Come in New Year!

How was your year, dear friends? Are you happy to kick it off in the butt or you will get melancholic at the change tonight?

Whatever the answer - Happy New Year! And thanks to Wojtek for a lovely surprise call this morning, I keep fingers crossed for all of your exciting plans so that they work out in 2009!

Goodbye to Christmas!

All's eaten, time to strip off our Christmas tree:

A siege of The Castle

Another freezing morning in Edinburgh it was!

We wrapped really well and ventured outside to visit the most prominent tourist attraction of the city which is the Castle, of course. Wherever in the city you are, sooner or later th castle is going to emerge to tower on the horizon again.

Situated at the top of the core of an extinct volcano, it's layers are literally cut out in a solid rock - one has to mount quite a bit to get to the very top of the fortress (escaladed only once in 1313 by Randolph, Earl of Moray. It is a very specific siege term, like most of the terms deriving from French, but it just simply means that Randolph used ladders to get over the Castle's walls).

Today it was full of people, first gathered in front of the ticket office (Helas, this time we were not smart and did not book on line so we had to queue at least 30 minutes in the freezing cold) and then in every possible stage of the visit - around Monster Meg - a giant cannon, in the museum's cafe (though it was freezing we had to give up a cup of hot tea as there was simply no space to squeeze ourselves in the room) and especially in a tiny Margaret's Chapel. This good queen did a lot to introduce some civilization in Scotland during Dark Ages, however if one dares to venture out on a Saturday night in Edinburgh, it quickly becomes clear that she have missed a lot in her work.

The most interesting to me were of course the royal appartments with a room where Mary Queen of Scots gave birth to her only son James I of England.

In his Child's History of England Charles Dickens describes James I as unning, covetous, wasteful, idle,drunken, geedy, dirty, cowardly, a great searer, and the most conceited man on earth. In An Uttelry Impartial History of Britain John O'Farrell adds that Jame's parents have been cousins and it showed. His tongue was too big for his mouth, with the charming result that he slobbered when he spoke, a habit not helped by him being halfpissed most of the time.

Nowadays he would be sitting in front row for Marc Jacobs but at the time, being gay on top of all that did not help his reputation amongst historians. His wife, queen Anne of Denmark eventually agreed to live apart exchanged for a handsome sweetheart - the Duke of Buckingham.

The Camera Obscura

Luckily the weather still keeps up so we are visiting and visiting and then doing some more of visiting...

Yesterday we had a pleasant hour at the site of Camera Obscura with its fascinating views of the city and the whole bunch of little gems of illusion like this cut out site of the exhibition in Victorian London.

It actually reminded me a lot of one my end of term work in ESAG, which was supposed to capture an idea of the internet (whoever wants to copy - bugger off, this idea is mine! Think of something else for youself!) - pity I did not know it at that time as I would know better how to prepare the whole construction and joining of the screens.

Luckily one is allowed to take pictures (except the room of the camera obscura itself so as not to disturb other visitors) or I might have burst otherwise, surrounded with so many fascinating visual ideas, so useful for my research project for the college.

Poor Mary

The first stop of our route today was the Hollyrood Palace (with some more Italian baroque art exhibition), which to my surprise is nowadays situated within the city just next to the buildings of the Scottish Parialment and Dynamic Earth, both a mere 25 minutes walk downhill from where we live.

Since reading Antonia Fraser's biography of the Queen of Scots and then watching one of my favourite actresses Samantha Morton playing the queen in Elisabeth: The Golden Age by Shekhar Kapur I was really keen to see Queen's private chambers in the Palace. I guess I might get qualified as some kind of a stalking fan as I was gasping with excitment at seeing every bit of her personal belongings (a pomander, some strawberry red hair, a cat and a mouse embroidered by the Queen's hand with an awkward writing a catte on it), infamous little chamber from where Rizzio was dragged out and stabbed 56 times in the presence of a heavily praegnant Queen - it were actually just two little rooms in the whole of the palace but they made me start reading 758 pages of Fraser's book with great pleasure all over again!

Do not buy the Titians!

After yestarday's shopping bonanza, my mum and I (as Simon was still treating his cold with a prolonged stay in bed) decided to venture into more cultural environment aka National Galleries of Scotland to see their collection (pas mal indeed). It was a feezing but sunny day and spending couple of hours in warm rooms of the exposition , strolling from Velazquez to Rembrandt, back to Hals and off to Boticelli again was indeed a very pleasant way of spending a Saturday early afternoon.
Until we reached these infamous Tits...ups, pomylka Freudowska, Titians.
Maybe it was the fact that both images were recently renovated, maybe it was the fact they were painted for Philip II of Spain, a character I have never liked or maybe it was just their palin, blant, overpopulated look of custardy flesh and not brilliantly executed piles of bodies.
We gasped in horror - so many millions of quids for something so mediocre? Please do buy something worth all that money instead this expensive junk, just because it has that label attached to it!
P.S. I cannot help but wonder, as Carrie Bradhaw would put it nicely, how surprisingly National Galleries do not differ much from Harvey Nicks - in both places one can see overpriced junk, coveted just because it is signed with a particular name.
Coming back to Rembrandt again was such a relief and meeting Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch - a pure joy!

(reproduction of painting by Sir Henry Raeburn from NGS website)

http://www.nationalgalleries.org/aboutus/project/1:167/5903

Sale time!

A budget is just a method of worrying before you spend money, as well as afterward.

