01-I-2005.
Around 17:40 we spoke briefly with Nina - that is we barely heard each other, there was good noise on her side :). We didn't have quite a doček, I mad just three shots of Lena holding Chu.
Go called right after midnight, she and Ricardo were at Jose's. Lena also talked some with the youngest brother. There was no official fireworks, or it was beyond our horizon, but then the neighborhood went out of its way and we saw at least three of them - the view from upstairs stretches at least two kilometers.
This year she didn't make the russian salad (aka Olyivye), because we had one recently (when a whole turkey drumstick went into the soup, and then there was no way to talk ourselves into eating the rest, there was a kilo and a half of it). Instead, the drumsticks and steaks simmered in the Jena* pot with some potatoes, and, to Lena's great joy, spinach as an add-on. And the soup, of course, that's where the third drumstick and some of the young beef went. And a banana cake.
We made the doček with Topalovići - watched the Marathon family. Didn't watch that one since Isabel, that's when the last power from nebojša was used (the portable aka laptop that I later had to return to Orion).
Today we finally, after several months, went for a little walk on the beach. The weather, incredible - springtime. Juliška we saw sitting outside, sunbathing. Said it's warmer than inside. Walk like any walk, lots of people, seagulls, waves a bit, no wind and just a wee bit of mist.
On second we went to Richmond, to visit Go and Ricardo. Bunch of shots from the kitchen. The visitors' form (and customers') for Gary seems to be working, or at least this is how he imagined it should look once it does, got this shot from an email from him. At least it should have these elements. On eighth he started sending me new material, something about star types - he's an astrologer after all, and we should start working on zod soon
Dad thinks of visiting us. Eh. I reply:
Not a problem at all on our side - now we have the space, have a spare room (Nina's, Ricardo was using it when he was visiting, and so will Go when she comes), not a problem for me to take a ride to any near airport. The bigger problem is how to obtain a visa. Ever since Nj Buđ ("š" and "đ" are neighbors on the keyboard, and I recently found that some reporter of ours accidentally :) made this typo [buđ = mildew]) made all the possible regulations much stricter, I can't be a guarantor for anything, an Amer must be it. Now while it's true that we have a brand new Amer, he's still a student and has no regular income to show for the last two years.
It would be best that you call the american embassy in Belgrade and explain what and how. Sometimes they may seriously nitpick for no good reason at all, and sometimes a nice word may open the door.
The other problem would be finding your way through the airports - the things have changed a lot over the last thirty years. Though, I think you'd manage, even without the language.
And other random stuff... e.g. am I working on zmajček or did UniJewel unshoe for something more serious.
My machine is my problem. They compensate me for small office supplies (like printer ink, which costs about 30$ per cartridge, lasts half a year - the printer had cost 100$ :), the rest is mine. Besides, I am satisfied with the machine for now, specially seeing how I have so much space on the disk - I had treated myself with a disk twice bigger (80 gigbytes) than what I gad heretofore, when I needed space to do something for Gary. The machine may perhaps be faster, but I'm no dandy, I'm not playing those new games which require a fierce machine.
About office furniture.
The chair from Berix, desk and cabinet from Cueblo, and I still have a couple of pencils from Zero :). The computer is entirely mine. I did have a laptop from Cueblo, which I had to return later, just like I returned Berix hers before that.
What should Nina bring us when she returns
Of medicine, just Baktrim. The rest we consumed seldom.
And don't send any cigarette paper, I have half a drawer [of it]. Now the Indians also started packing paper with the tobacco, and it seems the right [hand] knows not what the left [one] does: with each can I get a bundle of american cigarette paper, as the packers are unaware that each can already contains a pack of rizla (the paper that the Dutches used).
On fifth she sewn me new trousers of brown corduroy, fitting exactly. I specially had a few shots wearing it, in the krtlog down there. I wore the t-shirt from the coference of april 2002 and the Adidas slippers with massaging insole, which sometimes hurts when I lean on the heel or tip only, but is otherwise mostly pleasant. Give what you may until I acqure proper clogs.
On seventh got an email from Zyanna with a scanned sleeve of her new seedee. On top ot the inner (or rear?) page is a photograph of her which I made on 30-VII-2000., even attributed to me (with -ich in the surname, that's how I was signing here). Later I got the disk as well.
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* fireproof glass, named after the Jena, city in east Germany, where the Zeiss optics were made.
Mentions: 30-VII-2000., Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), Chu, Cueblo, doček, Gary Brandywine, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jose Bariero, Juliška, nebojša, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Orionware (Orion), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), UniJewel, Zero Distance (Zero), zmajček, zod, Zyanna, in serbian