Passing late-summer storm

Weather's strange; yesterday we had 'Augtober' - after the recent heatwaves, a sudden cooling; autumnal mist shrouded the tops of Warsaw's tallest building - greyness and damp permeated the air. But today, summer returned; sunshine, heat, growing humidity, and by the late afternoon, on the horizon - glowering storm clouds. Time, then, for a stroll - it may not be a long one, I fear.

Below: a semi-fast service from Warsaw to Skarżysko-Kamienna approaches Chynów, locomotive at the rear. This train does Warsaw West-Chynów in 35 minutes.The sky is beginning to bruise...

Below: the DK50 as it runs through Nowe Grobice; rain clearly visible on the western horizon. However, it's the dark streaks off to the right that I need to worry about; the wind's in the north-west.

Below: a downdraft is whipping up a sudden wind and the heavens are just about to open. I reach for my waterproof Gore-Tex jacket in my rucksack.

Below: the storm at its peak, ul. Miodowa, Chynów. Click to enlarge - note the white streaks, and the white dots on the track - hailstones. Mercifully, the deluge was as short as it was intense. It passed quickly, as hail can do damage to orchards full of ripe fruit.

The storm has passed, taking no more than five or six minutes to do so. I'm at the edge of a cornfield (first time I've seen corn planted within walking distance of my działka).

After supper, time for a second walk. The sky had cleared, the low sun falling on the forest on the orchard's edge.

Below: the sun dips to the horizon, Grobice, looking towards Chynów. No trace of the storm that passed through.

Below: approaching Sułkowice station, half an hour after sunset.

Below: blue moon, harvest moon, super moon... the second full moon of August. I watched it rising above the farm buildings east of Sułkowice, by the time I was back in Jakubowizna it had fully cleared the horizon and the telegraph wires. 16,600 paces walked today.

This time three years ago:
"Sod the locals" 

This time four years ago:
If you're really concerned about global warming...

This time five years ago:
The balance between the spiritual and the material

This time six years ago:
End of August, end of summer?

This time seven years ago:
Pavement for Karczunkowska... a bit at least

This time eight years ago:
Gold Train update (the hope! the expectations!)

This time ten years ago:
Poland post the Rubbish Revolution

This time 11 years ago:
Poland's most beautiful street

This time nine years ago:
Getting to grips with phrasal verbs

This time 11 years ago:
What Putin wrote about Molotov-Ribbentrop

This time 15 years ago:
Summer Sunday in the city

This time 16 years ago:
Last bike-ride to work of the summer

Focus on attention; focus on beating procrastination

If I am to list my faults as a biological human being - that shell of foam made of protein currently used to carry my consciousness - it is its inability to stay focused for any length of time.

External deadlines ("this piece is needed for 15:00 today" or "you're on TV in half an hour and expected to cover a subject you hardly know") are great for focusing the mind. If I fail to perform, I have to apologise, explain myself etc. Uncomfortable. In such cases, I carry out the task, and the fact that I get asked back repeatedly suggests that I'm not bad at it.

But when there's no external deadline - just me telling myself what I need to get done? 

Like writing this blog post. You'll see it date-stamped one minute to midnight, Wednesday 30 August - the day I originally had the intuition to write this post. I made notes, I started, but I didn't get round to finishing it. The piece was finally completed on Friday morning - because of procrastination and a mind that wanders off onto other trains of thought.

Procrastination is a feature (or rather a bug!) of our human behaviour that we're all aware of. It leads to a growing list of things to do that have been put off because they're neither Urgent nor Important within our subconscious Eisenhower Matrix. Down there in the bottom right are things like Buying the Battery for the Other Motorbike (which I'll do when I Get Round To It). Or sweeping the floor in the porch. Or getting someone to put up the big mirror. If the list of things-put-off gets too long and unmanageable, it generates unhappiness, frustration and stress, all of which contribute to ill-health.

Having reached the stage of life where I know what is indeed important, and getting older means there's less time to accomplish it, I really need focus. Spiritual focus indeed - the sort learnt by Buddhist monks in their mystical contemplations. A mind that doesn't wonder. Mine's off. I have to confess I'm thinking about breakfast right now... should I eat first, and then finish this blog post?

No - I'll keep writing. One can live for days without food. Focus on the task!

Sitting cross-legged for hours at a time in silent contemplation of the numinous, the infinite, the eternal is a valuable practice when young - when the Zen master prowls the room of seated novice monks with a stick, ready to swipe the backs of those whose minds have clearly wandered off.

As we learn more about our psychiatric behavioural disorders, we grasp the idea that there are many of them, and most of us are touched by one or more to a lesser or greater degree. I have written about autism spectrum disorder (ASD, formerly known as Asperger's Syndrome), but another that affects a significant slice of the population is ADHD - attention deficit hyperactivity disorder "characterised by excessive amounts of inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity" [Wikipedia]. Again, it's a spectrum thing. Define 'excessive amounts.' Even small amounts can be pernicious. What counts as 'excessive'?

My phone vibrates. My focus is gone - I reach for the phone. Nothing urgent - the weather forecast has been updated. Sunny today, rain for the weekend. PUT IT DOWN AND FOCUS!

We are all prone to such moments of distraction. Attention is an evolutionarily important trait - I see a cat sitting motionless in a field, among the tall grass. Its attention is focused on the stirrings of a field mouse. The cat is oblivious to me approaching it from the rear... I get closer - suddenly, it becomes aware of me; it has to make a decision whether to run from the human or to stay focused on the mouse. I take a step closer - the cat bounds off. The mouse is spared by this unexpected intervention.

Attention deficit can coexist with ASD. Being 'on spectrum' usually means having those restricted, repetitive behaviours and interests (RRBI),  those intense, fixated interests in specific activities or subjects. RRBI helps with focus. I have written about how the great geniuses of science were often on the autism spectrum ('savants') - something that Stanford School of Medicine's Prof Garry Nolan attributes to differences within the putamen caudate area of the brain's basal ganglia when compared to the neurotypical.

