12-VI-2002.
Nina went to her prom night. While it's true that she attended the gimnazija only until the bombing, less than a whole year, there's still a lot of her gang from Zmaj, there's Zana, Vera, one daugther from a pair of professors from 13. so I know them from there, a veterinary inspector's daughter... She went off to Arpi to spruce up, as Višnja arranged for a hairdresser for her, and for herself too, she's also going, being in education (as a cleaner in gimnazija). First Nina tried to fix their internet connection, as their modem and post office's just couldn't connect. Didn't report busy, just failed silently. A neighbor fixed that later, she couldn't.
Looking (later) at the photos, it was a true graduation ball, girls in dresses. Solemn academy in Dom (aka cultural centre) first, then in the hotel. They stayed, of course, until dawn. I.e. split around three, and then part of them went to Mravinjak and Zeleno zvono, but her sandals were chafing so she swung by one of the girls from aforementioned, then called my mom to announce her arrival, as she forgot to bring the key. Lost the habit, here there's always someone at home, never needed the key. There she had her first beer, a Heineken, „I'm an adult here!“ then went to sleep. Just when I said „look they have Heineken now!“, I was corrected - my dear said it was available before, it's just that I don't remember, had a blind spot on it. And we didn't have the money for it, which is the explanation of the blind spot's nature.
Having trouble with the new sandals, she went (wearing the same sandals) to Arpi to get her sneakers, then back to gimnazija, where their classmaster handed out the diplomas. Then they went to „Korzo“ (yup, korzo... though now there's a different café in the same space) for „a coffee“ and stayed until 22.
(I stitched this from her then shots, amazing how she had a feeling that one day the stitching will be possible. This is the yard at my folks').
Dad had bad luck with the trabant, one spark plug wasn't tightened properly so it unscrewed and fell out, he drove the last kilometer on one cilinder. I then remembered how I'd run it on one cylinder for days, until I'd get it to remember that it had two. Those spark plugs were screwed in and out so many times that I wouldn't be surprised if the thread was very smooth. Had an unscrewed one in the škodilak once, luckily it landed in the casing there. We didn't drive more than twenty meters like that, and it already managed to make the whole engine compartment greasy.
Dad said „Nina eats very little, really, like a model. Well, if it's enough for her, we're fine with it, just find it unusual that a grownup takes so little food. „It's very easy to grow fat over here - everyone's advertising food, specially the non-fattening kinds, but set up nicely, there's really a lot of stuf that's to lick your fingers. A strong will is needed to stay thin. Looking around the pool overyester - this time we weren't lazy to do a little demographics - out of 24 adults, 10 were overboard fat, some 4-5 more in the well stuffed and elegantly filled category, and then a miserabe wee handful of thin and puny. Even as I weigh my usual (80), here I feel as if I've lost a lot of weight :). Ford is among the amateurs here; real fatsos go from 120 and up.
„And, yes, this Sviraguza* job is off with a good start, I made lots of work for Berix again, she barely finds the time to check what I did so far (of a ten point list, which should last me until the 5th of july, I checked out first 5,25, one add-on for filling in times I did a quarter of and researched the rest, and of the remaining 4,75 one isn't mine, and now the poor girl has to recut the plans - „because you kick butt“). So, there'll be cash, what matters is cash, cash to the roof (Mlinarec).
Rick kept calling in the following days as well - called today (guess the fourth time) to tell me that he solved the problem. There was a mention of rakija and pig's ears etc etc.
Sixteenth. Nina cooked for deda and baba one allchinese, a str fraj (stir fry, aka STR „Fraj“ - the STR being a Standalone Retail Shop, and Fraj being [for] free in german), which we regularly eat here for quite a while already, except Lena doesn't like it much, so for her a part of the rice is taken aside, cooked up with milk, run through the mirko and there's a sutlijaš for her, so then our share can be spiced up. Lena also nighted at her friend's this time, and the friend went off to her grandmother after that. Since Nina took out the disk from her machine, I mean to buy some cheaper one so Lena will have a machine to play on. It got cloudy and somewhat windy, so we skipped the pool, though it would probably still be okay to bathe. Lena and I are regular there, I already tanned well. First few days we oiled ourselves with something against the sun, then declared victory, we got this year's tan already, all good. Except we took it too far once or twice and my brow peeled, while she was fine. Then the new skin caught tan quickly. This southern sun is a bit stronger, we aren't used to it yet.
