Malcolm's occasional rant

My Google Plus review

2011-08-03T15:52:00.001+02:00

I guess most of you have heard of Google+ by now. Apparently it is the next big thing, facebook killer, or whatever...

Well, here's my two cents:

I love the graphics. I don't know why, but I love crisp, clean graphics with bouncing icons. It must be because I'm an Apple fanboy. But as every Apple fanboy knows, it's not just about looks, but about functionality. The functionality of Google+ is nice, but not great. If I had never heard of facebook or twitter then I'd be over the moon, but I'm not.

From my (albeit limited) experience it seems to do what it promised to do. But the question is whether or not I care?
Let's have a look at it feature by feature:
Circles: This is my favourite part of G+ it is nice to know that only the people that I select get to view my random status updates. Yay. But then facebook has had this ability for ages, it has just been too much hassle to use it. Personally I use Better facebook which has given me the ability to do the same thing on facebook (just without the cool graphics)
Sparks: I don't care about this. Sorry.
Chat: Opt-in chat is useless. People are too lazy to opt-in. If I want to chat to someone I have Skype, email, facebook and a telephone.
Hangouts: Group video chat sounds cool, but I'd be too worried about my hair and what is happening behind me to want to use this. And when I do have my hair just right, the probability that someone else would have their hair just right at the same time is very remote. So no, I wouldn't use this either.

But probably the most annoying thing for me is that there is zero integration with my Google mail account. What's going on there?

So in conclusion:
Will Google+ replace Twitter? Unlikely
Will Google+ replace Skype? Unlikely
Will Google+ replace facebook? Very unlikely, at least until G+ gets "Farm Town" or equivalent
Will I keep using Google+ beyond a month? Honestly I don't know, only time will tell.

Thank you for tagging me

2011-06-11T15:25:00.000+02:00

I’ve been Tagged! This get-to-know-you meme is going around the blogosphere, and now it is my turn. I was tagged by Katherine of A Beautiful Ramble.

Do you think you’re hot?
- Yes, the last few weeks of May have been ridiculously hot.

Upload a picture or wallpaper that you’re using at the moment.

This was taken yesterday at Ela's (my daughter) Mother and Father's Day show. It's a bit blurry around the edges, but that's fine.

When was the last time you ate chicken meat?
- I honestly don't know. I prefer duck.

The song(s) you listened to recently.
- As I am writing this blog I am listening to 'Hearts on Fire' by Martine Locke. The joys of iPod shuffling.

What were you thinking as you were doing this? I need to go to the toilet.
- Today my students filled in teacher review questionnaires. I'm glad they think that I was always well prepared for the lesson :)

Do you have nicknames? What are they?
- It's possible.

Tag 8 blogging friends…
Fabryka Uśmiechów
Letters from the front
Freedom Colours
The Big Mock

Oops, something just hapened. Maybe I will finish this post later...

My predictions for 2011

2011-01-13T15:23:00.000+01:00

   It’s that time of year again. The time of year that all sort of pundits come out and make predictions for the coming twelve months. Some of these predictions are based on reality and some are not. I hope you don’t mind, but I’m going to jump in and join the fray. The difference is that I at least have a little bit of control over my predictions…

   Sometime before the end of January we are all going to be happy and healthy. The kids have been getting sick regularly since the beginning of pre-school, same with Jola. Of course this was expected and thankfully we didn’t catch any of the bad bugs that have been floating around. My son, Chris has recovered from his bout with bronchitis and that should be the end of all illnesses in our house for this year.
   By the end of February I intend to have finished the first edit of the book that I wrote for NanoWrimo last November. I might even try to talk to a publisher. Who knows?
   Sometime before March I will be accepted as a Polish citizen. We sent in all of the application forms in the break between Christmas and New Years. I don’t envisage any problems with this process, but the Polish bureaucratic process is often unfathomable.
   In April we will get a tax refund. This money will go into our bank account as we continue to save up for a rainy day. Also in April I need to apply for another Australian passport for Ela seeing as hers will expire then.
   In May and June we will have two birthday parties. Ela will be six and Chris will be four. Mostly I’m looking forward to not hearing Ela say “When I’m six I will be able to…” I’m also looking forward to eating two cakes.
   At the end of June (or maybe the beginning of July) the regular school year will finish and I will be on holiday. In fact I might even quit my job. After having been a teacher for three years I will be looking forward to doing something different, maybe. It’s just a prediction after all.
   In July and August I envision long summer days and maybe spending a few days in another country. Jola will still be working (her contract finishes at the end of August) and we don’t yet know how much time (if any) she will get off over summer.

   Sometime around September we will return to Australia.

   The outlook for October, November and December is still not clear. I have a few ideas regarding work, travel etc, but I honestly don’t know what we will be doing once we arrive in Australia.

Quest for the meaning of 'Lo'

2010-12-16T13:15:00.000+01:00

This morning as I prepared to go to work I thought it would be best to check the thermometer. As you can see the outside temperature was 'Lo.' But, what does that mean? I had no choice, I had to go outside and find out for myself!

So, the first thing I did was collect my defensive gear. Today was a day for gloves and a beanie. Lo, here I come!

At first I thought I would ride my trusty stallion, but on entering the carpark it could not be seen. Wait, there it is in the middle hiding under the snow. My stallion is cunning!

I turned to begin my quest for the meaning of 'Lo,' and Lo, there in front of me was my children's preschool. I can only hope that my kids were sitting down to a warm breakfast. But not me, I was on a quest!

The early signs were not promising. Perhaps I should have heeded this sign? But my students were waiting for me, and so I had to press on.

Soon I came to a fork in the road. Should I take the narrow road or the broad road?

I took the wide road and soon discovered that there was nowhere to rest in this quest for 'Lo.'

Unfortunately some other travellers were not as fortunate as I were...

When crossing the bridge that spanned the mighty river I could not help but notice another traveller distributing food to the birds that lay below the bridge.

Here is the sun rising as I cross the bridge.

From below the bridge smoke could be seen rising from the murky waters below.

I pressed on...

At this point I lost feeling in my legs. It was if the little red man was controlling me!

Here are some icicles. In the background you can see the smoke stack for the communal heater.

At this point I lost feeling in my cheeks.

At last I see that I am nearing my destination

Only one more corner!

When I look at this shopfront, I feel very sorry for the mannequins wearing nothing much...

At last I arrive at school. Now I truly understand the meaning of 'Lo.'

I apologise for the low quality of the photo's. I took all the pictures with my phone camera because that is the only camera I can operate whilst wearing my thick gloves. You can click on the photo's for bigger, clearer images.
It was actually minus 22 degrees Celsius when I left home and my thermometer only reads down to minus 20.
Apparently the night before it was minus 27. Cold eh?

Creative Space - updated

2010-12-15T10:07:00.000+01:00

I have good news!
The rest of my order from the Book Depository arrived yesterday. Only two weeks later than expected (probably due to the inclement weather and Poczta Polska)

Now I have all the tools I need to start editing my NaNo novel in January and a nice little novel to keep me going until then :)
Jola (my wife) is looking forward to using the Christmas Ideas at PreSchool, just as long as no-one else steals her ideas...

My Creative Space

2010-12-13T14:34:00.000+01:00

"Monday is my Sunday, I don't have a thing to do except try and get up while it's still light" - the Whitlams

NaNoWriMo finished last month. I wrote my book and now I am struggling to find things to fill my time with. Today I have been very good. I have cleaned my desk, tidied the living room, done some ironing and organised all my receipts. Busy day.

I was even going to update my profile picture for Facebook, but I'm not feeling very photogenic today. Instead I took some photo's of my 'creative space.'

The first image we have is my 'at hand' bookshelf. At the moment it is quite empty. I haven't finished reading my Charter's yet, but I will soon, promise. You can also see theTruth and an expectant bookmark, waiting for my next read. Which looks like a book called 'What the Dog Saw' by Malcolm Gladwell.

This second image shows my 1.5Tb backup disk drive (very important, and also useful for keeping my laptop disk clutter free), laser printer for making 'screaming outs' for my children, a semi-decent set of headphones and an assortment of stationery. In the background you can see our Scottish flag cum curtain (the Australian flag is at the other end of the window).

This, the third picture shows my modem (recently upgraded to 8Mb/s - wow), a mess of cables (all entirely necessary, but tangled all the same). That's my MacBook off the picture; it's quite boring so I didn't include it in the picture. In the foreground you can see my Tesco clubcard letter. They've given me 9zl worth of vouchers, but I always forget to take it with me when I go to the shops. Under that is my 'CV' that I have written in order to apply for Polish citizenship. Jola has very kindly translated it for me. All I have to do now is type it up, in Polish.

I hear about a lot of my friends who have too much work and not enough hours. My heart goes out to you, really! Maybe I'm just thinking that, because it's Monday and I have my day off. I was going to go shopping, but it has been snowing all day and I can't see my car (again).

In January I plan to start editing my NaNo book. Apparently there is a possibility I could get it published, which would be great. But for now I am going to make myself another cup of tea...

The Mysterious Red Fruit

2010-11-24T11:37:00.000+01:00

In my fruit bowl I have a red fruit. Well at least I think it is a fruit.

The Ugly Duckling in my fruit bowl

I'm really not even sure how it got there. Did I buy it by accident? Was it a gift from one of my wife's students? Maybe it is an advanced listening device installed by our landlords?

In any event it has been sitting on our fruit bowl now for a couple of weeks. When it first arrived we thought it was some sort of tomato because it was green, like a tomato that isn't ripe. Now it is red. Does that mean we can eat it now? Whatever it is?

I suspect that it is one of those Chinese fruits that are so popular at the moment. Some poor Chinese peasant probably picked it and put it in a train. The train travelled a thousand kilometres to the port. From the port the ship took our little fruit across oceans before arriving somewhere in Europe. Then some truck driver drove another thousand kilometres to deliver it to our shop.
Now, somehow it is sitting in my fruit bowl.

I must eat it. To do anything less would be insulting to the Chinese peasant who picked it from his (or her) tree, the train driver, the captain of the ship, the truck driver and the shop assistants who made it possible for this fruit to sit in my fruit bowl. Even though I still have no idea what it is.

Does anybody know what it is and what I should do with it?

Here is another view (if it helps)

BBC 100 Book list

2010-11-20T17:20:00.000+01:00

I've stolen this blog idea from my friend Kathy, the difference is that I've used the official BBC list from 2003

These are the instructions I have used:

Bold those books you've read in their entirety.

Italicize the ones you started but didn't finish or read an excerpt.

