To read “Polish Gal in London,” you can pick and choose a chapter, as the stories aren’t chronological.
Also, do remember that I’m made by Made by Dyslexia, so expect small typos and big thinking 🥰
Clever Girl is not the mother of the year. She likes working, loves going out and spending money on herself not only on her children…
I’m going to be very honest in here; I had a technically challenging nightmare of a week. It was as if the whole universe conspired against my technical abilities…
Like any parent, I have had a gazillion of sleepless nights. Every time after a night like that, I feel shit and walk and think backwards…
What if your child wants to play an instrument, and you know nothing about music and instruments? This is out of my comfort zone, the position I found myself last week…
Clever Girl still remembers the 90s when the property in London was quite affordable. It was just before the Russians, the Asians, and…
Clever Girl has been around the block for enough time to know that a lot of people are all about prestige and money…
Clever Girl just loves meeting new people, both in her professional and personal life. One way of meeting them in her professional life is hiring freelancers for developing new projects…
Clever Girl sends her children to the best school she could find. Of course, the school is not ideal, but Clever Girl knows by now that not that many things in life are the way she would like…
Some of you already know that I don’t have a TV set at home. If I watch telly, it’s either at my parents’ house or a friend’s house. The truth is that I haven’t had a TV screen in my own house ever…
I can’t stand weddings and hate anything to do with them. In fact, in my very personal opinion, weddings have nothing to do with celebrating someone’s love…
I have been on a diet since I was 14. At that age, I was yet another deluded teenager who decided to become a supermodel, so I figured I needed to be extremely skinny…
It’s summer. It’s hot outside. The general population usually goes on holiday to relax and spend quality time with their families and friends…
I have no idea what triggered my trip into the memory line of my 20s. But here I was, sitting in an empty apartment (the Little O. was staying with his dad over the weekend…
It’s a quiet, lazy Saturday evening, and after an exhausting day of pampering, working, eating & my Pilates, I’m sitting in front of my telly…
Every parent will tell you that weekdays are crazy. By crazy I mean very hectic, mechanical, boring in a way & repetitive. Kind of like ‘Groundhog Day’…
Parenting isn’t easy and most parents I know will tell you that. Anyone involved in teaching or parenting will also tell you that kids are not like they used to be…
The Little M. just finished class 2, and throughout the whole year, he was very restless, unfocused and all over the place very often…
As children, we all have hopes and dreams. Some of us follow our dreams, others don’t, and some find other dreams to chase…
My son is in class 3 in one of London’s independent schools. The education we chose for him is intended to be much slower than the mainstream schooling system…
While driving from one of my son’s classes (he is currently homeschooled) Little M. decided to share with me how he felt while he was still at school…
When I was born, I lived with my grandparents for some time before my parents, and I moved out to our flat where we stayed for another ten years. I finished grade five when…
As a modern, educated woman I have a lot of political views and opinions, and I feel that as a socially aware human I cannot discuss refugees issue any longer…
One afternoon after school, my son was playing football with his schoolmates. However, unlike all the other times one of the fathers decided that he was ready to take on the 7, 8 and 9 years old on…
I plan everything I do. Every single step of my day is carefully crafted to the smallest detail. I have no time for mistakes or mismanagement of my time…
Life at school was pretty miserable. Neither the school nor my parents had any idea what was happening to me…
Let me take this opportunity to congratulate you on your successful Brexit. Well done. You should be proud…
While going to the airport for holidays, our car caught a flat tire leaving us no option but to take a minicab to and from the airport…
Can you still remember simpler times before the smartphones invaded our everyday existence? Well, to be honest with you, I barely can…
I’m not going to lie to you. I love half-terms. As a kid growing up in the country on the wrong side of the Iron Curtain, I didn’t have half terms…
I bet that the “why” question is heard by every parent in every corner of the world at least a million times a day…
I bet we all played mind games in high school, just to get back at our mortal enemies, or to amuse our wondering minds, or possibly just to survive the jungle the high school is…
If our thinking or intuition (different people use different tools to make decisions) is somehow not functioning properly (many different reasons for that to happen, which I’m not going to cover in this blog), we may experience vulnerability…
On Sunday, after my son won his football game (he is a goalie and the wins for his team don’t necessarily come in abundance), we decided to celebrate with lunch in…
Anyone who decides to follow her heart’s desires needs to be persistent. In short, she must have a hard ass to land on. Pursuing one’s dreams is a long-term commitment, often without shortcuts or easy-to-follow guidelines…
Let’s be honest here; change is terrifying for most of us, and most people don’t like it when others around them change…
