Yule 2018

Our stay with Liz Green was utterly relaxed and delightful. I finished the index proofreading on our Sunday return train to London, and the following Friday, my published Pagan Mysticism book arrived in the post. We had wanted to go to the Saturnalia celebrations at the Atlantis bookshop the preceding Monday but had to listen to Macron’s address to France instead.

Our Yule celebrations began with the Agonia in honour of the Sol Indiges. We went to the morning reception at Burton Court and enjoyed coffee (it was too early for mulled wine), gingerbread men and stollen. It was gorgeously sunny as well. Our various inebriations that did follow later in the day included both Turangalila and Ravel’s Piano Concerto.

The Whitelands Christmas party was the next evening in the downstairs lobby. And then for the Ides of December, we cooked and feasted on our turkey with various fixings – not forgetting our oak tree lustration as well. The Christmas dinner at the Club was the next night. We took neighbour Peter. He was basically entertainingly outrageous. The night after this, and after we ‘buried’ the year on the Royal Avenue, we were again at the Club for dinner with Penny & Hamish and Carol and her beautiful daughter Samantha.

The following day, Sunday, we went to Curzon Victoria and immensely enjoyed Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma. Saturnalia followed, and ours included a luncheon at Elisabeth’s with Yvonne, Anne, Ninka, Gillian and Stephen. That evening at the Coliseum, Richard and I enjoyed Jonny Woo’s Brexit All-Star Cabaret. It was different. Afterwards, I received an email that the table we kept chained in front of the Amsterdam house had been stolen. However, it was recovered the next day. Apparently some highly inebriated ladies had taken it until a neighbour confronted them. They left the table and ran.

Our next day in London, there were two things to do in the evening, but we ended up staying home. The rain helped us reach that decision. On the Opalia, we invoked Ops at Burton Court and had margaritas and various Mexican fare at the Azteca Latin Lounge – one of our favourites. The Pagan Federation ritual at Conway Hall was the next night.

In place of our more usual celebrations on the Saturnalia, we shifted our entheogenic musings to the Divalia on the 21st – commencing before Tarita Alarcon Rapu in the British Museum and then wandering through the “I am Ashurbanipal king of the world, king of Assyria” exhibition before retreating to the Members Room. Eventually we reached Leadenhall. I lost Richard, but we found ourselves on the same bus from Sloane Square.

Our penultimate Yule day, we met James and Eamonn at the sumptuous Sir John Soane’s House/Museum. It includes an incredible collection. Richard and I had never been to it previously but are already looking forward to a next visit. We all ate Japanese afterward at Roka Aldwych – noisy and expensive but nice foods and fun. For the conclusion of the Yule, we had some space cakes and wandered through the magical and purely wondrous National Museum.

On Christmas Eve we did one of our 5:2 fasting days. I managed successfully to return the expensive gloves I had purchased at Leadenhall two days earlier but then again lost Richard – re-encountering him this time on the Underground which I entered at Canon Street. He had from Monument. Later at home we phoned Marlowe but could not reach Paul & Jonne-Marie, Nancy or Jimmy.

For Christmas itself, Gin fetched us for turkey and all the fixings at Gowlett Street with her, Rix, Judith, Woody and Cosmo and, later, Woody’s friend Tom. It was all utterly relaxed and most pleasant. Rix brought us home afterward. A few days later, we enjoyed dinner at The Gate with Patrick and Sue. The day that followed, another 5:2 for us, it was The Favourite at Curzon Soho. Terrific film. We have since been to the Saatchi, I have worked on my Introduction to Darrelyn’s book, Living Mountains, and we have done a minimum bit of the post-Christmas sales. For New Year’s we enjoyed the evening at home. Richard knocked over his negroni at the altar. I thought we might have been going to bed by 22:00, but it turned out to be 01:30 instead.

So far 2019 has been little more than our afternoon cappuccini as well as Mary Poppins Returns at the Curzon Victoria. We’ve also been to Rachel, our dental hygienist, but otherwise have been content just to putter around the flat and work on our various projects. Politically, the Trump fiasco on one side of the Pond becomes more and more unbelievable by the day, and the May deceit and calculated cleverness on this side an absolutely depressing horror. But still I could not be more grateful for how things are currently for us on a personal level. We are happy – it almost seems strange to be able to assert that, and I wish the same for everyone in this new year of 2019.