13 pięter - book review

A yet another book, which has come into my hands belatedly, oddly enough the read nearly ideally coincided with the tenth anniversary of the work being first published. Basically, I once had a chance to meet him in person and since then am fond of Filip Springer’s essays, despite not being truly convinced by his leftist tilt. Recently he provoked an uproar by claiming for climate-related reasons, building detached houses should be gradually prohibited. Extreme views and ideas activate defiance and help the pendulum swing into the other extreme.

From today’s perspective, the book, dealing with housing pathologies in Poland, is a sort of outdated. It begins with a bleak picture of pre-WW2 Warsaw where growing number of residents was not matched by a rising number of flats caused a huge overcrowding in dwellings occupied by a working class. For 90% of families living in the capital of Poland having a housing unit (unit as a separate room, nor a separate flat) for the entire family (i.e. with no roommates) only was a luxury.

The author for some reason omits 45 years of communism, when the number of new dwelling relatively well caught up with rising population of Poland and standards of living improved (in spite of all the drawbacks of the bygone system). The author arranged his book as a series of stories and interviews, in which he attempts to paint an accurate picture of reality, without evaluating it or pointing what is right and what is wrong. But if you read carefully between the lines, you get several messages, e.g. that home ownership is overrated or mortgages are evil and will enslave you.

The book was written when the memory of property boom of 2006-2008, accompanied by reckless mortgage lending in CHF was relatively fresh. Also bankruptcies of developers were much more frequent a decade ago than they are now. But on the other hand, the book was written soon past the only property market serious correction, when prices between 2008 and 2012 fell by 25% in nominal terms.

For no apparent reason Mr Springer fails to crack down on pathologies of modern housing estates, such as non-functional layouts, tiny distances between buildings, rows of terraced houses built in the middle of nowhere and many other.

The accursed ownership, as his interlocutors point out, gives a sense of security. To make a house and home you need to own it. Such approach has been driven by decades of private ownership being eradicated by communists and then by years of landlords’ primacy over tenants. The properly rental market has also evolved over the last decade. With rising supply of dwellings for rent (flat purchased for investment purposes when bank deposits fetched a mediocre return), bargaining power of landlords waned and many of them began treat tenants as equal counterparties. A stride has been made, yet a flat rented from a private landlord still does not offer stability and its affordability remains as poor as it was a decade ago.

Unlike the author, I believe properties should be subject to free-market rules, but I would expect the government to help supply and demand meet where prices are affordable. Sadly, recent governments mostly boosted demand by subsidising mortgage loans, instead of taking steps towards increasing supply of available dwellings. I refer here not only to building council flats or encouraging property developers to pursue new projects. It is also about levying taxes on uninhabited properties, to discourage those with surpluses of money from speculative purchases.

Half-year health musings

Exactly six months have elapsed since the biggest health crisis in my lifetime. I am now far from despair of being immobilised, yet still not being truly fit, which might never be the case, given irreversible nature of spine devastation.

I have recently learnt a new adage: healthy people have several quandaries, while ailing people have only one quandary. It brilliantly illustrates how problems with health might turn lives upside down.

A new chapter of my tribulations opened up in January. In early phase I put it down to break-up-related stress, yet then a penny dropped and I went to have an MRI done and consult my doctor, as some symptoms, such as atypical pain during and after lying on my back (a position which ought to give relief to spine) seemed upsetting. Currently I am in process of being diagnosed if I am in an early phase of ankylosing spondylitis (in simple words, a protracted inflammation of spine joints). I believe the likelihood of being affected by this disease is below 50%, yet if indeed it gripped me, a therapy to prevent its development will be put in place swiftly.

I try to remain optimistic, despite having it uphill in recent months. I revert to gratitude for what is still within my reach and for financial resources coming in useful and shy away from negativity and focusing on what has been taken away from me. Back single I should cycle, run, take up new things and generally live it up. Instead, I am redefining myself without dopamine produced during physical exercise.

