This has been tough week. Cold, gloomy weather and strong wind. The temperature in the apartment has been stable for +14 for two weeks now.😟 It's been a month since I've been trying to find tourniquets for Nick (the order, which I really hoped for, never left for Ukraine).😫 The carrier company has been delivering my parcel with vitamins and medicines for almost 2 months.😠 My mother was hospitalized due to serious kidney problems.😳 The brother asks to borrow money.😯 But the worst thing is that I don't sleep at night and I have stomach pains.😨 At first I thought it was a common digestive problem. After the third sleepless night in a row, I realized that the reason may be a problem that I didn't solve because of the war. My doctor and I discussed the details of my surgery and set a date, and the next day the war began.
I called my doctor but he is out of Kyiv, and plans to return no earlier than 2 weeks. So I was happy when I found a private clinic that works.
April 13th.
I went to the clinic in the morning. There were two or three patients, and only one girl at the reception, who answered calls, made notes, accepted payment, gave out clothes in the wardrobe. But they work! And I was lucky enough to get an appointment with a good doctor, whose scheduler was all booked for a month in advance before war. And now she is the only doctor, and only a few patients.
So, I probably have to have surgery before my doctor comes back. The good news is that emergency surgeries are covered by my insurance, and that's great luck, because the services at this private clinic's hospital ... they aren't most expensive, but I don't have that kind of money right now. Also, the price includes medicine, food and everything necessary, and that's very good, because I am not sure if Nick will be able to stick with me, and no one to count on anyway.
After such news, I didn't want to go home. I sent a laptop to a colleague and topped up his bank card. Operations with cash is a trouble. Not all terminals and ATMs work stably. On the way I went to the market and bought vegetables and cottage cheese. I looked again at the area where one of the last missiles hit. Nick and I drove by on the next day, and everything looked much worse then. Utilities are constantly removing debris, glass. They work all days.
On the first floor of this building was an optician, where I repaired my glasses. Their prices were very attractive. And on the upper floors lived people. Where do they live now?
Then I went to the center, despite the wind and the mist. Trams started running in Kyiv today. I was going to go by public transport, but the intervals are still very long, about an hour, and there is no schedule.
I think I will be wearing this winter jacket forever. The last time I was here was ages ago, in peacetime. My bank branch was opened, and I came in to warm and use their ATM. There were only two staff members - the senior manager and my manager. I hugged her with joy. She and I shared our memories and experiences, and then I left.
 |  |
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I really want fried fish and cake with cream for two months. Fresh fish cannot be found here. Not in any supermarket, and in the market too. Who knows what had happened, probably the fish died from the explosions, or because of water pollution. Or it may be dangerous to catch, or to deliver. I don't know, it's just my assumptions. In any case, I will have to wait with fresh fish, and I can't eat the whole cake. But ... I can buy eclairs! Judging by the map, there is a coffee shop nearby where eclairs are served, and it's open.
The cafe was in the basement. The beautiful, light and clean hall was empty. I ordered herbal tea and 3 eclairs! Of course, I can only eat one, and I will take two other with me. When I sat down at the served table, I almost cried. The last time I was in a cafe in quite another life.
As soon as I sat down, the siren sounded. Back to reality. And a minute later a cute and very friendly poodle ran out of nowhere. We immediately became friends with him. The owner appeared from the kitchen, and it turned out that the poodle's name was Strudel.🙃
Nick called in the evening. I told him about the surgery, and he said that he had anxious premonitions and that I should better hurry.
April 14th.
It's sunny and a little warmer, but I feel uneasy.
Today I work from home again. As always, I try not to be distracted by the news, but I rarely succeed. Russia threatens to bomb Kyiv. I will not have time to have surgery before the weekend. Nick called again. He is also worried that the bombing will not catch me in the hospital. Not so long ago, the remains of the rocket fell right next to their building, it seems that even the hospital was slightly damaged.
And then Nika called. This is my new volunteer girlfriend, and Nika is her nickname, it suits her perfectly. I have written about her before. I was so glad to talk to her again! Remember Vlad? He needed advice on the crypt. And Nika said that they will be happy to see me. 😍
It seems that this call brought me back to life. I decided to go to the park for half an hour to see the evening sun. It was so beautiful there... I sat on the bench and listened to the birds sing. A few more photos and I need to get back to work.
