29-VII-2016.
(... 34 words...)
The next day, Lena came to visit us. We went to Čankovo in the morning, to check on majstors' progress, but now they're taking a break until the mortar dries. majstor Mile says they have a house to do, near agricultural school, something the roof, or extra floor, or rework into a shop space, one of those.
When she arrived, we decided to have dinner in the nearest tavern, Bečkerek, here by the little Fabrika station, which was remodeled recently. I was there maybe twice, in september 1994. for some maturski, and then with Ford for the 1999. christmas. But that was the old place, of some fame, even Zvonko Bogdan would come to sing there, and then the owner died and it closed. Now some two guys partnered up to reopen it, remodeled it and spruced up into some mix of newer style with banatian motifs - silhouettes of classic houses, with curlicued gables, painted on the fence walls on one side, and then the inside is all concrete metal glass gray and glass etched with fluor in stripes. Such etching was once de rigeur for health and educational institutions. The waiters are old school, hospitality high, all by protocol, and the cook is a minor emperor.
But we were underwhelmed this time - they had some celebration, both rooms were occupied, so they put is into the second B room, at a table facing the toilet door. No stench, it's all clean all the way to imbecility, it's that we had to see every lady as she went to take a leak, and they all saw us. Wish they gave us an outside table, but it seemed they didn't plan for staff to cover that too. And they didn't have beer, they held the programme of the Apatin brewery. So gimme that Jelen, then. Lena at least had the Somersby, of course they have it, outside sunshades wear their insignia. (later I learned that the causality may be faulty here - the shades may outlast the supplier's contract)
Furthermore, this B room wasn't much, perhaps 3x6, walls completely bare, so the echo was horrible. We heard music and noise from the other room louder than ourselves talking. In vain is good grub, this tavern won't rank among the favorites. Just when we intented to cross out our own conviction that one should never go to the first tavern nearby.
Lena has a new Nikon, and made a dozen closeups of Johana.
On fourth it was oma's birthday, so we met there at the home to see her. Višnja even made a cake, small even for an afterthought, so I didn't even care to take a shot of it. We two came, and Arpi and Boba. Wasn't much of a celebration, as oma was present and absent at random times, just smiling and nodding, coming up with a nice turn of a phrase from time to time, to make us laugh a bit. This is not a nursing home like the previous ones, the owner spent a lot to meet the regulations to register with the state (the inspection closed the previous one and a few others, which were off the books), even had to install a fire dousing system with pipes of a diameter larger than the regular water pipes. So she's saving on staff now, there's only one per shift. So oma gets often confined into a chair with a table plate in front of her, which she can't open nor take off. It even happened that she tried to slide down beneath the plate and got stuck, they had trouble to get her out. Later they would just tie her.
On fifth the limar (in shorthand english, the sheet metal worker) finished work in Čankovo - the booth above the ladder is now encased in shiny sheet metal, as is the bulkhead around the protruding top of the roof and the new vertical for the gutter. The gutter I told him to move away from the wall, so he tied it to the newly connected pillar (which previously held to a flimsy wooden beam), so the water now fals couple of meters away. We'll put there the plastic inlay from some barrel and catch rain water in it, holds 200l. And, of course, it looks great at sunset, what with the new floodlights below.
On sixth she went on to repaint the big room. And the rear wall, which was purple for six years, will now be white. For now she paints the kitchenside half, will do the rest later. Then there'll be furniture to move. And for the back of my desk she'd have to pick a weekend, when all those cables wouldn't be mandatory.
On ninth we paid off the majstors for phase one and agreed on phase two. From the gonk they'd remove all the plastic sheeting covering the bottom meter of the wall, I don't trust plastic over pressed clay, it has to breathe or else it'll fall, and in the front part of the house they'd shave off the bulked out bottoms of the walls and plaster them flat. And the ceilings, of course, that's what started this whole parade.
For now they removed the plastic and, lo and behold, there was material missing, as if it crumbled behind the plastic and the ants took away the crumbs. He nailed the rabitz knit (mason's chicken wire) all over it and went on with mortar.
Mentions: Allan Robin (Ford), Arpad Gunaroši (Arpi), Bečkerek, Čankovo, Dobrivoj Gunaroši (Boba), Fabrika station, gonk, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Johana, majstor, majstor Mile, maturski parastos, oma, Višnja, in serbian