22-X-2026.
The plan was to postpone the trip to Szeged, not on tuesday because it's a tuesday („tuesdays I hate, period“ - Balašević), but on wensday. But on tuesday we both on wrong foot and had almost a fight, which ended up with extended pouring more, way beyond midnight. And like before, the more drama in the night, the more normal in the morning. Roadworthy we surely weren't, more suited for a paprikaš, properly spiced up this time, one feferona one bolivian, and planned to hit the hay earlier. At least I remembered to call the dealer for tobacco. Seemed a bit early to have blown five kilos since mid august, namely 72 days... hm, after extended calculation and eventually weighing, turns out our cigarettes weigh 1,2 grams average, while industrial are 1,0. And I was convinced we stuck to the standard.
Lena called, had a chat, I had my fill of kids screenshots, specially a lovely babylike smile of Filip. Asked what to bring from Hungary, said picture books for Tanja, deal.
In the evening we watched yet another arrival of walkers into Belgrade - north, east, west column. Magnificent and merry, just like every time before, pumps up yer soul by just watching. Three columns, because this month everything is under number 3, even some firms began inserthing the digit 3 instead of latin Z in their ads (!), which burundi took as a subtle wink. The students' campaign is playing out its third position on the ballot, using the fact that cyrillic Z is З, so each of their slogan has a prominent word which begins with a z, replaced with a circled 3.
And we managed to lie earlier, namely before midnight, and I fell asleep right away. The last [thing] I remember is that from one half of my brain I noticed the other side going dark, so I turned off the light in this half too. We woke up even before the alarm clock. Which we don't have, we use her old nokla, which we keep recharging on sheer whim whenever it begins to complain. Had a coffee, packed what few things we needed, hit the road. I didn't bring the tablet, I know the road by heart. Some wee rain was falling, it was rather windy, Joda's windshield was somewhat foggy until Melenci, not obscuring, though. Then it cleared and we were at the border at about half ten. Triple check on hungarian side, may the EU fuck itself, first being the biometrics, means takes a shot of your passport, then mug at real close, like 20cm from yer eyes, then fingerprints. Done by two girlies in some silly uniforms, 100m before the crossing itself. I had luck that the window switch just somehow fixed itself.
На самој црти, хм... ево како сам после то сажео кад смо се јавили *** нема ги падеж _маја:3 овди *** да смо стигли:
At the line itself, um... here's how I rehashed it later, when we reported to Lena that we returned (first two lines in hungarian):
[22. 10. 2026. 16:00] me: visszajöttünk
[22. 10. 2026. 16:01] Lena: milyen volt?
[22. 10. 2026. 16:02] me: on the way there we pulled a lucky number, they parked us on the side and then over the pit, they frisked the car in details, guess the rookies are passing the practical [part of the exam] or such, they danced 40 minutes of ballet around the Joda
[22. 10. 2026. 16:02] me: hungarian customs, that is
[22. 10. 2026. 16:03] me: other than that, nothing much. found 1 bookstore but it was moved elsewhere, found a confectionery store, had only coloring books.
[22. 10. 2026. 16:04] me: in the end we bought literally nothing, lunched again marhahús pörkölt házi galuskával and went home
[22. 10. 2026. 16:25] Lena: Well customs have to have some fun too
[22. 10. 2026. 16:26] me: the funniest part was them being so dead serious... some fun, indeed. knocked five times on the same door and hopes he'll hear something he previously didn't... and never once looked under the rear seats.
[22. 10. 2026. 16:26] me: and they didn't find the compartment in the floor behind driver's seat with spare bulbs box
[22. 10. 2026. 16:29] me: just now I noticed the right lens fell out of my glasses, felt it in [my] pocket, replaced into frame, much better right there, just when I thought that five hours of looking far screwed up my near view, worsened fast.
[22. 10. 2026. 16:31] Lena: Got all the bank stuff done as needed?
[22. 10. 2026. 16:40] me: Yup, just had to go to the other building, behind that larger park.
It simply happened that cars were scarce on the crossing at the momen, and they maybe have a quota of detailed searches to do, and the third girlie, the customs officer this time, considered my fumbling hungarian (words come slowly to me, and I didn't understand exactly what she said, wish she was louder against the hum of the vehicles in the background) somewhat suspect, don't you tell me „we're going for a lunch“, so she sent us to park there under the side roof. There again some two guys, one tells me how to park but not quite precisely, eventually on third try it was to his liking. Then told us to empty the trunk. Whoa, had no idea we had so much junk in there - the old chinese tote in which I once kept small tools and various stuff for garden and car, one more such where the charger, pump, cables, old wiper, guess the rear one, were, a load of sheer junk. Then told us to leave it all there on the bench and move the car into the garage, over the pit, as if on inspection. There they, now three guys, had twenty more minutes of fun. They peeked into all the crevices, moved the seats, lifted the floor mats, checked the seat upholstery seams for being torn and resewn perhaps. I asked if I could get the lighter to go just out at the corner to have a smoke, said no, no smoking anywhere in the border area. Whoa buddy. Told me to sit on the corner bench. Nope, man, that's windy, I rather stood in the other corner, with at least some shield from the wind. Despite wearing just slippers, my feet weeren't cold, maybe a little on the top.
