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I’ve been in Poznan this last week working with the guys in our Polish office. It’s been a lot of fun and tonight is the first night I’ve got back to the hotel before 10pm.

Monday night saw us drinking Żywiec at the Lizard King pub in the lovely Old Town Square or Stary Ryneck. The square is in the centre of the old town and apart from a couple of communist era cement monstrosities in the middle it is a beautifully colourful collection of Renaissance and Baroque architecture.

Tuesday was ice skating at Bogdanka before finishing up again in Stary Rynek where Radek unsuccessfully attempted to get me to try a bowl of flaki.

Last night we played some pool after work before we all got together at the WZ restaurant for a meal. No amount of encouragement was going to get me to order golonka so I had pierogi which was very nice and seemed to be authentically Polish enough.

It’s been great fun working with and getting to know the Polish guys, and their friends and family, too.

There’s just one thing left. The famous Poznan goats make their appearance at midday so there should be just enough time to see them before my flight tomorrow!

MoD sends Skynet satellite into orbit

Seriously. Don’t they know what happens at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, August 29th?

On the weekend we went to a CCO party at Hywel’s place and, it being (nearly) the 5th November, fireworks were involved.

Alan had originally planned to bring just a few sparklers along but once he got to the firework shop he couldn’t resist purchasing a small arsenal of rockets, roman candles and something that looked like an anti-tank mine. Sanchia also brought some rockets along so there was no shortage of things that go bang.

We were a little nervous about setting off these things in Hywel’s fairly small decking at the back of his house, especially the ones with directions to light the fuse and then retire at least twenty-five metres away. But the ghost of Guy Fawkes was smiling on us and it turned out that Dylan was a qualified fireworks technician so everyone sat back and let him run the show. He assured us that they only say twenty-five metres in case the thing tips over and starts strafing the onlookers with white-hot pyrotechnic stars but it was ok because we were putting them in a big pot filled with cat litter.

It was awesome. Especially the anti-tank mine. And by awesome I mean, you know, terrifying.