Blog 11, cant think of a title

Ready to roast

Little quinces ready to grate

Ready to use in tea. High in Vit C

Domestics

I am rapidly turning into a Polish gospodarka, housewife. The last 3 days have been preparing our quinces. We have some 6 very large and heavy boxes. No way will I work through them all, but I have plans to unload several of them (quinces, not boxes) onto my swimming chums when I get back.  I have tried different methods of preparation. They are tough to peel and core, very hard, so some recipes recommend baking them first. But even them they are fiddly, so I am trying everything. So far, bottled compote, pickled and now jelly! They are so good. I took more pictures of the bottled stuff, some 8 jars, but something is wrong with the connection on my phone and I can't get them. 

Bleat: why does something go wrong with my phone every time we come here and Stefan has no problems at all?

New fruit trees where once was jungle

New pipe to run rainwater from garages on the right to the well on the left.
Under the flat white shape is a cellar!
Note the pic. below shows leaves still on the walnut tree.

From the bedroom

Autumn

We arrived just as the leaves were about to drop. Every morning we wake in our attic bedroom to the sight of dozens of rooks, or ravens, or crows, gleaning walnuts, while they last. 

Elections

The right wing party, Law and Justice got in which suits our David fine. I guess both countries will be lobbying the EU for changes together. I gather the Polish conservatives are not as right wing as in the west.  They seem to care much more about levelling out the playing field for everybody, rather than blindly chasing the dollar, hang everyone else. But I am very concerned about their strong links to the church. It matters as they are anti abortion and in outro fertilization.  I wonder how the women in the party feel; I cant believe they are all anti abortion.

Reading

I do not read as many novels as I would like, as the Polish study predominates. No way am I ready for Polish novels!  But I did sneak one in on the journey, which I have to recommend: One Day, David Nicholls. The Times said, ‘Amazing, amazing book’. I couldn’t put it better myself.  Also reading The Last Polish King, Adam Zamoyski, happily in English. Very densely packed with history, but gripping. He had a youthful passionate affair with Catherine the Great of Russia who decades later sold him and Poland down the river. Seems to be the story of Poland. But the country is now recognized as doing very well under EU support. All they need to do now is raise wages (a lot) and maybe, just maybe, some of their emigrants will return.  Don’t hold your breath. At least the low overheads and rates of pay are very good for foreign investment.

Back to Poland

Eastward
Tomorrow early we are off again. It feels very good to be going, but leaving the situation here is not so easy.
Mother never gets out of bed, she is terribly thin now. Father appeared to be straining his back with all the bending, looking after her and has been complaining bitterly about backache. He refuses any kind of help. Took him to the doc who did not look at his back but sent him for physio. Meanwhile the chief nurse came to us, saw the 2 of them and prescribed; we need daily attendance for mother, she says, straightaway, which will relieve the strain on him.
So, today I took him to physio, and it turns out this is not strain from bending, but there is a point/lump on his back which could be a number of things, which needs closer inspection.  So he will have a scan and we will see, and he will continue to pop those painkillers.   I was very glad I was able to take him. He came out of physio complaining it was all a waste of time and there was no difference. I went back stage to ask the therapist how come, what is going on, and she took me aside and explained. He had taken in none of that info when she explained to him, so if I hadn't asked we would be no further on. Well, no, I am wrong. A letter would have come and the machine would roll on, but he hadn't understood any of it!
So that is why I would rather be here, but.... I have a home to go to.

Rental woes
Has been a fair bit of organizing one tenant out, one (three really) in in our absence. Agreements to be signed, rents paid, filthy flat to be cleaned ..... and to top it, I hear today about nice Mr Osborne who plans to scrap tax relief on mortgages for landlords! All in order to encourage those who can afford to buy.  That means, folks, my nice policeman and doctor, and all the other tenants will have to pay a jacked up rent, which they cannot afford, as landlords with buy to let mortgages will have no income otherwise, or else their homes will be sold! So tell me how does that help those people who can no more afford a house when this law finally comes in than they could before?  How exactly does this help the housing crisis?

Unloading some more
Yesterday former partner, Peter, relieved me of some ripply glass I had been storing and of a pile of books. I had a good collection, going back to the earliest days when I was figuring out how to get the gold to stick. And some lovely catalogues of rare exhibitions, really classy publications.  But it feels great to have passed them on, not only to him but from him to younger assistants of his acquaintance who could use them. I hated the thought of these specialist books going to a flea market.  He is also taking over my teaching at West Dean, so gradually I am freeing myself up and it feels wonderful.

Enjoying London, mostly

This week has been London week for us, seeing good stuff. 

Stefan and I saw the Goya portraits at the National gallery, which we both loved.

We took a day to see some more of our great city taking buses into town and loads of walking. 

We changed at Victoria where massive construction is going on. I grew up there and hardly anything is recognisable. It is turning into a glass city. There used to be a miniature Big Ben standing in the intersection, close by the bus station. It is gone of course but I hope they are intending to return it.

Victoria Palace remains

We started to walk down Victoria Street, my old haunt in the days of red brick and pollution, and lo, there was Westminster Cathedral! Now beautifully accessible with a welcoming forecourt, in we went. It was a total surprise, I had forgotten it. Built in 1906 it is a mass of decoration and texture, the mosaics all done by imported Italian craftsmen. There is a large Eric Gill relief in one of the chapels, but it is not especially gripping, and badly lit.

Westminster Cathedral

Westminster Cathedral

Ploughing on we dropped in to a favourite little church, St James, Piccadilly.  I am not a churchgoer unless I want to hear good music or look at the art there. At least religion is good for that. This church has a lovely atmosphere, enhanced by the gentle snoring of 6 homeless men, each stretched out on his own pew. 

