Hello my dear!

I am back in New York, sniffling and sneezing and rather pooped to be honest, after our celebration of Calum’s 21st in Montreal, and the 6 hours each way on the road which were necessary to making that happen…

What fun, though, and what a joy to launch our 4th and youngest into official adulthood. We had a lovely brunch for his friends on Sunday in his, frankly, stunning apartment with wrap-around views of Montreal, big living space opening into a nice kitchen, 2 nice bedrooms and 2 bathrooms. Holy crap! Twice as nice as our place in NY, and approx 70% of the price – makes me kinda crazy.

His friends are all delightful citizens, all Francophone (everything was in French), but coming from all over the place – France, Morocco, Tunisia, Canada, USA, and points East. Jewish, Muslim, Christian, agnostic, atheist – wow, this is world citizenship as I love to witness it. They all seem to have a terrific work ethic and look squeaky clean, not like me and my fellow students!!

Calum calls Ben, his flatmate, “the Jew”, which rather shocked me at first, until I realized it’s a big joke between them, especially as Calum looks like some kind of blonde Aryan 6 foot 6 god, and Ben looks very stereotypically Jewish, small and slight with dark hair and a hooked nose. It’s their way of flushing racism out into the open, and I’m all for that.

We came back to government shutdown, on the one-year anniversary of Trump’s accession to the high office of President, which he has so successfully brought to a state of world-wide ridicule. Apparently he has stamped his size 12 feet (yes, just imagine the rest, folks!) and said he MUST have his Mexican wall and some other toys, otherwise the US economy can just go fuck itself. Well done, Donny-boy, you show them who’s the boss around here!

Meanwhile, porn star “Stormy Daniel” has kicked off her “Make America Horny Again” tour Saturday, on the anniversary of the President’s inauguration. Her alleged affair with Trump at the time of the birth of his son Barron (why ever not “Prince”, I wonder?) in 2006. The Trophy Club  in Greenville, South Carolina, kicked off this auspicious occasion, with the promise, “see Stormy in a way the President allegedly has”. “He saw her live, you can too!” said the flier. God Bless America! God Bless the Capitalist Dream!! Surely we have never had it this good?

My plan to spend 5 to 8 years in New York, God willing, still holds. It has been a bit rattled by all this nonsense though, and I have to say, at the risk of being summarily repatriated to my own personal “shit-hole” of a country, I do find something deeply, intrinsically stupid about this country. I’m sorry, because there is a lot I like about it, but there is definitely too much stupidity and poisonous narrow-mindedness and polarised thinking. We’ll see how long I last before running back to my lovely French farmhouse or joining you on Tiree. 

Both seem highly attractive right now, particularly as I have just held our young assistant in my arms and comforted her as she tried to cope with the news of her cousin dying of an overdose today…

Sorry, that was a bleak note on which to end. It happened as I was writing so I could hardly not include it…..

Yin and yang – there is plenty of goodness out there too, and I still maintain my hope that these troubled times give birth to a more enlightened society. Only trouble is, I think folks were saying that in the Sixties too….

Tiree sure looks good from here, dear Sis!! Enjoy, get tucked in there, let that fresh wind blast through your hair and lungs. For sure you’ll find little things to annoy you about local life and nosey neighbours, but you know all about that from experience. Hopefully the only “Stormy” you will see will be the Atlantic wind whistling across your beautiful, tree-less, white-beached island!

Love, as ever

J xx