Grace Notes @ Snarkattack

I went to see the film Juno today. It’s about a sixteen-year-old girl who gets pregnant and as you can imagine hijinks ensue. But what was most interesting about my day (aside from absolutely dying when I saw the book Poetry For Dummies which I’d love to get a copy of, yes, even though I know what an iambic pentameter is you can always benefit from the books that, well, quite frankly, treat you like a dummy) was recently an old schoolmate from primary school (now I should explain that having started primary school at the end of the third grade, I just magically assume people don’t remember who I am because I wasn’t there from the beginning) friended me on Facebook. We’ve been exchanging messages back and forth and he has suggested that we could possibly meet up for a drink which sounds kind of cool but also makes me slightly nervous. Cool, but totally out of leftfield too.

It’s been eons since I did a beauty-related post, probably because I haven’t cared that much about it lately (you should see my hair, it’s all matted at the back because I haven’t brushed it for a few days. I just don’t care at the moment).

But I’m inspired by my friend The Fragrant Elf to do a brief fragrance diary entry, especially as that’s all that’s kept me from being super-sad the last few weeks, just testing these little sample vial-beauties.

And in case you’re wondering, I’m drinking a Cooper’s Pale Ale clone which is just divine in this heat. Such a thirst quencher.

Arcana Layering Note in Chocolate - this smells exactly like high-grade melted dark chocolate, absolutely delicious! The throw is amazing, as is the staying power. Might need a bottle of this stuff.

Arcana Layering Note in Patchouli - smells exactly like freshly turned earth, not really my sort of thing but very interesting nevertheless. I’m quite surprised because patchouli doesn’t usually smell like that. Doesn’t have that typical hippy incense smell most people would be familiar with.

Arcana Layering Note in Smoked Vanilla - oh my gosh, this is really sexy. It’s a stronger version of The Body Shop’s Vanilla perfume oil they used to do ages ago, not sure if they still do it.

Arcana Layering Note in Sandalwood - this is a gentle, subdued sandalwood, smells very true and not spicy like sandalwood incense, it actually smells like the wood. I wish this were a bit stronger and had more throw. Very, very nice, and would be quite suitable on a male too. In fact, I imagine it would smell really nice on a bloke.

Arcana Layering Note in Egyptian Sandalwood - a completely different beast altogether from the above, it smells like sandalwood mixed with lemon and rose-flavoured Turkish delight. Yum! It’s a much fresher, less woody version of sandalwood proper.

Enough Arcana, let’s move on to Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab and some from the Hallowe’en collection…

BPAL The Chilling Cellar - this is supposed to smell of wine about to turn into vinegar and I don’t really get that so much because it’s too sweet which I don’t mind because I rather like sweet wine but not sure that was what the perfumer had in mind when she made the fragrance?

BPAL The Perilous Parlour - so I spell it the British way…this is supposed to be vanilla and pear. It’s very, very foody, smelling of white cake vanilla and juicy, nearly overripe pears. Very girlie! I’m actually surprised I loved it because I tend to prefer floral blends.

BPAL White Phoenix - finally I get my floral fix! This is supposed to have magnolia and frangipani but to be honest I don’t really detect either of those, just nice soapy clean florals. It could be the white sandalwood that is making it seem so clean not heady floral like frangipani and magnolia usually are (I am all for the heady florals! Actually, I call them the sex florals!)

BPAL The Lurid Library - smells like a mild male cologne. At first I didn’t really like this because of that, but it did end up smelling all old-world refined, very difficult to explain, but reminded me of aromatic candlewax and old books. I don’t get the incense tinge this is supposed to have. I wouldn’t wear this as a fragrance.

I guess that’s enough prattling on about fragrances, though I should do posts like this more often I think.

Feeling really low today and didn’t get what I wanted to do done, but I did get paid earlier than usual which was good. But more importantly, today I finished reading Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights today, just whistled through the second half, spent the whole afternoon in bed reading it because, well, I didn’t feel like doing anything else. Plus my medication has been making me feel really nauseous which has been no fun and has meant that I can’t have anything for supper.

