Deny, distract, dilute

Here's my assessment of the current 'drone flap'. 

Sometime in mid-November, craft of non-human origins began showing up over military bases in the UK and US. These incursions were unprecedented in intensity and duration. The bases have been associated with the storage of nuclear weapons, something that UFOs and Nukes author Robert Hastings says has been happening since the 1940s. These anomalous craft typically show no heat signature detectable to infrared sensors, flying in from the sea in silence, and demonstrating endurance well beyond that of any human-made battery-powered drone, staying aloft for several hours at a time. They were untraceable and unaffected by counter-drone technology. If these are foreign-made drones, the technology is way more advanced than what the US has.

Whereas the UK 'drone' sightings blew over without attracting too much mainstream-media attention, in America, the public, the media and Congress were less willing to let it go. From CNN to Fox News to smaller outlets, right across the political spectrum, the 'drone incursion' story wouldn't fade. It remains in the headlines to this day.

After the first wave of anomalous sightings, the news cycle refuses to move on from on the drone-incursion story. And so, word goes out – flood the fields. 

Air Force, Army and Navy bases start putting their own, identifiable, drones, into the night skies, with transponders off, and where possible, with position lights switched off. Lots of them. Night after night after night. At the same time, the social media is flooded by Travis Trailerhome and Betty Bigbutt posting footage of airliners taking off or landing at night, accompanied by shrieks of "Wow! Unreal! Aliens!". Hobbyist drone jocks practice flying their Black Friday bargains after dark to get in on the act. Amateur CGI enthusiasts of lesser or greater skill levels start posting their clickbait fakery, hoping the algorithm will help monetise their channels. Recordings of spooky sounds emanating from car radios. The more laughable the fake, the better. The more glaringly obvious missightings from America's none-too-bright community, the better. 

And at a joint press conference held on 17 December by the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security , the Federal Aviation Authority and the FBI the message was put forth that: "Having closely examined the technical data and tips from concerned citizens, we assess that the sightings to date include a combination of lawful commercial drones, hobbyist drones, and law enforcement drones, as well as manned fixed-wing aircraft, helicopters, and stars mistakenly reported as drones. We have not identified anything anomalous and do not assess the activity to date to present a national security or public safety risk". The message from White House national security communications advisor  John Kirby and others is – we know that these are not foreign adversaries. We know that these are not our own craft. But we don't know what they are; however, whatever it is that they are, they're not a threat to our safety and there's nothing to be alarmed about. 

This is frankly laughable. This might serve to allay the concerns of the casual observer, but to anyone thinking critically about the issue, this message does not wash at all.

There is a secret so deep that the US military is willing to look incompetent rather than to come clean with the public. 

This time last year:
Pain and questions of loss

This time two years ago:
No true beauty without decay

This time three years ago:
James Webb Space Telescope launch

This time five years ago:

Driving the Silk Road reviewed 

This time seven years ago:
Snapshots of Lublin dressed for Christmas

This time eight years ago:
The best of Warsaw's Christmas illuminations

This time nine years ago:
Changes on ul. Baletowa

This time ten years ago:
UK migration – don't blame the Poles

This time 11 years ago:
Jacek Hugo Bader's White Fever: A Journey to the Frozen Heart of Siberia

This time 13 years ago 
Thoughts upon the death of the Dear Leader

This time 14 years ago:
Global warming or climate change?

Infrastructure: future of local projects

As 2024 comes to a close, a post about three infrastructure projects that will affect me in coming years. Two are big, the other huge. I'll start with the big one...

I've written many times about the railway line from Skierniewice to Łuków. Built during the Stalinist Six-Year Plan to expedite the dispatch of Red Army forces westwards, bypassing Warsaw, the line today is a major conduit for Chinese container trains. Long due for an upgrade; along many stretches, trains are limited to a top speed of 40km/h due to poor track quality.

A major bottleneck is the bridge over the Vistula at Góra Kalwaria. Built in 1950, it carries a single track. The plan is to double the bridge (as has been done over the Pilica in Warka), and to bring back passenger services to the entire line (currently, passenger trains serve only a short stretch, from Czachówek to Góra Kalwaria). EU funds from the Connecting Europe Facility are available to Poland for upgrading this line, of strategic importance to the entire continent. Plans had been prepared. But there was one drawback – the plans did not envisage a footway/cyclepath alongside the rails, to the annoyance of local people. But infrastructure operator, PKP PLK, has given way to public pressure. It looks like there will have an alternative to using the road bridge, which is 3.5km longer. This is a popular area for cyclists from Warsaw, and a river crossing here will come in handy. And drive trade.

So – assuming no delays in the project (there are always delays to projects), the new dual-track railway bridge is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2028, and this should mean that passenger services east of Góra Kalwaria will recommence. Can I hope one day to catch a train from Chynów to Pilawa?

[source]

The second project, again covered many times on this blog, is the final opening of W-wa Zachodnia (Warsaw West) railway station after its comprehensive modernisation. In particular the underground passage linking the eight platforms of the main part of the station to Platform Nine, which is currently a ten-minute walk away. Optimally, this could be cut to seven, so still a hack. 

But the big questions for everyone coming into Warsaw along the Radom line is whether trains will return to serve central Warsaw, or whether they are condemned in perpetuity to be diverted northward via Platform Nine to Warszawa Gdańska station. I think an ideal compromise will be to send some trains this way and some  trains that way. The earliest we'll know is when the 2026 railway timetables are published.

However, while the railway part of the project, the footbridge and the underground connections, are reaching their conclusion, there's still the new tramlines that need to be laid down before the entire project becomes fully operational. This is scheduled for mid-2026. So for the meanwhile, some of the underground parts of W-wa Zachodnia will remain off limits.

