2022 in a nutshell

Christmas, finally the time of rest, serenity, days of carefree mind, but also the end of year, customarily the time of summaries, drawing in.

2022 was a quite memorable year for me. In Poland it started off with a huge mess around the tax system reform, called Polski Ład (the Polish deal or the Polish order, or actually disorder). The modification turned out to be a spectacular botch-up making the headlines for a few weeks, until 23 February 2022, when some of us still hoped the military conflict could be averted.

On 24 February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine. I saved first ten days of the war to posterity. I believe such notes make up the biggest value of blogging. Now, as I am writing the post, I can bring back the shock and commotion of those days. The war keeps going on and most Poles seem to have come to terms with it, which is sad, yet natural response to a critical situation.

Economy-wise, the topic of the year was inflation, predicted well in advance, materialising harshly and affecting mostly the poorest, for who dwelling upkeep and nutrition expenses make up the biggest portions of their budgets. The price level spike has been handled quite leniently by the Polish central bank, consequently we enjoy the lowest real interest world in the civilised world, somewhat below -10% (NBP benchmark rate is 6.75%, which CPI stood at 17.4% in November 2022).

As virtually all pandemic-related restrictions were lifted, I holidayed three times in 2022 – I went to the seaside on my own with my bike in May, then flew with my friends to Sardinia in late August / early September and in early November I visited Budapest with my girlfriend.

Besides, I drove twice to Wisła, where my girlfriend has her second flat, in August and then in October. I am also setting off there on Wednesday for nearly two weeks (next post due on 8 January).

In early summer I experienced the toughest depression episode in my lifetime. At first I thought it was an autistic burnout and just the effect of being somewhat overwhelmed by excessive workload, my parents’ problems with health, ups and downs in romantic relationship issues and war-related fatigue. I thought I would cope with the burnout, yet things were getting worse and lousy mood evolved into a full-blown depression. The “happiness pills” began to work around September, but in July I decided to take up therapy sessions which I should finish in January. The therapy has set me back a lot, but it was worth it, although it might not prevent another relapse of the disease.

Love-wise, I installed Tinder in March 2022, to go out with one girl for a month, give up on her. Then, upon deleting the account on the app and the very app, in June I met a girl with who I had paired up on Tinder. I thought we were anything, but a perfect match, but she carried on trying to pick me up. We met for the second and third time and it clicked. We have already had some crises, we have overcome them moved forward. Surprisingly, after being on a verge of a break-up a month ago, out relationship is stronger than before.

I keep fingers crossed for a better tomorrow. May 2023 bring us all health and joy and keep troubles at bay!

Wintry Christmas? No such luck!

Each single advertisement and each (with some exceptions) film whose plot plays out in Christmas period is set in a scenery of bright, snowy, often sunny winter. This has little do with actual weather…

But shapes our expectations…

 …which hardly stand confrontation with the reality.

 I have taken the trouble to find out how many of Christmas Eves between 1951 and 2019 (69 years, with firm forecasts of late autumnal weather I can fairly add this year’s Christmas Eve to the sample) when reliable and precise weather measurements have been taken and are publicly available were wintery. I define winter (hereinafter proper winter) as day-time high below 0C and at least 1 centimetre of snow lying on the ground. Out of 68 Christmas Eves, only on 13 (1953, 1956, 1961, 1962, 1963, 1964, 1969, 1970, 1986, 1990, 2001, 2002, 2003), i.e. less than one in five Christmas Eves one could enjoy proper winter in Warsaw.

I have also collected detailed data for my lifetime and have broken them down into 4 categories, taking into account combinations of two features of winter conditions: sub-zero temperature and snow. I define:

- snowy as at least 1 centimetre of snow lying on the ground,

- frosty as day-time high below 0C,

- thaw and frost-free as day-time high equal to or higher than 0C,

- melting snow as at least centimetre of snow lying on the ground, but disappearing on account of positive temperature,

- without snow and snow-free as no snow falling or lying on the ground or sleet or snow falling, yet melting instantly or soon after reaching the ground.