Well, I thoroughly enjoyed Northern Lights, it’s way better than Harry Potter (that might be a contentious issue…) and wish I had the second book already so I could start reading it immediately after I finished the first one. It must be pretty good for me to have read it so voraciously and to want to continue reading the second one straight after. I didn’t exactly feel that way about Christopher Paolini’s Eragon though I do want to read the sequel Eldest and see what that’s all about.

I also got a book the other day from my housemate’s girlfriend entitled Yoga For Cats. It’s pretty funny and it does genuinely have (cartoon) cats doing actual yoga poses! They even have the Sanskrit names for them which I thought was pretty impressive.

Now what to read next? Either the next Jasper Fforde novel or one I’ve borrowed from my housemate which he has neglected to read. Or Seamus Heaney’s Beowulf? But I’m already reading Sylvia Plath’s collected poetry, another book of poetry might be hard going…always so hard to decide what to read! Actually, I was hoping to read yet another fragrance diary entry of The Fragrant Elf’s but alas she hasn’t posted another entry just yet.

I’ve had two close encounters with cockroaches yesterday evening and I’m not happy about it quite frankly. Cockroaches are supposed to only exist in Sydney as far as I’m concerned but perhaps this is the price I pay for living closer to the city, it’s so much warmer and more humid here which the bloody things seem to like.

So yesterday I was trying to have a nice relaxing shower in the 40-degree heat when lo and behold on the other side of the shower curtain I see a blooming cockroach. I sort of freaked, didn’t even get to condition my hair…quickly finished soaping myself and ran out of the shower dripping wet clutching a towel and rushed down the stairs to try and find the bug spray. In what can only be termed impeccable timing, my housemate immediately decides to come home and opens the door to a very wet and scared looking housemate who begins stammering at him to please kill the cockroach and find the bug spray. He takes care of my stupid problem not without some hunting down of the stupid thing which seems to have gone into hiding. Thankfully, we find it and the offending article is taken outside.

Much later on, this time not sopping wet and unclothed, I go to use the toilet and find another one of the buggers in the loo. This time I’m much less freaked out and get the can of bug spray and watch it do what looks like breakdancing (according to my housie). It’s still there, but totally and utterly out of commission.

Go back to Sydney you pesky things! Bother us no more in Melbourne!

My wallet got stolen at yoga last night of all places. Not happy. I had 55 bucks in there not including all the change I had and had prescriptions for not one but two of my happy pills. I’m stupidly procrastinating chasing up getting all my cards replaced, sigh.

Before that though I’ve been managing to have a good time. The night before last I went out for spuntini (Italian tapas) and went to see a French film called Hunting and Gathering which had Audrey Tautou in it (of Amelie fame). The spuntini I chose to eat were meatballs, a parmesan rice ball, crumbed fish fillet pieces and beer battered zucchini fries. It was a delicious meal! And the house white wasn’t bad either, been ages since I drank wine now that I seem to drink so much beer (living with a homebrewer will do that to you). After seeing the film we went to a local bookshop which I adore and I got Camille Paglia’s Break, Blow, Burn which is a poetry anthology and a graphic novel called Alice in Sunderland by Bryan Talbot which I found out about on Boing Boing. I also ordered (!!!) two books by the Californian poet whose poem I quoted in this entry - one is a book of his erotic poetry and the other a book about poetry.

The night before that I also went out to the pub with a workmate and had pumpkin soup with far too much cream and tried Pure Blonde beer for the first time. It’s supposed to be a low-carb beer (what an interesting concept, wouldn’t you agree?).

Over the weekend I went to see Beowulf 3D with a family friend which I really, really enjoyed. We got to wear these supremely geeky glasses which I’m still in possession of. They were far too big for my face and my friend said all I needed was the fake nose with the glasses. The screenplay was written by the darling Neil Gaiman (who has his finger in all manner of pies it seems!). God, to be as talented as Neil and capture the imagination of many, what a treat that would be.

Yeah, me and the rest of the English-speaking world. Anyway, I liked his New Year’s message:

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

(from http://journal.neilgaiman.com/2007/12/as-i-was-saying.html)

I know I’ll read some fine books this year (hell, I’m already reading some pretty damn fine books, namely Alan Moore’s erotic masterpiece Lost Girls and Sylvia Plath’s collected poetry) but what I really want is to kiss someone who thinks I’m wonderful.

A girl can dream, can’t she?