[source]

And finally, the mega-project – Warsaw's southern orbital motorway. There is still no decision as to how the A50 will run. Various plans show its course as somewhere between Piaseczno and Chynów, crossing the S7 around Tarczyn and heading east towards a new Vistula crossing. But there's still the chance that the current DK50, which is just over a kilometre at its nearest point from my działka, might be upgraded to motorway standard, doubled or tripled in width.

On the map below, issued by Poland's national-road infrastructure operator, GDDKiA, we see the grey band around Warsaw's eastern periphery. The black lines are existing roads, the red lines are roads under construction, the blue lines are roads being prepared (ie. advanced planning stages); the grey lines represent vapourware, pipe-dreams, notions of concepts. Now, look at the grey lines between the existing S7 and S17. This looks good to me; but the threat of abandoning that concept and using the course of the DK50 through Grójec and Góra Kalwaria doesn't make me happy.

My inner NIMBY is against this idea. The DK50 is currently taking less east-west transit traffic than had been the case before the A2-S2 was fully opened, with its tunnel under Ursynów and its new bridge over the Vistula, but even so, on days when the wind's from the north, traffic noise can be annoying.

At this stage, we don't know (nothing more than this report from Raport Warszawski). Fingers crossed.

This time five years ago:
West Ealing by night 

This time eight years ago:
Smog starts getting to be a big problem for Warsaw

This time nine years ago:
Snow in December: A memory or figment of my imagination?

This 11 years ago:
A muddy walk along ul. Karczunkowska

This 12 years ago:
Ul. Trombity - a step closer to dry feet?

This time 13 years ago:
Matters of style

This time 15 years ago:
Real winter hits Warsaw

This time 16 years ago:
This is not Mazowsze, no?

Poland's sleeper-train services for 2025

Yesterday saw the annual change to Poland's (and indeed Europe's) railway timetables. There are minor adjustments throughout the year (9 March, 15 June, 31 August and 26 October 2025), but this is the moment that new services are introduced or old ones axed.

So – how many domestic sleeper-train services are there after the timetable change? Excluding the international sleeper trains, we are down from six pairs to five pairs; two of them start/finish in Warsaw (to/from Świnoujście and Szklarska Poręba Górna); two pass through Warsaw (Gdynia to/from Zakopane; Kraków to/from Kołobrzeg); and one bypasses Warsaw altogether (Przemyśl to/from Świnoujście via Wrocław). Last year, two of the six trains were operated by InterCity with new sleeper carriages, the remaining four were TLK (Twoje Linie Kolejowe, the cheaper brand). This year, two of the TLK services were upgraded to IC; one TLK remains, one has been changed from a sleeper service to an ordinary train that travels by night.

Let's look at the five pairs of Polish sleeper trains in detail.

I'll start with my personal favourite that I've used many times over the years.

IC 18171 Uznam Warszawa Wschodnia - Świnoujście (dep. 22:39 arr. 07:20). An InterCity, rather than a TLK service, with the newer sleeper carriages are now in use on this service. It leaves Warsaw later than in last year's timetable, calling at Szczecin Główny on the way, arriving at 05:29, more convenient for business than the previous 04:16. The Uznam still gets you to the Baltic beach resorts in good time – it passes through Międzyzdroje at 07:07. And it runs all year round.

IC 81170 Uznam: Świnoujście – Warszawa Wschodnia (dep. 22:03 arr. 06:51) is the return service. Leaving an hour later than in the previous timetable, but arriving just ten minutes later in Warsaw, giving you an extra hour in Świnoujście. The train is already in the platform well ahead of departure time, so passengers can board early and get themselves comfortable before it sets off. 

Taking the Uznam there and back from Warsaw in summer gives you the best part of 12 hours on the beach. With a hotel or apartment from Saturday to Sunday, you can get a full weekend of Baltic sun-and-sea having worked Friday, and be back to the office first thing Monday morning.

********

This is another that I've used many, many times, though I've never been beyond Jelenia Góra.

IC 16190 Karkonosze: Warszawa Wschodnia - Szklarska Poręba Górna (dep. 23:24 arr. 08:25). The Karkonosze, which only goes as far as Jelenia Góra in summer, returns to the mountains, calling in at Wrocław (04:16), Wałbrzych Główny (05:57) and Jelenia Góra (06:42) along the way. Upgraded this year to an Intercity (IC) train, you'll no longer find old-style carriages here. If you have an early business meeting in Wrocław, my tip is to sleep on to Wałbrzych, change there to take a local train back, which will give you another couple of hours of rest. Otherwise you'll be spending all that time in Wrocław Głowny's McDonalds until your meeting.

IC 61190 Karkonosze: Szklarska Poręba Górna – Warszawa Wschodnia (dep. 20:27 arr. 04:56). Departing at the same time as last year, the return service arrives in Warsaw more than an hour earlier, lets skiers and hikers get a weekend full of mountain air and get back well before their offices open on Monday morning, having slept on the train. 

If past years are to go by, the Karkonosze will only run between Warsaw and Zielona Góra during the summer months, thereby depriving passengers the possibility of hiking in the mountains in summer.

********

IC 38170 Ustronie: Kraków Główny – Kołobrzeg (dep. 21:36 arr. 09:34). Year-round seaside-special for folks from Poland's south, calling at Kielce, Radom, Warsaw East and the Tri-City on its way to the resorts of Ustronie and Kołobrzeg. You can use this train as a nocturnal connection between Warsaw (dep. 02:30) and Gdańsk (arr. 06:01) and Gdynia, though with three and half hours between the two cities, you'll not get quality sleep time. Two significant changes to this service; as with the Świnoujście services: it has changed from a TLK to an IC, so better rolling stock. Also, this year's timetable cuts out Warka, Piaseczno, Warsaw West and Warsaw Central, swinging east at Radom, crossing the Vistula to connect Pionki, Dęblin and Pilawa. A longer route, at 936 km.

