Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Because it reminded you so much of Venice?

Because you tied a rope to the back of a car and went water skiing?

Polonia / Relocation to Poland from Romania [11]


I know some Romanians who live here, they get on just fine.

I think the problem for you is your profession, why would a language school hire a non native speaker of the taught language, in a sea of native speakers and natives alike?

I would expect that you'd be on a very low wage to compete with the rest.

Perhaps you could try something else?

Best of luck!

Life / Building: treatment methods of and understanding timber in Poland [16]


Sorry, I am fierce busy these days and am not explaining myself very well.
I have different parts of the facade for which I have different ideas on how to handle.
I think you understand me perfectly, which is an achievement.


That's it! and it's great you told me that, I thought it was much stronger than that.


Yes, these will be horizontal laid endgrain joints meeting at a corner.

I will be building wooden framing 12 cm out from the wall and insulation with folia will be in between the facade wood and the brick wall.


I will do a test of this joint, as I am not sure about the final look.
If I understand it properly, it is kind of like a biscuit joint in reverse?
My initial doubt is that where the end grain shows on the key, the stain will look a lot darker and out of place but if I do it well, it could look add to the look.

Testing will be needed.


I just don't want, in a year's time, for shards of splinters to spike out...


This sounds like a more reliable method.
I knew I should have done wood work in school but how do you glue the short pieces together length ways?
Or have I misunderstood you?

Your advice is invaluable and will save me a lot of aggravation, thanks!

Off-Topic / Countries and your associations in 5 words/descriptions. [56]

I used to live there for a few years... In fairness, the devolution thing is from the Soviet occupation, anyone who thought for themsleves was sent to Siberia basically to die, so the leaders were taken away leaving less (looking for a good word but 'less' seems to fit:).

I had dead bodies piled up on land (skeletons), a gun pulled on me for a cigarette, minus 32 centigrade (-26 Fahrenheit) and crap snowboarding, bureaucracy that would make cutting yourself seem enjoyable, so yeah had a great time and katoeys would be shot on sight, in fact anyone expressing the slightest bit of individuality ''must leave now'' type attitude.

And I see people were talking about antisemitism, well apart from the internet, I have never come across it except in Lithuania where out of the blue some people will go on about some greedy Jew (as if anyone gave a hoot).

Off-Topic / Countries and your associations in 5 words/descriptions. [56]

America: BIG, Fabulous people, fabulous place, pity about the politics.

Scotland: mountains, foggy rainy weather, hot drinks and laughter beside the fireplace.

Norway: bloody expensive, looks like the end of the world: thoroughly breathtaking scenery, over educated introverted people, mystical.

Poland: Extreme weather (which makes it feel like I move country every season but get to keep the house :D), patch fields, forests, interesting to see the changes occurring before my eyes.

Ireland: Magical, mystical and barstool farts, green, I miss the ocean and pubs sometimes.

The Netherlands: Mentally the most evolved in Europe, open and straight forward people, a real eye opening place.

Lithuania: A dark dismal depressing flat place, where devolution has been happening for so long I think they will all become ameba soon. Nice place for a couple of weeks whirlwind tour, so long as you don't get to know the locals. (I am just back)

Ecuador: fabulous capital city, amazing very chilled small fishing towns on the beaches, mountains, jungle and friendly people.

South Africa: probably my favourite landscape with the accompanying flora and fauna, complete disproportionate distribution of wealth, weird people some great, some not so great.

Thailand: smiley people, friendliest capital I have been to, saving face and katoey are strange but normal in the environment, very touristy.

Cambodia: not so smiley or touristy, I preferred it to Thailand for those reasons, the craziest drivers I have ever encountered, Khmer rouge: what a waste of life.

Nepal: The snow capped mountains look like ice castles flouting on clouds the way they jut out of them, Hindu temples, swastikas, funny political party names (vote tree, vote sun) with no such funny objectives.

I had better stop, I could go on all day...

Edit* I seem to have wondered off the 5 word rule... that's just not the way my mind works, I tried to keep it as short as possible :)

Life / Building: treatment methods of and understanding timber in Poland [16]


Reminds me of the amusing question, "If nothing sticks to teflon, how do they make it stick to the pan?".
I imagine it's something got to do with in what state it's applied but I don't know.


I had the exact same question and the friend of mine, who I bought the stuff off, s'wife works in śnieżka and they spoke to the the creators of the stuff and apparently you put the stain/bug/mould repellent on after. The mind boggles but I have done a few tests and the stain works after the teflon, so we will see (feels like fatal last words, I know).

I will check the ingredients for arsenic.


Sound advice :)


I have simply forgotten the correct words but I was considering routing two discs holes into the ends, where two board meet at a corner, both cut at 45 degrees to match up and epoxy glueing coin like pieces of wood into the holes. Mainly because I don't want the corners to buckle.