And after another 2 days of negotiating and searching, I finally managed to pay for 20 tourniquets for Nick and his guys, and this is CAT for a good price. I found them in Poland, and they will be delivered to an address in Poland, where Nick's colleagues know how to get them to Kyiv faster than a delivery service. The problem was that I cannot make a payment to the bank account in Poland. But... where there is a will, there is a way!
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Two completely different days...
Seems the spring conquers winter and endless cold. Hopefully, light will conquer darkness soon.
It's so good to read your post, but it is concerning too. So many problems for everyone, besides the war. I'm so sorry your mom is not well but I hope she can get the care she needs in the hospital.
You getting surgery is frightening but if you look at the positive side of things, it's good that can happen. There are things that can not be postponed and maybe this is one of them, you can't live with stomach ache. I'm praying for you to get through it well and also to get the care you need. I wish I could go there to help you after you're released from the hospital.
It's nice to see you have kept your balance and still able to enjoy small things in life, like going to the park, taking photos of small flowers.
I remembered you mentioned the heating was turned off at the beginning of March I believe. It's terrible you still have to endure the cold too. This year is colder everywhere I think. It should have been spring already but it's still chilly. It's 4°C outside right now and it's already 8.47 am.
Stay safe and keep us updated as I'm constantly thinking of you, just don't want to worry you with my thoughts as you have enough already on your plate. Hugs and kisses, may God keep all of you safe! You're a blessing, an angel in disguise ❤
I don't mind some diversity as all I have is to be alone with my thought ☺
It's a cold spring everywhere indeed, even here it was a bit warmer today in the morning, +6. Everything will be fine soon, I am sure of it, especially when see the sun through my window. ☀️
Hugs and kisses 💙
!LUV
!BEER
I am with you :-( ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
Hello dear friend, it is not easy what you say, but at least you are in a climate of greater tranquility than you were before. I know there is a tense calm. I hope that degenerate Putin is not preparing anything against you. I did not know you had this health problem, you must solve it as soon as possible so that you are totally well and healthy, I hope you can perform this operation quickly, everything will be fine, you will see. Your health is very important. I hope your beloved Nick can come back and be with you so he can give you the necessary care, a clinic is not everything. I am very happy to hear from you constantly, although I have not been very active because I have not been feeling very well either, but it will pass. I'm keeping an eye on your progress. I'm glad you were able to come out, even for a few moments to get some air. Kisses and a thousand blessings to you. You know I am always watching you as much as I can. Kisses and hugs my beautiful friend. Take care of yourself... 😘💕
Thank you, dear @dayadam , and you take care of yourself too. It's sad to hear you have troubles with electricity and internet and now health issues, hope everything will be fine there soon, too.
Hugs ❤
💖
Oh No!!!
stay safe love, sending best wishes for a speedy recovery
and for peace.. always peace
stay strong
I hope you get the tourniquets you need soon. It is good to see you smiling still. I hope the surgery goes well. When will it be? Did I miss that? I try to read carefully, but I sometimes miss things.
!WINE
!LUV
!PIZZA
!LOLZ
!hivebits
I will make tests tomorrow and the surgery is on Monday. My insurance company approved it, so now finger crossed that situatuon don't get worse. Everything will be allright. 🤗
!LUV
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Also when living west of Ukraine, I think it's important to keep the temperature low now, to reduce the need for gas imports. Even here in Norway, as we're connected to the European electricity grid.
Totally agree with you. Decreasing dependency on gas, better for environment. My problem is I live in an old building built in Soviet times. Besides, both my rooms have outer walls and this is another drawback. They are extremely energy inefficient. In those times gas was very cheap here, and our heating battaries were so hot in winter that you couldn't hold a hand on it. .
But I don't grumble. There are so.many people living in a worse circumstances
Yes ... I know about one such apartment. It was quite deep, not that much heat lost through the walls, but the windows were leaking a lot, and temperatures on the outside sometimes dropping to -30C. They replaced the windows with modern windows, and with the radiators still working on full effect (they had a "do not touch"-policy on the old radiators - try to adjust it, and it may start leaking) in addition to the heat from the apartments below and above, it got really hot in the winter time. Too hot. But luckily the windows could still be opened ...
Even before the war broke out, we were suffering from high energy prices, so I sort of made it into a sport to use as little energy as possible for heating. My friend JJ in Poland has also mostly kept his house at around 14C throughout the last parts of this winter to save on the energy. Even the price of firewood in Poland was roughly doubled between September and March.
I wrote up an article on how to save energy eventually :-)
You know, the price for firewood raised here in autumn as well.
