20 east

There we all were, or weren’t, in TGI Friday’s this afternoon!

Not a disaster by any means as we did manage to gather three superstars of the blogosphere as well as one wife, one daughter, one significant other and a lot of empty glasses but there were a significant number missing. The bloggers were Expateek, Island1 and myself. The others were in some way related to the bloggers and the empty glasses belonged to TGI’s.

I think the lessons to be learned when organising a blog-meet are;

1/ Don’t cancel it and then change your mind again.
2/ Don’t forget to tell people about it or about the change of venue
3/ Don’t go ‘off the radar’ by crashing your mail at critical times
4/ Give people plenty of notice
5/ Offer incentives to turn up – money, free food, cute cuddly toys

Fingers will not be pointed. We’re not bean-spilling kind of people but no females were guilty and neither was I, well, except for the change of venue.

So. Onwards and upwards. We’ve tested the system and it works, it is possible to put three bloggers together without any need to have buckets of water on standby in the event of a bout of spontaneous combustion. The next meeting has been set for February 7th, 2009 at a Warsaw venue to be announced nearer the time. We are able to give such loooooooong notice because Expateek was there and before Island and I could mumble “I suppose we’ll have to do it again then”, she’d whipped out an efficient looking filofaxy whatsit and set the date for us! She’s since been appointed honorary secretary of the Warsaw Bloggers Association.

February, dude. Be there or be rectangular!

In the UK it is called ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ in Poland ‘Dancing with the Stars’ (Taniec z Gwiazdami) but it’s the same show franchised out to pollute as much of the planet as possible, just like all the other talent-come-entertainment shows we seem to have these days. Unlike the show that started it all and ran from 1949-1998, “Come Dancing”, the ‘Strictly’ version cannot pretend to be a serious dancing competition given that it needs to include celebrities’ with naturally varying degrees of competence when it comes to ballroom dancing. I’m not sure what the thinking was in deciding to add the word ‘Strictly’ for a dumbed down version of the real thing. ‘Hardly’ might have been a better choice! Anyway, the contestants have always been a mix from relatively talented dancers to jolly types just out for a bit of fun. Some take the competition seriously, others don’t.

Many of these shows have as a common component the requirement for members of the public to spend their hard earned money sending SMS messages to vote for their favourite person or couple. Strictly Come Dancing is no different. The couples dance, the panel of judges give their opinions and marks out of ten, but it is the public SMS votes that count the most. No matter how badly the judges score the contestants, the public can keep them in the competition and vice-versa. Have to confess that I don’t watch the show at all but have seen the odd 15 minutes here and there when either my parents or wife were watching the UK or Polish versions. Nobody in our family has ever bothered voting.

One assumes that the ability for the public to influence the outcome is something the public like, even though it costs them money. One also assumes that a professional standard of dancing is of secondary importance to entertainment value because the overwhelming majority of the voting public are not dance experts so they vote for who they like, not who’s dance is the most technically perfect. The BBC must have decided then that this combination is what gets them the highest ratings. It must therefore be a dance and celebrity based entertainment show, not a dancing competition, right? Apparently not.

The UK show, now in season 6, has gone seriously wrong. A former political correspondent by the name of John Sergeant, dancing with partner Kristina Rihanoff, has been a consistently poor performer but a great personality. Despite being ravaged by the judges who went as far as to call him a “dancing pig in Cuban heels”, he was clearly very committed, trying his hardest and a very lovable personality. The public vote had therefore, just as consistently, put him through every round always at the expense of another couple who were perhaps better dancers but less likeable.

The constant slagging of the judges combined with the increasing bad-attitudes of other contestants who might suggest they are “taking the competition more seriously” have now effectively forced Mr Sergeant to withdraw from the competition. After a tearful farewell dance the public’s favourite couple have left the building.

Why would the BBC allow this to happen? They’ve apparently been after him to join the show for quite a while now and I’m certain he didn’t dance any better in the auditions than he did in the show so it must have been his personality they were after. So he’s in the show for his personality, the public vote for his personality and yet he’s made to look a fool every week and ultimately has no option but to withdraw. Something is seriously wrong here and I can’t help thinking that the BBC have just killed the goose that laid a few golden eggs. This show will never be the same again, and neither should it be.

I was a bit disappointed to find that his Siberian dance partner, Kristina, has been tempted by large wads of cash to spill the beans (and flash her legs) in the News of the World but I suppose that’s to be expected these days.

Of course, if I had waited a day I could have got shots of last night’s more impressive snowfall. There’s enough here now for me to pack some into parcels and send to all those who commented saying they wish they had some snow where they live.

Good job we’re putting the winter tyres onto M’s car today!

A sort of winter has arrived in Warsaw at last. The BBC weather forecast is showing daytime temperatures of -1C with -4C at night and light snow showers for the next five days. The light snow arrived last night and this morning you can see the evidence;

Last year I recorded the first snow earlier, on November 12th, but it went on to be another feeble winter. I’d love to have a proper winter this year and early predictions were that it might be a good one. More recent comments suggest not. As a compromise, I’d settle for some deep snowfalls between December 20th and January 5th and nothing else, if anyone is listening!

I have to go back to the UK today, for business this time so I’ll be London based. Normal airlines so I won’t be suffering the Etiiuda factor on the way out. Going to be rather a lot of travelling though as I’m staying the first night with a work colleague and second with friends (hard times you know, can’t afford hotels).

The journeys today will be: Home-Warsaw airport, Warsaw-Heathrow, Heathrow-Paddington, Paddington-Charing Cross, Charing Cross-Wadhurst, Wadhurst-Home! Followed tomorrow morning by; Home-Wadhurst, Wadhurst-Charing Cross, Charing Cross-Office [pause for work] Office-Liverpool Street, Liverpoool Street-Rayners Lane, Rayners Lane-Another home. Finally on Tuesday; Home-Rayners Lane, Rayners Lane-Liverpool Street, Liverpool Street-Office [pause for work] Office-Liverpool Street, Liverpool Street-Paddington, Paddington-Heathrow, Heathrow-Warsaw, Warsaw-Home.

Plenty of opportunity there for something to go tits-up and for me to get thoroughly exhausted!

Final questions from our last trip to the UK

• Why do British pharmacies have entire shelves dedicated to nit/lice treatments? (the little things that run around in your hair) This is not something you see here in Poland and it amazed my wife who was iching for the rest of the day!
• Why can the UK have such useful medicines as Vicks First Defence or Sudafed for kids when Poland cannot have them?
• Why does the UK have such a gap between the good TV and the bad (check out “Hole in the Wall“)? In particular, why are Neil & Christine Hamilton now TV celebrities?
• Do people get tattoos and body piercing as a reaction against a nanny state?
• Why was Geoffrey Perkins so unknown until he died?
• Why is the rain in the UK so different to the rain in Warsaw?
• Why was the foreign exchange counter in Luton airport showing a rate of 10.67 for the Polish Zloty?
• Why does my Uncle think the Riley was his best ever car?