The day the pen was meant to crack

Woke up at half past six, got up, ate a breakfast, did the morning toiletry, donned a face mask and strolled to the polling station number 606 in Ursynów. I turned up there at 7:40 and queued orderly in a long line of voters. I managed to cast a vote 45 minutes later. Everybody appeared to vote early in order to avoid long queues in the afternoon (heat factor matters as well, except for the pandemic). Social and traditional media have reported long queues in several places in Warsaw in the morning, yet this was not necessarily the increased mobilisation, rather bringing forward the moment of voting to morning hours.

The turnout of 24% at noon was record-high for first five hours of voting, yet one must make allowances for heat and pandemic. Fewer people went to the polls in the afternoon, but with the evening onrush, the final percentage of those who have decided to vote, climbed to record-high 63%.

Over the day I hoped the gap between the winner and the runner-up could reach less than five percentage points, far off the actual mark. My hopes were sadly dashed. My guests (today I invited over some people for the first time during the pandemic) and I were more than disappointed andwe took comfort in some wine (therefore the note is posted with delay, lack of hangover after nearly 4 months of abstaining from drinking is a good signal).

Despite the gap between president Duda and mayor Trzaskowski, both candidates will go neck in neck towards the run-off. Mr Trzaskowski will likely benefit from the support of Mr Hołownia’s voters and Mr Biedroń’s voters, partly from Mr Kosiniak-Kamysz’s voters, while Mr Bosak’s electorate might not be willing to back Mr Duda. Strategically, if other political parties are to thrive in democratic system, in their best interest would to prohibit the monopoly of power in the hands of one party.

Online dating – second chapter… not closed yet

I have not stuck to my resolution to stay away from Tinder for a while, at least until lockdown restrictions were eased or I cooled off. Some say the application is addictive, but I put down setting up a renewed profile on Tinder in late April to lockdown-driven blues. Surrounded by the walls of my flat, I longed for a company (socially, but also physically).

Girl 5, Natalia, aged 29.

We met on Monday, 4 May. Cafes and restaurants were still closed so the only option was a walk and… a meal at a park (Natalia had baked a cake for that occasion). I had a quite nice evening, broke out of home for a good few hours to lift my moods, though we both knew the chemistry was badly missing and were well-mannered enough to speak it out. Since then we texted a few times.

Girl 6, Marta, aged 29

She was one of two girls who texted me first. In terms of proactivity, Tinder is quite conservative and men are broadly expected to start a conversation. She wanted to buy a bike and asked if I could advise her – an ingenious idea on how to pick up a boy. We met first in a bicycle shop on Wednesday, 13 May, then went for a walk. Over the first hour the conversation did not go beyond small talk, but I decided to take one more chance and asked if I could drive her home. The chat went on track in the car, then we talked for around an hour upon parking outside her block of flats. We met again three days later. I bought strawberries, made a cake and took her for a picnic at the shore of Vistula. The afternoon was chilly, yet the date was more than good. Next three days later we met again, the date spontaneously ended in her flat and lasted until next morning. The abrupt acceleration of the relationship also brought forward its end, as truth be told, we were not a perfect match, or straightforwardly, did not fit each other (yet it transpired early). It was the second time I learnt “no ONS, no FwB” in a description means “don’t start a conversation asking if we could have sex; instead prove you deserve to shag me”. Took me some two or three days to get over the experience and realise why people make off after an intercourse instead of eating a breakfast together.

Girl 7, Magda, aged 28

On Sunday, 24 May I was matched with her, as she was seeking a partner to attend a wedding with. I did not feel like texting, so I asked her out for a coffee two days later. Mere seven days after the most recent “adventure” I felt remorse to date another girl and pretend to be a kind guy. We drank two teas and then went for a walk, the meeting lasted over three hours and we declared to stay in touch. Two days later I was quite confused to learn she wanted a friend, not a boyfriend, which was quite puzzling to me, as this does not seem a reason to use a dating application. I thanked for the nice evening and we cut each other off.

Girl 8, Kasia, aged 31

We met on Tuesday, 2 June. She is a book worm, so I decided to take her to a bookshop where we spent around the first hour of the date talking about books, then moved on to drink a coffee. The chemistry was missing at least on my side, however we agreed to stay in touch and exchange opinions about books. Until today we text each other a few times a week, hence I actually have another person who shares my interests (since the beginning of the lockdown I have read more than 20 books which before had been my yearly count).

