Easter at Christmas

If you wanted winter weather in Poland this Christmas, hard luck. No snow... Sunny... And very little rain...
Poland had Easter weather this Christmas!

Born in Lodz: Jacob Bronowski

Many times have I seen a book 'The Ascent of Men' at the second hand bookshops in London. The author was a truly remarkable Polish man born in Lodz who had to flee the city with his family when the WWI broke out.  Jacob Bronowski was his name. Here you can read about him.
I'm going to Lodz soon!

Wira of Warsaw

I have just found out about a new book which tells the life story of a Polish lady in Ealing. As a young girl she fought against the Nazi Germans in Poland. Credits to her son who wrote the book: 'Wira of Warsaw'. It is available at the local bookshop in Pitshanger Lane.

A stranger where she lives

There is an article I came across which I would like to go back to later. Maybe you would like to read it too? It's written by an English person who doesn't feel at home in her own country, precisely, the area in London she's been living in for almost two decades. Click here please if you want to read it.
If you do read it, please would you tell me what you think?

A jeweller and leaf-jewellery

Dear Reader,
If you are still learning English through reading this post you could revise The Passive Voice. Whether a learner or not, you will find out about making metal jewellery of genuine leaves and a man who makes rings and sells jewellery.  Enjoy!


Walking among the market stalls in Folkestone we stopped to look at the leaf-shaped jewellery. The stall owner was happy to chat. A jeweller himself, he made many of the rings in the picture above. The leaf-jewellery pictured below is from Scotland and, believe it or not, made of real hand picked leaves which first get preserved and dried. Next each leaf is reduced to a 'skeleton' through removing the chlorophyll. Then the leaf is hand painted with a special paint which makes it conductive. Finally, using a unigue process, the leaf gets covered in the desired precious metal coating! How neat is that?

I wished I'd had more time  to talk to the man, but after a few more explanations about the jewellery he was selling and the intriguing fact that he was from Israel, I had to dash to catch up with my friend who had walked away in his usual bumptious manner.;-) After all, we were on the way to yet another 'mixed-arts' event at The Gallery 66 in The Old High Street!

It was yet another truly arty afternoon in Folkestone!

Folkestone Owl Rescue

 On a busy pre-Christmas Saturday morning Folkestone main shopping street was full of stalls and people. Not that it is much different on market days here or anywhere else, I suppose. If you look at the picture above you will see the crowd. A few months ago the spot in front of the HSBC Bank was occupied by The Folkestone Owl Rescue stand and van. I remember talking to the volunteers and taking pictures. If you have plenty of time, you may find them in my old post. If not, you are welcome to scroll down and see what the owls looked like last Saturday:

The Folkestone Owl Rescue Centre is on the outskirts of Folkestone and you can phone them on: 01303259794 to arrange to come and visit the sanctuary or ask them to give a talk at your school, club or association.

ESOL students in The City

It was a great day. Together with a befriended ESOL teacher (a native speaker of English and a Londoner as well) and some ESOL students, we went to visit The Museum of London.

 Ladies from Yemen, Pakinstan, Iran and Poland were in our group.

 Believe me, I was really happy to take them on this trip. We walked and talked from one exhibition to the next chatting, commenting and stopping when something attracted our attention for longer.  Afterwards I stayed in the City looking at the new and for the old outnumbered and dwarfed by the arrivals.
I kept my camera busy and had to charge it more than once. (I do need a new smartphone!) So many sights to capture...
The Guildhall Gallery attracted me again. I've been there a good few times already. This time I went to see 'No Colour Bar' exhibition on an international struggle against racisism featuring a Guyanese-born Jessica and Eric Huntley and their bookshop recreated by Michael McMillan. The Huntleys came to England in the 1950s and were involved in activism and campaigning on an international level, supported The Caribbean Artistic Movement and emerging Black British art practices. To my great surprise, I found out that they were based in... Ealing and there, in their flat, they opened their bookshop  having founded Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications that published lots of various materials from posters and greeting cards to texts by writers of African roots.
 A carol concert at St Lawrence Jewry next to the Guildhall Gallery was a pleasant way to spend the evening, especially that there was wine, stollen and mince pies served afterwards. Moreover, the priest gave a short and very entertaining sermon wearing a... sweatband!
London is great!

From Three Bridges through Ealing temples to London's best high street

Today, waiting for my appointment, I cycled along the canal between Three Bridges and Southall. I talked to two people who have visited Poland. One was a boatman taking his daughter's boat through Norwood Lock. He had driven a lorry across Poland on the way to Iran and Iraq in the 1960s! Next time he went to Poland in the 1990s and was highly impressed how much the country had changed in the meantime: it became very colourful and the people looked happy.
The other man was a volunteer at the big Sikh temple in Southall. Very proud of the building, he told me it cost 18 million pounds to built and the money came from voluntary contributions. Working at Heathrow Airport he had an opportunity to visit Poland. he liked Warsaw and Krakow very much, I heard. I delicately asked him if he was a Sikh and he confirmed explaining to me that not all the Sikh men have long hair and wear turbans.