The new wave of pain, less acute, yet disturbing coincides with reading this international bestseller. In his lengthy book, the author points out long-lasting stress or traumas contribute to most autoimmunological diseases, including cancer. Suppressed emotions remain in a body, accumulate and after a tipping point is reach, the body begins to destroy itself. The book contains stories of people who neglected themselves to take care of others and likely paid a price of ruined health. Despite approaching it with a bit of scepticism, I acknowledge scientifically the theory holds water and has provoked me to revise if my benevolence to the world is not excessive.

The memories of being bed-ridden in September 2024 haunt me frequently these days. I consider myself to be a rational man, however wonder if the timing of my ailment was not haphazard. Maybe thus the fate has prevented me from popping a question and brought forward the inevitable break-up of the dead-end relationship? Maybe the stiffness in my lumbar spine, hips and several other parts of my body is a wake-up call to take care of myself?

A new bicycle

Problems with the lumbar spine which turned my life upside down nearly half a year ago continue to have impact on my functioning and to some extent might constrain my life until the end of my days. My orthopaedist told me in back in September once I return to mobility, a mountain bike would not be an option. I first sat on my old bike after the crisis on 26 October, rode 3.4 kilometres around the neighbourhood to do the shopping and regretted it. Since then I cycled locally on warm winter days, but trips totalled to no more than 6 kilometres. Each time I felt it more or less in my spine, despite quite short length of journeys.

The key to not straining the spine is siting upright, which after some research turned out to be facilitated by a trekking bike with 23-inch frame, shock absorber under the saddle and regulated handlebar. Upon consulting a local renowned bike maintenance expert, I have chosen Unibike Vision GTS 23, manufactured in 2024 and purchased on the coldest day of the passing winter, still ahead of the imminent spring-triggered price list revision.

I took it for a post-factory maintenance and had a short first cycle. After years of riding a mountain bike, I still have to get used to the upright position, but my spine did not remind me of itself past the ride.

The bike has decent fixtures and is equipped with all accessories, therefore no additional purchase were required. It set my back PLN 2,429, however I bought the last one in Poland at such bargain price, as the catalogue price is PLN 2,699. The condition of my spine will likely mean a farewell to really long (above 50 kilometres) trips, mountain cycling and difficult terrain. The bike will be used recreationally and to give up on car usage whenever possible (in situations when public transport is not practicable).

I am slowly reconciling myself with the list of forbidden activities. Flights to another continent – likely out of question, the planet will be grateful and I will not visit the country which elected Donald Trump. A eurotrip by car with a few thousand kilometres behind the wheel within a fortnight – also unlikely. All-day mountain hikes, even with sticks – not yet. Taking up some new sport disciplines during which a spine could suffer either a sudden shock or would require being long in the same position – not recommended.

On Thursday I visited the orthopaedist, to consult my most recent MRI and to tell about my recent pain symptoms, which are totally different than what I had experienced half a year ago. He looked at the pictures, examined me and it seems my recent pains, far less acute and not impairing mobility, can be traced back to hip joints. Another therapy has just commenced. I hope it eases some discomfort and broaden the range of activities allowed without excessive risk of self-harm. Keep fingers crossed for me.

A lunatic behind the wheel

In the eve of the third anniversary of the invasion to Ukraine, my hopes Donald Trump would act reasonably are dashed. The warfare, marked with attrition on both sides, might within a few months come to an end. Sadly, the peace agreement’s shape might be far from expectations of the civilised world.

The idiocy the US president displays on every step does not cease to amaze, or rather disturb me. How dumb must a man be to say he trusts the russian dictator? How short-sighted must a man be not to predict a ceasefire will buy time to putin’s war machine to build capacity for a broader campaign against NATO? How narcistic must a man be to want to bring the war to an end at any price, just to prove his powerfulness? How brazen must a man be to claim Ukraine has sparked off that war and could have finished it and accuse it of breaching a never nailed down deal?

