Tuesday evenings, I was locking myself in the cold bathroom and listening to radio Luxembourg, writing down the top 30 (was top 20 until recently) in my diary. Roscoe, or whoever was the DJ, was at times hard to comprehend, what with AM reception after sunset, and the occasional override by a neighboring station. A lot of misheard lyrics (didn't even know they were called lyrics in english, thought of them as just "text of the song" or just „the words“).
I didn't want to go to a movie, because the one at šećerana had become the gathering place for that mysterious gang, and my former gang from the corner, best to avoid. In "Vojvodina" (this side of downtown) the ceiling fell, not working. That leaves "Balkan" downtown, but they're still running "Bitka na Neretvi", saw that one already.
At least three times a week I'd walk off to ruža in the evening to meet with the gang. Once I almost couldn't find them, as they were just going to the nearby 25. maj, which was just about finished, and some of the older guys (Patak, Gradivoj, Eči and a couple of others, all of them a year or two older, therefore already in high school) got the job, probably through some kind of Students', to clean it up - wash the glue off the tiles and doors, remove bits of insulation that electricians may have left etc. The gang had the key to a couple of entrances, and of course all the 16 apartments behind any of these were unlocked until ready for move-in. It was a sneak party, some smoked, maybe there was a bottle of wine, empty, left over from the last time. Don't remember if any girls were present at the time, maybe Dragana and/or Rencika, or maybe I was just told they were there the day before. Nothing much happened, just sat, talked and walked around the apartment we were in. The power was not connected - must have been during the day, or else how would the electricians have finished - but I guess the whole block was in the dark off hours. The surrounding terrain wasn't even remotely finished, we had to tread carefully through the dark and mud. No snow, just the lousy mud everywhere. Across the street the old doghouse was still a danger to walk by, as the dogs (caught strays? never knew) were ferocious and the wall was losing bricks at the bottom.
On 16th, the last PE class in the semiyear (aka semester) we were relaying (i.e. putting back) the hardwood floor tiles. The roof was dripping. The autumn was quite rainy and the snow thawed a few times, and the floor wasn't lacquered (it would be slippery), so it soaked so much water in those couple of places, that it rose almost a meter until the upper tiles in the domes finally shrank a bit and started falling in. A few were surely taken as souvenirs. So we were putting them back, now that they're shrunk back to their original size.
On 17th there was a PTO meeting (called "parents' meeting" here), and we couldn't even count the aces (i.e. F marks). There's only 10 of us, in VIII2 with exemplary conduct, the rest are punished for this or that reason. Probably even Tejka because one of the guys copied one sentence from her during the test in russian, and she wasn't quite convincing when called to account for that. These days I noticed that she's actually looking quite good... from behind. At some point we ran, me behind, and I had the eye for how her dress swayed around her curves.
Ah, yes, my conduct isn't exemplary this semester - I was marked as the firebrand, the organizer of pranks, misusing my authority (nb. doesn't mean any ruling powers, just honoring the expert's opinion, having a sway and a say - and wow, I never noticed I had one), including the last dance which was deemed a swindle, as if I cheated a little to get it organized. And ah, yes, the matter of haircut. Probably another one looming.
Meanwhile, the gang on ruža founded a club. Of sorts. The whole block between Zmaj and ruža being flattened, for the 25. maj was being built, left the basement of some house, with part of a shed still above it, untouched. The construction enterprise used the shed for its own purposes, just like they used one last house, and forgot about the basement. So someone, perhaps Patak, just put his own lock on it and used it while it lasted.
It had a table, chair, some kind of bed, and missed lower rungs on the stairs. Wasn't too big, I've seen much bigger, but it could take a few people. I guess few couples at the time found some use of the bed. There was no light. I was there once, with a couple of guys.
Saw "We're not angels" on TV, with Peter Ustinov and two other guys... laughed my ass off.
The current strain of flu is called Yokohama. I have some chances of being among the last victims.