{"id":11158,"date":"2024-09-22T22:00:32","date_gmt":"2024-09-22T20:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/?p=11158"},"modified":"2024-09-22T22:20:03","modified_gmt":"2024-09-22T20:20:03","slug":"spare-some-change-makes-beggars-out-of-all-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/spare-some-change-makes-beggars-out-of-all-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Spare Some Change Makes Beggars out of All of Us"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Change, Spare Change, All Change, Why Change?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

22 September 2024 ~ Spare Some Change Makes Beggars out of All of Us<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever noticed that when you go away for a few weeks, on your return not everything has changed, but some things have and subtly. For example, after my recent sojourn in the UK, I returned to Kaliningrad to find that the vacuum cleaner appliances had strangely disappeared, that someone had half-inched the mat from my office\/study\/drinking den, that the water jug had vanished, that a small table was where it wasn\u2019t, and that the cat\u2019s bowls had turned from plastic to ceramic. On a not so subtle and more depressing note, I learnt that the neighbour\u2019s cat ~ I used to call her \u2018Big Eyes\u2019 ~ had scaled her last plank backwards. She used this technique to descend from a flat roof on the second storey of her owner\u2019s house after her owners cut down the birch tree along whose branches she used to scramble. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unlike our stay-at-home Ginger, she was an out-and-about sort of cat, a brave and intrepid adventurer, who, alas, was to put too much faith in the mythical tale that cats have nine lives and met with the truth abruptly whilst she was crossing the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The old philosophical question is there life after death is problematic enough without appending to that question are cats accorded a similar privilege?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cOf course, cat heaven exists,\u201d cat lovers cry indignantly, but does it follow from this assumption that parity heavens exist for pigs, cows, sheep, chickens and every other animal species that are brought into this world merely to be slaughtered for the tastebud pleasures of carnivores?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abstractions of this nature, though they may well have once occurred to me in some distant, cynical, cerebral past, found no room in my consciousness on returning to Kaliningrad, for soon I would be fretting about an entirely different dilemma ~ is there life after YouTube? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the short while I had been away not only had my rug gone west but also YouTube with it, or to be more precise, had thereto been confined. \u201cThat\u2019s buggered it,\u201d I thought ~ I am prone to moments of eloquence like this ~ for though I could not give a monkey\u2019s for the loss of\u00a0 Western mainstream media, where would I go with YouTube gone for my daily fix of music, for documentaries of an historical nature and for classic pre-woke TV dramas like 1960s\u2019 Dangerman<\/em>, filmed in glorious black and white when the use of the term black and white was not endowed with racial undertones and even if it had been nobody British at that time would have given a monkey’s f.ck. Ah, Happy Days indeed!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty minutes searching Google for credible alternatives to the sort of content with which I engage on YouTube was enough to reassure me that whilst life without YouTube was not as we know it ~ YouTube is but one place in the internet\u2019s vast and expanding universe but in itself it seems infinite ~ life without it was not unsupportable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I found a site I had used in the past which offered a reasonably good selection of archived TV dramas and classic black and white films, and I also upturned a second site which, although containing the sort of stuff I would not touch with a barge polack ~ modern, glossy, tacky and geared to a left-leaning audience ~ tendered the consolation of half a dozen history programmes of a fairly reputable nature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was conscious that I was doing something that the so-called entitled millennials are only just coming to terms with in these rapidly changing times: I was having to ‘make do’. The derivation actually precedes the generation to which I belong. It has its origins in wartime slogans, and was born out of the real necessity of making the best of a bad situation, using whatever scant resources were at hand. Making do in the age of misinformation\/disinformation, the cast offs and the hand me downs of second- and third-best websites represent a collateral revision of the quid pro quo arrangement of if you show me yours, I\u2019ll show you mine, rehashed by modern politics as so long as you let me show you mine then I\u2019ll let you show me yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I sometimes wonder if any of our contemporary politicians have bothered to read Gulliver\u2019s Travels<\/em>, <\/em>written and published by Jonathan Swift in 1726, and if the answer is yes, did they find it illuminating. I for one believe that Swift\u2019s seminal work should be made mandatory reading for anyone who is contemplating taking up a career in politics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ping Pong You’re Not Wrong<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Ping pong, aka table tennis, is a game like many other games, such as cricket, rugby, tennis and football, I can honestly say I have never much cared for. I don\u2019t care much for the tit for tat and the way in which the ball, be it big or small, gets passed back and forth with monotonous regularity between two opposing but rules-based players or carefully hand-picked teams, with no apparent benefit to anyone else outside of the game, give or take a cheer or two, which quickly fade in euphoria’s twilight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Ping<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above: Ping and Pong. It’s batty.