20-X-2020.

On 12th we were the hosts. Borko had the honor to finish the last of milfovača, which he later praised to the sky. Dunno. It's a good brandy, but it's more story and history than taste. Whatever rocks your boat. She roasted lots of meat in the oven, and filled mushrooms (styled after what we now regularly eat at Pitch). The twins were asleep when we started, but then woke up and enjoyed it. They danced, shouted, ran. They'd mention "friends party" next few days. They stayed until 1:50.

(... 50 words...)

Yesterday we finally went downtown with the girls. Took the car this time, not knowing in advance how much we may buy. The two pairs of jeans I bought a couple of years ago at the green market turned out to be tight in a couple of wrong places, forcing me an urge to pee at wrong times, with two (near) accidents. So I switched to some older pair, which was seriously worn out at the cuffs - and now it was really the end time to get some new ones.

Went to the HK shop in the old nets factory (they're still there; few other chinese shops have closed meanwhile) and, oh, the classic jeans don't exist anymore, it's all lycra now. And most of them are scrubbed to have that worn out look and last just a year. Yeah right, thanks... tried five, two worked. The lycra isn't that bad, if you find your size, funny as it may sound. If it's too tight you'll look like a sausage and it will overstretch at your knees (probably but too, but let's leave that behind); if it's too loose, you'll have a feeling its slippery and falling off you all the time. Tried an XL from Lidl that she bought me few months ago and had to return it, it was so discomforting. Did I really downgrade to L or have the sizes gone completely whacko?

The girls, of course, had their own ideas about shopping, so we left with two pairs of slacks and two tutus for them as well. At least they didn't ask for more toys. And the Panda, which occupied a good part of what was left of RKB downtown is also closed, so they can't ask to go in again and buy more junk plastic toys.

Had a cake (they) and coffee (we) at Prleski's. Milica came by, she's meeting Ksenija and Žuca at the full hour, just came a bit early to have a walk. Ksenija was in Cork for a couple of months, managed to get there in split few hours before some new regime of measures was in effect, to be with her daughter and grandchild. Now she's back. We didn't meet her, but met Žuca and her neighbor (also from IV₄) on the bridge - on bikes, of course.

In the evening we split at 18:30, not waiting the usual 19:00, so we had time... and noticed the lights in the former shop room in the house of O.S. ... and then, walking by, noticed that there were people sitting in that room. And then more in the yard, on the terrace. We realized that O.S. must have died. And sure enough, at the supermarket there was the fresh obituary notice on their posterboard. His wife died eight years ago, and now he - cancer, likewise. I didn't quite get the funeral time, but took a picture of the posterboard, so read it this morning, well on time. Took a few more shots along the way, trying to catch the young moon a couple of more times, but it kept going lower - as young moon always does - so this was actually the only good shot with it. A few other shots came out amazingly right for all the wrong reasons.

We arrived a few minutes ahead of Borko. She dropped by Roda to get some wine and coffee, but the wine was on sale so she got two bottles, no coffee. Excellent decision, because he also brought a bottle of the same Tikveško roze, and Dragana already had one in the decanter (the portugizer, though) and one in the fridge... so we didn't run out. I had them bring empty bottles last monday, so I meant to simply skip the decision on which brandy to bring this evening, simply pull one of those bottles and pour what's in the label. I pulled, and filled, an apple, but she preferred to give that to the neighbors (they had a batch of chicken slaughtered, and we ate a filled chicken all weekend, and the cats were digging out the guts and bringing them into our yard, watch your step) so apricot it was. The sofra was rich, with proja (cornbread), some roast meat and pohovano kačkavalj (but it was too soft, it melted out, leaving only a hard shell of poh), mushroom sauce, some fancy salad and, thankfully, no sweets. There was the usual plate with sausages and cheese, for meze, and on it the joke of the year. We have čajna, sremska, kulen - you name it - but someone had the bright idea to produce and sell a čajna-like-knockoff under the name "peperoni", after the american knockoff of some italian sausage. Of course, they don't even know what's the meaning of the word in Europe (means lterally "hot peppers"), so (as Nina told me today) they have to tell american tourists that they need to "watch out, the pepperoni may be really hot in Europe". It's all upside down... how can you call something "pepperoni" if it's NOT hot?

We drank two shots of brandy to start with, and then switched to wine - drank four bottles. Amazingly, nobody got actually drunk, it all evaporates quickly in the heat of discussion. Tejka was mentioned at length at some point, how she was a heavy boozer who'd stay dry for three days and then drink herself into stupor to celebrate the power of will. There was another heated debate about... don't remember what, Dragana says it's the continuation of the one from march, we both rooted for her.

Our cab came at 3:06 (says 3:00 - it's possible that I should adjust the clock in eos70). So this was the 30th, jubilary frendz parti.

Got up before 10 in the morning. She was busy with the lunch (just a čorba and some leafy pastry, treading light today), so I went to pay the monthly bills (for all the four houses - this one, old house on šećerana, Čankovo and Lena's in Lalinski). In the afternoon we went to the funeral. First went to visit Arpi's grave. Just one climp of flowers left on his side; the rest may have withered. More fresh flowers on Silvija's side, probably mom. Dragan should have moved out - the apartment was already sold - at least a month ago.

Big funeral means the guy died too early, didn't outlive so many folks who knew him. Four uniformed persons (sounded like better singers, but we stood outside and smoked, don't want to listen to their PR about their imaginary friend). The weather was extremely nice for this late in october. We switched between light and shade while waiting for uniforms to finish their song,

After that she took the twins to Springfield, while I was messing with Byo (still haven't decided which of the three or four items of coding on my todo list to pick to work on, so I did none of them), and then took a nap.

The pics from three weeks ago are still unavailable - Dragana gave me the card from her camera, but this morning I found that there's no such slot in my adapter. Same width as SD, but no corner notch, extra peg in middle front, and half length... didn't even physically fit, so I wouldn't even discuss the layout of the contacts.

Some time this night, sGradlj.com should finally reach 700.000th visit.

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Mentions: Arpad Gunaroši (Arpi), Byo (Byo), Čankovo, čorba, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Dragan Umljanić, eos70, frendz parti, IV₄, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Ksenija, Lalinski Konak, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), meze, milfovača, Milica Zubatović, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Pitch kettle, pohovano, Prleski, sGradlj.com, Silvija Umljanić, Slavica Tejin (Tejka), Springfield, šećerana, Živana Armatović (Žuca), in serbian