Living life through your nose!

Trivial details can make all the difference.

This may seem a little bizarre to those who are less affected through their sense of smell.

I've always been someone who noticed and remembered smells. Smells are far more evocative than sounds for me, and although I can easily forget a person's name and even face, I'll often remember their smell, if it's distinctive enough. There are smells I associate with places, smells linked to objects and smells matched to activities. Some smells have changed over the years: for example petrol smells little like it did when I was a teenager.

There's a new product from Doritos that smells from a distance very similar to old fashioned wiring when it burns. It's so similar that when a colleague here opened a bag, we spent 15 mins trying to find the wiring fault.

Really.



It's a little unfortunate that I really like 'em. If you sit up on the computer 'till 3.00am nibbling, next morning they repeat something rotten on you. For 2 days.

Told you it was bizarre.

I notice my own smell too, if it changes.

For years, certainly the last 5 years, I've been using the same deodorant. It's so familiar that apart from when I first spray it, I can't smell it.

Now I can't get it any more, and I've found a replacement from Adidas. Thank goodness I found this one - the first I bought had distinct overtones of 'high school disco' after it had been worn for 30 mins.

The new smell is slightly sharp, with a lemony hint and a touch of soapiness that wasn't obvious when I tried it. It's like working next to someone I've never met before. It's almost like there's an olfactory line drawn under the old Toni, and a new life with a new scent that's just begun.


My nose, my nose lived dangerously
It’s courage was no stunt!
And during the war in Germany
It was always out in front!

Yet when the battle was o’er
And we’d defeated the Hun
Suddenly, for no reason at all
My nose started to run.

A Nose: A World War II Nose
By Spike Milligan