The weekend

The long-awaited four days of all-out logout. Corpo-world left behind, not a thought about what lies ahead on Monday, weather fine. A sin not to make the most of it.

Thursday, Corpus Christi.

Morning starts off with mundane stuff, overdue house-cleaning and ironing. Then drove my mother to the nearby cemetery where my maternal grandparents are buried. Before 10 a.m. duties are marked off, the bike beckons to set off for a ride. Cycling through Las Kabacki I head towards Park Kultury w Powsinie. No droves of people, rather few visitors hang around. I need to bear in mind many people participate in Church processions, many are away from Warsaw, while many sleep off and miss out on the excellent weather. It’s sunny, yet only around +20C, pleasantly warm, yet not hot. I sit back for a while then make my way home along southern edges of the forest. I spend the afternoon in the garden where lots of work needs to be caught up with.

Friday, the day in-between

Business before pleasure as they say. I briskly walk to the swimming pool in Piaseczno, return home, switch on the washing machine and the vacuum cleaner. Two hours later I can go outside, clean the car inside and spend the rest of the day working in the garden, sunbathing, then washing the car. I feel my shoulders are slightly sunburnt. A soothing ointment applied in the evening and tomorrow the pink skin and searing will be gone.

Saturday, it’s downhill now

Feel my spine and muscles have had a decent workout. After another visit to the swimming pool reinvigorates me. Just like yesterday few swimmers in the facility. After a round of household chores… The bike beckons again. It’s already hot, +25C and the sunrays not necessarily treat human skin with care. I ride to Zalesie Dolne, nearby former summer resort, currently still a hangout for scores of locals. It’s late morning, yet the area is far from being densely occupied. Some fishy men stick around. I jump off the bike to take a snap with my mobile and post in on facebook. I realise I have just run out of my data packet for this month so I need to fall back on my company phone to turn on the Wi-fi router and make use of the other phone if I am to show off where I am. The whole operations lasts some two minutes, I turn around to get on my bike… Where’s the bike. No one in sight, not a bike in sight. This came to me as a surprise. Who’d want it? The value of my 12-year-old cheapo bike was close to scrap value… Actually the bigger nuisance than loss of the bike is having to walk back home some seven kilometres in full sunshine, without head covering. Once I get to Piaseczno I consider taking a 709 or 727 bus home, yet knowing I am half-way home and I would need to wait on the terminus till the bus departs, then ride its regular route, I decide to continue on foot. Slightly worn-down, I get home before 1 p.m. Spend the rest of the day loafing about and searching for a new bike.

Sunday, today

What a lovely weather. Wind takes the edge off heat. At 9 a.m. I venture to local Decathlon store. I’m looking for a no-frill, basic, yet up-to-the-mark in terms of quality bike for weekend trips (I estimate I cover between 1,000 and 1,500 kilometres per year). I planned to delay purchase of the new bike until late summer when end-of-season sell-offs begin, but the theft has unexpectedly brought forward my plans. I settle for B’twin Rockrider 340 and buy additional accessories: mud flaps, saddle cover and a prop. The bill is reasonable: slightly below 900 PLN with preparatory works included. I ride off the shop and the impression is comparable to moving from a 12-year-old rickety car to a brand-new car. I took a short ride to Ursynów and back to try out the newly purchased vehicle. It’s a no-frill bike, one cannot deny it, yet everything works smoothly and gently and cycling is less tiresome. The change reminds me one can draw lots of pleasure from riding. I promise to have the bike serviced annually and protect it from the elements of weather and thieves, therefore it will be kept in the garage (and then probably in a storage box).

Hope you also had an enjoyable weekend. Exercise done, but has the test been passed?

Bachata

The dance group I joined was dissolved in late April due to too low number of students to make running classes cost-effective for the school. As people were dropping off along the way, firstly two groups were merged into one and then, as number of folks eager to continue went down below five couples (from sixteen on the onset), it all went phut.

Truth be told, I did not look out actively for a new class. I owe taking it up to someone else, who induced me to move my arse and sign up for a class in a totally different style, in a totally new place (Warsaw, downtown).

The choice, though as I need to stress not entirely mine, is challenging, as Latin dances are featured with high complexity in terms of body movements. Merely moving around to the rhythm is far from enough. To get it right you need to practice a lot, have a good teacher who knows how to explain what you don’t… feel and you need to have… knack for it.

Bachata is one of those Latin dances geared to make the most of the proximity between partners. If you plan to take it up, you need to realise it and not be perplexed by it. The course I have signed up for is focused at learning to dance universally, not to learn to dance with your partner, therefore participants switch between partners several times during the class. It requires some openness from couples who come over, yet if someone does not accept it, no one coerces them to pop round. As yesterday I was telling my friends about the classes, they came up with comparison to swingers’ parties… Which is an unjustified parallel.

Compared to the previous school, the set-up and style of running classes are worlds apart. In the new place a class begins with a quarter-long warm-up, while the remaining 45 minutes are spent dancing and participants are given more free rein when it comes what exactly they want to practise. On the other hand the drawback is a still big number of people, so before some of them drop off you might not reckon the teacher will come around to assist you every time you struggle to get it right.

The climate of the school smacks of what sometimes is depicted in dance films. Side street in eastern Śródmieście, entrance in a dim gate, stairs down to a basement, tiny interior, steamy inside, smell of human sweat in the air… Ideal conditions for making new friends ;-)

All in all, glad I’ve found one more activity to get the stress out of myself. I have no idea how long I carry on with this, as I am aware of my limitations and dancing Bachata is not a piece of cake.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t lack self-confidence and am not about to give up shortly after the word ‘go’. Growing mature is about realising both one’s strengths and weaknesses. One should make the most of the former, leverage on them and boast about them. But when it comes to the latter, one should strive to overcome them when possible, but if not, know when to stop and back away in dignity. Both partners must draw pleasure from dancing; if one is dissatisfied with the other, the other one should not be indifferent about it. Otherwise it ain’t gonna play ;-)

Longevity, five years later

A natural continuation to my post dated 15 May 2011. My paternal grandfather, my only grandparent still alive, turns 90 the day after tomorrow. He is my first ancestor who will have reached such grand old age. After my grandma’s departure last year, he lives on his own, yet every second day my father or my uncle visit him to help his run the house, or to make it clear, to run his house. This teaches the lesson that “old” marriage model in which a woman is solely responsible for household chores while a man earns a livelihood, leaves a widower helpless after several decades of being served by his wife. Fortunately, today’s marriages are geared to sharing mundane duties and men as a matter of principle are familiar with using washing machine, ironing, cleaning or cooking.

