Trip home. Her uncle drove us to the Stuttgart airport late in the afternoon - our flight was at perhaps 18:00 or 17:00.
We landed at about 20:30 or so, got our luggage (including two bags that she had sewn, full of cloth by meter or pieces of garment that our richer cousins sent) and waited for Vanji to appear, which he didn't. Not having much communication didn't help, I guess I eventually got him on the phone and he appologized - something about his brother-in-law, car being blocked in the yard or some such bullshit. Even without that, we didn't have much of a transportation choice, the last bus home having gone around 22:00 and we being still at the airport at 21:30. So we took the shuttle bus, which landed us at the bus station downtown. The railway station is just next to it, but there's no train to our city from there; we need to go to the other station... so we took a cab. The cabbie skinned us properly, nothing outrageous but quite a lot, even in this year when we were all rich. Called home from a booth so at least dad would appear at Fabrika station, and boarded the šinobus. There's no railroad straight home, it has to go to Pančevo first, some 20+km east. Eventually, some time after 01:00, we were at home.
The bottle of Johnny Walker, which was supposed to be for Vanji as the fare, is still in the old house, unopened, still in its box, as of year 2020.
The very next week she went to Ohrid for an acupuncture course. As she has all those needles. And she got lucky, it really is a mighty technique. During the summer she managed to ease it to the fat neighbor lady (the cook of july 1966.) who was finally, after en months. capable of sleeping on her left side. Likewise helped a few grannies in oma's street.
I got it into my head to try it out myself, so let's thin me out. We should have done 20 sessions at half an hour each, paced thrice a week, with a ten day break in the middle, and should have ended 10kg lighter. Didn't work exactly that way, the break was two months instead, and... the results were unexpected. For one, the poking of needles was very strange, I didn't feel the needle enter into me, but rather between me, as of it was finding places where I was rare. Doesn't hurt at all, except: when pulling it out, in some spots the skin contracted, so it felt like plucking a hair; when poking into Du-20 (center of scalp), it felt like putting the lid on the thermometer's sheath, I felt the exact click when it was set in place. When poking between the thumb and the palm, as if I felt a marble-sized dull pain. The gain was in other effects: I didn't think I'd be capable of lying supine and not moving (except right leg, which held no needles) and now it turned I was able to relax perfectly (which later stayed in power catnaps of 10 or 15 minutes, which I could still do 30 years later). The second effect was the rejuvenation of my guts - only now I realized how many dishes I had to avoid (anything with a heavier zaprška, gibanica to an extent), now that they became harmless to me.
And the method in losing weight is the appetite. Before lunch, it's dialed to 12 out of 10. I could eat an ox. Two spoons before I empty my plate, I can't take another crumb. I tried once to shove an extra spoon into myself and didn't feel well.
I got down some 3kg while it lasted. Another three fell off during the winter.
Some time in late fall we went to Novi and bought a sterilizer in Jugolaboratorija, a good one, made in Zagreb. We had two excellent pincers by them, which we used for pretty much everything - plucking chickens, taking jumpers off motherboards and disks, depilation).