So my whole plan of not spending too much this winter went through the window when my mum and I reached Harvey Nichols this morning (well, about 11 am so the shop was already opened for an hour but and actually found some beautiful items at quite affordable prices! These items were no longer available 10 minutes later - all Marc's t-shirts were gone in a flash and I ended up dodging a woman who was desperately trying to seize a jacket that I picked up from the Prada's heap (at -70%).

Edinburgh's Golden Youth came to town from their parent's estates and gathered in front of Jack Willis in a massive sale queue which you can see in the image I took walking down George Street:

Merry Christmas my friends!

We were a little bit late with sending Christmas cards this year, so late that when Simon finally ventured to the post office yesterday to send his ones (he very kindly posted mines a day before) he was asked by the clerk if these were by any chance his Easter ones. Should take a note and send the Easter ones next week indeed instead of our usual two days after the important date or not at all (as we are so embarassed with being late with greetings).

So there is no chance, my friends, that you will get your greetings on time so that is why I decided to call some of you today. Hopefully when you are back from your families you will find our greetings in postboxes as we have included a magic sentence for a Happy New Year too! However, knowing how the post office works here some of you might never receive your cards. Do not let you worry too much about this, my friends, have some Polish barszcz z uszkami with us as there is going to be another Merry Christmas in a Happy New Year!

Alternative Christmas tree

My mum is coming tomorrow and otherwise I whould not have bothered with buying anything christmassy, green and alive as I am a top, superefficient plant killer but decided to make an exception. Here it is - Merry Christmas my friends, greeting cards are on their way!

It will only get better from now on

Days are supposed to be longer now and we are going to get a bit more light as I have started to look worse for wear recently. We were not saving on heating this winter (I am too scared to look at the gas bill!) but I have managed to stay away of any colds and bugs running on lots of organic food and echinacea but my skin is dry as a leather of a shoe that Muntazer al-Zaidi threw at George Bush last week.

I have also finally managed to get through ranks of overexcited children to take a few images of sleepy reindeers at the Princess Street Gardens today. I had an impression that the animals were a tad bit bigger than what I have remembered from a visit in Rovaniemi many years ago. They had exactly the same face expression that is meeting me in the bathroom mirror every morning this winter.

After an usual nice soup at Wellingotn Cafe we bravely went for a quick but extremely effective Christmas pressies shopping (6 gifts bought within an hour for a very reasonalbe sum so we can call it a battle almost won as there are still 6 to go) in John Lewis and then for a coffee at the top of Harvey Nichs (which had Marc Jacobs ready-to-wear reduced by 50% girlfriends! Zomgzomgzomg why have I left my card at home, will have to run there tomorrow - no way I will manage to survive until the Boxing Day sale!). We were sitting with our coffees surrounded by extremely well groomed ladies sipping mostly roses (British ladies seem to drink wine without having any food with it, I would be tipsy within 3 minutes from the first gulp!) wondering why this place looks so familiar.

Monika would not approve of their interior lighting design - some tables were plunged in a semidarkness (very disturbing if you are having mussels), some were directly under a yellowish glow of the tiny ceiling lamps. Some tables had to be lit with a glow from a city panorama of the front glass wall or by a glow from the eyes of Hindu waiters. Then Simon leaned forward and whispered that just remembered where he knows an atmosphere of this interior from - it all strongly remined him of a department store in mid 90ties Slovakia.

Could not agree more. Just in case I have decided to take a touristy picture of the city panorama in the night (it was actually 5 pm) and skip the interior. Monika, you will have to come and have a look for yourself, coffee is on me.

Noisy neighbours

That is us, as we have learned after a visit of a neighbour from downstairs.

I have never been so nastily surprised in my life - how come? Us, hardworking folks, not listening to music loudly (and if so, it is Radio Classic so no bass and drums unless Beethoven is considered as heavy), not having any parties (at home), walking only in soft slippers and we are still noisy by some people standards?

I was standing in the dorway, trying to be as polite as possible even if the guy had the same kind of painful facial expression and type of glasses that one of assistants at the Fine Art Academy had - ones that make ones eyes huge like eyes of a fly - I dread of any people who wear these kind of glasses, it is a feeling stronger than me. Maybe because this guy's teaching methods were sucking out life of any creative student - I have met him once, many years later in a street in Krakow and a vague of something awful, sickening and tiring came through me like a flash, but I could not put it why I have reacted this way to seeing this particular person (I could not quite put him in my memory, who he was - not a Dementor from a Harry Potter's adventures, I just knew that the face was familiar somehow). Until Agata mentioned the guy in a conversation and it all became clear all of a sudden.

So here we were, him painfully saing that our floor is squeaking and he cannot put up with that anymore (so we should tiptoe for the rest of our stay or learn how to fly I presume, I thought but decided to shut up) and that the flat was empty for such a long (and presumably blissfull for him but not to the landlord) time and that he is so sensitive to noise (what noise?!) and what he is supposed to do (him? put some cotton buds in his ears, that's what) . Oh dear, I said, it must be that particular board in the floor which keeps squeaking, I will mark it so we will not step on it anymore (aha, this idea must work especially well in the darkness or when one tries very hard not to step on it), I apologised once more and closed the door, devastated.

We are bad, noisy neighbours. An we will have to live with the whole of our wooden floor marked like this:

Santa without a beard

Christmas is arriving in Scotland in fast steps. A hotel in George Street started to spread artificial snow around it's entrance. Unfortunately snow flakes turned out to be soap flakes and in a drizzle everything turned into a grey foam. So not exactly an idea of white Christmas the menagement had in mind to lure customers...

