Zeta came home for the weekend and brought three seedees by Tom Waits, for Lena.
Ford is coming today. Although, it started on the wrong foot. As Greg wrote this morning (probably after his midnight), "It seems that Ford 'forgot' something when he left the office today. (HINT -- It's paper ... and the airlines like to receive it before letting you on the plane.) I THINK he's going to make the flight. If not, I'm sure you'll have an email from him tonight when he returns to the office! In any case, if you DON'T hear from him, just meet him at the airport.".
My response (at 7:58): "I found only this from you and nothing from him, so I guess he's somewhere near the European coast at this moment. On sezam they announced there's the fat fibre broken somewhere in Netherlands, and this means all the net traffic between Europe and East Coast is using workarounds, which meant transfer rates ranging from 230 to 1000 - and I've had something like 3500 few days ago." (that would be bytes per second).
Regarding the pictures of A-burg they posted on the FTP, "Nice city (and the exception isn't looking that much better than... (take your pick)). Two things are obvious: first, whoever built the city, had a lot of room and money; second - don't know why did they build it at all, there are no people :). Really, not a single person can be seen (except the aforementioned exception, but it's also inside) - nobody on the streets. The cars seem to be the only living creatures :).
I hope Ford will land fine - we're having heavy fog right now. It may dissolve sufficiently until noon. I can see the roofs of the houses in the next street, and, anyway, my part of town is always foggier than the main roads.
I'm leaving right now, because I have to visit a supplier in BG to pick some hubs. Besides driving through the fog (which I am used to), I'll have a much bigger problem of parking in downtown Belgrade."
I took the fregata from Avai and was at the airport at the scheduled time, but there was a heavy fog in the area (not Belgrade, just Surčin) and the airport was closed for landing and takeoff. The cell phones were still a novelty, and I couldn't afford one anyway, so I drove downtown to the sezam café, tried to send an email, made a phone call... no dice.
So I drove home. Then sat some time waiting for the phone to ring. Then had dinner. Eventually, at 18:45 a message from Greg saying that my visa application was received. It usually takes up to 21 days to process. Nice, but where is Ford?
Then started making calls again. Called the airport, called another number at the airport, called the number they gave me... and eventually learned that the flight was diverted to Budapest - more or less the nearest airport. The passengers were sent to Belgrade via train. Called railway station, found out when the train was coming, and how late it will be.
Took Nina with me for my second trip - the only time ever that I drove to Belgrade twice the same day. Got there and parked amazingly near to the concourse - well, at 23:15 you can expect that. Finally the train came, and I thought of paying the gypsy brass band to accompany us to the car, but no. I still haven't seen a dime from Zero, and even feeding this big fat guy may stretch our finances.
17-XII-2013 - 26-VI-2024