June and July 2019

No less a whirlwind than previously. I have not been able to “put” my updates via Dreamweaver to my Domus website – until today and my third remote session with Scott. We left France for London with most brief stopover in Paris and a very agreeable time with Marie-Laure and Robin. Health has been reasonably okay with at best only a few post-radiation problems. But my latest PSA is still less than 0.01. Both Richard and I have been to the dentist and are not yet finished on that front. And in the London flat, the washing machine broke down but has since been repaired. I had insurance for that. But in addition, I blew up the cooker when trying to clean it. Subsequently, I blew out all the electricity to the flat. That has been restored, but we need a new fuse box (a more up to date one; ours was ancient), and a new stove is on order.

We’ve been to both Jette & Tom’s wedding in the Midi and Chris & Vivianne’s anniversary celebration in Stratford upon Avon. We had our Midsummer’s dip into the Thames at sunrise, visits both to the Art and Antique Fair at Olympia and to Masterpiece at the Royal Hospital (for us, these are museum experiences with the added bonus of fine restaurant dinning), been to both the London Pride march and the protest March 4 Europe, attended both one of Stead’s blots and a Nova Stellar session (with a spirited Sorita speaking about Hecate, and there’s been another Sloane Club mixer as well as a 4th of July banquet at the Club (where we met Padma and Andrea).

Films have been Rocketman and Late Night both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. Emma Thompson has to be a favourite. There has also been Gloria Bell with Julianne Moore. I enjoyed this last more than Richard did. In Aldeburgh, we saw Yesteryear. I think Annie summed up this last accurately: ‘Not a good film, but you have to see it’. Theatre has been Starry Messenger with Matthew Broderick (even when there was a technical problem at the start of the last act, it was not spoiled at all) and Light in the Piazza (with Renée Fleming and Dove Cameron) – both pieces being pure enjoyment. Starry Messenger  was also nostalgic and reminiscent of the old Hayden Planetarium that had been part of my youth. There has also been David Mamet’s Bitter Wheat with John Malkovich. Malkovich was fine, but it is the take-off story of Harvey Weinstein and not particularly captivating. Concerts were a splendid Nonsuch Singers evening at Saint Martin’s in the Field: “Jazz, Swing and Modern Classics” - featuring Will Todd’s Mass in Blue, both the Space Spectacular and Tony Bennett (at age 92) at the Royal Albert Hall, and at the Wigmore a stunning concert that included our delightful Paula Murrihy singing Gluck and Tomasi.

Lunches were with Maggie and Chris, with Francis (in a spectacular Philippine restaurant that he knew), and with Elisabeth and Monica. Dinners: two with Chloe & Matt, one with Gin, one with Maggie, one with Penny and her niece-in-law Caroline, one with Paul & Darryl, and one with James and Eamonn. Our visitors have been Maggie (a high school friend of Richard’s who seems to know – and love – him as much as I do) and her friend Chris who stayed at the Sloane Square Hotel, and Sarah and her lovely daughter Clara who were our houseguests. And finally we had a perfectly smashing five-day break to the sea with Gin and Rix in Aldeburgh – Annie preparing Gin, Richard and me a delicious dinner the night of our arrival, and Gin, Rix, Richard and me enjoying a fine meal our last night at the Lighthouse restaurant. During this sojourn I also had the unhappier experience of watching Roger Federer lose in the Men’s Singles Wimbledon Finals. It was an exhausting match to follow.

And then our brief excursion to Amsterdam where successfully and happily we obtained our Dutch residence cards. Richard’s is valid for ten years; mine would be the same apart for the Brexit inevitability. The heat wave for all of this last ended up cancelling our Eurostar train just as were about to board at Saint Pancras station in London. The overhead high speed train wires had melted in Bruxelles. We returned home and were on the first train the next morning but had to cancel our coffee date with Stephan & Koen and our dinner date with Adrian & his family. To relax afterward, we used Barney’s and the Johnny Walker Green Label given to us by Catherine & Pierre. And last night at Tomo Sushi, we enjoyed a most enjoyable meal with our dear, dear friends Vicky, Santima, Jimmy & Amir. Because SNCF informed us yesterday that the Belgian train strikes today might cause severe delays, and we could possibly miss our Eurostar connection in Bruxelles, we came early to the Centraal Station where we learned that all trains are full but operating on time. So we went for a relaxing lunch at the Grand Café where a beautiful white parrot of 18/19 years lives openly. A vestige of Old Europe. I was leisurely working on this update in the restaurant and in the time before our scheduled 15:15 departure, but when I checked my watch at 14:20 I suddenly remembered that I had not reset it. We ran and really ran, not waiting for the lift as there were too many before us, and I could see that the train was arriving on Platform 14 but a bit late. So we are now on the Thalys but already had slightly less than an hour to clear customs and board our train to London. Life seems to remain both challenging and entertaining.