Life / English speaking hairdresser in Katowice? [4]

Loads of choice - no problem at all. Avoid the Monopol unless you want to burn serious money. If important then that is a good call, otherwise google for areas like Tysiaclecia, Ligota or Padereskiego that have modern stylists and they will speak English.

Having said that -out of town you would only save 20 per cent so yes, the Monopol is a good call.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

On a more sombre note, I have broken into the "Christmas Stilton".....

It is like making love for the sake of it, instead of being in love.

18 zl versus perhaps a trifle 3 times as much for the real thing? The Lidl "Stilton" is a travesty and a complete waste of 18 hard earned zloty - and the people who market this tasteless rubbish should either be forced to eat this themselves, or be shot.

Avoid.

Travel / Christmas Fair in Gdańsk - worth visiting? [6]

I mentioned the Christmas Fair in Rome because it really is something.

That one in Gdansk is nothing at all actually........... Sorry - but there it is.

Poles can't do fairs. They are too exact, or serious, or something. No atmosphere for kiddies.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]


The old story.

Idiotic managers who think they know what different cultures want.

Katowice Tesco used to stock prn mags (when they first started business in Silesia centre Katowice) Not girlie mags - full frontal púrn mags. Fact. Tesco can easily find me and sue me. Pure scum.

In Britain they would never have dared lol ******* lol.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

Inwo said : I dread shopping at Lidl. It is an absolute scrum, horribly long queues........................

Oscar Wilde (sic) "There's only one thing worse than being talked about, and that is not being talked about".

Lidl must be well pleased.

I do find them to stock a load of old tosh at the best of times. Budweiser beer being a notable exception.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

Thanks :)

Travel / Cool Hipster Areas in Warsaw ? [11]


Designer dogs are such as the breed called "dog" or certain French pugs etc - bred by experiment to gain a desired effect........ often so ugly that they are beautiful - so as to speak.

Lots of Warsaw peeps will have a designer dog and we all know why.

There is nothing common about labradors. Simply the best dog, bar none. :))

Travel / Gdansk - where to go and what's cool to see? [25]


In this weather?

Drink, and then drink some more.

Travel / Cool Hipster Areas in Warsaw ? [11]


Show us yours' Sobieski and I'll show you mine :) And it is on topic mods - cause designer dogs are hip in Poland these days but those who know stick to the original breeds because they are the real deal :)

As in - the Warsaw people come to Gdynia Orlowo in summer to show off their mutts, but mine is hip all year round :) I figure that the cool set in Warsaw like to put a scarf on their canine friend and take him for a beer or three? As in the UK or Germany - or is Poland going to insist on being plastic?

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]


Yep, and stacks of too. I am saving the Stilton til Christmas. Does it actually taste like...er..... Stilton? I lived ten miles from where the real stuff is made for a few good years :)

Got Scottish mature x5/ farmhouse mature x 5, the coloured Scottish (con) x 5.

Of course Lidl "mature" is weak by real standards but they have their mark-ups and deny us the true stuff of course.

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

Every single type of cheese available here in Gdynia. Stocked up for Xmas.

Not as good as cheeses from the UK by a long chalk but anything is better than the alternatives on offer - has anyone tried the Italian efforts? Not cheap, so theoretically must be good....

And why do Poles still buy "Polish cheese"? It's akin to buying "British vodka".

Life / Polish cycle sites to report possible stolen bikes [10]

Another thing. Have to say this - but you need to be spending at least 15 per cent of your cycles' value on locks - and THREE different locks at that. Google around for info as to why....

We've all lost bikes - sorry to see that. It hurts I know :(

Life / Myslovitz- are there any other Polish bands that sing the same genre and are as good? [9]

How old are you people? Myslowitz are total childish gash when they start "singing". Not surprising with the ******** they come from.

A (very) poor man's Simple Minds.

Rubbish of the first order.

Life / First hand experiences of the Mafia in Poland [28]


Somebody extremely wealthy and well connected, who should know, assured me in a sober and believable fashion that (allegedly) the Krakow mafia are the boys in blue.

As to the previous poster's comments about Krakow pubs and restaurants, said acquaintance is in commercial development

UK, Ireland / My opinion on why Poles & English dislike each other [25]

He/she lost me after the first "sentence". So I don my hat to you for persevering and elucidating said fact. If it is indeed fact.

I think a replicant wrote that - or a human using Microsoft's crappy speech recognition software :)

UK, Ireland / My opinion on why Poles & English dislike each other [25]


A paragraph or three wouldn't go amiss. My 10 year old students write better than the OP. Wot skool was teaching 'im?

Hence his opinion is invalid (still miles better than my written Polish though)

Food / Where to buy British mature Cheddar Cheese and salted butter in Poland? [289]

Strange Inwo - I was just in the Gdynia Lidl and didn't see any Stilton. Damn!

Is it any good? Clearly not the real thing but beggars can't be choosers etc...

Law / Purchasing a Vehicle in Poland and Shipping it to the U.S. [8]

Please talk sense Kamaz. Polish built cars have always been some of the very worst in the world.

I was unlucky enough to buy an Opel Astra from the Warsaw plant. Total garbage and that is putting it politely.

My advice for Poles in the future is to stick to growing potatoes :)

There was an infamous case a few years back when Opel Gliwice got a massive shipment of steel plate - all of the wrong spec - and they only realised when their technicians examined it at the plant itself. You couldn't make it up.

For the OP: You might have Polish heritage, but no -one wants scummy Polish wrecks - "heritage cars" they are not - "communist-built cars" - yes. This thread is risible.

Life / What are your experiences of care for your loved ones in hospitals here? [75]


And you are saying my wife should have to grieve in front of staring people? In a sick society like yours' - where people enjoy others' misfortune, maybe so..............