I have written in the past about specialist and generalists - having a deep knowledge or broad knowledge. Maybe it's too simplistic, but I would associate deep knowledge within a narrow area of interest with RRBI (and ASD) and broad general knowledge with the scattiness and ADHD - losing focus on one subject area when another, more interesting one, comes along.

When I was young, I could toggle between both modes; on the one hand being engrossed for hours in deeply focused play (building cities out of Lego), or reading about aeroplanes and comparing their maximum speeds. On the other hand, I could become distracted all too easily and switch from one activity to another. My father would often tell me 'nie łap za dużo srok za ogon' - don't try to catch too many magpies by the tail. He could see that I'd have trouble staying focused on one thing, and that would be his way of telling me.

Both these traits continued into adulthood. I'd give this dichotomy a positive spin - I was good at multitasking, I'd tell myself. Now, I think that more focus is good. Focus on attention. Plan my day. Write a to-do list at the start of each day. Structure. Get more done. Beat procrastination. Life is getting shorter by the day, however old you are - there are things that need to be achieved.

Now I press the 'publish' button, I can make myself breakfast.

This time last year:
The S7 extension opens (and Jeziorki loses its semi-rural tranquility forever).

This time three years ago:
Infrastructure delays everywhere

This time four years ago:
Let's stop spitting at the other tribe

This time five years ago:
Progress on the działka

This time nine years ago:
Changes to Poland's traffic regulations

This time 12 years ago:
Teasers in the Polish-English linguistic space

This time 13 years ago:
Summer slipping away

This time 14 years ago:
To the airport by bike

This time 15 years ago:
My translation of Tuwim's Lokomotywa

Blinded by materialism

In childhood, my desire for possessions boiled down to wanting toys. Diecast cars - Corgi, Dinky and Matchbox - plastic model kits - Airfix, Frog and Revell - and of course there was Lego. Stoking such desire were the toy catalogues; by poring over the colourful brochures, I would compare the features of one toy vs another, and badger my parents into buying them for me, or waiting until my birthday or Christmas to get them, gift-wrapped. Yes, there were books. Books tended to come from Ealing Public Libraries, borrowed rather than collected. I read voraciously as a child, mostly non-fiction reference books about aircraft, military matters, railways and other such topics. The library system worked so well that I didn't actually own that many books as a child. Materially, my childhood was a time of simple wants, safe under my parents' wings. 

One grows up. Fitting into society requires a different approach to things. As a teenager, this was about the clothes you wore, the music you listened to, going out as often as possible. All other material needs still provided by parents.

But once out on your own, with a job and housing to pay for, it became important to show you were by the measure of your material possessions. Car, property, baubles, exotic holidays. Work to spend, spend to show off. Your position in the status hierarchy is determined to a great degree by what you have. Your job, your earnings, where you live, how you dress; your lifestyle. The social self is moulded by groupthink; the young adult tries hard to fit in. Doing a job you don't like to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't know.

And it is in this state of development that many remain for the whole of their lives; living through the prism of social approbation. Unable to progress, autonomous decisions are not from them, because "what will they think?" 

If there is no metaphysical purpose to life, and literally all that there exists is matter, then there is no other purpose to life than mere consumption. Even to question this imperative seems to be a subversive act. For we all need Growth. Growth is good - a bigger cake, bigger slices for all - jobs, money, taxes, government services... And without growth a downward spiral. Unemployment. Poverty. Discomfort. Hunger and cold and ill health. Things falling apart. Entropy. Our life can only hold up through growth! Growth can only be obtained through making more, selling more, buying more, consuming more.

Is this so? Not necessarily. The climate crisis is forcing us to examine our behaviour and change our patterns of consumption. The rich quarter of humanity is threatening the rest of the planet.

Stop wanting stuff. Open your consciousness to higher states; if you must chase after something, chase the metaphysical. Our new digital world offers such vast new oceans of knowledge to interact with; so many great science and philosophy communicators on YouTube, so many wonderful articles on Wikipedia and elsewhere on the web, everything searchable, and AI is about to make knowledge even more accessible. The richness of the inner life now can truly take over from a mindless chase for new things to offer short-term delight.

This time last year:
The Bright Side (where things don't go bump in the night)

This time six years ago:
Waiting for the level-crossing barriers - Nowa Iwiczna and W-wa Dawidy

This time seven years ago:
More Sandomierz photos

This time eight years ago:
All aboard the Gold Train rush

This time 12 years ago:
Dominicans at large, Służew 

This time 13 years ago: 
Late summer moods, Jeziorki 

This time 14 years ago: 
The next one hundred years 

This time 15 years ago: 
"What do we want? Early retirement!
When do we want it? NOW!" 

This time 16 years ago: 
Twilight of Warsaw's greenhouse economy

Dawn tourism - the sights without the crowds

I arrived in Sandomierz on Thursday evening and headed straight to the dinner inaugurating the exporters' conference, which took up the whole of Friday (starting at 8:30am and ending late with another dinner). So to get a chance to see Sandomierz properly, I decided to spend my own money on a second night's stay and check it out on Saturday. This is exactly what I had done on my last visit, this time seven years ago. However, since then, Sandomierz has become a victim of its own success, and like Kraków, it is in danger of becoming over-touristed. Slow death by a million tourists, grazing, gawping, shuffling and being persuaded to part with their money by a thousand garish posters, banners, parasoled pavement tables, cider stalls, post-card stands and fridge-magnet displays.

So to avoid the crowds, which on this, the last weekend of the summer holidays, under cloudless skies, would be huge, I did this. I woke up with the sunrise (05:35), dressed quickly, and without breakfast, I went out to see Sandomierz while there was no one around. And what a visual treat that was.

