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Post by bescheid on Apr 3, 2007 7:25:21 GMT -7
Scatts
Your April article was so highly excellent! Your descriptive language was so good, it was as if through you, the experience was felt with all the emotions and fears combined.
It was especially interesting of providing early skills in language to Zosia at her early age. Nature appears to provide survival skills of learning and adaption to infants on. The infant up may not appear as doing so, but they are like an information sponge soaking up every thing in their world and placing it into memory.
You are very highly skilled in writing Scatts and perhaps you are not becoming rich with the presentations of your work product. Please rest easily with the thought of the pleasures you are presenting to others, the gift of sharing.
Thank You
Charles
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scatts
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Post by scatts on Apr 3, 2007 22:47:55 GMT -7
Thank you, both. I'm glad you enjoyed them.
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scatts
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Post by scatts on May 24, 2007 23:51:51 GMT -7
Hello everyone!
Here's June, done in a tearing hurry so not the most interesting -
Getting Around
What prompted this article was driving along the Trasa Torunska recently and noticing how many (badly) repaired pot-holes there were in what I had previously thought of as a new and very nice stretch of road. I did the same thing a while back along the motorway between Katowice and Krakow, which is older but in a similarly ancient looking condition. What is the problem here? The motorways in other countries are equally, if not more busy with traffic and yet they seem to be able to maintain roads that are flat and not bumpy whereas in Poland the specification for new roads appears to read “After a period of three years (or less if possible) the road surface is required to resemble the surface of the moon. Bonus points will be awarded to the contractor who manages to introduce the highest undulations and the most bumps per kilometer.”. I’ve heard stories that it’s because of the low temperatures here that there is no tarmac that can handle the cold in winter AND the heat in summer. Frankly, I think that’s a load of old bollocks! There must be other countries with worse climate change, Canada perhaps, and I’m sure their roads last a darn sight longer than these Polish ones do. No, it smells to me like there is money involved, one assumes money to be saved by buying cheap roads in the first place although not having seen the numbers I don’t know if it is that or something more…..slippery. Either way it needs fixing, and soon.
On the good side of Polish roads though, I have to say that, road conditions apart, driving here compared to the UK is a joy. The UK, and other countries of course, are just too jam packed full of people and all of them with a car or six, that is doesn’t matter how good the roads are you never get a chance to drive on them. You just join a queue and stay there until you end up at your destination! It doesn’t matter what routes you try to avoid the queues, because they are everywhere. Every motorway, every trunk road, every side road, every village street…..utterly unavoidable. Of course if you do manage to find 20m of road without a queue, you’ll find a speed-camera instead! In Poland we have, so far at least, none of these problems. Even better, with the motorways in such bad shape, there is really very little downside to taking the smaller roads. Get off the beaten track and most of the time you have the road to yourself. I love taking the small roads here. You not only have a peaceful time driving but you also get to see the country close-up. The concrete roads laid as tank-tracks or whatever many years ago can play hell with your suspension, but hey, it’s worth it just for the fresh air and storks! And let’s not forget the drunk men hanging around the village booze shop while the women toil bent-double in the fields, the intoxicated cyclists wandering from one side of the road to the other, the slightly worse for wear folk taking a long time to get where they are going because they have to keep climbing out of the ditches they have fallen into…and so on. Yes indeedy, Polish village life in all it’s glory is there for you to experience (and dodge around) if you just get off that crappy motorway! Safe driving to you all.
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george
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Post by george on May 25, 2007 14:51:18 GMT -7
Great story scatts. I love hearing true to life Polish stories instead of those boring tourist stories about Poland.
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Post by bescheid on May 25, 2007 17:55:34 GMT -7
It is good to see {read of} you, Scatts. It would sound that you are very well. I did enjoy very much your column of June. it was very good, with charcter and high in human qualtiy.
It is my sincer trust that time will once more allow for you to post more on the forum, for often your absence is missed!
But, with life is the reality, our work must pay our way, and our way is for our families.
Charles
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Post by rdywenur on May 25, 2007 17:56:39 GMT -7
Yes and especially when told by Scatts ;D
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scatts
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Post by scatts on May 28, 2007 13:19:50 GMT -7
Thanks folks! I have to write another one any minute now but have no idea what it is supposed to be about! I need to talk to my editor who has, I think, selected some artwork and I'll just have to fit in with that. Should be fun.
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scatts
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Post by scatts on May 30, 2007 18:39:17 GMT -7
The latest, hot off the press!
Impressive design?
For one reason or another I’ve had opportunity to visit a number of apartments and houses in and around Warsaw and I’m overcome by a desire to trouble you with my thoughts about how many of these are designed.
In a word. Badly!
