Mid-August 2021 Update

Mid-August 2021 Update

I continue to work through Ulysses. And there is a stack of books further waiting to be read. Most of the month since my last update has been involved with the re-reading, emending and responding to Stead’s comments on my memoir, “Matter Matters.” July’s moot was held at

the Iron Duke and featured Mathias Nordvig’s “How to read Snorri’s Edda.” It was also online, and for us at the pub the sound quality was poor and difficult to understand and follow. I missed the July Soteria on John Meade Falkner & had to leave early from the August meeting on archeo-futurism. The July blót was based on a germanica interpretatio which was relatively upsetting because I would certainly not interpret Odin as Zeus/Jupiter. If

anything, he would be Typhon. Our own domestic rituals we held for the Ides of July, the Neptunalia and the eve of the August Kalends. For Neptune’s festival, I came up with this:

“& yes our Eurocentric and white male patriarchy. Traditionally, women have been known to operate cleverly behind the scenes. The male was virtually her slave. Once, however, feminism entered, there has emerged a dominating battle between the sexes – one even that bleeds into transism. By the standards that have increasingly become the ‘norm’ at this time, the colonialisms of the past have become condemned. And racism was a part of the ethnocentric viewpoint. That is changing now but is also still ingrained substantially and may even be making a comeback. But apart from this negative and a host of others, what have been the positive contributions that these – if not exclusively white males but dominating groups – have achieved?” In all, it is an open question.

Despite our non-summer weather, we have been to the Battersea Park four times for sunning. Through my mobile while at the park I learned from the Chelsea Westminster Hospital that my hip replacement surgery was to be the 2nd of August. Before that, it was back and forth to the hospital for EEG, blood, echogram and covid tests, etc. I also quickly made appointments for the dental technician and the dermatologist for when I could still move. The night before the scheduled surgery, Dr. Rahman phoned to inform me that, since one of the people he works with had tested positive for the coronavirus, he was waiting for the results of his test. Next the hospital phoned to tell me that my appointment had been cancelled. Rahman called

right after this to say that the previous call had been a mis-communication and that his test results were negative. At least my reporting time the next morning was changed from 07:00 to 07:30, but I scarcely could sleep that night. The next morning, I saw the surgeon and was to be the second surgery for him. But after five hours, the hospital informed me that if there

has been contact with someone with covid-19 then two covid tests were mandatory before the surgeon is allowed to proceed. Pending the results from his second test, Dr. Rahman had been sent home and then I was too. So now I am back to square one and with no idea when the operation will be.

But consequently, I was able to agree to go to Aldeburgh for the weekend and Janey’s birthday. The weather was even worse there than it had been at Midsummer’s: cold, heavy rain and persistently windy. Still, it was lovely and refreshing to be next to the sea and away from the urban scene of London for a moment. Rix and Michael fixed some lovely meals, and the five of us (Rix, Janey, Michael, Richard and me) had a fine Sunday afternoon

lunch/dinner at The Lighthouse. Our last night just before returning to London, we allenjoyed a fish-and- chips dinner with Nina, Big Max, Little Max and Big Max’s son. And also, just before dinner on our first night in Aldeburgh, I finished with “Matter Matters.”

Before Aldeburgh, we enjoyed the rather hilariously entertaining Mr and Mrs Nobody at the Jermyn Street Theatre with Miranda Foster and Edward Baker-Duly. There was also the movie Nomadland which was captivating. Frances McDormand is not my favourite, but she worked well in this film. We had a Zoom with Marie-Laure, a dinner at Vardo with Patrick and Sue, Woody’s 30th birthday celebration at Gowlett Road with Woody & Poppy, Rix & Sylvester, Ben, Judith, Chris and Saul, a lunch chez nous with Stead, and a 60th birthday celebration dinner for Eamonn (not on his birthday) at the Dilly with him, James, Richard and me. All these were more than enjoyable. There was also the Whitelands House Summer Party (in the lobby rather than the garden because of the inclement weather). Talking to a neighbour Virginia, she had mentioned that her birth year was 1943. Richard does not hear well – _especially in a crowded setting, and suddenly in our spirited conversation, he blurts out to Virginia, “Are you enjoying your 80s?” I wanted to disappear, but she, bless her, handled it well. The following evening, there was a gin tasting on the roof terrace of the Sloane Club.

Since Aldeburgh, we have had a telephone call with Jim in Amsterdam and a lunch at Vardo with Gordon MacLellan. And, finally, after its lockdown postponement, we saw Tom Stoppard’s Leopoldstadt. It became riveting and utterly haunting. I could not recommend it more highly than I do. The play concerns a fictional Jewish Viennese family based on Stoppard’s Czech family that he knew nothing about for most of his life. We follow events in

1899, 1900, 1924, 1938 and 1955. It is another damning exposé of humanity that is doubtlessly no less reflected in the current events in Yemen, the Taliban conquest of Afghanistan, and the situations in Byelorussia and Myanmar as well as elsewhere. Coupling these with the devasting floods and fires ravaging various parts of the world, I found the celebratory news coverage of Lionel Messi’s transfer to Paris Saint-Germaine a welcome and

virtually tearful relief.

And tomorrow at the Royal Academy of Art, we are to see David Hockney’s “The Arrival of Spring, Normandy, 2020” exhibition. It was hard to get tickets. And for the rest, Tilly and her family have recovered from the rona, and Meg’s son James, who has been critically ill, is hopefully now recovering.