VNV Nation - From my hands

Reflections and Clouds

Clouds and Reflections

Road Trip

Road Trip
Servicing the car is a must. Brakes, oil and tyres. Do we have a spare tyre? How do I lift the bonnet? Good. Driving across Europe means we must have two reflective vests in the boot at all times. We have one green and one orange, orange goes with my eyes, you see. A rickety, never to stand up triangle and a first aid kit that wouldn't be helpful for an injured mosquito with a dodgy knee. But still we have one in the boot for form's sake. It also complies with driving rules in the states we will visit. Namely The Czech Republic, Austria, Italy and Germany as well as good old Poland. Children under 12, who are below  150 cm, need to have a child-safety seat. So in it goes! Another handy addition is a torch as cars have a tendency to be troublesome at night. Spare batteries are helpful, too.
Now children and a road trip.Hopefully your not into sedating your children (too heavily) for the road trip, which means  you must supply all forms of supplies and knick knacks  for them. The children are always given a tablet to help settle their stomachs about an hour before we leave.This helps them to feel better and avoids desperate calls to pull over, which always happens at a highly inconvenient moment. Another advantage is it that stops vomiting which can put a dampener on things, literally. Just in case the tablet doesn't work it is best to locate a few sturdy bags in the rear seating. Now don't go stingy here and use plastic bags from a supermarket. Firstly they are not ecological, and secondly they often have little holes that, well, you know what happens.
The children need entertainment and sustenance preferably within arms reach. No,on second thoughts better make that within finger stretch. A food hamper is located in the middle of them on the back seat. Everything is double stocked to stop the 'he/she took/ate' the Kinder, biscuit or Mars-replace as necessary.This approach helps to reduce the likelihood of a spat which could quickly escalate into playful kicking, biting and WWF syndicated wrestling. Yet another important thing to do is to make fresh sandwiches or rolls on the morning of departure.Make them well so that hours later after they are squashed, sweaty and ignored they can be passed forward to the driver because all the good stuff has been eaten.
Next and very importantly don't forget the wet wipes. This indispensable tissue can deal with a multitude of stains and catastrophes. Explosive sneezing noses? No problem. Sticky fingers (reason unknown) bring it on. As well as strange stains of which you simply never want to know the source of! All are gone in a jiffy. These utilitarian wipes are good at keeping the cockpit spick and span as well.
What next? Entertainment. Of course the children have ipads, mobile phones and tablets.Replete with games, tunes and quiz like musings.As an added back up we fix screens to both the back of the driver and front passenger's seats. Just enough of the fixture to press into the driver's neck. Wedging a block of DVD's into the back gives the children, hopefully, hours of goggled eye vision and pleasure. Of course with headphones which have not been packed in the depths of the boot, and 'Off we go Parker, Yes M'Lady'!

Walking in Rome

Eschewing any form of motor transport, taxi, bus, pogo stick or scooter whilst in Rome was the plan. And a very good plan it was. But beware! We did a lot, I mean a lot of walking and encountered stairs like these on numerous occasions. Comfortable shoes are a must preferably with a well padded insole. Back up plasters for children with chafing ankles is helpful. Especially if the footwear is new and trendy and you have a conversation like, ''I told you not to bring them'' :-)


 But on the plus side,foot slogging  did help to burn off the surfeit of pasta, pinsa, pastries and pizza in order to reach such wonderful places.

Oberza pod psem. The dog under Oberza restaurant

 


 
A bustling place and child friendly with small toys for children and lots of room. The bonus is the fact the dog doesn't bite. The food is good solid fayre. With knives last sharpened for the crusades we set about our repast. For us it was a plate of asparagus  with oil and cheese, whilst the children dove in to Zurek soup with eggs floating mine-like, and Rosol which is a chicken broth. The children also ate Pierogi which was fine for them. Tasty and well enjoyed. I would tell you about the meat balls we ordered, but they never came. We sat and we sat, for the service was enthusiastic but not systematic. Maybe the dog had already eaten our meat balls! Cheeky monkey!!
 

Feeling Peckish in Rome?

FEELING A LITTLE PECKISH?

 

Of course you can swan into a fancy restaurant and pay swanky prices. However Rome is replete with good tasty food at a fair price. Heaven for children as, naturally, pizza abounds everywhere. But for us even tastier was the pinsa. Now to you and  me it resembles a small pizza. But small differences are expounded by the locals. Small  flat bread topped with cheese, cured meat and tomato sauce, but still it definitely isn't pizza. We ate ours in a small bar strike cafe just down from our hotel.