It’s very likely that I’ve already written about smartphones, tablets, and kids spending gazillions of their childhood minutes glued to those devices. I feel very strongly about that subject and always have…
Do you remember when, as children, we spent the whole day or an afternoon with the neighbours’ kids in their house: playing, eating, and doing whatever else children do? Nobody had to plan those spontaneous visits weeks in advance…
In Little M.’s case, shorter lessons are the key to successful learning. He cannot focus for longer than 20 and 25 minutes without having a little break…
After a boiling hot weekend (we don’t get many of those in the UK, so I’m not complaining) and a Monday spent in the British Museum, on trains, DLR and in Charlton House, none of the above with any air conditioning, I overheated my body…
I moved to London in 1998. The first days and weeks were hard. I was homesick big time; I was missing the feeling and the security which a familiar environment offers…
When the Cambridge Analytica scandal became public, I decided to delete FB and messenger app from my phone and entirely delete my Instagram account…
By now anyone and everyone (that includes many hardcore Brexiters too) know that Brexit is one big shamble that is only going to benefit very few and ruin lives, businesses, dreams, and hopes of many more…
I am a dyslexic learner, and ever since I can remember, I have struggled with spelling, learning (I had to read non-fictional books at least three times to be able to understand what means what), abstract concepts and ideas such as physics, chemistry (still makes me sick) and very low self-esteem…
As a person in her 30’s (yes, still in my 30’s), I was brought up on Winnie the Pooh. I loved the stories, and when the Polish State Communist TV finally started airing The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh, I couldn’t wait for Sunday evening to come fast enough…
When I came to London 20 years ago, the city was breathtaking and very hard, if not impossible, to leave behind, not only for me but for many other people I came across…
Being successful means different things to different people. Not the same rules of success and accomplishments apply to everyone. In various industries, people perceive and measure success in a variety of ways…
Recently, I met a young photographer who asked me what advice I would give her now that could help her career. So, I have decided to tell her, very honestly, what I would have done differently…
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about storytelling and the different ways we tell and communicate our stories with the world. We live in super exciting times and can tell stories in many different ways using a variety of tools…
Nearly a year ago, Little M. went to a dyslexia assessment centre in London to do the dyslexia test. The results were overwhelmingly negative and a huge blow for him, even though he never said anything about the sadness he felt…
A lot of the scientists, teachers and influential voices in the education sector tell us that children learn from observing and imitating the grown-ups in their lives…
After a year of homeschooling, I can honestly say that I enjoy the process enormously. I was scared at first and unsure whether I could provide my son with the level of education he deserved but…
In 2016, the UK decided to leave the European Union. The moment the Leave vote won, the drama surrounding the deal, no deal, ministers, elections, and the basic understanding of what leaving the EU would mean for the UK took over every inch of political and social life…
I was planning to write about how Star Wars films have been inspiring a new generation of filmmakers to tell visual stories. However, I must honestly admit I’ve never been a massive fan of the franchise…
One of the best things you can pass onto your child is confidence. Without real and solid confidence gained in childhood, adult life can turn out to be pretty tricky and filled with lots of disappointment…
I could never forget. This is not an option. At least, this is what I kept saying to myself all the way to school. I’m a very well-organised young lady in her mid-30-ties with a child and a hubby, or rather ex-hubby, to be precise…
Since my move to London in 1998, I have been on a mission to pursue my dreams. Some of my dreams have changed, some haven’t, and some, luckily, have evolved over the years…
Most moms on school runs know how important local coffee shops are. Often, a coffee shop equals a lifesaver. Not only because…
Urban people are always on the look-out for new, one of a kind, mind-blowing experience. Clever Girl is not much different in this aspect from others…
As a good mom, the Clever Girl tries to go with her son to as many of his football practice sessions as she can. You must know here that Clever Girl is not a huge football fan…
Clever Girl has never been to tourist attractions, regardless of where it might have been. She prefers to sit in a coffee shop observing people while sipping her Latte…
I realise that this romantic notion of a suffering and starving filmmaker is still firmly imprinted on a lot my fellow filmmakers’ minds. But unfortunately, in our global, on steroids, changing marketplace, this idea only can harm filmmakers, not bring anything positive to their long-term careers…
I’m Made By Dyslexia, so expect small typos and big thinking.
©magdaolchawska2025
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, including by any mechanical, photographic or electronic process or in the form of phonographic recordings or other electronic methods; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or otherwise be copied for public or private use, other than for ‘fair use’ as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews, without prior written permission of the publisher.