W-wa Jeziorki

Weekend with the X100

2012-03-02T23:42:00.005+01:00

Marta's husband Kamil has lent me his Fujifilm Finepix X100 for the weekend, with a view to sell, I borrowed it with a view to buy - should it pass the test. So - some first photos, colours, saturation, contrast, brightness etc. untweaked in Photoshop or Lightroom. Straight out of the camera.

Above: Central Warsaw skyline at dusk. Fixed lens means no dust will get onto the sensor, so no 'spotting' or retouching in Photoshop to remove blemishes.

Left: ul. Poznańska, looking north towards Al. Jerozolimskie. These are only demonstrations of the the camera's optics. Its real magic is how it works around people - but for that, you will have to wait. A full test and comparison with DSLR and film rangefinder cameras to follow. In the meanwhile, thanks to Kamil for the loan of this camera.

First impressions broadly favourable, but I need to spend time with it to really know how it performs.

This time three years ago:
Sublime sunset, Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Dramatic sunset, Jeziorki

Remembering the Accursed Soldiers

2012-03-01T23:08:00.005+01:00

Plac Piłsudskiego, midday. President Bronisław Komorowski pays tribute to the so-called 'Accursed Soldiers' (żółnierze wyklęci), those resistance fighters who did not put down their guns when the Red Army chased the Nazis out of Poland, but fought on against communism.

This is a new public holiday (though not a day off work), instituted last year to mark the 60th anniversary in 1951 of the execution of seven anti-communist leaders. This is why the national flags were out today - although hardly anyone I spoke to knew the significance of 1 March.

The story of the accursed soldiers is not straightforward. As well as patriotic Poles who felt their duty was to fight on against the Soviets and their Polish communist henchmen, there were also hiding out in the forest bandits and criminals on the run. Killing Nazi occupiers was morally acceptable, but killing Poles who'd joined the communist party - some for ideological reasons - was more questionable. The scene in Wajda's Ashes and Diamonds in which a young man is mistakenly killed by two former Home Army men makes that point.

Knowing what repression was being meted out against former Home Army soldiers by the communist security apparatus, many of them hid out in the forests out of self-preservation.

I wrote a short story (Part I here) last year to encapsulate the dilemma that many of the accursed soldiers faced while hiding out in the forests. Many's the time I've wondered to myself what I'd have done in 1945 had I been a Home Army soldier. There were really only three choices for those who'd spent the past five years fighting the Nazi occupant - keep your head down and hope for the best in a society that was being forced into the straightjacket of communism, hold out in the forest or break for the West. The majority took the first option.

The issue of anti-Semitism among the accursed soldiers is a thorny one. There were many Jews in the communist security apparatus. This was, across the whole of Soviet-occupied central and eastern Europe, part of Stalin's strategy to divide and rule; many Jews who had felt discriminated against in pre-war Poland initially saw communism as a chance for a new beginning. This tended to exacerbate anti-Semitic sentiment that may have already existed among the officers and men hiding out in the forests.

Having said that, the moral issues facing the accursed soldiers were complex and hard to appreciate through the prism of today's society and values. We must remember them and what they stood for; their story is all the more poignant by the fact that very few of them lived to see a free Poland.

The kindness of strangers

2012-03-01T19:37:00.005+01:00

I received an e-mail at work the other day from a young lady who picked up a pen drive that had fallen out of my bag as I was getting off the train at Jeziorki. She'd tracked down my e-mail address from a PowerPoint presentation on the pen drive, and this afternoon, she popped it over to my office in person.

Such acts of kindness are like little miracles that raise one's estimation of the people among whom I live. But this was not an isolated incident.

The very same day, the taxi driver than drove me home from Wilanowska remembered that several weeks ago he didn't have enough loose change from the notes I proffered him. He reduced my fare by three zlotys to make it up.

This reminded me of the time, seven or eight years ago when I left a pair of gloves in a taxi; a couple of hours later the driver called round to my office to drop them off, saying he remembered picking me up from this address.

Each act of kindness such as this, unbidden, selfless and generous, adds to social trust, to the the nation's social capital, and makes the country a better place to live.

So a heartfelt 'thank you' to Pani Judyta and the taxi driver with the navy-blue Volvo S80 for contributing in their way to making me feel good about my fellow Poles.

This time last year:
Picks of the pics that passed Feb's posts

This time three years ago:
The Economist was wrong about Poland

This time four years ago:
Siekierki - the end of the line

Strong late-winter sunshine

2012-02-27T21:57:00.005+01:00

A big thanks to regular commentator Andrzej K. for tipping me off about this one - I grabbed the camera and rushed off around the corner to Al. Jerozolimskie to nab this shot (below) of the strong sunlight streaming in along Warsaw's main east-west thoroughfare. Note the cloudline along the horizon - almost perfectly straight.

Below: returning to my office on ul. Nowogrodzka, which runs parallel to Al. Jerozolimskie, with the sun low in the sky and blasting down the road.

It may be zero degrees, but spring in coming. It will be several weeks yet, but the longer period of evening daylight is most certainly welcome, as is the sunshine.

City-centre living, Warsaw-style

2012-02-27T21:18:00.004+01:00

If proximity to the capital's very epicentre is anything to go by, these flats are located in Warsaw's Mayfair. Below: block of flats on ul. Marszałkowska, less than one tram-stop from Centrum.

Below: in a similar architectural vein - block of flats on ul. Krucza, one tram-stop from Centrum.

Right now, you can find a 40-50 square metre flat here for around £100,000 (500,000 zlotys). Or one-third of the price of a grotty terraced house in Greenford, Middlesex, 12 miles (20km) from the centre of London.

Hardcore fixies, Warsaw

2012-02-27T20:45:00.007+01:00

Well look at this one, chained to railings near Pl. Zbawiciela. No brakes, no mudguards, no front fork rake. The front wheel (trendily mis-matching the rear) has but 20 spokes, crossing over each other but once (rather than three times, as in standard tangentially-spoked wheels). This is going to be an unforgiving ride.

But look at how short the wheelbase is; the seatpost is bent to allow the rear wheel to be positioned further forward. Like in a cycle polo mount. The rear-facing rear dropouts suggest a frame built for fixed drive. These bikes are getting more and more extreme; this is the most extreme I've seen in Warsaw to date! And the snow has only just receded!

The frame looks identical to the third bike down (the white one) in this set of fixie photos from last summer. Compare its geometry with the more conventional bike below...

Above: almost out of the box - a 2008 Kross Unforgiven Limited Edition parked outside my office. Polish designed and built (the Kross bicycle company is a great success story).

Right: I say 'almost' because of its non-standard stubby bars. Narrow bars make for nippier handling through traffic, but there comes a point (when they are narrower than the rider's shoulders) when they become ludicrous. Why not dispense with bars altogether and merely stick your thumbs into the hole in the stem?

This time last year:
Oldschool Włochy

This time three years ago:
Lent and recession

This time four years ago:
Three weeks into Lent

My Nikon D80 five years on

2012-02-25T12:10:00.010+01:00

Well, here's a piece of consumer electronics that's passed every test. My Nikon D80 is five today, and although it's a bit frayed at the edges (shutter sounds a bit tired), it's still working fine (as my photos of the Palace of Culture) will attest. While the D80's older and lighter brother, the D40 has become my camera of choice for carrying around on an everyday basis. However, the D80 works with my long 80-400mm zoom; the D40 won't autofocus this monster glass, and the D80 has a grid in the viewfinder than allows you to square up the verticals when composing a shot.

Most important to me is the way the cameras are perceived by passers-by. I do a lot of street photography; the camera's around my neck in crowds. The D80 with 18-200mm attracts attention; it looks like the equipment of a media professional. The D40 with 18-55mm doesn't. With the former I'm taken for a professional photographer, with the latter, for a tourist. Obviously, the latter makes it easier to move about a crowd snapping. Having said that, the 18-200mm is better for landscapes and architecture, the 80-400mm for aviation and wildlife (though I have issues with the slowness of its autofocus).

If there's one huge advance in photography over the past decade or so, it's Vibration Reduction ('VR' as Nikon calls it) or Image Stabilisation ('IS' as Canon calls it). VR allows you to take a sharp photograph with a shutter speed up to four stops slower than usual. The general rule is that the longest shutter speed at which you can take a sharp photo is a reciprocal of the lens's focal length. So for a 50mm lens, 1/50th sec will give you a sharp photo, a longer exposure (1/25th sec, for example) will result in overall blur caused by camera shake. Four stops means that you can hand-hold at 1/6th sec. With a 28mm lens, you can get away with 1/3rd sec. And zoomed in to 200mm, an amazing 1/25th sec. is still good. For night-time street photography without a tripod - that makes a huge difference to image quality.

Above: photo taken at 1/5th sec, f3.5, 320 ISO, Nikon D80 with 18-200mm VR lens zoomed out to 18mm. Below: a crop on the detail, more than five times magnification. Neither photo tweaked in Photoshop or Lightroom. Click to enlarge and look at the crispness of the word odjazdy ('departures'). Incidentally, from the departures board below you can see that the photo above was taken during the height of the evening rush hour.

Unfortunately, the 18-55mm kit zoom that came with my D40 does not have VR. I am toying with the idea of buying a 16-85mm VR zoom to go with both Nikons; this will offer the much-needed VR for night photography, plus it gives a wider angle (equivalent to 24mm on a standard 35mm film camera). This lens should do for me; the D80 should do me for many years as a body for use with the longer lenses. As for the D40... there are rumours that the D40 current replacement, the D3100, is due itself to be replaced by the D3200, with 24 megapixel sensor.

I had been contemplating Fuji's raved-about Finepix X100. Being a rangefinder enthusiast (a Leica M owner since 1981), I love the inconspicuous retro appearance (it looks like some old FED or Zorki to the average passer-by) and ease of use. However, it feels flimsy compared to a Leica M, a lens filter is an expensive and non-standard add-on, its battery is poor compared to those found in Nikon DSLRs and the software is non-intuitive. I've taken several shots with the X100 and I'm not immediately impressed. Maybe a longer test is in order; right now I feel that sticking with a light-weight Nikon DSLR with a VR lens as standard is the way forward.

In the meanwhile, if you are thinking about buying a second-hand D80 (or indeed its successor, the D90) - if you can get one for a good price (ie half the price of a new D90, for example), it's a reliable and thoroughly decent digital camera, if a bit heavy for carrying around your neck all day long. The batteries are long-lasting (on a scale of 0-4, where 0 = factory fresh and 4 = spent, after five years, mine is 1). My main gripe about the 18-200mm lens - that when carrying vertically, the lens zooms out to the longest focal length - has been addressed by the newer 18-200mm VRII lens, which can lock into the 18mm position.

This time last year:
My Nikon D80 four year on

This time three years ago:
My Nikon D80 two years on

This time four year ago:
My Nikon D80 one year on

Three days into Lent

2012-02-24T23:58:00.001+01:00

I launched into Lent on Ash Wednesday by getting back to exercise. Starting off with 25 sit-ups and 18 press-ups on Wednesday morning and evening, repeated on Thursday morning and evening - big mistake. On Friday I could not do a single press-up or sit-up; my pectoral and stomach muscles ached. Coughing was painful as was raising myself from bed!

Having carried on last year from the end of Lent until well into the autumn (by which time I could do over 50 press-ups in one go) I thought 20 would be a doddle. It was not; the message here is that giving up exercise (even if only over an extended Christmas/New Year period) is bad. Exercise is something one has to stick to rigorously and consistently.

Better to do less of them but daily than to reach a high level and then stop for a few months. Though should I fail to adhere to this precept, I must remember for next Lent to start with no more than 10 press-ups and 15 sit-ups and gently work upwards from that.

The start-point is way off from last year's; my circumference is 39 and half inches (99.5cm). This is awful. A whole three inches (7.5 cm) more than at the end of last Lent, two and a quarter more than at the start of last Lent. And a whole stone (7kg) heavier than at the end of last Lent.

Trzeba się za siebie wziąć.

Better news on the dieting front; the caffeine-withdrawal headaches have ceased after two and half days; I'm eating tons of fruit, no meat, no salt (I put away the salt-cellar months ago), no salt snacks (ditto), and surprisingly, I'm not missing alcohol at all. My kebabs have been replaced by falafel - I can recommend the Sahara on ul. Krucza - three falafel, houmus , pitta bread and salad for 13 złotys (less than three quid), and fish has replaced beef in my pho soup from the Bar Saigon on ul. Bracka. Seedless grapes have come into season just as citrus fruit is getting dry and tough, apples are still plentiful and the banana is a nutritious staple. Nescore chicory coffee gives some of that coffee taste without any caffeine and Poland is a leader in the production of fruit and herbal teas.

Spiritually, I must meditate more upon the Eternal, on the profound mysteries of existence and do so within the day-to-day framework of rising, going to work and earning money, essential activity though activity that needs to be placed within a greater context - an individual consciousness that has evolved to feel its way around a planet in the solar system within a galaxy at least 200 billion stars, one of 200 billion galaxies in the observable universe.

This time two years ago:
Two weeks into Lent

Central Warsaw, evening rush hour

2012-02-22T21:34:00.010+01:00

Half past five, I've just left the office en route for W-wa Śródmieście station and a train to Jeziorki. Below: ul. Nowogrodzka, looking towards Marszałkowska.

Below: as I approach the station, looming out of the evening mist, the Palace of Culture.

Left: any decent horror film from Rosemary's Baby to The Shining must have its spine-tingling setting - The Dakota building or the Timberline Lodge, and with its current trendy lavender colour scheme, the Palace of Culture looks gothically grim on a misty night, rimmed by the skeletal fingers of leafless trees. The horrors of Stalinism return to haunt Warsaw. But few commuters seem to notice, everyone's in a rush to get home.

Right: view of the Palace from the south, approaching W-wa Śródmieście station. The contrasting sodium lighting of the colonnades makes them look like the gaping, salivating maw of a gigantic, ravenous creature, snapping at the passers-by.

On a clear day, the Palace looks less foreboding as it is ringing by an increasing number of skyscrapers. But tonight they are lost in the mist, and once more, as in the mid-1950s, the Palace is the only high-rise building visible in Central Warsaw.

Below: down the steps from the piazza at the south side of the Palace, to W-wa Śródmieście station. It looks nearly empty from this angle, but then few passengers enter the station from here. The platforms, in contrast, are packed with office workers waiting for their trains home.

This time last year:
Cold and getting colder

This time three years ago:
Uwaga! Sople!

This time four years ago:
Ul. Poloneza at its worst

Lent starts, again

2012-02-21T21:59:00.004+01:00

Well, here it is again. Another Lent, another chance to deny, purify and strengthen and through that connect with the Eternal. But in the meantime, Ostatki - 'the Lasts' - the last of the alcohol (empty the drinks cabinet), of meat, of fine cheeses (the Montgomery's cheddar went yesterday), and a last curry.

What more will I add to my catalogue of denial? This year - white bread (I love fresh baguettes on weekend mornings) and chilli and spicy sauces. And more exercises - the traditional press-ups and sit-ups. I'm 5kg/11lbs heavier than I was before last year's Lent.

And the aim? Biologically, to cleanse the body of toxins. To strengthen the will - the will to do as well as the will not to do. And to contemplate life, death and the universe - the expanding universe - and what the fleeting presence of our consciousness upon the face of this small planet means in the bigger scheme of things.

Do we really have free wills? The remains of our lives are getting ever shorter and yet there's just so many more things to think about and to consider in depth. As I get older, that life's worth of thinking leads to more and more profound reflections; indeed, I'd not trade it for being younger and stupider.

And so. In the morning, I shall wake up to eschew meat, dairy products, alcohol, caffeine, salt snacks, fast food, white bread and hot spices - and I'll stick with it until Easter Sunday, 8th April. And hopefully gain from the experience physically, mentally and spiritually.

This time last year:
Art Quiz

This time two years ago:
A month before Spring Equinox

This time three years ago:
The beauty of winter
[some of my finest winter photos]

Metro terminus, Kabaty

2012-02-19T15:44:00.003+01:00

A neat symmetry; while passing through Kabaty Metro station (en route to the bankomat), I chanced upon two identical Russian-stock trains. The one on the left is waiting to depart, the one on the right as just pulled in to the last station. There's about a minute when both are standing here together. Just enough time to line up a shot on my Nokia 6700 Classic (5 megapixel camera).

Meanwhile, outside, the weather is ghastly. It's raining, it's +2C, the snow's melting; foul, foul weather.

This time last year:
To the Devil with it all - a short story

This time two years ago:
Waiting for the meltdown

This time three years ago:
Good roads and rich countries

This time four years ago:
Flat tyre

Fixies in the snow

2012-02-17T23:58:00.005+01:00

"Neither snow nor rain nor gloom of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds." *

The fixie-mounted cycle messengers get through despite the heavy snowfalls of the past two days. This one (below) parked outside our offices on ul. Nowogrodzka. Form follows function; mechanical and ideological purity. Only two compromises - a bell (with a sticker 'I ♥ my bike') and a rear mudguard. Note unraked front forks - every jolt in the road travels through the frame up the arms into the rider's body. Not for wimps.

The photo below appeared on this blog in December 2009, before the fixie became the Warsaw hipster's mode of transport of choice.

Brakes evidently more of a hindrance than help when thick snow covers urban roads. It seems (for I've not tried riding in snow on my fixie) that direct control of the driving wheel via the pedals works better than brakes, and that skinny tyres adhere better to slippery surfaces than do fat ones with gnarly tread.

* Can anyone identify which chart-topping 1981 song these lines from?

Fresh powder on Warsaw's parks

2012-02-17T23:43:00.000+01:00

It snowed and it snowed, cloaking Warsaw's parks in a magickal atmosphere. Worth taking 20 minutes time off between meetings to soak it in.

Below: Park Ujazdowski, an avenue of trees running parallel to Al. Ujazdowskie. Fresh powder about 4 inches (10cm) deep upon all surfaces. Little wind, so no drifting.

Left: As though wearing a baggy white mohair sweater, Poland's piano-playing elder statesman toughs out the cold. The statue faces the building that housed the British Embassy on the corner of Al. Ujazdowskie and Al. Róż. The lawn behind the statue is lined with roses in the summer.

The snow continued falling all day and into the early evening, by then, however, the temperature rose above zero for the first time for three weeks. The roads and pavements would fill with unpleasant slush, but for now, time to revel in the freshness of the snow-blanket.

Right: the pond at the southern end of Park Ujazdowski, frozen solid, offers children returning from school a ready-made skating rink. No danger of anyone falling in after such a prolonged period of heavy frost. The ducks that usually reside here cluster near the park's southern-most exit, hoping to cadge bread from passers-by.

Below: a woman comes to Park Łazienkowski just across Trasa Łazienkowska from Park Ujazdowski armed with bird-food and a camera. Her attempted to lure blue tits and blackbirds to her feed-box were largely unsuccessful; in the end she scattered the food on the path - this attracted quite a flock.

This time three years ago:
In praise of the 20-minute bus/tram/Metro ticket
[it was just 2zł or 35p back then; today 2.60zł or 50p.]

First heavy snow of the winter

2012-02-15T21:42:00.009+01:00

It's been a long time coming. Proper, heavy snow, the kind that paralyses cities. Below: ul. Trombity at ten to seven this morning, the snow still mercifully light. We saw far more people on foot today; not good driving conditions (as colleagues and clients would testify throughout the day). By the peak of the morning rush hour, the snow was falling intensively.

Approaching midday, right in the heart of the city - Centrum, Rondo Dmowskiego. A cycle courier (on a fixie, what else?) is dicing with a Gocław-bound 507 bus. Despite the steady snowfall, it's actually the warmest it's been for weeks, with temperatures nudging zero at lunchtime.

Below: Ogród Saski, and the ducks are out in force on the corner of ul. Marszałkowska and Królewska, their traditional winter hang-out.

Below: outside the Palace of Culture, an impoverished intellectual (a social class lacking in Britain) is calling it a day; his selection of well-thumbed paperbacks up for sale is covered in snow and thus business is not brisk.

Left: The Marriott hotel rises above snow-covered spruces across from the Palace of Culture.

This snowfall had been forecast accurately a few days ago, and yet it caught out motorists on the hop. Few snowploughs were to be seen in the morning rush hour; by the evening, everything was back to normal, Warsaw was coping. Tonight the temperature will fall again to a double-digits below zero, with more snow falling until the early hours.

This time last year:
God's Dwelling Place - a short story

This time two years ago:
Beat this for a snowy winter!

This time three years ago:
Poland's most popular outergarments

This time four years ago:
The Frost Gods return

Waiting for the change

2012-02-14T20:09:00.003+01:00

So here I am, neither on one pavement nor the other, waiting for the lights to change, waiting for the green, waiting to make a move; watching and waiting, watching for signs, no one to talk to, busy - busy waiting...

