I didn’t manage to get a normal Weekend Link Love post together this week, circumstances conspired against me. I’m sorry. Instead I just want to recount my week a little bit, since it was a very good week perfume-wise, since I had the good fortune to meet two fellow Perfumistas and friends.
The first was Lady Jane Grey, a fellow Viennese and OT reader many of you will know from her regular comments. We met for coffee and some perfume talk. My younger son Niki was with me and he did his best to charm Lady Jane. 🙂
We swapped Guerlains, some of my Spiritueuse Double Vanille for her Angelique Noire and I couldn’t be happier. Angelique Noire is a wonderful perfume, and I’m wearing it non-stop since Friday.
On Saturday I met another blogger, the fabulous Vanessa of Bonkers About Perfume, who was on her way through Austria and made a stop near our cottage to meet up for coffee, a little sniffing and lunch. It was so lovely to see her again (we met for the first time in Vienna in August).
She came laden with numerous goodies and I cherish each and every one of them. Highlights are a sample of new Hermessence Santal Massoia, directly from Paris, as well as a generous decant of the most precious juice ever, Plus Que Jamais Guerlain, a discontinued and impossible to find gem, she herself has no full bottle of, but still selflessly shared her decant with me.
Thank you very much, Vanessa!
I wish I had photodocumentation of the two encounters, but my excuse, if I have one, is preoccupation with damage control, since Niki is at an age where he is all too interested in either fleeing the scene or drinking every available liquid on the table.
But Vanessa took some lovely pictures and I hope we’ll get to see them on her blog eventually.
My Sunday is hopefully a quiet one, before the last week before Christmas starts with all its attending frenzy.
I look forward to yet another fragrant encounter this coming Wednesday though, when my friend E. will visit from London. I feel an extended pre-Holiday sniffing trip coming on…
What about you? How was your week, what are your weekend plans?
What is your favorite perfume of the moment?
Olfactoria's Travels 
Oh, I can understand the stresses of life interfering with blogging (I’m in such a situation at the moment).
I am looking forward to the next weekend though because it will be a couple of days where I’ll get to relax and have fun with family and friends (and will do my best not to worry about things I still need to do).
It’s great that you got to see Vanessa again, I do wish her travels would get her closer to me for once though.
That is a great approach – the not worrying, I mean. I try to not think about next week yet, too. 🙂
“Niki is at an age where he is all too interested in … drinking every available liquid on the table” – LOL ! Indeed, he’s a little tea connoisseur 🙂
Was lovely to meet you, B. I hope in spite of the pre-christmas frenzy you’ll be able to find some peaceful time for yourselves.
Niki has a new favorite drink: peppermint “dääähhh”. 😉
It was a pleasure meeting you too.
It sounds like a very pleasant week, Birgit. I can’t complain about mine as well: I also met a fellow Perfumista (some goodies changed hands), bought one of the perfumes that I planned to buy as a holiday gift for myself and decorated a beautiful holiday tree. Tomorrow our friends are arriving to spend holidays with us. I really hope everything stays on that nice course through the New Year.
Oh, what did you buy? (I’m curious, please tell us!)
Have a great time with your friends!
I am still “coming down” from my very enjoyable time yesterday with the whole Olfactoria family. You can be sure there will be extensive photodocumentation of Niki’s minesweeping of available liquids when I write up my day in Sankt Poelten. : – )
I am off to Gmuend in a bit – or rather to a hotel in the Czech Republic, a few miles away over the border with Austria. It has a pool and I forgot my swimming costume! Let’s hope it’s outdoor…. ; – )
Ines – I do hope to hook up with you soon – I went to IUNX the other day and they remembered your visit. We just missed each other in Paris by about 10 days!
PS And many thanks again for my lovely haul of perfumes – I am truly “inundated” with Apres L’Ondee thanks to you, and amongst other things have my own starter kit of Mona di Orios, which I am very happy about, given recent sad events.
It was my pleasure! I’m so happy that you like your side of our swap as much as I enjoy mine!
Vanessa, that’s exactly what I said in my comment to your post! 🙂
That we missed each other by some 8 or 9 days.
I can’t believe that Parisian SAs will get to know each of us separately and then they’ll be able to discuss with other visiting perfumistas, “Oh yes, they were here recently – and bought this and this.” 😀
I look very much forward to your blog post about the eminent city of St.Pölten.
Enjoy the rest of your trip!
