october 1996.
We get nice mornings here until about middle of october, sometimes even longer than that. I had some color negative left in the praktika, which I guess I meant to take to Mongol to be developed - we don't do our photos for a long time now - so I made a few shots this morning. Including Lena and Nina as they slowly wake up and get dressed, one for daycare, one for school. Specially this shot as the good old red bike, with a 15mm nut on one side and 17mm on the other side of the rear axle, is prepared to take the kids' seat.
We left Lena in the daycare along the way, it's by the community [centre], and then pedaled on to work - I to the smaller Bangro's building by Žitni, she to the city hall. Along the way we were joined by Marina, who now lived somewhere in our area but further out, in one of those two short streets at the end of the neighborhood. She was experimenting with her hair then, toning all of it a couple of shade lighter every two months, and then letting it grow. So it was considerably darker by the top, and somewhere around her butt, or below it, she was quite a blonde. An interesting effect, hence memorized.
The kilometer and a half that she drove behind us was a bit odd, because we sort of tried to exchange a sentence or two, but this is the trunk road, the trucks are roaring, and there can't be any conversation.
Had I not made this shot, I wouldn't even remember any of this.
This month I installed the last bits of the BarSys at Zeki's restaurant, somewhere halfway between the busodrome and Žitni, in a sidestreet but near the corner to the main street. These final touches were the automatic insertion of sales and costs from the restaurant into the main ledger, which is always the thing that's done last.
The restaurant was interesting, they managed to hide the tamped earth floors with carpets. Were they any flatter and if there was any more echo, they could fool the eye, but, well, nothing is perfect. Lenka was cooking and that's where I actually saw her the first time.
Of course, they never used the app properly, and just like any other of their endeavours, the restaurant didn't last more than a few months. They never paid for the software, unless we count a couple of lunches where we'd take prospective customers. Had they lasted, that would have been some twenty dinners and we'd break even.
Mentions: Bangro, BarSys, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jovan Dimijan (Zeki), Lenka Dimijan, Marina Čikezin, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), praktika, Žika Šašić (Mongol), in serbian