26-VII-2010.
before
Went to the bank again, this time to put some dollars there (1100$), and then we should get debit cards, I guess. That's the german-sounding bank, probably austrian. Also went to the other bank, something commercial or credit, whatever, in the space between the hotel and the theatre, where Vojvođanska used to be. Cashed 900$ in traveler's checks (aka cheques, you dogue) and came home with a wad of cash. Later got a message from the credit union, automated and ignorant of the issues.
On the oldwave front, a discussion about vegetarianism. A guy said that the slaughtered animals die with bunch of adrenalin pumped right into their blood, which then can't be removed. OTOH, I remembered what she read about a russian experiment where they put some MRI or such gear around cabbage, and then there was a panic-like surge in waves when a girl cut one of the heads. Worse, when she later came into the room, there was a similar surge from other plants. IOW, we're eating stressed food probably since Jurišić (park), so we should have got used to it by now.
Later, tried to use the bloody Explorer of m$ Internet to connect to the austrian (franchise) bank's site, and played around it, but no luck. Because it won't work as normal, it has to be set in a special way, some five things need to be adjusted. And it's not for m$'s passion for setting wrong defaults, this is all something off the kilter, all because the bank's site uses COM objects on user's side, which no sane browser would ever allow.
And there, I managed to get in and create an username and password, and then I can't use them to get in, because they allegedly don't exist. I even got an email confirming that I created an account, but then when I tried to log into that account, it wouldn't recognize me. Tried again, can't do it, it already exists. Tried with two or three other pairs, same. Not only stupid, but it doesn't even work. At least I got some payment instructions to send to David so he can send me the back pay... which was amazingly converted from dollars into the euros at 1:1... which is the craziest raise I ever got, and didn't even ask for it. But David was insistent that I should not change the amount, so OK, it's a raise. This gave me a hint that he's a bit afraid of losing me. I could actually hear him fill his pants when I announced that "we'll have a change of...", and I could hear him omging, "...timezone and continent, we're going back to Serbia. So I'll be working from there henceforth", and I could hear him sigh off. And being in the same timezone with the dutch office was an added bonus.
One of these trips to town I met Bane. We recognized each other on the spot, despite not having met for... twenty years at least. The last time was in the pharma factory, where he was an engineer, and we (i.e. Avai) were scouting the place as a prospective customer. Didn't talk much, as we were both in a bit of a hurry.
In the afternoon, we all went to the house and went on with cleaning up. I see we already bought a ladder and paint, and that zmajček is set up on my desk, even the webcam is on it.
This is a picture of Lena eating something with bread and yogurt, bag and coffee are closer to the camera, and a wad of banknotes of 1000RSD are in the front (the bank receipt says 70.093,00RSD (though the receipt says 70,093.00, which is wrong) altogether for 900$, with the 2% fee of 1.430 RSD), along with an open pack of Classic (we ran out of Black Hawk from the US, from Smokin Joe's, a few days ago), and a can of WD40. Two cupboard doors leaned on the wall behind, probably being repainted on the backside already. At 18:11 (as per pictures) the big regal was leaning against a different wall (back into its initial position as it held in 1993) and the walls in the big room were white. The wall to the terrace was light purple already.
after
The garbage container should be parked tomorrow in front of our house. We plan to dump most of the junk from the attic, starting with the unused rolls of insulation (so called glass wool on tar paper, itchy and scratchy when it touches the skin). In the end, we also threw away my old tape recorder, as its rubber parts were rotten and crumbling long ago, and I've canibalized its speakers in 1996. anyway.
Faik complained about the glass wool being left so in the open, he's got small kids in the house (first couple of grandchildren, I guess), but then he also dumped some of his stuff into the dumpster... just like everybody else did. Though, such a dumpster is set up once in spring and once in fall, part of what we pay for garbage disposal, but this one we paid ourselves as extra... Well okay, it all somehow fit inside, and we got rid of many things.
Mentions: Avai, Bane Zelen, David Berton, Faik Rizvani, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Majkrosoft (m$), oldwave, regal, yogurt, zmajček, in serbian