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Portia
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Happy New Year APJ,
What a week! It’s been super hot and sweaty here in Oz. Some of our peeps are in Sydney on holidays or have been off work for part of the week. So many fantastic catch ups.
Scent Diary: 1.1 – 7.1.2018
Monday 1:
This is what midnight looked like where we were. My BFF Kath took this photo just after we’d done the countdown. Cool shot huh?
Wishing you all a wonderful 2018. Fill it with loads of good stuff so the shit seems less deep.
Got home around 2am, took the Drag Queen off, gave myself a Guerlain Shalimar EdP drenching and fed & walked the dogs. It was calm and quiet where we live and I only met a few revellers coming home or walking off their excesses. Everyone was friendly and wanted to pat the dogs. They chattered, some more waffly than others. North Parramatta, where we live, is like a village. Weirdest thing, though I felt like I was wafting rather a lot of Shalimar, no one commented.
It was so enjoyable waking up with the tail end of Shalimar that I spritzed again after the dogs morning walk. I’m going to have to stop falling asleep on the couch, my whole body is yelling out in unhappy surprise today. Bit crinkled I think.
Jin awoke at around midday. He’s fairly crumpled himself. We get a three hour window when he works nights before he needs to sleep again. I quite like it when he works nightshift. Today we went to the grocery store, watched a little TV and that’s about it.
The heat has me drained so now I’m looking for something summery but fun. How about some Estee Lauder Bronze Goddess? MMMMM
Kath came over for dinner and then we watched a 2006 Julianne Moore, Clive Owen and Michael Caine film Children of Men. This feels so real and immediate, as if we are looking at tomorrow. Sci-Fi yet not so far fetched. A couple of the lesser characters annoyed me but the three leads are so good, captivating.
Tuesday 2:
3.30am. Somehow I managed the whole last season of Luther in one night. Did it while wearing Guerlain L’Homme Ideal Cologne.
This morning I have liberally applied Mugler A*Men Kryptomint. It’s a jolt to the senses and balm for the soul.
Scotty and I ran around in the blistering heat to get the office work and sundry stuff done today. I shouted him lunch as a Thank You. Seriously, I’d get bloody nothing done if it weren’t for him. Somehow I manage to ignore important paperwork for months if there’s no one making it happen.
Had a nap then went crazy with Cacharel Liberté. New Years seems to be bringing out the old favourites. It feels like I’m reconnecting with them.
Then tonight Jin and I met the girls for Korean BarBQ. We haven’t been in a while and everyone ate till their stomachs hurt. It was heaven. Sometimes I really have to pinch myself at the fabulous people who surround me. All outstanding human beings that I love and admire. So good to just sit, eat, chat. You’ll note Alice is wearing the other pair of earrings Jin bought her.
Home to walk the dogs and it’s so bloody muggy we turned the A/C on dry mode. It dries the air and lightly cools it. Suddenly the house is liveable, and it uses less than half the energy.
For bedtime I gave myself a half spritz of La Via del Profumo Mecca Balsam.
Wednesday 3:
Woke up with Jin. Spritzed a small amount of Lolita Lempicka EdP. Fed and walked the dogs and happened to bump into an old mate of mine that used to work the bar at Parramatta RSL. Hopefully a catch up in the near future.
Jin was a bit surprised he’d forgotten to make Korean New Year Beef Dumpling Soup with Ricecakes. So, better late than never we got it this morning. So bloody delicious. He doesn’t make it often but when he does I’m always up for a HUGE bowl. Afterwards, as I drank my coffee the dogs were asking for some in their own way.
My day was spent mainly in front of the computer organising posts for APJ and Perfume Posse. Got quite a lot done so I’m patting myself on the back. Ended up a melange of fragrance but the beast that stomped on everything else was Montale Aoud Amber Rose. Seriously, everything else wilted to insignificance in the face of its outrageous size and heft. Jin was squeaking COW POO from the kitchen, squeaking because it had sucked the oxygen out of the three nearest suburbs. HA! It was FUN wearing it though.
Had an extremely late bath because I smell terrible, all the perfumes and sweaty old fat boy. For bed loads of Hermès Eau de Merveilles
Thursday 4:
Laziest day ever, spritzed the briny goodness of Mendittorosa Sogno Reale. Slobbed around the house and blogged. I did make this spectacular Steak Salad Sandwich for lunch from leftover steak. So delicious.
