On ninth nothing much during the day. Džimi brought out her kittens recently, three grays in three tones, short stubby and fuzzy, quite interesting, they waddle like ducklings.
In the evening at Dragana's, the 53rd frendz parti. Borče was somewhat late, about half a glass. Dragana insists on keeping the windows open while the AC is running, can't convince her... well anyway it's her power, she may cool the street if she wants. I brought the 2020.1 tutifruti, already below 10l of that left, which we'll eventually pour into the other three, we'll need cask space. So we hit that, three shots each, and I just think of how her shot glasses are about 1,2dl, so be smart and try to pour just 0,5 into that. No way, there's always more. I joined them with the wine this time, we don't quite need to kiss when we get home (she says I smell just fine after just rakija; after wine I stink of booze). She, of course, got a can of black budvár (aka original budweiser). I was somewhat lagging, still had half a shot when they poured the wine, and when I came to wine, they were halfway through the second glass. Then we tried to make music, but her laptop hooks into the wifi of her nephew, apartment right above, which works from one spot in her living room, and very spottily in the kitchen. Tough luck with yootchoob, better throughput on some web radio, of course no image to pull, but then wrong music, something just ten years old, or less, all wrong. Thereabouts was the moment when I promised I'll buy her the speakers like I have (and I meant the portables, like the Genius I hooked into zmajček, not the JBLs upstairs), and then it was about the old proverb about promises ("obećanje ludom radovanje" - promise, a joy for the crazy). Then she stood up for me, said not so, he keeps his promises, did so from day one, no fault, if he promises so it happens. Ten minutes later I couldn't remember what was it that she defended me about, but asked a few days later. Okay, I sad and I'll do.
Borče's memory was far sparser, he did himself for real. Managed to smudge his sweatshirt, so Dragana dug out some of her dad's old shirts. I grabbed his phone and made a few shots while he changed (there were some juicy comments from both ladies then), and also later when there was a scene to shoot, which there were a few. Eventually we understood that he developed quite a misunderstanding with gravity, so we escorted him the three blocks and four floors. He had problems walking on flat surfaces, had to support him here and there, but once he got to the staircase he was the fastest. Did need a hand every time he stopped, though, and she was there. Two steps behind, I was pulling Dragana and watching for any stumble, ready to catch. We got up there, dead tired. He tried to talk us into another drink, but no, we had enough. We escorted Dragana to Lesnina, got our cab at 3:00. I didn't do myself much, but was noticeably more sober than half an hour ago. Good walk.
And, yes, we scheduled a trip to Gudurica in two weeks. It's not exactly my grandmother's village, it's just her maiden surname is from it. Because Borče wants to visit their wine cellars.
Of course, we sat for one cigarette before sleep. Her comment was to quote what he said about his granddaughter being scheduled for a obdanište in september, and who knows whether she'll even remember him when she grows up. And what talk there was of his going back to work (which he can do, being retired by age, not as an invalid) he just wouldn't do, he wants to babysit his granddaughter.
On 10th, the annual session with Marinko at Domaćin. The waitress from two years ago wasn't there, the current one was on maternity leave then. They don't have gravče na tavče on the menu anymore, nor the bečkerek secret (doesn't matter, she rebuilt it from memory, better than original - v. 20-VI-2020.), so we hit some gulaš and beer. Four and a half hours on an uncomfortable wooden chair, under an eave... well, extended roof, which now covers all of the yard. I had four beers, he had five (good, last time he had six - and that's the draft, of 0,5 liter). We mostly went over the history of erc, the decline and last years of it, when Big Ćale went nuts and stuck to his cobol-and-offline-processing story, digging himself and the whole outfit into a narrowing and deepening hole, while DBA and Avai were taking away his customers, and now also the big sharks from Belgrade and Novi. Then he died and Marinko went to work in šećerana, but that didn't last either, Kostić wanted to buy them but they were looking for a better offer, which never came. Meanwhile, he bought four others in the neighborhood - Žabalj, Kovačica, Crnja and one more - and now they couldn't match his price and speed of payment of sugar beet to the peasants. They mostly didn't even have money to buy under old terms, so there came a year when they didn't have enough beet to launch a processing campaign (which usually lasted october to january; the rest of the year it was the skeleton crew refurbishing the machines for the next run). Soon there was a buyer for erc too, and they moved most of the hardware and half the jobs to Beograd, cut off the remaining jobs and sold or rent the real estate. The company was no more.
On 13h Lena and Milan came - she picked up her disposable passport - and we woke Raja and Violet up and we all went to Elmont. It's quite spruced up, there are fisix separeés around the yard, just four posts, roof and some curtain, like a four-table gazebo, kids playground, old ploughs, oxcarts, spinners etc, the usual quasi ethnic decoration, all leaning on the old building which looks like new. The finely shaped natur-beton, the brutalist concrete-as-is, is untouched and still looking quite good, even when painted over. Lena and Milan were sitting with their backs to the modern old wall, facing the quasi rustic, bare roughly grouted brick, pillars holding the so ethnic roof. But the food was great, the mutton gulaš that we two had was excellent - actually know only one better, the guy in Subotica, and then the bill was quite small, about 6500 RSD for eleven of us (and yes, all kids had their own meals, a half plate of ćevapčići with extra fries).
On the way out I caused some confusion, having told Milan "take a right when you get out and keep straight all the way to Borča", forgetting to say "out of this back alley". So he took the right from the gate, and found the cul of the sac first. Well, I apologized later. There are no defaults, only unmentioned values.
When we got home we all had a lie-down of different lengths. This light summer flu is working its way out of here. I had maybe half an hour, and then the phone rings. Statistics.
- if I may ask you for a few questions about population consumption...
- I told you three times that we do not consume population, goodbye.
Two minutes later it rang again, and I somehow knew I shouldn't get rough in advance. And rightly so - it was Dražen. Asks for Go's email, which I gave but he said he had that one already, doesn't work. Ah, she may not be using email at all... so skype it was, gave that, thankyou.
Fourteenth. She still coughs and has some slime, but at least had enough sleep. My symptoms are far fewer, just mild irritation of throat, which moves up and down, before during and after sleep, over various areas of throat-mouth-nose cavity. Last night it seemed to be going for the nose, but I dreamt that it retreated. I read Pratchett until 2 and slept until 11. Found the annotted Pratchett file again (wasn't vanished, just moved). In the morning fresh as new, nothing wrong with me, excoughed some slime and that was it.
Good warmed up beans (since wednesday) with ears, ummmm... After lunch, Borče calls to announce a crowded weekend, extending into monday, asking for a delay. Well, delay is the default. Said he's missing a piece of the tape from monday evening, he hopes he wasn't a complete mess, doesn't remember. Well no, you were quite decent, just a bit disagreeing with gravity. Just like anyone else, drink turns one into a turbo version of self. The same, just more so. As for his speed on the stairs, his idle calculation sets the exact eyeballing roughometric number at 2,3 million steps over the last fourtysome years, assuming two trips a day on the average.
13-IX-2021 - 25-III-2026