11-I-2012.
The evening before I got the idea to wash the saxo, because it was still full of straws and dust from the last fall's work in the garden. Ran it to Mane's, got the full wash and interior for 400 dinars. The guy who worked the outside told me how he has a wife in Russia, his visa expired, spends three months here until he gets the next visa. And how the russian law is unsurfuckable in how it protects women, the males don't even peep.
After watching the two final episodes of B5 (not "sleeping in light", that's a postscript), just when I was ready to go to sleep, Jan skyped me something about " there is a problem in entering a form. It sometimes would say "User defined topictype= 1, mds_title_id=0" instead of showing the options"... and there were other small things to fix as well. Kept me awake until 2:53, but I was too worked up, in full awakeness-concentration-keyboard-cowboy mode, that I couldn't sleep until probably 3:50. At 8:50, however, I was up and having coffee.
Then there were more small things to fix between 9:15 and 10:16 (appointments without resources didn't show; then old appointments did so we set it to show from 7 days ago to infinity; then financial statement kept coming in blank but actually didn't - he was entering invoices into a wrong database).
Then we went shopping. Tried to buy some cash first, but the serekeš in the 'hood was empty again (the other two for our bank, one downtown and one at the market, never are). Went on to buy some pillows and blankets (our reserves being spread between Čankovo and Lena's crate in Belgrade), and to fill the fridge. At the butcher's, saw one old customer from both DBA and Avai, but luckily she didn't recognize me - she's the one who always used her charm to make you do one more thing for her, exactly the wrong time to be reacquainted.
The trip to the airport was uneventful, got there in 90 minutes or thereabouts. Didn't wait too long either, maybe 30 minutes past landing, and they appeared just after Kronos Quartet (who came to play, I guess - lots of black cars waiting outside, some of them with state insignia).
Raja looks just the same as he does on skype, only better. Not even Nina's new laptop she got two days ago, and which finally gave us decent image while chatting, does him justice. He looks so much better in direct contact. He tugged my beard only a little.
Took us quite long to get through Belgrade - at least the part between Mostar and all the way up Kneza Miloša, because of some fifteen trolleybuses were parked at the curb, smack in the middle of the rush hour. Once we went past Parliament, however, it was easy. Ender was snoring most of the last third of the trip, after the last traffic light. Raja helped baba* wash the dishes, splashing the dirty water as much as he could :).
The plan to stay awake until at least 21:00 didn't work. I crashed around 19:00, but got up in less than an hour. They went on - it took about 20 hours to get here, what with 5 hours sitting around JFK, and they surely are tired. At least they noticed our newly paved street and the bathroom sink. And I got Go's old eos40 :). Now we can start making photos for real, and Lena can keep the Fujica.
Now to RTFM.
On 16th got the firewood for this winter, part two. We didn't quite know how much to order the first time, nor did we have space for all of that at once. Ender helped bring the logs from the street into the garage. During the day I went with him to buy some cables, so we can plug the PS2 (or whichever one they left here last time) in some gaming shop near the army barracks on Mala Amerika. He got praised by the clerk there for speaking such good english.
On the way back we checked out a decent car radio, something of 4000 din with not only an aux port (so can play from the Sansa or phone) but also an USB port and an SD cart slot. Just took out my phone and made a shot of the plug - the standard euro plug. Turns out that of course, saxo has the euro port too. A couple of days later I went there, bought it, and the installation was a breeze, just plug it in.
The play station (don't execute the pun, pardon it!) is set - my old Genius speakers, one of the previous montors, new cables and a new power strip, it's all ready and stuffed into the old regal, the gaming can start.
This one is sheer mockery. The milje (ie. milieu), done in technique of white embroidery, over the screen of nezavisni. The running gag was that most old TVs were wooden boxes, pretending to be furniture, just like radios did. And it worked - they were considered furniture, and in this area of the world, any lacquered furniture deserves to be covered with a milje. Now if a corner overhangs the screen, too bad. Eventually the lady of the house could be persuaded to lift the corner, but only while it was watched. As soon as the TV was turned off, there'd be harsh words spoken if the corner wasn't lowered again. That was the way of keeping up appearances here.
The next step of the joke was a walpaper imitating that corner over the screen. This shot takes it one step further.
In the back, Lena with gugolj in her lap. To the left, behind the milje, the zmajček, presently in charge of charging her iphone.
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* when he started talking, we established that we are baba and deda, while Fayes and Rein are granma and grampa. With parents, however, it worked in a contrarian way - Ender was tata, and Nina was mom.
Mentions: Avai, Čankovo, DBA, Ender Aquila (Ender), eos40, Fujica, Gorana Sredljević (Go), gugolj, Jan Brenkelen, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nezavisni, regal, Reinaldo Aquila (Rein), Rosanda Aquilla (Fayes), Ryu (Raja), saxo, serekeš, zmajček, in serbian