It sounds like a Robert Ludlum book. I exchanged my standard (and very reliable) Nokia for the latest Blackberry a few weeks back in order to ensure I didn’t miss client’s emails after working hours. Dealing with clients in the UK and the States, emails tend to fly around at all hours and it’s good to avoid nasty surprises when you log on at work in the morning. At least this way you can lose sleep knowing you have a huge problem to deal with at 0730 (*cough*cough*) the next day!
So are there rules about when and how to use one on vacation? I’ve had various advice from checking your emails every two days to prevent build-up, to one of my clients saying “Switch it off! Never even look at it!!”. Which considering they ring me most days with questions is brave advice. As always, the time when you decide to take a vacation, things start hotting up and endless opportunities to close deals and earn fees get whisked across to someone else’s desk. Frustrating to say the least. So my argument is that it’s probably best to keep up-to-date with what’s going on, even if you’re ‘off the radar’.
I’ll be spending the next two weeks in the northern Polish wilderness anyway, so I’ll be far too busy hunting bear, skinning beaver and chopping trees down to notice the unrelenting red light flashing in the top corner of my Blackberry. Unfortunately the red light blinks whether it’s an SMS or an email, and you can’t switch the email function off whilst only receiving text messages. Which means I’m going to check it every time I see the light blink.
I think in these times of crisis and job insecurity, it’s better to show you’re motivated and dedicated to the job, even if this means sending a few emails whilst on vacation. I heard today that Poland probably won’t enter a recession, as Q2 GDP growth has been pretty much the same as Q1 (a recession needs two consecutive quarters of negative growth). So there’s hope! Perhaps people taking Blackberrys on vacation will stave off recession and keep Poland afloat! For the next two weeks at least, I will be doing my part – as long as the kids don’t throw it in the lake of course.
One of the largest and most famous cemeteries in all of Europe, the Cemetery of Père-Lachaise is situated in the 20th arrondissement and comprises more than 70,000 gravestones and monuments set in 109 acres. Walking through the narrow streets and alleys, it has a strange touch of romance to it as many of the ornately decorated monuments and crypts tower above you as you walk. The cemetery was established by Napoleon in 18o4 and now houses some well-known figures from the past.
Here’s the grave of Jim Morrison (1943-1971) – as you can imagine, devoted fans travel here from all over the world and many have left inscriptions of their own on his grave and others nearby pointing to ‘Jim’. There is now a permanent security guard nearby to prevent any further dedications.
Travelling from Poland, one of the ‘must-sees’ was Chopin’s grave. Adorned in fresh flowers, it is said his body is here but his heart is entombed within a pillar at the Holy Cross Church in Warsaw.
Finally, my favourite purely for its flare and originality, was the grave of Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde (or Oscar Wilde as he was better known – 1854-1900). An angel is depicted on his tomb, although it is missing its genitals which are known to have been used as a paperweight by successive cemetery keepers but are now lost in time. The epitaph on the tomb is a verse from a poem written by Wilde titled “The Ballad of Reading Gaol“:
“And alien tears will fill for him
Pity’s long-broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.”
Numerous vistiors over the years (many of them gay men) have kissed the tomb wearing lipstick which makes it one of the most colourful in the cemetery. On his deathbed, he apparently converted to Catholicism stating:
“The Church of England is the best to live in, but the Catholic Church is the best to die in.”
The cemetery is extremely beautiful and it is very easy to spend half a day here wondering around the picturesque streets. Many other famous people are buried here, but for me the most interesting parts of the cemetery were in the detail. Set amongst the towering 19th century monuments were often smaller, less noticeable tombs, but all the more decorative. The whole cemetery is very green and full of wildlife and would definately be on my list of resting places – if only I was famous or French.
For more photos of the Cemetery of Père-Lachaise – see my photo gallery of Paris.
Everyone knows the score, go to work, work, leave work, join the hoardes of people travelling home, arrive home, eat dinner, bath kids, read stories, spend half an hour waiting for the kids to settle, and spend 2 hours or so trying to switch off and think calm thoughts before bed. At the moment this is what happens most weekday nights and apart from the odd night out when we get a babysitter – this is my life. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a great life. Nothing feels better than coming home to a family and two boisterous little children.
So it’s very easy to forget that there’s a different way to spend ‘time after work’, and many people actually spend all night relaxing. I’m home alone for a while (yes, it’s that time of year again when I ship my family off to the Kaszuby Lake District for some quality babcia-time), so on Monday I leapt onto my shiny hardly-used bike and headed into the parks. I was positively astounded at what I found. People enjoying themselves. On a weekday!!
