13-V-2023.
Finally got to visit Lena and Milan in their new apartment. Raja managed to switch to the day shift in just two days, and Violet almost did. So, around noon we were already half packed and around 13:30 we were parked a block away from the six corporals*. Two observations from the trip: one, the Chineses have made lots of progress on building their rubber plant. Seconds, the fartgressive party has removed the name Petrovgrad from the sign on the road, they gave up on that.
We brought the move-in gifts - a big flowerpot with soil and a tomato plant in it, and another empty one. Carrying that for about 200m was not so simple, becuse the heavy one was slippery and dripping, the other one still had a nylon bag inside and somewhat over the rim, and was not really empty, it contained eight cartons of eggs. Lena was walking Api so she came along, met us halfway and carried the tomato pot.
The apartment is nice and cozy - and not so big and empty as it looked on all the shots, I guess it was an illusion created by the wide angle lenses. The view is magnificent on both sides, south and west. This is of Branko's bridge, zoomed in to 95mm (of 135).
My gift was a telescope, which I bought about three years ago in Lidl, magnifies 20 to 60 times and is very unwieldy. I bought it to see what's the source of mysterious flashing light on the east-southeast horizon. It turned out to be a practice oil rig tower, they do put them up and dismantle every couple of years, to stay in shape for it. It's gone, and frankly I didn't have any other use for the 'scope, but when I heard they were going for the fourteenth floor, I had this hunch that that'll be the best place for it. Milan loved it and immediately started playing with it.
It was near impossible to explain to the twins that a dog is not a kitten, and at some point the misunderstanding happened - Api bit Linda. Didn't pierce the skin, left just a bruise and a bit of a scratch, through the shirt, but she was in shock, cried a lot, wanted to go home, and got back into her regular mood only when we reached the restaurant.
The restaurant is the same „Dren“ where we were 22-VIII-2015., which should be easy to find. We were parked on Đinđića bulevar**, so we should drive straight to the end and take a left. But then what if there's a bit of a street going up beyond what we memorized, we could end up in some narrow streets, so I took a left when I thought I should, and went to a tour of Studentski grad, but then ended up below the highway, exactly 200m from the restaurant, so okay. Turns out Lena and Milan took the exact same route few minutes before we did.
The food was good and aplenty. The beef ragu** čorba was good, though the meat in it wasn't cooked with it, tasted like it was deboned from some roast. We both went for leskovačka mućkalica (she did try it before, I didn't) and it was great. Given that I ate nothing for the last 20 hours, I almost managed to empty my plate (or, rather, the clay pot).
Violet was very sleepy by the end of the meal, so I unlocked the van and let her sit in it, assuming she'd go to sleep. But twenty minutes later, when I finished my driver's coffee and we packed to go, she was awake. Raja let her have the whole rear row and played hero, forcing himself to stay awake (and did). The rain started right after we crossed into Zemun, paused a bit around Čenta, and then just went thicker or thinner but didn't stop until we were almost at home. Perfect.
Talked with Go and Stanley on sunday evening, until almost 1:00. The weird event of the last fortnight was a lady who fell asleep in her truck or SUV, then heard some strange sounds coming from her vehicle's fuselage, thought it was being broken into, and just started the engine and drove off. The guy who was the cause of the noise was under the engine, stealing the cat (catalytic converter, on some models contains up to 200$ worth of platinum), and got killed on the spot. She will serve time for murder. Not manslaughter. It's quite easy to guess who's of what color in this case.
On 15th, we were drinking papazjanija (one of the words meaning mishmash of a dish), which is just the regular tutifruti when we don't have enough fruit for one batch, so we add some old pekmez. Somehow it works stronger, even with the same amount of alcohol in it. She adamantly refused to consent to publishing Byo again, while she's alive, unless mentions of her were removed. Still thinking of how feasible would that be. And, of course, with an option to republish the full text if she consents or throws the spoon. Or what instructions to leave in case I do... Ah, well, worry later.
The rain didn't quite stop until 16th in the evening. But then on 17th when we went to Čankovo, it began again just when we were finished. We had a guest, BTW - majstor Mile is building a storage for the house across the street, and he spotted me mowing the lawn, so came to greet me and we had a nice half hour chat.
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* the official name of her block of buildings, six high rises of between 14 and 17 floors or thereabouts
** we're phonetic with french words, too, at least used to be, so this was boulevard, ragout
Mentions: 22-VIII-2015., Api, Byo (Byo), Čankovo, čorba, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), majstor Mile, Milan Nastić, pekmez, Ryu (Raja), Stanley Berger, Violet, in serbian