Hoża tram stop on ul. Marszałkowska, lunchtime, slight snow, light frost. Winter will be over in six weeks. I'm waiting for those first signs that life's miracle will unfold once more.

This time last year:
A wetter Poland?

This time three years ago:
Heavy overnight snow

This time four years ago:
Changing Jeziorki skyline

Who are the thickies of Europe?

2012-02-13T20:18:00.005+01:00

A big thanks to Tutkaj News for flagging up this story last week. (For those who don't know it, Andrzej's site is the best compendium of links to English-language stories about Poland and Poles in the UK on the web.)

The story, in Britain's socially- and economically left-leaning Guardian, points out that poor Poland produces more students at A-level (matura) than does the UK. The article is condescending in tone, its analysis superficial and ideologically-motivated.

Read this passage.

The UK has a smaller proportion of adults with A-levels or their equivalent than Poland or Bulgaria, an analysis by the European Union's official statistics agency shows.
Several former eastern bloc countries now have adult populations that are more highly educated than the UK's, the Eurostat data reveals. They include Hungary, the Czech Republic, Poland and Bulgaria.

Oh golly-gosh. Those funny people with those funny unpronounceable names are actually cleverer than us? "And why is that?" ask the well-meaning Guardian readers. It is, so the newspaper asserts, "due to the rising cost of learning".

Hang on a second! Rising cost of learning? Then cut the cost! Pay teachers less! Don't invest in schools! Do something! Patently a heap of illogical drivel.

Look at the sixth word of the second quoted paragraph, 'now'. And then take a look at the very statistics linked to the article. They stretch back to 1999, and then the gulf between the UK and Poland was actually bigger than it is today. So this is not about now; it's a systemic problem that was actually worse under Tony Blair.

A quick canter over those stats for those who can't be bothered to do so themselves.

Total population (aged 25-64) having completed at least upper-secondary education. In 2010, this was 88.7% of Poles, and 76.1% of Brits. Europe's brain-boxes are the post-communist countries. Lithuania (92%), Czech Republic (91.9%), Slovakia (91%) and Estonia (89.2%) beat Poland. Generally, Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has the highest proportion of young people in Europe leaving school at what in the UK is sixth-form level.

So who are Europe's thickies? In ascending order: Malta (29%), Portugal (31.9%), Spain (52.6%), Italy (55.2%) and Greece (62%) (Making any connections?)

Is the root cause of poor educational outcomes a lack of funding? No. At heart, I think it is that CEE societies place a far greater store on educating children than do either western Europeans or Mediterranean types. When I was a teenager, almost all my UK-born Polish peers went on from school into higher education, when that figure for the UK population as a whole was just 8%.

Our parents pressured us to do well at school in England just as Polish parents pressure their children to do well at school in Poland today.

But before Poland and the other CEE countries think about relaxing, remember than 100% of South Korean parents want their children to go to university...

Words which I remember my mother quoting to me as a child:

Chcesz być czymś w życiu, to się ucz
Abyś nie zginął w tłumie,
Nauka to potęgi klucz
W tym moc, co więcej umie.

Ignacy Baliński (1862 - 1951)

('If you want to be someone in life, then study
To avoid dying among the masses,
Education is power's key
In him the power, who knows more.')

This time last year:
Oldschool Photochallenge: Response No. 2

This time two years ago:
Oligocene water from Jeziorki

Feeling at home on the ice

2012-02-12T18:29:00.006+01:00

After yesterday's visual exploration of the frozen Vistula today I decided to step out bravely on some ice closer to home - the wetlands at the end of ul. Trombity. The gorgeousness of the day demanded that I should take polarising filter and make the most of it. A bit warmer, almost reaching a daytime high of -5C; only one pair of gloves needed today. So then, dear reader, let me take you on a tour of Jeziorki's wetlands, between ul. Trombity, ul. Dumki and ul. Kórnicka.

Above: The pond on ul. Trombity. If there's on thing to give you confidence when stepping out onto ice, it's tyre tracks. If a quad can drive on this stuff, there's nothing to worry out.

Above: following the quad's tracks forming a corridor through the reed-beds I enter a world normally closed off to human eyes, taking in vistas that for much of the year the human eye cannot witness.

Above: the effects of the floods of 2010 are still visible. This stand of trees is still under water.

Left: an Alitalia Airbus A319 on final approach to Warsaw Okęcie airport. If any Italians are gazing out of the plane at this moment, they will probably not be too surprised, as it's frosty in Rome too, with bright blue skies.

Look at these pictures closely - no distant roofs, pylons or spires. After the thaw, humans will not be here again until the wetlands freeze over again.

Compositions in white, blue and gold hit the spot when it comes to the sublime aesthetic; that moment when the human consciousness is transported to another place and time, familiar, and yet not of this life.

Right: a tree with its bark stripped - I guess by a woodpecker. Plenty of bark on the ice below, another tree a few metres away has been similarly attacked. Closer inspection of the tree shows that there are plenty of holes where beetles have bored into the trunk. A sign that despite the big freeze, life goes on, the struggle to survive.

Although a bit later in February, I made a similar expedition to the frozen wetlands last year (the relevant post is here). It seems that we had a week with temperatures averaging-9C back then.

This time three years ago:
Wetlands in (a milder) winter

This time four years ago:
Railway miscellany

Vistula freezes further downstream

2012-02-11T15:32:00.004+01:00

Would the Vistula be frozen solid downstream of Siekierki power station? I went to find out, driving to Obórki, 15 km south of Most Poniatowskiego.

Above: looking upstream, less than ten miles south of the centre of Warsaw, and not a sign of the city. Has the river frozen solid?

Above: people venturing out onto the ice. They are doing so responsibly. The man is armed with, sorry - carrying - a stick, testing the ice before moving forward, gingerly. And there must be a second person at hand. They did not not go far before turning back to safety.

Above: the Jeziorka river at its confluence with the Vistula. I must say, I was not brave enough to test the ice in person... better safe than sorry. Another week at -10C, and maybe...

This time last year:
Twilight of the Ikars

This time two year ago:
Polish TV adverts for parapharmaceuticals

This time three years ago:
Jeziorki wetlands in winter
[light snowfall, temperature above zero]

This time four years ago:
A week into Lent
[what, already?]

From the open door

2012-02-10T23:01:00.000+01:00

The double-decker trains have all but disappeared from the Koleje Mazowieckie services to town. All the trains I take to work and back are the old EN57 stock, the oldest examples of which will be celebrating their 50th birthday this year. Some have been modernised and have push-button door opening. The older ones' doors are opened along the entire train by the guard, whether someone's using them or not. This is uncomfortable at -15C, especially seeing as many of the internal sliding doors are broken and stuck in the open position. At every station, a blast of cold air enters the compartment.

Above: W-wa Jeziorki station and its demolished shelter. A frosty morn; note absence of cars parked up along ul. Gogolińska. Either the cars wouldn't start, or their drivers preferred to face the jams in the warmth of their vehicles rather than brave the cold trains.

Above: W-wa Okęcie station, and behind it the long-to-be unfinished S79 at the junction for the airport. People who alight here tend to work at the airport rather than passengers, for despite the name, this station's one and half kilometres from the international terminal. The new station serving the airport will be ready... May? December? Who knows.

Left: W-wa Zachodnia station. A sky of girders and pylons, a God-awful place lacking signage, proper information or decent amenities. A great place however for newcomers to Poland to get the feel of post-communism; how that system wrecked any sense of pride in public service.

Still, on the credit side, Koleje Mazowieckie have been running very well this winter (so far) given the intensity of the frosts. With the exception of one journey home that took double the usual 50 minutes, trains have been running with only the slightest delays, although over-crowding is still a problem during the morning peak.

Until the Vistula freezes over

2012-02-10T21:56:00.014+01:00

I wrote several days ago about the prospect of the Vistula freezing over, saying that I'd read somewhere that it would take nine days at minus nine and below for this to happen. Although we had a week of -15C to -20C, more recently daytime highs hit -5C on Wednesday, -7C on Tuesday and yesterday, so that condition has not been met. However but I guess that even it it were -20C for a fortnight, it would still be impossible to walk across the Vistula.

Above: looking south from Most Poniatowskiego (most = bridge). Note the ice-free west bank. The water here has not frozen because of water from sewer outfalls and from hot water emerging from the Siekierki power station downstream.

Left: Let's zoom in on the chimneys of Siekierki - the power station is working flat out to provide the fair city light. If you click on the picture to enlarge, you will see little white dots in front of the Most Łazienkowski. These are gulls.

Has the Vistula has frozen solid across its entire breadth downstream of Siekierki - out by Kępy Zawadowskie? I feel an expedition coming on...

Looking north from the bridge towards the Most Średnicowy (tempporarily the Coca-Cola-Carlsberg bridge in advance of the football championships), the expanse of clear water dominates the width of the Vistula, largely as a result of a sewer outfall. Although at lunchtime today it was -9C, the waste water (treated, it must be said) was steaming into the river and flocks of gulls and ducks were enjoying the warmth.

Above: the National Stadium, resplendent in strong winter sunlight. The Vistula has not frozen over by the east bank either, but the ice is closer to the shore.

The next three days are poised to remain icy, with daytime highs of -9C expected.

Meanwhile, the koksowniki (braziers) have been removed from central points by the city authorities. A shame, they were a notable feature of the current cold spell, and cost peanuts to run.

This time last year:
Of sunshine, birdsong and wet socks

This time four years ago:
Dziadzio Tadeusz at 90

The sad end of Andrzej J.

2012-02-09T18:51:00.003+01:00

For five years, the City of Warsaw has had a tenant in one of its flats, not paying any rent, not responding to any letters, not opening the door to anyone. And finally, the authorities decided to pay him a visit - bust into his lonely nest off ul. Okopowa, and found... a skeleton. He'd been dead since 2007.

The story's here in the Warsaw edition of Gazeta Wyborcza. It's a harrowing tale which suggests that the city authorities have only just begun to take the issue of rent arrears seriously. Could something like this happen in the UK?

The last time the world had had any contact with Andrzej J (born 1926) was in September 2007, that was when his neighbours had last seen him, that was the date of his last rent payment.

It was only when Warsaw mayor Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz (second term in office) decided to get the ZGN (the city's property administration authority) to engage more directly with its tenants did they discover this situation.

Apart from the human tragedy of a man without family or friends who died and was missed by no one (did the neighbours not notice or even care?), there's the issue of how the local authorities could be so remiss as to allow this situation to continue for five years, despite letters to the courts, eviction notices, futile visits from bailiffs etc. How many other surprises could turn up in flats owned and managed by the city authorities?

This time last year:
Drifting home

This time two years ago:
Today's dose of wintery gorgeousness

This time three years ago:
First intimations of spring

Irresistible force meets immovable object

2012-02-08T23:54:00.006+01:00

A Babcia climbs out of Metro Centrum, with crutch and shopping bag, hauling herself up on the handrail as she proceeds.

Her path is being blocked by a member of the Roma community seeking alms from passers-by. What will Babcia do?

Below: Resolutely Babcia continues her climb. She's seen off Hitler and Stalin and will not allow an able-bodied 30-something obstruct her. Whoomph! In goes the knee, Whack! And the shopping bag.

Below: Down comes the weight of a full bag of shopping once again, full of angular cat-food tins and heavy vinegar bottles, this time onto the back of the obstructive beggar.

"Ow, my back!" Left: Babcia squeezes through to claim a moral victory.

Will the city authorities take action before Euro 2012 against the the enterprising Roma folk who send out their nearest and dearest into the freezing cold to panhandle Warsaw's busiest thoroughfares? Or should the EU's most picked-on minority be allowed to continue its traditional business when the fans come to town, thus showcasing Warsaw's tolerance and diversity?

I shall let you, dear reader, be the judge.

This time last year:
Reasons to be cheerful

This time two years ago:
Skiing in the Beskid Wyspowy

This time three years ago:
What's to be done about Warsaw's unmade roads?
[answer after three years: 'apparently nothing, nothing apparently']

This time four years ago:
Jeziorki in the fog
[some lovely photos]

Wrocław: an early morning puzzle

2012-02-07T21:40:00.004+01:00

Wrocław, 06:18; exactly eight hours after leaving W-wa Wschodnia on the night train, I emerge onto a cold, dark platform. My journey had been comfortable, the train punctual, and in one ticket I had transport and accommodation – a far more time- and cost-effective way of getting to a long-distance destination than travelling the day before and staying overnight in a hotel. The sleeping carriage was warm has toast (coal-fired heating!) but the water in the wash-basin taps had frozen solid so I was unable to wash in the morning.

And a travel tip for night-train travellers: when boarding the sleeper carriage, discretely ask the conductor whether or not there's a Poseł (parliamentary deputy, or MP) travelling that night. The sleeper carriages should keep a przedział poselski free, in case some Important Person needs to travel down to his or her constituency overnight. As it happened, there wasn't one booked to travel on this particular train, so for a small supplementary consideration, I was shown to compartment, which I had to myself.

So – Wrocław 06:18. It's -14C, dark, and busy. The station is being redeveloped (about which more later), so the usual entrance onto Al. Piłsudskiego has been closed off. The back way out leads me to an unfamiliar part of town. There's a row of taxis standing in the darkness. Unlike Warsaw, where each taxi has displayed in the passenger near-side window the price per kilometre, in Wrocław there's no visible clue as to how much the ride will cost when getting into the taxi. It's not far to my destination, so I walk instead.

Usual problem – lack of signage; there's one unlit street map across the road from the station. So I buy a plan of Wrocław from the Ruch kiosk, orientate myself and find my way.

I'm not a total stranger to Wrocław; and I speak and read Polish. Yet in the shoes of a foreigner, arriving at Wrocław station must be extremely daunting. How can one tell in advance, online, in English or German, for example, that the main railway station's main entrance is currently closed? Or know which taxi company you can trust to not to overcharge you? Or find your way to a given street in the situation that this or that thoroughfare has been closed for refurbishment? You can only do a limited amount of research online (Google Maps, for example), but there's no guarantee that the information you find will be up-to-date or accurate.

Many foreigners will be visiting Wrocław, Warsaw, Gdańsk and Kraków for the football in June, and I fear that a significant proportion of them will find themselves frustrated and unable to get to where they are heading without running into situations that can cause distress. Especially when, as will no doubt be the case, the transport infrastructure won't be ready in time. Imagine the tension, when, ticket in hand and seemingly with time to spare, a football fan discovers that there's no train to town from the airport, only an overcrowded bus standing in an immobile jam. Or working out where to buy a ticket at Wrocław Główny station should the refurbishment of the main hall not be ready in 121 days' time.

Above: Platform 1, where my afternoon train is waiting to take me back to Warsaw. Platforms 2 and 3 are still a mess. But despite the cold, work is under way. Much of the old Art Nouveau has disappeared from the platforms.

In case you want to know, it's round the back and about 100m away from the platform entrance. There are no signs saying 'Tickets' or even Bilety – only the Polish Dworzec tymczasowy ('temporary station/terminus'). From this respect, Warsaw – or even Kraków – is far advanced compared to Wrocław when it comes to preparedness of its main station.

The infrastructure chickens are slowly coming home to roost.

This time last year:
Life and Death in the Shadow of the El - A short story, part I

This time two years ago:
Transwersalka in midwinter

This time three years ago:
Work starts on the S79/S2 (still nowhere near ready!)

This time four years ago:
Crazy customised Skoda

Life at twenty below zero

2012-02-06T08:10:00.008+01:00

When winters come down hard on Europe, I'm minded of the old Richard Pryor Snake gag, about the white man and black man in the jungle. The white man proceeds cautiously through the bush, then sees a snake, and gets comically hysterical, hollering 'SNAKE! SNAKE!' at the top of his lungs. The black man walking through the jungle with a hip stride, sees a snake, matter-of-factly saying 'snake' as he steps over it.

It's much the same when Britain gets an attack of the minus-twos. The BBC shows stationary cars, their driven wheels spinning furiously, people without hats or gloves trying to push the car free of the inch-high snowdrift, while the Daily Mail wails that the Met Office has issued a Level Three Alert (temperatures are expected to plunge to -2C tomorrow night) and that snowploughs are out in force across the country. Amid the regular stories of teenage stabbings, we read of passengers stranded at airports, drivers trapped for hours on the M40, service on large parts of the London Underground suspended etc.

Here - life goes on pretty much as normal. Many older cars with iffy batteries (especially those parked outside overnight) or those with diesel engines that have not tanked up with the special winter fuel that doesn't turn waxy when it's under -20C, won't start, so there's a noticeably fewer cars in the lava-flow traffic that's ul. Puławska at rush hour*. Some buses won't start, or else their doors jam, but generally public transport has been running well.

Above: from the website of the meteorological station at the physics faculty, Warsaw University of Technology (click to enlarge). As you can see, the temperature has not risen above -7C all week, and has not risen above -12C since last Wednesday. And bear in mind that this weather station in located in downtown Warsaw, where the urban heat island effect increase the temperatures by a degree or two compared to the surrounding areas. And look at that wind chill (perceivable temperature). Which takes the current perceivable temperature outside my window as I write down to -26C.

I recall that in January 2006, I was driving to a conference in Sandomierz; the car thermometer gave the outside temperature as -26C at midday. Outside some small Mazovian village, I saw an old woman bringing home firewood from the forest and I thought to myself "When it's -26C there's no such word as manaña!"

Being able to survive in the cold means proper clothes and proper food. I'm eating like a horse right now. Fried breakfasts of pierogi, or (like today) bubble and squeak. Three hot meals a day. And clothing - two pairs of gloves, the outer pair, mittens from Canada (thank you cousin Teresa!) On my feet stout boots with lambskin lining that can (just about) pass muster with an office suit. A furry lumberjack hat, a US Army M65 parka with huge furry hood - and when I'm due to be outside for any length of time, long-johns with wind-stopping patches on the knees. The house is well-insulated with six inches of expanded polystyrene stuck to the air-brick shell, and triple-glazed windows.

All that and winter tyres too.

* At the proto-Park+Ride at W-wa Jeziorki station (which readers will recall is a muddy verge by the side of ul. Gogolińska) the number of parked cars today was a quarter down on usual.

And there we have it. My się zimy nie boimy! ('We're not scared of winter!').

This time last year:
First intimations of spring

This time two years ago:
From Warsaw to beautiful Dobra

This time four years ago:
Unremitting February gloom

More than just an Iluzjon

2012-02-04T22:58:00.005+01:00

The Polish National Film Archive runs a very decent cinema, Iluzjon, which is currently being renovated. During this process, Iluzjon shows its very decent repertoire of movies at the National Library, on Al. Niepodległości. I must say, I like its temporary home; not only does the architecture of the place appeal to me, and its setting - on Pole Mokotowskie - but also the venue itself.

Above: the main entrance to the National Library, separated from Al. Niepodległości by neatly illuminated grounds. Below: looking like a Soviet nuclear physics institute north of the Arctic Circle, the entrance to Iluzjon/Filmoteka Narodowa.

A large lecture room, it reminds me of Warwick University' L3 lecture room, where the university's Film Society projected movies. Currently on - a short triptych of Coen Brothers' films - A Serious Man, The Man Who Wasn't There and Burn After Reading. It's one thing watching a film on DVD, quite another to see it as it should be viewed - on a large silver screen. Prices are cheap (11 złotys weekends, 13 złotys during the week - less than three quid) and a well-selected repertoire of classic films old and new. Highly recommended.

This time last year:
Oldschool photochallenge

This time two years ago:
Warsaw's wonderful nooks and crannies

This time three years ago:
Viaduct to the airport at ul. Poleczki almost ready

Under Rondo Dmowskiego

2012-02-03T21:11:00.004+01:00

Whether I come to work by Metro to Centrum or by train to W-wa Śródmieście, or if an eastbound tram or westbound bus drops me off at Centrum, I have to go across Rondo Dmowskiego via the subway passage that leads pedestrians across Warsaw's central intersection. Located at the intersection of Al. Jerozolimskie (east-west) and ul. Marszałkowska (north-south), the roundabout is named after Roman Dmowski, pre-war National Democrat leader. The man was clearly highly influential in Poland regaining independence in 1918, but remains controversial in Poland today for many reasons, not least his anti-Semitism.

Above: emerging from Metro Centrum, or coming by foot from W-wa Śródmieście, one passes through the Patelnia ('frying pan') as it is known by Varsovians, a concrete square below street level. Vivid street art covers its walls. Commuters are dressed for the cold - few animal rights protesters make a fuss about the wearing of fur when it's -20C.

