Oh I was creamy cracked cos all week I'd practically lived at work to make some holiday-pennies. was one of those weeks thats been shot on some sort of cinecamera, my world but in faint, washed out, flickery and rather quiet sunshine. the machine surrounding and the jobs not so hard, cos I'm driven by the ending. a little world to live in, becoming completely remote from the world out there, I cycled to work in a see-through plastic tube,underwater,on rails, sealed off from the outside world/scenery untill funds appear to leave the dreamy place and live it all in a less surreal place, Later on the sun shines in, brightly through T&K Engineering's huge thin glass sheet windows, conversations broken up and now lasting for days, bit by bit,snipets here and there, folding out over the week, the books in my bag are like big bulky and addictive, John Simpson entertains me at any breaks with his stories of Grand relics of the British empire and though my mind has been bombarded by a thousand tracks on a hundred CD's playing solid through my waking hours since the 3rd, I get suprisingly excited towards moments. was this place I change things again for myself, working towards a next big step, the money for that? or just a break in a far off place? Dan's Sierra crawls out of the gates, all you can see are the tailights like idling afterburners, readying for take off on to the lane of his choosing the glow dull's from the rocket engines as the tatty old workhorse pulls hard over cats eyes, burning oil. Ghia 2.3 3/4/84 ............................................................ That was a couple of weeks ago now and I know it was worth it. The reason for working was for my trip to Poland, Poland! Once I got to London I met up with Ben and Cay and got even more excited as we drank lots of lovely Tia Maria that evening. The next day on Thursday I got up and left a little late, I had to catch my bus at 1pm and be at Victoria for 12 to check in. I ran REALLY fast from Camden to Swiss Cottage up to Ben's to get stuff out the car then back again to Chalk Farm Tube, it was a bit like an Army endurance test, running round London carrying all my bags against the clock. Victoria bus station is really pretty for a bus station. "Passport please!" The fact that you have to "check in" was just adding to the effect of a BIG journey awaiting. Then the doors opened I tried to work out which bus was mine. There was an authorative looking girl standing next to the likely bus, "hello is this the bus to Wroclaw?" "You mean WROCLAW!!!!",her eyes narrowed and she seemed really insulted that I hadn't pronounced it right (like Vrotswharf) From London we got on the ferry at Dover and the now (in certain groups) famous phrase "What? so you have to go on the ferry to France?" went through my mind. Sadly the journey through France/Germany/Holland/Germany was only really obvious from the signs and factory banners alongside the road due to travelling at night, still very memorable mind. At about 6 in the morning we'd got to the Polish border and the Passports came out again. The change in landscape obviously didn't change straight away though the buildings and architecture did instantly, the huge mines and liftshafts dotted about over the countryside for miles around, they looked like those big four legged walking things off Star Wars. I suddenly felt a long long way from home and genuinely felt alone, it was very refreshing and that'll always be how I remember my first sight of Poland. We'd been on the road for at least 20 hours now. Roads lined with trees guided us though the hilly-Norfolk-like scenery. The harsh woman I met at Victoria had been like our rep on the bus and she said that we were now entering the suburbs of Wroclaw. I got my bags together and had a quick look round the town, what I found was TRAMS!!! cos the centre and alot of the roads surrounding are covered with rails, when not glazing longingly at hoards of Ladas and Trabants, most of my time was spent listening for bells and dragging bags as quick as poss over the rails and out of the knashing metal teeth of tram wheels, woo. But there was alot to see in that place, sadly the only thing I really had time to see was the town square. Even so that was quite something really, what at first appeared to be three or four buildings was infact all the same huge town hall that had been gradually added to over nearly three hundred years and each new extension brought with it the latest style of the time. so it's really very interesting and has these huge copper dragons heads looming down upon visitors from high off the roofs. Anyway I had to go to get my bus and try out my *Polish* At the bus station (Dworzec Autobusowy) I discovered that when I had got off the bus earlier I had been dropped off a fair way from the station, what I had missed. The main hall is a stark, gloomy exercise in uncompromising sixties architecture. Two dimly lit boards cover the right-hand wall, surrounded with noisy people trying to work out which of the many destinations they want to go, it's got a real atmosphere! All of what I just said about it being stark and gloomy is not in any way an insult, I loved it after being used to the sanitised and impersonal transport system that sweeps most of the UK. Well, thankfully the lady I asked at the information desk was very friendly and understanding when I asked her something along the lines of "bus Jelenia Gora where please?" She held up five fingers and pointed to the door. "hmmm whets that mean?, perhaps the bus was at stand five? or was it the number five bus? or was the bus coming at five?" I pushed the door open and there it was, BUS 5 at STAND 5, thankfully not arriving at five. Not long after leaving the town the mountains appeared in the near distance and we started to climb. My ears popped and I was really hungry now. And so we got to Jelenia Gora, I knew it wasn't long now till I'd see Maja and Ola so it felt like my journey was nearly at an end now. but nooooooo, of all the things to happen I dropped the contents of my wallet as I got my stuff of the bus and some little ******* ******* ************ picked up some of the change and a PHONECARD. I was a bit helpless as I had my hands full of bags and at the time I thought he'd just made off with the money. A few minutes later though everything went wrong when my phone gave in and wouldn't switch on. I wandered about for a bit trying Maja from the payphone though it was becoming obvious that I'd got the wrong number. I have to admit I was getting quite scared at the