Polish Vodka?

When Ferries were Ships!

MS Breamar in the 1970s in Oslo harbour. I had many crossings from Newcastle to Oslo and back on this lovely little ship. The cars were loaded with a crane! She was launched in 1952, and decommissioned in 2002:



Happy days! Fredrik

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:

Reviewing this thread, as I do now and then, I was suddenly saddened by the loss of Berlin Fritz from the Forum, and I am proud that he got away with two illicite posts on my thread!

Kindest regards from Fredrik...

Especially to Fritz, if you ever look in...

Passover Slivovica...

70%ABV...

A nice mix between a good, woody, single malt Whiskey and a faint plum aroma

Marvelous!

Fredrik

You obviously get pleasure from gardening and you are looking for work. Why not become a self employed gardener.

Regards

Mick

Dear Mick,

There is a plan for a big month long garden job later in the summer. I must not say to much in case it does not happen, but it might be the start of something. Heck it's all in the air at the moment, but I don't really think I am a natural employee! I work too hard and that unsettles things. Managers get frightened by it [they think I am after their job!], and collegues hate it in 19 out of twenty cases. My two Polish mates on the Conserve department used to like it, but then they were a bit like me in their drive with work. They have remained friends, in one case very good friends, and the other keeps in touch!

Anyway the may be some hope in 2007 yet!

ATB from Fredrik

Fredrik

Ok so it is fingers crossed and I hope it all goes well. I think gardening will be an occupation you will enjoy.

Regards

Mick

Dear Mick,

Did you see the picture, about three posts up, of the old Braemar just leaving the quay and by then in front of the Akerhus. This is not 200 metres from whether the QE2 was tied up... Reference your thread a few weeks ago about Shipping. I hope you visit Oslo one day. It is a surprisingly vibrant place, and not at all large, so it is very easy to get round. Perfect also for a starting point for a Cruise.

Kindest regards from Fredrik

Fredrik

Mrs Mick and I are running through cruising brochures tonight and not entering America does reduce your choice but bugger it, I am not paying good money to have some loud mouthed savage scream at me from a distance of 10 or so feet.

I like America and the Yanks are friendly but you have to see the immigration officials to believe them.

If necessary we will do a month cruise and depart from Southampton or Harwich.

The problem with flying to a foreign port is luggage limits. If you leave from the Uk, you can take all but the kitchen sink.

Regards

Mick

Dear Mick,

If you went on QE2, then I think you would find that she leaves Southampton before going to a couple of European ports ending with Oslo and the Atlantic crossing. The Fjord is "incrdibly beautiful" and you also pass through the Oskarsport where the Blucher was sunk on the first day of the Nazi invasion of Norway. [So much for Norwegian Neutrality on either side!]. The Fjord is very narrow there...

My grandparents lived on the Island of "Jeloy" which is by Moss on the East side of the Oslofjord, while on the West side, several miles away, is Horten. You cannot believe how lovely that trip is, and it would set you up for the New World!

Kindest regards from Fredrik

The Vodka! Oh, No! One Zywiec this evening for me, and a funny film! Dobre Noc! Fredrik

Well today will be a day of rebellion. I can't make things worse, so I may be excused one bottle of Zywiec [Jiviets] and one of Tyskie, as a form of Dutch [Polish] courage.

I have never drunk beer after 4:30 am, so the day begins in propitious conditions with not a single wink of sleep.

I once made the mistake of posting all too clearly of work issues in the Padded Cell, which was fortunately removed when I asked for that. You may [wrongly] conclude that I am excessively sensitive to issues at work - well manners should still be aimed for. Perhaps I am too straight to easily accept bad form at work, and that would be quite possibly true, but if so I shall be abandoning the rat race!

I think something very interesting will happen later...

Bold as brass I shall face off ignorance, and damn the consequences.

Good day to you all, from Fredrik

Dear Friends,

I can report that after a double party afternoon and evening I am ready for Beethoven's String Quartets from The Budapest Quartet today. No after effects at all.

Splendid Bison Grass Vodka [which I don't normally enjoy compared to the normal non-grass type] fresh from Poland the previous day, and apple juice with a great and then daft conversation! Then I had to pull myself together and enjoy a nice pint of the best of English tradition with some real Ale in the Talbot at Knightwick. A friend of mine and I have made this weekly visit to the Talbot a pleasurable routine for most weeks in the last ten years, but he now has a job and house in Scotland, and the smoking ban will transform the experience from this week on, so there was something rather valedictory about this particular time. Of course we can still sit in the beer garden on occasion, which is pleasant in the summer, with the River Teme flowing gently by, fifty feet away, but winters evenings will never be the same there. This old style Coaching Inn [on the old London to Aberystwith Road] was the place where I last saw my very first girl friend, and I also where I had the pleasure to share a lovely Sunday lunch with Geoff P. The place is full of memories for me! mostly good ones!!

I am a dinosaur, and wish I was forty years older. I would have seen much that was not good, in this earlier time, but at least the "nanny state" would have been less intrusive!

Next opperation: Fetch the car which is safely parked several miles away, as there was no way I was going to drive home from the number one party! As usual the best fun is unplanned!

Kindest regards from Fredrik.

Here is a nice picture I found on the Fram Museum site from Oslo:



Though this ship was the base for Nansen's attempt the lock a ship in the Northern Polar Icecap and traverse the Northpole "in the ice" actually in the ship, and was also the base for Amundsen's successful bid to reach the South Pole, it was actually built in Scotland. It required very special construction and design, as the notion was that the ship should actually ride the Icecap, frozen in for over a year. As the pressure built up on the hull the ship was forced upwards rather than being crushed by the forces. This part of the Theory worked perfectly, but the actual drift of the Polar Icecap more or less guaranteed that the ship did not get very near to the Pole itself!

