Christmas in the UK

Szczesliwego Nowego Roku (shcheslivego novego rokoo) - Happy New Year to you all. It seems appropriate that the first thing Poles say to each other each year is a word that is rather hard to pronounce.

I spent Christmas in the UK - I hired a car and drove 850 miles up and down the country seeing folk. Christmas Eve was spent with my buddies Greg, Juliet, Ben & Tamsin. Greg recruited me into the band for their church nativity. I was given the triangle and told to hit it at the required times. I wouldn't have worried but the whole band stopped at the exact moment that I was supposed to play my solitary note - a very exposed position to be in. Luckily, Greg gave me all the right cues and I didn't ruin the whole show.

Next stop was Christmas Day with all the family for another yummy Christmas dinner and a lot of laughs. Here I can be seen setting the right example for my young and impressionable nephews...

I also managed to visit other family members and took a few of the lads climbing. This one is of Jamie, my youngest nephew (he's getting rather good already)...

I made it to The Lakes for a jolly good new year. We went for a couple of stomps in the hills and plenty of yummy food.

The night before I returned 'home' (which is how I keep finding myself referring to Torun) I was treated to a Polish meal by Alex (who's from Poznan) who cooked all my favourite dishes and made sure that my pronunciation was up to scratch.

I've now been back for a week and was straight into the usual classes. This week I found myself discussing the grammar in a solicitor's letter with my Legal English student and later on was acting out 'sad - sadder - the saddest' with a class of beginners. It was worthy of an Oscar but just seemed to get a lot of laughs. Don't know why.

Now this may make you feel a little bit green but, at the end of next week, we have two weeks' Winter Break - another holiday. Although my blog is called 'Graham on the Road' it has felt more like 'Graham in the Cafe' up until now as the furthest I've been has been a weekend in Warsaw. No longer - I have plans for Krakow, Zakopane and, maybe, Prague. We shall see.

A few more observations to finish this blog:

Public toilets often have a man and woman symbol as you're used to, but many don't - they have a circle (for women) and a triangle (for men). Remember this, should you ever visit Poland, it'll keep you out of trouble.

The snow-clearing is very efficient:

It's too warm for some people ...

(These were taken in Torun today - there was a charity event on. It was about minus 8C in the wind. Yes, they are blocks of ice floating in the water.)

A little more Polish:

cztery (chteh'ryh) - four

piec (pyehn'ch) - five

szesc (shehsh'ch) - six

Have a wonderful 2010!