Yes the chairs were red plastic. And yes the tables white plastic that moved and shuddered when in contact with an over zealous child. But the food was super. Pinsa in any flavour you want, and even one with potato and fish on it which was to die for! The place bustled with locals so we knew it had their seal of approval. Great value from about 3 euro. Go to the small markets and load up on the tastiest oranges ever, and lots of other fresh fruit or have them whipped up into a super healthy smoothie.

Spiżarnia Warminska Restaurant Mazury

Oberza Under the Dog

Kadzidłowo Mazury

Kadzidłowo Mazury

                                      Are you my dinner??

One week old Moose orphaned from birth

                                                     Orphaned from birth

Eagles - 'Take It To The Limit' (lyrics in description)

Not only a great building, but a brewery to boot!

Eagles - 'Wasted Time' (lyrics in description)

Eagles - 'The Last Resort' (lyrics in description)

Kadzidłowo Animal Park

       Wonderfully cute little fella with a white face and spindly legs:-)

Restaurant Spizarnia Warminska

Spizarnia Warminska

Then on with the food. But first a brief interlude, well actually quite a long interlude. The worthy ethos of the restaurant is eco-friendliness. Great. Cool. But as we try to digest the relatively short menu, the waiter goes into his ‘where everything is grown’ and ‘how the food is prepared mode.’ Worthy but a little overlong. Food ordered and the place is looking good. Modern and clean with pots of herbs sprouting from numerous vantage points.

 

The food is served and its looking good. Cream of celery with horseradish. The horseradish was cunningly served in little white spheres that exploded with flavour as one bit joyfully into them. Great soup.  My wife’s soup looks good, too. Cream of beetroot, but is actually rather too sweet for her palette.

 

Main courses of steak au gratin and marinated pork land on the table. The steak is passable with a sharp knife and the supporting celery  The wife had a stab at the chop, but again found the dressing it slightly too sweet. All in all the ambience and sophistication of the restaurant was good. But apart from the soup and the bespotted dolls, the food, whilst still edible, didn’t quite come up to expectations.  

 

Restaurant Spizarnia Warminksa

SpizarniaWarminska

So there we go, time to try a slightly different eatery from the norm. Olsztyn beckoned and Spizarnia Warminska opened its doors to us. These guys welcomed us and kept an eye out for us as we munched. A really nice touch and great for those with kids in tow.

 

Pilots we trust, Tipsy but able?

A profession we trust. Standards of the highest. Yes, a pilot, a pilot of a commercial airliner packed with people. Trusting peopel.

And then we have a Jet Blue pilot from the states. This pillar of trust flies his passengers from JFK to Florida. Then he is administered a random test to check for alcohol. Busted. Over the limit and it must be clearly stated that Jet Blue, quite rightly, have a zero tolerance attitude.

So this gentlemen is then asked to give a second test. On the way to the test he starts to chew  gum. Of course, the second test is almost as bad a result as the first. Can you belive the pilot blames his alcohol result on chewing gum!
And then he actualy asks why he is not being tested for drugs! What he actually telling the testers that he had taken drugs as well, not just a tipple or seven

Fly the friendly, tipsy skies;-)

What can you do with a potato?

Lesson warm up question.
What can you do with a potato?

1. Peel it
2. Boil it 
3. Chop it
4. Cut it into a square, hollow out windows and rooms and use it as a house for destitute mice
5. Make chips
6. Throw it
7. Catch it
8. Test the theory of gravity and drop it
9. Use the curly peel as errings
10. Speak to it
11. Hold and cuddle it
12. Roll it
13. Rock it
14. Carve into the mage of your favourite celebrity and never be lonely
15. Suck it
16. Sit on it
17. Use a a paperweight
18. Shape into a banana and give to a confused monkey
19. Post it
20. Take a selfie with it
21. Hollow it out and use as a soap holder
22. Smoke it

Go wisely

Shakespeare style put down

“Thine forward voice, now, is to speak well of thine friend; thine backward voice is to utter foul speeches and to detract.”

Swamp Beauty

Grass, Butterfly and Shadow

                              Biebrzański Park Narodowy

The Netherlands to abandon law against insulting foreign heads of state

 

Correct thinking from the Netherlands, let us get back to free speech and less prissy Orwellian thought control from the  spoon fed P.C. brigade!