Above and below: the steps leading up to street level - to tram and bus stops. After December's occupation of the Central railway station by ads for H&M, the Swedish clothing retailer strikes again, this time by plastering black and white images of David Beckham all over Centrum. He seems to have been struck down by a disfiguring skin disease of his upper arms and shoulders, or else he hasn't washed them for months. Note the strong, low sunlight and the shadows it casts.

The underground passage forms a circle under the roundabout. Inside there are small shops selling footwear, used mobiles, knick-knacks, newspapers - and toasted cheese sandwiches that are responsible for the unpleasant stench of burnt casein that infests the passages.

Above: on my way home, about to dive into the underground passage en route for W-wa Śródmieście and a Jeziorki-bound train. A bit early today, as the electricity failed in the office; my brave new laptop's battery lasted until four pm before it gave out.

This time last year:
My Most favourite bridge

This time two years ago:
Street lighting under the snow

This time three years ago:
Ul. Poloneza - archival video before the S2 was built

This time four years ago:
Aerial juxtaposition over Jeziorki

Back to the blackboard?

2012-02-01T19:59:00.002+01:00

Following on from my most recent education post of two days ago, I'd like to look a primary and secondary education.

My assessment of Polish vs. English schools can be summed up in the following stereotypical generalisations.

Polish schools - you are taught to memorise, not understand. Exams are about answering factual questions, not writing essays or discussing the subjects with teachers. Rote learning is the order of the day, every day; very few teachers inspire or bring insight into their subjects. Learning is neither fun nor does it open up new perspectives.

English schools (the school system is different in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) - the kids are encouraged to, like, do their own thing, man, so if, like, a kid thinks three times three is eleven, well, they're being creative, man, and I'm, like, not going be the heavy fascist and tell them they're wrong, man.

If a child is curious, intelligent, quick on the uptake, it will do better in the English system (and I dare say the American system is similar). But if a child is less bright, just having bare facts drummed into its head gives it a better chance in life than being taught Plasticine, xylophone and Venn diagrams.

At the end of the day, Polish schools scored better on the OECD's latest PISA ranking in reading and maths than did UK schools, although UK schools did better on science.

So rote-learning has its place - getting the basics right - never mind why seven times eight is 56 - it just is, OK? And this is how you spell szczodrobliwość. No alternatives permitted.

The only trouble is - this model is then carried on into Polish universities, where Pan Ważny Profesor reads aloud from the textbook he wrote back in 1970, chapter by chapter, to bored students who have to memorise his increasingly-questionable teachings. The result - Polish universities are way down the global rankings, where US and UK institutions dominate when it comes to pure and applied research.

It seems that uravnilovka - the Soviet levelling-down of society - has hurt Polish innovation. Which is not to say that Poles can't be innovative - they can - but generally in foreign universities and for foreign corporations.

But can the Polish tertiary education system be reformed without a reform of the primary and secondary systems?

This time two years ago:
Greed, fear, fight-and-flight - and the weather

This time three years ago:
Where the new motorways will meet

This time four years ago:
Crocuses blooming in London

How much education for the nation?

2012-01-30T20:40:00.005+01:00

With more and more OECD countries sending over half of their young people to university, I should like to to offer public policy-makers the following challenge: are over half of the jobs in your economy graduate-level?

When I read that 71% of South Korean 18 year-olds are university-bound (and that 100% of South Korean parents want their children to go to university) I was shocked. Where will the future bricklayers, shop assistants, hairdressers, bus drivers, postmen, barmen, chambermaids, street-sweepers,welders, security guards, car-parking attendants, ticket collectors, etc. come from in a country with imploding demographics?

In most advanced economies, there are more graduates than graduate-level jobs. The logical outcome of this situation is graduate unemployment followed by graduates being forced to do work that they consider beneath their potential. The best graduates - those who are demonstrably intelligent and can prove a capacity for hard work - will get the most rewarding jobs. The rest? Well, once you work your way down towards 'average', the job market becomes tougher, before young Spanish, German, British, Japanese or American graduates find that no employer is interested in their qualifications.

And here we are, policy-makers! Where does your nation's youth fit onto this grid? And what policy measures are needed to shunt the average up towards to upper right quartile? And when you get there - then what? A whole lot of over-qualified voters doing jobs that are beneath their potential? Or are you going to export your unemployment (as Poland did from 2004 on)?

Should the state educate more - or less? If more - in what direction? Mediaeval French Poetry? Comparative Cartoon Studies? Or IT, Biotech or Engineering?

Britain has already started rationing education. With annual fees rising to £9,000 a year (47,000 zlotys to Polish parents), potential students are beginning to shun those courses that will not open doors to high-paying jobs. My instinct is, that for an economy, high fees for state universities will lead to better results all round. Those who feel the hurdle is too high (for themselves or their children) will rightly avoid university and settle down to a more suitable job.

In Poland, state universities are still free; the less-gifted who feel (or whose parents feel) that five years at university is a good idea have a wide selection of heavily-advertised private ones to chose from. Britain, by contrast, has one private university, Buckingham. In America, the best universities are private (and very expensive), while the duffers go to state unis. So - no consensus as to how best to educate our youth.

Any thoughts, dear readers?

This time last year:
To the Catch - short story

This time two years ago:
Eternal Warsaw

This time four years ago:
From the family archives

From Jeziorki to Jeziorki

2012-01-29T09:42:00.007+01:00

In today's world, information about anything is infinitely easier to find; online you soon develop your own well-trodden paths towards satisfying your need for knowledge. Yet among our bookmarked our favourite sites, there must be room for serendipity, random fortuitous events, that can bring unexpected information to us.

One heavily-used bookmarked site on my home and work computers is rozklad-pkp.pl, used to find out train times from Jeziorki to town and back again, and sometimes for longer journeys, for business or recreation. The software is not perfect. Type in a journey from "W-wa Śródmięscie" to "W-wa Centralna"...

And the result offered will be a far more exciting trip from Brussels to Chrzanów Śródmieście.

OK, it's a silly query as the two stations are connected to one another by underground passage, and indeed trains from one don't stop at the other. But my point is that the search software has problems disambiguating stations with similar names.

Now, type in "W-wa Jeziorki". Once again, the search engine cannot grapple with "W-wa" if there's any other station with a similar name in the system.

You get a disambiguation result (below), asking you to select from two stations...

So there are TWO Jeziorki stations?! Show me the other one! Well, it's Jeziorki Wałeckie, in the far north west of Poland, Zachodniopomorskie province. It's in an area so remote (closed line between Wałcz and Kalisz Pomorski. I bet most Poles couldn't accurately place these places on a map of the province) The station is not even open, the 40km line having been shut which means you can't make that journey. Leaving closed stations on the database always gives grounds for hope that one day they'll be re-opened. Indeed, two years ago, PKP published a tender for the restoration of traffic to the line.

But anyway, let's have a closer look at Jeziorki Wałeckie station (closed)...

Above: The station building at 'Jeziorki Wał.' Photo: Ryszard_K

Above: the platform at Jeziorki Wałeckie. Photo: Robert Nowicki.

So then... One day this summer, a journey from Jeziorki to Jeziorki is in order.

This time two years ago:
Launching the General's book

This time three years ago:
A pavement for ul. Karczunkowska?
(For a while there it looked like the city authorities would provide us locals with a pavement so that we could safely walk to the station. Two years later - not a bit of it. Still waiting. A Big Boo to Bufetowa)

This time four years ago:
Taking off over Okęcie

At last - winter's gorgeousness

2012-01-27T23:43:00.005+01:00

A big thank-you to fellow-blogger and near neighbour, Bartek aka Student SGH for offering me a lift this morning. We toured the roadworks around the S2 between Węzeł Lotnisko and Węzeł Puławska after which Bartek dropped me off on ul. Taneczna, I then popped into the local store for food and a paper and then had a refreshing (read: icy cold; it was -11C) stroll down ul. Wodzirejów (below) towards Puławska and Platan Park for my morning meetings. The route was slippery and I did well to avoid getting wet socks breaking through thin ice into freezing puddles.

The sun rose this morning at 7:23, a mere 22 minutes earlier than at Winter Equinox (by contrast, the day's gained 48 minutes on the shortest day in the evenings. A strange asymmetry. Below: Platan Park, on ul Poloneza, my destination.

After two hours at Platan Park, off to town. Another refreshing walk to Puławska (having missed two buses), then on to Wilanowska. And here, along with crowds of late morning commuters, off the 739 and on towards the Metro station. The blue sky makes the scene look quite summery - and yet it's -10C.

This time last year:
New winter wear - my M65 Parka

This time two years ago:
Winter and broken-down trains

This time three years ago:
General Mud claims ul. Poloneza

This time four years ago:
Just when I thought winter was over...

Warsaw is ready for winter

2012-01-26T18:37:00.005+01:00

Proper winter is arriving. The past week has been a thoroughly unpleasant mix of rain and wet snow, temperatures just above zero. Last night the temperature fell to -4C and by tomorrow morning it will be -10C. The temperatura odczuwalna will be -17C. Light snow fell today, no more is expected in the immediate future. But the city is ready. READY - d'you hear me?!

Below: snow ploughs on Pl. Konstytucji, quarter to eight this morning. (Note the row of bollards keeping rogue parkers off the pavement. It's the only language they understand!)

Below: as much attention is being lavished on pavements as on roadways. Ul. Waryńskiego (between Nowowiejska and Pl. Konstytucji). Note the pattern of the swept snow.

Not just in town, but on the fringes - this is ul. Puławska in Grabów (between Jeziorki and Civilisation). A day earlier, at twenty to eight in the morning. Note the light traffic - this is ferie fortnight (Warsaw's school winter holidays).

Warsaw seems well prepared - nevertheless there was a spate of traffic jams and crashes today. The city can do its bit - but crazy drivers will wreck it for everyone.

And getting home in the evening, I spied a sure sign that winter has its costs... the footprints from the gate the gas meter and back. Will the bill for Dec-Jan be lower than last year?

This time two years ago:
Łazienki park, glorious midwinter

This time three years ago:
At the Rampa - work stops

This time four years ago:
Polecamy MROŻONKI - old-school retail

Get orf my lairnd!

2012-01-25T19:05:00.006+01:00

Orjan's comment on my last post (sadly hijacked by the Smolensk issue) raises some valuable points that need further discussion in the ongoing debate about Polish-British cultural differences. His comment was in Polish, so an overview will be needed for the non-Polish speaking majority of my readers...

One interesting question that has yet to surface in British historiography is the influence of deportations to Australia on the long-term crime rate (comedian Alexei Sayle, being asked upon his first visit down-under by Australian immigration officers whether he had a criminal record, answered "Why - do you still need one?"). According to Wikipedia's sources, penal deportations to Australia went on for 82 years from 1786 to 1868 (82 years), depositing 165,000 convicts there. And before the USA won its independence, Britain dumped a further 60,000 convicts in penal colonies across the Atlantic. Whether this sustained onslaught on the nation's ne'er-do-wells left Victorian Britain a safer place for the building of low walls around houses is a moot point.

Now I will take the liberty here to translate the key paragraph from Orjan's comment:

"In Polish culture, there is a much broader concept of personal liberty, and also in its relation to other people's space. Besides someone else's ban on entry, there exists my own need to enter, does there not? Hence, a low wall is not culturally interpreted as 'crossing is forbidden', but as 'please, I'd rather you didn't cross' - in other words: "you're not allowed, but you can". By contrast, higher fencing gives the legal message integrated with a real obstacle: "you're not allowed and you can not".

This brings us back to that greatest of differences between British and Polish culture - common law vs. code-based law. The spirit vs. the letter of the law. The low walls embody the spirit, the high walls the chapter and verse.

But wait - there's another, quite paradoxical, difference between the landscape of Poland and the UK that requires explanation. In Poland, fields are not fenced off. And as long as you don't trample the farmer's crops, there's generally no gripe about you walking along the miedza between two fields. (As long as there are no dogs running loose.) In Britain, fields are enclosed. (See my photos of Derbyshire, here.) By hawthorn bushes and barbed-wire fences in the south, by stone-wall fences in Wales and the North (generally). Walkers must stick to marked (and mapped) public footpaths or bridleways. Failure to do so is regarded as trespassing; landowners take a dim view of people crossing their field and will bellow at them to 'get orf their lairnd'. Failure to do so may well result in a shotgun being fired into the air.

Which - when you think about it - is strange. Crime is far higher in urban Britain than rural Britain, as is unemployment. (Yes, there is livestock rustling going in Britain, something generally unreported in Poland). In general, however, while you are prevented by fencing from stepping foot on someone's agricultural land in Britain (you are not in Poland), you can walk off the pavement on most British streets and step right up to the front door of a house, and even push open the letter-box, without incurring any ill effect.

Where does that leave the British countryside? I believe that's a relic of the Enclosure Act of 1773 (with subsequent amendments), where landowners would use the law to turf peasant share-croppers off their land (that they'd farmed for centuries) and replace them with more profitable sheep.

And there you have it.

This time last year:
A Dream Too Far - part two

This time two years ago:
Electric in the dark

This time four years ago:
Elegant and proper

It's a conspiracy!

2012-01-24T18:45:00.007+01:00

An incident on the way to work got me thinking. A guy sitting opposite me commented on my US Army parka and fur hat; he told me that he collected militaria and pointed to his 1960s Red Army-issue boots. The man, in his early 30s, dressed like a manual labourer, then went on to talk. quite knowledgeably, about his collection of military bits and pieces he'd dug up around Magnuszew, (where the Red Army established a bridgehead on the west bank of the Vistula and fought off the Germans counter-attacks in 1944).

Next, he told me that he'd had a stash of 160 WWII hand grenades that he'd kept in his basement. When these were found by the police (his neighbours, he said, were always complaining about the explosions he was setting off) he was imprisoned for six and half years. At this stage, I started having doubts as to the veracity of this man's tale.

He then told of how he'd often recruit local drunks from Warka to dig for military remains, paying them 100 złotys for a day's work. “Two of them blew themselves sky-high”, he told me. "Fantasist," I thought. His grandfather was a German, he said, who had fought with the SS on the Eastern Front. “The things he'd seen...” His grandfather, who he said died when he was 12 or 13, said “they should have liquidated all the Jews.” By now, alarm bells started ringing. The guy's not only nuts but quite probably psychopathic. “The Jews are running Poland!” he said, drawing attention from other commuters. “Even this railway is owned by the Jews!” Without saying a word, I stood up and moved to another carriage.

This encounter – most untypical, I must add - got me thinking about the role of Conspiracy in politics. At the weekend, reading KGB – The Inside Story by Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky – the link between mental illness, paranoia and conspiracy all fitted together. Poland is still emerging from a dark period in its history – the direct result of the madness that fuelled the minds of two men – Hitler and Stalin.

Both were obsessed with conspiracies – one was convinced of a Jewish plot to run the world. The other – of a capitalist plot to run the world. The mental flexibility that allowed their ill minds to find plots and sub-plots that simply did not exist is staggering. During the Spanish Civil War, when Stalin was supporting the Republican side – his NKVD henchmen spent more energy chasing Trotskyites than they did fighting Fascists – which, ostensibly, was what they were there for.

Both Hitler and Stalin's secret services were in the business of torturing the truth out of innocent people in order to prove the existence of a given conspiracy. Stalin was so much more effective. His secret services effectively spread disinformation, they found useful dupes to do good propaganda for them, they were so much better at getting their victims to volunteer information to them. Hitler's propaganda had no room for shades of grey. Stalin's propaganda could make white look like black.

Destroying the bonds of human trust are a prerequisite for a New Order to step in, replacing centuries-old institutions with The Party. In the 20th C., this happened right across much of the Eurasian continent. It deeply affected the psyches (and indeed mental health) of those who lived through it.

To finally kill off the evil effects of totalitarianism in Poland – and other post-communist countries – what is needed is the rebuilding of social trust. Good must arise out of bad - not sinking back into a world of plots, counter-plots and counter-counter-plots.

One of my students, Marzena, who has just returned from her first trip to the UK, noticed how low the walls surrounding English houses were compared to the elaborate security measures that defend Polish houses. Despite (or because of) this, burglary rates in Warsaw are actually lower than in London. Three times lower, in fact. And yet, fear of crime is far greater here.

Paranoia – the fear that someone's out to get me – is at the heart of many populist political movements. Russia's Putin cannot accept, for example, that non-governmental organisations (NGOs) – voluntary bodies set up from the grass roots – can exist or even spring up without the careful planning and support of foreign powers intent on using them to take over Russia.

Populist parties around the world use conspiracy theory to boost support among the disaffected. Those who believe that the fact that life has been less than fair them is the fault of some vast conspiracy. They will vote for anyone who can put their minds at ease by convincing them of that fact.

I'm not going to make any direct references to today's press conference by Antoni Macierewicz; I shall let readers make their own conclusion.

This time last year:
A Dream Too Far - short story

This time two years ago:
Compositions in white, blue and gold

This time three years ago:
Dobra and the road

This time four years ago:
Polish air force plane full of VIPs crashes on landing

Citizen Action Against Rat Runners

2012-01-23T19:28:00.008+01:00

Ul. Trombity develops by sprouting spurs off to either side, new houses spring up, next to tumble-down old farm buildings. The spurs tend to follow farm tracks and footpaths. What happens next is that the the tracks get explored by lone four-wheel-drivers, and when they become convinced that this is a potential short-cut that can save them 45 valuable seconds waiting for the lights at Ludwinowska, they start using it on a daily basis.

Except the track is entirely unsuited for motorised traffic. But the Roald Amundsen spirit in our four-wheel-drivers, with their Piaseczno or Pruszków plates, is quite indomitable. There's only one way to stop them: Szlaban. A word not entirely translatable into English (neither 'barrier' or 'gate' do szlaban justice - a ter all, there's bariera and brama/bramka). It's a loan-word from German Schlagbaum (lit. 'shock-tree'), which means 'turnpike'.

Above: the path that links ul. Trombity to ul. Nawłocka and Karczunkowska beyond, from the Trombity end. A solid piece of work, leaving the 250m of path walkable for local residents and maintaining its semi-rural charm.

Left: "Dogs begin to bark, hounds begin to howl/Watch out strange cat people, little red rooster's on the prowl..." [Little Red Rooster, Willie Dixon]. A corner of rural Oklahoma that's forever Jeziorki? The same path, looking towards ul. Trombity.

Weather today (and at the weekend which I spent mostly in bed) continues to be abysmal; the worst that winter can deliver to the human psyche. Temperatures just above freezing, snow that falls as rain, slush, dampness and general bleahh. This morning, having no lessons, I indulged in the luxury of working from home, setting off for town after the rush hour had completely subsided.

Below: W-wa Jeziorki, not a soul in sight. The train that came (on time, it must be said) was only three carriages long and packed to the gunwales. And around 50 cars parked higgledy-piggledy in the muddy verges around the station. If there were more space, properly organised, and more trains to town, maybe the road chaos between Jeziorki and the city centre would be more bearable during the working week.

This time last year:
Moni at 18 (and 18 months)

This time two years ago:
Building the S79 - Sasanki-Węzeł Lotnisko, midwinter

This time three years ago:
My return to skiing after an eight-year break

This time four years ago:
Moni's 15th birthday

Which reminds me - today is the fifth anniversary of the death (in 2007) of Ryszard Kapuścinski, Poland's greatest journalist. If you've not read any of his works (in Polish or in English) - do so.

Music of the trees

2012-01-22T14:39:00.005+01:00

This - is quite something. Slightly unnerving, but most original.

A slice of tree, its rings acting as the grooves of a record. The light, reflected from the patterns upon the surface of the wood, triggers, via a computer, relevant notes on a piano.

YEARS from Bartholomäus Traubeck on Vimeo.

Eddie and Moni both quite amazed. Interesting to see that this short film has been watched 103,000 times in just five days.

This time last year:
Studniówka - a hundred days before the exams

This time two years ago:
It's all in the mind - but where's that?

This time three years ago:
Roztopy - the big melt-down

This time four years ago:
The year's most depressing day

Reference books are dead.

2012-01-21T17:42:00.003+01:00

Enthralled by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy last weekend, I decided to get a better understanding of the espionage struggle at the heart of the Cold War. Finding on my bookshelf the book KGB: the Inside Story by Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, I dived into it - the first non-fiction book I've read for several month- and soon found myself hungry for hyperlinks. Every now and then - indeed, several time per page - I felt myself frustrated at not being able to click on a link to uncover more information about a related topic.

This does not happen when reading a novel; here, the author draws the reader into a self-contained world where explanations are provided within the text.

The title of this post is deliberately provocative. They are not dead, but their role is greatly diminished. Had I not had bought Andrew and Gordievsky's book in the early 1990s, I would not not have felt a need to buy a similar book today - there's simply so much information online, verified, cross-referenced, updated, debated on fora, discussed on blogs. And had the book's text been available online and hyperlinked, it would have made it easier to assimilate.

Gazeta Wyborcza has started publishing a regular history supplement on Tuesdays. The first issue carried an account of Operation RYAN, the secret Soviet operation to discover the circumstances of a purported US nuclear first-strike against the USSR. KGB: The Inside Story goes into much detail about RYAN, which it claims, is the second-closest the world got to nuclear Armageddon. And of course, this has prompted me to have a look at the Wikipedia article, to read more about RYAN and Operation Able Archer 83, the NATO exercise that the Soviets believed were the prelude to a pre-emptive nuclear assault. Clicking on that link, (and from it an entire network of subsequent links) I have learned so much more than I could have learned from a magazine article or a book chapter.

Wikipedia (may God bless it, its founders, editors and contributors) has brought about such an unbelievable enhancement to the information that we can access from our home or office computers, from our laptops, tablets and smartphones, that the traditional reference book or encyclopaedia has become a very poor substitute.

Of course, should the book contain a ripping narrative, great prose style, enthralling reportage or original research, or else voice a novel thesis, then yes, it's worth reading and buying. But simply to ground oneself in the basis facts around a subject, then it is indeed Goodbye, Gutenberg.

Having said all this, I've spent today in bed, knocked out by that cold virus that has been creeping up on me. And what could be more conducive to a good read than a day in bed?

But for day-to-day reading, it will be back to literature. And reportage.

This time last year:
Another winter walk to work

This time two years ago:
It's unacceptable.

This time three years ago:
Pieniny in winter

This time four years ago:
Wetlands in a wet winter

Miserable depths of winter

2012-01-19T17:56:00.003+01:00

It's not snow or frost that gets me down - it's weather like today's. Just over zero degrees, with precipitation falling as (very cold) rain rather than as snow. What snow cover we had is melting, pavements are slushy and the damp air feels colder than dry air (just as putting your hand into water at +60C is painful, while being in a dry sauna at +60C feels, well, cool).

Yesterday morning, my bus didn't turn up at all (probably never left the depot). It left me standing, shivering at the bus stop for 17 minutes. And yesterday evening my journey home by Koleje Mazowieckie took 1hr 55mins - double the optimal time. Working days, starting at 8:00am and finishing nine or ten hours later, are in themselves not that tiring. What gets me down at this time of year is leaving home in the dark and coming home in the dark.

This time of year, the second half of January, is depressing. Not an intimation of spring for another two months. Indeed, Blue Monday, that urban-myth-pop-science day that is 'proven' to be the most depressing day of the year (presumably in the northern hemisphere), either fell last Monday or will fall next Monday.

This is also a time of year when immune systems, weakened by cold and lack of sunlight, fall prey to colds and flus. Last year, I fell ill for around 36 hours though a week later. Today I feel that without a sauna and a very early night, I shall get swept away by some vulgar little virus...

This time last year:
From - a short story (Part 1)

This time two years ago:
A month until Lent starts

This time three years ago:
World's biggest airliner over Poland

This time four years ago:
More pre-Lenten thoughts

Copyright issues - my thoughts

2012-01-18T19:34:00.009+01:00

Wikipedia woke me up to this - Wikipedia - that wonderful, free-of-charge condensation of all knowledge about all things ever, without which I cannot effectively work or blog - and its worldwide protest against the American Congress's Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Senate's Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA). Here are my rather disjointed, emotional rather than rational, thoughts on this issue. But also read this article, here.

The guys behind SOPA and PIPA are essentially rich, non-creative people leveraging America's power and global reach to ensure they can remain fat off the creativity of others. They are lawyers, big-shot producers, media moguls, owners of copyrights. They are not writers or musicians or actors or music- or film-lovers. They are, essentially, parasites.

Once upon a time, I'd buy records by James Brown. Lots of them. Then tapes. Then CDs. Then the internet came along. James Brown is dead now. If I spent £17.99 on a rare CD of his early recordings tomorrow - where would the money go? To the record company that bought the record company that bought the record company that bought the record company that once upon a time - more than half a century ago - invested its money to record James Brown and the Famous Flames? To the relatives of Mr Brown, quarrelling over their relative share in his fortune? To the lawyers, servicing record company and heirs?

The copyright issue all clicked with me the day I watched Hugh Grant in the film About a Boy (2002). From IMDB's synopsis of the plot: "38 year-old Will Freeman is a slacker who has lived comfortably off the royalties of a song written by his deceased father, and as such has never had to work a day in his life." The film, coincidentally, appeared just as peer-to-peer music downloading was becoming mainstream.

Paying money to the heirs of dead people to listen to their music is wrong. After all, why shouldn't my children receive royalties for their late grandfather's architectural drawings, still underpinning schools and hospitals across north-west England?

I do not believe for a second that Sir Paul McCartney or Sir Michael Jagger ever had an eye on decades' worth of royalties cascading down upon them, their children and their children's children as they co-wrote, respectively, I Want To Hold Your Hand or (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction. They c0-wrote and performed their songs for entirely different reasons. Neither do I believe that J.K. Rawling wrote the seven Harry Potter books in order to become Britain's second-richest woman.

The reason that copyright laws exist is to protect the investment of the book publisher, record company, movie production company or software publisher. They must feel confident that the money they invest in bringing a book, song, film or program to market will be recouped. Fair enough. But the cost of doing so (in real terms) has plummeted thanks to technology, while the copyright owners (not necessarily the creators) have, over the years, been extending the protection period for ever-increasing lengths of time. [I can't tell you precisely how long, because Wikipedia's down. But when it's back tomorrow, check for yourselves].

SOPA and PIPA are attempts by big-money people, people who have more money than you or I could ever dream of, to hang on to a handy revenue stream despite the fact that the world is moving on. Technology and globalisation are changing it all. SOPA and PIPA, if passed, would allow America a huge say over who can and who can't access knowledge around this planet. This is just plain wrong.

This time last year:
Waiting for the sun

This time two years ago:
From suburban to inter-city

This time three years ago:
Into the trees

Palace of Culture in Winter

2012-01-16T23:59:00.005+01:00

Two views - below; the Palace of Culture and Science looms out of a snowy morning sky as Warsaw hurries to work...

...and below, illuminated in lavender, the Palace of Culture and Science looks down as Warsaw hurries home.
The first photo was taken from the south side, the second from the east side.

Last week, foreign minister Radek Sikorski suggested knocking down the palace (click to watch interview below) on the grounds that it would be a post-communist act of catharsis - much like like the demolition of the orthodox cathedral on (what is today) Pl. Piłsudskiego in 1920. He also says the building is unecological, wasteful of energy and soon in need of a remont that will cost tens or even hundreds of millions of zlotys. In place of the palace, he suggests a park with grass and a pond, where Varsovians can picnic.

Sikorski: Zburzmy Pałac Kultury i posadźmy tam trawkę

I'd be against knocking it down - but then for me, personally, an occasional visitor to communist Poland, it does not stand as a monument to oppression, rather as a historical curiosity; and socialist realist architecture from the Stalinist era is surprisingly rare in this part of Europe. If it give future generations the shudders - well, maybe it should. A reminder of a time when totalitarianism ruled. May it never rule again.

This time two years ago:
Conquering Warsaw's highest snow mounds

This time three years ago:
Flashback on way to Zielona Góra

This time four years ago:
Ursynów, winter, before sunrise

Tinker, Tailor: why I watch films

2012-01-15T20:25:00.008+01:00

Some people go for fast-moving plots and action - car chases, explosions, shoot-outs - not me. I prefer my cinema reflective, well acted and well scripted. Film-going is not just a way of passing an hour and half. It's about usefully increasing the sum of my experience, though in a vicarious manner (indeed, like reading a good book). A good film, then, is one to which I'll be coming back time and time again, quoting quotes from it, and referring to in my writing.

Watching Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with Gary Oldman in the role of George Smiley was a real pleasure; though spy films are not my genre, this film is deeply cerebral with an obsessive focus on accuracy. The period - one which I remember well as a teenager - is beautifully captured; clothes, cars, props (Harp lager, Trebor mints) - but most of all the dingy grandeur of early '70s London.

The moral equivalence between communism and the west seeps out now and then (particularly shocking was the scene of the Christmas party at which the top British secret intelligence service staff were drunkenly singing the Soviet national anthem). By the 1980s, with Reagan having defined the Cold War as one against an Evil Empire, one which 'we must win and they must lose', musings such as 'they're just like us' or 'we're just as bad as them' would have been quite, quite treasonable. Despite the ambiguity (the Soviets were on our side during the 'real' war) there was an awareness that the activities of the West's spies was aimed at preventing World War III.

Nicely portrayed was the analogue-era equipment of spying - film cameras and encrypted telex machines - and everything was on paper, filed in rows upon rows of shelving occupying floors upon floors of office space - stuff that today would fit into a handful of domestic computers. And manual security systems; guards and dockets, turnstiles, no swipe-cards or biometric ID checks.

Use of music to create the right period was neatly, subtly done. Choosing Hurricane Smith's 1971 hit Don't Let It Die - a masterstroke. A song that reached No. 2 in the UK pop charts that summer, was played everywhere - and then promptly forgotten for four decades. And the scene where Peter Guillam is stealing the log book, and Mendel is at the car mechanics ready to make a distracting phone call. On Radio 2 (presumably!) we hear a request for George Formby's Mr Wu's A Windowcleaner Now. The 1939 novelty song in the music hall tradition, at that time the film was set* three and half decades old, is still a hit with the mechanics (tapping their spanners) and the eavesdropping stenographer singing along as she transcribes the intercepted phone call. The way it fits in with the suspense - will Guillam be discovered - makes the scene a great one.

The plot hangs together very well; despite being completely new to John Le Carre and the spy genre, I had no problem following the twists and turns of the story line, and I was genuinely surprised by the ending(s). But given the lukewarm reviews in the Daily Mail and Daily Express I can see that many film goers would prefer to see Tom Cruise being propelled through the air in the wake of a giant fireball while waving his arms and legs.

More films like Tinker, Tailor for me, please!

* 'the film was set'. How do you say that concisely in Polish - as in 'the film is set in 1970s London'?

This time four years ago:
Trundling Tamara

First snow in the Old Town

2012-01-14T23:16:00.007+01:00

As Golden Autumn turned to cold greyness I promised a visit to the Old Town when the first snows started to settle on the cobbled streets. Today, though the temperature was only -1C, the wind was a damp northwesterly, the Old Town was calling.

Below: on the way, the junction of ul. Kozia (left) and Krakowskie Przedmieście (splendidly and tastefully lit, to the right). Fewer people than expected on a Saturday night, even in January. Some hardy souls out and about to capture the atmosphere, but no crowds.

Left: looking down ul. Kozia (notable for the caricature and cartoon museum) towards Krakowskie Przedmieście. In the distance on the corner (click to enlarge), Kino Kultura, a self-confessed art-house cinema run by the Polish Association of Film Makers.

Below: ul. Kanonia in the snowstorm. Howling winds made the evening feel much colder than it was.

Right: looking towards ul. Kanonia from ul. Dziekańska, the walls of Katedra Św. Jana (St John's Cathedral) on the left. With the temperature just below zero, wet patches on the roadway indicate where the hot water pipes are running just below the surface.

Below: view of the Barbakan, the Old Town's mid-16th Century defensive fortifications, from the Old Town walls.

Below: ul. Krzywe Koło (lit. 'Crooked Wheel Street'), with its 90 degree bend.

Below: ul. Piwna, back on the tourist trail, Christmas lighting and small gaggles of foreign-speaking visitors taking in the town.

When the snow starts a' fallin', Warsaw's worth a visit. Ideally, it should be a bit colder, so the snow's not so damp, no wind - or just enough to produce slight swirling; the best time of day? Just after sunset and early evening, before the nightlife kicks off. Annoyingly, my photos of ul. Rycerska didn't come out - too blurred - next time a tripod would come in handy, as the street is not well lit.

This time last year:
Blood on the tracks, again

This time two years ago:
Views from Książęca footbridge - winter and summer

This time three years ago:
The Most Poniatowskiego

This time four years ago:
[What was once] The highest point in Jeziorki

Kebabville

2012-01-12T21:18:00.007+01:00

Happily ensconced in my new office on ul. Nowogrodzka, I am delighting in being so close to so many good places for an inexpensive and tasty lunch. Today for example, we popped round the corner to the Fire'n'Ice Lounge on ul. Parkingowa, a Bollywood bar with a very reasonable lunch menu. For 19 złotys (£3.60), a salad starter with lassi and poppadum, a curry (vegetarian, chicken/meat or fish) and rice or naan. Reasonable quantities, very tasty, nice price.

More often, however, there's the Grill Bar Egipt(open 24h) on the corner of Parkingowa and Nowogrodzka (opposite the Novotel). My dish of choice here is kebab z baraniny na cienkim, podwójne mięso, na ostro (mutton kebab on thin bread with double meat and hot sauce). This kebabsko costs 13 złotys or £2.50 (i.e. UK prices from a quarter of a century ago) and fills you right up; the meat is good and there's plenty of surówka (raw salady things) stuffed in there with the meat to ensure at least one of your five portions of fresh veg. The Egypt gives you a complementary glass of strong tea too. And if you're not too hungry, the standard kebab costs 9 złotys (£1.75).

Given the scandal concerning the kebab meat factory under Dworzec Centralny (long gone!), I'm surprised to find a) myself regularly eating kebab and b) thousands of other Varsovians queuing up for kebab, in preference to American or Vietnamese fast-food. Today, for example, after open day at Eddie's school, I popped into the Amrit Kebab on Pl. Wilsona, for a large mutton kebab. Huge crowds, seven-thirty in the evening. (I notice that Scatts mentions the place in a comment about Żoliborz's answer to Piccadilly Circus.)

To date, I've not had any adverse tummy scenarios after eating kebab in Warsaw. Indeed, I've not had any adverse tummy scenarios after eating anything in Warsaw - which is more than I can say for London (where I lived and worked for 16 years).

Differences between a British and Polish kebab? Mainly the bread. In the UK, you'll get meat and salad stuffed into a smallish pitta pocket. In Poland, a huge circular flat bread (cienkie ciasto) is spread out and filled with grilled meat and salad, the hot sauce added, then the whole thing is carefully folded to avoid drips in a take-away eating-on-the-street situation.

If there's one adverse effect, it's the smell of grilled mutton, which hangs on one's clothing for days after a visit. Or the risk of hearing cheesy Ukrainian pop that plays alternately with far better modern Egyptian music.

Have any of my readers had any bad experiences from kebabs? Any known health risks associated with regular kebab consumption? Recommendations for good ones? (there's a good one on Marszałkowska by Teatr Bajka...)

This time last year:
The day I found a million zlotys

This time two years ago:
Making the most of winter

This time three years ago:
Progress along Ballay Street

This time four years ago:
Shortest, mildest, winter?

I'm taking a couple of days off... drink

2012-01-11T19:51:00.006+01:00

The British Government has always had a nanny-ish instinct, leading the world in Health and Safety best practice etc. The British Government has been actively and effectively encouraging its citizens to eat more fresh fruit and vegetables (the long-running Five a Day campaign) which at least has resulted in fruit and veg being the most widely wasted food among Brits (in Poland its bread - see this post).

Nanny State has been warning Brits of the dangers of alcohol since Victorian times. You're never more than a few days away from a new alcohol scare story in the British media (drunk woman under train video; alcohol abuse rising fastest in over-70s; liver disease epidemic in North-East). The cost of treating alcohol-related illness (and indeed social costs of alcohol-related misbehaviour) is evidently worrying the cash-strapped governments.

Now, a report by a group of Members of Parliament is urging that Brits (and by implication all other human beings with livers) cut out all alcohol consumption for two days of each and every week. (Full report here.)

This is an interesting development, following on from a story that staying off booze for a month in the New Year is futile. (I don't see the science behind this one.)

Given that for the past two decades I've cut out alcohol entirely over the six-and-half-week course of Lent, I read both stories with great interest.

Given that I never binge-drink (disliking the spinning-head sensation), the question in my case is rather one of the daily tipple - typically two or three glasses of red wine. This does put me within the limits set out in the British Government's 1995 guidelines - three to four units of alcohol per day, 21 t0 28 a week, for a man. And quitting for one-eighth of a year, every year, I would argue is eminently healthy.

But the two-days off regimen may be useful towards my long-term goal of keeping happy, healthy and active well into very old age. And so from tonight I shall resolve of avoiding alcohol for two days a week (outside of Lent) and seven days a week (within it).

In essence, this means not opening a bottle of red wine every other day/every third day, so a modest saving of around 100 zlotys a month will accompany the health benefits.

This time last year:
Depopulating Polish cities?

This time two years ago:
Powiśle on a winter's morning

This time three years ago:
Sunny, snowy Jeziorki

This time four years ago:
Eddie's giant soap bubble

My enemy's enemy is my... ?

2012-01-10T19:46:00.008+01:00

The Przybył case gathers momentum. "Here's that gunshot again, viewers, in case you missed it last night. And again" - Bang! A day later, Col. Przybył's doing fine, conducting media interviews.

I watch with interest what would occur on Toyah's blog, the right-thinking antidote to what you're reading here (written by someone incapable of independent thought - brainwashed by years of reading Gazeta Wyborcza and watching TVN news. And growing up in the West.).

[To get my non-Polish readers up to speed on this story, here's the BBC report.]

Instead of lashing out at the System, the one that murdered President Lech Kaczyński, intriguingly, Toyah lashes out at... Artur Zawisza. Readers may associate him with the lighter moments of the PiS-LPR-Samoobrona government (2005-07). Zawisza will primarily be remembered as the politician who wanted to ban the wearing of mini-skirts alongside public highways. And this while his coalition partners from Samoobrona were busy offering jobs for sex.

What has Artur Zawisza done to offend Toyah? He's a splitter. SPLITTER!

Along with Marek Jurek (Prawica Rzeczpospolitej), then Adam Bielan, Michał Kamiński, Paweł Poncyliusz and Joanna Kluzik-Rostowska (Polska jest Najważniejsza), and then Zbigniew Ziobro and Jacek Kurski (Solidarna Polska), Zawisza had the temerity to set up a rival right-wing party in opposition to PiS.

OK, Zawisza is a splitter - indeed proto-splitter, because he was one of the very first to break off from Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński. But what did he do to earn Toyah's opprobrium?

The key thing to remember as the Przybył case unfolds is that it is being presented by the media as the result of the conflict between the civilian and military prosecutor. Now, the civilian prosecutor-general, Andrzej Seremet, with whom the military prosecutor is at odds, was appointed by President Lech Kaczyński.

So... Seremet is our friend. Przybył and his boss Krzysztof Parulski, being at odds with him are... So whatever Przybył says is... ? Well? About Smoleńsk, about dodgy public procurement practices in the armed forces? About organised crime? True? Or an insane attempt to discredit Seremet, anointed by the martyred President?

This case will get curiouser and curiouser. Expect some fine conspiracy theories to emerge from all this!

Postscript, Wednesday 11 January: As predicted, we did not have to wait long. Read the comments of Jagoda B. Kidding on Toyah's post from today. Przybył did not shoot himself. (Something to do with the 9mm round in a NATO Parabellum)

This time last year:
Some thoughts upon the Nature of Warfare

This time two years ago:
Snow so deep it needs a plough

This time three years ago:
A fieldfare in midwinter

This time four years ago:
Kraków, a bit of winter sunshine

I understand... nothing

2012-01-09T21:15:00.009+01:00

Just when I thought I had Poland well-understood, this happens. Now I'm utterly flummoxed.

Military prosecutor, Colonel Mikołaj Przybył, was holding a press conference about press leaks concerning information about the Smolensk air crash investigation, when he ushered out the media, saying he needed to air the room. There was a sound, which journalists took to be that of a camera crashing to the floor. They dashed in to find Col. Przybył lying on the floor. It looked like he'd taken his life...

Now TVN24 has just inferred that he shot himself through the cheek and he'll be out of hospital tomorrow. True? Or cover-up?

Hang on - a man with a gun and live ammunition is allowed to host a press conference? He was allowed to have a gun because there were threats to his family's life? This is getting weirder and weirder by the minute!

Grounds for conspiracy theorists (who've had a rather tough time over the past few months alleging that President Lech Kaczyński and 95 others were murdered, rather than being the victims of cock-up piled upon cock-up) have suddenly become fertile once more.

Gnash Dziennik has (as of this evening) nothing to say on the matter (lead story about TV Trwam not getting a digital licence).

Col. Przybyl has claimed that attempts were made to scare him - threats to his family, break-ins to his house, attacks on his car - by whom? To what end? "It's like Lenin said. Look for the person who will benefit. And, uh, you know, uh..."

