It is very very hot In Kyiv. I reckon it is going to be another roasting summer in Europe. I am not a big fan of the heat. My pale complexion is not that good in the sun. And there I am complaining again … besides the heat I have nothing else to moan about. I am a big fan of Kyiv, and it is where I feel at home. Er, actually, this is my home. I am in Kyiv now, at home, and am happy to be here.

I have been here for just over a week and so much about this magical place just blows my mind. The construction for starters. Cranes, cranes and more cranes. You cranes. Ok ok, that is a silly joke. But seriously. You can’t believe how much building is going on in the city. I guess these guys know who is going to win the war.

I am also amazed at how many cool new restaurants I have seen that have opened since I was here last September. Now that we are based in Wroclaw I imagine I will be back in Kyiv more regularly. We have a lot of work to finish before year end on the Ukraine film project, which is entering a very exciting new chapter. And sometime in August the small film team from SA will travel to Wroclaw and then will come with me to Kyiv on the train and we will shoot the last part of the film. That is the current plan. Of course, all plans now can change quite quickly depending on the state of the war. If WW III starts then who knows what will be. Anything is possible.

In January of last year, Marta and I both got corona, and we were ok. A lot of folk were stressed in Ukraine about corona because of the perceived lack of medical infrastructure. And by the end of that month I had a moment, in my home office here in the Nest, where I said to myself “I am content” – a month later the war started.

I have chosen a difficult path in life, being a film entrepreneur and storyteller, for some reason, but I have no regrets – I have lived a full and rich life filled with challenges and stress, and it has been intense at times, and often, very humbling, and flowing with inspiration. And I have got to know some amazing people. I have also been very lucky in life, with my other passion, in IT, and I thank God for that. I have also had many disappointments in life and have learned to live with the pain. I have never suffered from jealousy or envy and I thank God for what I have – there are many blessing to count each day. And I am lucky to know some inspired souls in the world and it genuinely excites me when the people I care about are doing good things out there and that they are filled with excitement and inspiration. It inspires me too. And yes, not so long ago I was at peace (interesting word, considering) for the first time. It was that content feeling that I thought was the meaning of life, for me, finally. And then, it was all taken away – just like that.

This film we are working on is helping me deal with the pain. We are crafting a story about modern Ukraine, that we started shooting in 2018. Right now a sense of purpose is keeping me sane. That and the air conditioner. Did I mention it is very hot here.

I spent Thursday night in the small hours sitting on an out-grown Bunster mattress in the corridor. I was not alone. Our one new neighbour was also there, on beanbags. A family with 3 kids and a small dog. Warm, cool folk. And they sure can snore all of them. They must be used to this insane routine. Yup, air raid sirens woke us all up and the two wall rule kicked in – a newly accepted activity in a not so normal world.

Friday night were more air raid sirens and a missile struck a residential building in the center of the city. I reckon most people did not sleep much this night, but the main reason was because everyone was on Telegram, following what was going on inside Russia. This weekend in hot Kyiv the energy has been just incredible.

This is spot on : https://kyivindependent.com/stephen-zhao-tepid-response-to-kakhovka-dam-explosion-paves-way-for-nuclear-disaster/

It is so disgusting. The world does very little to punish Russia. Instead they debate everything, like Russia has a point. Russia has no point of view – they started this evil war, for no reason, and could end it tomorrow, but instead, they only unleash more and more terror, and the world just debates and debates. It is disturbing and pathetic. Imagine if there was another crises in the world that arises. Actually, we have already seen that, with the pandemic, and that was one big mess globally.

“Unless Moscow faces clear consequences from the international community, Ukraine will soon see an even bigger disaster on a nuclear scale.”

The fact that the world’s media companies have headlines along the lines of “Ukraine accuses Russia of blowing up the dam” is evidence of how mad the world is. Russia did it. They blew up the dam. They started this unprovoked war. They are evil. Why does the media give this a moment of doubt. Why does any world leader ask this ridiculous question. Who else did it … aliens from outer space?!

As one person posted on Twitter: you are experiencing the worst man-made disaster in your country since Chornobyl fighting the biggest war in Europe since the Second World War, but the leading discussion is: we don’t know who could have done it, we have no ideas, it must be nature itself.

What does the United Nations do exactly … ? Not much from we can all see. What a joke. And the fact that Russia is a part of this sham is just insane.

Sorry if I sound strange. It has been a traumatic week, once again, with no end in sight. From my perspective, and yes, I cannot be objective here, the world is just watching this nightmare unfold. Zelensky begs and begs and begs, and yes, he does get help, but not enough. The fact that even has to beg, and to such a degree, is just ridiculous. There is an evil force at large in the world, and global leaders are telling Ukraine “Don’t do this, and don’t do that.” WTF ?! Just help them stop this evil once and for all.

We have been in Wroclaw now for over a month. We like it here. But our dream is to return to our home in magical Kyiv. We believe Ukraine will win the war and that we will be able to go back to Kyiv, but we don’t know when this will be.

I have met quite a few dads in the apartment complex we are in. Warm, kind folk. The Bunster is the ultimate networker. Most of these folk I have met work in IT and speak English. Of course, the subject of Ukraine and the war comes up. One out of three people in the city are from Ukraine, so yes, Ukraine and Poland have become closer. Poland is Ukraine’s biggest champion from what I understand. And I am sure that all Ukrainians are very grateful.

What is interesting is when we chat about Poland’s support of Ukraine. All the dads I have chatted to have the same perspective, “We have to help Ukraine.” Do they like Ukraine … ? Perhaps. I am sure many do. But they have to support Ukraine. And they all have the same conclusion, “If Ukraine falls, we are next.” I believe this to be true as well. No one here wants Russia on their border. It is a sobering and scary situation.

No one here believe that Ukraine will lose, but still there is a fear that things may still get even more crazy. Anything is possible. These are very dangerous times.

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.