I never, ever imagined that in one day I could eat three doughnuts.
But that day has come, yes, Fat Thursday is here and for the first time I am in the country to observe the effects. I join this crowd of people in the manic purchase of pączki and faworki:
But if I'm going to follow the crowd and be a glutton, I also need to fast. I've decided to give up black tea with milk, in fact black tea generally. I would give up alcohol but there's no other way I can manage my forthcoming Warsaw- London - Chicago - Oklahoma flight without the aid of multiple stiff G&Ts.
Another first is a desperate hunt for a good quality moisturiser. Like this chap....
... my skin is getting dryer and dryer. Strangely this hasn't been a problem all Winter, only now, but my E45 is fighting a losing rearguard action and reinforcements are needed. Any recommendations gratefully received.
Almost every day I see middle aged and older people searching through bins. They do it without any embarrassment, moving from bin to bin, rooting about and passing on. They are given the space that all people given the 'Great Unwashed'. Humans being pretty good at ignoring weakness. But it was hard to ignore this guy on
Ul. Bonifacego, dressed in a suit with no socks, toting a large duvet cover filled with spoils.
If he'd wandered behind the
przystanek he might have spotted this most rare of abandoned creatures: a half full vodka bottle.
Near Czerniaków this master and hound caught my eye:
It was a quite wonderful day of sunshine and a crisp breeze...
...today someone turned the light switch on in Poland.
Re: Tłusty czwartek - this morning (shortly after 7:00am) outside the spożywczy on ul. Taneczna, there was a sign saying 'Pączki'. Inside, just after I'd bought mine, a lady asks 'How many have you got?' Shop assistant replied '60 filled with Avocaat, 60 with toffee, 60 with marmalade'. Lady says 'I'll take all three trays.' Shop sold out in seconds.
ReplyDeleteRe: dry skin - that's what smalec is for. Keeps skin and joints supple in the frost. And a steam sauna.
Re: nurek ('diver') - slang for a guy rooting through bins. This is a sure sign that world commodity prices are going through the roof. Plastics, aluminium and glass have become in vogue again, and Pan Heniek is there, a seemless part of the global economy.
Are you suggesting I rub smalec into my hands, or eat it? (Important to check that one, I think). I've been looking for an excuse to take a sauna and there's a big sports centre near us on Pileckiego.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the slang tip. Given food price rises and increased energy costs, I expect to see a lot more Nureki. I wonder if during Euro 2012 Poland will do as good a job of driving them out of cities and away from sight as the South African Police did during the World Cup.
@Michael - I would have thought 'dipper', as in bin dipper would be the term used more often in English for Nurki.
ReplyDelete@Paddy - I guess if the authorities don't want Nurki around, they'll move them to Kraków, Bydgoszcz, Białystok or Łódż where matches are not taking place. It would ring something similar to Ukrainians asking Uncle Vasya to clean up his balcony. I'm interested to see if a similar appeal will go out to Wujek Jarek in Warszawa.
I felt a sudden chill reading that article Decoy! I do know have a Polish (female) friend whose father is prone to wandering the flat (and balcony) in just his pants. She accepts it as normal but her British boyfriend said it took some adjusting to. Quite a bit of adjusting I would have thought!
ReplyDeleteThere's still time for a bylaw to be put in place to outlaw that and elbowing people in queues!