Quest for the meaning of 'Lo'

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

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...

Poland and Australia in the Winter Olympics

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…

Monthly Journal Oct 2009

“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...

New Years rant

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