Pete Croney

Tears rolling down my face

Another classic.

unclebuck

This thread just gets better. You Polish guys are great

Dai - would you like to borrow my spade mate?

UB

Diesel

Now now! No Welsh v Poles competition - we are both trying to get in the EEC and must be nice to all the Americans here

[PMSL @ Duffryn's gone posh mate, seen a cat with a tail on the weekend]

Did a lot of business in Poland - drove me mad now and again as there was often too much nepotism and failing to see the bigger picture there - as well as the need to shout to get it done (Russia is MUCH worse here for SHOUTING though). Head of a TV channel went ballistic once cos I sacked his mate's mate - this guy (MY employee) was crap & on his third warning. GOD the fuss for this and other 'minor' ‘incidents’.

There are undoubtedly fewer smiles per second there, but that is maybe a legacy of the Russian tanks and being 'bullied' for many years. Give them a few years! It's much preferable to that gratingly annoying & stupidly false American 'have a GGGGRRRRREAT day' followed by the Cheshire cat smile...

Warsawa was so beautiful compared to the dead ugly place I live & the bars were cool and nicely un-corporate. I fed very well there, but wasn’t keen on the pig fat spread for bread. My mate Beata also thought we were MAD for putting gone off wine acid on our chips!

The only other thing is the Customs… Kills trying to do business there as you can not be sure your goods will arrive, and I did not have the cash to bribe… You Poles should say ‘samai spirdalai’ to these guys more often!

I’d love to return and maybe see Cracow too.

Czesc

D

PS it would be nice to stop the rampant shoving and jostling! The very British ‘excuse me terribly, may I pass old boy’ would be nicer!

dsmith

Spent a week in Poland (Krakow) after university (10 years ago ) on a University Orchestra Tour - I cant play a note but my House mate organised it so I went along as a "roadie". Some fabulous buildings mixed with utter sh*te. Was barely sober for the entire time. Dont remember the women being that good - but then we probably only saw the hotel "professional" . Kopped off with the Lead Clarinetist (sp?) so it turned out all right for me

Deano

unclebuck

LOL Did she also play the pink oboe

UB

unclebuck

Ah yes - the Pink Oboe

pink oboe n. *****. As in: “I have a great passion for music. Tell me, do you play the pink oboe?” LOL

It's from Roger's Profanisaurus By Roger Mellie a fictional character from Viz Magazine.

Take a look here it's a gold mine of useless defenitions

UB

EvilBevel

Not a dig (well, not really), but for *me* that comment just made your other posts a bit less valid IMHO

Stella is one of the most ****est (if that is a word) beers ever produced here. We get free aspirines with it

There are about 800 beers from where I live that taste *way* better than Stella (but hey, if you are used to Tesco lager ...), maybe you *do* need to get out more

And as long as they don't start to show Jamie Oliver in Poland, I think they are OK food wise

Brendan Hughes

...and culture-wise

daiscooby

Boody hell you Poles are a touchy bunch
< Takes shovel in hand once more >
You are all missing the bloody point.
If you read my posts since I have been posting here you will see that I try to get a serious point over laced with some humour or colourfull observations.
THE POINT OF THE THREAD IS :
You expect the EU to be the cure for all that is bad in your your country. And I would say that you tend to reinforce that point by rambling on about cuisine and goats and smiling women and what is the national dish of Wales etc. Not one reply denies that you have overwhelmingly voted to join the EU in the belief that it will cure your countries problems.
I dont give a flying stuff about goats and eating bits of Donkeys I've eatem far worse in my home city from a Chinese take-away. That is humourous observation about isolated national trates, we British tend to mock ourselves in the same way. The way to throw of the legacy of years of communist oppression and methodologies is not to throw your selves at the EU and say well thats that sorted.
As a final thought, cos I have laughed out loud so many times in work since Monday they are wondering what I am doing, think on this paraphrased quote:

Ask not what the EU can do for Poland, ask what Poland can do for the EU.

kjo

One thing is for sure, our roads will be better !!!

What we will do for UE ?? And what did Ireland, Greace or Spain ??

daiscooby

kjo
Exactly - **** all. Thank you for proving my point.

Before the EU the majority of the wealth of Eire ( Southern Ireland ) and Greece was generated by tourism and agriculture. In Spain this was true to a much lesser degree.
Eire is the prime example.
Mainly rural and then all of a sudden its a EU investment area. Big investment by American and Japanese etc companies supported by massive EU grants and preferential trading terms. Also wages are lower than other areas with a traditional industrial base. As investment rises, wages rise. The labour force gets less cost effective, the American and Japanese companies pull out to other places like Czech Rebulic, Romania, Hungary etc. I know cos its what I do for a living. I was part of a team that closed down three electronics factories in Ireland and moved the work to Hungary, Romania and Mexico. What do you think I was doing in Poland last week. Moving work from France to Poland. When you join the EU and standards of living will rise, I will move it to Tunisia or Morrocco or where ever wages are cheap.
So kjo, your are welcome to join mate. But in 10 years when you are going through the economic recessions that all of the EU countries go through dont bleat that the EU has messed your country up.

kjo

It's true what you're saing about factory's. We are cheper country than Germany or Uk, and when will join UE we'll have some benefits from that.

