Greetings from Bogotá, where I have being enjoying a quiet time of relaxation and reflection.
After an October and November under intense pressure as we partook in the preparation and production prior to the presentation of Adriano’s art and my book, the end of 2023 and beginning of 2024 offered a welcome change of pace.
Bogotá in December and January is very quiet and civilised … everyone around our neighbourhood leaves town for their farms or country houses or foreign breaks, and I had the place almost to myself to read and write and to enjoy siestas.
Adriano took another route. He had some important family business to attend to in London and, full of post exhibition vigour, he set off for his first trip out of the country since 2019.
He was in Malta with brother Nelson for Nelson’s birthday and Christmas, and then had a solo sojourn sketching, exploring, eating and being inspired in Sicily, Calabria, Napoli and Rome. He shared his travels and dinners with me via WhatsApp and I often had to suggest what I would choose on the menu of whichever restaurant he happened to be patronising. Sometimes I got it right.
He had his office in his pocket, his Smartphone, which he used to manage the coffee business, plot strategy with Administrator Julian, check on the gardens and cats and dogs with ‘agregado’ Alvaro, and on Saturdays pay the ‘nomina’ for the principal employees and contractors. He did this from coffee shops and hotel lounges along the way. In London he used the members’ lounges at the Royal Academy, Victoria & Albert and the two Tates (Britain and Modern), being a member of each and frequent visitor to all when in London.
As for reflection the main focus was the loss in early January of Penny Wills, wife of my brother Chris for more than 55 years, mother of three sons, our favourite nephews Brendan, Lachlan and Cameron, and of seven grandchildren, five of whom we have yet to meet.
Penny was a wonderful woman; blindingly intelligent, chatty, curious, gregarious, supportive, sympathetic, playful, loving. She loved travel and was always keen to see and experience things that were novel or foreign. I commented to Chris that they made a great team when travelling; Chris would study the wine list and Penny would study the guidebooks and tourist information brochures, and then both would enjoy sharing the findings of each other’s research.
Penny is sadly missed but a lifetime of wonderful loving memories remains for all of us.
But I have other happier news to report too. The paperback version of ‘Better Than Cocaine’ is no longer restricted to Colombia.
As of last Saturday, as well as being available in electronic version, the physical book is available worldwide. Just go to Amazon in your country and type ‘Barry Max Wills’ or ‘Better Than Cocaine’.
I have had some very flattering reviews, for which I am truly thankful. You can see them on the page on Amazon that features BTC (Better Than Cocaine). If you do read and enjoy my book please feel free to add a few nice words about it at Amazon. It can be a very short comment.
I must admit that I am thinking of my own benefit here. As I have said too many times before, as well as me being gratefully reassured that you enjoyed BTC, the Amazon algorithm reacts to reviews and can make my book look desirable for new readers.
It is in multiple bookshops here in Bogotá, particularly the sophisticated ones with an English language section, and Richard is working on the airport bookshops and outlets where English reading visitors might be intrigued by the title and cover. It really is a great travel companion on a long flight, even if I do say so myself.
In the meantime it looks like normal life is returning to our little cul de sac.
Between 6.30am and 7.00am we have a procession of vehicles collecting partly domesticated animals.
First there are the school buses, which, as they pause in front of specified buildings, are met by a maid with small child in hand to deliver to the driver.
Then come the doggy buses … vans and trucks hosting a mass of individual dog compartments into which the canine customers climb or leap to be whisked off to doggy behavioural and grooming day spas. They all come back in the afternoon, usually to be met by the same maid.
But it won’t feel truly normal until Adriano walks through the front door, which I am delighted to report, is very soon.
Love from him and me
Barry
