Google maps

We have been lately exploring the forests around our neighborhood on foot or bicycles but so far have not managed to find a map which would show the routes in the forests. So we have decided to check the one and only oracle in today's world - google maps to get a better picture where can we go. Obviously the first thing was to look for the house where we live. We could not believe it but the house (marked by me on the picture below with red dot) is just not there. Nothing special if it wasn't for the fact that the house has been there already for over a year...not too mention that there should be a clear fence around the plot where we live. We got it installed in 2003...If not that there should be another house next to hours that has been built in 2005...Nothing is there...

I would say it is a shame for google. Pictures from the last century in today's world are sort of a joke and I think they are not even satellite pictures but provided by a funny Polish company called PPWK as can be seen at the bottom of the picture saying everything comes from 2009. (PPWK be a state own enterprise specialising in maps but still is one of the biggest cartographic companies on Polish market).



Or perhaps my house has been erased from the pictures for national security reasons - sounds more plausible :))) Thank you PPWK - continuing with the good tradition from communist times then whole towns were not on maps due to their national security significance :))))

Tip of the week

Now with some sort of Internet at home and a satellite dish which I managed to install on the roof we made ourselves feel homely. I guess soon it will be time to move on :))

Anyway this kind of environment entices you to start following world happenings. I try to stay out of it since somehow I feel being manipulated. Especially the TV with its news channels seems to show the world from one angle. You end up with BBC, or CNN and it seems unbearable. The Polish equivalents spice it up with the local happenings giving me quite hard time too:)

So we have figured out that Aljazeera in English seems the best bet for some fresh views. Check it out if your cable provider allows you to think differently :))) It ain't that bad.

Seems I have too much free time eh? So next week we go snowboarding to Austria to get some fresh air.

This was the tip of the week. Hope that I will still make it into US some day :)

Our new home

Rita did add some pictures of our home... You can see for yourself...

The month of the movies...

The scary thing about this year is the fact that I have made just one post. It means that I have only 10 left (excluding) this one and the year will be over. In principle then year 2010 is just around the corner...This is a very disturbing thought - especially since Rita is reading right now a book entitled "A short history of nearly everything" and telling me that the world is 4,5 billion years old. No wonder in fact if the time is flying so fast.

I guess there is no time to spare. So during the last two weeks we managed to visit shortly Berlin, Amsterdam, lovely Utrecht and watch a couple of great movies. The millionaire from Mumbai was an interesting one but the newest movie from Woody Allen - Vicky Cristina Barcelona - explained in various ways why Spain is not only our next traveling destination but a destination where we could stay longer. Apart from that the South Korean movie Hanyo from 1960 which we saw during the Rotterdam Film Festival is one of those movies one MUST see. It is just great - make sure you watch it till the end...The Russian movie Mongol was also not bad though not much dialogue.

Apart from the fact that the unpacking of 200 boxes we managed to accumulate during our corporate and student times took us ages and it also made me feel realize something about me - the best thing was getting read of things...it is kind of pleasure for my mind which is hard to compare with anything. I guess something like the shopoholics experience just in reverse.

But we are almost done so it feels when we get home...not like coming back to the warehouse.

I guess nothing changed - except for the fact that we do not sleep on the buses. And that we do not post pictures on flickr. Though Rita promised some so during the next few days some will show up...