27-VI-2025.
On wensday we also somewhat changed [our] programme, after entertainment we didn't drink rakija, she said she's not into it as much, but got four nikšićko blacks from the supermarket so we [did] that. Turned out well, I fell asleep like a pigeon's suckling, around three. Around four, to pee. Around some past five, at the fourth pee, I decided any effort into going back to sleep would be futile. Made myself a coffee, snacked some (salami, smoked crusader cheese), smoked two-three, played some fes some chinese construction videos... what fools they have. Around seven I decided I'd sleep again. She woke me up at 12:30, let's lunch. Paprikaš, mmmm.
Today, finally some rain. Go printed a slinky, the plastic helix, and sent a video of Anita letting it down the stairs. Works like the real [thing].
It's cooking ahead the tomorrow blockade of Slavija. They already pointlessly arrested another six over an illegally recorded tavern talk, then one student just like that, brought the veterans in for a talk, the bus [enterprise] from Niš had to cancel three hired buses because they were threatened, all the dance moves just as on the eve of 15th of march. The regime is filling its pants and again fails to come up with anything original. This time they only changed the order of moves around these arrests, the recordings went through the police first, then the arrests, then the six mudloid televisions they sicced ĐV (okay, it's „return [the] head to [the] horse“ DJV, but I've long ago accepted that people type dj instead of đ) to bark and growl, then the prosecution, and then eventually their lawyer (always Ninić, the guy built experience) got the recordings. Last time the mudoids went at least one step ahead. In Niš the same, people rent three buses, the transporter got a threat from a connected person, the contract is agreed to be canceled, because fuckit, and the folks already had a ready thing set at the Gugao to pool free seats in their cars with those in need, all done in a few hours, experienced. And, yes, again „a call was received containing an anonymous tip that there are explosive devices set on all the trains and tracks“ which means no passenger trains would go. The cargo trains (and tracks), it seems, are explosion resistant. And it's good that now all the phone numbers are registered, so they still don't know how to locate the source of information.
The gathering place for Novi Beograd and Zemun is at Ušće (the confluence), so Lena will have a first row view, at least in the beginning. This time they won't take Brankov bridge, which is too small for as much people, on 15th of march thousands never even made it to the other side.
Later in the afternoon we went for groceries, having run out of coffee and cat grub. For coffee we go to Lidl. We used to take four jars, now it's five, as we don't want go there as often. Yes, we buy a few more things, but not even close to what we once did. When we beelined to the register, I heard the PA being unusually loud, shouting, but not the usual 'now opening register', it rather mentioned some application and 'it becomes possible for you to'. Well march off bro fuck your mother, I came to buy coffee and not to listen to your ads, where's your shutoff button. Ah, yes, the speakers hang from the ceiling somewhere up... I started bitching quite loudly, even told the staff, and the girl said „yeah it startles us too when it comes up“. I walked back to the gondola with the coffee and got two more jars. The seven will last until mid august at least. And I wrote to Lidl, „you can do this to me only once, and you just used it up“. This brought the memory of Exxon's hose of 2005, and of Glotz where you couldn't buy a keyboard without being shouted at by Dick van Dyke (or his brother) with 'only nie ninedy nie' some fifty times an hour.
When we sat in the evening, a pear then, I'm no beer guy anymore, I was chided for her having to listen to my bitchin, as in 'if you want to make a scene, distance yourself from me'. (... 45 words...) The other dispute was about fish čorba, for which we gave up on the pangasius, which is at least 45% water (measured last time after thaw), will do hake instead. Right there it clicked in my head that we invented the pork fish čorba exactly because we didn't know which fish was from sea which from river, and now, come to think about it, can't remember any reason, apart from tradition, why would brudet be different from fish čorba, fish is fish is fish. (... 43 words...)
Twonyayth, the vidovdan protest in Belgrade. Although my last night's sleep was neat and regular, nope, I had to do an hour and a half after lunch. When the folks started going from Zemun and NBg, we found as much as four live feeds, so we watched Slavija being filed, how people cross the bridges (the zbors of LCs over Gazela, students over Brankov)... and then Nina called. She's got a lengthy trouble with Sushi, the older cat, had to take her to a veterinary, with dangling tongue and blood dripping... Cost around 900$, seems she found a discarded fish with a hook in it, and her tongue got hooked. Then Lena joined, so we chatted in a three* for a while, with children jumping in at times (saw Raja and Linda again, and Tanja mastered climbing up and down the couch).
