Finally!

There are going to be some good exhibitions this summer in Edinburgh!

Tiptoeing

We are having unusual guest (or rather guests), therefore the whole family in Haddington is tiptoeing around this bit of the house:

Overeating?

With M&S promoting pupil's uniforms for obese 8 years olds, let's have a foodie post. Here are some things we had in Poland - a dish my mum made for me (remember it was +35 degrees in Lublin) of yellow fasolka, unavailable in Scotland, the tastiest combination of a vegetable and some breadcrumbs.

Then a perfect coffee at our most favourite cafe in Krakow  - Camelot. We are trying to get there for a meal everytime we are back in Poland's former capital. Best to be consumed accompanied by a brilliant and witty Przekroj magazine.

In Edinburgh I have a special penchant for cheese sandwiches at Falko bakery in Morningside. Sometimes a girl just has to have a sarnie like that. You should be glad it is not deep fried!

Iceskating

Not that we would need much of a cooling off these days! Our holidaying children simply needed some entertainment so we went to do some iceskating in Murrayfield. I have never seen a place like that before: the building itself has an art deco outside combined with Thatcheresque era interior decorations in an unchanged shape, just like time have stopped in 1970s . Their cafe area is worth of a photoproject!

In the image below Simon presents a difference in the shoe sizes of Liska and Lyovka - Liska with her size 2 feet on the right and Lev with his L shape silhouette of a proud owner of a size 10 at 12 years old:

Sir Walter does not live here anymore

Last week we took our kids to the Sir Walter Scott's residence of the Abbotsford. It was a gloomy, rainy day and to get there we had to take a long ride on an X95 bus throught the Borders and then walk for quite a while to get to the house from the bus stop.

However when we finally got there we were really surprised at the welcoming atmosphere of the whole venue - it is run by an independent trust and has really devoted guides almost ready to summarize all Sir Walter's novels just for you. It must have been a spectacular residence to live in (and so did Sir Walter, though he finally went into serious financial trouble because of the lavishness with which he built and decorated the house.) My favourite bits were a Chinese motive wall paper and a little stone crucifix on display in the library. Little grey item, apparently belonging to Mary Queen of Scots (which she was said to be carrying to her execution) with its spacious rooms, library stuffed with 9000 volumes and cozy armchairs.

My favourite parts were the little walled garden and a dog's sculpture at the entrance. Sir Walter looks in all the portraits like a nice, firendly guy, though a little bit grumpy - oh, I can imagine how grumpy it would make me to know that I have to write all these long novels about rainy Scotland in the Middle Ages! I came accross some of his novels in a posh house library and sadly some of the pages were not even cut open..

Will they ever learn?

I made a conscious decision of not changing my maiden name when I got married. Though I am considering that change more and more when observing an ability of the Scottish people to rework and reinvent my name and my surname...

Two recent examples - a notice on my college portfolio box for the graduation jury - how do they manage with all these Asian and Indian students? Are these people ever able to find themselves on any of the ECA's students lists?

And now an exaple from this week - I went to reheel my shoes and when lady who was filling the receipt asked me about my name I decided to skip the complicated bit and here is what I ended up with:

I would not have been surprised if these were just two examples but it happened already so many times that i have lost count. So this is my rant for today. Sincerely yours, Slivia Kowalozyk.

Introducing my friends

I know that Sejin is an avid reader of this blog (I will try to keep it more regular I promise! Though honestly, I have no idea how people are able to post regularly once a day, it is a full time job to be able to write something significantly interesting every day?!) and she has been featured here before alas not personally. It is the time to catch up and here is my talented friend in action.

She is currently working on her series of large format photographic portraits of women in modern societies and I have just learned that I am going to be one of her future subjects (if I understood correctly)! I am chuffed and I cannot wait! One thing is that I just hope that her artistic idea does not involve me being photographed in my home/studio as it would require a week worth of cleaning and arranging the space. If you reading this, Sejin, please consider my portrait perhaps somewhere OUTSIDE? If you reading this, Simon, clean your side of the desk just in case, please!