I breathe in.... and relax

I've probably said this many times in my posts but I can't help being surprised again and again when it happens.

The feeling comes upon you at the strangest times, you breathe, you realize there is a smell in the air you would like to smell better, you breathe it in more fully and then you feel your body relax. The stress sort of siphons out of your body and you smile without meaning to.

It can happen anywhere and with any kind of smell (well, a pleasant one).
Breathing in the smell of freshly baked bread, sensing the seasons in the air, a new perfume discovery that not only makes you let go of all your stress but also sends pleasant shivers down your spine, the lingering perfume of a passerby, the freshly cut fruit and vegetables (especially at this time of year) and grass any time of year, in my case also snow, the freshly washed smell of shampoo in the hair....

The list goes on and on, but the important thing for me is that there is no other sense that I can use which will enable me to relax in the space of one breath.

I just wish I could utilize this consciously. :)

Promoting Croatia (and my blog)

All of you who read my blog regularly are probably aware that I try and promote my country as much as I can while writing my blog (I try to be incospicuous about it but I'm not really sure I am).

Anyway, I am happy to say that a Croatian tourist/promotion portal Like Croatia posted some of my summer photos on their site recently! :)

You've seen the photos here already, but if you are thinking about visiting Croatia, checking out their site Like Croatia is probably a good thing to do. :)

I'm leaving you with a few more of my summer photos:

The Heat

I've been meaning to write about several perfumes I tried and really liked recently but it will have to wait another day or two for the heat wave we've been having to pass.
I just can't function when it's hot, not only because my body doesn't deal well with it, it makes me feel terribly upset as I can't ease my suffering. The best I can do is be still and let the fan do its thing (luckily we have A/C at work but unfortunately not at home).
In case you're wondering about the temperatures, for the fourth day in the row we're hitting 38 degrees Celsius (we got to 39 yesterday).

I just need to be still a little longer and I'll be fine by tomorrow.

P.S. If you're wondering why am I using a computer when it's so hot, I'm not, I'm testing blogger for Android phones. :-)

Alyssa Harad: Coming to my Senses

I must say, I really appreciate the names given to perfume  books I've been reading this year. I'm pretty sure you all realize the loaded meanings they carry but I still have to point out I appreciate it. :)

The second thing I really enjoyed about both The Perfume Lover and this book, is the fact they took me by surprise, once I started reading, I had to go on. And this coming from someone who never reads non-fiction unless forced by outside circumstance (which didn't apply here).

So, what can I say about this book that hasn't already been said? Probably not much - but it's not like I would know, I didn't read any of the reviews beforehand (I did glimpse some though).

Basically, what can I say - I relate to pretty much everything Alyssa had to say on the subject of perfume (and exercising) - the wedding thing is something I have no experience in.

There are so many points in the book where I was nodding my head in agreement:

• For a long time I didn't say to anyone how much I was in love with perfume
• Once that phase passed, I didn't mention to anyone I wrote  a blog
• Her NY experience, the scary part and then falling in love - exactly what happened to me in Paris
• Realizing there are smells all around me I never paid attention to and then did smelled which ever I could? - check
• Falling in love with JAR Bolt of Lightning because it smells exactly like the electric, post-thunderstorm air? - check
• Smelling coconut traces in fig? - check (but only after being pointed to it in the book - lucky for me I was on vacation and fig trees grow there)

And the list goes on and on. :)

Btw, one interesting tidbit I got from the book is Alyssa's realization that many of the perfume bloggers (female) tend to be petite women. I agree. :) After meeting Suzanne, and hearing about some of the others, I do see a connection there (and I know all about feeling big in their presence).

The great thing about this book is that if you are a perfume lover, it will make you smile and nod your head in agreement when you recognize the same steps you took in your perfume journey. It will also make you wonder what perfumes is Alyssa referencing by describing the way they smell.
It will also give useful advice on what to do and not to do if you are organizing your wedding.

But basically, it will confirm that enjoying your path in life with the people you love is the only way to live your life. Be it by smelling perfume and sharing it, or doing something else you enjoy.



I received my copy of the book for free from the book's PR team.

Croatian summer 2012. II

So, here are some photos I took in the last week:

My beach in Smokvica (well, not mine, the one I go to every day):

 

View from our terrace early in the morning:

The path I take when I go running (not that I managed a lot of that):

 

View from that path - the island of Krk on the other side:

One more from the running path:

Slightly better (closer) view from the path from Smokvica to Klenovica:

One more from the view from the path from Smokvica to Klenovica:

Love from Croatia! :)

Croatian summer 2012

Some of the photos I took on my vacation:

Seline, taken at 5 PM but the lighting is all strange when there is so much sun:

Seline, a view from the boat:

One more from the boat:

Beach in Seline:

One more of the beach across from Seline:



Love from Croatia! :)

Elizabeth Peters: Amelia Peabody Omnibus (books 1-2)

It’s been years since I read the last Amelia Peabody novel so I felt it was time to re-visit the series.

It all starts with Amelia inheriting a lot of money after her father dies sometime in the late 19^th century and deciding to travel the world (starting with Egypt) after spending her life in intellectual pursuits as the companion of her father. She is sure of herself and has no fear of what the world might say as she is a spinster (she’s younger than me btw as the series starts, 32) and considers herself without any marital prospects (not that she would want any).

Crocodile on the Sandbank

This is the first book where we embark on Egyptian and archaeological adventures with Amelia. I would love to be able to describe her manners and style of talking (writing, as these books are published as Amelia’s diaries after her death). She is a true feminist but not that she would ever call herself that, she believes in equality and reason so she generally follows that path even when society frowns upon it. And she doesn’t care in the least. :)

Through some mishaps, she and her  companion Evelyn meet the brothers Emerson and by the end of the book, we have 2 happy couples, albeit as different from one another as can be. Emerson, as Amelia calls him is the older brother (his name is Radcliffe actually), the archaeologist, and the younger brother Walter is there to help him with excavations and translations as he is a linguist.

Anyway, in this book we follow the friendship and love growing between the four, but the communication between Emerson and Peabody (as he calls her) is what makes these books so funny to read. Everything is told from Peabody’s point of view, as we are reading her “diaries” after all.

The Curse of the Pharaohs

I must say, of the four books, I’ve read in this go, this is the one I have the least to say about. :) Peabody and Emerson, having had a child are after the initial excavation season when they left him with his aunt and uncle now spending time in England not being able to leave their child for so long, (whose real name is not that important as from now on he will be called Ramses), this time they have to leave him with his aunt and uncle to go help with excavations after a plea to Emerson from a long-time ago friend whose husband has died in a strange accident that is of course attributed to a curse from a pharaoh where they are excavating.

Of course, Peabody and Emerson get themselves entangled in a mystery, how ever much Emerson tries to avoid them and Peabody wants to solve them. :) And they return home with the cat Bastet who is to become Ramses’ best companion.

A summer break?

My vacation started this week and when I arrived, it became obvious that my internet connection is a bit unsatisfactory. :)

It’s there but it’s so slow and not really dependable that it seems now even if I wanted to blog during my vacation (I always think I would but it’s usually the opposite), it will be a rather unnerving process for me so I might not indulge in it often.

I do plan on writing down my ideas so when I come back to Zagreb, I have many posts in the making.

In the meantime, I’ll leave you with some of the photos I took while here:

My usual place on the beach:

I’m learning how to make granola for breakfast (it tastes much better than one would expect):

And general view from my place on the coast: