This is a genuine Bunster question. Was an easy one to answer. The Uber was a couple of minutes away. We have been Ubering quite a bit in Wroclaw since we arrived.

Another genuine Bunster question. I wish I had an answer though …

Kyiv has had 9 missile attacks this month so far. Beyond intense and totally evil.

Timothy Snyder describes the situation brilliantly :

We have to work to preserve the concepts needed to characterize Russian behavior even as the Russian state strives to make them meaningless.  It is certainly terrorism to launch missiles and drones at a city.  What if, for no reason at all, the United States launched ballistic missiles at Toronto?  Certainly this would be terrorism, among many other things.

And what if American leaders and propagandists, in this hypothetical scenario, gave senseless reasons for such an action?  What if they claimed that Canadians and Americans were actually one people, and that Canadians who did not realize this had to be killed?  That the U.S.-Canadian border was illegitimate because of Joe Biden’s personal views about the past?  That English speakers in Canada needed to be united with their true American homeland? That Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau was a Nazi?

The day after these latest missile attacks, though, there was less to “celebrate,” since all of the Russian missiles and drones were shot down by Ukrainian air defense.  The noise woke up the city of Kyiv, but not one of the Russian missiles or drones reached its target.  Kyivans have to live with the knowledge that Moscow wants them dead, but they also know that they are being defended.  Of course it is good for Ukraine when its citizens are protected.  But they should not be attacked in the first place.

We have been in Wroclaw for just over a week. We stayed in a hotel for the first 3 nights that was in the heart of the old town. On Monday on the first of this month we moved into a rented apartment. It is about a 20 minute walk from where we are now to that hotel – we are pretty close the old town centre. The flat is cosy and modern and we were lucky to have found this place. It is a modest sized flat so finding a quiet corner is a bit of a challenge as the wild Bunster is all over the place, running up and down. We spent a lot of time Ubering to shops this week as we needed to buy a bunch of stuff: kettle, microwave oven, towels, blankets, kitchen stuff, etc. We still have a bit of a list left. The one Uber driver was from Belarus. A warm, young man called Leo. We chatted with him in English and Russian. He said he cannot go back home to his country. I imagine there are many young people here with a similar story.

It has not been an easy week, but all is ok. The flight over here from Johannesburg was pretty tiring as the Bunster kept us on our toes. I guess settling in at a new place is never a walk in the park and I assume anyone who has moved to a foreign land always struggles a bit to find their feet. I thought more people would speak English here, from what I have experienced so far, and this creates some extra adventure. We wanted to try and buy some English kids books for the Bunster but the only place to get these apparently is online. This also was a small learning curve – from what people tell us it is best to order from Amazon Germany because it is in the EU and therefore works smoothly. If you order from Amazon UK, for example, then there are things like customs/duties that you need to deal with – admin and paperwork on the Polish side and not in English so best to avoid this for now. There is also an Amazon Poland site but it does not have an English option – the Amazon Germany site let’s you toggle to English. On Sundays the shops are closed – that I did not expect. But I reckon it is a good thing. You see couriers all over the place and we have already had a few Amazon packages delivered to our new flat – it works well. My gut feeling is that online shopping here is like in Kyiv … the norm.

The city is pretty and clean and you see children and dogs everywhere. It seems like a good place for families. I am amazed at how many people we have seen with dogs in the apartment complex we are in. There are bicycle lanes all over and we have heard the city is very eco-friendly. The sign of a modern, forward-thinking place. When we throw out the garbage, for example, there are different trash places for paper and for plastic. So far most of the shops we have been to only use paper bags – no sign of plastic packets. The city appears quite flat and this is probably why bicycles are seen in every direction as well as e-scooters. I took the Bunster on a short flip on a Bolt e-scooter – that was cool. He looked a bit nervous but held on like a champ. The other thing we noticed, well, the Bunster pointed it out, is that there are a lot of sirens blaring each day/night. Like you hear in New York city. Not sure what that is all about. What’s with the sirens?! Do the words “Poland” and “Police” have a connection … ok ok, that is a silly joke.