1. The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien
2. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen
3. His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman
4. The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams
5. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, JK Rowling
6. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee
7. Winnie the Pooh, AA Milne
8. Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell
9. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis
10. Jane Eyre, Charlotte Brontë
11. Catch-22, Joseph Heller
12. Wuthering Heights, Emily Brontë
13. Birdsong, Sebastian Faulks
14. Rebecca, Daphne du Maurier
15. The Catcher in the Rye, JD Salinger
16. The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
17. Great Expectations, Charles Dickens
18. Little Women, Louisa May Alcott
19. Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Louis de Bernieres
20. War and Peace, Leo Tolstoy
21. Gone with the Wind, Margaret Mitchell
22. Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone, JK Rowling
23. Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets, JK Rowling
24. Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban, JK Rowling
25. The Hobbit, JRR Tolkien
26. Tess Of The D'Urbervilles, Thomas Hardy
27. Middlemarch, George Eliot
28. A Prayer For Owen Meany, John Irving
29. The Grapes Of Wrath, John Steinbeck
30. Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
31. The Story Of Tracy Beaker, Jacqueline Wilson
32. One Hundred Years Of Solitude, Gabriel García Márquez
33. The Pillars Of The Earth, Ken Follett
34. David Copperfield, Charles Dickens
35. Charlie And The Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
36. Treasure Island, Robert Louis Stevenson
37. A Town Like Alice, Nevil Shute
38. Persuasion, Jane Austen
39. Dune, Frank Herbert
40. Emma, Jane Austen
41. Anne Of Green Gables, LM Montgomery
42. Watership Down, Richard Adams
43. The Great Gatsby, F Scott Fitzgerald
44. The Count Of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas
45. Brideshead Revisited, Evelyn Waugh
46. Animal Farm, George Orwell
47. A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
48. Far From The Madding Crowd, Thomas Hardy
49. Goodnight Mister Tom, Michelle Magorian
50. The Shell Seekers, Rosamunde Pilcher
51. The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
52. Of Mice And Men, John Steinbeck
53. The Stand, Stephen King
54. Anna Karenina, Leo Tolstoy
55. A Suitable Boy, Vikram Seth
56. The BFG, Roald Dahl
57. Swallows And Amazons, Arthur Ransome
58. Black Beauty, Anna Sewell
59. Artemis Fowl, Eoin Colfer
60. Crime And Punishment, Fyodor Dostoyevsky
61. Noughts And Crosses, Malorie Blackman
62. Memoirs Of A Geisha, Arthur Golden
63. A Tale Of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
64. The Thorn Birds, Colleen McCollough
65. Mort, Terry Pratchett
66. The Magic Faraway Tree, Enid Blyton
67. The Magus, John Fowles
68. Good Omens, Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman
69. Guards! Guards!, Terry Pratchett
70. Lord Of The Flies, William Golding
71. Perfume, Patrick Süskind
72. The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists, Robert Tressell
73. Night Watch, Terry Pratchett
74. Matilda, Roald Dahl
75. Bridget Jones's Diary, Helen Fielding
76. The Secret History, Donna Tartt
77. The Woman In White, Wilkie Collins
78. Ulysses, James Joyce
79. Bleak House, Charles Dickens
80. Double Act, Jacqueline Wilson
81. The Twits, Roald Dahl
82. I Capture The Castle, Dodie Smith
83. Holes, Louis Sachar
84. Gormenghast, Mervyn Peake
85. The God Of Small Things, Arundhati Roy
86. Vicky Angel, Jacqueline Wilson
87. Brave New World, Aldous Huxley
88. Cold Comfort Farm, Stella Gibbons
89. Magician, Raymond E Feist
90. On The Road, Jack Kerouac
91. The Godfather, Mario Puzo
92. The Clan Of The Cave Bear, Jean M Auel
93. The Colour Of Magic, Terry Pratchett
94. The Alchemist, Paulo Coelho
95. Katherine, Anya Seton
96. Kane And Abel, Jeffrey Archer
97. Love In The Time Of Cholera, Gabriel García Márquez
98. Girls In Love, Jacqueline Wilson
99. The Princess Diaries, Meg Cabot
100. Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie

It looks like I've read 7 of the books in their entirety. I really don't understand this list though. So I'm not going to make any more comments.

Half way through NaNoWriMo

2010-11-15T09:53:00.000+01:00

Today is the fifteenth of November.
At the end of today I should have written 25,000 words. A monumental achievement if ever I have seen it (but I'm not there yet).

My characters are woody, the subplot is still very 'sub' and my motivation is waning. But not to worry! Today is a new day and who knows what will happen in the life of Daphne and Zbigniew? (That's what I get for using a random name generator to pick my lead character's names)

Considering converting a subplot into something worth writing about

But today the kids are back at Pre-School after a four day weekend. We spent yesterday morning at Elim in Lwowek, which was lovely.

Also in the last few weeks we have finished watching the fifth series of Doctor Who - we love Doctor Who - even though he looks like Matt Smith. (for you Doctor Who fans, I can also recommend this version starring Rowan Atkinson)

I should stop procrastinating now, I had planned to start typing an hour ago. Only 2,724 words to go today!

(I would also like to make mention of the terrible carnage that occurred in the last four days on Polish roads. My heart goes out to everyone who has been affected.)

Counting down...

2010-10-31T08:15:00.001+01:00

As I write this, I am less than 24 hours from starting NaNoWriMo 2010.

Further evidence that I am ready for a novelling adventure

Very shortly I will be heading off to church, then we will be heading off to Jola's parents for the night.
Monday is a holiday in Poland (All Saints Day) and we will be spending the day with her parents, brother and Grandmother.

But, that does not mean that I will not find time to write. I only have to write 1,667 words each day in order to reach my target. Based on last year that should take an average of two hours a day. Time that I would have otherwise spent on facebook, watching TV or faffing about.

So if YOU haven't yet signed up to write a novel in November, I don't know what's holding you back.

Cheers for now!

Getting ready for NaNoWriMo

2010-10-27T14:58:00.000+02:00

Today is October 27

It’s approaching the end of the month, so of course I have a lot of things on my mind. For example making sure I have recorded all of my hours at work; making sure I have paid all the bills due this month; finishing off my Australian tax return (all I have to do now is lodge it); and preparing for NaNoWriMo.

Last year my preparations for NaNoWriMo were pretty much non-existent. I found out on the 1^st of November and managed to type up almost 2,000 words in the first day. I had no plot, nor did I really have any characters. All I had was an introduction to a story which didn’t fully coalesce until a few days later.

So, in order to avoid the mistakes of last year I have spent the last few weeks and months preparing. So, here is what I have done:

1. Read some books. In the last couple of months I have managed to read an assortment of books including:

The Rage Against God by Peter Hitchens - read about my thoughts of that book here
The Shack by William P Young
Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
Xenophobe’s Guide to the English and the Polish
Noah’s Compass by Anne Tyler
The Secret of Happy Parents by Steve Biddulph
Eastern Standard Tribe by Corey Doctorow
And a few eBooks including Robert Louis Stephenson’s Fables

(I would like to thank my sister for introducing me to the Book Depository, which delivers books worldwide without charging postage and handling)

2. I have updated my author profile on the NaNoWriMo website

3. I have tried to blog more regularly in order to get back into the habit of writing (not very successfully)

4. Blocked most of my Facebook applications and installed Tweetdeck so I don’t get distracted

5. I have an idea for a story and the glimmerings of a plot (I don’t know if ‘glimmering’ is the right word here, but I’ve used it anyway)

6. Asked my wife if she minded I spend two or three hours a day sitting in front of the computer every night. Funnily enough she didn’t seem to mind too much.

7. Downloaded the latest version of Scrivener. The software of writers.

That’s it, I’m ready now. Only a few more days to go before I start my next novel adventure.

Monthly Journal Oct 2010

2010-10-22T15:27:00.000+02:00

Malcolm and Jola’s Monthly Journal

October 2010

“Haven’t I always done everything you asked me?”

- Destiny’s Child

Warm salutations!

Welcome back. When I wrote the last Monthly Journal I was feeling a bit lazy. I guess I didn’t know just how lazy I would be. It has taken only six months to write this Monthly Journal. Of course I’d like you to think that we haven’t written it because we have been too busy. But that is simply not true. It doesn’t actually take much effort to write one of these things… But I’m getting side-tracked.

Since last April a great many things have happened in our little lives. The biggest thing that happened of course was summer. One of the most wonderful things about being a teacher is that we get a two month summer holiday every year. It is just a pity that we are casual teachers and we don’t actually get paid for those precious six weeks or so in the sun. This year we went to the Mazurian lakes. There are a few nice pictures here: http://malcolmguy.blogspot.com/2010/08/back-from-holidays.html

Daddy and Chris kicking the water

Also check out some photos of our kids playing in the sun: http://malcolmguy.blogspot.com/2010/07/not-wishing-for-winter.html

Over summer we bought ourselves a car. We decided to take the plunge when we discovered the cost of using public transport to get to our holiday. It was cheaper to buy a car (including insurance and gas) than to take the train/bus to our holiday place. The kids like us having a car because now we don’t have to walk to the shops all the time. Also we have been able to take a few trips into the surrounding countryside. I’d love to drive a bit further (eg to the Czech Republic and Germany), but the price of petrol is still quite high here and Ela gets car sick too easily. Not to mention that I am still waiting for my permanent visa.

Exploring Legnica the easy way

Now there is a story. In June we applied for my permanent visa. We filled in all of the forms, submitted all of our documents, had our ‘Green Card’ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099699/ style interview and we were waiting for the final decision when we were (very politely) informed that we had actually applied too early and that we had to submit all of the documents again. We were not happy; and are still waiting to hear back from the second application.

Talking about applications, Jola finished her Masters and scored top marks. We are very proud of her! Now she is a Master of Teaching (or something like that).

My two girls sleeping in a tent

Jola has started her new job as an English speaking pre-school teacher at Happy Kids (There are a few photos of her and her group at this website http://akademiahappykids.pl/przedszkolejezykowe/ - just click on ‘Galeria’). She seems to be enjoying it. Apparently her class is the best behaved. This is obviously because she is the best teacher (maybe I’m just biased). It has meant a few changes for us. This is the first time since we have been married that she has had a full time job. Mostly it means that I am stuck at home by myself during the day.

The kids have started pre-school at Kubus Puchatek http://puchatek19.pl/ For the most part they are loving it. Little Chris had a few issues with missing mummy and daddy (mostly daddy), but now is doing much better. But having said that, they have spent two weeks at home because they caught various bugs from the other school kids. Fortunately they didn’t catch chicken pox when all of the other children did (our kids were immunised when they were younger).

My little MasterChefs

We also have a new flat now, which is wonderful. Our old flat was cheap and cold and not very nice. Our new flat is nice and warm and 250 zloty more expensive. Actually it’s kind of funny because we are renting from mine and Jola’s boss’s parents. So our boss pays us and then we pay their parents most of our wages the next day. We feel a bit like serfs…

View Larger Map

You can see our block of flats second from top and the kids pre-school is the T shaped building on the bottom

I think that that’s about all I can write about at the moment. If you have any questions, then send us an email ☺ (we like emails)

Malcolm, Jola, Ela & Chris

the Rage Against God

2010-10-22T10:37:00.000+02:00

I've just finished reading The Rage Against God by Peter Hitchens.

Of course I am not the only one who has read it. You can read a better review over here.

I did enjoy reading the book. It provides a very calm and clear explanation of how the current attack on the Christian church in the west has been developing over the past fifty or so years.

I guess the most disappointing part of the book is that it didn't really answer the question so boldly emblazoned on the cover: "how atheism led me to faith." The book contains almost zero references to faith. In fact you could be forgiven for thinking that the author simply wanted society to adopt religion as opposed to each individual developing a personal, intimate relationship with God.

But the most value I got from the book was the way that the author clearly and succinctly provided a link between the effects of attaining an atheistic society and the resultant moral and societal decay of that country.

Which brings me to an article that I read today about a school in Krakow. Krakow bishops outraged after school takes down crosses

On one hand any religion that feels threatened because a private school removes religious symbols from it's classrooms is extremely insecure (there are no crosses in the school that I teach in). But on the other hand it possibly represents the thin edge of the wedge of an attack against religion.
In Poland the line between the church and state is often quite blurred. Unfortunately this has probably caused greater damage to the church than it has to the state (especially when you consider the shenanigans of the former PM).

I guess the comments I really want to make is that in some respects I am grateful for the current 'Rage Against God.' It is forcing people to carefully consider their faith. People will either decide that their religion is a sham and stop giving lip-service to the church; or they will decide to give their lives fully to their God and change their lives accordingly.

Saturday Night and Sunday Morning

2010-10-17T09:24:00.000+02:00

Apologies to Phil Collins for borrowing his song title for my blog post.

We have had a pretty tough week. I guess these things happen every now and then.

We had planned to travel 150kms to Wrocław to a conference yesterday. In fact we had been planning to go for two weeks. But somehow everything seemed to go wrong. The first ominous sign was that all the maps on my GPS became corrupted. The kids were ridiculously disobedient as we were getting ready (partly explicable by the fact that they had had bad colds for all last week and haven't been sleeping properly). It was so bad that as I was walking to the car (only 45 minutes later than planned) I was praying to God "God, if you don't want us to go, then give us a sign!" Then the sign came: the car wouldn't start; the battery was dead. My wonderful wife (who was strangely annoyed) tried to get the help of one of the other drivers in the car-park, but no-one was willing to help.
And so we didn't get to go to Wrocław.

The view from my balcony this morning. Yes, the bird is plastic.

The Bible says that 'all things work together for the good of those who love Him' (Romans 8:28). But sometimes it doesn't make sense.

So instead of going to Wrocław we stayed at home; the kids played (mostly nicely); Jola dragged me to the shops to buy some winter shoes; I got to read some more of my book and think about NaNoWriMo.

Sorry that this is not a very positive post. I guess we all come under clouds from time to time. But every cloud has a silver lining; so here's hoping for a very silvery next week (a bit like the blue skies that I can see outside my window at the moment)

Happy Birthday Jola!

2010-10-13T12:39:00.000+02:00

Last Saturday was my beautiful wife's birthday.
I can't remember how old she turned because I am not very good at remembering dates, especially birthdays.

One of the problems of living in Poland is that it is virtually impossible to buy meat pies. And so, for Jola's birthday we made a meat pie with a smiley face.

(I forgot to put a glaze on the top, so it got a bit burnt, but it was still delicious!)

But of course it wouldn't be a real party without cake. Cake is fantastic stuff, and my kids love helping out in the kitchen.

Here they are licking the mixers clean.

Here they are applying the finishing touches. Apparently pink icing tastes the best.

And here is Jola enjoying the finished product.

Happy Birthday Jolu!

How Polish are you?

2010-10-01T12:04:00.000+02:00

This is a little thing that I have stolen and modified from another Blog. You can find it here.

I was going to use this simply as a conversation starter for my English lesson today, but apparently October is Blogtoberfest month (as heard by little birdies here and here). I'm probably not going to join in officially, but as I am planning to do NaNoWriMo again this year, I might lift up the frequency of my blogs just so I get back into the habit of writing daily again.

So, here is the Quiz. Tell me how you go.

How Polish are you?

1. do you have relatives who aren't really your relatives

a) yes

b) maybe, I'm not sure

c) no

2. you love watching football, but can't play it very well

a) yes, unfortunately

b) I CAN play football

c) what's football?

3. Pope John Paul II was Polish and his first name was…

a) Karol

b) Carol

c) John

4. When do you take down your Christmas Tree?

a) February

b) January

c) 31^st December

5. you open your Christmas presents on…

a) 24^th December

b) 25^th December

c) 26^th December

6. The plural of PIEROGI is:

a) Pierogi

b) Pierogis

c) The plural of what?

7. you see a girl/guy and the first thing you look at are his/her…

a) eyes

b) buttocks/chest

c) bank balance

8. your parents make you listen to…

a) Polish disco

b) 90's pop

c) Classic Rock

9. when you're at a stranger's house, you expect their garbage can to be…

a) under the sink

b) somewhere in the kitchen

c) in the laundry

10. you take off your shoes as soon as you step into someone else's house…

a) every time

b) when you are asked

c) only when you have muddy boots

11. weddings should last… 

a) two or three days

b) 24 hours

c) three or four hours

12. Marie Curie was born in…

a) Poland

b) France

c) Belgium

13. your grandma understands you better than you understand yourself 

a) true

b) maybe, I'm not sure

c) no

14. have you ever eaten meat on Good Friday?

a) never!

b) a couple of times

c) Friday is steak day!

15. you dash your sevens and hat your ones

a) is there another way?

b) when I remember

c) no, what for?

16. What do your parents do on a computer?

a) Play solitaire

b) look at photo's

c) surf the net

17. your grandmother has a framed picture of Pope John Paul II…

a) beside your family photo

b) in the living room

c) in the attic

18. your family considers mushroom/berry picking as 'having a good time"

a) yes

b) sometimes

c) what? Don't be ridiculous

19. your grandma insists you wear slippers because the floor is chilly and you'll get a cold. 

a) yes, even in summer

b) only in winter

c) my grandma doesn't tell me what to wear

20. your grandma can tell if you like a girl/guy just by looking at you 

a) yes

b) maybe, I'm not sure

c) no, my grandma stays out of my business

Answer Key:

Mostly A's: Yep, you are Polish. "If you're not a Pole, you're not whole!"

Mostly B's: You wish you were Polish, but you still have a bit more work to do.

Mostly C's: You're not Polish. Even if you think you are.

Back from Holidays

2010-08-28T11:02:00.000+02:00

Hi folks!

About a week ago we came back from a week long vacation/conference in Mazury, not far from Olsztynek .

We had a fabulous time and the weather was mostly kind to us.

But one of the problems of holidays is that when you come back home, you have a lot more work to do.
For us, this statement was an understatement!
In the last week the following has happened to us:

We were given notice to leave our flat
We had to insure our car
Our tenants in Australia stopped renting our house (without notice)
We had to apply for a visa to stay in Poland (which involved driving about 300 kms)
Jola had to go to daily training for her new job at pre-school
Jola discovered that she was getting 20% less salary than we expected
I (Malcolm) have read Dr Jeckyll and Mr Hyde by RLS
The kids have both had fevers (which fortunately only lasted two days each)
And a few other annoying things that I can't really explain in dot points

So, you'll have to forgive us if we have been a bit slack writing our latest Monthly Journal. I know it might seem that we are complaining and completely stressed, but it's not true. We are strangely calm and happy.

PS. as I have been typing up this Blog, I have received an SMS saying that we have been offered a place to rent. So sometime in the next few weeks we will be moving. Hooray!

Not wishing for winter

2010-07-01T20:02:00.000+02:00

This post is a response to my friend Kathy's post here

For the last week or so in Poland, the weather has been fantastic. At times I find it hard to believe that only four months ago the temperature was struggling to reach minus 10.

I do not miss the winter. Not at all.

(Not even a little bit)

The Politeness of Polish Supermarkets

2010-06-07T11:25:00.000+02:00

Over the last couple of years I have spent a considerable amount of time in Polish supermarkets. Not by choice, but because I have to eat occasionally - and Polish supermarkets don’t usually deliver.

One problem with Polish supermarkets is that each supermarket keeps slightly different produce, which means that doing the weekly shopping requires visiting about three or four different shops. This is compounded by the fact that bread only lasts for about 48 hours before it starts to mutate into something that requires something stronger than teeth to devour.

A good thing about supermarkets however is that they are a good place to try out my Polish and to interact with average Polish people. Unfortunately however it is not always a positive experience, because Poles (like most people) can sometimes be rude. In fact about six months ago, after making very careful observations (and some sideways glances) I prepared this table.

You will note that there seems to be a very strong link between politeness and carbon dioxide. This was a big surprise to me! Of course my research is very localised, and before I can make any scientific statements I will need to apply for a million dollar research grant to prove my point.

CAPTAIN RHUBARB AND THE IMAGINATION BUCKET

2010-05-11T15:16:00.000+02:00

This is a feeble attempt at a children's story. Tell me of you like it! If you are a bit of an artist/illustrator then feel free to help me with some pictures...

Once upon a time, a long long time away (after about a million sleeps), there was this boy. I can’t remember this boys name, but it might have been Tommy or Bobby or Alexander. I don’t remember.

One day when this boy was playing with his father’s telescope he looked up into space and he saw a spaceship. It was a very small spaceship far far away. Inside the spaceship he could see a little girl calling for help.

Oh no! He thought to himself. I have to rescue her! So he found his father’s telephone and called the Emergency Space Services…

Hello, this is the ESS, how can we help you?… What? A girl trapped in a spaceship?… Yes, we’ll send our fastest spaceship straight away!

The problem was that the fastest spaceship wasn’t very fast at all. In fact it was very slow. Very very slow… It was so slow that when Billy or Timmy or Archibald watched it through his father’s telescope he could hardly see it moving.

Danny or Sammy or Frederick was very sad for the little girl in the spaceship far far away. But then he had an idea! He went down into the basement, looked through his mother’s cupboards until he found something. It was his imagination bucket!

The imagination bucket was very old, even older than his school teacher. It was made of wood and had a metal handle. But it was a very special bucket because whenever he imagined something, the something that he imagined would come out of the bucket.

And so Jimmy or Becky or Theodore started imagining things. But all he could imagine was picking strawberries at his grandfather’s farm. Soon the basement was full of strawberries and so the boy went upstairs and imagined some more.

Next he imagined picking potatoes, and as they came out of the bucket his house filled up. Then he imagined picking rhubarbs until there was a mountain of rhubarbs.

Then he imagined that all of his friends were imagining picking imaginary things until soon the pile of imagined things coming out his imagination bucket reached to the sky!

But the little girl was still trapped in the spaceship. And so the little boy (I don’t remember his name) imagined that he crept silently into a dark cave and rescued a super hero from a dragon. And the name of this super hero was CAPTAIN RHUBARB.

Captain Rhubarb flew out of the imagination bucket as fast as lightning. He flew up over the mountain of rhubarbs, around the pile of imaginary imagined things and up into space. He flew past the very slow spaceship of the ESS.

And then, Captain Rhubarb landed on the spaceship where the little girl was stuck. The little girl was very happy to see Captain Rhubarb and she invited him inside to have a cup of lemon tea.

Captain Rhubarb and the little girl then waited patiently for the ESS spaceship to arrive. When they finally got back to earth the little girl gave the little boy a little kiss. And they all ate strawberries and potatoes and rhubarbs for the rest of the month.

Monthly Journal April 2010

2010-04-15T22:05:00.000+02:00

April 2010

“Penguins have not got any ears…”
- Elizabeth Guy

Warm greetings from cold, miserable Poland. I know it’s been a long time since our last journal, and for that we are sorry. The last three months or so have been very cold. This is my third Polish winter and even though I am starting to get used to the freezing temperatures, it doesn’t mean that I am enjoying them. I guess if I skied it might be more bearable, but I don’t. But having said that, I think I might prefer snow and ice to rain, mud and grey skies… But enough complaining about the weather.

We found out today that our children have been accepted into Pre-School here in Jelenia Góra. This is very exciting because it means that after September our children will not be stuck at home all day. We have enrolled our children into a regular Polish pre-school (http://www.puchatek.hg.pl/). We did have the option of sending them to an English speaking pre-school, but we decided that it would probably be better for them (and for our hip-pocket) if we sent them to the Polish school. Both Jola and I know some of the teachers there and so we are sure that our kids will have a great time.

Jola is still working on her Masters thesis and assignments for all of her other subjects. She is studying very hard but (unfortunately) her school is very disorganised, which means that she has been spending too much time dealing with bureaucracy and not enough time studying. I really want Jola to write something here, but she won’t. She says that she doesn’t have time.

