Primary and Middle School Needlework Unearthed!

Primary and Middle School Needlework Unearthed!

Friday, October 21, 2022

Southport, Connecticut

Day 6 of Operation Relocation involved massive clear-out of 2 more closets: cashmere sweaters,wool blazers,shirts,trousers,shoes,boots,hats/caps,gloves,scarves,jackets/overcoats.More Houseware,kitchen goods,costume jewelry.House exterior re-painted, deck stained, front door, porch & shutters painted, Southport Connecticut

Estate Sale tmrw. May the force be with us! Wish us luck!!!!

School Needlework! All being unearthed from my attic! Buried treasure! Because it’s so dry in my heat insulated attic, all these items have survived intact—no moisture, no humidity to attack them!

Bringing a long & productive day to a boozy end! Salute!

Friends Picking Out Memorabilia! And Culling Through Keepsakes from my Daughter's Life.

 

Friends Picking Out Memorabilia! And Culling Through Keepsakes from my Daughter's Life. 

Wednesday-Friday, October 12014, 2022

Southport, Connecticut

Getting Ready for Estate Sale                                                                

Day 5 of Operation Relocation 

...meant no tutorial classes today but ceaseless culling & curating in my kitchen cabinets, basement, dining room & bar. Upstairs, I sorted through my books (giving a lot of books that were personally inscribed for me and signed by their authors). Simply no way I’d have space for them in India. 

Trawled through my table linen closet and through my hall closet to sort through, fold and give away winter scarves. 

Almost Eve of Estate Sale Day! I seriously did not know I had all these possessions! Half a coffee table covered with candles!

Very proud of my efforts! Have accomplished all this SINGLE-HANDEDLY as Llew has been continuing to work all day and is chained to his study.

My brother and his wife have taken some living room furniture. Will come and take a look tmrw but say they’re maxed out, space-wise, and don’t want to pick up anything if they cannot accommodate it.

All my friends are coming in and picking something by which to remember me. I am just giving it away to them. Bonnie had taken a large glass platter. Says she will use it for appetizers or dessert during Dinner Club evenings—so that Llew and I remain in their midst. Amy picked up a large, tall, green glass bottle to go with her new decor. Will also be cherished, she says, as a reminder of us. Mary-Lauren picked out a Birkin bag. Says, “I love that bag. It will always remind me of you!”

Found a whole suitcase filled with memorabilia, in my attic, from Chriselle’s babyhood and childhood. All the tiny little outfits I sewed for her and then embroidered; her first feeding bottle; her first sipper; the cardigan my Mum knitted for her; her baby blanket; the crocheted outfit that she modeled in Eve’s Weekly as a child; each one of her school uniforms through various grades—LKG, UKG, Primary School, Middle School… everything labelled and catalogued by me four decades ago!!!! Will be passing it all in to her now! Fighting terribly nostalgic tears….

Fulbright Meeting! Book Club Meeting!

Fulbright Meeting! Book Club Meeting!

Tuesday, October 18, 2022

Southport, Connecticut

Day Five of Operation Relocation:

Am involved right now in a long 5 hour meeting with a Fulbright committee in Washington DC. So happy to be doing it from here or else I’d be doing it while in India from 9.30 pm till 2.30 am!!!

Not just Jo Malone! Look at all the Tiffany boxes I kept!!!

Culling & Curating Continues!!!! Haven’t felt the sunshine on my face for almost a week—homebound big-time and deep within the salt mines!

Book Club Meeting at my friend Bonnie’s. Book was: ‘Late Nights on Air’ by Elizabeth Hay. 

Bonnie served Brown Rice & Roasted Brocolli with Grilled Salmon. Dessert was Apple Cake w/Whipped Cream. Mary-Lauren was missing as she had thyroid removal surgery last night (suspected cancer).  Was SO GOOD to see my CT Book Club friends again.

Culling Through Book Collection. Off to Charity Shops.

Culling Through Book Collection. Off to Charity Shops. 

Monday, October 17, 2022

Southport, Connecticut

Day 4 of Operation Relocation finds me with a  sore arm (4th Covid booster vaccination yesterday) & slight body ache. 

Taught 3 1-hour online Tutorials in the morning.

 Culling through books, papers & memorabilia in our Media Room & Guest  Room; drove to Pequot Library to pick up empty boxes; collapsed boxes were reassembled by me (Llew was at work all day in Manhattan);my friend Bonnie came over in the afternoon and together we moved a lot of stuff from my basement to each of our cars for transport to Goodwill (charity shop). 

 I next went to Carousel, another charity shop with slightly better looking items. Badly needed a break so rushed to Dairy Queen, my favorite ice-cream parlor for a Chocolate Blizzard as only my friend there, Beth-Ann, the manager, knows how to make them. Ice-cream Break done (I worked hard to fight sleep that  becomes insistent about 5 pm), then tackled my books—what to donate to the Pequot Library, what to put into my estate sale this weekend, what to ship to Bombay. The hardest part is letting my coffee table books go! In the end, I have put them in my estate sale too. If they do not get snapped up, I shall donate them to the library. When Llew returned home, we had a TV dinner and being totally beat by then, I took a shower and hit the sack at 9 pm. Another productive day ended.

Sunday! Day Two (& Three) of Operation Relocation

 Sunday! Day Two of Operation Relocation

Sunday, October 16, 2022

Southport, Connecticut

Just back from Sunday Mass. And what a fab Mass it was too!!!! I SO miss my Masses here!!! Brilliant homily! Priest Spoke about being a Jesuit theologian in Jordan & Jerusalem for years. Such a moving sermon and the priest too (Irish—Fr Thomas Fitzgerald) was emotional (blew his nose a couple of times) while preaching. HUGE welcome from my church community here!!! So many came up to say Hello and Welcome Back.