When I went to get some t-shirts at an H&M in the one mall and I was paying at the cashier on the credit card terminal there was an option on the screen for “donate to Ukraine”. This made my soul smile. There are a lot of Ukrainians here – we see and hear Ukrainians everywhere. Poland has been good to Ukraine during this evil war.

There is a Hard Rock Café in the old town centre. As one friend in America said to me, “You know you’re in a civilized society when there is a Hard Rock Café.” Yeah, it does feel pretty civilized here. It feels like a “safe” place to be, which is ironic considering there is a war raging on across the border.

The city looks well maintained and organized. It certainly has a lot of charm. There are many foreigners strolling about in the old town centre. Germans, Americans and Brits seem to be the biggest group of visitors. Looks like it could be fun place to spend a weekend with some mates. The city appears full of young people. Yeah, there is a youthful and student like feel about the place. There is construction wherever you look and it seems like the entire city is being built all at once. But this is an old, historical city … something interesting is underway for sure. We need more time to absorb this all. But something positive is definitely going on here. All this construction looks like a very big hint.

We ate at a few restaurants. Two good meals so far, one pretty good, and one average. We also ordered some take-out on Uber eats. One good find and one not so inspiring. The supermarket down the road from us (literally a 4 minute walk) is ok. We did also take an Uber to a more fancy supermarket and that was quite good. But there is no Woolies here. We miss Woolies. Nowhere in the world is there something like Woolies. I always find that hard to understand. You can be in the richest parts of America, for example, and still, no Woolies. Kyiv has Good Wine which is also something unique in the world. We miss that a lot. Will be there again soon.

The online weather forecast says it is going to rain all of next week. That is going to be a challenge with the Bunster. But my other thought is, which was inspired by a comment another friend made: imagine living in a time not so long ago where we did not have Google and did not worry about things like the weather next week. When this war is over I am going offline – I am pretty sure of it.

Next week Friday we will arrive in Wroclaw. And then in May I will be taking a train to Kyiv. I have daily communications with friends in Kyiv and when you listen to them they sound calm and normal. I hear about kids going to school, new restaurants opening, cultural events, sporting activities, and daily routines that sound normal. But of course, things are not normal. There are air raid sirens and the evil Russian invasion is far from over.

I also chat with friends here in South Africa and I also hear about kids, sports, restaurants and all kinds of normal sounding things. But things are not normal here either. The electricity is off half the day. The murder rate is the highest ever. And there are so many poverty stricken people living in hell all over the place.

Where is it normal … ?

What is normal … ?

I wonder if I am normal. I am not sure anymore.

Wroclaw, this beautiful city in Poland, to which we have never been before, sure does have a challenging name. Most people who read this word on the page pronounce it, as I did at first, like it reads, “Wroc-law”. But when you hear it being spoken out loud it sounds quite different. It is “Vrot-slav”. In two weeks time we arrive in this city in Western Poland. We have a rented flat there until year end, and in May I will take the train and head to Kyiv. Besides returning to a place I love, and to our home, there is much to be done in Kyiv on our current film project which has a working title of “Rewriting The Code”. This is a film adventure we started on in 2018 and if we only knew where this story was going to take us … what a journey. This project has become way more important than it was when it first started and if we get it right it could do some good in the world. Please God.

Fancourt has been good to us, to the Bunster especially. Marta and I have had lots of time to reflect, think, heal, and grow. One thing is for sure family and health are everything. The war has fundamentally changed everyone connected to Ukraine and when the war is over I am going to go offline. Real life is analogue, not digital, and I want to embrace as much of it as I can. Also, the Bunster is all about the analogue. The real magic of life is not online. I imagine I will have less time from when we leave SA and I will try update my small blog once or twice a month, if I can. But the truth is, I need to talk less and listen more.