In his transactional politics, Ukraine has a role of an object, not as a subject, it best summarises endeavours to reach a peace agreement without the invaded country being involved. The US president and his cronies are not interested in protecting NATO or in shielding foundations of the civilised world, such as a country’s right to stand up for its independence and integrity. This guy craves for rights to dig up rare resources beneath the Ukrainian soil. At the end of the day, such approach is still lesser evil than coercing Ukraine to give away occupied areas to russia, as it involves defending territories where rare metals are deposited against the russian army.

Europe in these circumstances appears powerless and sluggish. The EU leaders have belatedly realised they have made a mistake by relying on the behind-the-ocean ally as a guarantor of stability in Europe. Most countries in our region have run out of weapons shipped to Ukraine, have not rebuild their military capacities and now stick to expressing their deep concerns about how the peace is to be restored. The new US administration, no matter how critical we might be towards its policies, does not lack decisiveness and determination to resolve this conflict. Voters around the world are somewhat sick of indecisiveness and powerlessness politicians display; in several countries we see the outcomes of such shift.

Between us – Ukraine has still way to go before it becomes a mature democracy, especially in terms of cracking down on corruption and rule of oligarchs. From the perspective of Poland it needs to get to grips with its history (Wolyn genocide during WW2) But at the moment is is above all a country fighting for its independence and territories belonging to it based on international treaties. For the last 3 years Ukraine kept the russian army away from NATO’s borders. Biden’s administration’s tactics was to wear russia down and deplete its resources sustainably, so that it emerges frail after the war ends. Trump’s policies will help Russia to grow stronger in long term.

If prominent politicians call Ukraine’s president a dictator or claim aid from the Western world was partly seized by oligarchs, they speak one voice with the tsar of russia. This tsar, or his successors, will not stick to any peace agreements in a horizon of more than 3 years. The war will be suspended to let russia rebuild its military power and launch another “special operation” without making mistakes leading to a prolonged warfare in Ukraine.

As an economist I wonder how the imminent suspension of warfare impacts the Polish economy. Along with other analysts, I remain uncertain of impact on the stock market, labour market and housing market. Much depends on migration – depending on the shape of peace agreement, Ukrainians might want to return to their homeland, but a new wave might flee the country. Also, we might sadly expect a normalisation of trade relations with Russia, which is already priced in by the rallying stock market in Warsaw (I slowly begin to dispose of stock-market investment fund units purchased in late 2022 and early 2023).

A mastery in OLX

Of note – Politics, Economy, Society turns sixteen tomorrow. This means I have run a blog for a whopping 43% of my lifetime and 83% of my adult life.

But by the time I formally became adult, if I wanted to get rid of some useless stuff, firstly I needed to place free-of-charge ad in yellow pages of local Gazeta Wyborcza, then stuff could be disposed of via Allegro.pl portal, most likely by putting them out to auction. I recall well an event, around May 2011, when a guy came with his father to pick up some tools and they have virtually cleaned up my parents’ garage and paid PLN 1,100 for items we considered useless.

In the meantime, online selling has evolved and in terms of non-clothing stuff has been nearly monopolised by OLX. I began to use it in 2018 to sell for a song pieces of equipment left by the vendor of my newly purchased flat. I raised around PLN 1,000 back then, which had a tiny, yet a contribution to the refurbishment budget.

Since then I occasionally used OLX to find new possessors for stuff I no longer needed and was elated to extend their lives, especially as I was growing fond of the circular economy. A major revolution came some time ago, when OLX launched cheap deliveries via parcel lockers. The only drawback of solution is that you need to keep count of sale transactions finalised over one calendar year, not to exceed 30 sold items (or the equivalent of EUR 2,000), so that OLX does not file a report of your dabbling in trading to a tax office.

I also taught my ex-girlfriend to manage heaps of her (why do women tend to accumulate more than men?) useless belongings via OLX and Vinted, thus all in all over the last two years we sold (with delivery or in-person pick-up) around 100 items. We have not managed to recover a lot of money from it, yet financial aspect is not the crucial one. Fostering the concept of the circular economy and letting somebody buy decent stuff at a bargain price is a paramount idea behind putting stuff out on OLX. To nurture it, I have also become a buyer on OLX and have come by many nearly unused items at dirt cheap prices. On the other side were frequently thoughtless buyers, yet I do not feel guilty of my purchases – those people have not thrown their useless belongings to a rubbish bin and might learn from their mistakes not to make next reckless purchases.

