Pored vec pomenute kumice i pisanja na ovom blogu, ovo leto mi je donelo bas mnogo novih stvari. Novi posao i mali pomak u toj hijerarhiji, na gore naravno ;) novi stan tj. iselila sam se konacno iz zloupotrebljavane sobe studentskog doma i iznajmila poprilicno pristojnu i povoljnu garsonjeru, guram lagano moje politicke ambicije pa dobih i prvu funkciju, imam par novih prijatelja "u trendu" te konacno imam musko za opustene izlaske. Jedino sto stagnira je emotivni iliti intimni zivot. Rasterala sam i ono malo ljubavnika sto je imalo zivaca da se bakce sa mnom. Jos mi se samo nabacuju

Where's the swich?

Yesterday, as a kind of joke, I was informed that my car was "ready" to pick up. Two weeks ago I had stupidly brought it here to have a check-up – oil, filters, and yada, yada, yada. I should have immediately seen the sodomy in their eyes when they said I had to leave the car for two days even to get an estimate.  

HERCEG NOVI, MONTENEGRO – There are as many Perfect Holiday Scenarios as there are people who might conceive of them. For me, observing the Alien Landings on the beaches of Montenegro is always one of the most anthropologically satisfying ways to pass the time.

You are out. You are away from the office and the daily hub-bub of whatever bub you happen to hub for a living. A few hours ago, you were disgorged from a bus or a plane onto this foreign shore. The sunlight blinds your troglodytic eyes, causing you to throw up one tote-bag-toting arm in futile self-defense. Your arms and legs gleaming white-grey the from hours of exposure to fluorescent light, sensitive translucent skin calling out to some long dormant genetic code linking you to a nocturnal amphibious haddock yearning to be free.  

But that was Saturday.

The World Series of Baseball is underway between the 2008 champion Philadelphia Philies and the 26-series winning New York Yankees. And while I do not think I am the only one in Serbia to be watching the Series, the club seems to be rather small...

Fireworks? No, firearms.

We need a bridge that will suspend our doubts about ever having enough viable bridges. We need a bridge that will suspend our disbelief about the dangers of travelling over the Gazela Bridge.

There are times when we accumulate so much information a subject that it must needs burst forth and splat onto the page like squashed blueberry. The following is not a public service announcement or message. It is just overspill.

Usually I am a little cynical and snide. Usually I attempt to undermine its message. On occasion I have been sappy about it. But like it or not, every year, Valentine's Day gets some sort of bloggal response from me. I have to say I am a little tired of it.

After all, once we elect a parliament and they choose a government, the entertainment values drop rather dramatically in a politically stable environment. During the pre-election period, it is exciting. We get promises, wild accusations, insults, mud-slinging, and the very best of the Human Condition under pressure. But then the votes are counted (and recounted and contested), the names are read out and after we have laughed and cried and jumped for joy and sunk into despair, and we just have to get back to work and hope RTS and B92 come up with something equally entertaining for us to watch.

Ten years ago, on 9/11, I was in Paris. I was sorting out lots of sportswear overstock and trying to place it enticingly in front of my client's eyes. My client's eyes, however, were glued to the television. I was annoyed. I had just arrived from Rome (he from Belgrade) the night before, we had one day to make this deal, and he was watching TV. I grumbled.

"Something happened in New York," he said.

So said Boris Tadic this week, reminding us of our obligation to vote and thereby give voice to our dissatisfaction and bitterness that we all feel because we are not president of the republic.

Hm...

With the spate of price increases here and there of excises and specific taxes which was landed on our collective heads in Serbia this week - cigarettes, bus tickets, fuel, heating costs, and VAT which affects almost everything else - the government is showing us that they are fresh out of fresh ideas.

In Paracin for the weekend among in-laws and ancient ancestors, at one point we were at a loss for something to do that did not involve mounds of food, liters of rakija, and hours of nostalgia. Always the resourceful sort, I come up with a perfect plan for a Sunday night.

Let's go see a movie, I said.