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Posts by Varsovian  

Joined: 23 Nov 2006 / Male ♂
Last Post: 22 Feb 2016
Threads: Total: 91 / In This Archive: 78
Posts: Total: 634 / In This Archive: 433
From: Warsaw

Displayed posts: 511 / page 1 of 18
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Varsovian   
18 Feb 2016
Law / Polish wife in the UK cheated on me. Divorce - what now of the kids? [15]

I have knowledge of both English and Polish divorce law. I also have experience of seeking advice on this forum as regards Polish divorce law. Do not believe anything anyone tells you. Ask a lawyer. Best - seek reconciliation first. This might need 3rd party support. The people who suffer most are always the children - emotionally, educationally and in terms of health. Parents shouldn't give themselves the right to harm their own children.
Varsovian   
17 Feb 2016
Life / Cyfrowy Polsat... NC+ - which channels can you watch in English? [25]

smurf - are you just saying that or do you know it to be true? I understand it used to be that way but apparently no more and you're stuck with Polish commentary whether you want it or not.

nope - Aren't these channels mostly in Polish? News channels don't interest me - I have them anyway
Varsovian   
30 Sep 2015
News / Afera taśmowa (recordings scandal) in Poland - media coverage [17]

PiS? Masters? I have nothing to do with THEM! They're daft, but mostly to their credit not taking johnny foreigner's shekel, unlike PO and PSL.

Anyway, wait for the homosexual revelations. Might take a year or two though. Mind you, even then you will say I was only taking a wild guess.
Varsovian   
30 Sep 2015
UK, Ireland / Traps for "expats" returning to the UK - bank account and tuition fees [13]

Interestingly, HSBC followed up her rejection with a letter inviting her to the branch ... to open an account. There seems to be some confusion in the market - not least because there's no legal definition of what "ordinarily resident" means.
Varsovian   
28 Sep 2015
Life / Driving test, English speaking driving school in Warsaw? [95]

Merged: Warsaw driving tests

They're a nightmare!
I know a few people who have given up after 6 test failures - I don't know anyone in the UK who took so many tests. Something doesn't add up. That something is the devious nature of tests in Warsaw - a milieu which features lots of former SB officers, by the way.

A classic happened today, when a friend refused to overtake when ordered to by the examiner ... as the car in front was doing 50 in a 50 zone. See the trap?

Anyway, a good driving instructor is: Jarek 609 043 076
Varsovian   
28 Sep 2015
UK, Ireland / Traps for "expats" returning to the UK - bank account and tuition fees [13]

You can get a university letter - and that helps with getting an international student account. It doesn't help with getting a regular bank account. Quite simply, when a UK bank says 'Proof of ID and address. UK residents only' it means you have to be living in the UK 3 years, regardless of what they write on their website or what their online support says.
Varsovian   
27 Sep 2015
UK, Ireland / Traps for "expats" returning to the UK - bank account and tuition fees [13]

HSBC said UK passport and proof of address, e.g. letting agreement with a reputable letting agency. But when you go to any branch, they refuse you if unless you have uk addresses for 3 years. Online support at HSBC is totally unaware of this.
Varsovian   
26 Sep 2015
UK, Ireland / Traps for "expats" returning to the UK - bank account and tuition fees [13]

My daughter (UK passport holder) has just started university in London.

Setting up a bank account is a problem - they state online that the applicant must be 18 and a UK resident. What they don't say is that, for them, UK resident means 3 years' addresses in the UK. Santander offers the most god-awful banking service - maximum of GBP 500 on the account and a monthly charge for the pleasure of having the world's worst bank account. Santander and HSBC both rejected her regular bank account applications.

