MLEKO AND MONEY:

Perhaps like a fool, I’ve just passed on the opportunity of a couple of weeks work with my old boss back in Cambridgeshire, which undoubtedly would have earned me enough cash for about a year’s rent here. I simply couldn’t afford to turn down the chance to start work here with Andrzej though. He owns the translation business I mentioned before, and since my foreseeable future lies here in Poland, I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I'm currently checking over the work done by the company’s translators. It's really good work in that it can be done from home, and when I get into the swing of it, it shouldn’t interfere too much with the studio work – it’s a kind of curative process of work in a way, and although I keep assuring Filip that I really do find it interesting and massively therapeutic, I don't think he quite believes me yet - tells me to wait until February next year, when they get inundated with very long and boring accounts to translate, as to whether I still find it such… Well, we'll see! Anyway all the people I've met working there are really nice, and although they're treading carefully with me at the moment and passing only the easy stuff on, I really hope it works out, as I do enjoy it and it's a bloody relief to be earning here at last!

As I say, it really will allow me to get on with my own stuff; which, good news there too! The gallery (huge restaurant really), which I think I've mentioned before, definitely wants to show some of my videos, probably sometime in February, and I've also made contact with another gallery (Galeria Milan) situated in the Saska Kepa area of Warsaw, (a bit like Holland Park/Kensington), and owned by a woman by the name of Elzbieta Kochanek-van Dijk - If I'm not mistaken her maiden name, 'Kochanek', might just translate as 'love', or 'beloved' or something – well, my Polish had to start somewhere… Anyway, I should be meeting Pani Kochanek-van Dijk in two weeks time when she gets back from Amsterdam, and am pretty sure it's a done deal – a show of paintings – when I get the buggers done that is! It's true, the whole system of showing here is so much more relaxed than in England – believe me!

And yup, apart from missing friends and family, relaxed, is just how I’m starting to feel these days thank God! After losing my mum, things have definitely settled into some semblance of normality again. Well perhaps 'normality' is the wrong word, but, I'm certainly trying to enjoy life again, that's for sure, and continue to be totally in love with Warsaw and Poland in general.., to the bewilderment, I might add, of all I meet! But really, it is an absolutely fantastic city and although the language for me remains a problem, the people here are really great, if not always polite – Ask anyone here about the shop-keepers!

Just as in England, it goes without saying really, but, you'll still find me in a bar on my own most evenings, managing even now, to attract some bloody social intercourse or other – usually engaging with the nearest drunk, but hey, who am I to complain… But, the language is a problem...

I did however manage one night last week, to my delight and smugness, to ask the barman to put the only Polish band I know to-date on the 'juke box' and as I sat there ‘coolly’ clicking my fingers, and mouthing the odd word I'd picked up from previous listens to the strident strains of T-LOVE, thought I was getting somewhere, but with a smile on her face, was casually informed by a passing young punter that the 'T' in T-LOVE stood for 'Teenage' and that I was clearly far too old to find such libretto and tunes cool. I actually knew that anyway, but if you’ve ever tried to discover any good Polish contemporary music – forget it, it must be hidden well and truly underground somewhere very deep that only time and a lot of digging will uncover!

Hey, that aside, 'Libretto' indeed..! I had to look it up when I got home! They teach these Poles some very high class vocab.., I tell you! The same night I also got talking briefly to a guy the day after Poland had beaten Wales, and England had lost to Northern Ireland, and the only differences in the conversation between Him and Me, and Me and a Brit , was that a) It was very brief, as he knew about as much English as I know Polish, and b) No matter how hard I tried, I just couldn't make him understand my joy at the results.., me being English, but because of family history that my allegiance lay with Scotland and so I was bound to feel happy!

So, am still spending most of any spare time wondering from cafés to bars and back again. Tell you, both beer and food here, as long as you avoid the traditional starter of cold dripping spread thickly on bread and some horrific sweet brew generally called 'burnt beer', then, well, it's unbelievably excellent – and cheap!

Just remembered; going back to the T-LOVE ditty... An English mate of mine, who’s lived in Krakow now for over ten years, when he was staying over at the weekend, told me the word here for Cool is 'Spoko', and as luck would have it just as he told me, this young guy was passing on his bike, doing a beautifully choreographed Evil Kerneval quality style wheelie across one of the main streets as we were crossing. Like a kid learning a new word for the first time.., when he was winging past on his chopper, I shouted S P O K O so loud in his direction that – honestly, I nearly caused a serious accident as he took off, swerved and very nearly wrote off a number of cars, one or two busses and a tram..! Poor lad, I just don't think it's the done thing for grown ups here – Poland is strangely a very conservative and polite society!

Jesus, talking of which – Do we owe a debt of gratitude to the people of Poland or what! Went along to the Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego at the weekend. It's a place dedicated to The Warsaw Uprising, and you just wouldn't believe what the people of Warsaw have had to endure and overcome. I'm not ashamed to admit it – Apart from feeling ashamed of myself for knowing next to nothing about it all, the experience was deeply moving and I felt like crying my bloody eyes out when my eyes were adjusting to the sunlight of the street after leaving the museum! There’s no real excuse how little we’re taught in England regarding other historical perspectives, and in this case, the massive part Poland in general played in the second world war and modern history in a broader sense..! Anyway, what can I say...

Warsaw Uprisers

So yeah, Not much else to report, but we’re linking up with some Polish mates next week at their place in the country again and can't wait... More swimming in nature's great natural landscape for me then… But I do love it up there, and I manage to get plenty of time just to relax. As for the swimming in the lake though, I still can't believe how much I love it. I know the water here's much warmer than you'll ever find in England, but even so, I just wouldn’t entertain the idea back in home! Everyone here though seems to spend a lot of their leisure time conversing with nature. Ironically, when you experience seeing the mass exodus to the mountains and lakes at weekends from the big cities here, (Warsaw is deserted on Saturdays and Sundays), the view you get of people indulging in naturist keep fit behaviour does strangely remind me of all those old Nazi and Communist films of youth and the body beautiful... Very strange sight, but, beautiful it is… So on that note will sign off.