Below: through the gate and into the old town. Passing through, was one of just three people that I observed over the hour that I was there. The morning light on old bricks and cobbles is beautiful, and the smells of dawn are magical. This is Brama Opatowska, the only one of the four town gates to have survived.

In summer, we're more accustomed to seeing the sun streaming in low between buildings in the evening, when the streets are full of merry throngs on their way to bars, cafes and restaurants. But now - no one at all. It's like wandering around an empty open-air museum.

Below: the old town square with nobody there. It's ten to seven in the morning.

Sandomierz's old town is located on top of an hilly outcrop some 45 metres high overlooking the Vistula. The building below is one overlooking the south-western slopes as they fall away toward a deep ravine. On the far distant horizon, the water meadows of the Vistula.

Below: a prospect towards the south-east - again, the Vistula visible on the horizon (and just about) the bridge linking the town's Zarzekowice district (which is where Sandomierz railway station is inconveniently located). To the left, the vicarage, to the right the cathedral walls.

One of those prospects that creates a double take - isn't this southern Europe? I'd posit that Sandomierz is one of the most northerly located town of southern Europe; climatically it's warm enough for viticulture, and the architecture, when lit by sunshine, isn't dour but joyous.

Although not designed by an Italian architect, like Zamość, 120km to the east, the layout of Sandomierz around the town hall and main square also brings the European south to mind.

Below: a very Tuscan prospect. From here I return to my hotel for breakfast (excellent!) heavily laced with coffee - then a short nap (hence the coffees!) from which I awake to take on the rest of the day.

Below: the Dominican church and convent, and its vineyard. Church and viticulture together - "fruit of the vine and work of human hands". Eight centuries of tradition. Photo taken in the early afternoon.

Climate change has made wine making a more commercially viable proposition for the Sandomierz region; there are now nine vineyards along the local wine trail, one of which is Winnica Św. Jakuba shown above. But local wine-making is a still small scale enterprise (typically a couple of thousand bottles of a single type per year). Destined, however, to expand.

Below: Sandomierz castle, seen from the Vistula's water meadows below the old town. The tourist throng is to be found on the other side of the castle.

Left: two deep ravines run from the heights upon which the main part of Sandomierz stand down to the Vistula river. Note how green the scenery is for late summer. The electric tourist carts stop at the bottom, but few venture up here, preferring instead to buy ice cream and lemonade at the bottom.

Below: peak season, busy with tourists, Sandomierz's entrepreneurial citizens are busy selling krówki (cream fudge), cydr (cider sweetened with honey, with added cinnamon and cloves, and cut with lemonade), and all things themed Ojciec Mateusz, the TV priest-detective series set in Sandomierz. I'd recommend that the local authorities clamp down on the more garish forms of advertising which try to outcompete one another with day-glo colours and shouty fonts. Not visible in any of my photos as my lens tries to avoid such things. They are quite at odds with the town's character.

Cars are banned from the old town, as they should be, but now there are more and more of these electric carts plying their trade around Sandomierz. I noted in 2016 the appearance of faux Model T Fords for taking tourists around the town. These have been joined by fake vintage Rolls-Royces and these things (below), styled after a late-1930s Chevrolet truck; it is quite out of place visually - the Model T Ford replicas are more fitting.

When I was last in Sandomierz in 2016, I was impressed at its progress in establishing its place on the tourist map of Poland. Plenty of new investment, refurbishment, sensitively carried out. However, I fear a tipping point has been reached. There are now so many ice-cream stands and small tourist-tat stalls competing for custom with shrill advertising that it all risks drowning out the visual charm of the old town. 

Below: I thoroughly recommend the hotel in which I stayed, the Sarmata (***). As in 2016, I had one night paid for, the second I paid myself so I could extend my stay and see more of Sandomierz. In 2016 I paid 280zł (then worth £56) for a night, and complained about a poor breakfast. Seven years later, the hotel-night cost 270zł (£52 today) with an excellent breakfast - huge and healthy - lots of fresh fruit, grilled veg, poached eggs, big choice of cheese and cold cuts and fruit juices. And a beautiful hotel complex too, perfectly located for the old town.

So - take my tip, do as much sightseeing as possible around daybreak - before the crowds and the commerce take over. The qualia memories the remain will be that much stronger. And 23,500 paces, the result of two long strolls (and a shorter one back to the bus station).

This time last year:
Bike-ride to the past

This time three years ago:
Muscle memory

This time five years ago:
The journey there, and the journey back again

This time six years ago:
Sandomierz - another outstanding Polish town to see

This time eight years ago:
Food hygiene and lies as Russian foreign policy tools

This time nine years ago:
Asphalt for ul. Poloneza (to Krasnowolska at least)

This time ten years ago:
A welcome splash of colour to a drab car park 

This time 11 years ago:
To Hel and back in 36 hours

This time 13 years ago:
Honing the Art of the Written Word

This time 14 years ago:
Of castles, dams and brass bands

Getting to Sandomierz - bumming around Poland by trains and buses

In Sandomierz for an excellent meeting with Polish food exporters on their way to the Speciality & Fine Food Fair in London. I took part in a panel discussion and then conducted a briefing for the Polish firms. A great event in the beautiful location of Sandomierz castle, upon which the sun beamed down. Sandomierz is basically Grójec with extra sunshine, sloping hillsides and fertile black-earth soil - where the orchards are augmented by vineyards - plus it's one of Poland's most beautiful old towns. The Sandomierz district is thus truly blessed. It's just that it's not the easiest of places to get to.

A mere 90 miles (145km) in a straight line from Jakubowizna, I'd have thought that it will be an easy place to get to, given that there's a train (the San) that passes through Chynów, which I can catch in Warka and then alight directly in Sandomierz...

Would that it were so simple.

The San happens to be the one and only direct train a day from Warsaw to Przemysł (conveniently stopping in Warka and Sandomierz). But right now, there's a gap along the line; the train only goes as far as Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, then a replacement bus service takes passengers onward 50km to Sandomierz. As a result, I'd arrive at the latter at quarter past nine in the evening (an hour and a bit after the dinner started) - and Sandomierz's railway station is a long way from the town centre.

So I looked at alternatives - catching a train from Chynów towards Radom, thence by bus to Sandomierz (the bus station is much closer to my destination). 

And here's the problem. Whilst Poland's trains are (relatively) well managed from the point of view of passenger information online, the bus situation is poor - like, well late-1990s. It's not joined up. You end up with .pdfs, not interactive apps. Clunky, and frankly - inadequate. Fortunately, the first part of the puzzle is solved by BusRadar.pl, but ultimately it'll find you the connection and then dump you on the website of the bus operator, under-invested and poorly designed. Little thought for user experience/user interface. The bus connecting Radom and Sandomierz is operated by Poltrans.eu; it runs from Warsaw to Leżajsk stopping at assorted towns and villages along the way. The ticket costs 50zł (45zł with seniors' discount), and unlike train pricing, which is per kilometre, the bus operator uses dynamic pricing. Not as transparent. (Whilst I paid 45zł for Radom - Sandomierz, my return ticket from to Sandomierz - Ostrowiec cost 40zł, for less than half of the distance with no discount offered.) 

However, I could pay by Blik - which for my readers outside of Poland is a genius online payment solution. I click on the vendor's 'pay' button, open my banking app, press for a Blik code, get six digits which I type into the vendor's page, I'm then asked by the banking app to verify, and once acknowledged by the vendor, the deal goes through and I'm sent my bus ticket by email. Quick, simple, cheap, effective.

So I caught a train from Chynów to Radom Północny (one of the three new stations built north of Radom's central station). I buy Koleje Mazowieckie tickets with the KM app, which is even easier and faster. So far, so good, train arrived on time. I then had to walk for some 40 minutes from Radom Północny to the bus stop, located by a roundabout on the main road into Radom. The bus came, on time. I boarded, all good, and then after about five minutes, the bus whizzes past Radom Północny station. No thought as to joined-up travel. At the bus stop itself, the information was wrong. I was travelling on a Thursday; the timetable said the 15:12 bus to Sandomierz doesn't run on Thursdays. But run it did, and on time, delivering me in Sandomierz punctually.

The bus itself was no more than a Mercedes-Benz Sprinter minibus; the aisle was so narrow that fatter passengers had issues passing down it to their seats - which were indeed comfortable, the bus new. The journey itself was fine, no grumbles.

But bus travel is nowhere near as comfortable as train travel. I return on Saturday - by bus from Sandomierz to Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski, PolRegio train from Ostrowiec to Skarżysko-Kamienna; then the InterCity Orłowicz on to Warka (in bar car number three for lunch and a craft ale); then Koleje Mazowieckie from Warka onto Chynów.

I decided to extend my stay by an extra night and spend Saturday looking around Sandomierz, which I last visited in 2016 - a beautiful European town - more southern than northern, especially under blue skies and brilliant sunshine. Photos soon.

TRAVEL UPDATE 26 AUGUST: Return journeys are always easier than the outbound leg. My bus from Sandomierz arrived on time at Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski - there I caught a PolRegio train to Skarżysko Kamienna, buying my ticket through the PolRegio app which I downloaded while waiting. The train was also on time, delivering me to Skarżysko-Kamienna with 20 minutes in hand to catch an InterCity train to Warka. Again, I bought my ticket on the platform, this time via the InterCity app. Train arrived punctually, I had dinner in the diner, washed down with a craft ale. Finally a Koleje Mazowieckie train from Warka to Chynów and a short walk home. Easy when you know how!

This time last year:
Inspiration

This time nine years ago:
Food shopping and dietary update

This time ten years ago:
Photos from the Radom Air Show, part 1

This time 11 years ago:
Offloading PKP's risk at W-wa Jeziorki

This time 13 years ago:
Time to be stuffing yourself with fresh fruit

This time 14 years ago:
First notes of autumn in the air

This time 16 years ago:
Large spider catches fly

Intermittent Faults and Consciousness

I do love the Koleje Mazowieckie app on my phone. It allows me to buy my train ticket to town in less than a minute, often while on the platform of Chynów station, with the lights of the approaching train in the distance. 

But for all the convenience it offers, the app isn't perfect. Sometimes, I tap the icon, and the app opens, but I can't do anything in it. It just opens - and freezes. Now, I find I can forestall this eventuality merely by thinking about it. But if, in my hurry to buy the ticket before the train pulls into the station, I automatically tap the icon while thinking about something else - then it malfunctions. I curse, close it, reopen it, and this time - magically - it works. Every time.

The same phenomenon for my online banking card-reader - pop in the card, press the button - and I get an error message. Unless I think for a second - will there be an error message? After processing that thought, the card reader comes to life and the transaction goes through without any problem.

My mornings all start with the coffee-making ritual. The Bialetti goes on the gas hob; I press the ignition knob to spark the flame. 'Click-click-click-click' - if I'm not thinking about what I'm doing, the flame goes out as soon as I release the knob. If I am aware, however, the flame catches after a few clicks.

Intermittent faults can be maddening - there seems to be no causal link between action and outcome - it seems utterly random. You know the thing - there's something wrong with your car, you take it to the garage, and the mechanic can't replicate the fault. He says all's well - you're driving it home... and there it is again.

Can focusing on the outcome change the outcome? Am I able to avoid the malfunction by thinking about it? This is nothing new. I remember from youth, pouring surplus boiled water into the stainless-steel kitchen sink, for example, if I did this without thinking, the sink would 'pop' loudly. Paying attention to what I was doing - it didn't. (Here's more about this phenomenon - from 2009).

Today - another day when hot and humid weather persuaded me to postpone my walk until after nightfall. I set off. Did I consider the possibility that it might just rain? I did not (my subconscious Bayesian inference was that if it hadn't rained for the past three evenings, it won't today). And just as I got into Sułkowice, with 6,000 paces on the clock and another 6,000 to get home - it started to rain. Heavily. No problem... I checked the train app. There's a train due in just over half an hour. I'll buy a beer and packet of crisps and wait it out in the shelter in Sułkowice station. So I bought the beer and crisps, sat down out of the rain, checked the app... the train was showing a five minute delay. I hadn't counted on that. It stretched out... the train finally arrived 12 minutes late. I got off at Chynów; on the platform, no rain. But as soon as I walked through the underground passage between platforms, I could hear the rain start to hammer down again on the station roof. And I take a soaking on the 12-minute journey home.

After writing the bulk of this post before my walk, I feel as though as the Cosmos is trying to reinforce this message - should you overlook a possibility, the chances that it will happen become greater than they would have been had you consciously considered it.

Rational materialists will be quick to debunk. I'm sure that when aware of a potential pop from the sink, I'd pour the boiling water just slightly more slowly; enough of a difference not to make the thermal shock so great as to cause rapid expansion of the steel. That I can say. But as for the apps, or the rain, or the delayed train... please, accept the mystery.

I feel that certain aspects of the nature of the Universe are not yet ready to reveal themselves to us. Can we train ourselves to will the outcome?

This time last year:
The Epigenetics of Thrift

This time three years ago:
Between Warka and Radom - Bartodzieje

This time five years ago:
Purpose

This time six years ago:
Dreamscapy

This time eight years ago:
Sad farewell to Lila the cat

This time nine years ago:
Your papers are in order, Panie Dembinski!

This time ten years ago:
Topiary garden by the Vistula

This time 12 years ago:
Raymond's Treasure - a short story (Part II)

International Awareness Awareness Day

I woke up this morning, aware that today is International Awareness Awareness Day*, when we should all be aware of being aware. And that we should all give thanks for the gift of awareness. 

*************

[A housefly has landed on the table next to my laptop. Is it aware? I'm sure it is. Aware of its surroundings, aware of potential threats, aware of where food can be found. It is, to a limited degree, aware of being, aware of existing. Conscious of being itself. But can it be aware of being aware? This I doubt.]

I'll be using the terms 'consciousness' and 'awareness' interchangeably as I jump off into the scientific and philosophical deep end... 

Consider the role of the observer in any experiment to establish the collapse of the wave function in quantum mechanics. Without a conscious observer around to consciously observe the outcome of the experiment, the particle remains in superposition - a wave and a particle, spin up and spin down, at the same time. The presence of consciousness is therefore a necessary part of the experiment.

This is so counterintuitive that we still can't get our heads around it. Quantum mechanics has long been established in experiments in labs all over the world for decades, its predictions agree with outcomes of those experiments to 12 or more decimal places. Richard Feynman said it's like estimating the circumference of Earth to the width of a human hair. This makes quantum mechanics one of the most successful scientific theories ever.  Quantum mechanics underpins the IT revolution that has brought us such rich benefits as the internet, smartphones, cloud computing etc. But we still can't make sense of quantum mechanics philosophically. Maybe once upon a time we could have done so - but then, we would have been relying on our shamans and our myths to help us do so.

Lab experiments to measure empirically whether a conscious observer can steer the outcome of a quantum particle in superposition as it decoheres remain inconclusive. Rationalist materialists will criticise the experiments as being pseudoscience; I would argue that consciousness, immanent and fundamental, is ineffable in nature. Unwilling to allow itself to be measured - to be revealed - in a something as banal as a lab experiment.

But reveal itself to us it does - though only if we are sensitive to it. The cosmic consciousness is all around; we're bathed in it; our shamanic forefathers were highly sensitive to it, though they understood it poorly in scientific terms. Materialism has desensitised us. Pursuit of money to buy objects that serve to delight us, blunts our awareness, desensitises us to the wonders of the Universe. A simple, though comfortable, life, lived in quiet contemplation, raises that sensitivity.

Be aware of being aware; be grateful for being aware. Awareness of awareness at the meta-level.

* It is as of now. 21 August - International Awareness Awareness Day. I have deemed it thus. And Roman P. has suggested that the evening of 20 August should be International Awareness Awareness Eve - excellent idea.

This time three years ago:
Reflections on late-August

This time five years ago:
Conscious of a waning summer

This time nine years ago:
Plans for modernising the Warsaw-Radom railway line

This time ten years ago:
World's largest ship calls in at Gdańsk

This time 12 years ago:
Raymond's Treasure - a short story

This time 13 years ago:
Now an urban legend: Kebab factory under W-wa Centralna

This time 14 years ago:
It was twenty years ago today

This time 16 years ago:
By bike to Czachówek again

A Dog Day's Night Walk

Sunset is now noticeably earlier than in late June, well over an hour, and the weather, though still hot, is capricious. Government warnings in the form of SMSs advise citizens of possible "intensive rainfall and hail storms", and to protect property against localised flooding. And indeed, in the late afternoon, the heavens did indeed open - Hollywood style, a loud thunderclap portends the start of a downpour. Just enough time to bring the washing in! It rains hard, but not too long. As it eases, I hear the siren calling Chynów's volunteer fire service; more likely to be a flooded cellar than a house fire.

The dog days - that hot and humid part of summer - the least comfortable of the season. Historically, this was the period around the heliacal rising of the star system Sirius (the 'Dog Star'), which the Ancient Greeks associated with humid heat, sudden thunderstorms, lethargy, fever, mad dogs and bad luck. At Warsaw's latitude, Sirius will rise with the sun on 23 August, the height of the dog days - kanikuła in Polish, from the Latin caniculares (and Hundestage in German).

