SUMMER NEWSLETTER FROM XAVIERA HOLLANDER
JUNE 2018 – 75th birthday party
Summer has finally arrived and how!!! With great warm and dry weather!
It was mid May that Philip and I went once more on the costa del Sol in Fuengirola, Spain. I am apparently a very faithful friend, specially of those people who seldom or never come to look us up in Amsterdam. We rented a spacious well equipped lovely apartment in the middle of town where, as usual, Philip one afternoon cooked up a storm for about a dozen of our best friends. We had some help of a dear youthful friend in his early forties, KIMMO MOILANEN, a Finish forester who has on and off lived in Spain. I know him from when he was a mere 18 year old slender boy and now… he is still the same charming handsome youthful man, married with a cheerful Spanish woman whose parents live in Fuengirola as well. Since a year they even got a gorgeous new baby boy!
Lovely Belgian Journalist couple in Spain
Spring 2018 I had been interviewed in Amsterdam for a Belgian travel magazine by a fun young couple Alain and his wife, Jacobien, a journalist, in exchange for a free night at our Happy House BB. They live most of the time in a great old finca not far from Fuengirola, Spain. She wrote a great article and then they invited us back to visit them when next we would be in Spain. So… we contacted Alain, as his wife and daughter were in Scotland and indeed, he treated us to two unforgettable days and a fun night in a lovely renovated hotel in Periana – region of Granada. Alain picked us up at a local cafe with his own white Renault and drove us for hours all around the region where he and his family had an olive vineyard where they made their own olive oil. They sell a.o. some great wines, liquors and special Spanish cheeses www.lafactoriadelgusto.com. Periana is a small mountain village in a most picturesque surrounding overlooking lots of green hills, which is unusual for that part of Spain where it is normally very dry.
Alain treated us to a sumptuous healthy lunch, on the shaded terrace of their finca, surrounded by dozens of different trees with all sorts of fresh tropical fruit to grab: oranges, lemons. Half a dozen sweet big lazy dogs welcomed us at the gate and a lovely old female donkey was making her “ia ia” sounds, while tied up to a long rope. Everywhere on the terrace were enormous bowls on display with dried biscuits for the many dogs. When Alain finally had cleared the table, we stretched our legs and then he took us on a terrific tour ala campagne.
Our bubble bath in a romantic hotel
After a few hours drive in the region of their finca he dropped us off at a most original romantic hotel, with a terrific big comfortable bed, luxurious curtains and an enormous bathroom. However there was also an old fashioned bathtub in the middle of our bedroom!
Philip, who always prefers to take quick showers, was finally convinced by me to pour himself a nice warm bubble bath. And there he soaked for almost half an hour, while I quickly took some sweet pics of him. When we were leaving the following morning, it appeared that Alain had already taken care of the hotel bill, the darling. So much for generosity and kindness! Luckily we had been able to treat him to a divine meal at one of the most famous artistic restaurants in the neighborhood with lots of fun Spanish waiters who all greeted him with Spanish remarks. Luckily Alain apparently had mastered their language and it was clear that they adored him and apparently us too.
So... this was like a delightful “holiday in a holiday.” The fields all around were so green as there had been a month of rain in April, so everybody was happy except the tourists who had come for the sun in that period. Shortly after our return to Fuengirola I received a phone call from Alain… that the moment he returned to his home after our farewell... apparently the old donkey who must have felt lonely and naughty had jerked herself off her old rope and marched to the terrace where she devoured not only all the bowls with dog-food but even found the enormous bag with dog-food around the corner…!! Naughty naughty.
Back to Holland after almost 3 weeks. Of course one thing that should not be forgotten is the visit I made, like each year to my wunder doctor Wolfgang Schmitt who is also so proud to be on my mailing list and is even prouder when his name is being mentioned once more. So here we go..." My darling doctor who just does not seem to age one bit over the 15 years I have known you here is an ode to you specially from a grateful patient from Amsterdam."
Wunder doctor
I walked into his office, tired and with pains and aches all over my body: like knees, hips, back and shoulder... I had even taken a walking stick along from Amsterdam as I was in real need of support when taking high steps... I felt like a junkie who came for her yearly miracle injections of crispine and cortisone, he gave me once a year with an enormous long needle and a very painful shot between my bones. So I could move around pain free again for at last 8 months. These injections seemed to moisturize the dried out bones for quite some time.
As Wolfgang is such a handsome virile man (he has five adult children, who are all doctors of some kind) I also always looked forward to his yearly bearhug of a few moments upon arrival. This time it was Philip who stood next to us and whispered in Dutch, while I was enjoying this emotional embrace: “betcha this is going to cost you another Euro 100!!!”
I had to come back a week later for a second set of these massive injections this time in hips, back and shoulder and once more this great hug at the door... and ofcourse Philip's same whispered text and indeed…. When we got the bill from his secretary it came to Euro 200 more than last year…
It was during this holiday in Spain while leaning on my own walking stick that somehow I discovered just HOW many other often older people were walking with rollators, or leaning on sticks or seated even in wheelchairs! Of course there were luckily hardly any childrenon vacation so, at least the restaurants were more or less quiet and nobody suffered from screaming kids.
How time flies. Back to Amsterdam, no more walking stick was needed as I felt reborn once more like each year when I came back from Spain. A few weeks later at the bed and breakfast with a full house of mostly doctors who attended the medical congress at the RAI congress center, one morning - 3 days before I had planned an enormous 75th birthday part at our house, I came dashing down the stairs at 7.30 a.m., allowing Philip to stay in bed a bit later as he needs his extra hours sleep sometimes and I walked cheerfully into our livingroom, where the wooden floor had just been polished. I had put on some thin summer socks as my feet were still cold round that time.
Shocking pink on my left foot
With a cheerful “Hello... everybody” to the three doctors who were enjoying their breakfasts ... I suddenly slipped on the shiny floor and fell WHAMMO right between their chairs, banged my head against the couch on one side and flipped over my left foot totally. All three doctors jumped up simultaneously and carefully pulled me back to my feet, set me down in a comfortable chair and studied my left foot. They said unanimously. “We are all doctors lets have a look at your foot. aha.. this needs an instant icepack on it as it is swollen and bruised. Lets call your husband and have him take you to a hospital and get some photographs taken of that left foot as it looks like you may have broken it.“
By this time Philip who had apparently heard me scream in pain came down instantly and was really worried. In no time he drove me to the nearest clinic where they took x rays of my left foot. Indeed the doctors were right, it was broken in two parts. So we rushed on to the Onze Lieve Vrouwen Gasthuis hospital, familiar to us all, and there we had to wait from 12 p.m. till 4 p.m. until someone looked at my sore foot and finally sent me to the department where two charming young women put it in a plaster of my choice of color SHOCKING PINK...6 weeks in a cast was my ordeal and NO leaning on that foot in the meantime, nor standing or walking on it! It looked and felt monstrous with a horrible black home made shoe attached to the cast that could not be removed for the next 6 weeks.
At home, when the pain came back again I went to sleep and took some painkillers. Luckily we have already for years a stair lift, now Philip went and bought two professional big crutches, ordered a wheel chair and a potty stool from the medical insurance service and gave me some more painkillers. My right knee in the meantime had also started to colour totally black and blue (probably due to the fall as well as the blood thinners I daily take). And so dear friends I am still at the moment kind of house bound...
Up to a more cheerful event I at least did attend… MY 75TH BIRTHDAY PARTY – mind you mostly in a horizontal position.
In the meantime I had already invited about 70 people to my next party... luckily as each year so far the weather was fine... for Holland standards, a bit of sun, not too warm, around 21 degrees C and a brand new outside terrace cover fabricated by my best friend Herman de Bock. The man with the golden hands and a delightful dimple in his chin!!!
There were also half a dozen talented musicians, who treated us to fabulous real gypsy tones. Some old pals like Frank de Kleer and his adorable talented teenage son of 13, and a fine Hungarian real gypsy base player also accompanied a talented Indian female singer Sandhia Sanjana with her deep warm voice for a few songs.
Albert Gielisse, my lover from when I was in my mid twenties (a talented flamenco guitar player as well as inventor), and a friend of his, also made some fine flamenco music . They did this right outside my garden chalet, but since there was no amplifier sound system connected only very few people right near them could enjoy their music. It was there that also one of Hollands most famous book reviewers for the Volkskrant was seated, called Arjen Peters who had been in touch with me recently. So I had invited him as well. It turned out that we instantly became good friends and he promised to try and help me get my latest books - I have finished in Dutch as well as English - published by a reliable publisher and also suggested to make sure they would find me a good editor..
Then there was Tom de Jong, usually known for his great singing talents a.o. Ramses Shaffy songs, - who just returned from a 2 months trip to Indonesia - with a successful start in the Film industry as he played one of the leading roles of GENERAL DE WIT during Dutch colonization period. Tom put a few eager dancers from the audience on the dance floor with his infectious cheerful songs. He too entertained my many friends with his lively music. Meanwhile I was mostly seated in one of the two comfortable lazy boy chairs I had placed opposite the piano in the living room. Here I was overlooking the audience in the living room as well as part of the new terrace so I could watch the people come by, lean over to me, hug me, and some sat down and chatted with me. There was this gorgeous slender young woman in her late twenties, who had lived a pretty wild sex life. And she had recently finished writing her first sex book. We became instant mates and last night I wrote a sweet article for her to put in her own book. Her name is Marith.
