We enter the last part of 2024, and once again this year seems to have flown by in a flash.
We started at the big Jewish club in the centre of São Paulo. They held a major event to mark the anniversary of the tragic events in Israel 12 months ago. Carol had written extensively about the situation and spoken at several significant events. The Jewish community in São Paulo wanted to honour the individuals they felt had helped and supported their cause. It was a substantial event with more than 5,000 people attending. I was very proud to sit in the front row and applaud my wonderful wife as she received her award.
Shortly after that, we celebrated a happier anniversary—our wedding day, 4 years ago. We got married in São Paulo during the Covid lockdown, so we still have not had a party to celebrate the event. We were planning to do it this year, but Cesca’s wedding in Seville took priority. Maybe 2025.
We then went to our country home in Boa Vista, and I had a eureka moment. With the torn tendons in my shoulder, my main sporting activities of tennis and golf were not possible. This was getting me down a bit, and my waistline was expanding. Then it hit me! I could play tennis after all, as I had a perfectly good arm that I was not using! When my kids were growing up, we all loved to play squash, and to give the kids a chance, I would play them left-handed. It annoyed them, but I insisted that they had to beat me left-handed before we could play right-handed. Consequently, I got pretty good at left-handed squash! Plus, I have one of my favourite toys at Boa Vista, my Spinshot 2 tennis ball machine.
The Spinshot and I therefore embarked on some serious sessions to teach myself how to play tennis left-handed. I was so happy to be able to do some sport and play tennis again.
Next up was Rio. Carol has taken me to many weddings and social events in Brazil, and I had become friends with a really nice young man called Richardo, and we were invited to his wedding in Rio de Janeiro. The pre-wedding party was on the Thursday before the wedding, but the night before, I was preparing a gin & tonic and did not realise how sharp our new knives were. While slicing a lime, I also sliced my thumb! It was late in the evening, so we bandaged it up, finished the game of chess and the G&T, and postponed the problem until the morning. First thing, Carol sent me off to the Brazilian equivalent of A&E (Accident and Emergency) while she packed for Rio. I was checked in at the hospital, had my blood pressure and other vitals checked, then given a ticket with a number on it and told to wait. After a couple of hours waiting, I decided to head home and fix up my thumb myself, otherwise we would miss the flight to Rio. Carol was not impressed. It took me about 20 minutes to painfully and carefully get the old bandage off my thumb, only to discover that I had actually cut the end of my thumb off! I was sent back to the hospital, and we got a late flight to Rio. Ouch! It has now fully recovered, you would not know which thumb got chopped!
We stayed at the famous Copacabana Palace (the one in the famous Barry Manilow song, “At the Copa, Copacabana…”) and everything was great except the weather—it rained like crazy.
The wedding was at a very historic old building in the port, where the last emperor of Brazil, Dom Pedro the 2nd, had his last party before the fall of his empire. It was cold and wet initially, but warmed up into a great party.
Back in São Paulo, the results of my full-body MRI scan showed that I had a very high level of calcification in my heart. Over time, fat sticks to the walls of your arteries, then over decades, the fat hardens into calcium. Acceptable levels are 0-400, but my reading was 900! So, Carol booked me in to see the family cardiologist, Dr. Serrano. He is a very thorough doctor and requested more than 30 different blood tests and 5 heart scans. So, later that week, I returned to the Einstein Hospital to get fully tested.
October rolled into November and the US election. I had followed it closely, read all about it, and I was sure that Carol’s prediction of a Trump victory was going to be wrong. I still cannot believe that so many people voted for a man who only cares about himself. It was a very, very dark day for America when they re-elected that awful liar. I can no longer read, think, or discuss anything to do with it. America will now have to pay the price of its own collective stupidity and myopia.
The day after the end of the world, my brother Roger and his wife Terrie arrived in São Paulo to visit. We booked them into a nearby hotel, the Palácio Tangará and showed them around São Paulo. We held a big dinner party for them at the famous Figueira Rubaiyat, meat restaurant, owned by Cesca’s husband Victor and his family.
Then we took them to see the sights in Rio: the Christ upon the hill, the Sugar Loaf Mountain, the Botanic Gardens, etc., and some relaxing on Copacabana Beach.
After that, we returned to São Paulo and took them to our country home in Boa Vista, a couple of hours west of the city.
Roger and Terrie at the Fazano Hotel, Boa Vista
I had selected my brother to be my first left-handed tennis opponent. The fact that he has metal knees and is not really meant to run, made my 6-2 victory a little hollow, I have to admit! But we had fun. Next up was golf. I tried to play, but my shoulder would not allow it and I don’t have any left-handed golf clubs. But Roger played really well and we enjoyed a quick 9 holes in the sunshine.
Then we all flew off to Buenos Aires and on to the Salta Desert in Argentina. We stayed in a beautiful, tranquil hotel in Salta, surrounded by the Andes Mountains.
We then explored the Salta Salt Desert and the surrounding area and history.
It was a fun trip, finishing at a horse farm/ranch/hotel, where we rode some horses and met a delightful woman, who we decided should be the future wife of Roger and Terrie’s son Tom. Tom is super good looking, lives in Kensington, only dates models, but we think it is time he settled down… on a horse ranch in Argentina!
The day after Roger and Terrie flew back to London, I was due to fly to Miami. Carol owns a fabulous apartment overlooking the marina, south of South Beach. But as they had decided to remodel the pool, both tennis courts, the lobby, the elevators, and goodness knows what else, the overheads were sky-high. So we had managed to sell it, with plans for buying a smaller apartment in the near future. Carol had decided to send me to Miami to start planning and arranging the move.