I set off for my walk just after 9pm, by which time it's entirely dark. Turning left at the end of my drive, I headed past the orchards and into the forest. I am so familiar with the forest that it holds no terrors for me. No cryptids with eyes glowing like red-hot coals. No black triangles, the size of four football fields, hovering silently overhead. No deranged killers on the run. Though I have a torch in my phone, I'm not using it; after a while, my eyes become accustomed to the darkness, and in any case, I know the paths through the forest well. I come to a clearing. Across a field of low scrub I can see the far horizon; distant flashes in the sky to the south-east tell of the thunderstorm that passed over Jakubowizna a few hours earlier.

After a while, I cross the road between Jakubowizna and Machcin, and disappear into another forest track that leads towards Dąbrowa Duża and Rososz. This part of the forest has not been logged, and as such is far denser, darker. Rich smells mingle - here and there, fermenting mirabelle plums, the earthy scent of forest floor with early mushrooms; wildflowers, unidentified.

The path takes me on. To my left, individual lights mark out distant houses on the fringes of Dąbrowa Duża. Here and there, barking dogs. I reach the new asphalt at the end of the village (below) and start walking through it. Photo taken with camera resting on a post, quarter of a second at f/2.8, 3200 ISO.

By now, it's gone 10pm, no one about on the street. Here and there I can smell barbecues and hear music - summer parties winding down. It's still very warm, 22C. In my rucksack I have a lightweight jacket in case of a shower or sudden fall in temperature - I don't need it. All is good. No gnats or midges to bother me either.

The sky remains clear. I can see the blinking lights of passenger jets heading south after taking off  from Okęcie. I can see Ursa Major, the Plough, the two stars to the left of the constellation pointing north towards Polaris, the pole star. And indeed, I am walking due north, back towards Machcin II.

Below: with no light other than the night sky, the unasphalted road to Machcin II (incidentally, this is pronounced 'Machcin drugi' rather than 'Machcin dwa' by locals). Note the puddles left by this afternoon's rain. Two-and-half-second exposure, f/3.5, 2800 ISO. Adobe's AI-driven noise-reduction software (still in beta, I must add), is crap.

Reaching the road, I decide to return home the long way - turning left and through Jakubowizna. Below: long exposure punctuated by flash on the village's border.

By now, it's nearly 11pm, the last of the summer parties is ending, the village is entirely still. Just a few dogs here and there. Past the station, up the hill, round the corner, back down and home. A total of 13,500 paces walked in just over two hours.

This time last year:
Old soul, new challenge

This time two year ago:
What happened at Monks Wood

This time four years ago:
Loss, faith and consolation

This time six years ago:
Summer's wasting away

This time seven years ago:
Warsaw remembers the PASTa building capture

This time eight years ago:
Drought. It was a dry summer.

This time ten years ago:
Warsaw's ski slope at Szczęśliwice

This time 11 years ago:
On the road from Dobra, again

This time 12 years ago:
August storm, ul. Targowa

This time 13 years ago:
Warsaw Central's secret underground kebab factory

This time 14 years ago:
Cheap holidays in other people's misery

This time 15 years ago:
Steam welcomes us to Dobra

This time 16 years ago:
New houses appear in the fields by Zgorzała

Climate Atonement

Bless me, Gaia, for I have sinned against Planet Earth. For four years (1989-93), I drove a two-litre hot hatch; I have crossed the Atlantic four times in a passenger jet (1978, 1989, 1998, 1999). I have bought and disposed of unnecessary baubles. I have eaten meat and poultry in large amounts. 

Yet by and large, since becoming aware of an impending climate crisis some time around the early 1990s, I have striven to dial back my material consumption. No SUV, no exotic holidays for me. In recent years, I have taken radical steps to reduce my carbon footprint. I don't own a car, I don't fly (jet zero), I have reduced my meat consumption. So compared to most folk of my age group, my climate behaviour has been better than average.

As I write these words, seven pm, the thermometer is still showing 30C outside. That's 86F in old money, a rarity in my childhood summers. I remember 1976 well as being a hot one in the UK - it was the hottest summer in 350 years. But since then, it has been beaten by the UK summers of 2003, 2006 and 2014. When climate records fall, they do so now in rapid succession. There have been killer wildfires this year in the Mediterranean, in Canada, and just now, in Hawaii. And flash floods across Europe, Asia and Africa. People tut-tut, but generally go about their lives unaffected. Climate change is something we cannot ignore. Deniers are dangerous people, peddling false science in an effort to justify their continued consumerist lifestyle. They refuse to alter their behaviour despite the evidence.

This summer, 'Do Less' has been my motto on the działka. Let it grow. Only the most-frequented paths through the garden are kept clear of tall grasses and weeds. Every other plant has been allowed to photosynthesise and attract pollinators unmolested. Spare them the cutter. The pruning will be done between late autumn and late winter (przednówek), completed as the sap starts to rise, before trees come into leaf.

The heat makes me lethargic during the daytime, when temperatures have been reaching 33-34C. Even in the house, with all windows open, it's above 28C. By evening, when it cools down, I can work, exercise, think better. I've been taking siesta-style naps in the afternoon, which allow me to stay up until midnight, by which time I can get everything done. If there are no clouds, I'll go out onto the rear patio and watch the stars for half an hour - catching some shooting stars at this time of year.

Climate atonement means being aware of your impact. Every time I fill up my motorbike (125cc engine!), I ask forgiveness from the planet for my actions. I ride less with each passing year; a few hundred kilometres, locally. Fewer miles, fewer emissions, less crude oil sucked up from within the earth and refined into petroleum spirit. 

We all must become acutely conscious of our behaviour, our lifestyles, our patterns of consumption, and their effects on the environment.

