Monday 25 October 2010

Bonkers About Perfume Is One Today!

Well, well...it is hard to imagine that I have been blogging for a year already - it seems to have flown by, though Mr Bonkers might beg to differ. I couldn't resist looking back at my first post to remind myself of how it all began.

So I reckoned at the time that the underactive thyroid which flipped over into being overactive had a major role in precipitating "sudden onset perfume mania" and its associated symptoms of frenetic online research into fragrance families, splurging on sample orders from The Perfumed Court and scouting for unsniffed bargains (some of which I lived to regret) in T K Maxx. Having a newfound interest wasn't the problem, if only I could have kept it to myself...

"...my longsuffering, non-fragrance wearing partner has become heartily fed up with my talking to him about perfume all day long, as he hasn't the least interest in fragrance. He doesn't mind my having a hobby, even an obsessive one, but he doesn't want to know the minutiae of it. Which is fair enough, really...So I decided I needed an outlet for my random musings on perfume as a matter of urgency."

And so Bonkers about Perfume was born. Over the weekend, I asked Mr Bonkers if he felt I had successfully channelled my obsession into the blog. On balance, he thought not, and drew my attention to the the following areas of our domestic life which he felt had suffered:

Mealtimes have become increasingly irregular

Sometimes we sit down to a hastily improvised meal at 11pm or later. It will invariably be some form of fusion cuisine, fashioned out of scraps left over in the fridge because of my persistent failure to visit a supermarket. Innovative multi-cultural combinations of seafood sticks, cottage cheese, beetroot, a cold sausage, a samosa, a bit of quiche and some cold lentil splodge are not uncommon. Most recently garnished with slices of cucumber that Mr Bonkers brought home in error the other day when sent out expressly to buy a courgette. (And this despite having been issued with a store plan, diagrams of the chilled and ambient fixtures, and a sketch and verbal description of the target vegetable. "Glossy, dark green" clearly needs tightening.)

Some days you don't get dressed at all

I fully intend to get dressed, but often the research for a particular post ends up taking longer than I planned, or I struggle to find images to illustrate it...and before you know it it's 8pm and you might as well stay in your pyjamas. I spent an hour tracking down these cake pictures, for example. You wouldn't believe how hard it is to find photos of mad hatter birthday cakes in anything approaching the public domain. Let alone one with a single candle. The one above may conceivably say "Happy Birthday Briony", but I can't swear to it, and at least "Briony" begins with a "B". In putting it up regardless, I am banking on the deteriorating close sight of my typical reader. And a bottomless tolerance of eccentricity in all its manifestations.

Lie-ins are a thing of the past

The problem being that Mr Bonkers often retires to bed very late, as is the wont of musicians, while parcels can be delivered any time after 9am. Mr B is a light sleeper while I wear ear plugs, the net result of which is that Mr B usually staggers downstairs to receive deliveries on my behalf. Not always of perfume - it could be related paraphernalia such as decanting supplies or promotional material for my Perfume Studio sideline.

The house smells

Yes, I cannot deny that sometimes, after a particularly comprehensive testing session, there may be a bit of a cacophonous fragrance fug in my immediate vicinity - Mr Bonkers would say I contaminate whole rooms.

I am repeatedly badgered for my opinion on perfumes

Mr Bonkers has long since resigned himself to the routine and unpleasant task of sniffing my person in response to my request for a second opinion. Just occasionally, he doesn't have the strength and will tell me to go away. When he is editing a tune in his recording studio he mostly wears headphones and will simply not hear. It is perhaps only a matter of time before he tumbles to the benefits of wearing headphones all the time, even if this means missing the occasional offer of a cup of tea or a handful of chocolate buttons from my secret stash.

The "family-friendly" outlet theory is fatally flawed

It would be all very well if I confined my musings on perfume to the blog, as per the original idea, but the fact of the matter is that having written a post, I clatter downstairs, often in the small hours, to find Mr Bonkers cracking open the emergency Pringles, and exclaim excitedly: "Oh, you should have a look at this one - you'll like it - you get a mention - and you'll love the illustrations, especially the one with the meerkat holding a tester bottle. You see, basically what it's about is this....."

So, I have decided to set myself a couple of "New Year's Resolutions" for the next year of blogging - or however far into the future I get. I must be quicker and more business-like in my approach, and spend less time delving into a subject or agonising over photo choices. Perhaps I should blog a little less often, or make the posts shorter - or be less anal about spellchecking them. And when I am done, I should just go downstairs to join Mr B (hopefully before it's technically tomorrow) and ask him how his day was. Or how he rates Stoke's chances in the Premiership, or what he makes of the kerfuffle over Rooney. If I really get my act together, we might eat a meal that wasn't the culinary equivalent of a patchwork quilt. And if I could restrain my urge to test so many things, I might not smell of one either.


Photo of cake from sweetretreat.ca, photo of painting from yvonne.parcella.ws, photo of butterfly cake from www2.everybody.co.nz, photo of "Van's off the wall" my own (from a bar in the Algarve).

22 comments:

Carol said...

Happy birthday Blog!!!! So glad you're here!! (and not sure how I feel about the Rooney kerfuffle..I thought he was a bit of an ass during the World Cup)

Vanessa said...

Hi BF,

Thanks for the good wishes and for your support over the past year! : - )

I must say that Mr Bonkers is not at all enamoured of Rooney's form lately. I can always tell when he thinks a player is past their best, because he starts to preface their surname with "Donkey" when heckling them mid-match. "Donkey Rooney can't be far off...

Anonymous said...

