15-XII-2004.
Dad writes that the „Shop little“ by the railway had closed. The maam who held it was both more expensive and far away when compared with the shops in the rest of the street, which lined up across from 25. maj. The space is now rapidly occupied by some Chineses, as is happening on twenty other places around town, they're everywhere. Even auntie Janja reports that she's got a chinese shop nearby. These are all small stuff retail, to differ from here, where selling that kind of stuff wouldn't make sense, as they'd be selling the same stuff as the groceries would, it's all made in PRC.
“Speaking of forest trees there's an interesting thing in your yard. Namely, when you leave the terrace down that staircase you poured of concrete, on the left, between the first step and the supporting wall (left), thirtysome centimeters from the terrace a fir sprouted. A real conifer fir, because those you kept buying for decoration were spruces. It is small. Has two three side twigs and the main branch, trunk. I'll leave it to grow another year, unless it dries because of the location.“ It's actually a yew, which she replanted from a crack in the pavement in the city park, i.e. the city hall's backyard. So it survived, excellent. Said that there are four houses already in the lower half of our side of our street. That used to be empty, was supposed to be reserved for the customs warehousing.
(the current state of the kitchen - tiles looking nice, the sink still doesn't have its own cabinet, the whole lacks a top plate)
Nina is readying to fly home on nineteenth, straight to Danilo first, then to grandparents. She plans to attend some summer courses, to finish [college] faster, and the current crop of exams are just about finished, so she has a couple of weeks off.
Last week some navy apartments caught fire, so the officer gentlemen forbid cameramens' access to the place... on land. So they made shots from the next building's terrace, and from a helicopter. The roof was reduced to a quarter, the rest of it burned away.
Dad asks whether the money from Gary help with paying off the house. Eh... we're paying triple installments, because that way we're reducing the main debt and then the interest keeps falling. And then the faster it goes, the faster it goes. The interest drops more rapidly, the main is paid off faster, and then it accelerates.
It dawned with frost here. The sun is shining full tilt, and it's cold. Luckily, there's barely any wind. And Mrvica is squeeking more often to get grass, but what grass there is is now mostly frozen, at least in the morning.
Yesterday the UPS delivery guy came with our tobacco and cigarettes that we ordered, and he, surprise surprise, didn't wear shorts :). He even had a jacket, and even shivered a bit. As a true Virginian, it should be never cold enough for him, but it seems that this guy is „not exactly from Sarajevo, but a tad away from it“ :).
This was on sunday morning, when we were packing to visit Go and Ricardo. She worked a lot that day, one thing than another, so we didn't leave until half four. Never went so late. Then we drove Nina to the airprt, well, a nice little airport, and then while we were having coffee with Go, she chimed in from Newark, waiting for next plane.
I purhased a second hand amplifier, Go's old one can't be connected to anything (but has decent speakers), and what Burt left me has a weak contact somewhere. Tried to fix that, but exactly that part is a closed box, I'd have to destroy it to understand how it works. So I took a risk and found a beast of a machine on eBay for 22$ (35 with shipping)... an used one, from eightysome year or thereabouts, still better than what they sell nowadays. The regular resale price for that model is about 100$. Should arrive overmorrow, if the storm passes. It will earn a nickname Jovica (as it's a JVC), which won't see much use, because it'll just work and not earn much of a mention until... in a year or two it develops the exact same problem with identical symptoms. When you play it low, one channel cracks or goes few decibels lower than the other.
Twentieth.
Today we had wontos for lunch, which is some kind of croissant with meat. The dough for a wonto we bought yesterday at the Chineses, and it gets filled with minced meat, vegetables and whatnots, as much as that sheet can take, it's not larger than 10x10cm, maybe even smaller. It's then fried in oil and becomes crunchy, and smells like a meat burek. You eat five [eaches :)] and it's already heavy in you. Ahem, that's Go exaggerating (the recipe came through her), I ate eight and can do more :).
Today, apart from regular seaguls and other birds, we were honored by a visit to our back yard of a squirrel. They rarely reach this far, they stick to the other end of the street which is still forest-like. But then we have them seagulls and other greenery galore; we once watched as the crows shooed the seagulls away, who got so confused that two seagulls collided breast-on midair.
Could go back to work now, really. Fortunately, it's not far away.
Mentions: 25. maj, auntie Janja, burek, Danilo, Gary Brandywine, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Mrvica, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Reginald Burton Cape (Burt), Ricardo Manuel Bariero (Ricardo), in serbian