03-II-2025.
Monday, 3rd. I'm of a mind to wean myself off UA because Alphonse decided to commercialize the site, mumbled something about subscription and membership, which was completely unclear, because his english was never plain and simple, he kept his names for things, when he said „support“ he meant „webpage“ etc. This time he means to open it. UA was never open, that's a forum from members, and we were there under full names and surnames. The plan for now is to be there once a month, to see who's still there. Some are already lifting anchors, „I don't see how I can delete my account“ was already mentioned.
Late in the afternoon, ahead of schedule, we talked with Lena - she'd be busy on the regular tuesday slot. Tanja has almost full command of her crawling, knees supporting. True, not walking on knees yet, moves more worm-like, but even so she's much faster than before. And she's lively, incredibly. And her appetite is strong, seeing how she attacked roast apples... Milan interviewed some guy meanwhile, for a job, and when he was done he came completely flabbergasted, to confer his impressions on the candidate. Said „the guy is almost not there, I introduced myself, said my name, my duties are so and so, that's what I do here, and you?... and he nothing, silent. Asked him to say something about himself, he barely mumbled his name and ran out of text. Literally every question wa a complete surprise to him, like why am I asking that. Of course he won't pass, what do we do with him.“ And the firm is narrowly specialized, by product and method of work, there's half a dozen such outfits in the world and the programmers who fit the profile number maybe fifty, so there's quite a throughput. Rarely anyone passes the interview, another half gets fucked off during trial work, and then those who do pass can choose where they want to work. When he got in, he was the sixth guy in the team; of the preceding five two left and one was fired.
We also scheduled our weekend visit for a saturday, as on sunday we planned to join the protest. And if we agree to fire up the van and be in Kragujevac on fifteenth, with as many young as I can take... but we'll see on sunday.
I somehow missed the catnap slot, and then didn't even need it. I prepared the projection, everything was ready to start, it was just the sound that I had to adjust on the spot, because I didn't count on linux automatically transfering the sound to the television set. The better, so the image and sound come from the same source.
The two arrived as expected, on time, so we first set for a shot and a half, with salties (pogačice from Lidl, frozen, two years old, which won't inflate in the oven, in the frajer they stretch better than an accordeon). First we had to listen to a lengthy praise of our brandy, probably the one we brought last monday, Dragana's kid nephew came by (he's fifty, but still calls him kid) and had some. Hearing how this retelling sounded, can't imagine what the original sounded like. Well, something to brag about. And then they started telling how they saw the blockade the last two days... Well, what happened with the repetition of what they saw on the television... And on top of that Borče started elaborating the situation in education and all the shit perpetrated by the ministry (and yes, Radaković did resign). They even think to join the protest, though she said „where can I get with my tricky leg“. She had some long and heavy skirt, which she does maybe once a year, she usually wears fluted trousers, mostly jeans, such as are made now, and the ankle swelled. And the subject of the talk just veered into how men see women's legs. Borče claimed that the center of attention is the thigh, the rest being less relevant. I added I'd actually like to see a village without a church*... and let's have it on record that I love to see a nice ankle.
Then we moved the drinks and part of the salties to the coffee table, them three took the couch and I the armchair, though I saw that we'd all fit on the couch, still better this way. I ran the projection and of course we rolled with laughter. „Radovan the third“ is the second cult show of that team (first [one] was „Pere Ubu“, carried likewise by Zoran Radmilović), which surpassed Kovačević's source text in many directions, by numerous improvisations on the stage. There are a hundred moments when it's obvious that the actors themselves can't hide their own laughter. The show initially, maybe, lasted the standard hour and a bit; this was the 250th performance and it took two and a half hours, plus twenty minutes of ovation, director of the theatre presenting Zoran with a picture, everyone kissing etc.
Watching it lasted an extra half an hour, because around fortieth minute Linda chimed, needed to type a command into a game and she knew none of those, Anita not responding yet, Nina will return from work in an hour... so call baba and deda. Dragana, of course, had to see the girls again and admire them having grown so quickly... Then we raised an alarm to Go, and she woke Anita up, who then first went out to see the fresh snow... but then we haven't heard from them anymore, the problem was solved.
After the show we returned to the table, poured more (some 0,7l was gone). That's when real fun began, all of us carried by the good mood from the show, split eventually around half two. And the initial plan was to just see the show, should be done by eleven... Aha, yeah, I remember how feasible that is. Specially when she got the pancakes out, gotta eat at least two.
Tuesday. Finally started watching Wenders's „Till the end of the world“, the Janus version of about five hours. It must be already a week since I parked it as next, but didn't move beyond opening credits. So far I watched about half an hour, and digested it slowly. That's the pace I intend to keep.
Thursday.
in
Soviet RussiaTrumpian America, the government overthrows CIA
Strange times...
On the account of Marinko, it crossed my mind to dial Željko, as I remembered that he invited me to a tezga some ten years ago, costs nothing to just ask. I found, and we talked it off at length, and I carried the info to Marinko... Well, if it comes to anything, then it will.
They now mock Ćaci even in Trbnjevo („Our municipality also looks for Ćaci“), where, as per Archive of public gatherings, it looks like 40% of the townsfolk gathered, which is as if there were 500000 in Belgrade. If even they rose, this won't take long.
