Friday 15th February

Friday 15^th February

On Monday afternoon we took a gang of James Headlam’s friends out on the river, with the aim of getting to the Regatta fireworks at 9.30.  It was a beautiful day, warm and balmy…on dry land.  Very icy and chilly out on the water!  The young women, in flimsy attire, very soon disappear into the cabin to rug up in polar fleeces and down vests.  And yes we did achieve our aim of watching the fireworks close up and personal.  It was wonderful, and VERY noisy – at times it sounded as if the air was being ripped apart.  And how long did the display go on for?  I did seem very long to me, much as I love sparkling explosions in the sky… It went for 17 minutes and 20 seconds!  We know this because Josh The Shearer filmed every single minute of it on his iPhone…

I had a few moments of nostalgia…when my children were very small I took them all to the Domain to sit on the hill and watch these very same fireworks.  Michael was a toddler, only just learning to talk.  He hated the whole thing and sat, shivering, on my lap, saying, “I don’t like those screaming clouds!”

India #86

Our last day in Mumbai we had to check out of our rooms at the Club by 10.  We were able to leave our bags there, which was good, because our plane didn’t leave until late in the evening.  The Hobart Sharmas went off to spend family time with the Mumbai Sharmas and Pete and I ventured into the city centre for my last attempt to find a gold bracelet.  I was still reeling from the shock of the one I missed out on in Jaipur: my budget was around $200 not $1500.  I had planned to give away a whole lot of my travelling supplies on the last day – my pillows, purple umbrella etc.  Pete suggested we take them with us on the trip to Crawford Market.  There are always beggars rushing to put their hands through taxi windows, thrusting their big-eyed babies at you.  (One of our drivers along the way told us, bitterly, that these babies work 24-hour shifts… The young women share the babies around and work 8 hour shifts; the babies are forever on a hip, being pushed up to taxi windows.)  So off we went on a long hot taxi ride carrying a bag full of pillows and stuff.  And did we see any beggars?  Not a single solitary one!!  Later on our way to the airport I still had my unwanted items, and it was only as we were turning off the main highway that we saw some of the wild-haired young baby-toting women.  They were not what you would call delighted to receive the pillows etc.  They wanted more!  They grabbed everything and one of them shouted, “Give me that towelle!”  I have fond but probably deluded visions of some of the weary babies being snugged off to sleep on my Indian pillows; I do hope the “mothers” shared their wins with the babies.

We found the jewellery laneways in Crawford Market without too much difficulty.  Then it was time for the Hard Sell.  I was so glad to have Pete there; if I had been on my own I would have just given up, it was so hot and frazzling.  After negotiations which weren’t really too painful, in a small, cramped but mercifully air-conditioned shop, I emerged with a shiny 22 carat bracelet which I have worn every day since. It is very gaudy, and one of my friends remarked on my “brass” jewellery, but never mind, I love it.

PS So what happened to my beloved 22 carat bracelet??  It fell off, of course, when I was sitting on the nets at the front of 2XS…and there it is, deep in the ocean somewhere far away…