We had a good Easter, it is always nice to catch up with our Polish friends from the UK who come back to Poland for the big holidays. It was also nice to spend some time with Jola’s family. It even snowed on the morning of Good Friday, which was quite exciting.

In the month or so before Easter, I led something like an Alpha course (basically an introduction of Christianity) which was very interesting (I was actually supposed to do the full Alpha course, but because it only ran for five weeks I had to heavily condense and modify it, so in the end it didn’t look much like Alpha at all). We discussed things like the meaning of life and the role of religion and law in society. It was very effective and all the participants seemed to enjoy coming to the meetings/lessons.

The kids are still growing, Chris is talking a lot more now (thankfully), Ela is starting to learn how to be responsible for things. In the past few months it has been her job to pick up all of the toys (usually by herself) before we eat dinner. It is a joy for us as parents when she actually does it without complaining (which is less common than you would expect).
I don’t think we can call Chris a baby anymore now. He has all of his teeth, feeds himself (most of the time - well, at least when he isn’t feeling lazy), has started toilet training in earnest and can talk in full sentences in two different languages. He doesn’t talk as much as Ela, but that is because she talks more than the rest of us combined.

Apart from that, we are all healthy and happy (especially when the sun shines). Both Jola and I are working a lot of hours (a lot of hours = a lot of money = tired parents) at our respective places of work. The other day Ela asked for a real pet, we said no.

On a sadder note, many of you would be aware that the Polish President and a very large number of other important people died in a plane crash last week. Indeed it is a sad time for Poland, and everywhere we go we see Polish flags flying with black ribbons signifying mourning. At churches there are piles of flowers and candles as people are praying for all the people that passed away so suddenly. It is very endearing watching how the Poles always seem forget their usual differences and come together when something very bad happens. Now the government has to somehow rebuild itself, which means we have a very interesting time ahead of us.

Have a lovely month (or three, depending on when we write the next MJMJ)

Malcolm, Jola, Ela & Chris

PS. Congratulations to everyone who’s got married, had babies and/or got engaged since the last MJMJ - you know who you are (if you’re not sure, then send us an email and we’ll tell you whether or not we mean you…)

Poland and Australia in the Winter Olympics

2010-02-15T11:37:00.000+01:00

I love Poland. I think that Poland is a fantastic country full of wonderful people.

But then I am Australian and I think similar things about Australians. Poland and Australia have surprisingly many things in common. One thing that Poland and Australia have in common at the moment is that they are together on the Vancouver Winter Olympics medal tally (even though it is only day three).

Poland’s medal has come thanks to the efforts of Adam Małysz, who is a bit of a local hero; whereas Australia’s medal came from Dale Begg-Smith, someone I have never heard of before, even though he has won a few medals in the past. It is amazing how much this small snippet of information can tell us about the two countries.

Poland loves it’s heroes, but they are always the same heroes. Małysz has been the hero for years; but what about Kamil Stoch, why isn’t he also a hero? Chopin, Mickewicz, Marie Curie, Pope John Paul 2 are all big heroes in Poland. But, where are the number two’s? Where are the people that have been trained up to be heroes? People in Poland become heroes when they fight AGAINST something and still win despite the difficulties. And I accept that in the past it was necessary to struggle/strive/contend in order to achieve something great. But why is it still the case?

In Australia heroes do not make themselves anymore; they are nurtured, coached and encouraged. People are encouraged to ‘have a go,’ ‘try something new,’ ‘be all you can be.’ Businesses encourage their staff to maintain their work/life balance. This does not mean that people don’t need to persevere, but they do know that if they work hard then they will be rewarded for their efforts.

Of course I’m not saying that Poles are never trained up. What I’m saying is that there seems to be a culture where Poles are not encouraged to be better than their teachers. Nor are Poles encouraged to try new things (unless it is a new product or new medicine). If you want an example, then take a look at Polish architecture - it is colourful and boring (I mean the new buildings, not the old ones).

One more interesting snippet of information is that Dale Begg-Smith was actually born in Vancouver, Canada; but now that he has won a silver medal for Australia, his ancestry is irrelevant. I can’t imagine that happening in Poland any time soon…

Remind me again why I am in Poland...

2010-02-11T17:36:00.000+01:00

I found this Global liveability report today.

Apparently Melbourne is the second best city in the world to live in. Congratulations to everyone who lives in Melbourne!

But of course (in my opinion) Hobart is a much better place to live than Melbourne. Which (logically) means that Hobart is actually the best place to live in the world.

(I couldn't find Jelenia Góra on the list, but apparently Warsaw is about half-way down the list)

Surrealism in Australian politics

2010-01-31T09:26:00.000+01:00

Honestly, I never thought I'd see the day. But here it is:

Liberal party in Tasmania accusing the Labor government of promising ridiculous amounts of money in order to hold onto office:
Liberals target Labor 'Cash Splash'

And on the same day the National Labor party is accusing the Liberal party of planning a "Mega Tax!"
Mega Tax will fund Abbot's climate policy: Rudd

I'm not honestly surprised. Liberal parties have been funding Labor excesses for generations. (This statement by Kevin Rudd sounds like pure panic, somewhat akin to his deputy's attack on Mr Abbott last week) I think the Australian populace has got used to this, and are getting ready for another change in leading political party at the next generation.

Half a Million!

2010-01-25T11:37:00.000+01:00

It's seems to be the catch phrase today. Here are two articles that caught my eye:

Half a million Poles disappear!

'Un-Australian bums' taking long weekends

Both articles mention that reports have found that around 500,000 people are not working where they said they would be. Of course this is either 'Un-Australian' (whatever that means) or something akin to magic!

Monthly Journal Jan 2010

2010-01-23T16:45:00.001+01:00

Malcolm and Jola’s Monthly Journal

January 2010

“I lost myself in the summer rain…”

- U2

Sorry it’s taken a while, but welcome to our latest Monthly Journal. I’m tempted to change the name of our regular newsletter to ‘Malcolm, Jola, Ela and Chris’s randomly ridiculous ramblings…’ I would like to say that the reason that we haven’t written a Journal for such a long time is that we have been too busy. But that is simply not true; instead I have just been too slack. But having said that, so many interesting things have happened to us in the last three months that it will be difficult to list everything here.

At the time that we wrote our last Monthly Journal (back in October) we had both just started work again after the summer holidays. Not much has changed on that front. Jola is still teaching English in Pre-Schools during the week, going to Uni and working on her thesis over the weekends and teaching Sunday School once or twice a month. I’m also still teaching English. I have almost learnt all of my students names; and I know all of the English text books inside-out. It’s not as interesting as it used to be, but now I am getting better at my job. Soon I think I should ask for a pay-rise (funny joke).

Our kids are continuing to grow up. We have been very fortunate that our kids have not suffered from colds and flu’s like they did at the same time last year (in-spite of the flu epidemic that swept through Poland in late October, early November. Chris continues to improve his vocabulary, both in English and Polish, I think he is starting to understand both languages quite well now. Ela likes to think that she is teaching all of the people that come to our house English. Sometimes I am tempted to take her with me to school and get her to teach my students with me; but I think that I would have to pay her then… They have been stuck inside for the past few weeks due to the weather and they are slowly learning how to play nicely together. Chris likes to play by himself and Ela always wants to play with someone else, but not Chris. But they are learning.

In November, thanks to a few comments made by our Monthly Journal readers, I entered a ‘Novel Writing Event.’ It was very interesting and I managed to type out a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. It was the first time that I had ever written something that long. It was an action/adventure novel about some guy called Bob, aptly entitled ‘Bob’s Big Day.’ Unfortunately after writing it I haven’t had the motivation to edit it (or even read it again), and so I don’t really know how readable it is. But if any of you want to have a read, then send me an email and I’ll see what I can do to get a copy sent to you (by email, don’t expect it to be published) for your reading pleasure (or horror as the case may be).

We had a fantastic Christmas and New Year. The kids loved getting presents from all over the world, and we loved eating Christmassy food. We spent about a week with Jola’s parents. It was great fun because Jola’s brother came with his partner and her son (who is 3) and so the kids spent most of the time playing together (I’d like to say nicely, but that would be a lie).

Now that Ela is almost five we have to start looking for a pre-school for her to join later in the year. Fortunately for us, Jola knows the directors of all the local pre-schools so hopefully we will be able to find a place for our little ones later in the year. She has also been asked to work in a new English language pre-school that my boss is starting up later in the year. It’s all very interesting because we are slowly learning that Jelenia Góra is a lot like Tassie, in that everyone seems to know everyone else. For example the director of the pre-school that Jola wants to send our kids to, knows that she has been offered a job by my boss. Another example of this was the other week when some people from the local water authority came to inspect our pipes turned out to be students that I taught last year.

I understand that the weather in Europe has been in the news in Australia lately. Well, just to put everyone’s mind at rest, our winter (so far) has been quite mild. There is snow and ice and the river is frozen over in places, but not too much. The temperature hasn’t dropped below minus 20 yet; certainly not bad enough to write home about. Today when I went to the shops it was only minus 12. We didn’t have a white christmas, which is something I am very grateful for.

In the next few months Jola is going to finish off her thesis and we will need to decide what to do next. It will not be difficult for her to find a job in a pre-school, but we need to decide if that’s what we want to do. I will need to start filling in forms for my permanent Polish visa and possibly apply for Polish citizenship. We also need to find out about whether or not Jola can apply for Australian citizenship from Poland or whether we will have to go back to Australia. And I will need to decide if I want to turn English teaching into a long term career, or whether I should try and find a job as an accountant in a local firm…

That’s probably enough for now. In addition to the pictures we have here, you can also look at the pictures that we post on Facebook.

Cheerio!

Malcolm, Jola, Ela and Christopher Guy

Happy New Year

2010-01-21T10:16:00.000+01:00

Welcome to 2010

2010 comes with all sorts of promises. Unfortunately one of those promises is not reliable news coverage.

Examples that have caught my eye recently:

Thirty two percent live in poverty in Poland Apparently "One-in-three live in absolute poverty in Poland. One-in-five can’t afford to adequately heat their homes, finds a new report launching a fight against economic and social exclusion throughout the European Union."

This is a classic case of either misread statistics or absurd statements. How can one-in-three live in absolute poverty while only one in five can't afford to adequately heat their own homes? Maybe my definition of 'absolute' is different to that of the journalist who wrote this article?
A closer look at the actual report will show that the actual poverty rate in Poland is is closer to 17%. The 32% figure quoted as 'absolute poverty' is heavily skewed by people who cannot afford an annual one week holiday. This is still a significant problem. But certainly not as bad as the newspaper article seems to suggest.

But 2010 is promising to be a good year for Poland financially. Let's just hope that the result is higher wages for the average Pole and not higher rent.

The end of NaNoWriMo

2009-11-30T11:39:00.000+01:00

That's it. It is finished.

I have successfully typed up a 50,000 word novel in less than 30 days. It wasn't easy at times; and at times it was quite difficult. But now that I have done it, I know that I can do it again.

I really cannot explain just how happy I am that I have finished this little project. If my goal in life was just to be happy, then I would attempt seemingly impossible tasks more often. :()

I do not currently have any thoughts at the moment about publishing my novel, partly because it is poorly researched, the characters are a bit flat and the plot has far too many loose ends. I like to think of it as Japanese Art. And as in art, beauty lies in the eye of the beholder, therefore my novel is beautiful.

I just spent the last two hours running my novel through the MS Word Grammar Checker and have discovered that Microsoft and I have different opinions on certain things...

If any of you, my dear readers, wish to have a quick read, then please send me a comment or a message or an email. Once my novel reaches a level of quality that I am willing to share, then I will do what I can to let you have a read.