Compared to how he managed five years ago, grandpa is naturally mentally and physically less, yet still moves around on his own, but everything he does, he does very slowly (dressing up takes him twenty minutes, morning toiletry more than half an hour). Mentally, he is definitely less bright, yet in simple terms understand what is going on around. Quite conceivably, in five years I may wish him well on his 95^th birthday, yet mortality statistics look somewhat downbeat for males in his age.

Revising the post from 2011, my grandfather denies most of the twelve longevity-conducive factors I mentioned there. I think he owes his long life to my grandpa who wore trousers for over sixty six years of their marriage, who was always first to look after sons and the house. Maybe leading a carefree life should be tacked on as another driver of longer life length.

And I could hold back from repeating one of the last sentences: look at young yuppies who break their backs to make roaring careers and make lots money and ask yourself, if they'll be able to carry on like this for 40 years. Imagine a man working 60 hours a week for four decades when he retires in his sixties. I was writing it at the early stage of my career, before university graduation and did not know whether and when I would end up in such treadmill. As this is the situation in which I am stuck now (weighing up quitting the New Factory next year if nothing improves), I am more than sure I will not carry on like this for 40 years as long working hours and rapid pace of work involve lots of stress, leave little time and suck out energy, both essential for experiencing pleasures.

Chciwość - book review

Once I have reviewed here another book by Paweł Reszka, one of his two (only) famous ones, with Daleko od Miłości, a bleak depiction of Donald’s Tusk as prime minister, being the other, unread by me. After a few years without meaningful accomplishments, Mr Reszka hit the audience with a new book on 27 April 2016. Soon after I learnt about the existence of the book and its subject matter, I rushed to order it online, picked it up on Monday, read from cover to cover, jotted down some important stuff and wonder whether I should recommend it as a valuable read. The book is not a “must”, but if you have some spare time, would not hurt to reach out for it, nevertheless, 28 PLN spent on it (could not find it any cheaper in e-bookshops) could have been expended in a more pleasant way ;-)

For the sake of clarity, the book’s focal point are malpractices of financial institutions in their dealings with clients, retail clients.

Although I am employed in the financial sector, I am totally unfamiliar with the world of retail banking illustrated in the book. From what I have heard and read, asserting that work in a bank outlet in Poland is unrewarding is an understatement. Low basic salary, junk contracts, unrealistic targets, mobbing and high staff turnover are the order of the day in that world. Yet for some reason, not the nascent investment banking, not classy corporate banking, but world of small bank outlets scattered too plentifully across Poland is now compared with infamous stories by the Cityboy or The Wolf of Wall Street.

Testimonies of people who used to be a pillar of a system they hate today have left me with mixed feelings. As the author rightly points out, all his interlocutors have not felt guilty of the mis-selling they were involved in. They have all claimed they were a part of an evil system and had no choice but to swim with the tide. Actually their intentions were to earn money, rather than to fool clients. Had indeed they been intent for the latter, they would not have convinced their families and friends to buy products they were distributing, products they genuinely believed were suitable and good for clients.

The very naivety in such reasoning speaks volumes of salespeople’s competencies. It is not a secret staff in retail banking do not need to be graduates of economics. Even if those people possess university degrees, their diplomas are earned in dead-end majors, such as political sciences or sociology. No wonder then they could not understand what they were selling and no wonder nobody cared. They were meant to meet targets, nothing (broader) beyond that.

I was kind of astonished when I read about bonuses of top-performers. When I hear “retail banker in Poland”, I have in mind a poorly-paid (basic salary) mobbed, lousy guy in a doghouse. Majority may fit into such scheme, yet the book gives two figures: one guy thanks to superb “output” earned one month 120 thousand PLN before tax and another guy who in a good year earned 320 thousand PLN before tax. Both numbers are still out of reach for me, let alone an ordinary Pole for who such earnings are outrageous…

While proceeds are on one side, on the other one comes spending. The book goes to show what happens when boors (usually sly guys from provincial Poland) begin to get paid like lords. As they feel the dough flowing in, they usually begin to show off, live beyond their means and cannot even make use of the short-lasting lucky streak to save something. They become a part of the tribe and need to keep up with fellow meatheads, swank about, party wild… Incidentally, descriptions of what bank-sponsored parties look like are far cry from what I am familiar with; same about families broken up on account of sinful lifestyle or because of working overtime habitually – in civilised part of Poland’s financial sector such things happen no more often than among representatives of any other profession…

So if wicked bank(st)ers and wicked banks were earning so well, had a client any chance to make a profit? Two most popular toxic products massively sold to retail customers in Poland were: CHF-denominated or CHF-indexed mortgage loans and unit-linked insurance policies (for no apparent reason known as polisolokaty, a misnomer, since polisolokata was a name for life insurance policy working exactly like bank deposit when such products allowed to circumvent capital gains tax).

The former product was attractive for mortgage borrowers who benefited from lower interest rates in CHF and therefore could take out higher loans. Unlike many claim, banks were indifferent about fluctuations of CHF/PLN (they did not report losses when PLN was appreciating against CHF until July 2008). They earned on spread between bid and ask rate. For example, if CHF/PLN was 2.00, at loan disbursement a bank used CHF/PLN = 1.94 rate, while when first instalment was repaid, though the exchange rate stayed level, the customer repaid it at CHF/PLN = 2.06. So banks were making huge money on spreads while being immune to FX rate variations. Though most clients today are worse-off than their PLN-indebted counterparts on their CHF mortgages, they turned worse off in 2013 when interest rates in PLN went down. By that time, despite PLN depreciation, their to-date instalments were lower than those paid by mortgage debtors with loans in PLN. I personally also know a guy who took out a CHF mortgage in 2004 and converted it to PLN in 2008 and whose debt shrank by nearly PLN 100,000. And be sure the bank which had lent him money earned decently on him as well!

The latter product, with mechanics described in the book, could give a chance to earn only if returns on the aggressively invested money were as good as in golden years before 2008. The reason for being bound to lose is the fee structure. With insurance company (ultimate service provider), bank (structuring party) and agent (intermediary) to be paid, fee schedule was high enough to wipe out ordinary profits. If load fee from each and every contribution is 5% and you gave management fee on top, a rough calculation tells you an average return of 6% per year is needed to break even. Today, with risk-free rate of 1.5% such return is achievable only if sizeable risk is taken.

Oddly enough, many bankers who genuinely believed in superiority of CHF-mortgages and unit-linked insurance plans are victims of those instruments.