Snowy and frosty (i.e. proper winter): 1990, 2001, 2002, 2003.

Thaw, melting snow: 2010, 2012.

Frosty, without snow: 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007.

Frost-free, snow-free: 1987, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1997, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019.

In my lifetime, 4 out of 33 Christmas Eves brought proper winter, the last one was witnessed 16 years ago (and was third subsequent one).

Interestingly, in my childhood quite common were frosty (frequently with double-digit negative temperatures) yet snow-free Christmas Eves.

In 2010 and 2012 the weather was particularly cruel, as Christmas thaws were just interludes in cold and snowy Decembers.

This year’s December is the seventh warmer-than average December in a row. Until today there was no snow, nor sleet in Warsaw, nor a day with maximum temperature below 0C, so my annual winter timeline has not been launched. The coming days are to bring colder and gloomier weather, with rain showers, typical for late autumn. Some of long-term forecasts hint at odds of a sleet or melting snow in the last days of December, yet I believe we will wait for the onset of proper winter until January.

In a rush

A pile-up of work-related emergency (end-year period far busier and abundant in tribulations than usual), pre-Christmas, birthday-related (guests paying a visit today) and manifold other hustle holds me back from writing. Keep yourselves warm!

Szlachetna Paczka

Abroad, especially in the Anglo-saxon circle, giving donations to charity is one of methods of underlining one’s social status. There is something hypocritic about it and it seems helping the disadvantaged in a secondary goal. Nevertheless, despite its roots and drivers, the system of transfers from the richer part of the society to foundations and other organisations taking care of those not better off does function.

In Poland this is still in the making; few people engage in charity, though many I know do it without boasting of it. Still a wealthy Pole is usually a child of not necessarily wealthy parents and most likely a grandchild of not wealthy grandparents. Thus Poles are focused on feathering their own nests, according to my observation, revel in lavish, reckless consumerism (recent blekfrajdej being a glaring example of what I detest).

I believe once you a reach a certain status of comfortable affluence (i.e. you have bought yourself all stuff you need to have your basic needs met and have put aside money for a rainy duty, it is your duty not just to be a decent citizen to pay taxes and share your income via official redistribution system, but also to share your wealth voluntarily. I am ashamed I have realised it quite late, i.e. after buying my dreamt-up flat from money scrimped and saved over eight years spent in a corporation. Currently, I with no desire to move to a posher property, nor planning purchase of a new car, no prospects of raising a family in near future, I can put aside, not holding myself back from spending money on whatever infrequent whims I have, a five-digit or six-digit amount of PLN (depending on how generous a yearly bonus is) for no specific purpose. I feel no temptation to splurge this money foolishly, but I have felt a strong desire to share it without who cannot even dream of affluence I have.

Last year, while being in the middle of the time-consuming flat refurbishment, I donated a rather small amount of money to Szlachetna Paczka. This year, apart other activities, I have decided to sacrifice my time and buy “components” of the gift package and raise money for the initiative via facebook. I have joined a team run by my friend within a company she works for (a Polish subsidiary of a multinational FMCG distributor). The group of 110 was preparing gift packages for 7 families from Płońsk region. A sizeable venture, with 3 core co-ordinators, and several line co-ordinators, including me, responsible for collecting sorted stuff for one of families and packaging). The very process of collecting the package from a heap of stuff accumulated for 7 families is an exercise in logistics. It took four hours of physical work yesterday, but all in all has eventually come out smoothly.

Today my friend, her husband, their friend and his daughter and I oversaw packing gift boxes to a lorry and we drove to Płońsk. Out of 7 families 4 had agreed to meet representatives of the donors, therein I visited 2: a lonely middle-aged man, who has slid into poverty after his wife’s death out of passiveness and a marriage bringing up five children. The very experience is still to fresh to put it in words; my musings on the way back to Warsaw was that the poverty does not creak / shriek as the Polish saying bieda aż piszczy goes. It either screams or stays silent. I have resolved to support Szlachetna Paczka with my money and time. Very few people who take it up later give it up and I will not be in the minority.

