raja but he didn't like it so I had to eat it. Not bad, didn't have one since... 2003? Then abruptly Linda wants to go home and everyone's for it. Of course, the AC in the van is empty already. I do ride with windows open (not far, not fast) but by the time we get home I could use a shower. Somewhere between debelamačka and Roda they are diggIng a pipeline, replacing the old heating tubes, though I don't know who the customers may be, perhaps the shops sitting on former bager; the groundfloor houses on the old side all have chimneys. Still, the road being narrower for a while, we decided to make a turn around the old industrial zone. In former Bek the Chineses are cleaning up the jungle, and seem to be willing to spruce up the HQ building. Well, well...
On 24th, afternoon, on burundi:
Almost 48 hours we have no hot water, as there's no gas. This week they installed gas into three houses in the lower end of the street, which weren't built when gas was installed for the rest, so ok do now. By wednesday the machinery was gone. Yesterday afternoon one backhoe returned. I call Heating, the girl there says that Gas is long ago now a separate entity... since two years ago. Then she gives me their phone number; I call it and get their techs number. A miracle! I neither have to go through their central from now on, nor do they have a call centre. The number is local.
So I call the gas tech and ask when do we get the gas, says there was a havarija [which mostly means a larger accident by natural causes - severe weather, fire]... will be done by 15:00. Around noon I pass by, I see three guys buzzing around. Aha, "havarija" is a newspeak for "we fucked something up", so they came to fix it. Just like electricians, they work one piece at a time, so no matter how severe the fault, it should be finished exactly at the end of working hours, so they get the full terrain work benefits for the day.
Went to Peskara in the afternoon, on the way back I saw freshly tamped soil at the dig, machine flattened, the backhoe probably pressed it, whatever. Got home, still no gas. This morning still no gas, and I could have bet that there's nobody at the phone, if I could find a fool to bet against, it's a saturday. The next bet is we don't get gas before monday 15:00.
Luckily we were clean, bathed on Peskara. Still, the gas came by saturday noon, just a couple of hours after that bet.
On 25th sGradlj.com finally had 750.000 visits. The frequency is steadily falling last few months, must be the Gugao has invented new tricks to filter out those who don't read their circulars, so you don't fix your site and your rating drops. Well who fucks their mother, why should I turn everything over every two years just because they play cat and mouse with disgustisers ("odvratajzeri" - burundian for advertisers). The content is what matters more.
In the afternoon only Linda, Sanda and we went to the pool, on bikes. Everything fine except they wanted icecream while I went for a pee, so she took them to the gate and I came by on my way back. Went to get the cash from my shorts, and when they chose what they wanted, I was already coming. Sanda saw me from afar and started running to me. Amazingly, she didn't stumble over any of those concrete plates, and there are many places where their edges are uneven, sometimes more than 5cm protruding above the surface of the neighboring one, the pool is notorious that way, nobody runs there or else toes get hurt. Nope, she fell just like that, on flat, can't do that speed in flipflops. And she was fine, just a tiny scratch, to which she paid no heed.
Only when we got back to our spot, and she sat and saw the scratch, then she started crying.
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* the current expression (from burundi) is "brzožder", a fastdevour or fastvore (analogously with biljožder, mesožder, ljudožder - herbivore, carnivore, canibal) - see house dictionary
** bilingual pun, I wrote "blast" in cyrillic, and plast is a stack, of hay.
*** stole this expression from some russian forum. A flash drive.