Life / Polish city streets - why do trucks go around spraying water on them ? [28]


Why do you need to warm it up? I imagine more is spent on cooling water down. If you've got water in the back of one of these trucks without cooling it, it's going to be warm enough what with the heat from the truck and the sun or general heat of the day.


Myth.

Life / Polish city streets - why do trucks go around spraying water on them ? [28]

Depends on the temp of the water. It only has to be a few degrees lower than the tarmac to allow it too cool. ;) There's no point to cool tarmac at night or early morning when the highest temps are during the day and the damage is done by vehicles etc then. Plus to cool the tarmac the water would have to be sprayed for longer than a few seconds.


That's true. I'm sticking with the cleaning theory. That's the only reason they do it here.

Life / Polish city streets - why do trucks go around spraying water on them ? [28]


Yes and I would be surprised if it was anything more exciting than that. I'm even reluctant to believe it's cooling the tarmac as they should be doing that at the hottest times of day.

Love / Where did you meet your Polish other half? [33]

Groan, another "Polish half" joke... ;)


Nice story, apart from the car crash. Hope everyone came out of that OK. Thanks for sharing. :)

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]


Exactly! ;) And no one calls that a pandemic yet they really are everywhere. ;)


Now that I DO believe! ;)

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]

Bolek, I wouldn't worry. WHO is expecting it to return after a "down" period so there is preparation under way. Thousands die yearly around the world from the ordinary flu, or compliations related to, so it's not a new thing. (Why isn't ordinary flu considered a pandemic each year?)

Happily, we deal with things better now than in 1918, we have better communications between countries (at least regarding these sorts of things) so because WHO would expect a future outbreak they will act straight away when then first new cases are reported. They'll test the new strain and will know straight away what strain they are dealing with an can act upon it. If it actually does happen.

Currently, although the H1N1 strain is moving faster, people are no more sicker with it. No worse than having a bad stomach and high temp for a day sort of thing. Many people put themselves through that after too many glasses of wine or beer. ;)

Love / Where did you meet your Polish other half? [33]


I'll tell you that the idea came to me today in a supermarket. I met a couple, guy was Scottish and the girl Polish. I didn't ask them how they'd met but it did set me off thinking. :)


I've gone through a box of tissues reading it. ;) It's a lovely story and thank you for sharing. :)


Ah so it was a chance meeting. If you'd not bumped into each other you might never have met kind of thing?

Love / Where did you meet your Polish other half? [33]

Interesting. A planned meet or not?


And still together too. Great story. :)


Often the match-makers are the ones who go without. ;)

Love / Where did you meet your Polish other half? [33]


I think we can allow that. ;)

Life / How not to offend your Polish host who makes too much food? [18]

I think he's trying to impress you with his culinary skills. ;)

One thing you could try is to say to him you are full at the moment but could you take some home with you?

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]


Yes, and nowadays we have much more knowledge on the spread of viruses and the evolving they do and the speed that they do it at. I did read an article on that scenario you describe above and if I can find it on line I'll post it. Nowadays we expect viruses to evolve, it's no longer a surprise.


Correct. Not always to do with the virus though. It can depend on the individual person. If they take a drug for something else it can interact with the vaccine and render it weaker.

H1N1 is spreading fast enough, almost 1000 cases world-wide and that will increase but the good news is the death rate is low with still only 26 people have died of it, all in Mexico apart from 1.

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]

The oldies are the goodies. ;)

It is good to keep things in perspective though. This flu strain isn't even progressing at the rate that the "experts" thought it might. It's been a great big failure so far... ;)

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]


It's kind of understandable. It perhaps comes from older generations attitude "if I don't look after myself/my family, who will?".


Yes and if you don't discard of them frequently they become more harm than good.

Plus they're easily produced so this nonsense of have to order so many million...


Well, I wondered this today. Look at the UK political news (can't speak for other countries) there is a massive amount going on and it's all negative for the Labour party. Quite a few MPs speaking out, plus ex-MPs. So it's easier for the government at the moment if the press is waffling on about 15 people having the flu rather than focussing on them.

Poland is as ready for this outbreak of the flu as any other country. No one outside of USA/Mexico/Canada has had anything but a mild version of this flu.

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]


Precisely.

Normal flu death figures won't be released for a while but in the last week many more people died in the UK of normal flu or complications caused by ordinary flu than have died of H1N1 around the world in the same time period.


I agree. So they scaremonger. My friend is home in Poland at the moment and called me to ask if she needed to purchase masks in PL to bring back with her or did we have enough? The media in PL is/were over reporting it and PL doesn't even have one case.


I'm not a med student but I am with you on that.

News / Is Poland ready for the swine fever stuff? [59]


Not even that many. They are only suspected to have died from it. It's only about 10 people who have been confirmed to have died of A(H1N1). The others, while having died of illnesses related to flu, haven't necessarily died of this particular strain of flu. Test results are still being waited upon. There are 331 confirmed cases around the world.

