Tom has left us  -  he will always be in our hearts.

Tom had saved this poem as draft, we believe he would’ve wanted us to share this with you…

My candle burns at both ends

It will not last the night

But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends -

It gives a lovely light

by Edna St. Vincent Millay

Back from a family holiday in France where we spent two weeks in a rented castle. It was great fun and we lived and ate like kings. The girls each brought a friend and KH and his wife Karin from Frankfurt, as well as my brother-in-law Gerrit and his daughter Inès from South Africa later joined us. KH is an excellent cook and my bro’ Gerrit is an expert braai-master.

That and the fact that there was a well-stocked French supermarket nearby (foie gras, fresh lobster and fish, regional cheeses, nice big cuts of Charolais beef, fine wines; you get the picture), ensured that the culinary delights were on par with the cultural ones (Château de Chenonceaux, old towns of Tours and Poitiers, Beaune, Macon, Nuits-St. Georges and a lot of other famous names in the Burgundy wine-growing region). My darling Milena did a fantastic job navigating us safely on over 1’000 miles of country roads full of lunatic Citroën and Peugeot drivers – think “Trafic” by Jacques Tati.

Below is a picture of the pile we rented. It was very romantic, but not very clean (eh bien, les Français..).

To end our holiday in style, we went to the Montreux Jazz Festival and saw a fabulous concert by Kool and the Gang. More about this later. So we all got back a few days ago, happy, relaxed and with a few extra pounds to carry around.

Unfortunately, where there is light, there is shadow: I was having strong headaches during the last weeks and my Oncologist suspects that the old Gliobastard is on the warpath again. An MRI next week will hopefully show. In the meantime, quadrupling my daily dose of Cortisone has at least alleviated the pressure in my head.

Cheers and a happy summer to everyone,
Tom

Well, you know what they say: three experts, three opinions. In this case, this is easy for me to live with, as the general view of my MRI results (bar one) is that no new growth has occured, my neurosurgeon even thinks it’s gone back a bit!

We are besides ourselves with joy!

I am convinced that he is correct, since he knows the inside of my head like no one else and the guy with the dissenting opinion (radiologist) incorrectly identified blood vessels showing up on the contrast frames as new tumour growth.

The Temozolomide treatment certainly did help, but I am equally certain that Milena’s magic reiki treatments played a major role in stopping the tumour. Just wanted to share this piece of excellent news with all of you before I’m too happy with drink to write a proper post.

Prost and love to all of you,
Tom

The few days at the fabulous Shangri-La Resort in Muscat were really quite something. We were well and truly spoilt and had a very relaxing time. I was a bit tired mostly, so we didn’t do too much other than lounge by the pool or the beach, but hey – it was a holiday.

Oman is a beautiful country and the locals are really very friendly and open. We would definitely go again!

I’m still quite tired these days, sleeping 14 to 16 hours, but at least I can sleep.

The big day is tomorrow, first MRI after the combined radio- and chemotherapy. Depending on the results, it’ll be business as usual or a radically altered approach to the therapy. Anyways, more details in the next few days, keep your fingers crossed, my friends.

Cheerio,
Tom

For our traditional streetparty I cooked up a chili again, which was sold out much to soon; must make more next year!

Texas Chili

5 kg of beef (breast or neck, not too lean) cut into 2 cm chunks
6 large onions, chopped
6 stalks celery, chopped
4 large green peppers, chopped
4 large sweet red peppers, chopped
4 jalapeño peppers, deseeded and chopped
8 cloves garlic, ground
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
8 tbsp cocoa powder (with no sugar)
6 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp freshly ground cumin
1 tbsp hot paprika
50 g of fresh oregano, stalks discarded and finely chopped
6 tbsp molasses
1/2 bottle of dry red wine
4 400 g cans diced tomatoes, undrained
3 400 g cans chick peas, drained
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

800 g sour cream
600 g shredded cheddar cheese

Put the meat and the next seven ingredients into one or several large pots. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until meat browns. Drain and return to pot.

Stir in cocoa powder and rest of the ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

You can serve this right away with the sour cream and the shredded cheese, however, I find it improves if you prepare it a day ahead and reheat it the next day.

Serves 30 to 35 people.

Oh, and don’t forget the beer!

With the girls away in Spain and Crete, we went up to St. Moritz for a long weekend. Beautiful weather, great food, but bad idea. Yours truly wanted to go hiking, so on Friday we took a cable car up to 2′300 metres and started a short, but challenging hike which would have brought us up to about 2′700 metres (Chamanna Segantini). This is the mountain hut where the famous Swiss painter Giovanni Segantini retired in September 1899, to complete his triptych for the forthcoming world fair in Paris. On 28 September 1899 the artist died unexpectedly. His beautiful triptych of the alps can be seen in the Segantini museum in St. Moritz.

Well, I never even got there. Had to turn back after about two-thirds of the hike as I was getting woozier and woozier. Didn’t get much better in St. Moritz, I believe the altitude is probably not too good for me yet. Heck, who’d have thought I was still sick!

Back in Zurich now, everything’s normal again. This weekend I’ll do some Reiki – more about that later.

Cheerio,
Tom

Dear Friends,

Just to let you all know, I’m fine and will be able to go home tomorrow!

I’ll report more news next week (including the story on how I got 7 holes in my head for my operation).

Thanks for all your help, support and thoughts!

Love,
Tom

Ah, what a glorious sunrise over the lake! It’s 6 AM, the water is as flat as glass, and there are no boats yet to stir its surface.

I thank you all my friends for your concern, your offers of help, your kind, wise and funny words of support and for being… well just friends. This means the world to me!

My stay away from home will start late afternoon today, when I check into the University Hospital here in Zurich. Milena and the girls will of course bring me and make sure I can settle in comfortably. Thankfully I’ve got a nice room with a view (with binoculars I might even be able to make out my house across the lake).

As mentioned earlier, the operation proper is routine and I should be out of the operating theatre by about 2 PM on Monday. The plan is to wake me up from anaesthesia right away to be able to test my neurological responses. Expect my next post Tuesday morning latest!

Cheerio,
Tom