I don't really know where to put this, it could be any early spring or fall month, moderate cold with sky full of clouds, without any shadows. She kind of remembers that we haven't moved yet, or maybe we did. She does remember we had some money, the 1000 marks was the amount, which would put it in early 1992 (which we then used to pay for plastering the house and later for tiling) but she was already highly pregnant then. Surely not in the crazy 1993 nor in my hungarian period. Could be october 1992. but this is the time I find more probable, by remembering the shape the kafeni was in.
So these travelling salesmen picked her on the main street, pretending to sound out the market and seeing her as a lady of means above average (she may have worn the leather trenchcoat provided by state? Irrelevant, she's look just as posh in her homemade garments), so they asked her a few questions, oh a doctor, programmer husband... maybe you'd be interested in a timeshare, on Palma de Mallorca to start with but you can later swap it for a number of other locations... The lecture is in Novi, in Hotel Park, saturday 13:00. To which we actually went, I was curious to see how this form of marketing worked and also to see what's the hotel looking like now.
I was there several times, always somehow officially - some guys there, in may 1980, were interested in coooperation with DBA, actually tried to sound us out to see whether to buy us off or wait for us to fail; that's where the TaxiSys was first installed, as it seems the hotel rent more rooms for offices than for sleeping; there I attended some lectures, networking I guess, and for the first time experienced those sunset states when I hear every word spoken yet intersperse each with some dreams and then can't make out which was which. Then I realized it's one of thise new buildings where the windows don't open, it should all be done by airconditioning, which wasn't turned on at all, it was a real soulloser, I was dizzy with lack of oxygen. The hotel was in Grobljanska street (cemetery st.) first, but then when Tito held his last doček there, the name wasn't fitting, so the street was renamed to „Novosadskog Sajma“ - street of Novi Fair (not Sajamska, an adjective is somehow not kosher, but genitive passes everywhere and sounds more official).
And the presentation... Hundred tricks to please the public, „a kind of vacation that you deserve“, and [the fact] that you didn't have it yet is a historical injustice, and we're here to right that wrong, bla bla bla. Of course, whenever the narrative came close to the matter of cost, it became blurry and quickly moved on to the next beauty that a time share offers to you. Of course, at least half an hour went on explaining the timeshare in the first place and how does all of that work.
When that passed, it was time for surprise of the day, to write our names on paper slips, and they'd pick one at random to receive a free vacation, seven days on Mallorca for two persons. And we got picked, which didn't seem too random to me, somehow we seemed fitting for their purposes... whatever they may have had in mind. I don't know what they were expecting, but at the time a dog wouldn't find anything where bite us*, and when they explained, when we were already alone with them, that the free part covers only the room, for everything else we'd have to manage - visas, air fare, food, drinks and whatever else there may be chargeable (probably everything)... well thanks. We excused ourselves in some generic terms, unfinished house, children and I couldn't possibly leave a fresh enterprise unattended for so long, bla bla bla.
Well, bro, if I had the money for that, even with free lodging, I wouldn't be driving dad's decrepit kafeni, but would have bought something more reliable. Though it never left us stranded on the road, this time I really feared it was close to it, the floor was rather rotten in front of the rear right wheel, and the wheel had more degrees of liberty than it should have, I knew exactly how much it will veer right with its butt whenever I brake. And the novi sad road was some railway street - concrete slates with joints filled with tar, which provided for an experience as if driving on rails, you feel each joint as the wheels pass it - and the ride felt as if the rear right wheel could fall off at any time.. Luckily it didn't, and soon we found someone to weld it. The guy was amazed that the wheel was still there, couldn't understand what held it.
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* a common phrase here, means we were not much financially
30-XI-2024 - 26-IX-2025