The drizzle sims to accompany us almost everyday at this time of the year. I have seen the snow once so far. For an hour to be precise. Still, in this awful weather we have managed to get some nice Christmas prezzies (I will not show ones for the rest of the family as they might be popping in here to have a look from time to time!).

Simon's part (endless winter nights of spaghetti westerns await us + some serious shooting gloves we got for his approaching photo trip to Lvov):

And what I got for myself (btw - a message for Wojtek > please give back my SATC and Ma femme est une actrice, pretty please! I have not seen them for so long that they might be as well my Christmas presents this year, Darling).

Fast downturn

Things are definitely going too fast for me in the world. We are inundated with images and some of these images show girls already advertising swimming suits for summer holidays. Hey, there has not been Christmas yet! Why do I have to read January issue of a magazine while we are still in December?
We had such a nice, wind down weekend at Haddington again, watching Harry Potter adventures and decorating two christmas trees. Good food, great company, bliss.
Tomorrow more bussiness meetings are waiting for us.

Samsung scores 10 brownie points

My computer's monitor was misbehaving for several weeks (see, I am Zen after all - survived several weeks working with monitor which was taking up to 25 minutes to start up at all! 25 five minutes of everyday fiddling so that it finaly would stop blinking and light normally.) I finally decided to do something about that. Aka I grabbed Simon's desktop computer monitor for myself...

Unfortunately I knew I will not be allowed to go on like this for long but I was affraid that without any guarantee documents (armed with an obligatory stamp, bien sur) I would not be able to do much as I was absolutely sure that the guarantee expired months ago anyway and I am left with an expensive and broken piece of equipment. However after asking uncle Google the reply was that Samsung monitors have 3 years guarantee and further research at the Samsung helpline showed that actually I am still entitled to use it! Even without papers!

In reply to our enquiries we received a very polite call from Samsung that a courrier is going to pick up my monitor (and I was sure I will never see it again!). Just imagine my surprise when the gasping for breath courrier, actually turned up 2 days later on our 3rd floor with a box which included a brand new Samsung monitor!He grabbed the old, broken one, we signed delivery papers and that was it.

Wow, what an impressive customer policy!

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Przyznaje, nie dzialam za szybko w takich przypadkach - to chyba musi byc uraz z pierwszej pracy do jakichkolwiek kontaktow telefonicznych, ale juz dluzej sie nie dalo.

Moj sliczny, drogi monitor Samsunga, ktory dostalam (czesciowo) w prezencie, zaniemogl i codziennie wymagal okolo 25 pracowitych minut ciaglego wlaczania i wylaczania, zeby sie wreszcie wlasciwie zaswiecic.

Oczywiscie dokumenty gwarancyjne zaginely gdzies w ferworze przeprowadzki, chociaz zaloze sie, ze stalo sie to duzo wczesniej. Z reszta moge sie jeszcze dodatkowo zalozyc o to, ze i tak nie podbilam karty gwarancyjnej...

Na szczescie niezastapiony Simon wzial sprawy (a raczej telefon) w swoje rece i po wygooglaniu informacji, ze monitory Samsunga maja 3 lata gwarancji zadzwonil na infolinie firmy po dalsze informacje. Okazalo sie, ze zadne pieczatki i papierki nie sa potrzebne, spisano tylko numer seryjny i po 2 dniach dostalismy tlefon, ze nowy monitor bedzie dostarczony przez kuriera a stary zabrany.

Dzisiaj po poludniu, zasapany pan kurier doczlapal na nasze 3 pietro i dostarczyl nowiutki monitor Samsunga. Wiec dzisiejszy post mial byc zupelnie o czym innym a tak wyszla tyrada na czesc serwisu konsumenckiego firmy Samsung!

I will never be famous...

... I don't do anything, not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more.
• Four be the things I'd have been better without: love, curiosity, freckles and doubt.

• A girl's best friend is her mutter.

• Take care of luxuries and the necessities will take care of themselves.

• Salary is no object; I want only enough to keep body and soul apart.

• Money cannot buy health, but I'd settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair.

• The two most beautiful words in the English language are 'cheque enclosed.'

• If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.

• The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.

• This wasn't just plain terrible, this was fancy terrible. This was terrible with raisins in it
• It serves me right for keeping all my eggs in one bastard.
• I went to convent in New York and was fired finally for my insistence that the Immaculate Conception was spontaneous combustion
• Ducking for apples - change one letter and it's the story of my life.
• It's not the tragedies that kill us, it's the messes.
• I'd like to have money. And I'd like to be a good writer. These two can come together, and I hope they will, but if that's too adorable, I'd rather have money.
• Scratch a lover, and find a foe.
list of quotes by Dorothy Parker

My first ever bookcover commission was for Parker's shortstories. I just knew she lived in New York, was witty, intelligent, glamourous and talented. And that she commited suicide.That was it and then I came up with the image.
P.S. This post is dedicated to Nuala who reminded me about Parker's wit again. And that men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses. Do contact lenses count?

Bluebeard's junk secrets

Simon protested over my musing in the yesterday post about being an easygoing and optimistic person ."Is there a three letter word opposit of 'zen'?" he asked me after reading the entry.

Ania persuaded me to post some images of our flat and as the weather permitted I took some pictures this morning. A sunny morning for a change - one cannot see the screen anymore!

Also I think I know now why Bluebeard had this little locked room in his castle. He was not keeping there all of his ex slaughtered wifes. He was keeping there all his... JUNK!

I was trying to keep our interior minimal and clear but my boyfriend's passion for piling things made it impossible. So here it comes: a set of images of our cave. Minus the Bluebeard's chamber of secret aka the cupboard next to the entrance.

