The rakija is near the end, three stills today, total of 83,4 liters so far... who knows how much of pears was it. Still three more stills to do, which we'll do overmorrow or eventually on tuesday, as per her method (stirs the mush with her hand, feels how compact is the cake, is is warmer than the liquid, is it still foaming).
Tanja has her eighth tooth! And, wait for it, a four down left. Not quite out yet but can be felt. So the layout is 4-2-1-1-2 up, 4-1-1 down. So no deuces down, no threes anywhere, go for fours right away. She's incredible.
And it's good that they're away, right across the street there's the whole hubbub with Vučić's military parade. True, they won't be back before monday, but that circus won't be removed in two days.
Went to Mere in the afternoon, but [it was] closed, their internet's not working. Let's take a ride, didn't [do that] for a while, it's a lovely day, why didn't I bring the shooter, to the Svetofor at the cargo station. Their internet's also not working, so no cards taken, but they're at least open and we had enough cash (kešovina, a portmanteau of cash and gotovina, ready money) in [our] pockets. Must be their providur forgot to pay [his] power bill and got cut off. Cashier: „that crossed my mind too“.
Twonyfirst, talking with Go and Stanley. Anita busy, her friend was there, saw her just briefly. During their lunch the friend left, then Anita got bored, well go across, knock on the door, ask... Eh, this is the first time that she has a friend from the neighborhood, doesn't know the customs. In other news, the bolivian hot bore nice fruit. Neša ate one whole. The tip was okay, next bite was ooh ooh a bit, but he went all the way and left just the seedhead. Well, that's next season's seed, verified to be good.
Twonysecnd. Twice a minute long powerout in the morning, fuckit, they're messing with it somewhere, guess preparing for winter. We roast the last batch of rakija. Ended up with an incredible 94 liters. Who knows how much pear did the neighbor bring, must have been at least 600kg. He did say he didn't weigh it.
Just when we were nearly done, Lena reports that they've landed. And then called to show us, while Milan was getting groceries. Said Tanja was everyone's favorite there. The main desk lady was competing with the maid to babysit her, literally all the staff liked her from day one. She tanned nicely, and her hair is noticeably brighter. And she's also got the ninth tooth as well, the upper right four (!). Skips the third, just like her mom skipped grades in elementary. Such order of growth I have not just never seen, actually couldn't imagine as possible.
Celebrated the end of season with the 2019 apricot - only three liters remained and we needed the cask, so we poured that into a smaller one. I invented a new word for Vučić, „narcist“, which was well accepted on burundi the next morning. [nacista, nah-tzi-sta, a nazi; narcis - nar-tzis - a narcissist]
Thursday, 25th. Of the announced rain, three coffee spoons. At least it got colder. Najka from detelina called, hens arrived. We went, picked them up, congestion so-so, moderate, is often worse. She had a long sleeved shirt and sweater, and I was still in that thin sky blue shortsleeved shirt and shorts... and some wee košava started. Couldn't park at their gate, spotted a spot across, in front of the ambulanta [area clinic]. She went to get them, and I raised the fifth door and sat in the trunk of Joda, downwind. It really got colder.
Nice hens. We got them into the coop's cabin through the side door. It took them more than half an hour to just get to know the others. Eh, it takes time for the ink on the accreditations to dry... There was pecking in the head, and she soon had to separate them, the new ones up in the cabin, old ones down until dark. Then at dusk, when they got nearly blind, she shoved the old ones up in the cabin and the night passed in peace.
Friday morning I also switched to long sleeves and regular jeans, even put on that jacket, suddenly fall. New hens still don't come down, the old ones still peck them in passing, when they go up to their booths to lay eggs. Hens.
Landline rings in the evening - eh, the old man Dragutin, calls like that, once a year or less often. We were pleased to hear him and he too, that we remember him. That is she was, I don't remember if I saw him twice and briefly at that, but there, I asked about Jevrem, said he works for some german outfit in Belgrade... Of the old inspection gang of 1985 only they two remained - all dead, dr Nevenov, Mira Čestić, even that turd Vlastimir.
Sunday... yesterday's shots coming in, the rasejani had met, belgrade team only (sans Zlotvor, so ajVar, Magi, pLazić, Stinge, Miki). ajVar has some amount of the book „Zen of coding / Landmine“, so he asked for my snail mail address to send me one, the others got it at the table. They didn't take pictures of the kačamak they ate, because „fuckit, two minutes of darkness over mind, by the time we came to, we finished eating“.
We arrived at Lena's [her what?] right on time, and my parking slot was vacant. We delivered 60 eggs. Milan was somewhere with their kum, in some mall in Belgrade-on-water, remained unseen. Tanja woke up just when we arrived, because Api didn't see us for four weeks so he was very noisy at the stairwell. She had a fresh scrape on her chin, a little accident on the seesaw this morning... okay, comes with the territory. The construction site across by Hyatt is progressing, it already hides the current name of the once Interconinental, and also obscures Žeks's castle, which is a cause for special concern.
She had to wipe Api's paws, because tarred pebbles stuck, he stepped into fresh asphalt across, they're just now repairing the damange made by the military parade. At least he got no burns, close call, it was still quite warm.
