plastic surgery

I think that plastic surgery was one of the biggest suprises that i've come across during the whole course of uni. I have always beleived it to be one of the most refined surgical specialities in which everything has to be sown perfectly together. On top of that, I was almost sure that no course was able to suprise me. I was wrong. Ok every ward and course has it's incredible stories to tell, some being more grotesque then others, and that's the beauty of working with people, but i sat through plastic surgery open eyed in suprise because it suddenly turned out that you have to have a lot of imagination when it comes to finding material for the operations.
For example lets take nose reconstruction. The history of medical intervetions done on the nose runs back to ancient 
days, yet what got stuck in my memory were the renaissance days. Back in those times accidents often happened and 
many a man had substantial nose losses due to wild animals, cooking accidents, or criminal proceedings, since, already, in those times the chopping of a hand, as a punishment of those who stole, was seen as inhumane, and the more merciful practice of cutting of the nose was followed.
In those days a method, not so different from the general methods used today in plastic surgery was developed. It was done the following way: I recomend that you take a look at the drawing on the webside quoted

"a model of the nose to be reconstructed was made from parchment or leather. This model was then laid on the forearm and a line drawn around it. The marked area was then cut around and separated from the underlying layers in such a way that the bottom of the nose-flap remained attached to the arm. Subsequently the arm was raised to the head with the nose-flap positioned on the face and sutured to the defect. The arm was then bound to the head to hold it in place. After 8-10 days when the skin had healed to the tissue of the defect, the lower part of the skin flap was cut, freeing the arm and allowing reconstruction of the nostrils"
                                                       taken from http://www.thefacetrust.org/history.asp

The Two Who Stole the Moon and a little more.(see polish cinema)

"If we steal the moon, we would not have to work"
"But we are not working now, either..."
"But then we would not have to work at all".

Foreshadowed by more changes in the summits of the polish ruling personages, the wind of change makes itself known once again. It didn’t come as a big surprise, after last weeks dismissal of a number of ministers along with vice minister Lepper, that the situation replicated itself with vice minister Giertych and his minister, who have never concealed their inter reliance that helped them survive in a government where on their own they would be a minority. Early elections are inevitable, since the leading party has now become a minority.  

This years “cucumber season”, polish equivalence of “the silly season”, has been far from typical. Instead of pleasant, light news about everything and nothing, we have been bombarded by the latest scandal. Even the prime minister had to cancel his vacation, as a result of accusations that have been flying back and forth between the minister of justice and vice minister AL, after the latter was accused of “almost” taking a bribe, dismissed from his position without solid proof. Now the situation has reached multilevel complexity, where it is not really clear what is really what and who is really who.

In the midst of this turmoil, I find myself wondering where this is taking us. It is unmistakable that the political situation is far from ideal. Just how far, from perfection, is still a mystery but will solving this mystery get us anywhere. The ferocity with which indictment have been flying in the past few days have acted as a very efficient smokescreen. With unavoidable premature elections, the current situation has made us forget that we’re still waiting for solutions to our problems, and in a few months when we go to the ballot boxes we’ll be once again choosing the lesser wrong, a choice which will be far from obvious.

pod wulkanem

"Jezeli nie bedziesz pila, tak jak ja pije, jak mozesz sie ludzic, ze zrozumiesz piekno starej kobiety z Tarasco, ktora gra w domino o siodmej rano?"

'oczy jej spoczely na starej kobiecie, ktora siedziala w cieniu przy jedynym stoliku w barze. Jej laska zrobiona ze stali, z lapa jakiegos zwierzecia zamiast raczki, zaczepiona o brzeg stolu wisiala jak cos zywego. Stara kobieta miala kurczatko na sznurku, ktore trzymala na sercu pod suknia. Kurczatko wychylalo lepek i rozgladalo sie rzucajac ukosne, smiale, krotkie spojrzenia na boki. Postawila je na stole, zaczelo dziobac pomiedzy kamieniami domino, popiskujac z cicha. Potem wlozyla je na dawne miejsce, tkliwie otulila suknia... Widok starej kobiety z dominem i kurczaczkiem zmorizl jej serce'

-M. Lowry

the little pleasures in life

this knocked me of my feet when i read it cause i have always enjoyed the taste of green tea and the whole japanese tradition of making it. kerouac ( in the dharma bums) takes me yet a step further.

Now you understand the Oriental passion for tea,' said Japhy.
'Remember that book I told you about:
the first sip is joy
the second is gladness,
the third is serenity,
the fourth is madness,
the fifth is ecstasy.'

a light in the tunnel

Noc oddycha naszą krwią,
Krew podziemną płynie miedzą...
Nasze ciała teraz śpią --
Nasze ciała nic nie wiedzą...

the great comeback

it seems as if winter decided to finally join us this year. there's about 10 cm of snow outside and it's -12. and i thought i wouldn't get to see snow this year.

missing home

thoughts over some carlo rossi

as another day is about to close in this place of pure delight and lightness of being i am flooded by thoughts and memories. (flashbacks invading my mind when triggered by scenes in a movie or thought evoked by a talk at dinner with a good friend, that probably doesn't even know i consider him that, and i can't explain why i do.) both of which have a single core in common, which my delight for the little things in life that make it so beautiful; like the stories you hear when you meet someone new, the adrenaline rushes in your dreams, the memories you hold dear for years, and the turns that take you off the paved paths. why else would living be so beautiful.

