It’s Friday and I have a flower

Hooray. 

People at the office leave mid-day on Fridays. In fact there was even an announcement saying if you were still there to call a number that I did not manage to call and if you were not authorized to still be there to get out. 

I have my security authorization to go to Angola. I do not have a visa. I have a couple more hours to wait before calling uncle and arranging to go home. This does count as a screw up for me by not knowing I couldn’t get a visa for Angola once I was in South Africa and the only thing protecting me is my boss thought the same thing.

On the bright side, I might get to go home early and, with Sam …. I would like to go home early.

I am not nearly as stressed about this as other people which either means I don’t understand the severity of the situation or that other people overestimate my importance. 

The Russian military is trying to get Putin to order up a new mobilization. Considering the massive number of soldiers Russia has to Ukraine’s, this is saying something very bad about Russia’s military. I personally think it might help if they acted like their soldiers’ lives had value. “A new mobilization would bring the war home to more Russians, something Putin would have to justify with sharper rhetoric. Tying more Russians to the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine could have dangerous political implications for Putin.”


“Ukraine’s offensive into the Russian border region of Kursk diverted about 40,000 Russian troops away from the frontline, Zelenskyy said on Thursday.”


“Artillery shells sold by Indian arms makers have been diverted by European customers to Ukraine and New Delhi has not intervened to stop the trade despite protests from Moscow, according to 11 Indian and European government and defence industry officials, as well as a Reuters analysis of commercially available customs data. The transfer of munitions to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia has occurred for more than a year, according to the sources and the customs data.”