Smells

So this morning I woke up to the smell of bacon cooking.

It was lovely.

 I momentarily forgot about the sadness from next door and thought to myself  ''Oh Gill has guests in''. I then sadly remembered but was then happy to think that Mike was having a hearty breakfast. My heart aches when I see that man and how quiet his house must be now.

 

Isn't it odd how smells can transport us immediately to people and places and events?

 

My Granny had the most beautiful gardens and I used to love just wandering around them when I was a little girl. Roses always remind me of my Granny - the smell of them takes me back 40 years. She also had lots and lots of lavender bags. I still love lavender to this very day.

 

Other smells from my Granny's house?

 

Beeswax polish and turkey bones boiling in a stock pot ( not both together )  

I never saw her cook an actual turkey but she always seemed to have a pot of the bones on her stove. This was always transformed into amazing broths and soups, which in a million years I could never ever imitate. I wish I could - they were delicious.

 

Smells from the 80's?

 

Well the aftershaves of choice back then were most definitely Old Spice, Brut and a particularly cheap and nasty one called Hai Karate. I can link each of these to various boyfriends back then but I won't name and shame as I know for a fact that the Hai Karate splasher onner may well read this.

 

Garlic - nobody ever ate it in Northumberland until the mid 80's and I worked in a restaurant where every dish had a base of garlic, white wine, mushroom and onions. The smell of them cooking even now,  takes me back to a tiny little kitchen in Alnwick where scampi provencale, beef strogganoff and pork tenderloin were on the menu.

 

French toast - I once ate so much of it that I was sick for days. Now don't get me wrong, I love eggs and I love bread but the combo frying can still make my stomach churn and make odd noises.

 

TCP - this reminds me of getting my ears pierced and being made to 'bathe and turn ' my studs twice a day.

 

Beer - I worked in a pub for a year when I finished my A Levels and although I have nothing against beer in general, the smell of it stale makes me think of emptying out the drip trays.

 

Obsession perfume - My friend Rachel who I met at Leeds Poly wore it and bought me a bottle for my 21st birthday. I have a bottle in my bedroom wight now and one squirt makes me young carefree and single again. I adore its heavy fragrance.

 

And after that quick burst of nostalgia - I am going to cook bacon and eggs after I've had a squirt of Calvin Klein's finest.