Portia

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Hello Australian Perfume Junkies and friends, Scent Diary is me keeping track of my life, adventures, fragrances, friends and family. Grab a cuppa and have a read. THEN please tell us what you’ve been up to. It’s much more fun when we all share and it’s not just me shouting into the void.

See you in the comments. I read, and respond to, every comment.

Scent Diary: 4.5-10.5.2026

Monday

I was straight up and into the Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

• Don’t Touch the Phone
• Avoid Negative Input (TV, Socials, Arguments)
• Drink Water
• Get Sunlight in My Eyes
• Move Body 3 Minutes
• Set One Intention
• One Small Win

Said hi to Jin and went into the office and started writing this weeks Trivia Q&A.

Le Galion Aesthete. MORE! I love it.

It wasn’t till after 1pm that I realized I’d completely missed my date with Lisa to do our ALS: To the Moon and Back Podcast. Fortunately wet both had time to do it as soon as I got home.

Trivia Q&A, some blogging.

Jin and I watched some TV but really just played on our phones and chattered. Monday is Jin’s Sunday. This one was super cruisy.

Naomi Goodsir Nuit de Bakelite.

Dinner at our fave Vietnamese. Brought home leftovers. No pic.

Did a medium grocery shop.

Jin went to bed, I had a late night snack.

Did clothes washing and hung it.

While doing the laundry I made a huge pot of Pumpkin Soup. It has so many other vegetables in it that it could be called Vegetable Soup. Everything veg in the fridge and a few different pumpkins, mushrooms and a sweet potato bought expressly for the pot. Made so much that I did some take away containers for two of our faves in the apartment block.

Sneaky swipe of CHANEL Coco vintage extrait.

Bed.

Tuesday

Up before the alarm went off today. Morning Routine: 10 Minutes. Switched up some of my movement, added a stretch. It’s all very low key but it does get me moving and a bunch of water into me before the day starts. The dogs get a wee on the verge outside our apartment and I get some sunlight on my face. Our apartment block faces east and this morning was particularly sunny.

Dries van Noten Rock the Myrrh from Surrender To Chance decant

Lazy.

The zygocactus is about to go blazes. The bright pink is always first.

Dust and vacuum.

Lunch.

Divine EdP.

Organized my outfit and stuff for tonight.

Fed and walked the dogs. Beautiful. The leaves are just starting to fall.

Bubble Bath. MMMMM

DIOR Patchouli Imperial. Always makes me think of Margeaux.

Work was fun. We had a new crew in.  They were rowdy! Had a fantastic time.

Home. Watched some TV.

Fed and walked the dogs.

Ulrich Lang Anvers. Contemplative. Masculine, Barbershop but more interesting. A less leathery Bandit.

Bed.

Wednesday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

The dogs were super sniffy on their wee walk this morning. Normally they are out the door, do wee and then we head back in. Not today, they were adamant they wanted a little sniffy adventure.

Abdes Salaam Attars Tawaf. White floral with amber underneath. Spring. Feral spring. Gorgeous.

Our dining table has been groaning under the weight of accumulated life detritus and two, maybe three, weeks of laundry. Usually I’m much more on the ball. Problem is, once one of us leaves something there it becomes a dumping ground. With so much crap littering the table there’s no room for folding. Today is for cleaning that up and folding the laundry. Small but significant thing.

Walked the dogs under autumn Magritte skies. Love our daily perambulations.

Noticed an orange zygocactus is about to pop too.

Jin came home. He started rewatching the Lord of the Rings the other day. We watched the end of #1 and most of #2.

I finished the folding while we watched.

Did I tell you I made a huge pot of Pumpkin/Vegetable Soup? It’s so delicious. That was my very late lunch.

BUBBLE BATH.

Diptyque L’Eau Papier from Surrender To Chance decant.

Work was so fun tonight. We had most of our usual players, some off sick or holidaying. They’re such a fun bunch and we’ve all become friends. I spend a lot of time sitting with the Meat Queens, they are hilarious (not pictured).

We had a tiny sliver of soap in the main bathroom that disintegrated in my hands so I grabbed a new Claus Porto Chic Tulip Soap. Very creamy lather, smells so good.

Watching TV: Person of Interest. It’s a few years old now and very low key watching. I like the characters and actors but am not heavily invested. Perfect brain rinse before bed.

Memo French Leather from Manufacturers decant.

Read. Bed.
ZZZZ zzzzzzz

Thursday

A fairly lackluster Morning Routine: 10 Minutes. Bare minimum.

Parfums de Nicolai Musc Intense. From a three pack of 15ml bought long ago to push me to free shipping. I was a bit meh first time I wore it but today it hits every button.

Fed and walked the dogs. Look at these clouds! You can’t tell by this pic but we are bathed in warm sunshine. About a meter away the grey starts. Looks like we might get a storm. YAY.

Sat down to do some blogging and I’ve misplaced my decant. Just wasted two hours of my life going through every nook and cranny on, in and around my desk. I had it in my hands in the last 24 hours. GAH!! Such an idiot.

Had a cuppa, came back and found it. EXACTLY where I’d looked at least 10 times before. Sometimes I’m not really with it.

Walked down to a new to me cafe De Salt. Lunched with Andrew and Kelly! They both work in Parramatta in different buildings and we have talked about lunching for ages. It was lovely. LOADS of chatter and laughs. Food was good too.