Reduce, resell, repair, recycle, renew, reuse, but do not increase the output of new goods! A propos, if you need to have your small white goods repaired quickly and at decent price, I wholeheartedly recommend Serwis AGD Ryszard Rogal in the district of Ursus. They have revived a seemingly dead vacuum cleaner my parents wanted to dispose of us for a mere PLN 60 and within 2 business days.

Having the eighth teeth plucked

With two wisdom teeth already removed from the author's mouth, quality of posting on this blog might slightly decline, but for some time at least the frequency is to remain the same.

I had my upper-right eighth tooth extracted in November 2022 and it went nearly painlessly. The entire procedure lasted less than a minute. After the anaesthetics eased, it ached a bit, but the encounter was far cry from nasty stories of a few days of suffering some patients endure.

I hung back on the decision to have my lower-right wisdom tooth plucked, especially as it was predicted to be a rough ride. I finalised it on Friday, 31 January. I had not worried much ahead of the procedure, but after nearly an hour of sitting on a dentist's chair and being a victim of his attempts to get rid of the pest tooth I begun to regret my decision. Yet with the tooth being tampered with, I was far behind the point of no return. After an hour and twenty minutes of grappling with the tooth, interspersed throughout next injections of anaesthetic my unwanted wisdom companion and me eventually parted.

I recall next moments of being dizzy and feeling unreal. I strolled to a nearby pharmacy to buy prescribed painkillers and felt like throttling an entire queue of pensioners acting as quickly as snails past a race. I came back to my parents' by car, which with hindsight was not particularly reasonable. My reflex when I needed to skim on the brakes did not fail me, but drove as if I was somewhat intoxicated.

Back in family home I applied myself the prescribed painkillers and ice bags and waited for the anaesthetics to let up. The pain was not horrific, but I felt numb. I put it down then to not eating anything else than yoghurt and ice cream for 24 hours or so.

On Sunday I showed signs of returning to life and discovered my painkillers interacted badly with my anti-depression medicines. I switched then to over-the-counter ibuprofen, not as strong as the prescribed drugs, thus giving less relief from the pain.

Over the working week intensity of pain was fluctuating, but sadly it was not on the wane.

Since I was to expect a rough ride, I was advised (Medic**er’s AI post-surgery monitoring tool is a piece of sh*t) to wait patiently until a check-up visit due 7 days past the extraction. On Friday I turned up to the dentist to find out I should have brought the check-up forward. I with a well-developed infection in place, I need to take an antibiotic, apply ointment on a spot where the tooth once was, rinse mouth with sodium and have next check-up on Tuesday. It seems it might take some time before I recover.

Although the tribulations above were anything, but pleasurable, they definitely do not compare to what I had gone through in early autumn 2024 with my lumbar spine. Nevertheless, this is the second health-related experience within half a year which I would not wish on my worst enemy.

Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy - 2025

Contributing to Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy has become an annual tradition. 2 years ago I put out a picture made by me during a wine-fuelled painting workshop and it sold for PLN 810. This year I put out my flagship cakes - a cheesecake (sernik) and an apple cake (szarlotka), they sold for PLN 500. Both biddings were won by my workmates, so last Thursday I delivered what I had baked to auction winners. Twenty minutes later both cakes were already in my workmates' stomachs.

This year I went on a bidding spree myself. I have won: oil and filters change for my Megane before it changes hands, a cycling trip around Ursynów with a guide and with the mayor of Ursynów, a set of four hand-made woollen caps.

The most foolhardy expense made by me was a hearing aid purchased to a 74-year-old man who I am looking after as a Szlachetna Paczka volunteer. I took a risk of charging my credit card with PLN 7,620 and then began looking out for co-founders. The response and generosity of people around, mostly my workmates, was astoundingly superb and I ended up with a three-digit contribution to the purchase.