Watched TV and napped till 6pm when Jin came home. Then we met Kath at our favourite Chinese Restaurant Liu Rose for dinner and a Wedding Meeting. Very exciting.
For the evening a hefty dose of Estee Lauder Beyond Paradise Blue.
For bed. Parfums DelRae Amoureuse, psycho-lily.
Friday 5:
From a decant Phaedon Dzhari. Imagine a booze & dates version of Mona di Orio’s Eau Absolue.
Off to town on bus and train to meet up with some mates I’ve known for decades. We took the free AGNSW tour with Prue, one of the most engaging guides I’ve had. Full of information and zipped us around the gallery to multiple levels and areas. We all really enjoyed our 45 minutes with her. Then we went for lunch in the Members Area and chattered and laughed away an hour or so. Lovely way to spend the day.
I wandered back to the station via David Jones where I looked fruitlessly for something to add to my collection, or some Sale Bargains to put away as gifts but nothing grabbed me and though I picked up half a dozen things I put them all back again. Tragic.
Coming home I found the house smelling like food! Jin had created Korean Chicken Soup. Very simple, and delicious. It does not traditionally have peas but I added my own because I love the pop.
After dinner Jin went to bed because he has a 4am start tomorrow and I stayed up watching TV, messing around here on the computer.
SOTBed: L’Artisan L’Eau d’Ambree. Amber can be beautiful in the heat. So smooth.
Saturday 6:
Saturday morning and I woke up on the couch after watching Troll Hunters cartoon till the early hours. Fortunately I cleaned my teeth and drank some water before the binge began so I didn’t wake up with budgie cage floor mouth.
Annick Goutal Sables arrived in the post yesterday. I feel like an idiot. Seems I ordered two bottles on FragranceNet and it was so cheap I didn’t even notice it among the other things I bought. It’s been on my list forever and I’m kicking myself I didn’t get the original bottle but it seems just as potent and outrageous as ever. Swanning around the house in underpants and four blasts of Sables to the chest. FULLY fragrant moment. While I was there I grabbed some Tabu 4oz Shower Gels, some Aramis 1.7oz Invigorating Body Shampoos and Annick Goutal Duel in the original mens packaging.
Got some blog stuff organised today, vacuumed the house and dusted the living areas.
Jin’s had a bit of a let down and so to cheer him up I cooked dinner. Super simple. Pan Frien Chicken with creamy onion & pepper sauce plus baked potatoes, onions and carrots. The green capsicum strips are just to add some colour. I bloody started eating before I took you all a pic, it looked so nice as I brought it out. There are even leftovers for my lunch tomorrow. Woo Hoo!
My Sables was still going strong at 8pm, it’s honeyed immortelle and amber is gorgeous.
Bath time. I need to get the stink off me after a hot day and dog walking. Cool bath, heavenly. Radox Bath Salts and Tabu Shower Gel followed by Kiehl’s Original Musk Lotion and Atelier Cologne Tobacco Nuit. As you can imagine, FULLY fragrant around here to go to bed.
Sunday 7:
PHWOAR! It is hot in Sydney. 45C (113F)
Kath and I went for pedis while Alice wandered the shops today. More Aftelier Cologne Tobacco Nuit. It smells so good.
We were supposed to go for a swim together but I got sidetracked thinking about going back to work tonight and food etc. Ended up back at home instead of out. GRRR! I love swimming.
Cool bath, shave and ready myself for lovely lady land. It’s so hot the sweat keeps rolling into my makeup. It’s going to be rough & ready tonight. Guerlain Chamade EdP to cool me down.
Sadly there were only three teams playing tonight because no one wanted to leave their A/C. We still had a ball. This team is Sluts United, our winners this evening.
It’s YOUR turn. What’s happening in your world?
Did you do anything Fun or Fragrant, with Friends and Family or maybe even had some less than Fabulous news you want to share? How is or was your New Year?
Now’s the time, in the comments below.
We love to read what’s happening to YOU.
Portia xx
Australian Perfume Junkies 
First off that first picture of you on New Years is fabulous!!!
Second, is it naughty for me to say that I find the pictures of food more enticing than the perfumes even though I do love your perfume choices?