I am the Walrus

What's going on? Lot of ins, lot of outs, lot of what-have-yous. uh... Right now, I really don't know. I do know, however, that the conspiracy theories, having somewhat run out of steam (Russians filling the valley in front of the runway at Smolensk with helium etc) will resurface.

And with them the division between the "brainwashed" (brainwashed by Tusk, PO, Gazeta Wyborcza and TVN) and the "brainwashed" (brainwashed by Kaczyński, PiS, Gnash Dziennik and TV Trwam) get ever deeper.

This is going to be an interesting story.

I look forward to the regular battle of wits between the usual suspects...

This time last year:
Wetlands winter meltdown

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki rail scenes, winter

This time three years ago:
Winter drivetime, Jeziorki North

This time four years ago:
Disappearing winter

A rare PS: I notice a clear correlation between climate-change deniers and PiS supporters. Am I right?

It's expensive being rich in Warsaw (or is it?)

2012-01-04T23:25:00.002+01:00

The joys of working in the very centre of town include being surrounded by a great many shops. Across the road from my new office is a bespoke tailor, Zaremba. Now, being in need of a new suit, I thought I'd pop in to find out how much a made-to-measure suit would be. Prices, I was told, start at 6,000 złotys. And there's a three-month wait. At today's rate, that's £1,100. GULP! Given that made-to-measure suits at Gieves and Hawkes start at £795 - and many other Savile Row tailors match that price point, one does wonder why wealthy Poles don't fly to London for bespoke suits. Well, it's evidently time plus the fact that one needs to shell out for at least two return airfares.

Warsaw, lacking a Savile Row sector of its own (competition = lower prices + better quality) is a more expensive place to be rich than London. Or is it...? Wandering into the Gucci store in the new vitkAc luxury fashion house (five security guards to every putative customer) and then comparing prices online, I could see effectively no difference between Warsaw and London.

Porsche's website throws more light on whether it's more expensive to be rich in Poland... Look at the UK or German pages and you'll see the prices transparently quoted for each model. On the Polish pages - er... no. In Germany, the bog-standard Cayenne diesel will set you back €61,381. In the UK, £46,338. (So, about 10% cheaper in the UK.) A bit of googling and a Polish price for a Porsche Cayenne with 3.0 litre diesel engine (no extras) is... 341,917 PLN. That's the equivalent of €75,813 or £62,852. [Exchange rates: 1 GBP = 5.44 PLN, 1 EUR = 4.51 PLN]

So... a bespoke suit can be more expensive in Poland because it costs more to buy one in London on account of the travel costs for fittings. Gucci products are more easily transportable, being ready-made. Car prices - after sales service can make the difference. And we are talking about a single European market.

Is it really more expensive being rich in Poland? Well, the single most expensive purchase a wealthy person is likely to make is real estate. And here, Warsaw beats the western European competition. Houses and flats are dramatically cheaper than London. And another expensive thing for Brits - their children's education - is not only cheaper, but on the whole better, in Poland. Plus the top tax rate is 32% (19% for entrepreneurs) and not 50% as it is in the UK.

So all the money that wealthy Poles save on housing, school fees and tax - they can afford to blow on tailor-made suits and luxury sports utility vehicles!

It is a biological imperative to show off one's wealth as soon as one has acquired it. Flaunting it to demonstrate one's position in the pecking order. Neighbour got a Porsche Cayenne? Buy a Porsche Cayenne Turbo (673,617 złotys = over twice the price of the basic petrol-engined model 319,989 złotys). Or better still - spend the surplus 354,000 złotys on buying more land, a bigger house or more luxurious apartment. But no one will see that when you're standing at the lights.

Which suggests some business opportunities...

This time two years:
Winter commuting in colour and black & white

This time three years ago:
Zamienie in winter

This time four years ago:
Really cold (-12C at night)

Changing the lights at the Presidential Palace

2012-01-03T22:25:00.002+01:00

Tuseday evening, after work; here's the Namiestnikowski Palace on Krakowskie Przedmieście (memorable scene of the Smoleńsk cross debacle). The flag is flying, but the President is not in - Bronisław Komorowski lives at the Belweder Palace further down the Trakt Królewski.

And seconds later the colour changes to a more fetching shade of lavender. Elegant or tacky? I shall yet you be the judge!

Lavender? A fashionable shade this Christmas - the Queen was wearing it at Sandringham!

This time last year:
New Year stocktaking

This time two years ago:
A post about... juice

This time three years ago:
That's what I call Winter Vol. 12

This time four years ago:
When the days start getting a little longer...

New Year's coal train

2012-01-01T16:37:00.003+01:00

We bloggers may have little in common with each other subject-wise for 363 days of the year, but we seem to be posting round about now posts summarising years and going for New Year's Day walks. In Warsaw 1 January was a dry, sunny day with a milky blue sky; top temperature +3C; spring feels in the air, yet there's just under three months to wait. Anyway - a good chance to take the camera for a walk.

Nothing I saw today could beat the grandeur of the sight of a pair of TEM-2 diesel locos bringing back a full rake of empty coal wagons from Siekierki power station to the marshalling yards at Okęcie. The train was heading northbound between Nowa Iwiczna and W-wa Jeziorki.

The two electrified tracks in the foreground give a strong impression of the solidity of rail infrastructure, even if the wooden sleepers on the Warsaw-Radom line are in desperate need of replacement, with many having rotted through. The non-electrified coal line, which carried far heavier loads, had the sleepers replaced around the turn of the century.

Other point of note: during our brief stay in England, the lowest-lying bit of ul. Trombity, around nos. 24 A-N, was decently tarmacked over - the work that had started here is now complete. It's beautifully smooth - long may it stay that way!

This time four years ago:
Winter train

Economic predictions for 2012

2011-12-31T16:24:00.004+01:00

My quick calls for 2012...

Key economic indicators: Poland
	2011 (latest data)	2012 (same time this year)
GDP growth	4.2% (Q3)	2.0% (Q3)
Unemployment	12.1% (Nov)	14.5% (Nov)
Inflation	4.8% (Nov)	4.0% (Nov)

Key economic indicators: UK
	2011 (latest data)	2012 (same time this year)
GDP growth	0.6% (Q3, revised)	-0.3% (Q3)
Unemployment	8.3% (Oct for Q3)	10.5% (Oct for Q3)
Inflation	4.8% (Nov)	4.5% (Nov)

Key economic indicators: Eurozone
	2011 (latest data)	2012 (same time this year)
GDP growth	1.4% (Q3)	-1.5% (Q3)
Unemployment	10.3% (Oct)	15.0% (Oct)
Inflation	3.0% (Nov)	3.8% (Nov)

I predict that the eurozone will somehow stick together; Greece will not be pushed out.

And currencies - on 31 December 2012, I predict 1 GBP will be 5.15 PLN, 1 EUR will be 4.20 PLN, and 1 GBP will be 1.22 EUR.

In Poland, 2012 will be drier and slightly hotter than 2011, with a snow-free winter; a long, dry spring (leading to some crop failures); intense rainfalls and winds in July and August; and a calm, long, dry golden autumn. Snow will come early in 2012; there will be a white Christmas.

This time last year:
Classic cars, West Ealing

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki 2009, another view

This time three years ago:
Jeziorki 2008, another view

This time four years ago:
Final thoughts for 2007

Random blogging thoughts at the end of the year

2011-12-30T10:30:00.005+01:00

I've not posted for two days; a return to Warsaw - no sunshine, no snow, no major events, no inspiration... a good chance to share with you, then, some thoughts about blogging.

Localism, down-your-wayism - year on year, I'm building a picture of life in Jeziorki; the slow process of development of this semi-rural corner of Warsaw, the capital of the EU's sixth-largest member state. This year, as last year, and next year too, local life has been dominated by the slow progress of the construction of Warsaw's Southern Bypass (which will finally connect us to the Outside World by expressway). The new infrastructure minister's decision to abandon plans for a central Poland airport between Warsaw and Łódź means that for the foreseeable future, Okęcie will remain Warsaw's principle airport, and while we can expect more flights overhead, new developments in and around Jeziorki will be limited by zoning.

Looking a bit beyond Jeziorki, I write about Warsaw as a fast-growing city, getting wealthier, more sophisticated and civilised, a city that's working flat out to get ready to host the Euro 2012 football championships (though I must say I'll not be watching any of it). Over the years, Warsaw is visibly changing, getting smarter, more akin to western cities, though the growth private car use has outstripped the city's ability to deal with it. Commuting from Jeziorki could be better. I look forward to more frequent rail services in and out of town, more Park+Rides, an extension to the city centre parking zone and more bus lanes and cycle paths (especially along ul. Puławska).

The economy will feature heavily in next year's blogs - though some posts may end up here on the BPCC's newly-resurrected blog page (after eight months' hiatus). Watching the zloty slide by 12 grosze against the pound in the first six hours of trading today fills me with apprehension - the markets react too violently and in response to short-term stimuli. I must say, personally, I am in favour of a financial transaction tax, although it should be introduced globally. Raising badly needed revenue for sovereign budgets - but also taking the edginess off those pre-programmed transaction computers that can destabilise companies, currencies or countries all too easily.

Creative writing: I've currently got three short stories and a half-completed novel all gathering dust on my hard drive and no real urgency to complete. This past year, I've written around 12 short stories around the theme 'After the War was Over'. Whereas I feel a pressing drive to blog, to engage with my online readers in Poland and around the world, I can't claim to feel that same pressure to press on with my creative writing. I should do though - New Year's Resolution #1: write more.

Photography: Despite my urges when passing through Dixon's Travel to buy a new camera, I can't really justify it. My brace of Nikons (D40 and D80) are holding up fine, very reliable, and the D40 is light enough to go with me everywhere. One camera that really interests me is the Fuji Finepix X100, the spiritual successor to the Leica. But it still have teething problems (battery life, software, filter attachment); I'm sure - given that the camera is such a hit - Fuji will one day bring out an improved version. Once it gets a full-size sensor, focal-plane shutter and and interchangeable mount that takes Leica-M lenses - I'll have one. And should one or other of my Nikons pack up finally and irrevocably, I'll buy a D3100 or D5100. But at the end of the day, the means are not the ends. The end in my case is to edge ever closer to the realisation of the Sublime Aesthetic.

Ultimately, blogging is the act of offering a personal testimony. My consciousness is present in the here and now, my memory shaped by growing up in England* in the late 20th C and by living in Poland in the 21st C. I've witnessed England's slow (relative) decline and Poland's rapid rise. But my consciousness, as it moves upon the face of the earth, is getting older and wiser. There are so many secrets yet to be uncovered, chief among these for me is the nature of consciousness; the balance between human biology (so many unknowns - especially in the field of neuroscience) and spirituality. Science will shed light on many mysteries, not in dazzling ways, but in tiny increments. Another New Year's resolution - to dive deeper into New Scientist each week and keep up with the latest discoveries.

* Ten years ago, I'd have written 'Britain' here.

This time last year:
Beery litter louts

This time two years ago:
Miserable grey London

This time three years ago:
Parrots in Ealing

This time four years ago:
Xmas lites, Jeziorki

Hurry up and wait

2011-12-28T23:58:00.003+01:00

WizzAir has this little trick to get its passengers to come to the airport three hours before departure and spend more time and money at Luton's departure lounge. You get an SMS a day before your departure with the following text: "Due to congestion at Luton Airport we strongly advise you to arrive at least 3hrs before departure to avoid missing the flight. Check-in opens accordingly." What does 'check-in opens accordingly' mean? That it opens three hours before departure? Now, having read Scatts's post about this proceder, Eddie and I were expecting this.

We arrive in good time to drop off our rented car (Ford Fiesta from Hertz), got the bus to the airport... formed an orderly queue of two at the WizzAir check-in desks, and waited about half an hour. Lo and behold, check-in did actually open three hours before take-off. Great! We were first to check in, through security - then two and three-quarter hours of waiting air-side. A pint of Guinness, some Pret a Manger sandwiches, a look at what's on offer at Dixon's (Fujifilm X100 for £740? Thanks, I'll wait...), sit and read the papers, browse magazines at WH Smiths... then w learn our flight will be delayed by 25 minutes... Hurry up and wait.

Above: at least I got a nice sunset shot of the control tower at Luton.

Everybody's out on the road today

2011-12-27T19:33:00.005+01:00

Driving from Derbyshire to London in our hired Ford Fiesta (a car of truly hideous external appearance - the result of design me-tooism, not a shred of originality) made me appreciate that transport infrastructure is not a given and should not be taken for granted.

I had read just before Christmas that 17 million Britons were expected to travel to spend the holidays elsewhere than where they live. And having travelled there, they will have to travel back. And so, onto the Road. The M1 was thick with traffic, jamming up totally around Junctions 24(multi-car pile-up) and 18 (roadworks). Even a minor rear-end shunt at Junction 25 brought traffic to a crawl (above, photo by Eddie). The junction with the M6 was similarly treacle-like.

Once we'd reached the South, I took a decision to swing west along the A43 towards Oxford and the M40, in the hope that this approach to London would be easier - it was not. Once again, long queues, especially around High Wycombe at Junction 4, where three lanes become two under the junction bridge, to widen back to three after the junction.

And so a journey that normally takes around two hours took three hours today. Bah humbug.

This time last year:

50% off half price and nothing to pay until June 2016!

Boxing Day walk, Derbyshire

2011-12-26T18:31:00.010+01:00

Around Christmas, walking between meals is a necessity. So after a fantastic Christmas lunch prepared by Ciocia Jane, crowned by the best Christmas pudding I've ever eaten, mountains of crackers and exquisite English cheeses washed down with fineft alef and a bottle of Mogen David (to see what Sy Ableman was on about in A Serious Man) - a walk was in order.

Duffield in Derbyshire where my brother lives is a fine place for kicking off walks, as the countryside is minutes away on foot.

So - less blabbing from me, bring on the photographs.

Above: view looking across the Chevin golf course, the sun setting in the south-west.

Above: hilltop stone farmhouse overlooking Belper. Reminds me of Crow Crag from Withnail and I, does it not, fellow Withnail fans?

Above: the lights of Belper.

Above: the lights of Duffield. Personally, I dislike the orange light cast by British street lamps (sodium vapour bulbs); I prefer the whitish glow of mercury vapour lighting that's more commonplace in Poland and the USA.

This time last year:

Derbyshire in the snow

This time three years ago:

Derbyshire in the sunshine

This time four years ago:

Derbyshire in the drizzle

Manchester for Wigilia

2011-12-24T16:26:00.004+01:00

Eddie, Moni and I flew into Manchester airport late last night, picked up a hire car and drove to Babcia Wanda's. Temperature +9C, it has stopped raining (my wife said it rained every day last week, my brother said it was +15C in Derby on Thursday). Shops crowded with last-minute shoppers - the prices at John Lewis hard to believe (expensive) what with the pound costing 5.30 zlotys (compared to 4.70 last December).

Papers in England talking about men being habitual last-minute gift buyers, with 80% waiting for Christmas Eve before buying presents. This phenomenon has been named the 'man dash' by the media. Canny retailers change their shop window displays to cater for the change in gender of the predominant customer group.

To my surprise, the car park outside John Lewis and Sainsbury's in Cheadle was almost as full of black SUVs with darkened rear windows, so it seem a broader socio-cultural phenomena than just the bad-taste merchants of Warsaw. Lack of imagination seems to have no borders.

And now, time to sit down to śledź, barszcz and the other accoutrements of Polish wigilia. Fortunately, no carp (hello taste - where are you?). I can't say this is my favourite time of year.

This time last year:

Christmas Eve in England

This time two years ago:

Washing the snow away

This time three years ago:

Traffic at 38,000 ft

Work in progress

2011-12-22T20:59:00.005+01:00

This year has been one of maximum traffic disruption in Warsaw. The building of the second Metro line (which will not be ready in time for the football in June), the National Stadium and the infrastructure around it (which will be ready), a new bridge spanning the Vistula to the north of the city, the work to connect the western world to Warsaw via a motorway - all these have made themselves felt to Warsaw's inhabitants and commuters.

If there's one project above all that's created transport headaches it's the construction work on the second (east-west) Metro line.

Above: looking north along Al. Jana Pawła II at what used to be a very busy roundabout (Rondo ONZ) - with ul. Prosta running off west towards Wola (to the left of the pic) and Świętokrzyska running east towards the Vistula (to the right). Note the remnants of the tram tracks in the roadway. Sometime towards the end of 2013 (if all goes to schedule) this will be the site of Rondo ONZ Metro station. What will happen with ul. Świętokrzyska - will it be pedestrianised? I do hope so.

It will be interesting to return to these pictures in a few years time and see how things have changed. In the meanwhile, Google Earth users - cut and paste these coordinates into the 'Fly to' box (52°13'59.32"N, 20°59'53.93"E) to see how Rondo ONZ looked before the work started (current satellite pic from April 2009).

Above: looking east along ul. Świętokrzyska, towards the Vistula. Below: the same view, in Google Earth with 3D buildings switched on. Crowdsourcing works! (the skyscraper on ul. Tamka is missing, however... anyone care to model it?)

Ah - and work at Dworzec Centralny is now pretty much finished - all four platforms and the three passageways connecting them are all open. The shops in the commercial passages are starting to fill up with new and smart retailers - no cooking allowed, so none of that atrocious smell of burnt casein that used to permeate the north and south passages.

Extreme fixie

2011-12-22T17:58:00.005+01:00

It's been over eight weeks since the clocks went back; since then I've ridden my bike to work two or three times, so respect to those who cycle all the year round. Since an ill-fated bike ride in the Las Kabacki forest in early 2002, I do not mix cycling with snow on the ground.

Cycle couriers who want to earn money in the busy run-up to the festive season (I read once that 40% of all the work done in the Northern Hemisphere happens between early September and the middle of December) keep on pedalling.

I caught this extremist fixie outside the Deloitte building on Al. Jana Pawła II; absence of any kind of braking mechanism is par for the course, but look at those handlebars! Barely an inch of metal between the stem and the index fingers! I ask whether this makes sense - the idea of shortened handlebars means it's easier to nip in between stationary or slow-moving traffic - but surely the widest part of a bicycle is the rider's hips and shoulders - there's little sense in having handlebars any narrower... Extend your arms directly ahead of you so they are parallel to one another. That's the optimal width for narrow bars. Anything narrower is a pure pose (or in Polish - lans).

This time two years ago:
Poland's worst railway station
(and it's no better two years on. Just two years shabbier.)

This time three years ago:
Last Christmas before the Recession?
(as it happened - no. This one unlikely to be either - in Poland anyway)

First snow - but proper snow?

2011-12-21T19:08:00.005+01:00

So here we are - 21 December - the Darkest Day - Stalin's Birthday - Winter Solstice - and Warsaw wakes up to the merest dusting of light snow. Nothing outside that even prompts my eye towards my camera's viewfinder. Grey skies, sunshine later, and tiny amounts of snow. Enough, however, for England to grind to a halt, but here, in the office, for instance, no one even mentioned it.

Still, for the record, the first snow of this winter (which can properly be called that) fell on the night of 20/21 December. In the city centre, thermometers registered +2C, out in Jeziorki, it was 0C.

I confess to driving to the office today. I have an excuse - I met Moni off the Łódź train, and together we dragged her things to the car (including her pet rat, Rat Boy - ironically named, as it's a female - in its large cage), plus I had some heavy stuff to take home from the kaletnik. (There's a craft skill you don't get in the UK!)

Driving into and out of the city centre is not a pleasant occupation. If only the Metro ran closer to our house. The Metro is far and away the optimal method of getting into central Warsaw. Sadly, there's only one line running north-south; in a few years there will be an east-west line too.

Looking at the economics, sociology and ergonomics (and did you know that the term 'ergonomics' was first coined by a Polish biologist, Wojciech Jastrzębski in 1857?) of commuting, I find driving to work tiresome, costly and promoting selfish and asocial (if not antisocial) behaviour. I recall in a previous job, one of my workmates remarking (her car broke down that day) 'że musiała się wozić do pracy z narodem' (lit. she had to 'carry herself to work with the nation'). It was meant to be humorous, but driving to work cuts you off from society - from your customers and your voters.

This time last year:
Dense, wet, rush hour snow

This time two years ago:
Evening photography, Powiśle

This time three years ago:
The shortest day of the year

This time four years ago:
Bye bye borders - Poland joins Schengen

Oh, the humanity! Oh, the bureaucracy!

