336: Just curious....

335: Acrophobia

Acrophobia - a fear of acros? No,  it is an irrational fear of heights. From the Greek "acron" meaning peak, or summit, or edge. Wikipedia suggests that most people experience a degree of natural fear when exposed to heights. Unfortunately, with me it even happens thinking about being exposed to heights. I had a one-off lesson at the Inter-Continental hotel in Warsaw on Wednesday and as soon as I discovered it had 42 floors I broke into a sweat. I was more than a little worried that the classroom would be on a higher floor than I could cope with. It wouldn't have mattered if they had offered 100 times the pittance I get for teaching I still wouldn't have gone. Lady luck was looking after me and the lesson took place on the 7th floor. Even the knowledge that there were 42 floors caused me a degree of trepidation but I was able to cope. The lesson went well.

I'm in one of the business lounges at Warsaw Chopin airport waiting for a flight back to London. I have an annual subscription to designated business lounges in most airports of the world. Being such a frequent traveller it is money well-spent.
However, I'm often surprised by the differences in what is offered to the 'business traveller' across the various lounges. Some offer a hot meal and others, like this one here at Warsaw Chopin, only a meagre selection. But they have G&T so I keep coming back!
Must dash, I've just seen the "go to gate" warning.

334: "wet" Monday

I want to write a few words words about Wet Monday, a pagan custom in Poland that exists to this day whereby young girls are drenched or soaked on Easter Monday. The really lucky girls get spanked with pussy willow branches as well! You can read more about it here. And here is a reference to a Smygus-Dingus casserole which also sheds some light on the origins of this unusual tradition. Legend has it that if a girl receives a drenching or switching, she will marry within the year. This somewhat bizarre practice has at its core the pagan spring rite of pouring water and switching oneself with willows as a means of cleansing, purification, and making things right with dingen -- the god of nature. Good old dingen.
My hands are clean (and dry). I didn't drench a single dziewczyna (dyevchina). I didn't drench any married ones either.
Christian Easter was last weekend (3rd-6th April) and Orthodox Easter the weekend just gone (10th-13th April). 
I spent the weekend in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, and if I had forgotten that it was Orthodox Easter I would have been reminded when I saw the collection of decorated eggs on display at breakfast time in the hotel I was staying. It was an old hotel with lots of character and on the floor in my room there was a large hole covered with glass. In the hole were coins and banknotes of varying currencies and denominations. I could only speculate as to how they got there because there were no gaps in the glass. (To either put in or take out!)
In general a great weekend. I was surprised by how much Russian is still spoken there. There were lots of Russian tourists so the residents obviously need to keep their Russian language skills up to scratch so that they can persuade the tourists to part with their cash. I suspect it is a different story outside the capital. It's also advantageous for the Tallinners to speak Finnish as Helsinki is only a short ferry ride across the Gulf of Finland. There are many ferries per day plying between the two countries.
Restaurants and bars are everywhere in Tallinn - in the old town and the new. On Saturday evening I ended up in a restaurant called the Peppersack and after a very nice meal discovered they had laid on some entertainment for the punters - a mock sword fight. I was too slow to capture it on film as I had had too many honey beers by then. Here are a few of the weekend's photos that I did manage to take.

333: A plague of locusts has descended! :)

The family has/have arrived (and since departed). I say has/have because grammatically either is correct.  Family is one of the so-called group nouns and can be either countable or non-countable. So we can say either "my family is very dear to me" or "I have a large family. They are very dear to me." In the second example family = the members of my family. More details, for any pedants reading this who want to know more, from the British Council 
 
The first thing I had to do was lay out the alcohol for inspection and subsequent consumption.

And the very next day the touristy program began:
Friday to Warsaw old town, courtesy of a tourist hop-on, hop-off bus. (I'm reminded of the term RORO meaning a roll-on,roll-off ferry or cargo carrying vehicle usually with openings at either end.)



and a very nice meal at restaurant Portretowa in the evening, having been press-ganged there by the giant on the right of the picture.



and Saturday on to Lodz (which is pronounced in Polish as Woodzh) by Polski bus and back by Regional Railways. 
 