On the way home I walked past Paramatta’s newest ugly eyesore. This is our Powerhouse Museum. It’s two blocks of buildings with ridiculous wingdings like poorly planned fishnet stockings over the top. Every time I see it, the profligate waste makes me feel ill.
They also knocked down the last historic mansion in the Parramatta CDB to do it. Bastardly bastards.
While I applaud the birth of a new and hopefully interesting museum. Visually and historically it all makes me sick.

Drove around grabbing a bunch of Click & Collects. Nothing super exciting except Old Spice has some new flavors and the body washes were on deep discount so I bought a bunch for bubble baths.

Dad (my BFF Kath’s Dad) lives on the way to one of the pick ups so I got him and we went together. We had a cuppa and a wander through his favourite mall. It’s the one I worked as a squirt bitch in 40+ years ago, so I also have very happy memories of my time there.

HOME! Gave the dogs a wee and then Jin arrived. YAY!

We watched some more Lord of the Rings. He picked the four plus hour director’s cut of Return of the King. L O N G.

DIOR Vanilla Diorama

Off to our favourite Korean BarBQ for dinner. Jin spent most of the night deeply engrossed in Korean discussion with Jenny the owner. They both drank a bottle of Soju each and were very animated.

Home.

Jin went to bed.

Dogs fed and walked.

Olfactive Studio Flash Back in New York.

Bed. Read. ZZZZZs

Friday

I reached over and hit the off button on my alarm three times. FINALLY got up at 10am. So satisfying.

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

Roja Dove Mischief from a very old decant

Faffed around doing nothing much.

Had some Pumpkin Soup for lunch, gave Paris a cuddle on the couch and that’s where Jin found us when he got home from work at about 2pm. Both snoring gently and Momo curled up at my feet.

Fed and walked the dogs.

Jin sleeping on couch. I hit the computer. Found this, made me smile.

Up in a flurry and out the door.

Walked eight holes of the Oatlands Golf Course with Jin. It was a lovely crisp, sunny afternoon and it had a cool breeze that we only noticed when standing in the shade. Jin is improving, but not very good yet. No matter. We chat and wander.

There is zero filter or upgrading these two photos. That is the colour of the fairways right now.

Le Galion Bourrasque. LOVE this spicy patchouli/amber/leather. Refined and beautiful.

We went to dinner with Paul (Dame Hilda), one of Jin’s exes who we love. His husband Michael was out boozing with colleagues so we went to the new Taiwanese place in Strathfield we discovered last week. It was equally as good as we remembered. The music is a bit loud so real conversation became small talk. No drama, I can talk so small it’s micro talk.

Home. Jin and I watched the footy. His team won so it was all smiles as he went off to bed.

I fed and walked the dogs in the very brisk night air. Put them out to bed.

BUBBLE BATH time. Used the very last of my mini sized L’Occitane Vervaine shower gel. Very luxurious, smells fabulous. Photographed against my IKEA bath sheet. I know, so UNluxe but I really love the size and colour, and it does the job perfectly.  I bought these back in about 2010 and they are still going gangbusters.

Tonight I wanted something rich and tropical. The craving came upon me straight after my bath. Songes by Annick Goutal. What a fabulous powerhouse.

Watched a little TV, read, bed.

Saturday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

Aether Solaer. A burst of sunshiny day, particularly apt for today.

Gave the kitchen and my bathroom a quick clean.

Betty came over for lunch. We finished the Pumpkin Soup. Then we went to the grocery and wandered the aisles happily for an hour or so.

Came home to find Jin ensconced on the couch watching K TV.

Betty and I fed and walked the dogs. It was beautiful in the sun but very chill in the shade.

The three of us went and did a bit of shopping at the Korean store. Then Betty went home.

Jin decided we would have home Korean Table BarBQ. YAY! You can’t really see them but recently I bought a new set of cork backed placemats, they’re the pink ones under the side dishes. The while bird ones are about 12 years old now and all the regular size ones were looking decidedly woeful. The new Indigenous Art ones were on huge discount, I think I got four sets of four for little more than the price of one set. LOVE a bargain, and we needed them, I kept the large three old ones to be used only for the table BarBQ.

We watched the Rugby League and Jin was exhausted. He went to bed before 9pm!

I watched some TV. Did some blogging.

Guerlain Aqua Allegoria Lys Soleia.

Bed ZZZzzZZ

Sunday

For those that are celebrating.

Woke up earlier than the alarm! Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

Very crisp morning.

L’Occitane Iris Bleu Iris Blanc

Jin had a doctor visit for his recurring cough. We grabbed coffees and hit the chemist.

Pretty lazy day. Hung with Jin, fed and walked dogs, had some lasagna for lunch.

Bath time.

Guerlain Epices Volees

We grabbed Gisella from upstairs and Jin drove us to Lockies Hotel for Turbo Trivia. We met TinaG there. Had some food. YUMMY Pub Grub.

There was a Mother’s Day Hamper draw. Here are our fabulous winners! So excited that our mate Jane was one of the WINNERS! No, I had nothing to do with it.

TinaG, Jin and Gisella came second!

HOME! Jin went straight to bed.

It’s really chilly tonight so I wanted something warming. YSL Velours.

I did some nothing stuff. Started this weeks Trivia Q&A. Put some laundry on and dusted. Watched some TV.

 

Now it’s your turn. Please tell us something you did, spritzed, ate, wore, bought or finished. Maybe you saw a friend, a show, an exhibition. Maybe you got through the week without having to bury a body. It can be as little as a good phone call/coffee/croissant, or as big as a new job/house/pet/lover. Just jump in. Whatever, please share something with us.

I read and respond to every comment. C’mon, let’s chat.
Portia xx