Dziewięćdzieściąt Dziewięć

Hast Du etwas Zeit für mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Denkst Du vielleicht grad' an mich
Dann singe ich ein Lied fuer Dich
Von 99 Luftballons
Und dass sowas von sowas kommt

99 Luftballons
Auf ihrem Weg zum Horizont
Hielt man fuer UFOs aus dem All
Darum schickte ein General
Eine Fliegerstaffel hinterher
Alarm zu geben, wenn es so war
Dabei war da am Horizont
Nur 99 Luftballons

99 Duesenjaeger
Jeder war ein grosser Krieger
Hielten sich fuer Captain Kirk
Das gab ein grosses Feuerwerk
Die Nachbarn haben nichts gerafft
Und fuehlten sich gleich angemacht
Dabei schoss man am Horizont
Auf 99 Luftballons

99 Kriegsminister
Streichholz und Benzinkanister
Hielten sich fuer schlaue Leute
Witterten schon fette Beute
Riefen: Krieg und wollten Macht
Mann, wer haette das gedacht
Dass es einmal soweit kommt
Wegen 99 Luftballons

99 Jahre Krieg
Liessen keinen Platz fuer Sieger
Kriegsminister gibt es nicht mehr
Und auch keine Duesenflieger
Heute zieh ich meine Runden
Seh die Welt in Truemmern liegen
Hab' nen Luftballon gefunden
Denk' an Dich und lass' ihn fliegen

Season's Greetings

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Wesołych Świąt i Szczęśliwego Nowego Roku
Joyeux Noel et Bonne Année
Frohe Weinachten und Ein Gutes Neues Jahr
Merii Kurisumasu, Akemashite Omedetou

I've been tagged with a book meme

Aggie has tagged me with a book meme. Here are the rules of this meme:

1. Grab the book closest to you.
2. Open to page 123, go down to the fifth sentence.
3. Post the text of next 3 sentences on your blog.
4. Name of the book and the author.
5. Tag three people.

Ok, now I'm taking a liberty with rule number one because the closest book to me at the moment is my Collins Robert Paperback French Dictionary, Second Edition, and I think I can find a more literary book. Okay, I'm going to skip the second book too, as Kieszonkowy Słownik falls under the same category.

"Plus he will be saying completely non-sensical things like, "TWO PEOPLE WITH SMALL HEADS ARE NOT THE SAME AS ONE HEADCOUNT!!!" This will make your victim insanely angry, but not at you. You'll be safe and snug in your cubicle yards away."

The name of the book is "The Joy Of Work" by Scott Adams.

Ok, now for step 5, where I get to tag three people. Hmmm... let me think... it's kind of like playing Duck Duck Goose. Ok, I'll tag Kat, Oddur, and Frogbrain. Mostly because they're the only people I know who have blogs and haven't already been tagged.

Byłem z Agatą wczoraj wieczorem

As the title vaguely suggests, I spent the evening with Aggie yesterday. We went to Southbank and wandered around, briefly watching fireworks, and looking at the markets before going to a turkish restaurant for dinner. The food was okay, but nothing special. The entree of fried haloumi was delicious, but the mains weren't quite as good as they could have been, and they weren't cheap either.

Earlier in the day, my school had planned to take the students to Southbank for the annual student Christmas party, but the weather put a stop to that and we had to have the festivities at the school instead. It meant things were a little crowded, as the communal room/student kitchen area is a bit small, but it all worked out well in the end, though we had to cancel the cricket competition due to space restrictions.

Shopping

I was at Carindale today to do some Christmas shopping and then grocery shopping. How exciting.

I have learnt several things about hate. Specifically, things I hate. Yes, there's nothing like the festive season to bring on a good dose of people-hating.

1) I hate people*.
2) I hate young girls who walk around yelling xmas carols at you, and who think they're talented.
3) I hate people who don't stand to one side on escalators.
4) I hate that I'm not allowed to carry a cattle prod to give people the hint that they shouldn't be in my way.
5) I hate xmas carols.
6) I hate people*.

'Tis the season to be jolly.


* excluding friends, who obviously aren't people.

More strange computer behaviour

My computer seems to have problems talking to the windows update site. Each time I log on, the little "updates are ready to download" message appears, and I click on "download" but nothing happens. Are there any simple solutions for this problem, or should I just turn update notification off?

Patience

I'm usually a rather patient person. Well, I am when I'm at work, and therefore paid to be patient. I am occasionally patient in other circumstances as well, depending on the situation. It's a case by case thing. One area in which I show little to no patience is the area of electronic equipment. I get pissed off very quickly when things don't work as they should. In this area I often go from one extreme to the other*.

An example of this is my mp3 player. It never worked particularly well, having a terrible tendency to switch itself off when it wanted - while I was listening to it. I was rather patient with it, dutifully switching it back on each time it happened, even when it only stayed on for 10minutes. I lost my patience with it one day when walking home from the bus stop, after it had switched itself off 3 times on the walk up the hill. The loss of my patience manifested itself in such a way that led to the mp3 player being rendered completely unusable and in many pieces on our driveway. Hence why I need to buy a new mp3 player.

Anyway, the point of this post is to explain why my wireless router** is now on the floor under the table where it usually lives and I'm connected to the net directly rather than through the network. The router will probably still work - I've "argued" with it before because of its issues and I unfortunately haven't caused an excuse to buy a new one yet. I picked up the router by the cable connecting it to the modem, and unplugged the cable, allowing gravity to move the router to the floor. I still haven't found a reason for my router's problem, or a solution and the netgear website was next to useless. I used to think that Netgear produced good quality network items but I'm starting to think that my next router should be a Belkin. Ok, I've calmed down a bit now that I've had a bit of a rant and a vent. How was your day?


* Don't worry about your electronic equipment, I'm only like this with things that I own.
** Regular readers will remember my complaint about my router's habit of cutting off the internet connection whenever it feels like it.

Saturnalia Party

I had my work Saturnalia* Party yesterday afternoon and last night. We kicked the students out of the school at about 12:30 (ish) and then converged on Garuva's in the Valley by about 1:30pm. We were fed and given large quantities of alcohol. The atmosphere was great, and the food was pretty good too. After we finished eating, we moved to the cocktail lounge at Garuva's where we consumed a ridiculously large amount of alcohol, which was all paid for by the owner of the school. This alcohol included cocktails, shots, wine and beer. I think spirits were also available. After many hours there, we decided to move on. Most people piked and went home, but 4 of us carried on to another location that may or may not have been a karaoke venue. Songs that may or may not have been sung may or may not include Kylie's Locomotion, The Village People's In The Navy and ABBA's Fernando, as well as others. After stumbling out of the last location, we decided it was bedtime and I went and crashed at another teacher's place, who lives in New Farm, rather than shelling out for a cab ride home.


* Saturnalia is the correct name for the annual festival many people refer to as Christmas.

Update on mole

I went to the doctor on Thursday afternoon to have the nasty mole on my leg checked out. Apparently it's fine and not dangerous, but there's a slim possibility that it may change in the future, so I need to have it checked every 4 months or so. I was given the option of having it removed anyway, just to get rid of it. Unfortunately, the removal process involves pain, and they won't agree to a general anaesthetic for the procedure. I can still choose to have it removed, and I'm considering it because it is occasionally itchy, and as it's a mole, I shouldn't scratch it.

Since leaving the medical centre, I've taken more notice of all the other moles all over my body, of which I have an abundance, and I think if I have them all removed, there'll be nothing left. I'll look like Swiss cheese.

Updated links

If any of you bother to pay attention to the "links" menu on the right-hand side of my blog, you may notice that there are two changes: Firstly, I have updated the link for Blog Agaty because Aggie recently started a new blog and this change reflects this; Secondly, I have included a link to Mick's Blog, which I, until very recently, did not know existed. I hope I have made your lives that little bit more bearable.

Router Issues

I have a Netgear wireless router. I can't be bothered checking the model number at the moment. Anyway, it has been causing some annoyance lately with a nasty habit that it seems to have picked up; it randomly stops talking to the modem, and therefore cuts off the connection to the interweb. The only solution seems to be resetting it, a process which takes at least 20 seconds. The router then functions normally for anything from 5 seconds up to indefinitely. As you can imagine, it's rather annoying to have to go through the 20 second process of resetting the router, only to have a mere 5 seconds of operation. The "wireless" symbol goes off on the display panel when the problem occurs, but it affects cable connections as well. Has anyone encountered this problem before, and if so, do you know of an effective solution?

