There are certain times during the year in which the people of the White City are suddenly and inexplicably unavailable. Between Christmas and New Year is a flexible gap of weeks in which people phase in and out of our space-time continuum. Then we are all here until May when the Easter-May Day vortex consumes a good 30% of our acquaintances.
At the moment, the remnants of the citizenry who are in Belgrade are hiding from the sun. Meetings get put off, people on the other end of the phone sound like they just woke up from an afternoon nap (even in the morning), "lunches," which already begin late as far as my hunger cycles are concerned, begin to drift more and more toward the evening.
It seems that we are allergic to heat and sun here in Belgrade. As soon as the winter skies begin to clear, the air conditioners begin to get cleaned, the plans for summer holidays all come out, and thoughts about work (eek!) seem to be more and more abstract and philosophical. We look into the middle distance and we contemplate all the things we will do in September...
Ironically, while we avoid the heat and sun in Belgrade, many people run off to even hotter climes for holidays. When 35 degrees is too hot for rational thought in Belgrade, we guess that 45 degrees in Montenegro and Greece must be better.
While all this is going on, nothing else is going on.
People love to talk business in July and August. It is a time a complete freedom for the executives, CEOs, and other such who can spin ambitious plans to the horizon, safe in the knowledge that they do not really have to DO anything until September anyway. And by then, everyone will have completely forgotten about their summer musings.
There is a lot of talk about talking. Anything serious enough to merit a summer conversation is worth starting over in September. In the meantime, you might get an earful about someone's vacation home in the country, someone else's plans to repaint the flat, and yet another person's family reunion saga in the outskirts of Kraljevo.
It is an effort to remember what has been discussed in July and August... The brain is working at about 32% efficiency; we are too hot and tired to write any reminders for ourselves; and if we do make any notes, they could end up becoming a series of cryptic notes which must be deciphered by experts in (you guessed it) September.
Given this situation, we must take a moment to be proud of our Summer Selves. We persevere and give the noble impression of being "hard at work" through the summer months. We are lionized as martyrs for the cause. "Look at him," they say. "He never takes a break!" But from the pool-side and beachfront they are really saying - "Better him than me!"
This is NOT a message for my business partner who is presently on holiday. Really.
In the meantime, here we are. And it has become too much of an effort for me to finish this column (I have an Auto-Responder message to write, meetings to postpone, and big plans to dream about...).
We can talk about this more in September.
