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?

How not to screw your children’s lives - book review

Can’t recall now how I have come across a series of books by Mikołaj Marcela which dissect imperfections of the Polish schooling system. Past reading some of them, I do not wholeheartedly agree with all of the author’s assertions, yet I find the book valuable.

Familiarising with its content made me realise the current primary and secondary education system is based on principles worked out in Prussia in the first half of the nineteenth century and rests on obedience and discipline. The Prussian government, by imposing common schooling obligation wanted not just to promulgate education, but aimed at bringing up submissive citizens.

As the author points out, the schooling system in Poland and in most countries is uniform, not unique. All pupils, regardless of their unique talents and skills are pushed into ruthless frames of standardisation which kill the lust for knowledge and talent development.

Core deficiencies of Polish schools, nimbly depicted in the book are accurately pinpointed.
1) Agreeably, Polish school do not teach skills that could come in useful in real life. I wonder whether the assumption is that young adults should be taught useful skills at home, or that should learn the hard way the moment life necessitates it.
2) Beyond all doubt, school to not teach how to learn – such techniques need to worked out and mastered by pupils themselves.
3) Sadly the curricula too often favour memorizing facts, instead of focusing on understanding causations and teaching how to seek out information and to verify them (particularly important in the era of fake news).

With some exceptions of outstanding teachers, school classes do not inspire, seldom kick-start talent nurturing, rarely spur curiosity. Pupils are infrequently encouraged to challenge their tutors, to debate with one another. This is all put down to an obsolete model of one-side interactions between teachers and students, with the former passing on knowledge and testing its acquisition and the latter obediently listening and swotting up for tests and exams.

With the diagnosis of all the ailments eating up the Polish schooling one also must keep in mind several obstacles hinder its turnaround. A major reform would require a general consensus between stakeholders (government, teachers, parents) of the current system that it badly needs an overhaul and on directions in which it would need to be reshaped. Besides, if we were to ditch standardisation and treat children individually, it would require more workforce of higher quality, which means much more money (payrolls, but infrastructure too) would need to be injected to the education system. There also ought to be consensus a substantial chunk of public finances should be laid out for the education system, which in decades will determine Polish economy’s competitiveness. Those expenses would certainly pay themselves off.

P.S. On personal front, doing reasonably fine, though with ups and downs typical for such getting-over periods.

When the love runs out

With hindsight, dissimilarities between were so stark that calling ourselves a perfect match would have been a gross exaggeration. As we shook off the fascination and affection of the first months together, ample differences grew apparent, while the power of attraction waned. Facing the daily grind, while living under one roof has accelerated the realisation of the inevitable.

We talked a lot. We had many sincere conversations many couples probably do not have over their lifetime. It has not helped though. For several reasons, including my inhibitions, I was repeating a mistake of holding back speaking out about stuff which annoyed me, thus accumulating my anger.

The very decision to break up was mine, yet my ex-girlfriend, having got over the initial tremor, acceded to it and after a day or two, internalised it. I feared we would spark a hell on earth in my fifty square metres. Instead, we went separate ways peacefully and calmly. Had it happened a few months earlier, we would have fought for it, there would have been screams, shouts and tears. As the romantic feeling between us has definitely and (probably) irreversibly burnt out, we have reconciled with the imminent end.

We could be friends, travel companions, even flatmates (actually we acted like flatmates during the last weeks of our romantic relationship’s agony), but we our approaches to life diverged too much to give us a chance to raise a family. The gap between us was too wide, so even if we would both bend over backwards to go on compromise, each of us would depart from their self.

At times that relationship was toxic, at times unbearable, at times I just felt like quitting it right away. We are both smart, so our common senses told us both it would not just be uphill, it would get very steep. After two years and five months together, even with proper climbing equipment the ascent became an onerous ordeal. That slope became just too steep and rocks fell off it too frequently.

On Friday, after three days of getting on with each other surprisingly well under one roof, my ex-girlfriend set off to Wisła (I will miss stays there), mostly for the sake of consistency with the decision taken and mental hygiene.