Follow the link

I found this link on Kat's blog. It shows beautiful images of the world, and is definitely worth checking out.

Komputer Działa!!

I think I may have fixed my computer. If you can read Polish, then you'd know that I was having computer problems, but a little help from google sent me in the right direction and the computer seems to be working. The problem was that a file was corrupt or missing, and as it was a rather important file, the computer refused to boot. I copied the back-up version of the file from a secret folder that I didn't realise existed, and now the computer seems to be operating as well as it used to. After booting, I attempted to run a virus check, but my virus software is faulty, which I suspect was the cause of the problem, a theory supported by Liam's girlfriend whose computer had a similar problem when her identical virus scanner screwed up.

I've been using a programme called AVG, and I've found it good up until now, but I'm open to suggestions if anyone out there on the interweb has experience with other, preferably better, virus scanners. I prefer my software to be of the "free" variety.

Mark's a bum

I forgot to mention in my note about the Circus of the Sun that I went with various people including Mark. Mark recently displayed some impressive coordination while attempting to play football (soccer). He broke his arm, and due to this injury he has been unable to shave himself, which has resulted in him cultivating a hobo look. Yes, Mark's a hobo. I bet he sleeps in a cardboard box. Mel pointed out that Mark seems to be able to remove his cast when he wants to type, but seems disinclined to do so when it comes to taking care of personal hygiene.

Unfortunately I forgot to take my digital camera on Wednesday night, so I don't have a photo of Mark in hobo guise. If anyone could help with supplying a Hobo Mark photo, I'd be temporarily grateful.

Brak Pliku

Mój nowy komputer nie działa bo on mowi że on ma brak pliku lub on nie ma plika. Wiem że plik jest bo mogę oglądać go, ale to jest móżliwe że plik jest popsute. Chcę że komputer diała ale nie wiem jak zrobić.
Plik był w komputerze w sobotą rano ale nie był w sobotą wieczorem (ostatni tydzień, nie dzisiaj).

(Pisałem ile błądy?)

Cirque and moles

I went to Cirque du Soleil 'Varekai' on Wednesday night with various people. The performance was fantastic. I'd definitely recommend it to everyone. This was the second Cirque du Soleil show that I've ever seen and it has confirmed my desire to see as many as possible. I'm quite annoyed now that I missed Saltimbanco and Allegria when they were here.

In other news, I may have to remove a nasty mole from my life. But don't worry - I'm not referring to any of my faithful readers this time, just to a strange-looking thing growing on my leg. It has increased in size and become itchy, so it definitely requires a professional medical opinion.

In other news, a student in my class had this phrase printed (amoung others) on his shirt: Sweet and pure like a honey-coated nun.
I suspect he didn't really know the meaning of it and was just going with the fashion in Asia of wearing anything with English words on it, regardless of the meaning or evening if the grammar is remotely correct.

Strange Text Message

My mobile telephone beeped tonight, signalling that someone had sent me a text message using the short message service. It was from an unknown number, apparently from a creature called "Katie".
Here's the message:
SEAN IM KATIE. DO U REMEMBER ME?HOW R U?IM IN CAIRN N GOING TO MELBOURNE SOON. I READ UR MAIL. THANKS FOR THAT ^O^ GOOD NIGHT

All spelling, punctuation and capitalisation is verbatim from the message. I've never been to Cairn, only to its plural town.

Thou shalt be jealous!

I am eating Berry Cake biscuits (available from ALDI). They're delicious. Also, I have just won $20 on an instant scratch-it. Yay for me.

My fastest time for intermediate minesweeper on my desktop computer is 42 seconds, which isn't a particularly fast time (I have a better score on my laptop) but it is a cool number. The same applies for my current expert score of 123 seconds.

New DVD's! Yay! Exciting!

I have recently expanded my DVD collection with some fantastic titles. The first of these was Hairspray, the second and third were discs one and two of The Happy Tree Friends, which I have already mentioned. The fourth disc to include itself in my collection is Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, a fantastic film by Russ Meyer, and the latest disc, already mentioned, arrived today: Delicatessen, a french film about a rather bizarre post-apocalyptic community.

All of these films/dvd's are fantastic and give me a dvd collection that would make most people jealous*.

* I say most people because Rowan still has a more impressive collection, in number and due to some titles, such as Freaks.

So Cute!

I want the whole set!

Dilemma

I have found a second shower curtain for my home, so which should I get? (Ignore the fact that I don't have my own home yet)
1. Periodic Table Shower Curtain
2. Psycho Shower Curtain

I think I'll just have to find a place with at least two bathrooms. Of course, then I'd be faced with the dilemma of choosing which one to put in the ensuite and which in the bathroom.

Exciting DVD news

I have purchased several DVD's lately: Hairspray; Delicatessen; and volumes one and two of Happy Tree Friends. Delicatessen was purchased online, so I will have to wait a few days for it to arrive, but the other three are happily in my possession.

Some random ramblings

I've been asked to add things to this blog to provide some reading material, even if the items are not necessarily worth reading, so here goes:

Today I went to the movies with Mark (z Markiem) to see a film called The Departed. It was okay, and there were interesting ideas and moments, but on the whole I think it was a bit longer than it needed to be and the ending was a bit strange. We chose this film because there isn't a lot on at the moment and I wanted to go to BCC to use some free vouchers that I've had for ages and that expire soon.

Last night I went to the Brisbane Jazz Club with Angie, Michael and Kristine because the son of Kristine's flute teacher is in a band and they were playing. I like the building because it's on a slight lean due to some past foundation problems. The band that we listened to were good, but a bit on the progressive side for my liking.

On Friday night I went to a restaurant called Aqua Linea, which is on the river at Teneriffe. The reason for this outing was to celebrate Rowan's birthday and to use a voucher for this venue. The food was fantastic, though with their price tags, one would expect it to be.

Edit: for some reason blogger is refusing to publish my blog, so this post may or may not appear. If it doesn't appear, don't read it.

Mam Pocztowke

I haven't written in a long time - I've been neglecting my blog.
I'm sorry blog, I'll try to be more regular in the future.

Anyway, I received a postcard today from Sylwia. She sent me a postcard from Cairns and the Great Barrier Reef. :-)

I also received two postcards last week. Both were posted from Poland, one from Zabrze and one from Cieszyn. They were both posted within a week or two of each other, way back in June, and so it took them about 3 and a half months to find their way to Australia. Oh well, at least they arrived eventually.

Also, for those of you who didn't reply to my email about Cirque du Soleil, I assumed that a non-response was a no, so we've booked the tickets. We're going on the 22nd of November, which is the day after the 21st and just before the 23rd.

On Tuesday night, I saw a movie called "Little Miss Sunshine". I don't want to spoil the plot or jokes for those who are planning to see it, but suffice to say that it was hilarious. If you're not planning to see it, you should change your plans.

That's all for now.
Enjoy.

Jem Obiad.

Jem chleb z pasztetem. Lubiłem zjeść chleb z pasztetem kiedy byłem w Polsce na śniadanie. Szukałem pasztet w sklepie i sklep ma pasztet z Chorwacji. Mój jest pasztet z krową, i pasztet jest Chorwacji ale krowy są z Australii. Dziwny ale smaczny. Wiem że Agatka lubi pasztet też, ale nie wiem czy ona wie że Woolworths ma pasztet chorwacki.

Jutro, jadę do Gold Coast. Będę zjeść obiadek z Sylwią - pierogi :-)
Potem, jedziemy na lodowisku, i potem będziemy na kawę gdzieś.
Pa.

Earphones update

I found my earphones, thank you for being concerned. However I have now encountered a different problem; my mp3 player doesn't work. It worked for a short time before switching itself off automatically, possibly as a battery saving measure, though infuriating when I was listening to it. The time that the player remained "on" decreased each time it switched itself off - for example, today it worked for about 30mins before going off, then I switched it back on and it worked for about 10, and then after switching on yet again lasted only 3 or 4 minutes (almost 1 song). This has led me to the conclusion that I need to buy a new player.

