Lost Treasure & A Trip To Paris

Monday was St Valentine's Day and, unusually for us and without any prior discussion, we both bought each other a card rather than making one ourselves. 

The day started with a Wii Fit workout, a session of parcel wrapping and a load of washing. After breakfast, Jon combined a supermarket run with the Post Office drop-off.

 The off-on-off rain meant that it took the best part of the day to take my eBay photos, I suppose I could do them inside the house but I much prefer natural light to mess around with camera settings.

My Lucky Brand dungarees hadn't been worn for a while so out they came, this time I combined them with my £1.49 charity-shopped cashmere & wool jumper, cashmere beer mittens and a me-made hat. As we didn't have the heating on, I'd been wearing a coat in the house but I took it off for the photo. 

eBay listings finished, I spent the rest of the afternoon sweeping and dusting upstairs and, after a well-deserved soak in the bath, tucked into the Valentine's Day Punjabi Paneer Masala Jon had cooked for us, accompanied by a bottle of beer.

Later we watched the first of the BBC's mesmerising new series, Sex & Sensuality: The Allure of Art Nouveau. 

The first episode was about the movement's inception in 19th Century Paris, a city which Jon & I haven't visited together since 1995 when I won two British Airways Business Class flights and five nights' accommodation in a posh hotel on the Champs-Élysées after entering a competition in the trade magazine, The Caterer.

There's a photo album in the shed but I'd be risking life and limb to get at it so here's twenty-eight-year-old me (and my natural hair) being awarded my tickets by the magazine's editor and publisher at what was then Birmingham's top hotel, The Swallow on the Hagley Road, where they treated me to lunch and Champagne (I'd have preferred a pint of lager).

It was absolutely chucking it down when I got up on Tuesday morning. After my Wii Fit session and breakfast, we emptied and cleaned the utility room as we'd changed our central heating insurance supplier and they were coming to service the boiler. I made myself scarce, sitting in the lounge with my crochet, making Jon another hat with a ball of "Heritage" yarn I'd snaffled from a 50p bucket in a charity shop last week.

Meanwhile, Jon set about restoring a vintage leather coat he'd been given years ago and hadn't worn in an age. When the rain finally abated I braved the Kinky Shed for the stock I'd sold on eBay, wrapped it up and Jon ran it round to the Post Office.

My twin and I wore the Dilli Grey cord maxi skirt with a vintage Indian block print dress tucked into it (from my mates, Old's Cool Traders) along with the Clarks' boots I found in the clearance charity shop on Sunday - I've just noticed they've still got the bright pink £3 labels stuck on the soles, just as well I didn't go charity shopping and kneel down to rummage through the boxes on the floor, someone might have thought I was touting for business.

Back on 19th November last year I shared a photo of my mum's bangle which I teethed on as a baby. The silver coin dating from the Moghul era, cast during the reign of Aurangzeb (1658 -1707), the son of Shah Jahan who built the Taj Mahal. Within minutes of publishing the post, I looked down at my wrist and realised, to my horror, that the coin was missing from the bangle. 

I retraced my steps up the garden where I'd posed for a photo at least once a week since then, hoping it'll catch my eye glinting in the light but to no avail. Over the last three months, I shifted furniture, rolled up rugs and checked the joins in the floorboards but still nothing. Jon secretly found a replacement on eBay but in his excitement, he didn't read the description properly and it turned out to be a quarter rupee and Action Man-sized! After another hunt, he found something almost identical, slotted both of them onto an old silver bangle I'd had for years as a temporary measure, and surprised me with them for Xmas ( I didn't share a photo as I didn't want to admit that I'd lost the original).

The quarter rupee is from the reign of Shah Allam II (1760 - 1806) and the rupee dates from the reign of Farrukhsiyar (1713 - 1719).

From left: Shah Jahan, Shah Allam II and Farrukhsiyar

Guess what? When I was sweeping the landing on Monday I found Mum's coin wedged between my craft cupboard and the skirting board! Jon's taken the other two coins off the bangle and I'll wear them around my neck until I find the perfect bangle to hang them from. 

After Monday night's documentary, we reverted to type and started watching a Scandi Noir, Young Wallander. It stars the very easy on the eye actor, Adam Pålsson who we know (and loved) in Before We Die, Moscow Noir and The Bridge although it seems strange for him to be speaking in English as opposed to his native Swedish. The creator of Kurt Wallander, Henning Mankell gave the series his blessing shortly before he died, which is good enough for us. 

Storms permitting, we're off on a road trip tomorrow. I'll report back soon with tales of adventure!