And oddly enough, I have never been aggressively foisted upon toxic products. Salespeople from banks call me from time to time and ask me politely whether I am interested in a toxic product, I politely but firmly refuse. I do not remember being duped by any salesman in a way described in the book. Maybe they know who they talk to and as a matter of principle do not play such tricks with people from the same industry…

The book also made me recall one event which deserves to be erased from my memory. In October 2008 a friend of mine recommended me as a potentially interested in a job as distributor of the most lousy investment products. Out of curiosity I made an arrangement for an interviewed. I was interviewed by my peer (aged 20 or 21 then; for the first time a guy of my age would address me “pan”) and upon hearing from him as a branch manager and team leader he earned PLN 20,000 and drove Audi A3, I simply finished the meeting. Indeed, the biggest misfortune is when a boor comes into big money suddenly…

For readers less familiar with finance, the book contains a glossary / guide which in simple words explains e.g. what the difference between a CHF-denominated and CHF-indexed loan is, or how a unit-linked insurance works. Laymen then are advised to start their read from the back cover ;-)

The timing of the premiere might bring out suppositions the book is to be harnessed in a political discussion on conversion of FX-mortgages. I doubt this happens. Firstly, no one in the book takes pity on CHF-borrowers, claiming they should pay for their greed and stupidity. Secondly, it reminds who was in favour of sustaining the CHF-lending unrestricted (PiS politicians: Przemysław Gosiewski, Zyta Gilowska and Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz) and who insisted on clamping down on it (banks).

The day before you came

 
Must have left my house at eight, because I always do
My train, I'm certain, left the station just when it was due
I must have read the morning paper going into town
And having gotten through the editorial, no doubt I must have frowned
I must have made my desk around a quarter after nine
With letters to be read, and heaps of papers waiting to be signed
I must have gone to lunch at half past twelve or so
The usual place, the usual bunch
And still on top of this I'm pretty sure it must have rained
The day before you came

I must have lit my seventh cigarette at half past two
And at the time I never even noticed I was blue
I must have kept on dragging through the business of the day
Without really knowing anything, I hid a part of me away
At five I must have left, there's no exception to the rule
A matter of routine, I've done it ever since I finished school
The train back home again
Undoubtedly I must have read the evening paper then
Oh yes, I'm sure my life was well within it's usual frame
The day before you came

Must have opened my front door at eight o'clock or so
And stopped along the way to buy some Chinese food to go
I'm sure I had my dinner watching something on TV
There's not, I think, a single episode of Dallas that I didn't see
I must have gone to bed around a quarter after ten
I need a lot of sleep, and so I like to be in bed by then
I must have read a while
The latest one by Marilyn French or something in that style
It's funny, but I had no sense of living without aim
The day before you came

And turning out the light
I must have yawned and cuddled up for yet another night
And rattling on the roof I must have heard the sound of rain
The day before you came

One of the last singles by ABBA, released in 1982, after the break-up of both marriages making up the band and prior to actual bitter dismemberment of the quartet. Not as widely known as other, easier, more ear-catching songs by ABBA, by many underrated and standing out among earlier works of the band. Unlike most songs from the period when the band enjoyed unfaltering popularity (1976-1981) this one is not energising and does not have features of a catchy tune sung along by people from different walks of life across the globe. It is filled with far bigger dose of melancholy than more famous songs from ABBA’s late-fame period (The Winner Takes It All or One of Us) and though the very lyrics seem depressing, the very title reminds it is never too late for a change, yet how it comes about remains a mystery.

The wikipedia article on the song is remarkably exhaustive and apart from depicting background of the song, includes several interpretation of its lyrics

Cząstki elementarne - book review

The book emerged out of anger; anger at spiritual powerlessness, metaphysical emptiness and omnipresent consumption, at easiness of liberalism and duplicity of religion; and above all at our inability to experience happiness.

The blurb of the book unfailingly hints at the ominous purport of it. Atomised is the second book of the author I have read and I would not have come across it, had it not been for the earlier reading of Uległość, probably the most famous novel of Mr Houellebecq, whose premiere coincided with attacks on Charlie Hebdo editorial office. I read “Submission” to catch up with several folks around who had been familiar with the book and somewhat moved by it. Slightly stirred up, yet not enchanted by the book, I voluntarily reached out for “Atomised”, released at the beginning of the twenty-first century, yet emanating with the same degree of glumness as the more famous work.

Looking at the evolution of Western societies, one can say they drift in the same direction since 1968 and things have not taken turn for a better since early 2000s. The book dwells on side effects of unfettered liberalism and individualism fought over in 1968 and spread blissfully across the lands west of the Iron Curtain. The society which holds dear independence of a single human being, inadvertently slackens off the human being’s relationships with other people. Lifting social norms and abandoning inhibitions in several realms of life, particularly sexual life, has deprived humans of the taste of the forbidden fruit. Whatever is come by without effort is let go without pain… Unrestrained consumption and abundance of goods weaned people off appreciating what they possess. Pursuit of one’s own happiness in isolation from other people led individuals to satisfaction with the they have achieved that cannot be shared with anyone…

The very book and pictures it paints go forward with the plot. It starts off with dejecting depiction of overwhelming nihilism, construed more broadly than just demise of values and authorities. The characters are unable to find sense in anything they do or whatever happens to them. The overpowering inability to draw pleasure from not only ordinary stuff but also the experiences which should be pleasurable arises from being shaped as insatiable by the culture of consumerism, but more importantly from too loose relationships with people. Were they closer and more valuable, finding sense in what people do would be far easier.

Then the novel goes on to turn into pornography several times more scandalising than infamous “Fifty Shades of Grey”. Brushing aside detailed descriptions of bodily entertainments, even if the author wishes to play with his own fantasies, the message put across through licentious scenes is that the very intercourse, especially in profusion and with accidental partners, no matter how exquisite, adds not much more value to a spirit than crass masturbation. Bad news for those seeking relief and pleasure in sexual life devoid of intimacy, as you move on, you begin to realise you go nowhere and lose sight of any contentment.

And as you read on towards the back cover, sadness is given off in such vast amounts that it takes over the reader. The tragic end is inevitable, as characters have taken the path leading to it several years earlier. The only question one should ask, is whether in circumstances imposed on by life and society surrounding them, they had the chance to arrange their lives differently.

