… but this one, despite its hilariously abstract headline, is apparently true:

German women flock to Polish hair salon heaven

Had to go for the bold headline. So, according to expatica.com,

A village on the Polish-German border is becoming a hotspot for German bargain hunters seeking cheap haircuts. It may only be a small Polish village of 200 inhabitants but each week hundreds of German women beat a path to Osinow Dolny, which claims to have the greatest concentration of hair salons on the planet.

OK, now read the last bit again:

the greatest concentration of hair salons on the planet.

Wait, it gets better:

Demand from German women coming for a blue rinse, a perm or just a tidy trim has been so great that the number of salons has not only grown but those already established have expanded into prefab huts, next door premises or even their gardens. Others have also branched out into other services, like manicures and facials.

So the Polish entrepreneurial spirit is alive. And you know what? The credit crunch is virtually unknown there:

And there is no sign of a recession here. The salons are all busy, catering for a never-ending stream of German customers, particularly in the morning — meaning that many open for business at 7:00 am including on Sundays.

There are some occasional hiccups, but every pensioner needs a bit of fun every now and then:

Language problems sometimes make it difficult for salon staff to grasp exactly what is required but business is booming nonetheless.

And here I was, thinking that my last week hammer-throwing post was the most hilarious thing ever….

The gorgeous and hardly related hair salon picture © Old Shoe Woman via Flickr, used under Creative Commons licence

Found in a magazine over the weekend. Exactly what I’ve been telling you all along, just look at the name of the category this was posted in. (OK, there’s not much else in the category yet, but it’s simply because I haven’t been ‘sampling’ much recently’…. *ahem*)

By the way, ARE there any Polish councillors anywhere?

→ More from It’s a sign!

If you ever see this logo on any Polish products, you can be sure it’s something of a really good quality, something Poles are really proud of. ‘Teraz Polska’ (literally: ‘Poland Now’ or ‘Time for Poland’) is a national competition, in which brands, products, producers – and recently also individual city councils – compete for the title of the best in their respective field.

There have been 18 editions of the competition and you can find the Teraz Polska logo on a really wide range of products – from vodkas to sausages; from spices and healthy food to men’s suits; from software to roof tiles.

Almost anyone can nominate, but the final choice is down to a group of experts who test the products and award the TP title. The Teraz Polska title acts as a stamp of approval of the product’s quality, but also opens the door to new markets.

During my recent trip to Poland I was surprised to see how many products, even as basic as margarine and cheese bear the Teraz Polska logo. Which I guess, from a consumer point of view, is very reassuring. Although I also liked this variation of the logo, a bitter comment on our favourite national passtime:

So here we are, standing there, scanning the rather unappealing choice of tinned soups and other long-life produce, when we came across this:

How very unfortunate. I’m sure someone somewhere enjoys it on a daily basis and doesn’t even think twice about the name, but it made us giggle. Understandably.

Now, apart from the rather clumsy name (does adult chicken taste different? is ‘chicken flavour soup’ a different story altogether? enlighten me!!), another thing struck me.

Quite often Poles will be gushing over some pierogi or other gołąbki, while people from other cultures will look at them disapprovingly and dismiss them with a curt ‘Stodge!’ – while to us they are as natural and lovely as cock-flavour soup must be to those who are into all things Caribbean. Such remarks will sometimes make us huff and puff and say something like “Ah, you don’t know what you’re missing”.

But I guess a dismissive remark or – like with the soup above, a prolonged giggle – is a natural reaction to something new, something foreign. We shouldn’t really take it personally. I still – after so many years – haven’t convinced myself that mushy peas is actually food….

I came across this piece by Suzanne Treister, called Alchemy/Dziennik Polski:

Now, as you may or may not know, Dziennik Polski is a Polish daily, which has been published in London since 1940. (The Polish community here is nothing new and it’s had its presence on the British media scene since, well, since the Polish Section of the BBC started broadcasting in 1939. At least.)

But what the hell did the newspaper do as part of an art fair, in a massive frame and with highly symbolic signs? It’s part of Suzanne Trester’s series of works

which transcribe front pages of international daily newspapers into alchemical drawings, reframing the world as a place animated by strange forces, powers and belief systems.

A quick visit to her website reveals that The Guardian, the Evening Standard, Le Monde, Die Welt, FT, and my personal favourite, The Sun, plus scores of other newspapers all became part of the artistic process. I’ve never heard of Suzanne before, but – being a ‘media type’ – I fell in love with her work. If I could only express so accurately and poigniantly what I think about the state of modern media…..

Sobieski, named after a Polish king, was – surprisingly – advertised in Polish. ‘Król jest tylko jeden’ – there’s only one king. An advert in Polish in Paddington? Must be a first.

I’ve seen a can or two of Polish beer in my street before, but that was an occasional sightng, rather than a regular occurence. After all, I don’t see that many Poles in my part of London. Nowadays, the sight of a squashed can of Lech or żywiec (sorry, lost the capital ‘ż’ on my keyboard) is as common as that of a discarded packet of Walkers or of a free newspaper on the floor of a tube train. Not sure whether there’s a particularly messy Pole living in my neighbourhood or whether someone else has fallen in love with Polish lager and regularly (and impatiently) empties a can or two on the way back from the corner shop.

But recently I’ve noticed something which really made me smile. Way back in the 70s and 80s it was common to see shops closed for months for REMONT (refurbishment). They wer closed for months not because the refurbishment was extensive or complicated, only because nobody really cared much. After all, everything was state-owned.

Every time a shop or another outlet with massive window was closed for remont, the builders would whitewash the windows inside the shop and then use their fingers to scribble on them the ominous word REMONT (often reversing either the letter ‘r’ or the letter ‘n’ in the process as they were not used to spelling words, let alone spelling them backwards).

Recently I noticed a shop in south London which is closed for refurbishment. And, yes, you’ve guessed it. The window is painted white and the word REMONT (spelt correctly) is scribbled across the top. Fabulous.

I haven’t seen such a thing in at least 20 years. Whoever did that must have a great sense of humour. Good to see old traditions don’t die. Oh, and just like in Poland back in the 80s, this particular REMONT has been going on for months now…