(... 8 words...) The so-called staging is the period of apprenticeship; staž (having a ž - zh - it must be of french origin) being the time-on-work, what counts for retirement, or time in the firm. In medicine, that's internship. (... 37 words...) The shift was twelve hours, 19:00 to 7:00, sleepless. (... 52 words...)
In mašinska I got five classes in the third grade, and actually never after had any other grade, because it had thirteen to eighteen classes of third (depending on year, local industry would ask for specialized classes but not every year, e.g. ship plumbers) and only about five or six classes of fourth grade, because fourth was for those who were really keen on acquiring a title of technician and not to go out and get a job, with perhaps intent to go to college as well. There was more work and more was demanded of them, and the kids knew it, so very few enlisted into fourth grade on a whim. And then those better classes aren't given to a rookies, that's for older colleagues.
This year, as the scheduler guy, I had classes only in my own shift, the morning [one], guess this was to keep me at hand just in case. It was more diverse in the following years, though I don't quite remember the combinations which occurred.
This meant that at least three days a week I had the first class, at 8:00. I was never on good terms with early rising, and now I understood why - while trying to stay in bed as long as possible, I pushed myself into doing everything on the run, for the dubious gain of five or ten minutes more in bed. Well no more of that, the sleep will be made up for later, if really necessary, I just won't do things in a rush. So on those days I'd get up at six, then take half an hour for each of bathroom, breakfast, coffee and pedaling the bike to work. Much easier, and the day starts nicer.
We still listened to Studio Be every saturday morning, that was a part of everyday routine. Well it was Studio Be most of the day anyway, in both households, except we had better sound. Paja's HSR had a lot of hiss on it when set to stereo, but was just fine mono; my folks still employed that 1957 radio, listening to it at 222 meters, in daylight (unusable at night). In the mornings, around seven, there'd be Dušan Radović with „Belgrade, good morning“, where he'd have four wise things to say every day. Him being a poet (for children, mostly) gave him a special view on things, so he'd say „start beating your children as soon as they start looking like you“... Three books of these were compiled, published, became bestsellers.
There was Đoko Vještica, who mostly had the rest of that first hour in the morning, and he became famous for regularly calling the directors of various public utilities, straight on the air, asking them about whatever service they were providing to Belgraders. In october he'd start pestering the heating, to see when do they plan to begin, in winter it was road maintenance, when will they start salting the streets. Any outage of telephone, power, water, whatever, you can count on him calling the director or the dežurni engineer (amog which, for a few years, Đuđa's son) and grilling him right there on the air. One of his self-assigned duties was to read, every morning, the list of hospitals which are on the roster to be dežurni for the day... and he never managed to say „otorinolaringološka klinika“ properly, he'd break his tongue at about halfway, so he just gave up and henceforth called it „clinic for ear, throat, nose“. We laughed about it, and Go didn't understand what was the problem, she pronounced „otorinolaringološka klinika“ without a hitch.
26-VI-2022 - 17-XI-2025