2011-12-20T20:53:00.007+01:00

A man fell under my train home this evening, the 18:20 from W-wa Centralna all stations to Skarzysko Kamienna. He slipped on the platform at W-wa Rakowiec. From what I could see, and from what other passengers were saying, he was neither drunk nor old; he had slipped off the platform edge and under the middle carriages of the train. The temperature had remained below zero for much of today, and despite the platform edge's knobbly surface, there was a certain slipperiness underfoot.

As he fell, he must have banged his head hard; there was blood and he appeared unconscious. He was quickly pulled free by fellow passengers and placed on a bench. The train crew acted admirably. An ambulance was called and medics were on the scene within minutes. I was impressed by everybody's helpfulness and concern. "Has he dropped anything?" The man's glasses were seen under the train. The guard slid down between the platform and the train to pick them off the tracks. Several men gave the medics a hand taking the stretcher up to the ambulance. Solidarity in action. It was good to see; basic human decency - a desire to help one's fellow man in trouble.

The ambulance departed as swiftly as it came, and I have little doubt that the man would be well looked after. Assuming he has somewhere about his pockets his employer's details, his ZUS account number, proof that he hasn't any ZUS payment arrears.

Did the train depart swiftly? It did not. No doubt there was also much form-filling that needed to be done. The driver and guard needed to be interviewed... Meanwhile, a trainload of people were getting increasingly impatient. Half an hour later, another train turned up, also heading south, on the 'up' platform. Where was it going to? Góra Kalwaria? Radom? Piaseczno? No one knew. But lemming-like, everyone in the back half of the train leapt off the platform, on the the track, across the other one, up the opposite platform, and onto the train that had just arrived.

As we finally pulled out of W-wa Rakowiec, some 35 minutes after arriving, we passed two north-bound trains that were stopped at intermediate stations waiting for a clear line into town.

The accident was sorted out quickly and efficiently. The bureaucratic cleaning up took a whole lot longer, and affected at least five train-loads of people, anxious to get home.

When will the public sector acquire the skills (and technologies) to speed up its procedures to an acceptable level?

This time last year:
Kidnapped by Koleje Mazowieckie

This time two years ago:
Google Earth updates Jeziorki

This time three years ago:
Out and about with two foot of glass

A word about Juche in the modern world

2011-12-19T06:36:00.002+01:00

The Dear Leader has passed on. Father of the People, Sun of the Communist Future, Guiding Sun Ray, Wise Leader, Shining Star of Paektu Mountain, Sun of Socialism, World Leader of the 21st Century, the Amazing Politician, Glorious General Who Descended from Heaven, Mastermind of the Revolution, Leader of the Party and the People, Great Man Who Is A Man of Deeds, and indeed, The Bright Sun of Juche.

If you're unclear as to what Juche (as an ideology) actually is, immerse yourselves in the madness here, here and here. (And read this Wikipedia article here.)

My point being? That economic nationalism is madness. Cutting a nation off from the rest of the global economy (autarky) leads to the extreme deviation we witnessed today - that phony grief brought on by the death of a man who kept his nation imprisoned and wretchedly poor for the past 17 years (and whose father did so for half a century before that).

The famine of 1994 to 1998, which left between a million and three and half million dead, was the result of economic mismanagement - stopping the unseen hand of the market from doing its work, replacing it with central planning with an ideological imperative.

When the nutty end of Polish politics talks about quitting the EU - I ask - and how is the Polish economy to function then? It's all well and good complaining that one doesn't want to be a German satrapy, but given that Germany buys 26% of Poland's exports and is where Poland buys 22% of its imports, were the German market be cut off from Poland, millions of Poles would go hungry. The EU accounts for 59% of Poland's exports; the eurozone 46% of Poland's exports.

I'd offer clear warning to anyone wanting to get involved in politics without having a grasp of basic economics: don't.

Just look at what's happening in Vik Tor Or-ban's Hungary.

This time last year:
Global warming or climate change?

This time two years ago:
Progress along the S79

Art, design and modernity

2011-12-18T15:37:00.007+01:00

When did the world start looking and sounding more or less as it does today?

Click on the embedded YouTube link to hear the Miles Davis nonet playing Rocker, a Gerry Mulligan composition. Recorded in March 1950. Fresh, isn't it?

Go back three years - and have a listen to Charlie Parker's Crazeology (click on YouTube link below). Such a complex and yet catchy melody

Now look at the aircraft below: Have a guess when it first took to the air? It's a shape not unfamiliar in today's skies...

This is the Boeing B-47, which first flew on 17 December 1947 - 64 years ago yesterday! Its design foreshadowed the B-52, which first flew in April 1952 - and is scheduled to remain in service with the USAF until 2045 - a staggering 93 years after its first flight!

The Big Leap Forward was the swept wing planform and the multiple jets slung under the wings in pods. Big fat turbofans have replaced the slender, polluting turbojets, but otherwise, the configuration of modern passenger jets is little changed.

Now, on to automotive. The last major innovation in terms of the car was the Kamm tail, applying downward force on the rear wheels at speed. Before that - it was the fared-in mudguards. These had been separate until the second world war - then smoothed into an integral unit with the bodywork. If I'm not mistaken - the first mass-produced car with smooth sides... was the Soviet GAZ M-20 Pobieda - which entered production in 1946, at the same time as American cars were still sporting vestigial mudguards. It was two years later that the USA would catch up with the USSR in car design! Technically, it was not the world's most advanced car in 1946, but its design would show the way forward.

Above: a 1952 Hudson Wasp. Today's Opel/Vauxhall Insignia (Buick Regal across the water) is but slightly sleeker at the front and has that aerodynamic back - but essentially, we have the same design concept. Launched in 2008 it has many improvements over the Hudson from 56 years earlier - yet design-wise, the man-on-the-street in 1952 would not be overwhelmed.

Clothes - fashions - certainly for men, wearing something today that would be entirely normal in 1950 - two-piece suit, jeans or chinos, sweatshirt, leather shoes or canvas sneakers - would even look fashionably hipster retro. (Imagine walking about in 1950 wearing clothes from the 1890s!) For women - well, there's a greater tolerance range when it comes to fashion.

Railways - streamlining was present in the zenith of the Age of Steam; by 1964, the Japanese Shinkansen bullet train linked Tokyo and Osaka (515km, 320 miles) in four hours (top speed 210kmh /130mph).

Architecture - moderne has been with us since before WW2. I was recently looking for Scandinavian architecture that has stood the test of time - that has inspired architects to this day. Look at this - Jorma Järvi's design at Pakila primary school in Helsinki from 1954. The stairs, the sunlight, the scale - such a huge leap from the Education Board (architectural style) primary school I attended with its high, thin windows, overbearing brickwork and long, dark corridors.

Yes, information technology has had a profound influence on the way we live and work and entertain ourselves; the change over the past 20 years has been radical. But from the the point of view of the way the world looks and sounds, the last fifty years have brought us little in the way of revolutionary progress. Just small increments, recyclings of what's been, reiterations in a more contemporary key.

The study door is open. The TV's on. There's an ad for Krakus hams and smoked meats. The music - a straight lift from Philip Glass's score for the 1982 film, Koyaanisqatsi (see trailer here).

We're not living in a breakthrough era for art, design and music. When will see signs that things are starting to change dramatically once again? Maybe not in the immediate future - when the global economy's in recession, there's less appetite for risk, for design innovation (unless it can be proven to have a direct effect on measurable things like productivity or fuel consumption).

What were the drivers of modernity in the middle of the 20th Century? In one word - war. It was war that got us from the Wright Brothers to the B-52 in less than fifty years. It was reaction to war that stood behind Jackson Pollock.

Wars have been great catalysts for those leapfrogs of human progress - but let's not wish for one now.

This time last year:
Happy ever after

This time two years ago:
Road and rail let me down again

This time three years ago:
Alignment and synchronicity

This time four years ago:
Retro shop, ul. Fabryczna

Ul. Trombity: a step closer to dry feet?

2011-12-17T15:08:00.003+01:00

All morning, there's been a shuttle of heavy dumper lorries driving down ul. Trombity, so I thought it's worth seeing what's going on. It looks like that spur off our road, known as 'Trombity A-to-N' (below) is finally going to get a decent surface. The inhabitants of this stretch have often been under water whenever it floods a bit. And even modest precipitation turns this low-lying stretch of road into a muddy bog.

Above: looking east along ul. Trombity 24 A to N; amazing that this 280m long no-through-road does not have its own name. There are 14 houses on it at present and several vacant plots.

Above: looking south along ul. Trombity; one dumper pulls out, while three more wait in turn (below) to drop their loads on to Trombity 24 A to N.

Things look no better on the spur off ul. Trombity towards ul. Dumki. Again, the houses at the end have been cut off from the outside world whenever there have been heavy rains. Some building materials by the side of the 'road' suggest that an upgrade can be expected here too.

The real answer - apart from laying down proper asphalt - is extensive drainage of this area so that excess rainwater can run down to the Vistula instead of threatening residential real estate around these parts.

This time last year:
Matters of style

This time two years ago:
Real winter hits Warsaw

This time three years ago:
This is not Mazowsze, no?

New platform at W-wa Służewiec

2011-12-16T23:09:00.007+01:00

The new timetables, introduced last Sunday have (as far as I can see) produced one major change for Jeziorki's rail-using classes: Koleje Mazowieckie's double-decker trains no longer stop there. So to avoid being carted off to Nowa Iwiczna (and outside Warsaw's fare zone), I changed trains at W-wa Służewiec and waited 15 minutes for an all-stations to Skarzysko Kamienna service.

While waiting, I noticed that the station is still restricted to one working platform for both up- and down- services, though it's now the new line that's operational (to the west of the old one), while the old line and platform are both being refurbished (below).

Overhead, the ongoing roadworks at the Węzeł Marynarska, with the sliproad from the airport joining ul. Marynska crossing above the tracks.

Once the 'down' platform is completed, trains running and and out of Warsaw will have their own tracks, and a significant bottleneck on the Radom line will have been eased.

A little bit of sunny Kraks in December

2011-12-16T22:39:00.006+01:00

Always a pleasure to get down to Kraków - even if business means there's only time to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Market Square. Below: the north side of the square. Look at the gorgeous sunshine - it was +7C; positively hot for mid-December.

Below: we passed through the square as the trumpeter played the Hejnał Mariacki at 11 o'clock. You can just see the brass bell of the trumpet in the upper-middle window.

Below: the Sukiennice (cloth hall) seen from the east...

...and from the west (below). It's been recently refurbished, and there's much to see below ground level (though not this time).

Inside the Sukiennice, everything's as it was (wooden and woollen touristy artefacts) though a bit more Christmassy.

And so farewell, Kraków. It's good to know you are there, and that you can be reached from Warsaw for a mere 54 złotys by train (TLK - the InterCity's second class costs 119.50 złotys). Below: vue generale of the north side of Sukiennice and the Marian church in the background.

"F" for Franco

2011-12-16T21:54:00.000+01:00

I got pulled up by Toyah and AdTheLad for being too easy in my use of the 'F'-word - fascist. In my youth, when, as a student I could do anything I wanted, anyone who tried to prevent me from exercising my will was immediately branded a 'fascist'. Of course, having studied inter-war history and politics, I should have known that fascism was - and still is - an ideology that needs to be correctly defined, and should not be loosely bandied about, as a kind of political insult.

The best definition that can bring clarity to the debate here and now in Poland about fascism is that it is anti-liberal, anti-communist... and anti-conservative.

There was a good piece in Gazeta Wyborcza some months ago delving into Poland's (truly) fascist fringe; the author distinguishes this tiny minority from other ultra-nationalist groupings as being pagan rather than Catholic.

So then. Let's not lump the tiny truly fascist extreme in together with Poland's more mainstream nationalist tendencies. For them, Hitler is definitely not the role model.

I'd suggest instead Francisco Franco. Here was a man, deeply conservative, deeply religious, deeply nationalist; an implacable enemy of cosmopolitanism, liberalism (both social and economic).

So here's my answer to the conundrum - why British Conservatives and American Republicans can't see eye-to-eye with Jarosław Kaczyński's PiS - because he's far nearer in ideology to El Caudillo than he is to Winston Churchill, Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan. It's worth reading about Francisco Franco - the parallels with Kaczyński are indeed interesting.

The barbarism of the Spanish Civil War should act as a warning for all those who love Poland. And so, from now on, I pledge not to use the "F"(for fascism) word in regard to anyone in the Kaczynski-ite camp.

I'll leave the last word to Walter Sobczak (played by John Goodman) from the Coen Brothers' excellent film, The Big Lebowski:

...say what you want about the tenets of National Socialism, Dude, at least it's an ethos.

This time three years ago:
Christmas lights: all in the best possible taste

This time four years ago:
Letter from Russia

The euro crisis: What would Jesus do?

2011-12-15T20:12:00.011+01:00

This one's been around for a long time in the USA; I was reminded of it in a recent BBC News article.

Faced with the current euro crisis, would Jesus:

Insist that bad debtors - including countries - face immediate bankruptcy (with all the attendant woes - pensioners not getting their state pensions, public sector workers not getting paid, mass unemployment)?
Sanction the printing of more money, keeping the economy afloat while allowing inflation to erode the value of prudent savers' cash assets and pensioners' fixed incomes? And by doing so, tell mankind that actually, it's OK to spend more than you earn?
Or would He insist that all debts are paid back, in full, at their proper value? And by doing so - by insisting on a general tightening of belts - would He be content to stifle demand, stamp out prospects of growth, while keeping unemployment high?

Well? Or would He end up doing what Europe's policy-makers are doing - dabbling between the three options in the hope that things will turn out OK in the end?

Or would He (as PiS supporters would like) order the break-up of the single currency and the EU, allowing Greece, Portugal, Italy, Ireland and Spain to suffer massive currency depreciation, runaway inflation and unemployment unseen in Biblical times, while the EU's more prudent lender countries would see their currencies soar to uncompetitive levels killing off their exports and also bringing about mass unemployment?

What message would Jesus send to the world's financial markets (other than short-circuiting the computers in the money-changers' dealing rooms)?

How you see your God is how you see the way out of our current global economic mess.

As a financially prudent person, I believe in paying off debt rather than printing money or allowing debtors to slip away from their obligations by declaring bankruptcy.

But maybe that's a bit Old Testament of me. Maybe Jesus would be more forgiving of the household that overspent on luxury cars, exotic holidays and fashionable clothes, or of bankers that invested in dodgy instruments, or in governments that consistently spent more than they raised in taxes.

[And incidentally, would Jesus insist on bringing back the death-penalty, as PiS chairman Jarosław Kaczyński would like?]

What do you think, dear readers?

This time last year:
Orders of magnitude

This time two years ago:
Jeziorki in the snow

This time three years ago:
Better news on the commuting front

This time four years ago:
I no longer recognise the land where I was born

Warszawa H&M

2011-12-14T22:15:00.001+01:00

Gazeta Stołeczna has recently got all exercised about the fact that Dworzec Centralny - Warsaw's central station - which is getting towards the end of a serious remont (refurbishment) - has been plastered with giant ads for a clothes shop.

Above: the west elevation of Arseniusz Romanowicz's greatest work: defaced or beautified by ads for eight-quid shirts and blouses? Incidentally - that's 66 year-old Bryan Ferry and his former girlfriend, the 55 year-old Jerry Hall showing off the clothes. And one of Mick Jagger's daughters is up there, too.

Above: The huge mural continues on the front (southern) elevation of the building. I must say that I've never been into an H&M in my life, and I couldn't even tell you where it is in Warsaw. I guess by the choice of models that I'm (almost) in their target age demographic, though somehow the message is lost on me.

Inside the ticket hall, now completely remonted, there's more of Mr Ferry, Ms Hall and their eight-quid shirts and blouses, though displayed more discretely.

Above: and at platform level; the traveller cannot get away from them. "I give in," the traveller will say. "I'll just have to miss my train home to Rzeszów and pop into H&M (wherever it is, for the ads don't say) and stock up on eight-quid shirts."

An issue or non-issue? The ads will come down, people will soon forget about them. As they do with most advertising.

Anyone give a stuff?

History what-iffery

2011-12-13T20:04:00.006+01:00

Chinese premier Zhou Enlai (or, if you prefer, Chou En-Lai), when asked what how he thought the French Revolution had affected world history, famously replied "it's too soon to tell".

This was my first thought when David Cameron (Britain's first prime minister to be younger than me) pulled out of the EU's stability pact last Friday. Since then, I've been on Polish TV and radio half a dozen times explaining Britain's semi-detached relationship with the European Union.

Was it a historical moment, akin to Chamberlain's return from Munich? Or will it all blow over? Too early to say. Was Cameron right to walk away from an EU-wide deal? Depends. Will Britain survive economically whilst the eurozone founders? Can't tell. Will the eurozone survive whilst Britain flounders? Haven't a clue. For an answer - be prepared to wait a long time.

We really don't know. Too soon to tell.

Let's look at the reality. From the outset, the eurozone project was extremely naive to couple so many disparate economies in a currency union without any thought to fiscal and budgetary convergence. MAYBE it was a German plot to stop the deutchmark from becoming uncompetitively strong, by shackling it to deadbeat currencies like the drachma and the lira. Set the Greeks and other chronic debtors adrift and the northern European remnants of the eurozone will see their currency soar in value like another Swiss franc.

So if the Germans (until very recently the world's No. 1 exporter) want to go on selling their BMWs to America and their machine tools to China, maintaining the easy-living South within the eurozone makes some kind of sense - as long as the cost of doing so doesn't outweigh the advantage of an artificially weaker currency.

So where does Britain fit in all this? Some voices critical of Cameron says he's pandering to the City. OK - it provides employment for a million people and brings in £40 billion in tax revenues. Now, any meaningful pact to shore up the euro should, logically, involve steps to converge the eurozone's taxes. And this is more than likely to involve a Financial Transaction Tax (FTT). Which the City of London fears dreadfully. Given that 75% of all financial transactions in the EU take place in the UK, a tax on them would have the effect of shifting much of the footloose global business to New York or Singapore.

I must say, personally I'm in favour of a FTT. It would introduce a measure of stability to the markets; dealers would have to think twice (shock!) before pressing the 'sell' or 'buy' buttons. And the software behind automated dealing would also have consider this tax in its algorithms. This would moderate the wild swings that anyone watching markets at work notices on a daily basis.

An FTT, then, would both smooth out wild vicissitudes and bring in much-needed tax revenues to national exchequers. (As long as they could be trusted to spend them wisely!)

An FTT is one of those Good Ideas In Theory - good in practice only if wereto be adopted by the USA and every other market on this planet as well. A level playing field indeed.

The City of London, yes, it's a million jobs - but the UK's manufacturing sector is two and half million jobs (and for the knockers - the UK's manufacturing sector is still the world's sixth largest). With around 45% of the UK's exports going to to the eurozone, it's critical to the survival of UK manufacturing that the eurozone does not collapse (or else only the Germans and Dutch will be able to afford things Made in England).

So - anyway, on Cameron, the EU and the eurozone - too soon to tell.

But what about Martial Law, imposed upon Poland 30 years ago today? Too soon to tell?

Well, yes. There are two schools of thought on the day Polish army tanks put an end to the dreams of Solidarity.

1) Had General Jaruzelski not imposed Martial Law, Mr Brezhnev from over the way would have inflicted something far nastier upon Poland (think Hungary 1956 or Czechoslovakia 1968).

2) Brezhnev was washed-up (he'd be dead in 11 months anyway) and his system would implode. One shove - the Polish communist party going for wide-sweeping economic and political reforms - and the Soviet bloc would have crumbled a whole eight years sooner than it did.

I've heard cogent arguments in favour of both scenarios. Intercepts of Soviet signals by NSA purportedly suggesting that a) the Red Army was ready to move in and b) it was not. That the People's United Workers' Party could have a) introduced market liberalisation a la Balcerowicz - and b) that it couldn't. The truth is a messy amalgam of strands of so many factors that it will indeed take 200 years before historians can reach a consensus as to the słuszność (rightness, justness, legitimacy) of General Wojciech Jaruzelski's coup d'etat.

Fewer Poles today believe that Martial Law was 'necessary' to spare Poland from a Soviet invasion than was the case several years ago; as time goes by the spectre of that threat diminishes. Generations who experienced Martial Law - and indeed their children and grandchildren - will have to pass before a clear-headed appraisal can finally be made. My take on Martial Law - Jaruzelski was first and foremost a soldier, conditioned to carry out orders. He had not an inkling of the power that could be unleashed from a society once the shackles of central planning were removed. He had not the vision to do anything other than send in the tanks. He could have done nothing, of course. That would have been an interesting variant - but do please recall that Poland in 1981 was in the throes of the fifth deepest economic depression experienced by any country in the 2oth Century.

