Still in Goa and loving it!

Posted byc.fertleman

I have moved to the backwaters of Goa. I was staying on a spice plantation in modest accommodation. I loved the frogs in the natural pond the most. Usually I am repulsed by slimy creatures (slugs and snails mostly) but I loved the noises they make. They have a nature trail around the plantation that I have used as an early morning run. On my last day I took a video in a circle. I wanted to speed up at the end so that it would be like a spiral but then I would have fallen off the boulder I was standing on!

Chintamani Al Chemistry

Sai Prasad and his girlfriend Sarah are working with Ashok in the plantatioin. Sai is a photographer and took both of these shots. This ones shows all the bits I bought. Dress, shawl coat, boots and bag.
And this one was taken after Sai had me repeatedly walking down the “cat-walk”! I would never have suggested this way of doing it but I think it works. Now I can send all this stuff back in my Goa end of January shipment! Whoohoo…..

I have tried to curtail my spend whilst in India. I have bought far too much stuff out from the UK and already shipped back two boxes of 25 Kg each and plan to send another soon. But this shop (Chintamani Al Chemistry https://www.etsy.com/shop/chintamanialchemi/) in Mandrem was so beautifully designed and no one was hassling you to buy anything which made shopping there a very pleasant experience.

I found this super chunky tape in a stationary shop in Margao where Harry suggested that my obsession with purple was overwhelming – actually he didn’t say that exactly – you will have to imagine his words!
This was the other half of the sticker from the clothing shop. This is the only time I embossed the foil surround.

I would have bought the whole shop but it wasn’t cheap, so I decided on a dress, a shawl/coat/wrap, fabric boots and a bag. Yes, this was rather over the top but I have already worn it loads and will do so in the UK. I love wearing boots and the leather ones I have here from fly London are too heavy to be honest. They are purple though! I bought them before the current obsession started.

The night watchman at Vivenda dos Palhacos Babu lent me these serving trays as I wanted to float these two montages in their pool.
I like these two images on the turquoise sunbed covers in the early morning blue hour.

When I was paying, the shop assistant gave me some stickers from the shop and I used these in two montages. Seemed like a good plan early one morning at Vivenda dos Palhaços when I was in full sticking and pasting mode. I went a bit mad the next morning and photographed and videoed them in the pool on metal trays used to deliver food and drink!

Rory the Kitten with Purple

Arriving at Casa Susegad was for sure enhanced by having a kitten there.

Harry with Rory against the purple hues of Casa Susegad. Doing Maths. Harry that is. Rory is learning as you can see from his pose!

He was full steam ahead up to all the antics of confident kittens. I am not sure he helped much with Harry’s maths but he did like to play with the purple ball I made him and the purple toy car.

Rory loved to play with the purple ball I made him until it got lost in the undergrowth!
I used this basket to take all the craft things I would need for the day in and out of our room. Rory liked it too!

Amy Russell was responsible for him and he loved her unconditionally. Sometimes I would hold him whilst she would escape to her room to have some Rory free time. As Casa Susegad is mostly blues and purples wherever Rory went it fitted my colour theme.

Amy Russell took this photo of her charge. He looks rather doleful but I think he is contemplating his next feat of mischief!
I am not a particularly adept photographer and here Rory is clearly off somewhere out of focus on top of Amy’s shoulder. She does not contemplative. It is funny when we accord animals with such human emotions. They (the animals) are probably having a huge laugh at our expense!

Interesting all the houses in Goa are very different to the rest of India. They are clearly designed using the original Portuguese architecture. Interestingly I thought they were always painted bright colours but this actually isn’t the case but a recent change now that people can afford luscious paint colours now and because of the climate need to repaint very often. It does mean there are a great deal of purple properties.

Here is Rory on a purple cushion with a purple toy car!

Mostly Purple Stuff with Betsy     

Betsy, my 18 year old daughter, inside Bom Jesus Church, Old Goa.
Outside a purple door of the same church in a blue dress, Tatty Devine necklace with an Over The Top hat.