Modern houses here all have the option to adjust heating system. You don't warm up the air outside in winter through open windows, and you pay less, less depend on Russia. Even the air in appartment is not so dry..
I will read your artical later, thank you 😉
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Meanwhile, there are still legions of idiots who claim "ooh, this is propaganda! The oh-so-virtuous Russian Army is doing EEEEEEVERYthing they can to prevent civilian casualties! They would NEVER specifically target civilian areas, and even if they did then it is absolutely not because they have had the living $#!t beaten out of them by the Ukrainian Army!!"
Stay strong. It may not seem like it now but, Ukraine is winning.
...Of course, an invader who loses can still do a lot of damage before they finish losing. 😕😕😕
Do you think there are still a lot of those idiots? judging by their behavior and the content of the intercepted conversations, they hate us all, and they don't care what happens to civilians.😠
I agree with you completely about what attitude is shown by the intercepted calls. The pro-war demonstrations by Russians all over the world, the sneering Russians walking around Western Capitals who show up at pro-Ukraine rallies waving their Russian flags and their "Z" logos on their T-shirts, the Russian websites openly calling for the mass deportation to Siberia of everyone in so-called "Novorossiya" and "Malorossiya," Russia isn't even bothering to hide that their citizens know about the atrocities and support the genocide. But the number of people in the West who insist the intercepted calls are fake (just as they insist all the video footage from Bucha is fake, insist it was Azov and not the Russians who burned Mariupol, and believe whatever else they are fed by the underground "news" that has no criteria other than "whatever the world is talking about must be false") is absolutely staggering.
I teach online. A good chunk of my students are in China. On Saturday, 26 February I was sitting in my apartment (about 130 meters from Industrialnyii Metro Station in Kharkiv), trying to deliver a lesson regardless of the war around me. At the beginning of the lesson I apologized to the students saying "there may be some noise in the background, because of the war." One of my students (he uses the English name 'Tony') stopped me and insisted "there is no war! Russia is not attacking anyone! That's lies, teacher! Why do you say this?" I picked the computer up, took it to the window and let the class see the artillery shells and rockets that were raining down around my apartment for 35 seconds and then took the computer back to the inside room and asked "so Tony, what were you saying?"
Tony's response was "teacher, those are only fireworks."
...Now, Tony is a highly indoctrinated Chinese teenager (meaning he has been fed a steady diet of Russia's lines from day 1, more-so even than most Chinese because his parents are Party members) and the plain truth is the kid wasn't the brightest crayon in any box even to begin with, so he is definitely a stand-out. But I use this example to say "yes, there are people in this world dumb enough to believe anything." And sadly, there are a lot of them in the West. I've had plenty of people right here on Hive try to tell me I should "stop echoing to Western-Warmongering-Propaganda" when I wrote my account of what I went through escaping Kharkiv.
I see what you mean now, and it is really bad. We raised a generation of people controlled by a button on the TV remote control.
People don't need to think critically, compare facts, use logic and common sense, study history. It's boring and long. It is much easier to eat chewed food.
I first realized how terrible propaganda can be in February 2014. From the large windows of our office, I saw Berkut chasing unarmed people down Instytutska Street in Kyiv. I saw with my own eyes how an armed bastard beat a man on the head with a club. He beat the poor fellow until he fell. And then, a journalist suddenly appeared with a camera. The Berkut man approached the man he had beaten, tried to carefully lift him up and give him water to drink, and journalist was filming. I looked at the one and a half liter bottle of water and what he was doing, and literally could not believe my eyes. I was shocked.
My God!! That is so disgusting, not even owning their own actions! :(
I was so happy to see you on my post today and I realized I hadn't been over here in days! I am happy to see you taking care (belatedly) of the needed surgery, but, alarmed that this hospital has already been hit. :(
Your ability to have moment of normal touches my heart. Your soul is so strong and the will to make everything as normal as possible just makes me smile. The park, the flowers, stopping at the café and sitting and enjoying it, if only for a moment.
Turning off the heat is inhumane. This winter has been so cold and so unreliable, tonight will get very cold for me here, despite the hot temperatures for weeks. It is like the universe is trying to right itself and cannot find the way yet. Do me a favor and drop me a note on discord? dswigle3637 Thank you so much. xoxo
I finally recovered my Discord account and sent a friend's request to you. I suppose... Just in case, my acc is zirochka#3562
Thank you! I accepted! :) I am glad to hear you recovered the discord account.
Do you need help with the bank transfer?