The author incisively tears to pieces the attainments of post-1968 Western Societies, yet the blame must not be put on social framework, but on people who could not resist those direful norms and swam with the tide, as such choice was the most convenient. The decay of inter-human relationship is illustrated in the book on its every page. The pathology has its roots in barely non-existent bonds between parents and children. Thus children, not loved and cared for properly in their formative years, are incapable of building healthy relationships with other people as adults. Their contact with parents is lost and they learn about their deaths from strangers, then not shedding a single tear when parents are buried. They find no common ground with their siblings so they talk to one another only when they really need to. They cannot make more than shallow acquaintances, the one based rather on mutual benefits rather than care, devotion and spiritual intimacy. Their marriages are meant to break up, their contacts with children are meant to demise, they are bound to pass away in solitude. With such emotional disability, the society is bound to break down into atoms, each adrift without direction. One can only ask who designed the world in such way and who has power to change it.

Truth be told, I read the book in February, yet the right moment to review it ensued after last week’s not the most joyful note.

Yesterday morning, before setting off to the swimming pool, I signed in to facebook on my phone. The first news item from the feed was a (high-school) friend’s request to lend her a suitcase having dimensions of cabin luggage, as her new online-ordered one has not been delivered in time. My first thought was whether to ask her to come to pick up mine or jump into the car and bring the suitcase to her place some 20 kilometres away. And then a penny dropped!

Why the hell have I rushed to help her? Why do I always care the most? If I posted a similar appeal, would she even read it until the end? If I were in need, would she take the trouble to help me in any way, would she sacrifice her time and energy for me? After all we have not seen for a few years and it is uncertain whether we will meet soon, so why? For the sake of clarity – I have not even got in touch with her.

So what drove my behaviour? I googled the phrase “Why do I always care the most” and the English-language Internet responded to me most probably I suffer from inferiority complex and in such way seek people’s approval. Loads of nonsense! I have come up with two other reasons. Firstly, I take pleasure in helping people, watching they are happier or better off because of my deeds – this is commendable in essence, yet without reciprocity, with time a good-doer loses heart. Secondly, I simply seek company…

For the end, two questions which I have at the back of my head me since last Sunday:

1. Should I turn on my the birthday reminder on facebook?

2. Should I do something about the 10-years-after-graduation reunion or let things drift, because given reaction of former classmates, there is no use in meeting up?

It takes two...

…unless you choose to go it alone, or there’s no other way but go to it alone…

A personal plea.

8 June 2015. I called my friend to wish her all the best on her birthday. Beforehand I noticed facebook did not remind me of her anniversary. I broached the topic in a conversation. She told me she had removed the date from her profile to get fewer, yet only sincere wishes and urged me to do the same. I followed her advice.

11 December 2015. The day I ran a reality check. I could do without several hollow birthday wishes posted on the wall, yet I expected a single-digit number people to remember about my anniversary, just because I had always remembered, without aid of technical remainders, about their birthdays. The outcome was kind of brutal – no one, except for my parents remembered, virtually no one. Had it not been for a fantastic party I attended in the evening, my memory of my 28^th birthday would have been bitter, yet I strive to remember mostly the good things, yet those worse not always can be filtered out.

That nasty day with pleasurable ending must have prompted a question why things had taken such course. It actually trigged the whole string of questions, many of which remain unanswered until today. The first one was relatively straightforward – had it been my fault or had it been just a coincidence? At first sight the situation looks simple – I care, other people do not reciprocate it. Actually, the circumstances were probably far more complex and my “forgotten birthday” was the aftermath of people being busy with their own affairs, pre-Christmas and pre-weekend rush and over-reliance on technical aids (facebook notifications I had turned off) fellow people got too accustomed too. Oddly enough, the friend who had persuaded me to switch off the birthday reminder, also did not call me.

As some time went by, I decided to look critically at my relationships with people, to find out whether they were reciprocal. Any relationship, no matter if between family members, spouses, friends, workmates, must be fostered by both people involved in it if it is to last. It simply takes two, if only one person cares and the other just follows, its is meant to break.

So over the course of my review I realised some facts I had not been aware of before: generally (in more than 80% of instances /not mistake for specific relationships/) my friendships had been nurtured by me – I had proposed and most often organised meetings, I had called first instead of waiting for another person to call me, in initiative to keep up relationships had been over 80% of time on my side. What about the other people then? How had they felt about it? Had it been convenient to them to have it mind sooner or later I would call them or ask to meet up? Or had they simply been indifferent about friendship with me? Had I been imposing myself on them and out of politeness they had not told me to f**k off?

So in early February I decided to run another reality check and carry out an experiment: wait until friends feel they need to get in touch with me. Needless to say I have not talked to most of them since then. And needless to say I gave in and called two of them to wish them happy Easter, such strong was my need to talk to somebody. This is turn prompts a question how much such relationship is worth… What should I tell them if they finally get in touch and ask why I was not calling?

Last weekend, I hit up on another idea. In less than a month ten years will have passed since high-school leaving exams – why not meet up with my former classmates to celebrate? I called two friends who were moderately fond of the idea, yet I offered to be in charge of organising the event. I created an event on facebook, suggested timing and venue, yet underlined openness to alternative ideas. Out of 21 people invited, 5 declared they would come, 3 clicked ‘maybe’, 13 remaining did not react at all, no one wrote a single message. Since then the event is idle, no one bothers to show any initiative. The bottom line is that chances of meeting up are tiny, yet I do not feel hurt much, since I treat this as an experiment, which at best could result in a nice social gathering, at worst could have a cognitive value.

I have also realised my perception of recent events is affected by past experience of two relationships with people who I thought were close friends.

My friend Mateusz (name not changed). We hit it off in middle school, had similar passions, interests, pastime activities, could have talked for hours, would meet at least twice a month, holidayed together, supporting each other when troubles emerged. In 2007 Mateusz headed off to Germany to take up studies there. Our friendship by dint of distance naturally loosened up, but we called each other regularly and met up each time he visited his family in Warsaw. In early 2011 I rang him a few times I row (it was quite natural, since it was cheaper for me to make an international voice call to Germany than the other way round for him, with his student budget constraints) and each time he promised he would call the next time. Once I gave him a chance to dial my number. This was my first distressing reality check. In 2012, as his father was dying, I gave in and visited him a few times before and after the decease, I also attended the funeral. Since then we once occasionally ran across each other in town, he would call me with birthday wishes once a year, I did the same. Last year I gave up on keeping up the pretended friendship, he did not call me as well. My father bumped into Mateusz in town last month. As he passed on to me, Matuesz’s behaviour has not changed, he still keeps up appearances of a well-behaved young man. That friendship (after many years I believe it was a true friendship) has instilled in me allergy to feigned politeness…

My girlfriend Ilona (name not changed). Nearly two years older than me. We first me accidentally on my first day at high school. After a few weeks we began to go out together. Teenage crush like many. As we parted on the last day on my first school year, nothing signalled the forthcoming end, even the last song we heard in the same pair of headphones (incidentally, 12 years later, I identify more with the lyrics than at that time). After that ordinary afternoon she did not answer phone calls from me, did not reply to my SMS and GG messages, did not open the door as I went to visit her. As the new school year kicked off, we pretended not to notice each other. After a few weeks she approached me and suggested to finish the childish game. I grudgingly agreed, yet after some three months again we were turning our eyes embarrassed as passed each other. Without a word of apology, nor explanation what had driven her behaviour, I could not forgive her.

