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Posts by Luke84  

Joined: 29 Jul 2015 / Male ♂ 		Last Post: 23 Mar 2016
Threads: Total: 7 / In This Archive: 6
Posts: Total: 114 / In This Archive: 104 		From: Chrzanow
Speaks Polish?: yes

Displayed posts: 110 / page 1 of 4
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Luke84   
9 Nov 2019
Life / Child maintenance / expenses living in Poland [11]

@DC85
You might be under a little shock but your kids may not get that 500PLN, my wife also lives in Poland but I'm currently in UK. Poland would not provide this sort of benefits if husband or partner (current or ex) is working in another country. Poland will ask you to try and claim benefits in UK instead... no 500+ for kids living in Poland if one parent is abroad, sorry.
Luke84   
10 Feb 2019
Life / Picking up BBC television in Poland [41]

These days you have many choices and it all depends on what device you choose to pick it on, are you looking to watch it on TV, tablet, PC? You can contact me on priv and I can point you into the right direction.
Luke84   
27 Jan 2017
News / Polish Supercar. Do you like it? [12]

Thanks, looks really cool, I noticed that steering wheel doesn't come with ridiculous buttons all over it, it looks simple but I reckon they will get stuff updated, I can see from pics that possibly that steering wheel doesn't have airbag which means this is a just a taste of what we will really see. I like the car from outside, interior -cannot say anymore as I believe it would be good, it has a potential to be good, but the engine, whatever that would be doesn't sound right, V8 is ok for daily cars not for super car, I would expect to see V12 at least, and preferably not a GM motor inside... I'm not a fun of American engineers, there were fine in old cars but not current models... Well, interesting but price seems a bit high for that, I would definitely go for something like McLaren 570S or preferably 650S, these has real heritage and if you are planning to get a super car it would be a better investment both - short and long term... depends if you actually thinking to get one! Anyway everyone has different taste and I respect that, had few cars myself (these good ones too) and I can tell how this looks from this view, if you want to get one I would say wait until this is fully established...
Luke84   
27 Jan 2017
News / Polish Supercar. Do you like it? [12]

That would be nice to see, I'm looking forward... Wondering if they show it on Geneva Motor Show in March, I'm planning to find excuses to go there this year :) Not many car enthusiasts on this forum, unless they just don't talk about cars... Enjoy the weekend!
Luke84   
27 Jan 2017
News / Polish Supercar. Do you like it? [12]

true, they should make it nicer for domestic use but who knows, I'm not a fun of that steering wheel, actually hate it :) apart of it car looks nice, mixture between McLaren and Lamborghini... Again nice engineering work... and they sold one already according to their Facebook page and news from couple of days ago
Luke84   
27 Jan 2017
News / Polish Supercar. Do you like it? [12]

P.S. There is a video from June 2016 where you can see the interior of the car arrinera.com/car/, I really cannot find any info about 8.2 engine, even wiki page says 6.2 and 7.0 for GT model... Sources I provided are from 2016 so they are consider as latest... Also their facebook page confirms that new engine used is 7.0 so there is no 8.2:

web.facebook.com/pg/arrinera.automotive/about - more pics and recent updates there...
Luke84   
27 Jan 2017
News / Polish Supercar. Do you like it? [12]

Hey,

It seems like we could be both wrong, PDF on their site says 7.0l engine, that is from GM group so not so special.
PDF: arrinera.pl/dokumenty/Arrinera%20Hussarya%20GT3%20race%20car.pdf
again that's not road legal car version, some of the pics including interior can be found here:
arrinera.com, they are also some information on this page:
performancedrive.com.au/arrinera-hussarya-gt-revealed-road-legal-version-coming-2016/#

Regardless of specs, it's a big credit for Polish engineers to make a car like that, it does look nice but I'm not a fun of interior design as well as the selection of engines used. I think they would do much better and would be more successful if they would come up with fully electric car. Now we can observe the trend looking at classic car prices rising up which is great as there is a lot to pick from the "old market", but current super and hyper cars won't have it that easy, they would be very slow and under performed if you take fully electric super car and put it next to it, I think the new super/hypercars will start coming 2020 on wards, we see some now but that would be a real start (we see Formula E developing...) . I really think they should go electric and then they will definitely succeed...
Luke84   
27 Jan 2017
News / Polish Supercar. Do you like it? [12]

