A warm Poland and layout nightmares

The blogs have been and will be far less frequent as there is no time!  It does take quite a while to do a decent blog, and I don’t think I can afford it. So they will be brief.  But I have to apologise for the nightmare layout. On this program I just cannot do it and rather than go nuts I am cutting my losses and calling, enough!

The Christmas party at the swimming pool where Henry goes every day, rain or shine was a great success. 

Jean, one of our swimmers.

Henry and Stefan at the party        

Back   We are back in Poland, happily. Less than 24 hours had passed when the Carers called to tell me mother was on her way to the hospital: severe weakness, not eating etc.  I heard nothing more and finally caught up with dad in the evening. He had been with her at the hospital, of course. She was suffering dehydration and the hospital was sorting her out. He sounded his usual very chirpy self.  This has happened before and he wasn’t worried.

Now, 4 days later, they are planning to send her home, she is VERY bright, he says, and all is well.

But this episode highlights the situation. We are happy here and carry on our lives, but I can’t be far from the phone. And we need to be prepared to return at very short notice.  Ah well, that’s the way it is.

Reading

I have been studying a fair bit. I can now read Polish much better, which is great. Stories for adolescents work and whatever easy stuff I can find.  I am also reading  (in English!) The Heart of Europe, Norman Davies, a much esteemed authority on Poland.  Here he has taken her history and worked backwards, from about 2000. Learning in more detail what this poor country has been through, time and time again, in her struggle to survive and maintain her identity, makes appalling reading. But he manages to paint a hopeful, positive picture.

Charity event

At this time of year, every year, the whole of Poland dip into their purses to contribute to an enormous Charity event. In our town a concert and auction raised their bit.

The choir sings folk songs, with a lovely picture in the foreground that was later auctioned.

Very good young singers

The girl was fabulous

The weather, like everywhere, is weird. Too warm.  Stefan is doing what he can on the house, it is looking and working better all the time.

                                                                  

A long London gap

It has been weeks since I did the blog. I haven’t done any since I have been back in London, the time just belts by and I couldn’t get to it.

Now we are getting ready to go back to Poland again.  Lots has happened but I will keep it brief.

We have been scouring the flea markets as usual and Stefan found this for the hall!  

Next door now has stairs 

We made a trip east to find a museum about Monte Casino, but we didn't find it. Instead we found this:

Orthodox  church and cemetery for Ukrainians and Poles, Radruż

Ruthenian, Late gothic style, built end 16^th cent. UNESCO world heritage list, one of the finest church in the world. Wooden churches were quite plentiful in this eastern region. It was closed so we couldn’t see the interior, which is rich in carved detail as well as polychrome. According to Wikipedia, the term Ruthenian used in the early modern era (whenever that was) referred to East Slavic minorities who today live in Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and the Czech lands.

To Bełźec, in search of my grandmother

Stefanie with my mother, Vienna, around 1920

We travelled further and visited Bełźec, the concentration camp.  It is located on the Polish/Ukriane border.  With Hitler at the door my mother, at 18, escaped Vienna to London in 1938. The story goes her father took off to Shanghai with his girlfriend, and left his unfortunate wife, my grandmother, to her fate in Vienna. Apparently she was sent to the ghetto in Izbica, Poland and may have been sent on to Bełźec, the nearest concentration camp. 

Life in London continues. The parents are doing reasonably well, father still battling to the swimming on the bus when we are gone. Of course when we are here we take it in turns to get him there, which he loves. Mother now has short daily visits from the Carers, which helps everybody. I have been baking bread, exploring in further depth now. I have been learning about sourdough and the results are well worth the extra time and effort. My Christmas pressie was a super Larousse book on baking. 

Back to the sorting, ready for the next trip!