Cicha noc - film review

Not a secret for (sparse) faithful readers of this blog I am fond of Wojciech Smarzowski’s films. I watched all, except for Róża (time to catch up tomorrow or on Tuesday),  and reviewed here Drogówka, Pod mocnym aniołem and Wołyń. If so, seeing “Cicha noc” by Piotr Domalewski (silver screen debut of the young gifted director and scriptwriter) was a must.

If naturalistic depictions of grossly imperfect reality and acutely presented characters take your fancy, you will definitely not regret watching this recently premiered film. Unlike in most films where Christmas Eve is a bright day and snow lies all around, here even the weather is painfully realistic – the day is dark, grey and it rains. Just like on most Christmas Eves over the last decade.

The dark side of Polishness and shattered family relationships are played up in the entire plot. The Christmas Eve is finally shown as it looks out in many homes, as a source of distress and far from being ideal. The director has deftly managed to squeeze all sorts of familiar shortcomings into one family. A viewer beholds a multi-child family, grandfather with strong inkling for alcohol, jobless father on the rehab, over-caring, tired-out mother, children arguing over dividing proceeds from inheritance after another grandpa.

The director has put together all nasty things which might happen on this one special day and bestowed them on one family spending Christmas under one roof. This reflection of uneasy celebration is probably an amplified version of what many of us could see in a mirror. Luckily, if some of us witnessed or heard of scenes similar to those played out in Cicha noc, this was a just a fraction of the dirt showed in the film. Besides, the dirt is bearable, it does not flow out of the screen into audience as it does in Smarzowski’s films.

Many would be brought down by the cumulation of dirt the film, but my spirits have been lifted. Every time I see most people have it worse than me, it reminds me I ought to be grateful for what I have instead of complaining about what could come out better.

Toruń, just before turning thirty

Off to Toruń and nearby over the last weekend. The purpose of the trip was to take a break from everyone and everything, from all thoughts and tribulations that could bring us down. If you are to forget about the daily grind, the best recipe is a short foray to a nice destination, as at home your mind-bothering stuff keeps you company.

The very trip, except for the fuel, was a birthday gift, the one which I kind of extorted from my girlfriend, yet the idea was brilliant. On Saturday morning I only knew we were about to head for Torun, but had no idea about the details of our accommodation.

Instead of taking A2 and A1 motorway, I decided to take a shorter and more picturesque route via DK7 and DK10, both not actually congested on Saturday and Sunday. Landscapes of Mazowsze were much more eye-pleasing sights than drab noise barriers fencing the motorway off.

I visited the very city for the first time since June 1998 (counting out one business trip during which I turned up to a warehouse somewhere within the administrative borders), when Toruń was a school trip destination. Finding a place to park a car near old town was a challenge and one of less efficient methods of wasting some twenty minutes, but we took our time. Then we took a walk around the historical part of the city.

To the right, a Christmas tree, lit up by LED diodes. By dint of late-autumnal weather, the place still lacked typical Christmas climate, yet we should have got used to it (last truly wintery Christmas in Poland was in… 2002). The day was dull, grey, short, yet unforgettable.

We strolled further to come across a Christmas fair, a festival with German origins, getting increasingly popular in Poland and staged in most bigger cities in Poland, usually on market squares. Maybe not the best place to do the shopping, but it does not hurt to catch the climate, scents and the scenery.

After eating a lunch and finding the car, my better half programmed the navigation so that it led me to our destination, but somehow showed only directions but not where it guided me exactly. Thus until the last moment I did not know what the destination was. Finally it turned out to be Pałac Romantyczny in Turzno (here snapped on Sunday morning after most of the snow fallen on Saturday evening has melted) – a lovely place, now the object of lovely memories.

For posterity, a short (and duly incomplete) record of my probably bestest birthday ever. The good has come, hope the best is still to come :)