Hello,
Price is the only factor to consider a car like that, have you seen interior of it, or a hideous steering wheel with the console? This certainly speaks as a NO... I'm also concerned about the engine, that is 6.2 engine and only V8, we see cars like that from US, they are heavy but not really fast, also it cannot be a super car with domestic V8 under the hood :) bringing the purchase of it to discussion, you would be better of getting a rare porsche or mclaren car instead...
Luke84   
20 Oct 2016
Travel / Poland Honeymoon - Ideas? [3]

Hi Vinc,

Congratulations :)

This will solely depends on your favorite activities, do you (and your wife) like to visit places, walk or perhaps seat on the beach in sun.

Honeymoon, usually but not for everyone is pictured as people enjoying sun on the beach, this is the image created by movies, books etc, I gather you want to stay in Poland for that period, if so take a look at reasonable quiet and clean places like Ustka, have been there this year and I can really recommend it, you can relax in this place and eat very nice fish everyday... the only downside I can think of is a number of people you will be seeing every day (this is July, I have been there is September and beaches were still occupied).

If however your honeymoon doesn't need to be in Poland I would recommend places like Maldives, Seychelles islands, Thailand, Bahamas, etc depends strictly on your budget but I believe now you can pick some good deals, if you will have any questions feel free to contact me.
Luke84   
12 Oct 2016
Life / Average Food Bill in Poland - Family of 4 [7]

Hi Adam,

I say you should be ok with 2-2.5K PLN per month for your gloceries... Fruits are quite expensive in Poland, we buy loads of them so this definitely top up the bill, if you like healthy food and eat loads of premium fish and seafood (3-4x per week) you should be looking at that price range.
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Smurf, Thanks for that, surely we can do that one day, apart of Silesia centre and very tasty Masala House on Mickiewicza street I'm not familiar with Katowite. We would have some fun!

Lyzko, never visited Szczecin, I have been in places like Krakow, Wroclaw, Katowice, Grodzisk Mazowiecky, Warszawa, Zakopane, cannot think of more at the moment... I must try to do some trips with family when the little one gets a bit older, we just (two weeks ago) come back earlier from Mallorca as little one was sick...

Messageman - this is new to me, I think they don't like/understand English humour. Must try that at some point.
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Atch - wow that story with your neighboroughs is so heart- warming, specially these days... Thanks for that, I was in need for it!

Messageman - Thanks for the tip! I know 38 million people cannot be all bad and certainly they are not bad, just need to be in the right place at the right time I suppose :)
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Definitely, I gained weight as I'm sitting all day and looking for excuses to eat out etc :) I have started working on it now, started with diet, bike I would start using after I'll be back from my UK trip
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Mike,

I have noticed that Poles don't like small talk with strangers. My problem with socializing at work is that my work is at home, I don't have colleagues at work... They all are in other locations - UK, US, Japan etc

With these kind of hobbies I would need to lose some weight first, 125KG 182cm.... (19.5 stones, almost 6ft)
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Nope,

Oh ok, 150 km is a quite a distance but can catch up at some point if you will have some time, maybe we can make it in Krakow:) At least there are some nice food places :) Lunch is on me :)

Would you think learning a history of Poland would help understanding the average Pole? Everyone seems to blame old, communist days which were all gone over 25 years ago but even new generation are still suffering from it... Not sure - maybe schools did a bad job?
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Ziemowit,

This would be a good tactic indeed but only if I would have general problem to have contact with people, as I mentioned (maybe not clear enough) wherever I went back in UK (even for the first time) there was no problem communicate with people (again these people were not only English, but most of them certainly were), here I have tried same steps to open up conversation - again maybe it's a small town problem, maybe in bigger places like Krakow people are more open... I was just doing one to one comparison and conclusion is that were I successes in UK I have failed in Poland...

Diagnosis game or if you'd like a methodology was a part of our education back in school which has started from very early age :)
Luke84   
22 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

SilesiaExplorer - Thanks for the tips. I do have car (two in fact which I barely touch), I do have also a bike, I will try the places you mentioned, TA.

Dhrynio - Thanks for that, good to hear that I'm not alone with this and that is more likely something you need to go through, couldn't see local language school but trying to pick up language from TV, couldn't find English native speakers but this is probably my fault as I didn't go out often... Polish is OK I would say, my writing Polish sucks but I can talk 60-70% (I wish) and I can understand almost everything.