Any ideas where I can buy a new, good, cheap mp3 player?
Ideally I'd like one with a rechargeable battery - the one mentioned above really chews through them when it decides to work. I'd like an Ipod, though I have no idea of their cost at this stage, maybe an Ipod mini would suffice. I want one with a display as my first ever mp3 player didn't have one and it was annoying to use because it was impossible to tell which file you were playing without listening to the first few seconds, which is annoying if you want to listen to a particular track.

Earphones

I purchased an mp3 player while I was in Europe. It worked well over there up until my departure; it stopped working while I was in CDG airport waiting for my flight back to Australia. I have recently managed to convince the player that there's naught wrong with it and that it can happily play mp3's once again, but I have managed to misplace my earphones. So, my new question to all of you is: If you were my earphones, where would you be?

Pronunciation question

I was talking with a couple of the other teachers today and the word 'lozenges' came up because the teacher from Canadia had never heard it before. Apparently in Canadia they call them 'throat candies' for some stupid reason. Anyway, the other Australian teacher asked me how I pronounced the singular of the plural word 'lozenges', so I said 'lozenge', which is correct (I know I'm correct because I always am). She agreed with my pronunciation but said that she has heard native speakers pronounce it as something like 'lozenger'. (The difference being an extra syllable - allocating three syllables to the singular instead of two because the plural has got three syllables.)
So, my question is, have you ever heard someone say 'lozenger' as the singular form of the word? It's not something that I remember ever hearing.

Jem Owsianka

Yes, that's right, jem owsianka. It's tasty because of my belief that a good bowl should contain equal parts owsianka and złoty syrop*.

In other news, my dog is attempting to stage a coup in this house to gain control over said bowl of owsianka. She doesn't have the support of the military so I suspect her coup will not be as successful as the recent one in Thailand.

On Friday night I attended Rowan and Klaus' 'Post Painting Piss-up Party', which involved dinner, alcohol and lots of music, as well as some music videos, including many 80's hits and a few ABBA tunes. It was fun. Boy George made a cameo appearance (in person) but didn't stay long because of his chauffer's** timetable. This evening served to add further support to my theory that everyone likes ABBA.

Last night I had dinner with Angie (briefly) and Michael. Michael and I then watched Eric the Viking, which I hadn't seen in such a long time that I'd forgotten it almost completely. It's still amusing and still weird. There was a program on late last night called "When Sex Goes Wrong" and so due to the title, we were forced to watch it. It was funny, scary and had a few painful-due-to-empathy moments. I was surprised that so many people were willing to discuss their embarrassing moments/problems on a televised show when they often mentioned that they would never tell their friends and would be terribly embarrassed if their friends ever found out.

I went shopping today to purchase a birthday present for my brother (because of his impending birthday). I was unable to find anything suitable so I was forced to purchase a book and a dvd so that I didn't return home empty-handed.

* It's nothing terribly exotic, "jem" = "I'm eating", "owsianka" = "porridge" and "złoty syrop" = "golden syrup". Well, unless you're of the opinion that "Scottish" is exotic.
** train

Absence of Emails and Pancakes.

I had a rather large amount of time between chances to check my email accounts recently. Specifically, from about 10pm on Wednesday night to 7am on Friday morning. This morning (being Friday), when I checked my email, I expected to download a substantial number of new messages. I was wrong. In that eon, just one person saw fit to throw some electrons in the form of an electronical mail message in my direction (incidentally, it was Clair). Where is everyone else? What happened to all of you?

In other news, my class made pancakes today. The reference to pancakes in the title of this post doesn't refer to a lack of them, but more an abundance (the lack refers solely to the emails). Every fourth Friday at school we have a graduation ceremony for all the students finishing in that particular week (though there are students finishing in every week). For this event, one class provides some food for the rest of the student body, usually a barbeque, but this week it was provided by my class, pre-intermediate 2. It was decided that this week, instead of a regular bbq, which gets a bit repetitive, we should put on a devonshire tea. Unlike most devonshire teas, we did it without the tea and scones, but with pancakes/pikelets. So it wasn't really a devonshire tea at all. We made regular and chocolate pancakes, with jam, whipped cream, syrup and caramel sauce as optional extras. The pancakes turned out really well, cooked on a barbeque due to the absence of other substantial cooking facilities at the school (we have a frying pan, barbeque and microwaves). The pancakes were all consumed, but there was quite a large amount of whipped cream left over, which I have brought home (about 2L), so I might have to eat a bowl or two of whipped cream for breakfast.

A post

Lizard reminded me that I have been somewhat lax in posting of late, so here's a post. Just to make Lizard happy.

Well, I went to Dreamworld yesterday with Aggie. It was fantastic. I'd go more often if not for the horrible entry fee (though we did come to the conclusion that it's still better value than the Ekka). The Giant Drop, The Claw and the Wipeout were all great rides. The Log ride was good, as usual, though it left Aggie and I a little wetter than just "splashed". We were drenched. Luckily we had a change of clothes (due to a tentative plan to swim there). The rollercoaster was a bit anticlimatic. In fact, the most enjoyable part of the rollercoaster was before we rode, when we were treated to the sight of Dreamworld's 'vomit cleanup' department. A girl on the run before us had apparently decided that it would be a good time to unload the contents of her stomach, so we had to wait for the vomit to be removed from the ride before going through loops and things.

Last night, I went with Aggie and Sylwia to Gregor and Sabine's going away/farewell party. They are going to embark on a three-week trek of outback Australia (including Uluru) before returning to Brisbane for approximately 10 days and then returning to Germany. I hadn't seen either of them for a few months, so it was nice to catch up with them, but sad that they will leave soon. They've been in Brisbane for so long now that it's like they're part of the furniture.

Well, aside from that, I can't remember anything else of note that I have done lately, at least nothing worth blogging about.

ABBA!

On Friday night, Rowan, Klaus, Oddur and I went to The Globe Theatre for an ABBA Party. Like everyone else, I am an ABBA fan, so I knew the evening would be fun before we even arrived, and it wasn't disappointed. In fact, I hope that there will be another ABBA Party one day, hopefully soon. The night began with music and dancing in the foyer, followed by film clips of ABBA hits, from the least successful right through to Mammia Mia and Dancing Queen. ABBA rocks!

Lyrics?

I'm trying to find a song with some specific lyrics. Not specific words as such, just specific requirements. I need a song with at least a couple of examples of comparatives and/or superlatives. I also need the song to be relatively free of explicit language. And I would ideally like it before tomorrow.

Any suggestions?

Elves taste like chicken

Last night I went to Tuesday Night Trivia, as I have been doing on a Tuesday night for about a month now. Unfortunately for us, there was no trivia as it was a special Ekka-week extravaganza instead. Bummer for us at first, but then I went and watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 with Rowan and Sam. The show was absolutely hilarious and I think I nearly wet myself several times from laughing so much. The bad science fiction movie associated with the episode that we watched was Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, a terrible, awful, but so bad it's funny science fiction film. MST3K (Mystery Science Theater 3000) is fantastic and I want to see every episode I can find.

Some photos for your enjoyment

Here are some photos of the animals that reside in my house. I promised to post some pictures of the birds that I mentioned in a previous post, so here is a photo of the two of them. Also, there's a photo of my dog with the bandage that she had to wear on her paw for a while.

I'm still here!

I know it has been quite a while since I last wrote a post here, but I've been meaning to get around to it for a while.

Last Friday night, I went to the Dendy to see a film called Sophie Scholl, a film about resistance to the Nazi movement in WWII Germany. I thought it was a very well-made film, and I'm glad I saw it. It was a sad film, watching young people with consciences interrogated, tried and executed, more so given that it was based on a true story. Being a European film, the line "based on a true story" actually means something, as the film doesn't seem to be sensationalised in the same sort of way that one can expect from hollywood's style of "based on a true story".

On Tuesday night, the trivia team that I've joined came third, for the second week in a row. Most trivia teams have names but this team seems to have about 27, including "The Tourettes" and "Sunboyz". Third prize is a $25 gift voucher at the local bottle shop, so we had $50 to share between the 10 of us, giving about $5 each to spend. Like all the others, I chose to supplement my $5 with my own money in order to buy something drinkable.