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least in the UK when the sad illusion Democracy has been stripped down naked like the tired old whore she is, which many, out of trained submission or a sense of misplaced respect, shy away from doing, the rules of the game, whose they are and who it is that benefits from them are as transparent as a Nylon negligee (What happened to that in my absence?). Thanks to long experience of the electoral system\u2019s hocus pocus, the who will it be first past the post, we know that whether we make our mark or not, we are guaranteed for the next five years to be saddled with one or the other bunch of ineffectual dunderheads and that, give or take a nuance or two, whichever party claims\u00a0Number 10 as its prize will be singing, rather badly as usual, from the communal globalist hymn sheet:\u00a0Money, Money, Money. Please to sing along now. You are all familiar with the refrain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During my last assignment in the UK, I was treated to the spectacle of this perfectly meaningless political role play, the changing of the old guard ~ ping pong, ping pong \u2026 pong, pong, pong. Out with the old and in with the old: the Tories on their way out, Labour on their way in, but significantly rather more out than in and with many of them clearly quite out of it. Bring on the men in white coats. (Sorry I did not mention women; I\u2019m taking a course in misogyny.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This rotational, completely predictable, seesaw-moment momentum has less to do with change than it does with continuity, as most of the Tories\u2019 acclaimed centre right are so way left of centre that they ought to be in the Labour Party, as many of them effectively are, whilst the Labour party itself \u00a0knows no longer what it is, what it wants to be and least of all where it is going. Shame it is taking the nation with it. Half of Labour is hard left, half of it is half hearted and the other half is clearly insane (and clearly possess a triple \u2018A\u2019 in Maths). Neither Labour or the Cons ever recovered from Tony Blair. Both exhibit incurable symptoms, and the plague they exhale collusively is addling minds and destroying the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nowhere is this emergency better illustrated than when the media cries exultantly that one or other of the old two parties has \u2018won it by a landslide\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The only landslide the public sense is that things are slipping away from them, that things are going from bad to worse. And yet as catastrophic as British life now is, many in the UK are yet to grasp the intelligence that by hook or by crook the old two parties need to be put out to grass. Change is as good as a rest, as they say, and a rest from them is badly needed and, more to the point, excessively overdue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"The<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above: I think it’s self-explanatory …<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To be fair, if that is the same as being honest, Liebour did in its accession usher in some changes, albeit typically hurriedly, typically without much thought and typically in the process breaking most if not at all of its pre-election promises. But as the changes so far instituted are typically Labour in character, they have in the absolute sense changed very little at all. For example, if a Labour government did not raise taxes what a momentous change that would be. But then if Labour did not raise taxes would anybody know they were there?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whoever it was who thought to dub Labour the party of taxation was a percipient man indeed, so much more than just perspicacious that the chances of him being a woman are nil (Excuse me for being sexist, you see I\u2019m taking this course in misogyny.). But don\u2019t you dare complain, not about being a man when you would rather you were a woman (it\u2019s something you cannot change) and don’t complain about Labour’s tax hikes. You were warned that Liebour would tax you, and tax you into the ground, so why did you vote them in!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is a fact of life that some things change and some things plainly don\u2019t (Come on now transvestites, don\u2019t get those knickers into a twist!); some things change a lot and others don\u2019t change that much; some things get done for a change, and just for a change some things don\u2019t; and there\u2019s not a lot of change to be had out of six quid for a pint. But there are some things that will never change, though given time they probably will, but by the time they do will it be too late?