Mafketis - Cheers, acknowledged :)

nope - I can see that you can refer to this subject well, 6 years - well done! You mentioned that your city is close by or "not far from it", what is the name of your city? Do you like it here? Thanks a lot, all the best!

P.S. I do have a dog - 6 years old Cocker Spaniel :) he is also an English citizen in Poland and he like it here very much :)

Dougpol1 - I bet Three City is nice, how long you are there for?

Paulina - Paulo Coelho is indeed a writer, and he is writing songs too, sorry I wasn't clear on that, he is not a singer :)

Dougpol1 - ha, audiobooks too! but he was writing songs too, example:
youtube.com/watch?v=6lktPAzrOhU

Ziemowit - spot on with your comments! I never felt a need of socializing back in UK, wherever I go - a local coffee shop, restaurant, barber I knew everyone and we chatted, here (in Poland) this is not happening, wherever you go - people just do their jobs - I cannot see any passion coming from it :( And this mood travels from one to another. I was thinking to do some voluntary work, still don't know what else you can do in Poland in that respect, but teaching is not for me, I was trying to give English lessons to my own wife - all I can say is that this is not for me :)

Thanks a lot - I do have some patience, I just running out of it, going mad already :)

Thank you for all of your comments on that - members of this forum make me feel like I'm socializing!
Luke84   
21 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Messageman,

Thanks for your comments. We trying to have some plans for future but we cannot really see/go as far as one year these days. There is nothing long term these days, we don't have any mortgages or any other commitments which will help us to get a 5 year plan... I think our marriage is still very strong even if we don't always have same thing to say... I have traveled myself a lot and I must say that if you are a visitor in country for let say 1-2 weeks you will have an idea that people are very friendly (maybe apart of Italians, I found them to be super rude...) I have also been in Czech, I must say that Czech people are more happy than Poles (overall of course)...

Cannot relocate as we built the house here, everything putting this plan together took us about 4 years prior to me moving here so I don't really fancy another move to some uncertain location which more likely would be much more expensive too. End of the day I will be willing to buy a house outside London - Surrey or Kent and keep it as a second home than spending pretty much same in Warsaw/Krakow... Definitely there is a fear but also a curiosity, I'm trying to socialise, but I'm failing here where the same "job" was done in UK and other countries (Western) and succeeded
Luke84   
21 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Thank you again for your input guys, I do learn more about "construction of Poles mentality" from this forum than I do living between them, which is very good. I must say that yesterday while writing that post I felt quite depressed, it's a different day now but this whole "down pressure" still exist in back of my mind.

Unfortunately cannot say much towards hobbies, there is few things I do or like doing but I don't find them to be necessary in my daily life, still looking for some sort of hobby but hey I'm 32 so it might be a bit too late for that - who knows...

Dougpol1 - I like your description of this town, yes it is not great, we are living on the road where we are surrounded by new houses (a posh area would be definitely an exaggeration but end of the day- who knows, it is completely different than it is in UK, you have a pretty house next to some nasty piece of work everywhere, in UK this is more in areas so everyone knows where the posh areas are and equally the prices match the level of your neighborhood), Trzebinia - sure, this stinks of oil wherever you go but I must say CHrzanow is rather clean, again maybe we are just lucky enough to live in a "better" part of it. I have never used train in Poland, have tried bus to Krakow some time ago and this wasn't the best experience, by the time I was in Krakow I felt exhausted, yet still had to make a trip back home... The place I like going/driving to is Silesia centre in Katowice, there are few places where you can sit down and few nice places you can go. I do like all of these little shops with wrist watches, I would adopt that as a hobby but certainly it's not affordable hobby, can have two nice watches and this is where the hobby of collecting ends...

I don't drink alcohol, I know this is the great barrier removal but I just don't like it, ok I can have a glass of martini with redbull or malibu with milk or a glass of wine with my dinner and this is about it really...