IC 83170 Ustronie: Kołobrzeg – Kraków Główny (dep. 19:30, arr. 07:46). Passing through Warszawa Wschodnia at 03:00. The train is a useful nocturnal connection for Varsovians needing to be in Kraków for early business meetings.

********

TLK 35170 Karpaty: Zakopane – Gdynia Główna (dep. 21:47, arr. 08:30) At last, track work complete, from the mountains to the sea, 848 km. Not upgraded to IC, so fans of old-school rolling stock can still experience the veneered wood, moquette upholstery and clunkiness. The Karpaty also functions as another nocturnal connection between Kraków, Warsaw and the Tri-City (dep: Kraków Główny 00:45, calling at Warsaw Central at 04:20 and arriving in Gdańsk Główny at 07:58). The Karpaty takes the Częstochowa - Piotrków Tryb. route rather than serving Kielce and Radom. 

TLK 53170 Karpaty: Gdynia Główna – Zakopane (dep: 19:50, arr: 06:39) On the way back from Gdynia to Zakopane, the Karpaty leaves Gdynia at an early hour for a sleeper service, passing through Warsaw Central at 23:45 and arriving in Kraków at 03:27. This means Krakovians can get home after a late night in the capital. The Polish mountains are connected to the Polish sea by night train again – but unlike the Szklarska Poręba service, this one runs all year round.

********

Now onto the one sleeper service that skips Warsaw altogether. There was a second one, the TLK 53172  Rozewie (Gdynia Główna to Kraków Główny via Gdańsk, Bydgoszcz, Poznań, Wrocław, Opole and Katowice); this has been replaced by an unnamed InterCity train, the IC 461; it continues beyond Kraków to Rzeszów and Przemyśl, a 12-hour-16 minute journey of 1,009 km, travelling mostly by night – and yet there are no sleeper carriages on this train!

********

IC 83172 Przemyślanin: Świnoujście – Przemyśl Główny (dep. 18:57, arr. 08:25). The Orient-Express of Polish train journeys, a full 1,019 kilometres (612 miles) all the way, linking the south-east and north-west extremes of Poland. Thirteen hours and 28 minutes; more than two hours shaved off the previous timetable. Despite the shorter travel time, the current route is longer, substituting Opole for Katowice in last year's timetable. An mid-evening start from Świnoujście, but there's a restaurant car attached. Given the nature of night trains, moving from your compartment to the restaurant means having to arrange this with the sleeping-car attendant. The carriages are delivered to Świnoujście station an hour or so before the departure time, so you can leave your stuff in your sleeping compartment, and dine en route to Szczecin (20:26) before returning to your bunk(s). The train also calls at Poznań, Wrocław, Opole, Kraków and Rzeszów on the way, thus serving six of Poland's 16 provincial capitals. A proper InterCity train with modern sleeper carriages, superior in comfort to the stock used on TLK night connections.

IC 38172 Przemyślanin: Przemyśl Główny-Świnoujście (dep. 19:29, arr. 09:04). The south-east and north-western extremes of Poland linked the other way. 

So: more quality, less quantity. Use it or lose it.

Other than the sleeper trains, the biggest story of the 2025 timetable is the introduction of Pendolino trains to Szczecin via Poznań, cutting journey time to 4h 23m (from over five hours; and back in recent memory, seven hours). Wrocław-Warsaw has been cut to 3h 30m. And a new international service, the IC Baltic Express from Czechia to the sea, and the IC Galicia from Przemyśl to Berlin via Rzeszów, Kraków, Katowice and Wrocław. Polish trains are getting better and better!

This time last year:
UFO/UAP disclosure – current state

This time nine years ago:
A tiny bit of pavement for Karczunkowska

This time 12 years ago:
Welcome to the machine, Mr Kaczyński

This time 14 years ago:
'F' is for 'Franco', not 'Fascist' [Prescient post!]

This time 16 years ago:
Christmas lights: all in the best possible taste

This time 17 years ago:
Letter from Russia

Slow progress, but the healing goes on

It's been a week since I badly twanged my right calf muscle, and while I am on the mend, it's still a long way from walking normally and without pain. Another week?

The good news – I have not lost any sleep over this. Every night over the past week has been comfortable; once lying down, I soon forget which leg was injured. But when I get out of bed to stand up, the pain begins. But then as soon as I take a seat, the pain eases. It's just getting about that's problematic. Work has been exclusively from home all this week, with only one live event having to be substituted for a teleconference.

But my mobility is getting better with each day that passes. Above all, I must return to symmetrical walking with a normal gait. By Tuesday morning, I could stand up with my weight equally distributed on both legs. At the moment, it's a bit of a shuffle, with my left leg now being able to swing forward to the point where the left toe is about eight or nine inches ahead of the right toe. It needs to be two feet ahead. Symmetry in movement, as my old dad used to say, is crucial to good health.

Things took a setback on Thursday when I ventured into the back of the garden to empty the compost bin. On the way, my right foot slipped on a wet clump of soil, an immediate stab of pain, and I fell backward, unable to stop the fall. So that day I didn't venture out to do some gentle walking exercise. I did today (almost 4,000 paces) and yesterday (almost 2,000 paces), but there's some way still to go before I can complete 12,000 paces in under two hours.