By driving Zuzanna to her horse-riding classes and little Nikodem to his tennis club in a huge SUV, their parents are storing up an uncomfortable future for them. Time to stop this. Walk more. Save water, eat less meat, generate less waste. Most of us are aware of this. Summers make that awareness more acute. Time to change our habits.

Rein back consumption, for the sake of the children, the grandchildren, and the generations of humans that are to follow. It's now just gone eight pm; it's 27C outside and 28C inside.

This time last year:
First month with solar panels on the działka

This time two years ago:
Qualia meditations

This time nine years ago:
Public and private land in Poland

This time ten year:
Two Warsaw sunsets over water

This time 13 years ago:
Farewell to the old footbridge over Puławska

This time 14 years ago:
Let's ban cars with engines over 2.0 litres

This time 16 years ago:
Ul. Kórnicka gets paved over

Dave - an Emissary

 { based on a dream I had on the night of Friday 4th to Saturday 5th of August 2023 }

Dave is around 70. He was born in Jamaica and emigrated to England with his parents as a teenager in the 1960s. Small in stature, short, slim, spry, Dave's light-brown skin tells of some British great-grandparent. Thinning white hair and full white beard. Yet his most notable characteristic is his ineffable cheerfulness and sparkling eyes.

Dave spent all of his working life - literally every working day - at Heathrow Airport. London Airport as it used to be called back in the day. Manual work - cleaning, carrying. Never said much, but always seeming happy, Dave was  popular with his co-workers, even though very few got to know him well. "Lives alone." "Has eight kids by three wives." "Six kids, two wives." "Used to race Formula 3 cars at the weekend." "Played bass with Black Slate." All conjecture. "Does Dave do drugs?" "Acts like a toker - but never seen him blowing weed..." "Never heard him talk of it, neither..." Dave did nothing to unravel nor to promote the mystery of his personal life; he'd dismiss direct questions with a chuckle and a shrug of his shoulders.

He worked on beyond his state pension age - with good workers in short supply, his last boss was more than happy to keep him on, that is, until Covid and lockdown. Then the firm let go of Dave and many of his mates. As soon as the lockdown was over, Dave would return to the airport, now no longer as a worker, but as a visitor. He'd catch the bus down from Sipson to Heathrow Central and would spend the afternoon wandering around from terminal to terminal, groundside only - no longer did he have that security badge - smiling benignly at holidaymakers and business travellers alike, nodding as though he's known them for years.

There's the metaphysical effect of Dave's smile. People who see it immediately feel better; travel anxieties subside, replaced with a sense of peace and joy. Bickering families, hassled executives, burdened airport workers, all noticed a magical easing of negative emotions after making eye contact with smiling Dave. For most, it was a subconscious experience. For some, it was an encounter with a man, a most unremarkably remarkable man that stayed with them for a while, to return in memory flashbacks.

Dave - a quiet miracle worker, going about his way, unproclaimed. You might not have even noticed him as you rushed through Heathrow from check-in to security to gate. Maybe I didn't consciously notice him either, but I did have that dream, and the title of this post was from that dream too. 

Dave - an Emissary... but from whom?

This time last year:
Fifty years with Virginia Plain

This time two years ago:
The Curve (and one's place on it)

This time four years ago:
Fifty years on, my last kolonia

This time ten years ago:
Grodzisk Mazowiecki's pretty station

This time 11 years ago:
Exorcism outside the President's Palace

This time 12 years ago:
The raging footsoldier - a story about anger

This time 13 years ago:
Graffiti and street art 

More about Walking and Health

An interesting piece appeared in the BBC's newsfeed yesterday, headlined "Fewer than 5,000 steps a day enough to boost health - study". 

So - should I trim my long walks down to 5k a day? 

I read the intro: "It has long been touted that 10,000 steps a day is the magic number you need to stay fit and healthy - but a new study shows fewer than 5,000 may be enough to see a benefit."

For the physically lazy - this sounds like good news. And the intellectually lazy will probably not go on beyond the intro. 

But read on: "The more you do, the more health benefits are seen, researchers said. Every extra 1,000 steps beyond the 4,000 reduced the risk of dying early by 15% up to 20,000 steps." This is great news! Referring to my fitness spreadsheet, I see that since 1 January 2014, I have on average walked 11,400 paces a day, every day. For over nine and half years. And I'm on target for 12,000 paces this year.

But I wanted more information on this research. Turns out it's a meta-analysis of 17 studies with a total of almost 227,000 participants, making it the largest such study ever conducted. It was published in the European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. And the lead researcher was Maciej Banach from the Medical University of Łódź. [Link to paper here.]

Below: graphical abstract from the paper (CV = cardiovascular).

The walker's age is important - the sooner you get into daily walking, the better it is for your long-term health. That 15% decrease in risk of premature death falls to 7% among the over 65s. Presumably because they have already avoided early death.

The paper's conclusion is straightforward: "our analysis demonstrates that ‘more is better’ with respect to step counts in both sexes - irrespective of age and the location where walking takes place. In addition, the results indicate that as little as 4,000 steps/day are needed to significantly reduce all-cause mortality, and even fewer steps are required for a significant reduction in cardiovascular death."

It was interesting reading the comments below the BBC's reporting of the story; there's still a hardcore of idle folk who cannot be persuaded to stop driving short distances - despite the overwhelming evidence that walking benefits health outcomes. Out sedentary lifestyles need the physical punctuation of long strolls. Evolutionarily, Homo sapiens has spent 90% of its time as a separate species in hunter-gatherer mode. Sitting for hours at a time is not something we are designed for. 

It was also interesting to see that "This research received no external funding." Well, of course not. The pharmaceutical industry has no incentive whatsoever to promote walking, sleep or healthy eating.

My walk today (13,508 steps), through the woods around Jakubowizna, Machcin II, Dąbrowa Duża and Gaj Żelechowski, returning through Widok and Chynów in perfect summer weather, was boosted by fresh air, hardly any traffic, and a friendly chat with an old guy along the way.

