Hello again,
Happy New Year and welcome to the last blog of last year.
We enter the last quarter of 2025, at the start of October, when we flew from Sao Paulo and arrived to find a very foggy London morning. So much so that our onward flight to Ibiza was delayed over 4-hours, which meant that we arrived late at the Six Senses Spa Hotel. The room was very nice:
The hotel was beautiful and looked out on a lovely rocky bay.
We were there for the wedding of Diego and Papa. Diego is the older brother of Victor, who is married to Carol’s daughter Francesca. We did very little at the spa hotel as we were quite exhausted by the journey to get there. Carol had a massage and I got a very bad haircut at the hotel salon. The wedding was on the Saturday and the ceremony was sort of on the beach, which were mostly rocks. It was very well done, although it was blazing hot.
The wedding dinner was a massive BBQ made by the family team. Diego and Victor work in their father Belarmino’s meat restaurant business and they had brought in their own staff to cook and serve the food.
On the Sunday we journeyed out to the famous Ibiza hippie market, as we needed to get dressed up for Monday’s “Flower Power” party. The hippie market even has its own party going on in the centre and smell of marijuana permeates everywhere. I managed to find a great top and Carol found some cool flowers to wear in her hair.
The Flower Power party was great fun, with a great DJ playing all the old 60’s and 70’s hippie music. We drank, sang and danced late into the night
The next day we flew back to London for a short 5-day spell, staying again at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone. The main reason was to see a shoulder specialist about the torn tendons in my shoulder. After many months of physiotherapy, it was still very weak and painful. To me it was clear that if I ever want to play tennis and golf again seriously, which I very much do, then I would need surgery. So off I went to see Mark Gillett at the Cleveland Clinic in London. I was very impressed with Mark, who was formerly the Chelsea Football Club doctor and he was very straightforward and direct. He examined me, had me do some exercises to test my shoulder and as expected, proposed an MRI scan as the next step.
He wanted me to do the scan ASAP at his clinic in London, but I was unable to change my flight ticket. As I would be in Miami fairly soon, I proposed to get the MRI scan done there and send Mark the results, which he agreed to.
After that we had a nice family dinner in London, Tara came up with her new boyfriend Mamadou and Sarah came as well, to join Carol and I, with Victor and Cesca, and Victor’s cousin Jau. As I write I cannot remember which restaurant we went to, but I know that I captured a review there in my app RestiView. It was Twist Connubio, a Spanish restaurant, good food, but slow service.
Back to Sao Paulo and working again developing my app. I realise now that I had wildly underestimated the effort needed to rewrite the app. Plus, I had decided to try and include the “friends connection” and review sharing features in the app. These are a lot more complex than I had expected. I now think it will be at least another 2-3 months before I have the Android version finished and then can start on the Apple IoS version.
Soon after returning we met our friend Lucia for dinner at the Japanese Makoto restaurant. The big news in Sao Paulo is people becoming very ill, and even a few fatalities, from poisoned gin. The cost of imported spirits, and indeed most imported things in Brazil, is very high, due to high import duties imposed by the Brazilian government. Consequently, there is a black market for cheaper imported spirits, especially gin. These activities are run by a form of local mafia in Sao Paulo and as a result of inter mafia conflict, some group was able to put undetectable poison in the gin bottles at the source, so you cannot tell that it has been laced. So, to be on the safe side we had vodka martinis instead of G&T.
The 15th October was our 4th wedding anniversary. I gave Carol a small artwork that I had commissioned Tara to make for me. Then we dressed up to head out to a famous old French restaurant in Sao Paulo; it was called Ruella Bistro. Sao Paulo is a vast city and there are usually high-rise buildings all around you, as far as the eye can see. This restaurant is on top of one of the highest in the city and the view is amazing, as was the food.
At the weekend there was another wedding. This time it was our friend’s Andre and Carmen’s daughter Carol, who was marrying Lucas, at the Tangara Palace Hotel. Carol was at school with Andre, who is the best friend of Carol’s ex-husband Giancarlo. The wedding was fun, a very traditional Jewish wedding, with lots of our friends there, so we enjoyed the night very much.
After that, we jumped on a plane to head to Jose Ignacio, in Uruguay. We both really love it there and we want to look at some land and properties there. The prices are still quite reasonable, but increasing and the number of vacant plots is diminishing rapidly. We stayed at an amazing hotel, the Bahia Vik Hotel.
A nice view of Jose Ignacio from the breakfast table...
We rented a car and explored the local options. We did find one house that I liked a lot, Carol not so much. But it would have needed a lot of work to get it up to the Carol’s gold standard. That thought moved us on to the thinking that if you have to do a lot of work, you might as well start from scratch. Buy a plot and build the house you want.
This is the possible plot!
As we are still busy with Miami, it made sense to buy a plot now and then build the house later, when we have more time. Not sure when that will be, but the idea seems sound.
We had dinner at the La Susana restaurant, and we were joined by my physiotherapist, whom I met at the Alive Spa in Punta del Este. We have become quite good friends, he gives me remote physio advice and I’m going to try and write an app for his physio business one day to repay him.
We then had a very worrying episode. Cesca arrived back from Madrid. She was delayed because her doctors told her she was flying too much. The night she arrived she complained to Victor of a numbness in her legs. After several such complaints, Victor packed her up and took her to the hospital, to get her checked out. Then around 2:00 AM she started having convulsions. We got a call at 5:30 AM and headed to the hospital. Cesca’s father Giancarlo, was already there, with his new wife Renata and a gathering of concerned doctors. We were told that Cesca had a weak vein in her head, which had ruptured and blood had escaped from the vein. This lump of blood, next to her brain, is the cause of the problem. She was put on a drip with medication which they hoped would stabilise and control the situation. The drugs were not effective initially and poor Cesca continued to have seizures and convulsions. The doctors monitored the situation carefully and after a couple of days they did finally get the balance right and the convulsions stopped. The whole situation is made more alarming because Cesca was now 3-months pregnant. As you can imagine, everyone was extremely worried. After about 5-days, the family was called to a meeting with all the doctors. The lump of clotted blood was about 1 cm and the medical team’s decision was that they needed to operate, and now was the best time to do it. Everyone was in total shock. But it did seem to make sense to take action now, rather than wait until later in her pregnancy.
Several days earlier, once Cesca’s condition was first known, Carol called her personal doctor, who is of course one of the best, and asked her advice. The doctor’s response was simply the name of a neurosurgeon, Dr. Ribas. Carol did consider contacting him, but the team at the Einstein Hospital were already in place, very experienced, and they were considered to be the best. So, they had continued with the current lead doctor Dr. Stavale.
Then a friend of Cesca’s, Carola, came into the picture. She follows Cesca on the Apple ‘Find My’ app, so she knew that Cesca was in the Einstein Hospital for several days and had been calling both Cesca and Victor repeatedly. Victor eventually answered and told Carola what had happened. Next to be involved, was an old friend of Carol’s, Silvia. Carola and Silvia, both had a house in Boa Vista, and they happened to meet. Carola told Silvia about Cesca’s situation, and so Silvia called Carol and tells her the following story. Many years ago, Silvia had a very similar brain issue and was recommended to see Dr. Stavale. Doctor Stavale tells Silvia that she has nothing to worry about, the operation will be a success and there is no danger. But, he told Silvia that she will no longer have the use of her legs! Unsurprisingly, Silvia is not very happy with this outlook and seeks a second opinion. She was recommended to see Dr. Ribas, who promises a successful outcome to the operation and the continued use of her legs. The outcome was as promised by Dr. Ribas therefore Silvia urged Carol to seek his council. Both Carol and Victor were not comfortable with the decision that surgery was the only option. So, Carol passed the contact details to Victor and he called Dr. Ribas. They talked and it transpires that the critical factor is whether or not it is a fresh bleed or it is old blood. The initial diagnosis was a new bleed. After discussion with the new doctor the family asked the current team to re-check the original diagnosis. Which they did and the lab technician reconfirmed it to be a new bleed. Dr. Ribas works at the same hospital. So, he went down to the lab and looked at the test results himself, something that none of the other eminent doctors had bothered to do. He saw for himself that it was old blood and when he pointed it out to the technician, he had to agree. It’s incredible, that such incompetence can exist in such a life-critical situation. It also turns out that the new doctor is also a specialist in pregnant women with this affliction. So, they decided to change doctors and she will be treated with medication which is understood that it will not harm the baby. What happened is the blood was close or in fact inside the brain, in a place it should not be. Blood has a lot of iron in it and the brain is an organ which generates tiny electrical currents. Probably the long flight and over-exertion set something off and iron in the blood started to affect the brain signals, causing them to fail. The brain detects this and starts to close down the failing areas and focus on the functioning ones. It is amazing, but that was what was happening to Cesca. Once they fully understood the actual situation and the problem, they were able to treat it with drugs.
The difference between – “there is no other option but surgery” and – “you don’t need brain surgery”, is massive. So, the outlook for Cesca now is very good and everyone is happy with that way forward, and we all trust Dr. Ribas.
It’s an amazing story and the moral is, when it comes to someone’s health and/or someone’s life, don’t be afraid to question, double-check, and triple-check everything.