Other thing is that we didn't heve choise! Only way to develop our country is to join UE. Some politics in Poland are saing that we could cooperate with Nafta, but it's imposible. We have borders with Ue not USA.

Leslie

I'd rather live in my own country run by my own countrymen,rather than the corrupt grafters in the EU. At least we can still vote them out here if we don't like them.

Les

daiscooby

kjo
Agreed you will have short term benefits, see my point about Eire, it wont last. I have just put £3,000,000 per annum of work into a factory in Grojec. When the EU has finished putting its regeneration programs into Poland I will be moving it out to somewhere else. Because your standard of living will rise as a rule and you will price yourself out of the marketplace. It has happened all over Europe and will happen to you. The hand that you expect to feed you over a short space of time will bring you recession as well.
Poland should look to determine its own future not leave it to faceless civil servants in Brussels to screw up your country.
You expect the EU to help you out of your problems, they will bring more than they will take away.

Fat Boy

"Duffryn's gone posh, I saw a cat with a tail on last week"

Don't listen to him. He didn't say where in Duffryn it was.

The local chippy behind St Joe's always did a good line in 4 legged chicken, IIRC.

Morning Sean, you bad boy.

daiscooby

Mr H

It was by the old school outside the OAP complex, must have been a tourist
Four legged chicken, Hhhhmmmmmm back in the Wah Wah again.
How's life with you John, as you can see there is now several contracts out on me in Poland
Mark Schutenberg and John Schueffnaur ( Waffa ) are hunting the streets of Newport as we speak
Have to see you for that beer soon mate.

Cheers

Sean

Fat Boy

I'm alright mate.My little girl is one week old today, so life is good.

I saw Shooter on the weekend, Dave Ryan's daughter had her first holy communion so there was a tribe of Newportonian's there.

Most scary of all, my doorbell went during dinner, I opened the door and Sister Pauline, the old deputy Head was there to see the baby Now I haven't seen here since she told me I was trouble and sent me on my way after yet another detention so it was a bit of a shock..

daiscooby

Christ on a Cross, Sister Pauline, the Wrath of God

I am trembling at the thought of those scary eye's behind those glasses.
I felt the same when I saw Mrs Connolly having her hair cut in Josephs a few years ago. Kept calling her Miss and blushing which she found hysterical.
Congrats on the baby girl mate , think we'd learn at our age mate, my youngest is two today.

Diesel

Anyone seen Richard Dimbelby? Might be useful round 'ere

johnfelstead

PMSL @ this thread, real classic.

I just got home from a week in greece, adored the non corporate way of life over there and the roads, cops attitudes to driving was fantastic. It was a pleasure to drive, i didnt feel like i was being watched ready to be raped of my money, licence as i do in the UK.

Sorry to go OT but the UK driving experience sucks the big one compared to greece, can anyone say chilled out?

OK, back to Poland.

EvilBevel

From:

To:

In 6 pages.

I do hope you see the irony of this rather large turn

FWIW, Europe should first get their act together (and that includes sorting out the very dubious role the UK plays in it) before inviting more countries in, as it will become virtually impossible to get it back on track when counting 25 countries.

Once the EU constitution (if ever) gets written, an agreement has been reached about the voting system (try getting 25 countries on one line ), the role of the EU parliament has been made clearer (so we don't just have faceless civil servants), etc, then it would be to our mutual advantage to have countries like Poland join us. As it is now, I honestly feel the EU will fall flat on it's back in no time, as we all seem to be heading in different directions. (I think the "Iraq story" made that quite clear).

daiscooby

Evilbevel
No u turn at all mate. IMHO the EU is strained enough by the burden of agricultural based economies on industrial based ones as it is. kjo from Poland pointed out Ireland and Greece as examples. We dont need more lesser developed nations adding to the burden. If you could read the posts in between those two statements you would see that I was trying to respond positively to points made by people from Poland.
The point is:
They really believe that joining the EU will solve all the problems Poland has as a nation.
I was suggesting in the second quote it would be nice that they sorted there own problems without the help of the rest of Europes wallets.

Funkii Munkii

Here is some news in from Poland

WAW Airport computer system is down. Situation is expected to last for a few days. All customs declarations are made by hand, resulting in delays.

By hand!! what no back up procedures, its those dodgy customs guys again makes my day harder

EvilBevel

I think the good part about the EU is (well, purely in market terms) that these "agricultural" based countries are seriously developping, making them *consumers*. Take Spain as an example.

