My Music Abc: J, K

 J

When I listen to some songs by Judas Priest, I can almost feel the wind in my hair. The same wind which blows in your face when you ride a motorbike. And I do not mean the speed exercised by the ones who I call 'donors'. Just a casual ride.

In my early twenties, I was very much into motorcycles. I was interested in such details as bike engine capacity, its strength, and so on. Although I did not have my own motorcycle, I decided to learn to ride a bike (I had already had a car driving license). They had a rather big training motorcycle at the local driving school and my stepfather, who worked at that school, was also my bike riding instructor.

I very much enjoyed the motorbike riding lessons. I did circles, eights, and slaloms on the sandy training ground. Sometimes, two Chinese men who were waiting for their motorcycle class, cheered me loudly, shouting in broken Polish: "go, friend, go!". It was such fun! Once it happened, an older man who was passing by the training place, started reviling when he saw me ride: 'To the kitchen and to the pots, not here!'. It made me laugh and ride the motorbike even more vigorously.

At that time in Poland, motorbiking was an unusual thing regarding a woman's/girl's interests. One of our neighbors - a young woman a few years older than myself - was a member of a local motorcycle club. She was the one and only woman member at that club - among a few hundred men.

My mom was not happy about my hobby and biking classes. She found riding a motorcycle on a street in the traffic unsafe. Needless to say, she was pleased when I told her I would not take the riding license test as I had planned. Why did I change my mind? I got discouraged because the bike I rode at the school was too heavy for me - I was not able to keep it straight when I was taking a turn at a slower speed. I thought I would not be able to pass the riding test because of it. And I quit the classes. But I was happy I learned how to ride a motorcycle.

Anyway, since nobody in my family owned a motorcycle then, soon I forgot the bikes, and what I knew about them, and their engines. But I do remember the songs by Judas Priest and I like listening to them from time to time when I am in a more energetic mood.

K

Kraftwerk - why them? Because I enjoyed listening to early electronic music as well. Kraftwerk worked and lived across the border so they were quite popular in Poland. And their songs both in English and German too.



Krokus - I would say there is nothing revealing in the music by that Swiss band. In their compositions, you can hear the influence of other, more popular groups such as AC/DC for example.  But I used to listen to their songs anyway. Just some solid rock music.

Judas Priest

1. Turbo Lover
2. Painkiller
3. Breaking the Law
4. Parental Guidance
5. Before the Dawn
6. Freewheel Burning

Kraftwerk

Trans-Europe Express - album (1977)
The Man-Machine - album (1978)
Computer World - album - (1981)


Credits:

Photos by Shrader G.

My Texas Alphabet: J for Jalapeño

The idea for this alphabet post series comes from 'The Alphabet of My Emigration' by Dee Dorota L., a member of The Polish Ladies Abroad Club, who has relocated to England.
I have also decided to join the project and write about My Texas Alphabet twice a week.

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I did not know anything about jalapeños when I came to Texas. 

One day, a few weeks after my arrival, I thought I would cook a Texas casserole as I had found a recipe for it in one of my cookbooks. We had all the necessary ingredients at home, including jalapeños. I did not know what they were, though. They looked like a kind of rather strange, green bell peppers to me. Anyway, I followed the recipe - cut half of a small jalapeño into tiny pieces and made the dish. Everything seemed fine and looked really good. When we started eating our dinner, the casserole turned out to be so very hot (meaning spicy of course) that I could hardly swallow it. It was my first experience with the taste of the jalapeño. I had never tried it before. We did eat our dinner on that day, but we needed much more tea than we usually do.

That was how I learned that jalapeños are green chili peppers. I have used them doing the cooking many times since that day. Needless to say, now I am more careful meaning the amount of the green hot thing which I use to improve the taste of our meals. On the other hand, I have also learned that jalapeños, although they look mostly the same, are not equally hot. Some are actually quite mild considering their heat. That first time when I used the jalapeño, I was lucky to have one on the high side of the heat range. All in all, I am not very keen on this chili pepper (even though it contains vitamin A and C). If I happen to have too many of jalapeño pieces on my tostadas, I just remove the green part on my plate.

An interesting fact is that the jalapeño is the state pepper of Texas (since 1995).

Other 'J' entries by Polish Ladies Abroad: 

Gabi: J for Jonas 

Karolina: J... J'adore!

Dee Dorota: J jak Jeszcze Żyję!

Justyna: J jak Jury Summons

Anna Maria: J jak Ja