Lunch In Kubicki, Gdansk
My guidebook said Kubicki was a good restaurant.
It was! And I didn’t have to worry about the gluten-free or the prices. My meal cost me just £17.70 for a salad starter, the exquisite fish and a large glass of reasonable wine.
As with Kubicki, most restaurants in Poland seem to have at least one member of staff, who understands the importance of gluten-free food to some people.
As the other restaurant I saw, Goldwasser, has good recommendations on the Internet, I would suspect that anybody with a food allergy; serious or just preference, will not have trouble with food in Gdansk.
Zuraw – The Gdansk Crane
This medieval crane is nothing like anything I’ve seen before. It was used to unload ships on the quayside.
Strangely, I couldn’t find a Wikipedia article in English. But Lonely Planet has a good article here.
Along The Gdansk Waterfront
I then walked up the waterfront.
It is a plesant walk and there are a lot of places to spend time.
Around The Centre Of Gdansk
I took these pictures as I walked around the centre of Gdansk.
As the streets are not big enough for tourist buses, Gdansk uses golf buggies. As it is such an obvious idea, why haven’t I seen it done before.
The centre has a sScandinavian feel about it. But then it was one of the cities in the Hanseatic League.
The Kindertransport Sculpture At Gdansk Station
I hadn’t expected to find this in Gdansk, but when I saw this, I knew exactly what it commemorated, as I pass the other statues at Liverpool Street station regularly.
There’s more about the Kindertransport sculptures here.
For some reason, I didn’t take a lot of pictures. You can never take too many!
Writing this blog with hindsight, my route home from Gdansk could have followed the route of the Kindertrannsport, which is marked by the moving statues. The two I missed are in Berlin and at the Hook of Holland. I actually went very near the one in Berlin, but I didn’t know it was there.
How Did They Get There?
There really can’t be an obvious answer to how these trees got on top of this chimney in Burnley.
How Did They Get There?
Life would be so much more boring without questions like this!
The East End Dogsbody Who Got To Shoot The Queen
David Bailey is a real East Ender, who started as a studio dogsbody at £3.50 a week.
This morning, the papers are all showing the photograph he has taken of the Queen.
The picture is shown here in the Telegraph. Here’s a small extract about fom the accompanying text.
The pair are said to have got on famously during the photoshoot, which took place at the palace in March.
Bailey, 76, said: “I’ve always been a huge fan of the Queen. She has very kind eyes with a mischievous glint. I’ve always liked strong women and she is a very strong woman.”
I have a feeling that this image will be one of the lasting ones of the only British Queen most of us will ever know.
Adjusting My Energy Direct Debit
I’ve now been with Ovo Energy for three months or so now and I’m beginning to see what my usage is going to be. It’s all a bit complicated as in that period, I’ve changed the boiler for a new and hopefully more efficient one.
So every so often, I take a look at my Direct Debit and see if I should change the amount, I pay.
This morning, I found this article about energy prices on This Is Money, so as they are saying this.
Small energy companies are trouncing their giant rivals, with two suppliers now offering average households cheaper gas and electricity bills for less than £1,000 a year.
First Utility has nudged Ovo Energy off the top spot by launching a one-year, fixed-rate deal for combined gas and electricity at £994 a year. It is called the iSave Fixed July 2015 and is based on medium energy users – typically a family of three or four sharing a three-bedroom house. Ovo’s dual fuel Cheaper Energy Fixed tariff is only marginally higher at £998 a year.
So I did drop my Direct Debit a bit, but I suspect it can go a bit lower.
I’ll have to work out a proper Control Engineering based philosophy so that I minimise my payments and never go into the red so to speak.
A Picture With Memories
I first saw this picture from an episode of Mad Men in The Times, but it is prominently displayed here on the Closer web site.
When tights arrived in the 1960s, C bought herself a red pair. She used to wear them with a red maternity dress of a similar style and length to the dress thatJessica Paré is wearing in the picture. C also wore the long blonde hair in a similar style at the time. One difference though is that C would have been in flat shoes.
For many years, we kept the dress, especially as I had made it. but it disappeared a few years ago. The tights lingered on for years too in her tights bag, as for some reason they just didn’t ladder or fail and she probably last wore them in the mid-1990s.
Altaeros
At a brief glance, the idea of a flying wind turbine, is akin to putting cows and pigs in the sky.
But enter a company called Altaeros Energies.
Look at their press release and video here.
It may seem wacky and totally off the wall, but the designers could have something.
When I did my electrical engineering degree in the 1960s, power was generated by either water from dams or steam generated by burning coal or oil or from nuclear.
There was no natural gas in the UK, and using it to generate electricity wasn’t in anybody’s book of ideas.
Now a good proportion of our electricity is generated directly from gas.
So don’t make any predictions about how we will generate electricity in ten or twenty years time.
The only certainty, is that a good proportion of our electricity will come from an unexpected source, that is totally discounted or even unheard of at the present time.
The Anonymous Widower 