05-V-2024.
On second few things overlapped. First, it was Anita's birthday, second, Jan was coming. He called the day before from Pest, said they checked out the Žerbo (Zserbó, Gerbaud) cakeshop as per my instructions, excellent, they should arrive by 13:30.
The cake was ready the evening before, except the icing to be spread and candles to be poked, that was all left for this morning.
Everyone loves the cats. Džimi, Vafl (Vafao, Waffle) and Rundek just enjoy it. Zelena (The Green One) comes by at times, but she's not really sociable, scratched Neša a little.
Around 11:30 I called Bob brzožder (fastdevour) and ordered two kilos of mixed [meat on barbecue], she thought well to remind me on time, they must be overwhelmed, and so they were. I put Stanley into the Joda, drove with him to detelina, showed him a few tricks he should know, and then we swapped places. And it didn't help any that I explained what kind of shift it is, no use until he tries. And he was nicely surprised, how smoothly it handles and how spacious and comfortable it was, and the panoramic windshield, excellent.
We kept delaying lunch, because Jan said they got stuck at the border, on Horgoš (and later they stuck to the speed limits, specially after leaving the highway), but they still made it here before 14:00, right on time. He's a bit older, seemingly, but that's more at first sight, and for him being thinner. What I saw of him in person was in 2007, when he did get a bit chubby because of the therapy after the radiation, and meanwhile he shed that long ago. His son is a guy and a half, good company, witty, outspoken, all around okay. They brought us three types of cheese and a 0,75l bottle of Herceg Janko (Hertog Jan), some special dark beer at 10% alcohol (nope, it was about 6%, it was the Nikšićko black that Stanley bought on saturday that was so strong). I sampled a little, the rest was drunk by Go and Stanley. Good, strong and somehow I don't mind missing out on the rest of it, I gave up on beer long ago.
Specially for Jan I played the three second video of ćufte sizzling in the pan. He heard that sound many times during out skype chats, despite the microphone on the headset being short range. Our lunch being quite early, around noon or one, he'd become hungry hours ahead of time. Now he got the whole picture.
And so Anita had six adults to sing hepi brzdej to her... It was really merry. We chatted a incessantly, then moved upstairs so we could smoke, even Jan smoked one, which is, by his own admission, about sixth in this decade, and among the previous ten there's the one I rolled for him at the Bermuda triangle (where many wedding rings get lost) in SF in 2007.
Before midnight I drove them to the pharmacy. Not a live soul around, light drizzle falling, I parked smack in front of the entrance, so it's not a problem so late at night. The guy made out the place neat as a box, and the room is the perfect green, almost malachite, exactly the shade I like. Made a shot just to show her later, and she did like it.
In the morning I made it up by 8:00 (with her help), so by 8:29 I was already parked at the same place, same rain, just before it began to get crowded. Don't know what do them christians get out of that two sizes larger friday, but I was right in counting that they'll create a congestion. We walked up the street to get a burek, of course, but they didn't have five with cheese, so I took the four and some burek snake with kolenica (aka butkica), not rather bad.
Drove them around the block on the way home - through 25. maj, by Elmont, by obdanište to kantina and šećerana („you haven't seen this anywhere yet - yellow brick road“), showed them the old house. kantina was nearly invisible, the yard is a true jungle now, and above the gate of šećerana there's still the name of the last owner, which doesn't exist anymore.
Jan cleaned up his burek, even drank his yogurt (had to explain that it's a beverage here, spoonlet not required); the son didn't touch the yogurt and gave up on half the burek, said it was too much.
I packed two liters of pear and one of apricot, that's the kind of bottles we had at hand, with one liter reserved for Kees. Well, said it was just right on time, he's getting married, but doesn't make a big wedding, just a party for the inner gang. Well he did say the other day that he needs a liter for the gang, a guy is getting married, so you should bring it, but I told him „taking no orders, come and get it“. He didn't say that he was the groom. Ah well, so I am sending it, of my own free will, unknowingly.
Then she got started with the story of how Kees was picky when first time he was here, and didn't like being of that kind, but then next time he really thinned himself considerably and changed his attitude, he ate whatever was on the table and was altogether somebody else. Eh, said Jan, he found all the weight he lost and added twice as much, and his bride is twice him...
The drizzle was still whispering when they left. And continued falling all day and night, a real soaker, finally. Now we're waiting for a chance to go to the garden.
On saturday (4th) Lena and Milan came for lunch, had again the cow's knee bone soup with noodles (for Milan it was egg, he's eating again but strictly keto), and roast - a butkica and a turkey thigh, we licked our fingers. And the rest of the cake was eaten. And they brought that desk, disassembled successfully meanwhile, so he and Stanley put it together. I had the chance to say „I enjoy the privilege of being a father-in-law, just sitting and watching the son-in-laws do the work“.
By dusk, Stanley took the family for a walk, supermarket, community center, icecream. And of course bought a kilo of kokta, we didn't remember to.
On sunday (i.e. today) the weather was really nice, and we planned to go to the garden, but we went nowhere, because we had an orderly - Anita caught a flu, just when we removed the cake; Neša remained until almost saturday evening and then puked some, had mucus, slept longer than usual. (... 6 words...) hooked up half a flu as soon as the guests were all away, but a strong one, hit the hay before ten, literally „you've got no more obligations, now you can“. The rest of us are still holding on. Well, Stanley succumbed on monday morning.
The other reason we didn't go today was that they have their eester there and it's possible that they may sacrify the new village church, which is right on the corner we have to turn, we saw them driving two cars into its lot last time and that they're readying something, so let's not risk passing through the crowd or driving around, as we don't know the streets. Of the three streets that the village has, for all these years we checked out half of hours, and once half of the next one.
So instead of that, by dusk Stanley and I went on trying to fix things. I first got that small lawn trimmer, which stayed partly disassembled for two weeks already. Then we fucked around with the bathroom window, which got stuck a year or two ago, the mechanism skipped somewhere and can't be opened anymore. We succeeded partially, we can move it a bit ajar on top left, but top right and bottom left won't budge. And it's all in tight corners...
On sixth they were all still recovering. We two went to the garden, she being intent to plant the tobacco, they announced rain for the next day so better do now, though she wasn't in best shape, nasty cough expanded into a bronchitis with quite a load of slimer. I didn't exactly have a plan what to do, but that question was resolved as soon as we arrived - one early cherry, first after the gate, was already ripe. I picked six kilos, and they leaned on that when we got home. Along the way we dropped by Svetofor and bought smoked ribs for the beans - finally to eat something picant - and bunch of munchies, nibblies and whatnots. In the evening the company dispersed right after ten, so it was me online when Nina called (successfully took down that fallen pine branch, first by rake, then by rope, with a pine cone tied to double as grapnel), Stanley joined for a bit, but by the time we finished I was alone again. Then she woke up, coughing, almost suffocating from the slimer, so I said let's see whether a relaxative would help it. After the third shot I went down to refill, we ran out. After the fourth one we went to sleep, and she breathed smoothly, no gargling, excellent.
In the following days we saw a slow recovery. Go and Neša had almost nothing, didn't even complain much, Stanley slept through a day or two, and the rest of it he was just recovering from the previous five years with no days off. Anita healed completely already, and I had nothing at all, only my dear still coughs, can't get rid of the slimer. At least her throat wasn't sore anymore. Go brought some amount of sodium chlorate or whatever (the MMS), which you dissolve and let react with a weak acid, and you get what they use to sterilize the swimming pool water. In some minimal doses, the solution cures a lot of things - the guy who found it had cured, with just a few drops, his mates in Africa, when they contracted malaria, in a day.
The problem is that we don't have a scale precise enough, our kitchen is exact to a gram, but we'd need it at 0,1. She tried for two days to procure it on kupujem-prodajem, but there it seems everyone ha gone to seeds, they ask for your name phone and address, and when you send them they say they don't have what you asked for, or they say they didn't get the message (she herd the guy yell into his other phone), or ask for a Viber message or one through the website (for which you need to log in, i.e. serve your personal data again), so we gave up on the futile exercise.
When we went to Klincaid (she finished planting tobacco, I bought a pitchfork and collected the hay, she'll need it to cover what she plants, she alredy used up what she gathered by hand), I brought home my old soviet lab scale, bought in Temišvar back in 1978 or thereabouts, when we started making our own ID-19. However, that one is unsuitable for measuring liquids. So she made a larger quantity, something like half a liter, precise enough. Few minutes ago (afternoon 11th) she drank a bit of it and then we'll see. If it helps, we may also be able to cure the kittens' eyes. Džimi had a litter of five which somehow survived, but grew too big and she couldn't carry them out of the basement, they hid in inaccessible corners. They took them out yesterday (10th) while we were at the garden. Of course, I had to take shots of them urgently, because both Violet, Sanda and Linda were eager to see them.
Two victories on that western front: now Sanda has a bicycle and Linda has a scooter, and much more important, Nina procured the real sunseed oil and thus the pancakes have turned out exactly as they should („baba's are better but these are real good too“).
In the evening, for once she didn't go to bed before 23, so we had the first and second one with Stanley (who doggedly went through the three cans of Staropramen, which were sitting in the garage for a year and a half now, said nothing wrong with it), and then Anita dragged him to sleep and we stayed for two more. We fell asleep just beautifully.
Mentions: 25. maj, Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), burek, butkice, ćufte, detelina, Elmont, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jan Brenkelen, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, Kantina, Kees de Cock, Klincaid, kokta, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Milan Nastić, Nenad Berger (Neša), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), obdanište, Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), Stanley Berger, šećerana, Violet, yogurt, in serbian
4-VI-2024 - 25-III-2026