Polish Vodka?

Dear Frank,

For some reason I heal up very fast. I've had quite a few cracker accidents too, mostly with horses, and I have never had a broken bone, so the physical side is quite resiliant!

I think the character side is for others to comment on...

All the best from Fredrik

Dear Friends,

I am moving on the 19th of the month! What a relief!!!

All the best from Fredrik

Dear Frank,

I think a lot of things will improve now. We had a monster day at work, and were presented with a challenge that two of us could never meet. The final straw was that the prep work had not been completed, so that was the nd of of two of the batches. With three of us, one could have peeled off and got the starches ready, but it is a precision job, if the results are to fall within tolerance, but with two, running the plant is all that is possible. Ant for a third batch that bit the dust we did not have one ingrediant at all! So that is the tales of failure and still getting eight batches, which is a first for a team of two in eight hours. But it was so tiring. If it had not been only Wednesday a decent level [probably indecent in reality] of beer consumption would have been in order, but instead it is home, supper, bath, and bed, ready for the next logistical miracle expectation!

My new place is walking distance to a good supply of beer in bottles and real Polish Vodka, so the impromtu is more easily managed, I would suspect!

On another tack, I am very pleased with the Nait's slightly more slender tone than the old big set! This will not annoy neigbours like a more obviously splendid sounding set! So I shall relax with it. Nice compromise!

ATB from Fredrik

PS: No doubt I shall gets some photos when I have moved in, and the question is do I put them here or the System Pics Thread? Here I think!

Dear Frank,

No stairs! The move will be easy enough. The cost of hiring a van would be about the same as a new bed-base so I am not going to bother with that. I have an iron bed in Worsecter still!

I will send you an email about the furniture this evening. I have some very nicely cut MDE which though it seems silly to send was so nicely prepped up, and is now redundant, that it might be worth you having. Also marbles and things, but we can sort that out of line.

I suspect that this is the place for any photos as for sure two parties are already in the planning stage. One on the first night, which is likely to be a sketchy affair! And one for the next weekend where food will be a big feature if I have my way!

The great thing is that my guests for this one would only have a very short distance to their homes, assuming anyone is still actually walking at all! [ [Vodka Smiley]!

Needless to say the subtle settling of the Nait is enough to take the breath away. The small, later improvements are the most important, I find, as they are always in the area of detail, naturalness, and increasing unobtrusiveness. The Nait is proving a very very fine little piece, and is actually now showing itself better than the minimum I could esily accept! Maybe I have low standards, but I think not!

All the best from Fredrik

Fredrik,

Hope it's a fine day for your move tomorrow, good luck!

Beano

Dear Friends,

Good news... though this is likely to be my last post from Hereford, unless I can't sleep. I picked up the key for the new place in Worcester [Saint Johns side of the River Severn thank goodness!] this morning, and Christened the place briefly with my work collegeue and friend Pawel [Polish and therefore on topic!], with some Lech and a couple of cigarettes after work! Furtunately the fire alarm sensors are clearly none too sensitive, which is important, but it was the most gentle of Christenings! A more flamboyant party will be in the offing next weekend, I dare say! And no stairs to fall down either. But in true Fredrik fashion it will be no disco, and food will the main feature though I guess alchohol may intervene somewhere along the line!!!

Tomorrow is the day of upheaval, and I expect that it may be a week before BT fix the line for broadband.

I am certain that the front room is just as nice as here and possibly nicer from the music replay stand-point, so no problems there. The structure is is in best Edwardian brick, and no brick was better before or after! The floor is over a cellar, but I have already addressed the issue with the SBLs. No harm there.

So I sign off for a day or too, and have the horror of getting all the utilities and Council Tax properly rearranged next week, but the most important part is done.

Bye for now! From Fredrik

Fredrik, I don't drink vodka straight up, but with tonic and a lime or tonic and cranberry juice, a faint attempt at some nutritonal value.

Hope all goes well my friend.

In a few days I drive 2 hours to Santa Barbara on the coast with beautiful weather to be with friends for 4 days while I heal from a surgery. Tho I enjoy being around my apartment with the stereo I think It will be better to stay with friends and have a few laughs.

Dear Glenn,

It is a simple fact that in Worcester I shall be very close in distance from many nice people, and one or two really great friends. This may have the disadvatage of shortening my life! How much punisement can the body take!

I am sorry to read that your are having to have had surgery! Apart from a dental operation in 1973(in those days three days in hospital), I have never been under the knife. Get well soon, plaese do.

On the other hand I had a cancer scare in the late seventies, had Kidney Stones a bit later, and Shingles, which caused me to be off work for a month, right at the time of the fiftiesth anniversary of the D-Day Landings. I was terribly emotional with the illness and the drugs, and sat in front of my little tele and cried at the tragic loss of life for such a futile business as war, and its absolute necessity at that time. I just wonder if any lessons at all have been learned from the de-humanisation of peoples in the name of dogma, with reference to the middle east. Whether I considder the Iraqi situation or the Palestian, Isrealy, Lebanese situation, I can only concluded that history is not taught, or that these people are exeptionally stupid. Including the government of GB.

