Late Or Tomorrow

LOT Polish Airlines - what do the initials stand for? Well - like the word 'spa' - it's a word, not an acronym; the word lot in Polish means 'flight'. But for its passengers, more offer than not, it means 'Late Or Tomorrow'. So many flights delayed or cancelled, the airline is becoming a national joke.

Today marks the start of an intensive period of business travel - Rzeszów - Kraków - Wrocław - Warsaw - London. The first leg is to be a flight from Warsaw to Rzeszów, on LOT Polish Airlines. Boarding due at 10:00, departure 10:30, arrival 11:25.

Shortly after 10, passengers were informed that our flight was delayed "for technical reasons". We were told that we would be kept informed - we were not. Outside the window, however, we could see our plane, an Embraer ERJ-195, standing by the sleeve, with its left-hand engine's inspection panel open and two mechanics working away at it. This continued beyond departure time (no announcements). Then a fire engine turned up. The panel was closed, the engine started up. No flames on anything untoward, standard operating practice - when unplanned engine maintenance work has been completed, a fire engine has to be present. The sleeve pulls back from the airliner's door (bad news). The fire engine drives off (good news). The mechanics gather their tools and drive ofp in their van. We wait. Finally an announcement calls us to the gate to commence boarding. A bit more delay inside the plane.

The plane leaves the ground at 11:55, and touches down in Rzeszów at 12:27; flying time 32 minutes.

Left: just checking, yes, the engine is still there. [Aerial photo interpretation challenge: Anyone care to tell me what's the town down below? Plenty of clues there.]

The flight is smooth, the weather great, the views lovely. But the arrival is over an hour late. I dash for a taxi and make it to the meeting arriving ten minutes late. Not the end of the world, but the first presentation is already under way (from our host), and my late arrival does not look good.

LOT's in-flight magazine, Kaleidoscope, has a foreword from the airline's chairman apologising for the frequent delays experienced by passengers over the summer period, saying that this is now in the past. Clearly it is not. Yesterday, I read the story of a LOT flight (by Boeing Dreamliner) from Warsaw to Beijing that flew as far as the Urals then had to turn around and head back to Warsaw "because of vibration from one of the engines".

Not looking good for LOT. I wrote earlier about the Polish government's ambitions to build a new central communications port south-west of Warsaw in Baranów; this will only be feasible if LOT can grow in the next few years into a 'super-connector' airline to rival Emirates, Qatar and Turkish; this will not happen if passengers lose trust in the airline's ability to get them to their destinations on time. All down to proper maintenance. Prices too - this summer, my father's flight to Warsaw with my daughter Moni on LOT cost nearly twice as much as my father's return flight to London with me via BA.

My last LOT flight, from Munich, arrived late in Warsaw (just under an hour, but it was an evening flight and the delay cut into my sleep time); my father's first flight to Warsaw in 40 years, by LOT, arrived four hours late); the sobriquet 'Late Or Tomorrow' is justifiably deserved.

This time three years ago:
English as she is used in Europe

This time four years ago:
Where asphalt's needed - Nowy Podolszyn to Zgorzala

This time nine years ago:
I cycle to work along the cyclepath along ul. Rosoła

This time ten years ago:
First apple (today, the same tree groans with fruit)

This time 11 years ago:
Late summer spiders webs

Comfort comes in layers

It's one thing gauging the weather in degrees Celsius, checking wind speed and relative humidity. In practice, the four seasons boil down to the number of layers you need to wear to go outside.

September is progressing inexorably towards its midway point, yet today I left home in one layer (long-sleeved cotton shirt) and had no need to put on a second layer at any time during the day. For the record, I left home just before 8am and the temperature was climbing rapidly towards 20C; by the time I got back around 6pm it was still a balmy 23C, down from today's high of 25C. Had I worn a second layer - a jacket - I would have been sweating profusely on my walks to the station, around town and back home from the station. The same thing yesterday. I left home to go for a walk around 3pm, covered 12,000 paces, got home shortly after 5pm - no need for jacket (Sunday's high was 23C).

Rule of thumb: summer =  the one-layer season (not counting rainy days of course).

As temperatures fall below 18C, I feel the need for a second layer - a suit jacket, or a more casual and lightweight jacket, or a sweater. Two layers are fine on dry days when the temperature from morning to evening does not fall into single digits.

This corresponds to early autumn, dry days into mid-October. And that week or two when spring really starts taking off, before the heat arrives as it can do in late-April. The two-layer season in Warsaw is the shortest.

A third layer - plus cap or beret - is required in the temperature range of 3C-9C. This takes the form of a raincoat or field coat (my wonderful M-65, though without quilted lining). Or wax jacket like my ancient Barbour, or a trenchcoat. This corresponds to late autumn and early spring (przednówek).

The fourth layer is the quilted lining in my M-65 field coat or M-65 parka. This is good down to -20C. The four-layer season is winter. It feels like it's getting shorter. A warmer woolly hat (thick) or fur hat, trapper-style and decent gloves are also needed when frosts get sharp. Four layers are necessary for going outdoors from early December through to early March when temperatures below +3C are common. Four layers - shirt, warm woollen jumper, and lined M-65 (either one) have held me in good stead on walks of two-three hours in hard (for Warsaw) frost. Because as any Siberian will tell you, minus 40 is no frost, 40 kilometres is no distance, and 40% is no alcohol.

I remember some years ago a business visitor coming over to Warsaw in January; he turned up wearing a suit and Barbour jacket. It was around -15C, his teeth were chattering audibly on his short walk from the taxi to the front door of our office. Indeed, the coldest I'd ever experienced before moving to Poland was -8C on top of a French mountain while skiing one March.

If the consequences of being overdressed for the temperature is breaking into a heavy sweat, the consequences of being underdressed can be catching a cold. When the body cools down, the immune system is weakened, and a virus that could otherwise have been batted away suddenly overcomes you and the result is a week of misery (if you take a remedy) or seven days of misery (if you don't). This happened to me in Glasgow a few years back (see this post); it was +8C and I was in two layers (suit and no overcoat). However, for Glaswegians - as you can see in that post - this same temperature was considered one-layer weather.

Tomorrow's weather forecast for Warsaw predicts a daytime high of 23C; Wednesday is expected to be 25C again. So at least two more days of one-layer weather. Looking back over my blog, this year's one-layer season seems to have extended (on dry, sunny days) from mid-April to mid-September - five months in total. Rather remarkable. Climate change is likely to see this extend. It will be interesting to track the length of the one-layer season in Warsaw into the future.

Equinox will be with us in 11 days' time; sunset and sunrise (roughly) around quarter past six. As the planet tips the Northern Hemisphere into the dark side, we'll be layering up quickly!

This time last year:
Preference and familiarity

This time two years ago:
A long day in wonderful Wrocław

This time four years ago:
Putin will not heal Russia's tortured soul

This time five years ago:
Opole, little-known town

This time six years ago:
Raise a glass to Powiśle  (Mrs G-W gets a thumbs down)

This time eight years ago:
Mud, rain and local elections (Mrs G-W gets another thumbs down)

This time ten years ago:
There must be a better way (commuting woes, again)

Ul. Zatorze gets civilised

Once this was one of Warsaw's strangest roads. Two kilometres long, the southern half of which has been a long dirt track, the other half a normal, asphalted road. It's been shown on the city's map as a proper road from end to end, with a name, ul. Zatorze, since the 1962 edition. Now, the 1km stretch from ul. Karnawał up to where the Metro's link line cuts across it, is being hardened and given a proper surface.

My walk starts at home, I walk to W-wa Dawidy, then parallel to the tracks along ul. Hołubcowa, thence along a footpath to cross the S2 expressway, and then on to the southern end of ul. Zatorze. As I do so, I'm overtaken by a coal train returning empty to the Okęcie sidings, hauled by a DB Cargo Class 66 loco.

Below: this is where ul. Zatorze starts. In the distance, the viaduct taking ul. Hołubcowa over the S2; nearer is visible the ungated level crossing (rarely) used by trains heading to or from the Metro depot at Kabaty. View looking east.

Below: the road has been hardened and awaits the next layer. The solid foundations suggest that this road is intended for heavy goods vehicles. Next views all looking north...

Below: to the right (that is, east of the main railway line), is an abandoned cluster of działki with small gardens and summerhouses, although these are now slept in by homeless people and guarded by their dogs.

Below: after a while, the road widens. The surface to the left is concrete rather than crushed roadstone, suggesting a stand for heavy goods vehicles.

Below: a platform, visible from trains passing between W-wa Dawidy and W-wa Okęcie; but what's it for - to my eye a transhipment point for containers. I may be wrong (can't find this using Google...). The main electrified tracks are over to the left, there are three non-electrified tracks between them and this new platform.

