Latest 2017/2018 Update

The last three days of December included our getting to Amsterdam and my purchasing in London our return tickets for the increased price of £340 instead of the original £249 because the Eurostar site would not work, a heavenly Uber ride to the Euston station that Barbara and Patrick arranged, Warren’s funeral, post-funeral reception at our house arranged by Marco and Elizabeth, and New Year’s eve the next night and again with a splendid banquet done by Marco and Elizabeth. We were now in the house with Gin, Barbara and Patrick and their friend Forest, Pavel and Tereza, Marie-Laure and Stefania and in the basement Saul, Louie and another friend of theirs. The new year’s eve fire-works we watched outside from the bridge. They were purely magical.

The days that followed were busy and full. Richard and I got to the Hermitage Museum to see the incredible collection of Dutch masters on loan from St. Petersburg. The only other museum we were able to fit in was the Rijks on the day before we departed. I cleaned and re-arranged parts of the basement flat. This alone took several days. We had dinners at Marco and Elizabeth’s with Jim, Amr, Barbara, Patrick and Forest; at Stephan and Koen’s with just the four of us; at La Caramba with lots of margaritas for Santima, Gin, Jim, Amr, Forest, Barbara, Patrick, Stephan and Koen after which Gin got ill and Richard got hiccups but a fabulous time in all; at Fred and Vicky’s along with Jim and Gin; at Yvonne and Eric’s; and at Va Piano – just Richard and me and having pizza. We also had afternoon coffees at Ilonka’s and, with Gin and Santima, at Stephan and Koen’s.

From Frans van Burkom, I learned about a group of right-winged gay Dada artists (Uilenkelder) who established a café in the basement for about six months just after the First World War (1918). They were evicted for non-payment of the rent. Frans came by to measure the basement and get a feel of the place.

Richard and I went to Aachen, spent a night, and arranged things further with the bank there – all tenuous and scary. Gin had a lovely soup ready for us when we got back to Amsterdam. She got ill for several days and stayed in bed. We were able to care for her and, in all, had a lovely time living with her in the old house. She thanks Warren for having had the duration with her “two husbands.”

Another significant occurrence was my seeing Lydia Boeken in Abcoude, a nutritionist medical doctor, who had been recommended by Vicky. Barbara, who wanted to go with me and Richard, got ill, so Gin went with us instead. Dr. Boeken has now set me up with an extensive vitamin and supplement regime. Part of this includes Altrient Vitamin C that Jose thinks I should stop immediately because it neutralizes the CDS. It’s a dilemma, and I have not stopped but space the two out with at least two hours between them. I am continuing to take both during the night – twice the chlorine dioxide solution and once the Vitamin C. But Dr. Boeken also said that I could have fish, some cheese and butter as well as a couple of alcohol drinks per week. I had been depressed over the vegan diet until then and had lost ten kilos. We went immediately to a haring stand in Abcoude after leaving the doctor’s office. I have indeed felt much better now that I can still include some of my favourite foods. We also saw our regular doctor for our annual checkups. My hemoglobin count which was already low has dropped even further.

But a big bummer is that I learned that my 92-year old aunt Florence fell on Christmas morning and broke her knee cap or caps. She has been hospitalized and was expected to be in rehab for six to eight weeks. For the most part when I have phoned her, she has not sounded well at all and is in pain. And just a few days ago, Cathy, Kathleen and Jenny were at the hospital when I called. The next day Cathy told me that they have switched Florence now to hospice care only. And two days after Florence’s accident, Cathy’s husband Barry died. He had developed a severe dementia.

Since Richard and I were returning to London on the 22nd, the memorial for Warren that Pauline was planning at the University of Amsterdam was moved forward by two days. Perhaps ninety people attended in all. For me, this was more difficult than the funeral, but the gathering was a good one, and Warren would have been pleased. Afterwards, we had dinner at home with Gin, Rix, Sylvester, Marco, Elizabeth, and a female friend of Sylvester’s. In the basement by this point, we had Lily (and I have since learned that she and Woody have sadly broken up), Maria and her partner, Marijn and three others all, apart for Lily, coming from Berlin. Chloe too had come with the Gowlett group for the memorial at which she spoke. Rix played an Irish lament on her cello.