November is Novel Month

2009-11-05T13:23:00.002+01:00

Apparently it is National Novel Writing Month.

Every other month seems to have something associated with it these days. Eg. Movember, Ocsober etc. Personally I'm looking forward to Laypril (Lazy April - I'm sure it will be a good cause)...

Anyhow in keeping with a few of my comments as published in my last Monthly Journal, I have decided to take up the challenge to write a 50,000 word by the end of the month. So far I have written over 7,000 words. I just hope that my plot doesn't dry up before the end of the month.

If you are interested, my novel is called 'Bob's Big Day' and it is about an accountant who gets caught up (reluctantly) in the fight against organised crime.

Toilet 2012: 'public loos are improving'

2009-10-28T08:46:00.004+01:00

Here's an interesting news story:

Toilet 2012: 'public loos are improving'

It's interesting to note that most of the public toilets included in the survey are actually private (hotels, restaurants, airports). I am of the opinion that Poles have very strong bowels, because it is rather difficult to find public toilets outside of these places. Maybe they are there, but are just well hidden. Perhaps there is a secret Polish word for 'where the toilets are' that they don't share with foreigners. I suspect it rhymes with 'drzewo.'

That is unless you call mysterious blue boxes found on the side of the street 'available for the public.'

My two favourite girls waiting for 'the doctor'...

Monthly Journal Oct 2009

2009-10-14T10:29:00.006+02:00

“Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active”

- Edith Hamilton

Hello fellow compatriots!

I bought a new dictionary the other day. It has 72,000 words in it, and I think I know all of the English ones already. It’s the 30,000 Polish words in it that I don’t know.

The weather is starting to get cold now (last night it dropped down to 2 degrees), which should make you Aussies less jealous. One of the disadvantages of having central heating throughout the entire block of flats is that we don’t decide when to turn it on. Maybe they are waiting for the first snow. Who knows?

We are all back at school now. This week I have 25 hours of teaching (that’s 25 hours of standing up and talking), and Jola has started working five days a week (she only has to talk for about 11 hours, but because she is teaching little kids she has to talk twice as loud). I think Ela would make a good teacher because she talks for about 10 hours a day with little or no encouragement – sometimes we turn on the TV just so that she will stop talking for half an hour.

I think most of the regular people at the playground know our names now – thanks mostly to Ela. And they all think that we speak German…

Talking about speaking, Captain Rhubarb is learning a lot of words very quickly now. I think he has taken so long to talk because he got his teeth late. Or maybe it’s because he can never get a word in edgeways because Ela does so much talking. Before he goes to bed at night he says: pa pa Mama, pa pa Daddy, pa pa Lella, pa pa Becky. (I have taken special care to teach him the English 'Daddy' instead of the Polish 'Tata'.)

I had a couple of comments from the last monthly journal that I had lost some weight. Well, it's true. We bought some bathroom scales and I discovered that I had lost about 10 kilo's since leaving Australia. I'm not sure if it's because of the food, because we don't have a car, or because of my job. But in any event, it's nice to have more energy and to be able to play with my kids at the playground (yes, on the swings!).

I have also had a few comments (based on what people read in these monthly journals) suggesting that I start writing professionally. I think I would like that, but I don't really have the imagination to write novels and there are very few English speaking newspapers that need a correspondent in south-west Poland (although it is a world centre for Boleslawiec pottery and tissue-paper making machines).

Last weekend was Jola's birthday. We had streamers and balloons and THREE cakes! As a family, we really like cakes. We did a test on Facebook to decide what Jola's real age is, and so we have just celebrated her 21st birthday again.

Unfortunately Jola couldn't celebrate too much because she has started writing her thesis for her Masters. It's a bit boring.

Jola: Hey! My thesis is not boring at all! It’s still rather short but as it gets longer I'm sure it will get more and more interesting?? That's what I say to myself anyway…

Congratulations to everyone who has got married or got pregnant (or both) in the last couple of months! (We know who you are, even if nobody else is supposed to know yet).

So long!

Malcolm, Jola, Ela & Chris

PS. As I am sending this it has started snowing...

Polish Customer Service. Fact or Fiction?

2009-10-08T07:49:00.001+02:00

I really don't like to complain. Most Poles are very helpful and courteous – that is until they are given a position of authority. Every now and then I come across exceptionally poor customer service. It saddens me to think how much more efficient everything would be if people actually did what they say they are going to do…

On Thursday night our modem stopped working, so on Friday I went to the local office of our internet company and told them that our modem was broken, and asked if I could buy a replacement. They had a look on their computer and said that it probably wasn't my modem, but the signal. So I was told to wait for a call for the service people sometime before 5 and they would fix everything. I thought 'fine' and went home waiting for a call.

At five to five we still hadn't received a call, so my dutiful wife called them up and was told that the service people were probably busy, and so we would get a call sometime the next morning (how hard would it have been for the office people to say within the next 24 hours instead of by 5?).

The next morning we received the call. My wife explained the problem and the service people said that it was obviously a modem problem and that we should take the modem back to the office for a replacement. At this point I wasn't very happy, because I had done this the previous day.

So we took the modem back to the office where we were told that before we could get a replacement we had to supply not only the modem, but also all of the cables with the original box and CD! I did well not to lose my temper. Why couldn't we have been told this the before?

(If you are reading this, it means that we have somehow sorted the problem out and have internet again)

Today I bought some bread from our local store. The bread has always cost 2.19, it even says so on the shelf. But when I got to the checkout the lady said it was 2.30. My response was: no, it's 2.19 (I said it a few times in Polish). However she must have realised that I'm not Polish and simply smiled and pointed to the price on the checkout. Because I wanted the bread and didn't want to waste any more time over 11 groszy (5 cents Australian, or 2pence), I paid her and left. Obviously someone changed the price in the computers, but couldn't be bothered changing the price on the shelf. This is not only bad customer service, but in Australia it is illegal.

I think the problem is that Poles don't complain to the right people. They love complaining/gossiping amongst themselves and their friends, but they very rarely make official complaints. Maybe they are embarrassed, or they think that nothing will change, or they don't to cause any problems. This is most likely due to the years of repressive government that they endured. However the time has come to move on. Poland has been a free country for quite a few years now. It's time to take the next step and for the people to start demanding that other people/organisations/government do what they say they will do. The days of accepting the mediocre and inefficient is over.

Polish in Conversation

2009-08-24T13:59:00.005+02:00

I was told yesterday that I should learn more Polish so that I can join in with conversations. I guess I'm not much of a conversationist, so I need a bit of encouragement at the best of times.

Can someone give me a bit of help with the following statements that I could include in most Polish conversations (These may or may not be my personal views, but it should be enough to start an argument between the other members of the conversation so that I can slip quietly away and have a coffee and biscuit). If you can give me some further suggestions, I would be very happy:

POLITICS:

Mr Kaczynski is incompetent and Mr Tusk isn't doing anything.

RELIGION:

Catholicism is a good religion, but I have trouble accepting the catholic traditions that are not Biblically based, especially as Jesus said in Matthew 15 that tradition nullifies the Word of God.

BUREAUCRACY:

The main problem is that Poles don't trust other Poles. And most Bureaucrats are more worried about pieces of paper than actually getting something done.

ON FOOTBALL:

Polish footballers are good, but they can't play as a team. Is this the fault of the coach? Maybe...

Only four seasons?

2009-08-23T11:35:00.002+02:00

I came across this article the other day. Apparently (in reality) Australia has six seasons, and the four season approach is based purely on the European model

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8215570.stm

But, is that true? Because here is another interesting blog/article talking about the six Polish seasons...

http://sylwiaofwarsaw.wordpress.com/2008/12/10/polish-six-seasons-a-guide/

Maybe the thought of six seasons is in fact a global phenomenon?

August Monthly Journal

2009-08-18T22:36:00.005+02:00

AUGUST 2009

“That’s what you get for waking up in Vegas!”

- Kate Perry

Hello friends,

We’ve had an interesting month, full of ups and downs and sides to sides. As you may have read from the last journal, it is summer holidays at the moment, which means that we haven’t been teaching. I’m sure that most of you would jump at the chance to have a two month summer holiday in the centre of Europe. It sounded great to us too, until we realised that we didn’t have enough money to do anything exciting.

So we have been spending a lot of time with our kids. Jola’s parents have been to visit us a few times, we visited all the local playgrounds many times. You get the idea.

About two weeks into our ‘holiday’ I found a job on the net. A local firm was looking for someone to do work in an office that could speak English. So I asked a few questions, but because I didn’t get a response I assumed that they didn’t want to talk to me.

One of our friends found a job and needed a babysitter for her kids, so all of a sudden we had four extra kids in the house. It was great! Our neighbours thought that we had started a pre-school. So we spent a lot of time outside in the sun with the six kids (ranging in age from 2 to 12). I think it was good for our children to spend time with other children, but it was very tiring for them.

Out of the blue on a Tuesday afternoon, we received a call from the people that wanted the English-speaking office worker. Jola and I went for an interview the next day. It was the oddest job interview I have ever been to, and apparently they didn’t even read the questions I sent in my email. I should have realised then that would be some problems working there, but because I needed the money I accepted the job. On the Thursday I started work with an importer/exporter of dental and gynaecological supplies.

So, all of a sudden we were very busy. It was nice. I must admit that it took a bit for me to get used to working for eight hours again, and Jola enjoyed spending large amounts of time outside in the sun with six kids (not to mention cooking lots of food).

This month we bought Chris his first single bed (mostly because we were sick of him trying to get out of his cot). For the first two weeks it was very difficult to put him to bed. He kept getting out and going to where his cot used to be, or going into the lounge to watch TV with Mummy & Daddy. So we have stopped watching TV when the kids are going to sleep (the joys of a Hard Disk recorder – not that there’s anything on) and Chris helped us dismantle and pack away his old cot. Now Chris and Ela share the same bedroom so they can both learn to get on better with each other (plus our house is too small for us to do anything else).

My job was fun, but I had some problems. My boss seemed to care more about the Feng Shui of the office (including fish tanks) than the computer network (my computer took 20 minutes to load up each morning). There was no OH&S. We had to spend a great deal of time on the phone, but there weren’t enough phones to go around. There was no job description, no price-lists in English (funny because I was supposed to be selling stuff to the UK), no clear organisation. As an accountant and business consultant, you can understand how difficult this was for me; especially because the boss wouldn’t listen to what I had to say. And so after 3 weeks I was fired for ‘not working fast enough.’ And to add insult to injury, the boss wasn’t even brave enough to tell me himself, he had one of my colleagues tell me. However I’m grateful for the experience. It has taught me that you don’t have to be that good to run a business in Poland, and it has given me a few ideas for making some money on my own.

School holidays end in two weeks, so we are making the most of the sun and time with our kids. It’s a pity we don’t have a car for day trips, it just means that we spend more time walking and watching Ela ride her bike.

And that’s the end of the story!

Malcolm, Jola, Ela & Chris

Polish drivers

2009-08-14T08:38:00.002+02:00

This is an article in my local newspaper

http://www.nj24.pl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3936&Itemid=138

Apparently a new 'No Entry' sign was put up in the middle of my city and all of the drivers are ignoring it. This says two things:

1. Polish drivers do what they want to do/what they are used to and take little notice of road signs. I suspect that this is because there are far too many signs and not enough good roads and far too many imminent dangers (eg pedestrians stepping into the street in odd places, Polish drivers driving like Poles etc ...