I have no problem admitting my relationships with people have been driven to some extent by fear of rejection and fear of imposing myself to other people. The former, if not overwhelming and paralysing is natural, as rejection, as long as it does not strike too frequently, is a natural experience in inter-human relationships. Yet for me it matters how I am rejected. In simple terms, a few times I was told straight away to f**k off and… got over it. The moment I was dealt a blow was painful, yet the pain, though intense, was easier to cope with. When it hurt much more, I was rejected by means of silence, inaction and indifference. Maybe if your friend cheats on you, backbites you, harms you directly or shouts in your face they hate you, this helps rationalise the suffering and get over it…? I suppose most people prefer to avoid telling unwanted or getting too close friends to keep their distance, but the want to put it across in non-straightforward way. If they take such path because it is easier, shame on them. If they think they will hurt someone else less, shame on them twice as much!

Hardly ever friendships last forever. They come and go. But as one grows older, the friendships old go, while it gets harder for new ones to come. It is not about not meeting people having all makings of close friends. Over the recent two years I met many such people who I can call soulmates, yet in our relationships there is a distance hard to bridge. The reason is that those people have families or are in long-lasting relationships, they have family and household duties, are usually over-worked like me and their social needs are met by their families, boyfriends or girlfriends or small circles of close friends, the same since many years. So the new relationships, though I am thankful I have met those people, are shallow, though have potential to grow, but I feel the unbreakable barrier on the other side. I cannot hold it against them that their spouses or children are a priority for them and they want to spend their free time with them.

There is a strength in me. In realised it when I had two awful weeks while my father was at hospital (he has only one kidney and was taken there after urinating with blood) and my mother was nearly immobilised at home on account of severe radiculitis. I had to share my time between hospital, home and work (home office) and managed. With hindsight I realised apart from asking my uncle and aunt to look after grandpa (duty normally shared between my father and his brother) I did not tell anyone about my predicament, nor asked for help. OK, I have learnt not to share my troubles with anyone, this is bearable. As the old saying goes, “a friend in need is a friend indeed”, but what if there is no one with who you could share pleasures?

On Sunday morning two weeks ago, I spent over an hour ironing. The radio in the kitchen was tuned to PR1 and broadcasted a mass. A priest in a sermon spoke of Jesus showing has wounds, as a symbol of weakness. Though I am not religious, I interpreted this metaphor as an universal word of wisdom. The authentic intimacy consists in laying bare your fragility to a fellow man.

The confessions above may create false impression of a pitiable life I lead. Don’t get me wrong. There’s the bright side too! My job offers me self-fulfilment, broadens horizons is rewarding and though it is time-consuming, I draw lots of pleasure from what I do. If the work-life balance is not struck, work encroaches on life’s territory only because there is some empty space where life should be. Nevertheless, there is no boredom in my spare time. I go to the swimming pool, read, write, attend dancing classes, play volleyball, cycle, visit interesting places. Sometimes I wish I had any companion or had an emotional bond with my companion… I could enjoy it more…

You could only argue how many of these activities create opportunities not just to meet new people, but to build more than shallow relationships with them. Well, the more opportunities, the more chances :) Still, most situations in which I meet new people are work-related, but given how overloaded with work I am, I usually look like the grumpy cat and the first impression when somebody meets me must not be positive ;-)

So how about those relationships. They need to be taken care of, but not at any price. I want to feel they are reciprocal, I do not want to feel not holding on all the time would mean letting go instantly. So much and so little I am asking for…

On public appearances

Not the perfect day for political musings. One observation I will not hold back on sharing is that given the magnitude of bylejakość, tumiwisizm, couldn’t care less approach and faith things will somehow fall into place, a tragedy in scale similar to the Smolensk crash is just a matter of time…

The post inspired by Michael’s deliberations on delivering public speeches, structured as a response to it, supplemented by odd thoughts and questions straying away from the main topic.

As someone who regularly addresses audiences I'm not fazed by the thought of speaking to a few score people.

The stage freight, or lack of it; is it inborn and hard to overcome, or something humans can have influence on? Some individuals are said to be born leaders or born speakers. Some people are born shy, some bold, some feel up to stand in front of people, for some it is one of the worst torments – so does not public speaking take talent?

As a teenager in middle and high-school I was a member of a school theatre. My friends and I would put in humorous self-written plays (rather than playing out dramas) dealing with current topical issues, often politics. The experience has tamed by fear of appearing in front of tens or sometimes hundreds of people, but also has developed spontaneity, as we did not have to stick to someone else’s script..

I sat down for a total of four hours to prepare and polish a speech.

How much preparation is essential? One cannot (or should not?) deliver a speech totally extemporising, as subjects may be too serious to give room for that much free-style, but on the other hand polishing up each single word of a speech to be made and then sticking to the draft word for word smacks of an exaggeration and unnaturalness.

As a student I was always most fond of scholars who delivered their lectures without aid of notes. They just came to the room, without a single piece of paper and could talk for hour and half, not because they had learnt by heart their lecture, but because the wisdom they intended to pass on was well-structured in their heads.

And my most recent experience – around a month ago I knew I would be participating in a workshop aimed at improving collaboration between two departments. I was supposed to be a passive participant. The day the workshop was due to be held I showed up at the office at 8:15 a.m., opened up by mailbox and found the message from my boss, who for personal reasons could not attend the event and had asked me to stand in for him. He had enclosed a presentation and wished me good luck, expressing his faith I was up to this task. I stared at the screen for a while and brought back the credo I sent to my former colleagues the day I was leaving the Employer: “whatever looms as a problem, treat as a challenge”. Challenge accepted!

Delivering the speech, I did not feel comfortable. I was neither reading verbatim from a prepared text, nor was I extemporising around a set of hastily scribbled notes (as is my usual habit). I was also conscious of the race against time. Because I was filling in around the main points, the output was a hybrid of the structured and unstructured; key facts and figures surrounded by a stream-of-consciousness conversational style.