Last night I went to Rowan and Klaus' apartment for dinner and to watch a couple of episodes of Crusade, a series from the creator of Babylon 5. The show is fun to watch, but pretty pathetic in a lot of ways, such as the special effects, and the poorly disguised dungeons and dragons quest maskerading as a futuristic plot. There's a mage, a thief, a quasi-archer, a warrier, a leader, etc... The thief is dressed in faux-mediaeval attire, despite the fact that the show is set many many years in the future. Oh well.

In other news, Angie and Michael have a nephew! It happened on Thursday night, quite late, and therefore inconvenient for the new parents. This is their first nephew because the spawns of the other sibling are female and therefore only qualified to be nieces.

Strange Avian Behaviour

Some of you will know that in our house reside two creatures of the avian persuasion. They are both lovebirds. The male of this pair, shown in the picture below* is insane and very bitey. He also likes to frequently display his fondness for fluffy toys. I believe he is a plushophile. One disturbing aspect of this bird's fetish is that he seems to enjoy showing his love for these objects when we are in the middle of meals.


* Okay, so the picture in this blog entry is probably not displayed in the range referred to as "the visible spectrum". This is mostly because I just realised that the photos of the birds are on mum's computer, and it's late, so I can't be bothered switching it on to find one. Hopefully I'll remember soon to add a photo.

If only I had a front door...

There are so many cool things available for home decorating. This would be hanging from my front door. If I owned a front door. I know I could buy a door, but that would be pointless as I don't have a house to which I could attach the door.

Some interesting links:

If only I had a bathroom in need of a shower curtain.

For Star Wars nuts: 75 things we love and hate about Star Wars. I agree with all of them.

It's been a while since my last post - over 7 days, in fact! I've been a little busy and also not in a generally blogging mood, but now I'm here, I'll fill you in on the events that have occurred since my last post:

On Friday night, I went to Rowan and Klaus' place for dinner and movies. From there, Ro, Nat and I headed to the Globe theatre to watch a double feature of Vixen! and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! which are both films directed by Russ Meyer. Both films were fantastic, and I recommend watching them if you can. I won't tell you what either film was about, as I'm not really too sure myself.

On Monday, I started a new job, which may or may not become long-term, or permanent. At the moment I'm on a casual, trial basis, but it seems to be going well. I'm working as an ESL teacher at an English School in the CBD (which is great for transport when one doesn't own a vehicle). The students are all foreigners, mostly Koreans, Colombians and Brazilians, as well as from other Asian and South American countries. As far as I know, there are only two Europeans, one from Hungary (near Budapest) and one from Switzerland (Geneva). I was initially hired as a substitute teacher for one week, but that week has ended and I've been asked to work this coming week as well.

It's spam Jim, but not as we know it...

I received this spam email recently, but I don't know what it means, or what it's trying to sell:

nonsense they babble! They flip out over the landscape or they express their
Fletcher turned to his instructor, and there was a moment of fright
wrong with its trajectory. I couldn't explain what was wrong, but I sensed
"Would you feel better if we left, Fletcher?" asked Jonathan.

(note: that is the entire body of the email)

Help with windows' nosy character.

Does anyone out there know how to tell windows to permanently* stop configuring my wireless networks?

The last wireless network (aside from the network here) with which my computer was required to liaise required windows to configure my wireless networks. The problem now is that my home network requires windows to stop configuring and mind its own fucking business, but windows persists in reverting back to the interfering mode every time I start my computer. It's not such a big problem, but it is annoying to have to change the settings each and every time I start or restart my computer.

* I know that technically I just split that infinitive, but I don't believe it's the terrible sin that some do.

Oh Rocky

You scored as Columbia. You are Columbia! You are a fiery redhead who can dance pretty well in really ugly shoes. Columbia 88% Magenta 63% Eddie 63% Dr. Scott 50% Rocky 50% Riff Raff 50% Brad 38% Frank 13% Janet 0% Which Rocky Horror Character Do You Identify With Most? created with QuizFarm.com

Things I want:

I want this rug. The light "shade" on the page above the rug is cool too.

I also want these bean bags.

And this skull sponge.

I spy with my little eye....

And I can!

I had an eye test today. It turned out okay; apparently I have eyes.

I have been noticing a slight decline in my eyesight over the last few months, specifically on my focussing abilities so I went along to an eye-witch-doctor (aka optometrist) just to check. I went to OPSM because they bulk-bill and therefore it was a free exercise. I was told that my eyesight has waned slightly, with both eyes receiving a rating of -0.25 which is the smallest amount of degradation possible (without having no degradation at all). This means that it's too small a prescription to worry about and I don't need to wear glasses, which is good. I'm not against the idea of having and using glasses, but they seem a hassle (they often get misplaced) and I have a certain face shape that makes it near impossible to find glasses (inc. sunglasses) that look inoffensive on me, much less actually suit me.

My word I've been busy!

Well, I haven't posted for a while because I simply haven't found my round tuit yet.

Last weekend I went to Noosa/Sunrise Beach with Aggie and Sylwia. We spent Saturday shopping in Hastings St and Saturday night playing Monopoly, eating stuff and drinking other stuff. Aggie won. On Sunday we went 4wding on the Noosa North Shore, up past the Cherry Venture wreck and cut through to Rainbow Beach. I enjoyed the beach driving and now I long for a vehicle that would enable me to do it more often. I think the Terios would be fine for most of it, but I haven't given it a trial yet, as I'm a bit concerned about the lack of low-range and the tiny engine.
The following photos show the wreck of the Cherry Venture (it was a boat), a real 4WD (Aggie and Simon's) and Aggie & Sylwia, wearing their pretty hats, in front of the hot dog stand next to the Cherry Venture from where I'll never purchase a hot dog again. Mine was ick and Aggie's was still partially frozen.



The next photo shows the three of us standing behind the car, with Noosa's main beach in the background. We are all squinting into the extremely bright sun, which should explain our facial expressions.


Last night I went to La Kasbah with Kat, Nat, Amanda, Ro and Klaus for Kat's going-away dinner. The food was good, although I didn't really love my meal, but my dessert was fantastic. I had Crepes Algeriennes, which were semolina crepes served with ice-cream and cream, in a delicious sauce made of honey, caramel and extra sugar. The sauce was extremely sweet, and therefore delicious. My meal was a Pyramid of Goat, according to the receipt, but a Pyramid of Goats' Cheese and Smoked Salmon according to the menu. It sounds like it should have been great, but there were too many other things in there, all fighting for attention. I definitely want to go back there one day, as other meals looked really good too.

Dziękuję Poczta Polska

My 13kg package finally arrived on Monday morning! I had begun to believe that it would be lost forever, as it was 2 and a half months late, but better late than never as many old people say.

This is what it looked like before I removed the string and sticky tape to liberate its contents:

Note: I am responsible for the large amount of brown sticky tape, but the parcel somehow acquired the white string somewhere in its travels.

There were several things inside that I was relieved to finally have in my possession and a couple of other items that I'd forgotten about entirely, so even though I packaged it myself and posted it myself, to myself, it was still a surprise to wade through the countless items to see what was on the slab. One item I'm glad to have with me is my collection of European sugar sachets to go with my collection of Australian sugar sachets.

I'll post some pictures of the contents when I get a round tuit.

Airport! Dinner! Airport! Rocky!.... Airport! Dinner! Airport! Rocky!

I went to the airport before the crack of dawn yesterday. I know this because it was dark when we left home and so dawn had not yet cracked. The reason for this was so that Mum and Barry could catch their early flight to Sydney for the weekend. For those who don't know, Sydney is a largish town, about 1000km south of Brisbane. For all practical purposes, excluding politics, Sydney is essentially the capital city of Australia. (The capital of Australia would be 'A')
Kelvin (my more chronologically advanced brother) also flew to Sydney yesterday but was on a later flight. This meant I got to drive a second time to the domestic airport. Yay, much fun.