In the meanwhile, yesterday and today, supporters of Jarosław Kaczyński together with assorted neo-fascists will march up and down chanting "Byłeś w ZOMO, byłeś w ORMO, dzisiaj stoisz za Platformą." In English, so you can appreciate the infantile crassness of this slogan: "You, [Jaruzelski and your communist buddies] were in the Motorised Reserves of the People's Militia, you were in the Voluntary Reserves of the People's Militia, today you stand behind Civic Platform (the majority partner in the ruling government coalition)".

Civic Platform can be accused of lack of boldness when it comes to enacting necessary reforms of public finances, but the party is certainly not the creature of Wojciech Jaruzelski and his cronies. That would in fact be SLD ('Stalin Lenin Dno') - the successor party to PZPR; however it polled but 8% in this autumn's parliamentary elections. Poland today and Poland 30 years ago - what a difference. Let's be thankful for it.

This time last year:
Life without a computer

This time two years ago:
Cheaper by taxi

This time three years ago:
The closest we'll get to the moon for nine years

This time four years ago:
Going underground

Take Me Back To Tulsa

2011-12-11T22:52:00.005+01:00

A house on ul. Karczunkowska, just around the corner from ours, has been abandoned and put up for sale with planning permission to use the plot for a warehouse or similar. The old-school Americana look of this building has given me an excuse to use Pixlr-o-matic, a software tool (available free and online here) that allows you to give your pics no end of nostalgic photo effects.

Above: looking like a 6x9cm transparency from my old Zeiss Ikon Ikonta C... (a great landscape camera with a 105mm f3.5 Tessar lens). Now I can do this with a Nikon D40 - anyone want to buy the Ikonta?

Above: looking like an Kodak Ektacolor 35mm print developed somewhere in the mid-1950s.

I have a feeling I shall be revisiting Pixlr.com again to give a dab of nostalgia to those pics from Jeziorki and district that give that makes me think "this is not America - No?"

The interesting thing about the plot of land offered for sale is its dimensions: 16.5m (53 ft) wide street frontage by 235m (775 ft) deep. [See it here on Google Earth: 52° 6'38.30"N 21° 0'34.78"E] Typical of the strip-farms in Mazowsze, this is result of not having primogeniture enshrined in Polish law. Rather than passing the entire estate to the oldest son, British-style, Poles would pare down their landholdings into ever thinner strips so that each son could get a fair share. The result can be seen from the air; rather than a patchwork of regular, rectangular fields that is most of western Europe, Poland has thin strips running across the landscape (see this post here).

This time two years ago:
Another book launch

This time three years ago:
Jeziorki in the 16th Century

This time four years ago:
Rotten weather, literally

Classic glass

2011-12-10T21:30:00.009+01:00

One of the main reasons I bought into Nikon's DSLR [digital single lens reflex] system was because I already had a Nikon SLR (an old-school manual-mechanical FM2) and the nice Nikkor lenses that went with it would work with the latest digital Nikons.

Today I went for a stroll with my 28mm f2.8 Nikkor replacing the standard 18-55 zoom that usually accompanies my faithful D40.

Here are two results (below). First up, ul. Trombity on a dour December afternoon. A bit of 'fill light' in Photoshop Lightroom, and some desaturation on the red roof in the middle of the frame.

Below: W-wa Dawidy station, again some desaturation of the image for a more realistic feel. Less ghosting, less distortion than on Nikon's zoom lenses.

Taking pics in manual mode is no problem; you set camera to 'M' for manual, dial in the appropriate shutter speed, and set the aperture on the lens ring. And being a digital camera, you can see the results instantly; should the image be over- or under-exposed - adjust accordingly and shoot another frame.

Nikon's DX format sensors cover an area about two-thirds of a 35mm film frame. This means that when used on DX cameras, Nikon lenses made for 35mm cameras give a narrower field of view than originally intended.

My 28mm lens, when used on the DX, gives a field of view equivalent to a 42mm lens on a 35mm camera. So no longer is it a wide-angle lens, rather something slightly wider than standard. Fully glass and metal, it feels like a professional piece of kit.

After spending an afternoon with it and taking a close look at the results, I can see little point in using it day to day. The kit lens that Nikon offer on their entry-level DSLRs, the 18-55mm f3.5-f5.6 zoom is a great everyday workhorse, light, and with vibration reduction, you can hand-hold at longer exposures than the old lens. Still, it's fun to play around with old Nikkor lenses and know you can still use them on today's Nikons.

Above: my D40 fitted with 28mm f2.8 Nikkor. Looks better than with the plasticky zoom - and yet that standard Nikon zoom lens is a quality optic, is lighter and only half a stop slower when set to wide. The VR version of the 18-55mm zoom is even better for when the light gets low.

This time last year:
What's the Polish for 'pattern'?

This time four years ago:
"Rorate caeli de super nubes pluant justum..."

Ronald Reagan remembered

2011-12-09T22:15:00.003+01:00

Unveiled by Lech Wałęsa less than three weeks ago, across Al. Ujazdowskie from the American Embassy - a new statue to grace Warsaw; that of President Ronald Reagan. A man who contributed significantly to the collapse of the Soviet Empire. The Evil Empire, as he put it. "My idea of the Cold War," he said, "is that we win, they lose."

By forcing the Soviet Union into an arms race they could ill afford to take part in, he helped bankrupt the system. Poland has much to be grateful to a president who stood up firmly to Brezhnev and his associates, successors to that criminal gang that seized control of Russia in 1917 and used genocidal methods to gain control of most of Central Europe.

The scale of this statue is human. It's so good to see a counterpoint to the gigantism of the communist era - see posts here and here (scroll down a bit) . Isn't that what makes Warsaw brilliant? So much meaning at every turn!

Every time I pass the Reagan statue, I'm struck by the avuncular decency and strength of the man - captured so brilliantly by the sculptor.

Once upon a recent time, voices on the city council expressed a desire to rename Plac Konstytucji (named after the Stalinist constitution of 1952) Plac Ronalda Reagana. This was an excellent idea - after all, Warsaw has squares named after American presidents Woodrow Wilson and Herbert Hoover. I'm not generally in favour of re-naming places for the sake of it (I like Rondo Babka, Okęcie Airport), but Ronald Reagan needs to be immortalised on Warsaw's street map.

This time last year:
Accident of birth

This time two years ago:
Under the Liberator

This time three years ago:
Jeziorki on old maps

Boring.

2011-12-08T21:35:00.011+01:00

Boring. (I like the Volvo XC70, but please - not in black, not with darkened rear windows!)

Boring.

Boring.

Boring.

Boring.

Tedious.

Deathly boring.

Boring.

Boring.

Boring. What is this place? Moscow?!?

Boring.

Boring. Get out of town!

Boring.

Boring. Zzzzzzz.

Boring.

Yaaaaawn. Totalny brak wyobrażni.

This time last year:
Atonement

This time four years ago:
Where I'm from, and why

Cars

2011-12-07T21:33:00.008+01:00

A few personal observations. My first and abiding love in the automotive world was with American cars from the late 1940s to the late 1960s. Fins and Chrome, peaking with the 1959 Cadillac, but not forgetting the Hudson Hornet or the (original) Ford Mustang. Classic autos, big on style rather than go-fast ability or road holding have always appealed to me. My first three vehicles were (respectively) a Morris Minor van, followed by a 1963 GAZ M-21 Volga (black of course - and what a rarity in the UK!), then a 1955 88" wheelbase Land Rover Series I.

By the late 1980s I'd moved up the career ladder, and as managing editor of CBI News, I stumbled upon the idea of introducing an executive motoring column to the business leaders' magazine. For several years, Jaguars, BMWs, Rolls-Royces, Bentleys, Audis, Mercedes Benzes, Lexuses and the odd Aston Martin (as well as lesser marques) waited outside my door for a test drive. After several years of doing this, I came to the following conclusions:

1) Buying a car with your own money is the biggest waste of money you can achieve in your lifetime. If no one (i.e. your employer) is willing to buy one for you, buy the smallest and cheapest and most reliable car available that meets your needs. Invest the money saved on property.

2) Sitting barefoot in a Rolls-Royce or Bentley, feet immersed in lambswool rug, breathing in the heavenly aroma of Connolly leather, seeing only wood, chromed metal, leather and glass around you, and the Silver Lady or Flying "B" on the bonnet, makes you feel quite Godlike. Sit in any other car, and after a while, you forget whether you're in a Jag or Merc or a Nissan Micra.

Today, a full tank of petrol in the Toyota Yaris costs as much as a quarterly season ticket for Warsaw's public transport system. When I used to drive to work, a tankful would last a fortnight (one-sixth of the duration of a quarterly ticket). Plus parking fees, insurance, servicing etc. Plus walking between bus stop and Metro, Metro and office, keeps you fitter than blobbing out at the driving seat.

From the financial point of view, if you live within Warsaw's borders and no longer have children that need driving to school, it's hard to justify a car for day-to-day use.

Which is not to say I don't like some cars - aesthetically. Any decision as to what car I'd like to own would be primarily dictated by looks rather than performance or roadholding.

What could I consider owning?

Contemporary cars that I find attractive...

Opel (Vauxhall in the UK) Insignia. I like that retro look, harking back to the late '40s/early '50s. The four-door saloon (sedan) version, in a rich burgundy colour - nice. A bit of a rep-mobile, but a design that has the makings of a modern classic. I'd customise mine though:)

No longer in production, the Nissan Micra K12/K12C (2002-2010) is a car I've long fancied, looks-wise. Again, a retro design, which, in three-door guise, gives it the air of an American hot-rod from the 1930s, customised in the 1950s. Primer Gray and chromed steel wheels to give it that Two Lane Blacktop look...

Out of production for a few years now, the 2000-2007 Volvo XC70 is a bigger car than I'd care to own (not really having the need for all those doors and load space), but I love its looks. It's another contemporary classic, replaced by a corporate clunker with stuck-on silver plastic rhomboids applied in the mistaken assumption of making the current XC70 look more modern. Colours? Sand, navy blue, maroon - but not black.

The BMW Mini is my dream city car, especially in drop-top form with a frugal diesel engine. The Mini has a timeless charm about it, and quite honestly, there's little need for anything larger if 95% of your driving is around town. The Countryman is an obese irrelevance, but the rest of the range, I consider quite wonderful.

Another convertible, though quite pricey, that tickles my fancy, is the Audi A4 Cabriolet (2000-2005). With a dark red soft-top. And diesel engine. More for the long-distance touring perspectives that will open up when ul. Puławska is connected to the rest of the continent via the S2 expressway...

Four-wheel drives can be useful on the few untarmacked roads between Jeziorki and the city centre, but generally I consider full off-road capability wasteful of fuel and space. Unless you have pigs to get to market. One 4x4 that I have hankered after for many years, however, is the Jeep Wrangler; again, must be with a diesel engine. A classic with a bloodline going back to the WWII Willys Jeep, a vehicle with character. Green or Sand. NOT BLOODY BLACK!

And that's about it. I can't say I care for any other contemporary vehicle. The ubiquitous Warsaw-issue black SUV with darkened rear windows driven by someone with a mobile phone clamped to their ear - makes me puke. Sign of a buc totally lacking in imagination.

Now, classic cars - don't get me started! Temat rzeka, Panie...

This time last year:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time three years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time four years ago:
A day in Poznań

The meaning of Clarkson

2011-12-02T23:59:00.005+01:00

Jeremy Clarkson is not a name unfamiliar in Poland; his books and TV shows are available here in translation; Świat wedłu Clarksona (four volumes of the stuff) is a concept that many Poles will have come into contact with in their native language.

The man has made his name and his fortune driving expensive cars around public roads while pressing the loud pedal. His forthright views on matters unrelated to the ignition of fossil fuels in the pursuit of thrills are often hilarious. His ranty writing style inspires rank-and-file bloggers in a way that only Bill Bryson can better.

So. On Wednesday, Britain's public sector went out on strike (well, some of them). Jeremy Clarkson said on BBC television:

"Frankly, I'd have them all shot. I would take them outside and execute them in front of their families. I mean, how dare they go on strike when they have these gilt-edged pensions that are going to be guaranteed while the rest of us have to work for a living?"

Obvious uproar. Over 21,000 complaints to the BBC. The main public sector trade union has called for his sacking. Even the prime minister, David Cameron, said to be a personal friend of Clarkson's, was forced to comment ("a silly thing to say... I'm sure he didn't mean it").

It will blow over, but will not be forgotten. However, Clarkson (though he probably doesn't twig) does has a serious point. The British public sector has become an economic absurdity, and economic absurdities in the long run face correction. The bigger the absurdity, the bigger the correction.

Amid the outrage, that point has been lost. Over the Blair-Brown years, the UK's public sector has been silently bloating, soaking up the slack in the labour market caused by 1.7 million manufacturing jobs heading east. Paid for at first by GDP growth and windfalls such as the sale of 3G licences netting £23 billion in 2000, this scheme started becoming unworkable as recession struck in 2008/9; since then, these additional public sector jobs (and their attendant pension schemes) were increasingly paid for out of debt.

Now, many British public sector workers are living a life of entitlement ("I'm doing the public a service, so the taxpayer owes me"). Well, nie do końca. It's time to count the cost. In Poland, for example, the minister of administration, Michał Boni, has calculated that it costs 50 złotys to administer 50 złotys of state benefits. This will have to change if Poland is to escape the fate of Greece and Italy. Britain is much further down the road to ruin than Poland (which as least has plausible growth scenarios to keep investors interested). Britain's public sector workers need to wake up to that unpleasant reality.

Until relatively recently, Britain was a land of pubs full of laughter, informed conversation and cigarette smoke. Each pub would have its own Jeremy Clarkson holding forth at the bar after three pints of Old Nutkin and commenting wittily upon the affairs of the day. Today, Britain's pubs tend to be joyless, sterile and half-empty places; the nation instead imbibes at home in front of 46" TV sets. This, I think, rather explains the Clarkson phenomenon - we still need our public house pundits.

Sadly though, Clarkson is outliving his usefulness. How much of Britain's economic woe is the result of consumers believing that they were entitled to purchase that car Clarkson drooled over on Top Gear. He should give up driving expensive cars; instead, he should go to his nearest adult education college and study for a Higher National Diploma in economics. Then, he'll be able to apply his ready wit to affairs of state with at least some underpinnings of theoretical knowledge. Instinctively he's right - but his lack of gravitas now sits uncomfortably upon a man of his age.

This time last year:
Today, not so good.

This time two years ago:
In which I walk to work

This time four years ago:
Act 1, Scene 1, a blasted heath

Snow-free November

2011-11-30T20:12:00.003+01:00

Well, that's November gone, and no snow.

Let's look back over this blog at when Warsaw experienced its first snow... (this is where blogging proves its worth as a form of popular record). We can see - well, not too anomalous. Having said that, there are rumours, whispers, from the south of Poland of an impending drought. Indeed, I can't remember proper rain since the second half of August. And people are talking about a warm (+12C) Christmas - will we get show this December? We did last year and the year before...

2010: 28 November (I missed it, but on my return to Warsaw on 29 November, it snowed and kept on snowing). December was snowy - in the UK too!

2009: 14 October (!!!) An absolute anomaly, the more so that November proved snow-free. However, the second half of December saw heavy snowfalls

2008: 22 November. Snow stayed around for a few days; December was not snowy at all.

2007: 14 November. It didn't settle for long, returned briefly a week later; December was pretty much snow-free too.

A final word about this year. Many's the time I've heard about it snowing (during communist times) on the May Day parade; white shirtsleeves and blouses with red neckerchiefs - and snow. Yet this year, it snowed on the evening of 3 May - free Poland's celebration of its Constitution Day. Bizarre when I think back - eight o'clock in the evening, it's still light outdoors - and there's the garden covered in snow.

This time last year:
Krakowskie Przedmieście in the snow

This time two years ago:
Ul. Poloneza bisected by S2 roadworks

Unashamed City of Dreams gorgeousness

2011-11-29T21:49:00.004+01:00

Once again - a crushed velvet dusk in my City of Dreams. Look at how Zlota 44 (between the Palace of Culture, right, and Złote Tarasy, centre) is rising to find its place on Warsaw's skyline.

Two exposures - one (top) exposed for the ground, the other, for the sky. HDR (high dynamic range imaging) would allow for the capture of an image that incorporates the best of both pics.

Follow the Zlota 44 saga back over the past three and half years - here (Yellerbelly) and here (Scatts). Both guys know what they're writing about. See the building when it was no more than a hole in the ground.

A propos of dreams - my dreams are getting increasingly hybrid. One character that pops up in them frequently is my brother/son; an amalgam of my brother at Eddie's age and Eddie; neither and both. And the dreams are more often than not located in an amalgam of modern-day Warsaw, 1960s/70s London, and 1930s-50s USA. Such were the dreams I dreamt last night.

This time last year:
I'm so glad I'm living in Warsaw

This time two years ago:
Candid photography

This time three years ago:
Archival photos of the Rampa in action

This time four years ago:
Red sky in the morning...

And end to the Entitlement way of thinking

2011-11-27T11:33:00.010+01:00

There must be some kind of way out here
Said the joker to the thief

The first lines of Bob Dylan's All Along The Watchtower* spring to mind as I watch the world teeter on the brink on economic meltdown. There must indeed be some kind of way out of here, but it's not going to be pleasant. A face-off between young protesters and their banker foes will not, however, produce any roadmap as to the exit route from the crisis.

I can sympathise with the voice of a generation whose prospects are getting bleaker by the day, the Occupiers of Wall Street or London or Spain's Indignados and other groups of protesters. My problem with them, however, is that they have no solution to the problems besetting the global economy; all they can offer is a generalised list of woes that anyone can pick up from reading the papers.

Problems. Take the eurozone crisis. We all have a good idea of what would happen if, for example, Greece were to replace the euro with a new drachma. A run on the banks, capital flight - wealthier Greeks taking suitcases of euros out of the country to havens safe, printing new banknotes and minting new coins, making adjustments to bankomats** and vending machines, re-pricing all products in all shops. And the economic fall-out - suddenly, Greece would be the cheapest place in Europe to holiday, but, as the Greeks don't actually make anything, everything they need to fit out hotels and restaurants has to be imported from a prohibitively expensive eurozone.

We don't know what course of action to take. Keep the Greeks in, or push them out? Pain one way, pain the other. Greeks? Who's next? The Italians? A problem one order of magnitude greater. Then who? France? Germany? Britain? The USA? China? Contagion! Panic! The Great Depression, all over again. Just 80 years on.

Let's look at the root causes. I go back to Student SGH's brilliant essay from early last year, in which Bartek looks at the two main drivers of the market, Fear and Greed. He postulates that it was not so much Greed that sank the markets, but Lack of Fear. Now, I'd also like to add another root cause, namely Entitlement.

When anybody thinks "it's my right (to get money from the state for doing nothing/for leading a bank into failure)" then you know that Absurdity has got the upper hand. Entitlement-thinking leads to sub-optimal performance in the market place. Mnie się należy.

Because I'm the child of wealthy parents, I deserve an iPhone 4S for Christmas.
Because I'm a single mum, the State has a duty to provide me with free accommodation.
Because my company is French (or whatever) it should be protected from global competition.
Because my company is state-owned, and I'm in PSL, I must be Prezes.
Because I graduated with a Third in Media Studies at John Lennon University, I deserve a job.
Because my bank's Too Big To Fail, I deserve a huge bonus from the tax payer.
Because my parents will leave me a big house, I don't have to work too hard right now.
Because the value of my house will keep rising, I'm entitled to exotic holidays and flash car.
Because it's done so up to now, my company's market share will keep growing indefinitely.
Because my parents are wealthier than my grandparents, I'm going to be wealthier still.

As you can see from the above list, entitlement thinking affects people across the entire spectrum of society. The blame cannot fall on the bankers alone. People should take on more responsibility upon their own shoulders - should your bank fail - take the blame, sell your mansions and helicopters and put the money into the accounts of the small savers who've taken the blow. Take the blame for your own fecklessness rather than expecting the taxpayer to bail you out. Less entitlement - more individual responsibility.

Getting used to economic well-being gets you soft. Poles, who in the space of a generation have been through economic hardships undreamt of in the West are, I think (and here, of course, I'm forced to generalise) are much better situated to ride out the coming storm than the 'softies' of the pampered West. Since 1981, Poland has endured the fifth-deepest economic depression of the 20th Century; empty shelves on shops, inflation of 1,300% year, and shock-therapy transformation from which many provincial towns and rural areas have not yet recovered from.

Young Poles certainly feel less entitled than their British peers. They know that life's hard, work's a grind, but there's no one around to spoon-feed you. If they can't find a job in Radom or Gorzów, they'll fly to the UK to look for work. Hence the Polish barmen with Master's degrees in engineering and Polish chambermaids with Master's degrees in law.

