Friday, December 30, 2005

Shiseido Forever...

We are just back from our Christmas holidays in Ballina. Actually, we came back on Tuesday the 27th. Unfortunately, I got (another) cold there and was quite bad since then. I did not come to the office this week, i.e., from Wednesday until today and stayed in bed most of this time. I have been having lots of colds lately, and this time it was quite bad. The worse for me is the cough. Besides that I managed to burn my tummy once again while preparing for the injections! It looks horrible and I need to change the dressing every so often. It doesn't seem to be healing very well this time and, if it's still bad next week, I will probably need to go to Dr. Kavanagh again.

Christmas, apart from the cold, was fine, and relaxing. I had the chance of starting my new Murakami book, "Wind-up Bird Chronicles" and, once again, it's a book that I cannot put down. What I love about him (Murakami and, of course, his translator) is the way he describes things so well. You can easily picture locations, characters, smells, everything. Sometimes when you are reading other books it is not so easy, but with his work it just flows and everything is pictured so vividly and perfectly. He doesn't cease to amaze me in this regard. I love this book now because it is funny, poetic and very surreal.

Mark gave me some wonderful gifts, as always. He is just great to get the right things for me! I got a fantastic Canon scanner that virtually does everything: scans negatives, can be used as a copier, is super-fast and comes with a great little software package. The model, in case you are interested is CanoScan Lide 500F. Perfect! I don't know how I survived for all these without a scanner, really...

And he also gave me the new Shiseido perfume, available in Japan only. Rose Rouge. It is pure parfum and comes in a very exquisite box and a lovely iridescent red bottle (32ml to be precise). Mark also got from the sales person a beautiful enameled purse atomiser, black metal with tiny roses, same design as the box. It came with a pipette to make decanting easier. The bottle as you may have guessed is not a spray one - which I prefer when it comes to pure parfum anyway.

The perfume itself is a joy: it's got great staying power and the main note (or should I say "theme") is the red Bulgarian rose. It is sparkly and comfortable, starting up with that lovely rose note and some other fruity accords, like blackberries and raspberries as far as I can tell. Then it settles into a subtly powdery heart of Moroccan rose, heliotropin and irises. In the end, I am left with the evanescent, faint aroma of a million roses, laying on a persistent base of velvety musk and sandalwood. It reminds me of the delectable Bulgarian rose jams, that I used to buy in Rio some years ago (and cannot find anymore). It had a lovely, very deep rose colour and you could see the transparent tiny petals of delicate roses floating on it. The Fauchon jam is quite good, but doesn't compare to that Bulgarian delicacy! Pity I cannot remember the brand now. Here is a picture of my Rose Rouge:

4 comments:

  1. While preparing for an injection you burned your tummy? I'm confused :)

    My wife has been sick a lot this Winter as well , and she just got sick again this week.

    Get well soon!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Treebob! It sounds weird, but yes, that's it. Let me explain though: I have MS and need to take beta-interferon injections 3 times a week. The injection is quite strong and to minimise the pain, the nurse recommended me to heat the location first. I always did that (for almost 3 years now) and that time, some weeksd ago, I left the heating pad for too long! Stupid me... It's got burnt, and it looks bad, because it's taking ages to heal. Mark says it will be alright, as far as I don't touch it. It is healing slowly, it seems. But it's true that heating before causes less pain - if you don't carbonise yourself as I did, that is! That was really, really silly, and never happened before (at least not to that extent). I get all bruised due to the injections, but that's OK and kind of expected. But the burning should not happen!
    Hope your wife gets better soon. Winter seems to make everything worse!
    Talk to you soon!
    a.

    ReplyDelete
  3. eek that's terrible! Burns hurt I know but I have never burned myself that bad. Got oil in the face once but thankfully never lost any skin.

    So you are coping with the MS all right I guess? Is it in the family at all?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hi Treebob! I am coping alright most of the time, however sometimes it's quite hard, I must admit. The worse for me is the fatigue. Some days I cannot get up, just sleep for hours, feeling very tired and dizzy. As far as I know, it doesn't room in the family! I must be the 1st one to develop that thing, lucky me , he he! Nah, joking, of course... But no, not in the family as far as I know...

    ReplyDelete