14-IV-2024.
This week we went to Čankovo four times - monday, wensday (traditional spelling as of now), friday, saturday. I mostly mowed, two liters of fuel already went into the švorceniger, and it went easily because we eradicated, by regular mowing, the wide-leafed weeds, and only the cable grass remained, to the balls. Actually higher , mostly to the waist. Luckily, the weather is still dry, so it didn't lie down so it's easy to mow and becomes hay in two days. We took home a sack of that hay, to pad the hens' nests for eggs, and to cover her permacultures. At first I thought that any tree is a permaculture, it stays permanently where planted, but nope, this is something different, this is „you always grow something, and when you take out you put in again“. Of course I said „I'm that“.
Among other stuff she found that the last sack of potatoes (small, netty, 10kg) still has some two-three kilos in it and that it germinated nicely. She chopped it into pieces so that each has two-three germs, mostly into halves, just a couple into thirds, and planted that in freshly mowed grass in the ditch by the arches (for the greenhouse we never covered), and covered it with hay. On saturday we peeked to see how it looked - well it's growing like crazy, both stalk and roots. She even poured some of a special bio solution, by jadam method (there must be some aitch in it, never bothered to check the spelling), which she simmered in a barrel at home, and now that it had foamed properly, packed two six liter bottles which we brought along.
There'll be cherries, there'll be cherries, and seems to be apricots too. Just if the year keeps the promise. And it's only mid april.
Lena and Milan were supposed to come on saturday, but on wensday she happened to puke every fifteen minutes, to just raw bile in the end. By saturday she recovered but still felt a bit raw, so didn't want to risk another event during the ride, so we suggested that we should come. So then better on sunday, okay yes. We didn't speak with Nina on saturday, turns out she talked with Lena for two hours, okay good.
So I watched Vilnev's (only the Frenches have worse spelling than the Englishes) Dune 2, on badly rendered copy from aunt in Kalinjingrad... mnyakh, weaker than the first part, even if we ignore the reduced number of colors and the flatly read russian dub. The script veers away from the book much more, to the point where it's ridiculously stupid. The guy removed a lot of stuff which was in the book and still managed to spend three hours on it. We'll see when a technically valid version appears.
We were supposed to take Lena's previous desk and a couple of shelves, but turned out that we can't take the table, because its legs were horsefully tightened by screws for which we didn't have a proper hex wrench. What Milan had was too short and couldn't pass the proper force, and my hexes stayed at home. He's not eating again, fasting for a full week now, so we went with Lena for lunch to some italian restaurant facing SIV. Not that it's bad, and not too expensive either, but no letter no postcard, just okay. At least they have the location.
Milan is making moves to finally switch jobs, we'll see. No hurry, there was another wave of layoffs where he is now, so the old kernel guys who stay until further are quite safe as it were, while the company lasts. Feels like watching Zero of 2001 again - the investors first poured money by the bucket, the company grew exponentially and unsustainably... barked while it lasted. If the current variant with this new job lights up, he'd suddenly double his salary, and the employing firm would grow from three guys to four. If it doesn't work out, she'd recommend him to her Finns. And ah, yes, she said they took them to a spice museum, and talked heavenly about rare and precious kinds, like oregano, dill and rosemary, as if they were something special. Oregano and dill I mostly mow, and the rosemary went wild, need to trim it again, it took half the path to the main door again.
She told us how they're finally going to replace the elevators in the building, because they function... very often. The old man who maintains them is ill and over seventy and is hard to get anyway. So they finally succeeded in getting signatures, all apartment owners want in, and so they collected offers. And while considering them
tenant: just mean to report an error in the offer number three, they miscalculated the discount they offer, so the total looks more expensive than what they said
president: good work and kudos to the sharp eye, it completely flew by me, thanks bigly
tenant: ah, that's a professional fault of mine, I'm an economist, it's my job to notice such things
president: I am one as well, but... private college
That president is also a director of something in the area, he can see his workplace through [his] window. As if he were a priest with apartment in the churchyard, or a lighthouse keeper.
We gave up on the desk until further, but at least we brought the two shelves, just to assemble them, they'll sit by the upper end of the staircase, doubling as a fence. I managed to park in the loop surrounding the opposite building, but for leaving I saw I couldn't complete it. The plasc was designed for the likes fića and tristać, and now the bulkier cars have multiplied. I acquired a minor scratch on the right doors, which I will not repair - no use, it's really small and shallow and just about normal nowadays, there'll be more of that, the problem won't go away. I wiggled my way out, backwards.
