Together in Poland

A new chance for us to travel together again, as I have to go to Poland for a sales conference in Warsaw and we have the chance for Caroline to come along with me. We fly to Warsaw on Saturday morning and arrive before lunch at the hotel. We throw our bags in the room and head out as the suns shining. We walk along the main street which is a pedestrian shopping street full of shops and café’s. We pass many of the churches along the way, which are all busy with weddings. It’s fun to go into one of them and see part of the wedding service and all the guests. We reach the old town and see a little of the main square and the old houses before we head back to the hotel. In the evening we eat out in a popular lounge bar and restaurant called the Living Room, nice. On Sunday we take breakfast in bed and enjoy a lazy morning while the rain stops outside. We take a walk in the city, have lunch and checkout the new shopping centre by the central station. In the evening we try an old restaurant in the old town and test some traditional Polish dishes. On Monday my conference starts and I get an introduction to the Polish railways while Caro gets her hair cut and relaxes. In the evening she joins me at the conference and after a mingle we go on with the other company representatives and the Swedish trade Council to a restaurant for another traditional Polish meal, but this time with more courses. Tuesday was the last day of the conference, which ended just after lunch. In the afternoon we had a few hours to walk into the centre again and visit the imposing Palace of Culture and Science, a huge building complex which was a gift from the Soviet Union from the 1950’s. The view of the city from the panorama level on the 30th floor is worth the small entry price to get a feel for the layout of the city. We head off for the airport and catch an evening flight to Stockholm… all in all, an interesting trip and a fun weekend together away.

This is England

Emma, Caroline and I went together to see the film “This is England” on Sunday. The film is set in the north of England in the 80s, and is about a young lad who’s Dad has died in the Falkland’s war and is being bullied at school. He meets a gang of skinheads, who befriend him and take him into their small gang. Life starts to look up and he enjoys their company and adopts their style. When an ex-gang member returns on the scene, things start to go wrong in a big way. At this point the film turns sharply in direction and the gang have difficult decisions to make as the nationalistic ideals of the new leader threaten to destroy the statuesque.

The film made me laugh at times, but is quite disturbing in many ways. It’s filled with great actors and loads of great northern accents… one to recommend, if you can take the bad language and sometimes serious violence.