26-VII-2021.
Friends party, Borče's turn. We went to Bajlo's neighborhood, the same tavern where we went on 02-IX-2017.. We took off at 19:20, though we said it'll be 19:30. We just used a quiet moment, when the girls weren't paying attention and wern't asking for anything, to sneak out. We got into Joda, went to pick Dragana and then Borče. This time I knew exactly the route, found the tavern from the first. Not much of a problem in a village with five streets. Bajlo joined us a few minutes later, and we hit it with the fish. We had three dishes of smoked carp, and one of fried wels catfish, while Bajlo went for the mixed barbecue - he's had enough fish, and still has, pals from the old job at the fishpond still bring what gets caught in the grilles. We tried to lure Mandža into coming, Bajlo even said "here we have Gradivoj with wife, and Borče is here and Oli Boj... ahem I meant Dragana" but no, the doctor got into his regular dullheadedness, says his upper jaw is fucking him, the glue oozes down his throat (which Dragana says is impossible, it stiffens in seconds). It's also tha his wife is fucking him at bits, so during the day he's away, visiting this or that, playing football, but then in the evening he's just sitting, looking into some point and smoking. Allegedly on second pack a day. Well when you spend your career being the village doctor... and who knows what else is there. Each gathering he wakens out of this funk and falls into some sevdah.
Then we went to Bajlo's, much better rakija than the one in restaurant (which, of course, is who knows what swill, tasting of fruit; Vasa on burundi said on 7th august, "a fruit rakija should taste like fruit rakija, not like fruit, the taste of fruit should be mild"). Of course, I didn't drink, I was the driver. There was a fine moment when Dragana alias Oli Boj (this fake confusion was the cheesy joke, which we took over and turned into dežurni joke) reported that her bad leg was acting up and that she should lift it. I offered my chair armrest, then Borče offered his too, why not, you can perform the splits. Which then caused another wave of jokes... and then she remembered what happened on 12-IX-2020. when she lifted both legs on my chair and then I took the chair and put her feet on my knee. "Who was it who shat so much about that...?", to which I just silently pointed to the kitchen, as luckily Bajlo wasn't out on the terrace with us at the moment.
On the way back Joda surprised me with excellent lights. True, this is my first time with xenons... well fuckit it reaches twice as far, or are all the roadsigns specially new and clean here. We'll see when I first make it to Belgrade at night. This is so far the best pair of headlights I ever had, better than both Toyotas.
Next three days we went - to Peskara twice and to Klincaid (this with Linda and Sanda, where they managed to get wet too).
On 30th we went to Klincaid on our own, to mow. I managed to chop almost all the wild acacia which hid the view from the terrace, and she did the street. There will be plums, later some apple (not as much as previous years), pear, vineyard peaches - just enough for the tutifruti to achieve the taste.
On second we hosted the 52nd frendz parti. We found two larger pieces of lamb in Lidl, and did them in the oven, excellent. She bought some softer plasticine, and Linda and Sanda took to making small things, with lots of imagination.
Of course, around 18:30 we had to take them out on the street for at least a walk, with their little bikes. Sanda is already proficient with it, though not quite controlling the direction at all times, just when she remembers to check it and corrects it. We met Zvezdana and asked what's she building there on the corner, says three apartments to rent. We thought she'd make a sales salon, but then the whole street is that already, about one third of all the gates and fences was done in her laser-cut sheets with curlicues.
The party was among the better ones, despite the two or three repeated stories (Borče about how his father and uncle went to visit their sister in Skoplje and snuck to bit-pazar market for a škembe čorba first; Dragana about getting drunk one evening with a friend of her and some handsome guy, who turns out to be the professor on her exam the next day), whereby we came to a rather interesting story about M. Simić, a girl from the old hood (her belonging to a sect, whichever one it was, was not mentioned this time), and of certain K. Đ. also from the hood. Her first child is from some guy in passing (from the sect, as Đuđa recounted at the time), the other four were his. She used to work at erc of kombinat (where he worked at the time), so I consider this source of information as the closest so far. One of her daughters was Go's classmate. The end of the story is that, when the crazy nineties hit, she picked up her stuff and moved, with children, to Netherlands, wehre she settled nicely. However, out of five children, only one daughter is still in some, superficial at best, contact with her. The other are incommunicado.
Some fish* called Vanda was also mentioned, from an alternate universe (i.e. three years older than us), who was a name of fame around town at the time. There, first time I hear.
