polska | matching tracksuits

Chess in Spytkowice

Friday 18 May 2018

M is K's sister's-in-law father, and he's a keen chess player. I first played in him Krakow, at their apartment, in 2003 or so. We played one game, which lasted probably an hour and a half and went to roughly 40 moves, I'd guess. I knew I'd won with about 15 moves to go: he'd underestimated the queen-side attack I'd slowly been building.

Years later, when we went to Syptkowice to visit with them at their summer house, we'd always play. Since I'd won that first game, my ego was soothed, and I took more chances. In this particular game, those chances didn't work out for me.

Wieliczka Revisited

Wednesday 16 May 2018

Reworked in Lightroom some shots from a few years ago.

Bonfire in Spytkowice

Monday 14 May 2018

Jumping

Friday 11 May 2018

Dinner

Thursday 10 May 2018

Spent

Wednesday 09 May 2018

Monday

Monday 07 May 2018

~~A few~~ Two random thoughts from the day:

The Girl is trying out for volleyball. She started working on her skills Saturday after having bought a ball that morning.

"How did it go?" I asked when I got home.

"I was the worst one there," came the simple reply.

It turned out that it was a two-day tryout session, and so I immediately wondered if she'd be discouraged from her first experience and say, "I don't have a chance of making the team. I don't want to go to the second day." And I was wondering how I might handle that. Is it something I should make her do in the interest of building character -- following through on what you set out to do and all that? Or should we just let it go?

Turns out, the dilemma never presented itself: after gymnastics, she asked if we could go practice volleyball for a few minutes.

Second thought: While the Girl was in volleyball, I did some shopping, and I went through the self-checkout lane when I was done. If they'd had these things in Poland twenty years ago, I might not have stayed. It was tough, those first weeks; it was especially tough making friends when I didn't speak the language. The store saved me. No self-service there: no, just a counter and a packed shelf behind it, with a sales clerk between you and your merchandise. So I had to ask for every single item. Which led to funny mistakes and misunderstandings. Which led to laughter. Which led to friendships.