Kostas helped Giny and Renée move Warren’s books and paintings into the basement. He and Marta, four and half months pregnant, were to move into the ground floor flat on the first of this month, but that has not yet been confirmed. We have had Willem and Melvin come to repair the leaking upstairs bathroom sink, but they also had to replace the geyser. The ekker work as well as that on the whole back of the house has been excellent. Willian and Alexis have cleaned on different occasions, and we got to see their new Hanna.

I had managed to learn that Thomas has been in an old person’s home for a year and a half with dementia. After we visited the Rijksmuseum (and it was brief) and before going on to Stephan and Koen’s, we visited him. He did not recognise me initially but did Richard. He seems nicely set up and is plagued I think with short-term memory loss. Otherwise he appeared to be okay, bored but himself. It was nice to see him.

Our return to London proceeded relatively okay. A bit exhausting but OK. It was along walk in Brussels from Thalys to Eurostar. I went through passport control separately from Richard. The train was then being boarded, and finally he appeared – but not to join me but to wave me back to passport control. In his passport, all his British visas had expired. The train hall became empty as everyone had boarded. A passport woman phoned Croydon, and I had managed somehow to guess the date we had been there was 2 December. Croydon confirmed Richard and said that he had been issued an identity card which we had forgotten about and he could not find, but he was allowed through all the same, and we were able to reach the train before it departed. But then I lost him again. He had in all the confusion now lost his train ticket. The boarding list for the train had at least his name/my name, and he was allowed on. He found his ticket and UK identity card subsequently, but I have managed to leave my pounds and Freedom Pass and who knows what else in Amsterdam. I may have lost a few years of life in the trauma.

In Amsterdam, Richard and I had beent to the marvelous art deco Tuschinski theatre to see Call Me By Your Name which we both adored. Since we have been back in London, we have also seen The Darkest Hour. Richard has had the first of his driving lessons, and his test is scheduled for 16 March. I sign for my radiation therapy on the 7th of March at the Royal Marsden and begin the 37-day treatment later in the month or in April. We have been to the Extremist Club which has on the occasion re-named itself the Free Speech Club. We have also been to the University of Westminster for an Americans Abroad meeting discussing why residence-based taxation did not get included in Trump’s tax reform bill. Apart from the United States, the only other countries that have citizen-based taxation are Eritrea and North Korea. And at the Jermyn Street Theatre, we enjoyed a splendid performance by Judy Rosenblatt as Peggy Guggenheim in Woman Before a Glass. It was thrilling for me since I had got lost in Venice in 1961 and found myself before a door with a small plaque identifying the Peggy Guggenheim Museum, open Wednesdays from 15:00 to 17:00. It was a Wednesday, and I looked at my watch and saw that it was exactly 3 pm. Ms Guggenheim was on the phone the entire time I was there, but the whole place and experience had been for me utterly magical.

I began teaching my online Cherry Hill Seminary class on World Religions from a Pagan Perspective in Amsterdam and have had two further sessions so far in London. I have five students and am enjoying them. Richard has another driving lesson tomorrow. We were to see Lady Gaga at the O2 this coming Thursday, but for health reasons she has sadly had to cancel. We may instead go to the Pagan Federation at Conway Hall instead. We have both Gin and neighbour Peter coming for dinner on Saturday, and there is a slough of things scheduled for the rest of the month and beyond. A further bummer is that a week ago, Marco had a stroke. He has since had brain surgery but seems to be recovering well. Elizabeth’s health has deteriorated in the stress, she is wheelchair-bound and is returning to Colorado to recover while Marco’s mother will care for her son. In Amsterdam, I began a work tentatively titled “Possible End of Life Reflections on Paganism.” I am also revising my “Pagan Mysticism” manuscript with input from Amy and for the consideration of Bloomsbury Publishing and their Material Religion programme. In Amsterdam, we had had a most cold spell, but currently it is even colder now in London. But life is challenging and tiring but still good.