\u00a0 Let\u2019s talk immigration. Somebody ought to, has to, as it should be abundantly clear by now that that somebody is not Starmer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration is possibly the one issue that leading up to the General Election the Liebour party did not lie about; perhaps they simply forgot. Those of us who did not vote Labour were right, not far-right mind you, but right that we did not do so, if only for this reason, since with depressing predictability Labour has not done, and has no intention of ever doing, as much as diddly squit to resolve the immigration crisis, a dastardly weaponisation programme which represents the one real threat to the stability of the British nation and the safety of its indigenous people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Spare<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Where Labour has excelled itself is channelling more resources into the conflict in Ukraine at a time when we need to squander it least on globalist-led agendas. Do you ever ask yourself what it is that they do with your money which they take in the name of \u2018council tax\u2019? Could it be used to foot the bill for conflicts in which we have no legitimate role, even if we started them, and for paving the way for dinghy migrants to live it up in luxury?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Immigration has changed and also it has not. It has not changed in that we still have it, has not changed in that we don’t want it, but has changed inasmuch that want it or want it not, there is a lot more of it than there used to be. Central to this change is that the major EU powers no longer deem it necessary to conceal their complicit role in organising and facilitating the migrant invasion of Britain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The infectiousness of this invasion is far more virulent and far more lethal than any contrived plandemic could be. Perhaps we should call on dear old Bill. Come on Bill, old boy, whip us up a jab or six to provide the British people with the immunity they so desperately need to protect themselves from Coronomigrant. Violent crime is rampant, acts of terrorism sweep the nation, the police are no longer a force but a branch of the social services and the government is so dismally limp it is crying out for a shot of moral Viagra.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White fight not far right<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

One thing that was markedly different during recent months in England, which was not necessarily good but understandably necessary as an alternative stay of civil war, was that when the riots came, as come they did and come they will, it was the whiteys on the war path. Now that did make a change!!!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was no change at Notting Hill Carnival. Yet again it proved to be London\u2019s annual ethnic stab fest. Any other event with a history resembling the mind of an on-the-rampage serial killer would have been banned years ago, as would the Notting Hill Carnival if it was anything other than black.\u00a0It is patently inconceivable that a white British festival with a similar record of bloodlust would be allowed to continue year on year. Murder or no murder, it would have been denounced from the outset as unfit for ethnic consumption and that without equivocation would have rapidly been the end of that. This year\u2019s Boot Hill incident cost two more people their lives, adding to the festival’s ever increasing death toll. Meanwhile, the Labour government is contemplating doubling down on the British tradition of fox hunting. It seems that rural blood sports must be banned whilst urban ones are tolerated, encouraged one might say. Brrr! it felt as if something just walked over the United Kingdom’s grave. Could that something be two-tier policing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over to our new prime minister. He may resemble a disciplinarian, a 1950s’ schoolmaster parachuted strategically in from a time when Britain was really Britain, but as far as ethnics are concerned looks can be deceiving. Did he give the carnival organisers the six of the best he gave the white rioters? Did he give them lines to write, \u201cThou shalt not stab at the Notting Hill Carnival\u201d? Did he heck as like. He caned himself instead, by forgetting the lines of condemnation the public were waiting to hear from him, either that or the savage events and the fear of being called racist deprived him of his left-wing backbone and left him morally speechless. He eventually did cough something up, but before you could say one rule for them and a different rule for us, and before some impudent scallywag could raise the uncomfortable spectre of policing on a two-tier level, he was banging the same old distraction drum about the number one priority being the need to protect society from the heinous actions of right-wing thugs. As for random knife attacks by men whose names we can\u2019t pronounce and acts of organised terrorism by medieval hostiles (I\u2019ve just had a call from my stockbroker ~ invest in inflatable dinghies), the message from Britain’s political elite is as masters of the hen house they have every right to fill it with as many foreign foxes as the ECHR permits, so just sit back and enjoy your fate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Immigration:<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I began this post from the perspective of change and seem to have moved mesmerically into the realm where d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu governs the laws of momentum, and yet not everything in the world is as predictable as we would like to think. Those who live in a certain street in Kaliningrad thought they would never see the day when they would get themselves a brand-new pavement, but that day eventually dawned, despite one woman tutting, \u201cIt\u2019s taken thirty years!