Sinister: I understand if you don't read *this far* (calais will fuck you up!)

[DansonHatcher at xxx.com]

  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. 
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