Get well soon, dear Glenn, from Fredrik

PS: I have found that the best way of socially drinking Vodka is with apple juice, which has the benefit of preventing dehydration. On my own I like it straight, but really just one nip, of about three quarter's of an an inch in a small glass, taken just as a fine malt, slowly and savoured. If really cold (from the freezer!), it has wonderful tastes, just as subtle as anything, but it needs to be a fine Vodka...

Fredrik,

I used to play Basketball twice a week at the sports centre in St John's. Close enough to Worcester to take a nice walk across either of the bridges, but not so close you have extortionate rent, and loud weekend nights!

I have a good friend who lives in one of the very old places on Henwick Road also - reckoned to be haunted?!

All the best in the new place, and I look forward to visiting on return from the US.

Cheers,

Phil

Dear Phil,

Henwick Road it is, and as you know of where I speak, you will appreciate why I think it finer than anything possible the other side of the river! I am a rural person! But ten minutes walk and you are almost in Birmingham. Actually the place is too expensive, but it is start! It is smart, so we shall see. Maybe I will actually get the promissed wage rise, which would ease it somewhat.

I am resteless, and cannot sleep: Tomorrow is going to be a marathon, and I always dread that. Certainly I cannot guaratee my sobriety at this time, twenty four hours hence!

I think you would enjoy to visit me when you return to GB. The new place should have excelent qualities for playback, and is almost as quiet as here in Hereford, even though the road is not exactly traffic free!

Fredrik

Sounds like it's really going to work for you. I'm pleased Fredrik.

At the St John's end of Henwick Road (New Rd?), there's a 'greasy spoon' for the morning after! Looks run down, but the food works a treat on a Sunday morning hangover...

Good luck, and all the best,

Phil

Dear Phil,

Actually, I have found that just one beer as a "hair of the dog" works fine, and saves a day of suffering!

It makes you hungry, you eat, and then you recover!

I should not be divulging my secrets like this. People will think I am a lush! Not so, but when I go for it, it is by no half measures!

ATB from Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Frank F:
Hi Fredrik and all the others who watch this thread.

I saw on Polish TV that the Poles working in England are destroying the river fisheries. English fishermen catch fish and put them back, the Poles who are very good at it, catch the fish, take them home and eat them!! (River fish such as carp have always been very poular). The result is that the stocks are now greatly depleted.

The Environment Agency is also at fault because they forced the rivers to a very high state of cleanliness very quickly (keeps their bonuses up) and so there is little food for coarse fish - so they do not thrive!!

You can't win!!

Frank F

Hi Frank,

I honestly don't know anyone who eats Carp! I think people catch them and put them back, caught purely for sport, plus they taste awful, so I'm told, might be wrong though.

Beano

cat fish is a standard in the deep south in the states. And I've been to a chinese restaurant with a friend who ordered a carp which was catfish, it came to the table deep fried, mouth open. It was good. I think like escargot, it's best to feed them for a while in a tank to clean out their system.

When I was in Seattle and had a cousin's catch of salmon which was wonderful, his sister kept complaining about her boyfriend's last catch and he admitted it was dirty tasting. Carp are bottom grunge feeders. And not all species taste good.

I've eaten Pike which is very nice, my Brother in-law is a fly fisherman, so Trout is on our household menu every now and then, and, it's not at all muddy in taste, which is probably down to where it is caught, that being a stocked pond.

Beano

Dear Friends,

Just to let you know that I am more or less in Worcester: Music, clothes, and a few crocks! The rest of the move will be on Saturday and Sunday!

Good session on Tuesday. till 4.30 in the morning, but no loud music!

All the best from Fredrik

Deare Friends,

Thursday's post was from Cafe Republic in Worcester, but I am back in Hereford finishing off the move.

I am just trying to sort out the the phone! I have been sitting in the phone cue for the last 35 minutes. In fact I caught up on quite a bit of reading, and now I am saying hello again, while my left hand dies of cramp trying to hold the phone!

No offiucial parties yet in my new pad, but two unofficial ones. Yes and one neigbour called to ask me to turn the music down! A First! Well it was three in the morning, but about as quiet as it would go on the dial!

Anyhoo, I shall attempt to get everything sorted out now, and that in spite of being dog tired after a monsterously bad week at work.

Both my team were elsewhere - one having a week's holiday, and the other training the morning shift! So I had one agency and don't lets mention the permanent member of staff I had. The blood pressure rises just thinking about it. Gormless 'son of the dirt,' is one way of putting it. The charitable one. The other might be 'lazy ++++++++!'

I have just heard my new broadband connection will be started on the 4th September, so you have another quiet week from me.

Bye for now, and all the best from Fredrik

Dear Friends,

It says something for my stupidity.

The plant broke down at work this morning, so that I have been called in in the morning to make something extra that oplanning did not see coming. I am supposed to be trying to move house, but of course I agreed to cover work. My brief is to use up all the ingredients, and then pray it is enough...

Work is chaos at the mo!

I have broken the back of this moving cleaning business this afternoon, and will have completed a total spring clean within an hour, and will be forced to leave stuff here again probably till Monday afternoon, as I cannot afford to be late this evening if I am to be any use at 7 in the morning. They wanted me there at six, but that, for a 14:00 to 22:00 hours man, was just too much!

