I spent the weekend on the Gold Coast visiting friends and family, and my mum jumped on the opportunity of having me close by: within an hour of landing at Coolangatta airport, I was waste deep in boxes of my old stuff that she's been storing for me for years.

I spent an hour or two sifting through boxes of old school books, photos, soft toys and clothes, sorting the goods into piles of "keep", "bin" and "charity". Thankfully the "keep" pile was the smallest.

And then I stumbled across a box of vintage crockery that mum had accidentally stored in the spare bedroom closet. The box was full of beautiful mother-of-pearl tea cups, saucers and dinner plates, but unfortunately most of them were cracked and broken.

It turns out they once belonged to my dad's parents (my grandparents), who died many many years before I was born. This box was full of the "good china" that his folks would dust off when special guests came over. I rescued one complete tea-cup set and carefully carried it home with me to Sydney; hopefully my brother will be able to piece back together the rest of the cups and saucers, as I'd love to inherit the whole set one day :)