On the morning of the flight, I had an appointment to see Dr. Serrano again to discuss the results of the tests. I had looked through them with Carol and we were surprised that my cholesterol levels were high when previous tests were not. But when a heart doctor says, “…we need to talk,” about the results, it is a little worrying.
As we already knew, my calcium levels were high, and the result of the main MRI scan was not good, but from the scan, it was not possible to determine the level of blood flow through my main artery. So, he recommended I take a catheter test, where they put a camera in through a hole in a vein in your wrist. It goes up your arm, turns right, and goes all the way to your heart! The doctor said that he was not happy for me to fly before taking this test. It was a holiday in Brazil and the hospital was not busy, so we agreed to do it that day. Why wait?
The procedure does not require a full general anaesthetic but a mild anaesthetic, which does put you out. Before I knew it, it was over. The camera had looked into the main artery of my heart and showed that the calcium plaques had built up such that the flow of blood was reduced to only 30% of what it should be. Dr. Serrano had explained to me that he did not think it would be required, but if the blood flow was significantly reduced, during the same procedure, they would be able to fit a stent. A stent is a small, synthetic, mesh tube, which they fit into the artery; it is then expanded to fully open the artery, returning it back to full, 100% blood flow. Upon waking, I was told that I now had a stent in my heart.
The doctors and nurses were all very surprised that I had had no symptoms of breathlessness or anything else prior to the procedure, so it seems that I was lucky to have discovered this heart problem before it had become a real problem—and fixed the problem.
But this good luck was then quickly followed by some bad luck. The day after the procedure, I noticed that I was slurring some of my words and the left-hand side of my mouth was perhaps 1 or 2 mm lower than it usually is. The doctors immediately sent me for more brain scans and MRI tests. My bad luck was that in less than 1% of these procedures, when the catheter camera travels up your vein towards your heart, calcium plaques can get dislodged and enter the bloodstream. The MRI showed that two very tiny plaques could be seen blocking very small arteries, one on either side of my brain. The disappointing news was that during the night after the procedure, I had suffered a mini-stroke. ☹
That all sounds very serious, but the doctors were very confident that the medication I was already taking would effectively melt these plaques, and the correct flow of blood would be resumed. They said that the effects of the mini-stroke would wear off within a matter of weeks. After a couple of weeks, it had pretty much disappeared, and no visible signs remain.
They kept me in for a few extra days to observe my recovery. During this time, a cardiac doctor pointed to my ears and noted that I had a common marker. Apparently, if you have a crease at the bottom of your earlobes, it’s very likely that you are genetically prone to fat collecting in your arteries. Hmmm!
<marker pic>
Throughout it all, Carol never left my side; she slept on the couch in my room every night and was there for every test and consultation. Nobody can have such a wonderful personal nurse/doctor/health expert as I do!
Finally, I was allowed to go home. Doctor’s orders were to rest, so I decided to take the whole of December off work. I will decide in January if I will resume my 2 ½ days per week with Realworld, which at the moment, I think I will.
After a couple of weeks' rest, I was due to fly back to the UK, so Carol had to head to Miami and evacuate the apartment. My only task was to find a safe haven for my Ducati Multistrada 1200S and arrange for its transportation. Happily, my friend Ira is now looking after it.
I returned to a very dark, damp, cold UK in December. But I was able to be there for Tara’s birthday, and after a week or so, I felt fit and strong enough to play tennis again. My friend Minna and I have been close-fought tennis adversaries for the past 12 years, and we were lucky to get a sunny afternoon in Newmarket to play. I was very pleased that after quite a close first set, which I lost 6-3, Minna had not realised that I was playing left-handed! At 3-3 in the second set, I finally declared that I was a bit tired and pointed out my handicap. She was suitably shocked that she had not noticed, but still insisted on finishing the set and claiming her first victory in many years. It felt good to be doing some sports again, and although the next day I was very stiff, there were no ill effects.
The final event of my UK trip was a family party that I had organised. I had reserved an area in a lovely pub called the Jolly Farmer in Gerrards Cross, near to where my sister lives. I arranged some sandwiches, canapés, and drinks so that we could all gather, mingle, chat, and catch up. I have to admit that the event was inspired by Tara, who is always suggesting that we should get our family together, so that’s what we did. I was thrilled and amazed by the response. No fewer than 22 family members turned up. Only my cousin Leon and his wife Cindy were unable to come due to the dreaded flu, and Harrison was missed as well. Harrison Murray-Campbell recently signed as a professional footballer for my lifelong favourite team, Chelsea. On the Thursday before the party, he was named in the first team squad for the UEFA Conference match against Astana, away in Kazakhstan, no less. It was a marathon trip for him. Chelsea won 3-1, but sadly Harrison did not get off the bench and so did not feature in the game. On the Sunday, he had to train for a Chelsea Under-21 match against Newcastle, so he did not make it to the party. But it was great to see so many family members, especially my cousins Ricky and Floyd and their wives, Rita and Lorraine, who I had not seen for 12 years! We shall do it all again next year, I hope.
That brings me up to date. The 11-hour flight back to São Paulo has given me the time to compile this blog. I have an idea to put this blog on a website, where it would be easier to add some more pictures. But I will still send the text by email.
Looking ahead, Carol and I will spend Christmas in São Paulo, then we will visit our friends and in-laws, Ana and Bella, at their house in Paraty, in the north-east of Brazil. Then we plan to fly to Miami, from where we will go to the Caribbean Island of St. Barts for Carol’s birthday. After that, they (Carol and her kids, who are not kids at all—25 and 29) want to go to Disney in Orlando for 4 days!! I would rather stick pins in my eyes than spend 4 days at Disney! So maybe I will go snowboarding or play blackjack in Las Vegas! I consider those to be sensible recreational activities! We shall see what actually happens in blog Q1-2025!
Love to all and happy holidays,
Peter