Soli

No, I'm not going to rave about flowers, just wanted to paste this collage of pics taken in my great aunt's garden yesterday for decorative purposes.

I'd rather share a gem of the linguistic kind with you.

Waiting at a red light on Mariahilfer St. on Saturday, I overheard a girl, part of a group of teenagers of Balkan descent ask "Gemma Soli?" which roughly translates to "Wanna go soli". "Soli", I wondered, w.t.f. does that mean? I didn't think of the obvious until another youth replied entusiastically, "Ja, gemma Solarium" (yeah, let's go [to the] solarium).

Analogous to that other wildly popular spot for hanging out, "MACie" or rather "Meckie" as youngsters like to call MCDonald's in this country, spending afternoons at "soli" must be the rave among (certain strata of) Austria's teens.

Unless a group sunbed session is a thinly veiled excuse for an orgy or a clever ploy to see your classmates starkers, I don't quite see the attraction. Ah well, obviously just another sign of getting old.