17-IX-2019.: Brandy course
In the afternoon went with Linda and Sanda to the old house, to gather the bills and kill the time. Lots to mow, everything grew.
On the street we met Zina, so we took the girls to her and sat for a while with her and her mom. We sat almost an hour, because that was my estimate of the time it will take Kees to arrive, he should be around Žabalj when we leave for home. He gave us a link to a site where he registered his geepyessed phone, so we knew his position at any time, refreshed thrice a minute. So we waited for him on the street, knowing exactly when he should appear. He kept reporting during the trip, from Alps, Austria. He arrived in a nondescript gray car, parked on neighbor's lawn, so we sat and ordered a pizza. Drank apricot of 2017.
I took him to „Kabinet“, which is a combo tavern-b'n'b-microbrewery, near the bus station. They permanently have either a lamb or a piglet on the spit. He got a room there, says the accomodations are fine. We asked about Nick, why is he not talking, says he's clueless, whether he got mad at me for not helping him once (which I did, two hours later, when he already managed), or that he's got a girlfriend which keeps a slipper on him... Whichever, doesn't talk to him nor to us anymore, nor in the „Trip to Serbia“ chat on skype.
Kees changed a lot. Not that he's much thinner, he says, but he does come across as swifter, nimbler, and actually does look thinner. And he worked on himself, he's less picky about food, more curious, he simply became adult in the intervening year. Of course, he still loves kittens, so we spent part of the evening on the terrace. Linda and Sanda kept giving him kittens to hold, put them on his shoulder. Even a hedgehog came by.
I wasn't drinking, as I'll drive him to Kabinet. He drank just a little, said the brandy takes some getting used to, it's a different pace.
The next day we went to Čankovo to distill some brandy. We first took a slight detour by the old motel, which fits with his postindustrial archaeology, photos of ruins. The motel is a full ruin, not even the graffitti on the inner walls survived. I didn't plan to take too many shots, as Joška already did a much better series there, but the ambience overwhelmed me, so apocalyptic. Well I missed the tearing down of the old „Radijator“, so I'll never be complete in that area, but now that I caught a chance, why not. I shot sixteen. Eh, what a place this once was.
The grounds in front of the motel are manicured, a part is paved into fake streets, what with road signs, this is where the initial driving lessons are held, here they learn to start, stop, take a turn, park, the elementary moves. Which is why we see so many of those vehicles on the way, this is their area, sometimes we see three of them at a time.
In Čankovo we had a batch of apple to distill. At least he saw how it's done. Saw, what saw, he had a hand in it. Though, I didn't have much work for him, I didn't even send him to get more wood, as those twenty steps to the barn are srewn with various traps, pieces of wood or rusty iron in the grass, as that's exactly where the majstors made a trash heap three years ago. So he took a stroll to the main street, took shots of that almost fallen house on the corner. The behind-the-corner wall of it had buckled years ago, and now there's a hole to see one whole room and peek into other two. The roof isn't whole either, pieces of its rear end are gone. He shot a bunch there. Too bad it's already september, some five weeks before he could have shot lots of storks, every 200m there's a nest.
We got 5,5 liters, which is below average, but this wasn't something to count, this was a demonstration. The apple itself isn't too rich in sugar. Regardless, with this we totalled the season with incredible 197 liters.
On nineteenth we gathered for a wider circle. First to the old house, so he can see that too. Then to the pedestrian dry bridge, where we were last year, but this time we went to the other lake, passing behind špiritana. Didn't try to get in, too risky, all the beams are rotten. Walked on, to behind Bangro. No guard now, all open, so we climbed up to the 2nd (i.e. 3rd) floor. The roof is long gone, as most of the partition walls. The construction still holds, the commie despots made it of well resistant steel, even the pale green paint on the beams is intact. Where he's standing the programmers' room was, when Avai was there, and behind me is the part of the purple wall, the last remainder of the director's room and Cica's lobby.
Then we went for a coffee by the river, between the two bridges. I parked in the underground, somewhere near the space where it still says DBA on the door, under the plateau at once sdk. Too bad, the place had an ambient. Now it's just a parking space for the workers in the bank, and even the bank has retreated from most of the building, it uses perhaps a third of the ground floor, the rest is empty, there's no headquarters in there, the HQ would be in Belgrade, or rather somewhere in Greece. This was a business hotbed in the nineties, the place was a swarm of shops open day long. Even this cafe used to have its own ship anchored next to it, or perhaps the ship was a separate tavern.
I took this shot facing away from my former company's door. We keep having more history than geography. The inside is, as far as one can see through the dirty glass, rubble. As if the move out is finished, and what is left is only the stuff nobody wanted, just waiting for someone to pick the garbage... waiting for some 13 years now.
Then we went home, put everyone in the van and went to zanatlija for a gulaš, of course. Good one.
In the evening I walked him, on foot, to Kabinet (about 1km from here). We packed eleven half-liter bottles of vodavoda (waterwater, local brand of water, the bottles are square and well stoppered, excellent for packing) with various kinds of brandy. He put them in the trunk, as if his reserve of serbian water for the trip. We'll yet make a smuggler out of him. Tried their lamb on the spit and their own beer. Both quite good, will return for it. This is where we parted, as he intended to lift anchor early in the morning.
I heard lots of bacground stories from Firriver, though now I don't know what I heard then and what later. I remember that when he and Jan were in Toronto, they were enchanted with what Jevgenij was selling... Well true, a con artist should know his dazzling. Shoving some new technology is not bad per se, even when it's m$, the problem is that none of us were consulted, and when they had just two weeks left and then stole most of the Feds code from Kees's portal, they were allowed to brag as if it was their own singlehanded victory. Scum job.
Mentions: Avai, Bangro, Čankovo, DBA, Feds, Firriver Fertility (Firriver), Jan Brenkelen, Jevgenij Nosorowetz, Joška Apro, Kees de Cock, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Majkrosoft (m$), majstor, Nicolas O'Keefe (Nick), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sdk, Slavica Urdulj (Cica), špiritana, zanatlija, Zina, in serbian