\u201d and now that vital change for which we had all been waiting seems as though it was always thus, that the pavement has always been there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same could be said of a certain sub-post office in a certain UK shire town. The post office seems to have been there for as long as memory itself, and mine is quite a long one, but it\u2019s \u2018all change\u2019 when you scratch the surface. I am sure that this has got nothing to do with the fact it is run by Asians ~ which British post office isn\u2019t! ~ but everything to do with the erratic hours it keeps. It is the first post office I have ever encountered that opens when it likes, making it an excellent venue whenever you catch it right, because since nobody trusts its opening hours very few people use it, hence the absence of queues. Not having to stand in line makes such a welcome change from a trip to your average post office, where you need to go armed with a sleeping bag and enough provisions to last you a fortnight, and yet it is such an odd phenomenon that it has you asking the question, could this peculiar post office that is more often shut than not, in fact be a front for something else? Like all these foreign food stores that pop up overnight and the multitude of barber\u2019s shops purporting to be Turkish when the owners and all who work in them look and talk Albanian. Perhaps the owners of these businesses are engaged in some other activity, such as laundering, for example. There\u2019s no hard left sign visible outside the coven of Hope Not Hate, but just because you cannot see the twin tubs does not mean that they are not there and the country is not being rinsed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst every street in every town and every city in England have fallen forfeit to immigration (you may have heard the phrase \u2018Our cities have changed beyond recognition\u2019), the streets of Russian Kaliningrad have decidedly changed for the better, that is to say materially and, with the restitution of law and order and regaining of self-respect, which had been partly laid to waste as a repercussion of perestroika, in matters of social decorum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whenever I walk the perimeters of K\u00f6nigsberg’s ancient ponds, this variance in urban life does not leap up and out at me like something dark on a no-go street in Peckham but is inviting enough to assail my senses with what we have lost in Britain. The contrast in the cultural climates is visible, audible, palpable, and it starts with the way in which people dress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From New York to the South Pole, almost everybody these days is hardwired to dressing casual. I suspect that I am one of the few remaining sartorial standard bearers who espouses cravat, frock coat and top hat ~ not forgetting silver-topped cane ~ rather than wear a pair of trainers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above: \u201cI don\u2019t as a rule wear any, but I always make sure not to go out with, or in, a strong wind\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kaliningradians and Kaliningrad visitors from other parts of Russia tend to follow a smart-casual trend. Whereas, as in every other sphere of cultural life, dress code in the UK has taken a turn for the worse and worst, going from ultra-smart to smart-casual, to trendy casual, to half casual, to dumb-down casual to bags of shit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who is not acquainted with that funny old Asian man? Let me point him out to you: that\u2019s him there, there, there, over there and over here \u2026 See how he wears all sorts of oddments, everything thrown together: the workshop apron, pantaloon trousers, corny ill-fitting jacket bought from yonder charity shop and, of course, a pair of iridescent trainers ~ what lovely colour combinations, orange, yellow and purple. And he is indisputably the best dressed man in Bedford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now turn around and cast your gaze on those beautiful English ladies amorphously squashed in over-tight leggings, all bums and large tums, with cattle rings through their noses, shrapnel embedded in brows and lips and covered in head to foot with tats. Isn\u2019t their language colourful: f*ck, f*ck, f*ck. And what is\u00a0 that pervasive smell, no not that smell, this smell! Pooh! It is the town centre gently marinating in the stench of stale and smoking Ganja. Look up, it\u2019s\u00a0 a live one, and he\u2019s heading in our direction! Time to take evasive action! Cross to the opposite side of the street and quick!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"UK's<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fundamental difference between Britain\u2019s streets and the streets of Kaliningrad is not confined to sartorial consciousness: manners maketh man (they seem not to maketh UK women). Public behaviour on Kaliningrad\u2019s streets, give or take the inevitable exception, is generally better than it is England. And, with the Russian accent on family values, traditional family groups of traditional Russian heritage freely and with confidence enjoy the streets of their city. Contrast homely scenes like this with the kind of groups you can expect to find, and more’s the pity do, hanging around in England\u2019s cities and degrading its small-town centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lefties would have us believe that the gangs of blacks and Asians, and the johnny-come-lately tribes flooding in on the promise tide of benefits, rights and endless freebies from far-flung parts of the world\u2019s subcontinent are an enriching sight for monocultural eyes. But such postulations are unconvincing even through their glasses. Excelling the attitude and behavioural\u00a0problems evinced by their white ne’er-do-well counterparts, a pervasive air of \u2018up to no good\u2019 hangs above the Ganja cloud and fills the vacuum on Britain\u2019s streets left by the absence of coppers with an \u2018at any moment it could all kick off\u2019 incertitude. Menace and apprehension rule. Britain\u2019s streets are not just uncouth, they are gravely infected with passive aggression.