A long day of dayjobbery. Some of my friends are teachers. I don’t know how they do it. That was a full day of it, running a pretty chaotic workshop in an inner city school. They were sparky as they always are, but I had to stay energised to match them. Now I’m absolutely battered. And it’s another early start tomorrow doing something completely different. My habit of saying yes means I’ll be up super early again and off to Camden to help hang a load of Ukrainian flags and build towards a last minute charity gig. Musicians helping out as best they can. I try to avoid thinking too much about the whole Ukraine thing as it’s vast and upsetting. We’ve seen it before, and we will see it again, how much damage a single ego can wreak… At least tomorrow I’ll be applying myself – at a discount rate – to helping make some positive energy in all this.
Various friends of mine are doing all sorts of curious things to try to help. There seems to be a large number of people going on Airbnb and renting out rooms in Kyiv that have been left listed. They have no intention of staying, but Airbnb are waiving their fees in the Ukraine so it’s a way of trying to get money to people there – but money isn’t food and its gonna get hard for the people left now the Russians are trying to funnel everybody behind enemy lines. I can’t believe there’s a land war again in my lifetime. And where will it end? Is he eventually going to roll all the way to Berlin?
The Russian narrative seems to be that this is a military action to liberate people… So other friends of mine are writing on Google restaurant reviews in Russia, trying to explain the way it looks from our side to the restaurateurs of Russia, perhaps in the hope that, were they to really know what was going on, the people of Russia will rise against their little Tsar. I’m not so sure. People are very happy to eat what they are given. For decades now globally the majority of people have taken the path of least resistance. We are complacent.
Anyway, I’m tired so I’ll start ranting if I’m not careful. It’s gonna be another short sleep. It’s midnight again. I’ll be on the tube tomorrow once more. This morning, that was an experience… Morning tube has always been an angry place, but now there are factions. The people in masks are fuming about the people who aren’t, and the people who aren’t are often contemptuous of it ones who are. We can’t even come together on something like that. No wonder Putin is relying on us wringing our hands while he just gets what he wants again.
Ugh.
Hopefully if I go to sleep I’ll have nice dreams. I’m too tired to be in a good mood. I didn’t take any pictures I can use. Boo. Night.
AlBarclay 