Saturday October 28 2023

     The last entry I made was in September, when the weather was extremely hot, and in that post I mentioned my concern about 'tempting Providence' when we made plans for travel well in advance.

I had worried that some health problem would crop up that would mean the cancelation of the pending trip to England, where we had paid lavishly for accommodation in London for a couple of weeks. But no health problems arose: we went to London: and at the end of our England visit we took the train down to Somerset for Beatrice's wedding. All went swimmingly, a good time in London and a really worthwhile get-together of the extended family in Somerset. Back to London on the train on the Sunday: one night in the very posh Royal Garden Hotel: out to Heathrow early on Monday--and back at 3001 Veazey Terrace NW by about 5.30pm.

So, today--October 28--we have been back 5 days, and we do not seem to have recovered our regular sleep patterns. It is only 9.30pm, and Joan has fallen asleep. I am trying to stay up until closer to my old time of somewhere around 11.30pm--which normally meant I slept until about 8.00am.

I have two 'performances' coming up at the Cosmos Club. In the first, I will be reading the part of Winston Churchill in a play about the meeting of Churchill, Gandhi, and Jinnah in the afterworld, where they discuss the circumstances that led to the partition of India into the two nations of India and Pakistan and the awful massacres that occurred at that time. I know little about the second 'performance,' except that it will be a poetry reading. When I auditioned for the Churchill play, the woman organizing it gave me a poem to read--and when I finished it, the other people there gave me a round of applause. I suppose it was that reading that led to my being asked for this new poetry session.

The next tempting of Providence is our planned trip to Australia, leaving on about January 10th and coming back in mid-February. I have some regular health check-ups not far in advance of that trip--and again I will be on tenterhooks that there might be some adverse development in my health.