Travel / How can I get to Zlote tarasy - Warsaw? [14]

Re the 175 bus:

Be careful!

While I have the details of the guy who mugged my wife in broad daylight, the police don't.
In fact I have a file of all the main muggers.

When coming from the airport, stand near the driver - not the main, central doors.

News / Zloty exchange rates - is this just speculation? [87]

You could have tried in vain to tell that to my wife before I earned enough to pay for our next holiday in ... err ... Greece.

Now she's happy, of course.

Genealogy / Jewish Roots of Poland [639]

Getting a population sample like that would be difficult. Like trying to get a population sample of leading commies who lived thru Stalin's purges of the 1930s.

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]

Aga as a girl is pronounced "Agger"

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]

All older village houses have a daytime bed/layabout sofa in the kitchen.

They mostly have a large reception room doubling as a dining/sitting room. Essentially it has to be large enough to host the first circle of the extended family - say 20 people - for Christmas/Easter/traditional Sunday **** up and natter.

They will have a sofa bed in the living room, but only for occasional use. Only the poor city dwellers would sleep there regularly though.

News / Zloty exchange rates - is this just speculation? [87]

Might import some sterling

Life / Some Poles have fine houses [68]

I love the Polish village tradition of having a bed in the kitchen. We often congregate there as a family and watch while the women cook. Cosy. Also a convenient place to lay your head when you've hit the vodka and can't make it upstairs.

News / Zloty exchange rates - is this just speculation? [87]

Hmmm, exchange rates.

It's so easy to be clever about them, far harder to make money out of fluctuations. I took a punt on buying dollars with pounds a few months back and ended up taking a handsome profit. I felt like hanging on a bit longer, I must admit but chickened out. Yes, I do think the pound will fall to $1:40 but lack the guts to turn down an easy profit now.

UK interest rates will be going up this year due to the govt's cost of borrowing - the markets will force the BoE's hand - but the story given will be rising inflation :)

The zloty is a funny kettle of fish and depends on the market's appetite for risk. Essentially, I only buy/sell PLN when we have what I feel are extremes. I bought euros at PLN 3.25. I wouldn't sell PLN for any of: GBP, USD, EUR at present. I thought about it a few months ago, but chickened out. Damn - yet another missed opportunity!

I find these things very stressful - I'm not cut out for investing.

Law / Student Visa NON-EU Student (an entry-visa for a Nigerian citizen) [70]

Can't they read and write in Nigeria? Doesn't the internet work? Try the Open University in England.

News / Brown's 'Bigotgate' and the debate about Poles [63]

The background to all this is that Brits are BANNED from talking about the I word. If they raise the issue they are immediately branded a racist, regardless of the content of their comment.

That's what happened here. Brown branded her a racist for even raising the subject.

Note his use of the word "bigoted". It's revealing. His father was a Presbyterian minister in Scotland. "Bigotry" there refers to the Protestant/Catholic divide. Not that I'd expect any under-educated Brit to be aware of how Brown was probably echoing his father ...

Life / WHY DO POLES USE ENGLISH WORDS IN CONVERSATION? [396]

Are you all politicians?

The original comment was about "bekon" which is absolutely NOT boczek! Bekon comes from lean pigs, boczek is 90% fat.

As any fule kno!

News / Nuclear Power in Poland? Yes, please! Absolutely nobody disagrees! [73]

It's called coal.

It produces CO2 when burnt. Environmentalists don't like it because it's not sexy.

News / Michał Kamiński - referred to not by name on the UK Leaders Debate but ... [47]

I wanted to narrow it down to exactly who he was meaning, to show how behind the times Brits are.

I wanted to avoid the climate debate - v. sterile

Polonia / Poles and Austrians, do they get along? Vienna districts? [30]

Austria is in a pickle.

The economy is in a mess.
The public finances are in a mess.
The banks are in a mess - under the banking rules of any normal country Raiffeisen would be bust thanks to Hungary and Ukraine.