No, thanks a lot. I found a way to use my colleague in Poland
I'm sorry to hear about your mum. I hope she has a speedy recovery. I hope you also get sorted with your own health issues. You need to get better so that you can eat more eclairs! Now I need to buy eclairs! Take care, as always. ❤
I can share mine with you 😉
Oh, that looks so much nicer than ours! 🙂❤
And you didn't see their price yet :D
Oh there's always a downside!
Great to hear from you again.
You should take care of your health - it is especially important in difficult times like these.
Читаючи твій пост, щоразу думаю наскільки ти сильна людина! Прикро чути що до всіх випробувань, які тобі прийшлось пережити, тепер добавились ще й проблеми зі здоров'ям. Нехай все пройде успішно, дорога @zirochka!
Ти справді воїн світла!
Дякую 🙏 і тримаю кулаки...
Hello Zirchiko, as if the war wasn't disruptive enough, now you need a surgery 😥
Hopefully it is not a complicated one and you will recover very soon. As depressing as it may sound, it is much better to get it sorted out sooner than later especially if the facilities and resources are still available so you stay strong and healthy. And look on the bright side, you will be taken care off for a few days so you really must relax (sorry I know it's easy for me to say that)
I'm so glad that some normality still exists during this madness, a good sign of endurance and persistence from the Ukrainians that you will not fall so easily, as we have witnessed around the world. The herbal tea and eclair sounded lovely and you more than deserve it to keep yourself motivated, plus it helps to keep the economy running as well.
Stay strong
Love from UK to Ukraine 💛💙
I hope you get the medical care you need safely and that this ends soon. This has gone on too long.
wow It is very difficult what they are going through. You are right the light will overcome the darkness. I hope that soon you can perform the surgery and better times come with the favor of God 😓🙏.
But I can. @guiltyparties knows how to reach me off-chain.
You are so sweet 🤗 Hiveans are amazing!
I found a way to pay. My colleague lives in Poland and have Ukrainian card. I transferred money to his card, he withdrawn Polish zloty (cash), top up card of his wife, and she paid the order from he plzr account 😉 A bit long way, but we make it.
By the way, that might help others, and I know they are reading your blog: https://blog.revolut.com/payment-services-to-ukrainian-refugees/
I often hear about revolut and now I will learn what ia it. Thank you!
If you manage to apply for a Revolut account, drop the details here, it will be easier and more direct for us to help you and others on Ukraine
Seems I cannot apply to Revolut account because ... they have no Ukraine as a country of residence. 🤔 So I suppose to be abroad.
But I have PayPal account, and it opened an option for ukrainians to receive money recently. I didn't use it yet, and not sure if it works.
[email protected]
It's good to have different ways that we can support you guys.
Btw, I don't know why I can't send you a message on Discord, but I received yours. I have sent you friend request.
This is one of the things I love about Hive!
!LUV
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A well detailed information 💯💯💯🥰.. nice write up .. keep up the good work and don't relent❤️❤️❤️
Thank you 💙💛
Greetings, we love so much for you be strong, our prayer is for your everyday
These are sad and assuring pictures. I'm glad you're doing fairly okay and I hope it gets better for your country.
Don't be heartbroken okay... everything will be okay soon♥️...and do take care of yourself and your Health 💯💯
We can probably help with deliveries from Poland if needed. An Ukrainian lady moved in at my place yesterday, her husband is driving almost non-stop between the Polish border and Радомишль with food supplies from the border (and in the beginning, with refugees the other way).
This is a useful information. I will keep it in mind. Probably I will need it when the parcel will deliver, but I have to be patient, it's almost a month
hello how are you, how are things there now
Actually, I think this post is an answer
It's nice that you are able to reflect on the good things in all the misery and bad luck.
🤗
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Hi @zirochka, sorry but due to a problem with last donation, we decided to suspend it, if you do not know why, please send me message in discord user marco intellihandling #2756, if you understand what i mean, please act
Keep the hard work and all of your enthusiasm.
The entire world is here waiting for word and praying for you and the people you love.
May peace come soon and please let us know what we can do and as well if there are items that you need especially like tourniquets please let us know where we can send such items here from around the world so that they get to you.
We have heard of a bunch of supply disruptions and knowledge on how the world can help you would be phenomenal.
Saying prayers for peace for you.
My discord ac is zirochka#3562
We just sent a friend request.
Prayers for Peace in the Ukraine …
Thank you 💙💛
Good luck and stay safe. Wonderful to read but ... war ...