Surprise visitors and great acts on my 75th birthday party
Another new girlfriend or should I say mature ladyfriend with a very youthful personality, much like myself Marjan Strack van Schendel in her early sixties, I had asked to play what we call "the door bitch". When the party started she would stand near the entrance to let people in, accept whatever gifts or envelopes with some money they had brought for me, hand them to me or Philip and took pictures of most everyone who had walked in during the rest of the day. I am very fond of Marjan, who once in a while writes for a local Amstelveens weekly paper. She has, like me, no kids but she has not got a steady man or husband. So, to my great pleasure I saw a few men, mostly ex lovers from my own past, now all single and very mature, fancy her and the next day several emails were exchanged where I was asked to send them Marjans email details and guess what... I think she even really may get lucky with a good pal I know since he left high school together with me.
One of my most favorite guests who showed up a few days before my 75th party was the man who originally started the Bed and Breakfast with me about a few years before Philip came into my life. His name is Marvin Goldsmith, a darling American super muffin maker hence his original nick name Marvin the muffin maker. In those days I was living mostly with Dia but after a few years however Marvin was ordered by the government to return back to the USA, even though he never asked the Dutch government for a penny since he lived of his own American pension. It was sad to see him go, specially as all the years after his departure he never had enough money to come back to Holland again.
This time he did manage to save enough money to return for 2 weeks. He looked splendid, for his 79 years, younger and more slender than ever, suntan and super happy to meet so many old friends. Marvin and Philip, two more dear friends Harry Kavelaar and a darling young 18 year old boy Sufian (son of dear friends of us Azmeh and John) , assisted in the kitchen and each made his own specialties. There were a.o. 350 delicious meatballs by Philip, 250 fried chicken legs by Sufian and many more salads by the others… Guess what ?? Not to forget a dozen or so cakes by mostly some of my girlfriends.
Rush on the food
By the time the party was not even half over ALL THE FOOD HAD BEEN EATEN ALREADY. Mostly by some young children of our friends who piled their plates up with dozens of meatballs and chicken legs. Until Philip told them to continue eating some healthy vegetable dishes and leave some of the rest to our other guests!!
Then there were a sweet girlfriend of mine I have known for many years, who lives in Bingen, Germany called Tamara with her very spoilt 43 year old son Yevgenio. They are Russian Jewish and she was the best and closest friend of one of my most adored lesbian lovers I met when I was younger and lived in Marbella, Hildegard. She used to be a great singer on several famous cruise ships and looked and sounded very much like Marlene Dietrich, when she was young. Hildegard ended her life in a German Retirement home in Bingen and between me and Tamara she was always very well looked after as I went to visit her a few times a year until she died at the age of 93 a few months ago. We were both totally devastated by her loss.
Tamara has been a concert pianist but mostly did charity work for poor Russian Jewish immigrants in Bingen. I offered her our nice garden chalet to stay in with her son, who was the most spoilt adult man I ever saw. His mother even had to cut his bread in the morning over breakfast and put chocolate or peanut butter on it before he would set his teeth in it. Tamara played a few beautiful classical pieces of piano music followed, by another dear much younger friend of mine XAVIER BOOT whose very attractive sweet mother Vera de Vries has exactly MY name. Xavier is now mid twenties and an interesting mixture of his Indonesian mother and a tall handsome Dutch father. He has studied both medicine as well as music and he surprised us all with a perfect sound alike of one of Philip Glasses most famous pieces of music. Amazing that barely 5 years ago I treated him to a concert of Philip Glass when he played exactly this same piece of music.
Video of Xavier Boot playing a piano piece of Philip Glass
Time to end this newsletter and add some nice pictures to it. In a few weeks time I will be able to get the pink cast removed so I can finally walk again on my own legs without help of Philip or my crutches. Have a great time wherever you are.
Xaviera, the fallen woman, still happy, even though a lot less mobile than usual.--- but not for too long!!
Sexy B&B guests
Before I sign off here are some nice words from one of our most beautiful and sexiest BB guests Laura Desiree, a tall blonde feisty young Canadian news reader at nakednews.com, a very open and freespirited TV station in Toronto, run by Mozes Znaimer, who once was a young Israeli import to Canada many years ago when we met and now he is in charge of a lot more TV stations. How I would have liked to have Laura Desiree as my own daughter!! This is what she wrote in our guest book as she left our B&B after 4 unforgettable days and nights…
“Xaviera dear, there is no possibility of me ever forgetting you in this life, I adore you!”
I just returned from Alaska, what a wonderful experience. We filmed my adventures on an 8-day all-inclusive luxury (CLOTHING-OPTIONAL) cruise with some fabulous stop-overs in Sitka, Juneau and Ketchikan. I was blown away by the scenery. Glaciers, Snow Peaked Mountains... and it was actually HOT. I got a sunburn on my chest! For Naked News, please enjoy the program by clicking www.nakednews.com
Love and have a great summer
Xaviera and Philip