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, things have certainly changed from the Britain I once knew and loved. I wonder what the Victorians and Edwardians would make of it. I wonder what those who fought for their country and died in two world wars would make of it. What would Sir Winston Churchill say? We know what Enoch Powell would say, since he said it back in the 1960s. Lord, if only someone had listened to him!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spare some change, please!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I read somewhere (please tell me that this is not true) that housebreakers in the UK do not qualify for prison sentences until they have been convicted of 26 successive accounts of burglary. It is an indisputable fact that you have got more chance of winning the lottery or stopping the boats at Dover than getting arrested for shoplifting. It\u2019s take your pick skanky ladies and nothing resembling gentlemen, you\u2019ve really nothing to lose. In the unlikely event you get caught in the act, just give the merchandise back and have it away from the shop next door. Nice one, mate: Ha! Ha! Ha! Easy-touch-Britain, innit!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have no idea if shoplifting is as prevalent in Kaliningrad as it is in every British town and city. I somehow feel it is not. But I do know, as I have witnessed it personally, that Kaliningrad has a boy-racer problem and that those that race are not all boys. Thankfully, however, one of the more applaudable changes has been the city-wide installation of efficacious pedestrian crossings. Gone are the days when we used to huddle in groups of five or more on the opposite sides of the four-lane roads and then, on the count of 10, make a nervous dash for it. Oh, how the drama of youth gives way to prudence in later life!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If someone was to ask me, and I don’t suppose they will, what is the one thing you would like to see changed in Kaliningrad, the answer without a second thought would be the introduction of a law to stamp out dugs that bark incessantly or, better still, to penalise their owners. These must-be mutton-jeff mut-lovers can never have heard of noise pollution, possibly because like the rest of us, they can hear precious little above the row that their barking dugs are making. It\u2019s a dugs life, as someone said, someone who couldn\u2019t spell dogs correctly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the subject of this post is change, I expect that you expect that at some point in the narrative, at this point, for example, the temptation to make some corny remark about change in relation to underpants would finally prove too much for me, but I hate to disappoint you that I am about to disappoint you, because someone might pull them up on me, I mean pull me up on it, and I do not intend to stoop so low, so let\u2019s instead be briefs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ringing the changes is happening in a negative way on the Polish border. Always slow and unhelpful, the Polish border authorities are excelling their own track record for putting obstacles in one\u2019s way where none should be encountered, thus holding up one\u2019s journey as though suspending it in empty space by a very strong pair of invisible braces (we\u2019re suspiciously close to pants again!). The object of the exercise appears to be none other than to subject the weary traveller to the torment of terminal boredom or failing in that ambition to simply delay one long enough to make one miss one\u2019s flight. If you have been an unhappy recipient of this apparent change in policy and believe you are being short-changed by conditions of an adverse nature at the Russian-Polish border, here is where you can lodge your complaint: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the intolerable conditions on the Russian-Polish border (Kaliningrad)!<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was going to finish this post on change by saying something profound, like \u2018things change and that\u2019s a fact, and very often not for the better\u2019. And then it suddenly occurred to me that women in leopard print tights rarely change their spots. So, then I revised my ending to read, ‘if it don\u2019t change it will stay the same’, but whilst I know it will not change anything, I went and changed my mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Copyright \u00a9 2018-2024 Mick Hart. All rights reserved.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Something for the weekend, sir?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

UK Anti-immigration Riots Herald New Dystopian Era<\/a>
Lies & Democracy are they now the same thing?<\/a>
Don’t Kill Cash<\/a>
Britain a Nice Place to Live on the Telly<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Image attributions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n


