20-III-2005.
Plans are circulating on my trip to Belgium, now in april... which was translated into may on the same day. As soon as we get the visa, of course. And then I'd catch a few days to visit the old end, I guess. Next week I'll go to belgian embassy to deliver yet another paper, a guarantee to the belgian state that I won't become a burden to the EU. I'll be ten days in Andwerp and then for about a week at home, connecting that to the next weekend - the trick is to end the first part on a thursday, then be back at work on the monday after that other weekend, neat, ain't it.
But, as things go with Jüzek, no plan is carved in stone, they change [on] every kneading*. There I even returned the laptop, via Fedex, as they needed it urgently. The firm is such that the only sure thing is more delays :). Everything else is prone to volatility. Dad said in an email „the city will surprise you with many a news. Some streets are overstuffed with new, very neatly decorated locals** full of merchandise of every kind, from various small things to the cars of the newest wordly manufacturers“.
Ahem, I hope it doesn't look too much like the Americah... and well it can't, on the teevee it looks much more colorful than it really is, and even if they emulated it, they must have done it better. Just kept looking to understand why in some shops I feel somewhat out of sorts - and then realized that it's all gray or in some colors as if majstor Blagoje kept adding black to tone it down. The only things in pure colors are the staff's tools (carts, mop handles and „caution, wet floor“ signs), everything else is subdued. Floors, shelves, walls, ceilings - in hundred shades of gray, krmkasta and mouse fart color. For one, I was looking at towels, there's a score of colors, not one pure. They all look a bit dusty, or faded, or grayed out. (The „krmkasta“ was once Go's slip of the keyboard, she meant kremkasta [creamy - v. house dictionary], and of course we say it this way henceforth).
Only now (and never again) I saw what he said about „newest wordly manufacturers“... ahem, yeah, took me a while to notice that it's a marketing gimmick to advertise a brand new brand (pun intended) as famous (!) and then we're somehow supposed to be ashamed for never having heard of it. And then thirtysome times a year so.
Lena started writing in serbian recently, taking notes in it, says it's easier so to separate what she's writing from what she's hearing, i.e. professor's voice is not interfering :). And then also to brag to her gang with all those languages.
In the afternoon I meant, at about end of work, to try to shoot the ducklings across the street, they look really cute when crossing the pavement, and my window has a good view of their path. The end of work time is theoretical, because David is six hours ahead, and sometimes remembers to tell me something when it's already his time to go home, and then it's almost midnight here.
I aimed the Minolta and instead of ducklings lined up I saw the cops lining up these neighbors, or their visitors. They tied the hands to those two, behind their backs, with a zip tie, and told them to sit on the riser on the sidewalk. Eh, Amers, who never heard that it's not healthy to sit on cold concrete, but what does a kid know what's three hundred kilos, takes it and carries away. This ginger frisked the driver thoroughly, and the vehicle too. Found nothing. This lasted some twenty minutes and was a non-event, thanks for your cooperation, have a nice day. The three were absolutely cool and just waited for this to pass, the cops did their moves by their book, as prescribed. Nobody either smiled nor frowned, as either can be misconstrued and lead to an incident. Everyone played their assigned roles and waited for the curtain. Routine, like.
Twentysecond.
Today Mrvica ate first fresh grass of the year... Though, actually, there's no grass yet, it's just sprouting, but there's dandelion. They consider dandelion to be a weed here, there's even a special poison to buy to eradicate it. The spring has indeed broken here, but the temperature doesn't get above +14, and it's cloudy all week. Wherever sunshine appears, the water begins evaporating, and the vapor is dragging all over the continent. Couple of days ago few short storms thundered over here - sunshine first, then a downpour with thunder, then bright again, all in a hour or two. Two evenings ago, returning from grocery, on the sky we saw an almost full moon, and white clouds with lightnings in them. A rare thing, even here.
In the neighborhood some low shrubs began blossoming (tiny yellow) and so did the japanese magnolias (bushy), the narcisses on the highway are already on, and on our magnolia the buds are just as big as half a ćevap. But then once that blossoms...
She sought to buy a tailor's doll. While we were in A-burg these were somewhat hard to find; here we found them in one place (at Džoana Fabrićka, aka JoAnn's Fabrics), but they cost about a hundred dollars. She found Fabrićka's website, and there the dools, discounted (!), cost two hundred dollars. Searching further she found somewhere how to build a custom doll to exact measurement, from duck tape. And on friday we did one for Nina, and the rest of us will take turns. [never did]
Here goes: one or one and a half roll of tape (60m x 5cm), some pillow filler mass, a cardboard tube (as structural support), one stronger wooden coat hanger, and a tee shirt to tape over.
The model dons the tee shirt and then it gets covered with tape, starting from hips upwards and downwards, in three layers - horizontal, vertical, horizontal. Where it's more curved, shorter strips, where flatter, can do longer. This tape doesn't stick too well on anything else but itself, but then it holds like devil. Three layers make an armor, which is then cut in the back (so the model can get out), taped back, the hanger (bought one) is inserted shoulder to shoulder, a piece of cardboard tube holds the vertical (cut off a piece of tube which was in the carpet roll, using the motor saw), the rest of space is stuffed with pillow filler (bought five bags) and eventually the bottom is closed with cardboard (more tape). The cost - about ten dolars for one (a roll of tape is 2,50) and it is an exact fit.
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* old peasants' measure of time. Bread was made for the whole familial cooperative, in whatever amount their furnace could take. Next bread is made when they run out. Could be a week or two, the bread then had a long shelf life.
** a local is any business space - retail, cafe, tavern. This misnomer took firm roots, and can't be confused with the adjective, which is 'lokalni'. Also 'u lokalu', in the local, can either mean in one of them, or 'locally', so some confusion is still possible.
Mentions: Annenburg (A-burg), ćevapčići, David Krakovski, Gorana Sredljević (Go), house dictionary, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), majstor, Mrvica, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Yisaac Kwiatnik (Jüzek), in serbian
9-IX-2024 - 7-IV-2026