19-II-2023.
On fourteenth messed a bit with the phone, and to test ordered from Dragana to call me later. Didn't work... but at least I achieved to hear the hens as my ringtone for messages, and the mortar for calls, which it does receive when not asleep. Some progress. Also heard from her how Borko fared that afternoon with Paja. He and his son-in-law (Miljka's son) were both scheduled for a checkup, but Paja checked the younger one first and then said „look I have to be on this party, gotta run, you I'll see on friday, come with Dragana“. So she got her transportation postmeditately.
On 15th Jan asked if he could pass a payment to Aleksej Grigorjev through me - he wants to switch to a new version of his library in Feds. No can do, as Russia is now cut out from the Swift system. I did not mention the possibility that Aleksej may have a pal in Belgrade through whom to pass it, because that'd be a triper par exelance. He better talk to the guy in person.
On sixteenth it happened that we sat upstairs when Nina came up to tell us we have a visitor. We saw there was nobody at the door, she said the woman had already sat at the table. Well well, I already started guessing who could that be, M. who lives across from Zvezdana, she customarily barges in... but she brought the tobacco. Just when the carton of PS was nearing its end, and I started sensing some bad ingredients in it, they could really do better for the money. This kilo turned to be excellent. Price is 1200 now, so it won't be 10,76 times cheaper now, only 9,45. Oh government, the insatiable dragon.
The next day we already had regular smokes. The tobacco is just right, and one cigarette lasts whole 11 minutes - I see it by running fes on zmajček to spin the photos, when I go out on the terrace to smoke (the last frost was on tuesday and it's unseasonably warm now), and when its ten minutes of inactivity are filled and it removes the ikonostas, I see I still have a centimeter and a half.
Meanwhile, most of the rest of the tobacco seeds sprouted. If everything works out as she plans, we'll smoke our own, for half free half gratis, by september.
Took the twins today to blow off some steam, to Lidl and Roda. They played out there for a while, and then wanted baba to take them to the sideshop, in one corner of Roda's building (Metalac with their pots has meanwhile moved to the other such corner, and both mobile phone shops have closed). In the end they didn't buy any toys, which was their original intention, but underpants. While I was waiting outside, two Chineses, seems a father and a son, were looking for a pharmacy - they type something on their phone, it translates, they show it to the girl who stood there with her daughter on the playground, she sends them inside (there indeed is a pharmacy there). But no, it's not clear, so I sent them with more signs than words, and they go behind the building instead of inside, had to redirect them again. Then I went into the shop to see how girls were doing, just on time when they were at the cashiers, paying. Later she asked whether I saw Vesna. Where? She was in the shop, had a nice long chat with her. She still works in that sportsy outfit where Nina went for her gym.
In the evening talked with Borko to see about tomorrow, but no, it'll be on tuesday, his daughters took over his day. Okay.
Monday and tuesday no internet. They're working in the area, installing optics. I called them three times. First time just typed through their phone menu, got them the data, next time talked with the call center girl at length. Third time, on tuesday, called to check the status and got just „they're trying to reset the modems remotely“. Which didn't work, as on wednesday it still didn't connect.
She used the nice weather to clean the chicken coop. Sierra Guano grew again. While she was at it, she let the hens roam the yard, perhaps they may start laying again. They are a bit old, may well be beyond laying age, and we're getting six new ones in a couple of weeks. The neighbor offered us a new rooster, as our old one threw the spoon last week, but no, she says we don't need one, he's just a burden to the hens, being at least twice heavier than they, and we won't hatch any chickens anyway. Sanda and Linda welcomed the chance to spend the afternoon in the yard, both days.
Raja and Violet were relatively calm and didn't bitch about lack of web too much. Two or three years ago there'd be much more noise. They have disks full of games and movies already, there's stuff to kill the time. Unfortunally, this also means that few times in a day there's some disneyfied shit on the TV, where it doesn't matter whether it's about some islands in the Pacific or a chinese princess or some completely imaginary creatures, the music is always the same, not a notch better than it was sixty years ago. They stop watching it after twenty minutes and just leave it to bang on. Luckily, I became immune to earworms.
Well on tuesday, 21st, we gathered at Borko's, the 94th frendz parti. The whole food layout was, as he said, classically themed, i.e. all the stuff he bought on the sausageiade in Belo Blato or the čvarkijada (i.e. čvarci fest) in Čurda the last couple of weekends. Everything fine except the dry red bell peppers he laid on top of his gravče na tavče (little bean on little pan) went completely black in the oven. Not bad so, something to nibble, it does smack of something interesting, but that's not food. Should have soaked them...
Paja changed Dragana's therapy, and with the new meds her blood pressure started getting closer to normal. Took two days to start feeling the effect, but she said she felt better. On Borko he found the EKG okay but pressure... should measure it regularly now. So he went out and bought the measuring gadget, now without the hand pump, just a tiny motor inside, which will now consume more batteries. He didn't even unpack it, brought it so, just to show it.
The more serious subject were the so-called AIs of the current crop, and all the rubbish sold under that brand. ChatJippytea is already summarily mocked, here just this weekend some guy here made it write recipes for old shoes soup, codfish fizz with lemon and a guitar string icecream. It's not any kind of a mind, it's a statistical text analyzer, which knows only how to come up with the next word in a sentence. I wrote such a thing years ago, not too much more stupid than this.