Is that over kill? I could just nail them into the corner frame but I wouldn't get a new toy for that :p


Great idea, the fence especially has a bit more to it.

Oh, I am also trying to bend a quarter of a circle, to round off the fence in to the garage.
Here I am definitely out of my depth, I was thinking that 22mm thick 2.5 metre length peice of wood would go bananas, so I was thinking of using 4 or 5 5mm pieces glued together and left in a few vices.

I am not sure if this will work at all but it would be excellent if it did.
Have you any suggestions for fixing a horizontal bend on about 11 pieces of wood? or am I just asking for too much?


Is nowhere sacred? ;)


I can only envisage a metre width, length and breadth, so pretty useless unless I am going to build a solid cube.


Hhmmm, I will ask around, see if anyone has a MC Hygrometr.

Thanks again Z_D, you're a wealth of information.

Life / Building: treatment methods of and understanding timber in Poland [16]


I know the one but I don't want to buy one just for this, perhaps there is an alternative?


Apart from the splitting problem, which I assume can be avoided with first drilling pilot holes, then screwing in, why would bone dry wood not be good?

I don't think the wood is that dry but I am just curious.

I will be using an airgun with headless nails on the tongue part of the the tongue and groove to hide them from view.

Life / Building: treatment methods of and understanding timber in Poland [16]


Apart from actually seeing the sap coming out, is there a way to test the wood to see how dry it is?


It's in an open, dry garage, so I think it should be fine.
each layer is stickered, I have about 320 M2 of it and I am going to be building a fence from the same wood (using concrete foundations with metal hardware, which will be about 360 M2 more).


I am using an oil based Teflon lacquer VIDARON produced by sniezka, I know a guy who bought lots of it and got a discount so I was able to get most of it from him but it isn't cheap 160 Zloty for 10 Litres (I got it for 80PLN).

So I was considering using something else for the fence, I was recommended a bee's wax with a stain.
Again it is larch wood but I have my doubts as to how protective bee's wax will be, as this will get the full extremity of the Polish weather. Have you any inexpensive material suggestions to protect the wood from insects, stain and weather protection?


The face is fairly rough, even though it was cut, so I am palm-sanding it. Nice advise for the epoxy, I am using it in another part of the house, it's really expensive here (65 PLN - 90PLN per mastic tube).


Doh!, I was hoping to get away with once on the inside and twice on the outside...
I have already done the podbitka that way (it's amazing but I have forgotten many words in English these days, I am not that old... :) but it makes it difficult to explain things to English speakers). What's podbitka in English?

I am building the framing from treated green, quite wet wood, which I am hoping will not split when I screw it, using metal ankers, to the outside wall of the house.


I am using a mix, two coats ofTeak coloured oil based teflon for water proofing and then (as was recommended) a insect repellent with a darker stain.

So I should be able to get away with dry epoxy or woodfiller, I hope.

Thank you very much D_Z, this is brilliant information.

I have another question, about the ends of the wood, they will overlap the tynk on the house, so I should cover the ends.
As I see it there are two ways of covering the ends of the planks of wood:
1. using premade corners (L-shaped in profile), these are very expensive, expensive enough for me to be able to buy the machinery (a good table saw and chop saw) for the second plan.

2. to cut out a 45 degree angle from the end of each horizontal plank at the ends and put in a triangular vertical piece of wood to fill it. I think it's the tools that also attract me to this idea, or as my wife calls them "toys" :)

3. I could make the L-shaped profile myself using two smaller pieces of wood but I am worried how this will look, as this wood also goes around the front door, so needs a bit of TLC.

Is it such a bad idea to leave the ends out? I was told that they will drink water, as that's how the tree lives and they should be covered. So I am looking for a way to finish the ends.

The style of the house is modern, I was told kinda Scandinavian looking, long and everything is horizontal. The wood will hopefully bring a more interesting, natural look, rather than just plain old tynk.

Again thanks for all the information, this is actually perfect timing, as the wood has been sanded and is stacked in a nice dry place out of the sun.

Something I find unusual about Poland is when I wanted to buy the wood, for an example, they give all prices in M3 and then you have to work out how much you need by working it out. It's the same with most materials and can cause lots of confusion, for my poor little brain ;)

I am not saying that Ireland doesn't have it's idiosyncrasys but I just thought I'd mention it.

Life / Building: treatment methods of and understanding timber in Poland [16]


22mm thick.


The tartak I got the wood from dries it in a kiln (of some kind) and it took three weeks.
And it will lie inside for approximately two and a half months before it's used.


Would that not also discolour the pigmented stain?


I bought Larchwood, as it was the hardest wood they had for a decent price.
It's not for decking but cladding part of the facade of the house and for the terrace banister.

Thanks for the tips D_Z.

