These two months... bomb at our consulate in Sydney. Steve Campbell (Stiv Kembel here) died trying to break the speed record on water. Boris Kreigher (spelt Krajger in Serbia) died in a traffic accident by Sremska Mitrovica. The cause remained unknown, but the result was known - the mulberry trees* by the road are the culprit. The conclusion was that the lines of trees by the road were dangerous, and dud (mulberry) was also designated as unwanted, because it attracted dudovac (the mulberry tree worm). So the lines of trees along the roads in Vojvodina were razed en masse, so nothing was left as snowshield, which was probably safer. And dudovac simply went to attack other fruit [trees]. Every spring dad would lean the ladder against each tree in the yard and prune the infested branches, whish we'd then trample or burn in a barrel. Dudovac remained a menace for at least ten more years.
By end of january six bombs exploded in synchronization at our consulates and embassies in Canada and US. Day later, a world championship in figure skating began in Ljubljana. Commented, of course, by Milka Babović, who knew it all by heart, and was most amused with describing the colors of the skaters' costumes, specially the females, and never failed to pronounce tirkiz (turquoise) as türkiz, with umlaut. We watched that ever since we had a TV set, and this time specially because we hosted it.
We have 270000 unemployed and 300000 gastarbajter.
Dad bought a fića. The day being the international day of women (not of international women) was just a merry coincidence, for it obviously wasn't a gift to mom. Well maybe in a sense, status.
I read the whole manual and understood everything. Except maybe the clutch, still wasn't clear on how it works and why is it necessary.
Janči taught him to drive. I was on the back seat a few times. And in the front seat, when they were away with the keys, imagining myself driving.
The color was sort of white, slightly gray. Or rather very light gray but not quite white. In any light you can see license plates being white against it. The alternative was ivory, which is pretty much the same except it's kind of yellowish and just as ugly. There weren't any other colors available that day, and waiting for a red (don't remember if there was a fourth color) would take weeks. The wait list was already long as it was - don't know how long, probably a couple of months (still better than a few years, which was standard in the eastern bloc).
It was the older model, with doorhandles in front and hinges in the rear, i.e. the doors which open backwards to the standard.
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* I have to emphasize that these were trees, after hearing the phrase „mulberry bush“ so many times.
26-V-2007 - 15-I-2026