Beggar: <a href=”https:\/\/www.freepik.com\/free-vector\/homeless-man-sitting-ground-flat-vector-illustration-desperate-hungry-poor-male-person-sitting-street-near-trash-bin-asking-help-getting-into-financial-trouble-poverty-concept_24644540.htm#query=street%20beggar&position=0&from_view=keyword&track=ais_hybrid&uuid=af6b8f40-80ae-4929-ae9a-94b805e40e71″>Image by pch.vector<\/a> on Freepik<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Suit: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Wedding-suit-on-a-stand-vector-clip-art\/20642.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Outline map UK: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/UK-silhouette\/55420.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing table tennis: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Kids-play-table-tennis\/87262.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scotsman: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Orator-in-black-and-white\/77202.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two horses grazing: https:\/\/garystockbridge617.getarchive.net\/media\/two-horses-grazing-3dbc66?action=download&size=1024<\/a> [Arthur B. Davies (American, Utica, New York 1862\u20131928 Florence)]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elephant: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Elephant-contour-vector-clip-art\/7929.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Empty room: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Empty-room\/70655.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fox in the hen house: https:\/\/publicdomainvectors.org\/en\/free-clipart\/Fox-in-hen-house\/81729.html<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zombie silhouette: <a href=”https:\/\/www.freepik.com\/free-vector\/zombie-silhouettes_805714.htm#fromView=keyword&page=1&position=8&uuid=31cda339-13bb-4ae8-b7a7-d96bb5b9b834″>Image by freepik<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Change, Spare Change, All Change, Why Change? 22 September 2024 ~ Spare Some Change Makes Beggars out of All of Us Have you ever noticed that when you go away for a few weeks, on your return not everything has changed, but some things have and subtly. For example, after my recent sojourn in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11207,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2303],"tags":[2401,435,1311,15,55,2399,2402,2400,510,2403,2404],"class_list":["post-11158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mick-harts-diary-2024","tag-all-change","tag-englishman-in-kaliningrad-russia","tag-immigration-disaster-uk","tag-kaliningrad","tag-mick-hart-in-kaliningrad","tag-spare-some-change","tag-streets-of-the-uk","tag-thing-change","tag-traditional-family-values","tag-uk-towns-and-cities","tag-youtube"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Could-you-spare-min.png?fit=812%2C693&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8129,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/kaliningrad-retro-car-club-in-a-festive-mood\/","url_meta":{"origin":11158,"position":0},"title":"Kaliningrad Retro Car Club in a Festive Mood","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"25 \u0434\u0435\u043a\u0430\u0431\u0440\u044f, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"In the club on Christmas Eve Published: 25 December 2022 ~ Kaliningrad Retro Car Club in a Festive Mood A big thank you to Inara and Arthur for inviting me to the Kaliningrad Retro Car Club end-of-year party last night and to the members of the club for making me\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Diary 2022"","block_context":{"text":"Diary 2022","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/kaliningrad-mick-harts-diary\/diary-2022\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kaliningrad Retro Car Club group photo Christmas Eve 2022","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Group-Photo-Kaliningrad-Retro-Car-Club-Party-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Group-Photo-Kaliningrad-Retro-Car-Club-Party-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Group-Photo-Kaliningrad-Retro-Car-Club-Party-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Group-Photo-Kaliningrad-Retro-Car-Club-Party-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Group-Photo-Kaliningrad-Retro-Car-Club-Party-1.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14049,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/2025-that-was-the-year-that-was-uk-and-kaliningrad\/","url_meta":{"origin":11158,"position":1},"title":"2025 that was the year that was: UK and Kaliningrad","author":"Mick","date":"30 \u044f\u043d\u0432\u0430\u0440\u044f, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Mick Hart's 2025: a nostalgic review in photographs 30 January 2026 - 2025 that was the year that was: UK and Kaliningrad As the photographs immediately below illustrate, Kaliningrad has been and is experiencing a real winter this year. Snow fell on cue, a week or so before the New\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad: Mick Hart's Diary"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad: Mick Hart's Diary","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/kaliningrad-mick-harts-diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"2025 that was the year that was","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2025-that-was-the-year-that-was-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2025-that-was-the-year-that-was-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2025-that-was-the-year-that-was-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2025-that-was-the-year-that-was-1.png?