06-VIII-2023.
On 2nd, to Čankovo. Bought larger shears, to cut the weeds among the tobacco and the thicker stalks of accacia, which is practically also a weed, just has the bad habit to grow into a big tree if you're not watching. Dženifer was gone the last time, didn't even touch the food left in the kitchen. Still gone - when a cat leaves, doesn't return. Thus last year that light gray puffy vanished, and Mimi this year, both in perfect health.
I gathered some plums, not enough for brandy, and not soft enough for pekmez, so chutney it is. Amazingly, chutney, being all of sweet, sour and hot at the same time, fits perfectly as a pancake filling. She makes pancakes 2-3 times a week, and they always get eaten. Still, having too many eggs, even as we're down to twelve hens and a rooster, we accumulated around 200 eggs, so a delivery is due.
Kids sick, sore throats, cough, Linda even had a bit of runs, so it's only two of us to visit Lena and Milan today. Lena is switching jobs again.
The weather on the way there was okay, lots of clouds in all shades, not a trace of yesterday's pouring rain, except the front row of trees on the right bank in Stajićevo fell into the water, but that could have been one of the previous four storms. Until we entered Zemun. There were some branches strewn around, even one fallen tree. In the lower downtown, where the main street was ankle deep in water from the slope, all clean now, except that after the wider part at the department store they were digging again. One lane seemed open, but the sign... oh fuckit, not again. So we took for the narrow sidestreets, emerged on the right bank of Danube, almost got stuck in some old novogradnja, but we got out somehow and arrived just fine. Lena just took Api for a stroll, and exiting the car we saw her, but by the time we unhooked the totes with 160 eggs from the carabines (always ready in the trunk, so the luggage doesn't tip over), she was behind the building. Got her on the phone, so we sat on a bench by the entrance for a smoke break, and then got up. Twigs everywhere, specially the tips of the wite spruce, must have lost half of them.
The grub was experimental, trying out some texan barbecue outfit, briskets (had to look it up, wikipedia has it in english and russian but none of our languages, seems to be the meat off the ribs between the front legs), some cubes simmered with Jack Daniels and some pulled pork („drpana prasetina“ - ragged young pork; odrpanac being someone in rags). Really good, all together. Api was circling the table in positive direction* for at least half an hour. Once he did it for a few hours and slept the whole next day.
Lena has one more work week on the old job. Her boss is kind of finding excuses for himself while seemingly accusing himself for not seeing the signs on time. He's the corporal there, his job is to pass down the pressure from above, that kind of company. They're only paying well, but then squeezing everyone for as long as they can, which isn't that long. She was eager to get the job done, worked hard the first six months, and then got a mediocre review, mitigated somewhat by her contribution to that very important document, where she really could have contributed more... Wait a minute, she wrote that document entirely, and passed it to her then boss, who then posted it in the Atlassian... and now it's under his name. (coincidentally, yesterday I expanded the article on 15-IX-2017. with same subject...). I asked whethe she's already a senior, i.e. whether there's more than half the team that came in after she did. Nope, she's among the founders now, there are only two guys who came before her - one by just two weeks, and the other a nutcase who's there for third year now. And everyone complains about the conditions at work, about overtime, burnout, insane deadlines, pressure. And this corporal even tried to postpone her vacation. Well, all in the past now, just to play this week out and then it's ciao ragazzi. Then a break until october, when she starts her next job in Finland.
Meanwhile, they submitted the papers to close their loan. To pay it off and be done with it. Thus they broke our record, we paid ours off in 33 months, this will be 22. The next problem will be the money, it will accumulate, what to do with it.
I caught the moment when the rain crossed Banovo hill and hadn't reached the bridge on Ada yet. We went down when the advance team already passed over, in the lee before the main brunt of it, and we drove home. I still don't know all the streets in this part of Novi Beograd, so I took the Milanković to the end, which is, what a coincidence, at the Dren restaurant. Took the highway from there, because screw me with Zemun, they always dig somewhere and make you take odd narrow streets (looked the map and couldn't possibly recognize where we went). Of course, the exit from the highway was loudly marked, and I ended in the lot behind Megdonalds (that's how we pronounce it), it's only the third time in these twelve years, drove back to the highway, and the next exit was the right one - same street on the north edge of Zemun, where we drove regularly since may of 2016, thus avoiding the complicated downtown of it.
At the light by the Pupin's bridge it got congested. The cause was a huge puddle on our side, just beyond the pedestrian crossing beyond the intersection, covering all three lanes, the broad sidewalk and part of the lawn. Everybody got their left wheels on the curb of the median, mostly over the curb, where the lawn was already mud, luckily not too deep, or we'd be stuck even worse. I'm glad I mastered the Joda well enough to get on the curb at its beginning, where it gradually rises from the crossing, and staying exactly on it.
Around Perlez there was a serious downpour, barely saw to cross the overpass. Then the rain kept on almost to the Old quince, and ceased by Stajićevo. We visited the brzožder (fastdevour) there to get burgers for Nina, Raja and Violet and arrived home all dry. Now since Lena uses some app to calculate the keto diet and cooks twice a week, they had a dinner ready (and would visit their kum, to see the new baby), so we got the leftovers. Had enough for lunch the next day for all three of us - the kids still eat what they eat.
In our street, saw Zvezdana and her daughter unloading the car, probably just arrived from some coast, tan clearly visible.
Linda wanted pancakes in the evening, but got them only the next day. We didn't want to risk her, fresh from the morning's puke, overloading the tiny belly and making things worse. Next morning, however, she got them. Ate only two - usually it's between three and four, which is good, she's recovering, and this kind of comfort food surely helps.
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* as a mathematician, I know which is which. Clockwise is negative.
Mentions: 15-IX-2017., Api, Čankovo, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, kum, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), novogradnja, pekmez, Ryu (Raja), Violet, Zvezdana, in serbian