History / Poland-Russia: never-ending story? [1341]

A few minutes ago, I was having problems with my computer's sound-card, the mixing desk and amplifier. It kept making a feedback loop. I adjested one of the settings and there was no sound at at. It kept going from one to the other and I was beginning to think something was broken - maybe some electronic component had blown up.

My flatmate suggested fixing it 'The Russian Way'. I'm not sure what he meant by this, but he left the room. I reckon he's either gone to get a hammer or he's organising my equipment a one-way trip to Siberia.

Thankfully I got it working again. The British Way. Welcome to British Week.

Life / Is drinking water in Poland good? [96]

When I remembered this thread, it got me worried. All the bad things said about Polish tapwater.
I had no choice but to drink acoholic beverages instead. Morning, noon and night... and various other times of day that aren't suitably covered in that list.

And this thread ends up right next to the Brits drink too much and can't handle it thread!
I didn't get pissed on by a dog - I can take my drink.

History / Should Germany claim to be the victims in Poland? [510]


Some people use hun as a term of endearment.
Oh! Wrong kind of hun.

Life / Horticulture in Poland [63]


I'm not authorised to view the English page!
It all looks very ericaceous - heathers, rhododendrons and the like, but the pictures show some nicely laid out stuff. The (sorry) English use of such plants usually lacks the kind of scale that sets these plants off well. That's great for acid soil, but I believe there are alkaline soils in Poland (see forthcoming thread - Is There Chalk In Poland?)


Rendzina - English word for a kind of soil - a kind of thin soil overlying chalk. From the Polish:
Rzędzić - apparently (it's not in the dictionary I occasionally have access to) it means 'to chat'

The success of your friends' business makes it look like a growing (pun intended) industry in Poland.
My appetite for a visit has most definately been whetted.

Life / Are there many Polish farmers? [12]

My flatmate used to work on an ostrich farm with his uncle.
The first time he told me, he said it was an emu farm.
Don't try to farm emus. They are too badly behaved. Just look at Rod Hull.
Go on - look at Rod Hull. Go on!


I used to drive a Kubota. It was a lawnmower-type thing used for pulling trailers (the mowing gear hadn't been fitted).

UK, Ireland / I'm designing a Polish restaurant for British people - need information [44]


Someone at work told me about a Polish food shop in the sleepy town of H******d. I might have to check it out this weekend. I shall be making some observations about the clientele, as will they - 'It's a disgrace, letting a donkey into a deli without curing and smoking it first!'


All three of those pictures looked very similar to the first place at which I ever ate anything in Poland.
Limited experience here though.

Life / Horticulture in Poland [63]


Really dying? Oh no!

Ancient trees that are over-visited suffer soil compaction around the roots, so this may not be suprising. On the other hand, a very old tree where the wood in the middle has rotted away can actually be very healthy - once that wood has decomposed, there is a lot less weight on top and therefore a lot less strain on teh root system.

But alas, nothing lasts for ever, not even a mighty oak. There may be much older trees, even in Poland, that go completely un-noticed. Where coppicing, whether by man or by nature, has occurred, a single tree may appear to be a series of trees in a highly irregular ring shape. It is disputed whether or not these should be counted as clones or as a single tree.

Is coppicing still practiced? (Or am I steering my own thread away from horticulture and into forestry? Oops - I had better send myself a formal apology). I have seen far too many Scots Pine (bloody Scots - they get everywhere) plantations (Pinus sylvestris) on my (limited) travels, and maybe not quite enough of the deciduous woodland (proabably Oak-Birch, maybe Beech) that should dominate most of the country.


Yes. I did mean that one. Where is it? So I might one day trample the soil over it's poor roots one day.

UK, Ireland / I'm designing a Polish restaurant for British people - need information [44]

It is not (at least yet) a British thing to eat Polish food. Not that I'm aware of.
Such tastes need to be nurtured - start small would be my advice.

If there is something that could be prepared and sold from a market stall - nice foody smells wafting through the marketplace - that must be the best way to get people to give it a try.

Firstly, it is self-advertising - the sight, the smell, seeing people outside eating the stuff.
Secondly, it is a lot less expensive than a permenant building which is a much higher risk.
Thirdly, it is the sort of thing that can be easily aimed at anyone.

But you would need to find the right kind of Polish food that can be sold in this way.
Actually, this sounds like too good an idea to give away, especially after the Chinese noodle stall disappeared from my local market.

UK, Ireland / I'm designing a Polish restaurant for British people - need information [44]

Open a Polish Polish restaurant, then announce BRITISH WEEK, hosted by a big cuddly Owczarek Podhalański.

Life / Horticulture in Poland [63]


The countryside is something I have only ever seen rolling by from the window of a car or bus, but there is something idiosyncratic about the Polish countryside. The views very often seem to be framed by hedges and woods (at least the places I have seen - I do not know the south at all). I think I know what you mean, but I am going to have to carry out further investigation.