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":14017,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/yeltsin-forma-bars-kaliningrad\/","url_meta":{"origin":11158,"position":2},"title":"Yeltsin Forma Bars Kaliningrad: Many Happy Returns","author":"Mick","date":"20 \u044f\u043d\u0432\u0430\u0440\u044f, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"History is always worth repeating if the bar is good 20 January 2026 - Yeltsin Forma Bars Kaliningrad: Many Happy Returns No, of course it has nothing to do with birthdays, anniversaries or anything like that, neither mine, the Yeltsin\u2019s nor Forma\u2019s; it\u2019s just what anyone who appreciates good beer\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad bars, restaurants, cafes"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad bars, restaurants, cafes","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/visitors-guide-to-kaliningrad\/kaliningrad-bars-restaurants-cafes\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mick Hart sampling sweet pizza in the Forma bar, Kaliningrad","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rz-Mick-Hart-Forma-Bar-Pizza-Kaliningrad.jpg?fit=900%2C1196&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rz-Mick-Hart-Forma-Bar-Pizza-Kaliningrad.jpg?fit=900%2C1196&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rz-Mick-Hart-Forma-Bar-Pizza-Kaliningrad.jpg?fit=900%2C1196&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rz-Mick-Hart-Forma-Bar-Pizza-Kaliningrad.jpg?fit=900%2C1196&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10061,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/kaliningrad-victory-square-flowers-of-condolence\/","url_meta":{"origin":11158,"position":3},"title":"Kaliningrad Victory Square Flowers of Condolence","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"24 \u043c\u0430\u0440\u0442\u0430, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"24 March 2024 National Day of Mourning 24 March 2024 ~ Kaliningrad Victory Square Flowers of Condolence Yesterday, Russian President Vladimir Putin declared 24 March to be a national day of mourning. As the death toll from Russia\u2019s worst terrorist attack for almost two decades reaches 137,\u00a0moving scenes in Kaliningrad\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad: Mick Hart's Diary"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad: Mick Hart's Diary","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/kaliningrad-mick-harts-diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Kaliningrad Victory Square Flowers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Kaliningrad-Victory-Square-Flowers-Day-of-Mourning.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Kaliningrad-Victory-Square-Flowers-Day-of-Mourning.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Kaliningrad-Victory-Square-Flowers-Day-of-Mourning.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Kaliningrad-Victory-Square-Flowers-Day-of-Mourning.jpg?fit=900%2C1200&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":6377,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/freddie-mercury-kaliningrad-house-is-one-in-a-million\/","url_meta":{"origin":11158,"position":4},"title":"Freddie Mercury Kaliningrad House is one in a million","author":"Captain Codpiece","date":"6 \u043c\u0430\u044f, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Freddie Mercury off the chart in Russia's Kaliningrad Published: 6 May 2022 ~ Freddie Mercury Kaliningrad House is one in a million Were you, or are you, a fan of Freddie Mercury? I cannot say that moustachioed Freddie or his band Queen did very much for me, although they did\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad Region Photo Gallery"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad Region Photo Gallery","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/visitors-guide-to-kaliningrad-region\/kaliningrad-region-photo-gallery\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Freddie Mercury Kaliningrad House","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Mick-Hart-Freddie-Mercury-Kaliningrad.png?fit=864%2C399&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Mick-Hart-Freddie-Mercury-Kaliningrad.png?fit=864%2C399&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Mick-Hart-Freddie-Mercury-Kaliningrad.png?fit=864%2C399&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/Mick-Hart-Freddie-Mercury-Kaliningrad.png?fit=864%2C399&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":11274,"url":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/summer-in-kaliningrad-and-uk-as-it-happened-in-2024\/","url_meta":{"origin":11158,"position":5},"title":"Summer in Kaliningrad and UK as it happened in 2024","author":"Mick","date":"30 \u0441\u0435\u043d\u0442\u044f\u0431\u0440\u044f, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Summer, almost but a memory 30 September 2024 ~ Summer in Kaliningrad and UK as it happened in 2024 Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak andweary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten loreEdgar Allan Poe (1845) As summer draws to a close, I made\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0412 "Kaliningrad Region Photo Gallery"","block_context":{"text":"Kaliningrad Region Photo Gallery","link":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/category\/visitors-guide-to-kaliningrad-region\/kaliningrad-region-photo-gallery\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Sunset Baltic Coast Zelenogradsk","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sunset-Zelongradsk-2024-rz-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sunset-Zelongradsk-2024-rz-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sunset-Zelongradsk-2024-rz-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sunset-Zelongradsk-2024-rz-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/expatkaliningrad.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Sunset-Zelongradsk-2024-rz-min.jpg?fit=1200%2C903&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11158"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11158\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11207"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/expatkaliningrad.com\/ru\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}