Then we returned to the live feeds, alternating the four channels. I pasted their links on UA, with these descriptions:
this is actually KTV. Their main reporter, Nemanja Šarović, is today covering Vučić's meetup on Gazimestan, which is on Kosovo - the great battle against the Ottoman empire there in 1389 decided the rest of the history of the Balkan (there's actually only one, never understood the plural) and it happened on this day... Better that he's there because he became such a celebrity, on each big protest there's always a few thousand people who want a selfie with him so he can't even interview anyone properly; politically, he's scum, he stayed with Vučić's mentor Šešelj well into 2020s; as a live feed anchor he's great.
Srbin.info, usually very nationalist and pro-religion, their cameras prefer to pick anything of the kind to pretend that the četnik and orthodox elements are much more prominent than they really are
Beli bombarder (white bomber) usually have a feed from a drone or fixed cameras; this time they have feet on the ground (the show is already on as I write this, covering the walk over the highway bridge from Novi Beograd to old town)
blockade.info, students' own channel, tech support goes from my old college and the reporter girls (also students, from communicology, philology etc) are very sweet, I keep falling in love every time I watch them, for a few minutes at a time.
Twonyninth, straight to Belgrade. Easy ride, arrived really fast, no crowd no cops, they're resting after yesterday, 70 minutes tops. Though, I did step on it a bit wherever I could. Tanja was already awake, indian food was ordered, she ate same that we did, plus some banana. And we took her out in a stroller (no icecream this time!), despite the sun hitting at will and will not, but there was also a breeze, bringing the cool damp freshness from Danube. They invented a scheme to get to the seaside: Milan will take Api in the car, what with luggage, clean up the place a bit, then a few days later they two fly over. Reverse order of moves at the end.
She recounted some of the Kopenhagen adventure... says one colleague asked about how are the guys in Serbia (feeling fine, thank you), she heard they're strong. Then she managed to find a local and vanished somewhere with him each evening. And the Italian whom she interviewed was hired, promising, says an interesting character, finds his ways, moderately talkative and doesn't wave [his] hands much while talking. Reminded me of „how to make an Italian shut up?“ - „tie his hands“.
Talking with Seattle in the evening. The matter of the old house in Virginia Beach finally moved, that Greg guy, whom they found through Craig's did come, Nina unlocked it, gave a much more moderate estimate. The bathtub allegedly leaked somewhere and some flooring would need to be replaced. Whether it's just bathroom or the bedroom as well, fisix thousand altogether, to finish by mid-August. And then they plan to sell it, the guy said they'd easily get 200 thousand, and they're eyeballing some places in Arkansaw (ok, Arkansas, aka 'Arkan's saw'), found one on seven hectars, quarter of it forest, with a creek. They've mostly accumulated enought cash, then stage left from Seattle, because if 3% real estate tax bill passes, it'll be unbearable, get away before the crowd does.
Then we had a few pears, and had a nice shuteye around three or thereabouts. And I slepf for some five hours, as if it were all okay, but after lunch I simply and unexpectedly fainted, and went so deep that she had to wake me at 18:00. Because ah, yes, we gotta go to the frendz parti. And so we did, no hurry, it being hot but with some breeze. Entering Roda's parking, a car stops, the couple inside greet us, obviously they know us but we them not. She recalled before I did - Milena's parents. Chatted a few minutes while we weren't blocking anybody's way, but then we did, the gate isn't a good place for a chat.
In Roda they did have the ernafil but in Metalac they didn't have mice, the one from 2019 finally croaked, doubleclicks on a singleclick, I'm making do with some spare Genius with a randomly firing wheel. In špajiz they had all the possible indian spice from her shopping list, she decided to make poultry** curry, now that we liked it so much. We arrived around eight, having taken a breather after 2nd and 3rd floor (american 3rd and 4th), second one a bit longer. Borče's aircondition doesn't quite reach the dining room, it's in the living room, probably needs to clean the filter, and the rakija was rather warm, poured it just before leaving, so it didn't quite have the time to cool off. We sipped a bit, nope, no good, it should be drank at room temperature, but not when room is so hot. Poured back into the bottle and put in a freezer for a while. Two cigarettes later, now we're talking. Borče bought some belgian beer in Lidl, of various ingredients, including some orange, 0,75, a stronger kind of the blond persuasion, whatever that means, probably similar to those bock beers (v. 19-VI-1990.). He didn't dare try it out himself, but rather gave to us.
Two main subjects. First, Borče's thesis that the youth of today are immature, because they don't found families, while we, truth be told, matured more slowly but at least made the effort. This is where we weakened his position from several sides, first about the latter paart, that we actually did mature on time or even ahead of, but were kept dependent and our adulthood was ceded with a significant delay, of many years. And then he brings up an example of his colleague whose daughter got pregnant, at age close to four banks (i.e. 40) and is entertaining with a guy of fifty plus some, for years. Literally entertaining, they go out and then he walks her home. Why would that mean immatureness, if they know what they want and do exactly that. And not making families does not mean immature at all, because - what are their chances to prosper, to have a future for those families? Once you acquire five years of staž as a waiter, courier, mailbox stuffer and cabbie over a course of ten years, when you grow a bit old for those lines of work and don't see any better one on the horizon, what's a mature reaction then? To just dive in and whatever happens? There in China you already have a whole generation without jobs, barely 10% of graduates find it the first year, and they refuse to pursue any careers, chase jobs etc, they simply „lay flat“ and „let it rot“.
