Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2011

114/365: Eggs for Easter

114/365: Eggs for Easter
114/365: Eggs for Easter, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
April 24th

In Poland, on Easter Sunday, the first thing you eat is a slice of boiled egg. You go from person to person, wishing them a happy Easter...and whatever else you want them to be blessed with.

Then you get to eat everything else.

Easter Wishes

Sunday, April 24, 2011

113/365: Family and assorted friends

113/365: Family and assorted friends
April 23rd

From left to right: Marcin, the Porzeziński Family (note Tosia hiding in the background), my dad, my mum, my sister and her boyfriend, imported from Barcelona.

In the photo, they are all standing by the Dominican Order Church, with their Easter Baskets in hand. Every year on Good Saturday, we take baskets filled with samples of the Easter meal to church where a priest blesses them:

Blessing the food

They're a symbol of all the food that will be on our table that year. It's like saying grace before a meal, but with a long-term warranty.

Afterwards we go look at the grave in the church (where I don't take photos because people are praying) and then we fill a bottle with holy water from a barrel set out on the church steps:

Holy water

Oh, and here's a bonus. My sister has a new boyfriend- David from Barcelona. Here they are in real life....

My sister and her boyfriend

...and in egg form.

My sister and her boyfriend

I am told he painted her and she painted him.

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

109/365: Grandpa and Grandma

109/365: Grandpa and Grandma
April 19th

On their balcony. Grandpa doesn't like his planters to be bare, so before real flowers bloom, he sticks in fake daffodils. The hyacinths are real, though!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

60/365: Not 77

60/365: Not 77
60/365: Not 77, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
March 1st

This morning, at breakfast, dad suddenly stopped eating, his face frozen in an expression of shock.

"Wait...wait a minute. It's not 2012 yet! I'm...I'm only seventy-six years old today!"

Well, true. But we didn't have any other candles.

The cake was made by my mum and was a big hit. It's flourless- all ground nuts to make the base. And the cream is coffee.

Oooh, look, cake!

Cake!

There was also some singing by Marcin and Orzełek.

Marcin plays guitar

Orzełek and Marcin tune their instruments

And it wouldn't have been a proper birthday without Dad giving numerous speeches:

Dad

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

358/365: Christmas Eve table

Christmas Eve table
358/365: Christmas Eve table, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
December 24th

My mother takes particular pride in setting the table for Christmas Eve Dinner, and rightly so. Every year it's something different, but there is always lots of shininess and warmth. She has boxes full of little sparkly stars and angels and fairy dust.

Worth a mention: the tradition in Poland is to put hay on the table or under the cloth- hay, of course, because Jesus was born in a manger.

Hay on the table

Table for Christmas Eve dinner

Mum lights the candles for Christmas Eve

Bonus: family photos, first one taken by me, second by my sister so I could be in it. Merry Christmas!

Family

Family 2

357/365: The Peace Light of Bethlehem

357/365: The Peace Light of Bethlehem
December 23rd

Just like last year, father Ronald, the chaplain for the Polish Scouting and Guiding Association, brought us the Peace Light of Bethlehem. The flame is taken every year from the Nativity Grotto in Bethlehem and carried unextinguished back to Vienna, from where it is distributed across Europe. The scouts bring it back to Poland, and father Ronald lights a lantern from it and brings it to our house. We set it on the table, light our Advent candles from it, say a little prayer and then the light is with us all through Christmas.

Here is Father Ronald with the light...

Father Ronald brought us the Peace Light of Betlehem


...and Grandma and Grandpa.

Grandma and Grandpa holding the Peace Light of Betlehem

Friday, December 24, 2010

356/365: Our Christmas Tree

356/365: Our Christmas Tree
356/365: Our Christmas Tree, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
December 22nd

We decorated the tree! Yay. I think that's really all I can say, yay yay yay. Christmas trees are one of the prettiest things in the world.