Girl 9, Kasia (and here names begin to repeat), aged 36

After a few days of writing one message per day she insisted on a face-to-face meeting. I agreed. We met on Saturday, 6 June. Out of all girls met on Tinder, she was the oldest (though later I learnt she used to be in a long-term relationship) and seemed extremely shy. After the first day, I could not say it made no sense, therefore I decided to give it a second try. On Corpus Christi I repeated the rehearsed scenario of taking a girl out to a beach and felt guilty on account of this. Cross my heart, this was the most disastrous date I had this year and prayed for its end. I drove her home and experienced a sigh of relief after she got off. The next day I texted her there was no use in trying any harder and wish luck in searching. I thought the time was right to give up dating for some time as the pace of taking next attempts accelerated too rapidly, to the extent I could call dating a sport, but my will was not the strongest in that respect.

Girl 10, Natalia, aged 32

We met the day before yesterday, we meet today. Time will tell how the story unfolds.

Tinder is given a bad name by several people who have never used it. Allegedly, looking for a life companion there resembles looking for a needle in a haystack.  Supposedly, it is a cluster of people with several sort of psychological problems. Most people do not get ahead there and say the application can get you down. I, conversely, see more upsidse. It bolstered my self-confidence, boosted social skills, finally, I realised again being alone is superior to being by someone’s side but not feeling comfortable. Thanks to Tinder I will have some nice memories from the lockdown.

Despite several drawbacks of the application, most of which can be overcome by being selective in choice of potential partners, it has one huge advantage. The law of big numbers works here in practice and is probably the only place where one can scores of people one would not stand a chance to meet in daily life, no matter how active and social it would be.

The biggest downside is the repeatable scheme of writing, then dating, which in fact is checking whether you would pair up lacks the chemistry appearing gradually, which is observable when you meet people in different circumstances in real life.

Polish presidential election in 2020 – two weeks ahead.

Truth be told, I have mixed feelings about the oncoming presidential election. The failed attempt to organise the mail-in voting on 10 May has fortunately turned out to be a massive cock-up, as the farcical ballot could not meet any criteria of democratic voting process. The first (and conceivably not the last) round of the election to be held in two weeks at least is staged by a third-party institution (Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza).

One can hope, but I doubt can ensure all four traits of presidential election enumerated in article 127, paragraph 1 of the constitution will be satisfied.

Despite unequal access to public media (which are a sludge, as Michael once rightly named) and limited time to garner 100,000 signatures by Rafał Trzaskowski (hats off to his team and mobilized potential voters), I still believe the election can be named equal.

I fear common participation in the election, especially abroad and to people who will be put on quarantine just before the vote might constitute a problem.

They law adopted by the parliament in early June broadly ensures everyone can vote directly.

Also the formula of voting broadly ensures the very process of casting a ballot will be done in secrecy.

Both the ruling party, afraid of social anger spurred by inept handling the pandemic, numerous scandals and “PiSites are more equal than others” and the opposition which has felt wind in their sales and intent on making use of it before it wanes, have been determined to hold the vote possibly quickly. Despite legal opinions, the election has been called in absence of any circumstances in which it can be done according to the constitution. The amendment bringing back the vote under the legal order, i.e. deferring the vote until the end of the incumbent president’s term has ultimately been rejected by the Senate. This all raises concerns whoever loses the election might file to the supreme court for deeming it unconstitutional.

I find the candidate swapping trick distasteful. Rafał Trzaskowski is a far superior candidate to Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska, has skills she lacks to fight PiS and is more charismatic. No wonder PiSites fear him. Nevertheless the way Małgorzata Kidawa-Błońska was ousted from the race does not take my fancy. End justifies the means.

I do not feel like writing up short notes on each of candidates standing any chance to score at least 5% of votes as I did 5 and 10 years ago. I declare to vote for my neighbour (living half a mile from my home) and for anyone else than Andrzej Duda in the run-off, be it Rafał Trzaskowski, Szymon Hołownia, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, Robert Biedroń or even Krzysztof Bosak.

The ongoing epidemic also instils fear in me. People behave as if the peril was over. Lack of discipline is visible especially when people rally to meet candidates. I fear the campaign and the vote might contribute to a spread of the disease. For such reason I will visit the polling station around 7:00 a.m., armed in gloves and my own pen. The stake is too high to give up on fulfilling my civic duty, especially since I have not missed a single election since acquiring the right to vote in December 2005.