31-XII-1991.
A nice little doček, us five in the back, grnama in the front with the teevee, and one little guest - Tereza's daughter. She and her husband went somewhere, my [parents] too, probably to Zmaj, Dimče and Ivka would always put them on the list, even though dad wasn't a member of the school board for a long time now.
Of course, one batch of shots was done before they left, while we were still present.
We set it all up, as far as it was possible to do in those twenty square[ meter]s of space, into a new year's atmosphere. We spanned the garlands of crepe paper, I bought a little fir and even a string of some ten tiny lights, which we put on the writing desk, there was no room anywhere on the floor. And the synthesizer got fresh batteries, and there was one 286 from the office to play on (though I don't remember that it saw much use during the night), we had music, had even that wee television set.
It was entertaining, and granma came at times to keep us company. The girls got special dresses, sewn by mom for the occasion, made of who knows what, so they got spruced up - Nina had this princessy dress, and Go had something black, tight, and a top hat, which probably Tereza brought.
The carpet on which Nina sits is, believe it or not, fur. I finally decided to set aside some amount for a real yagi antenna for the radio, to finally hear the twoohtwo and sudio Bee, without all the white noise, and we already put a flexible hose sheating in the wall back in 1981 - one for the phone, the other for the antenna cable. The antenna was sizable, meter wide, meter and a quarter long, and the two directors behind the dipole were spaced vertically at 50 cm above and below the main plane. In the shop, that building which resembles both a norse drakar and Frank Lloyd Wright, they said if we reach a certain amount, we'd get a nice discount, 15 or 20%, so we looked around to see what else may we find useful, now that it's offered like that, and took that rug, which was just enough to get us above the bar. Turned out excellent, soft, comfortable and didn't shed. Too bad it later spent years rolled up, began to stink and eventually had to be dumped.
Last year the girls shaped my beard with some gel, which was a novelty in the hairdressing fashions, into, roughly, a Dart Vader mask. The tip, below the mouth, was pressed in, while the edges, where the extensions of the moustachee would be, ponting down and outwards, plus the gel contained glitter particles. They did my hair as well, with don't know how much success, but at least they had fun doing it.
As I said many times, dad's beard is a free toy.
Note the paper on the wall, to the left of the door handle. It's a scene from Alan Ford, where a cop taps Bob Rock on the head, with implied meaning „kid, you're stupid but it will all be clear someday“. It so happened that someone tapped someone else on the head just the same way, and they immediately said it should be done faster. Where did you get the idea that it should be faster? Well it's so on the picture...
From what I can see on the table, she was smoking Classic, and I rolled [my own], guess Banatska ruža (Banatian rose), there's the tozna under my palm. The beer bottle must have done at least five hundred rounds from the brewery to the table and back, it's visible on the top and bottom of the straight part how the glass is matted, that's where it chafes against the crate. Granma hes, as I see, made rolls with poppy [seeds] and apples, as is proper for the occasion.
Mentions: Alan Ford, Dimitrije Josin (Dimče), doček, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Ivanka Tomašić /Čardić/ (Ivka), Nevena Sredljević (Nina), Tereza Mazek, tozna, Zmaj, in serbian
29-VII-2024 - 25-III-2026