Tomorrow could be boring

Perfumery tour of London, anyone?

I'm almost on holiday again (in the timeline of my blog entries, "again" seems appropriate, as I tend to update more when I'm not buried under worky things).

I'm going to spend some time with my close, old friends Katja & Tuulia next week in London. We're probably going to make some museum trips (Tuulia likes museums even more than I do and she's visiting only for a few days). Science museum is always cool and we'll pop over to the V&A museum too.

On Wednesday evening, we're planning on seeing Mamma Mia in the cinema. Timo groans when I mention this. I can understand... we went to see Avenue Q on our wedding anniversary recently and Mamma Mia, the movie, is hardly in the same league. Still, Katja really wants to watch it and I do too. So there!

However, I'm probably the only only one of our little group who would love nothing more than to devote an entire day to a perfumery tour of London. I might just set out to do that on my own sometime. I even made a Google map to help.

More bubbles

My first product is in the shops. Specifically: the product idea I came up with, helped develop (both conceptually and as a fragrance) is now out worldwide. Customer feedback has been encouraging. So far, nobody (openly) hates it. So far, many people like it.

It feels very strange to have something that you've dreamed up - out in so many homes. People will walk around smelling of something I had a part in creating.

I hope so very, very much that this is first of many. I'm going to carry on as if that were the case. You never get anywhere by simply hoping, now do you?

(P.S. If you want to know how this all started, read some of the story from "Why I think I'm a nose").

What I did on my holidays (or: orcs in my face and lemon verbena up my nose!)

I've had a week off and now that it's coming to an end, I am just about starting to twig that this is a ho-li-day. Having said that, I've had a really good time; going to the theatre, planting herbs and flowers in the garden, reading books, playing Lego Star Wars (the complete saga) on PS3, baking and cooking... and making perfume. What I haven't managed yet, is a single entirely leisurely day. No, I'm not surprised either. But then again - if doing nothing = boredom and if boredom = torture, then why should I have to subscribe to the idea that relaxation means doing nothing. Maybe I've misunderstood. Maybe the relaxing kind of doing nothing is in fact, intensively focused meditative "doing nothing", in which case it really is "doing something" after all.

So, about the orcs. We went to see Lord of the Rings musical at the Theatre Royal (Drury Lane, London) on Tuesday just gone. The stage design, lights, choreography and circus skills were breath-taking. The whole stage (and some of the viewing boxes immediately around it) were encased in twining wood-like structures. We sat on the second row off the front and the effect was particularly strong; it felt even more participatory than theatre normally does (and, erm, more about that aspect of this experience shortly).

Some of the more challenging aspects of the LOTR story - the riders, Balrog and Shelob - were shadow-puppet-like, live silhouettes on stage, aided by excellent puppetry skills, smoke, light and sound. The battles were similarly stylised; some more circus-like, but all adrenaline-inducing and a joy to witness.

There were some oddities that snagged on the otherwise beautifully put together tapestry. The ents (always my favourite in this tale) were cleverly executed and the costumes were a fun interpretation, but they seemed to be on stage for a disappointingly short time, considering the effort that must have gone into putting them together in the first place. I didn't understand why the actor playing Frodo had adopted an oddly strangulated, nasal style of delivery (is that what Hobbits are meant to sound like? None of the others spoke that way). I wasn't sure about some of the casting choices. And the story and dialogue were delivered in a kind of a hurry; I wondered how hard it must have felt to tackle this epic at the beginning of the script writing process: "Guys, we have to squeeze thiiiiiiiiiiis many words into, cough, a couple of hours."

Having said all that, the cuts and adjustments they'd made were good and what they'd done towards the end in particular, by keeping in some of the important symbolism and commentary present in the original work, was excellent.

One of the most delightful elements of this LOTR version was the music. Although only one gorgeously melancholy and contemplative song seems to have stuck in my head like a song borne out of true musical theatre would, and the others have just left behind a general impression rather than their melody - nevertheless, the musical portion of this theatre production was superb. It added Tolkien's folk-song flavour, the elves' melodies and the atmosphere of ancient lore told through music and only imagined in our heads when reading the original books. Involving the Finnish ensemble Värttinä in the production of the score is a lovely correlation to Tolkien's love of Finnish mythology, although according to the members of the band, their addition to the project happened more by chance (scouring world music and chancing upon this song) than by intent (on being true to the roots of Tolkien's folklore research). Influences of Indian music could be heard throughout, which is not surprising, as the other half of composing came from the famous A.R. Rahman.

There were two intervals, the second of which was not long enough for people to get out of their seats, so instead... there was some interval entertainment in the form of orcs galavanting around in the audience! I was sat by the aisle on row 2. When the level of hubbub-hubbub-hubbub of general interval noise had raised to normal sort of standard, I spotted an orc about 6 rows behind us, staring down some poor tourist. So I turned my back to the aisle and said to my husband:

"Look! Look! There are orcs in the audience!"

Husband: "Um, honey?"

Me: "Look...loo... what?"

Husband: "Behind you."