This time last year:
Older, wiser - more credulous?

This time two years ago:
Powerless in Jakubowizna

This time three years ago:
Kilometres of new asphalt for Gmina Chynów 

This time three years ago:
One man went to mow
[out with the scythe on the działka]

This time six years ago:
My father's penknife and airport security

This time nine years ago:
Post-holiday detox diet starts today

This time ten years ago:
Cycle ride up and down the S2 and S79 before they open

This time 11 years ago:
Kraków and back in a day by train 
[The new timetable of 2 September 2023 will see journey times between Warsaw and Kraków cut further - to a mere 2 hours and 10 minutes!]

This time 12 years ago:
Fountains by the New Town

This time 13 years ago:
Old-School Saska Kępa

This time 14 years ago:
The land, the light

This time 15 years ago:
Rainbow over Jeziorki

This time 16 years ago:
Previously in Portmeirion

A low-cost future

Anything that can break down will one day break down. We live in a universe governed by entropy - the Second Law of Thermodynamics. Heat always moves from hotter objects to colder objects, unless energy is supplied to reverse that direction of heat flow. Out of order comes chaos. The Second Law of Thermodynamics asserts that a natural process runs only in one way, and is not reversible. Place a mug of hot tea on your desk, leave it for long enough, and it will cool to room temperature. Energy runs down. We age, we die. A freshly picked strawberry eventually rots. Light bulbs burn out. A car wears down with use. Entropy is a one-way process. 

In practice, in our daily lives, we cannot turn it round or stop it. But we can slow it down.

Buy a cheap pair of shoes and they will wear down quickly. Buy a well-made pair of shoes, using stronger materials, and not only will they last longer, but they can be repaired. 

The more things, however, we possess, the more there is to break down, to wear down, to decay. The more things that break down around us, the more we worry about having to repair or replace them, the more money we need to spend to fight the entropy that is all around us.

So buying fewer, but better things, we can slow down that process - and thereby reduce the cost - of mending or replacing. And the things that we do need to have (rather than just want to have) should be taken good care of, so they last longer.

The other day, while waking up, a spontaneous intuition flashed through my mind unbidden - "LoCoFu - Low-Cost Future". Wow! I like it! We can all do with getting by on less. So much that surrounds us is unnecessary. Much of what we have is because 'that's the way it's always been'. Dinner service for twelve. A fireplace for burning logs. And above all - a big car. Because our next car just has to be bigger and better than our last car.

This unthinking consumerism is costing us our planet - it also makes us prey to people who play on our insecurities to sell us things we don't need to impress people we don't know. Do we really need to impress our genuine friends with the material niceties we surround ourselves with?

It is our unconscious, unthinking, unreflecting drive to promote ourselves along the status hierarchy that gives rise to much consumerism. Any company car-park in the 1970s would be a place where the pecking order of executives and salesmen was displayed by trim-levels of their cars - the low-grade L, the middle-ranking XL, above it the GXL, and then sportier models. 

If we are to survive as a species, the rich world (us) needs to pedal back on our material aspirations. Fewer things - but better things. By better, I mean not gaudier, but more sustainable. Made to last. Made to withstand the entropy that increases as the result of daily use. 

So - if you can avoid buying something - do so, thinking of the long-term. You will not only be contributing to a more sustainable future - you will be saving yourself money.

This time last year:
Evolved Consciousness

This time three years ago:
Goodnight Belarus - may God keep you

This time eight years ago:
Motorbike across Poland to buy fine Polish wine

This time nine years ago:
Eat Polish apples, drink Polish cider

This time ten years ago:
Hottest week ever 

This time 11 years ago:
Progress along the second line of the Warsaw Metro 

This time 12 years ago:
Doric arches, ul. Targowa

This time 13 years ago:
A place in the country, everyone's ideal

This time 16 years ago:
I must go down to the sea again

August sunsets around Chynów

The climax of a summer evening's walk should be catching the sunset.

Below: the evening had been heavily overcast, with a downpour threatening - it didn't happen - the clouds passed and a narrow slit of clear sky, just above the horizon, let the setting sun shine upon the landscape... Just north of Piekut. 

Below: south of Gaj Żelechowski - suddenly, I noticed this splendid sight...

Below: I walked towards the setting sun to get it fill the frame...

Below: Another evening, another sunset to chase... Chynów, towards Nowe Grobice, approaching the highest local height as the sun nears the horizon.

Below: looking towards the northern edge of Chynów, the unpaved ulica Miodowa.

Below: this rare Earth. Treat it well. Let nature flourish.

Below: today was the mirror opposite of yesterday; rather than emerge from the clouds for a final farewell, the sun dipped behind a cloud bank with a quarter of an hour to go.

Below: a freight train on the Warsaw-Radom line; because there's not enough current in the overhead lines to power heavy goods trains, they have to be diesel-hauled between Czachówek and Radom. Here's a Freightliner PL Class 66 pulling a rake of coal wagons. Note the air-conditioning units above the cabs at either end of the loco.

This time last year:
"Don't call me Czachówek - my name is Gabryelin"

This time two years ago:
Accounting for Coincidence
[The Henry Cow-Benjamin Piekut story] (There's Piekut again!)

This time three years ago:
Działka food

This time four years ago:
Proper summer in Warsaw

This time five years ago:
Poland's trains failing in the heat

This time six years ago:
"Learn from your mystics is my only advice"

This time seven years ago:
Out where the pines grow wild and tall

This time ten years ago:
Behold and See (part V) - short story

This time 11 years ago:
Syrenki in Warsaw

This time 12 years ago:
What's the Polish for 'impostor'?

This time 13 years ago:
Running with the storm on the road to Mamrotowo

This time 15 years ago:
St Pancras Station - new gateway to London

This time 16 years ago:
Mountains or sea? North Wales has them both