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?

329: Transport to Tegel

I'm at Berlin Tegel airport waiting for a connecting flight back to Blighty. Thought I would just upload some pictures of some of the various forms of transport I've been on in the last week or so. It was quite a surprise to get on a propeller-driven aircraft this morning (a DASH8-Q400). It took just over an hour from Warsaw to Berlin.
Followed by a clip of the old Burt Baccarach number "Trains and boats and planes". No boats recently - but perhaps I'll manage the Woolwich ferry on Tuesday.
Incidentally, in the last blog I showed pictures of two of  Warsaw's bridges. By a strange quirk of fate the bridge two bridges down from where I was was engulfed in flames last Saturday evening. Absolutely nothing to do with me. I've heard rumours it will be repaired by 2017!

Try saying the name of this metro station when you've had a few drinks, or even when you haven't!

328: Sun day

I wish it were. Sun day I mean. Yesterday was a lovely, bright, sunny day and I used the opportunity to go on a photo shoot of some bridges for the back of my Polish business cards. Which one do you vote for 1,2,3,4,5 or 6? Today the sun has disappeared. Back to Seasonal Affective Disorder.
I also snapped a couple of churches and roadside religious artefacts which reminds me that for the last few days there has been a poster stuck to the entrance door of my flat advising that something was going to happen at 3 p.m. yesterday. Did I need to be present or not? I eventually found out from my landlord that it was to be a pastoral visit from a visiting priest. Anybody that wanted to could buttonhole him for a chat (and was expected to pay money for the privilege of bending his ear). On balance I decided that yesterday I didn't need any pastoral advice so went off on my photo shoot. 1-6 vote now!
To finish, a video clip showing the little red man in the traffic light dancing. Dear municipal authorities of Warsaw - please can you install such a system? It would make the interminable waiting around less tedious.

327: Fat Thursday

Today is Fat Thursday in Poland. It, together with similar special days in many other countries, is an opportunity to gorge oneself before Lent starts next week and traditionally many people fasted in the run-up to Easter. You can read more about Fat Thursday here. On this day Polish people particularly enjoy doughnuts and faworki (also known as Angel's wings) and for me it was interesting to see the long (-er than usual) queues outside the bakery shops that I passed on my way to work this morning.
Managed a visit to Warsaw's old town on Sunday and here are a few pictures. I'm actually trying to get a decent picture of a bridge over the river Vistula for my Polish business cards but the day was gloomy and overcast with snow falling from time to time. I'll try again this weekend when it is forecast that the sun might show itself.

An organ grinder - don't see many of those nowadays
	The great Copernicus. What a star! And relax! A cup of Descafe?

326: Traffic lights 0: Des 1

Regular readers will remember the recent "incident" where that nice Mr Plod stopped me and deprived me of some of my hard-earned cash as a punishment for crossing the road while the little man was still red. Warsaw traffic lights for pedestrians probably stay red for just a few minutes but it always seems like hours and hours, especially when it's cold and snowing.

I thought I would grow to hate them but I've managed to turn them to my advantage. When I go running they are ideal for making me vary my pace by either sprinting to catch them while they're still showing green or stopping to get my breath back if they are on red.

My current bête noire is the local Lidl store. It is only a two-minute walk from home and its presence was one of the factors that helped me choose this place over others I had viewed. Well known in UK for being "cheap and cheerful" I thought it would be a big plus. But actually every time I visit it raises my blood pressure. Firstly you always have to have a 1 zlotty coin to hand to release a trolley from the stack. It is an enormous trolley and there are no baskets available. Obviously a psychological ploy to encourage customers to fill it. Inside the store there are narrow aisles. I'm forever barging aside the trolleys of Poles who aren't going as fast as I am - haven't they got lessons to prepare? Perhaps that will be my next transgression of the law - a breach of the peace inside a Polish supermarket. And the queues at the cash desk are unbelievable. Occasionally, when the queues get too long another cashier will deign to open and relieve some of the pressure but it is only occasionally. Usually most of the cash desks remain firmly shut. Uncharitably, and surely it's not just me, I always think that the staff are on extended tea breaks in their rest room. I shall pray for patience both on the way around the shop and at the cash desk.

Rant over, get on with life. A friend has no life left to get on with as he was killed earlier this week when his motorbike crashed into a car on icy roads. Rest in Peace Kevin. We all cling to life by a very thin thread. Puts things back into perspective.

Here is a snow picture from Monday morning, or was it Tuesday? I forget already. There is no snow now but more is promised. It is only February after all. Everybody has been posting snow pictures recently so here is mine. It was the view when I stepped outside my door. Completely unexpected as I had forgotten to either check the weather forecast or look out of the window.