Me: (turning to face the aisle): "AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Everyone within 2 mile radius: "Ahahahahahaha!"

There was an orc wearing one of the best pinhead-meets-hobgoblin theatrical make-up and costume ensembles RIGHT IN MY FACE, growling and drooling. Ok, maybe not drooling.

Afterwards, husband couldn't stop laughing: "I swear he enjoyed that."

Me: "Well you certainly did!"

(The orc actually came back to me for round 2 a moment later! For some reason I couldn't entirely concentrate on the show for the first few minutes once the curtain lifted for act III).

LOTR musical closes on 19th of July 2008, so you can still catch it! I recommend staying alert during the second interval.

For the rest of the week, I've not gone on any great outings, but I've gone a bit Bree Van De Kamp and baked, made food from scratch, tidied and brought in some cut roses from bushes I've grown over the last 2 years from little stumps in my garden.

And most evenings, I've allowed myself to indulge in perfume making (I say allowed because due to the still-quite-unbelievable-have-to-keep-pinching-myself turn that my career has taken, perfume making could now be considered "work" and I'm supposed to be on holiday. But I am too obsessed about scents to consider it work in the sense of "something one should ever stop thinking about". And I've been too busy on more important things with deadlines during working days, so I haven't really had the time or energy for concocting much).

The result is a scent I feel quietly hopeful about. I like it very much, but wonder whether it would be liked by others. I'm hoping to finish it soon and put it to the test. It's a heady mixture of Lemon Verbena, Orange Blossom Absolute, real Nectarine essence, Jasmine Absolute and soft woody amber notes. The opening is like lemon sherbet and summer fruit. It then warms to a sweet, honey-like floral (like a night garden full of white flowers) and dries to the smell of sexy, sweet skin. There is a home made perfume strip with today's batch notes written on it hanging from the makeshift "clothesline" above my computer. As it's a pure, undiluted concentration, the whole room smells of it now. Oops. I wish I had a lab.

I'm off to make some muffins now!

Marie Claire Eco Issue review (or: bullshit bingo strikes again!)

Ahh, bullshit bingo. You may have played a game or two in a business meeting, but the language of cosmetics marketing has its own version. One of the biggest bloopers being "chemical free", used to often deliberately mislead consumers. When the word "chemical" is set up as the antonym to "natural" often enough, people will begin to think that way. The internet (yes, I realise the irony, shush) is partly to blame, as is our current state of fear-based marketing so prevalent in the food, cosmetics and politics messages.

The recent Eco Issue (June 2008) published by Marie Claire was such a nice idea. I happily buy glossies along with New Scientist and Interzone, why not - I'm not a one-dimensional creature and really like lipstick and pretty pictures. In fact, I've been happily buying Marie Claire for years.

And, yes, I know it's a women's glossy magazine, so expecting too much from it in the way of actual journalism is naive. On the other hand, Marie Claire has always stood out from the others for precisely its aim to cover issues that  might not be picked up by others, and for attempting to cover them in a way you might not find in other similar publications.

In this issue, they really veered off the mark in beauty journalism. The inconsistencies and misinformation in beauty journalism are so widespread that I'd never specifically screened Marie Claire for crimes against accuracy (all magazines seem to be as bad as one another in their tendency to more or less reprint beauty company press releases, without fact-checking or claim-checking). Unfortunately, when pitted against the worthy backdrop of the Marie Claire Eco issue, what might typically have floated past in the sewage of "general cosmetic blurbery", was instead very much highlighted as shockingly ill-informed.

Best of:

- Giving away a Body Shop product as the "ethical" freebie, whilst probably very well intended, was not a good choice, as The Body Shop famously sold out to L'Oreal (who in turn are part owned by Nestle). These companies are not lauded for their ethical credentials and TBS was considered a "greenwash" aquisition for L'Oreal.

- Liberal use of "chemical free" (p.32, 248, 250) when referring to "natural" cosmetics. Calling a cosmetic product - or, in fact calling anything - "chemical free" is idiotic. Everything is made of chemicals. Perhaps they meant to say that "many synthetic ingredients used in cosmetic products have had a bad press and these companies don't use some of them."

- On page 255, a beauty feature highlights an eyeliner that "claims to be the first one not to contain hydrogenated fats", but doesn't go on to explain why on earth hydrogenated fats would be bad in a make-up product (as far as I am aware, hydrogenated fats are only bad when eaten).

- The feature of "natural" haircare (p.262-269), used photographs of models coiffed and painted to illustrate these "natural" looks... but upon reading the small print, it turns out that the feature had in fact been styled using Kerastase (L'Oreal brand) and Chanel products! Direct and obvious adverts in magazines are one thing - because people can see them for what they are - but what they've done here is very misleading and untrustworthy.

Bingo!

Busy bee

There's a sort of "keeping yourself busy"-busy, a "busy because you've procrastinated on some important things and now they're all overdue"-busy, a "wow, that last thing I took on was probably a step too far"-busy and the "getting through a big pile of things at a steady jogging-pace, but if I stop I might find it hard to pick up speed again"-busy.