Note the "barrel-shaped" construction even visible above the water line, which allowed for the ship to be squeesed up out of the ice rather than crushed. It rolled about like a cork, but on the journey south with Amundsen, it proved very safe against high seas, if suprememly unconfortable, as it rolled like mad, and lurched back very quickly. Everything had to be lashed down, such was the characteristic handling of the vessel! It was one of the first ships equpped with a Marine Deisel Engine in preference to steam. Ths was to allow for very quick maneouvering among the drift ice, which could have crushed the ship in minutes under the wrong conditions...

The Fram Museum is a fascinating place, and well worth a visit for anyone in Oslo. The ship itself is now housed, "dry" in its own building next to the sea shore. Adjacent is the Kon Tiki Museum, and not far away are the Viking Ships and Folk Museum where the famous Stave Churches are preserved. The King's Palace is passed on the way the these Museums, though this is a semi-rural residence and not the Main Palace which is right in the centre of Oslo in open parkland...

ATB from Fredrik

Not for breakfast, my foot! One of the best parties I have been to was still going on at [Saturday] breakfast time, even with some Wyborowa still flowing! That day I walked home in time to pick the paper up, with some milk and cornflakes, ready to carry on a full day ahead. That day went quite well! It was a birthday party, and later that Saturday evening I returned and it was still going and carried on for another whole night, though I went to sleep in the chair at about 11 pm! The Sunday was fairly slow after that!!! Stiff neck from the chair, you know!!!

Catch you tomorrow! ATB from Fredrik

Dear Stu,

The street I live in has a one in eight gradient! I live two thirds of the way up! If the water comes in here then the whole of The centre of Worcester will be under water to roof level!

The Cricket gound is under about six foot of water though. It will be a real mess when the water goes down.

ATB from Fredrik

Frank,

Don't do it! Run with the bulls, that is!

Glad to see elsewhere that at least you now know that your newer Nat 01 is healthy. There must be a solution to getting a suitable antenna going, though I not an expert.

Belated happy birthday! Fredrik

Best, most ridiculous Polish Party at least since New year. Typing very well, considering! Immennsely challenging phlisophical ponderings of why the world is the way it is were on the menu, as well as the craziest humour...

ATB from Fredrik

PS: All the best does are unplanned: This was...

Dear Frank,

I have already been cautioned about the kissing thing! Sounds quite an idea!

ATB from Fredrik

Dear Friends,

I am flying to Krakow early on Friday [to go to a Wedding on Saturday near Zakopane], and went to meet Pawel [one of my former work collegues] to sort out some arrangements as we are on the same flight! Needless to say we did a little rehearsal for next weekend! We looked a bottle of "Polonaise" Vodka, which looked somewhat like it might be a sort of fake. Not so: It was very good!

Good supper, good company, good laugh!

ATB from Fredrik

Dear Munch,

I have found that I have lost my camera, having bought two rolls of film for it! Aaaagh!

Never mind - I will buy a couple of those "use once" jobbies!

I have to be up at four, so good night and all the best from Fredrik.

I am still alive... just! In fact this would be a rather nice way to die, having lost all resistance!

For Mick P, if you are reading this, the problems are not liver related but traveling in a land with such a largely 19th century transport infrastructure! My style of driving would fit the roads but not the other users of same! In fact new roads are being built apace, at last...

More, much more, on the weeks exploits later. Not all the stories will ever be re-told by me, for reasons of not offending old ladies, and frightening horses... etc...! I suspect that the not to be generally seen video will be funny in the extreme, for those with a broad sense of humour, though no morale impropriety took place of course, or even biliousness! The one other Englishmen present certain did not know how to hold his Spiritus, sadly. I was there at the beginning, and there at the end, cried as I always do in Church Weddings, but only my one good friend spotted that, mercifully, and was there at the end. I think I may even say of myself, that I was quite good in between, in the party sense...

One of the tellable stories will reveal my real name - necessarily ...

ATB from Fredrik!!!

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:

One of the tellable stories will reveal my real name - necessarily ...

ATB from Fredrik!!!

I knew it ...... Berlin Fritz - innit.

quote:

Originally posted by Ian G.:

quote:

Originally posted by Fredrik_Fiske:

... will reveal my real name - necessarily ...

ATB from Fredrik!!!

I knew it ...... Berlin Fritz - innit.

No, I can definately scotch that one. Poor Fritz threads were frenetic and short, but this one is almost the exact opposite.

Off to sleep now! Fredrik

I don't know quite why, but I am going to crack a bottle of Vodka, given me in Poland, now.

I am listening to Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Skarlati, Piazzola, Khatchchurian, [even the Albinoni Adagio,entirely without kitcsh] and so on, in some of the most musical performances of any music I have heard, played by two Polish buskers I saw in the old Square in Krakow yesterday afternoon. Playing akordiany. Don't laugh. This is serious music making, observing all the correct style for a start, but making humain, warm, terrifyingly powerful musical performances. The two CDs are home brew - no www.++++.pl for these - just go to Krakow, and realise that all our push button world has given us nothing two young Polish boys could not despatch into the long grass with a short stick. Music lives on, but less in our wealthy materialistic world than in a poorer country where it still speaks as a release without too much consideration for the means or even famous names... We progress backwards, in my view, for we become less sensitive with an easier life.

Yes time for a Wodka, methinks...

ATB from Fredrik, who has been too emotional for his own good in the last two days. And I don't mean tired and emotional. That follows now I suspect.

Glad to see you got home safe and sound Fredrik.

That was an amazing film on your phone!



Kind regards,

Peter