The Start of 2026

We have Zoomed with Nancy, Coral and Rosie. On another occasion, it was a Zoom with Maggie. I’ve also had phone calls with Fern, Gillie, and Jimmy. And I sent a New Year’s message to Vadim.

Cinema included Marty Supreme which for me was not a favourite. I did at least like Paltrow. The Housemaid was certainly gripping, and Hamnet I found most moving. A bit too dark visually and a lot of mumbled & inaudible dialogue, but overall it worked. Tati’s Monsieur Hulot’s Holiday at 54 Dean Street was completely and memorably enjoyable.

Our theatre has been an excellent All My Sons at the Wyndham Theatre (Tilly treated), the Jermyn Street Theatre for Orphans (great theatre; disturbing story but captivating), a splendid Into the Woods at the Bridge Theatre, and finally at the Harold Pinter Theatre High Noon which was powerful & relevant.

Among our musical events was the Mozart Birthday Concert at Cadogan Hall’s for which James had two complimentary tickets for us. Ian Page was the conductor. In all, there were three Entr’actes from Thamos, König in Ägypten, a Mozart Concert Aria: Ombra felice … Io ti lascio, K.255 (Zheng Jiang), and Symphony from Serenade in D major, K.250 (the ‘Haffner’) – all composed, James told us during the intermission, when Mozart was 20, plus Haydn’s three arias from Die Feuersbrunst (Alexander Semple) and his Symphony No. 69 in C major (the ‘Laudon’) [all written in the same year as Mozart’s work] in which James played a lovely oboe solo in the third movement.

At the Southbank Queen Elizabeth Hall with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko conducting, Shostakovich’s 10th Symphony was fantastic. I also enjoyed Beethoven’s Piano Concert #1 (Benjamin Grosvenor as pianist), and Ustvolskaya’s The Dream of Stephan Razin (Yuriy Yurchuk baritone) was interesting, though Richard did not care for it.

Once again at the Cadogan Hall, there was the Ballet Nights. This began at 19:00 & not 19:30, so we missed Debussy’s Claire de Lune, but I think that was all. Matthew Bourne and a Mexican couple, but all was most engaging.

For museums and art, there has only been “The Long Now: Saatchi Gallery at 40” which had some provocative works, and The London Art Fair itself which was overwhelming.

Medically and dentally, Richard has been to Nick and then had to return again for a semi-emergency on the other side of his mouth for which we were not charged the second time. I’ve been three times to the Belgravia Surgery - twice for the blood tests since my kidney is not good, and I have high potassium. I’ve had x-rays at Chelsea Westminster as well as a Cora Health phone consultation. We have had physiotherapy with Anthony twice, and following suggestion by Drew, I have had three Rolfing sessions with Alain. I would describe these as painfully pleasant.

We enjoyed dinner with Gin & Rix at ROSL for our 51st anniversary. Richard & I have had dinner at Vardo 3 times. With Tilly and Douglas, there has been high tea at Brown’s Hotel. Beaverbrock with Sylvester was after a couple of whiskies at home and a couple of more there. With Tilly and Jessica, it was a Chinese dinner at Real Beijing (Jessica treated). On the 15th, Lucas treated us to capuccini at the Club. And in Aldeburgh, we had a most delicious dinner with Gin and Rix at a seafood restaurant on the main street recommended by Janey

(I was allowed to pay for our drinks) and another dinner at the Lighthouse which is a usual. And with the gals plus Annie, there was the Sunday Roast at the White Lion Hotel.

What became scary during our drive to Aldeburgh was when Rix suddenly on the motorway became dizzy & could not focus. We pulled over to the shoulder, & I drove the rest of the way (about 40 miles) in Gin’s car to Janey & Michael’s in Ipswich where we enjoyed a delightful lunch. Rix was then able to drive from there. Aldeburgh was cold as was our bedroom with no internet. I listened to BBC via a radio. For the following two nights we were given a different room which was much warmer & with internet access.

I finished the revisions of my ‘Dark Green Religion in Europe’ article for The Journal of Religion, Culture and Nature. And on the 24th, the Sophia conference was fun along with Steve, Darbie, Nick, Patrick & Sue. And Carrie’s Burns Night party which followed was fabulous along with Caroline, Mary, Sorita, Sam, Steve & many, many more.

I was able to listen to Magda’s Deterrence Center’s “Safeguarding in the Age of Digital Manipulation: What Every Teacher Must Know” online on the 28th, but because my business@ email account vanished after we got back from Aldeburgh, I had lost the contact info for the follow up on the 4th about digital risks. And despite hours on the phone with them, Apple was not able to figure out what was the problem with my missing account. After a few days, I monkeyed around and suddenly the account re-appeared. And as for the Nova Stellar meeting, tickets are now required, and they had already sold out.

Somehow, but not easily and after Pierre informed me that he had fallen off his roof and, as a result, has had to cancel our drive together from Paris to the Midi, I managed to book not only our Paris-to-Les Arcs train tickets (though I cannot locate the tickets themselves) but also our July tickets for the Festival d’Aix along with our booking for the Roi René Hotel.

I have finished reading Noah Charney & Svetlana Slapšak’s The Slavic Myths and Matt Alvesson & André Spicer’s The Art of Less and am now into Gary Philipson’s Astrology in the Year Zero.For the rest, Trump has captured Maduro and continues to shock, disappoint and terrify on countless fronts. The Epstein repercussions seem also now to be wildly out-of-hand and still immune to the Oval Office occupant himself. The extreme irony is that our world is probably

at its most precarious moment and yet Europe and London are functioning as exhilaratingly as could be wanted and my own love and happiness with Richard speak so movingly much against all that.

I have completed two sonnets:

On Nature’s Daylight need we deeply grieve

When vampires suck our sapiens’ grand slam,

And human dignity is make-believe

With war concealed within a cryptogram?

Our times of light dispersed with dropped device,

While fossil fuels forget growth’s worldly woes;

Big cheeses cheat intelligence as ice

As if soul’s hard-earned laws they must dispose.

An ill malevolency drowns as night

And damp divisiveness descends like death

While thought untrue becomes but black-and-white

To reign supreme as fourth grade shibboleth.

Once my post-mortem meet opines,

Please peace not pain prevail for earth’s divines!

Sonnet #329

London

Ides of January 2026

A desert dream, then you ahead to chase

With motors ‘cross immense terrain of steppe.

Rejection not but proof to know our place,

And jointly your domain at last to step.

Yet in this crowded fully furnished home,

Where none knew not from where or why they came,

Again you might abruptly wish to roam,

Not one delay if I’m still in the game!

Another you appeared from sudden past,

And choice was then between the each of you.

Nomad declared no act must I holdfast,

Or ought I too now test what ought ensue?

But then a living hand, a hand of touch,

Was there for real with mine to keep and clutch.

Sonnet #330

London

6 February 2026