Black ribbons and national pride

On Saturday 10th April, the President of Poland, with his wife and many members of the parliament - as well as representatives of other elite groups -were all killed when their plane crashed near Smolensk. The Tupolev was taking them to a memorial service at Katyn, and tragically the plane crashed into the ground in a forest killing everyone on board.

I think what is so poignant is not just this awful loss of life. It is the fact that they were en route to Katyn. After all these years, the Russians finally seemed to be accepting responsibility; they even appear to be trying to build bridges. Then this. While Poles were remembering Katyn and the joint service seemed a way forward, catastrophe struck. Now the sorrow is doubled. Not only do we mourn and remember 22,000 lives brutally murdered in 1940 but we also now mourn for those who died on Saturday.

Watching the news on Polish television it seemed that this was a tragedy that had struck at the heart of a nation. It would be true to say that while not everyone supported the late President's policies they all joined together in their grief for his awful death. To compound it, his wife was with him, thus giving a more familial feel to the face of grief.

Who could not feel for the late President's daughter as she knelt in front of her father's coffin? Or his twin brother, who earlier had undertaken the grim task of identifying his brother's remains? And who could not feel for every family affected by the crash; those who have lost someone dear to them?

A nation fell silent and in the two minutes thoughts turned to the victims and their families. A week of mourning may seem long, but what is a week, when the pain will be for ever with those directly affected, and remembered by the rest of us.

Poland is in mourning - yet it is with great dignity. Be still those of you who would lay blame. Hush your voices and keep thoughts of conspiracy theories to yourselves. Allow the dead to be laid to rest with pride and dignity and let your feelings, thoughts and prayers support the bereaved.

Bogurodzica dziewica, Bogiem slawiena Maryja,

U twego syna Gospodzina matko zwolena, Maryja!

Zyszczy nam, spusci nam.

Kyrieleison.

Time for a real wurst

Ho hum. It's been an age and really I wasn't sure if I'd be bothering to wriet more. However, I reckoned that unless I do this then I am bound to forget what I've been doing and worse than that - I'll probably merge things so that I become convinced that things that were done weren't and vice versa. You can tell I am rambling, can't you? Anyway, I'm doing a bit of work and not bothering to be too involved in anything - i.e. keep the stress levels low and enjoy.

As ever, the holidays loomed large in our planning. Because we came so late we missed out on the winter break. But not to worry! Easter gave us the chance to travel and we decided to go to Dresden. Reasoning was thus: need good wurst, want good beer and really hanging out for decent coffe, chocolate and leberkase. And on top of that we were in need of a commuication fix! By that I mean that we wanted to go somewhere we understood and could be understood. So Germany it was.

Dresden is a lovely city. We had a hotel by the river and the view was great. Walking distamce to the old town and so much to see. We went to the Frauenkirche, the Zwinger, the Semper Oper - just guided tours not performances unfortunately. The reconstruction has been so perfectly done and the centre is clean, attractive and of course has heaps of places for a beer and a coffee etc.

We managed a trip on the river in a steam paddle boat - excellent commentary in German but that was the day it decided to rain and be really cold. It took me about two hours to defrost afterwards and I admit all I wanted to do was sit and drink heisse schokolade!

We were pretty sure that nothing would be open on Easter Sunday - how wrong could we be??? We went walking out towards the VW factory - and wow! It was open. Brilliant. This place is something else. It really is a totally transparent factory. They make the VW Phaeton here - and there's a restaurant, guided tours, you can wander about. Well of course we had to go round didn't we? For those of you with a car mind try this link:

http://www.glaesernemanufaktur.de/gmd.jsp?dok=&lang=&docid=&ap=

In contrast to the beautiful old biuldings baroque by the way - there were still the ugly attempts from the socialist realism era. What is it about those people? The heroic workers struggling against capitalism yet no one ever looks happy in the pictures. Shouldn't they all have been so contented that there would never have been any desire for change? The usual palace of culture was there with the wonderful mural! Not sure if the detail is there but you get the idea!