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352/365: Bryll&Styczeń on stage again

352/365: Bryll&Styczeń on stage again
December 18th

A while back, a young man came to visit my dad and said, sir, I'd like to put some of your poetry to music. Now the two of them are excellent friends and they do several performances a year- the set is Marcin singing, with or without his band, and dad reading poems and telling anecdotes from when the world was young. The dynamic between them is great, despite the 40 year age difference. I can vouch that the audience has just as much fun as they do. :D

I've covered it on the blog before. More photos there.

Sunday, June 13, 2010

143/365: Just christened

143/365: Just christened
143/365: Just christened, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
May 23rd

My grand-niece and now god-daughter Maja, and her mum.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

66/365: Bryll&Styczeń in concert

66/365: Bryll&Styczeń in concert
March 7th

In celebration of Women's Day (which was the next day) my dad (right) and Marcin Styczeń gave a concert of songs and poems. It usually goes like this- Marcin sings, dad reads something, then they say something funny...but sometimes dad joins in on the choruses:


negatyw320

60/365:Bryllowanie


Lots of fun. Happy Women's Day!

Monday, March 8, 2010

65/365: 5th Birthday Party

65/365: 5th Birthday Party
65/365: 5th Birthday Party, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
March 6th

March is the month for birthdays. The 6th is actually my mother's, but we went to see my nephew Maks that weekend, since he had turned five on the 2nd. Just like his great-grandpa, he got a big sparkler on his cake.

I had to do lots of editing on these photos, I just haven't got the lenses or flash arrangement for good indoor evening photography. Everything is always dark and grainy. Very annoying. I can't wait for springtime when there is more light and people are more likely to go outside...

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

60/365: My dad's 75th birthday

60/365: My dad's 75th birthday
March 1st

This year, my dad told my mum: "Let's not invite anyone. We'll see who shows up."

Well, about thirty people passed that test. :D It's a good thing we prepared some food just in case. ;)

I could say a lot about my dad (that's him in the centre of the photo). I could tell you he's a poet, a writer, an author of musicals and songs, a man with a hundred stories to tell. I could link you to his poetry- but most of it is in Polish. Instead I am going to give you a tiny little glimpse of how he celebrated his birthday last year.

And more photos from this year's most excellent party follow:

75th birthday party

My sister lights the candles on the cake as my mother tries not to get burned- and dad's great-grandson, who is exactly 70 years and one day younger than him, looks on.


75th birthday party

Dad singing 'Happy Birthday' for my mother- whose birthday is on March 6th.


75th birthday party

Saying hello to the youngest in our family, his great-granddaughter who is just eight months old.:) By the way, the hat was a gift, and dad liked it so much he refused to take it off all evening.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

58/365: The website

58/365: The website
58/365: The website, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.
February 27th

I finally finished reworking my dad's website from ugly, table-based html 4.0 (sic!! it was really old...) to a lovely and easily updateable mix of php, css and mysql. My dad turns 75 this monday, and his skills with the computer are rudimentary at best, so it was somewhat of a challenge to make him understand just why this new website is so much better and easier to update. I finally ended up saying "Adding anything to the old website was like woodblock printing. This is like movable type."

He understood that analogy :)

Here he is in the photo with my mum, looking at the site. He even promised to start writing articles for it again. I'm pleased.

A dla polskich czytelników informacja: pojutrze urodziny Brylla, nowa strona www.bryll.pl ruszyła dziś, i będzie od tej pory działać na zasadzie bloga. Kto chce posłuchać prawdziwych (nie takich licealno-czyściutkich) opowieści o tym jak hulali poeci i artyści w latach 60 ubiegłego wieku...zapraszam do czytania 'Zapisków'. Będzie wesoło.

 A, no i Bryll jest także na Facebooku. Zostań fanem!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

55/365:Of reincarnation and onion soup

55/365:Of reincarnation and onion soup
February 24th

Dinners at my parents' house are nice. My mother provides the good food, and my father provides the interesting conversation. Today it was onion soup and thoughts on the afterlife.
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