The fun part of the evening occurred later, when I went to Rowan and Klaus' apartment for dinner and a movie. The original plan was to eat dinner there, and then walk down the road to The Globe cinema to watch the screening of Rocky Horror with the live floorshow, however when the time came to depart their abode, we decided that we couldn't be bothered walking that far and instead watched the movie in their apartment. We'll try to attend the next screening with the live floorshow, but it's difficult when it's not scheduled to start until 11pm, which at The Globe means it probably won't start until at least 11:30pm, which is almost tomorrow. And who'd want to watch a movie tomorrow?

Stomp

I went to Stomp last night with various people including Mel, Eric, Shana, Chris, Andy and Sarah. The performance was really good though I was expecting it to be more dance-orientated. We were sitting quite a distance away from the stage, and I believe we may have even been in a different time zone, but that was because we opted to buy the cheapest tickets available, which were still a bit pricey at $35 each. Being that far away meant that it was difficult to see some things, such as some of the objects they were using as instruments, but I don't think we missed any of the audio aspects of the show. On the other hand, I wouldn't know if I had missed anything, as I didn't have a 'control performance' with which to compare last night's show.

Yahoo knows about my blog...

I checked my sitemeter to see who has been reading my blog and from where. It appears that someone in Poland came to my blog via a Yahoo.com search for "puns po polsku" (Polish Puns). Someone in the region of Słupsk, so probably not anyone I know. I don't think I have any Polish puns on this site, but I do have puns, and I have Polish things here and there.

Cool

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Poczta

I'm still waiting for the postperson to deliver my parcel from Poland. The one that I posted on the 28th of February or the 1st of March. The same parcel that I was told would take one month to arrive. I even briefly wondered if it would beat me back to Australia. It's now the 2nd of June. Three months is more than one month. I want my parcel! Where is it? Gdzie to jest?

Pink Flamingos

I went to see Pink Flamingos last night at The Globe. It is definitely the sort of movie that you should see once. It's billed as the most vile, filthiest film ever produced and I believe that to be true. I'm glad that I've now seen it, and I don't regret seeing it, but I don't think I'll rush back to watch it again anytime soon. I think the quote on The Globe's website typifies the film quite well: "We don't just dare you to see it... We dare you not to walk out!!!"

There were parts of the movie that were hilarious, other parts that were disgusting and parts that were boring. The acting was terrible, but that was expected. The term "arseholism" is something that I feel should enter my vocabulary.

The Globe smells like the 70's which was a nice touch for viewing a film from that decade, though I think it wasn't intentional.

One of the upcoming films is called 'Cat-women of the Moon' and the website's quote this time is: "You've never seen anything like it... and you'll never want to see anything like it again!"

Zamek Pendżabski*

I went to Punjabi Palace last night for dinner with some people including Susan, Aggie and Simon. The food was great, as usual at this establishment. The butter chicken was particularly nice and I think it is fast becoming my favourite type of curry (a title previously held by something with a name that I have forgotten but which wasn't butter chicken).

*Strona "Poltran.com" mówiła że "Punjab" jest "Pendżab" po polsku. Czy strona ma racje?

Pirates and Eurovision

I went to see Pirates of Penzance last night. I'd never seen Pirates before, and Kat was in the cast, so I went along with a bunch of other people, somewhate randomly scattered throughout the audience due to differing dates and times of ticket purchasing.

The beginning of the show was a little lacklustre and I felt the opening notes from the orchestra were terrible. It sounded like the novelty had well worn off and the musicians wanted nothing more than to get the show over and done with so they could retreat to the comfort of their beds. The got into the swing of things as the night progressed and by the end they sounded like they actually wanted to be there. Some of the cast members seemed to be suffering from a similar condition, though not quite as obviously as the musicians. We put it down to the fact that they've had almost two weeks of performances, as well as countless rehearsals before that, and as it was an amateur performance, many of the performers would have needed to attend day jobs as well, so they can be forgiven for showing a few signs of tiredness. Overall the show was quite enjoyable, and full of terrible puns and groan-worthy jokes, which is always a bonus in my opinion.

From our seats we didn't have a really good view of Kat for some of her role in the first half, so we unfortunately missed some visual humour that her character provided, though Nick was in a better position as his seat was higher and said that it was worthy of a few laughs.

Tonight is the final of Eurovision 2006 and I will celebrate it by attending a Eurovision party at Oddur's place. Germany's contestant is an Australian girl singing an American country and western song, so they're being very global this year. I don't have a favourite, as I haven't seen the first set of finalists, but there were a couple of groups who I thought were quite good. I didn't like Finland's entry, but other people seemed to think it was good, and enough people voted for them that they got through, so that's what matters in the end for this contest. One year I will definitely attend a Eurovision Song Contest in person, though I don't know when (or where, obviously).

New chocolate phrases

In addition to the previously posted phrases, and those given by Kat in the comments, I have:
Hvor er sjokoladen? (Norwegian)
and
Waar is de chocolade? (Dutch)

Dutch looks like accented English.

Also, I have confirmation from a native Istanbulite that Kat's Turkish version is correct. :-)

Ouch, film, newsflash

I really dislike mouth ulcers. Especially when they're residing in my mouth. And in hard-to-reach places, like on the back of my tongue, where it rubs against my teeth each time I swallow.

I'm going to the cinema this evening with Aggie to see a film called Candy. I don't know a lot about the film, but I won two free tickets, and free stuff should not be sneezed at.

In other news, it's Wednesday today. Mercredi, Środa, Mittwoch, xingqisan, etc.

That time of year again!!!!

It happens once per year, and it's a celebration of wonder, beauty, music, and shiny things. Yes, it's time for the 2006 Eurovision Song Contest. This year, as you all know, it will be held in Athens because Greece won last year's contest in Ukraine.

I already have plans for Saturday night, so I was extremely relieved to find out that the televised coverage in Australia (on SBS, of course) will take place on Friday and Sunday nights, the latter being the final, obviously.

The official motto for this year's spectacle is "Feel The Rhythm". Profound.

NB: The excitement of this event more than warrants the number of exclamation marks I included in the title of this post.

A new and exciting phrase

I spent Thursday evening with Kat and Amanda. During the course of the evening, it emerged that Amanda knows two phrases in Klingon: "What" and "Where's the chocolate?". Given that the second of these phrases is vitally important, I have decided to start collecting it in as many languages as possible, in a similar vein to my hovercraft phrase collection. Unlike the hovercraft phrase, I don't think I will encounter the same difficulties while searching for the chocolate phrase, as many people I asked queried "what is a hovercraft?" and/or "what are eels?". Most people know what chocolate is.

I can supply three versions immediately:
Where's the chocolate? (English)
Gdzie jest czekolade? (Polish)
Où est le chocolat? (French)

If you can supply other languages (or correct any given versions) please leave a comment.

Visitor number 666

Visitor number 666 (since I installed my sitemeter) visited my blog today. The visit occurred at 12:44:10pm from the domain name .edu.au and location; Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Oceania. It was a very short visit, but a special number nonetheless. If you think this visitor may have been you, please leave a comment to reveal yourself. Come on, don't be afraid to delurk.

Impreza Agaty

Last Saturday night was Aggie's party. It was in celebration of her birthday, which occurred in late April (the 24th, same date as last year and the year before). The party was a lot of fun, and it was great to catch up with a few people whom I hadn't seen in over a year, if not more. I managed to speak English and Polish during the evening, but there were no other francophones there, so I wasn't able to utilise that language as well. Here are some photos from the evening showing some (but not all) of the other people present during the course of the evening:

The Globe

This place is awesome!

525600 Minutes

I went to the Rock Opera Rent last night with Kat and Mark. It's a great musical/opera (it is advertised as a rock opera but there was a small amount of spoken word there, so I think it should be technically a musical). The cast were good, most of them could sing well (though a few yelled) and they were convinced from an acting point of view. There are only two shows remaining, both today. One at 2pm and one at 7:30pm and I'd definitely recommend it.

The title of this entry is a reference to one of the songs from the show, and it's currently stuck in my head, or jostling for position with another song called La Vie Boheme.

Delicious

I drank a lime-flavoured Breaka today. I think my last lime Breaka would have been at least 14 or 15 months ago, so it has been far too long since the last time delicious green milk had past my lips.

I know you're all jealous, but you'll just have to go out and find your own lime Breakas.

Another update after yet another hiatus

The weekend before last I went to Sunrise Beach for the Easter period, as mentioned in my last entry. The weather was nice, with rain only happening on one evening.