Well, I’m really curious – I’m often in St. Pölten due to my work and never thought that it could be worth of a blog comment 😉
It depends on who you meet there… 😉
As you perceive quite accurately, St.Pölten is not exactly a high point in a Perfumista’s life – you’ll have to bring the juice yourself. 😉
What a delightful week! I am very much looking forward to the photo documentation 🙂
Me too! 🙂
So lovely you got to meet up with lady jane grey and Vanessa. Lots of great perfume swaps too. Like dee, I’m very much looking forward to the Bonkers post. I can see dear Niki is that “can’t take your eyes of them for a second” stage. Hope the coming week isn’t too hectic. You’ll have fun with E at the very least.
Oh yes, Niki is quite a handful at the moment. And constantly saved by his cuteness… 😉
I look forward to meeting E again!
Sounds like a wonderful week, Birgit. Look forward to the photos.
It was, Sandi!
I can’t wait until I see Vanessa’s photos! 🙂
Hearing about your week somehow puts me more in the Christmas spirit, even though you weren’t describing anything Christmas-y. I enjoy reading Lady Jane Grey’s comments on your blog and it’s nice to know you have a fellow perfumista to meet up with in Vienna. And as Vanessa’s job has her wandering the breadth of Europe, I like knowing that she has this network of friends to sustain her on her journeys. These kinds of connections are great things to read about. 🙂
You are right, Suzanne, this is what Christmas is about – connecting. I’m glad to have forged relationships with such great people through perfume, you included. And if all goes according to plan, next year we will meet face to face as well… 😉
So excited, can’t wait!! 😉
Me neither!!! 😀
Suzanne, “sustain” is absolutely the right word, as meeting friends really bucks me up in between the long stretches of solo travel. And I can report that Birgit is especially sustaining! (She is very “bonny”, after all…..; – ) ; – ) )
Here we go again… bonny, old B. 😀
Oh, my weekend plans include putting up and decorating the tree, wrapping gifts that need to be mailed, and pulling a trigger on a perfume bottle online (which for now shall remain secret;) )
You had a lovely sniffing time! It’s so good to meet with fellow perfumistas. I cherish the opportunity and maybe will have one in May, when one of my perfume friends will come visit.
It is such a good idea to put up the tree early, over here it is traditional to only put it up on Christmas Eve, very stressful!
Meeting fellow perfume-o-philes is the best! 🙂
What a lovely week with great company and wonderful perfumes. I’m thrilled to hear of Vanessa’s generous gift of Plus Que Jamais. I understand you were down to a few precious drops!
That’s right. I used up my precious bit of Plus Que Jamais, now I have been gifted with some breathing space until I find my bottle. (Hope dies last! 😉 ) Such a generous gift!
Weekend plans?: Christmas Time!!!!! 😀
Favorite perfume of the moment: “Oui?? C’est Moi!” 😉
Well, You asked!: I warn you that it’s a bit shocking bizarre tradition, but… I’m going to refer a pagan tradition about the winter solstice:
On Christmas Eve, I’m going to celebrate the Tió de Nadal with my family: also known simply as Tió (“trunk” or “log”, a big piece of cut wood, is a hollow log of about thirty centimetres length), and popularly called “Caga tió” (“shit log!”), which is a character in Catalan mythology relating to a Christmas tradition widespread in Catalonia. One gives the tió a little bit to “eat” every night and usually covers him with a little blanket so that he will not be cold at night. On Christmas day or, depending on the particular household, on Christmas Eve, one puts the tió and orders it to “shit”. To make him “shit”, one beats him with sticks, while singing various songs of Tió de Nadal. The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are considered to be brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, nuts and torrons. Depending on the part of Catalonia, it may also give out dried figs (I told you that I don’t care for fig in fragrance because I had figs all year round!). What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present.
“Caga tió” song:
Shit log,
shit turrón,
hazelnuts and cottage cheese,
if you don’t shit well,
I’ll hit you with a stick,
shit log!
After hitting it softly with a stick during the song it is hit harder on the words “Caga tió!”. Then somebody puts their hand under the blanket and takes a gift. The gift is opened and then the song begins again. There are many such songs.
(source: wikipedia, I was totally unable to explain this properly!!!!)
Lol!
On 25th it’s a ‘normal’ traditional dinner. With much more glamour ahaha!
That is fascinating and sounds like a lot of fun, GeM!
Oh girl, children go literally crazy: all that innocent wide-eyed growing while after hitting with the stick and see under the blanket … they are totally fascinated because it all happens in That Very Moment, and they connect very well with the whole thing, you know what i mean