Of Cleaning House, Moving House and Good Envy

Saturday comes and I don’t feel like doing chores.
Brainwave hits.
Told my husband ‘let’s move house, so that i don’t have to clean this house. We will start afresh in a new house, when we don’t feel like cleaning that, we will move’.
My second one chirps in ‘yes appa, I’m done with my room. It’s too small and it’s yellow. I need a new room with an attached bathroom and in a different colour’.
Reminded her that she’d asked for her room to be painted yellow when we’d moved in. And husband and friend had dutifully painted it a sunny yellow.
For a split second, the poor soul looked at me with a mix of pity, confusion and horror. He must have thought that this 55 year old had finally lost her marbles.
Then off he went to potter in the garden.
I had glimpsed bricks, bags of soil, compost, pots on the side of the house.
Anyway, set about cooking lunch while one girl vacuumed, the other hung, folded clothes and the like.
The younger one had heard the conversation and called me over to look at some properties. Wow, such beautiful acres of land, overlooking the sea, swimmimg pool, 6 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, granny flat, dining area, living area, formal entertaining area and so on.
Got excited and asked her what the price was.
Almost fell over in shock.
The silly sook had searched for houses in the range of 3 to 8 million.
Gave her a withering look which probably washed over her.
Fell back to stark reality.
Some time later, he comes in for a cold lemonade.
Went out to view his handiwork.
Amazing.
He’d prettified, for lack of a better word, our front yard.
Daughter said when driving around, what with spring/summer here, they’d seen some beautifully landscaped gardens and he must have felt so envious.
A Case of Envy is good.
Cooked, light house cleaning , if there is such a thing.
Had friends over for evening tea. Sevai, palaharams, milky sweet tea, green tea, juices. Lovely company and conversation.
Invited to a late dinner. Was presented belated gift of a gorgeous glass vase of spring flowers.
Wore this a few days before, seated in a much loved corner of my current home, not planning to move anytime yet, now that chores are done and my daughter’s search skills leave much to be desired, the stairs to the music-puja room.
In a peachy pink Kanjivaram saree with bright magenta shocking pink and gold borders and pallu . Gold buttis, Gold lines on body. Mangos, flying birds not swans, on pallu.
Let me share a little story behind this saree.
Nov 9 1992.
A gift from husband on my first birthday celebrated after marriage. Hosted a morning puja.
Ground dosa ma, made sambar, chutney, amongst other dishes, tied my saree with pallu left down. Mum, being a stickler for neatness, and worried that I was also going to be making dosa with pallu down, chided me, for not pleating pallu and for dosa ma not having been ground properly. I’d used a standard wet grinder instead of her powerful food processor mixie. Surprisingly, all loved the breakfast. Mum forgot about everything once she saw everyone enjoying the food and complimenting me, my saree, the puja and food.
Added another photo when I’d worn the saree during a navarathri puja in 2009.
Oh yes, just edited. Matched with a flowery pink blouse.