Miscellaneous Matters That Don't Matter

I was asked how many people look at this blog, but had no idea. I went to view the 'Stats', but then saw the Comments tab and found that I could see the latest comments without looking at the old posts. I must have been blind.

The latest comment is from Sylwia and I have added her Polish blog, Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae to my recommended sites. The front page is deceptively simple. Click on the picture entitled "Considerations on the Government of Poland" and at the bottom of the next page there is a link to a Jean-Jacques Rousseau text on this. I see Raf Uzar commented, which is recommendation in itself. Will we see you back in full flow before too long, Raf?

Sorry Paddy for being far too late, but I did try making Toad-in-the-Hole with Polish sausages a long time ago, but as far as I can recall the Yorkshire Pudding part was the big failure. I also left the skin on the sausages, which wasn't a good idea. If you try and are successful, please tell us about it.

Małgorzata, I got the bird feeder/peanut holder in Lidl in Autumn 2009. As is normal for Lidl, they didn't have any replacement stock once the first lot were sold and they didn't appear this year in either of the two Lidls I now routinely visit.

Finally, if humour be the drink of life, a couple of jokes currently being told in Polish circles. This first was told by a Polish priest, allegedly.

A nun was going back to the convent from the local town. An expensive car stopped beside her and the driver, an elegant, expensively dressed women, offered to drive her home. She dropped her off at the convent door, where the nun thanked her and said: "You have such beautiful things, you must have a very rich husband."

The woman replied: "Well, no, actually, I'm not married. My boyfriend bought me my beautiful house. My lover bought me the car, and my sweet pussycat friend, who only visits once a week or so, he buys my clothes and jewellery. I hope you don't mind me telling you this Sister, but you did..."

"No, that's all right," said the nun with a sad smile. "I understand. It's important for me to know what really happens in the outside world."

That night the nun is going to bed. She thinks of the woman and kneels, prays and then lies down. A short while later, there's a quiet knock on the door.

"F**k off with your chocolates, Father!"

Jokes about nuns and priests are reasonably common in England, but there do seem to be more here, for obvious reasons. I don't find it surprising that a priest would tell this joke. Although I have not known any priests well enough to say that I know them well, the overall impression I have is that many are quite open and, for the want of a better word coming to mind, human. The next one, however, is about a very familiar English subject:

Do you know why the Germans couldn't deal with the floods they had last year?
No, why?
They couldn't shoot them.

Actually, Polish people seem to be much more relaxed towards Germans than I would have expected from their history. Their prejudices are not generally any worse than my own, often less.