Saturday 19 July 2014

Ścieżka Lasku Bielańskiego

Jakiś czas temu poszliśmy sobie na spacer do Lasku Bielańskiego. Chodziliśmy dróżkami, które prowadziły do... muru, ale jakiego! Graffitti to świetny pomysł na taki szary, szpitalny mur. Kilka z nich było na tyle uwagoprzykuwalnych, że poświęcam im osobny post :)


 Tutaj grafficiarz raczej nie znał języka angielskiego, chociaż kto wie...


Żółwik jest mądry, wie, że ludzie w dzisiejszych czasach zbyt szybko się przemieszczają...

Friday 18 July 2014

Ścieżka dla... pieszych

A tutaj przykład ścieżki dla pieszych, wzdłuż Al. Jerozolimskich, którą chodzę do pracy...


Ścieżka autobusowych piękności ;-)

Te fotki nie wymagają chyba opatrzenia komentarzem. Powiem tylko, że obie osoby miały ok. 40-45 lat, a pierwsze zdjęcie było zrobione 26-go marca - wiosna przybyła! :)




Ścieżka miłego poniedziałku! :)

Od dobrych kilku tygodni, a nawet może i miesięcy, kiedy wyłaniałam się ze stacji metra Centrum w poniedziałkowy poranek, o ok. 8:45, witała mnie ta oto przemiła, uśmiechnięta i radosna osoba :)





Stała (stoi??) sobie z karteczką, co tydzień w tym samym miejscu i machała do ludzi, życząc miłego dnia, machając i przybijąc piątkę! Mój tydzień podzielił się na poniedziałek rano, do 8:45 i resztę tygodnia, po 8:45. Owa nieznajoma-znajoma, (czułam, jakbym ją dobrze znała, mimo że nie znam nawet jej imienia), wprawiała mnie w tak dobry nastrój, że udzielał się na jeszcze długo! To była naprawdę niesamowita zmiana energii: przed przybiciem piątki i po przybiciu piątki i wymianie dwóch zdań. Świetna akcja! Mała rzecz - a jakże wielka zmiana! Z każdym początkiem tygodnia czekałam na Nią i jej radosne powitanie! Zawsze była. :D Nie wiem, czy ta akcja jeszcze trwa (mam nadzieję, że tak!!), bo od jakiegoś czasu nie jeżdżę metrem rano w poniedziałek, ale już niedługo to sprawdzę! :) 

Chcę oficjalnie podziękować za tę akcję i za każdy kwant energii, która zmieniała mój dzień na lepszy!! DZIĘKUJĘ!!! :D

Sunday 23 March 2014

The subway and the 'chewing gum' attitude

On the surface this post is about a ridiculous announcement I hear a few times a day. But it really is about something completely different.

I take the subway very often – every day – sometimes even a few times a day. And each and every time when the train approaches either the Dworzec Gdanski or the Central station I get GOOSEBUMPS! And each and every time I roll my eyes, sigh and get agitated - let's face it - I just cannot get over it!

And maybe it's because I know English pretty well, maybe because I am a trained phonetician, or maybe just because I like quality. QUALITY is the key here. But it seems many people lack this idea in their every day life - at work, at home, even at a party. And that hurts! That is the way our country works. I call it a

'let's-stick-it-with-chewing-gum' attitude

= let's do something so it LOOKS more less OK. If it falls off - well, not our problem - someone else will have to take care of it. The attitude brings only frustration, pointlessness, reluctance to get involved in anything that's good for the society. Pity!! Huuuuge pity!! Because Poles have an enormous potential to achieve amazing goals. But somehow, they don't use it. 'They' intended.

OK,  I guess I should explain the issue in more detail:

so, the announcement. It's an ordinary message for passengers. And even the fact that there are two people reading one short message doesn't make it half as strange as the 'English' pronunciation of the speaker. Quotes intended.

I recorded it. I even did a phonetic analysis to prove I'm right (it did!!). The announcement sounds pathetic. On a deeper level it simply embarrasses us in front of thousands (or even millions!) of foreigners visiting our country. We only have ONE subway line, so we should take good care of it. (Btw, the written messages are equally bad, also in Polish.) What I really dislike about the message is the fact that the man pronounces it as if it was his first month of an English course. Well, I am sure it could be the case. But I am also sure he was paid a lot of money for the recording! And what's worse - someone clinched a deal on it! Without checking, without any sense of QUALITY in mind...

You can hear it for yourself (you can jump straight to 0:30):


[next stay-shin Dworzec Gdanski; cohn-vee-nyent chench to 'sah-boor-bahn ant lonk deestance chrayns]
'next station Dworzec Gdanski; convenient change to suburban and long-distance trains'. Hear the dee-ference?

Am I exaggerating? Maybe. Am I right? Hell, I am! It has much deeper consequences than bad English... This is another case that we are seen as small, uneducated, sock-and-sandals Pollacks. And we have been seen like this sometimes. Often. Too often. Does it really have to be like this? Are we really like this??

I don't like the way people think here, how they don't like themselves, how they don't try to make a better future for themselves - they don't do what they like (apart from complaining and blaming others, of course). They do things that are below their qualifications, that are not interesting, that are impossible to put their heart and soul into. People FEEL they're underpaid and frustrated. Of course, the crisis, the bad economy blah blah. But what do they DO to change it? Some of them wouldn't even lift a finger to change the smallest thing in their life: to smile at a customer, to go for a walk instead of watching tv, to pick up a bottle and throw it in a bin, to wait for a running passenger at a bus stop, to give the right information at a town hall... just a small thing. It would change a lot, like a domino effect... but someone has to move the perpetuum mobile first.

I once heard "the way you do anything is the way you do everything". I am not sure if it's 100% true, but in 99% it is. The way people treat themselves (eating crap and saying 'na zdrowie' (for health=bottoms up), working as if it was their punishment, not a money-giving activity, treating children as furniture (the kid just IS here, paying attention to it is unimportant), living with no quality in doing the simplest things possible... etc. etc.)

I try. It often works. Sometimes it doesn't. I just remembered a situation that happened last year, also on the subway: I got on board, Saturday evening, a guy puked, I moved a few seats away, puke all over the floor. A girl came in, looking at her phone, sat by the pukey seat. The puke almost touched her shoes. People were staring, making bets if it touches her or not. I got up, approached her, pointed at the puke, she thanked and moved a few seats away. Another girl came in. Sat at exactly the same place. The first girl looked at her and.... did nothing. I was speechless. My ability to understand other people's behaviour had gone instantly. And it was such a small thing... Or was it?

Monday 17 March 2014

The Polish path - new beginnings

After having spent 8 years abroad there came the time to go back. Not quite back, as I had never lived in Warsaw before, but in Poland - I certainly had! I was thinking about writing some thoughts on that fact, but then I realized that I would probably have to complain a lot, so as I am quite far from it, I would like to write about things I notice. Funny things, interesting things, weird things or annoying things.

I walk around the city a lot and I see things that simply amaze me. I usually use my smartphone to take pictures and since the quality of the camera is pretty bad, please, let me apologize for it. Yet, this is not a photo show off, it's the content that matters here the most.

Enjoy reading and drop me some of your reflections, if you feel like it. :)


Tuesday 22 March 2011

Some people...

The people in Suriname deserve to be written about in a separate post. They are just awesome. When we go out with Aga, they always smile, say 'hi', wave or stop for a little chat. This is so nice and friendly.

"Hello baby" - and he didn't mean ME :)

A few days ago I realized that I know more people - neighbours, shop assistants etc. - in Paramaribo than in Cuijk, where I have lived for over a year! What does it say? Well, I think I don't have to comment it...

For example, I go for a walk with Aga everyday - or Bob - and I meet more less the same people, they wave, so I stop, talk to them, they usually have children around. They talk to Aga who is delighted when people want to listen to her stories. I talk to them - like this girl with a month old baby in her arms - so cute! With lots of jewellery on. The baby. Earrings, bracelets, necklace... all golden. Weird, but I guess culturally conditioned. The baby girl had a blue mark on her forehead which looked like the Indian tilaka - I asked if she was Indian, but the mummy claimed that her ancestors were from India, but she doesn't know about them and she is Surinamese. I realized that I have to be very careful here when I ask about where people are from...

People look very interesting, so many nations, so many languages, so many cultures. Amazing. And they all live in peace. The population is slightly less than half a million, in a country that is 4 times bigger that 15-milion Netherlands. According to the website:

Ethnic groups: Hindustani (also known locally as "East Indians"; their ancestors emigrated from northern India in the latter part of the 19th century) 37% Creole (mixed white and black) 31% Javanese 15.3% Maroons (their African ancestors were brought to the country in the 17th and 18th centuries as slaves and escaped to the interior) 10.3% Amerindian 2.6% Chinese 1.7% white 1% other 1.1%
Religions: Hindu 27.4% Muslim 19.6% Roman Catholic 22.8% Protestant 25.2% (predominantly Moravian) indigenous beliefs 5%
Languages: Dutch (official) English (widely spoken) Sranan Tongo (Surinamese sometimes called Taki-Taki is native language of Creoles and much of the younger population and is lingua franca among others) Hindustani (a dialect of Hindi) Javanese.
So, as you can see there are pretty equal proportions between 4 religions... It is possible!

Some people, as everywhere, have pets. It is quite common to have a pet bird and hang its cage on a street post or in a garden...

or sometimes to take it for a walk. Seriously! :)

I'm not sure if the guy liked the fact that I took a photo of him...

...but this guy totally loved it, as it was HIM who asked me to take a photo 'of him too' :D So I did.


There are also the dearest and nicest people - the ones who we meet almost every day. But you can read about them here: niutatek.blogspot.com (you can email me for the invitation if curious).


Tuesday 22 February 2011

Chinese shops revisited

OK, so I posted some random things about the Chinese shops in Paramaribo, but a few days later I discovered totally different image of them. We stumbled on a shop, with a red carpet in front of the door (seriously!), so we went in. And WOW!!! Vegetables! A few fridges filled with vegetables and fruit presented to our eyes. What a view! :D


We were extremely happy to see them, it is very difficult to get any decent vegetables here, and for vegetarians it's a double tragedy. The shop was hugs, nice and tidy, the shop assistant was young, pretty and wore big, dark, I guess fashionable sunglasses. Yes, IN the shop. But she was smiling and moving to the rhythm of the Chinese music we could hear from the speakers. So, we bought our vegetables and wanted to buy some more stuff, but we couldn't! No labels in any Latin spelt language, not even Cyrillic or Greek, which I would manage to read. All in Chinese ideographs and the packagings were not see-through! But they looked pretty decent and the nicely organized on the shelves goods were quite expensive.

Another view at the shop

And another. And look at the decorations!
This just drew my attention. I will leave the comment to you.
So, we left the shop and walked farther, hoping to see some more nice shops. And we found some. Not as gourmet as the previous one, but decent. I walked through all the aisles, took some pictures a bit shyly, because everybody was staring at us. I went to the back of the shop to see which category of Chinese shops this one belongs to. I thing the second, which means the nice one. Pretty tidy there, a lot of nice stuff.
Sorry for the poor quality, but maybe you can see the ping-pong balls ;) How appropriate.



The back of the shop. There is a difference with the one in the previous post, isn't it?

Also poor q. But how nicely it's organized!

A cute, lucky girl got a 'Barbie' doll, from that huge pile of 'Barbie' dolls.
Isn't the name of the brand funny?? :D
...and the cherry on the cake ;)) A (poor) version or Hello Kitty or other Miffy/Nijntje
We went on... passed (only) the shop, there were guards by the door. Who knows, maybe the D&G label was original?? Just the label, of course... But the shop looked impressive.

And the display guys... mmmm... like from the Jillz (disgusting apple cider) commercial which makes me giggle each time I see it (here) - the men there are... terrible! I'm not buying it! :P
And one more thing came to my mind, from a shop that I didn't comment on here, or there, but I went there recently and spotted this - just by the door, what a nice display of coffee/creamer/sugar surrounded by those amazing ('amazing') waterfall yyy.... I don't know how to call them. Things.

And another cherry on a cake - just read the text on the packaging of those fridge magnets I bought for Aga. I read it a few times and I guess I have not enough 'brain cell' in my brain to comprehend it. I dedicate the text to Beata and Neda.
That would be it. I wrote it to counterbalance the crappy Chinese shops. I hope it worked.

Wednesday 16 February 2011

Happy Valentine's Day :D

As we don't really celebrate the holiday, I didn't post anything on facebook nor on either of my blogs. But, I just found something sweet and also I forgot, I wanted to post something sweet and funny ;)


So, the first thing is a satellite picture from Google - I was planning a trip and I just found it - it's not only Paradise, but also a land of love... We actually want to go there, I wonder how it looks for real.



...and the other thing is a Valentine Day gift I received from my Switi Bop - it speaks for itself - maybe you remember it from a previous post :)



...and a bonus, since we're talking about love (no, I do not have a dirty mind, but I just couldn't help putting it here :D - I told you, it's too hot here, my brain is melting :D)
Google Maps are awesome!!!

:)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))

The Goslar ship wreck

This is a short post scriptum to the post about Paramaribo, post post scriptum I guess :D I put just one picture of the Waterkant - the Suriname River bank, but there are some more as you can imagine and, what's more interesting, there is a small story about it.


It is always shocking to see such an abuse of our planet, but in the middle of a nice river bank, in the city centre of a capital city it's kind of 100 times more terrifying.
If you have a good eye or a lens you can notice that there is a sunk ship in the middle of the river. It was a German merchant ship called Goslarand was sunk by Germans during the WWII - here is a short story about it. It has never been taken out of the water, so it's still there, not very visible from the land though, so I made a compilation of google map shots ;)


And of course I have my own version of the story ;)

The view of the other side and the bridge - the sunken ship is right behind the rightmost leaf :)
The ship is still on the right, you could see the lump on the water at the end of the bridge ;)

...and here it is ;) 12 x optical zoom :)

Just one more thing which actually made me write this post (I am not a history fan, I must shamefully admit) is the fact that I have been to Goslar and I loved it!! It's an old town in Germany (Lower Saxony) with beautiful architecture and a really picturesque view if you walk up the road leading you towards the highway from Amsterdam (to Poznań), which me and two other girls went (hitch-hiking) to visit. ;) Ha!

Have a look - (taken from pixdaus.com):