September & October 2016 Update

The summer has faded, but I retain memories of afternoon high tea with Claire and champagne at the Library Lounge, the Oval restaurant for dinner with Woody & Lily, lunch at home with Jacqueline & Hans, dinner at Stephen and Roberto’s in the Trellick Tower, breakfast at Harvey Nichols with Jay, dinner with Gin and Jay at Rufus Pizza, lunch at home with Chloe, cream tea at the Brasserie of Peter Jones with Jay, cocktails at the 5th floor bar of Harvey Nichols with Jay, dinner at the Club with Penny and Hamish, lunch with Stephen and Roberto at the Bar Baloud, dinner at Asia de Cuba with Pavel and Tereza, lunch with Marie-Laure, Pavel and Tereza at A Wanted Man, lunch with Marie-Laure and Meg at Tayyabs, lunch with Elizabeth at Hereford Road, lunch with Stephen on Golbourne Road, lunches with the Rokkatru group, lunch with Norman at the Dwana Bhel-Poori House, lunch with Penny and Hamish at The Telegraph, dinner at the Club with Gin and lunch at the Tate Modern’s Switch House with Pennell and Roger and where we also ran into Steven and Hilary.

Films have included Almodovar’s Julieta and Woody Allen’s Café Society both of which I enjoyed thoroughly. With Penny, I also saw Bridget Jones’s Baby and laughed throughout. Other films included Tickled, American Honey  from which I had to walk out because of the hand-held camera so we saw Inferno instead, and Girl On The Train. Museum shows have included David Hockney’s ’82 Portraits and One Still Life’ at the Royal Academy, the ‘Sunken Cities: ‘Egypt’s Lost Worlds’ (terrific) and the Crick Crack Club’s presentation of ‘Gilgamesh’ at the British Museum, ‘Abstract Expressionism’ at the Royal Academy, the Wilfredo Lam, Georgia O’Keeffe and Bhupen Khakhar shows at the Tate Modern , the London Design Biennale at the Somerset House, the Apsley House (Wellington’s residence containing a magnificent statue of Napoleon by Canova), the ‘Beyond Caravaggio’ at the National Gallery and ‘Intrigue: James Ensor by Luc Tuymans’ at the Royal Academy.

Otherwise, we have had dinner at Joe Allen’s with Annie and Steve and then saw Pinter’s No Man’s Land with Ian Mckellen and Patrick Stewart – understanding it no more this time than the previous time years or decades earlier. Richard & I have been to the Men’s Pond in Hampstead Heath for a last glorious summer’s day outing, although my whaling birthday in Queen Mary’s Gardens two days later was definitively the last explosion of Indian Summer. At home, we have listened to Somerset Maugham’s reading of “The Three Fat Women of Antibes” and also watched a DVD of The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone. At the South Bank Clore Learning Centre in the National Theatre, we saw the 1931 film version of Threepenny Opera. There was a pagan equinox ritual and picnic at the Battersea Park pagoda, the Druid equinox ritual on Primrose Hill and an equinox ceremony at Conway Hall. At Nova Stellar, we heard Chris Stone’s talk on the English counterculture spiritual and political legacy that fed into paganism. Richard and I also watched all three Clinton-Trump Presidential Debates from 02:00 in the middle of the night, and we have since voted and sent in our absentee ballots. I have also attended a House of Lords session on ‘Attitudes on Death and Dying’. Richard and I took Norman along to Waddesdon Manor (a Rothchild home) where we did the Veronica Scanner. Richard and I also attended the Extremists Club for a talk on ‘Male Genital Mutilation’ at the Old Coffee House Soho.

Our house guests during this past two month plus interim have been Pavel & Tereza, Jay, and Norman. I continue sporadically to work on Celebration and also sporadically to read Weston La Barre’s The Ghost Dance: The Origins of Religion. And finally, we have been to a performance of Matt Rogers and Sally O’Reilly’s opera, And London Burned, in the Temple Church – celebrating the 350th anniversary of the Great Fire of London in 1666. This was followed by an opulent Gala Dinner in the Inner Temple Hall for which I did not realise it was Black Tie. Richard had his usual blue plaid shirt, but at least we both had ties as well as a super time with the Royal Overseas League group.

We go to the Nonsuch Singers concert in the St. James Church in Sussex Gardens tomorrow evening after lunch with Eamonn and James at Cote Brasserie. For Hallowe’en, we will join the Halloween of Crossbones at the Table. Two days after this, we jump into the car to reach the Royal Hotel in Kirby Lonsdale for two nights. From there it is Scotland for about three weeks with no specific destination yet in mind.

Could I say it is or has been full? London is perfectly fabulous and overwhelming, but I am now looking forward to some hills, dales, lochs and maybe an island in Bonnie Old Scotland.