On the trip back we went to Mere (still no cheese, only „product of milk, vegetable fats“, march into 15:00, but we restocked the bacon, peanuts, cashews), met Sale and his maam, they say the second grandchild, also from their son, is four months old, mother is on maternal leave, so they're off duty for the duration. When we mentioned that we're waiting for the seventh, they said „whoa, kudos“. They look like they aged ten years during the intervening four. Guess because they grayed so rapidly.
After dinner, I convened the frendz parti for the morrow. We then talked with Go and Stanley. They're wound up on coming, can't wait, and Anita is in the mood on the matter... it's just Neša who will allow himself to be talked into coming. For starters, he wasn't running away from the camera, we saw him and heard him alright, explained how he was messing with transfer of characters from some game done on Halflife platform, which is 25 years old, I remember the boys at Zero stayed overtime to play it... The passports having just arrived , it's only a matter of getting the tickets. Go was already looking into it, and now after lunch they'll get them.
A video arrived, Sanda on a swing - standing, swinging and lifting now one now the other leg up to above her ears. We'll see her on a trapese yet.
We went nowhere on monday, worked the yard instead. I mowed, and she was planting tomatoes and made it wigwams out of bamboo sticks. Of the forty from two years ago 35 remained - not too bad, just five broke or got chopped - and a few days ago we bought another bundle of forty from the same old woman (this time I broke the ice so we talked hungarian). The two klematises which she planted three years ago are now blooming like crazy, and two more in the corner are just waking up, one even climbed up the birch. The third pair was against Juliška side fence, but died when one of her hands splurged it with total (aka roundup) when cleaning up her garden. She planted the cucumbers and green beans there, in sacks, so the fence will finally be of some use. These grew from another pair of wigwams last year, but turned out to be too heavy and leaned this way or another.
For the frendz parti we barbecued a bit, the standard, just to get back into the swing, we didn't do that in a while. Borko and Dragana appeared on time, her in real summer outfit, just a shirt, and he also said he was wearing a jacket just to have enough pockets. It was up to 30° that day, 28 the day before, it's like the june month... doesn't matter, it will be cooling down the next day. The evening went regularly, we weren't switching to wine, as Dragana stayed on just two shots, and we three then between two (my dear), three (me) and four or five (Borko), I guess... well we stopped counting long ago. Dragana is bitching about my leaving the org. committee, because now Bajlo took it seriously and reports to her (he's our caller, in charge of invitations), and he's entirely wrapped in some... nonsense sphere of his own or something, so he's presently reluctant whether to call Ivanka because, there it is, her daughter died. Well she died four years ago, just call her and leave it to her to come or not come. But no, he wants Dragana to make the call... Virtually strangled her, she said.
Having thus thinned down the drinks - because when Dragana doesn't drink, the thing dwindles - we dispersed early, before one. And what she said about never having rakija after dinner, well I got it written right here, she veered off that road at least twice so far.
Tuesday, wensday, thursday passed so-so. The weather did cool down rapidly, it did rain, we were sleepy often but we endured, drank only on wensday. I was writing Byo, she made more saplings, watched videos on growing more stuff in the evenings, I watched the second season of DS9 (because I won't watch Babylon 5 more than once every seven years, so give what you may, though I skip many filler episodes). Nina passed the first round of job interview for the city sewers (though we said water mains first... well) and on thursday had the second, face to face, somewhere in Virginia Beach, near the place where the chinese bus station was. Said she looked good at it, and it helped that, after seeing what they asked on tuesday, she knew what to refresh (the seaquel) so she went somewhat readier. Waiting for a reply now. The kids were at Fayes's for the duration, even Raja. He usually sleeps while she's out, but just this tuesday she criticized him and Violet for being on japanese time, so they started switching back to local timezone. He visibly grew, lengthened. Saw him making fries in the frajer, may still turn out to be a cook.
The monday barbecue lasted until thursday evening, we barely managed to eat it to the last. And the quantity wasn't anything special, the same as always. Then she made a paprikaš, which we ate until sunday. Can't decide which day it was the best.
Mentions: Aleksandar Raskov (Sale), Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), Byo (Byo), Čankovo, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), fića, frajer, frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Ivanka Stojančev, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Juliška, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Milan Nastić, Nenad Bajlo (Bajlo), Nenad Berger (Neša), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Rosanda Aquilla (Fayes), Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), Stanley Berger, švorceniger, tristać, Violet, Zero Distance (Zero), in serbian