They face being overtaken by the uppity Czechs - which would be the ultimte humiliation for them. Poles do sort of register on the Austrian radar as manual labourers, thieves and prostitutes. If no longer in fact, then in the popular imagination.

Don't forget there was a Polish criminal operating in Austria called Solorz-Żak. He also stole from Polish emigre organisations, had 16 passports and passed information to the secret police. Today he runs the Polsat TV station, is involved in dirty business dealings aimed at trying to steal ownership of the ERA mobile phone company and is mega-rich.

Xenophobia is rife in Austria, but they're not as bad as the Germans.

One funny story - a Polish mate of mine who I occasionally go skiing with in Austria was approached by his elderly landlord, who told him of his disappointment at not getting to Poland during the war!! Stayed in Sweden and killed nobody!! You don't know how to take stuff like that ...

Love / Polish Pet Names For Girls. [156]

If I called my wife that I think that would be the end of my sex life permanently, with anyone.

News / Polska A ['educated'] scoffs at Lech Kaczynski [24]

Along the lines of
"Piłsudski's happy now - he's been dying for a cold Lech"

[Lech is a popular beer, for those who don't know, and Piłsudski is in the Wawel crypt too]

News / Komorowski, acting president, is a shower! [51]

Mind you, at least Poles aren't as thick as Brits.

Gordon brown leads them to disaster and is as dense as hell and the Brits are still wondering about whether to re-elect him.

Brits are sick!!

Work / CV for polish job market [17]

You're mad!

Take a holiday and look for a job. Don't chuck a job in and hope you'll find something new.

Living in Poland is just like living elsewhere - you need money.

UK, Ireland / Polish workers humiliated at the Laurens Patisseries - protest [45]

Human relations are just that.

No-one is stopping people from commemorating. No need to seek confrontation.

News / Komorowski, acting president, is a shower! [51]

The key thing about Polish democracy is that it is designed so that members of parliament are loyal to their party leader - not to the people who elect them. Hence, once elected they shun the people!

News / Komorowski, acting president, is a shower! [51]

go see a taxidermist

Food / Oils and fats in Polish foods [34]

I know there have been some studies into diet in Poland.

Try looking for Zatonski.

Otherwise search for keywords like "fat - diet - Poland" - and most importantly "et al"

et al usually gives you links to scientific papers

and do tell me if you have any luck!

UK, Ireland / Female health in Britain - Polish view [105]

I haven't been bothered to read previous posts, so forgive my laziness if I'm repeating anyone BUT ...

A. UK healthcare is OK, not excellent.
B. Pay your money in the Warsaw area and you get better.
C. UK women die of heart attacks during birth because they are TOO OLD and TOO FAT.

Humans are programmed to die at around 40. Healthier modern living (i.e. lack of famine etc) makes most of us live beyond that. BUT birthing is tough, and women are programmed by nature to stop doing it around 30. The dumbo girlie mags (no, I'm not talking prn - something far less cerebral like "Chat") tell women to have "fun" before having kids, i.e. to ensure that grandma is just a concept you read about in fairy stories.

Feminism sucks for the very reason that it is THE driving force behind delayed age at first birth. Ask any woman who is dying of breast cancer if she, with the benefit of hindsight, would have had kids earlier. What an irony: FEMINISM KILLS WOMEN FOR "FUN".

Life / I'm British in Poland and I think that it's time to go back to the UK! [240]

Errm - I can't remember how it is I've got a pesel, NIP, karta pobytu
Haven't got a credit card though - we only need one for hire car deposits and we use my wife's. I could get one, but as I don't need one ...

History / Why did Hitler kill so many Jews in Poland? [261]

Why come out with all that convoluted clutching at straws?

He equated the Jews with the Jewish-dominated Bolshevik Party of 1918-22 - the years when he formed his political ideas.

The Commies, led by Jews, tried to take over Germany and failed thans to right-wing paramilitaries.

Simple. The he tried to rationalise all this with science. As we know with the global warming brigade, scientist will do what they're told as long as there's money involved.