May 2022

Eurovision. It’s not something I thought I will talk about, but I watch it because I was curious to see what Ukraine will do with that gorgeous Stefania, what a beautiful song. I voted for it and I’m glad they won. What I will talk about is Moldova’s entry, Trenuleţul, which I voted for too. Zdob şi Zdub sang in Romanian and the lyrics were so emotional. The song is about the strong connection between Romania and Moldova as two sisterly countries, as they say in the lyrics: “Both together and apart. Are there two or just one part?”

The videoclip is funny too. If you watch it, on the carpet is Ștefan cel Mare, the most important leader of Moldova, he is mentioned in the Romanian national anthem, alongside the leaders of Wallachia and Transylvania (the 3 Principalities that formed Romania).

Instead of my usual rant about the war, I will highlight 10 short points on what happened in the last 3 months:
1. Andrij Melnyk (Ukraine’s ambassador to Germany) disclosed that Christian Lindner (German finance minister) said it’s pointless for Berlin to send weapons to Ukraine as Ukraine only “has a few hours” of sovereignty. (February)
2. Steinmeier (Germany’s president) organized “freedom and peace” concerts with Russian and Ukrainian musicians, while Russians were killing, raping, and torturing Ukrainians. (One was in March)
3. Chancellor Scholz blocked weapons delivery to Ukraine, before and during the war. (He was a Marxist in his youth, looks like he is still one.)
4. Berlin bans flags during WWII commemoration. They removed a big Ukrainian flag on the 8th, but allowed Russian flags on the 9th.
5. UN Security Council in its first statement on the war, 6 May, without mentioning terms like ‘war’ or ‘invasion’.
6. Hungary blocked EU embargo on Russian oil and hold up the bloc’s entire package of sanctions.
7. Macron said it would take “decades” for candidate like Ukraine to join EU. Also, Russia shouldn’t be humiliated.
8. Meanwhile… Solovyov [Russian TV host, Putin’s bestie] coins a new Russian verb: макронить – meaning to do a Macron, as in ringing up constantly for no reason.
9. Karin Kneissl, Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017-2019), blogged for Russia Today and was in the supervisory board of Rosneft until 2022. She also danced with Putin at her wedding.
10. Scholz in a very special WTF moment: “The war raises many questions such as: Can violence be fought with violence? Can you only create peace without weapons?”

This is not only about Ukraine. These people in Germany are shutting down nuclear plants, in good working order, and import Russian gas, which accelerates climate change. They are killing Ukrainians and they are killing all of us, just slower. On top of that Germany is in NATO. As a Eastern European I can say that I feel more unsafe after reading the stupid comments Germany and France are uttering.

Not that history is telling us otherwise. While in Britain there is a push to decolonialisation and dealing with the colonies and slavery (even if UK was the first country to abolish slavery, decades before others), in France Napoleon is studied as a great leader despite that he conquered many European countries (with the associated looting, raping, and killing) and now they have 52%+ of people voting for a far-right (Marine Le Pen and Éric Zemmour) or far-left (Jean-Luc Mélenchon) party in the last elections. As for Germany, the AfD got 10% and Linke (far-left) got 5%.

Going to better and nicer things. This month I received many beautiful flowers from my husband, including these gorgeous chrysanthemums. I finished year 2 at university and I’m delighted with that. Now I start thinking of year 3.

We also visited quite a few places this month, including Hoghton Tower. The Tower is lived-in by the family who owns it, so there isn’t the possibility to take pictures. Nevertheless, there are a lot of rooms open to the public with very knowledgeable guides. We had quite long talks with the guides, as we were there when the house opened and got time before it got busier later in the day.

In the picture above there are two trees, the one on the right was planted by King George in 1913 while the tree on the left was planted by Prince Philip in 1986. How wonderful to see that. I will share pictures from this trip and another one in the next few days.

We had some fun too, with different activities, such as mini-golf, AR-15 shooting, bowling, and archery. I shared links, including to other things in the daily round-up below, including from Tatton Mansion.

I don’t have as many pictures of food as, even though we’ve been to a few places, I didn’t take as many pictures as before. The first pictures are with African food, which was amazing! Below is a Mexican inspired dish. Both were taken at Liverpudlian vegan restaurants. Also, mocktails in Liverpool, at a local pub, with stunning decorations.

1. Ukrainian tractor model from Ugears, a Ukrainian company. 2. White lilac. 3. Chernigivske. 4. Flowers from my husband. 5. Mini golf. 6. Book I read and recommend. 7. Coffee at Arley Hall. 8. The flowers in bloom, on our driveway. 9. African food at Indigo Greens, by Yammtree, just amazing. 10. Working on the first exam. 11. Celebrating finishing the exam, it was a tough one. 12. Tomato plants. 13. Lunch at Wild Root. 14. Tatton Mansion, refreshments before visiting. 15. Ginger shot. 16. Gorgeous sky. 17. Another gorgeous sky. 18. Finished Orientalism. 19. Mocktails. 20. I follow Patron, a very special Ukrainian dog. Do follow him. He is a star, got a medal from Zelensky, met Trudeau, and helps de-mining the country. 21. Hoghton Tower. 22. Shooting session with a semi-automatic AR-15. 23. Burger bowl, at home. 24. Red peonies. 25. Second exam is uploaded and year 2 is officially over. 26. Beautiful day for a walk. 27. Bowling. 28. Poulton Hall. 29. Pink Peonies, from my husband, different from the previous ones. 30. My garden in May. 31. Books in May.

This month I finished 6 books, which is good. I was hoping for more, but with exams and other assignments for university, I couldn’t read more. I reviewed all of them on my book blog, if anyone is interested. Red Famine is about Holodomor, a communist-created famine in Ukraine, by Russians, in the 1930s. It is very well researched and, if you don’t have time to read all the book, read the last 2-3 chapters, the ones with the cover-up, where what happened in the west with politicians and journalists lying because they had vested interests is, sadly, relevant to understanding what is happening today in the world. Also, the pope is not exactly glorious.

Besides that one I would highly recommend Orientalism, which is a classic and also Camouflage, a book on patters used by military and paramilitary groups, which is incredibly fascinating to read.

Books I read in May:
Red Famine by Anne Applebaum – 5 stars
The Industrial Revolution by Robert Allen – 5 stars
Royal Mysteries by Timothy Venning – 5 stars
Orientalism by Edward Said – 4 stars
Camouflage by Eric Larson – 5 stars
Sex and Sexuality in Stuart Britain by Andrea Zuvich – 4 stars