time, knowing that Maja and Ola were just a few miles away expecting a phone call from me, though because I was without means of getting in touch I may as well have been a hundred miles away and I was really not sure what to do. I got a cab to Szkarska Poreba and the only place I could think to ask was at the Police station, they were very helpful and pointed me towards the tourist office. The girl there spoke English and it turns out I did have the right number but being the silly nit-wit I am sometimes, I'd written the wrong code. What a wally eh! The girls arrived and all was well. I couldn't quite believe where I was, this is like the kind of place you see in holiday brochures that rest upon the coffee tables of the rich and famous, very beautiful. Well, I think Ola did a pretty good write up of the first weekend so I'll leave it as was. and of course the trip to Jelenia Gora was fab, there's a whole centre of the town that I'd not got to see when I got off the bus a few days previous, it was another of the sights I will always think of as Poland. I really was at home umong the faded magnificence and aged plaster facades. and of course of course there was Harry Potter. I was also rather upset that Ola had to leave at the weekend, so early in the week and that all the things we talked about had to be cut short for now. Ola was off on her train and Marcel(of Radiohead chat fame) arrived, he'd come from Holland and so had had a similar length journey as moi and was in a similar state of *Knackered*. We listened to music, lot's of Myslovitz, which I have to say is the best thing I've heard in quite a time now, BRILL! The week was kind of quiet, nice and reflective, and we visited all these interesting castles and the beautiful hills surrounding, tut tut I forgot my camera!! ................................................................... mmmmmmmmmm, wait a min I'm taking a large bite out of this butter flapjack thing. (Classy bird) Liz renamed me, so I feel I should live up to it. ....................................................................... and the (dolphin)pub down the road was visited a fair few times more which was lovely, one night we even managed to get them playing Pulp's Different Class. it was a *proper* pub! it was an eventful week, and I managed to make a mess of the last night, sorry. I was rather sad to be leaving Poland that Thursday and I said my bye byes to Maja, Sarah and Marcel, then watched them get further away as I sat on the bus at Jelenia Gora bus station. That bus took me as far as Wroclaw where I had an hour before my Londyn bus arrived. I sat again in the wonderful ticket hall, to my right were two soldiers perhaps discussing their future adventures and opposite were a couple in love,aww, they had the dim glow of the orange destination board behind them and it all looked very sweet. The row of doors had people flitting though them without break and the individual squeaks from each of them was just a combined undulating squeaky hum. After some confusion over weather I had to check in again, I was waiting for a time on Peron 5 before the bus arrived 45 worrying minutes late. I fell asleep and was very comfortable (compared to the outward journey) and I was everso pleased that I had two seats all to myself, we got to the German boarder a couple of hours later and I took my last (sad-eyes) look at the Polish prices before vowing to bring a bigger bag next time to contain my HUGE future stashes of cheap like a budgie stuff. Then we took like an hour or so to get though customs as the Germans went though like all the stuff we had. When they eventually decided we were kosher the journey floated past in a bit of a blur till on the FERRY! from Calais. We got to Dover and then I had big problems proving I was English, hummmmm, I see a pattern. Well that day was the only day I'm ever likely to feel disappointed about being in London but I was and I was missing the challenge of simply trying to communicate with people, talking "English" is too easy now and it all felt a bit like my adventure was over. I WAS wrong thankfully. Track and Field was as brill as ever and they played Your in a bad way, hey hey! and I now have photographic evidence (of many things). It reads like..... "If you attended and did anything silly/regretable then I've got it in pictures" Saturday. was the souperbrill Brighton event which I have little to say that has not already been said except thank-you Archel for some much needed Brighton guidance and of course the four star luxury that we all enjoyed during our stay that night, even if I did wake up with P***r C****r's feet in my face. Yes, it was really really good and I felt very relieved to have got there after someone mentioned that the pub toilet walls beared the warning "Calais will fuck you up", blimey. So highlights were,the pier,sinister dodgems(not long enough though eh),Baileys aplenty, perhaps the hat incident which I have to admit was SCARY, in that Ben,Peter,Ken and myself all managed to find ourselves in Marks & Spencers and then leave as the sinister hat masseeeve. I like my hat. mmmmmmmm oh yeah and the sea tried to eat Mark. I felt a bit tired and fell asleep in the car Sunday night. But it was a much need break from avin' it large and I wrote lot's of pages reflecting on the past week or so, sadly I missed Steve's Sussed :( Then I went to Oxford on the bus via most of the Underground. The endless city lights' gig was mega and if you missed it then..... well, I shan't rub it in. and now I'm *home* in rural Leicestershire. Thank-you's to everyone I met during the last couple of weeks, in particular the Volvo 850 T5 full of coppers near Bedford for not pulling me. If you've read this FAR you really are just such a STAR. James. +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+ +---+ Brought to you by the Sinister mailing list +---+ To send to the list mail sinister@missprint.org. To unsubscribe send "unsubscribe sinister" or "unsubscribe sinister-digest" to majordomo@missprint.org. WWW: http://www.missprint.org/sinister +-+ "sinsietr is a bit freaky" - stuart david, looper +-+ +-+ "legion of bedroom saddo devotees" "peculiarly deranged fanbase" +-+ +-+ "pasty-faced vegan geeks... and we LOST!" - NME April 2000 +-+ +-+ "frighteningly named Sinister List organisation" - NME May 2000 +-+ +-+ "sick posse of f**ked in the head psycho-fans" - NME June 2001 +-+ +-+ Nee, nee mun pish, chan pai dee kwa +-+ +-+ Snipp snapp snut, sa var sagan slut! +-+ +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+