Eventually ths fourth guy came with something like sound cannon in a black case, but didn't fire it up (she says he did, I wasn't really watching all the time, it became repetitive and boring). And then an abrupt nothing, it's over, you may go.
Too bad, though, I could have made forty quips, could have shot fifty good shots, but nope, they're trained to have no sense of humor, the em oh copied from american airport [something], and I stuck to the behavioral pattern I practiced on them - permanent mlild smile on the face, not completely quiet and not laughing loud either, just whenever they tell me I must this or must not that, I emit an indefinite aaaarhh sound which can't be written down in their minutes and keep on smiling.
On the garage wal a largish administraitve map of Turkey. Why exactly? While this is the shortest route from Turkey to the EU, that's mostly trucks. Maybe in the holiday season, for gastarbajter?
We found a slot to park on the Knight (Vitéz) street, same as last time, found a parkomat, paid with my retiree card, walked to the bank. Same one too, but the kid there said we have to make an appointment. But we're from Serbia, no chance (though, plan B was to night in Subotica, but then why accommodate banksters in any way), well you can't do that here, we don't have that option in the system, but... a bigger bank, and that's... and actualy not even too far, the other side of the same park as on 20-IX-2024.. And the kid even wanted to find it on my phone, but nope I left it in the car and it's a linux... so he found it on his, and I took a shot of his screen. We talked in a mix of hungarian and english, my hungarian got rather rusty this morning, sometimes a word comes, sometimes I get stuck.
And we went there and didn't even wait much either. Our clerk lady was some chubby chick, guess my weight but a head lower, calm and unfortunately too quiet... Just today they all decided not to speak loud :). But we got the job done, I raised the limits for both shopping and serekeš, and I'll get the new card in a couple of weeks. Once upon a time they just mailed them, now they ask you to appear every couple of years to prove that you weren't meanwhile swapped in the maternity ward. After today's dance, I'm not sure the bank will see me again, the plan is to evacuate the account in two-three years and be done with them.
Her lighter, the dežurni red one she keeps in the tote, just croaked, so I scratched for inflamation from some guy on the street. By then we were already by Concept (same tavern as last time) but of course, no smoking in there either, so we walked to the next corner and back. Spotted a bookstore there... but fuckit, it relocated elsewhere. So we sat and lunched and told the guy to pack the leftovers. It's really nicely put together inside, even the cramped toilet upstairs was neatly done, its light sensor works on time, could maybe react half a second earlier, bot okay as is. The perkelt, of course, same as last time, just the green pepper wasn't exactly sharp. Found a largish pharmacy with hundreds of various add-ons, but no taurine. We concluded there was no reason to hang around, in the walkable radius there are no real shops, it's all banks, boutiques and eateries. Tried to buy a lighter in a small supermarket, nope, all kinds of fancy shmancy veganry wokey... well, scram, stage left.
And the little spare lighter from the car we found in her tote, she brought it along and forgot about nj*. Never mind, at least we smoked less and I scratched for an inflamation when I needed it. In Horgoš I made five extra kilometers because of the confusing roadsigns. When exiting the highway, one arrives at the old road to the old crossing, but it doesn't say so on the sign, it says Horgoš (which one, the village or old crossing?) left and Đala right, but waitaminute, Đala is way east and this points west. Where's Kanjiža? And, found later, there's no straight road to Đala, the one road to it goes through Kanjiža. They have that gift to put up a sign to point to something near but irrelevant, never what you need. I remembered I fucked up there last time, so I took a left... and ended up going to the old crossing, following the railroad. Found a crossing over the railway, narrowly paved streets led me to the main street. Okay, left turn there... and I found myself going to the old crossing again. Because I was a whole block east of village centre, should have turned right. Went back to where we originally were and then came to that first intersection again, hoping not to find ourselves directed to Palić and highway again. But nope, there was the sign to Kanjiža, just 200m west of that first one. Then it got easy. In Bašaid we stopped for a bottle of juice and sour, perkelt induced thirst. Dropped by Svetofor too, but apart from those better peanuts, frozen liver and one dried tenderloin, found little to buy. And it was a first - the plastic bag tore as I was crossing the road, right in the middle of it, I parked across.