2. Polish City Councils do not understand the first thing about communication. They think they can put up a heap of random signs and expect people to obey them immediately. In Australia whenever something changes there is always at least 3 big yellow warning signs saying 'changed traffic conditions ahead' or something similar. Or maybe someone in the office is paid on a sign commission. The more street signs he/she puts up, the more he/she gets paid...

Janice from Poland or Lower Silesia?

2009-07-31T08:40:00.002+02:00

I found this blog yesterday about Janice

Janice Powell's Teeth Whitening Story

I thought it was interesting because in her 'About Me' she said she was from Walbrzych, Lower Silesia. I was a little surprised to see this because I live in Jelenia Gora, about 50km's from Walbrzych. I had no idea that US companies would send 'free samples' all the way here...

But then I got suspicious, because Janice is hardly what I would call a Polish name. So I made a comment at the bottom of the post, and am still waiting for a reply

Then I had another look at the Blog today, and Janice has suddenly moved to Santa Clara, CA! Maybe I offended her?

(Actually, this blog is a pure advertising sham. I guess Americans prefer to be told what to buy from some Mom in Walbrzych, than a big corporate company. I really don't know what that says about American culture)

Cheers!

Polish Doctors

2009-07-26T11:23:00.003+02:00

We had to take Ela to the doctor this morning...

Every now and then our beautiful daughter gets something like croup, meaning that her throat swells a bit and she coughs a lot in the mornings and evenings. It's not uncommon. It's easy to fix in the short term - in Australia.

But, this is Poland. Somehow we ended up spending about 60 zloty on medication (a bit less than $30AUD). Including Vitamin C, Calcium, Pro-Biotics, nasal spray, and (of course) antibiotics. And of course the doctor says that she needs to take all of them!

This is ludicrous. I swear that Polish doctors work on commission for the drug companies. Unfortunately I am not a doctor or a pharmacist, so I can not tell which of these are necessary or unnecessary, meaning that we have no choice but to give her everything.

That's my rant for today.

Malcolm

Mal & Jolas Monthly Journal

2009-06-22T08:07:00.007+02:00

JUNE 2009

“Dance, dance, dance…“
- Lykke Li

Hello friends,

Can you believe that it’s already June? The end of the Australian financial year, the end of the Polish school year (actually I started writing this about a month ago, I’ve been slack). We are almost half way through the year now; and about 95% of the way through the decade. I wonder what this decade will be referred to as in the future: probably the two thousands, as the norties sounds a bit contrived.

A lot has happened since the last journal:
- Easter
- Ela’s Birthday
- Jola’s exams
- School
- Oliver and Rebekah Jessup visited us
- We went to Prague
- More school
- Surfing the net
- Et-cetera

(Ela blowing out her birthday candles)

Part of the reason that this Monthly Journal is so late is that we have been quite ill with a number of different things. Personally I partly blame the weather (it has been manic) and our students (I’m sure we caught something off the couple of hundred people that we teach between us).
But anyway, if we went into too much detail explaining what has happened, then I would get sore fingers, so I thought I would just explain what happened yesterday. A bit like a day in the life of the Guy family…

Saturday the 20th of June 2009. Jelenia Góra, Poland

We woke up at about 7 in the morning when Chris decided it was time that he got out of bed. Because his cot is still in our bedroom, he likes to wake us up by throwing his blanket and teddies at us. It is normally quite effective. Fortunately he went into the lounge room and played quietly by himself for half an hour or so until Ela woke up. When Ela wakes up she is less quiet. She normally goes and plays with Chris for a short time and then comes into our room and wakes us up for a second time; normally by climbing on us or asking for juice.

Because Jola had school that day, she got up, dressed the kids and generally did all the things that good wives and mothers should. whilst her favourite husband rested his weary eyes...

Anyhow, Jola went to school at about 9 am and Daddy and the kids had the house to themselves. The kids played very nicely with their new scrap books. Ela asked for a screaming out (a colouring-in picture from the laser printer) of a dinosaur and they each coloured in very happily until about 10 am. At 10 am it was time for morning tea. Daddy wanted to give the children a banana, but Ela said she had a full tummy for bananas, and wanted a biscuit instead. Daddy, who is the master of negotiation, gave them some jelly with apple instead (that we had made on Friday because the kids weren’t eating the apples).

(A random picture of Chris getting ready to eat)

After the kids had finished eating their morning tea (it’s amazing how quickly kids eat fruit after it has been cooked and put in jelly), we went to the shops. Kids love going to the shops, and so does Daddy. We went to Kaufland which is a medium sized supermarket within walking distance of our home. Chris sat in the pram and Daddy and Ela walked. On the way, Ela sang Christmas songs over and over again - it was great.
Kaufland is not a very interesting shop. But the kids made it very interesting. They sat in the trolley and played with the groceries. Somehow they managed to build a tower out of mayonnaise and pasta sauce jars. Then Chris opened a chocolate bar and, whilst Daddy was looking for a glue stick, he tried to climb out of the trolley. One of the problems with Kaufland though is that the aisles are quite narrow, so we have to push the trolley down the middle of the aisle so that little fingers don’t touch/get the items of the shelves (much to the annoyance of other shoppers).

On the way home we stopped and played at a little park (there are about ten little parks within walking distance of our home) where Ela met a new friend. They played in the sandpit and made pretend cakes and food. Captain Rhubarb was happier climbing on the see-saw and sliding on the slide (our little monkey loves climbing, whenever he sees a ladder he goes up it – which is not always a good thing…) Ela’s little friend also did a wee next to a tree, which, unfortunately, has inspired her to want to do the same.

We got home from shopping at 12:30. Just in time for Daddy to cook pasta for dinner. Unfortunately he forgot to buy mince meat and he bought the wrong vegetables (let’s just say that the children were a little distracting in the shops). But the kids ate it anyway – they love pasta. Whilst Daddy was cooking dinner and washing the dishes Ela played Pet Society on Facebook and Chris played with his toy animals. When they are separated they play very nicely and quietly.

After dinner, Chris collected his cars, picked up his blanket, and went to bed. He is very attached to his blanket and likes to have it close to him all through the day. Fortunately he doesn’t want to take it outside with him.

Whilst Chris was sleeping, Daddy and Ela made cherry jelly. We were given about four kilo’s of cherries from Jola’s parents, but unfortunately they were starting to go bad. So in order to make the kids eat them, we pitted them and made some jelly. Ela loves cooking (if you can call making jelly cooking) and stirring things (Part of the reason that we didn’t eat them is because we also got about 2 kilo’s of strawberries at the same time).

After Captain Rhubarb woke up we went and played outside again. The kids met some more new friends. Ela always surprises the other kids with how well she can speak English (and her Polish is getting better too). Ela and Chris both had ice cream in a cone. Unfortunately Chris’s Ice cream fell on the ground and then he started stepping in it.

(Only a two year old fully understands the joy of ice-cream cones!)

Jola came home from Uni at about 6 and was quite happy to lay down and rest after the whole day of sitting on her bottom. I (Jola) was supposed to have an exam, but somebody stuffed something up and our teacher felt so guilty about it that without making us sit the exam he gave everybody A’s. Easy peasy lemon squeezy J

At 7 the kids watched their cartoons, ate their supper, brushed their teeth and got ready for bed.
Mummy and Daddy then had some time to themselves. Jola was supposed to study for her exams the next day, but she was feeling a bit tired so we watched some episodes of Scrubs instead.

And that’s the end of the story!

Thank you to the twenty four people from five different countries who have visited my blog (Malcolm’s Occasional Rant: http://malcolmguy.blogspot.com ).

Remember, if you are on Facebook ( http://www.facebook.com/malcolm.guy ) or Nasza-Klasa, then look us up and be our friends. If you have Skype then send us your Skype address (our Skype address is malcolmjola).
Feel free to email us and tell us your own stories (and even send some pictures)

Best Regards,

Malcolm (mostly), Jola, Elizabeth & Christopher Guy

Am I Happy?

2009-05-05T10:48:00.004+02:00

I often get asked by people whether or not I am happy living here in Poland, especially when compared to living in Australia. The short answer is: Yes. The long answer follows:

Don't get me wrong though. I love living in Australia. In my opinion, Australia is the best place in the world to live. Everything is well organised, there is a good social security system, it is relatively easy for well educated people to find work, bureacracy and government departments are relatively efficient. Oh, and the weather is quite good also.

But the question is: Am I Happy here?

Although I have a small apartment, it is quite cheap to rent. I don't have a well paying job, but I work for less than 20 hours a week. Plus it is often a joy teaching your own language especially when your students want to learn (which is normally the case at a private school). Plus there is very little stress involved in teaching English, especially when compared to accounting.

My ability to speak Polish is rather poor, but I know enough to get by. My Polish is poor enough for people to be happy that I am trying to communicate with them, and it is not good enough yet for people to think that they can correct my grammar (thank goodness).

In the morning I get to spend time with my kids whilst Jola is working. Sometimes we go to the playground, we often go to the shops to buy bread (I don't know why Polish bread has to go stale in less than two days - I'm not going to even comment on the "fresh milk," except to say that I don't buy it).

Here in Poland I exercise regularly (mainly because we don't have a car), and have lost enough weight to notice the difference. It feels good.

However socialising is a bit difficult because we have two children and I usually work in the afternoons/evenings when other people are free. But I have internet, so I can still keep in touch with my friends from all over the world.

In conclusion: If my goal in life was to be happy, then I have attained it. Of course there are so many things in Poland I would love to change to make life easier, more comfortable and to make more sense. But I am happy to live here, and for the time being, raise my children here.

Dictionary of words and phrases regularly used in our house...

2009-04-20T09:01:00.009+02:00

I thought that I would briefly summarise some of the words and phrases used in our house so that if any of you should decide to visit us, you will understand what is going on:

ROOOAARR!!! - A dinosaur being hungry and/or trying to tickle another toy
RA - A dinosaur talking to it's friends
HOOHOO - a dog (often also pronounced: Hmph, Hmph)
BAW - a ball
POO-POO - Words associated with potty, toilet, full nappies
MNUM MNUM - I'm Hungry
P'HUH! - This is yucky - normally related to things found outside
BAA-BAA - a sheep
MAMA - Mummy
TATA - Daddy
LALA - Ela
PAPA - Goodnight, Goodbye
GO - either as a question or a statement

The following are regular conversations that take place:

1. When Daddy is in the shower
Ela: Knock Knock
Daddy: Who's there?
Ela: It's Ela
Daddy: What do you want?
Ela: I want you to give me something/help me with something/take something off Becky
Daddy: I'm in the shower now, wait until I come out
- Wait for 30 seconds and then repeat ad-nausea

But it is better than the alternative:
Ela: NO!
Chris: WAAAHHH!!
Daddy: Ela, give it back to him!
- Wait for 30 seconds and then repeat ad-nausea

2. This sequence of events is not uncommon:
Chris: * Sounds of high pitched gibberish accompanied by fast footsteps
Table/Chris: Two Thumps (sometimes three)
Chris: WAAAHHH!!!
Definition: Chris had just covered his head with his blanket and run into the table or the wall - again

3: (No Comment)
Daddy/Mummy: Ela, please pick up your pencils of the floor
Ela: WAAAAHHH!!! DON'T TELL ME OFF!!!

Additional Information:
Our son has the legal name of Christopher, but we often refer to him as Captain Rhubarb or Becky Bucket. We are often asked how this came about...