Grinling Gibbons, St James Church, Picadilly

 

Stefan is especially interested in masks just now so we were mask spotting as we walked.

We then went on to the Ai Wei Wei exhibition at the Royal Academy.  He pulls no punches, no wonder the authorities are jumpy. What a giant. He says the younger generation of Chinese are confident. They will need plenty of spunk to stand up to their rulers if the system is ever going to change. This man is paving the way for the next lot so they can allow their voices, too, to be heard even more loudly and just maybe things will change. 

The Finger, wallpaper

Qing dynasty stools

 We finished the day with the Barber of Seville, at the London Coliseum. Rossini's opera was known to me, but Jonathan Millers' production was a joy. Powerful music and dead funny. We had front row seats which was super, but we were both very cramped, pushed up against the rail.  However, a brilliant day out and my knee behaved very well, considering the punishment.

Motor cycle news
In the summer going into town on the bike is a joy, but I like it less now. The knee being a bit stiff doesn't help, but the traffic is pretty horrendous. The route goes along the river, past all the sights, up to Farringdon and into Hatton Garden. It was my stomping ground during my shortlived jewellery days and is now Polish lessons territory. Funny.  The days are shorter and colder, and I can't seem to avoid heavy traffic. I am trying to find easier routes, but London is so big, and so FULL.

News from a friend
My very good friend and I have been plotting for her to come to my birthday celebrations in Poland, early next May. The big 70, which should be marked. She lives in California. She has been going through cancer treatment, but recently had been warned things were not looking so good. But she felt fine and took a trip to see a friend. Coming back to see the docs, she was told, you have six months to live. Looks like I won't make the party, she says.
Latest is they tell her, with more chemo maybe you will.  Ah.
I will lay an honoured place for her and hope like hell.

This week

Advance warning: no pics this week after all, just a little catch up.

This week

The week looked pretty uneventful when I got a notice from a tenant to move out, after 6 months! It seems one of the 3 had not turned up to pay her share so they needed to downsize. So much for a 6-month tenancy agreement. Next time I will make it 12 months. 

Within 24 hours I was showing people around and as I write people are still enquiring. You meet some lovely people this way: the group who may be moving in all work in the day and do stand up comedy at night. We have a doctor and a policeman in one flat, and a pub owner, several pubs, in the other. Black, white, Hungarian, New Zealand and African/British. People complain about having to be a landlord, but I love it. I really like making sure the tenants are happy and have everything they need, and the occasional interaction with them.  I like learning the ropes of the business; how to stay on the right side of the law, for one thing.  I wasn’t too pleased about the sudden notice and even less pleased when I saw how dirty the flat was after such a short time, with only 2 people living there. I have professional inventory people check in and check out. The tenants will have to do a very good scrub up if they don’t want to pay for professional cleaners!

Latest Update: the flat is rented to the stand up comedians! Lets hope they are not joking about the flat. They are an interesting bunch. The one who came by today was at the Edinburgh Festival, they are all winning awards and they sound as if they are very good at what they do. Looking forward to seeing them perform.

Opera for the masses

It was a great week for opera. Our first time to the Waterloo Imax for a broadcasting of Verdi’s Il Trovatore, from the Met., New York.  It was the first of the season and it was brilliant. They have them every fortnight for the season and the next one is Otello. Fabulous.  Then, I learned from my swimming ladies, that the season has just started for the National Opera Studio.

http://www.nationaloperastudio.org.uk/nos-blog

They put on monthly recitals with carefully selected young musicians at All Saints Church, Wandsworth High Street (a 10 minute walk for us). They have a programme of training a handful of the very best, preparing them for the stage. Each performed from an opera- and they blew me away. I have never experienced full throttle fabulous singing and accompaniment at such close quarters. The church roof just lifted off, what voices!  Our favourite was the delightfully named bass, Dingle Yandell. First Weds of every month, if in the country, I SHALL BE THERE.  Makes X Factor look even more rubbishy.

Knee

I hardly mention that these days as it is getting BETTER. Oh joy, at last. I can go for (shortish) walks and not suffer too much afterwards. Getting back to normal feels fantastic.

Parents

Time is passing and changes are happening, though very slowly. On our return from Poland I saw my mother was even thinner and she is too weak to stand on her own.  It is fairly amazing that she lies in bed all day and night and does not contract infections, nor does she get bed sores. Good for her. We have had no outside help apart from cooking etc. from the agency while we were away. Today the doc came for a routine check, which was very timely. She is sending over Hospice who will assess and we will get some kind of support, at home. It is too much for my dad who is having back problems now from bending over all the time. But he doesn’t want help from me so that is not so easy.  He is doing well, but sight is going and he is increasingly clumsy.

We are planning to go back to Poland for a month in a couple of weeks. Obviously I have mixed feelings and a guilty conscience, but what are you going to do? Sit here and wait?  Plans remain flexible.

Who knows what the future brings, but Stefan and I are plotting a winter break in temperate Naples, but it may instead be Lanzarote. My swimming chums are proving an invaluable source of info. They go to concerts, events, have picnics on their allotments and they go on holidays!  A group of like-minded lovely ladies who can give me TIPS. One of them is off next week to L. to see some of the architecture she didn’t see first time around. She has found a great hotel etc. so I shall pick her brains.

Honestly, when you look at the news you don’t know which story is going to bring you down first: Putin, Assad; dead foreign babies on beaches; corruption; cheating and lying all over the place. None of this is new, but with our communications so efficient we all know everything, immediately. Or think we do. And I‘m not holding my breath for that nice Mr Corbyn.