Posted in Language, Observations on January 28, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Office Angels a UK recruitment firm have released a list of 2007 office sayings. So the next time you plan to ‘think outside the box’, think again. Using the phrase in front of colleagues instantly marks you out as past your office sell-by date.
Here are the top five ‘must-use buzzwords’ designed to impress in 2007, [...]
Posted in Poland, economy on January 27, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Milena Rachid Chehab has discovered a new breed of Polish immigrant worker: Expats in Ukraine! “These are experts who bear the free-market flame eastwards. Our previous knowledge of this species was limited to foreigners who, at the beginning of the nineties, took on top management jobs in western firms entering the Polish market. Now the [...]
Posted in Language, Observations, tagged polish idioms on January 26, 2008 | 9 Comments »
The English have many idioms for uselessness – perhaps this reflects a cultural concern with functionality, or ability? Often the commonest English idioms about uselessness seems to deal with non-functional nipples. Among the variants are:
Useless as tits on a boar
Useless as tits on a bull
Maybe this has something [...]
Posted in Observations, economy on January 26, 2008 | 4 Comments »
I worked in Paris for nearly two and half years up until May last year. This time was spent working on the management team of one of the world’s largest Financial Services company (top 15 company in the world) . As a company listed on the French and US stock market we were required to [...]
Posted in Observations, Poland, economy, tagged economy, Poland on January 24, 2008 | 10 Comments »
In the second edition of his 2005 book Yale University Professor Robert Schiller wrote about the impending housing bubble in the US calling it Irrational Exuberance. The phrase Irrational Exuberance was first used in the late part of the 20th century, by the then, Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to describe [...]
Posted in Observations, Poland, tagged eastern europe, economy, Poland on January 19, 2008 | 23 Comments »
Poland’s energy watchdog regulator, URE said on Friday it would raise regulated electricity prices for households by 11.6 percent, with the new price tariff coming into force from 1st February 2008. This is below the 20% increase that the Energy companies wanted but the regulator did not rule out another [...]
Posted in Books, Health - Body, Health - Food, tagged diet, Food, health on January 19, 2008 | 7 Comments »
Covey had a huge best-seller with The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (notice the title was made of 7 words). As it turns out, seven words is a surprisingly catchy way to deliver a message. Just ask writer Michael Pollan, whose book “In Defense of Food” is Number [...]
Posted in Observations, Things I Like on January 17, 2008 | 4 Comments »
At first I thought okay let’s create an error on the page so as not to have to write a meme after I got tagged by the insightful Wyspianski unwinding but then thought nah that’s rather churlish.
So instead dear Mr Island I will meet you half way – I’ll write the seven things but then, [...]
Posted in Language, Observations, tagged European swearword on January 17, 2008 | 1 Comment »
The Berlay Monster reported that EU law mongers have approved draft plans for a Central European Swearword, in order to allow grievances to be aired in a harmonised fashion across the bloc’s borders.
The ‘euxpletive’ eventually settled on is ‘kuñardocz’.
It has been hailed by EU governments as “the ejaculation European citizens deserve.”
But one experienced pottymouth called [...]
Posted in Poland on January 16, 2008 | 6 Comments »
We spent some time over the holiday period in the South of Poland, deep in the Polish countryside. Living in the countryside has many benefits but it also has noise and animal distractions.
First of all there are the cockerels – Like men, cockerels are from Mars. While hens cluck and chatter softly to one [...]