BevK, yes, it's a worry but so far no cases in Poland. Try to go about your normal life but maintain good hand hygiene etc, etc.

Feedback / Font Size at the top, has it got bigger? [5]

You're probably still bonkers. ;)

Font at the bottom appears bigger too...

Feedback / Font Size at the top, has it got bigger? [5]

You're not being thick, it has got bigger. MUCH bigger.

Life / Was it a misunderstanding or I was set up for extortion? [8]


Good advice.

suzannabanana you were assaulted. Report it.

It does sound like a scam indeed. Good for you that you didn't get out the car, that was a sensible move. I doubt the police are looking for you. More likely they are looking for a gang who are scamming money out of people and you might be able to provide them with a better idea of who they are looking for.

UK, Ireland / Polish chef jailed for double rape in Leeds. [42]


No, if I want to say that then I would have written it. ;)

Yes it is him that's creating the negative image which the tabloids then take and multiply tenfold. The papers aren't responsible for his actions but they are responsible for their own and they should be aware that for some people tabloids are their only source of information.


Yes of course they should follow the law. They shouldn't receive special treatment but they do because incidents involving foreigners tend to be over-reported. So even though more of our nutters are in the news more often when a foreigner commits a crime it receives more attention. Why? Because it will sell more papers.

Even when foreigners aren't committing crimes certain newspapers will run negative stories.

Love / SOS!! I feel a little hopeless with my Polish husband... [58]


I have read all of your post but this is most important bit. If he beat someone up in the street and held a knife to their throat he would be arrested and charged so why should it be any different because he's doing it to you?

Get out of there.

Even if he wasn't attempting to murder you he's playing you, he has another girl on the go and he's not even bothering to hide it.

Life / Polish Fashion Designers (cosmetics too) [19]


If it's possible, why not send her gift tokens? It might seem like a cop out but if she's a 19 year old college student she'll most likely appreciate being able to pick out her own things, especially if, as a student, she doesn't get to shop often. :)

Life / Culture Shock Since Moving to Poland - Anybody Dealt With This Before? [52]

Either a new robot in Star Wars or Carrefore. ;)

Love / Depression and Polish Men [30]


I don't know about all Polish men obviously but my friend gets down about his relationship and he is in a good one with a lovely girl and marriage on the horizon. I think he worries that everything is going too well and surely something bad will happen because it's all too good at the moment.


Yes that's true. It's OK for women to do that though. Sometimes we see men as being weak when they break up with a woman and start crying all over the place. They're supposed to be strong and all that nonsense.

UK, Ireland / Polish chef jailed for double rape in Leeds. [42]


Absolutely.


That's right, they just like to highlight Polish nutters even though there are less of them than British nutters. In Britain anyway.

It's also a bit worrying. Some British clowns who read and swear by the tabloids then start to just see "Polish person did negative that, Polish person did negative this" coupled with all the junk about Poles taking jobs etc. and all of a sudden there's an attack on some innocent Polish person? Why? Because a bad Polish person did something. The tabloid press ought to be restricted on their sensationalism.


Exactly. The victims don't even get a look in.

UK, Ireland / Polish chef jailed for double rape in Leeds. [42]


It seems pretty clear it was him.


They may well be but this happened in the UK and as far as I'm aware there were no Albanians involved.

UK, Ireland / Polish chef jailed for double rape in Leeds. [42]


They are human and were forced into a sexual act so therefore a crime was committed against them.


Exactly.

News / Non-Polish members - what knowledge does your country have about Poland? [35]


Not much. There is quite possibly more known now. Probably in certain areas of Scotland more is known about Poland than in others but that it because of the linked history between the two. Nothing much was taught about Poland in school when I was there but that's a while back. ;) Even in history class Poland was mentioned rarely, only to do with WWII. I do know now that there is a little more being taught about Poland but that might not be every school. My local primary school does but that might be because there are a lot of Polish children there and they've always been good at integrating other cultures into the school.

Really, prior to 2004 there was no reason for anything particular about Poland to be taught in schools. There may be more of a case for it now and in the future though.

USA, Canada / WHY SO FEW POLISH RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA? [44]

Google huh? Don't rely on that fb. Polands obesity "problem" is minor, very minor, compared to that of the USA or the UK. Poland may now have more fast food outlets but let's hope they learn from the western world about what those outlets can do for you. If I had to guess, I would say Poland has about 15 to 20% of the population with obesity problem compared to, I would say well over 50% in USA or UK.


Exactly. Maybe not 100's but certainly many. ;)

USA, Canada / WHY SO FEW POLISH RESTAURANTS IN AMERICA? [44]


Full of Polish food. Yes. :)


Then why doesn't Poland have an obesity problem then? US and UK does. People can eat any food they like as long as they eat it in moderation. Stuff your face full of any kinds of food and it'll have an adverse effect.