2006 - Poland - Girls on the train

Girl cries.

Central train station in Warsaw. I looked through newspapers in a news agency when I heard:

- I bought a while ago a pack of cigarettes, where are they?

- Yes? - says the selling girl.

- I told you clearly. Where are cigarettes which I bought!

- I do not know. I serve customers, do not check what they've done with goods they bought.

- I have a train in few minutes. Give me quickly cigarettes for which I paid!

The girl ignores him. After a while he returns with more outspoken friend.

- Please give immediately the cigarettes..! I will block the queue..! Who stole cigarettes??

I got angry with this noise.

- Please, do not shut so much. If your goods were stolen, then call the police.

- Do not make idiot of me! - He threw me a hateful look.

I go out and look for some police or security. In vain. The young men did not succeed either. They came to me:

- Shame on you! Old man and against young.

I looked up in the ceiling. They went away swearing. I looked back into the shop. The girl cried. I felt very helpless.

Girl laughs.

- What time have you started a working day? - I asked a conductor in the train to Bialystok.

- At 4 am. I work 12 hours. Will finish at 4 pm.

- Hard work.

- Not at all. Very good job. I could have retired earlier but did not want. But now they will retire me in few months.

- And you will be free.

- What for this freedom? What will I be doing? I live in the forest - her eyes brighten. In the deep forest, you cannot imagine how deep. But what I could do there? I will move to my mother. She is 83 but still does everything around herself. And my grandpa - you know? He died when he was 96. Yes, 96. On Sunday he still went to the church. Because he was so thin as you. And on Tuesday he died.

- It was a good death.

- Because he did not visit any doctors. If you do not see doctors, you die fast and light. Otherwise, you suffer for years.

Girl rebels.

Return train to Warsaw.

- What a fantastic youth we have. In the next carriage there is a group of schoolgirls. When they learned I am a teacher, they invited me to play bridge. How joyful and cheerful they were.

- Are you happy to return to work?

- You must be joking! After work I have to spend same time giving private lessons to make ends meet. And now we have this new minister and his education changes. I am only waiting for kids to organize some demonstration. I will join them!

Girl questions.

Warsaw metro. I read the daily paper.

- What are they writing today?

- I do not know, just looked through sport columns.

- Are you only reading about sport or doing it?

- I am trying to do.

- What sport?

- Cross country skiing.

- O, this is a good sport. And I played volleyball. Yes, mister. I even played in the World Championship. In Paris in 1953. Well, it was only universities championship. But still world championship.

- This is a great success.

- Well. It still keeps me healthy. I do not need all this health services. Why should I pay taxes for it if I don't use it? Those who need should pay!

I stayed silent as in such system, I would go bankrupt soon.

- Nice talking to you , mister. I am getting off here, to the cemetery. Good bye!

- Good bye

2006 - Warsaw - day 1

It was a long flight. One hour stop in Vienna added to the tiredness. Finally Warsaw. Beautiful weather. I expected a family friend to pick me up from the airport, but he seemed to be late. I felt so impatient, that decided to take taxi to his place, from there we will call him to come back.

Ooops. There was nobody in his flat. What to do? I had no means to contact him, nor to call taxi and return to the airport.

But we lived in this house many, many years ago. There had still to live here some of our old neighbours. But where? There was no list of inhabitants. I sat on the bench and waited patiently until some familiar face showed up. Here he was, on the balcony on the third floor.

- Hello neighbour! Do you remember me?

- To be honest, I do not remember.

- Oh, we lived here 24 years ago. On the ground floor. You must remember my wife.

- Aha, now I recognise you. Come in.

After half an hour all confusion has been sorted out and I was delivered to my destination. I got new shot of energy. Quickly, shower, change dress, go to the City. Around me everything so well known and so new. I landed at the square in front of The Royal Castle where I met some friends. We went together to a restaurant serving traditional Polish dumplings. Tiredness returned. I was driven home during a violent storm and beautiful lightnings. What a good start!

2006 - Singapore - Day 2

Saturday. I had good sleep. Near my hotel, there were many churches, four in our street, all Christian, two of them Catholic. I went for a morning mass. In the church some 40 people. After the mass, I returned to hotel to have breakfast. Choice of food - hard boiled eggs, rice with vegetables, cooked beans, something between a pancake and bread, some white jelly. I ate a bit of everything and walked to the city.

First stop - Raffles Hotel. There is a small museum where I could read how Mr Gavin shot a tiger which hid under the billiard table. There were also comments of famous guests who stayed in the hotel - Rudyard Kipling, Somerset Maugham. Joseph Conrad said: Raffles is airy like a birdcage. Typical Conrad - always a bit ambiguous.