The style of speaking does matter and one could argue whether it is the style or the content (probably both) that makes audience swallow every word flowing from a speaker’s mouth. I dislike people who read out their speeches. My impression whenever listening to such speeches, often monotonous, making audience falling asleep, is that the link between a speaker and their speech is lost. When building sentences off the cuff one shows up their linguistic skills as well as put their heart and brains (rather than only mouth) into delivering the speech.

My preference is to fall back on some notes, being the agenda of things to cover in a speech / presentation and serving as reminders of some stuff which should be highlighted to make the appearance desirably effective.

As I was delivering the workshop I felt uncomfortable for another reason – it had been meant to be run by a senior manager, whose role was to point up shortcomings of other people’s behaviours and bring people on looking critically at their conduct and putting forward what improvements could be made. Stepping into a senior manager’s shoes was far more distressing for me that having around one hour to work up a concept for the workshop. I had the great comfort of knowing what I would be talking about, knew well my audience (around 40 people) who would be wondering why I had been chosen to be in charge of instructing them how to improve their work.

If you think you're good, you're comparing yourself with the wrong people. Too often I hear "Panie Michale, pana była najlepsze prezentacja" simply because the others were soporific - lawyers reading dense slabs of text from a PowerPoint slide, or else people with an all-too-visible dread of public speaking.

My university experience reminds me here of the PowerPoint disease, the worst ailment of speakers and presenters. Reading out the content of a displayed presentation is the quickest way to bore your audience to death and gain notoriety of a poor speaker. A good question is then to what extent contents of PowerPoint slides and a speech should overlap. My own recipe for a decent presentation is to establish a thin link between the presentation and the speech. The slides may contain pictures, graphs, charts and main points the speech revolves around. People should listen to you, but not instead of reading when they see on slides. Down-to-earth content is what I would prefer to pack into attachments sent out to audience; those really interested would familiarise with it and keep in their files after the presentation anyway.

The fear of public appearances also makes itself felt and is discernible for the audience. I cannot claim to be unfamiliar with the stage freight, yet by no means it paralyses me. It does not stimulate me neither, but to overcome some bit of it, I tell myself if my listeners’ opinion on me is low, I am unlikely to change it. Keeping calm whatever happens is the best advice I can give. Once you make a mistake, you will not reverse it, leave it behind, erase from your memory immediately and focus on what lies ahead to avert next botch-ups.

What's the secret? To convey wisdom, not facts. People want insight, not statistics. I could have started more strongly - either with a memorable anecdote, or a startling comparison. I could have ended with a searching question. More pauses were needed - my fellow trainees said they had difficulty in digesting what I'd said, because I was in a hurry to beat the five-minute deadline.

The point about wisdom is spot-on, yet insufficient for a speaker to enchant their audience. Brilliant speech is composition of many factors: choice of words (plain language), flow and tone of voice, the aforementioned pausing and silence, body language (striking a balance between standing still and being too fidgety or over-gesticulating is an art), amount of anecdotes and humour to be interspersed throughout the speech (which should not be confused with stand-up). The balance, suited to content to the speech and situation is then essential. On top, I would pose a question whether a good speech should be a monologue or should a speaker interact with the audience, ask them questions, encourage listeners to challenge them? And to what extent should a speaker dominate audience? Shy speakers barely keep eye contact with audience who with time drift away, while too aggressive speakers who shout, run around, insist viewers take part in their show also are disliked by many…

Charles also declared war on waffle, on unintelligible words, on jargon. ('Pursuant' is one I particularly dislike.) "Use words that you use in natural speech, as though you were speaking to your aunt."

Excellent point. This has been said many times, yet deserves to be repeated; an outstanding presenter knows how to put complex phenomena into simple words, so that they become graspable for an ordinary recipient.

Know in advance where you'll be speaking, what the podium is like, try out the sound system and IT beforehand to check it all works as it should - and above all, who your audience is, and what it expects.

Back to my experience of delivering the workshop. I kept the cool head. Before other participants turned up to the hotel where the event was due to be held, I walked there earlier and blatantly asked technical crews to set up the IT, to avoid being distracted by non-core stuff.

With hindsight, given how “my” workshop was praised by participants, seems I did quite well. If I had a chance to deliver the same workshop, I would cut back on number of jokes in the introductory part of the presentation. I wanted to relieve the tension audience had, their faces were telling me they did not fancy my (often auto-ironic) jokes and though I did not make a piss of myself, I was horsing about, not something I could boast about.

Now, looking forward to next opportunities to make public appearances. Just like dancing, swimming or travelling, this is the way of giving off to the world the spare positive energy I have inside me.

Zalesie Górne, Wisła Resort

Both Easter Sunday and Monday, against long-term forecasts, brought clement weather. Though the temperature did not hit balmy +20C (it is bound to get that warm tomorrow), cloudless skies and warm breeze definitely carried the first whiff of spring in the air.

I spent most of the Sunday in Ursus with the family, yet was free to organise some leisure for myself on Monday. Since the bike was not ready for jumping on the saddle and cycling away and I did not feel like pottering about, I opted for a bit of further travel option – by Koleje Mazowieckie train, to Zalesie Górne to check whether the Wisła Resort, whose best days were seen in 1970s and 1980s, holds up well.

Kind of shame to admit, this was my first journey by Koleje Mazowieckie for which I had to buy a separate ticket (until then I could do with the Warsaw travelcard). Before setting off, at home, I checked how much the trip would set me back. Koleje Mazowieckie’s fare list is a pitiable example of lack of simplicity. The very fare tariff is 162 pages long, while the attachment to it is composed of another 64 pages (hint: relevant information can be found on page 13 of the attachment). A passenger who wishes to take a train wants to simply know how much they would pay, instead of learning rail operators recognise more than a dozen types of discounts and by what documents carried along they need to be proven. Then a penny drops – the service search tool, apart from finding suitable services, calculates the cost of a journey. Quick, yet not entirely intuitive.