I am continuing to do those exercises that can still be done without the use of leg power, so press-ups, plank, weights and pull-ups continue. No squatting, no sit-ups, no back extensions. As it is, even before tearing my right calf muscle on December 7, I had already beaten last year's records across all of those exercises, only the paces still to beat. But now that looks unlikely.

The key is to finely balance overdoing it and resting myself into atrophy. As always, body feedback and intuition is all important; listening to what my body is really telling me. And the all important lesson that I should have learnt after an analogous event in the other leg – never break into a sprint immediately after getting up from a long spell in the seated position (bus or car). Running at my age requires a warm-up first. Having said that, I remember my grandmother running for a tram at the age of 73, so there's hope.

The healing process is miraculous. Every successive day is one day's progress along the road to recovery. Standing up to walk over to the sink with an empty mug is not the effort it was five days ago; one should be aware of every intimation of progress and be thankful for it; gratitude; alignment with Cosmic Purpose, and the battle against complacency.

Mind over matter; will yourself better.

This time last year:
A mind-blowing dream

This time two years ago:
Utter, utter gorgeousness

This time three years ago:
Hoar frost and proper ice, Jeziorki

This time six years ago:
Alcohol, servant not master

This time nine years ago:

Classic car quiz, 2015

This time ten years ago:

Classic British Car Quiz, 2014

This time 11 years ago:

The poet's gift - an exploration into Why One Writes

This time 12 years ago:

Advertising H&M on Warszawa Centralna station

This time 13 years ago:

Jeziorki in the snow

This time 17 years ago:

Staying Underground: Piccadilly Circus

The November-December 2023 UAP flap

These weeks will go down in UFOlogical lore – the unexplained spate of drone sightings across the UK and US that's still ongoing as I write. Since the middle of November, eyewitnesses had been reporting lights in the sky over RAF Mildenhall, RAF Lakenheath and RAF Feltwell in eastern England night after night for 16 days. Though some were aircraft, helicopters or military drones, the majority of what was reported did not fit into any explicable category. This anomalous activity over Britain tailed off after almost three weeks, but since then, there has been even more intense drone activity in the night skies over New Jersey.

The UK government and media had been generally silent over the sightings. In the US, however, it's quite different right now. Mainstream media outlets , from CNN to Fox News, have been all reporting this phenomenon. We see once-sceptical journalists accepting that they're seeing things that are hard to explain, we see law-enforcement officers talking about swarms of lights flying in from the ocean, mayors and legislators are angry that they're not being told what's going on. Pentagon and White House press conferences that try to reassure ("they're not foreign adversary drones, they're not our technology"), but this only serves to deepen the mystery.

Applying Occam's razor to this phenomenon doesn't help. One way or another, it's bad news for America. Russian or Chinese 'sleeper' agents? An Iranian ship launching drones from offshore? Malicious hoaxers and pranksters? Black-budget projects from rogue groups within the government? The failure of anyone in authority to suggest any plausible explanation as they try to play down the seriousness of the situation in which a nation's airspace security is so evidently compromised, is a major concern for the public.

Meanwhile, social media is full of testimonies and footage of anomalous lights in the sky, and plenty of conspiratorial theories and warnings of doom. A strange, unreal atmosphere (especially on X).

"Because something is happening here, and you don't know what it is, do you Mr. Jones"

A likely outcome once this is over is that like the mass sightings over Washington DC (1952), in the Hudson Valley (1983-84), Gulf Breeze (1987-88), Phoenix (1997), it will just fizzle out. A suitable explanation will be found (Doug and Dave, the British crop-circle makers; the Gulf Breeze UFO model found in an attic; military exercises; flares; top-secret high-altitude balloon experiments, sensor/equipment faults or mass hallucinations. The word will go out via trustworthy journalists, newspaper articles and TV items will appear, and in the end Johnny Sixpack and Eddie Punchclock will shrug their shoulders and say, "well that's been debunked then – it was swamp gas all along" before going back to their favourite show.

It's just that it doesn't feel like it right now.

[Update 15 December: BBC website summary of the story so far here.]

This time last year:
Impressions of Zielona Góra

This time two years ago:
Kraków to Jakubowizna in the snow

This time three years ago:
Frustration for the local wozidupek community

This time four years ago:
Small local milestones, Chynów station

This time five years ago:

Brexit: what next?
[UK economy's screwed – that's what]

This time eight years ago:
Kick out against change - or accept it?

This time nine years ago:
Warwick University alumni meet in Warsaw

This time ten years ago:
Pluses and minuses of PKP InterCity

This time 11 years ago:
When transportation breaks down

This time 16 years ago:
Full moon closest to Earth

A Dream Journey through the Central Europe of my Childhood Imagination

It was a different world, a dream world. As a child I had visited it often; sparked by trips to Poland through West Germany and Czechoslovakia, journeys which had a profound influence on my aesthetic sensibilities as I was growing up. The atmosphere, the klimat, was so unlike the London suburbs in which I was born and where I grew up.

Below: have I been here before? Kind of, sort of, think so... But when? Memory can be so fickle.

Below: have you been here, in your dreams of long ago?

Below: I dreamt of trams that delivered coal. All night, fleets of tramcars haul trains of coal wagons which drop their load through trap-doors between the tracks, down chutes into coal bunkers located below the cellars of the tenements that line the city streets. Noisy, but necessary activity. Shortly after daybreak, task completed, the trams return to their more usual duties – conveying passengers to their places of work.

And I loved the cars. They were so different to our Austins, Hillmans and Jaguars! My grandmother's family lived in a flat overlooking the petrol station, so I'd often see some amazing cars. Here, for example, is a Krenzstaier 2,8 Liter (in Luxus trim), a favourite among local plutocrats and captains of industry.