one of the things i miss the most....lebanese cuisine

i spend one of the nicest evenings of this trip tonight over at my dad's friends house. he's been good friends with my dad ever since my dad came to nigeria. i even remember the night he had his wedding. my parents put me to bed and left me alone at home hoping that i would not wake up while they were gone. they should have known that i was their hyperactive, troublesome kid. no sooner had they gone out the gate, i got out of bed and started sneaking around the house. in a matter of minutes i invited my maigardi (security) as well as all the other maigardi's on the street, to come over to my house sit in our parlor and drink a beer or a soft drink. everyone was having a blast untill my dad decided to come back home just to check on me. he must have had the shock of his life when he came in and saw his living room full of guards and me in bed pretending to sleep as nothing ever happened.
this has definetly been one of my calmer trips back home. i have managed to shut myslef off from a lot of things. in a way i do regret not spending time with the few people i still know in the area but i found myself without any interesting idea's for the few months to come, which left me far away from being in high spirits. my former plans have sort of crashed. i just needed a few days, or more like a weeks to figure it all out again, and to find the energy to start dreaming all over again. inspiration has come from the least expected sources as it usually does.

i'm home

yeap i arrived yesterday night. as usual the trip was full of incidents and suprises, starting from staircase i had to take with my 58 kgs of luggage (boy was i happy to find a well raised dutch guy at the bottom of it ;) ) ending at meeting rami chami in the plane (an old class mate that i went on a field trip to egypt with). anyway being back home is a rollercoaster ride when it comes to memories. today i had the polish community come over for a welcoming dinner. it s a custom with very old traditions that were based on the fact that in the "good old days" we were cut off from the rest of the world. internet is very new and so are cellular phones. but a few years back we didn't have phones at home. we made phone calls back home on very special occasions and very rarely. we would call home about twice a year for 3 minutes at a time because it use to cost a fortune. i remember when we had to order a call back home to poland. and it would take 3 days before we got through. we would go down to the calling office a few times a day. well people who went away on vacation were our connection with the outside world. they brought in the letters from our famillies and they took the letters out. it seems so unbeleivable to me right now, cause now i'm sitting online chatting to my friends all over the world, even from nigeria

so the journey begins

  or it is about to begin. step 1 behind me. had to take a trip down to the nigerian embassy in warsaw to get my visa. they should probably give me a long term visa so that i don't have to come down there everytrip i take. i already feel at home there. the big minus is that to get the visa the same day i leave my passport i have to be there around 8 30-9 00 am meaning that i had to leave lodz at 5 30 am. i hate waking up in the morning. well i got there and i bumped into a guy getting his visa to go work on one of the platforms in the area of warri. since we had a few hours free we decided to get a coffee somewhere in town.  we got chatting, and it hit me that i'm gonna start travelling again. meeting people on territory that neighter one of us has the upper hand on,people i ve never seen and probably will never see again, you talk everything and nothing yet you don't worry about what you say. you find out things about yourself and about the world that surrounds you. that's the great thing about travelling.

prefer to leave the title out

 

From childhood's hour I have not been
As others were; I have not seen
As others saw; I could not bring
My passions from a common spring.
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow; I could not awaken
My heart to joy at the same tone;
And all I loved, I loved alone.
Then - in my childhood, in the dawn
Of a most stormy life - was drawn
From every depth of good and ill
The mystery which binds me still:
From the torrent, or the fountain,
From the red cliff of the mountain,
From the sun that round me rolled
In its autumn tint of gold,
From the lightning in the sky
As it passed me flying by,
From the thunder and the storm,
And the cloud that took the form
(When the rest of Heaven was blue)
Of a demon in my view.-E.A.Poe

new years

another year starts and new resolutions have to be made. here are mine 1. leave poland as soon and as fast as possible. (and i don't mean for a vacation) 2. get in shape 3. start taking life easier ( there's no point in getting angry at polish politicians it's not their fault that the majority of the people who vote in this country make the choices they do) i am really curiouse if the minister of education's newest idea is going to go through and if it does what will come out of it. he proposed that we hold a referendum in which the polish nation will answer three questions. 1. should uniforms be made obligatory in schools 2. should we have "zero tolerance" in schools meaning that the difficult youth will be put away into special schools. 3. should a curfew be imposed for all minors.:) the results might be interesting  i couldn't have spent new years better then i did this year. it wasn't the place that made it so great, nor the weather that actually managed to suprise me cause it snowed, but it was the group of people that came for it. there is actually no one that i would rather see more then those 3 people that i shared the floor with in prague. the only problem is the side effects that the trip left over. first of all that awfull feeling that was left over when everyone went back home and i realised that they live so far away i probably won't be seeing them in a while (not to say that there is a mighty good chance that we won't see each other again unless we really want to and plan it) second, i'm still trying to catch up on the sleep and energy i lost during the trip back. hey i'm getting there, today i felt as if i ran the marraton but that's much better then the feeling of being hit by the train that i felt yesterday. the trip was worth it and i would repeat it again. the waking up at 4 30 am on the 1st of january, the breakfast in a mcdonald at 9 am in krakow and the lonely trip back home( had to get on 5 different trains, run in the pouring rain up and down a flight of stairs to catch the last train home at 8pm.)
 as for new years itself we got to spend it quietly in a town in the south of poland called zakopane. the people there are specific. they have they're own clothes, customs, way of being and talking. a very big part of poland goes down to zakopane or the nearby towns and villages during the winter breaks to skii.