Yes, some have the time and inclination to do this. Casually sit in the park after work and watch the world go by, or zip around on rollerblades to ease their conscience after sitting at a desk all day. I spent quite an enjoyable hour or so on my bike in Pole Mokotowskie (above) as well as venturing closer to the city centre via another nearby park which I hadn’t known even existed (that’s what happens when you stay indoors after work!).
As I left and the sun was making it’s way to the other side of the world, I took this shot of the sunlight reflecting on the fountains which border the lake. A family were playing together on the nearby bench, so maybe there’s hope for us yet once the boys get a little older.
Apologies for the lengthy absence – we were on holiday last week and this week has been about adjusting and sadly returning to normality. So, first impression of Paris? What a fantastic city! We hiked around for 4 days from late morning until late evening each day, avoiding the metro whenever we could to really try and capture the essence and feel of the city. It’s much bigger than I thought and far more crowded – although this may be due to the fact that we were continuously hopping between tourist traps. The Eiffel Tower was obviously extremely impressive and I took far too many photographs of it. Here’s one of them:
It’s an extremely photogenic city and I took over 700 photographs – the beauty of digital! That was the fun part – editing them into some sort of order and choosing the best is a little more arduous and time-consuming. Carrying my tripod around was a burden at times, but paid off when the light faded. We saw all the usual sights – Arc de Triomphe, Champs Elysées, La Defénse, Montmartre, Notre Dame, the Pantheon, the Louvre… etc etc. When we did get tired (and lost) the metro system is extremely well developed and proved very useful. Our apartment was central and 5 minutes walk from a metro station.
We spent many happy hours sat in small, quaint cafés and restaurants, savouring the local cuisine (although we found a good Italian one night). Anything that said ‘Traditionnel” outside was bound to be a good bet. Leffe beer also proved to be popular amongst the male folk – a suitable cold refreshment for any time of the day…
The view from the second platform of the Eiffel Tower is quite spectacular. Unfortunately we arrived at 2230 and the queues for the top platform were still horrendous. Still, it’s not a bad view from this height and in the photo below, La Defénse, the main Paris business district in the background is clearly visible against the horizon.
The temperature was scorching all week, well into the 30s which made regular refreshment stops all the more important. I think the sheer number of people and traffic on the roads must add several degrees to the heat and even at 1am, the pavements were busy and scooters were zipping everywhere. No doubt the best way to travel in Paris and a scheme which should be encouraged in Warsaw! A scooter in Warsaw equals a death-trap, whereas it’s catered for in Paris and car drivers pay attention to them (I think they’re just outnumbered). Still, one of the biggest problems in Paris for the car driver seems to be parking. This is a very common sight on the side streets and by local accounts, perfectly acceptable.
I heard that Parisiens leave their cars in neutral so that they can be shunted about in order for other drivers to get their cars in, or out. The solution? This I think:
Even smaller than a Smart car! This one is parked between a pedestrian crossing and a major road junction. Still, it seems to blend in easily and practicality is key in this city!
I really have far too many photos to post here, so they can be accessed at my pbase account. They’re not all downloaded yet or correctly labelled, but I’ll work on it over the next few days/weeks. Meanwhile, here’s my favourite picture from the holiday, a carousel in motion not far from the Eiffel Tower.
Hope you like the pictures and I may post some more about our trip once the happy memories come flooding back.
To find out more about life in Warsaw – have a look at warsawdailyphoto.
Every year Wianki Festival is celebrated throughout Poland and last night’s celebrations for Midsummer’s Day proved to be as popular as always. Thousands of people congregated on the side of the River Wisła where a huge stage had been set up and last night’s performers were Maciek Maleńczuk, Mat Pokora and Reamonn. Unfortunately due to a 2-hour train delay returning from Katowice, we missed Maleńczuk, but caught the rest of the show. The weather was perfect and not in the least bit chilly.
Here’s Mat Pokora performing on stage. He’s a French musician with Polish ancestry and managed a ‘dziękuję’, which pleased all the screaming 16-year old female fans in the audience.
Reamonn played next. The Poles know him from a song called ‘Supergirl‘ which was played on Polish radio back in 2000. I’d never heard of them, but the music was lively and befitting a summer festival.
Following Reamonn, a drum-based orchestra accompanied the fireworks spectacular which was one of the best I’ve seen. Perhaps this was because we were high on the bank and had a perfect view. Here’s a couple of shots I took with my G9 (without a tripod, hence the slight blurring).