Apartments. Now, when you’re paying a stupid amount of money for EVERY square meter you might think that people would be careful how they use them. Wrong, it seems. No, what you have to do is throw away any ideas about maximizing the space you actually use as a family and instead concentrate on “making an impression”. Things like corridors and lobbies that are only used to get from one living space to another are all too often designed Hollywood style at the, obvious, expense of the kitchen, lounge, bedroom where you actually spend some time. I could understand if you’re a couple living in 200 sqm with money to burn but this is normal families living in much smaller places. I’ve proved the point myself. We live in 135 sqm (lucky us) and probably 30 sqm of that is completely wasted by poor design. I’ve done a sketch of what it could be like (if we demolished everything and started again) and we end up with an extra room and every other room being considerably better than it is now. What do we lose – nothing really, smaller lobby, less corridor, normal sized lounge. So what? I wonder if this is a backlash of having spent a childhood living in a shoe box.
Number two annoyance. People who buy a 60 smq apartment with attic space. Then convert the attic into (usually poor) living space with north face of the Everest staircase and then try to sell it as a 120 sqm apartment. Dream on!
My number one pet hate though with apartment design is balcony positioning. Many of them have very good sized balconies which are there to be used. So what do people do. Sure. They place the entrance to the balcony off one of the bedrooms, or some other private room. Might as well just demolish the balcony and done with it! Balconies work when they come off the lounge, or kitchen where it can become an extension of the living area and great for annoying the neighbours when you have a party. Nothing else will do. Case closed.
Houses. Four or five main concerns here. Massive concrete columns that could hold up the empire state building. Often positioned at the foot of the stairs, middle of the kitchen or some equally silly location. I’d just ask, why? Building a house of 300 sqm when you could only possibly ever need 200. Again, why? Are you expecting to have 26 kids or something or do you just like cleaning? Lounges in which you could park a 747. You know, 50 sqm and triple height open space. Very impressive in a Pałac Kultury kind of way but not very human. Three security systems and a Rottweiller? Buy an apartment! And last but not least is staircases. How often have I seen a pretty impressive living space ruined by a naff staircase? Too many, that’s how many. For some reason the house dwellers do the opposite of apartment folk. They don’t waste a square centimeter when it comes to the stairs. Be reasonable, when you have 300 sqm you can afford to splash a little on stairs that fit the space!
I give up. Somebody find me an architect!
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scatts
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Post by scatts on Jun 24, 2007 15:38:08 GMT -7
The August column. Not very Polish! (Arkadia is a shopping mall in Warsaw)
What is it with women and shoes?
Will all the men who understand women and their shoes please raise your hands………………just as I thought, not a single appendage above head height! I am not alone.
I got thinking about this after recent trips to Arkadia which I now realize follow a cunning pattern – shoe shop, distract him for a while, another shoe shop, more distraction, third shoe shop, someplace boys like (e.g a gadget shop), yet another shoe shop and so on. Now, if attached lady actually needed new shoes, worked in the shoe industry or had been brutally beaten as a child by a mother wielding 60's pilgrim buckle square toes, I might understand this. But she doesn’t and wasn’t so what is going on here?
Here’s the best part. Attitude towards entire shoe shops, not just individual shoes. Does she visit every shoe shop? Not on your life she doesn’t. There are some that get walked past and she looks the other way, crosses the aisle even, to avoid getting too close. These are BAD shoe shops. Ones that besmirch the beauty that is women’s shoes. They should be closed and the owners publicly flogged but this is the 21st century, more’s the pity. Others get the “walkthrough” treatment. This can be very confusing for the attached man because by the time you’ve followed the lady into the shop she’s already left! The main contenders, perhaps three or four shops, can hold her attention for a minute or so and might get a sale but these are all just supporting acts for the main event. The one shop that transports the lady from the real world into that fantasy land of shoe heaven. If I recall correctly, in Arkadia, this is Hegos. Never bought anything but never been able to walk past without entering.
I know one thing. This is deep, this is so deep that in years to come Professor Smartasski is going to discover “the female shoe gene” and win the Nobel Peace Prize because we can then start removing the thing at birth! I didn’t read it but “Why Men Gamble and Women Buy Shoes – How evolution shaped the way we behave” (by Alan S. Miller, Satoshi Kanazawa) promises to be an intelligent couple of chaps explaining how something happened when we were all amoebas that led to this current state of affairs. All the male amoebas were gathered in one corner of the primordial swamp betting on who was going to be the next to grow legs and go climb trees while all the lady amoebas were in the other corner saying “How do my pseudopods look in these?” or making microscopic stilettos so their amoebic bums stuck out more.
A quick browse of Amamzon.wherever just reinforces what we already know, hundreds of books on shoes, all written by women: “Shoes: What Every Woman Should Know” by Stephanie Pedersen, “Change Your Shoes, Change Your Life: Strut Your Way to a Fabulous New You!” by Susan Reynolds, “Mad About Shoes” by Emma Bowd, “The Perfect Fit: What Your Shoes Say About You” by Meghan Cleary.
What do my shoes say about me? They say I don’t give a darn about shoes as long as they are comfortable, last a long time, don’t cost a fortune and don’t make me look like a pimp. They probably also say I’m British, over 45 and boring. Vive la difference!
