Sometimes the reaction to a perfume entirely depends on the weather. When I first received this scent, by Liverpool-based brand Essen Minimal, in the boiling Japanese summer, it just seemed faint and prickly, defeated by the dense humidity. In winter, it feels entirely different. Black pepper and pink pepper blended with Calabrian bergamot smell fresh like new neroli, while the stringent, frankincense undertones give a curiously contradictory effect almost like a memory of Narcisse Noir. In the cold weather now, this simple and minimalist scent – clean and resuscitating – feels psychologically appropriate.
In terms of the news, and discussions of Certain People, my brain filament burnt out completely last November in that regard, so I am literally now unable to further discuss it. Watching the footage yesterday, I was wide-eyed, but wordless. Unsurprised. In some ways, to me it feels like a perfect ending (if it even is the end – Lord help us). Horrendous, yes. But a fitting denouement.
The Black Narcissus 
I think of him as (T)rumpelstilskin. I have always wanted to see him self-destruct through pure rage. I hope that happened yesterday.
It is certainly a vindication for those who had to suffer people telling them they have been overreacting. OF COURSE this would happen.
Colleagues, students, family, all thought I was exaggerating in my reactions to this man but I knew absolutely in the core of my being that I never was. It was simultaneously a damaged toddler stamping its foot for four tumultuous years addicted to the seismic ripples it created across the corners of the earth, and also incredibly damaging to the world in a great number of ways. I really really do hope that this is the permanent nail in the coffin.
Psychologically appropriate. I like this. A good simple litmus test for wearability.
. . . my brain filament burnt out completely last November in that regard, so I am literally now unable to further discuss it. That is so perfect. My brain filament burnt out completely. You put words to what I’ve been feeling and found incapable of describing. I can even picture it. I think it’s something like this (no sound, but I can hear the brzzzhhhzap):
I will be finding my own quiet place tonight just to detox from all that I’ve absorbed. Copious quantities of fragrance will be involved.
And wine I hope. Although curiously, at the moment I feel like watching all of this unfold with a nice clear head.
Agreed. No alcohol. No need. Already escaped.
Re: the filament: in some ways it has been utter bliss since it burnt out, as I have been in an almost zen like state. I got my life back. D and I had a divinely relaxed winter holiday together, really happy. Once I knew that a genuine end to all this bullshit seemed truly in sight, it was as if my personality changed. A brain fog lifting to a brighter dawn. So I am watching all of this as through the wrong end of a telescope now – kind of fascinated but ultimately uninvolved: as Joan says above in terms of Rumpelstiltskin, it feels fable-like, inevitable.
Yes. I know what you mean. I feel that we’re in fortunate situations where we have the luxury of going full zen. I know Ric and I had one of the best Christmases. The unadulterated gratitude in having our lovely lives separate and together, as rich and full as we could wish, far away from the madness in a tiny wee spot on the edge of nowhere, spoiled for creature comforts and creative fulfillment, not worried about income, everyone around us behaving like grown adults. Those things in themselves are balms, and then when you can actually become a little untethered from certain harsh realities, disconnect a little via the zap of the ol’ filament . . .
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YES to this video! Something similar happened to me. It’s quite an interesting psychological phenomenon.
Oh how I wish I could just avoid all the insanity. It’s just continuously a madhouse. Hopefully those who were involved will pay the price for their actions.