Serbia's Got Talent: "And the winners are..."

Meet Sandra, Darko, and Danijel Piler, young musicians who last December won first prize of 100,000 euros and an automobile on Serbia's "I've Got Talent." In February they're scheduled to leave for London where they'll be making an album, in the hopes of pursuing an international career. These kids have been playing on Belgrade's Knez Mihailova for several years, trying to supplement their family's income with the money passers-by give them.

If you'd like to see their performance, here's the Youtube link. (Sorry for the mess-up with the link; thanks for pointing it out. I think I fixed it now....)

Happy Door

I'd like this guy on my door. He'd be fun to come home to. Happy Sunday!

In the bus

Another sneaked shot in the bus. A man lost in his thoughts while the bus inches along.

SKYWATCH--Downtown is WHICH way?

In an attempt to make visiting our fair city easier for tourists, signs like these have been appearing all over town. Most of the time they're pretty accurate, but I'm wondering if the sign people weren't playing a practical joke here...

Note too what's written in English in the red part of the lower sign!

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Hey! Where's the TV?

Last Sunday I took a walk in the park and look what I found! I must admit it did seem a bit surreal to see this bright red armchair just sitting there. I didn't consider hauling it home, but it wasn't in such a bad condition, and was even dry. (No, I didn't sit and rest a while.)

ABC Wednesday--'A' is for 'Almost alike'

These windows reminded me of those 'Can you find ten differences?' drawings you sometimes see in newspapers.
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Wheat berry with whipped cream....

My apologies to the reader whose email I have most likely accidentally deleted. He or she asked me for a photo of a ground chestnut with whipped cream sweet. I never eat that, so I am hoping that he/she will be happy with today's photo. It is wheat berry with whipped cream, accompanied by a cappuccino. I've shown you wheat berry (in Serbian 'Žito,' pronounced 'ZHEE-to) sprouted before, and once before that. Žito is a healthy treat, with only a little sugar (okay, there's the whipped cream...), nutmeg, cinnamon, and ground walnuts.

Winter foods

This is a typical scene on a Belgrade market in the winter. Here you see garlic and parsnips in front of some homemade products. From left to right there are pickled hot peppers, tomato sauce, horseradish in various sizes, and figs and ajvar, a spread made of ground roasted red peppers, garlic, and eggplant. The garlic is marked 20 dinars (about 30 cents) a kilo (roughly two pounds.) NOTE: Oops. A goof on my part--the garlic is 20 dinars a piece, not a kilo. I didn't read the fine print.... Still not a bad price!

Oilcloth

Oilcloth is heavy cotton or linen cloth with a linseed oil coating to make it waterproof. Oilcloth has long been a favorite of mine for kitchen tables. I was very pleased when I first moved here in the 70's that it was easy to find on any market, and it still is. There's always quite a variety of patterns and colors to choose from.

Which one do you like?

Purple chessmen

I've shown you chessplayers once or twice before like on the street, but these gentlemen in Kalemegdan Park are true enthusiasts. Check out the little cushion under the man in beige pants' derriere (Serbs have a mortal fear of catching cold), and it appears that the man with the bandaged hand is particularly concerned about the safety of his bag that he has draped over his arm.

And dig those purple chess pieces....

River deep and rowboat high

Apologies to Phil Spector for paraphrasing his 1966 hit by Ike and Tina Turner, but that's just what came to mind when I saw how high the Sava River was yesterday. All that snow we'd had melted and so, here's the result.

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