Scenes from Novi Sad

Another MENSA anniversary started in a working mood. The Matica Srpska Hall, pleasantly warmed by sun, was a venue for an admission of new members and a lecture in physics. We were listening breathlessly to professor Aničin who was assuming half-seriously half-wittily that most of Einstein’s inventions were written by his wife, Mileva Marić. Remembering the previous year’s lecture when we found out that, allegedly, the fact that Tesla lived through his life without a woman was considered crucial for his achievements, I remained puzzled.

After an exhaustive round of meetings, we finally settled at the city square in Novi Sad where we chilled over a cup of coffee, though the chilling turned into a somewhat working meeting too. And so while about 20 of us were brainstorming about the coming events and exchanging experiences and some thoughts, we got an emergency call from our soccer team and the Kragujevac gang. Both groups occupied strategically a spot at Golden Ram inn, which soon became the venue of gathering of the others. The atmosphere was pleasant despite the fact that the local band was all the way across the room. The guys from Kragujevac tried on several occasions to get their attention and bring the music closer, but without a success. Eventually, it was only when our Blonde smiled and waived at their directions that the music was virtually at our tables. I’m not so sure what was happening after that, but the photos speak 1,000 words – Bane dancing alla Travolta style, Pop with his head dipped into an accordion and there is also a remote dim recollection of someone shouting:

- Alexandraaaa, you are dancing in the tavern!?!

- Umm… Ok, ok, I admit, I’m caught in the act. And I’ll be ashamed. For a few seconds only though J

One should wait only until tomorrow to be proved that lickers and party is a bad introduction for football tournament. That was the reason why the team from Kragujevac did not win it, but they received a special gratification for the best crapulence. Since the tournament was also aimed at selecting a team to represent us at the MENSA world cup, which will take place in Hungary on July 2005, the power level of the strife was sky high. Fair-play was respected so the professional judge we hired had little to do, except to wonder what kept our guys moving so smoothly while stuffing the goal of our guests from Hungary. Chief organizer asked the home team several times “not to exaggerate” because nobody will come to play with us in the future. For the details and better depiction in addition is a report by our football coordinator, Srđan Đukić.

Anniversary in 3 halftimes

It’s Saturday morning and I’m heading for Novi Sad with a bit of stage-fright. Today, during the tournament, we are selecting players for MENSA-SCG’s national team in football. Few Belgrade players joined me in Novi Sad so we arrive in Sport-center Lukovski where the tournament is to take place. The others (four teams: two from Belgrade, one from Kragujevac and one from Sombor) are arriving, and I’m wondering where is the team from host-town of Novi Sad and evaluating the opponents too. We defeated the team from Kragujavac last year in their home-town, but that team from Sombor is looking like they are playing tough football.

The tournament starts, while the spectators are slowly coming, in my opinion the reason for this latency is the third halftime (more about this later). Strains of the third halftime are visible on the faces of many players too (Grandpa, where are you?). Everything goes according to my best wishes until the match with team from Kragujevac. They took us by surprise. The game was truly exciting. The judge asks somebody if we are playing for money… That much about the impression we left and motivation (if only our national team played the same way against Spain!?!?!).

Here are the results of all the matches:

Beograd 1 – Beograd 2 7:2

Beograd 2 – Kragujevac 6:4

Beograd 1 – Sombor 12:2

Beograd 2 – Sombor 5:5

Beograd 1 – Kragujevac 4:4

Sombor – Kragujevac 5:4

And here is the final ranking:

1. Beograd 1

2. Beograd 2

3. Sombor

4. Kragujevac

Considering these results, selector Slavomir Tomović announced his selection for the representation: Nikola Kozić, Nikola Nikolić, Đorđe Janković, Aleksandar Filimonović, Dragan Mišković, Srđan Đukić, Igor Zdravković i Slavomir Tomović. This list is not final and all-inclusive, though.

I’d like to mention that the national team of Hungarian MENSA took part in the tournament, which turned out to be a great opportunity for us to see where we stand in the international arena. We played two matches against them and results did not quite reflect our hospitality in the brightest light. They’ll have an opportunity to fight back on their grounds on July 29-31 during the EMFA Cup. The highlight of the Hungarian team was a girl who played for their team. Apparently, her presence in the court was cute to everybody except our selector who suffered an injury in one clash with her.

And now something about the famous third halftime. It’s an opposite of quarantine and it includes all sorts of events before, during, and in between the matches. One can assume a player’s efforts in the third halftime by the color of his face (somewhere on scale between greenish and pink). Furthermore, if he is acting very strangely as if one of his legs is shorter than another and his moves are rather slow, that only means he was giving his best. If someone is not clear what I’m writing about (and also those among you who are very clear about it) please do come to Days of MENSA Belgrade during the Beer Fest, you’ll get another chance to see all of this live once again.

I’d like to thank Ana, main organizer of the tournament, players from Paraćin, Aleksinac and Novi Sad who came and took their role even though their town did not have a team. I'm sure that football will be a part of future gatherings, so companionship in Mensa has one more quality.

