A new lick of paint for W-wa Powiśle

The nearest railway station to my office, W-wa Powiśle, is a pearl of post-socialist-realist socialist architecture. Very moderne, very stylish. And its one of my favourite Polish railway stations - architecturally at least (I'll pass on a complete lack of signage, timetables at the entrance on ul. Kruczkowskiego and a working clock). But its all-white plaster finish had left it painfully vulnerable to anyone with a spray can and a vandalistic streak. Today I was delighted to see a new coat of paint being applied at the Kruczkowskiego end of the station (below) - and what an interesting scheme it is too!

The new paint extends up to platform level - I hope they manage to do the sides as well. It makes such a difference, especially in the bright sunlight of late-May. (Read about W-wa Powiśle architecture in this post about Warsaw railway architecture by Owen Hatherley)

Sadly, the vandalistic end of graffiti world, suffering from spray-can incontinence, will no doubt waste no time in daubing their tired, boring tags on top of the bright new street art, much as they did at W-wa Żwirki i Wigury and W-wa Rakowiec after artists set about improving the stations (for some reason the flamingo and stork cartoons at W-wa Al. Jerozolimskie were left largely untouched).

This time last year:
The ingredients of success

Now it can be told - how I almost saved Obama

About four weeks ago, a light-blue Mercedes truck with white cargo box was abandoned on the grassy stretch of ul. Kórnicka between ul. Trombity and the railway line. Since that day in late April, it stood just there. At the time I guessed it had broken down and been dumped. I'd pass it on my way to work, giving less and less thought to what it was doing or for how long it'd remain there. That is, until the day Barack Obama was due to fly into town. 

On Friday morning I drew open the curtains and saw the very same truck in the middle of the field behind our house. Overnight, someone had driven it - or towed it - 1.5 km south, snuck it between the two houses at No. 6 and No. 8, and unceremoniously left it in the field.

What ran through my mind as I looked at that truck from our balcony...? In less than ten hours' time, Barrack Obama's Air Force One will be passing overhead at a height of 300m. Left: you can see just how close the vehicle is to the flight path. A truck of this size would make a very convenient hide in which to store hand-held surface-to-air missiles, such as the Stinger, much used by the Taliban in Afghanistan against low-flying Soviet helicopters. A plot could have been hatched - days before Osama Bin Laden's demise - to bring down Air Force One as it was coming in to land at Okęcie. 

Keep the weapons in a truck abandoned on a quiet, semi-rural street near the airport, wait until the day of Obama's arrival, see which way the wind was blowing, which runway was being used... then move into place under the flight path.

Right: This is what flashed through my mind's eye on Friday morning. An arsenal of hand-held surface-to-air missiles hidden in a truck parked in the field behind our house, just waiting to be unleashed against the Leader of the Free World as he flew in to Warsaw. Better to take preventative action, or just let it be? 

My cognitive bias or Bayesian inference at work? The chances of coincidence (someone just decided to move the truck into a field under the Okęcie flight path on the very day of Obama's arrival) were probabilistically higher than the chances of a terrorist plot. Even so, aware of that, I thought it better to be safe than sorry. History what if: imagine the consequences for Poland of such an attack happening on its soil. 

The idea of Jeziorki becoming to Americans what Smolensk has become to Poles sprang to mind. Time to call the authorities. They were thankful. They checked. The van, they told me, was empty - but they kept it under surveillance anyhow.

POTUS over Jeziorki

I didn't hold out too much hope of seeing President of the United States and his retinue flying home aboard Air Force One (and/or Air Force Two) - the wind was in the west, and all air traffic inbound to land at Okęcie was coming in over our house and taking off to the north. I was alerted to the possibility that these two planes would be doing things differently by the presence of a Polish police helicopter flying low over Jeziorki. And indeed. Several minutes later, the mighty sound of four giant turbofans sucking in Jeziorki oxygen portended the appearance of Air Force One - a much-converted Boeing 747 - taking off from Runway 15. Quite something.


I grabbed these shots from my bedroom window. Sadly, the sky was heavily overcast - the sun shines from the right angle to illuminate aircraft taking off or landing this way at this time of day.

Below: Air Force Two, a converted Boeing 757. Last time I saw a US Presidential flight taking off over Jeziorki, George W. Bush and his entourage also flew in two planes, though Air Force Two back then was an elderly Boeing 707.

While I was uploading these pics, Eddie came charging in excitedly, telling me to grab my camera and come outside. It was a Lockheed C5A Galaxy - a huge transport plane that was flying in to pick up Obama's bits and pieces (the stuff that two large planes couldn't carry). I rushed out with camera - but sadly the memory card was in the computer so I missed the shot. So here's another photo of the same C5A, over the fence at Okęcie (photo from Lotnictwo.net.pl)

 

However, as I was writing these words I heard yet another unfamiliar sound above our house - and indeed, a C-17 Globemaster III flew by. And then, just minutes later - to cap it all! (what a day for spotters!) the Polish Air Force's remaining Tu-154 followed on (below). A rare sight these days.

The action didn't stop on Saturday - on Sunday morning, shortly after 7 am, I heard yet another loud aircraft approaching - and bingo! yet another C-17 approaching (below).

Supplementary: 'Air Force One' and 'Air Force Two' are often-misused terms; officially, 'Air Force One' is the name used for the aircraft currently flying the president, and Air Force Two for the aircraft currently flying the vice-president. As Joe Biden was not in Poland, the C-32 (military VIP version of the Boeing 757) shown above was not actually call-signed Air Force Two on the day.

This time two years ago:
Some anniversaries missed

This time three years ago:
Hissing of the summer lawns

Waiting for The Man

Ironic that when the Leader of the Free World visits Warsaw, the city's inhabitants have to face more restrictions on their movement than at any time since Martial Law. For a few days before Barack Obama's visit to Poland, anyone living in Warsaw could see that heavy stuff was coming down. No-go areas springing up, stepped-up police activity, military helicopters flying around.

Above: looking up Trasa Łazienkowska towards Aleje Ujazdowskie. The road further up has been closed - and Obama's not due to land for another 50 minutes. As it happens, he arrived at Okęcie 20 minutes early, so I did not manage to see his retinue sweeping past. Several minutes after this photo was taken, a veritable tidal wave of humanity started streaming down the Vistula Escarpment headed for the bridge and Praga beyond. Later, about an hour or so, buses were finally permitted to use this piece of road.

I appreciate that barely a month has gone by since the death of Osama Bin Laden, and Al Qaeda is in revenge mode, with Poland - perhaps - seen as a a country in which a terrorist attack could be mounted against the US President - but the reaction of most Varsovians faced with mammoth inconvenience is that the security operations were grossly over the top.

This time last year:
Poet's Corner

This time three years ago:
Twilight time in the garden

This time four years ago:
Late May reflections

Ranking a better life

For my father

It's relatively easy to measure a country's gross domestic product, inflation rate or unemployment, and plot that indicator against other countries. But other indicators are harder to measure - happiness, life satisfaction, work-life balance or community spirit.

So when I read about the OECD's Better Life Initiative and the noble idea of plotting many hard-to-pin-down indicators (along with some easier ones such as safety, education or income) into one chart, I was fascinated. In particular, I'm looking for ex post facto justification for moving from the UK to Poland.

Start by right-clicking here, opening a new window or tab. The click on the button 'Start with all topics rated equally'. Then, in the bottom left of the screen, click on 'Display countries by rank'. You should see this chart (a fully-interactive version of what you see below). And then the fun begins!

Of the 34 OECD member countries, Poland ranks 24th when all topics are considered. Only Slovenia and Czech Republic do better among post-communist countries. Poland lies just one place behind Italy, home of la dolce vita, and ahead of Greece and Portugal. Best country on earth? Canada (hello, Canada!)

You can re-order the ranking according to whatever factor you consider most important - income, housing, jobs... Hours of statistical fun, hours of debate over a beer as to where's the best place to live. And no doubt of controversy (why does Slovakia rate so much better than Poland for environment, for example).

The OECD launched this initiative two days ago. It will be interesting to track this chart year after year, to see how the relative positions of these countries change over time. I'm sure that 20 years ago, Poland would not have been just one place behind Italy, similarly, I'm sure that in 20 years time Poland will have moved up the ranking quite considerably.

So, dive in and have fun with statistics!

This time last year:
Biology and spirituality

This time two years ago:
Paysages de Varsovie

This time three years ago:
Spring walk, twilight time

A life in balance 10: Planning vs spontaneity

"Failing to plan is planning to fail" (I mentioned this before). Yet is it? Is there no place in life for spontaneity, serendipity, chance? When does setting off ahead of you, without an idea as to where you're heading, mean disaster, and when does it promise the chance of quite unexpected rewards?

Now, let me make it clear, I'm not talking about launching an invasion against an evil dictator or inviting a VIP to Warsaw without a plan. No; this is rather about those small, non-life-threatening decisions. Going for a walk? With map, stopwatch and detailed concept as what to see? If you're visiting some place new, a tourist in a city you've never stepped foot in before - then yes, a plan is vital. Knowledge of the must-sees, the recommended show-stoppers - without this, your visit is wasted. But if you're just drifting around somewhere you know (or think you know), setting off without a Plan 'A' (let alone a Plan 'B' or 'C') can be rewarding. Letting serendipity take you where it will.

