Toothpaste and more

Toothpaste

People of colour in Poland are barely evident on Polish TV as very few live and work here. But there are some and one popped up, suddenly, in extreme close up for an ad. The screen was filled with his enormous smiling mouth, full of the whitest teeth. He was advertising tooth whitener. It took a moment for the penny to drop. I felt very uncomfortable; of course, the best contrast to white is dark but remember, not so long ago the only roles for people of colour were servants and slaves. Pity the poor black/brown person who wants to act. In the US, there is plenty of diversity on the screens, but more work has to be done in the UK (an all white East Enders?) and Poland will get there.  See this priceless discourse from Mohammad Ali.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rtxfTEyJZg4

Strike

Yesterday a number of Poles working in the UK went on strike, in protest of the disdainful treatment, as they see it, from the ungrateful Brits. Apparently one of their number was sacked from her job for speaking Polish. Meanwhile, another group decided this was a negative action, destined to create tension rather than endear them to the country. The second group decided to give blood, symbolic of their enormous and poorly recognized wartime contribution to Britain’s defeat of Germany in the last war, in addition to other events in which they took part.

The gesture was positive and thought provoking and if continued will surely be very welcome.

Glass stuff

I asked my good friend Sasha to make me a couple of panels for the house. And this is Stefan fitting one of them. Do see her website. Her work is outstanding.  http://www.sashaward.co.uk

To learn Polish, at the recommendation of my son the interpreter, I am reading one of the only books I could find, that comes in English, Polish and in audio: The Jefferson Key, or Klucz Jeffersona, by Steve Berry.

It is a long, very complicated thriller, based on some truth, which I can barely follow in English, let alone in Polish. Historically, pirates at sea had the blessing of their governments (the U.S. in this case) to attack enemies of the state, wherever they find them. The rewards were enormous and inevitably gave rise to all sorts of liberty taking, including assassination of presidents, which is, maybe, where the fiction comes in.

I slogged through the first few chapters several times, but had to read the whole thing in English just to sort out the plot, though I am still not too sure of it. 

But happily, I can report I am finding reading Polish very much easier.

Accidental wardrobe

It looks like a regular wardrobe, but when you look at the left hand side you will see something unusual.

We went to the local furniture shop, (remember this is not IKEA land, this place only just qualifies as a town rather than a village) to order a chest of drawers and a simple wardrobe. We selected from the catalogue and a week later we collected.  The chest of drawers was fine, but opening the large pack, we could not see what it was. Wrong colour, enormous… no pic, no instructions and no diagrams. Nothing. We decided Stef would put it together (see how easily that slips off the tongue, just do it) in the adjoining room and maybe we could use it. It looked as if it would fit in a space we had allocated as a garderobe, so maybe it would work.  We measured once it was built: the wardrobe was 5cm too large. So, of course, he made a hole in the wall and pushed it through. Et violá!

 
Next week, How to Handle Grout Gaffes.