Last weekend was mostly taken up with Angie and Michael's wedding. Friday afternoon and night was spent in the Rendezvous hotel near central station with Michael and Archie.

The hotel room was quite nice, and comfortable, although the mattresses were a little on the hard side. Archie and I spent most of the night trying to "calm" Michael's nerves. (And by "calm" I mean "exacerbate")

The wedding took place on Saturday, at St. Stephen's Cathedral in the city.

It was a nice ceremony, and I was a little nervous because I was in control of the rings, and I had terrible images in my head of dropping the rings and then having to chase them across the marble alter only to just miss them as they rolled into a drain somewhere. The best quote was when the priest said that Angie and Michael would be using "simple words" to say their vows.

After the wedding, we (the bridal party) were whisked away in a long car (it was the longest stretched limo in Queensland) to the gardens for some photos. I counted at least 9 seatbelts in the back section of the limo, so we had plenty of room and weren't fighting for space for our legs or climbing over the top of each other.



After the photos, we went to the reception, held at Custom's House. The venue was fantastic, the food was great and I think the whole evening turned out brilliantly. I was nervous about the speech that I was required to give, but it was okay in the end.


The wedding cake was delicious. I had a slice of the bottom (I think) layer, which was chocolate mud cake. Angie and Michael sensibly only had fruit added to the small top layer and didn't inflict it upon anyone.

I'm sorry blog, I've been neglecting you...

It's been a while since my last post, so what have I done since then?

I've seen a couple of films, been to an art exhibition, organised a buck's party, been to the Gold Coast for a few hours, and then dinner at Mt Tambourine, and I've been to Sushi Train for lunch.

The Gold Coast:
I went with Aggie to Southport and Surfers Paradise to visit Sylwia and to give her some items that her mum asked me to deliver. In the photo, Sylwia (on the left) is wearing the necklace and holding the box of Michałki that I gave to her only moments before. As you can see from the photo, specifically from Sylwia's hair, it was quite windy at that location. From there, we went to Surfers to drink bubble tea and visit the observation deck of Q1 (the tallest residential building in the world). The view from the observation deck was impressive, but we were unable to see Brisbane, a claim made by the developers during the construction process. At $16 per entry, it's also an expensive observation deck to visit.
After driving Sylwia back to her house, Aggie and I decided to go to Mt Tambourine to have dinner at one of the two Polish restaurants there. Unfortunately, the better of the two was closed so we were forced to eat at the lower-quality restaurant. The food was okay, without being anything special, but the prices were quite high, so it was a disappointing outing. We'll have to make our own pierogi one day.

On Tuesday (today is Thursday), I went to the Sushi Train at Toowong for lunch with Angie. The food was the same as I remembered it, delicious and fairly good value. The biggest problem was that I had a huge ulcer on the back of my tongue, so eating was difficult. After Sushi Train, we played Sonic for a while and then decided that ice-cream was needed, so we went to Cold Rock. Delicious. Chocolate ice-cream with cookie dough and a caramello koala mixed in.

Last Saturday night was Mick's buck's party. We started at the Pavilion at West End for a few games of pool and dinner and then headed into the city to go bowling at Strike Bowling Bar. After some time there, and an injury on my part (I honestly don't think it's possible for me to go bowling without sustaining an injury of some description), we left and went to the Casino where Michael won a nice amount of money (I can't remember the exact figure, but I think it was about $100 more than he put into the machines).

This coming weekend I'm going to Sunrise Beach. It should be nice there, and I haven't been there for over a year. And by "this coming weekend" I mean I'm going there tonight and returning sometime on Monday, I think.

French Film Festival

I went to see one of the movies showing as part of the French Film Festival last night. We ended up seeing a film called "Manuale d'Amore" (Manual of Love) which is an Italian film. You might think it strange that I saw an Italian film as part of the French Film Festival. Well, I didn't really.

We wanted to see a film called "Couches Froides" but when we got there it had sold out. As had the films for today and all but one of the films for tomorrow. Incidentally, the only film in the festival that we didn't want to see.

So, we had a look at the other films showing at the cinema and the Italian film was one option, so we saw that. It was quite a good film and I enjoyed it, but I will have to remember to buy tickets well in advance for future French Film Festivals (I hope you enjoyed that alliteration).

Ouais Grosse...

I've been listening to a certain song that I was introduced to by a Parisian called "La Boulette". I shouldn't like the song at all, I should hate it (or, I should ate it, as the french would say), but I heard it so much when I was in Paris that the song reminds me of that city, so it has good associations.

The singer, Diam's, has a website, located here. If you click "entrer sur le site" and then scroll down to "La boulette" and click on "visonnez la boulette" you can watch the clip and listen to the song.

Well, I'm back...

I arrived back in Brisbane this morning at about 7:30am, by the time I managed to gett off the plane, get my baggage and pass through customs.

For those living in or near Brisbane, if you want to catch up, let me know when and where, etc. I've already seen my doggy, so the most important task is done. :-)

Soon to be in transit

I have only one day left in France before I fly home to my dog. I miss my dog.

I've had a great time here, and I don't really want to leave, but on the other hand, I have different fingers.

As a cuisine report, I thought I'd mention the french foods I've sampled while here: Frogs' legs, goie gras, choucroutte, raclette, fondue (savoy style), snails, countless pastry things, and some other things that I can't remember the names for.

Anyway, I'm not looking forward to the flight home, as it will be 24.5 hours without a travel companion, which means it will most likely be incredibly boring. But on Monday morning, I'll be back in Brisbane and I'll see those of you in that region soon after. And I'll see my dog again :-)

Back in Paris

Although, from my lack of posts, you'd think I never left.

Since the last post, I've spent time in Grenoble, Lyon and Marseille, including skiing near Grenoble. I can't be bothered writing much write now (notice the pun) but I thought I'd write something to let you all know I'm still alive :-)
I'm having a great time here, and I'm trying to do as much as I can in the few days I have left.

For those of you who have four digit postcodes starting with 4, I'll be back next Monday and then you can either see me again or try to avoid me (ie, Mark).

Paris again....

Time time I'm using my computer (ah, I love wi-fi), so I can type much faster because I know where all the keys are; I don't have to hunt around the keyboard to find the apostrophe or comma or w, for example.

I'm having a great time in Paris. Yesterday I saw the Arc de Triomphe, and ate frogs' legs on the Champs Elysees. They were good. After that I went to the Notre Dame, Sacre Coeur and Butte Montmarte. There was also a lot of general wandering around.

Today I'm going to the Palace of Versaille.

I'm in Paris!

I arrived in Paris about 2 hours ago and met Julien at the airport. I'm now back at his apartment following a tour (by car) of the centre of Paris.

I'm typing this on his computer, which has a french keyboard, so I'll finish here because it's annoying to find all the letters and punctuation.

My last night in Gliwice

Ok, it's now 5:34pm on my last night in Gliwice. Assuming all goes according to plan, by this time tomorrow I'll be in Paris with Jul.

I went shopping today and bought a jam doughnut, two bottles of żubrówka, a pastry thing with jam, and 2445euros. The euros were the most expensive purchase. Also, the 100euro notes are quite large, larger, I think, than necessary, and it was hard to get them into my money pouch, especially because there were 24 of them. I now have one in my wallet, and it barely fits. Really, there's no need to make money inconveniently large.

I have almost finished packing. It seems like there are always many more things to cram into my suitcase. When I left Australia, my suitcase had a lot of spare room in it; enough to fit in my laptop when we were travelling around Eastern Europe. Unfortunately, now I don't think I could even think about trying to squash my laptop in there. I know I have some more clothes, but not many, and I can't think of much else that I have now that I didn't have then, so I don't what the cause of the lack of space is. This isn't worrying in itself except that when I left Australia with my roomy suitcase, it weighed 20.5kg, which is a pretty good weight when the airline imposes a limit of 20kg. Now I'm worried that my luggage is going to weight something astronomical like 30kg or more. I really hope it's not that much, and that if I am significantly over, that the check-in person is kind and forgiving as according to SkyEurope's website, the excess charge is 5euro per kg. 10kg extra would be painful for my wallet.