Happy Birthday - keeeeeeeppp blogging! (That won't work for anyone who hasn't seen "Strictly Come Dancing" in the UK ... ho hum.)

I pay no heed to the Lush/BNTBTBB "best before" dates either. No bits of my bod have dropped off yet.

cheerio, Anna in Edinburgh

Ines said...

Happy blog birthday! :) And I hope we'll be able to congratulate you for years to come.

Regarding pictures, I decided it takes way too much time looking for the right one, so if I can't find it in 10 minutes, I simply choose something from what I saw in those 10 minutes. My time is seriously limited so I decided pictures are not as important as the content. Besides, I hardly ever take better notice of other people's blog photos (just so you know). ;)

Vanessa said...

Hi Anna,

Thanks for your encouragement! I will ask Mrs Bonkers Senior about that Strictly reference, as she is an avid viewer!

Sounds like I don't need to take the Best Before date too seriously, then - I will continue to slather on Cocktail with confidence...

Vanessa said...

Hi Ines,

Thanks for the birthday wishes, and I will be more ruthless about picture selection in future!

lovethescents said...

Happy birthday, BonkyBlog!

I feel for Mr Bonkers except for the late dinner part. What's wrong with his hands? He can prepare meals when you're busy, after all;-)

Hazel said...

The cucumber/courgette debacle reminds me of the time Bonkers Sibling bought a radicchio under the impression it was a red cabbage.

Shari said...

Happy Birthday to Miss Bonkers! I came across your website about a month ago and have been enjoying your posts ever since. You are so witty and fun about the perfume world. I think my favorite installment was your excursion to visit the Harrod's Perfume Diaries.

Here's to another great year,

Shari (Jemimagold on MUA)

Suzanne said...

Congratulations, Flittersniffer! Give Mr. B a peck on the cheek and let him know that any sacrifices that have been made on the hearth-and-home front in service of this blog have not been in vain. This reader thanks you both, and wishes you another happy year of perfume blogging ahead!

Vanessa said...

Hi lovethescents,

Thanks for being such a faithful reader this past year!

What's wrong with Mr Bonkers' hands? Ah, thereby hangs a tale... It isn't just about his woeful inability to ID key ingredients, never mind combine them in an approximately edible way, no... you see, Mr B is terrified of cutting his fingers on kitchen implements, especially graters or knives. Or burning them on hot plates, pots or racks. He will interact with a wooden spoon, but there is a limit to the range of cooking you can do even with such a trusty utensil as that.

Fingers are of course a musician's livelihood.

When I fell down the stairs and had an acute lumbar injury once, he did actually grill some veggie sausages at arm's length (with me calling out instructions from the floor). I believe he may even have opened a bag of salad on that occasion. That is just how it is in our house... : - )

Vanessa said...

Hi Hazel,

May I call you Bonkers Sibling-in-Law?

I am glad to hear that my Bonkers Seismologist Sibling's fancy lettuce recognition skills are not as honed as his ability to scope fault lines.

Vanessa said...

Hi Shari,

I remember our swap - IUNX Eau Frappee, if I am not mistaken. I have several aliases, and my MUA one also begins with "f"...though maybe you worked that out already!

Anyway, thanks very much for stopping by - I am glad you enjoyed the Perfume Diaries instalment. I thought I might be taking a risk by not posting a strictly factual reportage of such a high profile event, but there again a bit of bonkers spin comes with the territory... And all frivolity aside, the exhibition and the talk I attended were the perfume highlight of the year so far!

Cymbaline said...

In our house it's my reading wonderful perfume blogs such as your own that create havoc! We have patchwork dinners quite often-I would rather hurry home to the computer than stop at the grocery store :D Thank you for being my favorite enabler and to Mr. B for being such a good sport!

Vanessa said...

Hi Suzanne,

Thanks a lot for your vote of support, and I will most certainly give Mr Bonkers a peck by proxy for you! Or do I mean from?

It was lovely to "meet" you at the time of the group blogging event back in August. : - )

Vanessa said...

Hi Cymbaline,

How nice to hear from you and to learn that you enjoy browsing in the perfume blogosphere! I do feel apologies are in order though for any mealtime chaos unwittingly occasioned in your household by this particular blog... : - )

And Mr Bonkers is a good sport, it is true. Just tonight he said, on turning in: "Why don't you stay up another 20 minutes and do your usual 'room things' (code for blog-related business). Then you can wait for the tumble dryer to finish and take the vent tube out of the window, so the cat won't feel a draught."

He's all heart, Mr B!

Katy Josephine said...

Happy First Birthday! Your blog is a delight and I am often impressed by your stamina. Your posts are frequent, clever and well developed. They are pleasure to read.

Thanks for your support of my own blog this past seven months. Tell Mr. Bonkers hello and to keep doing what he's doing. It seems to be working for you both.

Congratulations!

Rose said...

Happy blogday! how exciting, hope you had a lovely day and here is to many more years

Vanessa said...

Hi Josephine,

Thanks for the birthday greetings and kind comments, which are equally true of your own blog! Yours has additionally had some very poignant moments this year owing to your particular circs...

Vanessa said...

Hi Rose,

Thanks for your good wishes. You were one of the first - if not the first - blogger to put Bonkers on their blogroll, so thanks for that endorsement all those months ago!

Martha said...

Woohoo! Happy blog birthday! It is a wonderfully informative and entertaining blog, so I hope you're not going to slow down too much. :)

I suspect that Mr. Bonkers and Himself have a lot of perfume-widower complaints in common...

Vanessa said...

Thanks, CF! "Perfume widower" is an excellent name for our longsuffering other halves... : - )