Portia

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Hello Australian Perfume Junkies and friends, So glad to have you drop by Scent Diary. Grab a cuppa or beverage of choice, sit back and check what has happened, been eaten, spritzed and seen in our lives in Sydney, Australia.

At then end please leave us some comments. What or who did you see, do, eat with. Did you spritz, purchase, have arrivals or finish a sample? What’s happening in your world? If you’re writing or reading opinions, we can disagree but keep it nice and try not to give or take offense. Right now the world needs a web of friendships and connection more than ever. We all have perfume and each other in common. That’s a whole lot.

Scent Diary: 13.7-19.7.2026

Monday

Slept like dead people. Woke at 9.30am so refreshed and relaxed.

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
• One thing I’m grateful for.

Penhaligon’s Solaris. It’s new and I’m MADLY in love with it.

Dogs for a wee. Hung the laundry from overnight. Put on a new load.

Jin had heard of a brand new Pork Soup shop in a nearby suburb. We went to check it out but sadly they are not open Mondays. Around the corner is a famous old Vietnamese restaurant. You know the type, hasn’t been touched since it opened late 70s, scrupulously clean, run by now aged women. We had Rare Beef Pho. Jin has been doing some research and apparently Egg Noodles are much better for diabetes. So he got regular rice noodles and I got a half serve of egg noodles in mine. REVELATION! Egg noodles keep firmer, have more body and taste better, by far. There was not a drop of Pho left in my bowl. I even picked the bowl up to drink from it (apparently that’s ok).

Home and Trivia Q&A.

Dogs fed and walked while I had a break. Beautiful day. Bumped into our chiropractor and one of his kids walking their dog, so a little bit social too.

Trivia done and dusted, sent to the queens and printed out. Bag packed and ready.

Jin has come down unwell. He was a little sniffy this morning but now is under the doona shivering and watching King of Queens.

We were going to AquaZumba tonight but now not.

Also, our mate Phil was coming to dinner afterwards. I had to ring and put him off. BUM!

I cooked the Pork Schnitzels and we had them with salads and Korean gravy. YUM! No pics.

Spending the evening blogging and getting some advance Trivia Q&A written for the Seniors next Monday.

Dogs fed and walked.

A couple of extra spritzes of Shalimar (Sha-Lemur) on my chest for bed, Working beautifully with the miasma of blogging scents on my arms. SO fragrant.

Bed. Read.

Zzzzzs

Tuesday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

CHANEL Coromandel EdT.

Podcasting with Lisa Wright this morning. ALS: To the Moon and Back. Lisa’s story of getting, managing, living with and the trials and tribulations of having a motor neuron disease.

GAH! Didn’t happen. Lisa fell over last night and is in no shape to podcast

Jin is home sick.

Did a bunch of must do nothing things today. Made sure my Trivia stuff was all in order, just a recheck to make sure I was on the ball last night. Cleaned the fish tank, just a boy clean, not a full shebang. Watered the pot plants (with fish tank water). Got tonight’s outfit together. A mid winter balcony rose!

Also, my Garage Garden is loving the winter sunlight. Those little purple flowers are Australian Native Violets.

Lunch of Pumpkin Soup and dark Lithuanian bread, imported frozen. Jin doesn’t love my pumpkin soup but I made him have it today. Full of goodness.

Dogs fed and walked. What a perfect day.

BUBBLE BATH TIME!

Van Cleef & Arpels Van Cleef. Have you seen the prices this is going for on Ebay? AU$600+1 WOW! Thinking seriously of selling mine.

Did a very black look tonight mourning the loss of Sam Neil. He used to play Trivia with us for a couple of years. Lovely man, hardly ever eyeballed at my idiocy.

We had $400 Jackpot Winners tonight! Very exciting. B Team.

Home. Defaced. Computer.

Dogs fed and walked.

Fed myself. watched some TV. Currently The Accountant with Ben Affleck and the Pitch Perfect girl. Maybe my 5th watch of it, this time so I can then watch the sequel.

Berdoues Maasai Mara

Bed, Read.

ZZZZZs

Wednesday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

Dogs out for a wee. SUNSHINE

Abdes Salaam Attars Balsamo della Mecca

Did a mini clean up of bathroom, kitchen and folded the laundry.

Miranda came around and helped with the soul destroying admin. I do not know how people can do it. Within minutes I just want to curl up in a ball and sleep. No photos of Miranda being lovely and me losing the will to live.

Jin came home from work. He’s still unwell but in the weirdest way. Aching body, listless and lethargic.

Nap.

Yves Saint Laurent Velours

Work was busy tonight. Loads of laughs.

Did a very little grocery shopping on the way home. Got a Roast Chook and some greens. Came home STARVING! Ate like I hadn’t eaten all day, which I had.

Watched The Accountant 2. Very satisfying.

Fed and walked the dogs. Chilly out.

Home. Bath. BUBBLE BATH!

Boucheron Femme EdP

Thursday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

Up early. Dogs fed and walked in blissful sunshine.

DIOR Patchouli Imperial. Even got an unasked compliment.

Tram and train to town.

Met up with my friend Paige for lunch. She used to work for Australia’s biggest perfume importer and distributor. Gone to easier pastures now. We had to finish up much earlier than I anticipated.

Off I went to the Art Gallery of NSW through some rainswept parklands behind St Mary’s Cathedral.