Below: view looking north from the end of a loop, with the platform to the right and ul. Zatorze to the left. I wonder whether the road will be open to all traffic...

Below: looking north again; in the distance the viaduct that takes ul. Poleczki over the railway line and S79 expressway, Okęcie airport over to the left.

Below: approaching the end of the southern stretch of ul. Zatorze. Just around the corner the road crosses the Metro rail link, and beyond that the road becomes normal, running north for a further kilometre to join ul. Kłobucka.

To see how ul. Zatorze (literally 'Behind-the-Tracks Street') looked like two years ago, click here to follow a similar walk I did on 4 September 2016.

Below: a bizarre location for the new Ferrari Warszawa showroom - ul. Wirażowa. Why here? Surely not so that prospective buyers can test-drive sports cars, putting them through their paces along a quiet, straight stretch of road popular with cyclists, joggers, plane-spotters and mushroom-pickers?

I finish my walk at W-wa Okęcie. There is still no signage anywhere along ul. Kłobucka (now home to dozens of new blocks of flats where the old builders merchants' expo used to be) directing pedestrians to the station. W-wa Okęcie literally may not exist, despite it being a mere 5min walk from Kłobucka. Below: the view the end of the platform at W-wa Okęcie towards W-wa Służewiec, where a southbound train is just arriving.

This time six years ago:
S2/S7 junction, Hołubcowa viaduct, under construction

This time seven years ago:
To Stara Praga, and back

This time eight years ago:
Late summer scenes, Warsaw

This time 11 years ago:
Roadworks and detours on ul. Puławska in Mysiadło

Weekly pictorial roundup

This week's random selection of photos. Below: Most Poniatowskiego bridge, my favourite Vistula crossing. So much charm and elegance, few other bridges can compete.

Below: classic 'Ogórek' bus (Jelcz 043) outside Palace of Culture. Two Ogórki are usually parked here, this one a rarer visitor.

Below: murals on ul. Tamka, near the Chopin museum. I was astonished that Netflix Polska now has the budgets to advertise its TV series by way of hand-painted artwork four stories high.

The retro-style restaurant/bar Setka on ul. Świętokrzyska boasts two wall paintings by Katarzyna Bogucka, one of the most recognisable graphic talents in Poland today.

Ms Bogucka's work draws heavily on the tradition of Polish graphic art from pre-war and post-war days, and is immensely likeable. Her website here.

If the style is familiar, it may be you saw some of Ms Bogucka's murals decorating Łódź Fabryczna station (at least six on view).

Meanwhile, Poland's construction sector is Getting On With It. Progress is visible. I visited my działka on Friday, and was surprised and delighted to see the new windows in place.

In Jeziorki, on ul. Trombity - where work on new water mains and sewers began last November, the first lick of asphalt is down, and awaiting the second and final coat.

And the viaduct taking ul. Karczunkowska over the Warsaw-Radom railway line is coming on nicely, although I still totally doubt a December 2018 opening. At least the site is busy.

Late summer/early autumn - the weather is holding on nicely. Next week will be busy (Rzeszów/Kraków/Wrocław/Warsaw/London).

This time three years ago:
Scotland's independence referendum looms

This time six years ago:
Summer comes crashing to a halt

This time seven years ago:
The atmosphere of impending autumn - Mono no aware

This time ten years ago:
Time to recycle.

This time 11 years ago:
Coal train running

Foreign labour

The other morning I had an early start and took the 05:35 bus to town. After a few stops, the small bus was quite full, and I realised I was probably the only non-Ukrainian on board (other than the driver). I felt surrounded - by cheerful banter, lots of laughter, lots of energy. Soon, the bus stopped outside Centrum Onkologii in Ursynów. Half the passengers got ofp; I counted them - 16 in all, 13 women, three men. It was 05:50. People going to work for six am. Cleaners, cooks, porters - ancillary staff without whom Poland's premier cancer hospital would cease to function.

A pause for reflection. Over the following days I'd come across Ukrainians in large numbers - at W-wa Zachodnia (the interchange between the long-distance bus station and local railway services), on the Metro, by the coach station outside the Palace of Culture. Coming to Warsaw to find work, coming to a booming city that's short of labour and capable of absorbing any amount of immigrant labour actively seeking work. The cranes on the horizon, the asphalt being laid on newly built roads, the new co-working offices offering homes to start-ups, the busy lunchtime restaurants - this is the face of a confident economy firing on all cylinders.

More workers! We need more workers! And they come. And they move into unfurnished flats and need to buy furniture and TVs, and with their SIM cards in their smartphones, they buy on OLX and Allegro the old stuff that Poles, rapidly getting wealthier, no longer want or need, are selling online.

They look like Poles; given a few generations they will have integrated fully, the surname Polonised. They come because they know the work is here, and because the country is not at war - unlike their homeland. Poland is attracting exactly the right kind of immigrant it needs for its economy. Hard-working and culturally similar. Yesterday on the train I found myself seated next to a Ukrainian woman, who was chatting and joking away in Ukrainian on her phone; she finished the call and took another - this time from her Polish employer. She code-switched to flawless Polish "tak proszę Pani, będę proszę Pani."

As I have written here, Poland's demographics are dipping; the youth dependency ratio in coming decades will rise with ever-fewer people of working age paying for an ever-growing number of elderly pensioners. Without an steady inflow of migrant labour, the prospects for Polish society in the 2030s look grim.

The difference between registered unemployment in Poland and the number of people who really are economically inactive is significant. For the end of the second quarter of this year, Poland's statistical office GUS gave the number of registered unemployed as 961,000. And at the same time GUS gave the number of economically inactive as 617,000. This gives us the staggering insight that 343,000 Poles are simultaneously claiming benefits while being economically active. That's 35% of those registered as unemployed what are actually working cash-in-hand. If we conservatively use that 35%  as a measure and apply it against the current unemployment rate of Warsaw (1.7%) or Poznań (1.3%), we get a real figure nearer to 1.1% or 0.8% respectively. That's so low that taking economists' concept of frictional unemployment (time spent between jobs) into account, essentially no one who wants to work is without work in these cities. Desperate employers post job ads on the doors of their shops and bars. Recruitment and retention is their main concern. With an estimated 2 million Ukrainians working in Poland (up from 1.2m in April last year), the question is how long can Ukraine be counted on as a source of fresh labour for the Polish economy?

Poland is booming - but as I wrote here, we are at the top of the cycle and the only way is down - the only question is how sharp and how swift will the downturn be. I'm an optimist - we're three years from the next nadir here in Poland, and it won't be that deep. The forward momentum of several quarters of annualised growth around 5% will propel the Polish economy through the worst of what 2021-22 can throw at it. But then will come the next upturn - and Poland will only be able make the most of that upturn if its enterprises have the labour force needed to satisfy returning demand.

Right now, Poland's economy is in a sweet spot. The economy is booming, unemployment is at a record low and falling - this is the right time to accept and absorb migrants and integrate them into an increasingly wealthy society.

This time last year:
Searching.

This time two years ago:
Interstices: between Kłobucka and the tracks

This time four years ago:
In which I ride my Brompton to work

This time seven years ago:
Bike ride to Powsin as summer fades gloriously

This time eight years ago: 
Compositions in yellow, blue and white 

This time nine years ago: 
When the Z-9 used to run, temporarily, to Jeziorki 

Early September travel news

Summer's through, school holidays are over, and the train to town this morning was jam-packed once again after two and half months of ease. I had to run to the third carriage from the front to be able to squeeze on - and it was an eight-carriage EN71 set. In a month's time, the university term begins, so public transport will be even more of a crush (until students realise they can continue sleeping till noon and getting away with it).

A new railway timetable too - the 08:07 from W-wa Jeziorki into town has become the 08:10, giving me an extra three precious minutes for coffee before hurrying ofp to the station. The new timetable takes into account the fact that modernisation work begins soon on the Warsaw-Radom line south of Czachówek Południowy.

I've mentioned this before - this will mean the stations Sułkowice, Chynów, Krężel, Michałowice, Gośniewice and Warka are due for the same remont as the stations between W-wa Okęcie and Czachówek Południowy received between 2015-17. Single track working to Warka is expected. The limited-stop Radomiak service has been re-routed via Idzikowice.

But the BIG NEW STORY for all Varsovians in possession of a travel card is the fact that as of 1 September this year, we are allowed to stray into Zone 2, the exurbs outside Warsaw's city limits, for no extra charge! This is great news! All of a sudden, I am free to explore beyond Zone 1; I can travel to Piaseczno by bus or train for free - and the price of my return rail ticket from W-wa Jeziorki to Chynów tumbles from 13.64 zł to a mere 8.84 zł (£1.85) as the fare is now only charged from and to Zalesie Górne, the last stop in Zone 2.

