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Posts by Trevek  

Joined: 21 May 2008 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 12 Jun 2016
Threads: Total: 25 / In This Archive: 17
Posts: Total: 1699 / In This Archive: 1176 		From: Olsztyn
Speaks Polish?: not a lot
Interests: varied

Displayed posts: 1193 / page 25 of 40
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Trevek   
23 Jun 2010
News / Lech Walesa gives warning over 'dangerous' Polish candidate [60]

First honest response. But it is nice that you saw a play, and your understanding of 100,000 SB agents, how historians verify them being agents, how communist documents are cross-checked, where are these people today, who they work for now, etc., are based on this funny play.

Well, that depends on if you know anything about the theatre group in question and their status during the 1970's-80's.

osmego.art.pl/t8d/main/en
Trevek   
23 Jun 2010
News / Hollywood's War with Poland. [150]

1968 Russians, communists, hunting, Hollywood, ring the bell?

I suppose that goes for Fiddler on the Roof and all the Dostoyevsky novels which were filmed too, huh?
Trevek   
23 Jun 2010
News / Lech Walesa gives warning over 'dangerous' Polish candidate [60]

And you trust those files as being accurate? The Stasi and KGB were notorious for faking documents - and you trust the SB as being genuine? Please. If he had genuinely cooperated, why didn't they destroy him in the early 80's with the proof?

I saw Theatre of the 8th Day perform a piece where they had gained access to the files on themselves. They presented them on stage and showed what a joke the whole 'informer' business could be. Informers/surveillance crews often just wrote utter garbage to complete their day's work.

Likewise, if someone was held for hours on end and then made to sign a paper when they were utterly exhausted they were then classed as 'informants' or 'employees'.

I don't know what the situation with Wałęsa is/was. However, I was always puzzled as to why the oh-so-anti-communist PiS were prepared to work with giertych and his daddy when daddy giertych supported martial law (from what I'm told).
Trevek   
23 Jun 2010
Law / What is the quickest and cheapest way to send money to a bank account in Poland? [37]

My bank has demanded £40 pounds for this and also said the transfer can take up to 32 days.

Bloody hell!

You must be transferring a hell of a lot of money for that kind of price (forget the transfer, just come and be my friend!)

I transferred in a week or so with RBS for 20 quid last summer. I don't imagine prices have gone up that much.

they set the exchange rate to convert the Sterling into Zloty but its not usually too bad.

My experience with UK banks is that their exchange rate is pathetic. I usually make the conversion in Poland. I recall transferring about 4-5000 sterling a few years ago. If I'd converted in UK I'd have lost 500 quid on the transfer.
Trevek   
22 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

>>>>I had to get used to British money changing to decimal, so they can get used to
coinage.
...So had I. And let's just get one thing clear - in football language 'WE WAS ROBBED'.

I still remember being charged 3p for something and arguing that my sixpence should bring me 3p change!
Trevek   
21 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

The habit from the old days of shop workers 'doing you a favour' by selling you something still lingers.

You're not wrong!

A Polish friend of mine went to buy a rather expensive camera for his workplace. They wanted 100% deposit and they'd ring him when it came (and this was a big shop in the major town shopping centre). He said he couldn't do that as he was buying for the place he worked for. He'd need receipts and could only pay a part deposit.

They said, if he didn't like it he could go somewhere else.

He did. Media Mart gave him better deal and some extras.

Like he said, a crazy situation when a shop turns away a customer willing to buy a very expnsive item, with cash in the middle of a crisis.
Trevek   
21 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

You can also try the nuclear option: say 'trudno' and give up the entire purchase (without offering to put anything back where it goes). That usually works wonders in producing hitherto missing change.

I had considered that... maybe next time. Thanks.
Trevek   
21 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

Don't mix these 2 things, barmans in pubs and bars and clerks in supermarkets are 2 different things.. no such thing has ever happaned to me in a pub..

I know, my point was that pubs usually have a load of small change ready.

2. If they ask and you don't have it, all you have to do is make a show of looking in your wallet and say one magic word: Niestety. (literally: "Unfortunately", here it means "Nope, no small change. Your problem."

I tried that one... I knew i had absolutely NO small change. Normally i try to give them some, which is why I was so p1ssed off at the reaction this time.

However, thanks for the tips. I shall try them next time.
Trevek   
21 Jun 2010
USA, Canada / US Polonia 70% for Kaczyński [343]

This is all part of the Michael Jackson effect.

MJ, a washed up pop star with a dubious history of suspected molestation etc... many people predicting he'd be a flop at the forthcoming concerts...

he dies... suddenly all sins are washed clean and he is the king of pop, more successful than he evem was alive.

