13-II-2022.
Yesterday, went to Prleski to have a word with the guy about the cake, because I didn't have any impression that he understood what I said. It turned out that in his parlance a šnit means half a cake (for us it means a slice), a whole plek of it cut lengthwise so it fits the display vitrine, its width then being a width of a slice and doesn't take as much shelf space. I need that just cut sideways. On tenth, when I called, he said he's at home, under covid, but he'll tell the girls. Well, as we understood each other so he would retell it to them, so I better explain in person. Which I could have done by bike, but then I also had to buy balloons, and wouldn't trust myself not to lose them on the way. However, in the bookshop (anything but the books) by the former brewery, where I usually buy them, the girl said she's all out of helium, there's another such shop near Kapetanija (i.e. former port authority) where they have it. Not sure about parking there, though, there's space curbside but who knows how crowded it may be, it's a saturday morning, lovely weather... well why not, I can walk. Checked a few other shops, and went past Kapetanija, zilch. Then went inside the yard of former Tekstil, there's some kind of shopping centre, mostly clothing, stalls just like at the market, and there I got instructions. The shop is a hole-in-the-wall, the floor being rather high - at eye level - and I couldn't even see their logo, it being too high. But found it, got them, had a nice walk - 2,5km altogether. Didn't bring cigarettes, and by the time I started thinking of buying, I gave up, had three minutes walk left to the car. Last time we bought one, it was the former Bond, now renamed LM, but I didn't know they had two kinds (and why Dragana smokes the short ones) so I accepted the long ones - and they are slim and they burn in 2-3 minutes, before you even noticed you were smoking. What we make lasts 10 minutes. I know, the screen savior is set so, and almost every time it activates the moment I return from the terrace.
In the evening we finally tried the quince [brandy]. Reckoned 100 days sit should be enough. We created a monster - the fragrance is so clean and penetrating. After the first sip it takes a whole minute to get your impressions in order. After three shots we went to sleep. In the morning I was still drunk in my dreams.
Tworthday... went to Prleski around 11 and picked up the cake. He still used the glitter to fill one star (not the other, though)... well, sometimes it's hard to explain minimalism in so many words. I said drawing, nothing about coloring.
Cleaned up the barbecue to the bottom - wirebrush on a drill for the top grille - including all the ash on and below the lower lid - and amazingly didn't get any of that in my eyes, despite the wind.
Lena and Milan actually came before I was quite finished, good timing. And the soup was still hot when I sat to eat. She made projice (shallow, muffin sized corn bread with young cheese), mushroom sauce, fresh cabbage salad. We served that quince too, but she and Lena took only half a shot, Nina and I whole, Milan abstained. They say they don't really drink, lost the habit completely... well, so did we at their age, and we rarely drank all the way to... 2008, when we started with one shot a week, and even that was sometimes, sometimes not. Only when dad died we released the brake.
The girls were their charming selves, as usual, tough Sanda wanted to eat her star first, even though it's in the middle, and she already cut Linda's cake into slices, leaving hers for later. They made less of a mess than before (except Sanda somehow managed to lay her elbow in the cocolate filling, twice).
Not much in terms of news, because they probably exchanged them while I was still out, satisfied with how the barbecue temperature holds (the thermometer shows only Fahrenheit, the Celsius being in the inner circle, which is obscured by condensation, but I memorized the positions by now).
Ah, one piece of news: out of Lena's five Rebeccas, the one that was here on 26-VII-2019. has decided to... didn't quite get it, undergo hormone therapy to be more masculine, or just remove her tits and go flat, as she considers them a hindrance.
In the evening, Borko called - Dragana is calling the monday off, someone's birthday; he then can't do tuesday, as his daughters arranged something for the constitutionality day (this is the very first time that I've heard anyone even noticing this holiday privately)... and ah, that's why there were little flags everywhere this morning. We agreed on not doing it later in the week, but postponing for the next monday altogether.
Monday. She continues her works on the garden. Pulled out some planks which we bought who knows when, to make a frame for the rows in the backyard. Now that the walnut is gone, we'll have enough sunshine. Prepares the saplings, she hung the bags with seeds on wet tissue paper on the bedroom window, just like Go did a few years ago.