The orchestra is housed on scaffolding in the bottom left of the screen (where the green grid is in the above photo). Królewska were sponsoring the fireworks and considering the length of time and amount of fireworks set off, I would say that the beer industry is one that isn’t feeling the crisis!
The Devil's food
Following last week’s BBQ and a delayed reaction to my New Year’s Resolution (yes, 6 months ago now), I’ve managed to visit the gym twice last week, and in fact the same the preceding three weeks. Once you start a fitness regime and it gets into your head that it’s one of life’s small requirements to keep healthy and reasonably fit, it becomes very hard to find the balance. I’m talking about my unbalanced obsession with junk food on a Friday night, not my obsession with the gym. Some people just aren’t concerned about their state of fitness , but I really would like to be.
As you get older, time has an effect on the body as your metabolism slows down and turns everything you eat into fat. When I was at university, I actually did quite the opposite to most and instead of spending lazy afternoons drinking beer in the pubs, I spent most free afternoons at the gym. Large steaks were consumed for lunch and a sensible diet was followed. Couple this with practising martial arts twice a week and I was considerably fitter than I am now – a result of time and youth. Now I have a problem. Wifey loves sweet things and unrelentingly makes extremely good desserts (such as the banoffee pie we had last weekend) and my will just isn’t strong enough to resist. My point is – how do you find that balance between losing a little flab and still enjoying your food. My colleague at work nibbles on carrots at his desk, and generally skips lunch. Is this the answer? I hope not.
Some interesting and quite demoralising facts.
- 10 minutes on the running machine equates to roughly 100 calories burned.
- The body needs at least 30 minutes to start burning fat – and it starts with the fat around the heart and works outwards. This means it takes a long time before it reaches anything visible from the outside.
- 1 Jaffa cake = 56 calories. Yesterday in a business meeting, I had 6. And I wasn’t even under stress.
- The body needs an average of 2500 calories a day to function, but most of that is taken up in daily meals.
- To lose 1lb a week you need a negative calorie balance of 500 calories per day.
- Sitting at a desk all day moving your fingers on a keyboard just makes you lethargic.
Does any of this make sense to you? It all seems black and white, but try sticking to a diet and finding enough time in the week to do enough exercise to make these calculations beneficial for the body. It’s bloody hard work! Am I making excuses?
Right, the family’s away, so I’m off to the gym.
It’s that time of year again, when the BBQ is brought out of the garage (or imported from the UK in this case – 600 zl cheaper!) and friends are invited around for kiełbasa, kaszanka, karkówka, udko kurczaka, burgery, sałatka and banoffee pie (not Polish, but a rather successful addition). The amount of meat consumed is considerable (bad timing when it comes to the photograph) and yesterday afternoon we all pleasantly stuffed ourselves with fine wine and good food. This week will therefore be a vegetarian week and, apart from the very thin slices of ham in my lunch sandwiches, we will not be eating anything that once rolled in mud, ate grass or was previously known as ‘Daisy’.
The kids had a great time too and Benji was introduced to his first hammock experience. He had so much fun navigating his way on and off it, over and over again, that we were blessed with many hours of peace and quiet until he eventually pushed one of the other children off it and we had to put a stop to his “fun”.
This has to be one of the most hazardous jobs I’ve seen and I don’t think its particularly well-paid in Poland. When I arrived at the office this morning, the window cleaners were already out on the neighbouring building. We often share the lift with them, and they really do look prepared to climb a mountain; kitted out in ropes, helmets and various clips and buckles. The gear looks the same, albeit without the large rucksac or crampons. Considering they’re abseiling and climbing a 26-storey building, I imagine the warm clothing is quite similar, although probably without the North Face sponsorship or the helicopter ride to first base. Note the crane at the top of the building which is a permanent fixture and supports the pulley system the climbers use. Some skyscrapers use cradles or platforms, but this is the only method I’ve seen used here.
If you look carefully, you can see a small wooden bench seat which the climbers sit on. They carry this around with them as part of their gear and all seem to have their own bespoke ones. An interesting question is where they get their water from. I’ve seen them carry buckets, but this seems to blend into insignificance when you consider the number of windows they have to wash – and the distance they would need to climb to refill them!
A few weeks ago, a Polish freeclimber climbed the Marriott building without any ropes or support. I missed it, but the full story with photos can be found here.
It’s Corpus Christi today which means that most people left Warsaw yesterday to make it a long weekend and enjoy the good weather in more picturesque parts of Poland. For those who stay in Warsaw, the city becomes an altogether much more pleasant place to spend time, as all the traffic disappears and the city becomes eerily quiet.