Did I dream that my mother bought me a model of one of those cars that fascinated me so? Is it still up there, in my late parents' attic?

Let's cross the tracks to another part of town... this is the line that skirts the western side of the city.

And I'd often take the opportunity to check out the Metro system, which back then still used rolling stock that dated back to the early 1920s!

Here's another one, the trains used on Line No. 2... These had an additional headlamp to provide extra lighting in the long tunnel sections in the distant suburbs

Line 3 stations were my favourite ones on the network – note the chandeliers. 

Below: "The streets were deserted/The police were alerted" – looks like one of those black saloon cars favoured by the state security apparatus heading our way. My father prudently hides his camera.

The car passes without incident. Let's continue our stroll. Almost back at my grandmother's...

Below: the bar on the corner of the street where they live. Looking at this image today, I've become quite thirsty, and fetch myself a bottle of Lützaner pils from the cellar.

Your very good health! The Beer Magnate'f  fineft offering. Beer, as I could only imagine. Cheers!

You will have guessed by now that these images are AI generated. I used Google Gemini Advanced 1.5 Pro with Imagen 3. Compared with my early attempts with AI-generated art, it's so much better in responding to my prompts. The pictures really click with my imagined world, dreams triggered by visits to Poland in the 1960s.

AI art is controversial. Is the content, the intellectual property of millions of creators, being scraped, royalty-free for the benefit of the tech giants? Or has a new creative tool been handed to humanity, just waiting for our imagination to be let loose on it? I'd be keen for your feedback.

Each of the above images is unique. I could type in exactly the same prompt a million times, and never get the same image again.

This time last year:
Poland's sleeper trains: 2024 timetable

This time two years ago:
City-centre notes
[One week living in Warsaw's Nowe Miasto]

This time four years ago:
First snow for ages!

This time five years ago:

Politics and personal responsibility

This time six years ago:
Consciousness, memory and spirit of place

This time seven years ago:
Polish Perivale

This time eight years ago:
Power in the vertical

This time 12 years ago:
And still they come [anomalous flashbacks that is]

This time 13 years ago:
Classic glass

This time 14 years ago:
What's the Polish for 'pattern'?

This time 16 years ago:
"Rorate caeli de super nubes pluant justum..."

Twanged

Nowa Iwiczna and its railway crossings is a bane for rail passengers as well as for motorists. The level crossing there on ulica Krasickiego has the power to hold you up for an insufferably long time. Since the completion of the Warsaw-Radom line modernisation and the opening of SKM services to Piaseczno, the level crossing is a source of local frustration and anger.

Consider the situation I encountered two weeks ago. It's twenty past nine in the evening. The lights start flashing, the bells start clanging, the barriers are coming down. I know that there's at least three minutes before a train actually crosses the road, so on reaching the barrier, I get on hands and knees (twice) to get under  each of the two barriers to reach the southbound platform. Crossing the tracks, I can see distant no train lights from either direction... And about a minute and half later, there it is – the 21:23 Koleje Mazowieckie service to Warsaw. The queue of cars on either side of the tracks waits for the barriers to rise... 

But no. The barriers remain down as the 21:25 SKM service to Piaseczno approaches Nowa Iwiczna station from the north. Maybe once this train has passed, the barriers will rise... Again, no. This time, the barriers remain down for the 21:28 SKM service towards Warsaw. I notice a family – mum carrying small child, dad with baby in pram and grandmother, who had been trapped for several minutes between the main barrier and short barrier closing off the northbound platform. Because of this, they missed that first train to town. They can now hear the SKM train approaching and are determined not to miss another. So dad removes baby from pram, lowers it under the barrier, scrambling under himself, reassembling the pram, putting in baby, taking the second child from his wife, then helping her and the grandmother under the barrier. They have lost their dignity but caught their train. 

Will the barriers go up now? No they won't because the 21:33 Koleje Mazowieckie train to Góra Kalwaria is now due (turns out that my train to Chynów is not until 22:09). I watched the Góra Kalwaria service come and sadly saw it go. And then – finally, after thirteen minutes, the barriers go up. The sound of revving engines on either side! Exhaust fumes! A crowd of waiting pedestrians to breathe them all it. Charge! 

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Yesterday, same place, nearly eight pm. Ul. Krasickiego, Nowa Iwiczna. As I approach the station, the bells start clanging, the lights start flashing – the barriers start descending. Does this presage the impending arrival of a southbound train? I don't fancy waiting an hour for the next one. to Chynów Or is it a northbound train? Or a long goods train coming slowly from either direction? Whatever it is, there's still time... I kick down into a sudden sprint for the barrier.

TWANG! FUUUUUCK! MY FUCKING LEG! 

The calf muscle in my right leg has just torn. A flash of pain, that feeling of having had a baseball bat smacking forcefully into my right leg from behind. I limp on towards the barrier, drop to my knees to get under it. I look both ways. NO SIGHT OF ANY FUCKING TRAIN. Across the three railway tracks I continue, in agony, and drop down again to crawl under the barrier on the other side. Holding onto the handrails, I haul myself up to the platform... nothing approaching from the north. So it was all in vain. A minute that seemed to last an hour but was only a minute, passed. A light from around the corner, and a Warsaw-bound SKM train hoves into view. Mine is due in 13 minutes, although it's one of those days when the service is screwed up and anything can happen. 

I hobble down to the shelter and take a seat and start furiously massaging my right calf. In the distance, I can see the lights of my train. The barriers start descending, accompanied by the clanging of bells and the flashing of lights. Four minutes later, I'm on the train, heading south. I take a seat, continuing to massage my leg. It is very painful when I touch it. Soon I'm back in Chynów. The kilometre home takes me the best part of half an hour, dragging my right leg behind me.