And the first check with the new amount of salary landed - she's not calculating hours anymore, I'm at fixed 64800 a year (before tax), breathing easier. Even got the travel expenses, some 1800$ altogether. The calculation thus shows that I'm making hourly 20$ when driving and 23 when working, but on a drive day it's seven hours at the wheel and four at the keyboard, not too bad.
With Nina we are making a list of pharmacy stuff that she should bring - the rest is whatever dad shoves on her, or what we can buy here. I recommended a visit to Jasmina's parmacy, with greetings from me, and then there won't be a lack of anything. The list is mostly antibiotics, which are quite expensive because one can't buy them in a supermarket, it's prescription only, and I don't have health [insurance].
She writes „As for our beautiful town, somehow it all looks smaller, but I got used quickly. There are many newly open shops, and a new building here and there. They finished the project by the kids' dispanzer and built one more across from Elmont, where the circus used to put up the tent“. Ah, yes, that's Sloba's apartments he was so bent on building for don't know which elections, finally got them finished. In most places the construction was abandoned, it served just to have the foundations shown on second daily news. [later I saw that it wasn't done too well either, the paint peeled off the façade really soon.]
Twentieth. There was a tremendous strom here overyester evening, thunder lightning and drum solo, but since we're on a hilltop, we saw from afar how it flashes behind the mountains, saw it coming, and shut down the machines and unplugged it all from the wall (Justin Cayce is our friend). There were at least six powerouts. The rerun was announced for yesterday, but didn't show up. Go got not even a hint - it's still the same old scorcher over there, but now they have an airconditioner so they're fine :).
Dad reports that he's been to our house with a friend from the vineyard, to weld again the hinges on the gate. Nina buzzed around the house, inventoried the stolen stuff - speakerboxes, wine glasses, Go's cowboy boots, that russian guitar. I sent them a zipped solitaire, so she can unzip it somewhere and post a shortcut on the ikonostas, so they can play offline as well.
At least she made a bunch of shots around the house, so I finally have a proper shot of the kitchen, mostly the same as we left it. There's the old mirko, now aged 22, on it the two ceramic vessels (smuggled from Romania) for sugar and salt, the cofee can, the ironing board in the corner, the trashbin from Hungary, the bottle of Napoleon (when and how did we get that?) and almost all the vases lined up oh top; the light above the sink still works, and there's the long cable for, I guess, mower - don't know why he plugged it there, we have ten outlets which are handier for outside work.
Twentythird. Mom's running a 39 temperature, Nina and dad gave her ibuprofen already and put cold padding on her, massaged her with komovica, but to weak effect. Urgently exchanged emails, but we can't do much from here, told them to call ambulance. Eventually komovica did help, that is Nina remembered how her mom took down the fever. And it did pass rapidly, and with the temperature normal the pain stopped, and now mom won't even hear about any doctors.
Števa also asked about komovica - he missstepped in the kitchen, stretched a tendon or sprained an ankle and needs it for padding too. He sent wife, daughter and her boyfriend (seems they already moved to the apartment on 25. maj, that's near), so dad packed him a bit more, it's a medicine for both inside and out. Danilo should come the next day, so they'd see him finally.
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* should be Sirakuza, but „svira“ is „plays [music]“ and „guza“ is a butt[cheeks].
Mentions: 13. april, 25. maj, Allan Robin (Ford), Arpad Gunaroši (Arpi), Cecilia Roxbury (Berix), Danilo, dispanzer, Dom omladine, Elmont, gimnazija, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jasmina Vlajin, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), korzo, loza, mirko, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), rakija, Rick Netter, solitaire, Stevan Garaj (Števa), Suzana Injački (Zana), škodilak, trabant, Vera Vraneš, Višnja, Zeleno zvono, Zmaj, in serbian
16-XII-2024 - 5-VII-2026