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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.

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Dedicated follower of fashion 

  The very first record I ever bought.  It cost 6 and eightpence, and you could get three singles for a pound.  I didn’t have a pound so I bought this one – or at least I persuaded my mother to buy it for me.  I used to play it over and over again on […]Read Post ›

My first job.

Gallery 5.  Ogle Street. 1969.  September 6th to the 10th.  What a working week. I had been bored most of the summer holiday that year (tho’ it might have been the year my father took me to Yugoslavia, in which case I hadn’t been bored at all) but there was still a week of the […]Read Post ›

Snake

I  thought I had already written about this picture, but today I found it in my drafts, so obviously I haven’t.  Apologies to everyone who has heard this story, but here it is for posterity. Ten years ago my husband fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams and took me to Africa. I know one shouldn’t […]Read Post ›

Ducks

I love my ducks.  We bought them many years ago in a florist’s just down the road from the hotel Bacchus, lovingly run by Herr Schnurr and his wife in the little town of Wachenheim in the German Palatinate.  We had actually set out to buy some white wine from the vintner down the road, […]Read Post ›

Voice

I was in a charity shop today, and totally unaware of having said anything to anyone apart from, “Where shall I put this?” when a woman came up to me quite shyly and said, “You have the most beautiful speaking voice, how can I learn to speak like you? Your accent is so good, it’s […]Read Post ›

Leicester Square or The Horrors of the Dentist

Most people go to Leicester Square feeling a little bit excited. Maybe it’s a red carpet event, or an evening out at the cinema or theatre, or a dinner in a fashionable restaurant or just a hurried walk through to Piccadilly Circus or Covent Garden. But for me it’s a place of horrible memories. The […]Read Post ›

Plates. 

This plate has a long history.  In the days of ubiquitous cigarette smoking, and most of my family gave factory chimneys a run for their money, the tobacco firms hit upon a scheme to further their interests and give smokers a chance to buy even more cigarettes. They gave out coupons redeemable for household goods. […]Read Post ›

Customs control or fake antiques!

When I finished university in 1976 I didn’t really know what to do with myself. I had a degree, I’d spent the long hot summer of 1976 freezing to death and getting wetter and wetter in Newcastle where I was helping on a summer school for Spanish children (I’m sure none of them would ever […]Read Post ›

Commonwealth Institute

I first went to the Commonwealth Institute in High Street Kensington when I was about twelve or thirteen. 1965 or 6. I wasn’t allowed to go to many places by myself at that time but this was just a short tube ride away from home (South Ken) and I was with a friend. Even my […]Read Post ›

Sharon Jennings

For A and B   Sharon was an inspiration. I know this is a cliché but this time it’s really true. She could make me and, I believe, anyone else, do things I never thought I could. I made my acting debut – and my swan song, it has to be said – at the age […]Read Post ›

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