28-XI-2022.
My new phone still won't ring when suspended. They told me on pine forum what to mess with and where to look, and for starters I tried to install the new modem firmware, and it was accepted but modem won't switch to it. They sent me to three other places for further reading... but there I ran out of will, so it sits like that for weeks already.
On 20th in the evening, I was dežurni with the phone, waking it up every few minutes, expecting that Borko would call. And he did and I caught it and he said delay for a week, he's got the runs when he returned from grocery. Luck had it that he didn't get it on the street nor on the stairs, only when he got home. But it's not easing up, and it would be very inconvenient for the three of us to sit alone so often and also find the bathroom occupied.
On twentythird in Lidl we met majstor Mile. Said he was doing a roof somewhere, just a couple more days to cover it. So you are still doing heights? Well what can I do... He said he called me twice, thought we may have gone back to the US. Well it's my phone, capricious... just message me if it won't ring. Dunno how... Okay, here's the landline number. He'll come, he said, when they finish this and the weather allows.
Then we went to Roda and bought a whole pork shoulder, it's cheaper than čvarci. I still know how to debone a ham or shoulder. Also, bought hearts for gulaš and kidneys for the cats and ears for pihtije. The battle gear for pihtije she already bought before - trotters and skin (with a layer of inner tissue). And how she made them, as excellent as... she always does. So thick that you stick a fork into the just jelly part and it stands (tried this!).
On that 23rd Magi also sounded out. To get her some international birth certificate for her, where it will clearly say that she's now officially a widow. She's going over the paperwork to inherit husband's pension. The frnch bureaucracy fucks and dismantles, the social worker is all on her and... We talked with her on skype (headset with microphone, I unplugged the camera few weeks ago, too many cables; we don't even try to go on speakers, because on any sign of sound or video chat, all the kids spontaneously become very noisy). We saw her, she didn't us. Cries, weeps. Not much left of once gorgeous chick.
On 24th I finally remembered to congratulate Stanley's birthday on skype, which is about the last thing we did there as a family. The next day I installed telegram on my phone again, and Nina and I tried to add me. Telegram is a skype lookalike, just faster smaller better and not m$. I tried a few other contenders, signal, psi, even iseequeue and whatnot. Seeing as the app for the pine64 is actually quite good, tried again to register on it. The trouble was that it wouldn't send the confirmation message to my number. Tried with hers, also none. Then tried with Nina's, last ditch attack. And lo and behold, it got the message, but not SMS (as it advertised), but rather into her telegram app. Okay, so now I had her identity on my phone. Created new account within my phone and then she assumed that identity, while I still had hers. We cloned that new identity to zmajček, and then, after a few unclear moves, we were who we were, all fine. Then immediately Magi, of rasejani, sent a hello. Took me a while to remember who that was - no nickname there, just rl name.
Same evening we repeated it on gugolj, reported the move to Go and Lena and thus the big family migration was completed. Saturday evening I even called her from smoke salon to join me for a drink. Just like fifteen years ago when we skyped the girls to come down to lunch, easier than to shout up the stairs.
She made two more rounds of winter preserves, what else to do with so many green tomatoes. The one she already pickled turned out great, but didn't quite pickle, as it kept fermenting in the jars, despite thermal conservation. When I went to pay the monthly bills, met there autolala. Mentioned something about how all the shit follows me, whatever was bad here became fashionabled in the US when we got there, same when we returned. At least I don't get annoyed, watching no TV for fourteen years now. Ah, but you should, how else would you know how good it is here. That's why it is good, because I don't watch TV.
I came by detelina and bought a little 20l barrel, so she emptied the jars into it. And it's nothing special, just the green tomatoes and habanero peppers. It's confusing how it doesn't feel too hot, and when I put only half a square centimeter of it into a plate of čorba, my scalp sweats. And now she went on making more, even a batch of chutney.
Lena has now officially quit the job in Frankfurt, will start with the other outfit in Califat... California in mid december. She already considers returning the money we gave her for the apartment. No need, keep heaping it up, it won't be wasted. Nina is scanning her paperwork for passports.
