05-V-2022.
On 19th we were at Dragana's for the 76th frendz parti. It was mildly chilly, just enough to switch back to socks and light shoes. I thought I have a thorn in my heel again, like then in 1985, feels the same, but no, the night before I took a look during a bath. It's a crack in the hard skin, finally got one. Well fuckit now, go as it is until it heals. No problem except in the end, when I was putting the shoe on, seems the walk widened the crack a bit.
The sidewalk in front of Lesnina is almost done, they even put the trees. The cafe's cage at the 5th entrance is moved across, on the bit of road left over from the times before they built the community center over it. Of course, the cuntnik put a few tables on the lawn, a piece of public park. Dragana is pissed off, the tenants in the 5th and two adjacent entrances even more, they send complaints and petitions to various inspections, including žardinjerija, but no, the guy has a back, someone's protecting him, no effect.
Apart from that, all good fun this evening, we even all (!) switched to wine - which she does almost never - and it was all good. Borko had a bout of bulshitting, borderline unpleasant towards Dragana, but at least the skill of playing it as all pretense and act is honed long ago, so we smoothly slided over that, and he retreated quickly as well.
On 20th we took Sanda and Linda to Springfield, more than a month since last time. Been there quite long, even had a pizza (no ham and cheese, though, baba scrapes that and gives to me with the thick edges of dough). Lots of children, just like once upon a time. During a smoke break, some chick walks around the building twice, back and forth, and finally asks me where's the entrance. I explain and guess, to myself, that she looks exactly like staff... and sure enough, next break I see her sitting with the owner, him explaining the ropes for a whole hour.
She got not a new debit card, but an invitation to visit the bank „Postal savings“ (funny name, that), needs to show the old card and a valid ID. Fuck that, for twenty years the cards were arriving in mail (the PIN in a separate envelope, on a different day), on accounts where we had much more money than this, now one has to go to them. The trouble is in the validity of the ID, hers expired three years ago. She actually paid the fee to extend it, but the queue was too long, she had grandchildren to attend to, so now it's a matter of spite - I paid, why didn't I get it? What else do you want? And what am I now, a non-person?
The Zelena had kittens, four, took a shot of them on 21st; few days later Džimi did too, but she got confused, hers would mew for hours and she wouldn't come to them. One of hers survived, we put it with the other four so Zelena will nourish it.
Mowing is stalled, a really good rain on 22nd. It overflew the gutter, which is intentional, I don't clean it so that water stays in the yard, doesn't go to the sewers.
Went to Čankovo on 23rd. I tried to fix the water pump, it slipped somewhere when she tried to pump it last time, and it all seems in order, but I see that I put the gasket on the piston upside down. Tried to flip it but no, it's stuck on the rusty threading, I only tore off a piece of it. So okay, new gasket next time.
Mowed the near parts of the yard, with the mower.
On 26th made a tour. First to the furniture salon on the grounds of former bager, to buy a food dehidrator and a vacuuming bag sealer. In case of any trouble, let's have some stock independent from the freezer box, which is chock full anyway. We did have such a dehidrator, it's back in Nina's house over there. Now something smaller, but a Gorenje, I don't remember ever buying anything from them that wasn't good. The girls ran all over the big hall, tried the couches. Both clerk girls asked whether they were twins. We almost bought a smaller one, 350W, but then they discovered this 500W one on the bottom of the heap of fresh boxes from Gorenje.
Went to the old house to pick the bills. The grass is rather high already, needs mowing ASAP.
And a train crossed. We took the girls out to watch. There were none for three years, because there's only cargo traffic going Pančevo-PerlezNovi, and then the railway bridge between ruža and Čurda was replaced. Works again now, except there's no barrier at the crossing, just flashing yellow, which means pay attention. The train honks three times, very loudly, and goes at pedestrian speed, which must be a big merriment to the folks in those six apartments built on the triangle where once the house of Igračkini (a špicnamet, never knew their actual surname) used to live. These guys must be surcunted enormously.
Didn't linger there, but went to Neša the butcher, where she bought mostly bacon to vacuum, for us. I parked by the further end of Lesnina, given that they'd want to play in the little park there, but no, they wanted to eat pizza, which would be two blocks down the street, so I went back and moved the car to where promes was. I see there's finally something in that space, some eatery. The nice thing is that it's all in glass, not stickered over, we see them they see us. The ugly thing is that the whole menu is in english. So long, won't be seeing you, I'm not a damn foreign tourist.
And there, two more grannies asked whether they were twins.
