Another office move

After one year and one week after our last office move, the BPCC is on the move again - to its fourth address since I started working for the Chamber (and indeed the 12th address I've worked in since moving to Warsaw). We say a rather sad farewell to Al. Szucha 3 - a beautifully restored old kamienica where we inhabited the sixth and seventh floors, well located for the ministries, and just after the opening of the Pl. Unii shopping mall across the road. Plus always a lovely stroll down ul. Agricoli to the British Embassy.

Waiting for my last tram out of Pl. Unii. A bittersweet departure.

We say hello to ul. Marszałkowska 89, where we join our Trade Team at the British Polish Business Centre, on the first two floors of the HSBC building. A splendid Class A office, with all mod cons, and extremely well placed for public transport. Five minutes from the platform at W-wa Śródmieście station (for the Koleje Mazowieckie service to W-wa Jeziorki), four minutes from the platform at Metro Centrooom, three minutes from east- and west-bound tram stops along Al. Jerozolimskie, two minutes from north- and south-bound tram stops along Marszałkowska, and a veritable plethora of bus stops surrounding Rondo Dmowskiego (as readers will remember, commemorating the Polish inventor of the roundabout, Roman Dmowski).

Right across the road from our new offices is a building now occupied by court buildings, but right up to the early 1990s, this was the Centralna Składnica Harcerska (central scouting repository), a goldmine of hobbyists' model trains and planes and sporting goods. I have fond memories of the place in 1966 during a childhood visit to Warsaw, a town far grander than West Ealing.

There will be no shortage of places to eat and drink around here. From the trendy Bobby Burger across the way to the swanky Butchery and Wine (what could be finer than a perfectly grilled steak washed down with an agreeable Merlot) on Żurawia, the hipster artisan multi-tap beer bars, Spiskowcy Rozkoszy and Kufle i Kapsle that I've written about - all within a few minutes walk. Indian, Egyptian, Brazilian, Japanese, Italian, Israeli and Lebanese restaurants - ditto.

Travelling home on the Koleje Mazowiecki train to Jeziorki, I'm forced to walk home along the muddy verge of ul. Karczunkowska because a) Ms Gronkiewicz-Waltz has not seen fit to build us Jeziorkians a pavement along its length and b) ZTM has arranged its timetable that in such a way that the eastbound 715 passes the bus stop by the station 30 seconds before passengers getting off the train can get to it.

Surely it's not beyond the wits of bus timetablers to work out that rail-bus interchanges are the most crucial element along a route, and that the bus should arrive at the station's bus stop two or three minutes after the train departs. And a propos o W-wa Jeziorki station, this morning I counted 73 cars parked along the muddy grass verges of ul Gogolińska and Karczunkowska. A record.

And from the train, I observed that ALL the lamps on the several hundred metres of the unused stump of the S79/S7 southbound are switched on - despite the complete lack of traffic for the next 10 years or so. I shall write about this at length - a scandal!

This time two years ago:
PiS splits - Solidarna Polska formed (anyone remember them?)

This time three years ago:
Tesco vs. Auchan

This time six years ago:
My father's house