Back and With So Much to Say (As Always)

The date of my last post will become the topic of many this-day-that-year specials in the future - like you've probably read and seen and heard a million times over now, it was India's wettest day in about a century and my poor bursting-at-the-seams city just couldn't handle it. I was to write a little description of events had I gotten back online earlier; but, you all know the story now and how things turned out. I'm glad and very grateful we were all safe and relatively unaffected.

Because we didn't have electricity for several days after the deluge, we took a "vacation" to my Oji Mashi's (my mum's middle sister and my godmother) house, and guess what?! We managed to finish all our saree shopping last weekend! I picked out my wedding saree (which is so unlike the one I've said I might like in my previous post, sigh!) and sarees for my two mashis (mum's sisters), one aunty (mum's brother's wife) and my one mommie. Mum and I also managed to get our shoe shopping done and I'm so glad to tick things off my to-do list! Going shopping with my mashis is always a riot. Our latest shopping spree was to buy some upholstery fabric for us and some salwar kameez thingies for the mashis. We went to this famous "shopping centre" in Parel (that's a place close to Dadar - in between Churchgate and Santacruz on the railway line). This place, like all sales, was so full of women that believe that anything with boobs is non-threatening and can therefore be jostled, leaned on, shoved in the small of the back, and talked to in any language and expected to understand - all in the name of a good bargain. (Have I told you before that I like to believe I'm a misogynist?) Anyways, we got what we wanted and I had a fun Saturday with yummy lunch at Gulu Mashi's (my mommie's youngest sister). Useful PR tip for dot and nodot - she is the bestest cook in the family; so you know who to be nicest to.

Saturday evening had me meeting up with Ralph, the monopoly decorator for Plaza Banquets. When I told you that Sebastian D'souza, the manager, was "mac", I obviously hadn't met good ol' Ralphy. He's the nicest, kindest man with hair coming out of his ears (no, that's not the nicest thing) and the most ancient photo albums with even more ancient backdrop decor pictures I have ever seen! Thermocole swans and doves and angels and glittering lettering that read "V 2 R 1" and "SO weds SUCH", etc. He had no more than a faint idea of what I wanted and when I asked him about an archway for the entrance to the hall, he said "I'm not sure how to do it - you might consider asking the venue manager". I curled up and died, to put it very mildly. Anyways, I've a sort of situation on my hands - if I chose not to go with the new Mr. Mac, I'll have to pay a "royalty" of INR 10K in addition to paying whichever other decorator I choose - this is the policy at Plaza. I plan to look up pictures of what I like and show these to him, so he can tell me if it is at all doable. Avril's helping me out with the decor. Between the two of us, I hope we can get a fix on something soon.

I'm not sure if I mentioned earlier that Massi Coelho is going to be doing our pictures and video and I'm very very happy it's him. Massi's wife Adeline was Mum's colleague at Kodak for 27 years (!!) and they're very good friends. He's a fab photographer and I didn't consider him in the first place because I knew he had given up commercial photography; but luckily for us, he's going to be there and I'm glad it's him because he's very sensible and someone to whom you can explain exactly what you want and how you want it and be sure he understands. Yippee - one more thing off the list!

I don't have any significant to-do items planned for this week yet. We might go get my Papa's clothes shopping done. That will take some research and planning because I can't take him to more than one shop for more than one thing and it has to take no more than half a day tops. I will keep you posted - watch this space like you so faithfully do...I love you for it :)