Next thing - this affects non-EU resident Brits, not Brits living in Poland. If we were living in, say, Hong Kong, we would have to pay the same tuition fees as non-EU citizens. About GBP 20k a year, instead of GBP 9k a year.
Varsovian   
14 Jul 2015
News / If Poland were in the Eurozone... [39]

Paul Krugman wrote an important paper on how in currency areas wealth is concentrated in increasingly wealthy areas and poor areas get poorer in relative terms. That sums up the eurozone - Thatcher was laughed at by 'clever intellectuals' when her inner circle said it was a German plot to take over Europe. France, Benelux and Italy are groaning under the economic dislocation ... and the Germans enetered the currency union at a bargain basement D-Mark exchange rate to boot.
Varsovian   
8 Jul 2015
News / Afera taśmowa (recordings scandal) in Poland - media coverage [17]

Firstly, with many, many more damaging recordings yet to be made public, one wonders whether the Polish media will (i) report it in brief then concentrate on football results and the weather, or (ii) do the unthinkable and not let the story drop until the unspeakably corrupt and morally bankrupt Platforma fiasco of a party is kicked out of power.

Secondly, will more recordings be released before the elections?
Varsovian   
11 Jan 2015
News / Self-important Warsaw mayor [18]

I have absolutely no connections whatsoever. As for the PiS intelligentsia comment ... HA HA HA!!!!!!! Good to see you support theft by the "right people" - at least we know where you stand.
Varsovian   
9 Jan 2015
News / Self-important Warsaw mayor [18]

The husband of Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz was one of the co-owners of the privatized tenement, to which his uncle had bought the rights from scammers in 1945. In fact, the house belonged to Jewish families whose authorizations were faked by one of the fraudsters - reported in the latest edition of the "W sieci" magazine. The President of Warsaw replies: "the matter is the subject of a substitute for substantive discussion about the future of Warsaw and is part of a dirty political struggle."

m.warszawa.gazeta.pl/warszawa/1,106541,16945339,Co_prezydent_stolicy_wiedziala_o_kamienicy_odzyskanej.html

Theft isn't something to be dismissed with "Get over it".

Property should go back to its rightful owners. Thieves should be punished and people in authority who help them should be punished. I was recently involved in the sale of a plot of land near to the Palace of Culture. Real owners got real money, because people like GW's husband hadn't "acquired" their property. Or perhaps we should thumb our noses at Jewish heirs who don't live in Poland? Why? Would that be because Jews aren't good enough to have their property rights respected?
Varsovian   
1 Dec 2014
News / Self-important Warsaw mayor [18]

All the Polish press reported it, but the politically-correct media decided that stealing from dead Jews wasn't a big crime. Essentially, from what I can remember, a fraudster presented a forged power of attorney in the late 1940s, saying he had the right to sell 2 properties belonging to a dead Jew. The courts convicted him of forging the POA, jailed him and nullified any dealings connected with any supposed sale. Unfortunately, the fraudster's heir turned up much later and said he had the right and a friendly fellow at Warsaw City Hall said "Fine, go ahead" amazingly, astonishingly, unbelievably without checking the full documentation regarding HGW's husband's fake title to the property. HGW's hubby (the heir to the fraudster), with grubby paper in hand, then sold the property at half-price as quickly as possible. Now the heir of the dead Jewish owner (they've traced one) has to overturn a "sale in good faith" based on "public warranty of title" - as the title to the property was in the public property register. A tall order - one that'll take years. In which time the property developer will have sold the property on ...
Varsovian   
1 Dec 2014
News / Self-important Warsaw mayor [18]

Merged: Gronkiewcz-Waltz: Mayor of Warsaw's family made a fraudulent fortune from Holocaust theft

Her husband """""inherited""""" a property and got a compliant City official to legalise it for him, knowing it was unlawful, then sold it on """"in good faith""" at half-price because it was hot goods. Normal people would be massively embarrassed, but not the Mayor of Warsaw. She's above and beyond it all.
Varsovian   
16 Nov 2014
History / People the Soviets planted in Poland [75]

Has anyone in a prominent position acted in a peculiar way recently? In particular, in a way that could damage Polish relations with one of Russia's neighbours? Just asking ...