We had plans to fly to Miami on 1 November, but Carol wanted to stay a little longer in Sao Paulo to make sure that Cesca was fully OK. So, I went on ahead to check out how things were progressing with the remodelling and redecoration of our new apartment at The Courts. I spent a week staying with my friends Ira and Helena. I managed to play some (left-handed) tennis with my old friends from the Murano, as well as Ira and his crazy Italian friends. Also staying with Ira at that time were his friends Frank and Jaki, from New York. Frank has a fabulous boat, which he has just finished refurbishing and soon after Carol arrived from Brazil, we had a fun day out on the boat with Frank and Jaki and other friends.
When Carol arrived, we decided to check into the 1 Hotel on South Beach, which is a very cool hotel.
One very important task I had to complete in Miami was to get the MRI scan on my shoulder, as I had promised to do. So, I went to 3-Technology and was placed in the MRI tube for about 40 minutes, for the shoulder scan. Once the scan was complete, I checked at the front desk to see where I would get the results. They told me that the results would be available in a couple of days on their website and offered me a CD containing the images. I was amused and surprised that anybody still uses CDs, and as I had no way of even looking at the CD, so I declined it.
Then a couple of days later the images were available on their website, but surprisingly and annoyingly, there was no option to download the images. Consequently, I had to go back to 3-Technology and ask for a copy of the CD.
I added this to my collection of American backwardness. Banks still issue and use cheques and pharmacies still use faxes to communicate with doctors! It’s incredible!
We then flew back to Sao Paulo, first we went to a wedding of a friend of Carol’s at the Rosewood Hotel in Sao Paulo. Then after that, we flew down to Florianopolis, to attend the wedding of a friend of mine, Cristiano de Silva, at a small beach resort called Bombinhas, in the south-east of Brazil. The south-east of Brazil is very different, it is very clean, people are very friendly, and the weather was very nice. We rented a car from the airport and had to drive a couple of hours down to Bombinhas.
We stayed a very nice, old chalet hotel called Atalaia do Mariscal; our little chalet had its own, very small, private pool. And the view looked out to the ocean.
We chilled out on the sunny beach, checked out a very nice local fish restaurant. Then we dressed up for the wedding day, which was due to take place on the beach. As we drove to the wedding venue the heavens opened, and I could not imagine how they would get married on the beach. But after a few drinks and some food the rain finally abated, and we all crowded into a small marquee to witness the ceremony.
for Cristiano this was wedding number 3 and for his new wife it would be wedding number 1. All went well and it was fun to go to a truly Brazilian family wedding.
After Bambinas, it was time to return to London. On the 27th of November, I flew back to the UK, arriving the next day, as usual. It was quite a shock to come from Sao Paulo, where it was 30° C and arrive at 6:00 AM, at Heathrow Terminal 3, where it was cold, foggy and only six degrees Celsius.
The following day, I journeyed down by train for an important meeting at the Cleveland Clinic in Victoria, to see, Dr. Toby Colgate-Stone. He is the surgeon who specialises in shoulder problems. He examined me and asked me lots of questions and explained that my main problem was my torn rotator cuff tendon which has come away from the bone and retracted up over the top of my shoulder. To repair it they would make 4 one-centimetre holes in my shoulder, find the torn tendon and pull it back down over my shoulder. Then secure it with small raw plug type things, which would screw into my shoulder bone, and some cable type things to hold it in place. The hope then is that I have sufficiently good blood supply in that area to help the tendon reattach firmly to the bone.
There were two other options available. The first was to do nothing. But the problem is that the rotator cuff tendon is the main tendon that holds my arm into my shoulder, with a ball joint. Without that tendon doing its job, the arm joint will work loose wearing away the cartilage and causing major arthritis over time. The second option is also Plan B if the surgery is not successful, and that is a full shoulder replacement. I did not bother to find out too much about this option, as I will be hoping that Plan A is successful. The doctor said that given the current state of the tendon and my age, the chance of a healthy recovery is between 40-50%.
The only choice of course was to proceed with the surgery, to which I agreed. I was then surprised and pleased when he asked if I was able to have the surgery on the following Tuesday, 2nd of December. I of course agreed and in no time, I was having my mouth and groin swabbed for various infections, followed by an ECG test. Then back home to Newmarket.
However, over the next couple of days I had to complete the pre surgery documentation and one of the requirements is that I must not take any blood thinners seven days before the operation. So, the operation was consequently delayed until the following Tuesday 9th of December. But at least it seemed that I could squeeze it in before my return to Brazil on 15th of December. Happily, my health insurance company, Vitality Healthcare, who I fully recommend, confirmed and authorised full cover for the procedure.