There will be ups and downs on our ways to mend the broken hearts. We are now facing the unknown, including the uncertainty if we ever find our life companions.

But before we open ourselves for new opportunities, we will need to go through the logistics of the break-up. Tenants occupying my ex-girlfriend’s flat are deeply disconsolate to have to look out for a new dwelling. In question is our trip to USA rescheduled for April / May 2025, but I believe it is too early to resolve if to go there and who the participants will be.

After weeks or even months of struggling doubts I feel a bliss relief, which only validates it has been the best possible decision (given in such circumstances there are basically no good decisions – this one was “least bad”).

2024 comes to an end

A concise year-end summary. This time writing does not come easy to me, as I need to bring together some thoughts, cope with clashing emotions and resolve something.

2024 was a first full year of living with somebody under one roof. This is not the right moment for any stories of how we got along (or not) with each other over that period. I once signalled the relationship is not a bed of roses. Now I can assert it is full of spikes and the roses have withered.

In February I started out a new job for the same employer. I followed my ex-boss and joined his new team. Upsides: more reasonable workload, jumping back on a learning curve, slightly higher pay. Downsides: at times monotonous transactions, being tied up in corporate politics and administrative stuff. For some time I will not seek a new position inside the bank (by March 2027 I am bound by company car repayments on preferential terms, with high penalties if I terminated the contract before its maturity). I shall give myself some more time to verify if work in that team gives me sufficient self-fulfilment and satisfaction.

In early spring I got my vehicle upgraded. So far my Skoda Octavia has covered over 10,000 kilometres, almost nearly in long-distance journeys. I am generally content with the new car, despite electronics going bonkers (common glitch in contemporary cars) and some minor defects, which I need to sum up and make a warranty claim to have them fixed.

The event which has taken its toll most on me were my health problems with the lumbar spine. Being immobilised was a traumatic experience. Currently I still have some aches in my spine, but the memory of days when the pain was so acute that a walk to the toilet was a journey of a lifetime ensures I find no excuses not to exercise at least once a day.

Travel-wise, the trip to USA did not materialise due to aforementioned health problems. This was supposed to be the only major trip in 2024, so other travels were less frequent, shorter and rather local, with Czech Republic and Slovakia being the only destinations abroad.

Wishing you all guys all the best in 2025. Keep healthy and take care of yourselves!

Szlachetna Paczka - edition 2024

A thing of the past is becoming my fifth edition of Szlachetna Paczka as a volunteer. Sadly, it was the second-worst after 2020, when spreading benevolence was harshly hampered by Covid-19.

You could put it down to some sort of burnout. Ahead of the final weekend I also hatched such idea, but with hindsight I realised this has not been the case. Many things have gone wrong from scratch, with knock-on effect only worsening the final outcome.

I blame the most the leader, in charge of our area in 2024 edition. Having the experience from 2022 in mind, I refused to repeat a stint in that role and to be consistent with my decision, I strived not to be a back seat driver. Frankly speaking there has been no chemistry between us, but so was the case with all experienced volunteers. The guy lacked balls, lacked charisma, lacked drive and such spark that brings a circle of people together. 

Volunteers were not motivated properly; as a result we found far fewer families to be visited than in previous years. This year 65 families were visited and 42 onboarded (proportions from previous years: 2023 - 85/54, 2022 - 84/53, 2021 - 73/46). 

Visits to families started out with a two-week delay. Consequently, instead of 20 families published on the directory opening day, we had merely 4 to be picked by most precious donators.

Besides, there was a country-wide problem with donators, bigger than 2 years ago, but miraculously it was solved around a week before the final weekend, most likely thanks to a vivid media campaign. When the outlook was really bad, I bended over backwards to find donators, however I felt dreadfully lonesome in my endeavours.

The volunteers in our area also were not doing their best, some of them dropped off along the way. Maybe they were not properly guided or motivated, maybe our line-up was tainted by bad luck.