If you have a travel card, use it to get out and about. Zone 2 is so massive, ZTM doesn't even have a full map that extends out to all its borders!

Now that the holiday season is over, InterCity trains are running shorter. One loco hauling just two carriages seems a waste of potential. Below: the Połoniny service from Przemyśl to Warsaw calls in at W-wa Służewiec station.

Below: the Julian Tuwim Warsaw-Łódź service passes W-wa Ochota station on the fast track.

This time last year:
Fields filling up with houses
[The phantom bus stops are still not connected to bus routes!]

This time eight years ago:
Battle of Britain: Poland's contribution

This time nine years ago:
Sewer under ul. Karczunkowska

Three-oh-three times two

All of a sudden, two films on the same historical subject turn up on the cinema screens at the same time... Hurricane (in Polish 303 Bitwa o Anglię) and Dywizjon 303 - Historia prawdziwa (in English 303 Squadron - the True Story).

Bit of background: 303 (Polish) Sqn was the top-scoring RAF unit in the Battle of Britain. The contribution of Polish pilots in this and the other Polish fighter squadron taking part in the battle (302), or spread around other non-Polish units, was extremely significant. After Great Britain, Poland supplied more pilots to the Allied side than any other country, with New Zealand in third place.

So which is the better film? Snap judgment: Hurricane is better scripted, a story better told, but Dywizjon 303 has by far the better aerial combat sequences, which form the centrepieces of both films. The Battle of Britain was a decisive event in WW2, marking the end of Hitler's ambitions to conquer the United Kingdom. Both films share the same story arc, beginning with the squadron's formation and initial scepticism and niechęć of the British authorities towards the Polish flyers, through to their success in combat and media fame to their shabby treatment after the war.

The publicity machines for both films have been going full-out for several weeks. Dywizjon 303's poster irked me, with the 'O' in the middle of 303 being coloured white-red-blue - what should have been the blue-white-red of the RAF roundel. Every colour in the wrong position. Which suggested that historical detail is not going to be observed in what is claimed to be a true story. (Who in the film studio let this poster through? It shrieks 'ignorance'.) The claim is that the film is based on wartime best-seller Dywizjon 303 by Polish journalist and author, Arkady Fiedler. I have the book (16th edition from 1974, signed by the author even) and have read it several times, yet the film is a far cry from the book.

Hurricane is better scripted, it is tighter, with no extraneous back-stories (like Dywizjon's pre-war scenes from Dęblin flying school and a bizarre scene in 1938 Austria). Hurricane shows death in the face; death by drowning, death meted out by Germans to Polish civilians, ever-present death, there at every turn throughout the war. [The scene where a Daily Mail reporter gets a punch in the face from a Polish pilot will no doubt raise a cheer in British cinemas!]

The biggest mystery in Dywizjon for me is the character of 'Jones' (Andrew Woodall). A British man in army (not air force) uniform, driven around in a Rolls-Royce, trying to honey-trap Polish airmen through his attractive assistant 'Victoria Brown'... What's all that about? What are the writers of Historia prawdziwa trying to say? These two characters are not in Fiedler's book; are they cyphers? Are they trying to represent the duplicity of the British establishment or something? 'Jones' and 'Brown'. Entirely superfluous.

Both films show the initial strained relations between the battle-tested Polish flyers and their British superior officers. The four non-Polish officers, Group Captain Stanley Vincent, Squadron Leader Ronald Kellett and Flight Commanders John Kent and Athol Forbes are portrayed well, as they quickly come to appreciate the Pole's bravery and skills in combat.

On the ground, Hurricane comes across as the more realistic of the two films. Locations, sets, props (in particular the vehicles - Dywizjon's production team rustled up a bizarre selection of cars and trucks). Both films depict an England that starts at the White Cliffs of Dover, contains pubs, bit of countryside, London, and just over there to the right, Northolt aerodrome.

In the air, the crucial fight scenes, Dywizjon is so much better. The strain, on pilot and aircraft is visible, audible. The battles are more tense, realistic. (There's one moment in Hurricane when a Heinkel He-111 bomber is hit, and its glazed nose explodes in a fireball, as though the plane's fuel tank was located in the bomb-aimer's position.) As well as computer-animated sequences, there's also the strange introduction of post-war colour footage (from the 1969 film Battle of Britain?) of Spanish-built Heinkels and Messerschmitts (easily identifiable to avgeeks due to their deep-radiatored Rolls-Royce Merlin engines).

