03-IX-2023.
On twonyninth she made another chutney from... no idea what not. Figs, pears, apples, and in the mandatory part, onions and hot peppers. Meanwhile we were exterminating the leftovers from the previous one, figs and blackberry, the excess - when it's three and a half jars in a batch, the half needs to be eaten soon. Not perishable, though, it can sit pretty much forever, but rather to get it off the list before the next one comes.
On 30th, finally a frendz parti at Borče's. We did our weekly groceries at Lidl in the afternoon (and it's now less than weekly, this was only second this month), and bought the wine and chocolate, so didn't need to drop by along the way. At least I shot at will. Fuckit, nobody's producing color paint anymore, it's all earthtones*. This used to be all that ochre-like yellow like that bit behind the pole. The phenomenon was spotted on three other houses along the way.
In Lidl I also bought some slippers, with raised sole edges, and they felt like not large enough. I lost the skill of wearing the fixed sole clogs, can't walk far in them, maybe a bit around the house... so I put on the newer Kompako shoes, from 2017. Turned out we were too fast, we arrived at his entrance before 19:15, far ahead of time. I guessed he hasn't gone to pick Dragana yet, so we just sat on a bench in front, had a smoke... right, there he comes. He spotted us right away, waved when he recognized us, then moved on, then realized whom he recognized, then stopped right there. A real, as the Amers would call it, double take. Invited us for a ride. Nope, we prefer to sit here in front of the building - when would we do that if not now? So he brought her and all fine, we went up. Neither a two of us nor she were in any decent shape, we were equally close to gasping by the fourth floor.
He had prepared some... whatever the fuck, pear or whatnot, but the ladies voted to play it safe and so we drank the cherry (not cherry) that we brought. And then the story of his sojourn in NYC at Strle's [his what?], actually in White Plains or wherever he was. And he was accompanied by a lady friend of Strle's wife, so he wasn't alone and the wife had a friend of her own [her own what?]. The wife is, BTW, the sister of some guy from DC-99, whose phots I did see at club selections, and was probably introduced to him at least once and saw him a few times, but just the same don't know who the guy was. They, he said, aren't quite Jews, they're half german, half hungarian, and then the rest.
He told a lot, and we explained a few things he saw but didn't quite understand, and he did spot the dirty puritan streak in the american character. Said there's alcohol prohibition in New York (state? city) until 17:00, and they brought a few small (0,33) cans of some weakest beer, of 3-4%, properly wrapped in brown paper... and as he sipped that, some missus comes up and asks his host (the wife) „is this man drinking alcohol?“. Yes, so what? „I am disturbed!“. Really. The missus got properly oncunted [berated, but I kept the literal translation, for taste], and Borče kept an impression that the Amers there think that the state** should tell them what to feel. Nope, man, they're hardly waiting for the next scapegoat whom they can freely abuse, and then there's also the definition of a puritan as the person who „spends days permanently horrified at the thought that someone out there is enjoying it and having fun“. Well, Amers...
We drank moderately, he didn't hold a class, nobody got under self's influence, and I didn't make too many shots (except on the way there), and the cab to go home also came quickly. And so this was the 98th frendz parti.
The next day we got 300kg of pears from a neighbor, at 60 dinars per kg. These should sit for ten days until they go soft, then we'd grind them, let them ferment and then make rakija. Meanwhile we do apple rakija, with about quarter of apples coming from our gardern, and the rest from the other neighbor (who's between them and us, and has the same surname anyway). We didn't have much luck with rakija this year, barely 30l so far. But then two by two, four hundred two.
These days we're rapidly negotiating the 45 year end-of-study anniversary, again just mathematicians, for who'd ever be able to gather them physicists, geographers et al, we weren't close even then anyway. Though, we weren't close to ourselves either, but at least we had success with the meeting 07-IX-2013. and the two following years, so why not again. The organization is V.Š. (who did it last time as well), Borče and I. Time, 4th or 5th of october, location Elmont. Well, we'll see.
The milkman brings just two liters at a time, once just 1,5, all summer, so it's 6l a week instead of 10. We also got used to the regime. Once a week she buys a 1,5 liter bottle at the grocery. The bottle has the shape of the once milk bottles, but is plastic. Serves to bridge the day when we run thin. She even makes pancakes, at least twice a week.
On 5th we filled the afternoon by taking Linda and Sanda to Neša's butcher shop (I'm underwhelmed, the lady who knows us wasn't there, and the švargla contained a bit of tough sinew which I couldn't have chewed even when my teeth were in best shape), then to Lidl and in the end to Springfield. The guy is expanding, now he turned the former fish shop on the other corner into a vegetable shop without a roof, just awnings. We bought a sack of bell peppers at just 80 dinars per kilo, not too good but quite okay for the money. By the end of next day they were all pickled in jars. The guy also started charging for the use of the playground, 200 dinars per kid, flat fee, which does make sense, but then he also raised prices of everything else... so we just had a coffee, ordered nothing for the girls, and that's for the better, because they didn't feel like playing. There were three other girls, about their age, one even spoke sufficient english, but nope, they were already tired so we packed up, stayed just one hour.
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* whoever says earthtones here and means the likes of chestnut an mahagony [not mahogany, you idiots], should stick his nose into mud around here and check its color
** „država“ means all of state, country, governmental apparatus at the same time
Mentions: 07-IX-2013., DC-99, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Dušan Starkić (Strle), Elmont, frendz parti, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borče), rakija, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), Springfield, švargla, in serbian
5-IV-2024 - 17-IV-2026