HUES OF AUTUMN…

When the leaves of the grape vines begin to take on shades of russet and gold and the autumn breezes skitter in, we know it’s time to harvest our cardinal grapes, hanging in heavy bunches of berry red and wine red and sometimes appearing a little cloudy with the first sign of mildew. I started by clipping a low hanging bunch every afternoon with the long handle garden shears and two Sunday evenings ago, Yiannis and Jimmy harvested the rest of our table grapes… juicy and bursting with floral aromas with the first crunch into their firm flesh. They worked till late in the evening… slipping in and out among the orange trees, rose bushes and herbs in the dimming sky, two shadowy figures working silently in the dark…like two overgrown brownies of folklore who steal into the night and do the chores in exchange for a bowl of cream. But our over-sized male fairies settled for a bottle of beer each after they had sorted out the grapes and collected them in two tubs…one for each household.

Autumn does something to you when the colours deepen and mellow and the air is sweet and the evening sun ripens in the sky. It hangs like a little melancholy wish in the air…a yearning for something. I usually start with my yearly ritual of draping the sofa and armchair in our cosy TV room, where we spend our evenings, with a couple of warm throws of deep red and orange. But my restless spirit always hankers after more. What about the fragrances and textures of this mellow season? All summer long, in the sweltering heat, I used sunscreen and light moisturizers from the pharmacy… clinical, devoid of scent and allure. Now I owed myself a little self-indulgence…a little pampering with the assurance of advertisements which claim…` Because you’re worth it.’

It was last Thursday when I decided to go downtown. I would take the car and park it in the usual parking lot under some lovely shady trees and walk the rest of the way. But… horror of horrors… when I got there, there was a long queue of cars trying to get in. It was the first week of October and the late tourists were still dribbling in and the parking spaces were all taken with rented vehicles. Since I was in the queue I couldn’t get out…I had to take the full circle around the car park and exit… `Never mind,’ I thought, deciding not to get flustered. This season of falling leaves tends to get you into a philosophical mood, to roll with the punches, ride the swells and take whatever life offers you. If I found no parking space, which as far as I could see was highly probable, I would just drive back home and come back again on foot…no big deal…life was a breeze.

Just as I was taking the circle to leave the area…with a long line of cars building up behind me…a car reversed from a space right in front of me… I couldn’t believe my luck! With the same state of mind, one of nonchalance and ease, I slotted the car in. My sister number two in Malaysia who reads a lot of philosophical books and preaches endlessly about how the universe spins its magic when you allow it to, was probably right, I thought. I had dropped my guard and my obsessive control over things and the universe with a conspiratorial wink, waved its magic wand and offered me a gift…a parking space. I felt like the luckiest person on earth. I sauntered to the shops with my head thrown back and my gait…possessing a certain buoyancy, tapping into all the good vibes that surrounded me. I passed these two ladies, my age, who seem to be permanently parked in this café on the wayside. I’d seen them so many times before…one was wearing a pair of dangling russet earrings, so in tune with the season. We exchanged glances and I…full of goodwill…nodded and smiled and they returned the gesture.

Then I pulled on my mask and entered this beauty shop, where they sold cosmetics…glossy lipsticks, dripping with colour, painted on with a brush, creamy foundations and blushers and highlighters to raise your cheekbones and give them a certain glow and endless creams and moisturizers, scented and alluring, holding out a promise to smooth out wrinkles on skin like parchment and give you that youthful glow…I was tempted…but no…I just wanted to browse around and look at the lipsticks and try out those new brow pens and perhaps sniff a perfume or two. The girls at the beauty counters, who knew me well, were extremely kind and showed me all their precious wares…dabbed the back of my hands with silky creams and colours and a sweep of deep red lipstick with a brush… and I finally bought yet another tube of lipstick to add to my ever growing collection. Another girl sprayed me with a new perfume… Indian jasmine, white musk and vanilla…I drank in the heady fragrance and levitated into another world… inhaled once more and then… reached out for this… opiate…and bought it.

Just as I was leaving with my treasured purchases tucked away in my bag, one of the girls, who is always so generous, pressed two little gift samples into the palm of my hand…an intensive serum and a cream, a secret recipe for older skins…to tease out some remnants of youth hidden and forgotten in laugh lines and crinkles and wrinkles and crow’s feet… and plump out a lost bloom. I was dizzy with excitement…these were the little joys in life. I couldn’t wait to try them out. So Friday morning, I squeezed out a generous amount of the serum and smoothed it all over my face and neck and slathered on the cream, applied my new lipstick, which gave me a pouty look, sprayed the perfume and visited my mother-in-law…` Kukla’ [doll] she said, peering at me through her 96-year-old eyes…exactly the feedback I desired. I felt rejuvenated and dare I say…youthful.  Ahh…and the next day, Saturday, I was going to show off to my Saturday night friend and if she asked…` Are you using something new? ‘ …I’d just drawl out…` Nooo…I just dabbed on any old thing ’… so very blasé…  to give the impression that all this… youthful bloom…if you want to call it that…was with no extra effort.

That very evening, as I was relaxing on the sofa and thinking about nipping into town the next morning and buying a regular tube of serum and a tub of cream, these wonder products, before they ran out… I felt a tingling on my face and neck…then a spreading of a hot flush… and then an itchiness crept in… I was breaking out into an allergy!!!! This is actually the second time. Two years ago I smeared my face with yet another sample and suffered the same dreadful consequences. I couldn’t go out the next night and texted my friend to tell her…Do you know what triggers the allergy?’ she asked, trying to be helpful… `Anything that promises to make me youthful,’ I answered sadly. When I visited the dermatologist, he said…` maybe you should just stick to your old creams.’…and my old face, which he was too polite to add. I’m not sure if this has put paid to my vanity. Right now I’m sitting with my tail in between my legs and licking my wounds. Would I do it again? I’m not sure because blows to one’s vanity I hear, is stored in one’s short term memory.

So cheers and look out for my next blogpost. I know I said it may not be every week and I still stand by it…but this thing happened and I thought it would be fun to share it with you, seeing that the little joys in life that I was intending to savour…are now on hold.