We hit the swimming pool with the boys first thing this morning at 0930, and pretty much had it all to ourselves which was absolute bliss! No queues for the slides and as much splashing and throwing children around without having to watch who you’re throwing them at as you like – a rare event indeed. After a short break at lunch, we hitched the child seats to the bikes and headed towards the River. To give you an example of how quiet the roads were at 1430 today, here’s a photo of the junction of Idzikowskiego and Sobieskiego, one of the main routes into the city from the south and more often than not, queues of traffic move down here at a snail’s pace.
Photo 1
Our main aim was to reach the Siekierkowski Bridge which provides great views of the city centre and is easily accessed by well-marked cycle paths. For a city renowned for its terrible roads and cracked pavements, the cycle paths are surprisingly well maintained and in great condition.
The Siekierkowski Bridge, opened in 2002, is 500 m long and 33 m wide and supports six lanes of traffic. Warsaw has a total of 7 bridges which span the River Wisła connecting various districts on the east and west sides, but this one is the newest.
Photo 2
The city skyline can be seen to the north-west of the bridge, but unfortunately we arrived at a time when it wasn’t at its most photogenic. The sun was overhead, creating a haze which prevented any clarity – but here’s the photo I took anyway which gives quite a nice perspective with the calm, but notoriously turbulent River in the foreground.
Photo 3
On our return journey, we crossed a different bridge further towards the centre, which although not as impressive to look at, gave a great view of Warsaw’s only beach. Yes, there is one and topless sunbathing is apparently commonplace when the temperature soars. Today obviously wasn’t hot enough for this (I didn’t have my zoom lens attached anyway), although it still seemed quite popular as a place to relax, switch off and enjoy listening to the mellow sound of traffic rumbling over the bridge.
Photo 4
No bike ride, walk or drive past is complete without a short stop at Malinova. By this time, the kids had been asking about ice-cream for approximately two hours and myself and L were ready for a break as well. Here’s yet another picture of an ice-cream from Malinova. Seriously, if you live in Warsaw and you haven’t visited this place yet, you really should. And then go on a bike ride to burn the calories off…
Photo 5
Here’s our general route, with the majority of it being on cycle paths or normal footpaths. Quite a nice circular route if you live in Mokotów, and with Warsaw being as flat as it is, not particularly strenuous. The blue numbers refer to the location of the photos taken above.
Thinking back, it’s very hard to remember the violence in a Tom & Jerry cartoon without smiling at the slap-stick humour of it all. It was pure class watching Jerry always get one over poor Tom and the various tools and implements he used to do it. I remember my parents letting us watch cartoons without worrying too much about what we were watching, as in those days (I’m not that old), it was mainly Disney and Warner Bros such as Bugs Bunny etc.
I can’t think of a time when slapping and crashing saucepans over heads in cartoons ever disturbed me enough to ask for it to be switched off. So what has changed? We have a few DVDs for the kids which are mainly Disney/Pixar/Dreamworks and which we consider to be ’safe’ for our kids to watch – as opposed to the Japanese, anime rubbish that fills most of the kid’s TV channels at the moment. But even these have somehow upped the stakes and, in my opinion, occasionally go a little too far when it comes to adrenaline packed action.
The latest film we bought was Madagaskar 2 and the film is great. Really funny and the kids love it – all except a few parts when the alpha-male is fighting a rival in the first few scenes. Alex always asks me to skip a few scenes as he thinks ‘Alex the lion’ (real character name) is getting hurt. I’ve tried explaining that it’s only a cartoon and no-one gets hurt, but he won’t have it. So why put these scenes in and if they have to, why make them so prolonged? Even for me the clip above goes on for too long, and I really can’t see what it adds to the overall enjoyment of the film.
We also bought them Kung-Fu Panda after much contemplation and in-store rejections, but Alex has only seen the first half of this and doesn’t seem to be too fussed about watching the rest of it. The grown-ups finished watching it one night and it does get rather violent towards the end – albeit with incredible graphics and great humour (more for adults than children). So this poses the next question – are they making cartoons too grown-up now? It’s one thing making a film that appeals to a wide audience and age-group, but if kids are too scared to watch it, is there much point making it animated? Technology can do wonderful things, but it seems to be becoming slightly out of control, and the strive to produce better graphics and challenge the artists is making films too complex to watch. Or is this another example of society being too acceptable of violence and assuming that action-packed films are all kids want nowadays? If so, I’m worried.
Here’s some of the good stuff.
