So what happens now?
Hey everybody! Here's that post I promised ages ago... Delayed by crashing computers and various trips and, as always, my forgetfulness.
Since last posting... hang on a sec *reads last post* Wow, that was a while ago, huh? I'm going to be here a while...
Briefly, since last posting I have been promoted (sort of), discovered that our company lost its contract, been to London, been to Poland and been to London again.
I think I mentioned that I was applying for a senior position at work - the good news was that I got it, but it is only a temporary secondment until the contract ends. Our company lost the contract with the big life assurance company whose endowment complaints we deal with, meaning that by the summer most of our jobs won't exist anymore. So I am going to have to start looking for a new job. Oh well.
The first trip to London was with urylia0103; we went to see Rufus Wainwright's tribute to Judy Garland at the London Palladium, thanks to her sister who bought her tickets as a present. It was the first time I'd seen a performer given a standing ovation. His sister Martha Wainwright came out to sing as well, as did Judy Garland's daughter Lorna Luft.
The trip to Poland was decided quite late - we got cheap tickets again and flew from East Midlands to Lodz, which is only an hour's drive from Tomasow, where most of my family live. My mum once described Tomasow as "like Stoke-on-Trent, but not as classy." Most of the buildings look as though they could do with some paint, or a bulldozer. We stayed with my mum's aunt Ciocia Janka, who lives in a very old flat in the centre of town with her daughter Magda, son-in-law Andrej and grandson Tomek. Oh, and the world's scruffiest dog. My mum says she remembers visiting the same flat when she was little, back in the days when they had no running water but had to use the pump outside in the yard.
I learned a lot of very interesting family history, about life during WW2 and afterwards under Communist rule. My great-grandparents on my mum's side had 11 children in total. Two died in childhood but six daughters and three sons grew up to marry and have children - not necessarily in that order! One of my mum's other aunts, Ciocia Jadza, married a man she didn't love to avoid being sent to Germany during the occupation. The owner of the carpet factory where she worked had a list of people who were to be sent to Germany to work in the factories there. One of her friends from the factory saw that her name was on the list, but his wasn't. He told the factory owner that he had to take Jadza's name off the list and the owner asked if they were related. Her friend said no, but they were going to get married, and so they had to.
Another aunt had moved away when she got married, but just before the war broke out her husband sent her and their two children back to Tomasow to stay with her family while he went into the army. The boxed up all their belongings, which were to be sent on after them, but never arrived. Her husband was sent to Russia and never returned. The last they heard from him was a message on a postcard. For years after the war the government covered up the details of what had happened to the soldiers. They insisted that he had never been stationed in Russia, but the postcard's stamp and date proved that he had. Eventually the government had to release their records, and my mum's aunt discovered that her husband had been shot in the back of the head and buried in a mass grave.
Anyway, something more cheerful was our visit to see my mum's cousin and her son Pawel, who has the world's most adorable twin girls, Maja and Natalia. They are about 2 years old and impossible to tell apart unless you know them well! They are starting to talk and enjoy tricking visitors into confusing the two of them - my mum asked Maja "Where's Maja?" and she pointed at her sister, and Natalia denied being either Maja or Natalia. They are going to be so much trouble when they get older...
We are going to be returning the hospitality in the summer, so I have to start practising the Polish recipes we got from Ciocia Janka. Some of you may be lucky enough to be invited to test them out...
Below is a recipe unusual in that it has quantities in measurements more specific than somes, bits and fews (as in some potatoes, a bit of flour and a few eggs)
Ciocia Janka's recipe for beetroot:
5kg beetroot
500g red pepper
7 large onions
1 glass of sunflower oil
1 glass of white vinegar
1/2 glass of water
1/2 glass of sugar
Salt, ground black pepper and sugar to taste
Boil the beetroot until soft and then grate it - wearing plastic gloves! Chop the onions and pepper and mix with the beetroot and oil. Heat in a pan with the water and add a little sugar, salt and black pepper.
Have plenty of jars ready or scale the recipe down!
Serve it cold with meat and potatoes.
And finally... yesterday I went to London again to see Evita at the Adelphi theatre. The Argentinean Elena Rogers was perfectly cast in the title role - her voice was clear and powerful. And Lorna Want has one of the sweetest voices I have ever heard - she had only one scene singing "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" but was amazing.
