h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Thanx.Past years were good. I am on third year of journalisam and start to work for one magazin as photographer. I become aunt last year, my little brother got baby girl.
How are you?

ah, good! started as photographer! well, congratulations! that sounds like a very good start!

Yea it's great job. I am driving around take pictures and enjoy and they paid me for that.
By the way my dad finnaly built chimney at weekend house and now we can spent winnter there.

ah! yes, I remember the chimney as well! a very close friend has a summerhouse with a sauna in it .. would that be .. ?? or .. sauna isn't really that common in your part of the world now, is it?
(the summerhouse with sauna is in Estonia btw)
"just" driving around and "just" take pictures sounds very easy and relaxed reality may sometimes be .. just a tiny bit .. different?

sauna it would be great to have it. It is not common here.

reality is different, but when i am dirving around i just enjoy and don't think about "real" world. That real world will wait for me at the same place when i left it.

yess.. a sauna .. well, mind you, it's not common in the Netherlands either, however most sports clubs have one. mine as well, so I have a weekly sauna session. The summerhouse sauna was .. very good. wood fired, and hot. A cold shower afterwards, a drink (.. alcohol could be a risk, but never mind that, all of Russia drinks loads of vodka after their banya). now your father finished the chimney he'll certainly want a new project? "sauna" would be great.

I heve hever been in sauna but i want to try that. It must be great. In first moment i almost wrote it must be cool.
Great idea, about new project, i must tell that to my father. And ten years later we probably get sauna.

whatever .. a sauna isn't cool certainly worth to try it. (mind you, best if you know someone with a sauna but I think in your part of the world.. really far from Scandinavia .. there's not many of them). Turkish baths are also not very popular in your place .. or so I assume . *that* is something I have never tried

No Turkish baths are not popular here, as far as i know.

there you go, get your father to build a sauna!

Do you know what we need for sauna? Do we need pipes, bricks?

well, I'm not a specialist, but as the inside will get pretty hot, and damp.. they're all made of wood inside, and isolation (heat, remember?) should be thick. real thick. I'd suggest brick outside..

Beside bricks and woods I must buy to celebrate when we finish with works.

.. that's a bit an odd way to start, but on the other hand it may be an incentive to get started building

We must start somewhere or somehow. In some part of my country there is tradition to kill lamb or rooster for start.

well, that's a clear start. I'm not sure what the lamb or rooster thinks of it..

I assume it's also barbequed?

I think they not crazy about starting of work on construcions.
Rooster goes to barbeque and they put lamb on spit.

well.. you see, the start is totally wrong! the idea is to have that sort of thing when the job is finished! preparing a meal like that at the start sort of delays the start, makes everyone sleepy, there's probably and involved as well, that sort of delays the building process!

Before starting ther is one very hevy period which calls making of agreement.It is process. from having idea to start with work need a lot of time and a lot of roosters, lambs, pigs, and other domestic animal which people use for food. when poor animals see people with paper, pencil, cell phone, sun glasses and in smart clothes they start to run and to pray to their animal goods, if they have one. Off course vine, beer, snaps, vodka,and all other alcoholic drinks are inevitable.

process goes like this: (This is my view because neither me nor anybody form my closeste people don't do projects on traditional serbian way)

First meeting for introduction, few alcoholic drinks and booking some restoraunt for better introduction. Second meeting in some restoraunt bbq and much more alcohol,and they make agreement about time of making agreement, off course thaey also book some expensive and traditional restoraunt.(half naked woman singer is include in price, but she allways accepts tips) Meeting no. 3 in some traditional restoraunt with pig and lamb on spit. that also include river of all kind of alcohol. Next meeting, in office, includes tehnical details and they now must go to some bar to celebrate. after few hours in bar they become hungry and go in traditional restoraunt.
after few months of "agreemnet" work finnaly begin if firm don't bancrot from all that buisness agreements.

that kind of start makes our country "progressive" in Europe.

this is caracteristic for all projects in serbia, but esspecialy for building process.

aahh.. if that would go for *any* type of projects I may have to do a few projects in Serbia as well :-"
so an "agreement" would typically take something like .. three to thirty meetings in restaurants / bars ??



* browses the internet to see what ticktes to Belgrade would do *