The catnap before dinner lasted less than an hour. We split the leftover perkelt, still good. The messages from NLB about my payments today then started arriving, in wrong order, and in even more confusing content - the amounts were in forints, but the exchange rate was 119,19, which is for euros. The one about parking arrived three times. I weaseled it out somehow, and it seems the banksterds cost me tensome euros. I hope they didn't kill too many of theirs while negotiating how to split the loot.
From 18 to 20 we watched two live feeds from Slavija, alternating. Again 150000 people („Vučić didn't have so many people in his whole campaign cumulatively, despite buses and enforcement“), merry and magnificent. In Radar, a new series of transcripts of Sky messages, he's not only Oskar there, but Čvarak too. And it's plainly visible how he was closely tied with both the škaljarski and kavački clans.
Then I did the photos. She lied around half eleven, me at eleven, completely confused. Woke up at four, thinking that I didn't manage to finish the photos... but already in the bathroom remembered that I did. She got up half an hour after me, both our sleeping patterns are off kilter. To sober up, I looked that Horgoš on the roadmap... not complicated, when looking from above, but while at the wheel you're clueless.
Friday we more or less slept over. I did read some about the grand gathering on Slavija, seems the people were replaced, the railway station is not mentioned, victims, robbery, there's no rockentoll, they dance kolo... but regardless, the mass is there. Even AJS (archive of public gatherings) says I was right at 150000, which I got from two minutes of drone footage. Plus the sidestreets, each was full for near hundred meters or two. I napped after both lunch and supper, dizzy. She woke me up to drink, which we then did, though not much, and then we went to sleep and got up at the same time, at half eight, which is a rare case. We had turned the heating off, the temperature fell to 20,2, just right for better sleep. Now she turned it on again.
Saturday, 24th. A propose heating, I remembered what I said last friday, that I returned the classbook into its socket last time forty years ago... This means that this year the last of my students, at least those who weren't fucking around, are retiring. And they should be of age as well.
No cats today, Stole slaughters the chicken. For lunch we finished the wensday's paprikaš, still good and picant exactly right. Then we took off to Belgrade, dropping only by Rerso to get some garments for the kids, and she did find a couple of picture books for Tanja. The agreement was that we would get in touch when we were in front of the building, so Lena would come down to take us in together, so Api wouldn't bark, as Tanja ran a slight fever and was asleep. However, by the time we got there, she said Tanja was awake. Okay, we had a smoke outside, went up, and when I pulled out my phone to call (trying not to use the doorbell, Api is very loud at delivery guys), we heard the key turning and saw Milan opening the door. How did you know? Well we expected you. Yeah but down to the second, all kudos.
I shot 66 eaches, first of Tanja, and later of Filip when he woke up. All okay, nice and serene, except Tanja would revert to long face every minute or two, being a bit warm. But she wasn't complaining much, didn't squeal or cry, just that the smile didn't last as it usually does. Lena recounted how on thursday they went out for a walk while the column of walkers was passing en route to Slavija... „and there it occurred to me that this is the second child I'm taking to the protests“. Right, she was three months old when the canopy fell, and he was born two months before this.
And Gary was mentioned... said he failed to settle anywhere, doesn't keep a job. He may be a genius, finished the MIT, but instead of becoming a software hero he manages to fail to deliver, gets a writer's block and broods... Worked on the Face and where not and blank, not going well.
Then we agreed that we should clear the scene a bit earlier, as they were going to some birthday, the neighbors from a floor below are both fifty, plus minus two weeks, they hit it that way, so we waited for Milan to return, he took Api out, and he'd stay with Tanja and Lena will take Filip with her in the cangaroo. And again we met him there - our elevator arrived with them in it.
Nina called in the evening, sitting in the car during Raja's guitar lesson, chatting to kill the time. The current boyfriend seems to have gained a foothold, even last time the plan was that he should keep her company during the lessio, but the twins demanded that he stays for them. And he did lots of stuff during the time - washed the dishes, cleaned up, and made polymer clay figurines with the girls.
In the evening after the entertainment we staged something like a doček of elections... holding our thumbs.
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* Having finished reading Dune for this decade, I went on bringing more book to the tablet, what was it that I wanted to read, and look there, „Bridge on Drina“... And of course I fell under influence of Andrić's sentence. The „nj“ was because of Branko Ćopić, who used it a lot, and I first meant to read him. The longer story about „nj“ is under 11-IX-1990..
Mentions: 11-IX-1990., Origins of New York, 20-IX-2024., Api, burundi, čvarci, dežurni, doček, Filip Nastić, Gary Dalton, gastarbajter, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), Joda, Milan Nastić, Nevena Sredljević (Nina), nokla, Ostoja Čaković (Stole), Ryu (Raja), serekeš, Tanja Nastić, in serbian
23-X-2026 - 5-XI-2026