My admission time was initially 3:00 PM, then they called me and moved it forward to 1:00 PM, then the day before I got a call to say they wanted me in at 10:30 AM. I was to eat no food 6 hours before arrival, and no fluids 2 hours before arrival. On the 9th I was up at 6:30 and into a taxi at 7:30 to get to Cambridge train station for 8:20, just making the 8:26 to Kings Cross. I got off at Finsbury Park and got the Victoria tube to Victoria. I arrived nice and early and was admitted.
The room was very nice.
The anaesthetist came to see me and drew a Big Blue arrow on my right shoulder. Then before I knew it, I was off to the operating theatre. I was put under a full general anaesthetic, and the next thing I knew, I was waking up and the surgeon was there to inform me that the operation had been a success. He did go on to say that he had had to use every trick in the book to get the tendon back in place and that it had been a very challenging operation. But he was happy that the tendon was secured to my bone as best as possible.
They had put a nerve blocker in my shoulder, so it was completely numb right down to my fingers. This would be a source of discomfort through the night, but probably better than the pain that I would have had otherwise.
My good friend Minna called in to see me in the evening, and together we watched Chelsea lose to Atalanta in the Champions League ☹. But the chocolates and fruit that Minna bought cheered me up.
The night was long and hard to sleep with my numb fingers, but I’m sure it could have been worse. I inspected my wounds in the morning and as you can see, they did a very neat job:
They stocked me up with many packs of painkillers and laxatives and at 2:00 PM, I was allowed to leave. So back to Newmarket and into the care of nurse Tara.
And so began my life as a one-armed lefty. I feel very sorry for left-handed people because everything is so difficult 😊. I had to be very patient because everything was very slow, generally quite painful. The surgeon told me that I had to keep this sling on for a month, which would take me to Carol’s birthday on the 9th of January. After that I have to do 2-months of light physiotherapy, just to get movement back into my shoulder. After that a period of 3-months physiotherapy, slowly increasing the workload and strength into the shoulder. So all of that will take me to June 2026. But if it works and it heals, I will be very, very happy.
Out for a walk on the Newmarket Gallops with Tara...
On the weekend before I headed back to Brazil, we had a lovely family Christmas get together at Sarah's apartment in Beckenham. Charlie came down from Birmingham, Rosie and Verdant came down from York, and Tara’s boyfriend Mamadou drove us to the party. Sarah cooked us a big roast chicken dinner, with roast potatoes, stuffing, carrots and all the trimmings it was really delicious! We all ate too much, then exchanged our Christmas gifts.
Following that, I went down to Pall Mall, to meet my brother Roger, wife Terrie and newphew Tom at the RAC Club for dinner. Its a fabulous old place...
The following Monday, I was due to fly back to Brazil on the 7:00 PM flight from Heathrow Terminal 5. That was also the same day as the funeral of my cousin Michael. It was also the day that my surgeon wanted to see me in Marylebone, so he could check my dressings before I flew.
I had a car pick me up early Monday morning which took me to Marylebone. The doctor was very pleased with my wounds, as they were healing nicely. I wasn't able to attend the actual funeral in Mortlake, so I headed straight to the wake, which was being held at The Woodman pub in Northwood. I enjoyed the journey from the old Western Ave (A40) through South Ruislip, then Ruislip Manor, and then along Ruislip High Street. I lived in Ruislip from the age of 6 to 18 and it was a real trip down memory lane for me. We passed by the road where I used to live Midcroft, and it really has not changed a great deal. Then on towards Pinner and the Woodman pub. I was frustrated to have been so close to my dear friend Norma, who lives in Pinner, but there just wasn't time to call in for a cup of tea.
My Dad had a sister called Francis, who married Ashley. and they had a son called Michael. who married Dinky. and they had two sons called Ricky and Floyd, who are roughly my age. Michael was 87 and had had a good innings. So, it was a happy wake, celebrating Michael's life and a chance for family to come together and grieve for the loss.
Sister Lin, brother Roger, Cousin Leon -------------------------- me with Bro-in-law Graham and cousin Sue
My brother Roger had offered to drive me to Heathrow, so when the time came, we put my suitcase in his car and joined the rush hour traffic on the M25 and then the M4. As we pulled up at the airport, I realised my backpack, containing my passport, was still at the Woodman pub in Northwood,☹☹☹.
Our first instinct was to head back to the pub at top speed, but the traffic was terrible and there was no way we would get there and back before my flight left. But Uber came to my rescue. I called the pub and arranged for them to give my backpack to the Uber driver to whom I offered a very large tip and he saved the day.
So back to Sao Paulo and the sunshine, where I determined to take things easy with my arm in the sling. The flight was a bit uncomfortable as I had to fly via Madrid with Iberia. As often happens with connecting flights, I made the Sao Paulo flight, but my luggage did not, but as I've only got 1 arm which works, it meant less luggage to worry about.
Christmas in Brazil.
Take care and stay healthy!
Love from Peter