Rochelle's Roost &nbsp in London

Sunday, September 28, 2025

F

airfield, Connecticut

Our Sunday Routine (Almost) in Fairfield, Connecticut—Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church, Breakfast with Physician Friends, Meeting with Tenant, Reunions with Former Next-Door Neighbors, Lunch with Our Hosts, Dinner at a Former Colleague’s Home in Stratford, Connecticut

These blog posts will definitely lack the interest and sparkle of the last fifteen days as this Third Phase of my Travels bases me mainly in South-Western Connecticut. Llew and I have allocated this entire week to getting our routine annual medical check-ups done and in-between them meeting family members, former neighbors and friends. Most of the medical appointments had been made much in advance on the phone by our daughter, Chriselle (as international calling from India is problematic with most doctors’ offices keeping us on hold for ages while our precious international dialing minutes are swallowed up); I had made most of the appointments with friends and family members through whatsapp messages or email.

Mass at St. Anthony of Padua Church in Fairfield:

We had resolved that, on every visit, we would stay with different friends (we have a large number of them in Fairfield, thanks to our decades-long residence in the area) to avoid putting the burden on the same folks every year. This year, we’d be with our friends, Swapna and Rasik, who had just moved into a new, large, four-bedroom home and had invited us to come and stay with them. They live in the Stratfield part of Fairfield, very close to the Merrit Parkway, which made it very easy for us to zip up and down the highways to get to our medical appointments (of which we had almost four each day for the entire week).

On this Sunday morning, while the rest of the town had a long, lazy lie-in, we had awoken at the crack of dawn to go to the 8.00 am Mass at our former parish of St. Anthony of Padua, for old times’ sake (and, hopefully, to meet a few old familiar faces). When we had lived in Southport, it used to take us less than five minutes to drive to church. Now that we were so far away, it would take us much longer—but we had underestimated the amount of time it would actually take and, in the end, we were about ten minutes’ late. This meant that we did not have the pleasure of sitting in our regular pew but had to creep in, quietly, along the side and sit wherever we could without disturbing everyone else.

Behind The Wheel Again:

I have to say that since I had so many doctors’ appointments of my own and needed to drive our rented car to them, I suggested to Llew that I use the empty, traffic-less Sunday morning streets, to get a hang of the car and acquire familiarity with it. He agreed, of course, and so with me behind the wheel, we set out. I have to say that I was delightfully surprised to discover that getting back into the driver’s seat, after more than a year, was actually child’s play, It's like riding a bicycle—you don’t forget. Years of practice and instinct kick in automatically and, within minutes, I was fully comfortable steering the car along streets we both knew well. Furthermore, it was truly exhilarating. As I had discovered last year, when driving in the National Parks of the Southwest, I miss driving very much in Bombay where we do not own a car (and where, even if we did, I would never drive, as road-culture is completely different in India to the one in the West—there, might is right; here in the US, there are rules on the road and everyone obeys them). So I exulted in that sense of renewed accomplishment as we neared the church and, although disappointed that we were late, I arrived and parked in the church parking with a deep sense of triumph.

Mass was said by an unfamiliar Jesuit priest from Fairfield University. Occasionally, I sneaked a look at fellow congregation-members and realized that I knew and recognized only two or three folk—the Lector Sandy; the Eucharistic Minister Bill, and a couple of others. After Mass, it was pure delight to visit with both of them for a bit as they welcomed us warmly back to our church. We met Eleanor who now runs the church, and waved Hullo and exchanged a few words with Frank, our Music Director, perched high up in his Choir Loft. All of them were thrilled to see us back and said so. We enjoyed visiting with them all for a little while before we had to get to our next appointment.

Breakfast with our Doctor-Friends:

So, it turned out, that our first real appointment with friends was at Southport Diner, to which I drove (I would do most of the driving from this point on as I enjoyed it so much and Llew indulged me fully). Our former Primary Care physician Ed Pinto and his pathologist wife, Marguerite, have been our friends for almost 40 years. They live in nearby Westport and had suggested this venue for our breakfast rendez-vous. Indeed, it was a warm and affectionate reunion although they stuck to coffee. Llew and I had full diner breakfasts: I had my favorite breakfast item when traveling in the West: Waffles with Strawberry Compote and Whipped Cream while Llew had the American version of a full English breakfast: Eggs Over Easy with hash browns, sausages, bacon, toast. Both of us had decaff coffee. Our meeting was made even more interesting by the fact that our paths crossed with another family that we often saw in church, every Sunday: Barbara and Bob Scinto. They happen to have been former patients of Ed too. Anyway, we took a few pictures with them and when all the excitement had settled down, sat down to catch up with family news on both sides. After about an hour and a half, we said our goddbyes after cherishing a long-standing and very precious friendship, and both parties made their way out to other appointments.

