english matters


Well September crept up on us pretty quickly and October is fast approaching. All well and good if you’re the type of person that looks forward to cosy nights in with a book or in front of the TV, but not so great for those of us who love to BBQ. It’s been a cracking summer and there have been plenty of opportunities to get together with friends and family and share a jolly good evening in the garden grilling sausages, bacon, burgers and whatever else we manage to get or mitts on.…Czytaj dalej …

While shaking my funky stuff on the dance floor last weekend, a song I’d never heard came on... And it blew me away! A quick trip to the DJ booth confirmed it was ‘Hounds of Love’ by The Futureheads. When I returned home, I did a bit of research and discovered it was originally released by seminal UK artist Kate Bush way back in 1985. The lyrics are so simple, but the artistic images they conjure up is quite amazing and it requires more than one listen... Try it out and let us…Czytaj dalej …

Picture the scene: You’re stood in a room, ball in hand, confused, with five people all shouting at you... That was the exact predicament I found myself in three weeks ago after going down to my local sports hall and signing up for a basketball team! See I used to play, back in the day, and decided recently to give it another bash. I had been watching ‘More than a Game’ (a fantastic documentary film) and suddenly became inspired by what was on the screen. As well as being a great story, the…Czytaj dalej …

One of the best things about working abroad, is you often find yourself mixing with people that you never would do back home. On one hand, you very often gravitate towards others who speak your language and on the other you find yourself hanging around with people just because they too are foreign. 
I bring this up as last weekend I ended up at a rather large party where the hosts were a couple from Indonesia and The Netherlands. While the party was spot on, the interesting thing was the vast mix of…Czytaj dalej …

It’s not often you get family and friends coming to visit you in Poland, so when the opportunity arises, you want to make sure they have a great time.

On this occasion, we made our way to Poznan’s new Brama Museum - just off Ostrów Tumski. Great features, interactive displays and you can wander round at your own leisure using the headphone set. For anyone wanting to know how Poland established itself, this is the place to go to. And the view of the city from the veranda is second to none. Afterwards, we…Czytaj dalej …

Well a new craze has hit us - Pokemon Go, where players get the opportunity to flit between the real world and a virtual one. 
I will confess to not knowing that much about this new game. See I’m a bit of a technophobe (one of those people who still clings onto his trustworthy Nokia 3210) so I’m not really up to speed with smartphones and their true capabilities. But what I have seen is people of varying ages - kids to adults in their 40s - wandering around town searching for these…Czytaj dalej …

Well it hasn’t been the best of Euro tournaments (I still maintain that the new six group format has sucked some of the excitement out of the early games) but it has been a good one for the minnows. Iceland got through to the quarter finals, only to be knocked out by France - but not before putting two goals past them. Remember, this is the team that looks likely to win the thing AND they’re on home turf. Wales also did exceptionally well. This was the first time they had qualified for…Czytaj dalej …

The UK has chosen to leave the European Union. The vote was 52% to 48% and of course, the general public has to be listened to. That’s the whole point of a democracy-based society. Prime Minister David Cameron has handed in his resignation. The government is in turmoil, British MEPs are insulting their colleagues in Brussels and nobody knows who’s next in line to take over. It’s a scary time to be in Britain and thing are looking bleak. But there are some positives. For all the negative stories we see about foreigners…Czytaj dalej …

Over the weekend I was struck by one of the worst pains of all - toothache. Anyone who has experienced such a discomfort will know how terrible it is and there’s no point pretending it will go away. It just doesn’t! After booking myself an appointment, the dentist told me I needed one of my wisdom teeth removing and it was going to cost me PLN 180 for the privilege. On top of the PLN 50 appointment fee it was a pretty expensive day out. I got home, shovelled a load of pain…Czytaj dalej …

Anyone casting their mind back four years ago will remember the enormous buzz right around the country as Poland co-hosted the EURO 2012 competition - especially if you were lucky enough to find yourself in one of the four host cities. This year’s tournament doesn’t have quite the same vibe, what with it being held over in France. But that said, Poland are off to a decent enough start, after securing three points in their first match against Northern Ireland. Their next two matches won’t be quite such a breeze though. Ukraine are…Czytaj dalej …