Cartier Ring

[Smith1942]

So, it was sunny in England this week and all the beautiful spring flowers are out. There really is nothing like an English country garden. Saw all 38 relatives yesterday at my mum's seventieth. I said it WAS sunny because it's now raining! I suppose that's why we have such colourful fleurs.

Anyway, I locked down a deal with the Cartier Entrelaces ring. It wasn't direct from Cartier, it was from E.B. Horn's respected pre-owned section, real Cartier, pristine condition.....and it cost $450.00 instead of $1,260. It had just come in a few days previously. The price was $650 and the store owner offered me $600, but my regular SA gave me a price of $450. I love her. I still have to pay a little extra for re-sizing although I don't know how much yet as it'll depend if I make it larger or smaller. It will be an extra $30-$50. But I can hardly complain! I paid for it over the phone and didn't want to say about it being at E.B. Horn before I paid in case someone read about it here, and swooped it out from under me! I've gone away and left the E.B. Horn vault unguarded!

As I'm away for another couple of weeks and then need to get it sized, I won't be posting it in SMTB till the end of the month.

It will take me forever to decide if I want it on my ring finger or my pinkie. Opinions?

Here it is:

http://www.cartier.us/collections/jewelry/categories/rings/entrelaces-rings/b4088800-entrelaces-ring


And also, do I still get the duty-free Trinity at Heathrow airside for £666.00? Decisions, decisions! Cartier had a price rise April 22. Does anyone know if they have ever had more than one price rise in a year? Just thinking that I could always get the Trinity on my way home after my Christmas trip at the end of this year.

I initially went to E.B Horn to see if they had pre-owned Cartier Trinity rings before I bought new, as their pre-owned stuff is usually in perfect condition. In fact, they did have a couple of the 3-colour trinity rings with diamonds for about 3k, if anyone lives in the Boston area and is interested. Not sure about sizes - maybe a 5 and a 7? But don't take my word for that.

 

[JaneSmith]

Take your savings from the first ring and buy the trinity. Buy it! Buy it!

 

[Imdanny]

I have a Cartier gold band. It's exquisitely designed and made. I love it.

The only thing I can say about their pricing is that my ring increased in price by 24% in a single price increase after mine was bought. Scary.

I say get what you want as soon as you can. Prices are going nowhere but up.

 

[JewelFreak]

Holy cow, Danny, really? Super timing on your part! Isn't it nice for once to be on the right side of a price increase?

--- Laurie

 

[Lula]

Take your savings from the first ring and buy the trinity. Buy it! Buy it!

+1

And I vote for wearing your new ring on your ring finger.

 

[Imdanny]

Holy cow, Danny, really? Super timing on your part! Isn't it nice for once to be on the right side of a price increase?

--- Laurie

Laurie,

23.8%! You bet I'm glad I got mine before it happened!

Now, if I could just have a few Oscar Heyman and VC&A jewels or at least be left in a room with them for an hour to admire them up close! Sigh!

BTW, I never tire of seeing your ring! How beautiful! You must be thrilled with it!

Best,

Danny

 

[Smith1942]

I'm still considering the Trinity. They do have my size at the airport and have put it aside for me. The pound has become stronger so now it will cost even less - about $1,014 last time I checked. It's currently $1215 in Boston incl. tax. I am having a difficult trip with a lot of family problems - it all went tits up after Mum's seventieth party - so I'm really having difficulty concentrating on jewellery purchases. My mother has terminal Stage IV breast cancer and although it's stabilized right now, there are a lot of other problems spinning off it, such as depression. A terminal situation is very hard because we just don't know if she has six months or six years - and my parents are actually arguing. I don't think she needs that. However, I learnt a long time ago that I can do nothing about my parents' marriage.

So anyway, I usually think very hard about purchases, whether I really want it, is it good value, will I wear it, etc etc. This is the best deal I'll ever get on a new Trinity, but I just cannot think straight right now.

If I bought it at Heathrow airside, and I decided I didn't want it, I wonder if I could return it to the Boston store.

