I was going to pop into The Hope Café when we returned to Amber House in Hove after three weeks in Brazil, but then looked at my ‘notes’ and thought I don’t need a conversation to add to this week’s postcard scribbles! Sad to leave Rio de Janeiro although home for me is here!
The month of May is my month for birthdays; there must be an attraction between those born in the zodiac sign of Scorpio, me, and Taurians, those born in May. My son-in-law Sam’s birthday is the day before Celina’s, who shares hers with two others in the Yoga studio; BA’s is the following day and our masseuse Kay’s on the 16th! It’s also the time for the annual visit of Celina’s mother and partner Toni. In 2023 we went to Bath, in 2024 to Lymington (PCs 388 and 389) to meet up with a colleague of Celina’s father and last year to the Isle of Wight (PC 440) and Osborne House (PC 441 Osborne & Obesity).
This year’s visit was characterised by cool, unseasonable weather; one day we had hail and heavy rain – showers alternated with sunshine. This time plans to go to the RHS gardens at Wisely evaporated for various reasons, but Toni and I did visit Nymans, the National Trust garden near Handcross, north of Hove.
The Rhododendrons and Azaleas were in full bloom,
……. as were the Peones.
We returned home through the village of Balcombe where my parents lived between 1957 and 1985 (see PC 58 Going Home). Between Balcombe and Haywards Heath the country road goes over a little humpback bridge over the River Ouse; to the west is the enormous redbrick Balcombe viaduct carrying the London to Brighton railway 450m across the valley. It consists of 37 semi-circular arches, each 9m wide and 29m tall, and used some 11 million bricks.
Throughout my life I have always had a very quick glance through the obituaries published in The Times; some headlines suggest further reading. For instance, the obituary of Philip Caputo, the author of the highly acclaimed ‘A Rumour of War’, based on his 16 months serving in Vietnam, prompted me to buy the book. In the last couple of weeks I have read of the life of Edith Eger, a ballerina ‘who danced for Joseph Mengele at Auschwitz’, and marvelled at her spirit, then of Claudine Longet, ‘wife of Andy Williams who shot her lover’.
Claudine had three children with the singer Andy Williams before divorcing him and moving in with her lover Vladimir Sabich. One morning she shot him with a .22 revolver, claimed there was an issue with the weapon’s safety catch, a jury found her guilty of negligent homicide which in US law means there was no intent to kill, and the judge sentenced her to 30 days in the Aspen county jail – to be taken whenever she liked!! After completing her sentence, her defence attorney left his wife and children and moved in with his client; they settled in Hawaii.
The Rolling Stones wrote a song about her story in 1978; part of the lyrics are: “She shot him once right through the head, she shot him twice right through the chest, the judge ruled it was an accident, Claudine. Accidents will happen”!!
Scribbling those lyrics from one of the most famous rock bands in the world reminds me of another song title ‘Purple Rain’. I admit to knowing little about it until I heard it on a television show and learned it was a hit for Prince, who wrote the lyrics. There’s a suggestion that purple rain is all about drugs, but actually the colour is a metaphor for the end of the world, where blue, representing sadness and the sky, meets blood and passion, the red. To get through the ‘storm’ you need love and faith; how true!
Weeks later and we are going down the escalator to the basement in the El Ateneo Grand Splendid bookstore on Avenida Santa Fe in Buenos Aires (See PC 490 Argentina & Buenos Aires (2)). There in the front rack of some of vinyl records is ‘Purple Rain – Prince and the Revolution’. (Note 1)
We had been back just over 24 hours from Brazil when I met an old Army chum and his wife for supper in The Better Half, just off Kingsway in Hove. The day before I had had another Covid booster so when, as we were entering the pub, Jonathan asked whether I was ‘all jabbed up’, I said something like ‘Absolutely! Another Moderna’. Later I realised his mind was imagining I was just like the rest of the middle classes, taking a weight-loss jab because I couldn’t discipline myself to eat more sensibility and take some exercise, and heard Mounjaro. I was quite shocked to hear lots of his social circle were using this, or one of the others, on a regular basis.
We practise our hot yoga in Yoga-In-The-Lanes, a studio on Middle Street in the centre of old Brighton. The co-owner, BA, was singing with her group Atlantic Crossing in the Bootlegger Pub at the bottom of the street the following evening, 8th May. Knowing of Jonathan & Deborah’s love of live ‘pub music’, I suggested they went. Both BA and Deborah are ex-pat Americans, so they exchanged news in the interval!
I am sure there’s an adage about how long it takes to change a light bulb? Last month I noticed one of the outside light bulbs across the second entrance to Amber House was not working.
Not sure how long it would take for our landlord to organise an electrician to come out …… to replace a lightbulb (?) …… so I took it upon myself to replace it. Unfortunately, the painters who redecorated Amber House last year simply painted over the screws holding on the light fitting. The screwheads sheared off! I had to drill out the screws, replace the bulb, then close it together with a couple of nuts and bolts. Two hours to replace one bulb!!
Richard 22nd May 2026
Hove
Note 1 It cost 58,600 Argentinian pesos …. about £43!
postcards 