Chapter 13 - HALF FULL... the glass? No. The shop!
And then I looked out of the window after one of our flash storms, force 9, slashing rain, and water flowing from every available orifice on each floor of our building. A rainbow! The first thrill of the month.
The second thrill is that we are pressing on and the Husbi is really putting a mighty effort in to get my shop ready before I go a little stir crazy. I have realised during my 2 years of Purdah how much I love being a shop girl. Of course there are very tricky times, cash flow problems, customer scarcity, ghastly weather etc. but the joy of customers coming into the shop, loving it and buying far outweighs all the negatives.
It is now mid-October and I am really hoping we will be up and running the last week of the month or first week of November. I know it’s only the front half of the ground floor but it is still going to be a lovely space. A little replica of 92 Park Hall Road. We have been over to the storage container to retrieve some the wonderful pieces of my Rajasthani furniture that I use for shop fittings and it will soon be time to don the pinny and rubber gloves and begin to wipe, dust and polish and then start to put out the stock – a reflection of my travels in India. The irresistible things that I discover and the delightful and creative people I work with.
The third thrill ……
Emma, our wonderful solicitor (see Chapter 2) came over to the building the other day clutching a large brown envelope and announced she had located ALL the deeds of our building and the first one dates back to 1896. Oh my goodness! Not quite quill and velum but beautiful in its execution none the less. A large size document, yellow with age written in elegant copper plate handwriting, wax seals and official stamps. Wonderful! A real treasure.
As I mentioned in Chapter 11, I met a delightful family in Sanganer who have set up a social enterprise project making hand made paper honeycomb celebration decorations. My colleague Claire and I have been busy approaching small, independent retailers who we can sell them to (as well as being available in the Jaadu shop and on the website ‘Natch’!) and we are now waiting for the first delivery to arrive on these shores. There has been quite a hold up as we were expecting delivery in September but the Monsoon this year has been really catastrophic. Many of the makers have had to stop working. The rain and floods make it impossible to reach their workshops and for paper, it is too damp to dry it and make into things.
With my friend Claire on board, I am now going to expand the Jaadu and Present collections and launch into wholesale next year. Will also be planning a Jaadu Travel tour. So onwards and upwards!
Roll on November and my new Jaadu shop in Bexhill – on – Sea.