Once inside, a soluble aspirin and an early night. When lying down, it's comfortable, but every now and then, a spasm of pain jolts through my left leg; falling asleep takes a long time. But once asleep, it's OK; I wake once for a wee at 03:00, then sleep through to just before eight. All told, a good night's sleep for to circumstances.

This morning, while resting, the leg is still making me aware of itself (it just feels like it's really tired, after a hard workout), but as soon as I stand up and try to move, it hurts. The only way I can locomote is to straighten my right leg at a 45-degree angle, foot on the floor, and slide it along with my left leg pushing, then jumping forward. Push, slide, jump. Push, slide, jump.

I remind myself of the last time this happened (this is the great thing about having a blog!) Back in October 2013. Friday 25th. Seemed to have been slightly worse than this time; the key question is – how long will it take me to fully recover? Back then, 11 years ago, my blog indicates it took me nine days before I was out and about. Well, there's a target there, for mind over matter. And a lesson - don't break into sprints at the age of 67!

Having had that experience, and writing it down, proves useful for learning. As we get older – every one of us – we have to learn to manage our biologies. And my 17 year-long blogging (and 11 year-long spreadsheet) is a useful tool for to that end.

This time three years ago year:
The ego and evil

This time five years ago:
Warsaw's Christmas lights 2019-20

This time six years ago:
Pawlikowski's Cold War

This time nine years ago:
"Extreme weather events are now a feature of the British climate"

This time 11 years ago:
Cheaper public transport for Varsovians

This time 12 years ago:
Swans on ice

This time 13 years ago:
Cars 

This time 14 years ago:
What's the English for kombinować?

This time 15 years ago:
The demographics of jazz

This time 17 years ago:
A day in Poznań

Biorhythms are nonsense. And yet...

You ask anyone with any chronic illness how they are, and often you'll hear: "there are better days, and there are worse days." We can all sympathise with the notion of cyclical fluctuations in samopoczucie, in one's physical, mental and spiritual condition. 

Back in the 1970s, I had read – and thought a lot – about biorhythms – the idea that we are all subject to three cycles governing the way we feel and behave.

From Wikipedia: "the biorhythm theory is the idea that people's daily lives are significantly affected by rhythmic cycles with periods of exactly 23, 28 and 33 days; a 23-day physical cycle, a 28-day emotional cycle, and a 33-day intellectual cycle." The theory is predicated on the notion that all three cycles are precisely matched at the moment of birth, and run on throughout life, hitting peaks and troughs that can come together at rare intervals.

At the time, newspaper articles and pop-science books passed from hand to hand in sixth-form common rooms and with the aid of pocket calculators, we were trying to work out whether we were meant to be having a good day or a bad day (or a combination of both across three metrics). But there was a huge snag that I could see – the mathematical precision that the theory depended on. Biology isn't digital; it's messy. Women's menstrual cycles are a good illustration of this, periods coming early, late or sometimes not at all. So why should, for example, the human intellectual cycle run at exactly 33 days? For all people? 

Although biorhythms have rightly been dismissed as pseudoscience, I nevertheless intuit that there's a wisp of truth here. We all have our ups and our downs, physically, intellectually and emotionally. For some people, the amplitude of the peaks and troughs is not significant. Externally, they appear consistent.

But not everyone is consistent. Athletic, intellectual or artistic performance can fluctuate. And obviously there are extraneous factors. Are we ever at our absolute peak when taking an exam, running a race or just experiencing the emotions of a long-awaited vacation?

So – is this all cyclical? Can one pin down those highs and lows, and based on that – can one predict them into the future, such as solar or lunar cycles?

Here's my experience – when the physical cycle is low, one is more likely to come down with some infection. There's a greater need for daytime naps, nocturnal sleep has longer duration, there's a higher propensity to small aches and pains. 

So when the physical cycle is low, I'm not trying to break exercise records. I take it easy. I go to bed early and have a lie-in the next morning. And when the cycle peaks, then I can go for it (like the two sets of nine pull-ups to the bar I managed on 6 November.) Pull-ups are a good indicator for me of my physical condition. Some days I'll be pulling seven or eight; others three or four are more usual. So looking at the data gathered over 11 years, can I see a pattern? If there is (just looking a pull-ups, for example), it's not at all regular, but there are peaks and troughs.

Intellectual cycles are also interesting. These, I think, are longer in duration. For me the symptoms of an intellectual low is when I feel that I don't really know much. That my understanding of the fabric of reality is poor. My curiosity wanes, I'm more easily distracted. When speaking in public, I do so without much conviction, and I feel I'm not carrying the audience along with my narrative. And blogging – sometimes I feel inspired, sometimes I'll go back to an old post and think "that was really quite good!". Other times, the prose seems flat, contrived or borrowed.

Emotionally, my mood swings are from gregarious to withdrawn, though in the withdrawn state I'm not unhappy, so I'd rate my happiness levels as consistently good. Sometimes I do need to be alone.

Consciously sensing the feedback from your body, mind and spirit are to me essential in keeping on track. But the fundamental question is – are we running on cycles, or are the ups and downs of our physical, mental and spiritual condition merely the result of external factors? And if there are cycles – to what extent can we control them, physically or indeed metaphysically?

This time three years ago:
Twilight rambler

This time five years ago:
Late-November pictorial round-up

This time six years ago:
Artificial Intelligence vs Artificial Consciousness

[In retrospect, an interesting and prescient piece!]

