Review: 2010 Volkswagen City Golf

As far as my real estate knowledge takes me, it is next to impossible to find a townhouse that is not part of a complex. To preserve the uniformity of these house clusters, every complex is governed by a 'strata,' which coordinates (read: decides on) at least every aspect of the exterior appearance of every residing unit.

When it comes time to renovate the complex, the strata evaluates the weight of the porcelain swine-look-a-like that has eaten all of the members’ monthly fees and subsequently decides how good of a company they can hire to swap out the insulation, re-blacken the roofs, and apply new plastic boards onto the outside of every unit.

Not only do I happen to live in such a complex, but also my group of houses has taken the big step and asked some people with white vans to give the place a once-over. By the looks of things, though, my complex’s pig wasn’t quite fat enough. Allow me to elaborate…

Developments, part VI

In Serbian tradition, when a baby is first brought home, a red string is tied around his wrist which protects the little guy from bad luck and bad people.

Alternatively, a red ribbon is tied on the top of the baby's crib so that when people with an evil eye enter the room, they first spot the ribbon, which absorbs their malevolent gaze before it has a chance to get to the baby.

Many people laugh at all this, citing it as useless superstition, but somehow all babies end up having either red strings or ribbons...