The highlight of the evening for those who are into local history was a lecture on the Ealing churches by my compatriot and local historian, Piotr Stolarski, PhD. I got there to hear only the last part of this most interesting  talk followed by many questions from the audience. The Green Room at the Ealing Library was full, you may like to know.  It made me feel... well... proud of the fact that a Polish historian was so well received here in West London. To my very pleasant surprise Mr Stolarski presented me with a copy of his recent book: "Christian Ealing". Recently published, it can be purchased at 10 ponds from the Ealing Library, the local Waterstones bookshop  and the atmospheric local bookshop in nearby Pitsanger Lane which has recently won the the competition for London's best high street!
Last Sunday, like every year, the street was closed for the traffic while eager volunteers were preparing the Christmas street lights. They had to fight against a really heavy wind. I saw them from my bike.

Ealing past - resources

Here is my second post of the second thousand and I am going to share with you a link to a long text about the growth of Ealing, the borough which has been my home for the last seven years: click here and enjoy!

And should you be still in the mood for reading about the Ealing past, please go here, to Ealing: A Concise History.

Should you wish to see Ealing through my lenses, go to the Search box above! :-)

Music and visual arts

I've received an invitation to an afternoon of live music and more at The 66 Art Gallery in Folkestone. Here are the details:

'Stephen will be giving his penultimate recital on the SATURDAY 5th NEXT , and this coincides with the hanging of a very special Christmas show by local artists who offer original, small works for under £40, with a maximum of £90 ... and for the most part, framed.

​       A CARD IS FOR CHRISTMAS, AN ORIGINAL PAINTING IS FOR LIFE.​

On the 24th, Christmas Eve, from 2 pm till 5, Florianne is giving a Violin Recital accompanied by BUBBLES & MINCE PIES, with Stephen on the Piano

we would love you all to be here, getting yourselves  in the mood for the Festivities to come.

xxxxxxx    Maud,Fiona,Frank and François Mitterand !'

 

It would be nice to go there. We shall see...

Community Shop in Ealing

Today I went to see a quite new charity shop between West Ealing and Hanwell and I took pictures as it looks really cool, like from Portobello Market. No time to add them here now though.

Camden Market

Sunday is not a good day to visit Camden Market and nor is any other if you are not fond of crowds and shopping, but that is my opinion.

Arrival in El Jadida

This is my 998th post here! For a time I haven't been posting on daily basis. Does it matter?

Anyway, not that there is nothing to write about these days, quite contrary. However, I'll go back to the last spring in Morocco and share a good few pictures from the first evening in El Jadida, on the Atlantic coast.  The coach from Essauira dropped us off at the station when the day was coming to an end. We gave up trying to get to the hotel we'd booked on foot. Only on the map it looked straightforward, not so much in the dark, in the busy traffic and with luggage. Conveniently, a taxi materialised itself and took us to safety. The place looked as we expected. Refreshed and with the directions from the receptionist, we walked out for an evening stroll in search of the souk and the Portuguese fortress.

Like in other traditional Arab hotels, the guest rooms are upstairs:

 Downstairs, there is a central courtyard, usually with a fountain in the middle and tables around it. That's where we were served breakfast.

A street leading towards the Portuguese town gate:

(The Portuguese did not stay there very long, but they left some solid structures behind and gave the fortified city a name: Mazagan.)

Lots of street food was on offere wherever you looked.

Some smells were more tempting than others.

The raw products:

And some cooked, would you like to taste it?;-)

 Inside a small bar I photographed some pictures including old photographs of the town. There we had some fresh local fish prepared as we were waiting at the table outside chatting, or rather listening, to a local man, a retired sailor who had lots of stories to tell...

 The underground cistern in the fortress looked mysterious. We visited it the next day. It felt like being in Istanbul, but that's a different tale...

Simple but effective kitchen:

This is the time for socialising!

The salad and bread were served first:

 It was a lot of fish so we actually shared it with a Moroccan beggar widow who approached us. She had to lift the facial cover every time she placed the food in her mouth. What a carry-on!

 Sitting there we could watch the world go by, including this young lad who, as our well informed companion told us, was one of many local people who 'profusely indulge in prompting their sense of smell'...

 That friendly and cheerful guy sold us freshly pressed sugar cane juice. Deliciously refreshing! (The plastic bag came free...)

 Hunger and thirst satisfied, we were ready to  cross the Portuguese walls of hewn stone...

Yes, it is a church, not a mosque! The whole walled town made it to a UNESCO list in 2004.

Contemporary graffiti... Local Bansky practising?;-)

The entrance to the Portuguese Cystern was to see us after breakfast:

 
We left the Portuguese walls behind and bravely sought a different route back to the hotel. However, it turned out difficult so we went back the route we came stopping for a lovely Moroccan tea at a small cafe. It was served by a young boy of ten if not younger. He was helping his father while most of European children were fast asleep.  How keen he was to practise the little English he had learnt at school so far. I wish more of my students had his enthusiasm...

It was a great evening!