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Post by leslie on Jun 24, 2007 15:44:32 GMT -7
Ian I think your Newsletters are simply wonderful - they bring the whole Polish scene to life, bringing back memories and giving me things to look forward to. I remember driving out of Krakow towards the Salt Mine, in a hired car, and almost disappearing down a pothole in the road. It made driving much more exciting! Leslie
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scatts
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Post by scatts on Jun 25, 2007 6:54:52 GMT -7
Thanks, Leslie!
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scatts
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Post by scatts on Sept 2, 2007 16:39:14 GMT -7
The October column:
London vs Warsaw
I’ve recently returned from a week in London with the family, attending a friends wedding and doings lots of tourist stuff. This was the first time we stayed for a whole week and in such a central, Jermyn Street, location. Even though I spent the majority of my life in the city, having now been away from it for nearly ten years I am truly beginning to feel like a tourist in my “home town’ and notice more strongly the many differences between it and my new home town of Warsaw.
On this trip, one of the most noticeable differences was noise. I never realized that London is such a relentlessly noisy city, but it most certainly is. Only two places gave any respite from the madness, the hotel room and the very centre of Hyde Park which was surprisingly far enough away from the bustle for me to be able to hear what the family were saying, which at that particular moment was “Look, there’s an ice cream van!”.
The noise, of course, is largely generated by the other, stating the bleeding obvious, difference, of the number of people in the city. Central London is wall to wall human beings. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many people in Warsaw. Even the ‘crowds’ at the recent George Michael concert here were nothing compared to what you’ll encounter on every walk in central London. London has always been a cosmopolitan place but the cultural mix has most definitely changed. With some generalization I can say that London now consists of Arabs, who are buying everything, and Poles, who are serving everything. Everywhere we went, these two groups were present. Selfridges, once my favourite store, is now entirely tailored to “money no object” Arab shoppers. Our hotel had mostly Poles serving breakfast, other restaurants we visited were the same. Poles were everywhere. Which was sad in one way because it makes it less different to being here and nice in another because we, I think, got slightly better treatment by speaking their language and listening to their tales.
Things to do, places to go. My God. Warsaw Insider is jam packed with great ideas about what to do in Warsaw each month but if this were trying to do the same thing in London it would be too heavy for anyone to pick up! The number of options you have in London is just mind blowing. Compare that to the frequent weekends here when you’re really struggling to find something interesting to do that you haven’t done 23 times before. One of our favourites this trip was to see “The Lion King” at the Lyceum theatre. If Roma theatre tried to charge us 1,000 PLN for the three of us, I’d get a little upset but we paid exactly that (I won’t add ‘happily’) in London and thoroughly enjoyed the show.
Another difference is just how easy it is to get to all these places you can visit. We did most of ours on foot, through the narrow streets, circumnavigating the crowds outside every pub doorway, but how wonderful (and expensive) are London taxies, eh?! Our ‘wózek’ fitted perfectly into the back without the need to eject child and fold so we found ourselves using taxis more than expected. MPT’s “7-10 minutes” seems good when you’re here but it can’t beat waving your hand and jumping straight in! So much for the underground weekly travel cards, another 500 PLN bites the dust.
Did I mention the difference in prices?
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Post by Jaga on Sept 2, 2007 20:18:20 GMT -7
Scatts,
who would believe 10 years ago that Poland and GB would be so interconnected! But maybe this was coming. About 15-20 years ago I worked as a tour guide for one group of the huge group (a couple of thousands of tourists from GB) who came to spend their Christmas in Krakow in Poland.
Maybe .... this was the preludium of what was going to happen later in Polish-English relationship!
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Post by rdywenur on Sept 3, 2007 4:21:27 GMT -7
So did you enjoy the Lion King as much as I did. I think I paid 45.00 for a matinee ticket which was quite low but then again it wasn't in NYC or Toronto. You little snips of travel are making me wish to go to London and put it on my to see list.
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scatts
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Post by scatts on Oct 27, 2007 9:09:11 GMT -7
Rdy, very late answer but yes, we did enjoy the Lion King very much. Folks. Just to update you on the question of where I'm writing and where I'm not. I have stopped writing for The Warsaw Insider, so these regular monthly columns will be no more. I moved work and changed mobile number and they took this as an excuse to say they could not get hold of me. Rather than fill in for 1 month with something else they found themselves another writer who will be doing Dilbert style articles on working in an office. Can't wait, not! The editor was all "shock horror probe" when I contacted her but frankly, I think she's full of sh1t. I was getting bored anyway so no biggie. Where I am active is in two places: 1/ My weblog, mentioned elsewhere in here (but in an unrelated topic) - scatts.wordpress.com/2/ As the "Poland Expert" (ha ha ha ha) for the Guardian Abroad, here - www.guardianabroad.co.uk/answer/126 They are both quite recent and so there is not much to look at. Hope you enjoy them both from time to time and sorry to end this topic. Comments welcome of course.
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