Then it somehow moved to the subject of good taverns, and I remembered how Škrba said that, when and if ever his daughter graduates, he'll „get drunk until he shits in his pants“, but then of the three places in Kikinda which would be proper candidates for such a celebration, all three were closed for good already. Wished they had good taverns like we have. Found none and gave up on the project. There Borko remembered how he once took his wife and the kum couple of her side to a tavern at Linka's, though it was already taken over by Gedža but kept the name, and... then he digressed into retelling his experience from the croatian war, where he spent 45 days, and recited pretty much the same story we already heard a couple of months ago, about the formation of artillery units, the shooting range of a howitzer, the weight of its ammunition, bla bla... I made a recording of it, not for any wish to hear it again but rather to measure its length (of 13 minutes of it, 8 minutes is this walk through the war side). Eventually he finished but then couldn't remember why he digressed into it, so Dragana reminded him it was about taking wife out to dinner, ah yes, about that time her kum came with his wife, and he suggested that they go out for dinner, because he promised to himself to get drunk if and when he returns, to wash off the war experience and to make up for not drinking at all while there. So that evening he did himself so deep that there were pieces of footage which are completely absent from his memory. He did get the delayed diurns from the front, ahem, warplace (a fashionable piece of military newspeak, just like they never got surrounded but got into an encirclement), which was a nice wad of cash. He paid off the tavern bill by writing checks. The next day he couldn't believe he'd gone that deep into booze until his wife showed him the checks which he failed to fill properly - in the range between unreadable and pure gibberish. Miraculously, he did manage to write enough checks correctly, which he also didn't remember.
We had a new cab driver, giving out candy.
On 22nd, miracle unseen, Juliška raking the leaves and pruning roses. We never saw her do anything over and beyond dishes and laundry, for everything else she finds some guy, mostly her late husband's brother, to do whatever is needed - mowing, spraying whatever. Snow will fall.
On 23rd the intertubes stuck, we had no web nor phone for a while, then the web returned yet phone remained deaf. The next day again, this time full thirty minutes. Phone too. Then suddenly it rang, hello, this is telekom, did you report a malfunction... In the end I said „well I see you often in the area, last thing you did was ten days ago, when you painted two dot nine on the box“. „Two dot nine... that's right here... we're at your house“. So I went out, talked with the guy, he said this was the last of the line work here, they have optical signal to the last pole, and our phone line was getting bad, to they retied me to another pair, should be all good now, or even better. And the subcontractor which will install for households is scheduled to get it done within the next month or two, maybe three. Saw him staring at the twins, wondering how they speak english, getting curious, then I ended it with „long story, complicated...“, so he reluctantly let it go. I saw he was in mood for chat, could go on til tomorrow, but we need to go, ciao.
Went to the little shop first to get a sack of potatoes and a crate of apples. Their parking was crowded, I parked tightly next to their van, which meant I'd have to leave blindly in reverse. While they gathered our purchase, measured it, she paid, I went out to repark, as the space on the other side of the van was now vacated. I misjudged the space and dented my rear right door. It's a first, in my almost 50 years driving career. No real damage, just a dent and a light scratch, some work for the „sheet metal worker*“. The Joda isn't as nimble as saxo was...
Went to Neša's butchery, and it was as he was waiting for us. Had exactly the stuff we usually buy, cut to just the size, everything except čvarci, which he last had... almost a year ago. It's completely bonkers, how they used to cost 300 dinars a kilo three years ago, and now with some luck you may find them for 1200 or 1600; finding places where they cost 2700 or 3000 is not difficult at all. Ham is cheaper a lot.
We parked a bit away, by the far end of Lesnina but not in front of it, because it's now paid parking and the cops are very quick with wheelcuffs. Dragana told how her sister and her husband were fined for the two minutes they waited for her, it seems the place has the status of preferred ambush, the easiest cash cow. Not today, though, I saw many who were double parked or on the wrong side of the street, and nobody touched them. She took the girls to the chinese shop, bought them plush bunnies (resembling cartoon characters more than rabbits) and a few more bits. Then to the playground in that little park. A guy with a 4 year old son and 14 months daughter was there, and he also found it strange and cute how they speak fluent english, „as if it was their mother' tongue“ said I... He also became talkative, specially when I mentioned that I was a programmer, worked in fox... of which he never heard. Well three strong software companies here lived in fox, and half the city's companies did so, half of kombinat...
I see that the surviving brother (of our pal from VIII2 who hung himself) finally sold the house. Because the house is gone, only the gate remained. Now someone will build something here, 20m to the left there's already three pieces of fresh novogradnja, one of which is in the place of once „Zangrap“ - zanatsko građevinsko preduzeće - artisanal building enterprise, where they had all the electricians, masons, woodworkers, painters, plumbers and other fine cadre from 13. and MPSŠC. The rear wall of Zmaj is visible now, with about half of it untouched by brush since 1961... I'd say the upkeep of the building was better in the years of SFRY.
----
* I just love how english word for limar is so concise.
Mentions: 13. april, Čedomir Spajin (Paja), Čurda, čvarci, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Feds, fes, frendz parti, Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Jan Brenkelen, Joda, Juliška, kombinat, kum, Lesnina, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borko), MPSŠC, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), novogradnja, Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), saxo, Smiljka Grajin (Miljka), triper kombinacija, Vesna, VIII2, Violet, Zmaj, zmajček, Zvezdana, in serbian