November 2025 Update

We got to London on Samhain, and on the first of November with Penny we saw Yorgos Lanthimos’ film with Emma Stone, Bugonia, which was both captivating and incredible. After, we had negroni and dinner at the Sloane Club. I also learned that day that after dancing like a young goddess while visiting her brother in Italy, Santima had a massive brain hemorrhage and had died.With Marion & Leslie, we went to Vardo for coffee & tea. They left and then Chloe & Sophie arrived for dinner. The gals insisted on treating us. After this, Chloe got my internet restored and also the Alexa to quasi-work. We have had coffees with Padma and Malcolm at Vardo, also on another occasion with Kathy. And at Padma’s, we met Christopher and had both coffee and some vodka. At Curzon Victoria, we had enormous cappuccini with Penny before seeing Bugonia. On another occasion with Patrick & Sue, we had South Asian dinners in the Club’s Lila restaurant. And then, again at the Club, we enjoyed a Thanksgiving dinner with Gin and Rix along with negroni. Richard & I also had a margarita dinner at Mezcalito.

In Eastleigh, Tony with Claire picked us up at the train station. We had lunch with Claire and after coffee at her place. Claire, however, is amazing. 92, blind and as sharp as ever.

Our other films this month included at the Everyman Cinema on King’s Road One Battle After Another. DiCaprio & Sean Penn were both excellent. But a very intense film which affirmed for me my gladness for not living in America. We have also seen the very strange and rather tortuous Die My Love with Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson. And at Curzon Shaftesbury it was Pillion. An incredible & rather outrageous film but thoroughly enjoyable.

On the 2nd, I did the radio interview with Jeff Lipmann on the Indo-Europeans and Asia. Richard & I later recorded our happy birthday song on Chloe’s answering service. Chloe & Sophie are now in Ecuador. I have received an email from Chloe.

There has been a Forster’s Zoom concerning my will. Richard & I have also taken Richard’s information to Charlotte to get him registered as well. I’ve talked to Nicole at Deutsche Bank several times. Because I have an American citizenship, I am required to sell any bond holding I have through the bank. We have seen Anthony Padgett, our physiotherapist, a couple of times. I have been to my dermatologist who did lots of liquid nitrogen freezing. I have a basal cell carcinoma on my right forehead that requires surgery. We have also had

our annual medical checkups at the Sloane Street Surgery. And at the Royal Marsden, I had various blood tests.

Museum-wise, we have been to the Royal Academy for Members Night & a lot of mince pies. We saw first the Mrindini Mukherjee & Her Circle: A Sory of South Asian Art exhibition and then Kerry James Marshall: The Histories (colourful & moving). For the Tate Britain Members Night, some of the paintings are marvellous & especially so when in virtually empty galleries. The jazz was terrific, and then we enjoyed cheese plates & fizzy. The Turner & Constable followed which was also incredible. At the National Gallery we saw the Impressionist/Pointillist exhibition, the Kröller-Müller collection. This was followed by cappuccini and then for me, the “Challenges facing UK Universities” panel at the House of Lords with the Lib-Dem MP James MacCleary presiding and including Lara Frumkin, André Spicer, Donna-Marie Janson, Yuriko Onishi and Rose Stephenson. Interesting & depressing.

One other event was Stella Cole at Cadogan Hall. And one further was the Fitzrovia Chapel for the Ben Edge: Children of Albion exhibition – recommended by both Pavel & Marion. It was completely packed when we arrived; they were apparently having an event. Fascinatingworks – heavily pagan. And we tried to attend Nova Stellar but went to the wrong venue by

mistake.

For most of the month, it has been Mercury retrograde. Internet, email & all things computer-related have been next to impossible. I wrote Marie-Laure on the 8th. No response. And I have been struggling with Vadim to get him an email address and/or my snail mail address, but I’m accepting that that is not what he wants. I’ve talked to Jimmy but not as much as I wish. We have enjoyed some of Leslie’s Dumbarton Rock malt whisky. On the 15th, we enjoyed the turning on of the King’s Road xmas lights. There was a Soteria with Jenean, but I had to leave this early because of the Members Night at Tate Britain. And on the last day of the month, we enjoyed a lovely midday meal with Caroline & Guy at their place in Hackney along with Meej and after first a visit to the Columbia Road flower market.

For the rest, I am so disgusted & disappointed with the world situation – Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, the American tariffs & bluster above all. I want to champion the European Union foremost along with its strengthening connections and alliances with Canada, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and possibly Brazil & India as well. But finally, one doesn’t need to thank a machine – though instead maybe the person(s) responsible for it? But most importantly, it is through the gods, our wonderful gods of earth, that we can soar into and through the cosmos.