P.S. I know I am sitting on Ikea's bathroom container but we still have not managed to bring these Bauhaus-like chairs we got as a gift from Venessa's office.

Things that annoy me

I generally try to be rather a zen, optymistic and easy going person but there are things that are sending me through the roof.

I went to the North Bridghe paper shop today to get the cardboard for my maquettes (a college shop is closed until the 5th of January, how handy). They had it (surprise surprise! it was a third shop I have visited in my new heels just to get a piece of cardboard) but unlike the college shop, only in massive, vast sheets. As from the North Bridge I was planning to continue over the bridge to The St James Center to lurk around John Lewis' cooking accessories department I was not very willing to carry such a sail with me. Not to mention that this cardboard + today's wind would send me flying over the Weaverly Station in a blink as north part of it is supposedly the windiest place in Britain.

The shop assistant refused to cut it in half.

I was gobsmacked but at this stage I tried the joke with me flying over the roofs of The New Town.

He said NO.

I asked why, trying to lick a white foam forming on my mouth.

The HEALTH AND SAFETY REGULATIONS replied he.

So I paid my 85 p for the board and bent it in half in front of his very eyes on saying that I have never heard anything more stupid in my whole life.

Another thing that devastates me every morning as I look at it and try to use it is situated in our bathroom.

When I asked Simon why do British people did such a crazy thing to their taps he replied that doing it like the rest of Europe would be dangerously FRENCH.

Gloomy Auld Reekie

Since couple of days the Sun has not even ventured out from behind a thick layer of clouds.
You wake up when it is darkish and you hope that it is going to improve when the day establishes (and with a cup of tea) but no, it does not and then it is just getting darker and darker until a night falls.
We are approximately at the same lattitude as Norway but the gulf stream makes all the difference so when they have snow up to their knees in April we here have +5 degrees all year round.

You wake up and shuffle to the bathroom to have a shower but our one is not at all invigorating: we nicknamed it "sikutek" ("piddle") so if I had Rapuntzel hair it would take me good couple of hours to rinse the shampoo out.
Then is the soup - why on Earth they have to add milk and sugar to perfeclty all right carrot soups? I can understand it added to a black tea (though it still took me years to get used to it) but to a perfectly all right vegetable stock?
Anyway, I am going to have one because since we are heading to Haddington for the weekend (and to do some organic shopping there) our fridge is cold, empty (except that half of it is filled with films) and uninviting all but for this one container promising some tasty time.

















Pogoda tutaj zdecydowanie nie ulatwia zycia.
Od kilku dni slonce nawet nie pokazalo sie na niebie, pokrytym gruba warstwa chmurnej piany, niczym starbucksowskie latte. Kiedy wstaje jest ciemnawo, ale licze na to, ze sytuacja ulegnie zmianie na lepsze w ciagu dnia - nic z tego. Moze zrobic sie juz tylko ciemniej.
Nawet prysznic nie daje rady mnie orzezwic - nadalismy mu ksywe "sikutek" bo tez taki strumien (glownie) wrzatku z siebie wypuszcza. Na szczescie nie mam warkoczy bajkowej ksiazniczki, bo wtedy rzeczywiscie nie pozostawaloby mi nic innego tylko splukiwac godzinami na wiezy wlosy pod tym ciurkajacym strumyczkiem.
Na szczescie herbata jest lepsza tylko nie mige zrozumiec dlaczego i wszystkie zupy maja dodany cukier i mleko?
Mala probka zimowej atmosfery w materiale zdjeciowym ^.
Potrzebuje jeszcze jednego cieplego swetra.

Landscape special

Since I am spending so much time doing my work, some people were inquiring what I am currently working on, since my firts term of postgraduate studies officially finishes tomorrow.

I am doing a weird landscape project, my dears. I am trying to create disillusioned Scottish landscape. Here is a sample from the latest shoot and finally the whole thing goes in the area I wanted it to direct: something that looks badly stitched in PS but what actually is fully crafted by photographer's hand, no CDI involved at all. I am even considering use of a large format camera (which so far I was restricting just for a studio use but in this context it might help to have the whole process fully handmade).

The weather does not make it any easier - my assistant and I nearly froze to death near Hollyrood Palace gardens!

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Poniewaz od kilku tygodni nic innego nie robie, tylko pracuje, postanowilam pokazac nad czym ze to.

Projekt dotyczy pejzazu (a jakze , przeciez jestem w Szkocji) i zabawy efektami iluzji optycznej: to co wydaje sie zle skrojonym montazem fotoszopowym, w rzeczywistosci jest po prostu odpowiednio oswietlona makieta budynku. Po kilku sesjach widze, ze wreszcie wszystko zaczyna isc wizualnie w wypracowana przeze mnie strone.

Szkoda tylko, ze pogoda na prawde nie ulatwia spracy: prawie zamarzlismy z moim asystentem na zboczu tego wzgorza (uwaga! to samo centrum Edynburga) o 4 po poludniu...

Śnieg, snow, la neige

I have officially encoutered a first day of snow in Edinburgh today. It really makes you think about Christmas.
My Mum will be staying with us for almost two weeks and I am planning to do some serious tourist sightseeing with her. Especially since I am seriously armed with a Wardlock & Co illustrated guide (reedited after almost 50 years) and absolutely brilliant invention which is The Edinburgh Literary Companion by Andrew Lownie. (I have been using a Paris version by Ian Littlewood when living for a while in the French capital. It was most revealing about the history of places and numerous famous people connected with them. It is hopefully still in safe hands of Kasia's bookshelves...).


