Hey Y’All,

Easter is over, Jesus has risen and I have added kilograms of chocolate to my super sized figure. It was worth it. Yummy, YuMmY, YUMMY! We had a lovely, lazy 4 day break and felt refreshed and ready to return to the world yesterday.

Saw The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel Monday at the cinema with TSO & BFF. Oh my! You must get out to see it. I am a massive Indiaphile but it is a wonderful film; aside from its reminding me of extraordinary years of holidays in India, spent with a hotelier love and his family & friends. Dames Maggie Smith and Judy Dench were the only 2 who could get me back into the cinema, which I abhor. Thanks Kath and Jin for making me go. Cried tears of joyful reminiscence through much of it. Did I mention popcorn?

PASSAGE D’ENFER by L’ARTISAN PARFUMEUR

This 1999 release from L’Artisan Parfumeur begins like a very expensive, freshly opened packet of incense, you can even smell the wood stick that the incense is on. The lily is quietly flowing around but barely there. Passage D’Enfer is very cool and quiet on me. Although it does get louder as it warms up it never really does much more than make me smell better if you are nuzzling me, lots of people like that, I want to be able to smell myself though. Honestly, I wear perfume 100% selfishly. Good for you if you can smell me but I really want to enjoy an olfactoric ride. Passage D’Enfer is gorgeous, I wonder if a second or third try would help me to notice it more? I shall do so at my leisure, if anything changes you guys will be the first to know.

Photo Stolen from L’Artisan Parfumeur

A perfect fragrance phobic work scent. I have to douse myself in Passage D’Enfer by L’Artisan Parfumeur to know that I am perfumed but I do get delicate and wonderful little whiffs on and off.

UPDATE: Funnily, I have read that this fragrance does not last, but on my usually scent-hungry skin I’m getting 3-4 hours and it is MUCH lovelier now than when I first applied. At the 8 hour mark there is the same whisper that it started with. I have underestimated and misread this perfume and will definitely be giving it another go. It’s almost as if my nose had to become accustomed to the quiet dignity and fragility of this sheer but lovely scent.

So that was Monday, on Wednesday morning I have given myself another spray and this perfume seems more robust in the 10 degree celsius that it did in 20 degrees on Monday. Interesting. I am getting a whole panoply of nuances that I just didn’t detect on first application. OMG! This is a gem, so subtle and SEXY. I can now imagine this as a dinner or, um, you-know-what scent. It definitely has a whisper of the temptress or hunter about it. Warm, spicy, woody and deep. I am LOVING Passage D’Enfer on the revisit. As you know i think all perfume is unisex but this one is so wearable by both sexes that if you are in a mixed sex relationship you’ll both be fighting for the bottle.

Photo Stolen from peter-pho2.com

I really enjoyed the review by Now Smell This and Fragrantica has the notes, accords and reviews.

Vegan Curry

This has nothing to do with perfume and I am a total meat eater but this is my go-to curry, it’s also good just in case you are unsure of your guests dietary requirements, and excellent for ready meals that last a week in your fridge. And SO CHEAP!

Ingredients

• 4 washed small potatoes cut into 1cm cubes
• 1 large onion cut into wedges
• 1 cup split peas (any colour but I used yellow last night)
• 1 cup broccoli florets in 1-2cm pieces
• 1 cup mushrooms sliced
• 2 zucchini halved and cut into 1cm pieces
• 1 teaspoon iodised salt
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 2 large cloves garlic thinly sliced
• 4 fresh green chillies slice thinly across, keep seeds
• 1 tablespoon plain flour
• 1 teaspoon prefab crushed ginger ginger
• 1 tablespoon prefab lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon rice bran oil
• 1/2 cup boiling water

Cooking

1. Prepare all ingredients; leave vegetables in bowls of lightly salted water.
2. Wash, rub and drain split peas 3 times or till water is clear-ish.  Add 4 cups water to split peas and bring to boil on med heat. Skim foam.
3. Drain potatoes and add to peas. Return to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered 5 mins.
4. Stir in drained broccoli, zucchini and mushrooms with salt. Return to boil, reduce to simmer, cover and cook 10 mins.
5. Heat oil in pan over med-high heat. Add cumin seeds 20 seconds, stir in garlic, chillies and turmeric 1 minute.
6. Stir the cooked vegetables into garlic/chilli mix in pan.
7. Whisk flour in mug with some boiling water until smooth. Stir into vegetables.
8. Add ginger and lemon juice.
9. Increase heat to med-high and stir continuously 1 minute.

Serve with Rice and Roti (we buy our Roti frozen and pan fry)