Where'd everyone go?

So much excitement. I would think that it might be a reason for everyone having disappeared, except that there was a lot more excitement when our Holy Father was elected (by whom I, unlike every single priest bar one I have heard preaching since April, mean Benedict and not John Paul) and no-one disappeared then. But here we are, Łukashenko is attempting to dissolve or rather absorbe the Związek Polaków na Białorusi, one of the last non-governmental organisations in Belorus and all sorts of diplomatic steam is being produced between Poland and Belorus. It turns out the police shot some poor random Brazilian electrician and not a terrorist. Well, there is nothing to suggest he was also a terrorist, apart from being a Brazilian electrician. All kinds of opportunities for being rude to the Orthodox about this Ireneos chap. And probably other exciting things that I have missed due to having a long letter to laboriously translate into Italian (tongue sticking out, grubby fingers clutch pencil, look of puzzlement on face), another silly translation with lots of silly local authority terminology to do and yesterday I read the whole of Vanity Fair instead. It would be nice if Thackeray did more of a Jane Austen thing and let the goodies have happy endings. I am rather sorry for Dobbin, getting the woman he wants but only after having decided she's not that great, and it was cruel not to let Rawdon back to England.