New Years bit

A stroll around the hood on New Years Day.

Waking in Warsaw, hangover free,
I am expecting a day cold and icy.
However, to my grateful surprise,
The day is clear, and I feel energised.
Now to assess my part of the city.

As we had a light night with only a couple of bottles of champagne and a few fingers of whisky it was easy to get up and smile at the face of a new year. I know this year will be great as there were less fireworks than normal the night before, there was a sunny day to greet us and I did exercise on the first day of the year.

Contrasting

The traditional Russian "champagne" leftovers from the night before.

There was only one shop open, it has traditional and regional food and three fridges of regional beers! I think I am in heaven.

Crusty and crunchy the new year appears

People already on the move.

Paths crossing in the stratosphere

Everyone wants to fly away.

Sometimes the easiest way to get away you just need to do it yourself.

The icy paths are everywhere and were great to watch people shuffle along.

Gently gently.

The paths look like this up close.

Staring into the new year.

Many people were out for a walk.

Such a nice day for a walk and to start the year.

many were out for a walk :)

Time to follow the path

It may look like it is into the dark, but the path still leads to something new and bright.

I hope the first 2 months of the new year have treated you well. Let's all be creative, happy and positive so that the year will be great for all around us, which in turn helps us to have a great life.

bzik kulinarny

Sometimes you need to get out of the house for dinner. I know I love cooking, but often you just feel the need to do something else. To find something else to eat. One of our favourite little places is only a few streets from our house and it is called Bzik Kulinarny, meaning 'food obsession'. It is a Polish restaurant but has influences from French and Italian food, and has some really lovely dishes. It actually has the feel of being a restaurant as if in France or Italy and has the feel of quality goods coming in so that is why the dishes coming out are good.

I started with a Czech beer.

What about a beetroot salad?

Steak nice and rare in forest mushroom sauce

Veal in Calvados cream

Simple almost austere decor.

all finished with a wafer thin plum tart.

A little restaurant with a big heart. I hope that gets the tastebuds running wet!

Milk machine

A small break from the trip around Wroclaw because...............Oh my freaking god! The coolest thing has arrived in Ursynow. It is an automatic milk machine! We were out walking in some great late afternoon Autumn sunshine and got to the edge of the market near our place and found something new! Admittedly we hardly walk down this part of the street, sometimes I will jog here but of course I am not really looking at the market for milk dispensaries, but more at the uneven pavers from all the cars going in and out of the market.

So, when we strolled past as the sun set we were most pleasantly surprised to find a milk vending machine. I haven't seen anything like it before, here or abroad. After researching it more on the interweb thing, it turns out it has only been in a month, so I don't feel that bad.

How does it work?

 So it is an easy concept, you pick a bottle type. There is plastic or glass, half a litre or a whole. Along with some milk additives like flavourings like Raspberry, Chocolate and Vanilla.

The milk is stored at a good temperature, but there is no change given, the only downside.

4 zloty or 1 Euro/1.23AUD/0.79pence for a litre is a good price too

so chose your bottle, we always chose glass for our milk.

put it into the dispenser

and away we go.

it is 4% milk too, full fat! Yes!

And seriously this whole process took 2 minutes, quicker than lining up at the shop

If you are near the corner of Braci Wagów and Filipiny Płaskowickiej check it out. There are only two locations in Warsaw (both in the southern suburbs) where milk is dispensed like this check it out on the website here. I recommend it, people need to be rewarded for their ingenuity. Also, for every machine there is only one supplier (farmer) ours is Danuta Podsiedlik.. Get on board people!

Picnic on a hilltop

While the weather is good we wanted to take advantage of the sun, the pleasant long evenings and the free time we had and so, decided to have a little picnic. We headed to the man made hill, Kopa Cwila, in Ursynow. It is probably, I would guess, about 40-50m high and is made of by product from the building of the Ursynow district and the metro line. It has a great view of the surrounding area, covered in wild flowers, grasses and amorous couples.

Proud of riding to the top so lets take a photo

Heck, let's both get in there.

We also invited the glamours Doroty

All full of style, and something mysterious in her pocket I think.

Some dips, some knackerbrod, some drinks and some organic tomatoes from Doroty's in-laws.

Getting the swiss army knife ready to rip open the bottles

Doroty looking fired up for a meal.

Sun makes you squint

there is a bad moon rising.

Let's end with a Mate Cola product shot.