Loose Change: The Deck Chair Menace
When did the deck chair become an acceptable form of seating? Thinking back to the early summer, which seems frighteningly recent, I don’t remember ever seeing one in the fragrant beer gardens of our...
View ArticleLoose Change: Proud To Be…
I ‘m fascinated by the qualities nationalities ascribe to themselves – the super powers people assume themselves to have acquired by the simple expedient of being born to speakers of a particular...
View ArticleLoose Change: Scarlett Johansson and the Three Bears
So here’s the thing, about a month ago, a Dutch student journalist wrote to me and asked if she could bring her group of Dutch student journalist friends to Poland and talk to me about the amazing...
View ArticleLoose Change: In a Band
It’s not that I really want to start a band, I just think it’s necessary – you’re nobody in this town unless you’re ‘in a band.’ At a party the other day, a former Miss Singapore and professor of...
View ArticleLoose Change: Ice
If summer is the silly season for news, the middle of winter is the dead boring season. We get the same stories every year. Either everyone is wondering where the snow is, or snow is causing national...
View ArticleLoose Change: When Russians Were Hilarious
Remember the Winter Olympics? You must remember. It was about two weeks ago and that Polish woman who always wins medals won a medal. Wasn’t that fun, looking down on the Russians for being poorly...
View ArticleLoose Change: The Polish Bird Flap
There was great excitement on BBC Radio 4 last week, as far as excitement on Radio 4 goes, over a pair of storks nesting in Britain. ‘Remarkably,’ enthused the breathless on-the-scene reporter, ‘it’s...
View ArticleLoose Change: The Sexy Shop
I had high hopes for the Sexy Shop. Nestled comfortably in double-fronted premises of moderate size on ul. Tomasza, ‘sexy’ suggested to me a light-hearted flirtatiousness otherwise entirely absent...
View ArticleLoose Change: Tram Hero
He’s out there, somewhere. Righting wrongs and protecting the weak. Roaming the streets of Krakow on the side of the humble tram rider, the nightmare of the gas guzzler. I’ve never had a hero before,...
View ArticleLoose Change: The Miracle of Buses
I’m told the countryside has much to recommend it, and isn’t just there to put decent intervals between interesting places. For example, thenews.pl recently reported that crop circles with ‘magical...
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