After breakfaast, Foraging around my closet continues! Unearthing all these designer gems—bag and shoe sets. The YSL bag is still in its original packing (have never used it).  Same with the Ferragamo cocktail shoes—never worn! Love the Bally bag and shoe set (wear them a lot).

Bringing all these to India. Don’t know if I will ever use them or if the weather will ruin them. They all come in protective cloth bags—hopefully that will help preserve them. But I simply don’t have the heart to leave them behind here!

Finished clearing out my closet; went grocery shopping to the supermarket and Trader Joe’s; drove my car after a year to my brother Roger’s place where we were invited for dinner. Lovely day…lthough not ultra-productive!

Oh…also met our next-door neighbors, the Homs. Will be staying in the spare apartment attached to their home once our interior decorators come in. 

Also can’t believe there was NOTHING in the fridge!!!!! Had to go grocery shopping and will need to cook tmrw—That will take precious time away from clearing out!

Realizing I don’t just have a love for Jo Malone—I have a healthy obsession!!!! Look at all these boxes I collected and kept through the years!!! And if you could only see the amount of product I have, yet unused.

Met our next-door neighbors of 27 years: Pui & Ken Hom and daughter Taylor who got married last week! I missed her 12-course sit down Chinese Wedding Banquet by a week!!Will be staying in the apartment attached to their home when our interior decorators come in.

Sorting through the detritus of my life, I have come across this article on my research in Bombay that appeared in the August 2019 issue of Sunday Mid-Day. Do take a read. It’s amazing what I am unearthing here.

First Day in Southport, Connecticut: the Sheer Joy of Being Home Again! And First Day of Appraisal of Belongings!

First Day in Southport, Connecticut: the Sheer Joy of Being Home Again! 

Saturday, October 15, 2022

Enjoying the simplest pleasures of being ‘home’ again with Hubs. Enjoyed a lemony cuppa with a slice of Battenburg Cake.

First day of OperationRelocation is going well with Hubs. I am Jetlagged at 4 am--so I cleared out the contents of my bathroom, guest room closet, remainder of my jewelry drawers and am halfway sorted through my closet. My Back is now screaming in protest.

Spent morning Clearing my closet. I will no longer need leather knee-high boots but will hold on to the leather Balenciaga weekender (bag).I find that I stockpiled soap—-from Florence, Italy and Paris, France!!! You have to see the amount of perfume I have stockpiled! Hanging my head in shame ! And the number of bags I am giving away!!!! You would not believe it!

But there are some bagsm I am bringing back to Bombay. There is he red leather Cartier envelope bag I bought in Paris—have NEVER used it!!!

Am already spending a fortune shipping a small percentage of my stuff!!! Shipping everything would bankrupt me!!!!

Also giving away cashmere sweaters—dozens of them!!! All going…

Mine are all leather shoes. Clarks, Timberland, Stuart Weizmann (my favorite), Bass. The leather got mildewed in the monsoon when I traveled with them to India, but I used a leather conditioner and buffed them and then they were as good as new.

I have a lot of vintage leather Coach bags. I have already brought them to Bombay and I use them daily. I buff them with the leather conditioner—they revive like magic.

I am shipping a whole container load to India! Some of my China, silverware, glassware, paintings, art works, antique furniture…costing a Queen’s ransom…but we’re going back on TR (Transfer of Residence).

Don’t understand why my texts to my friends in India are so garbled! I meant to say that our closets are full here because we have enough for 4 seasons! You need a lot of different kinds of garments. I already took all my summer clothes back to Bombay gradually over 3 trips back & forth. But I also need to transport some winter clothing to India as we will be traveling back and forth since we have family here. Also, we LOVE Spring & Fall here—so we won’t come back only in the summers. I Don’t want to have to buy new clothes on each trip. Plus, I invested in good (expensive) clothing with the expectation it would last a lifetime!!!

But no regrets!!! Because it is quality clothing I always bought, it has lasted me for years! The snow boots (Dexter, lined with Thinsulate), I bought 30 years ago!!!! Used them EVERY SINGLE WINTER for 30 years!!!! Same with Cashmere sweaters. Bought years ago. Well used, but gently and then dry-cleaned at the end of each season!

After one contract with an estate sale company fell through (she fell sick), we’re looking at hiring a company to do an online estate sale for us. She is coming on Monday to do an appraisal. Much will go into online auction, especially our furniture sets. We have a Chippendale dining set, Italian leather sofa set in the family room, etc. Packers, movers & shippers have been appraising our movable estate with Llew online. Have already received quotes & estimates. They will do the packing too—a lot of fragile breakables. Want to make sure they don’t blame us for packing shabbily in the event of breakage.

Greetings from Istanbul! Quick Layover on Flight from Newark, New Jersey to Bombay, India

 Greetings from Istanbul! Treasures from an old Turkish bazaar.

Istanbul, Turkey

Friday, October 14, 2022

Quick layover in Istanbul allows me to roam through the bazaars in the Duty Free area: Isnik ceramics, Turkish halva, magic carpets & glazed terracotta. Istanbul Entices.

Edible options: tons of syrupy baklava, wheels of sourdough bread, pidem with assorted stuffing & Turkish delight.

As In Yeats’ poem, the harbor is full of container ships that sailed to Byzantium. Modern-day Istanbul.

From the aircraft, upon landing in Istanbul, across the Bosporus, I see the thin strip of land that connects Europe with Asia.