To put it in a sophism: Greeks are buying Scoobysport backboxes !

BTW, are you aware that the UK gets more money out of the EU than they put in ? Don't take my word for it, have a search, do some factfinding. You seem to think you are subsidizing these "backward" countries ? Ho hum, if any country has done that it was Germany, and they have taken on more than they could chew... their current economical climate could well be the end of the EU IMHO.

Of course you are aware of that, your business is probably thriving on cheap labour

Not really looking for a "fight", but the BS that is written on Scoobynet about the EU is quite something.

Should my country stop to treat patients that are sent here by your NHS (through a mutual agreement), and are treated for 50% of the price that it would cost to treat them in the UK (same price as for our residents), whereas you get no waiting lists here and a *lot* more expertise/time/quality ?

(answer: no, of course not, as this kind of cooperation could possibly turn the EU into a reality, not just a marketing machine).

I do agree with your point that it would be very silly for Poland to think the EU will solve all of their problems, in fact, maybe they'll have more problems with the EU than they have now

But you did start by saying that "backward" countries like Poland, Greece, Spain etc... should not be in the EU. Therefor my conclusion is that you perhaps better stick to your business, and leave politics to people who have a more balanced view

But I do admit your writing style is funny, and I can see the hyperbole etc, don't get me wrong

kjo

There was no falieure on WAW airport, I was surprised when I've read about it.

It's trua that a lot of peope in Poland think's that UE will solve all our problems. I don't

Looking at our history such things newer happend. I belive that with help from UE we will be able to solve some of them (like infrastructure), but not all of them.

When I think about role of PL in UE, I see my country as a bridge between East and West!

daiscooby

No, just Poland. In the context that Poland joining the EU would solve its economic issues and immprove the social fabric of its population.
Eire is the best example of what Poland will face. I agree with you that Poland will inherit more problems than it will solve by joining the EU.
I gave my deffinition of "backward" earlier in the thread, but it is has a social and physical infrastructure that lags behind most current EU members to put it in a nutshell.
As for being politically balanced, I am apolitical. I have never voted and have no interest in politics. Elected governments dont write or implement policies, civil servants do.
I dont really care where the NHS patients get treated and if any country wants to lose the revenue from doing so that is there policy.
My company uses cheap labour around the world and will continue to do so. Hence it makes money and continues to trade and not go out of business

EvilBevel

Glad to see you care LOL

Keeping a company going... there is nothing wrong with that at all, as in the end the economy *does* make quite a few things happen. (Do you have your own company or are you just an employee ?)

Alas, there's more in the world than economy Even good old Marx understood that bit...

Anyway...

You mean Poland should first have :

. raves & cruises
. serious drug abuse
. Jamie Oliver (again, LOL)
. our "crime"
. Big Brother
. congestion charges
. our politicians
. total disrespect of other people
. me/myself/I
. Oil of Olaz
. email spam
. the PPP
. etc...

before they can join ?

In other words: can you define the "superiority" of our economies ? Because I surely can't.

daiscooby

So once you get past my glib comments about goats, clothes and food the truth is that most Polish people expect the EU to be the answer to all there prayers.
And yes that was in Grojec. Also several parts of Warsaw and from people I spoke to in hotels, airport lounges, taxi drivers etc.
I have an inquisitive nature and like to hear what people have to say. They said plenty last week because of the up comming referendum.
You made the point about having 5 times to many farmers than you need. Also the farming being not very advanced in its methods. My point exactly.
The jobs the investment creates will be a temporary thing. As you move into the future with its competition for work with other EU countries you will lose them.
As for the EU being a big European brotherhood. Forget that, Economics Sans Frontier does not exist. The EU is ruining Germany now. No big EU state will include Britain.
And alongside Churchill could you blame Attlee, Roosevelt, Trueman and Uncle Joe Stalin.

EvilBevel

So does Mr. Blair

daiscooby

Beidermeier
Ireland
OK go ask the thousands of unemployed people in Dublin who got laid off in the last three years when the hi-tech companies pulled out if they benefited. Ask the hundreds of Nortel/Solectron employees in Galway and Dublin what they thought of me and my team transfering the work to Wales then from there to Romania and Hungary and Mexico when they made 800 people from Wales redundant.

Evilbevel
I dont think they need to fit any criteria at all. My point is far to many people in this world think that some one else should sort there problems out for them. If you read the posts from the Polish people who have actually bothered to get past glib goat comments they agree with that. They think the EU can solve the social and economic woes of there country.
There is a lot more to the world than economics, even I understand that let alone Karl Max. I subscribe to the theories of another Marx - Groucho. Life is to short to take it serious, and you are a long time dead, so make the most of what you are given.
I was in the Army for 13 years and saw a lot of sufering and misery, hence I dont follow politics. I am also a big believer in self determination for both individuals and countries.
Dont rely on anyone else to cure you problems, do it yourself