I took a picture on North Bridge (the literary companion mentiones that Stevenson watched the departing trains from here and Ian Rankin's Set in Darkness misterious death scene is also set in this street).
They have put a brass plate in the pavement on the spot you are supposed to stand to take the best picture of the city panorama.
Most ingenious!

At war with the obvious

^ Photo by W.Eggleston

Last week was full of work revelations.

First we managed to score couple of work interviews, second out tutor invited MFA students to a screening of Michael Almereyda's documentary film on one of my favourite photographers: "William Eggleston In The Real World".

His first major, breakthrough exhibition came from MoMA's famous curator John Szarkowski invitation when Eggleston was 37 years old (so I still have some time to conquer NY then hihi) and which became the most hated exhibition of the year. Still Szakowski wrote in his essay about Eggleston's work that "world contains now more pictures than bricks and they are all astonishingly different".

What I really like about Eggleston is that he is interested in a nature of perception - he just likes taking pictures or making music (with his awful electric piano) or drawings but does not have any emotional response to any of these activities. Therefore he is completely useless when confronted with talking about his work - people who are expecting him to give an indepth explanations are going to be seriously disappointed but the whole attempt at trying to drag out some form of a comment from the artist are in the end most comical in the whole documentary.

I also liked the fact that Eggleston still uses a very oldfashioned westontype lightmeter and is not affraid to be filmed when completely drunk in his stripy underpants.

P.S. Fragments of the film are available at youtube as well as Eggleston video work, which make Andy Warhol look like a kid in comparison.

Applepie for Ecas

Brian came up with the idea of each one of us in the group bringing something nice to eat + preferably connected with the country of our origin for our college meetings on Thursdays.

Tomorrow is my turn.

I gave up on idea of preparing pierogis as they need to be eaten warm and we do not have this kind of facilities available in the college. So it had to be something edible and tasty when cold so I baked a szarlotka today.

Our kitchen is of a size of an hankerchief, the oven does not have a light inside and the previous tenant inspired by Carrie Bradsaw probably used it for storage, but if managed to churn out the required dish. It looks all right though I do not dare to cut it as it looks so nice! I just hope it is tasty as well...

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Co tydzien, ktos z naszego studenckiego grona przynosi cos do spozycia podczas cotygodniowego spotkania na uczelni. Zalozylismy, ze danie powinno wywodzic sie z kraju gotujacego i na pierwszy ogien poszedl Brian ze szkockim shortbread em (ogolnie mowiac, polaczenie herbatnika z ciastem kruszonym, maslane, slodkie i ponoc latwe w przygotowaniu) a jutro moja kolej.

Co prawda planowalam pierogi ale musialam zmodyfikowac swoj plan ze wzgledu na to, ze one nie najlepiej smakuja na zimno.

W planie byla tez herbata z dopalaczem i nawet nabylam w tym celu termos ale nigdzie w okolicy nie bylo do kupienia jednorazowych kubkow - Hindus na rogu proponowal, zebym kupila jego tekturowe kubki do automatu z kawa, ktory ma za kontuarem ale nawet przy mojej desperacji, okazalo sie, ze sa tylko 3 na stanie).

Trudno, wódzia bedzie innym razem.

Dam znac, czy danie bylo zjadliwe, bo nasz piekarnik jest z tych podejrzanych - np. nie ma swiatla. Tymczasem niczego nie napoczynam, bo to ciasto tak ladnie wyglada w formie do pieczenia...

Puzzle has been cracked

Simon did the puzzle! I was really nice to watch him working on it and to relax finally a bit.

Haddington weekend is over, back to work

We had some wonderful time in Haddington this weekend. We have even ventured for a walk, even though Scotland is at the moment under a winter spell, so I have almost freezed my butt off. Woolly hat was absolutely necessary.

I am not a Scottish winter person, I much prefer to snuggle up with the Sunday editions of newspapers, preferably next to a dog or a warm radiator. We watched the whole 'Star Wars' trilogy and later a thriller with H.Ford where surprise surprise, he plays a baaaaddieeee (next to a very well preserved Michelle Pfeiffer) - now we are too scared to go to a bathroom even though the force is with us...

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Wreszcie dotarlismy do domu po przemilym weekendzie u rodzicow Simona. Nawet wypuscilismy sie na spacer, chociaz niedzielne gazety pialy o meteorologicznej katastrofie czyli opadach sniegu (owszem, widzielismy kilka bialych plackow na zboczach wzgorz Lammmermuir ale to by bylo na tyle z zapowiadanej zamieci). Obijalismy sie przy calej trylogii Gwiezdnych Wojen a kiedy dzieci poszly spac, telewizja pokazala zameckisowska wersje Harrisona F. jako psychopatycznego mordercy (malo prawdopodobne, ale niech bedzie). Dlaczego ludzie kupuja sobie domy oddalone od najblizszej cywilizacji o pare dobrych godzin jazdy pick upem?

Edinburgh for locals

This morning Simon was catching a 6 am train to London so he had to go through the city at dawn to the train station. In the Royal Mile a big, fat fox came towards him.

The Royal Mile is as central in Edinburgh as one can get - and we are now living just minutes from it.

To illustrate some November views of the city I am enclosing an image I took yesterday from my college window - our street is the one on the left.

The main plan is get out there in a woolly hat and keep taking some pictures, fox or not fox.

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Dzisiaj rano, kiedy Simon szedl przez miasto na stacje, zeby zlapac pierwszy poranny pociag do Londynu wielki, tlusty lis przecial mu droge. Simon schodzil wlasnie w dol Royal Mile, w samym centrum miasta. Lis nawet sie nie obejrzal.