The final weekend did not go as smoothly as it used to over last 3 previous years. Logistics-wise, it came to a major chaos, like never before. I'm still trying to figure out what combination of factors contributed to that mess. I believe most were beyond my control, with electric lorry's battery down after 80 kilometres - it had to be replaced by a diesel-powered one with half a million kilometres on the clock... I could have planned transports with more headroom, which will be a lesson learnt for next years. But had I been a minister responsible for logistics, after such series of cock-ups, I would have been forced to hand in my resignation (in a civilised country).

The joy of delivering gifts to families wassimilar to experiences from past edition, however it was accompanied by much greater fatigue. Luckily, I got over it quite quickly. Bad memories fade quickly, but the benevolence-induced delight remains for much longer and keeps me company in the period of peace and serenity which commences now.

Park linearny - construction progress inspected

Last Monday, as I attempted to make the most of the clement weather (cloudless skies, day-time high of +7C), I ventured to the nearby construction site, where a linear park is built on areas above the Warsaw southern bypass tunnel.

The quite recent makeover of Park Cichociemnych lasted a year and a half and set a nefarious benchmark for the other restoration. Here, works commenced some three months ago and are relatively advanced, so I can hazard a guess it might become a hangout for locals in spring 2025.

According to the original concept, the park was supposed to splay out between ul. Pileckiego and ul. Rosoła, yet west of ul. Stryjeńskich the car parks where residents of ul. Kazury keep their vehicles remain intact. I would keep fingers crossed for turning them into greenery, but realise those cars would choke up other areas in the neighbourhood.

Looking east from ul. Stryjeńskich. A lot has been done, but the spot is way from completion. Plenty of workers potter about, probably also to move ahead with works, as long as autumnal weather permits.

In the middle of the area there are still large undeveloped areas ul. Płaskowickiej. Those will be most likely meadows, as lawns are out of fashion these days. Note the absence of tall trees. They could not put down roots here, as a few metres beneath the ground surface is the concrete ceiling of the aforementioned tunnel.

For children, one sees a small playground in the centre of the park, with what will become swings is currently fenced off to discourage those intent on using the unfinished amenities.

East of ul. Braci Wagów builders have their backstage spot, with mounds of soil, stones, sand and other stuff they need. The moon-like landscape brings to mind the early days of Ursynów, when the district was devoid of nearly any infrastructure.

Close to al. KEN, one can come across Miś Ursynek, a landmark symbol of the district, bringing out some associations with the cult Polish film by Stanisław Bareja. This piece is not just a decoration, it also will serve as a slide to smaller children.

As the inspector nears al. KEN, the proportion of area concreted over gets disturbingly high. This will not make this spot human-friendly on hot days. Paved areas ought to be scaled down to a bare minimum. In the distance, traces of some works under way are seen beyond al. KEN. Sadly, I lacked time to take a look out there.

The next post due in two weeks, as on next Saturday and Sunday falls the final weekend of Szlachetna Paczka.

Where is the war heading?

Two events in world politics from November have passed so far unnoticed on PES. I did not bother to comment on the victory of the narcistic redneck in the US presidential election. Then came the scheduled event, to my positive surprise, echoing in the media – 19 November 2024 was the 1,000th day of the invasion to Ukraine. Those forgetful are now reminded the operation was planned to last three days and end up in installing a puppet government in Kyiv.

Nearly three years after those days Russia controls roughly 20% of the Ukraine’s territory and is slowly progressing. Faced with an imminent power handover, the democratic administration in the US have resolved to allow Ukraine to hit military targets in Russia with weapons delivered by them. This seemed a game changer, but in fact solidifies a stall in the conflict.

Time before the redneck and his cronies takes over is running out. He intends to freeze the warfare, plausibly by leaving territories held by occupiers within their borders. For Russia it means some areas in the Kursk region would stay under Ukraine’s control. If such scenario is the most likely, Ukraine should strive to take over an even bigger territory of Russia, as this decreases odds of Russians agreeing on warfare freezing.

Shortly commenting on the Trump’s victory – I hope once he is sworn in, he will be less unpredictable than he appeared in the campaign and he will be surrounded by wise advisors holding back his silly conceptions. Besides, Europe must act now, as if it was left to its own devices, hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst.