Yet another second trip to Cambridge on Saturday to clear up Sandro and Liisa' bric a brac with their drums and games and needlework and Lord of the Rings castle settings and lamps and countless bits of clothing, all now lined up in our internal corridor, as Albina had finished sticking various earlier boxes into every nook and cranny in our spare bedroom. Each journey is a trial as Albina plagues me with comments about not travelling too fast (i.e. more than 50mph), veering off the centre of my lane and not going into fifth fast enough. It's a trial for her as well, as she is not good at sitting down in one position for more than an hour. Each time we forget to get her a soft cushion to sit on during the journey. Packing the stuff from their living room into the car is actually fun, as i plan where else I can fit thing that seem impossible to fit. Uloading it at all at our flat is less amusing as I carry the stuff through 2 safety locked fire doors and a lift we share with 20 other families. On this occasion I used the lift 9 times. Also on this occasion, the car was showing signs of distress. As soon as I turned the ignition key, an icon flashed at me from the dashboard, showing excessive pressure on our tyres. So we travelled with that handicap, wondering at any stage of the 2 hour journey whether our overloaded mechanical beast of burden would break down and require RAC assistance. All that to endure for our lovely children. What particularly worried me as I was loading the car, was Albina rummaging around the house looking for additional goods to take, including wooden stools and table lamps. I knew that meant that next weekend we would have to do the same trip a third (and last!) time.
On the Friday night I had attended a commemorative event, including a concert, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Polish Education Society (PMS) in the UK, hosted by the Polish Embassy. They're the organization that plans the curriculum, organizes regular teacher conferences, manages the mass insurance, and facilitates the need to comply with government rules on criminality checks for teachers at most of the 130 or so Polish Saturday schools throughout the country. I have cooperated with them many times in the past lobbying on three different occasions to protect either the Polish A level or O level (later GCSE), which is a major feature of Polish Saturday schools for older children. I enjoyed those lobbying sessions getting my Labour MP friends to intervene successfully on behalf of their Polish constituents.
A feeding frenzy followed after the concert and last speech, as the participants dived downstairs to enjoy some beef stew and pierogi, to share with a glass of prosecco. I chatted to the Ambassador and he said how he could envisage me still as a child in short trousers attending one of these Polish schools. This was true of so many of my contemporaries present at the reception, who still play key roles in Polish organizations. I confirmed that I had indeed been a "willing guinea pig" for the PMS teaching programme exactly 70 years ago. That seemed to surprise His Excellency, as he thought I was still in my 60s. I actually used to enjoy these classes, just as to show off my knowledge of Polish history and geography. I thanked the Ambassador for his comments on Belarus, where the Lukashenka government is auctioning off the confiscated property of the local Polish Education Society in Grodno. He seemed concerned that Western opinion was going soft on Lukashenka as they were trying to wean him off supporting a second invasion of Ukraine from the north. Wrong message. Trouble with Lukashenka is that, like his pal Putin, he only understands tough talk and sanction threats, not the soft soap treatment.
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