Reunion with our Former Neighbors:

Our next meeting was a really fun one: with our former neighbors of over 35 years, Ken and Pui Hom, who are also close friends. It was fun because we would also have the chance to see their dog, Gus, who adored Llew and me and saw our home next-door as his second home. It is always a real pleasure to see the Little Man. Pui was asleep but Ken was wonderfully entertaining as Gus ran around madly but finally settled down to allow us to catch up. We were with him for about half an hour before we had to excuse ourselves to leave for our meeting next door with our current tenant. Pui had joined us at the very end and made us promise that we would return just as soon as we were done with our meeting.

Meeting with our Tenant:

Our next appointment was in our former home in Southport with our current tenant, Jennifer. Llew was returning to our Southport home for the very first time since we had left and was meeting Jennifer for the very first time. Naturally, we were amazed by all the changes in our home and garden but decided in the interest of harmony to keep our comments minimal. The business part of our conversation with Jennifer was conducted over coffee in our kitchen and after we went over all aspects of our exchange, we left after about an hour and returned to our neighbors’ place where we spent some more time with our friends and caught up with them. They asked both of us to join them for lunch, maybe at nearby Gruel Britannia, but as we had already decided to have lunch with our hostess, Swapna and her son, Parth, we drove straight to their home.

Lunch at Swapna’s:

So, it was almost lunch-time by the time we finished our morning quota of meetings. We were right in time for lunch at Swapna’s and she presented us with a most delicious version of Pao Bhaji—a delicious Indian concoction of mashed potatoes and other veg. eaten with buttered bread. We sat around the dining table and since she is terribly busy during the week (she works from home), it was really the only leisurely time in the rest of the week that we would have with her--and so we made the most of it. The meal was delicious and we were left the table with enough time to have refreshing naps too (or so we hoped).

Shopping at BJs:

Sadly, the naps we hoped to snatch did not happen as we had too many things to do in the short space of one week. Instead, we left for BJ’s, the bulk-buying warehouse, to pick up items on our annual list (decaff coffee decaff tea, maple syrup, cleaning supplies like sponges, etc.) It took up at least two hours of our afternoon, but it was worth it as we were able to pick up almost all the items we desired. With that shop done, we returned to Swapna’s place.

Dinner with my Former Fairfield University Colleague:

By the time we returned from our BJ Shopping spree, we were both ready for showers and our next appointment: Dinner at Stratford, Connecticut, about a twenty minute-ride away, with my former colleague and dear friend, Elizabeth Petrino who once had an office next-door to mine when I was a Professor at Fairfield University. She continues to teach there and we have maintained our friendship, over the years. Liz decided to call a few other friends and make a lovely evening of it.

I always enjoy being invited for dinner to Liz and her husband Tom’s place as they are both terrific chefs. And they specialize in Italian cuisine (my favorite) as that’s Liz’s heritage (she speaks fluent Italian too). On this evening, we were delighted to meet the author, Nalini Jones, who has just published her second major work of fiction, a novel set in Bandra, Bombay (my little home town), following the publication of a collection of short stories. In fact, I had introduced her to our Meet The Author program at the Pequot Library, many years ago, when I had featured her first book and had interviewed her on stage. Of course, she remembered us well and was very pleased to reconnect. We also met another couple, both artists, one of whom also teaches at Fairfield U and the other who teaches in Manhattan. Getting to know each other better made for a very sociable evening over aperitifs (white wine, in my case) and antipasto (melon slices wrapped in prosciutto, olives, marinated roasted red peppers, marinated mushrooms, olive tapenade for crudites) on the table outside, overlooking the vast expanse of well-manicured lawn. This was followed by the main course—Tandoori Chicken—which is Tom’s specialty. Liz served it with a huge Rice Salad studded with hard-boiled eggs (so that it resembled a kedgeree) and a big green salad. It made for a most delectable meal which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

But then, soon it was time to go home as darkness had fallen and guests needed to return. Llew and I got into our rented car (a Toyoto Corolla, by the way, which was also why I was so comfortable behind the wheel, as we had once owned this model) and made our way back to Swapna’s. She was still awake, received a little account from us about our lovely evening before we excused ourselves and went to bed.

We’d had a really lovely first full day in Fairfield, Connecticut, and as we closed our eyes for the night, we had to steel ourselves for the many doctors’ appointments that would follow on the morrow.

Until tomorrow, see ‘ya…