There is a role for planning in life; there is also a role for spontaneity in life. Generally, planning is the better option. (See also Free Will vs. Destiny.) But knowing when to let go, when to let fate take the wheel, is part of leading a life in balance. The outcomes may be entirely variant - your route may equally take you to see unexpectedly wonderful places and vistas that you've not clapped eyes on before - or else (worst case scenario) you will stumble upon rather boring and dull sights. But then your frame of mind will dictate the outcome. So - if you want spontaneity to be rewarding - set off with optimism.

Above and below: Last week's discovery that BUW's roof gardens are freely accessible to the general public - the result of purest spontaneity. Quite a spectacle - unexpected and unbidden.

This time last year:
Our avian neighbour

This time two years ago:
Balancing on the edge of chaos

This time three years ago:
The rising tide of Development

This time four years ago:
Present rising, future loading

"A helpful, friendly people"

On Wednesday I had to be in Łódź to speak at a conference which started with breakfast; I needed to be there for 9:00am. This meant catching a train that arrived just after eight. And unlike London to Rugby (83 miles, 48 minutes ) the 83 miles between Warsaw and Łódź takes 120 minutes. My train for Łódź would leave W-wa Centralna at six. To get to Centralna I had to catch the 04:51 service from W-wa Jeziorki.

And this is where my story begins...

The 04:51 from W-wa Jeziorki begins its journey in Radom, departing for Warsaw at 03:12 every day of the week. It stops at every small town along the way, and by the time it reaches W-wa Jeziorki, the first station within Warsaw's city limits, it is packed solid. Boarding the train, I had to stand in the corridor. The passenger compartment was full of rural-looking faces, hard-working and weather-beaten. Most are asleep, heads resting on rolled-up coats or jumpers. Many women were carrying large shopping bags full of lilies of the valley gathered in woodland somewhere between Radom and Piaseczno; they will stand at street corners selling the fresh wild flowers - a useful addition to tight budgets.

At W-wa Slużewiec, a middle-aged woman at the far end of the carriage woke up with a start, looked around and asked "Is this Żwirki i Wigury?" A chorus of fellow passengers replied, almost in unison, "Nie!" ('no'). And so the woman went back to sleep. W-wa Żwirki i Wigury was the next stop. No one volunteered that information to her, no one woke her up. Nor did they wake her up at W-wa Rakowiec, nor at W-wa Aleje Jerozolimskie. She finally woke up at Warszawa Zachodnia as the train was emptying of people. She'd missed her stop and had to wait for a south-bound train to get her back to where she had been heading. Stoically she got off the train, not a trace of animosity towards the passengers who had so singularly failed her. In other words, this is all she could have expected. Unhelpful indifference. Was she an office cleaner, starting work at 5am for eight zlotys an hour? In which case, she'd have turned up at least 30 minutes late, to face a reprimand and lost revenue.

Scenes like this show that for all of Warsaw's sophistication and rapid economic advance, there's still another Poland that's struggling to make do. And that lack of good will of her fellow-passengers; each one aware of her predicament, no one in the least bit willing to offer her assistance - either by offering more information, or by waking her up at her stop. Such pitifully low levels of social harmony, such scant regard as to the plight of a fellow hard-working human being. (In case you're asking, I was standing some five metres away; the gangway was packed with passengers.)

This time last year:
Familiar shape in the sky

This time two years ago:
Feel like going home

This time three years ago:
Mr Hare comes to call

Stormclouds are raging all around my door

Coming back from town with Moni last night, we could see over Wiścigi what looked like a massive fireworks display; as we headed south past the racetrack, it turned out to me an electrical storm of significant magnitude sweeping westwards across the southern horizon.

Time to get camera on tripod, set shutter to 'B', aperture to f 5.6, ISO to 100, snap and wait. Wait for the Big Flash. Then release shutter, and repeat. Select best image (above) - no need for Photoshop (other than correcting verticals) and there we go.

The storm passed by without too much water on Jeziorki; I guess Góra Kalwaria and Pruszków would have got a drenching. More expected today (I hope it will not interfere with my planned bike ride).

It is unusual to experience such storms in mid-May; they are a regular occurrence in July and August. Here's one in late June 2009 and then of course there was the famous Corpus Christi storm of early June last year.

This time last year:
Floods endanger Warsaw

This time two years ago:
Why Poland cannot afford the Grosz

This time three years ago:
Slow train from Zakopane to Kraków

This time four years ago:
The year's most beautiful day?