Thirdly- yes, it is easy enough to watch an entire season of Luther 🙂
Fourthly, thank you for the Wood Infusion-I thought for sure it had been confiscated by the US Postal Service and my mailman was smelling bloody good but it made it to me and I love it!
Spent the entire week trying to stay warm (it is below 14 degrees fahrenheit this morning) and indulging in lots of good foods…I find that I buy more, cook more and eat more when the eldest is home from college. I also had two missed days of work because of the blizzard that arrived on Thursday. More time for being my sloth self and knitting, reading, watching TV and eating at leisure.
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and OMG! 113 degrees F!!!! that is hot! and yay to two bottles of Sables!!! Isn’t fragrancenet the best?
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You had 45 degrees? That is brutal, I don’t know how you left the house!
It has been low 30’s here and I am enjoying early walks with dogs and harvesting veg from my plot in the community garden.
My lovely and handy husband has put in a new laundry this week, I am so impressed by people who understand how to put stuff together!
New year was low key, caught up with friends for dinner…Ambre Fetiche.
Today I wore a weird little scent called Sleeping with Ghosts, quince and woods and vanilla. It’s nice.
Happy wedding planning!
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Sleeping with Ghosts… Mark Buxton per chance? I considered buying it a few times, however, on my skin after approx.. 3 hours it simply smelt rank….like I’d not washed for a week.. so the bottle remained in the store.
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Your week sounds great, Portia! Plus, 45 degrees!. Oh my, I miss summer so much!
January 7th is the Orthodox Christmas, that’s why I’m wearing Nuit de Noel. It’s been a quiet day, been watching the Marvellous Mrs. Maisel (not that impressed, by the way).
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The extremes of temperature–in your diary, and in the mentions from the east coast USians commenting elsewhere–are making my head spin.
I cannot tell you how glad I am to live in a place with a moderate, if soggy, climate. Sure, it’s -3C today, but lower than that is rare, and 23C is a lovely summer’s day. Which suits me nicely, as I am a delicate northern flower, and likely to be found fainting in coils at anything over about 30. (How my sister thrives in the middle east, I do not know; the genetic dispositions towards temperature were strangely and unevenly allocated.)
It was back to work on Tuesday, unwillingly, as I had spent a few days ill and felt a bit cheated of half my holiday break (so a tedious NYE, with an aural backdrop of all the Edinburgh fireworks). Adjusting back to the early starts, the train commute, and trying to fit a few more things into my daily routine… but, at least I smelled bloody lovely all week.
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Are you in Edinburgh? My favorite author of all time (Alexander McCall Smith) paints such an idyllic portrait that has me longing to visit Edinburgh and Scotland in general.
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I am! It’s a gorgeous city, and a really good place to live. I hope you get the chance to visit at some point. Do let me know if you are heading this way!
(I’m very fond of McCall Smith’s novels, too. And I used to live just round the corner from Scotland Street
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44 Scotland Street and the Isabel series are my two favorite series of his. I have read both series twice 🙂
It will be a while before I travel but if I ever make it there I will let you know.
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Like you, I live in a moderate, and grey, and damp, and humid, and grey, and wet, and sometimes windy, and grey and wetter climate.😟 I am crying out for some heat and sunlight but there’s not much chance of that happening until about 5th June. For one day only.
I am the winter grinch, I know. And I may be exaggerating a tad. We might actually get a whole week of summer weather. But hey, it’s great to be back to some semblance of normality after the Christmas break.
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Sunlight, oh yes, I miss sunlight in the winter. The dark goes on so.bloody.long. I guess that’s the flip side of the gorgeousness of the endless evenings in the summer.
55 degrees north, and we spend six months with the sun too low to give us vitamin D from daylight alone. Gah!
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After reading about 45C in Australia and -42C in Canada, I sure am happy to be in San Diego with an average of 20C!
We had a quiet New Year’s at home with the dogs and I spent last week reorganizing my perfume collection. It is much more visually pleasing and easy to find everything now. I have a few things that need to go to eBay, but I’m basically happy with what I have, not much on the wish list.
Today I tried Guerlain Lui. Got a massive myrrh note on opening, then it toned down to a nice benzoin clove scent with a vanilla background. Nice scent.
Have a great week!
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Portia!!! That New Year’s countdown picture is EVERYTHING. It belongs on the wall. I really really love it. Happy New Year! 🦄✨
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P.s. The leg + Do Not Touch = ❤️
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^ I noticed that, too. It made me laugh.
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Ha! thanks for pointing that out 😉
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Your food your perfume Portia! so many good things. Even in this terrible heatwave of 40c plus, you still are, total glamour!! love you heaps xx
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First: Happy new year, dearie!
Second: Y’all flat crazy, eating soup in that kind of weather. Send ALL THE SOUP TO MEEEEEEE, because it’s cold here. Also, I’m gonna need Jin’s recipe for the Beef Dumpling soup, STAT, because we’re supposed to get freezing rain tomorrow night. (please? pretty please?)
Third, I love this sentence: Swanning around the house in underpants and four blasts of Sables to the chest. You are fabulous.
Fourth, Psycho-lily? Yeah. Amoureuse is great stuff.
Fifth, I read Children of Men aaaages ago but haven’t seen the film. Might have to rectify that.
Sixth? Moar Scent Diary pls thnx kbye.
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Had a shite new year’s eve. Worked until 9pm. The people I cared for seemed restless and more ‘difficult’ than usual…they are humans afterall.. Humans can have their ‘off days’, yet as a ‘collective’ it isn’t fun….
Anyway, home showered drank a cider. Turned on computer and TV , which was on a channel not showing fireworks. I couldn’t be bothered changing the channel. Woke up the next morning in a bit of a funk, however by the 2nd I was happy again.
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Sorry about your New Year’s Eve! I do hope this year will be a rewarding one.
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Thank you.. I have’ big things’ in my mind for this year….but at the moment only in the ‘molling over ‘stages.
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Portia -you look fabulous as always! That Kryptomint looks wicked. And i’ve added that Montale to the to try list. Applying makeup as one perspires is a challenge i do not enjoy either 🙂
settling back into the work mode here. had some presents in the post arrive, including some L’artisan Ambre & Dzing & some Balmain Ambre Gris. Said i wouldn’t order any more sample decants for a while but broke that promise the other day by ordering some 12+ scents off my wish list – doh! oh well. Off to investigate Luther seeing as its had so many rave reviews here….
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I find myself actually holding my breath as I read these reports. I will never be a proper perfumista. 😥 Love ya. ❤️
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Portia – you look fab! Glorious shot! Happy New Year, Everyone!
We’ve had a hectic week but did stop to celebrate Old Christmas. I wore lots of Charlatan.
(And I think I say this every time but I love Shalimar.)
Meanwhile I am so in love with the latest APJ Saturday Question and the posts. mmm Lutens 💕
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Oh lord- the food is looking so delish. Dumplings.mmm heaven!
In 2018 may we all share dumplings with loved ones, smell beguiling and flash a bit o’ leg. 😘
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Oh god no…. my legs are remaining well and truly covered…..and I’m not ‘quite’ sold on dumplings as yet…..
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It’s so fitting that there’s talk of dumplings as I spent a few days in Munich at New Year and they’re a big thing there. Almost every main dish is served with a side of potato dumplings and bread dumplings. I haven’t eaten them since I was a child when my mam used to make them. I promised my hubby that I’d have a go at making them. I’ve been looking at recipes and may get around to actually doing it by February.
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Wow, Portia, you look fabulous at work. What a headpiece😍. Am wondering who/what the Do Not Touch sign refers to? Is it yourself? I would be ascared to touch you, haha.
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Hello gorgeous.
A lovely week in your always glamorous life… Kath took a really lovely photo of you on NYE.
Watched 3 movies at the cinema last week. Didn’t quite break the 4 (and a musical) from previous week as I was back at work on Tuesday. Clearly a first world problem.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was just wonderful. I was a teary mess. Disaster Artist was of a brand of humour that I still don’t know whether to laugh or be appalled. That said James Franco was very good in that. Downsizing was just ok and I think it’s a missed opportunity.
On the perfume front I got to try Sacred by Teone Reinthal, given to me by a super cool perfumista… it’s quite amazing. I can imagine being in a enchanted forest where there are lots of wood and some dark mysterious flowers.
I also opened a couple of bottles from my stash: Zegna’s Haitian Vetiver and Blu Mediterraneo Mirto di Panarea. Love the Zegna and only wish the longevity were better on me.
Busy week ahead so doubt I’d make 3 movies…
XXX… T
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