I definitely should get a hobby but there is nothing currently apart of my work where I will burn myself down at some point, which keeps me being interested in, sure I know who Jimi Hendrix is, also listening to Paulo Coelho and Tony Bennett - do you know these? - you can get from this that I was born old :)

Have a good day :)
Luke84   
20 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Lyzko,

It has improved but surely if I would be surrounded by Polish friends it would be even better. Right now I only speak with my wife and her family, occasionally with people at shops etc..
Luke84   
20 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Yes, she was in London, not sure, probably the fact that her English was not great, she understand 100% but when she talks she is doing loads of errors and she is afraid of that. I told her many times to not worry but she is just afraid of what people can think about her... This is my analogy of that problem anyway. When I ask her what you didn't like back then - she says - everything... Strange as when we were there she seemed happy...
Luke84   
20 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

So probably is better to stay and suffer... It's really hard that we cannot get some middle ground like 6 months here, 6 months there, I can replicate pretty much what we have here, I can still purchase a house outside London with a nice garden. We have two cars - can take one down there or even drive there.... Problem is that she doesn't want to leave Poland, she has only family, she don't have work or friends either... Well she meet with some of her "old" friends before when she was trying to find some people for us but this failed too...
Luke84   
20 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hi Rozumiemnic,

Child is going to be 2 years old in October, again this is going to sound terrible but she will probably not feel much difference. When she will become older then this will be a real problem... Exactly - they must have some suspicion but why again having a bad feelings towards it... To be honest nothing local here, apart of church but sadly I'm not believer...
Luke84   
20 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Thank you very much for joining this discussion. I may indeed try for another year, my worries are that my UK life in the mean time will be completely vanished and I will find myself to be not fit for any of these countries :) I can see how much I suffered by being here, again I was really optimistic and happy guy when I was back then. Here I really feel separated, it's like (probably not like at all) being jailed. I cannot feel that freedom here, when I smile to people and say hello they look at me like at some sort of con artist, this is the feeling which goes through my head. Obviously wife is very happy here, she has what she really wanted, her family together. I really tried many times to find some sort of connection, I was able even to find a friend, English gentleman, member of this forum but sadly he died few months ago. That was another shock for me. Again, I feel isolated, going to UK this week for couple of weeks, will rent out the hotel room, rent a car and visit some of my friends there to see how they keeping. I'm going there also for work reasons but this is really 3 days out of 14 I will be there.... Again, thank you very much for such a quick response.

On other token why people here (on forum, internet) are much nicer than people in real life...

Hi Religio,

No that is not true at all. I can assure you that I don't hate anyone at all, but have this feeling that hate is coming from others... Yes I can speak Polish and I believe it's quite good.

Hi Dougpol1,

Thank you for replying. Sadly but yes, no friends... Of course I have wife and child and on top of it I have my work which I tend to spent more time in nowadays...

I live in Chrzanow, this is right between Katowice and Krakow. You would say perfect location but this isn't a nice town at all :)

Sounds like you are having a good time in Poland, how long you are here for and how your first year looked like... Maybe I just need more time, have more distance for myself and for other people. Who knows, I have tried several times to find any friends here, maybe they though that I'm too open or maybe they didn't like a smiley lad so much :)

Skype daddy

Yes - this is internet for you which cannot show real feelings, actually when I say Skype daddy - tears are running to my eyes, I'm not a monster and I know how bad this sounds but again I'm really lost right now
Luke84   
20 Jun 2016
Life / Poland after one year of living here [105]

Hello everyone,

I hope everyone is doing just fine, so in 6 days I would be officially 1 year in Poland and as much as I would love to say that I like it here I cannot do so.

There is loads of things which I tried in Poland, I still don't have any friends at all, I'm a very communicative person and back in UK I had loads of friends. So here we have one negative for social experience, I have tried on several occasions however failed on every single one. Another one is food, I must say that I really liked Polish food until this become my daily basis food, not a fan of bakery in Poland, people probably will kill me by saying that, don't drink vodka or any alcohol so this didn't really matter for me, even Coca Cola have a different (weird, soapy) flavor in Poland...

Driving a car in Poland - not a fun at all, you can be killed - people on roads are very aggressive and I would say 3/10 drivers are OK on the roads, people are also not friendly at all, most of them have this angry face look, really depressing, not sure what caused that... Experience in shops while buy stuff - I have tried all sort of different shops and I must say that people are not nice there at all. Really sad but customer experience in Poland is often shocking and bad.