Nina called, more to give us a look at the girls, because Linda made an animation on her tablet (the video editing applet comes as somewhat intuitive, the kids pick it along the way) so to show it to us, and Sanda has, of course, performed a two or thre splits just to show us she didn't forget how it's done. Even Raja appeared in the frame, fuckit, he really grew.
Friday. Doing almost nothing. Lena sent a video with Tanja saying „baba“. Okay, it was more a „bababa“, but it's got all it takes. Baba, of course, melted of joy. I finally succeeded, with not too much effort, but with much delay, to have the mrz write back into the file what it already wrote into its tables. So I'm removing the crumbs of engrbian from the titles, including english. I Can Not Bear To See each word uppercased, this is my playlist, I don't mind rectifying those, just as long as I don't have to see it again.
Evening, pictures arrive... Nina assembled the new couch (we already saw it, still in its box), can't recognize the room. The twins' feet seem to be rapidly growing, who knows which size [footwear] they now wear. From Lena, two videos from the last walk on the roundabout above the highway near Arena, and Tanja... there, in just one day learns to say „baba“ and attends a protest, and that's already her third one. They do grow fast...
Saturday, pizza for lunch, so we were thirsty afterwards, from all the dried and smoked [stuff] she topped it with, as always. The kulen-like and a few others carbonized where it rose above, because of the sugar added, probably molasses. Then scram to Belgrade. I was astonished that I didn't move Joda in two weeks, is that possible. And I did go once downtown, on bike, and everything else that was needed we already had or she bought it in Persu at the corner. So we somehow, by default, joined the last week's boycott of big chains.
The traffic was a bit more than on sundays, and a good košava blew. We moved this visit to a day before, to be in town on sunday and go to the protest. We'll still see whether we'll go on bikes, if košava doesn't stop, one neer knows. It always blows three, whatever it comes to - hours, days, weeks... The plan bee is to take the car, park behind gimnazija or maybe behind špiritana, walk from there and then return when we check out the new, larger Svetofor by the cargo [railway] station, they may have a couple of things that Mere doesn't.
We arrived regularly, their elevator is still not finished, but some parts were obviously new, even the display on the doorframe, though it says just „PR“, whatever that may mean, guess „preduzetnik“ (entrepreneur). The other one, for odd floors, works, so we took it up to the fifteenth, then walked one down, then I dialed Lena on my mobile, she told us not to use the doorbell because Api goes bananas, thinks it's some delivery, they ring and he can't stand them. With all the echo in the stairwell he's quite loud, and that's for being happy to see us. Wonder what's it like when he becunts.
Tanja was in really good mood. She's already skilled crawler, though still not alternating her knees, it's not a walk, but still fast, gets where she wants, and she does want. Now she's in the phase when she's strongly attracted to anything with a lens or screen. She once grabbed Milan's phone, and when she nearly salivated all over it, he wrestled it away, which drove her mad and she hit him on the nose. He retold us the event with delight, „the type of going through full cycle in five minutes, from getting hooked, endorphine high, all the way to a withdrawal crisis“. And she started plucking my beard. All in all, we had much joy with her.
The agency which sends her the nannies was becoming obnoxious with request to post feedback, she almost becunted of their insistence, they became a nuisance. After brief discussion, I said praise the girls and don't mention the agency at all. Deal, did so right away. Because she's paying the agency separately, a finder's fee, for which they do find the next girl if one can't come, but the girls they pay separately, because they aren't employed by the agency. So you wanted a feedback, there you got it.
On the way back we, of course, swung to Mere, shopped for whopping 9100, including fish for sunday lunch. The pangasius was, though, bare water, but then that was expected. Can't notice while it's frozen, but the next day, when it thaws...
We postponed the entertainment for tomorrow, because we got somewhat winded through by košava, and were also somewhat sleepy. In recent years I noticed that it doesn't matter whether I'm sleepy when I need to drive (and have to apply tricks to keep my eyes on the road), I will be when we get home. This time I was fully awake, the larger coffee that Lena made did its job swimmingly, but regardless, instead of the regular two in the morning I hit the hay at 23:30, and she followed soon after, and I stayed so until half nine. At least I skipped the afternoon nap, same as on friday. Nothing can make me wonder about [my] sleeping - in the last fisix weeks I had all kinds of variants, with four hours at night and two hours of catnap, through failed catnaps („sleep won't come to eyes, no matter how much effort I invested“), or five hours without nap, and now for some three days it's eight to nine hours in one piece. I habitually have no habit.
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* proverb: „woman without a butt [is] like a village without a church“
Mentions: Alphonse D'Alchembert, Anita Jennifer Berger (Anita), Api, Dragana Vitas (Dragana), engrbian, frajer, gimnazija, Gorana Sredljević (Go), Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, košava, Linda Sredljevich Aquilla (Linda), Mališa Borkovski (Borče), Marinko Protić, Milan Nastić, mrz pladžer, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), pogačice, Ryu (Raja), Sanda Sredljević Aquilla (Sanda), špiritana, Tanja Nastić, tezga, Trbnjevo, UbiquAgora (UA), Željko Popov, in serbian
11-II-2025 - 25-III-2026