I stayed in a house in Warsaw a few years ago, with a small garden which was covered with snow for the duration of the visit - the trees were all bare. In £omża, the place I have stayed at twice now had neither tall trees nor a spectacular view that would have been hidden by them.

But I'm sure I have seen rural houses surrounded by conifers. But there are so many balconies! You have to have a balcony with a view surely!

UK, Ireland / I'm designing a Polish restaurant for British people - need information [44]

You've got to sell flaki.
But how do you translate it without putting people off?

There was the old technique in restaurants we used to have - putting everything in French so not too many people understand it.

To match the places I have eaten out in, you need two beautiful waitresses and one who looks really stern and serious.

Life / Horticulture in Poland [63]


I believe there is a very old Oak tree in Poland which is famous for being a really old Oak tree.
Oak trees are good. They are the home to so much other wildlife - everything from fungi, through the mosses and liverworts, the shade-loving plants that grow beneath them, the insects that live in and on the leaves and in the leaf-litter or feed on the pollen, galls and gall-wasps, squirrels all the way to creatures such as the mighty bear! Okay, so maybe not bears!


All within the city to which you are the eponymous forum hero?

Life / Horticulture in Poland [63]


I might have to look that up. I've not been to that corner of the country. I don't need any more excuses than my own natural curiosity, but it's always good to know there are some nice plants waiting for you when you arrive somewhere new.


That is one very important aspect of horticulture.

My old workmate who moved back to Poland reckons I could, if I wanted to, get the same job over there for less pay in real terms, but a higher standard of living. It is not a plan of mine, but I do live and breath (and occasionally photosynthesise) horticulture.

As someone a lot more famous than I once said:
You can lead a horticulture, but you can't make her think.

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


What do you mean?

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


That bit there... is a polar bear!

But the Spitsbergener is closer to the Pole!

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


Me.
Spitsbergen, in its more northerly position, views Scotland as being a bit mamby-pamby!


What was the response? "Your dicusting!' and that was from a Yank!


But some of remember. I believed you. Well, I was new at the time!

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


Anyone else tempted to choose a new pseudonationality?
You don't have to be from there, or even to go there.
You just have to be able to spell it.

I'd be a Spitsbergener. Or it it Spitsbergish... Spitzbergenese... Svalbardian...
Svalbardic... Spitsbergenic...
...

* slowly fades to silence beneath the sound of strengthening Arctic winds and various Polar Bear noises *

UK, Ireland / Babies of Polish couples born in England [25]

Have pride in your country - keep lions.

Sorry! That should be:

Have a pride in your country - keep lions.

UK, Ireland / Many British have inferiority complex [131]


I know he liked to use a big canvas, but you're not comparing like with like.
I can't imagine you on an expressionist art forum.

You have an inferiority complex, don't you?

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]

I F 2 say it cud B rather 2 soon 4 my liking.

No-one writes like that and includes the word 'rather'.
Anyone for tennis? It would be a lark.
Rather!

History / Poland-Russia: never-ending story? [1341]


Which can be taken up (pardon the pun if there is one) or ignored by anyone.


Which can be denied to others.

If protection is not available because someone has deemed it to be wrong, it is not an option.
So the punishment for the 'sin' of fornication is death by AIDS?

edit: that last sentence should be:
So the punishment for the 'sin' of fornication is death by AIDS, if you're poor?

History / Polish militray markings [4]

I thought Milktray was made by Cadburys.
Oh! You mean military.

Mod - move me to Random Chat please!

Life / Compulsory National Service in Poland [26]

I believe some sort of national service is compulsory. My flatmate has to go back before September or, he says, risk prison. He's signed up to go to college or something. Whether that's a delaying tactic or a get-out, I'm not sure. It sounds better than his last idea of going back to become a policeman. He told me this idea and I just laughed and laughed and laughed. When he said about being a student, I just giggled slightly.

Let's have a short, serious answer.

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


I agree with ewe (sorry, I'm still thinking about Wales).
It's having two greight an influence on the written language.

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


I ignored the answers at the bottom of the page and got all but one of the answers right.
It was the population of Wales that got me. Numbers were never my forte.
(In other words it wasn't one I got wrong it was all of them).

Q. What is the population of Wales?
A. = Q. Humans or sheep?

Feel free to check this post for spelling mistakes.

Life / Do Poles celebrate ''the old new year''? [4]


Other than a toast to the old year - let's hope the new one's better that is an excuse to consume another glass of vodka at new year.

I didn't realise anyone celebrated the old year (other than so many people around the world who seem stuck in the past, but that's usually a year much longer ago).

Okay, so the answer is still no then.

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


good observation, e e cummings


Great! Who's going to be me? Remember - you'll need a sharp tongue, an occasionally surreal view of the world and, of course, good spelling and loads and loads of punctaution. No smileys or abbreviations. lol : )

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


good observation, e e cummings

UK, Ireland / Why so many British can't spell ? [83]


True.


There are too many Glasgow gutters to list here.

I want to get a dog and call him (or her) Ough.