I wanted to fiddle with the set this evening etc, but it ain't happening.

4th September will probably be my next posting day, unless I get into Cafe Republic one morning next week, so bye for now from Fredrik

Hello Frank,

Some very interesting concerts you are going to! Do you know a good web site where I can check what's happening on the concert scene in Warsaw? Would be good to know next time I'm going to Poland.

Thank you very much, Frank. By accident I had the chance to experience one of these outdoor Chopin concerts in Lazienki Park. It was really nice! I think Polish are culturally more conscious people than Norwegians when it comes to classical music, jazz, films, authors and painted art.

I will inform you when I visit Warsaw next time. I'm going to Poland this Christmas, but probably not to Warsaw. I am more likely to go there in summer, but now I will try to check if there are some concerts on.

Well the move is done, though not the sorting out!

Best party ever on Friday.

Finished work at 10 pm, back home via the Off-license (cans and Wyberowa, no quantities specified, please note!), a quick bath and chamge, and short walk to a friends 26th birthday party. I bought her some lovely scent!

The rest is history, but I walked home at 8 am, the only male at the party still conscious! I call that a classic. Simply fanrastic mood and company.

Shall be online again from home tomorrow!

Fred

Party Part Two!

I rejoined the celebrations at 11 am on Sunday and the whole thing died down at 12 midnight! I was bright as a button at 6 am on Moday, though there is no such thing as a secret at work, and the comment of my manager was rather funny as I went home! [Unprintable Smiley]!

I have been given charge of training the morning shift. Six in the morning is not my most naturally fine time of day, but it will be okay...

I am back on-line but on dial-up, given how useless BT have proved about getting me a broadband connection here in Worcester.

I will catch up soon!

ATB from Fredrik

Dear Friends,

One lives and learns. Surely the day any of us stops learning, then really we have died.

Moving house and other things have prooved more or less too bad. The last fortnight has been bloody, and not possibly mentionable, but one sure sign that the best in human nature is more or less Saintly, in the particular if not the general, has given me strength. One of my two Polish cohorts at work has shown an integrity I have never encountered in any Englishman. And this after only twelve months of aquaintance, which ironically was described by both my Polish team-mates as "almost cold, but completely fair." It has progressed from utterly correct and kind dealings to the strongest of friendships, based entirely on respect leading to affection and a certainty that fair play will ensue...

To go into details might get me shot, but I shall remain grateful for a lifeime for the response of my one young friend to a proposition... I would not have hoped for such a view from anyone, actually.

_________________

But for dear Mick Parry, I want to say that I intend to pack in tobacco, but certainly not the splendours of Polish Wadka! I have taken the risk of buying a bottle of Zubrowka, which is not so like Bols! I suspect life should be taken one day at a time, and if tomorrow does not emerge as expected [on past experience] so what? So it is sure necessary to grab that wonderful moment, and be "blowed" what the 'morrow may, or indeed may not, bring!

In fact I am about to crack the thing! Today I was re-united at work with my other Polish friend, and we set something of a pace, with quality. I wish they would leave us alone to get on with it, rather than print-writing bloody stupid slogans on the wall about teamwork. Perhaps it was aimed elsewhere, but the author of it was proud enough to ask me what I thought! [Unprintable Smiley*]! We are a team. In six months we have not had a single bloody mistake! All I want is that we can have three more Poles to man the other shift as finely as ours. Sorry, to the English here, but I have met none who can match the integrity, strength of purpose, or plain speaking that makes such teamwork possible, with or without clever words scribed on the dry-marker-board...

In a rather trenchant mood, please forgive this message entirely and without reserve from Fredrik's heart...

*, There might be a testicular conection here... Respect is the starting point, not slogans...

has anyone tried the single estate wyborowa? i like the standard stuff but my wife is off to poland in a few weeks and i fancied tryign to ask her if she could pick up something on the way back.. will probably have to be airport shops as she won't have any time to go elsewhere but wondered what others thoughts were? as no-one has mentioned it i also must praise moskovskya "monkeys" not only for the name but a good russian vodka.

also, as an aside, for anyone who fancies a giggle, try typing smirnoff into a mobile phone with predictive text turned on and see what the result is...

Frederick, I hope you have moved in well enough now. I grew up in St. Johns itself so know the area well. I still don't live far away in kidderminster either.

Dear Alan,

I really hope that circumstances actually will allow me to visit Poland in the next few weeks, and I shall look out for the estate Wyberowa on your tip!

The move has been the least of my problems just now.

As for life raising the comment, "Kurwa mac!" at the moment, I simply cannot go into it in a public place like this without leaving myself as a hostage to fortune. But it is trying on more than one front at the moment. Much is being learnt about integrity, plain speaking and internal politics in my...

I am no politician, and on times too blunt and straight forward to "Win friends, and gain influence." That runs with a certain naivite, based on expecting everyone to be as straight forwards as I always am. Damn the world, or at least most of the people in it. The few who are straight forward get on rather well with me, but the rest.....

ATB from Fredrik