And now we are thinking about the May holiday and planning what to do and where to go for that. Possibly somewhere to cycle and/or walk - we'll see. And again I make no apologies for the possibility of sparse blogs! In this, our second stay in Krakow, there is obviously less to say.

20 below in the sun

Ok - a week in Poland again and it's been simply ffreezing. Whoever said global warming was here is a total idiot! Or at least it aint cos of us humans! Maybe just cos of the natural weather cycle.

I actually felt the hairs in my nostrils freeze which I haven't felt for many years. And that was during the day. In fact, I am seriously thinking of applying for Eskimo citizenship - or should that be Inuit? Even the river is frozen over -wow! Poor old ducks, trying to find a place to swim.

I have no internet on my own laptop and feel truly frustrated with this. Hence no photos because I can't get them uploaded. I'm hoping to manage this next week!

No sign of work which is very irritating although I do seem to have a couple of projects on the go. So until I get going a bit more, I'll not write any more.

Counting down the hours

OK, so Christmas is well and truly over, as is New Year. And now, with less than 48 hours till we leave, the weather has decided to heat up! This afternoon, for example, it was 36C in the shade in the back yard and 46C in the sun!!! Not funny!

We drove the car down to Sydney and had a day there - hence the pic. I do not recommend the Formula 1 airport hotel. We managed to walk from Mascot railway station to it, then the next day we walked to the domestic terminal. Shades of the movie The Castle!! It was only 1 k.

It's been a busy time and I am ready to head out again. The worst part is is having to clean the house and try to decide what to pack and what to leave. I've got stuff up in Poland, but I still want some of my decent clothes etc!

Then there's the prospect of getting back into Polish life. Not so much the day to day living, but more things like wondering how long I can postpone having to have a haircut! I tell you, that is really one of the most stressful things.

Plus, it's back to thinking about time before calling the boys. I've enjoyed being able to call them both so easily. Never mind. We'll get used to it.

So.......... things to do: mobiles, Internet, GPS for our trips, shopping, jobs, Polish lessons etc etc!!!! This blog won't get going properly for another week or two, and then I'm going to try to do it once a week! Yeh, I know....... but I can have the intention.

Setting the heather on fire!

Well, it's a saying we have in Scotland - and I liked the sound of it, so I used it this time. Over Christmas there was no sign of heather - but there was fire! Our two sons came home for Christmas and it was the first time for ...ooooh.... five years that we'd been together. I got quite carried away and dragged out the candles, a new tablecloth, bought the "Luxury" crackers!! I even cooked turkey with HEAPS of veggies and stuffing and so on.

And yes, of course we had some nice champagne and wine to go with it all. Anyhoo, we were having a real ball and lots of piccies were being taken and we didn't notice that one of our candles was getting a teensy bit low. In fact, the plastic 'wreath' began to emit that warm plastic odour - you know - the aroma of cooking plastic? Well, younger son did the honours and removed it to the back yard. Meantime another candle had burned down quite fast really, and next thing we knew the table cloth was glowing! OK - so a fast bundling up of cloth complete with candles and even cutlery and whisked away to cool off.

And that was end of the new tablecloth - boy am I glad it was just an Aldi one!!! And it was just fun! We had the best day, we really did.

And the Christmas weather? Huh! It's rained every day for the past two weeks and now we'll be back at work for our last four days. I bet it clears up. Never mind. I've enough to do with packing, cleaning, sorting and also saying bye to the boys. One comes home overnight after his trip to Kiwiland - that's on Saturday. Then he's off back to Korea. The other comes back for two days the next week before heading off back to Darwin.

Wish me luck. And now I feel a glass of wine coming on.......

Plans

Only 4 weeks and 4 days till we're off again on our travels. How come? Because we can, because the world is there, because I have a list of places yet to see - and fully intend to see them before I have to threaten airport staff with my walking stick or zimmer frame!!
Maybe I'll be more regular with my blog, but I somehow doubt it. Cos there will be times when it won't be possible to blog - just like the last time!
Anyway, if you have any interest in the ramblings of a travel-nut, then welcome to my blog!