My no-discount return ticket from NI to Zalesie Górne and back (16 kilometres there and back) would cost me PLN 10.73. Actually this is the price for experience of train travel, since had I chosen to get there by car on my own, the very petrol would have set me back some PLN 6.00, not to mention if I had taken three passengers to the car, the journey by car would have been six to seven times more economical…

My train was due to depart at 13:51. On my way to the station I realised I had forgotten to take the camera. Too late to go back home, I had to do with the smartphone, hence the skimpy photo coverage. The nearly empty KM train pulled up at time. As a passenger willing to purchase a ticket, I boarded the first carriage through the first door, as instructed by Koleje Mazowieckie. Not a ticket collector in sight; I walked the first set of three carriages from end to end twice and did not find any crew member. Eventually, I ended up free-riding (for the first time in my life) to Zalesie Górne, as there was no one who could sell me the ticket. The nearly-empty train trundled from NI to Piaseczno for 15 minutes. The reason for ultra-low speed is the on-going modernisation of Warsaw-Radom line, resulting in trains running in contraflow down to Piaseczno station (then the journey goes smoothly). I feel sorry for commuters riding from Piaseczno every day if it looks bad like this, yet after they endure the repair and reconstruction, they will enjoy far faster and more comfortable SKM services.

The entry to Wisła resort is just next to the railway station, then one needs to walk some half a mile to reach the ultimate destination, ponds / small lakes which are the core attraction of the place. The resort is kind of derelict, yet to judge the extent to which its glory is gone, I will need to venture there, that time by bike and with camera, in high season. There are several facilities for visitors seeking leisure: open-air swimming pool, canoes, water-ski-lift, a few bars and canteen. The place appears then a good nearby destination of a one-day foray for resident of Warsaw and Piaseczno.

I strolled around the place for an hour before heading for the station to catch my train home (the journey back also took 20 minutes, but I did buy a single ticket, for PLN 5.80). My social observation was that I was the only person sauntering there alone. It might have been a matter of the specific day, or just a coincidence, yet I wonder whether it takes a lot of courage to organise and spend time on one’s own if fate brings such situation on us. Definitely, if there is no one to keep you company, it is better to go out, move one’s a**e, breath in fresh air lap up the beauty of the nature, then spending time at home…

Enough writing for today, the bike’s ready for the first ride in 2016, off to Powsin leisure park for the whole afternoon!

Winter timeline 2015/2016 (being the 500th post on PES)

According to long-term predictions issued in autumn 2015 by several forecasting bureaus, winter 2015/16 was supposed to be one the mildest ever in Poland… It turned out to be one of milder…

1 October 2015

First ground frost.

9 October 2015 – 11 October 2015

First whiff of winter – wave of Arctic air is blown in over Poland. Mornings bring regular sub-zero temperatures, down to –2C. Hard to believe just a few days earlier temperature topped at +22C.

12 October 2015

Wet, heavy snow covers south-east Poland for a few hours, yet flurry does not reach Warsaw.

Thereafter autumn returns.

First two decades of November 2015 were more than balmy, yet there were followed by rather chilly third one. All in all, the temperature over the whole month averaged out +5.3C, vs. long-term mean of +3.2, so November 2015 was categorised as warm. Stats:

- month-time high: +15.8C on 8 November 2015 (more than 3 degrees short of the record from 2001),

- month-time low: –5.9C on 27 November 2015 (could have been much worse),

- the warmest day: 11 November 2015 (daily average of +13.8C, as warm as in September),

- the coldest day: 27 November 2015 (daily average of –2.8C, as cold as in January).

1 December 2015

First snow in the morning. Temperature positive, +2C, but precipitation is dense enough for the thick, wet white powder to linger for a while. By midday it melts…

2 December 2015 – 14 December 2015

Late autumn lasts. Temperatures oscillate in single-digit positive territory, with frosts haunting only when it’s dawning. At times sunny, at times rainy. At times windy, at times foggy.

15 December 2015

Flurry comes out in the afternoon, +1C. After sunset temperature drops below zero, snow begins to linger on the warm ground. Its layer is thin and it will soon perish… By the next morning it disappears…

16 December 2015 – 28 December 2015

Extraordinarily warm late autumn, with temperatures ranging from 0C to +15C. All spells of weather are witnessed, except for signs of winter.

29 December 2015

One day it has to begin. –2C in the morning and light dusting of snow which melts only where sunbeams reach (daytime high of 0.0C, cloudless skies). Farewell to temperatures above freezing for a while.

30 December 2015 – 31 December 2015

A snow-free winter. Single-digit frost, moderate wind and sunshine from dawn to dusk.

December 2015 was anomalously warm, the warmest since records began. Average temperature in Warsaw was +4.7C (vs. long-term average of –0.7C and breaking the previous record of +4.0C set in 2006) Stats:

- month-time high: +14.4C on 23 December 2015 (warmer than on 19 December 1989 when temperature soared to +14.2C, yet still cooler than on 5 December 1961, when post-WW2 record for December of +15.0C was set; it needs to be emphasised there were 11 days in December 2015 when temperature peaked at double-digit Celsius degrees),

- month-time low: –8.3C on 31 December 2015 (the balmy month had a chilly ending),

- the warmest day: 23 December 2015 (daily average of +11.6C, as warm as in early October),

- the coldest day: 31 December 2015 (daily average of –5.6C).

1 January 2016 – 2 January 2016

Sunny and chilly. Slightly below –10C at dawn, near –8C in the early afternoon. Looking outside, seems spring is in the offing. Going outside, wind chill of –18C makes you change your mind. Few folks dare to venture outside.

3 January 2016

The coldest morning this winter so far, –16C . By midday skies get overcast and little snowflakes begin to fly around. Over the day unpleasant feeling of chill absent in earlier days… And no warmer than –13C in the afternoon.

4 January 2016

Again –16C while the dawn is breaking. This time sunnier and temperature goes up to –11C in the second half of the day to drop to –14C in the evening.

5 January 2016

Was supposed to get warmer… Outturn: –17C just before sunrise, not above –10C in the afternoon, –13C in the evening.

6 January 2016

How lovely. Temperature rises overnight to –7C and light dusting of snow covers the frozen ground. The missing piece of winter gently falls into place.

7 January 2016

Noticeably warmer, around –6C and gloomy.

8 January 2016

Another snow shower, yet the one which does not play havoc with those in need to get about. Two centimetres do not impress Warsaw. From –6C in the morning into +2C in the evening.

9 January 2016 – 10 January 2016

Gloomy thaw, or actually temperatures hovering around 0C. No sun, no rain, no new supply of snow, but the ground is frozen up, so the old snow melts really slowly.

11 January 2016 – 12 January 2016

Light thaw continues. Dark, rainy, foggy days. Depressing weather.

13 January 2016

Overnight flurry melts quickly over the day. Rain in the evening. Last hours with positive temperatures before veritable winter commences for more than a week (unless forecasters get it wrong).