In the serials everybody gets the sympathetic professional treatment that in western Europe is taken as a given.

I am saying that if Poland wants to be a respected member of the EU then there needs to be some banging of heads as regards care for the bereaved - and sharpish.

Polish health care on death is quite disgusting at times - and as I suggested - very likely illegal and actionable - animals get better treatment. My fukk buddy is a vet and I get to see what goes down with animals and all is done quite gently and with suitable expressions of sympathy and regret.


I happen to use Medicover too - but that is NOT the point. People pay into the state system for 40 years and then they are treated as a problem. Maybe in communist Poland that was a given.

In the meantime some state hospitals are falling way short of EU guidelines as I suggested. I will try to get my wife to make an official complaint to the ombudsman but she will likely shrug her shoulders and say "It's done....".

The Polish disease............

Study / English primary schools for foreigners in Katowice [15]

That's great! Every success from an old Katowicean , if there were ever such a term - but please tell Bronwyn to put the address on her webiste homepage!

Duh!

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]

Sorry EG? Yup, I am British - I was just visiting Glasgow on the way to see the old aunt in Perth :)

When I retire it'll be to God's Own Country, but I will need my pension fund to swell like a Haggis in full sun :)

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]


Mmm

I was in Boots in Glasgow and asked the girl at the counter where the station for trains to Perth was. When I didn't understand her brogue (accent) she closed her till, took me by the hand (I was younger then), walked me out into the street and indicated down the road and to the right. All done with a smile and great courtesy.

By the same token, my Skoda ( blush) broke down (of course) near Pszczyna on a Sunday - the mechanic insisted on postponing his Sunday lunch to come out and rescue us on a hot summers' day and to (temporarily) fix said motor on the same Sunday afternoon, as we had a sprog in tow (aka a 2 year old princess) and had to get back to civilisation (well - Katowice, actually...)

Motto: use shops in the UK - get your car serviced in Poland :)

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]

Yes - I am far worse than them of course, looking down my ageing nose at them as I do - I don't know if I can take any more lol :) I must train my overly submissive labrador to bite back when their designer dogs are too haughty:)

UK, Ireland / Curious about differences Polish people see with the British? [95]


Nah :)There's no snob like a Polish snob.
I work in Gdansk Morena on a Wednesday night and they are epidemic in their Nissan sports cars, Tommy Hilfigger running vests and walking their pugs, residing grandly in their over-priced moronic high wire fenced, security guarded, modernistic concrete jungles with a nice view of the next high wire fenced concrete jungle:) In the UK they would be taken down a peg or two I guarantee it as no normal person would tolerate the superior twits.

And yes I am familiar with the meaning of the word "snob". Of course I am "better" than them. I can read, for a start :)

Law / Asbestos Roofing laws in Poland - tell me! [18]

Lol - do I detect a response to my term of "village people"? It wasn't intended to be derogatory - been living in Poland for too long and the "wiesniak" term has stuck :(

Law / Asbestos Roofing laws in Poland - tell me! [18]


Er...that would lead to extremely severe penalties - only companies with said certification can work on asbestos removal.

Village people would grass to the authorities, and in a city the authorities are right there in their spy wagons.

History / Why HMG (Her Majesty's Government) abandoned Poland to the Soviets [30]


So spoke Churchill on the 18th January 1945:

"Government of the people, by the people, for the people, set up on a basis of free and universal suffrage election, with secrecy of the ballot and no intimidation. That is and has always been the policy of this Government in all countries. That is our only aim, our only interest, and our only care"

Anyway - Hansard is just a transcript of Prime Ministers' questions in parliament. What do you expect a Prime Minister to say in that situation? Lie? He/She says what is expedient at the time.

If we had the technology then that we have now we could have recorded Churchills' real views when in a state of " hyper-activity". We have endless anecdotes and academic testimony that he was free with his opinions in company - and from hearsay we can theorise about what Churchill may well have said in a restaurant setting with his aristo drinking buddy a la Sikorski (although obviously, as a member of the ruling class he had no need of restaurants and personal opinion quite rightly mostly stayed that way)

Here is a Dougpol mini screenplay for Ozidan's benefit:

Setting: Lady Astor's house (one of them). Time: Late in the evening ............post dinner.....

Churchill: "The Poles are an admirable race - belligerent though they be. They have a troubled history, surrounded as they are by great economic powers - beset by their geographical position in Central Europe. Their women are not ugly; to the contrary................ and that is to their credit. The men - and admittedly, some women too - drink some dangerous, tasteless rubbish they call vodka, but their leaders do enjoy good whisky - so we know they are inherently of the right stuff.

Anyone who threatens them will consequently receive the full might of our power - because they do in fact hold the power through their location, that is the essence of a free Europe of tomorrow - central Europeans that they so be. Who Poland leans to in a free democracy holds the key to leverage in Europe..... Roosevelt is dying; he is an apologist, and we must take on the mantle - leave the French be - we know they are not of fighting material, and conservative by nature - I hesitate to use the word "yellow" ( because that colloquial term hasn't come into general usage yet..........)

Bring forth Monty, and the ghost of Patton - we will fight for central Europe and the free Poles... and ......so, on to Moscow gentlemen! "

Real people always speak the truth when drunk. Think about it. So spoke Churchill - not in so many words tis true ... but it's all much of a muchness.

Life / Internet / Telephone provider in Krakow [28]

It seems that UPC have pretty much of a stranglehold in the Trojmiasto. Pretty scummy operators though, and Internetia (Switzerland) treated their customers with some respect and had 24 hour service.

If I could I would **** UPC off in an instant but sometimes it's better the devil you know. They are like the French - they constantly short-change you :(