Dolaczam zdjecie zrobione z okna uczelni zeby ziulstrowac listopadowo-piktorialne widoki na jakie napotykam teraz w miescie, do ktorego musze sie wybrac wreszcie z normalnym aparatem a nie moim 'pikusiem' na 7 megapixeli. Aha, oprocz aparatu konieczna bedzie tez welniana czapka.

In town

So we have finally moved in into our flat!

Now I am just MINUTES (and I mean that, not 90 minutes but 5 minutes) from college, city center and Filmhouse in Lothian Road, where we have celebrated our more permanent arrival with afternoon screening of 'Der Baader-Meinhoff Komplex' with extremely charismatic Johanna Wokalek as Gudrun Ensslin (ah, this trendy smokey eye makeup of hers, unfortunately not designed for my type of face).


We were almost alone in the cinema, except a group of girls from a language school, who later comented joyfully on how many new German swearwords they just became familiar with (my favourite was 'kwatch' - Monica, please correct me on spelling of this one if I am wrong!)

Official website: http://www.bmk.film.de/

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Wreszcie sie sprowadzilismy 'na powaznie' do naszego edynburskiego mieszknia - kilka minut (a nie 1,5 h w autobusie...) od centrum, mojej uczelni i roznych atrakcji typu Film House przy Lothian Road gdzie swietowalismy wczoraj na popoludniowym seansie 'Der Baader-Meinhoff Komplex'. Charyzmatyczna Johanna Wokalek prawie zmusila mnie, nie nie do terroryzmu (chociaz kilka napadow na banki by sie przydalo hihi) ale do zrobienia sobie oczu na granatowo, mimo, ze to styl kompletnie nie zgodny z moim typem urody - mam wtedy oczy jak jalowka!

Oczywiscie stresuje sie tym, czy w obecnym klimacie ekonomicznym bedzie nas stac na takie mieszkanie w centrum (na razie nas stac ale tez nie widac kolenych wiekszych zlecen) i utrzymanie naszego krakowskiego mieszkania...

Work a little

I deliberately decided to create this blog as a place about my personal life but as I spend 95% of my time thinking, dreaming, wondering about my work aka something I am very passionate about, so why not to boast a little?

Here is a part of campaign for promoting a new edition of Paddington Bear adventures in Polish.There are posters all over Warsaw (including a 40 meters long one in the main train station hall), these ones in Warsaw's metro and a new website which I have also illustrated http://www.paddington.com.pl/ (all images are made by me, except the bear itself, of course by R.W. Alley).

Workspace takes shape

Our flat starts to take shape: Simon installed our workspace yesterday. We have also bought our first decent storage for prints and various bits of paper that should not be stored vertically but flat (fellow photographers know what I am talking about) - we should have owned one years ago, really.
I am going to add a nice rug for under the table now so we do not get cold feet while working, but also to inject some color into the space and to make it less officy.

Dispatched some more presents today for friends (Kasia is having her B day this Monday!) and we are busy with creating some promotional materials for our bussiness (have a look at www.seeingdubble.com). We are going to make a tour around Edinburgh agencies so it would be great to leave them some promos about all that brilliant work we are doing!

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Nasza przestrzen mieszkalna wreszcie zaczyna jakos wygladac: Simon zmontowal wczoraj nasz nowy, wielki stol do pracy. Kupilismy tez pojemnik z szufladami do przechowywania ogromnej ilosci przeroznych papierow w ktorych toniemy a ktore powinny lezec plasko - marzylismy o czyms takim od lat i wreszcie jest z nami.
Mam tez juz kolorowy chodnik w sympatycznych kolorach, ktory ma sprawic, ze caly pokoj przestanie wygladac jak biuro i bedzie tez przyjemnym pomieszczeniem do po prostu przebywania.

Jestesmy zajeci tez promowaniem naszego biznesu www.seeingdubble.com i wkrotce czeka nas stresujace ale niezbedne zajecie prezentowania portfolia w roznych agencjach reklamowych. Oby przy obecnym klimacie ekonomicznym mieli wieksza ochote zatrudniac wolnych strzelcow wykonujacych swietna robote za umiarkowanie duze pieniadze.

If only we were not rentin'

Our flat starts to take necessary shape but a girl still can dream, right?

This is a toilet at the resto - bar Le Kong * designed by Philippe Starck, images of sumo children by Charles Fréger.
For those living in Paris (hint, hint) the address is > Kong, 1, rue du Pont-Neuf, 75001, Paris, 01 40 39 09 00

via www.marieclairemaison.com

Simon Superhero

On Sunday my fantastic boyfriend stepped in and after a couple of hours our locomotive looks like THAT!
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W niedziele Simon wkroczyl do akcji i nasza ciuchcia zaczela wreszcie nabierac ksztaltow!

Flat files

(please click on the image to enlarge it/ kliknij na obrazek to zobaczysz go w powiekszeniu)

^ There are some items I could do with in our new flat (I would really need a dog, but it is out of the question with our current lifestyle).
Hopefully we will be able to move in sometimes next week!

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Kilka rzeczy, ktorymi nie pogardzilabym , gdyby zagoscily w naszym nowym mieszkaniu ( tak na prawde, to najbardziej brakuje mi psa ale to w obecnej sytuacji marzenie scietej glowy)

Material zdjeciowy pochodzi z calkowicie obslinionej przeze mnie strony/ Currently I am drulling over this website :
http://www.style-files.com/

Fascinating work of other people, part 1

My parents are or rather were a very special mix: mum concentrated on movement (she is a choreographer with her own ballet school), father dealing with geometry and construction (engineer specialising in tarmacs and motorways) .
These completely different fields of interest helped in creating me as a designer (a degree in graphic design) but also as a curious personality, curious especially about other ways of expressing one's abilities.
I have an interest in dancers - people who able to be absolutely in control of their body -while I can only ride a bike and swim a little + I have never danced .
A fact that fascinates me the most is that they are able to remember complicated arrangements of movements, minute after minute, bar after bar - I seem to have a completely different kind of memory.
Thanks to my mum's professional contacts I had a chance to observe how choreographers work, though I have observed their cooperation with professional ballet dancers.

This time it was cooperation with somebody who also works with body as she is an actress (one of my favourite ones, I must admit) but does not think as a dancer/choreographer. I am talking about a work of dance theatre 'In-i' by Juliette Binoche and Akram Khan (with visual design by Anish Kapoor and music composition by Philip Sheppard).

Constantly reinventing herself French actress, trained as as hard as GI Jane to be able 'to keep up with the golden spitfire that is Khan' as Jenny Gilbert from Independent summed brutally these litres of sweat by describing months of hard work as 'mildly clumsy kinetic efforts of La Binoche' .
Ms Gilbert should have watched the documentary about the whole preparation process of this performance, recently shown on British tv, to be able to take into consideration her harsh oppinion. As it maybe sells the papers but does not do the justice to the performers.
Critics might be judgemental, that is their job, but I have watched the whole broadcast nevertheless, simply glued to the tv screen.

Especially fascinating moment comes 'when Khan takes the stand to tell his story, about when he was 10, and at the mosque, and owned up to the mullah about being enamoured of a non-Muslim girl at school. There is violence in his story, both implied and shockingly actual, and Khan transmits it grippingly. For a few minutes you forget the other soggy drivel, as Khan ricochets between voicing the fierce mullah and the terrified boy, then explodes in an angry rant, spitting out syllables – perhaps from the Koran, but perplexingly we're not told'

Khan is a fascinating performer, just type his name into Youtube to get a glimpse of his work as the show at the London National Theatre finished on 20 October 2008, way before I have planned my trip to London.

Bio note: Akram Khan was born in London in 1974 to Bangladeshi parents. As a child, he studied kathak, the north Indian classical dance form, won competitions and was cast in Peter Brook's 'Mahabharata' at the age of 14. After a dance degree, Khan began developing a highly personal style, mixing kathak with western contemporary dance. Multiculturalism being the buzzword everywhere in the arts, he couldn't have timed his arrival better. Yet his success is just as much due to a staggering technique, his charisma on stage, and a fierce intelligence that makes him a setter rather than a follower of fashion. Artists as diverse as the writer Hanif Kureishi, sculptor Antony Gormley, and even the ballerina Sylvie Guillem, have queued up to work with him.

full review here: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/theatre-dance/reviews/ini-lyttelton-theatre-london-936691.html

Even better

Via www.ffffound.com

Cool

http://webwithoutsense.com/

The first ... caramel president of The United States of America

Excellent portfolio of images by Callie Shell:
http://digitaljournalist.org/issue0810/callie-bp.html

Title of this post courtesy of Simon.

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No i mamy pierwszego karmelowego, jak go okreslil Simon, prezydenta Stanow Zjednoczonych!
Powyzej link do swietnego portfolio dokumentujacego kampanie.
Znaleziony przez http://www.itsnicethat.com/

Puzzle inside a riddle wrapped in an enigma

Hours of fun...

Jigsaw plot

In 1605 The Gunpowder Plot was established, with Guy Fawkes as the most anonymous of it's conspirators and attempted to commit the infamous act of terror of blowing up King James I and the Houses of Parliament. Fawkes was found on top of 20 gunpowder barrels when unsuccessfully trying to light a match , tortured and then executed as the remaining conspirators were hanged, drawn and quartered.
Jolly times. Especially for catholics.

So we celebrated with flapcjacks and sparklers (we did not have anything to create a bonfire of as I refused to get rid of my collection of old French Vogue issues), especially that we successfully managed to buy a biiiiig working table and hopefully comfortable bed on our yesterday's trip to local Ikea store.
To let some steam off the family started assembling a jigsaw puzzle - it is going to be a looong night...

Some other news : Philip is celebrating his birthday in Paris - Happy Birthday Phil! So that all your coming ventures are successfull!
Hopefully our present managed to reach him by now.
If you would like to visit his blog, just click on the title Home on the bloggroll on your right.

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W 1605 katolicy zawiazali spisek majacy na celu obalenie krola za pomoca wysadzenia budynku Parlamentu, w ktorym ten mial goscic wraz z cala rodzina. Osoba odpowiedzialna za odpalenie ladunku uczyniono pewnego zolnierza o nazwisku Fawks (a imieniem Guy). Jeden z uczestnikow spisku ostrzegl jednak swojego brata, zeby danego dnia nie uczestniczyl w obradach Parlamentu i tak metoda gluchego telefonu, cala sprawa sie rypla. Uczestnikow spisku przepuszczono przez narzedzia tortur, skazano a nastepnie w zaleznosci od wyroku, pocwiartowano, spalono lub powieszono.
Na pamiatke wykrycia spiskowcow, cala Wyspa, zapala ogniska i strzela petardami, chociaz my, z braku materialow nadajacych sie do puszczenia z dymem, odpalilismy tylko zimne ognie.

Po tak ekscytujacych wydarzeniach, rodzina rozpoczela medytacyjne rozpracowywanie ukladanki z 1000 elementow. Mam nadzieje tylko, ze nie robia tego na czas...

Z innych newsow - dotarlismy wreszcie do Ikea (zdjecia zakupow wkrotce) a Philip w Paryzu obchodzi dzisiaj czterdzieste urodziny! Wszystkiego najlepszego, Phil! (namiar na jego 'elektroniczny pamietnik' znalezc mozna po prawej stronie, pod haslem HOME)

Mississippi Monday

My favourite show in British TV at the moment is a documentary by Stephen Fry about his journey across United States of America in a black London cab. He is now riding along Mississippi river hence a chocolate mud pie, courtesy of my 11 years old stepson. Fingerslickin' good, yeah!

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Moj ulubiony teraz program w brytyjskiej telewizji, na ktory staram sie wyskrobac godzine co poniedzialek (powtorka z niedzieli) jest dokument Stephena Fry (niezapomniany, dystyngowany lokaj Jeeves i partner Rowana Atkinsona w podrozy przez wieki z Czarnym Zmija).

Moj przybrany syn , zainspirowany odcinkiem o Mississipi, wyprodukowal blotne ciasto czekoladowe. Zniknelo z talerzy w takim tempie, ze ledwie mialam czas zrobic zdjecie!

Home, sweet home

Our flat seems to take shape finally as we start to unpack our stuff.
All the boxes have arrived, intact and even not too much squashed which still baffles me after that journey they have been through.
Now we just need to get a bed, a working table and some chairs. Ebay seems to be suprisingly devoid of the reasonably sized tables to pick up in our area, so I am affraid we will have to find solace in the scandinavian empire of flat packed furniture. However, anything I would like to get there, seems to be out of stock on their website. Even loobrushes!
Have you ever seen an empty Ikea?

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Powoli zaczynamy rozpakowywanie naszego emigracyjnego dobytku. O dziwo wszystkie pudelka przyjechaly cale i zdrowe, z zadowoleniem odfajkowywalam kolejne pozycje na liscie w miare jak panowie przewoznicy wnosili je na nasze trzecie pietro.
Nadal poszukujemy stolu do pracy na Ebayu ale po wygodne lozko udamy sie na wyprawe do IKEA, mimo, ze wszystkie interesujace nas obiekty, na ich stronie internetowej, maja zaznaczony znaczek 'wyprzedane'. Nawet zwykla szczotka kibelkowa jest dla nas niedostepna!

Might need botox soon

Could anybody explain please, why do they look in separate directions? That is very awkward.
Who chooses these promotional images? On what basis?
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Czy ktos moglby mi wytlumaczyc, dlaczego oni patrza w przeciwnych kierunkach? Czy doprawdy nie bylo lepszego zdjecia? I ta naburmuszona Bond Girl na dokladke.

Pumpkins and ghosts

I did not take much interest in Halloween, which was celebrated here day before yesterday. I cannot actually understand the whole hype, though it was interesting to see girls with drawn fangs on the night bus home.

Celebrations are definitely more sombre in Poland, with people visiting their family graves in quiet and remembering their passed away parents or friends.On the other hand, our neighbours celebrated in style, Mark wearing a bedsheet and running around the house with hoo-hoo sounds. His children instead running away in fraight, started to punch him, which says a lot about modern seven year olds.

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Jakos nie specjalnie dotarlo do mnie, ze mamy Helloween, zupelnie nie rozumiem calego zamieszania z dyniami, kupowaniem gadzetow w ksztalcie duchow oraz dorysowywaniem sobie klow, co czynily z zapalem dziewczeta w autobusie, ktorym wracalam akurat do domu.Cale to anglosaskie zamieszanie komercyjne jeszcze nie dotarlo do Polski z pelna sila, my jestesmy zdecydowanie bardziej powazni we wspominaniu naszych bliskich i przyjaciol, ktorzy odeszli. Nasi sasiedzi swietowali natomiast z rozmachem, Mark biegal po domu przykryty przescieradlem wydajac 'uduchowione' dzwieki. Synowie jednak zamiast uciekac w poplochu, spuscili mu manto, co mowi wiele o dzisiejszych siedmiolatkach.

Na pocieszenie zdjecie dyni, ktora chlopcy wycieli z okazji swieta.

1,2,3, proba mikrofonu

My first ever post has been lost, so not a good start.

So we finally waved good-bye to Krakow, edited our lives into 60 boxes (not that many since 40 were dedicated to books and the remaining 20 to darkroom and photographic equipment...) and relocated to Edinburgh.

I just hope that our friends and my family who stayed in Poland are doing all right. And that somebody is feeding our courtyard cats before winter in Krakow sets in for good.

So moving into new life starts right now!

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Dziwnym trafem moj pierwszy post sie nie zapisal, nie za dobry poczatek notatek z relokacji.
W koncu pozegnalismy Krakow, zredukowalismy uzbierana graciarnie do 60 pudel (wcale nie tak wiele, jesli wziac pod uwage, ze 40 zajely ksiazki a pozostale 20 gadzety z ciemni i studia fotograficznego) i przeprowadzilismy sie do Edynburga.
Mam tylko nadzieje, ze ktos karmi nasze koty z podworka. Tuz przed wyjazdem pojawilo sie 9 nowonarodzonych i boje sie, ze wiekszosc z nich nie przetrwa zimy bez regularnego dokarmiania, o co nie podejrzewam zamieszkujacych kamienice studentow.
Mikrofon alias blogger przetestowany, zapraszam na gorne pietro autobusu, wyruszamy.