14 January 2016

Bleak, winter day. Just below freezing…

15 January 2016

Has anyone warned of intense snow showers? It begins to snow around 2 p.m. and does not cease into the night. Upshot – more than 10 centimetres of thick, wet white powder. Winter brings road clearance services to their knees in afternoon rush hours. Precipitation is quite heavy and for many is a nuisance, but for the first time since late January 2014 winter wonderland impresses with its timeless beauty.

16 January 2016

It ceased to snow late in the evening yesterday. Skies clear up and bear testimony to winter’s magnificence. Only those in need to move about are worse off. Thoroughfares have been cleared off snow overnight, but many other roads are full of slush, or simply icy… Shame! Around –5C.

17 January 2016 – 21 January 2016

Generally speaking the same weather pattern: single-digit frost regardless of time of a day, sometimes sunny, sometimes cloudy, sometimes foggy, sometimes a light dusting of snow. Boring winter.

22 January 2016

Light, yet intense snow shower leaves two centimetres of fresh white powder and then gives way to sunshine for the whole day. –2C in the afternoon. A chilly night ahead and thaw in the offing.

23 January 2016

Cloudless night followed by a frosty morning. Temperature drops to –14C shortly after sunrise. The chill is compensated by beautiful sunshine and diamond dust falling. Probably the last day (before thaw comes over) to cherish the magnificence of winter.

24 January 2016

Gently falling tiny snowflakes are probably the last seen during this January. Sky is overcast. Freezing drizzle in the afternoon, temperature rises above zero in the evening and will not drop below freezing by the end of the month.

Exactly ten years ago was the coldest morning in Warsaw in my lifetime – temperature fell to ghastly –27.1C.

25 January 2016

Thaw commences for good. Not more than +2C and drizzle.

26 January 2016

Temperature goes up to +5C. Drizzle at times turns into downpour. Snows melt quickly. Ghastly greyness takes over.

27 January 2016

Temperature increases to +8C. Snow, except for heaps, disappears, greyness is overwhelming. No winter on the horizon!

28 January 2016 – 31 January 2016

If the spell of warmth in the third decade of December 2015 was the lat gasp of autumn, these days bring the first whiff of spring. Temperatures above freezing, yet not hitting double-digits, sunny intervals each days. Long-term forecasts do not foresee winter by mid-February.

January 2016 was normal, although mean was featured by large positive and negative deviations. Average temperature in Warsaw was –2.9C (vs. long-term average of –1.9C) Stats:

- month-time high: +11.2C on 28 January 2016 (double-digit highs have not been so unusual during recent Januaries),

- month-time low: –17.1C on 5 January 2016 (a typical winter-time low),

- the warmest day: 28 January 2016 (daily average of +7.5C, as warm as in late October),

- the coldest day: 3 January 2016 (daily average of –15.0C).

1 February 2016 – 9 February 2016

Gentle pre-spring with no signs of winter, except for short hail shower on 4 February…

10 February 2016

After a rainy day in the evening it gets cold and rain turns into wet, dense snow. By midnight it covers the ground despite temperature above freezing.

11 February 2016

It snowed all night… Had it not been for the above-zero temperature, layer of snow would have reached even ten centimetres. But as the air and the ground were warmer, most of the snow melted. Result? Slush, a mixture of water, snow and ice all around, pedestrians have to wade in it. By the evening only big puddles remind of heavy snowfall.

12 February 2016 – 19 February 2016

Continuation of dull pre-spring. Not much above zero, usually cloudy with intermittent moments of sunshine and rain showers. Days are visibly longer…

20 February 2016

Little snow in the morning. Some one centimetre, precipitation which brings London or Paris to standstill and does not impress Warsaw at all. By early afternoon the white powder is gone…

21 February 2016 – 23 February 2016

Dull pre-spring goes on and on… I bet one month before first signs of proper spring come into sight (time proved me right!)

24 February 2016

An intense blizzard hits southern districts of Warsaw just after sunset. Temperature suddenly drops to –1C, but the heavy snowfall lasts no longer than twenty minutes and soon all traces of it are gone.

25 February 2016

Balancing between winter and pre-spring. A frosty morning gives way to a sunny, yet not really balmy day.

26 February 2016

Another morning with sub-zero temperatures, followed a cloudy day with intense, yet short snow showers. The fallen snow does not linger for long.

27 February 2016

Same pattern as two days earlier. By midday temperatures rises above zero, remnants of snow melt, sun breaks through the clouds…

28 February 2016

This time not a trace of winter… For a while only.

29 February 2016

The day sets off with a little blizzard. Snow melts quickly, but then comes another snow shower… Near zero.

February 2016 was very warm. Average temperature in Warsaw was +3.6C (vs. long-term average of –1.0C). It was the fourth warmest February since records began, after February 1990 (+4.6C), February 1991 (+4.1C) and February 1989 (+3.9C) and equally warm as February 2002. Stats:

- month-time high: +12.5C on 22 February 2016 (not extraordinarily warm),

- month-time low: –5.6C on 27 February 2016 (a similarly high low as in 2015),

- the warmest day: 2 February 2016 (daily average of +9.5C, as warm as in late April),

- the coldest day: 27 February 2016 (daily average of –1.7C, one of two days in February 2016 when mean temperature was negative).

1 March 2016 – 2 March 2016

Ghastly clash of winter and spring continues. Sleet and snow (melting quickly) keep being obtrusive. The recent abundant precipitation is a step towards solving the problem of long-term drought in Poland.

3 March 2016 – 12 March 2016

Dreary pre-spring with temperatures above freezing, infrequent rainfalls and not a single sunbeam reaching Warsaw. Depressing

13 March 2016

Sunshine! Clear blue skies. Slightly below +10C, but the gusty wind makes it still pre-spring.

14 March 2016

Yesterday’s weather turned out to be misleading for those hoping one sunny day was the first intimation of spring. Cloudless sky send temperature falling and before sunrise it dropped to –4C. A sunny morning followed by dull afternoon and in the evening it begins to snow heavily. Temperature hovers around zero so the snow lingers...

15 March 2016

By sunrise much of the snow fallen overnight melted; remnants disappear by midday. Dull and barely above zero.

16 March 2016 – 17 March 2016

Two sunny, yet definitely not balmy days. Some time will have to pass before spring takes over.

18 March 2016 – 20 March 2016

The last of the dull pre-spring. Unpleasant weather with little sunshine, chilly wind and intermittent showers.

21 March 2016 – today

The weather takes a turn for the better. Except for rainy Tuesday and Saturday, days are full of sunshine and getting warmer. Clear skies bring a price to pay, night-time frost! But since forecasts do not foresee even a short-lasting relapse of winter, time to sign off the timeline.