February 2023

February 2023

The Roman year ended yesterday and today, albeit rather late, the king flees - or will flee to the Tate Modern to see the Cézanne exhibit. Yesterday’s visit to our London GP was as depressing as anticipated - she being the most unsympathetic doctor I have ever had. After, we drowned out our sorrows with some Talisker intervening with pizza next door at Vardo.

With my old laptop now in for repair, I have no access to my notes and records. Hopefully, once I get it back, I’ll be able to migrate everything from it to the new laptop. Scott has been helping, but it has been chaos for the rest. It’s the same on-going horror of passwords, bank payment dilemmas and non-recognitions. If internet technology is supposed to be an advance, I’m finding it increasingly a nightmare.

Our post-Midi visit to Amsterdam was brief and relatively satisfactory except for the Gemeente having lost their record of my birth certificate and my application for Dutch citizenship not able to proceed. Richard will not qualify until next year. We had a couple of good times with Stephan & Koen as well as the traditional La Caramba get together - this time with Santima, Laura, Jim & Amir, Stephan & Koen and Michael & Maxim. For the rest, we were so busy that there was no chance for museums. Apart for all the electronic mishaps, we enjoy the two rooms we have rented in the hotel next door, but it was distressing to see daily all that was being ripped out of our former house and piled up in the dumpsters in front of our windows. A lifting highlight for me was at the pharmacy just before leaving Amsterdam for London - a direct, most friendly and surprising encounter with someone infinitely younger.

The London flat has been comfortable and probably the most manageable of the residences. The pathos of the Tūrkiye/Syria earthquakes, the war in Ukraine, the Israeli-Palestinian violence and the global divide remains as the pall that envelops everything. I gave The Lehman Trilogy a second try - having fallen asleep the first time when Elisabeth had taken us, and on this occasion at the Gillian Lynne Theatre found it excellent, albeit underscoring the deathly vortex of capitalism. The Wyndham Theatre of Oklahoma we both found disappointing and too woke for our liking. The Nonsuch Singers concert at St. Peters was uplifting, and the “Spain and the Hispanic World” at the Royal Academy of Art was most enjoyable - especially the pre-Columbian pieces, the incredible pottery and tapestries, and the Goya and El Greco. After this there was a most enjoyable evening meal at Woody’s with Gin, Rix, Sylvester and Ben. For the rest, we had a 5:2 meal chez nous with Gin, and ran into Padma on the street who then joined us for coffee.

For February’s Soteria, Father Frank presented a rounded discussion on Aleister Crowley. I had a recorded exchange with Cometan. And both Richard and I thoroughly enjoyed Tár - finding Cate Blanchett simply superb. And that seems to be it at present. Today and the next four are intercalary - the time between time. And then comes the new year. May it at best resolve the world’s impasses and conflicts and find a way toward wakeful harmony!