Weather- I suppose we cannot really complaint about weather - this is something we don't make so we cannot judge the country on that respect. I would say weather is OK for me, still prefer UK over Poland but this is more likely caused by me growing up there.

If you need a help of some sort of specialist like mechanic or any institution you will find that people HATE you with a passion. This were my feelings pretty much every time I was sorting or trying to sort something out. Everyone is OK to take your money and if they can RIP you off... Another thing is Polish people tend to be very aggressive and "they always know better than you", they have ideas above their station, sad but true. (again not everyone, but most of people I have meet in Poland are like that). Writing this stuff I must not forget about government, I think personally this is a joke...

I really hope that people treat that thread as solely mine experience, I don't want to say that Poland is rubbish country as there is 40 million people living here so for majority of them it's probably OK, I'm saying that from perspective of a foreign person in Poland. Financially I'm OK so please don't take it that I failed in live and trying to compromise something, this is not the case.

I would love to hear from all Polish and foreign people their thoughts of Poland and live here.

I have not made my last decision yet but it looks like I will be moving back home (yes even if I have a house in Poland+family this is not my home, I sadly cannot say it is...) Most likely I will be doing preparation for coming back to UK, problem is that wife doesn't want to go there as she hated it there, so really hard decision to make but end of the day happiness is most important in live. I hope that our marriage will not suffer from it, I'm not looking for adventures, my wife is telling me that she respect whatever decision I make and we would be able to spend holidays together etc. I don't really know what I'm doing as per writing this line I feel like a bad man who is leaving family alone. Trust me, she has her parents support so the only concern is the little one... Would be probably a "Skype daddy" for some time and hopefully before little one will go to school wife will decide to move back to UK... I've been super honest here, just said what is going through my mind, there is nothing 100% sure, I may stay here but for sake of my health and been miserable whole time... - is it really worth it?

All the best wishes for everyone who spent their time reading this!

Luke
Luke84   
24 Mar 2016
Love / Turkish girl is going to meet her Polish boyfriend's family - needs tips. [47]

Hi Elif,

You shouldn't really worry to much, ask your boyfriend what type of parents he has, are they modern or old fashioned as this would be a key on how to act.

Don't kiss their hands, this would definitely be seen as weird/odd, you can kiss on a cheek (they usually do it 3 times) or just hug them, you cannot go wrong with hugging them :)

With what to bring - yes home made stuff is good, from Turkey you can bring Halva (not sure how to pronounce that), coffee would be good too, not too much of sweeties unless they love sweets - who knows... If you are planning to have a long relationship with your Polish boyfriend, definitely meet his parents now, you will have some idea if you've been accepted pretty soon and don't worry too much if you are not...

Cheers
Luke84   
3 Mar 2016
Life / Wondering about Polish digital agency to create website for solicitors [3]

Hi Mike,

This is all depends on what sort of functionality do you require, it could be very cheap or very expensive, how many pages that site will have, what sort of programming language to be used apart of css and html, would you have some enquiry boxes, database running on it, would it contain some live chat options, who is hosting the site and for what period, does the site need any ssl certificates? Do you need any client login details, the list go on and on, there is so many aspects. Also when the project will be finished? I cannot comment about the price without knowing exact specification

That sounds to me like a free advert then...
Luke84   
28 Feb 2016
Study / Primary school education for children (PRIVATE) [14]

Hi InPolska,

This is called lazy Sunday with time spend on forum :) i cannot wait till Spring, we will be definitely riding on bikes :)

Thanks for that, I think I will do some research on local private schools, perhaps I will try to approach and talk to teachers, I think this would be possible, specially if they have nothing to hide. I will also get some private English tutor to visit us twice time per week so he/she can teach child English and perhaps can have debates etc, dialogue would be a little empty as there would be only one child and tutor but perhaps this would be still better than nothing.

Oh yes, my wife has that young girl in family, I think she is 16, apparently she don't have time for anything, she is learning so hard even till 1-2am, firstly I thought maybe she is trying hard but she is not the great student hence why she needs to spent more time but reality is that she is trying her best, she wants to become a doctor and this is not an easy path...

Thanks a lot, this is really a down side of Poland, at least we have the advantage to show the right path to kids...
How 14 years old doing at school? It must be hard for the kid, at least with best support from parents all of this can work with no problems.

All the best and have a nice Sunday. All I think right now is food :)