31-XII-2023.
On twonyfifth Nina managed to catch a moment when all the kids slept, which is tough to do these weeks, Violet took to going to sleep and getting up earlier, we see her during the first coffee in the morning, and Linda and Sanda hit the hay around five, so she laid down the present around the spruce, aka krismisi tree (the same plastic job as the previous years, starts, goes). Violet, of course, woke up first, around ten, and Sanda soon after. The children are obviously grown, they were disciplined enough to not touch and not open theirs, but wait for others. They were then all happy with what they got, everything was an exact fit. Raja had a moment of disappointment, when his new crocs, size 38, were smallish for his foot, so baba brought the second pair, size 39, which fit snugly. So now he's officially the bigfoot of the family. Sanda repeated the sentence she exercised for the occasion, „this is the best day of my life“ at least three times, just like she did with „this is a dream come true“ few days ago when the tree was decorated.
In the evening we two appropriately celebrated 30 years since 25-XII-1993., i.e. moving in. Until two in the morning, in our bedroom, which looks quite shitty at the moment - the walls sanded and just smeared with blokator, all of furniture missing except the simpić threeseater, which carries a heap of clothes under some blue sheet.
On twonysix Joksa and son (nope, son alone, Joksa had a schedule, dežurni in Belgrade) sanded the walls, so everything was full of white dust again. I decided not to mess with the broom, no matter how good the new one was, because it still raiese dust. Instead I just roughly picked the larger bits with it, and then employed the insucker (aka vacuum cleaner). While I'll still have to clean and wash it later, it's still better, I do it sitting on a footstool, far better than breathing the dust. Joksa, of course, happens to be around when I light the second one, and it takes the first two cigarettes in the morning to coax out the slime out of the lungs, and he never fails to mention that smoking will be the end of me.
When the son was finished, we two made another tour to Svetofor and Bob brzožder. Of groceries we already knew what we wanted - what we bought before and already had ran out of, and just a couple of new things: cotton candy in 100g boxes, and some dishwashing liquid called „Peri“ (wash [it], i.e. in imperative form). Both were hits in the middle - all four kids hit the cotton candy, didn't stop until they wiped it all. The price was trifle, about five times cheaper than what a cloud of it, on a stick, costs at a fair. The dishwasher was nothing special at first sight, made almost no foam, but then it turned out to be fucking and dismantling, even the water droplets would slide off the stoneware and flatware, without leaving the lime smudges on the edges (which presently aren't much of a problem, they turned the water factory, the second one, on again; allegedly this preprocessor does what the main plant of 3-4 years ago wasn't able to).
So we had to go again the next day. Linda went with us, while Sanda told me to take shots so she can see. Okay, deal... We took ten packs of cotton candy and twenty kilos of flour, which caused a minor congestion at the register, because there's a five kilo limit, so the cashier had to make four separate bills.
Meanwhile Joksa and son already painted all of it, it goes fast with them rollers, and they know the ropes so they didn't drip or smudge the neighboring sufaces, it was all clean fast and clear and... well, the soot is still peeking through in some places.
Joksa came alone on twentyeighth, just to check whether he needed to lick and polish any details. And lo and behold, the soot is covered everywhere, this acrylic paint is prone to some transparency while wet, but then none when it completely dries. The total amount of 900€ would be 105000 dinars, minus the 30000 advance would be 75000, but we rounded it to 80000 plus a kilo of rounding error, a 21.1 tutifruti, just to show how satisfied we are. We also split the tools together - so I got some bits of his where he had doubles, and he probably kept some of what I bought. We went through the heap, kept checking, and about some things he just said „keep it, you'll need it“. There's two 25kg sacks of filler left, which I should be able to swap in when buying something else.
Đole the windower had promissed the shower cabin by new year, but didn't deliver, at which I am not amazed at all, didn't even hope. We'll find someone else. We could have still bought the crapper, lavabo and faucets, had thursday and friday for it, but didn't want to rush things, let's first clean the place up, wash what we can, and start putting things where they should go. Which is also not an urgent matter. I even took out the old doorframes and panes from the junk heap on the lawn, and cut them with hand circular saw into manageable pieces and took those back on the heap where the extra wood from the old walnut still lies. And took two afternoons to do that.
On saturday (30th) we went to Lidl and Roda, probably just second time this month with the girls, so they'd catch some air and we'd get what we need for the long weekend, most of the shops being closed until wednesday. Roda was chock full, I barely found a place to park in the farthest corner behind. Contrary to their own convictions and multiannual standing practice, they manned all the cash registers and there weren't more than two people in any queue.
Thirtyfirst, got up only around ten (and didn't lie late at all, just had a nice long sleep, the bladder not raising any alarms, at least this once this week), then took it slow - cleaned the barbecue grille, prepared kindling, and lit it up only after 14:30, when everybody was finally awake and I got a green light. We managed to buy only one pack of ćevapčići yesterday, so we reeducated half of the burgers into more of that; the steaks were nice and thin, sausages we had none, everything came along perfectly. Raja ate eight ćevapčići and one pljeska, which amounts to about 400g of meat, measured raw... hats down, the boy is growing indeed.
While I was writing some of the above, Kees appears on skype to report that Nick just got married. Look at that... well, it's time, when will he if not at least now, he's around four banks. I see on the shots Kees and his lady (not taken but living together) and perhaps five other people, didn't send any mass shots.
And the doček was as doček goes, neither here nor there. Watched Brus Viliks* (die second hard part, the movie version with „yipikyeaye motherfucker“, not the television „yipikyeaye mister falcon“). I was discretely informed not to smoke downstairs („Nina won't say anything to you, but grumbles to me later instead“)... okay. She said she was planning to return home anyway, with kids of course, in february. She has an upcoming interview with some usurers in Virginia Beach - the short term loans. The money isn't too much, and they are the worst scum on earth (after the banksters, mobile providers, pharmafia and pukevertisers), but then their customers know exactly who they deal with, and they don't seem to be a training center, they have programmers who are there for some five years, even a fresh graduate with two years of staž already. Well, why not... then I guess the thirty years after moving into this house that we have built ourselves will finally bring me the liberty to light up wherever I want without anyone giving me shit, not even behind my back. And was it me who was passively agressive? Oh, child.
Around 23:30 I poured apricot, and we three sipped it slowly, dry run without cigarettes. That is, I went out to the terrace to smoke one and to listen to the neighborhood readying the fireworks. Linda was already nervous, fatigue got her and she just kept whining and refusing to talk. At midnight we all kissed and then rushed to the terrace to watch the neighborly fireworks. Linda ran into their room, the shootout noise being too scary for her. Sanda was scared too but she still wanted to see it, and seeing how it would be over by the time she shod herself, I took her on my left hip, holding eos70 in my right hand, and carried her out. Made a nice half-minute video (the shooter records good sound!), and then she finally got scared enough to ask to be brought back in. Later she thanked me three times for having carried her.
We two then, around one, after exchanging congratulations with few more people (a SMS with just HNY to Dragana only), went upstairs and hit the tutifruti. With some additional cigarettes. Previously, before the fire and before she started adding our own tobacco, we went through the third tozna in a day; now two are enough, except today (and also two evenings later). Hit the hay around three.
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* Bruce Willis; Brusviliks was an episodic character in Asterix, in translation of Ivan Klajn.
Mentions: 25-XII-1993., ćevapčići, dežurni, doček, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), eos70, Kees de Cock, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Nicolas O'Keefe (Nick), pljeska, Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), staž, tozna, training center, tutifruti, Violet, in serbian
1-V-2024 - 15-XII-2025