On the return trip the train was stopped at some middle-of-nowhere station and the female guard/conductress announced that we were waiting for the arrival of the police. Those of us not carrying a passport were seen to be perspiring gently for fear of being hauled off for questioning. Eventually the train left before the police came. We arrived back in Warsaw only half an hour or so late. On to The British Bulldog for an evening meal and some British ale. I know, when in Rome....

And now I'm back on my own, and pleasantly surprised at how much alcohol is left. I would have liked to go shopping tomorrow to top up on food after the locusts cleaned me out but tomorrow is a public holiday and everywhere is closed. Never mind, I shan't starve.

Happy Easter everybody....

332: Mistletoe or nests?

I'm back in Warsaw. Had a busy week in UK last week. It included a trip to the Royal Albert Hall in London to watch, and listen to, the Classical Spectacular which they stage there a couple of times a year. Enjoyed it enormously and would recommend it to anyone that likes light classical music. There was an amusing incident right at the end of the show. After the finale (Tchaikovskiy's 1812 overture with laser lights, cannon and fireworks) there was an encore. Together with the music, the Trish-Trash polka if I remember, there were can-can girls dancing in the aisles. One was dancing right next to where I was sitting and before I could stop her (as if I would!) she leant down and planted a kiss on my balding pate. I never thought to check afterwards and it was only much later that I noticed the lipstick mark that I had been walking around with on the top of my head.The embarrassment! How much longer can I go without washing my head? 

Here are two pictures especially for my sister to remind her of the fantastic views looking at the clouds from above. Are you sure you don't want to get a passport?

Now this is what I call ice cream. And with the addition of a shot of Amaretto it was really rather nice. The tea was cranberry and lemon. 

Finally, please help to settle a friendly argument - or perhaps it's just a slight difference of opinion. As a "townie" I  had assumed that these were nests in the trees and soon birds would be nesting therein. Now though, higher management suggests it is mistletoe (омела) growing. Any thoughts anybody? 

331: Must be almost Easter

Today's blog is courtesy of my sister, who complained that it had been three weeks since the last one. I'm sure she would have me as the Samuel Pepys of our time. Unfortunately, I'm a bit of a "Jack of all trades, master of none" character so I shall never win the Booker prize for literature. Still, by the time you get to my age, you're usually fairly comfortable with your station in life. (Perhaps because it's too late to change it much anyway!?).
Here then are a few pictures captured on my way to the airport this morning. More glimpses of life in Warsaw. Love the Easter bunny! Tried to get them neatly arranged in rows and columns but failed miserably.
A 'funny' story about 4 trips to IKEA this week. Another time, perhaps.

Hare today, gone tomorrow? Easter bunny, very funny

The super-modern shopping complex right next to the station

The not quite so super-modern train station. Super-efficient though.

Under the station there are galleries

with shops selling all sorts of things

This guy was fast asleep in Starbucks at the main railway station.
What snoring there was!

one of the airport trains.

330:Kazimierz Dolniy

Three weeks to the day since my last blog. I can't believe  how quickly time is flying by. I can almost visualise time flowing through my fingers like the sand in an hourglass. When I hear of contemporaries, and younger people, dying I am reminded that life on this earth is finite. It will come to an end for all of us. I'm doing my best to live two lives in parallel but the Grim Reaper will still come for me one day. Before that happens I want to squeeze as much out of life as I can.  So, travel, travel, travel. Places to go, people to see, things to do.
Last weekend I hired a car and went to Kazimierz Dolniy - Poland's answer to Bourton-on-the-water. A very pretty little town. I must go again one day and allow myself more time. I was constrained by only hiring the car for 24 hours. I got it back to the car hire company with 10 whole minutes to spare.
Here are a few photos to give you a flavour of the place.

Well, well,  what have we here?