Sporadic Reflections

French Vanilla !

The other night I was about to head out for a house party and sort of lingered over my perfume collection and was wondering ‘how I want to smell’ that night … yeah you read that right .. I didn’t think about which perfume I wanted to wear but more so how I wanted to smell …

Silly I suppose – but it all started years ago in high school when I started wearing ‘Fleur de Vanille – Vanilla Flower’ by L’Occitane.  It’s an Eau De Toilette and by far the one scent that has gotten head turning reactions even out on the crowded Oxford Street in London !   I had gotten this perfume from a class mate who had picked it up for me from Saudi Arabia – and the first day I wore it in school – almost every guy in my class and the class above me must have stopped to ‘sniff’ me !  My then boyfriend told me that all he could think about coming close to me was ‘desserts’ !  Another one of the guys labeled me ‘brown sugar’ after that since I was smelling so sweet ! 

I must have gone through a few bottles of this perfume and then suddenly the company stopped making it ! I was almost in depression and managed to save my last bottle and still have it to date with less than half an inch of perfume left in there !  The company did come out with another one which is quite close to the original and its called L’Occitane Eau De Toilette de Vanilliers – slightly different shaped bottle but just as sexy when put on :) 

However a couple of weeks ago – I ‘wanted’ another original bottle and quite literally went through every website possible including Scents.net which caters to a wide range of women’s fragrances across brands to try and hunt it down.  I couldn’t find what I was looking for but I did find quite a few of my other favourite perfumes on there so do go and check it out – there are some bargain buys too !

At the end of the day – I do like a variety of perfumes – but tend to stay with fairly light summer scents for casual everyday wear … something along the lines of an Estee Lauder – Pleasures; Escada – Into the Blue.  I don’t really Since I’m a total night person and party animal in the evenings – I prefer something that catches the attention of those around me such as Christian Dior – Hypnotic Poison or Dolce Vita; Chopard – Wish; Thiery Mugler – Angel. 

My evening scents are much stronger than what I would wear during the day – however they all have one thing in common – the fragrance that comes about from each of these perfumes once it touches my skin – always reminds me of a strong vanilla scent – and it’s more or less become my trade mark =)  The smell is just soothing to me – gives me a nice warm fuzzy feeling and at the same time a zap of energy – like a boost to my day.

What about you ? Are there any smells that move you to the core ? or any that just make you want to hold your nose and wonder ‘why??’  So .. what’s your smell like :P or shall I be politically correct and say ‘what’s your fragrance’ ? 

I’ve just come back from what could possibly be one of the most mind blowing holidays’ ever !

For the first time, I gave up complete control and let ‘someone else organize’ a holiday and I just went along with it … no questions asked (okay that’s a bit of a lie – I did question quite a few things but never really got a response and was told to ‘shut up’ and ‘enjoy the vacation’)

I’m not the most religious person that you’d meet – but that’s not to say that I don’t believe in God.  I do believe there is an entity that watches over us all and is the creator / coordinator of life !  Yeah coordinator is my way of describing it ! hehe

So where did I end up on this vacation (which by the way is the first proper vacation I’ve taken since July 2008) … I found myself ‘camping’ on a silver sand beach right on the river Ganges … yup that’s right – the Holy River !  

And when I say camping – I really mean ‘camping’ … which is something I’ve never done before … the closest I’ve been camping has been desert overnighters whilst growing up in Dubai and even then those were quite luxurious.

We were camping out in Rishikesh, which is a city in the state of Uttarkhand.  The city is also known as the ‘gateway to the Himalayas’ and is about 25 kms away from another holy city ‘Haridwar’.  It’s also recently come to be known as the adventure capital of India.

I went out white water rafting on the Ganges; kayaking; rappelling; body surfing; stayed in a really funky tent; was petrified of using the make-shift loo’s at night; sat by a campfire every night and snuggled up in a blanket every night after zipping my tent shut !

The pictures above are various views of the actual campsite – it was spread across the beach - maybe a kilometer or so and proved to be a lot of fun =)  The tin can with the mirror was basically our ‘freshening up’ zone !

This was a camp organized by a company called AquaTerra and I must say – they were excellent.  I spent 5 nights out there and just gave myself up to nature and literally forgot about civilization i.e. switched my phone off (I have NEVER done this); no laptop (this was hard!); no electricity; and best of all – I just stopped ‘thinking’

If you have ever contemplated a camping / rafting trip in India – then I highly recommend the above company and definitely make a trip down to Rishikesh.  The natural beauty that you can find out there is just breath taking !