AN ULSTERMAN IN BRZEG...(PART 1)

When i first visited Krakow in Poland in September 2012 i fell in love with it.
I also knew that my Mum would love it there.  She really likes old Churches and Castles and such and there are a lot of them in Krakow.
In some quarters Krakow gets a bit of a bad name for itself?  Some have the idea that it's full of Stag and Hen parties and drunken English football hooligans.
They are there unfortunately and the pubs and clubs are there too.......if you want to find them.  It's like any big City.  It has it's bad points.

But all in all it's great City to visit.  Easy to get to, really cheap prices, nice food, 2 Football Stadiums and lots of relatively easily planned trips to go on.
When my Mother announced around Christmas that she would maybe like to visit, i jumped at the chance.  My Mum is now 80 years old and although she is beginning to show her age she's surprisingly fit and able.  She can't walk as fast as she once could and needs to rest more often but otherwise all's good.

We settled for the end of April or the beginning of May.  This time i decided for a longer stay rather than my usual long weekend.  At the time i booked the trip i had no idea that Ewa would be playing anywhere even remotely close to Krakow.

It was only when i was trying to arrange an EFUK staff meet with Paulina that she mentioned Brzeg and that it was happening whilst i would be in Krakow.  I was most pleased but there were several fences to overcome (besides actually finding Brzeg on the map!) before everything was 100%.

Brzeg is quite a distance from Krakow and it ended up that i had two different travel options.
I could fly to Wroclaw and make my way to Brzeg from there or i could get the train/coach.
The first option was a non starter.  Firstly it was way too expensive and i didn't quite like the prospect of trying to get to Brzeg from Wroclaw.
So the train it was.
Paulina was able to interpret the extremely confusing time table for me and although it would mean an approximate 6 hour journey there and another 6 hour return journey, i really didn't want to miss out and knew it would be worth it.  Paulina wouldn't be able to meet me at Brzeg train station so the next possible problem would be finding the venue from there.  Luckily enough former EFUK contributor Criss would also be going and he very kindly offered to arrange for someone to collect me from the train station if i managed to get lost.
I also had the option of return train times at various points throughout the early hours of the Sunday morning. I'm not the most social person but really wanted to spend at least a little time at one of the 'infamous' Polish Fan Club afterparties.  That would also give some time to catch up with Paulina and it would mean that my Mum would have to spend the shortest time possible in Krakow by herself.

Despite some initial confusion we managed to locate the venue ok and it looked pretty easy to get to from the train station so all was looking pretty good. I figured that Brzeg couldn't be that big and if i got lost surely someone would speak enough English to point me in the right direction.
Time to pack my bag and go!

LOST IN TRANSLATION

It was brought to my attention recently that i can, now and again, comment on articles and posts from other sites that i don't fully understand and that this can lead to unfortunate misunderstandings.

I plead guilty as charged!

Frequently Google Translate is not really 100% perfect and i do simply look at a headline and reach the wrong conclusion as to what the entire text actually means.

I'll try to do better in the future and apologise for any offence that my comments may have caused.

FOR THOSE OF YOU WHO STILL NEED TO BE CONVINCED?

Many years ago i worked with a guy called Graham.

Now Graham was one of the nicest blokes i have ever had the pleasure of knowing.  I'm still in touch with him today.

One of the problems with Graham was that he could talk.  Once you got him started on something it was really difficult to shut him up!  He earned the name of the 'Cricket Bore'.  No matter how many times you told him that you had no interest whatsoever in Cricket he could talk about it (in great detail) for hour after hour after hour.

I think i have become the Ewa Farna Bore.

No matter who i have a conversation with these days i will find some sort of cunning way of including Ewa.

Strangers on the Bus, at the football, in the Hospital waiting room...you name it, i've talked to some random stranger there about Ewa.

Yet some people are still not convinced about what a talented young lady she really is.  Most feedback i get is not great.  A lot are put off with 'language' thing.  Which is understandable.  It can be a huge hurdle for many to overcome.

And now this.

