And so this morning I attempted to go to the British Airways agency in Belgrade to get it fixed before my flight today. On the way there, I thought the city was strangely quiet and when I arrived at British Airways I was even more mystified to learn it was closed.
"But Why?" cried I.
"Because it's a public holiday," said they.
"What holiday is that?"
"The Constitution Day," they replied. Which is especially rich if you consider that Serbia & Montenegro don't have a bloody constitution sorted out. We are still using the Consitution from Milosevic's time [with some democratic amendments] and the government that's been in power since his vacation to the Hague has been for six years or so rabbitting about needing to reform the constitution.
But that's OK. We'll have it as a public holiday anyway because luckily not everyone is a nitpicker like me. And foreign companies will earn brownie points by honouring our public holidays which translates to Not Doing Bloody Work. But you know, When in Serbia and all that, so I'm glad to see them fitting in so well.
However, I am thrilled that we are celebrating our constitution even though it is a twinkle in the eyes of our politicians, because the constitution is Important Innit, and now we all know that.
And not to leave you on this irritable note, I shall relate instead a story that an old gypsy woman told me some years ago which people not of Yugoslav origin may not find amusing.
We were just chatting she and I [she was working as a cleaner at a mental hospital where I was volunteering] and I was asking about her family.
"I have three sons," she said.
"Oh lovely," said I. "What do they do?"
"One is a street sweeper, the second is a musician, and the third teaches students at the Faculty of Medicine"
"Oh that's nice. What does he do at the Faculty of Medicine?"
"Sits in a jar", she said and went back to sweeping the floor.
- Current Music:two posts in one day? what tomfoolery!
Comments
As for calling it Constitution Day I guess that just shows you that people can survive without a Constitution but they don't stand for having their holidays messed around with.
But it's not Constitution Day (that's on April 27th). It seems to be the National Day of Serbia today.