This morning I went to my flat to help my friends who evacuated there from Kyiv to pack their things and move further West, closer to the border, because my neighbourhood was the target of a rocket strike on Lviv yesterday.
My friend’s daughter had a massive panic attack when the shelling occurred.
While I was in a cab, the driver told me the story of his friend, a Ukrainian soldier, who only recently was able to leave Popasna after a military rotation and get medical help. He has grenade shrapnel in his leg. His unit was in battle since 26th of February without any relief up until now.
Later I visited a book shop to see if they have Lord of the Rings in Ukrainian there (they do) because my mum was asking why everyone is calling the russian army ‘orcs’. She wants to read the books for further context. The bookstore worker was talking on the phone with her friend, filling her in on recent events and telling her how her relatives were able to escaped from occupied Kherson.
Then I met up with my landlord to pay my rent. He has a relative in the army who is also fighting in Eastern Ukraine. They are worried for him daily.
This has been my morning so far. None of us are safe. Everyone, despite it all is working hard, donating money, clothing, volunteering to help the community. Because each day we persevere means the difference between freedom and subjugation, future for our young or death and misery.
Please, do not forget about Ukraine. Help us win! Donate, volunteer, talk to your representatives, take note what side your politicians take and whose interests they protect. This isn’t a local conflict. It’s a battle for human rights, food security, international peace and democracy.
remember when you were 10 and you would hang out with your friends in order to Look At The Computer together like you went to their house and experienced the information superhighway together. and then leave
Beautiful Folio Society slipcase editions of Howl’s Moving Castle, Castle In The Air, and House Of Many Ways. A lovely birthday present!
(I had Howl’s Moving Castle already, but the other two are new. All are beautiful, with illustrations that visualise the text almost exactly as I’d imagined.)
You know what makes me sad. The fact the Folio Society is no longer shipping into my country.
You know, if we DO make contact with aliens within the next hundred years-ish, enough people are going to give the Vulcan salute to the first alien they see in real life (whether out of quivering excitement, lol memeitude, or sheer awkward, panicked grasping for the one prominent alien greeting nested in the social conscious) that there’s a solid chance that it becomes a thing we’re known for as humans.