Then a boat ride on the river. Rain forced us few times to hide in the cabin. When there was no rain we could see Singapore landmark - Merlion, and also many bridges and interesting buildings.

Rain stopped just in time for a visit to Little India. Well, that's how I imagined India. Later I walked through old China - it was more interesting for me.

I extended my room till 7 pm to have a place to rest before my departure. After all these walks I decided to have some rest. I woke up in total darkness. Panic! Panic! I missed my plane!

False alarm. I forgot that there were no windows in my room. Still lots of time for evening meal and friendly talk with hotel manager. Then to the airport, Austrian Airlines took off to Vienna.

2006 - Singapore - Day 1

I stayed in Hotel Oxford. Good location, nice service, some surprize was that my room had no windows. I got up early and went for a morning walk. I feel good! It was warm and humid. Body covered with a thin layer of sweat. I felt well oiled, breathing was so easy, It felt like my lungs gained some capacity.

The ground was elastic, green, green, green around me.

Started from Orchard Road. Thousands of shops as promised. Well, I did not need anything but according to the advice, I had some tiffin here and there.

I tried underground. Clean, safe, well organised. This what you expect here.

Lunch time I spent on Sentosa Island. Nice tropical surrounding.

In the evening, I visited the Arts Centre...

... there was a concert - The Spirit of the Romantics.

- You are embarrassing us, Sir - it was a waiter in cafeteria. I had my business suit on. He was probably right, there were only 7 people in suits in the concert hall. I felt in right place.

In the program: Slavonic Dances by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky's 4th Symphony - how proper, the music of Poland's neighbour countries. And Saint Saens' piano concerto in the middle. The soloist was Ms Di Wu. What a physical performance! She played with the whole body. Triple S - Saint Saens Sensualised!

Enough for the first day. On my return to the hotel, I felt the heat. The sun has gone, it looked dark and cool, but concrete buildings radiated with heat accumulated during the day. Bad, senseless heat.

2006 - departure

Mid August 2006. Plane's name was Mozart. This is what Austrians sell best.

Next to me sits a young lady, very talkative. No wonder, she is an editor in a company publishing school textbooks.

She studied creative writing, so the conversations moves to literature. She knows Australian writers:

- Peter Carey. Oooo, I have to read some of his books!

- Tim Winton! I started reading his Dirt music...

What about Joseph Conrad?

- I read The heart of Darkness.. I mean, I almost finished.

Her knowledge of Singapore is better.

It is a great place for shopping. And for eating. Have a walk in Orchard Road, see the shops and have a bite of something here and there. Oh, and do not miss Little India!

Interesting. In many cities, Chinatown is the attraction. But in Singapore it is Little India. So what is an attraction in New Delhi?

Prehistory

I started blogging in 2006, before this, there was CHAOS.

When there is a Family

 Well, the Family is the beginning.
My parents met in a ski resort...

Their fortune melted like a snow.

Married in 1938, 1939 - a war broke out, 1944 - my father died.

Next 20 years was a hard struggle for my mother, to keep me fed and educated, to survive in very hard conditions.

My turn came in 1965...

We both already worked, but had no accommodation.

Help came from Sylwia's parents.
They lived in a single bedroom flat in Warsaw. 
Four people - parents with 2 daughters.
What could be simpler than to put a bed in a dining room... and a curtain which isolated it for a night.

2 years after the wedding we got a flat in a cooperative block.
It was classified as M3 - family of three. Theoretically it was a one bedroom flat, but the bedroom was too small for a bed.

Maybe it was a reason that we stayed childless for some time.
We led comfortable but a bit aimless life.

Few years later we moved to a better planned flat, it was still M3, one bedroom - but the bedroom could fit a bed.
At the same time my work turned into quite interesting and challenging.

Family grew up...

 3 years later we moved to a larger flat - M6 - 2 bedrooms.
And there was a new arrival...

Sylwia worked in a physiotherapy clinic of a major Warsaw hospital. 
It paid poorly, but provided a decent canteen, shortened working hours, access to a kindergarten..

When there was holidays time we tried to take children to some holiday places.
Lech, in winter, to ski resorts, Sylwia, in summer, to the seacoast.

When Lech took kids in summer to the seacoast, it still looked like a winter...

To rectify these climate anomalies, in 1981 we moved to Kuwait, where Lech got a job with Kuwait University...

2 years later, we changed place again - Australia.

After few months we moved to our own house...