On third in the afternoon we took the girls (including Violet!) to Springfield. That is, she took them alone, while I took Joda for a wash (they aren't just a rođendaonica, they also have a carwash since a couple of years ago). Around 17:15 I packed the mower and went to the old house to mow. Carrying my old cable now, dad's chinese junk already loses contact near the stirrup loop, where it was usually bent. I used it in the end, from the wall to my cable, so it would not move, when I needed to extend the line to mow around the former well behind the corner. The neighbor behind uses that area to park his car(s), but his mower is heavier and he's unsure on those uneven concrete blocks, so he mowed the rest there. Mine is lighter and can do that. While I was at it, the susjetka (the widow of the susjed, with whom we went to vacation, see august 1988.), too cool off her mouth a bit. We chatted out all in sixteen. She mentioned the lady from across the street, who died recently, that she got such a weird stroke that it was her tongue that got paralyzed first. There I had a few sentences ready to fire, but thought better not. When we last saw the obituary, we both really had a lot to say about her, which usually began with her standard "don't be mad at me for it, but I must tell you", which was always followed by some instruction on what we need to, no, must do "because such is the order". She considered me somehow pals, because she worked at Čelik as an operator and would come to get the reports and remembered me from then. Well I didn't remember her, from that whole gang I only remembered big tits Stanka, who somehow managed to get you to look into her eyes too, by means of very conspicuous makeup. About this one, good riddance, won't be missed.
On fourth in the evening we took Linda and Sanda downtown, to see what's going on. I had the eos70 along, so it turned out to be a very good photo safari. I used the shots to write a three part article on suština, where I copied text from here (about vodotoranj and korzo) and now I can just copy some back. "Reciklaža rulez" (recyclage rules).
Of course, first we had to have two bags of popcorn. They now spill less than before, and when they do, they notice and feel slightly embarrased. Two-three months ago they didn't even notice.
For the last year or two we tried to get into the city park, i.e. the city hall yard. It was locked each time. Two weeks ago we managed to get in, but were alone there, nothing going on, well, working hours perhaps. Now the city is straining to maintain some evening life downtown, so there's now even a name for those evening events, which even get organized. This time it was some fashion show, of ball dresses. The artistic impression was, whatdoIknow, small village stage performance, bad emcee with text written by duck tape and general tropes. If sound was ignored, wasn't looking too bad.
But we weren't looking much at that, because... they played Šostakovič's Second waltz, and the twins found the floodlight pointed to the right wall, and there they staged their own show, with shadows. Much better. They danced, were happy to have such big shadows, enjoyed it. We had to take them away before they stole the show. Luckily, this was behind everyone's back.
And then we dropped by Prleski for cake (girls) and lemonade (we). Just before that we met Zvezdana and her daughter. The kid studies economy in Spain (!) and looks like an airplane... and got shocked when she heard their names. She imagined the exactly same names for the case she had, someday, female twins.
Sanda, of course, managed to smudge her clothes, a piece of chocolate cake just won't sit still on the saucer, so she took of her shirt and sat like that. We couldn't convince her to put it back on, so she walked, ran, all the way to the car - over the sdk square, over the bridge. Linda followed the tempo, so at least we didn't have to carry them (usually don't have to, but when they get tired like this...).
On 5th and 6th we went (all three girls) to Springfield and met Vera's (Nina's classmate, divorced, cute daughter of 4-5 years) mom (Lj. further on) and daughter and went there together. The first time we were suprised by a brief shower, which fell during our last 20 minutes inside. The rain was done, but the trees were dripping some, so the twins switched panic mode on. Lj. gave them her vest, and they stuck their heads into the sleeve holes... exposing their heads thus, but enjoying the illusion of being covered :).
The going was slow, so the next day she just put them both onto the kids back seat on her bike, which they enjoyed tremendously. And we were much faster.
On seventh we went to Peskara, eight time this season (and five times to the pool). We all have a considerable tan now. There were some interesting characters this time, for one some old hippie, probably younger than me but looking 20 older, for being so thin and wiry, the t-shirt loosely draped over his shoulders, taking shots with his phone. And some party of six who came to visit the four who waited for them, out of which four were blacks - couldn't guess where from, didn't look straight african. And one black girl, also somewhat paler, not even close to the spitting image of our real estate agent from 2004, whom we saw a couple of weeks ago - that one was hi fi reproduction, what with skin tone and butt diameter. Speaking of landscape, somehow all those ladies looked better last year. The good looking ones seem to be somewhere else this year.
On 8th we went nowhere. Raja was in a bad mood, then puked and coughed all evening. Sanda also puked once then went to sleep, while Linda waited until 22:00 to do the same. I also felt a couple of solidarity symptoms - a bit of aftertaste in the throat, as if I had regurgitated some, not even close, sister. Nina reported some taste she had the two times when she was pregnant in august, as if she's about to puke but nothing comes. She had nothing, and Violet had weird sleeping schedule - only four hours, but that's almost normal - and nothing else.
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* in english it would be chick, in serbian it's fish
Mentions: august 1988., 02-IX-2017., Good fish, 12-IX-2020., 10-III-2026., burundi, Čelik, čorba, dežurni, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), Đurđa Rođanović (Đuđa), eos70, erc, frendz parti, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Gradivoj Sredljević, Joda, Klincaid, kombinat, korzo, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borče), Nenad Bajlo (Bajlo), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Olivera Stojanović (Oli Boj), Prleski, rakija, rođendaonica, Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), sdk, Slavoljub Mandić (Mandža), Springfield, suština, tutifruti, Vera Vraneš, Violet, vodotoranj, Zvezdana, in serbian
30-VII-2022 - 14-VII-2026