Lifespan of a Chennette

I opened up the last of my non-book boxes today, so now I think I have everything. I haven’t found a few things, but I am sure they are wrapped and stuck in the box marked “bag and pictures” which I think means my framed certificates (which are going nowhere, I told my mother I am not looking for clients and wasn’t going to hang my degrees on the wall, but she didn’t listen). The box marked “clothes” had my sheets and towels. And not forgetting the box marked “Threadmill”. Still trying to figure out what that is, sure looks like a piece of exercise equipment, but they could have gotten it confused with my boxes of “sewing materials” and sewing machine.

That last item is a big clue that Mom is not going to be sewing my curtains for me, which is highly unfair and discriminatory, because I walked the streets of Chaguanas (do I have to mention the sun?) to get curtain material for Lilandra’s (sister, the younger) flat in MA, and helped my mother cut and sew, carried it in my suitcase when I went to “visit” AND, this is the greatest, hemmed them by hand because Lilandra measured wrong, before we could hang them up (and “by the way, I have to get back our security deposit on the old flat, help me clean it, since you’re here”) AND I did the same for R’s curtains when she and G bought their house, except for the delivery part. Now I get the sewing machine. I tell you, life of the 2nd child is not easy. At least Lilandra did plan her spur of the moment “I got paid” visit to coincide with the arrival of my boxes and did most of the grunt work in unpacking the first night. And I didn’t even have to ask, threaten, or play the guilt card. Sisters do have their uses.

The Essentials - comfortable bed stuff, iron pot (for curry), tawah, T-Fal skillets, pressure cooker, food processor, stick blender, baking pans and my mug (and plus a tonne of utensils with great Oxo grips - I went a little crazy in Bed Bath and Beyond in Ft Lauderdale).

Unexpected surprises - my jumper cables (birthday gift from my first boss which I had in my first car, but I gave them to my father when I sold my car - BEFORE I went to Edinburgh, so a bit surprised to find that my mother packed them, but no more surprised than I am sure my father will be the day he needs them) and a rice cooker (didn’t know we had one, but apparently we did, and since we never used it, guess what? send it to Chennette!)

My mother must have been in heaven the day I told her my employers were paying for a 20ft container to take stuff out of her house. Mine, R’s, Dad’s, doesn’t matter whose stuff, just ship it out. I can see her walking past Lilandra’s room and bemoaning the fact that she couldn’t empty the “factory”.