Homeless?

Recently I was thinking about the topic of vagueness again, on which I wrote a post in the early days of AKE! From there, my mind wandered to the concept of ‘home’ that I had discussed with some of my students a few months ago, more specifically how I wasn’t sure exactly how this word applied to me.

(c) The Paper Shelter- thepapershelter.com

I gave them a brief outline of my life and asked them where I should/could call ‘home’, as I often come across to new people I meet as a bit slow, taking far too long to respond to simple questions like “Where are you from?” or “Where’s home?”

Pain

A strange thing pain. We need it as an early line of defence in the body against disease and injury, people instinctively try to avoid having to experience it for even a second whenever possible, yet some live with it constantly. For a long time, someone I know woke up almost every morning with severe aching pain in his back. Not every day, but almost.

Unrest in England: where did it all go wrong?

Despite the claims of two girls on BBC news that “It’s the government’s fault, whoever they are”, the trouble on the streets of  England’s cities this week had a much more complicated back story than that, arising from a multitude of different factors.

To start with, the situation seemed quite simple- friends of Mark Duggan, who was shot by police in North London on August 4th, were left feeling angry and cheated by the inquiry into the actions of the officers involved. They took to the streets of Tottenham two days later in what was, to begin with at least, a peaceful protest against what they perceived as a cover up and a whitewash. The chief matter of contention was the claim by the officers that Duggan was armed, and shot at them first. For some reason- as with so many things in this story, numerous explanations abound- the protest started to turn ugly. Missiles were thrown at police officers in attendance, vehicles were set alight and shops were damaged.

Reasons to love sport #4 (Reasons to hate sport #2)

The names of two cricketers, England batsman Ian Bell and India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni, were plastered all over the news last week after a moment of sportsmanship/weakness (depending on whether you were backing England or India). The edited highlights of the events can be seen here and doubtless hundreds of other places online.

In short, the last ball before the tea break, Bell’s batting partner Eoin Morgan hit a ball out towards the boundary rope, contact with which means 4 runs to England and the end of play for a 20 minute break. Praveen Kumar, one of the less unathletic Indian fielders, dived to stop the ball, got his hand to it, flicked it away from the rope hoping to prevent said 4 runs. The ball ricocheted onto his shin and Kumar’s momentum took him beyond the boundary rope. At this point, Bell and Morgan are completing a third run and Bell, seeing Kumar’s intervention, believes the ball reached the rope (as, it has to be pointed out, does Kumar himself). Bell turns to Morgan, says ’4′ and starts walking off the pitch, the umpire gives the bowler his sweater back and it seems to everyone that it is tea time. Then the drama starts.

Places to go in Krakow #9: Irish Mbassy

Before you start, no spelling mistake here- they weren’t allowed to call it an ‘Embassy’ as this may be considered confusing by some people (casting no direct apersions at anyone).

Did I forget to mention they have some cool pictures on the walls?

Places to go in Krakow #8: Pierwszy Lokal

Or, in full, ‘Pierwszy lokal na Stolarskiej po lewej stronie idąc od Małego Rynku’…i.e. ‘First Place on Stolarska on the left going away from the Maly Rynek’ or ‘The Long Name Bar’, or simply ‘Long Name’ as I prefer to save time referring to it. If difficulty finding a place to sit is any indicator of quality then Long Name is up there with the best of them.

Just about squeezed the whole name in...

Places to go in Krakow #7: Tram Bar

The sign outside tells you that this is the home of Krakow’s largest iced coffee but strangely they don’t tell you that it is also home to the cheapest coffee in town. I’m fairly confident in saying that there isn’t anywhere nearby where you can hand over a 5zl coin for your coffee and, depending on your disposition, either get change or make the staff like you by leaving a tip.

Tackling Tram Bar square on

Places to go in Krakow #6: Caffe 4D

Formerly known as Italia Lody Caffe, the owners have seemingly picked up the current craze in the film and TV world for all things 3D and taken the logically sound, but ultimately nonsensical, step of adopting 4D as part of the name of their cafe.

Places to go in Krakow #5: Pinokio

Anyone living more than 500m away from this old school pizza place (I can’t bring myself to use the word restaurant, it’s little more than a big takeaway with some tables) but trust me when I say it’s their loss.It’s a bit of a hike for the casual visitor up to Pradnicka street to the north of the city centre, but worth it.

Places to go in Krakow #4: Cafe Bambus

Ever since I discovered the Zupa Bambusowa (a kind of Thai-style spicy soup with chicken and veg), I’ve been a regular visitor to Bambus for both day or evening occasions, for which it serves equally well.

How Bambus looks on a busy day in the Market Square