- When Baby Chris was still in his Mummy's tummy, we called him Rybek, which sounds a bit like the Polish word for fish (Ryba)
- When he was born we named him Christopher (Chris), but Ela kept calling him Bek (Because she couldn't say Rybek or Chris)
- Eventually this became Beky, because the 'Y' made it sound cuter.
- There is a cartoon in Australia called Becky Bucket, so we called him this because it sounded cool (I love alliteration)
- Eventually Becky Bucket transformed into Becky Boo, and then into Becky Boo Bah, before finally it had evolved into Boo Bah!
- Boo bah sounds a bit like Rhubarb. But Rhubarb isn't really a name.
- And so, when Captain Rhubarb was about 18 months old, we gave him the name of Captain Rhubarb

How I Discipline my children - Part 1

2009-04-16T11:37:00.004+02:00

Part 1: Should I use Corporal Punishment?

Introduction/Disclaimer
Note: I have prepred this document for MY OWN BENEFIT. If you agree or disagree with any of the points raised, then feel free to tell me. However don’t even pretend to think that I am telling YOU what to do. You can read, which means that you are capable of salient thought. Or in other words: make up your own mind.
I have tried to include all relevant supporting evidence, but if you think/feel I have missed something or misinterpreted something, then feel free to advise me (it doesn’t mean that I will change my mind).
All scripture references are taken from the King James Version, mostly because that is the version that I have on my computer with links to the Strongs Dictionary. I suggest that you read the verses in a version that you feel comfortable with.

I am the father of two wonderful children (this is a biased statement based purely on personal judgement) and it is my intention to raise them in the best manner possible. I believe that imperfect parents cannot raise perfect children; but I’m going to give it my best shot. Also, as a Christian, I would like to raise my children according to the principles given in the Bible (hence there will be a lot of scripture verses in here).

I was inspired to write/compile this information due to recent proposed legislation here in Poland. Esentially the government is intending to legislate that it is illegal for parents to use corporal punishment. We have discussed this with a number of people here in Poland, and they seem to suggest that Christians should ignore this law and raise their children according to what is written in the Bible. Therefore I have been presented with a decision: Either obey the law of the country, or obey what is contained in the Bible. But before I can decide which law I will obey, I must first discover for myself exactly what the Bible says about corporal punishment as a method for disciplining children.

What does the Bible say about discipline?
The following are pertinent scripture verses. I have shown the verse with my conclusions shown below each verse:

Proverbs 22:6
6 Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.
(This verse suggests that a parent or guardian can have an impact on their childs life if they train their child. This is logical and makes sense)

Proverbs 3:11-12
11 ¶My son, despise not the chastening of the LORD; neither be weary of his correction:
12 For whom the LORD loveth he correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth.
(These verses liken the chastening of the LORD to the discipline that a father gives his child. No child likes discipline, but then neither do adults. These verses also suggest that you only discipline people that you love or are responsible for. Again this makes complete sense)

Proverbs 29:17
17 Correct thy son, and he shall give thee rest; yea, he shall give delight unto thy soul.
(An obedient child will definitely give a father rest)

Proverbs 19:18
18 Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying.
(This verse suggests that chastening or discipline should start before the child starts developing wrong ideas or bad habits. Most discipline involves providing a negative outcome in response to a child’s negative action. This invariably causes tears even when no harm is done to the child)

It is quite clear from the above verses that the Bible suggests that if you discipline/chasten a child properly and lovingly, the child will grow up to be obedient and disciplined.

I note that however that most of the scriptures about discipline are in Proverbs, which is a book largely attributed to King Solomon. King Solomon was a wise and wealthy king of Israel, but he didn’t end his life as well as he could have (1 Kings 11). Maybe he should have listened to his own advice? Maybe when a child becomes an adult, they become responsible for their own decisions/actions?

How should I discipline my children?
Proverbs 13:24
24 He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.

Proverbs 22:15
15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.

Proverbs 23:13-14
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

Proverbs 29:15
15 The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

Well. That appears quite clear doesn’t it. But before I head off to the nearest supermarket to buy a rod, it might be a good idea to find out what it actually is.
The Hebrew word used here for rod is shebet:
(Strongs number 7626) shebet shay'-bet from an unused root probably meaning to branch off; a scion, i.e. (literally) a stick (for punishing, writing, fighting, ruling, walking, etc.) or (figuratively) a clan:--X correction, dart, rod, sceptre, staff, tribe.
Or in other words, a rod is literally a stick used for many things including punishing, writing, fighting, ruling (I assume this is not the drawing straight lines kind of ruling), walking etc.
But who uses such a stick? Obviously someone who spends his/her time punishing, writing, fighting, ruling and (from time to time) walking. Or in other words, someone in authority. So, what if a person’s rod represented his/her authority?

Another good way to determine what a word usually means is by seeing how this word is used in other places. Therefore I have found some additional verses in the Old Testament (outside of Proverbs) that use the word rod (shebet) and I have tried to garner fuller meaning from these passages.

Job 9:34
34 Let him take his rod away from me, and let not his fear terrify me:
(This is Job talking about God. God never used a physical stick to beat Job with, however Job felt that God was punishing him. So in this context, rod means punishment)

Job 21:9
9 Their houses are safe from fear, neither is the rod of God upon them.
(This is Job talking to his friends about wicked people. It appears again that the rod of God is the punishment of God)

2 Samuel 7:14
14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:
(This is God talking to David about Solomon (funnily enough). I don’t think God ever used a physical rod, so again the word rod here refers to punishment)

Psalms 2:7-9
7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
(This is God talking to Jesus, telling Him that he will break the nations with a rod of iron. Again, this rod is clearly not physical or literal, but figurative and represents punishment)

Psalm 23:4
4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
(here David is talking to God. How can a rod bring comfort if it is only for punishment? It must also represent authority – a staff is known to represent guidance)

Psalm 89:30-37
30 If his children forsake my law, and walk not in my judgments;
31 If they break my statutes, and keep not my commandments;
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my lovingkindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail.
34 My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
(This is God talking again. The word rod clearly relates to punishment as opposed to a physical stick. Verses 36 and 37 refer to Jesus, who bore our transgressions and iniquity on the cross. Is there a connection between this rod and the death of Jesus on the cross?)

Psalm 125:2-3
2 As the mountains are round about Jerusalem, so the LORD is round about his people from henceforth even for ever.
3 For the rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous; lest the righteous put forth their hands unto iniquity.
(Here the word rod seems to suggest affliction. It is interesting to read the second part of verse 3. These verses suggest that if undue punishment (how else would you define the punishment/affliction of the wicked) is given to those that are righteous, then even those that are righteous may turn to iniquity. Does this mean that if we as parents give undue punishment to our children, then our children will also turn to iniquity? Probably)

I think I’ll stop there. It appears to me that the Hebrew word SHEBET, meaning ROD is used primarily to indicate punishment from one with authority. I have not found any other scriptures that use this word shebet to indicate a physical stick with the primary purpose of smacking children’s bottoms.

So, let’s have another look at those scriptures from Proverbs, except instead of using the word ROD I will use the idea of punishment from someone in authority.

Proverbs 13:24
24 He that DOES NOT PUNISH HIS SON hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes.
Proverbs 22:15
15 Foolishness is bound in the heart of a child; but PUNISHMENT FROM SOMEONE IN AUTHORITY shall drive it far from him.
Proverbs 29:15
15 The PUNISHMENT FROM SOMEONE IN AUTHORITY and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame.

All of the above verses make perfect sense when the word ROD is replaced with the idea of PUNISHMENT, and do not necessarily dictate the use of physical punishment.

However the following verses in Proverbs 23 do seem to suggest that physical punishment is required:

Proverbs 23:13-14
13 Withhold not correction from the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die.
14 Thou shalt beat him with the rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell.

The word BEAT that is used here has the following definition in Hebrew:
(Strongs number 5221) nakah naw-kaw' a primitive root; to strike (lightly or severely, literally or figuratively):--beat, cast forth, clap, give (wounds), X go forward, X indeed, kill, make (slaughter), murderer, punish, slaughter, slay(-er, -ing), smite(-r, -ing), strike, be stricken, (give) stripes, X surely, wound.

Or in other words verse 13 says: Do not withhold correction from your child. If you strike him/her (lightly or severely, literally or figuratively), then he/she will not die.
(of course if you use the extended meaning of this word, ie. slay, smite, kill; then the child will probably die and you will go to jail for child abuse or murder).
Does this mean that the parent has a choice? I think it does; they can strike the child either literally or figuratively. Or in other words, it is up to the parents of the child to determine the best way to punish.

Verse 14 is clearly intended to be figurative. Nowhere else in the scriptures does it advise being beaten as a method of escaping hell.

But wait! I remember that in Exodus there is also a lot of talk about rods (i.e. Moses had a rod, Aaron had a rod, almost everyone seemed to have a rod), but this physical stick was the Hebrew word matteh, not shebet:
(Strongs number 4294) matteh mat-teh' or (feminine) mattah {mat-taw'}; from 5186; a branch (as extending); figuratively, a tribe; also a rod, whether for chastising (figuratively, correction), ruling (a sceptre), throwing (a lance), or walking (a staff; figuratively, a support of life, e.g. bread):--rod, staff, tribe. see HEBREW for 05186

What else does Proverbs say about rods and physical punishment?
Proverbs 10:13
13 In the lips of him that hath understanding wisdom is found: but a rod is for the back of him that is void of understanding.

Proverbs 19:29
29 Judgments are prepared for scorners, and stripes for the back of fools.

Proverbs 26:3
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool's back.

These three verses clearly suggest physical punishment. And they all suggest that physical punishment is to be used for those without understanding (or fools). I don’t know about you, dear reader, but my children are not fools. These verses do not say that the rod (or as discussed, punishment) should be used on the back of a child. These verses suggest to me that if someone has understanding (or if someone can be given understanding), then physical punishment is not required or necessary.

What does the New Testament say about disciplining children?
Ephesians 6:1-4
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
2 Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
3 That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
4 And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.

1 Timothy 3:2-5
2 A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;
3 Not given to wine, no striker, not greedy of filthy lucre; but patient, not a brawler, not covetous;
4 One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity;
5 (For if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?)

These two passages seem to confirm my understanding of the Old Testament regarding the discipline of children.
It is the responsibility of the father (with assistance from the mother) to raise the children. They are to raise their children using both nurture and admonition. Where nurture is providing the child what it needs and admonition is providing direction and discipline.
1 Timothy 3:3 also requires that a bishop/elder is not a striker (also means quarrelsome in the greek). Does this also mean that he should not strike/argue with his children?
Ephesians 6:1-2 suggests that it is also the responsibility of the child to obey their parents. It is not the parents’ responsibility to beat the children into submission, especially when the child is old enough to understand the consequences of their own actions.

What about empirical research?
It is difficult to find research in this area which is not biased. Most individuals/organisations which have researched the effects of corporal punishment on children set out to prove that their hypothesis is correct. There are only a limited number of studies done with the purpose of detailing the outcomes as opposed to proving a point.
Because each of these studies contains so much information, I have simply provided a web link to enable you to peruse these at your own leisure: http://www.religioustolerance.org/spankin20.htm

The main findings that I wish to raise from these articles are:
1. There is a clear relationship between using physical forms of punishment with immediate/quick obedience by the child
2. There is not a clear relationship between using physical forms of punishment with the child’s ability to decide for him/herself what is right and what is wrong
3. There seems to be a genetic link that suggests that violence in parents is handed down to their children
4. There seems to be a relationship between physical forms of punishment and an increase in the long term chances of developing mental and/or emotional disorders

There are so many different things which affect how a child grows up. Discipline is only one of these things. As such, none of the studies can say unequivocally that physical punishment as part of a parents discipline program causes harm to a child in the long run. However on the reverse side, the studies do indicate that children who receive physical forms of punishment do not behave considerably better as adults than children who do not receive physical forms of punishment.

