Hello again,
Welcome to my Q2 update. Having spent about five months in Brazil, we finally flew to Europe in April to attend a very big wedding in Lisbon. We stayed at the Pestana Palace Hotel, which was beautiful, and enjoyed a few days exploring Lisbon, which was surprisingly quiet. Then we enjoyed the wedding party, teasing Carol’s daughter that she would be next, as she and Victor have been together for over eight years. After that, we flew back to the UK and spent a few days staying at a Soho House Hotel, in Soho. Soho is a really fun area these days, much changed from when I was a young man.
The timing to be in London was good, as one of the main companies that I work with, GE (General Electric), was having its main European Conference at the Novotel in Hammersmith. This was followed in the evening by a big dinner and party at the Science Museum, no less. It was fun to wander around, having not visited for many years.
Then I checked back with my Newmarket apartment, to make sure all was good. I washed and cleaned favourite toys:
Following that was a long weekend in Vienna. My best friend from university days is Pete Bonner, and his daughter has become quite a famous fashion designer, Grace Wales-Bonner (Google her if you don’t know her). She was coming to the end of a professorship assignment at the Vienna Art Museum, and her dad wanted to visit her before she finished her term there. Pete mentioned this to our friend Cris, who had spent four years living in Vienna 30 years ago, so Cris invited himself along. I then happened to talk to Cris and heard about it, so I invited myself along too! The weather was dreadful, but we had a fun few days mixing culture with many glasses of wine!
And the food was good too:
After that, we celebrated my little Rosie’s 19th birthday. She is studying Computer Science at York University, so I booked some hotel rooms and we headed to York. We, being me, Tara, Sarah, and Charlie. We loved York and all enjoyed exploring and dining there.
Rosie gave us a tour of the university, and on the Saturday night, we all went out for a late birthday dinner. It was all great fun, apart from the train journey home, which I will not bore you with. ☹
Next was quick trip down to Brighton for a beer or two with my old universtiy friends:
Following that, I finally met up with Mike Burdett. My friend Minna lives in Regent's Park, and I live in Newmarket, and we have the best tennis matches ever. Our rallies go on and on, and it is totally exhausting but great fun. Anyway, because of the geography, we have found a lovely little tennis club in Epping, where we meet and play. So, I invited Mike to meet us there and play a little tennis and have a good old catch-up, which we did. It was great to see him, and we talked for ages after the tennis, sharing news on all the old names and faces.
The back in Newmarket, Tara asked me to take her to the Soham reservoir for a swim:
After that, I flew back to Brazil to rejoin Carol, and we have had quite a quiet June. We have been a few times to our country home in Boa Vista, which is almost finished. Here is the lounge:
But Carol has now decided to add an office to the house and reclaim the bedroom I was using for its original purpose. But we love it there, and I now have my spare tennis ball machine located there, and we have also finally procured a golf cart. The maximum speed in the condominium is 30 kph, which is painful in a car but not too bad in a golf cart. So, I strap the ball machine onto the back of the golf buggy and head out to the tennis court for a session every day. I love it.
Good news here today – the crazy former president Bolsonaro has been found guilty of his involvement in the Brazilian storming of the congress building and claiming (like Trump) election interference that did not exist. He is now banned from running for office for the next eight years. I hope it will be long enough.
On Monday, we will fly back to London and stay for a while at the Gore Hotel in Kensington. Then Carol will head to Turkey for a holiday with her kids, and I have rented a cottage in Dorset, near my brother Roger in Wareham. All my kids will come and join me there for a week in July.
The other very big news is that Victor did finally propose to Cesca last month! So, there will be a big engagement party here in São Paulo in November. We will be bringing my friend Duncan and his Pasadena Roof Orchestra over to play at the event. The wedding will be next year in Spain (Victor’s family are Spanish), probably Seville, tbc.
Bye for now, maybe see you soon. Take care.
Pxxx