On saturday (26th) some guy Mstislaw (well, shouldn't that be Mstisław? I'll ask him.) of burundi offered two tickets for the concert of Darko Rundek on 16h. At discount. He just can't go. Okay and thanks. She said she won't go, she's getting strongly convinced that the whole rocknroll is a conspiracy of coincidental interests, a rebellion without its own cause, she would have nothing with that, so I'll see on monday.
On sunday Nina printed all the stuff Magi sent in her emails. The printer began streaking on the sides, so she asked how to clean it. Ouch, haven't seen that done since 1992... well, wipe the selen drum with a microfiber cloth, and see about all those rubber wheels in the paper path.
In the evening I spoke with Mstislaw, on the phone. At first he didn't know who I was, as he didn't enter my number into his phone, and then, move by move, from which area am I... and it turns out he grew up two streets from here, I even know some of his neighbors. The discount is customary, he's recouping the cost, they can't attend because his wife has an office party, so it'll cost me 2000 rsd instead of 3000.
On monday she went to the city hall to get that paper for Magi, the clerk at the matricular didn't even want to look at the paperwork she brought, just fill the request, here, done, free of charge when it's for retirement. She got home before 12, but we didn't want to wake Nina up and she's got the scanner. So I took a picture of the paper and processed it (just tone curve, didn't try to straighten the lines, central projection doesn't hinder readability) and sent her. The proper scan went in the evening. She thanked us so much, but then later it was „sorry to bother you that much, but can I get the original, in case they ask for it?“.
At Borko's, 87th frendz parti. Dragana didn't feel like drinking, quit after second tutifruti, so we didn't even switch to wine. I told Borko to bring three toothpicks, to see who goes to Rundek - short abstains. But then when Dragana heard that, she didn't want to go either, so it's him and me who will go. And after that we'll... I don't remember the name of the place he suggested, I flatly refuse to visit, when I can have a say, places named in english. You don't like my language, you don't like my money, ciao, g'bye.
Then few minutes short of midnight he started a yarn about the difference between military and political goals in a war. From the time he said „my battery was located at“, over „we weren't targeting Vukovar but Vinkovci, had very little to do“ and „three tanks entered Osijek, nobody there, they smashed the defences“, all the way to „and then they were ordered to retreat because Osijek was not in range of Sloba's political goals, he didn't need it“... lasted no less than 40 minutes. Shoot, he's having a class again. It's incredible how he manages to say the same things four times over. So with a 40 minute delay I congratulated them the saint twentyninth. At that time we already switched to just mineral water, and then she asked for a third shot of tutifruti, I poured myself the fourth and he... went on for fifth at least, don't trust my count.
He escorted us to the traffic light again. The temperature was around zero but no wind. Regardless - we were buttoned up, his jacket unbuttoned. I guess to evaporate the alcohol... Dragana limps a bit more than usual, says it's because she sat the whole evening with boots on. Which she must keep on, or else the ankle wouldn't fit when she'd try to put them on.
The paper for Magi I sent on 1st, as well as the money to Mstislav (to his mobile, that's customary already), and made a round, to get the summer savory (and cashews, the temptation I succumb to once a year) at _špajiz, then to Neša the butcher to get some sausage and smoked shoulder. He had no good bacon this time.
In the afternoon we took the girls, both three, to Springfield, to kid it out. They're more skilled each time - Linda is now climbing the little plastic house and almost jumping down, and also climbed all the way up the climbing wall; Sanda is now hanging on the rope holding by just thighs and one hand. Violet is again trying to impose her gameplay, but the two now take notice much faster than before and scream right there.
Mentions: autoLala, burundi, čorba, čvarci, detelina, dežurni, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), gugolj, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Majkrosoft (m$), majstor Mile, Mališa Borkovski (Borko), Margita Gunaroši (Magi), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), pihtije, rasejani, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), Springfield, Stanley Berger, _špajiz, Violet, zmajček, in serbian