Well, this is probably going to be my last post from Gliwice as I want to pack my computer soon. The next post will come to you live from either France or Australia. Ciao for now.

Smaczna Herbata

Herbata Miódowa:

Herbata czarna, 10ml soku pomaranczowego, sok cytryny, i miód.

Bardzo smaczna :-)

Packing

Well, I've started to pack. I have put all items of clothing that are not going to be worn between now and Thursday and that are not drying in my bathroom into my suitcase. I've also filled my box that I intend to entrust (perhaps unwisely) to the postal service, in an attempt to reduce my luggage mass. I still feel that my suitcase will be grossly overweight, and with my random guess performed by looking at my half-filled suitcase I'm predicting the total weight to come to 25kg. According to Sky Europe's website, they charge an extra 5 Euro for each extra kilogram, so I'm hoping that they either don't enforce it too much or that the person on the check-in desk is in a friendly and generous mood.

Dzisiaj byłem w domu rodziców mojej przyjaciólki bo chciałem mówić do widzenia, i teraz masz coś że muszę dawać do mojej przyjaciólki. Czy mam racje? Gramatika polska jest bardzo trudna i nie znam bardzo dobrze deklinacja polska. Jeszcze są trzy dni w Polsce przed lecę do Paryża i potem osiemnaście dni przed lecę do Australii. Dla ludzie w Australii, do zobaczenia wkrótce.

Quasar Klub

Yes, that is the name of a pub in Gliwice. The address is ulica Górnych Wałów 30 for those who are interested. It's near the t-junction with ulica Zygmunta Starego. It used to be called "B-Free" but isn't anymore, obviously.

Anyway, I went there last night to have a small goodbye evening with some friends. I took my camera but forgot to take photos until we were leaving, so that explains why Asia and Łukasz are wearing coats and scarves:


I supplied the box of TimTam Balls. They were left here courtesy of mum, as a Christmas present. They are delicious, obviously, because they are TimTams. Asia's husband's name is also Łukasz, but not the one in the photo. It's a common name.

This next photo is of me and Ania (another common name). There were four or five attempts at this photo, and this is the best result:


Quasar Klub is actually a nice, but small place. It would be advisable to arrive early, or at least have one of your party arrive early so as to claim an alcove with couches, which look like they'd be a great place to have a night at the pub because they're private, and comfy. We managed to procure a couch at the end of the hall, but it was a long straight couch which made communication a little awkward because it was hard to sit facing everyone else.

One week

Well, I now have one week left. I need to be organised and ready, waiting for the bus to the airport at Kraków-Balice in about one week and three hours.

Jestem w Bielsku-Bialej

I currently in Bielsko-Biala, writing this post from Nicola's computer (Komputer Nicoli). I have quite a few photos from the town, but they're all on my camera and will have to wait until I'm at home to be downloaded.

I went to a restaurant last night for dinner with Nicola and some of her friends. The food was delicious, and well-presented, so of course I took photos of some of the meals. :-)

The twin-town of Bielsko and Biala is smallish. The population is slightly less than Gliwice's, but it seems a little bigger, either because I know Gliwice better or because Bielsko-Biala is not so close to Katowice and other surrounding towns that it appears dwarfed by them. Perhaps a bit of both.

The name of the town comes from the names of two separate towns, Bielsko and Biala, which were/are separated by the Biala river. The river once formed part of the border between Austria and Poland, and Bielsko was in Austria while Biala was in Poland. Now they're both in Poland, and connected by a few bridges.

The town has a much nicer setting than Gliwice because it is next to the mountains, and from many places in the city you can see the snow-covered peaks, whereas Gliwice is flat, in a very flat area, so there isn't anything interesting to look at in the distance.

Ostatni weekend byłem w Pszczynie

I haven't had time to write for a few days, or a week it seems. Last Saturday I went to Pszczyna, a town to the south-east of Gliwice. The town is extremely small, but it is known in these parts because it has a palace and huge park, both of which are worth visiting. I could tell that the place is accustomed to tourists because all of the signs in the park showing either directions or explaining various objects were written in Polish, English and German.

To approach the town from the train station, I had to walk through this tree-lined footpath in the middle of the street. I liked it. I felt it was a sort of natural equivalent of a red carpet, which is the sort of treatment to which I feel I'm entitled.



The palace was nice, but I visited at a bad time because the main facade and one of the sides were covered with extensive scaffolding due to current renovations. The scaffolding was in turn covered with advertisements, which was a shame. I could tell that it would be an impressive palace otherwise, and the two sides that were unadorned with this crap were nice.




The park in front of the palace contains a few old artifacts from the days when the palace contained dukes and things. There's an old teahouse, and icehouse (used to store ice, presumably unnecessary in winter), a gardner's cottage and a grave/tomb to the family of one of the duke's. The graves are probably more impressive in summer, or at least more visible. The memorial is mostly visible, but the individual gravestones are currently hibernating under about a kilometre of snow. These buildings were all constructed at least 100 years ago, mostly during the 19th century, but perhaps even in the late 18th century. I have photos of the explanations of each object, but I can't be bothered reading them now just to find the dates.

The gardner's cottage:


The teahouse:


The icehouse:


The grave/tomb/memorial thing, with the graves that you can't see:


Pszczyna is a nice town, it seemed friendly and relaxed, but very small. The population is only about 26,000 and it's so small that McDonald's doesn't regard it as big enough to warrant a restaurant. I know on one hand that's good, because it means that there isn't a McDonald's but on the other hand, it really means that the town must be very small.

I grew a dork

I was given one of those little rubbery figures that grows up to 600% larger if you sit it in water for a couple of days. I have the "dork", which I have decided to name "Mark" because I think Mark is a good name for a dork. Maybe it's one of those name association things.
Anyway, because I have a digital camera, I decided to document the growth of Mark:
This first photo was taken at 11:46am on the 8th of Feb. before I put Mark into the bottle of water:


The second picture was taken just a few moments later (also at 11:46am on the 8/02), immediately after Mark was dropped into the bottle:


This next image shows some evidence of growth, taken at 6:21am on the 9th of Feb. It's obvious that Mark has grown quite a bit larger, and after only roughly 18hours and 40 minutes:


And now for the final picture, taken on the 10th of February at 1:38pm. That was yesterday, and Mark has remained the same size since then, which makes sense as the packaging says that 48hours is sufficient for full growth. Unlike the previous picture, Mark can no longer lie down on the bottom of the bottle because he has outgrown it:

Jeszcze ras byłem na lodowisku

I went ice-skating again this afternoon. It was fun, I enjoyed it but it's at the end of the school holidays at the moment so there were quite a few people there unfortunately and I had to be careful not to run over or into anyone. I didn't fall over once, which is more than I can say for many of the other people who were there. My łyżwy (skates) were size 46 and I was issued with locker number 131. There isn't any significance to those numbers, just a little bit of trivia.

Byłem w Browarach Tyskich

Last Saturday, I went to the Tyskie Brewery to visit their museum and go on the their brewery tour, both of which have recently been renovated and revamped. The tour was interesting, and they've obviously pumped a large amount of money into the museum. At the end of the tour, which is free and only available to people who are over the age of 18, they give you a free Tyskie beer. It's a nice touch, but obviously a shameless marketing ploy, though you know this in advance and take part by choice, so it's acceptable. Does anyone know if Australian breweries give free taste samples (ie a sample of 500mL)?

Here are some photos from the Brewery:

Spot the odd one out

The British navy launched a new warship today (probably as a sign of impending world peace) called HMS Daring. It slid into the River Clyde, throwing much confetti into the surrounding environment, which apparently doesn't fall under the category of 'littering'. Possibly because it was blue, red and white, and therefore patriotic litter. Anyway, the navy have ordered six ships in this style, called HMS Daring, Dauntless, Diamond, Defender, Dragon, and Duncan. I appreciate the alliteration there, but do you think perhaps they just couldn't think of anything decent for the last one? Duncan? Having to stand/float/kill next to others with impressive names like Daring and Dragon must do quite a lot to deflate the ship's ego.

In other news, I noticed that my previous post, which contained the pun that many readers, especially Mark, found absolutely hilarious, was my 111th post. Quite a fitting post number for mentioning the 360th visitation. 111 is a prime number, and a sexy prime at that!