I did look at the rings on ebay, but I am not good with figuring out which Trinities are fakes.

 

[Enerchi]

Smith!! I'm so sorry to hear all that you are facing right now!! Family first....

but.. if you do go for the Trinity and you know you will love and wear it - get it! It will be a reminder of the *GOOD* times you had seeing your mom this trip. Its a kick a$$ deal too, so there's that to consider!

I hope things smooth out for you - sending you and your mum uber {{{HUGS}}} across the miles (and I know you hate to be touched so just lean into the screen and pretend, for me!! )

Stay strong dear friend....

 

[Smith1942]

Thanks, Enerchi! I have been duly slobbered over this trip by my mum's Rotarians - she is president of the local club. I am OK about everything when in Boston, but this trip my dad has been behaving like an arse to her, they are both depressed, they have taken it out on me, and also my husband has not been present or supportive at all. I really don't know why.

Anyway, usually I can keep going but this is an unusually long trip - almost three weeks. I will be enormously sad to say goodbye to Mum for another three months, but in a way glad to escape back to another continent. The atmosphere here is going to drive me crazy. I've been having anxiety like not being able to sleep, a watery tummy, etc. I also saw my sister-in-law yesterday, who also has breast cancer - a very vicious form. She is having all kinds of treatment. We're not close, she is the wife of my husband's brother and I hardly see her, but it was awful to see her looking so ill, wearing a wig etc. My heart bleeds for her as hers is more aggressive than my mum's primary, so I don't think she is going to make it to 70 like my mum. She is 56 right now.

So right now, I just don't feel like buying any jewellery. But it IS a good deal, isn't it?

 

[Enerchi]

it IS a good deal! It will give you some pleasure in an otherwise very depressing and upsetting dark cycle in your life. If you can afford it and you've been wanting it - go for it. This will brighten you up and that's worth the price right there. (I am not saying that in my typical Enerchi Enabling way... I mean it - you need a positive right now and this could be it.)


I feel for you my friend, this is a wallop of pain you are in the midst of - everyone reacts so differently to pressure and stress - they are acting on their own emotions. Do your best to look past that at the pain they are all feeling underneath. In time, these behaviours will be forgotten and the love will come thru again.

thinking of you....

 

[woofmama]

So sorry to learn of these upsetting times for your family Smith. What a shame your parents are bickering in light of her illness. I hope they settle things between themselves and cherish their time together. My parents have always had a critical stance with each other and have been together 58 yrs. Neither are in good health, my sis and I can't believe they still wag their tongues so much! But both would be lost without the other, really. I hope you aren't too terribly stressed out and think you should make whatever purchase you had planned. Try to enjoy your visit!

 

[Smith1942]

You know, I've spent the last day and a half completely alone, at my parents' house while they are away, not even communicating with my husband, and this evening I feel so, so much better. I'm an introvert and time alone is like a rejuvenating spa visit for me.

Thanks for your kind words. We are all just dreading what and when the cancer will do next. It's like having a sleeping tiger in the room, not knowing when it's going to wake up and start roaring, only that it will. My mother is an angel and I know from my research that she faces a long, slow death. It's already in her spine and pelvis, and the next stop will be the liver. That's how it most often goes with her particular type of metastatic breast cancer. She does not deserve such a death.

Well, there's nothing we can do about it except hope it may not be too bad for her. Isn't it silly when people married for half a century are still bickering. Mine have been married for almost 48 years - wow, yours are at 58! That's amazing.

 

[woofmama]

I need my alone time as well. I have to be "on" all the time at work so I love my quiet mornings. Glad you got to relax.

Smith reading what you wrote just now-about the progression of the cancer, it's heartbreaking
So sorry for your mom and family. Your SIL as well. I will be thinking of you.
I think some couples just bicker. Perhaps that is the way they communicate and maybe behind closed doors there are tender moments. I know my parents are devoted to each other and there is more than meets the eye.

