Zastrzyk Update

Well, it's just over an hour until I'm supposed to have my injection but I cleverly picked up a bit of a cold yesterday so I might not be allowed to have it done. Drat. As you can imagine, I'm devastated. I'll still go and obtain a medical opinion on my current condition, so we'll see what happens.

But really, if I can't have it done today it will just mean that I'll have to postpone the inevitable until another time.

Extreme Measures.

This article comes courtesy of Nathaniel. I don't really know what to say about it except that I really can't imagine what the "several electric toasters" could have been used for. And I have quite an active imagination. It definitely "remains unclear what use they would have been" to me.

t minus 111600 seconds

I have a mere 31 hours left before the terrible moment of my flu injection... :-(

I'm not looking forward to this.

Jesień

These two photos are of the same tree, just outside my apartment windows. The first image was taken on the 6th of September, and the second was taken yesterday (27th of September). From these two photos it's quite obvious that the tree thinks it's Autumn and so time to turn yellow and lose the leaves. This particular tree isn't alone, there are many others in the neighbourhood that are following the same pattern. This is a novelty for me as I've never seen an Autumn before with deciduous plants.

The weather's becoming noticably cooler too, with daily maximums between 15 and 20 degrees, so I'm noticing the changing seasons too.

Sould weather icons be allowed to editorialise?

I have weather icons on the bottom of my mozilla firefox that tell me what's happpening and what will happen in Gliwice. Usually these icons say normal things like "sunny 18 degrees" or "rain 17 degrees" etc. but occasionally they feel the need to add feelings like "sunny and pleasant" or even "overcast and miserable". How does the icon know what I like? how does it decide if it is pleasant or miserable? What if I really like overcast days?

Today the icon decided to tell me that there will be a "stray thunderstorm". What does that mean? Are most thunderstorms kept on a tight leash but this one escaped?

Right now it is "Sunny, 20 degrees, Wind SSE, 2m/s" which I think is quite pleasant weather, but the icon doesn't explicitly agree with my opinion, though it doesn't explicitly disagree either.

Wszystkiego Najlepszego z Okacji Urodzin

It's Liam's birthday today. Happy Birthday Liam!

I see all....

I now have you under surveillance...

sort of.

Zastrzyk

I currently teach a class of three students, who are all doctors. They want to pass an exam called IELTS which will allow them to work in hospitals in the UK, and actually get paid a decent wage.

One of these students told me last night that I should get an injection to vaccinate me against influenza. A horrible thought. What's more, this particular shot is intra-muscular, which means, for those of you not up with the latest medical terminology, 'extremely painful'. Of course, the pain isn't a major issue for someone like me, given my extremely high tolerance, but I do have a fear of needles. They're not friendly, not fun. Unfortunately, he made quite a good case for the shot and logically I should have it done. But I don't want to. I'd be there in a shot (notice the pun) if the treatment could be sensibly administered through a tablet.

I guess I somehow feel that I will inevitably end up having being punctured by a ridiculously large and thick piece of metal in order to avoid things like the flu, and apparently nastier conditions that the flu can lead to such as kidney infections/failure which don't sound pleasant.

I can't even claim financial reasons for avoiding this sadomasochistic act because the injection only costs 30zł, which is really quite cheap (about $12 AUD).

Life would be a lot simpler and less painful if I could just guarantee that no sick people would breath, cough or sneeze in my general direction.

grrr

Herbata

While many scientists in the world are pondering silly things like quantum, sensible scientists in the UK have actually been working on something useful. How to make a perfect cup of tea.

Another Naked-Arse-Man

Another Naked-Arse-Man has arrived in Gliwice to keep the first one company. It looks like they're identical twins! I wonder which one's the evil twin?

This one arrived a couple of days ago (perhaps Monday??) and was sent by Aggie. This is the second postcard that Aggie has sent me, since I arrived in Poland. The first was the lovely image of Charlie.

Byłem w Krakowie

I went to Kraków again last weekend. It was my third trip to the city. I don't mind going semi-regularly because it's a nice place and the layout is beginning to feel very familiar (I don't need a map for the main part anymore, well, mostly - a certain person who recently travelled with me might dispute this claim).


Florian spent the weekend in Poland, which was the reason for my trip. He arrived in Gliwice on Thursday night after I finished work, and the Friday morning we went to Oświęcim (Auschwitz) to see the concentration camp there and at nearby Brzezinka (Birkenau, also known as Auschwitz II). I've been to the concentration camps a few times now, but this visit was the first time that I've gone on an organised tour of the facilities. The tour was mostly good, and the guide told a few stories and gave some information not presented on the signs, but I don't think I'll go on another tour - in some ways I think it's better to walk around at your own pace and see the individual sections as you choose.

After Auschwitz, we caught a bus to Kraków and spent Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday morning there. Near our hostel, I noticed this store and felt it necessary to take a photo.


On Saturday morning we went to the Wieliczka Salt Mine. It was a nice place, and definitely worth the visit. It's necessary here to go with a guide, and the tours are a little on the expensive side, but the guide does pass on a lot of information. Saturday afternoon was spent resting and wandering around the Jewish Quarter of Kraków (Kazimierz), and the main square. In Kazimierz, there's a street with a rather amusing name - ulica Kupa, which can be translated as "Shit Street".


On Sunday morning we went to Wawel hill and walked around the castle. We were there quite early and none of the individual sections were open, though entry to those sections costs extra so we didn't miss anything except for the dragon's lair, which I will have to visit next time I'm in the near vicinity of Wawel Hill. We were about 1.5 hours too early for the lair, and we didn't want to hang around that long just waiting for it, as we hadn't yet had breakfast and were both hungry.


After breakfast we walked around the city a bit more and the headed back to the train station, and back to Gliwice.

He's been smurfed!

See the Smurfs re-enact the movie Se7en here.

Why not?

This guy from Zagreb, Croatia has (apparently) gone ahead and done what many of us would like to do, or wish we had enough courage to do. He sold his apartment in Zagreb and is now using the money to travel the world, or as much of it as possible. His page, as far as I can tell, only shows pictures and so far he's been to Serbia & Montenegro (Srbija i Crna Gora), Turkey (Turska), Syria (Sirija), and Jordan.
Good luck to him :-)

Naked-Man-Arse jest w Gliwicach!!

The Naked-Man-Arse has come to Gliwice, thanks to the postcard purchasing, writing and posting abilities of Lizard. The card actually arrived about a week ago (I can't remember exactly which day) but I didn't get around to photographing the card and blogging about it until today.
Thank you Lizard.