Meeting Mruczek Again

 In Eastern Poland, I got to see my young friend, Mruczek, who likes to go hunting round the garden:

Beaver Work in Eastern Poland

 Walking by the side of a small river in Eastern Poland, I saw that the beavers had been working away:

Sliding up from the river to fell the trees:

What wonderful workers the beavers are.

ELEINE - Warsaw Hydrozagadka 3-11-2026

 The highlight of last week, seeing ELEINE at Warsaw Hydrozagadka.

Tight professional musicianship and great female vocals, really glad I caught this gig, with a friend over from England:

Who had a great time too, of course.

Find ELEINE an incredibly melodic band, with my favourite tunes of the night being Ava of Death; Liars Linger; and the closing two tunes: We Stand United and We Shall Remain.

At 60 years old, I find myself going to all kinds of music live, it's just such good relaxation.

Bury: Passing a Defence Academy

The last shot from my recent trip to Bury, Lancashire: the interestingly named Bury Defence Academy, just off Rochdale Road, not far outside Bury town centre.

This building initially caught my eye because I know that a mosque stands just round the corner, and when I looked at the green square sign next to the door, it read as Khizra House. 

Have since read that this building has recently been seeking permission to start a Muslim Girls' School on the top floor.

Guess that this is what Professor David Betz calls the Balkanisation process that is now spreading out around Britain and which may lead to serious civil unrest at some point in the future.

Just relieved I left my hometown, Bury, many moons ago. 

Warsaw: Sunday Mass at St. Anne's

Sunday Mass (7pm) at St. Anne's church from last week.

The place was packed out with incredible singing from a choir, doing what sounded like Late Medieval/ Renaissance Polish church music (but I'm no expert on this, of course).

And when Mass was finished, I was greeted with this, heading towards the Old Town:

Have decided to experiment through attending a few different churches on Sunday now.

Bury Parish Church: A Quick Look Inside

While passing Bury Parish Church recently, I heard some quite beautiful music so I had a quick look inside.

Not sure if it was Evensong or an Evening Liturgical Service, and as I was in a rush, I never found out.

Used to sometimes catch Evensong at Canterbury Cathedral when I lived in Canterbury in the late 1990s/ early 2000s, and it was beautiful, I used to sit down listening to it, reflecting on my life. 

Bury: St. Gabriel's, The Prison-Type Bars

As usual, one of the last stops on my recent trip to my hometown (Bury, Lancashire), was having a painful, nostalgic look at my old secondary school, St. Gabriel's:

The blue bars above were there back in September 1977 when I started St. Gabriel's as an 11-year-old, so nothing new there.

But what shocked me were the prison-type, fence structures in front of the 2: 10 building above and the main entrance below:

But at least the great Mother Theresa's face was etched into the middle top window reminding that St. Gabriel's is officially a Catholic school.

Of course, as many people have told me, the prison-type fence structures above are not unique to St. Gabriel's as most modern urban schools have them as a sad reflection of the demographic change and high crime rates rampant in contemporary Britain (or what was once Great Britain).

Think I must've peered through a fence to get the shot below (the boys' toilet/cloakroom building when I was there):

The old blue, now rusty fence below, at the side of the River Irwell, was, of course, another relic from when I attended the school.

Must say that I preferred St. Joseph's Junior School (Chesham) than St. Gabriel's as the headmistress at the former, Mrs. Hart, offered a genuine residue of pre-Vatican II religiosity (e.g. saying the Angelus, Memorare, and Morning Offering prayers; and singing the Hail Redeemer and Faith of Our Fathers hymns).

To be fair, at St. Gabriel's, some teachers (e.g. Mr. Hogan and Mrs. Roylance did speak seriously about Catholicism) but on the whole, I found the school, a more worldly (almost secular) experience. 

On a positive note, Mr. Hogan introduced my first year class to Wordsworth ('Daffodils') and the tall Mr. Byrne did his best to get teenage minds into Shakespeare (Macbeth and The Merchant of Venice), which will have been no easy task. 

This may be where I gained a sense of attaining catharsis, pathos, and enchantment from canonical Literature, but it's difficult to say, that time is so distant now.