Until the next trip, carry on training for the three-halftime matches.

Srđan Đukić, SIG for football

Saturday afternoon was reserved for tournament in social games, so this is a report from Zdravko Živković, SIG for Games Coordinator:

BACKGAMMON

This was the second tournament in backgammon, one of the most popular board games among the Mensans. The tournament turned to be very tense, since the semi-finals were very tense and the competitors fought until the very last minute. Unfairly taken for granted after the first round, Nataša Aćimović-Knežević excelled in the runner up round against Boško Pešić, who was considered a favorite in the match, and secured the third place. The winner of the tournament was Ranko Beličajević, while Ranko Rajović came second. We wish more luck to the others on the next anniversary tournament.

RUMICUBE

Even though this is the most popular game in Mensa Novi Sad, on this particular occasion BACKGEMMON stole the storm, so the tournament wasn't even finished... Distinguished success was achived by Vesna Opavski and Ljubomir Kustudić, so it’s up to them to decide who the best is in some coming matches.

What to say about the Saturday evening party? Energy from a pub located on the raft in Ribarac made some serious waves on Danube. Everybody came to the party, even those not used to spending time at pubs, those without time for evening entertainment or even some very fresh parents. J Even Uroš P managed to escape the journalists who are bugging him for days and joined the party. Only football winning team was missing- probably already in quarantine for the competition in Hungary J

S!ng, Mensa band with a new lead singer and a drummer, began their performance with songs from ex-YU to finish with not-so-easy-to-dance-to songs of Queen and other rock legends. The bravest were the first to perform in the karaoke contest, until the performance of the Blondes SIG, who were unselfish giving away smiles and encouraging the others to sing. Everybody was holding a mic at some moment: vicious football players, guests from Hungary, even the melted members of the Board. Once again Nataša’s outstanding styling could have easily beaten those of many professional performers... The jury had a difficult task and it’s a real wonder they managed to reach a fair verdict.

We could have sung until the dawn, but a guy who we rented the equipment from was so angry that we had to leave somewhere between 3am and 4 am. Totally under the impression of the party, relax and ummm… happy, to put it that way J, we totally forgot to give a ride to our musicians and left them on the riverside.  The lead singer of S!ng would have been angry with us for the troubles they had in getting to their room, if he didn’t realize the first thing in the morning that he had spent the night in a female-only high school dormitory. This improved his mood considerably J

I have always been aware of the powerful affect of advertising, but it was only the next morning that I myself got a proof for that. Our planned tour of the Fruška Gora monasteries was canceled because everybody wanted to see the catacombs under the Petrovaradin Fortress – probably attracted by the stories told by the participants of previous gatherings and visits to the catacombs. As always, we were having a great time, but our guide Ranko had his boy on the back all the time, messing around dady’s eyes and ears so let me just copy the email he distributed on the list after the event:

Unfortunately, we as organizers didn’t win almost any prize whatsoever since we were so exhausted with preparations of the event. Moreover, some of our members suffered the first and second degree burns preparing the barbeque for 100 people. We were also totally humiliated in the tournament games, and don’t even get me started on arrhythmia and heart beats of our lead organizer while guiding the visit to the grave of Branko Radičević, on the top of  the hill. As for my experiences on the Fortress, no biggy at all – I just had to pass the same route five times, each time with a different group with a single flashlight. In case you haven’t tried, feel free to take a group of 10-15 Mensians down to the 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd underground levels with a week flashlight. Maybe I’ll write a report myself, just give me a couple of days to pull myself together. Oh, and another thing - since Milica, Belgrade Coordinator, keeps bragging about the medals the Belgrade team won, let me share this one as well: the guard on the raft ended up in water which went completely unnoticed by most of the people that were there until he re-appeared, completely wet this time. So there you go, we were guarding you, getting burned, suffering heart problems, passing through fusty dark labyrinths so you can show of with the first prizes! LBut just wait till you are the organizers and when we come all fresh and competitive to bring home some medals J(Un)happy coordinator Ranko

You already got the picture – after completing the Fortress route, we went on for the barbeque on the Stražilovo, after which we climbed to the tomb of Branko Radičević, inevitably taking group pictures and making arrangements for the coming gatherings. Since we were sort of tired already by that time, the slight rain that chased us away in the afternoon didn't ruin a thing. I can hardly refer to farewells as classic farewells, since when four of us entered Disney pancake restaurant, more then 20 Mensians were there as well. To be frank – we didn’t feel like saying goodbye...

I’m not sure if it was the spring, good company or the fact that the weather was great with colorful combination of green flowers and blue sky, or is it the magic of Novi Sad, but this gathering made me drunk for days without a drop of alcohol. I'm still carried by that positive energy which was glowing from friendly faces of our fellow Mensians with whom I spent that weekend on April 15-17. And where I’m about to be carried to next – read more in next report...

Aleksandra Borović

PDP SIG Coordinator

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