So which to see - Hurricane or Dywizjon 303? I'd recommend watching this 45-minute long Channel 4 drama documentary from the 2010 series Bloody Foreigners, called Untold Battle of Britain.



This tells the story extremely well - and it seems that both Hurricane and Dywizjon 303 draw on this far more than on Arkady Fiedler's book. I'd recommend watching the Channel 4 story first (or, if you've seen the two 303 films already, watch this now!).

The definitive book on the subject for non-Polish readers is For Your Freedom and Ours: The Kościuszko Squadron - Forgotten Heroes of World War II, by Lynne Olson & Stanley Cloud (William Heinemann, London). If it's not on your bookshelf, it should be.

Finally, when in London, visit the Polish War Memorial outside Northolt airport.

This time two years ago:
Kępno's intriguing station

This time four years ago:
Thoughts occasioned by the 75th anniversary of the outbreak of WW2

This time five years ago:
A green light for consumer spending

This time seven years ago:
Procrastination - is it the same as laziness?

This time nine years ago:
Remembering the outbreak of WW2

The balance between the spiritual and material

"Man shall not live by bread alone," words ascribed to Jesus (Matthew 4:4, Luke 4:4) quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. Let's update this - "human beings cannot live on materialism alone"; we have spiritual needs too. Needs too often overlooked in our headlong rush to acquire more possessions. The extremes can be seen; at one end of the spectrum, multi-billionaires spending money to acquire more power than can be converted into more wealth. On the other hand, the ascetic mendicant Sadhus of Hinduism, who have renounced all worldly goods.

Human beings both.

The need to engage with the spiritual differs greatly from person to person. I have asked the question "how much spirituality do we need"; the stock answer from many observant believers is "once a week is enough", but then even this answer varies greatly from ultra orthodox Jews who won't switch on a lightbulb on Shabbos to Catholics who pop into church for a 45-minute long Sunday mass - and they're done for the week.

The full Matthew 4:4/Luke 4:4/Deuteronomy 8:3 quote is as follows: "Man shall not live by bread alone/but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God". Now, I reject the notion of an anthropomorphic divinity with an oral cavity containing a larynx. Instead, I interpret this Biblical injunction to mean - Listen.

Listen to that inner voice, that comes in periods of meditative calmness, and offers a more universal view of matters. Listen to the inner voice that suggests, guides, consoles. Listen and observe the big picture; that momentary consciousness of the seven thousand trillion trillion atoms that have come together to form you, living on a planet orbiting a star that's one of hundreds of billions in our galaxy, the Milky Way, that in turn is one of a trillion galaxies in the observable universe.

Yet if you were to spend your life obsessively thinking of yourself in terms of your near insignificance in universal terms, you'd never get anything done other than maybe keep body and soul together, the Sadhu's minimum. But forget what you are in a cosmic context, you lose your humility and humanity. Getting this balance right is essential to spiritual well-being; material comfort - lack of money worries - is an important part of piece of mind.

But I am puzzled - and indeed troubled - by the presence among us of the hyper-rich. If you have tens of millions of dollars in assets - why strive to make yet more millions? The news that Trump's education secretary had one of her family's ten yachts set free from its moorings gave me cause for reflection; if you have a $40 million yacht - why do you need another nine? These people seem entirely detached from the spiritual world; zombies almost; living organisms conspiring to secure more wealth - and to what end?

There has to be a moment - a cut-off point - at which a rich person says enough is enough, retreats to a monastery, yeshiva or ashram to meditate on God, consciousness, the unfolding universe and the purpose of human life. I fear however, looking at such people, that maybe there is no spiritual awareness behind those eyes. Their greed distorts our society and holds us back from moving forward along the eternally long road from Zero to One, from barbarism to civilisation, from the bestial to the angelic.

Striking the balance is essential to achieving and maintaining inner peace.

This time last year:
End of August, end of summer?

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

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

This time four years ago:
Changes to Poland's road traffic laws

This time five years ago:
Poland post the Rubbish Revolution

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

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

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

This time ten years ago:
Summer Sunday in the city

This time 11 years ago:
Last bike-ride to work of the summer