in Peckham last night. More Poles (I think) than I’ve ever been exposed to at one time before. Certainly more Slavs than I’ve been in a room with since Petrozavodsk. And not a hint of gloom. Smiles all round. Not a single thought of suicide. They did claim, however, that the Poles experience extremes of happiness and misery – maybe the effects of joining the EU have dampened their fatalistic nature – although the Portuguese are, of course, still obsessed with ‘fado‘. I had always thought that the Polish nature was unrelenting gloom punctuated by short periods of slightly less unrelenting gloom and drunkeness.
I have to admit that I was slightly disappointed in certain ways – after several tequilas I was expecting rousing choruses of Polish folk songs (if they can become rousing), deep philosophical pondering on the nature of the Slavic soul (this did start, but the more I think about it, the more I become convinced that it is merely a romanticisation of those aspects of the human that psyche that generally constitute ‘being a bastard’ in the UK).
More later when I have my lunchbreak – in the meantime, thanks to Maciej and Nadia for the party…
I’m bored of the Slavic soul bollocks too. Although I met a very nice Pole this morning, and he had a perfect Polish accent, and that restored my faith.