Malwina Chabocka – Art & Design
Malwina Chabocka – Art & Design

One year in the Netherlands

Date : Sunday 01 January, 2023
One year in the Netherlands

A few years ago I wrote a blog post in which I shared my experiences and observations after one year of living in Portugal. It was very much a “should I stay or should I go” kind of article, as I had very mixed feelings about my life there. As it happened, three months after publishing the post I moved back to Warsaw and felt a great sense of relief. I also felt, having moved countries a good few times by that point, that perhaps I had had my share of packing and sending boxes back and forth, and perhaps the time had come to make Warsaw my permanent home.


Punk in a cardie

Date : Thursday 02 May, 2019
Punk in a cardie

When I was fifteen and listened to all sorts of weird bands whose CDs were unobtainable in local record stores and the only way to get them was by hunting them down in London upon visiting my aunt, I once saw a rather intriguing classified ad in Brum, a rock magazine “for young bandits”, as one journalist called it. The…


Slowly typed words on 5G & time pressure

Date : Monday 15 April, 2019
Slowly typed words on 5G & time pressure

With the 5G network on our doorstep, I recently began to wonder about speed in our life. The long-awaited 5G technology is meant to be 400 times faster than 4G, but perhaps there’s a price to pay — not only for the actual plan and necessary hardware accessories, but potentially in our health, since there are concerns about a substantial…


The golden ball of courage

Date : Tuesday 01 January, 2019
The golden ball of courage

A few weeks ago I was in London and had lunch with Brooke, a dear friend of mine who is a cognitive hypnotherapist. As usual, we talked about a lot of things related to self-development, including various kinds of therapy and methods of working on the relationship with ourselves which, as we know, forms the basis for our well-being and…


If the world is ending in 30 years

Date : Thursday 13 December, 2018
If the world is ending in 30 years

A few weeks ago I read a blood-curling interview with physicist Szymon Malinowski about the consequences of global warming. Malinowski, who is a professor at the Faculty of Physics at the University of Warsaw and co-author of the book Nauka o klimacie (“Climate Science”) holds an extremely grim view of what awaits us in the not-so distant future. To cut…


The Imperfect Notebook (or my first “Meditations”)

  Today is my birthday and I wanted to celebrate it by trying something new. I’ve long planned to revitalise my blog, but as much as I love writing +2000 word essays with dozens of references, these days I simply struggle to find the time for it so I’ve been thinking of introducing a shorter form to my blog. The…


What Type of Artist Are You? Non-quiz

Date : Sunday 12 August, 2018
What Type of Artist Are You? Non-quiz

Every now and then I come across one of those “Which character from [insert: Game of Thrones, Sex and the City, Star Wars etc.] are you?” quizzes. Buzzfeed seems particularly relentless at producing them, often as many as several per day. As fun as they are, I usually ignore them, however I have taken four or five Myer-Briggs tests, which…


One year in Portugal

Date : Wednesday 13 June, 2018
One year in Portugal

The question I’m most frequently asked when meeting someone new is “So, how do you like living in Portugal?”. It’s also something I’m repeatedly asked when I visit my Polish home or friends in the UK, and despite my efforts to give as exhaustive answer as possible (for it really isn’t a matter of a simple “yeah it’s great” or…


A Studio of One’s Own

Date : Saturday 10 March, 2018
A Studio of One’s Own

I happen to be one of those people who enjoy working from home. I have no problem with discipline, motivation, or solitude — in fact, I probably focus best when I’m alone. But working from home, as I’ve discovered over a number of years (and apartments), only works when you have a studio: a special place dedicated just to art….


The Problem with Photoshop, CGI and Insta-Lies

Date : Saturday 09 September, 2017
The Problem with Photoshop, CGI and Insta-Lies

Many years ago, as part of a part-time job hunt in London, I applied for the role of a digital retoucher. I considered myself a fairly proficient Photoshop user and the company’s boss must have thought the same, as he responded very enthusiastically to the portfolio I sent him, and gave me a task: to retouch a photo for a jewellery ad….


No sugar and all spice. Be the fearless & feisty 5-year old you once were.

I was 5 years old when my Mum took me to the premiere of one of Disney’s films. It was the 1st of June, which in Poland is celebrated as the Children’s Day, and the film screening was accompanied by special attractions. One of them was some sort of improvisation-based competition which involved going up on stage and putting on a costume….


Home: Dream, nightmare & utopia

Date : Monday 26 June, 2017
Home: Dream, nightmare & utopia

One’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of looking at things. — Henry Miller from Big Sur and the Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch (1957) Wiping sweat off my forehead in +30 temperatures, I’ve spent the past couple of weeks unpacking and organising my stuff in Amadora, where just I’ve moved for the summer. I was humming along to Kaiser…


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