Came across Michelle from AquaZumba, her sister and a friend. We chatted together and I pushed myself onto her group. We all went on a Guided Tour of the Archibald Prize together. Very informative (I’ve forgotten nearly all of it already!) Then we had drinks in the members Lounge. Ended up running a bit late for my next meet up because we were having so much fun.

In this pic Michelle looks like she’s lost the will to live. I think this might even be her happy and excited face.

Power walked back into the CBD, through the now cold rainy afternoon and met my ALS Podcast mate Lisa and her husband Mark for drinks at my favourite 5* lobby bar in the Kimpton Margot, where they are staying. It was an excellent catch up and I love them dearly. Forgot to take pics, soz.

Then wandered down to Darling Harbour in the driving rain. Puddles and mini rivers everywhere. Feet drenched and super chilly. Jin loves a new Japanese restaurant called Harajuku Gyoza. They make a very typical Japanese sandwich, which is like a burger but with bread, not bun. We met Jin the tattooist and her friend Jazzy, Kerri and Simon, TinaG and my husband Jin. It was a belated birthday celebration for Kerri and Simon. A preemptive birthday celebration for Jin tattoo. So much catching up to do, loads of laughs and some very delicious food. It was a lovely evening.

Jin drove us home. He then basically went straight to bed. Early start for work tomorrow.

I had a boiling hot bubble bath. It brought me back to feeling human. Over 17,000 steps today, most of them in the rain and cold. I needed thawing out. Job done.

Yves Saint Laurent Jazz. Vintage, original presentation. So bloody good.

Dogs fed and walked in a break in the rain.

Bushed, ready for bed.

Friday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

It’s a little rainy and cold today. It was so warm under the covers that I grabbed an extra hour of sleep.

Dogs really needed a wee by the time I got up.

Faffed around the computer.

Guerlain Shalimar Madagascar (Sha-Lemur)

Today I have only two jobs. Post office run and drinks for Jin’s work and golf buddy Vince’s farewell. So actually THREE things, I also want to buy him a Polo shirt so he can go play golf with Jin at the posh club.

Did not get to the Post Office, no parking and raining. Did get two beautiful polos, one long sleeved and one short, also a couple of pairs of black socks because they’re regulation at Jin’s club.

MORE Guerlain Shalimar Madagascar (Sha-Lemur)

The party was a big success. Vince’s family came to meet everyone and it was so good to have them all there to see the love. Bob Hawke’s Brewery has an upstairs area that the crew took over. It was perfect. Rowdy and full of genial bonhomie.

My mate Ainslie lives nearby and we’ve been trying to see each other for the whole year but it’s been impossible. So she came by. We scurried off to the Marrickville Bowling Club. Ainslie bought dinner and I made sure she never ran dry in the red wine department. Phil came and joined us for an hour too! It was such a good night. We wandered back over afterwards and caught Jin with the very last few boozers. They were pretty smashed but all in fine form. Ainslie and I hid in the back corner and continued our chatter.

I had the drivers job last night, so we dropped Ainslie and Lada where they needed to be.

Home, Paris my beautiful, extremely aged greyhound has lost most of the use of one of his back legs. He can still wander around but the stairs in our apartment block are become un-navigable for him. He’s too old for surgery, and probably wouldn’t survive it anyway. It looks like hard decision time is looming. Heartbreaking.

Took Paris to bed with me and we cuddled al night.

Saturday

Woken by Jin taking the dogs out for a wee. Went back to sleep.

Jin is still drunk from last night so is working from home. Nice.

Completely forgot I’d booked two Aquarobics classes and slept right through them. CRAP.

Viktoria Minya Hedonist Absolute. A rock power ballad of fragrance.

Fed and walked the dogs. Paris is in a bad way. I’ve worked out, if he keeps his jacket on I can steady and lightly lift him on the stairs so he can make it up and down. This could be a game changer. Vet visit booked on Monday.

Jin had some errands to run. So I’m watching the MIB Men In Black series of films again. So dumb and satisfying.

It’s FOOTY day, so Jin is happily ensconced on the couch with the pups.

I hit the computer and faffed about for a couple of hours.

We headed out for dinner at our favourite local Vietnamese restaurant. Joined by Jane Martin, Matt and Rosie. It was a lively bunch. Loads of catch up chatter. Rosie has recently relocated up to Sydney and we were all thrilled to have her here.

Afterwards we wandered the Parramatta Mid Winter Festival. Food, rides, shops and fun mainly aimed at families but we still had a fun walk through.

Home and straight into a steaming hot bubble bath.

Robert Piguet Bandit.

Watching some TV, more MIB. #2

Sunday

Morning Routine: 10 Minutes.

Today was a lovely lazy one. Spent around the couch and TV with Jin and the dogs.

Kath came for lunch and here is the wreckage left at the end of a KFC binge. We were going to have something healthy but the Thai was closed. Grrr! BUT also YAYYYY

Had a food coma nap.

Up and off to work. Woo Hoo!

Miller et Bertaux A Quiet Morning

We were super busy at Trivia tonight. Hardly a spare seat. Woo Hoo! I was also able to give Johnny a present Jin and I got him. Last time he was over he talked lovingly of Dilmah tea. So I looked them up. They have branded teapots, very affordable, and also some special loose leaf teas. So I grabbed him some. He was so happy.

Home, FOOD! I was so freaking hungry.

Watching Men In Black 3. So fabulously silly.

Fed and walked the dogs.

Issey Miyake Le Sel d’Issey. Brand new bottle. First time wear.

 

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. Whatever, please share something with us.

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