Walk the talk

I’ve noticed people generally fall into two groups when it comes to speaking on the telephone; those who walk around and those who don’t.

In our house the ladies are both walkers. The instant the mobile is at the ear the legs start working, almost as if the radiation from the phone is triggering receptors in the walking part of the brain. I’m the opposite most of the time although even for me some conversations require movement.

Zosia has had her phone for about a year now. At age 8 it was largely unused and not really understood but now age 9 it is becoming a widely used tool for communication with her girlfriends via SMS and voice. As yet email is not well developed or used. Fascinating to see the early development of what will become a large part of her life to come.

In the photo above she was taking a 15 second break in the walkabout. Below she is multi-tasking with phone and Monster High dolls!

This is summer, enjoy it while you can!

Warsaw is basking in temperatures of around 30C this weekend. Flicking through the tabs of the weather app I’m struggling to find anywhere with better weather in any part of the world.

This is good timing because we are now into what most are calling “the long weekend” which is actually a whole week of people missing from the workplace. Both the 1st and 3rd of May are bank holidays, that’s Tuesday and Thursday so many people are filling in the gaps. I’m only taking the Wednesday off but even with that I get a weekend, one day at work, three days off, one day at work, another weekend. Not bad when the temperatures are supposed to remain above 20C with sunshine.

The neighbours have been busy with terrace improvements, putting down a new wooden deck and creating a rock garden (see bottom of the photo). I’m not complaining as it all improves the view from our terrace but this place is full of people with strong opinions so I expect there will be some chattering. I’ll post separately about the goings on of our estate, perhaps on Polandian.

Another Easter

Some snaps of the family Easter this year. Nothing revolutionary.

Easter Basket

At the church for basket blessing

A walk on Freta

One of the many "display graves"

Heading towards the old town

Display grave of the military church

View of Freta again

Happy Birthday Zosia!

Zosia has reached the very exciting age of nine. That’s almost ten – double figures!

Birthday Girl

She’s growing up fast and the stress is at times just too much.

My head hurts!

Still, thanks to birthday presents she managed to treble her available wealth in Monster High dolls, which is mostly what she was hoping for.

As is often the case, when the week-long excitement of an impending birthday is gone she falls sick and is a bit poorly today. Might have something to do with a new phase of tooth-shedding, who knows. She’ll be fine.

At least our recent spell of great weather allows us to start making use of the terrace.

Terrace in the early spring sun

Zlota 44 – update

It has been a while since we looked at how Złota 44 is progressing.

I think the main points are:

• Topping out ceremony was held a month or two ago now. I assume that’s what it was as there was a huge fireworks display held on the roof. It should therefore not be getting any taller than it is now unless they add a spike or something.
• Cladding is being installed. Frankly it looks pretty awful, cheap white panels and glass. I heard rumours that it was going to be much better but they needed to save money. No idea if true or false.
• They have been for a few days now testing some illumination on the outside of the facade. From my desk I have good view of the test which has lights shining up a white panel with fluctuating colours of light. I assume this is their idea to brighten the thing up and make it look better than it does. Perhaps they are trying to match the purple and green of the PKiN?
• The twisty shape is not actually as obvious from most directions as the original artwork suggested. The angle in the photo below (taken on Ul. Sosnowa) perhaps expresses it the best.

Złota 44 - March 2012

Unsurprising connected headlines

Villas-Boas sacked by Chelsea: AVB goes after just nine months.

A statement on the club’s website read: “Unfortunately the results and performances of the team have not been good enough and were showing no signs of improving at a key time in the season. [BBC]

By any measure Abramovich is an autocrat in a world not built for the expression of extreme personal whims. A close ally of Vladimir Putin, he applies comparable impatience and intolerance to his sporting empire. Those who can hide their mistakes and display unconditional obedience survive. The front-of-house stooge — the manager — picks up the tab whenever things go wrong. The awkward squad in Chelsea’s dressing room will be feeling very smug. Another victim is chalked up. But there is a deeper problem for them and their capricious owner. You look at this Chelsea side now and see a lack of players good enough to mount another title challenge. With a 3-1 first-leg deficit against Napoli, Abramovich’s Champions League dream is receding. In management circles, the deal has long been clear: take the Chelsea job, watch your back and wait for the dismissal cheque. [Telegraph]

Russia election: Vladimir Putin celebrates victory.

Mr Putin, who supported Mr Medvedev in the Kremlin race in 2008 and became prime minister because of a constitutional ban on a third consecutive term as president, will now be in office until 2018. He could then run for another six-year term. At a news briefing on Monday, the electoral commission said that with more than 99% of the votes counted, Mr Putin won 63.75%, enough to give him a first-round victory over nearest rival Gennady Zyuganov, who polled 17.19%. [BBC]

Incongruent headlines

Spotted one under the other in the BBC website news section just now:

Headline 1 – “G20 finance ministers ask eurozone to boost rescue fund”

Eurozone countries need to put more money in their rescue fund before G20 nations can step in to help them, the G20 finance ministers have said.

They said such a move was “essential” to their decision to provide more resources to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to help the region.

Headline 2 – “HSBC annual profits reach £13.8bn”

HSBC’s annual profits rose 15% to £13.8bn ($21.9bn) in what it called a year of “major progress”.

The bank is the biggest in Europe and makes about 90% of its profits outside the UK.

That’s not the first time I’ve noticed two such headlines next to each other, one demonstrating what excellent progress a bank is making next to another showing how the rest of us are still in the cack.

Additional text went on to advise us that:

HSBC’s total bonus pool for the year to 31 December was £2.64bn.

The group chief executive, Stuart Gulliver, received a total pay award of £7.2m, made up of a £1.2m salary, a £2.2m bonus and long-term incentives of £3.75m, which is in shares and cannot be sold until he retires or leaves the bank. Mr Gulliver was not the top earner this year, however. Another senior bank employee, who has not been named, will receive £8m in total. More than 200 key employees in the UK earned a total of £53m.

The size of the remuneration was seen as inappropriate by some, partly because the bank is currently in the process of cutting 30,000 jobs worldwide as part of wide-ranging cost-cutting measures designed to save up to £2.2bn by 2013.

Irrespective of where you stand on the question of “It was the banks what dun it!”, you have to believe this kind of adjacency will not have a happy ending.