Finished the Prače* reading season, in translation only. There are some newer titles that I haven't read yet, not translated though, leaving that for some later time. Now I'm starting a combination of Dostojevski and Lynch. I've found Dostojevski in translation but... everyone has the same five titles, nobody has the rest, and it's ben ocred mostly badly. Well, at least the Russians always have good sets of their classics, and sure enough, found the complete set within an hour. On sunday evening I watched „Fire walk with me“ again, just to warm up, and this evening I meant to watch the end of the 2nd season of Twin Peaks, 18th episode to the end, but the SSD drive is just half dead. Now it works now it doesn't, now... Gave up and remembered to look into the hardware manual for cimet and sure enough, accepts an SD card. Well I got two of those that I don't use - one in that video camera, and the other one in the old car radio. Took the other one, copied those episodes and moved some of the music off it to cimet. It's only 8G but that's more than enough for the purpose.
Tuesday (15th) the weather was just nice, so the girls could play in the yard. On friday we took out the table miter saw and cut the planks to size. It will be colorful, she painted them with concrete color, ran out of green, mixed up with some yellow, finished it with plain yellow. They mixed the molehill soil, some perlite and peat moss that we bought, some off the street, some guano of our own make. Among all the ways to put the planks together, I picked metal corners - got on my bike, went to that new Čelik plus across from once bager, found some corner pieces, screwed them in (finally have a proper reversing screwdriver).
The postman brought a bunch of seeds that she ordered from some communal site, and the first round was from someone from Hajdukovo. The amount was, as per emailed invoice, supposed to be over 3000, but the postman charged only 500. The postage was 350, so the sender gets just 150. Rubbish. Tried on monday to call them, I emailed them, nothing. Okay if you won't take the money, we had the good will to send it.
On 19th we finished that, and saw an upcoming shitstorm, the clouds were striped just so. After few nice and sunny days, when we see a striped sky, we know something rough is coming. This time it even thundered,. But on sunday there wasn't much rain, it was neither here nor there. Not on monday, 21st, until afternoon.
At the time we took off to Borko's for the 68th frendz parti, it rained copiously, not really a downpour but not easing up either. She had the umbrella, I had my hat, and I mostly had to press it with the umbrella so it wouldn't fly off... and still got there ahead of time, even though we had to call for a ferry to cross the parking lot exit, specially the last one. Dragana was somewhat tired but in good mood. Barbecue, tutifruti, and more tales of the US and legal tangles. Of course, it got interesting only after 1:30, but didn't feel like opening another bottle of wine (we stayed on brandy, easier on the belly), so we stayed for half an hour more, while already one foot set to leave. Don't know when we got home, there's no message from 566 in my phone, one was waiting there. Maybe the guy was counting on us coming, said this is the third time.
Watched the first episodes of 2017 Twin Peaks second time, this time somewhat equipped with ahead knowledge, from the fandom wiki. Which is actually bullshit, it's a literal retell and copy of what you see onscreen, but at least you get all the character names, you can see where they also appear, and so fill what you can't hear too well. I'm not prone to turn up the sound for just that - I'm pushing the max out of the laptop, and the boxes themselves are set to only 3 or 4. Got as far as four episodes. Not as mysterious as the first time, but has more atmosphere now. And like with Tarkovski, the seemingly endless scenes now don't seem so long. Actually, those scenes when Lynch and Ferrer gaze at each other after each sentence for several seconds, don't look excessive now. A majstor.
On 23rd with the girls to Lidl and Roda, water, sour, ammo for pihtije and čvarci. Met Vesna on the parking, somewhat red-eyed but in good mood, just hi and hi. I already thought she vanished. The Springfield owner said she was working somewhere in the area. Now whether the guy we saw was her husband... well, about time.
The saplings grow fine so far, even the celery (from a stump poked into soil) and parsley (had just leaves and the stump of the root), and today we made a plast house up in the kursalon. Got some 90 strands of tomato in it. And we won't have to buy any material, we got everything already. Only some piece of reinforcement, to make an arch for the cucumbers, to make it a tunnel. For beans first, we'll see about cucumbers.
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* Pratchett, so should be Pračet, but in genitive and other slanted cases both Pračet and Prače have the same form.
Mentions: 26-VII-2019., bager, cimet, Čelik, čvarci, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), majstor, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), pihtije, plek, Prleski, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), Springfield, Vesna, in serbian