Skip to content
  • About

Life Through Basia's Eyes

Basia Korzeniowska's avatarBasia Korzeniowska

British born of Polish parents; educator, teacher, translator, chair of Polish Citizens’ Committee Housing Association Ltd., fundraiser and organiser.

I was born in Earls Court, centre of Polish émigré life at the time, then lived in South Kensington and went to a tiny boarding school in Ealing. I read Spanish and English at Sheffield University, and as I always knew I wanted to be a teacher I did my PGCE there in 1978. For the next forty years I taught in a wide variety of schools, eventually specialising in Special Education. The cohesive theme of my career was creative education in the widest sense of the word.
My passions are people, education, literature, theatre and inclusivity. I hate sport but enjoy walking and taking photographs and writing.
Now on my gap year I am enjoying volunteering my help with the Polish Cultural Foundation, chairing the committee of Antokol Polish Care Home and I promote knowledge of immediate history to school children about the events of the Second World War which led to my parents being here as refugees.

Share this:

  • Share
  • Share on X (Opens in new window) X
  • Share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook
  • Share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window) LinkedIn
  • Share on Tumblr (Opens in new window) Tumblr
  • Email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email
Like Loading...

A very short and nostalgic walk around South Kensington

Yesterday we had to go to South Kensington because my husband needed to have his eyes tested. It was his first train trip (my second) since lockdown started, so a very exciting if somewhat nervous undertaking. As it happened, everything went very smoothly – very few people anywhere, and most of those wearing masks. Uncomfortable, […]Read Post ›

Gustaw Adolf Wisoky

  This is my grandfather as I never knew him.  He was born in 1878 and died during the Second World War, a captive in Siberia. His story is a very interesting one, but one which I shall leave for another day. Today I was thinking about him as I was wrapping parcels to send […]Read Post ›

The World of Work – Potato-picking

I was about eight I think when I did my first paid work, not counting selling my grandmother’s cigarettes to her friends when they came e for a gossip for a penny each.  That money went into my money box and there it stayed as I had absolutely nothing to spend it on.  But when […]Read Post ›

World of work – the next stage

Babysitting was obviously not going to be a career, so I needed to think again. After the exams I was finally free. Living at home with my mother and stepfather in South Kensington but still needing cash. So I went to work. I joined an agency and was sent out to the Folio Society. Somewhere […]Read Post ›

The world of work – beginnings.

I left school having taken my A levels just before I was eighteen. I spent my eighteenth birthday babysitting for a friend of my mother’s who desperately needed my help and left me to care for her one year old and five year old. I couldn’t have been less interested and it was only the […]Read Post ›

What an a*****le!

I don’t usually use bad language and never write it but sometimes for artistic integrity you have to indicate what was said.  A true story: A couple of weeks ago I decided to wait for a bus home as I had already walked about ten kilometres that day, and thought I could do with a […]Read Post ›

Kilimanjaro

For Annie – Lola Valerie Stein, and anyone who has done the real thing! https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/barbara-korzeniowska2 Dear Friends and Supporters, This is going to be a surprise to many of you, and possibly a big shock to my system, because I have decided to challenge myself to climb Mount Kilimanjaro – virtually of course – in […]Read Post ›

Ealing Safari

Today I am on safari.  In my kitchen.  I am wearing khaki and  trying to blend in with my environment. I stand very still and look out of my kitchen window which  looks out onto my garden. it is tiny – 22 feet by 12,  north facing and very dark – but what a riot of colour. Cyclamen, […]Read Post ›

Blacksmith in Syria, May 2010

About ten years ago – actually almost exactly ten years ago, my husband and I went to Damascus for the weekend. A strange thing to do, I suppose, as it is quite far away – normally we try to go to Paris for our anniversary weekend, but that year we wanted to do something different. […]Read Post ›

The Secret of the Hunting Lodge

This is a story which my son discovered about some of his paternal ancestors. I have translated it from a newspaper article which I attach below. And a link to a a map. At the beginning of the nineteenth century in the centre of the present park stood a hunting lodge belonging to the Doschot […]Read Post ›

Posts navigation

← Older posts
Newer posts →

Recent Posts

  • Mothering Sunday 2026
  • Climb every mountain.
  • The Rain it Raineth Every Day
  • The Kindness of Strangers.
  • Happy Christmas, Wesołych Świąt, Feliz Navidad.

Recent Comments

swabby429's avatarswabby429 on Mothering Sunday 2026
Patti Aliventi's avatarPatti Aliventi on Mothering Sunday 2026
Yeah, Another Blogger's avatarYeah, Another Blogge… on Mothering Sunday 2026
kasiakorzeniowska1981's avatarkasiakorzeniowska198… on Mothering Sunday 2026
swabby429's avatarswabby429 on Climb every mountain.

Archives

  • March 2026
  • February 2026
  • December 2025
  • November 2025
  • July 2025
  • June 2025
  • May 2025
  • April 2025
  • March 2025
  • February 2025
  • January 2025
  • December 2024
  • October 2024
  • September 2024
  • August 2024
  • July 2024
  • June 2024
  • May 2024
  • April 2024
  • March 2024
  • February 2024
  • January 2024
  • December 2023
  • November 2023
  • October 2023
  • September 2023
  • August 2023
  • July 2023
  • June 2023
  • May 2023
  • April 2023
  • March 2023
  • February 2023
  • January 2023
  • December 2022
  • November 2022
  • October 2022
  • September 2022
  • August 2022
  • July 2022
  • June 2022
  • May 2022
  • April 2022
  • March 2022
  • February 2022
  • January 2022
  • December 2021
  • November 2021
  • October 2021
  • September 2021
  • August 2021
  • July 2021
  • June 2021
  • May 2021
  • March 2021
  • February 2021
  • January 2021
  • December 2020
  • November 2020
  • October 2020
  • September 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • April 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • January 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • May 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • January 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • February 2017
  • January 2017
  • December 2016
  • August 2016
  • July 2016
  • June 2016
  • May 2016
  • April 2016
  • March 2016
  • February 2016
  • January 2016
  • December 2015
  • November 2015
  • August 2015
  • July 2015
  • May 2015
  • March 2015
  • August 2014
  • March 2014
  • January 2014
  • December 2013
  • November 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • April 2013

Categories

  • Africa
  • architecture
  • Art
  • Autobiography
  • autobiography
  • BABY
  • Book
  • childhood
  • children
  • Creativity
  • Croatia
  • education
  • Esher College
  • family
  • film
  • friends
  • Gap year
  • Gustaw Wisoky
  • History
  • Humour
  • Literature
  • London
  • Marlborough
  • memoir
  • Memories of war and after
  • music
  • nostalgia
  • obituary
  • Objects
  • People
  • Reblog
  • religion
  • review
  • sheffield
  • sport
  • St Augustine's
  • story
  • Syria
  • Theatre
  • Travel
  • Ukraine
  • Uncategorized
  • Verse
  • Walford
  • war
  • work

Meta

  • Create account
  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.com
Blog at WordPress.com.
  • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Life Through Basia's Eyes
    • Join 323 other subscribers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • Life Through Basia's Eyes
    • Subscribe Subscribed
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d