Zet's Victory

OK, many thanks for the rather decent response to my initial blog.  I've been getting daily requests by blog, e-mail and even the odd SMS to keep the stories coming.  On top of that, the B92 English news now have a link to my blog on their headlines page http://www.b92.net/eng/news/headlines.php (Remind me to speak to the person that posted my "never to be used" picture dating back to a tooth injury;).  So, I guess I gotta keep writing...

I'll be brief today, and yes, you'll get the story on how I secured my Balkan nickname very shortly...  In the mean time, today was a bit of a victory for myself.  I recently took up a new position in a PR company.  Keeping everything legit, I was asked by the financial director for my work book (Radna Knjizica).  It was at this point I countered with a very domaca sounding "Shta!?...  Um, ne ma... I think!".
Well, a couple days later, impressing me with the speed* at which an official letter was produced in my name from the Republic of Serbia Employment Ministry &/or Office (not exactly sure which it is), our financial director handed me the letter and said all I needed to do was take all my paper work down to my local city office, Novi Beograd for me, and get my work book all sorted out.
So, letter in hand, guza kickin' Serbian Princess Warrior Wife and our 19 month old son (for the cute factor of course), proceeded to our local city hall.  Now here's the thing, for you non local types, you need to purchase the book that will receive the mighty local official's stamp separately, then go and get it filled in and stamped.
The catch is, the closest place to the local city hall that sells blank books, is more than one KM away.  I guess if I made a comment like; "It would make sense if you could purchase the book and get the stamp in the same place, right!?", most of you would reply with; "Serbia Brate", smile and then cross yourselves.
But yeah know what?  I'm not gonna make it much of an issue because here, unlike other Eastern/Central Euro bureaucracies I have run into, there always seems to be a balance.  If something, whatever it is, is stupid and difficult, the next day you tend to run into the opposite and find certain aspects of life here easier than pretty much anywhere else.
Part of applying for a work book requires the future holder of the book to produce a valid diploma or degree.  As my university degree is up on a wall in a place called Winnipeg some 10,000 KM from Belgrade, all I have is a ten year-old photocopy.  I did manage to get a translation done into Serbian but nothing sworn about it.  Using the above theory bad=good silly=smart nasty=cool, we took a chance and applied with said aged photocopy and nondescript translation and sure enough, faster than you can drink a cup of Sumadijan Tea, I was presented with my stamped work book.  They did not even bother to look at most of my documents.  "Ah Zete Bre!"
So there, the illogic aspect of not keeping the sale of work books and official stampedness in same neighbourhood let alone office was trumped by the ease of the process at what could have been a difficult task.

*NOTE: I'll be honest, my wife and I are pretty much freaked out by bureaucracy in our previous, self imposed, posting...  Poland.  Lovely place, great people but the red tape is, and believe me all you Yugoers, 10 times more...  Well, unpleasant, than here!  But hey, let's save that for a special Polski Zet story, section, novel...