I've turned around

I added a sitemeter to this site a while back, evidenced by the small icon in the bottom left-hand corner of the page. I was the first person registered as visiting this blog (to test the meter) and yesterday I became the 360th person to read my blog (I read it to check my posts after I type them). I feel like I've gone around in a circle. (I hope you noticed the amusing pun, which was the sole premise for this post)

Nothing much happened this weekend; I didn't travel anywhere further than ulica Pszczynska (about 15mins walk from my apartment). I went to a pub called CD, located in ulica Pszczynska. It's a small pub, but nice. The proprietor was excited to have an Australian customer because he has an Australian $5 note, which he showed me. I made a grammatical mistake ordering piwo for myself and a friend: I asked for "Dwa Lech" instead of "Dwa Lechy" and managed to confuse the bartender. It all worked out well and we received our piwa.

Będę lecieć do Paryża. Kupiłem bilet.

I have just purchased a ticket that will allow me to fly (with the help of an aeroplane) to Paris. I decided, after my recent experience with flights to and from Rome, that I would fly with Skyeurope rather than W!zzair. There are two reasons for this; the first is that Skyeurope flies from Kraków-Balice, while W!zzair uses Katowice-Pyrzowice and Balice is much easier to get to because of Skyeurope's shuttlebus service; the second reason is that Skyeurope issues seat allocations, whereas W!zzair have a 'first on' arrangement of seating, which in my opinion makes Skyeurope a far more civilised airline.

Onto the flight details, for those who are interested:
I will leave Gliwice on the SkyShuttle at 09:35 on the 2nd of March, arriving at the Kraków-Balice airport at 11:05. The flight leaves this airport at 12:30 and arrives at Paris Orly Sud airport at 14:50, also on the 2nd of March.

Booking this flight is something I've put off for about a week now, as the act of purchasing the ticket seems like putting such a final stamp on my stay in Poland, which I guess, it is. It serves to remind me that I will soon (within 4 weeks) have to complete the daunting task of sorting through my belongings and packing up my life here to return to an uncertain future in Australia (ok, not really, I just wanted to write that last part to be a bit melodramatic).

I can't wait to visit France, and people in France (ie. Julien, Amelie and Thomas). I'm also looking forward to returning to Australia to see my dog again. :-)

The mind boggles

The following extract comes from an interesting article in The Times UK:

CONTACT LENS IN THE BACK OF YOUR HEAD?
It is quite common for people to come into an emergency room because they can’t find their contact lens. Sometimes it is found folded and tucked behind the eyelid, but other times it is nowhere to be found. So where is it? Answer: probably on the bathroom floor at home. A little anatomy lesson: there is nowhere else for it to go. Other commonly “misplaced” items that lead people to accident and emergency: tampons, condoms and car keys.

Ok, umm... car keys? Where and how does one lose them in such a way as to require a trip to emergency?

Why isn't Poland in the tropics?

The temperature when I left home this morning to go to work was -28 degrees Celsius, though it felt like -28 degrees Kelvin. Apparently the "maximum" was -16. I used inverted commas around maximum because I don't really think it's a term that one can really use when the temperature range is -30 to -16. It's more like minimum and not-quite-as-cold-as minimum.

The school's car (the one that I drive) has a wonderfully effective anti-theft device enabled. The doors are all completely frozen shut. Unfortunately, it's also a remarkably effective anti-use device.

Susan eats poo!

And I went to Opole. With Susan.

My main reasons for going there were that it is close to Gliwice and there's a pub/restaurant/club called "Drake Club", which we saw, and which I think looks like a nice establishment.

We had lunch at a restaurant near the Rynek (Main Square), visible in the back right-hand corner of the webcam in the link above. It was a Hungarian restaurant, but also served traditional Polish cuisine. I had a delicious Budapest style filet, and Susan had a rolada, which is a piece of rolled-up meat. Susan's meal looked like a big poo, hence the title of this post. She also ordered a sauce that distinctly looked like diarrhea, so her meal looked remarkably like a big poo in diarrhea sauce. Yummy!
Our meals were actually delicious, despite appearances (sorry, I didn't think to take photos of it).

We wandered around for a while afterwards, looking for Drake Club. We walked past a squashed, dead bird (twice) and found a shopping mall, where we stopped for delicious coffee and less-than-perfect tiramisu.

Anyway, it's getting late, so here are some photos from Opole:

Jutro jadę do Opola w pociągiem

I'm going to Opole tomorrow. It's not a very big city, it's actually more like a town, though bigger than Gliwice. I've wanted to go there since I discovered that there's a pub called "Drake's Pub" there, and hence I have to go to see it.
I'm going with Susan, who is another teacher in Gliwice (though she teaches at a different school).
Opole is quite close to Gliwice. It only takes an hour to travel there by train.

Wow! Two posts in one day!

I took these photos about a week and a half ago (on the 3rd of January, to be precise) but never got around to posting them here. I took them after an amazingly heavy snowfall.

What can I say? I'm a health food freak.

I decided today, after the exciting task of grocery shopping, that I wanted to make use of my oven facilities and cook something. I decided that I would cook something healthy, nutritious and tasty. I looked in my pantry to see what delightful option I had available (note: I decided to cook AFTER grocery shopping, rather then the reverse, far more sensible, order of events). I spied, with my little eye, upon the shelf, a box of cocoa. Of course! I would make a chocolate cake. It smells great. I think someone should invent incense that smells of fresh chocolate cake rather than the other silly flavours on the market. It also looks good too. See for yourselves:




For those who would like to emulate this masterpiece at home, here's the recipe:

Ingredients:
180g butter
3/4 cup of castor sugar (cukier puder)
3 eggs
1 cup of self-raising flour (or 1 cup of plain flour, half a teaspoon of salt and half a tablespoon of baking powder)
1/2 cup of plain flour
1/3 cup of cocoa
1/2 cup of milk

Method:
Melt the butter in a saucepan. Mix everything else together. Add the melted butter. Bake in a cake tin in an oven at 180 degrees for somewhere between 50 minutes and an hour.

*Note: I actually use 200g of butter, and I think it makes a nice improvement. The main reason for this, originally, is that butter is sold in 200g packets and I don't have a set of kitchen scales here. It might seem like a lot of butter, but it's not really. It's much less than 500g of butter, for example.

My sense of humour has sunk to a new low....

I know I shouldn't laugh but....

This headline in the Guardian made me laugh loudly. Of course, I need to point out that I wasn't thinking of the Israeli Ariel Sharon when I laughed, but of the countless bogan Sharons found in classy places like Woodridge and Inala (ie, those also known as Shazza).
So, read the headline again, but this time as if it refers to the latter option.

mmmmmmm

Jem pierniki toruńskie w glazurze i piję herbata z cukrem i mlekiem. Smaczny.

Awesome

Click on this link. I don't think I can express in words how much I want these items. Follow the link so that you can see for yourselves and agree with me.

One Hundred!

This is my 100th post! How exciting! Yay! You can tell because the previous post was number Agent 99. Oh Max! (I hope some people recognise that reference)
I predict that my next post will be number 101.

Of course, the cynic in me wants to point out that there's nothing really special about the number one hundred, just that it looks nice and even (a 1 folled by two zeros) because we (as a civilisation) arbitrarily decided to use a base ten counting system.

But in the meantime, feel free to congratulate me on my superb blog that has managed to reach this milestone.

Because I'm brilliant

I've been walking on water for a few days now. It's not that difficult; you simply need to be careful so that you don't fall over. I don't have much choice about this: the footpaths are submerged under a layer of water, about 15cm thick, on average.

Lunch with Sylwia at the Stara Chuta Naleśnikarnia

I just came back from lunch with Sylwia, at, as the title suggests, the Stara Chuta Naleśnikarnia. We both ordered identical meals: Kresowe and Herbata. Kresowe is an
"eastern poland" style naleśnik and herbata is tea.
I like this restaurant and the food is usually really good, plus it's reasonably priced. It was great to see Sylwia again, for the last time before she returns to Australia, though I will see her again there of course.
Here are some photos from lunch. One is of Sylwia, one is me, and the other is the bill. I'll leave it to you to guess which titles match which photos.