Since last posting... hang on a sec *reads last post* Wow, that was a while ago, huh? I'm going to be here a while...
Briefly, since last posting I have been promoted (sort of), discovered that our company lost its contract, been to London, been to Poland and been to London again.
I think I mentioned that I was applying for a senior position at work - the good news was that I got it, but it is only a temporary secondment until the contract ends. Our company lost the contract with the big life assurance company whose endowment complaints we deal with, meaning that by the summer most of our jobs won't exist anymore. So I am going to have to start looking for a new job. Oh well.
The first trip to London was with urylia0103; we went to see Rufus Wainwright's tribute to Judy Garland at the London Palladium, thanks to her sister who bought her tickets as a present. It was the first time I'd seen a performer given a standing ovation. His sister Martha Wainwright came out to sing as well, as did Judy Garland's daughter Lorna Luft.
The trip to Poland was decided quite late - we got cheap tickets again and flew from East Midlands to Lodz, which is only an hour's drive from Tomasow, where most of my family live. My mum once described Tomasow as "like Stoke-on-Trent, but not as classy." Most of the buildings look as though they could do with some paint, or a bulldozer. We stayed with my mum's aunt Ciocia Janka, who lives in a very old flat in the centre of town with her daughter Magda, son-in-law Andrej and grandson Tomek. Oh, and the world's scruffiest dog. My mum says she remembers visiting the same flat when she was little, back in the days when they had no running water but had to use the pump outside in the yard.
I learned a lot of very interesting family history, about life during WW2 and afterwards under Communist rule. My great-grandparents on my mum's side had 11 children in total. Two died in childhood but six daughters and three sons grew up to marry and have children - not necessarily in that order! One of my mum's other aunts, Ciocia Jadza, married a man she didn't love to avoid being sent to Germany during the occupation. The owner of the carpet factory where she worked had a list of people who were to be sent to Germany to work in the factories there. One of her friends from the factory saw that her name was on the list, but his wasn't. He told the factory owner that he had to take Jadza's name off the list and the owner asked if they were related. Her friend said no, but they were going to get married, and so they had to.
Another aunt had moved away when she got married, but just before the war broke out her husband sent her and their two children back to Tomasow to stay with her family while he went into the army. The boxed up all their belongings, which were to be sent on after them, but never arrived. Her husband was sent to Russia and never returned. The last they heard from him was a message on a postcard. For years after the war the government covered up the details of what had happened to the soldiers. They insisted that he had never been stationed in Russia, but the postcard's stamp and date proved that he had. Eventually the government had to release their records, and my mum's aunt discovered that her husband had been shot in the back of the head and buried in a mass grave.
Anyway, something more cheerful was our visit to see my mum's cousin and her son Pawel, who has the world's most adorable twin girls, Maja and Natalia. They are about 2 years old and impossible to tell apart unless you know them well! They are starting to talk and enjoy tricking visitors into confusing the two of them - my mum asked Maja "Where's Maja?" and she pointed at her sister, and Natalia denied being either Maja or Natalia. They are going to be so much trouble when they get older...
We are going to be returning the hospitality in the summer, so I have to start practising the Polish recipes we got from Ciocia Janka. Some of you may be lucky enough to be invited to test them out...
Below is a recipe unusual in that it has quantities in measurements more specific than somes, bits and fews (as in some potatoes, a bit of flour and a few eggs)
Ciocia Janka's recipe for beetroot:
5kg beetroot
500g red pepper
7 large onions
1 glass of sunflower oil
1 glass of white vinegar
1/2 glass of water
1/2 glass of sugar
Salt, ground black pepper and sugar to taste
Boil the beetroot until soft and then grate it - wearing plastic gloves! Chop the onions and pepper and mix with the beetroot and oil. Heat in a pan with the water and add a little sugar, salt and black pepper.
Have plenty of jars ready or scale the recipe down!
Serve it cold with meat and potatoes.
And finally... yesterday I went to London again to see Evita at the Adelphi theatre. The Argentinean Elena Rogers was perfectly cast in the title role - her voice was clear and powerful. And Lorna Want has one of the sweetest voices I have ever heard - she had only one scene singing "Another Suitcase in Another Hall" but was amazing.