 

[Enerchi]

Every body has a marriage unique to themselves. People vary, according to a wise man here on PS ( ) and there is always more going on than any observer could ever know. I think your parents are just doing whatever they can to cope and adjust to this new phase. Both are facing HUGE changes - your mother's health must scare the crap out of her... and your father could be about to loose his BFF of 48+ years - he's scared too!

And you are unfortunately stuck in the middle - helpless being "across the pond", so to speak, yet still a "child" in their minds. Its tough, Smith, very tough and we all have you in our thoughts. Post ANY TIME about whatever is going on - there's always an ear here on PS!

As for the jewels, I hear ya about the Cartier Rolling Ring - its plain, it doesnt sparkle, and like you, I'm all about the sparkle baby!!! But -- its also a classic, kind of like your parents being married 48 years - probably both wearing plain gold bands... I'm all about symbolism and to me, here you are visiting them, seeing how their marriage works in bad times (and you've seen it in good too!) but that would be the item I'd go for. Timeless and classic - like your parents and England!

My two cents

 

[Smith1942]

Thanks, Enerchi. Funny you should mention them still seeing me as a child - they have never been the type of parents to step back and accept the adulthood of their grown children, but this trip they have treated me more like a fourteen-year-old than they have in many years. Directing every move I make, even down to how I iron a sheet or fill the kettle, telling me that I don't really like any item I pick up in a store, asking me what I'm emailing my husband about, making me really campaign to get some time with friends - in the midst of all the stress, they've driven me crazy this trip. I suppose it must be their own stress coming out. They have also been frantically rushing about, and it hasn't left much quality time. I have to go back on Wednesday and feel I haven't seen my mum properly. I want to return to my own home because this trip has been a complete nightmare, but then I'm sad because I won't see her. I simultaneously want to get away and also don't want to go.

Oh well, I suppose I'll see her again in a few short weeks. Health permitting, once she gets off the warfarin, she might be able to fly in August. Speaking of warfarin, can you believe that the cancer in her bones sends out blood-clotting substances, giving her clots in her lungs? Scarily, breast cancer mets know that there is more than one way to do their work. When she was diagnosed four days before Christmas five months ago, she had those clots and they could have broken off and killed her at any time. She felt breathless walking downhill, even. Fortunately, after four years of complaining about her back pain and being dismissed even though she had cancer in 1999, she was finally re-diagnosed and started treatment before the lung clots caused an embolism. She can't fly right now and must be very careful not to cut herself, as the blood won't clot on warfarin. She is having bone-strengthening injections every month, which have given her back her mobility but are affecting her teeth. In some people that drug can cause the jaw to crumble, so I really hope that doesn't happen to her.

Angelina Jolie has drawn criticism for having a bilateral mastectomy when she doesn't yet have cancer, but I know from this end, seeing all these things, that prevention is way, way better than cure, and I don't blame her one bit, especially with her bad gene.

 

[Enerchi]

Oh my. That is HORRID...just HORRID what your mom is going thru. Maybe Angelina was onto something - I get what you are saying about prevention being worth an ounce of cure.

Just be in the moment, that's all I can think of, to get thru these last few days of mixed emotions. Just take everything as it comes and think calm thoughts. What's that famous Harrod's phrase (or at least I see it so many permutations now...and thought it was from Harrod's) "keep calm and carry on" (or wear pearls, or eat cake, or drink wine...whatever helps!)

Hang in there

 

[Smith1942]

Yes, it is horrid, which is why I am now careful to do my self-checks every month. My mum's original tumour in 1999 was relatively large at 3cm, and she had not checked herself in a few months. She was having annual mammos, but it seemed to come up between times. I do a detailed check every month, drawing a breast map as recommended by the doc, which is a great tool for those of us who are quite lumpy anyway, and an observation section, then I compare the diagrams with the other months. It takes at least 45 mins.

Who knows if things would have turned out differently for my mum if she had found it when it was smaller, but common sense seems to suggest that a rogue cell would have had less chance to escape if it had been taken out when smaller.