12-II-2023.
And so it somehow turned out that she managed to prepare everything, even with one item of bad luck - when she turned on the oven to preheat it, she soon realized that she left the frozen goose in it, still in plastic wrapper. She noticed on time, so the wrapper melted only slightly and was easy to peel, and everything came ship-shape. Including baba's original soup(tm), (of which Linda had four plates), and the mushroom sauce, and karađorđe steaks (mother-in-law has to think of her son-in-law), and the cakes.
The birthday is actually on 13th, but we set the party on sunday, because of the guests. Lena and Milan came pretty much on time - the soup was ready, the goose still hot, all as advertised. And we sang hepi brzdej and only didn't have any balloons. Learned that lesson last year, so didn't even bother and nobody missed them. Sanda blew her candles ahead of time twice. My only regret is that I stopped taking video a bit too soon, because right then there was a quiet moment, and amidst that silence Linda said clearly „can I eat the cake now?“.
Our neighbor's birthday is on the same day, so I called her (via landline) to the fence, and handed her a bottle of apricot and one of papazjanija. Five minutes later she called me back, and handed me two cartons of eggs, which we then passed to Lena to take home, along with her share of the birthday cakes and two jars of soup stock.
On 13th, in the evening we split - Nina stayed at home with the kids and we went to Dragana for the 93rd frendz parti, and met Vera and her daughter at the corner, coming to have their own party with our girls. So the kids had a playday and their moms had a nice chat and a couple of drinks (soup of the day was the papazjanija rakija, as Nina asked for).
Spotted a bilboard by the overpass, some bank advertises „saving for all times“. There it is again, truth in advertisement - once you put your money in our hands, it stays forever, you'll never get all of it out.
Dragana's spirits were rather low when we came, first of all the leg is still fucking up, then also her pressure went quite high, the situation with her sister isn't resolving, refuses a nursing home, or is now sort of accepting the possibility, at the times when she returns to her mind, but had her son sworn before to never put her there. The lady who was their aide has quit, and is still holding the fort for the time being, but she's also not in best shape, and the sister is heavy and needs feeding and washing few times a day, horrible.
We arrived early, at 19:19, what with diverting to Roda for the wine, and her in her light boots so her stride is almost as good as mine, plus at this speed we get sooner into a warm apartment.
And there we learned that, same day when her brother-in-law died, Baja also did. He had contracted some heavy cancer, which had spread everywhere so adios so long. And I spotted his wife's sister when I was returning with kajmak and the candles overyester, in a stroll with her husband.
Dragana moods improved rapidly within half an hour, I guess that's why she invested the effort to prepare all this (although the piglet roast was delivered from somewhere, quite good). Mentioned Paja, because they'll both see him this week - Borče on tuesday, she on friday, we even had a session of taking our blood pressure, didn't do that for two years now, and hers got quite good by this time. Told you the rakija was good for you... but no, she stayed at a shot and a half, Borče and I went to three, she stayed at two. Then we continued with, ahem, she had one dark beer, Borče and I had the pink wine, two liters by 1:15, Dragana had nothing... And nobody had any complaints afterwards.
On 14th, the first of the tobacco seeds sprouted. That was fast, less than a week.
In the following days, Škrba discusses what to do with suština in a string of emails, because it's still only me who writes something. Even Glugenije (stugenius, two or three apps we wrote to generate rubbish text) is on strike. He himself, on the other hand, is in such a situation where, as Boća said, „you can't shit enough money for what it takes“, putting together the house they bought...
Mentions: Božidar Sokolović (Boća), Čedomir Spajin (Paja), Dragana Vitas (Dragana), frendz parti, Gradivoj Škrbić (Škrba), Jablan Škanata (Baja), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), kajmak, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borče), Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), rakija, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), suština, tutifruti, Vera Vraneš, in serbian
1-III-2023 - 25-III-2026