This time seven years ago:
Viaduct takes shape in the snow

This time ten years ago:
No in-work benefits for four years?

This time 11 years ago:

Third snow-free November in a row

This time 12 years ago:

Another November without snow

This time 13 years ago:
Snow-free November

This time 14 years ago:
Krakowskie Przedmieście in the snow

Kanalisierungszeit

 What's going to happen now? Let's see...

{{ Sweet snaps of the Rhine, pressed trousers, polished shoes, you're representing the U.S.A., remember. These people all around us were our enemy just ten years ago. Today, they've bought into our dream. Automobiles, neon and jazz. Television sets and sport. Frauleins remind me of home. But you stare into the dead eyes of some older guy, and you know, you see hate. Hatred, resentment. I last saw that gaze fixed on me in Alabama. Losers and winners. But here, they know who beat them. They know if it weren't for us, if it weren't for our military presence, they'd be under a different boot. Some of those older guys had had a taste of that. No Marshall Plan, no dream, no Auto, no neon, no jazz; just grayness and the lash.

Demonstration flight 0530 tomorrow morning. I'll be part-engineer, part-salesman. Talk them through the features, answer the technical questions. Handling their objections. They're think they're good engineers – but heck, we're better. Better science, better universities, that's why. They see only detail; we get the bigger picture. We're Can Do. We Think Big. 

So – tomorrow. The guy who takes the decisions – he's from the Ministry. He has the budget. So it's a good thing most of that budget comes from Uncle Sam. That's why our people from the Embassy in Bonn are here too. We're here to sell.

Smell of rubber and kerosene, men working round the clock to get everything working perfectly for that early morning flight. Calibration, control, last-minute tweaks. Weather forecast isn't perfect but it'll do for the demo flight. Hangar doors are wide open; inside bright lights and the sound of engines being warmed up. Step ladders, crates and trolleys. Busy.

Look – at heart, I'm a mechanic, not an engineer – and sure as hell I'm not a scientist. I can take a carburettor apart, immediately see what the problem is, fix it, put it back together, and replace the unit so the engine works good. I'm handy with spanners and screwdrivers – real handy. That's what kept me out of the meat grinder in the Pacific, I was too useful to the Marines fixing F4U Corsair engines. But today my job calls on me to pretend I'm a scientist, using fancy words I don't entirely understand. Why am I here? I often wonder! Talking to real scientists, real engineers, and the budget boys from the air force and the ministry, I can tell a good story, from real life, from actually having handled the kit inside an RB-36 at 35,000ft with Red fighters climbing towards our ship for the intercept. I'm one of a handful of aircrew who have actually been over Soviet territory – though officially, I can only imply that, and if asked openly, I must deny it.

Night time in Wiesbaden. The Aral neon over the gas station, the milchbar across the road, wet cobblestones, Volkswagen Beetles, shiny black Mercedes-Benz sedans. Here and there a gap between the buildings, a reminder of wartime destruction, but the people are well-dressed and well fed; this isn't Guatemala or Honduras. Been there too, selling military hardware. Didn't like that. Just selling them redundant airplanes that they'll use fighting between themselves or killing their own folk. Candy from a baby. Still, taught me a thing or two about diplomacy. West Germany – a different matter. Just across the border to the east lies a massive foe, well armed and dangerous. Technologically not our match across the board, but here and there they have surprises up their sleeves. We have to be prepared for those surprises. And our allies too, holding the line here in Europe with us. Some stuff we can share – some we can't. Never know whom to trust, who'll sell our secrets to the Reds.

Ideologically the Ruskis are the enemies of freedom. Seen those cartoons they publish about us? See how they try to mock us? Given half the chance, how many of them would want to be living in the free world?

Tanker trucks are driving into the hangar, the plane's being fueled up. Black German crosses freshly painted on the wings and fuselages. Different to those wartime ones. More like World War One and the Red Baron's flying circus. Checklists. Inspect everything. No smoking within 100 feet. Cigars tomorrow, I hope. And beers. They remind me of home too. 

[AI-generated image]

I think back to America and our office park. A beautiful place to work. I see the sense of what I'm doing. Strategic defense. Not messing around – projects designed to make the world safer through the application of military technology. We won in 1945 because of air power. We'll beat back the Ruskis in space. Burbank, El Segundo, San Diego – I work with them all, Bethpage too, especially around Navy contracts. Keep in with the boys. Best way of life in the whole world. Our German customers – they'll need all our help to keep the Reds out. Not just the hardware, but the promise of better life. A Frigidaire full. That is all. }}

This time last year:
Świnoujście out of season

This time two years ago:

New York City really has it all

This time three years ago:
Where the two contracts end

This time four years ago:
In praise of the Nikon D3500

This time five years ago:
Agnieszka Holland's Mr Jones reviewed

This time six years ago:
The Earth is flat

This time seven years ago:
Fiftieth anniversary of the Polski Fiat 125

This time nine years ago:
Wojtek the Bear in Edinburgh

This time 12 years ago:
Red tape and travel
[A reminder of how bad things once were!]

This time 14 years ago:
How much education does a country need?

This time 15 years ago:
Between Sarabandy and Farbiarska

This time 17 years ago:
Lights in the night sky

Springlike autumn klimat

Sun outside – go get it. Wring out every minute of that precious light. Bathe the brain in photons. Leave office work until after dark. The snow's gone; daytime high today was a pleasant 12°C.

Below: good local news, ongoing for a couple of weeks – a pavement for ulica Wolska, the road from Chynów to Widok. More pavements, more folk may to tempted to leave the car and walk to the shops. And vastly safer. The 'built-up area' roadsign means 50km/h speed limit, but even so. (That's not snow on the new pavement; it's sand intended to work its way into the cracks between the paving blocks.)