Travel / Krakow for a middle-aged couple: sightseeing, places to eat, shopping [10]

This may interest you: polishforums.com/travel-5/recommendations-krakow-myslenice-27618/

Good luck!

News / €80 billion for Poland new EU budget [166]

€80 billion for Poland new EU budget


Suffering €80 billion, you poor thing ;)

How is it in all this debate, non have provided how much Poland was able to spend of the €67,28 billion? That would be interesting. Poland will receive 67,28 billion Euro from European Union for the years 2007-2013. I see this money being spent everywhere, infrastructure and businesses alike, I know several people who have received hefty grants to expand their businesses and it's working.

Life / Struggling young Polish couple - try to solve their problem [176]


I have a load of guys working for me, the youngest is 18, fresh out of school and even he gets paid more than these (theoretical?) couple in Krakow.


Altruism's bollox.

Life / Polish pride. PL stickers, flags and the white eagle! Where does our obsession come from? [79]

Yep, they will sort you out no problem.

''Drukarnia'' po Polsku.

News / Poles in work-life balance crisis [22]


yeah, but it's a sweeping statement by any measure.

The European Union's working time directive imposes a 48 hour maximum working week. that applies to every member state except the United Kingdom (which has an opt-out meaning that UK-based employees may work longer than 48 hours if they wish, but they cannot be forced to do so).[11] France has enacted a 35-hour workweek by law, and similar results have been produced in other countries such as Germany through collective bargaining.

Do people bend this law? of course some do especially if the work is seasonal, a roofer is just not going to be working on top of a roof, in minus 30, in two metres of snow. I find people here work much earlier and go home much earlier than in Ireland.

Most bureaucrats work from 6 till 2 and I think most offices work 7:00-15:00, while banks still take the ****, my local opens at 10, I mean come on.... I was told that people here work and finish earlier so they can have quality time with their families or tend to their allotments. But these are just my observations, maybe someone could find an article on the internet that says the opposite :)

News / Poles in work-life balance crisis [22]


I dislike sweeping statements like these. It's as easy to find a trash article on the internet stating the opposite.

News / Over 2 million Poles drowning in debt [19]

Ok, first I found the article (News.pl).

To be honest, I am not an economist, without any reference points, other statistics etc... just what am I to make of these figures?
I imagine that in any country there are those that can not pay their loans, even when the country is doing well economically, so how does this compare?

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


In a sewer?

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Top of a kopiec?

Life / Theft of a Golden Mug in Poland [24]


I actually agree with this attitude in this situation, not that I condone violence but with some people it seems to be the only thing they understand.

Life / How many Jewish people live in Poland? [145]

According to Wikipedia:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_population#Largest_Jewish_populations_by_country

There are 50,000 Jews in Poland.

Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]


Bar mleczny :)

Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]


That's true in some places and in others the ketchup is of such poor quality, you wonder why they bother.
Again opportunity, you notice places who don't show they charge extra and use good quality.
it's a psychological thing though, of course you pay for the ketchup, even the people who don't use it pay for it but it doesn't feel like it.

And I have to add that I do think it is poor mentality to charge or even offer such low quality ketchup.

Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]


I remember when they banned them in Ireland, before that plastic bags were the national fruit on trees, they were all over the place.
Reusing bags is a better idea, we live on a finite planet but I could care less if someone wants them for "free".


Good point.
The thing I find very interesting about Poland are the opportunities, some markets are wide open for improvement.


Bingo, Poland, the land of opportunity!

Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]

If you are going to talk about the world then Poland is a very rich country.

My point Milky, is that you seem to compare Poland to your own experience growing up in the Celtic tiger, which is fair enough but a very disproportionate amount of people actually live through something like that and even less for a long time.

I think it would be more appropriate to compare like with like, so compare Poland to all the other ex-communist countries, they all broke away at more or less the same time.

It is a matter of perspective.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]



Ahhhhh ''air fair'', i thought he said ''affair''.

Life / Who is poor in Poland? [720]


But he's only mentioned it 7 times so far.
You can just imagine working with the guy, telling you the same "Dumb Polack joke" over and over without a hint of irony.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


How the fack would I know?
When done well I wouldn't be able to tell the difference from a photo.
Was it a car fair?

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


My instincts tell me this is a trap based on the question alone and I should say no :) And although it is a classic looking car it is not stereotypically classical looking, so again I would say no. But what is not stereotypical for me might be perogi here. (I never had perogi before I came here or a bagle)


They are stereotypical nice kit cars.

Travel / Poland in photo riddles [3134]


Ah it was an actual question that was the riddle.

*damn, got it wrong*

My brother used to make up similar cars, mounting corsa engines with fibreglass bodies similar to that.

USA, Canada / Moved back from Canada to Poland:). Here are the reasons why. [868]


Jeez, riot police, they must really miss you.