Year after year, WOŚP collectsmore and more money and receives more and more hatred from right-wing media and electorate. Sadly, approach to this big charity spurt has become a yet another divide line in the Polish society and the very initiative has been strongly politicised. I could moan about imperfections of Szlachetna Paczka, but I can definitely assert it is politically neutral. May it stay so.

The dust has settled

Nearly four weeks past the break-up… Tenants of my girlfriend found a new dwelling easily, so she could move to her own flat last weekend. This weekend with some help of a friend of mine, who owns a lorry, we are finalising the moving. During three weeks under one roof, quality of our friendly relationship was pathologically good. All tensions have eased, but knowing the mechanics of decreasing expectations and eased pressure, we were not misled and both remain confident our romantic relationship was a dead-end street.

Actually we could have carried on as flatmates, however this would be tremendously insalubrious, as there were plenty of reasons to terminate that relationship and actual decoupling is a vital element of the break-up.

As it happens in such situations, I swing between conflicting feelings, from deep relief to hollowness. As my ex-girlfriend’s belongings were packed into boxes, the flat, chests of drawers, bookcases, wardrobe closets, they have all become underwhelmingly empty. It will take some time and I will take my time to come to terms with it.

In such circumstances most people get involved in doing things to drown out their emotions. New hobbies, taking up doing new sports, workaholism, compulsive shopping, rushing into dating, travels, addictions, catching up or starting out with stuff out of reach when they were in a relationship. It takes some courage to confront with one’s emotions, work them through and emerge wiser as you get past them.

Theoretically, I am single, practically I am still taken, since emotionally I am not ready for a new relationship and get on with myself reasonably well. The coming weeks or months, will be a time of focusing on myself, getting to know myself better, realising what my needs are. I have neglected myself in that relationship a bit, so before I’m back on the market, I need to restore the internal balance.

In the eve of narcissistic psychopath being sworn in

Usually when a populist gets hold of power, their rein turns out to be less scary than predicted. I put this mellowing out down to their strategy of flattering voters with hollow promises and safety valves embedded in democratic systems (unless populists cling to power for years and dismantle civilised institutions as Mr Orban and his cronies have done in Germany). Same might be the case with Donald Trump and my fear of him taking over is combined with some hopes he does screw it up worldwide all along.

In his campaign he promised to proscribe a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine within 24 hours. Currently his advisors claim a realistic time horizon to bring the war to a halt is between 100 days and 6 months. The longer it takes, the better. Each day of warfare depletes Russia's resources and buys Europe time to prepare for a widespread aggression towards NATO. Nevertheless, Mr Trump will insist on impacting the course of the conflict as thus he will prove his might and powerfulness.

USA's leading role in NATO as a guarantor of western Europe's stability and safety is in question. Europe will be to some extent left to its own devices. Maybe Mr Trump's presidency will be a wake-up call for Europe to get its act together, as simple matters such as shifting to daylight saving time for the entire year are beyond its bureaucrats' decision-making capacity.

Mr Trump's considerations of taking over Canada or having designs on Greenland are so far the biggest red flags. Wladimir Putin, in a television appaerance just before its army invaded Ukraine, denied that Ukraine's right to exist. I believe the redneck president will confine to talking his head off and any conquest of non-US territories will be foiled by international treaties.

The crony of Mr Trump I currently fear more is Elon Musk. Much more brazen and having the grip over the fourth estate, looms as a bigger peril than the elderly redneck. Both guys are psychopathic personalities with lust for power, so I sincerely hope they fall out before long. Even if this happens, separately they will remain harmful.

The paragraph above reminds me of my recent fourth anniversary of joining Twitter, then not controlled by Mr Musk. I use it less frequently, rarely contribute, but have not deleted my account there just to have access to contents smart people still share there. Or should I vote with my legs and give it up altogether, to undermine Musk's empire of evil possibly much?