End of 2023

End of 2023

London has been the mayhem it usually is and as wondrous as we could have wished. I’ve had two sessions with Scott for the laptop. One problem is that some of my emails do not reach their destinations, but I never know if they have not. That is only the start of endless computer and network and electrical woes, but Scott seems to have got somethings functioning better than they had been, though I still do not know about the emails. Following Christmas, we visited Hilary in the St. Pancras Hospital and then after got a cab after a long

time in the rain to get to Steven’s. It was lovely to see them both as well as Ben & Tanya as were exiting from the hospital lift, but my phone will not work for Uber. We gave up after seeing Steven and headed out for the Underground but this time was able to hail a taxi to get us home. We needed the single malt to help with the recovery.

One surprising thing since being back in London after nearly a year has been the number of people in shops and the like who have remembered us. It may be an enormous and utterly fascinating city, but our usual terrain here amounts for us to be akin to a village. I’ve managed phone conversations with Marie-Laure in Paris, Serena in Glastonbury, Gillie in Little Compton, and Jim in Amsterdam. I also had a Zoom with Nancy. We had lunch with Meg at the Sloane Club, lunch with Caroline and Josalynne at Balans Soho, lunch with dear Claire, Clio and Malcolm at the Hiltonbury Farmhouse in Eastleigh, and Stead treated us to lunch at the Victory Services Club. With Penny, we enjoyed Bradley Cooper’s Maestro at the Picture House Central in Soho on the Divalia, the 21st. An excellent film. I had once seen Leonard Bernstein conduct at the Hollywood Bowl. He was rather outrageous.

There have been dentist appointments, and Richard left behind one of his prescribed medicines, and it has taken virtually the entire month before I could get it here in London. For the second time, my telephone appointment with the Royal Marsden Hospital did not come through – presumably more of my electronic gadget woes. But since the next phone appointment is now scheduled for two days before we depart for Amsterdam, I will presumably need to return to London which had not been planned.

The Latin yule begins on the 11th. We could not get to the Chelsea Bridge in time to see Sol Indiges setting but had our cappuccini at the Club afterwards, and then Gin came for a 5:2 meal at home. The week before she and Paula Murrihy had come to us for a 5:2 meal. On the second yule day we had dinner at Darby & Stephen’s near Willesden Green and were pleased with his improving health. Otherwise, he has not left his home for the past year. The Whitelands House xmas party coincided with the Ides., and the following day it was the musical Tina at the Aldwych with Karis Anderson who was terrific and incredibly evocative of Tina herself. Teary and yet great fun. Before that, we had seen The Book of Mormon at the Prince of Wales which we adored. On the Consualia, Chloe came to us for a brief visit, and then it was Kristin Scott Thomas at the Harold Pinter Theatre in the mesmerising drama Lyonesse. The next day we enjoyed the Nonsuch Singers’ Christmas concert nearby at the Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Square. Eamonn had come for a soup dinner beforehand. The Saturnalia this year coincided for us with a 5:2 day, but we still got ourselves stoned for the occasion. On the Opalia, we went to the Royal Academy of Arts’ Marina Abramović exhibition which for me was intriguing. I had not known of her previously. The next day we saw the Philip Guston exhibition at the Tate Modern which was interesting and political protest inspiring. That evening it was dinner with Patrick & Sue downstairs in the newMexican restaurant (Ixchel) that has opened in our building. The food was tasty, but like another new restaurant Richard and I had tried on Sloane Street (Azzurra), it was deafeningly loud with music and/or beat, and conversation was virtually impossible. The day before the final yule day, the Larentalia, Richard and I went to the whiskey tasting at Balans Soho where we also had dinner afterwards. It was American Bourbons and not single malts but still fun.

We enjoyed the Rittenhouse the most which is a Rye rather than a Bourbon. Our yuletide celebrations concluded with dinner at Penny’s with Stephen & Roberto after two and a half hours on the bus and then finally having to be fetched by a taxi by the two guys. Stephen arranged an Uber afterwards to get us home.

Earlier on the Ides we had very much enjoyed at the Saatchi Gallery both the women sculptors and the Christo & Jeanne-Claude exhibitions. I had been essentially indifferent to Christo before this show which he himself had approved but am now much more impressed by his work. Even earlier in the month, there had been the Francis MacDonald vernissage at the Portland Gallery. Unfortunately, she herself was not there. For the rest, we joined the Free Palestine protest march on the 9th of December. Further, we have bought two bookcases for the flat from Peter Jones and had them assembled and installed for us.

We had been expecting something to occur on Christmas Eve, but by the time we learned that it was not, we were able to enjoy a quiet evening at home. For Christmas itself, Gin fetched us (and brought us home afterwards) for the family gathering at Ben & Tanya’s. It was a delicious occasion, and some of us also were able to watch the King’s Speech. In all, we were 17 – including Rix, Sylvester, Chloe, Woody, Cosmos, Ben, Tanya, Mali, Saul, Big Max, Nina, Little Max (no longer so little), Lynden and Violet. It could not have all been more

lovely and for us abbreviated our otherwise 5:2 day. Woody organised the quiz. Richard, Gin and I all marvelled over how we have been responsible for all that we now are and since I first fell in love with Gin when meeting her at the commune in Amsterdam so many years ago.

Last night, after the bookcases were finished in the flat, Richard and I went to the Club for martinis and dinner and enjoyed our favourite table there as well the quiet and each other’s company. It was the table for the last time since remodelling is to begin in the new year. So tomorrow 2023 ends. We may just go to bed before midnight. On the 2nd of January, possible train strikes permitting, we were off for several days to stay with Liz Green in Cornwall. For

us, this year has had its health issues – mostly for Richard with frequent stomach upsets among other things. We are both indeed now old men, and we talked with Stephen after having seen Hilary how we three being the same age realise that there is little we can now do to help toward mitigating the deplorable madnesses and greed our world is currently displaying and how little of significance there is that we have ourselves not already done, and

consequently how ready we are when the time comes to move on. For the rest, and for Richard & me, the Midi farm has come together most marvellously, and if we can have another aestival duration there for 2024, we will continue to rejoice as we have been doing and wish that many, many – even most – others could be privileged to experience something akin to the joy and ecstasy we have known and are still enjoying. Our hope remains for Israel, Putin, the Houthis, America and others to stop what they are doing and become mindfully

compassionate and grown-up.