Below: trundling to town, the Koleje Mazowieckie train between Krężel and Chynów. This service means I'm within easy reach of Warsaw (32 minutes from Chynów to W-wa Służewiec). Running parallel to the tracks is ul. Torowa ('Track Street').

Below: reverse view from the level crossing on ul. Spokojna ('Peaceful Street'), looking up the line towards Chynów station.

Below: last of the 2024 crop. Too high to gather, but still hanging on.

Below: Mazowsze architecture at the far end of ul. Spokojna, as it reaches the village of Piekut. Next to this old house, a new bungalow is being built. The English pattern of moving out of town into the quiet of the countryside once enough wealth has been made is becoming the new Polish trend.

Below: between Piekut and Dąbrowa Duża.

Below: leafless silver birches between the pines.

Below: low sun on the edge of Jakubowizna. Two recently built houses show the way.

Below: back in Jakubowizna on the way home. The sun is about to set.

Below: I live twelve minutes from here. Setting sun aligns with the path home.

This time last year:
Encouraging more cycle-rail journeys

This time two years ago:

Time's Telescope

This time three years ago:
Justify the buy: Nikon D5600

This time four years ago:
First frost, 2020

This time six years ago:
Edinburgh, again and again

This time ten years ago:
Ahead of the opening of Warsaw's second Metro line

This time 11 years ago:
Keep an eye on Ukraine...

This time 12 years ago:
Płock by day, Płock by night 

This time 14 years ago:
Warning ahead of railway timetable change

This time 17 years ago:
Some thoughts on recycling

The snow and the sun

A powerful combination when it comes to qualia. The sensation of strong sunlight reflecting off the snow was something I only first experienced when on a skiing holiday in 1984, aged 27. Snow, when it came in England, was accompanied by dark clouds, and would melt away all too soon. Yesterday, as the clouds passed, and the sun lit up the snowy scene outside my window, I had the notion to recreate the skiing qualia flashbacks of Val de Whatever in France, and lit a cigarette, not to smoke, but as an incense stick in the kitchen. I also do this (very) occasionally in high summer to recreate Stella-Plage qualia. That increasingly rare whiff triggers those flashbacks far more intensely than visual stimuli alone. Sun, snow and tobacco smoke brings that back as though it were the same moment.

Propelling myself out of the cosy warmth into the snow required little effort this morning; I recently bought a USAF-pattern N3B parka (the long version of the N2B which I've owned since 1980). It's so warm that despite the cold, I had to stop along the way to remove my cardigan. Destination today: Rososz. The small grocery shop, where I can buy provisions for an outdoor lunchtime reverie.

Left: the little lane leading down to Grobice. All the apples are safely gathered in, the tractors have ceased chugging up and down. Here and there, the sound of chainsaws as old branches are pruned.

Below: something new in the neighbourhood – last week I noticed the arrival of the white hut installed in the gap between the turnoff to Machcin II and the path to Rososz. Since then, this plot has been enclosed. I'd expect a new house to pop up here; The hut, I take it, will be used by the builders. Five or six new houses have already built to the east of Jakubowizna's border in the past few years.

Below: on the path to Rososz, passing the edge of Dąbrowa Duża. On the way out, I meet not one single person; on the way back I pass a Nordic walker. Quiet. The way I like it.

Below: most of my journey (5.25km/3.25 miles each way) is through forest. 

Below: having popped into the shop in Rososz, it's time to set back home. With the sun so low in the late-autumn sky, it feels like late afternoon – despite it only being half past midday.

Below: it's time for lunch – feldakohol in the form of a tin of Warka Pstrąg, some kabanosy and salt snacks [I have switched Polish or German brands rather than Lays, as Pepsico has not pulled out of Russia. It still owns and operates its factories there, paying taxes to Putin, money which he uses to slaughter innocent people. Lays actually opened a new salt-snacks factory in Novosibirsk this year. Fuck Pepsico.] Here, I sit and eat and drink and find altered states and inspiration. I watched the clouds chase east. Every now and then one obscures the sun, but the wind is strong and the sun soons pops back out.

Below: just as forecast, an overcast afternoon and evening looms. I'm almost home. The sun is low. In two weeks' time, we'll have the earliest sunset, and by the New Year, the days will have become noticeably longer.

Left: the last few hundred metres, dense unbroken cloud rolls in from the west. The birches and oaks are almost leafless; winter is due. Will it be a harsh one? Or mild?

Below: aviation bonus: This is only the third time I've managed this: getting a photo of an aircraft flying across the moon. (The second time was a speck on a dot as I didn't have a long lens with me.) Here is a Polish medical air rescue (Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe) Eurocopter EC135, SP-HXG crossing a half-moon. Nikon D3500/ 70-300mm Nikkor zoom, 1/400th sec at f/6.3, 100 ISO. Snaps like this make carrying full kit worthwhile.

Below: less remarkable, but nice enough nonetheless. A Qatari Boeing 797 Dreamliner begins its turn into its final approach at Warsaw Okęcie airport.

During the dark half of the year, every sunny day should be made the most of.

This time five years ago:
Photo round-up, London, Warsaw and Kraków

This time eight years ago:
Poland's North-West Frontier

This time nine years ago:
Cars must fade from our cities

This time ten years ago:
Unnecessary street lighting wastes money

This time 11 years ago:
Warsaw's heros on the walls

This time 13 years ago:
Tax dodge or public service?

This time 15 years ago:
Warsaw's woodlands in autumn

This time 17 years ago:
Still here, the early snow

This time 12 years ago:
Another point of view