A miscellaneous set of pictures and observations

It's only been three weeks and already I am taking the blogger's shorthand way out. It will be the pearl handled revolver of the "delete blog" before the year is out, I am sure.

Tomorrow we are going to Wroclaw again (and I am going the weekend after for a gig) so my blogging will be light again this weekend. I am loading my Iphone with energy sector podcasts and LSE lectures on a host of subjects for the 5 or 6 hour train ride. We're travelling first class tomorrow which I will be sure to document, if it is within sniffing distance of a Virgin Rail first class coach I shall be pleased. The last time we took the train between Wroclaw and Warsaw the train had the old fashioned carriages (think Strangers on a Train) with metal dividers between the seats. Quaint and amusing for 30 minutes, then buttock achingly miserable for the following 5 and a half hours. Still, until they revive Zeppelins it will have to do.
 

Lipton's Yellow Tea. I think I am right in thinking my parents met at Liptons in the 1930s. Clearly some magic has gone into the tea, it's delicious. Much better than PG Tips. I've even started drinking it with lemon, before long I shall be sporting a moustache and combat trousers and peppering my sentences with Kurwes!

Gorale smoked cheese (I don't know the name) which I bought in the mistaken belief it was a sweet sugar snack (clearly the laser surgery this year has been a great success).

Run Cool, more like fly high! 32mg of caffeine per 100ml. Poland's one of the few countries not to realise that three of these could cause a bullock to rocket over its enclosure and cause a significant amount of damage to nearby dwellings. To be avoided at all costs for the sake of your heart, liver, kidneys, blood pressure and so on.

There's something initially disconcerting about seeing vegetables of all kinds stacked in this way, I'm so used to seeing them packaged and wrapped with advice and best befores. I realised that I stopped buying a lot of veg when I first came just because of this vague suspicion, which is ludicrous but true. Selecting your vegetables becomes a genuine interaction and yeah the quality can be worse, but it's generally better. A real connection to the land in the purchasing and quality.

At the Kwiaty. Flowers are a huge part of social life here and are given as gifts, thanks or gestures on a regular basis.  I'm not much of a flower man but the arrangements are great.

 

 How many flower shops do you see on average in the UK? Clapham High Street has one. The same suburban stretch and footfall in Poland would have four at least.

The football bun. The Real bakery shoots and scores yet again.

"Alcohol is the Ruin of Poland" ...and pretty much everywhere as well...

....which brings us to my last picture, the thing I miss the most about the UK (aside from friends and family of course).

Do zobaczenia!