Lech kaczynski and his brother, a washed up, unpopular ex-PM and a brother who is president but widely expected to be humiliated at the polls, internationally considered a bit of a joke (at least in EU). Lech dies... a hero of Poland, his name forever linked to the martyrs of Katyń, a state funeral... laid to rest in wawel... everyone saying how wonderful he was... now, his formerly washed up ex-PM brother rides high in elections on a wave of sympathy and delusion (don't people recall why they voted him out the first time?).
Trevek   
20 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

Indeed. Had some good times in many a long gone pub... and only occasionally was asked for small change.
Trevek   
20 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

I know of them, well sounds rather familiar :)

Not sure how many still exist. The Shropshire one became a carpet shop a few years ago.
Trevek   
20 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

Weatherspoons??, mainly based on

No, it was a small chain of M&B theme pubs/restaurants in the midlands called "Sawyers". It was a pretty busy cocktail bar.

I did used to drink in a pub in Glasgow which actually refused my loose change on a couple of occasions (I'd been busking).
Trevek   
20 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

I don't believe you really, I shop daily and it happens in one shop in 5, and it was ALWAYS like that before. The reason for it is that there's only paper money in the register hence the clerk lady would find difficult to give you the change, I prefer giving her spare change that weights a bit than having her go to another register and lengthen the whole process.

This is exactly my point. I have worked in very busy pubs in Britain. can you imagine if I, as a barman, had asked everyone for exact change because i only had paper money? In UK we have rolls of coins, 1p, 2p, 5p and upwards and the till was full of them. Why can't a decent sized supermarket have a full till first thing in the morning during a relatively quiet period.

Moreover if I see that I probably have some spare money I offer that I can give exact spare change...

So do I, but when they have an ATM outside of their shop 9which doesn't give small change) why should they be caught unawares?

the busiest supermarket around and no float! OK so i will pay by card, Ah problem they don't accept cards!

Believe it or not, the Skoda car showroom in Olsztyn also doesn't accept cards. I have to pay car insurance (and once paid a deposit of about 10.000 zl) in cash! Funnily enough, my dentist takes credit cards... which says alot about how much the dentist costs!

Is this happening in only one demographical region, or in various locations?

I'm in Olsztyn but according to some of the replies it is more wide-spread.

You should understand, people over 25 years of age, were brought up using only NOTES , and this 1,2 5 groszy is ridicicoulous...... should be 10, 20, 50, 1,2 , notes; 5,10,20,50

I had to get used to British money changing to decimal, so they can get used to coinage.
Trevek   
18 Jun 2010
Life / Small change in shops in Poland!? [95]

Just had it happen and I need a rant!

What the hell is the problem in Polish shops that everyone needs the exact change?

Almost every shop I go into gives me the "Don't you have the exact change?"... and then you can be sure to asked the same question in the next shop.

Haven't these places worked out the concept of floats in small change?

Example: I needed to go to the supermarket and the bread shop this morning (on the way back from running my wife to work). I had 100zl from last night in my pocket. I go into the supermarket, get the things... 50 zlots, 25 grosze. I hand her the 100.

"Don't you have the 25 grosze?"
"No, sorry."
(sigh, roll of eyes)
"Well, I'm sorry, but the ATM doesn't give me loose change"
"How interesting, but what am I supposed to do, I don't have change!"

In the end I just handed her my card, commenting I didn't know how much money was in the account and i didn't want to pay that way.

So now, I have 100 zlot note and still need the bread shop, so i end up going home to find 6-7 zlots in lose change because I'm not going to buy a couple of loaves with a 100 and have the same scenario.

The worst thing was, this was 08.30 this morning in a large supermarket... how long does it take to empty a till of change?
Trevek   
17 Jun 2010
News / Hollywood's War with Poland. [150]

Another 'historical' Hollywood film: Taras Bulba

This is a film of a novel by Gogol, a Ukrainian-born Russian. I don't think Hollywood made it all up themselves.
Trevek   
17 Jun 2010
Life / Wojewódzki moral authority for people in Poland? [7]

Not sure whose country your referring to but I recall a great line from Ice-T the rapper (and all-round anti-semitie, racist and homophobe).

Something like, "If I have more influence on your son as a rapper than you do as a father, you'd better look at yourself as a parent."
Trevek   
17 Jun 2010
News / Hollywood's War with Poland. [150]

Yeah but the point is, in Gran Torino, there was an old school Polish American man living in an Old School Polish American neigborhood in Michigan.