The other was when, within this dispute over immaturity of youth, we inserted students as an example. That's when Dragana immediately, from elbow, wrote them off as, like, enough is enough I've had them up to here already. What bothers you? Well you can't pass anywhere, they block passage all the time. Um, yes, you have a problem as a great driver, they block intersections. You can still walk through them... And where were you even going, to be bothered... This is where we shouted at her, all three, and she retracted the talons quickly. As if she has the need to be chided by someone from time to time, no other explanation.
Didn't drink much, we guys a roze (again the pale one but not bad), she a black Budvár, Dragana a sour [aka mineral, water], claiming to be not good for anything during this scorcher. And we split some time early, we got home before one. The cab was reacting stiffly to lying constabulary (i.e. speed bumps), asked „what car is this, is it really so stiff or am I spoiled for driving only them Frenches for years“, he replied „it's a škodilak, I had a Fabia before and the timing chain skipped seven cogs, fucked up the head completely, so I also switched to Frenches, I have a Poozhoe and a Renault and a Citroën, they're all better than this“.
Tuesday. Spoke with Lena. Tanja's passport will be done on monday, flying on tuesday. Milan is leaving on friday. They think how that bachelor pad there will be too small next year already, maybe they'd swap for bigger and add some money. The locals are sparse there, it's mostly Germans, „one of those places where they're happy to hear serbian, these guys won't even try english, they expect everyone to speak german“. Guess that's because they have to use english at work...
So the hake fish čorba came to be, and was excellent. True, it's different from a river fish čorba, but then those also differ as much between any two kinds of river fish. I love the hake for its neat layout of bones, easy to take out. We ate that for three days, and each time refuted the thesis that fish is light and you can't get overstuffed.
Wensday, 2nd. Been to the garden. Drove out the mower, to counte the quip from the sixties, „when is the hay mowed“ (it never is, grass is moved and becomes hay by drying, but there was a deodorant then, named 'mowed hay', an early attempt of imbecile world overload in marketing premeditation; it was popular when smoking at home alone, then to hide the smell of smoke for when parents return) - now I did mow the hay, the grass was dry already.
Friday. Milan and Api en route to the sea. At the border he noticed that he brought the old, canceled passport. Try again tomorrow.
Saturday. Worked the second time, he got there. In the evening I continued reading Reynolds's buccaneer series, then also tried to find a movie to watch, but in 2018 they seem to have repeatedly make same old shit every time, after ten minutes of it I simply know the rest of it, quit. And there she comes, around 1, sleeping doesn't work. We drank that beer from Borče, not bad at all, though in two days I wouldn't recognize it by taste. And it's not enough, so we had an apple, it's been years since we last poured concrete [having a stiff drink after beer is called 'beton' in general slang]. And behold, after that one shot we were exactly ready to hit the hay, it was already about three, so we did and slept well. True, I did drop by Otočac [place in Croatia where they made lighter gasoline, assoc. „otočiti“ - to pour off], but then continued until nine. Didn't sleep much in the afernoon either, ten minutes tops. I remember the mrz played „Dharma for one“ by Jethro, and the endless drum solo put me to sleep, and woke me up by ending.
And we had that poultry curry for lunch. She thought the frozen nugget was drumsticks and thighs, but nope, wings. No fault at all, turned out great, has exactly that smack which I didn't taste for years. Exactly the deja vu, I recognized but can't remember what I recognized and when was it, could be something from twony years ago. The remaining four wings and rice I'll do for dinner today and tomorrow, while she'll make another čorba or something for lunch. There were actually just three wings left, but no matter, I stuck to the plan and felt fine. For next frendz parti, a pork curry.
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* 'utroje', literally 'in a three-membered company'
** exactly the choice of words in the serbian original, because when you say 'pileći' - (of) chicken, in serbian it does not in any way imply anything in general, except that it's young chicken. Which need not be the case, but most of the translators fall for this trap.
Mentions: 19-VI-1990., Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), Api, blockade, čorba, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), fes, frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gugao, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Jethro Tull, KTV, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borče), Milan Nastić, Milena Požarić, mrz pladžer, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Poozhoe, rakija, Ryu (Raja), staž, škodilak, špajiz, Tanja Nastić, UbiquAgora (UA), in serbian
27-VI-2025 - 25-III-2026