30-XII-2018.

Trip to New Belgrade, to have a dinner with Lena, Milan and Stojan. Packing all the kids into the van was finally uneventful and with no new complaints - having rechecked the seatbelts in the rear (existent, unusable - no rollers, too long, not adjustable at all). Have fixed my seatbelt the day before: the clip which was supposed to hold the buckle from sliding down was above it, not below it. Found that I can simply pry it open and reclip it where I need it. Also, the skin round the gear shift was pulling its frame out of the dashboard (the handle travels far, has a huge throw, about 120 degrees from first to reverse), because the frayed ends were tied off too high by a zip tie. Cut off the zip and now it works fine. Perhaps doesn't look as good, but hey it's a 2001 vehicle.

It even warmed up the cabin, somewhere around the first village. So OK, takes some time, but it works. Got there all fine and dandy, at a decent speed, even passed a couple of vehicles who were slouching it at 60 or 70 km/h.

Couldn't find a place to park, so stopped where I could, they all disembarked, and then I immediately saw a place I can use, barely 10m farther on. So I caught up with them and we managed to get into an elevator all together, it being the bigger one which fits even bikes, or six persons. Well we were seven, but only three adults.

They first arranged the opening of presents. I got a book - a fantasy, of all things, which is a genre which I avoid, being a SF fan (and a bit of a critic and a writer too), but hey, it's from my daughter, I will read it. Lena got a bath robe but black with dark blue sheen and stars, misses just a wizard's hat. The girls got more winter caps (she just finished the identical owl caps, really cute). Went to the Pitch, two blocks away, just like we do each time, it's the only place in walkable distance, and they're really good. Not quite the usual barbecue, they got some variety and hit the right spots.

Went back to the apartment, Raja and Violet played "Little big planet 3" some, and got the disk to play at home until saturday, when they're coming here to take Johana to the vet to get the second shot.

When we got home (also uneventful trip, wasn't sleepy, thanks to Lena's triple strength coffee), there was a message on Nina's phone, from Boba, that Arpi is in the hospital again. He didn't have my cell number, and mine was the only phone we had with us, so he called 3-4 times. It's the same as last time, water in the lungs, the antechamber valve relaxed and doesn't pump out of the lungs properly. They can do some surgery but the wait may be significant (april was mentioned), if he survives by then. We offered to pay for private hospital, if he agrees.

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* it turned out to be SF after all, just in a culture which forgot how its tech works, so when it stopped working they reinvented the feudalism on the quick

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Mentions: Arpad Gunaroši (Arpi), Dobrivoj Gunaroši (Boba), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Johana, Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Pitch kettle, Ryu (Raja), Stojan Nastić, Violet, in serbian

11-VIII-2019 - 5-VII-2026