01-V-2011.
The uranak with the ppp gang in Belgrade. Uranak (from "uraniti", which stems from "rano" - early - which means to get up early) is a traditional workers' outing on this day, the international labor day, to commemorate the Heymarket massacre in Chicago 1886 (which actually happened on 4th...). Of course, the Labor day in the US is then, logically, in september.
Over here it's the day when everyone goes out on a picnic. Perhaps a little tent to take a nap after a solid barbecue (back in 1989-1992 we had a lamb on a spit when DBA did it in dad's vineyard) and six beers...
This time the day was rainy, so nobody attempted to repeat the last year's uranak in Zvezdara forest, which was renamed urinak, because they didn't have any water to douse the campfire in the end, but everyone had full bladders, so they peed on it. The set time and place was the tavern "Tošin bunar" (Toša's well, which is an actual name of the street in Zemun, or rather the border street between Zemun and Novi Beograd), which is across from the student city (where the dorms are). In the days of nonalignment we had many foreign students from those countries, so nobody really knows the name of the tavern, everyone knows it by nickname, Džakarta (Jakarta).
I took the bus from home, found my way to Lena's place. I know that much downtown Belgrade to walk across the Terazije ridge. Then she took me on regular city bus all the way to Džakarta. She's become quite an expert in city transportation, I think she has the whole timetable in her head. Enjoys the freedom to come and go at will, without the big brother watching over and checking for passes - just a year ago she wouldn't be allowed to go to a friend straight from school without a written note from parents, submitted in advance.
We got there on time, didn't get too much rained on (I had my hat, serves as umbrella). The gang was the regulars - Vasa, Brave Margot, Nautilus, Meri Popizd, Paranoid Android, Toni Adams, Rene, Uki87, Kapetanm, Mekkejb, Alfons... even ajVar, who is a member in both rasejani and oldwave, an old pal from sezam. Four tables lined up altogether. I brought a liter of brandy from Čankovo, from the supplies we got cheap with the house, and didn't bother to explain that we didn't make that brandy, we have to pick first fruit first. It was promptly named Orthography (Pravopis), because I was one of the moderators in the language section already, with deserved reputation and the status of polar bear (carthesian bears are actually far better).
Great fun, considering the special relationship (well, same as sezam before) - we all know each other quite well, after four years of chat and discussion, yet we don't know anyone's names, and so we have faces without names. Or, rather, this in this company we are our nicknames.
Rene brought a laptop and posted the photos from his phone straight to the forum, so we had some kind of live feed. A mac guy, has to boast with his hardware. It did work, though.
I have later posted the photos somewhere on sGradlj.com and shared with the furunaši (a pun - forumaš would be a forum member; furuna is a furnace), and then someone pasted one of them into an article on the RTS (PTC in cyrillic) website, as an illustration of how the politicians eat and drink, celebrating workers' holiday. There was also a video, with a highlight of how drunken Margot sings "rool britunnya", which she immediately begged me to take down, as she's working in some ministry and that at a rank rather high above that of the coffee cook, so let's not have any trouble, eh? Alright, okay, I'm removing it, but go lick anglo ass there on their turf, not here in Džakarta.
The weather didn't get better by the time we split (around midnight?). Luckily, Toni Adams took the good captain and us, and delivered us within a couple of blocks from that tiny apartment which Lena subleased from Pasa's daughters. Had a good sleep and went home in the morning.
Fujica served well, made a lot of good shots. The gibsonian sky over Zvezdara was the final one before hitting the hay.
Mentions: 21-VII-2011., 18-III-2021., Čankovo, DBA, Džakarta, Fujica, Jelena Sredljević (Lena), oldwave, ppp, rasejani, sezam, sGradlj.com, Spasenija Višnjić (Pasa), in serbian