I was not a fan of the late Whitney Houston and i'm not a fan of this particular song but she nailed it.  The girl done good and i am immensely proud of her for this performance.

It's in English and will now give me the opportunity to link it to anyone i've bored over the years with that 'foreign' rubbish.

After this i can't imagine anyone will need convincing again.  

ALL GOOD THINGS........

Just a quick post to let you know that i will be taking a break from EFUK for a time.
I could write at length about the reasons why but don't imagine that all that many people would be very interested.
I'll do my best to maintain the Facebook page whenever i find the enthusiasm to do so.


Junkmale

A LITTLE NOTE ABOUT SHARING AND COPYRIGHT

'WE WANT THE SAME THING'
or do we?
Here at EFUK we don't receive all that many emails or messages.  Strangely enough whenever we do they always seem to be of the negative kind for some unknown reason?
Over the last few weeks we have had 3 emails.  All have been pretty unpleasant unfortunately.
The first one was of the usual 'Hey, your blog is shit' variety.  Which is fine if the individual concerned feels that way.  I have explained on many previous occasions that i know very little about web/blog design so the look of this blog is not going to change unless someone comes along to help to do that (which is pretty unlikely).  Besides it's the content NOT the look which matters as far as i am concerned.

The second 2 emails raised some different points altogether and the contents do need to be addressed.
They were both basically accusing us of 'stealing' their posts and infringing on their copyright.  Both accusations are incorrect for a number of reasons.
Most of what is posted here is found either on the internet, through word of mouth or shared from various Facebook pages.
Now SHARED is the important phrase here.
If you have a Facebook page and you allow sharing then you are giving anyone, any time and anywhere permission to use the material you have posted in any way that they want to. There is a simple solution.  If you don't want any one to use the material you have posted then it's a simple case of disabling the share facility within Facebook itself.
It's straightforward and takes around 10 seconds to achieve.  The moral is off course don't complain about someone sharing stuff that you have allowed them to share in the first place!
Other stories are taken directly from various Internet sites.  The vast majority of the Internet is in what is called  the Public Domain.  Sites/blogs like ourselves (and every other site out there!) are allowed to freely share and use what we find there.

Copyright is a different thing altogether.  The rules and regulations on copyright are very complicated and can differ from country to country but there are some basics that those who sent the emails seem to misunderstand.
Each individual on the planet earth is the holder of their own copyright.  To explain....if you ask me to let you take my photograph  it can be assumed that i have given you the permission to do so.  Therefore you can use that photograph.  If you take a photograph or video of me without my knowledge then you cannot use that photo or footage without my express authority.
What this means in very simple terms is this.  If you go to one of Ewa's concerts and you take some photographs or you take some some video footage (without Ewa's permission) you do NOT own the copyright to that footage or the photographs.  Ewa own's them.
Again as in the first point if you choose to share those images that is your decision but you do not under any circumstances own the copyright to them.
Neither, obviously, do you own the copyright for an image taken from a magazine or reproduced from somewhere else, either on line or elsewhere.
I hope all that makes sense?

My final point (you'll be happy to know :-)) is this.
We are all in this together.  We all wants what's best for Ewa.  We are all trying in our own way to do what we can to promote her in the most positive light possible.  We should be working together to achieve this.  A little cooperation costs nothing.
Fighting against each other, having the 'my blog is better than yours' mentality or sending emails which have no basis in fact are NOT the way forward and achieve nothing.
Here endeth the lesson.

BRATISLAVA 23/03/13

On 23/03/13 Ewa played at the Aupark Centre in Bratislava, Slovakia.

In other news she also won the gong for 'Best Polish Artist' in the kid's awards's for Nickelodeon TV Channel.

ANGEL AWARDS 2012

Ewa made a very brief appearance during the opening of the Angel Awards Ceremony on 16/03 in the Czech Republic.
She wasn't nominated in any category for 2012.
For reasons known only to Blogger and Youtube the video won't load but you can watch the footage here -

http://www.ceskatelevize.cz/ivysilani/10563134861-ceny-andel-2012/21354215410/