For lunch we decided to go to Pitch, didn't do that in a while. Lena sat shotgun, to navigate, but actually it was quite simple, had to make just two turns. I know half of New Belgrade moe or less by heart, not exactly as an aborigine, don't know the shortcuts and good parking spots, but at least I know where I am and which way to go. I can still go wrong way, don't know which sideways boulevards have access to the highway or railway underpassess and which don't.
The waiter was some old mocker, good light banter, and we didn't wait too long for the grub. The čorbica standard tavern, too bad it was apportioned for exactly three persons, because Tanja liked it and left just three spoon's worth to baba. Of the „shepherd's dream“, which is heir fancy name for mixed barbecue with baker's potatoes, all good, and she ate of that too. Lena says on Krf (Corfu) she was secretly/discretely proud of her child, for eating so diversely, fruit and meat and vegetables. The kids she observed there lived on fries and biscuits alone.
The plan afterwards was to return to the apartment, have a coffee... but nope, no place to leave the car, congested tightly, because on Ušće* AV had the bright idea to heap up the ćacis to block against the blockades, so we gave up. I stopped where I possily could, they two disembarked, and we needled our way out of the crowd and whipped home.
By the time we got home, what with swinging by Mere, the rasejani went at length on Telegram. Zlotvor hung photos from Naksi's cameras on Branko's bridge and Pašić square, empty, no traffic, few scattered pedestrians, says „The psycho blocked the town again“...
me, [28. 9. 2025. 18:08]: at half five by ušće*, leaving the parking at 6 corporals, never saw such crowd on a sunday afternoon, as much infantry as you want not, all of them some dreary faces. fckt we went merrier to exams we knew we would fail.
Magi, [28. 9. 2025. 18:17]
That's the NBGD, Surčin, Zemun municipalities, job mandated [i.e. blackmailed to go or get fired]
me, [28. 9. 2025. 18:19] well I see they're going like chain gangs... I gave up on parking, had daughter and granddaughter disembark and we two scrammed home. To Đinđić's bouleveard twas touch and go, we downhil pedestrians upholl. I think at least 70% of them were older than me, or at least looked so.
Magi, [28. 9. 2025. 18:20] They do have that vibe 🤪
In the evening called Borče to schedule for tomorrow, but nope, can we delay it for a day, he needs to be at the airport on tuesday morning, G.M. (of IV3) is coming from Canada... We two quickly decided, amongst ourselves, to delay it by a whole week, you be her host at ease and leisure. To keep things orderly I called Dragana too, she's same as ever except having a new water heater, the old one wasn't worth fixing. The majstor had a lot of work to empty it, removed four buckets of mud from it. Well there went the many years of city water mains' essentials, the heritage should go to a museum and he just discarded it.
The frendz parti being adjourned, I took to process the day's pictures. Since the fresh face wound made Tanja smile less, none of them were worthy of spreading across the ikonostas, so I left the previous one. Managed to take a bit of a nap, ten minutes tops, just before Go called. All as it alwas was, except we saw less of Anita, her friend was there. We saw more of Neša, and there's a sight to be seen, he really grew, up to middle of mom's nose. He'll look down on her next year. She already plans to inherit his sneakers, the size fits and he won't wear them out before outgrowing them. Then we turned to apple, of which there's just little left... but never mind, we'll zigzag until the end of the year, and then we'll hit those 94 liters of pear, if it gets to be good. Hit the hay at 3:20.
Monday, 29th. The hens still enforcing apartheid. The new[ one]s all compress into one nest, incredible how six of them fit into that little [space], and the old[ one]s won't go up to sleep. At least during the day three news come down... and no feathers flying. We wait for their hormones to start working and attracting the rooster's attention, things'll come to order. Nothing much happened during the day, except the water heater disobeyed, error F04. Ah, the heating circuit lost pressure, so I went on opening the valve, which chafes against the near tube and is hard to turn, but at least it's at hand, the other such valve is in the basement, buried under branches for tinder. She said it can't be that, why would be the heating be related, this is just hot water. Well it checks everything and refuses if check fails. Check the gas first. Um... can't guess from the gas meter, the counter doesn't move because nothing's consuming gas, and the membrane shows nothing, it's silent when there's gas and when there's no gas, you can hear it only when there was none and it returns. Went behind the garage to check the outer hose, having to walk around as the garage's backdoor is locked from outside. We do have gas, that's not it. We lunched (gambler's soup with our noodles, and the jučetina from the tavern, warmed up in the oven), I catnapped deeply and thoroughly, then called Zdravko, and he said blue valve. Opened it a bit more, and there, it worked.
Thursday, the hens barely moved. Of the news, three stay up, three come down. She becunted and forced them all down. We pushed in the wire mesh where it stood beyond the slats and left space for them to dive in and then not know how to get out. One hen we shooed out of the nest, removed the food and water from the cabin, all go down. Still apartheid down there but at least not fighting. She pulled out part of tomato stalks and seeded onions. At least now we have a view of the coop.
20-IX-2025 - 25-III-2026