Betsy and I did a couple of touring days out. Firstly, we went to Old Goa and the surrounds. We arrived at Bom Jesus Church where the remains of Saint Francis Xavier were interred. She had studied about him in her A-level Theology class and was keen to go. I asked her to take photos of me outside by the purple door and there was a rather scary sculpture of Jesus looking rather bloody. She also made me stand by the ‘relics only’ sign. I played along although she perceives me as old and done, with I certainly don’t! We then went to a spice plantation and the Olaulim backwaters to kayak.

Of course I knew what she was up to but played the innocent relic part!
No holding back here. Everyone was taking photos so I wasn’t alone!
I love the cultural mix of using flowers usually associated with Hindu worship as a mark of respect for this saint in the Bom Jesus Church.

Then we went on another trip to the Anjuna Wednesday flea market. Betsy had a necklace with her name made and bought a bag that looked like it came from Victoria Secrets. This was for laundry at Leeds Uni.

I suspect this was made in China but we couldn’t find a label!
Fitting the Betsy necklace made before we bargained it to a reasonable price!

One afternoon we did purple face masks – actually only the packaging was purple and the masks were white. And then I found a load of selfies that Betsy had taken on my camera. I don’t even know how to do them! I hope she approves of the ones I have uploaded here. If she doesn’t then that is a usual mother/daughter disagreement situation. Hey ho……

So I had the pomegranate and She had the rose one. But they both looked the same and we looked like ghosts for 30 minutes whilst we binged on Shtisel (https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3069894/).
Wearing some spare stickers from my bindi and mehndi project.
I found these on my camera after Betsy had returned to the UK. And yes it is my lipstick!
Not sure she can see that far as she is inside our beech bungalow!

China and Cushions

Apart from the purple I am not sure these really are an essential part of any project here! However, I liked the china they were using at Devpur so I photographed it.

I took a single piece of this set and photographed it in Devpur outside the dining room in the early morning light.

The cushions (purple!) were stacked overnight so they didn’t get wet in the covered banquets and they made for a fun early morning photography venture in Mandrem before anyone was up – well apart from me!

These cushions remind me of the lilac sofa we had for many years in our front room in the homes we had in Highgate – both Bloomfield Road and before that Pond Square.
These purple cushions were soft and velvety and lovely to sit upon!

Om

Using a selection of stars and stickers to contain one Om.

This is actually pronounced aum with two vowels and a consonant at the end. This was something that Anika taught us at the early morning Kitty Masala yoga class in Mandrem, Goa. Om signifies the essence of the ultimate reality and is integral to both Yoga and Hinduism.

My final one with the remaining seven Oms. This is using tape and lace I dyed in Pushkar.

Om’, ‘Ohm’ or ‘Aum’ is a sacred sound that is known generally as the sound of the universe. Om is all encompassing, the essence of ultimate reality, and unifies everything in the universe.

Three Oms taken in Dudhsagar with different light to the other three.

I found two packets of eight stickers at one of the many stationary shops I managed to find in Goa. Luckily this added up to my theme of lower prime numbers (except I now know 1 is not a prime – thanks Harry but grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr). So, I did four montages with my foil and tapes. It does seem significant that 1 + 3 + 5 + 7 = 16.

Five on a fire red background. Again with spotty and stripey tape bought here which is very unsticky! With a different lace border.

I like what Om signifies……. It can refers to Atman (soul, self within) and Brahman (ultimate reality, entirety of the universe, truth, divine, supreme spirit, cosmic principles, knowledge). It is often found at the beginning and the end of chapters in Hindu texts such as the Vedas.

It was quite difficult to photograph them altogether as one Om was made before I realised which way round the sign should go so it is 90 degrees different to the others!

I am now at my final Goan destination with the Pirkko and Savio Fernandes in Olaulim Backwaters (http://www.olaulimgoa.com/) and arrived yesterday. I took out a kayak to see the sunset and had to weave in and out of some fishing nets. Lucky I am not a bad kayaker and it all worked out well.

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