And he is shown as a brave man, a decent man and, in fact, someone who accepts others not for their race but for who they are. he is also shown as changing and sacrificing his life to safeguard the future of the Hymong boy.

Likewise, in Monsters' Ball BBT's character is shown as someone who changes and overcomes his racism.
Trevek   
16 Jun 2010
UK, Ireland / Do Polish People Litter their own country (just like they do in the UK)? [84]

Oh god yes, there are a number who do.

I live in Olsztyn and at the weekend or in the hot weather people often go to the lakes... and you can see the proof afterwards... broken beer bottles, paper, remains of barbeques, crisp packets... toilet paper and the substance it was used on (particularly popular in places like £eba and seaside resorts).

Drive/walk through the beautiful forests and there are piles of black bin bags full of rubbish, because someone didn't want to pay to have it taken away.

Part of the problem around lakes etc is the shortage of dustbins (although that wouldn't stop some people).

Of course, Britain also has a problem... when I lived in Milton, Glasgow, I used to run across fields and through a small wood. It was great in the morning or early evening because there was one point where there was a glittering, shining mass of thousands of beer cans... all left by generations of illicit boozers.

Actually, it was quite artistic, and a lot prettier than the piles of beach-goers poop that places like £eba have.
Trevek   
15 Jun 2010
Love / Scottish & Polish relationships [229]

I know the Welsh are Brits. Where did I say otherwise?

You can hear their wales of protest!
Trevek   
15 Jun 2010
Love / Scottish & Polish relationships [229]

PMSL.
(that was actually really really funny!)

Glad ewe liked it.

Most lowland jocks aren't Celts anyway more likely Anglo-Norman.

A bit like a lot of Irish.
Trevek   
15 Jun 2010
Love / Scottish & Polish relationships [229]

There's actually a difference between the two things. Ondines are often portrayed as wraiths, or nasty little water spirits/sprites which might have a nice time drowning you (kelpies). Selkies are seals who shed their skins and become people. They can't go back to the sea without their skins. The fishermen could claim a selkie bride by stealing her skin and making her live with him (I did a puppet show about this in Warsaw a few years ago).

There is a theory that there was a large migration of saami (Laplanders) to the outer islands on Scotland (many of which had been under Norwegian rule for centuries). The kayaks were made of skin and often submerged below the water level, making the kayaker look like a seal. The kayaker might come ashore and take of the skins. If they were stolen they couldn't go back to the sea (too cold and the skin may have acted as a spray deck).

Interesting as the theory is, it is flawed because everyone knows Selkies are real anyway.

I think Seanus is from Aberdeen area. They have a similar thing with sheep which shed their fleeces and become beautiful girls. When they put the skin back on they become sheep again... "and so concludes the case for the defence, my lord!"
Trevek   
15 Jun 2010
Love / Scottish & Polish relationships [229]

They both star in his next movie ONDINE

Ondines and Selkies are also part of Scottish mythology. Selkies are believed to have been Saami kayakers from Scandinavia, so that would make her part Scandinavian too!
Trevek   
15 Jun 2010
Love / Scottish & Polish relationships [229]

Poles and Scotts can do bussines. I can imagine new free Scottland as part of future Slavic Confederation. Poland should offer protection to Scottland from English oppresores

When a lot of the Scots came to Poland there was actually a Scottish king in London, trying to forge the notion of "Great Britain".

There were also a number of English in Poland but that's a bit less romantic.

Is Trevek Scottish?

It depends who he's talking to (and who you ask).

Dad's family are/were Scots (my brother was born in Dumbarton) and my Mum's are Tynesiders (a bit further back, Cornish and Irish). I was, however, born and brought up in England (although my Scottish granny lived just around the corner).

Take your pick.
Trevek   
14 Jun 2010
UK, Ireland / Polish Irish music bands [6]

A couple of bands on here. No idea what they're like, tho'.

ekskluzywnewesele.jazzevent.pl

You can click the links on their section to hear them.

Also, try Lindsay Davidson, if he isn't free he might know someone.

lindsaydavidson.co.uk/ensembles.html
Trevek   
13 Jun 2010
UK, Ireland / Polish Irish music bands [6]

Shannon, from Olsztyn, play Celtic music

youtube.com/watch?v=DitWyKC5mbA
myspace.com/shannonbandpoland
Trevek   
12 Jun 2010
Travel / Praga, Warsaw - looking for some hippish cafes [15]

I'd agree with Szwed's statement. It's like most places, the less you know about it the more careful you should be. Praga has theatres and clubs but it helps if you know where you are and where you are going.

Try a "Warsaw in your Pocket" (if they exist).

Oh, don't forget, big boys are as prone to knives and bottles as little boys.