If it was the will of God that children should be punished solely using physical means, as opposed to other non-physical means, then there would be a clear correlation between children receiving physical punishment and better behaviour as adults. However this is simply not the case; if anything there is a slight negative correlation.
In conclusion:
The Bible teaches that we should bring our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. There is no doubt in my mind that it is the responsibility of the parents to discipline their children. There is also no doubt in the common press: Parents should discipline their children. There is no argument about this. The Bible is very clear and the positive effects of discipline are evident for all to see.
However, based on the few verses in Proverbs that are so often quoted, I do not believe that the Bible clearly states that parents should use a physical rod for delivering punishment.
I accept that I am not God, and that I will not be able to raise my children perfectly. I also accept that I will not always know what the correct punishment for my children should be. I do not want to punish my children unduly so that they turn to iniquity (Psalm 125:3).
This, coupled with the empirical evidence I have perused, and the fact that it may soon be illegal to use physical punishment on children here in Poland has led me to conclude that it is better for me and my family if we did not use physical forms of punishment as part of the process of discipline that our children will undertake.

Happy Easter!

2009-04-10T09:11:00.002+02:00

Happy Easter everyone!

Have a great time!

Don't eat too much chocolate - it's bad for your teeth

Is there a line on the horizon or not?

2009-03-24T16:06:00.006+01:00

I am a bit of a fan of U2 and I was really looking forward to their latest album - No Line on the Horizon (NLotH).

I must admit though, that even after listening to it for a week, I am unimpressed.

U2 is a band well known for changing their style and sounds, whilst still retaining their soul. Albums such as Rattle and Hum, Pop and All That You Can't Leave Behind have helped to define the current music scene. However albums such as Zooropa, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (and now, dare I say it, NLotH) have not.

Perhaps U2's unpredictability has become too predictable? Perhaps Bono has lost his edge? Maybe Brian Eno wanted to get his moneys worth from his new echo machine? Maybe it's just that I have become out of touch? Who knows...

I guess that I have always enjoyed U2 for their clear lyrics (albeit difficult to understand) and strong guitar riffs. I've always thought that U2 was trying to say something (not necessarily something specific, although usually political or religious) through their music. It's as if the band knew what they wanted to say, and they used both words and music to convey their ideas and philosophies. ATYCLB was a classic example of this.

NLotH is definitely trying to say something, but it seems that the message is confused and hazy. It's more like U2 has stopped using a megaphone and is now transmitting via radio. A radio with poor connections and too much static. Has U2 become just another background noise?

Or maybe U2 is following the lead of REM. REM had a nice little album - Around the Sun, which was calm and introspective, and forgettable. Then REM released Accelerate, a more up-tempo album that returned to their rock roots. Is U2 returning to their rock roots with this album? I don't think so. In fact I don't know where U2 is going with this album...

(Of course it is also possible that I'm just annoyed because iTunes won't let me download the Cover Art...)

Thoughts on public housing in Tasmania

2009-03-14T15:39:00.006+01:00

In the past few months I have noticed the subject of public housing appear in the media. As a home owner in Tasmania, any news about the housing situation there is interesting to me.

The current situation as I understand it is:

1. There is a shortage of rental properties in Tasmania

2. The rental properties that are available are overly expensive

3. Tasmania’s population recently exceeded 500,000 people

4. Housing affordability is very low

5. It is more difficult for people to get finance to purchase their own house

6. The federal government desires to spend big on public housing in order to keep the economy moving

7. There is a lack of new land available for the new housing which is required

Of course, because I am currently living in Poland, I do not have first-hand information about the situation. But I do have a different perspective. I am currently living in Jelenia Gora, an average sized city, in Poland. The population of Jelenia Gora is between 80 and 90 thousand people, so about half the size of Hobart. However it takes up about the same area as Kingston or Glenorchy. Most of the population lives in apartment blocks, and they are very happy about it.
We are living in a two bedroom apartment, which is one of sixty apartments in the block. The apartment block itself is five stories high and we live on the first floor. On our street there are about 40 such apartment blocks and I have no idea how many similar sized blocks are in the surrounding suburb. But anyway, the point is, that it is a lot more pleasant living here than I expected. There is ample room for the kids to play, our neighbours are polite, there doesn’t seem to be much crime around, the security system (although basic) works well…

And so I got to thinking: "Why couldn’t something like this work in Tasmania?"

I think that this could work quite well in Tassie, provided that the following requirements are met: 1. The apartments are positioned close (within walking distance) to shops and essential services such as public transport & schools
2. Ample car parking would need to be provided (it is not such an issue here, but Australians seem to need their cars)
3. At least half of the apartments should be sold to private owners. It is important from a cultural perspective that these places do not become a grotto for the unemployed (eg. Gagebrook)
4. The apartments should be built in desirable areas such as Taroona, Kingston, Clarence, South Hobart where there is already a positive culture. (Actually, the more I think about it, the best place to build these apartment blocks would be on the site of the existing Kingston High School)
5. The apartments should be heated centrally with ample insulation, including double glazed windows
6. There is ample space and facilities for children to play nearby
7. The outside of the buildings have an attractive appearance (not like this one)
8. Tasmanians would probably want to have lifts in these buildings, which are expensive things to own and run (of course the benefit of having a lift is that the buildings can be up to ten stories)

The main advantages of building these apartments would include:
1. Reducing the cost of providing public housing. A large part of the cost of housing these days is the cost of land. Apartment blocks use less land, and the land which is used is put to better use
2. These places would be more environmentally friendly. Central heating is much more efficient than heating individual houses. Also the people living in these apartments will not need to use the car all the time
3. Greater security (certainly against arsonists). Neighbourhood watch would be able to work much better

But of course there will be people who will argue with a proposal such as this. Probably the loudest objections will be from people who want a three or four bedroom public housing house on a quarter acre of land. Of course they want it, who wouldn’t? But if they are desparate for accommodation, then they should be happy with what they are given. I have no doubt that private buyers would be more than happy to buy these apartments.

Is it time for a New World Order?

2009-02-03T11:34:00.000+01:00

Recently there was an article in the Sydney Morning Herald claiming that our good friend Kevin Rudd believes that now is the time for a New World Order in the financial sector.

Is this merely political posturing, or is it part of a more sinister plan? Who knows?

My current experience suggests that a lot of people are worried mostly because they don't understand what is going on. So I will do my best to give my understanding and views of how this so-called world wide crisis appeared.

Basically most people in the Western world (USA, Europe, Australia) have enjoyed steady growth in their economies for quite a long time now. For example very few people will have clear memories of Keating's 'Recession we had to have,' and the Asian crisis in 1997 didn't affect many people outside of Asia. Some people (not just economists) were so proud of the long spate of steady growth that they claimed that the business cycle was dead.

So, here is my view of things (taken from an Australian perspective). I have tried to make it as simple as possible:

1. Australia's rate of economic growth over the past ten years has come primarily from rising commodity prices, which rose primarily due to the growth of the economy in China. Resource companies, such as mines, made a lot of money which invariably flowed through to the rest of the economy.

2. China's growth has come primarily from exports to the US

3. The US demand for exports was based on the rise of US household debt. People were basically increasing their mortgages in order to buy consumer goods (eg. cars, TV's, computers etc). A similar thing was happening in Australia, but to a lesser extent.

4. Banks in the US lent too much money (because they were greedy) and had rather relaxed lending requirements. This was fine as long as house prices kept rising and peoples wages kept improving in order to cover their interest repayments.

4a. US banks packaged up and sold their high risk loans to other international banks and financial institutions.

5. By the beginning of 2008, some house prices in the US started to fall and there was a rising number of foreclosures where people couldn't pay their mortgages. Foreclosures are very bad for banks, because not only do they lose the interest repayments (income), if they cannot sell the house at market value (which is very often the case) then they lose significantly more as well. This is why banks started posting losses of up to 10 times the profits they were posting a couple of years ago.

6. Because of the extraordinary large losses being made by US Banks (causing a number to go bankrupt in the space of less than a year), other banks (including banks in foreign markets) became scared to lend to each other, making it harder for banks to get money to on-lend to it's customers.

7. Because banks no longer had easy access to finance, they tightened the lending restrictions, making it difficult for businesses and people to borrow money (for example in Italy it became so hard for businesses to borrow money, many have to borrow money from the Mafia). And because businesses no longer had access to finance, they could not expand as easily or they had cash flow problems, causing them to lay-off staff.

8. All of a sudden people have become afraid of their jobs, which means that they are no longer confident enough to buy a new car, buy new electronic items (eg stereos, TV's); and even if they wanted to, they would have difficulties getting finance. This has caused thousands of people to be fired from places such as Panasonic, Sony and has caused a significant amount of problems for car-makers all around the world (especially those in the US).

9. This drop in consumer demand has meant that people are buying less exports. Therefore China (whose growth has largely come from exports) is no longer growing as fast as it did. Therefore they are no longer buying as many resources as they did, causing commodity prices to drop. Causing problems for Australian resource companies who (as mentioned in point 1) were one of the keys to Australia's growth over the last ten years.

Well. That was a bit longer than I hoped, sorry that haven't explained anything in full. I guess it just proves how complicated everything is at the moment. In particular I have not referred to interest rates, oil prices, the food crisis or exchange rates (because these are just another level of complexity).
Nothing that has happened over the past six to twelve months was unforeseeable. People have simply been ignoring the signs. That is: rising debt levels, China's dependence on the US, instability in the share market, etc...

But is it time for a new world order? Probably not, it's just time for everyone (especially those in the West) to reduce their reliance on debt and to stop living beyond their means. (sounds a bit like hedonism, I know)
You'll have to come up with your own conclusions.

New Years rant

2009-01-03T22:28:00.001+01:00

Hello, and welcome to 2009. The main purpose of this entry is to ensure that my site remains fresh and cheery :)

So far the new year has been rather exciting. Today for example I played in the snow with my kids for about an hour. It was great fun and we only came inside after Chris face planted himself into the snow. He thought it was great fun, but because I don't want him to catch a cold we had to come inside. Unfortunately this caused Ela to break into tears. Anyone would think she had never played in the snow before...

Of course there is nothing like a child screaming to bring the attention of the neighbours...
What is it with elderly Polish ladies. Why do they have to comment on everything that they don't like or that they think you can improve? At the bus stop last week I was reprimanded (or at least I think I was - my Polish isn't that great) because Chris wasn't wearing warm enough clothing, and he might get sick, and if I was a good parent I would think of that, and etc etc. All this from a perfect stranger. Maybe she doesn't understand that you can't always see thermal underwear and that polar fleece (whilst not fashionable) is very warm...

Jola's cousin had her baby today. I don't know all the details yet, but it sounds like everything went according to the doctor's plans. Once we have a nice picture, we will upload it (either to Facebook, or here, or both)
Apparently one of Jola's other cousins also had a baby recently. But we don't have any details about that one yet. (We didn't even know that she was pregnant)

Talking about babies, my sister Belinda had a baby boy just before Christmas, and she called him Samuel Christopher John Wicks. We are a bit perplexed as to why she used the same name as our boy Chris. But are happy all the same. There are photo's of this little one on Facebook.

That's probably enough for now.

Cheers

First comment

2008-12-13T15:19:00.002+01:00

Look at this, it's my first Blog. But what does that mean? Kto wie?

Hopefully I will put a lot of interesting things here. Hopefully someone will read it :)

C U L8R