I met a few fascinating people in Fancourt. Chance encounters with golf lovers, holiday makers, and adventurous souls. I am not a golfer but golf sure is a beautiful game. I posted some text about the wisdom of golf many years ago. Here is a reminder – https://prettyapt.com/2013/06/14/the-many-lessons-of-golf/ – I read this again recently and a few important thoughts were good to ponder again.

One of the folk I met recently at the coffee shop in Fancourt, while I was feeding the Bunster some toast with sliced avo, was talking about work and he said,  “Work hard until you no longer need to introduce yourself.” It reminded me of that line from that text about the wisdom of golf, “Golf teaches that when you are good you can tell people, but when you are great they will tell you.”

I have been doing a lot of soul searching on the film project because if we make a good film it won’t work – it needs to be an excellent film. I believe we are on the right path but to make something truly remarkable it is going to take everything we got. One word is the key for today’s rambling : focus.

Focus is fundamental to any success in life. A film that is not in focus is never good. Ok ok, a silly joke.

Enough said.

Focus.

We have been at Fancourt in George for almost a year now. And this insane war is still going on. Towards the end of this month we leave SA and head to Wroclaw in Poland. We are renting a flat there until the end of this year and in May I will be heading to Kyiv.

Sometime in May Ukraine will begin their big counteroffensive. This is what we all believe is going to happen. We can guess on what is going to unfold. My view is that Ukraine is going to push the Russians back and give them a proper hiding. But this will result in further action on behalf of that insane Putin. Either he will catch a wake up and finally grasp that he is in shit, or, he will realize that he has lost and decide to try take us all with him into the abyss. Of course, no one knows what is going to happen, but my gut feel is that May is going to be a decisive month not just in this war, but in the world. There is also another theoretical outcome, where Ukraine’s counteroffensive is not successful and that they lose the war. I don’t believe this is possible. In that scenario it means that evil has triumphed over good and then the world is going to hell. So yes, I can’t believe in such an outcome.

I am really excited to return to Kyiv next month. At least the electricity there works well. Here in SA the load shedding is depressing. But that is a discussion for another day. Maybe. One thing is for sure, the Bunster is going to miss Fancourt.

Everyone is asking about the zebras. Take a peek here : https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2015/04/askania-nova-ukraines-serengeti-is-a-stunning-refuge-for-zebras-buffaloes-and-wildebeests-on-the-edge-of-a-war-zone.html

I watched this video last night and I loved it. Some of us have been speaking about a love letter to Kyiv, well, this was a love song to Kyiv, literally. It could have been 10 to 15 mins shorter, in my view, but I enjoyed every minute of it. Totally original and inspired.

It is about a bunch of street musicians and a composer and how the composer takes these different character’s musical sounds and puts them together for the ending, which is a song : the sound of Kyiv.

It is shot in winter in the war time but they don’t really talk about the war much. The main character, the hero of the story, the composer, is very likeable and cool. Kyiv is cool.

Really and truly different. Made quite an impression.

I watched the Navalny documentary when it came out and was very impressed with the film making. As for Navalny, well, he is Russian and I don’t trust any of them. And if my memory serves me right Navalny was pretty supportive of the Russian invasion and take over of Crimea back in 2014.

The arts, the Olympics … what do these things have to do with war. Everything. If we don’t stand for something we will fall for anything, as the old saying goes. Something is not right here. That is what my spiritual sense is telling me. I wish I had the words to express what I am feeling … Banning Russians from the Olympics next year is the right decision if the free world, along with its ideals, is to remain credible in the midst of Russia’s genocidal war.

As one journalist put it : No, Mr. Zelensky, you can’t speak at the Oscars, that’s politics. But we’ll give an Oscar to “Navalny”, that’s not politics. And Navalny’s wife will speak, that’s also not politics. But she won’t mention her country’s invasion of Ukraine, because… Yeah, you got it.