Victoria Wood R.I.P.

"Theophilus Thistle

Say as quickly as you can.


"Theophilus Thistle, a successful young thistle sifter, in sifting a sieve of unsifted thistles, thrust three thousand thistles through the thick of his thumb. 

Now see if thou, in sifting a sieve of unsifted thistles, thrust not three thousand thistles through the thick of thy thumb!"

Englishman living and teaching abroad: Polish provincial spire

Englishman living and teaching abroad: Polish provincial spire

Englishman living and teaching abroad: Grazing majesty

Englishman living and teaching abroad: Grazing majesty

Johnny Express

Grazing under slate grey skies laden with rain

Rain drenched timber tower and bridge

Shop robot mission creep

Automation.........everyone thinks it is bad. Takes jobs, soulless and makes humans even more lazy and feckless. But mission creep has already commenced in the supermarkets. 

Being served by a woman, middle aged and functional. A polite entreaty is offered in a corporate tone. Bland and toneless. However I tell her that we have two small lots of shopping to be paid ro separately. Nothing...not a asausage by way of recognition of the words. 

The belt moves, the second amount of food shunts into her arms reach. The cashier repeats the same corporate hello. No humanity behind blue eyes. Success. the supermarket has turned a normal woman into a robot. Onwards and upwards!
 

...........and always remember to press the send key.

The Clash - The Singles

Elderly Couple Joke

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple's house, and after eating,the wives left the table and went into the kitchen.

The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, "Last night we went out to anew restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly."
The other man said, "What is the name of the restaurant?"
The first man thought and thought and finally said, "What is the name ofthat flower you give to someone you love? You know... the one that's red andhas thorns."
"Do you mean a rose?"
"Yes, that's the one," replied the man. He then turned towards the kitchenand yelled,

"Rose, what's the name of that restaurant we went to last night?"

Coffee, cake and rooftop terrace view

Somewhat of a view

Coming in for landing

Beauty, Bird and Ball

Narrow Nuance

Forum

This Way For Up

Imperial Might

Swallow the pillows

Be careful with language as it can lead to terrible mistakes. For instance the simple phrase, '' You should swallow the pills'', becomes potentially deadly when translate as '' You should swallow the pillows''. Be careful!

Post McFat Nirvana

After McFat nirvana was reached. A trendy little bar selling drinks and healthy food was reached. The most flavoursome juices, ginger, spinach and apple and a myriad of other ingredients. Salad. Fresh with beans and spinach and lentils and, and, well fresh, healthy and very, very tasty.

The staff even glowed with health and sunny smiles. Delicious!

Sweet smell of burning fired fat

Yesterday hunger pangs fell upon us in the shopping centre. On the way to nirvana we passed the area set aside for McFact and a few other fat and fried based outlets. Or should or I say it made its way out to meet us! A pungent stench of fried food blanketed the surrounding area. A long queue waited to be fed and all around happy munchers sat stuffing their faces with McFried foodstuffs and additives. Even after moving on the odour lingered around the nasal passages of one and all.

Shopping Centre plea

A plea, a request on bended knee with a pretty please and a promise to be a good boy. Please, please stop playing Christmas songs in the shopping centres. Christmas is over, finished! That stores start early is a fact. But that they may not stop merchandising Christmas and its inane music all year, well frankly its a nighmare. How do the people who work in these stores retain their sanity?Just stop it! Now, isn't that better?

Memories of frost

The temperature is minus 11, the telephone kindly informs me that it actually feels like minus 18. Cold in other words. And the balcony glass is encrusted in the swirls and fern like pattern of a deep frost. This takes me back. For as a young lad such an image would not of been on the balcony glass. Reason? We had no balcony, bereft of balcony we were. The other fact is that the ice was inside. Inside on my bedroom window!
But you were born and raised in the West I hear voices oft repeat to me! Yes, but the house, being unaware of its position was lacking  in heating. Apart from an undersized and overworked gas fire in the front room. Is this a tale of woe and hardship? Hell no! Just a memory of what a beautiful thing it was to watch such patterns on the osmotic windows from the convenience of being under toasty blankets.

Best Fishes

The new year is here. Borne on a tide of sentiment and spirit. Best wishes, better best fishes. Fish endlessly supplied from a basket would be healthier and more practical. But no, we have sappy new year! False bonhomie and wealth and health for the year upon us! Oh well, best fishes:-)