Sustainable Growth, the chimeric Grail that corporates strives for, cannot be achieved by armies of pushy salesmen foisting unsuitable financial or insurance products or endlessly updated consumer electronic technologies upon unwary consumers. (Incidentally, I have yet to meet one person to rave about the wonders of BlueRay discs.) As consumers, we must save more and spend less. When we do spend, we should part with our money for things that we shall treasure, not junk destined for the bin. (How much of the money the Britain currently owes China is buried in landfill sites around the UK?) Business should accept that only true innovation is the way forward; consumers should pull things out of factories rather than sales forces push them into the consumers' living rooms.

The economic crisis will not go away quickly. It will be here, tainting the lives and prospects of a young generation just ready to enter the world of work. It will hit those societies that have had it too soft for too long. The injustice of it all is that the politicians, bankers and corporate leaders that have misshaped the world economy up to 2007, with all its absurdities and imbalances, will among the last to feel the pain upon their own skins. And that is what the Occupy movement is all about - a frustrated yet impotent cry of anguish. But no solutions.

AFTERTHOUGHT. I look at the title again. What rubbish! There will never be an end to the Entitlement way of thinking! It will return once this current crisis is gone and forgotten, it will return once another generation of political and business leaders says "an end to boom and bust", starts thinking that we're on a upward sloping trajectory that will continue upwards for ever. Once that thinking sets in, all manner of people will start believing that "it's owed to me".

* Jimi Hendrix recorded the definitive version.

** Bankomat - a word that needs to be adopted into English.

This time last year:
West Ealing - drab and sad suburb

This time two years ago:
To Poznań by train

This time four years ago:
Late autumn drive-time

Intelligence and the Ladder of Authority

2011-11-26T18:19:00.009+01:00

Every human being has an innate need to impose his or her will on another human being. This is inextricably linked with the fact that we are mammals; a biological imperative to have a clearly-defined hierarchy is born with all of us.

Whether it is a parent trying to instil values unto the next generation, a boss telling an employee what to do and how to do it, a sergeant-major barking out commands to new recruits or a householder instructing a domestic servant as to what needs doing around the kitchen, there are social hierarchies in which there is an intrinsic expectation of who is to be top dog.

This is the ladder of authority. It is based on age, status, experience, brute physical presence - but increasingly, over the millennia of human evolution - on intelligence. It is most visible among adolescent boys - in the playground, on the pitch, in the classroom (trying not to appear a swot, but to demonstrate effortless cleverness); they are yet too inexperienced to work out ruses how to rule by stealth.

Everyone wants to be boss. Even over their children or spouse. It is difficult for anyone to accept that in a small group, that they are not dominant. They will create excuses, make up stories, role-play - do anything rather than admit a lower standing on the ladder.

There's an official ladder, based on formal hierarchies, family trees or job titles and then there's what's really going on. Here's where the interesting interactions are going on. Peer-to-peer. That lovely line in The Office - Tim to Gareth - "you're not assistant manager. You're assistant to the manager".

We can sniff out weakness in another human, very quickly. We can tell who's really boss. Or so we think. And if that other person thinks that they are the boss - for what ever reason - there's bound to be conflict. Giving in is just not in our nature. Giving in is a sign of submissiveness, what's worse - that the person with whom you are in conflict with is dominant.

This plays out in the international arena, behind closed doors in politics. So many ruses can come into play; Stalin inviting Churchill to dinner at his private dacha after Churchill's first meeting with the General Secretary probably changed the course of post-war Europe by appearing to be placatory and showing his human side - which threw Churchill off guard. How much of what's being determined by Europe's leaders now is not being done on the basis of logic, but on the basis of human personality - dominance and submissiveness? How did Silvio Berlusconi - a farcical figure if looked at through the prism of cold logic - maintain power in Italy for so long?

We all set out wanting to be Top Dog. Even a Pope would not have got to the top without a strong will, a tough personality, determination to push others aside to get to the summit. Then there is that moment... I'll let the immortal Uncle Monty (from Withnail and I) explain:

"It is the most shattering experience of a young man's life when he awakes and quite reasonably says to himself: I will never play The Dane. When that moment comes, one’s ambition ceases."

The theatrical metaphor of playing Hamlet extends to life. I got to play The Dane briefly (two years as general manager of the Polish operation of an international publishing company) but after the stress and pressure decided that I have neither the greed nor lust to dominate others needed to remain a senior executive in a global corporation.

Human life is a game in which a great many of our interactions are a trial of strength between two or more players, striving to be one up on the other(s). "You get the broom." "No, YOU get it!" "Open a Second Front now!" "The British and Americans are not ready yet!"

Once you recognise this, once you have the awareness of what is really going on when you ask someone for something, or they ask something of you, once natural positions are established, conflict can give way to partnership.

Again, I'll offer the most profound piece of advice that I can offer as a result of my 54 years on this earth - get to understand your biology, and rise above it.

This time last year:
Edinburgh portraits

This time two years ago:
Kiedy ranne wstają zorze

This time four years ago:
Thoughts on the Nature of Dad Rock

New train timetables - Radom line warning

2011-11-25T23:50:00.004+01:00

Thursday's Gazeta Stołeczna carried an article that filled me with dread. The last two paragraphs of this piece. The paper has seen the new railway timetables that come into force on 11 December (long-time readers of this blog will know that the introduction of new timetables mean chaos on the tracks at the best of times). For commuters coming into Warsaw along the line from Radom (calling at Warka, Czachówek, Zalesie Górne, Piaseczno and Nowa Iwiczna) the news sounds ominous. From four trains in the peak morning rush hour between 7:00 and 8:00 to two.

Well, let's not take news at face value and compare the new and old timetables:

Old - departures from Piaseczno to Warsaw (Koleje Mazowieckie)
6:15 - 6:46 - 7:03 - 7:20 - 7:33 - 7:51 - 8:40 - 8:57

New - departures from Piaseczno to Warsaw
6:06 - 6:41 - 6:56 - 7:11 - 7:35 - 8:19 - 8:38 - 8:59

Well, on paper, all eight departures between 6:00 and 9:00 are still there, though spread out more. Indeed, between 7:00 and 8:00 there are only two trains, but the number of trains between six and seven and between eight and nine have been increased from two to three each. So a bit of alarmism, but even so, that gap between the 7:35 and the 8:19 service is way to great. That train will be utterly packed.

Fewer trains to town?

To make matters worse, the semi-fast services from Radom and beyond to Warsaw are also being scaled back. In a letter to the Radom edition of Gazeta Wyborcza, users of the TLK and Interregio trains into Warsaw complain about chronic delays, overcrowding, ancient rolling stock - and now, curtailments of services in the new timetable. The final paragraph warns that desperate passengers will take to blocking the tracks.

Once again, we see mixed signals. On the one hand, Warsaw's authorities are clearly trying to wean the populace from driving into town in private cars. On the other, cash-strapped local and regional authorities are unable to dip into their budgets to support rail services. What are people from Piaseczno to do? Between 7 and 8am, there are just ten buses from Piaseczno to Warsaw. Given that each is able to take around 200 passengers, standing and sitting - that's a mere 2,000 Sand City dwellers that have that option. Plus, as we know, ul. Puławska is one solid mass of near-stationary traffic at that time.

No one seems to care. ZTM is not fussed that Koleje Mazowieckie can't cope; Koleje Mazowieckie doesn't care that Przewozy Regionalne and InterCity's TLK services are being cut; the city authorities are in no hurry to paint bus lanes down Puławska, or to provide a cycle path alongside the roadway - so what happens? People continue to drive to work, or at least to drive to the three Park+Rides at Stokłosy, Ursynów and Wilanowska Metro stations (room for 556 cars).

I find it inconceivable that rail services are being trimmed back. Bear in mind that a single six-carriage set of EN57 stock can take 1,360 passengers (as many as seven buses or around 900 cars assuming 1.5 passengers per car), trains really are the optimal form of travel.

Looking at an analogous commuter railway service in the UK, Slough to London Paddington, there are currently seven local trains leaving the town for the capital between 7:00 and 8:00am. As six-car sets, these trains can carry around 800 passengers in (slightly) greater comfort and much higher speeds than the half-century old Polish commuter trains.

Joined-up government is needed. Warsaw needs workers. People come into the capital each day from Radom (100km away), even Łódź (135km) as well as many nearer satellite towns. Merely leaving clogged-up truck roads, beset with roadworks, to act as conduits that get the Warsaw's economy moving and shrugging shoulders at the inertia on the railways, is irresponsible. Frustrated workers are not productive workers.

* Between 7:00 and 8:00, public transport can move a mere 4,800 people from Piaseczno into town, assuming that no one boards the bus or train at intermediate places like Nowa Iwiczna, Mysiadło, Dąbrówka, Jeziorki, Pyry or Dawidy. That really is pathetic.

This time last year:
London notes

This time two years ago:
Silent and Unseen - in your bookshops now

This time three years ago:
Frustrated by ul. Puławska - rat-run absurdity

This time four years ago:
Some thoughts on recycling

Selling old magazines - OK or not?

2011-11-23T19:47:00.007+01:00

And lo, upon TVN Fakty did they show the Authorities cracking down upon the Small Man and the Small Woman trying to make a living by selling clothes and things upon the highway side. And the Authorities liked not that these people be engaged in commerce without letting the State share in the trade. Mayors from Kołobrzeg, Łódź and Kraków explained that 'dziki handel' makes their streets and pavements look bad. And the Small People wept; for they have no other way with which to sustain their families. The Authorities seized boxes of clothing from the Small Man, sealed them and sent them even unto the Courts of Law.

The real reason for this high-profile clampdown is not to bring beauty and order upon the pavements of the land; it is so that Poland can be seen by the Ratings Agencies, the European Commission and the bonds markets getting tough on non-payers of VAT. Now, given that some 45% of all revenues flowing into the Polish state budget comes from VAT, squeezing out the non-payers from the market makes very good sense. Tough on the Small Man and the Small Woman, but they have for years been squeezing the revenues of the people one notch above them on the food chain who do pay VAT, do pay ZUS on their employees, do pay CIT on corporate profits. Tough on the customer of the Small Man and Small Woman; but their savings have been bypassing the state treasury and thus contributing to the budget deficit and to public sector.

Which as we can see from the experiences of Greece is not a good thing.

So. This evening, waiting for my train at W-wa Śródmieście, I noticed my favourite second-hand magazine stand was closed (below). Clampdown? These stands are the bane of Poland's publishers. Some types of magazine - classified ads, for example, have a shelf-life measure in days. But many hobby mags for example - cycling and photography being my two interests - can be bought months later without deleterious effect. Knitting patterns, computers, military history, motoring - likewise.

The process works like this. Magazines appear originally on news stands on a sale-or-return basis. What does not get sold in Ruch, Relay, Kolporter or InMedio ends up in recycling bins. As the retail price of waste paper is 30 grosze a kilo, while a magazine can get re-sold for 2zł - 5zł (depending on how old it is, how expensive it was), it makes sense to bring the old copies back onto the market.

Among the unsold months-old Uwarzam Że and Nowe Państwo magazines lie gems (English-language titles among them) for a fraction of their former price. Of course, no VAT goes to the state coffers, because what's 23% of the input cost if the input cost is zero?

My speculations about whether the Straż Miejska and Urząd Skarbowy had raided the bowels of W-wa Smródmieście came to an end when a few minutes later the shutters went up and it was business as usual (below).

Below: As you can see, a wide selection of titles on sale, very modestly priced to sell, buy one, get an even older one free - but nary a VAT receipt to be seen.

Below: And another such stand, this one on Platform 2. No doubt PKP Nieruchomości that rents out square metres in the innards of its subterranean passages (same thing goes on at W-wa Wschodnia and Zachodnia) is not too fussed about the fiscal niceties as long its revenues roll in.

With Germany unable to sell of its bonds today, we can see that Europe really is in trouble. Yet Poland has a sufficiently big grey economy that if were to be made to pay like the rest of the retail and distribution sector, budget deficits could be patched up. But sights like those above cannot be seen in Germany or Britain (what would W.H. Smith and John Menzies say?). If Finance Minister Rostowski can muster the state to force the VAT- and excise non-payers to contribute, Poland could pull itself up both fiscally and civilisationally.

This time two years ago:
Warsaw's woodlands in autumn

This time three years ago:
Still here, the early snow

This time four years ago:
Another point of view

How to lose customers

2011-11-22T20:20:00.004+01:00

I found this camera repair place, just off ul. Grzybowska. Time, I thought, to get the sensor of my D40 cleaned. Pictures (especially those of clear skies) have darker spots on them that I need to Photoshop away before publishing; it's getting time consuming.

Anyway, I strike a deal (125 zlotys - around 25 quid to get the camera cleaned up, ready by 18:00 tomorrow), take out the memory card, ready to leave the D40 behind. Then the young lady behind the counter asks me to take the strap off the camera.

"Why?" I ask. "Because the mechanic says so," she replies. It's not an easy thing to do, especially with numb fingers and no reading glasses to hand. And, no doubt, I'd be asked to put the strap back on again, even more difficult, threading a reluctant woven nylon strap through tight plastic hoops.

Politely I pick up my camera and tell the young lady that I shall get it repaired elsewhere. If they want my business - and assuming the strap really needs to be removed in order for the base to be unscrewed (which I doubt) - they'd take the trouble to take off and then put back the strap. For the price - towards the upper band of what I find online - I did not expect the client to be asked to do some of the work for the repair guy.

Anyway - I check the website; it transpires they also fix "Helwett-Packard" and "Haselblat" cameras. If the guy's as precise with his mechanical skills as he is with his spelling, I'm better off avoiding his services anyway.

Can any reader recommend a good place for cleaning sensors (my D80 also needs clean inside...)

This time two years ago:
November weather notes

This time three years ago:
First snow, winter 2008-09

This time four years ago:
Escapism

Kraków-Warsaw by train

2011-11-20T20:01:00.005+01:00

A post to show the ups-and-downs of Polish State Railways, how much has been achieved, how much more needs to be done.

After speaking at our PPP seminar in Kraków on Friday, Agnieszka, our Kraków office director, dropped me off outside Galeria Krakowska, in ample time, I thought, to catch the 16.45 to Warsaw. I made my way through the shopping mall to the place between Carrefour and McDonald's where, from memory, there was a passageway to the railway platforms.

Not a bit of it. There is an entrance to the new underground tram station - but that's it. I had to loop round through the mall to another passageway, one that did lead to the railway station.

Point One. No Proper Signage. How are passengers from out of town expected to know which exit is which?

So. Down the a passageway that led to the platforms. Hurray! Now for my ticket. A booth proclaiming itself to be 'Przewozy Regionalne' (i.e. not the company that operates my train home, PKP InterCity). From previous visits to Kraków Głowny station, I remembered that this booth will not sell InterCity tickets, and that after getting to the front of the queue, you'll be sent away with a flea in your ear. I missed, however, a small sign saying "we [now] sell tickets for all train operating companies". So I pressed on to find another place to buy tickets. I found one - at the far end of the narrow tunnel, half-closed off by building works. Again, run by Przewozy Regionalne. This time, the sign saying 'all tickets sold' was more prominent. I join the lengthy queue.

Point Two. No Proper Signage. How are passengers from out of town expected to know where they should buy the right ticket?

Let me return to the narrow tunnel. It's about three metres (10ft) wide. By every platform entrance, there's a timetable. Around every timetable, there's a cluster of anxious passengers looking for information. They are blocking the narrow tunnel. And the timetables are printed in a tiny font, which many people (including myself) need reading glasses to make sense of.

Point Three. Make timetables bigger; put them where they won't disturb passenger flow. Timetables are an essential part of signage and passenger information; they must be clear and visible.

While I'm in the queue, there's a passenger announcement that the Warsaw train will, unusually, be departing from track #*, platform @'. The message is repeated. "Track #*, platform @'."I strain my ears to decode the number of the track and the platform. I still can't make it out.

Point Four. Ensure that public announcements can be heard in every corner of the station. Train the announcers to speak clearly, slowly, not to garble their words. Put up the right number of loudspeakers. Ensure they're all working properly.

Point Five. Get rid of the stupid track and platform numeration system (Tor 23 przy peronie pierwszym - 'track 23 by platform 1'). It is highly confusing and entirely unnecessary. Each track should have its own platform number. I koniec.

I get to the front of the queue knowing there's no way I'll catch my train. I buy a ticket for the next one, an hour and eight minutes later. I wonder around the mall, killing time; at last I make my way to track 18 platform 5 to discover... that it has its very own ticket booth, also operated by Przewozy Regionalne, also selling tickets for all trains. Now... had I known that earlier...

Points One and Two. See above.

I board my train. Carriage 26, seat 111. Second class. LUXURY! Six seats to the compartment, a power socket for every seat. I can open my new Samsung notebook and spend the journey writing! And when I got hungry, the Wars restaurant carriage, just a few footsteps away, is offering old-school pork chops with potatoes and cabbage and a glass of Konstancin Brewery beer for less than six quid! And the train arrives in Warsaw on time! All right, 3hrs 18 mins for 300km is really rather poor given that 440km between Madrid and Seville takes 2hrs 20 mins, but at least PKP InterCity train kept to the advertised timetable.

So - Kraków station is really quite appalling [see Dysposytor's post on the station]. Not as abysmally appalling as W-wa Zachodnia (the worst station in the civilised world), but a long way behind W-wa Centralna, also in mid-refurbishment right now.

But - I was pleasantly impressed by PKP InterCity. The ticket, at 125.50 zł (25 quid) cost almost double what a TLK (Tanie Linie Kolejowe - 'Cheap Rail Lines') one does, but it was worth it.

With the world's third-largest sporting event (only the Olympics and the World Cup draw bigger crowds than the European football championships) due to start in just seven months, will Polish railways and railway stations manage to get their act to cope with hundreds of thousands of foreign visitors? And what impression will they leave - of Poland a country that's rapidly catching up with the west, or a country stuck in some post-communist nightmare of inefficiency, indifference to the customer and technical backwardness?

This time last year:
Warsaw Blogmeet

This time two years ago:
My fixie reconfigured

This time four years ago:
Not In My Back Yard

S2/S79 works ongoing - from the air

2011-11-19T22:40:00.006+01:00

Perfect flying weather for my take-off from Okęcie, bound for London, last week (11 November). And a chance to photograph from the air the road works on the Elka or 'L'-shaped roadworks, the stretch of the north-south S79 between Węzeł Marynarska and Węzeł Lotnisko and the west-east S2 between Węzeł Lotnisko and Węzeł Puławska (węzeł means 'junction' or 'interchange').

Above: immediately after take-off, still within the airport boundary, the Cargo terminal and its apron; behind it the S79. Still much work to do to link Marynarska to the airport junction, not just viaducts and bridges, but whole chunks of missing roadway. Time's ticking away before next June's football championships... I can't see it happening.

Above: the S2, a big hole by ul. Oberka; intermittent sections nearing completion, but again so much to do, especially around the Puławska junction. Click to enlarge to get some more detail, especially the area beyond Puławska. Here - one day (don't ask) a tunnel will burrow under the blocks of flats in Ursynów to emerge by the Vistula escarpment and on to a new bridge over the river - and then onwards to the Belarusian border. I wonder what will happen first - the motorway gets to the border, or Belarussia rids itself of its ridiculous tyrant?

This time last year:
Fish and chips in Warsaw

This time two years ago:
Spirit of place - anomalous familiarity moments

And England's dreaming

2011-11-19T17:57:00.005+01:00

Time (after my return from London and Kraków) to upload and select some photos to show just how marked the climatic contrast between London and Warsaw can be. Both cities are around the same latitude, yet (anomalies excepted*), London's climate is much more temperate.

Above: Cleveland Road, West Ealing, the posh part. Below: Cleveland Park, view towards Harrow-on-the-Hill, centre left. Note the clarity of the sky - more associated in my mind with Warsaw than London. From the clothing of the individuals walking in the middle foreground, still shirtsleeves weather (18C on Saturday 12th November). On this very day, Warsaw was shivering under cloudy skies with a top temperature of +2C.

What a day! Another contrast - look at the leaves on the willow trees below. Not only are they still mainly on the trees (unlike in Warsaw) but they've hardly changed colour from late summer!

Not all trees, however. This avenue of elms (below) in nearby Pitshanger Park (at the bottom of Cleveland Park) is denuded of leaves and stands on a russet carpet that crunches pleasantly underfoot.

And finally - so quintessentially English - the bowling green at Pitshanger Park, below. Edwardian Ealing, once Queen of the Suburbs, that klimat is still to be found, here and there. That sky... those colours... it could be 1911... And why ever not?

* Let us not forget that last November, England was struggling under an inch of snow.