And many more, I'm sure. I'm at that last one. It's interesting. I feel comfortable there. I'm also aware that soon I'll need break. And I'm also aware that in my personal life, I tend to ignore things like going to the dentist until I absolutely have to, or drop recreational activities in favour of work too easily.

Having the OU level 1 science course take up so much of what was left of "my own time" after work-related tasks did prove to be quite challenging. Nevertheless, with the course now complete (handed in the last tutor marked assessment Wednesday night!), I am looking at the next ones to do. I'd like to work towards a qualification in science, for which I'll need at least a further 50 points from other courses. I'm giving myself a break first though. Next one will be a September start.

And I've got some holiday booked for the first week of June, during which I will have to... rest and go to the dentist. Will also be going to see LOTR musical, hopefully.

Speaking of going to see things - if you like science fiction themes, action films, visual arts and/or anime, you might love Vexille as much as Timo and I did. We went to the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London to see it last week. It's showing there until the 20th of May, so you can still catch it. If not, it's due to be released on DVD this year. The soundtrack is also wonderful, featuring Paul Oakenfold trance-style backing tracks as well as little gems of tracks by the likes of Asian Dub Foundation.

My new comic strip

I was beginning to feel antsy for not having done much creative stuff purely "just because" for a while, so I started a comic strip!

Please go and have a look. It's hand drawn and scanned from a sketchbook; then tidied in Photoshop. Early days yet, but I have the next 10 strips planned and hope to update it once a week from now on (time permitting. I don't want it to become a burden, but so far it's helped me relax, so that's good).

Here is the current strip - and here's the first page.

The art of business travel, part 2

Things have improved since I last wrote about business travel. I bought a cheap, but adequate bag, which looks like a rucksack on wheels. It has several exterior pockets and if I pack it well, it conforms to the airline regulations for onboard luggage.

Now I could even take a trip via Terminal 5!

That wasn't a wish. (Just in case).

Necessity is an excellent teacher. I accepted that my new role would involve a fair amount of travel. It's something I have done extensively before and didn't expect to get back into. This time was different; this work feels different and my motivation for completing it is strong enough to override many of the elements that I found simply too irritating before. On the other hand again, I'm never going to jump for joy at the site of a throng of people pushing each other to a sweaty cluster in front of the metal gates closed temporarily at the entrance to the Underground at Victoria mainline station. But then again, who would?

There was an angry granny sat next to me on the train back from Newcastle. She sat on her reserved window seat and made odd little comments at me for a part of the journey; then disappeared to the restaurant coach and never returned. She seemed to want both seats to herself. I know the feeling, but it's one of those "can't be helped" kinda things about crowded trains.

Train stations up North smell of pies and coal tar. The women wear short skirts and high heels. Occasionally, a whiff of perfume - sometimes even pleasant or expensive - wafts along with them. You have to be in a big town to get a "decent" (read: brand) coffee kiosk; Costa, Starbucks and Nero are not in charge here.

Train stations in London smell of bitter coffee, damp fabric, exhaust fumes, stale sweat, piss and vomit, old booze, newspapers, cheap deodorant and celebrity fragrances. The women wear flat shoes and trainers, tunics-over-leggings, or trouser suits. Occasionally, a herd of Chavs gallops past, muffin-tops and gold hoops wobbling merrily as they go.

But I digress!

Although I now go to many more locations, much more frequently than perhaps ever before, my stays are always fairly short. Enter the rucksack-on-wheels - it comfortably holds my toiletries, change of clothes, laptop, chargers and even the mug and teabags. I've got bags-within-bags ready packed with the essentials and a different folder per department I work for. That means preparing for travel has become much easier. I just throw in the pre-packed sets of stuff and zoom off. I also forced myself to really think through how much I felt I "had to" take with me and I've managed to really cut down on needless weight off the luggage. Toiletries and make-up have to be small or multifunctional (or both). Clothes have to be the roll-up kind. So far so good!

A sonnet in jasmine

It's incredibly frustrating to dream in Shakespeare and write in picture book script. In perfumery, I have such flights of fancy in my olfactory cortex, but my skills aren't up to it yet. I wish I could spend an alternative lifetime in Grasse, piggybacking inside the head of an offspring of a formidable perfume famille whilst he learns the vocabulary of the craft. Memorises notes.

Sort of like Sam(antha) Beckett in France.

I have limited opportunities to start that process now. Depending on the success of my first attempts, maybe those opportunities will increase. I know that I will use every one of them fully.

Actually, when I say "start" - that's a little misleading; I have already been building up a catalogue of notes in my head - not just from childhood, noticing smells perhaps more strongly than others, but I mean the part where you consciously try to commit specific odours to memory. That started with the delivery of my first oils and chemicals, back in 2005.

Still. I feel like I've just about got the hang of "Hello, how are you? Nice to meet you." The part where you discuss matters of the heart and soul still eludes me. I'm determined to learn (as always).

There is the IFEAT Diploma in Perfumery, which I've been salivating about since I found out about it. Anyone have a spare £2000 knocking around?