On the evening of 25th, Borko called to report we won't have a friendz parti next day, as „the young lady has the runs, says some stomach flu, so fuckit“, we postpone. Though, my lady had some last week, Sanda has now, no fever or anything, just a bit of nausea and frequent visits to the toilet. Even I had a moment when I once coughed and kind of moved my stomach into something resembling the reflex to puke, but it passed in two seconds. Then next monday we counted on Borko not wanting to disturb the holiday, 1st of may is still a two-day state holiday, even though we're all retired and don't care about workdays, but then when he didn't call in the evening about tuesday, I called to check. He said he had some family arrangements, okay, next monday then. Called her to check as well, she said she's fine, the flu lasted only two days, it's the leg that's fucking her, sometimes she can't even lean on it, hurts like hel. She went to two specialists, one said there's nothing wrong with the leg, the other said that an amputation would save her. Now if she only found one normal...
We didn't do any uranak on mayday, went to Čankovo in the afternoon instead. I replaced the gasket (good that I remembered to go and buy one on saturday), and nothing. Check the lower valve, got two liters of water on my hands, so okay it holds. Lower... there was the winter drain hole, covered with duck tape. The tape is old, so I cleaned it all, replaced the tape, nope, still not pumping. In the end, on 4th, I called Vasa, said he'd come next tuesday. Okay, not urgent, let's do it so.
Drove a honorary round with the van, just to check whether I'd have to recharge the battery again. Starts, goes. It's quite lively, and I haven't forgotten any of the stick driving, even after a year on Joda, on which, well, the AC leaked out agan. Due a real fix this time.
On 2nd it was Anita's birthday, so I sent her my customary 100$ by paypal. Go reported the next day, says she was so happy that she's getting her 5$ a month now, so she can have cat's ears in roblox just like in rl.
In the afternoon I finally remembered to ask Nina about that GoPro-like camera that she brought, perhaps I could hook it on something that's not a helmet, so to record some city bike ride. Or by car. She found it, I tried it, starts, goes. Now to see how to attach it.
I had no camera when I went to the old house to mow, actually all photos on this page are from nokla. Luckily, the neighbor mowed behind the corner (so what, I mow for Aleksa), but still I had work above my knees. The tall grass can be done with this small mower, it just takes longer, more maneuvering and frequent emptying.
On 3rd she picked a bunch of oregano in front of the house, lined it up in the dehidrator and in the evening we sat, sipped our tutifruti and enjoyed the mild fragrance. Not as strong as the old Excalibur did, and not as loud either, and quite slower too. This took some twenty hours to dry, got 23g, barely fit the jar. On fourth she dried green beans, most of it dried nicely until morning (2kg reduced to 218g) and the rest she put with the mushrooms for the next batch.
Took all three girls to Lidl on 4th. Nothing special, just regular grocery (10 cones of strawberry, 10 of chocolate/vanilla). Sanda notices various things hanging from the ceiling - lights, cameras... now she noticed the speaker, which I had to explain. And of course she noticed the huge spy mirror ball right above our cash register, which was in the middle (4th of 8).
On sixth took the van in the morning to wash it. It saw no water but rain since inspection, which was in september. In the afternoon Nina vacuumed it inside, took off the spider webs. Amazing how the spiders love the van. Meanwhile we took the girls, all three, to shopping. First to Neša's butchery, this time a whole side of bacon, for Lena's birthday. Parked near the same place, this time making sure it's not in the paid area, screw paying for 10 minutes, while they strolled to the little park at Lesnina. Strolled to the serekeš to buy some cash, but it wasn't working. Because the bank wasn't working... belay that, the bank is gone. Fuckit, there's been a bank in that space for the last 52 years.
Didn't stay long, went to the Chinese to get some silly toys and then we just got into the car to move to the kids clothing shop... turned out we found a place only on the farther end of 25. maj, facing the railroad, and walked two blocks back. Almost the same as not reparking at all, but hey, we passed the time and they had a walk and it was fun.
Vacuum packed all the bacon in the evening, the vacuumer works full tilt, just takes two to operate - one aims the bag, the other presses it down so no air leaks from the side. A bag takes only a minute. Nice bacon.
In the afternoon checked my phone minutes... accumulated over 1200. Well... tried to call Bajlo, no response. Called Jozda, to see what was about the midterm maturski, we did mention end of may and now nobody speaks of it. Hey, really, yeah, we could, why not, okay let's do it as we said, last saturday... 30th that will be, at Elmont. Ok, let's start making calls. In the evening Bajlo calls back, says it's his slava today, saint Đorđe, he was with relatives... the other side of house, wasn't carrying.
Mentions: 25. maj, Aleksa Pajkov, Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), bager, Čankovo, Čurda, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Elmont, frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, Jovan Zdanić (Jozda), Lesnina, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), maturski parastos, Nenad Bajlo (Bajlo), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nokla, Novi Sad, promes, ruža, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), serekeš, slava, Springfield, špicnamet, Vasa Lakatoš, žardinjerija, in serbian