1) A month has passed, half of which was taken up with a delightful and very busy visit from Carl. In the two weeks he was here we visited the MFA, the Nichols House, the Harrison Gray Otis House, Salem and the Peabody Essex Museum, Petit Robert, the Union Oyster House, and much else.
At Faneuil Hall.
1a) Finalmente, he was able to meet my closest friends after all these months, which went off well all around.
1b) The best investment I’ve made in no little time was a café table and a pair of chairs for my back porch. We had breakfast out there every morning those two weeks, and it couldn’t have been more delightful. That said, Carl is all about a breakfast tray (and a tea tray at the appropriate hour), and now my tray game is 100% improved.
Unseen: napkins already on the table. Mother would be so proud at the increase of napkin use in this house.
1c) One Sunday I got to see Carl in action at the post-matinee “audience talk back” at Gloucester Stage. They were doing a play by a playwright Carl had interviewed on his podcast about Edith Wharton’s adulterous (!) midlife affair with a bounder, Mr. Fullerton Between the Sheets. A very interesting play, and a delight to see Carl in his element as an acknowledged Edith Wharton expert.
1d) The quest for a good lobster roll was also important.
2) Tomorrow I launch August in the afternoon by flying to Barcelona (!) to begin a six-week (!) stay in Spain and Malta. At the moment I’m mostly packed and ready to go, but I know I’m missing something! Like, any knowledge of how to speak Spanish beyond Sí sí, no, rioja, manzanilla, non se habla Espanol, and parts of the libretto of Carmen, which doesn’t count ‘cause it’s in French.
2a) The first three weeks include a week in Barcelona, a week in Madrid, and a week in Seville/Málaga/Granada. The last two weeks will be on Malta: first five days on Gozo, and then nine days in the capital, Valletta.
2a.1) Unlike my previous self-planned trips to Europe, I don’t have every day planned to the hour. I do already have tickets to some Very Important Attractions: Sagrada Familia, the Prado (twice, once for collections, once for exhibitions), El Escorial, and the Alhambra), but as for the rest . . . qui sait?! If I can’t figure out what to do with myself, in Barcelona I’ll certainly go to the beach. Elsewhere I can just park down at a café with a book and a spritz.
2b) The fourth week is exceptionally special: a one-week cruise of the Western Mediterranean for which Carl will be joining me. We’ll call at Villefranche in the south of France, Rome, Naples (we are doing the excursion to Pompeii, and Palma on the island of Mallorca.
The new duds!
2c) For the cruise, which includes two gala nights for black tie, I ordered my third and, I hope, Final Tuxedo from a fabulous bespoke tailor in New York, Cad and the Dandy. I have to say, it is divine! My 2000 tuxedo definitely cannot manage my 2022 waistline.
3) It’s worth emphasizing that I have never been any place on this itinerary before and I am amazed this is actually happening tomorrow. Wish me luck!