Scrapbook intro

Continuing from my previous blog on observations that might prove useful one day in writing I've decided to keep 'scrapbook' blogs whenever I notice or hear something that catches my imagination.

For example at a gig this evening I met someone who works as a fragrance tester. The job of perfumier is captured incredibly in Patrick Suskind's Perfume (if you haven't read this I urge you to. Read it and revel in his use of the word olfactory. Amazing, amazing book) but it didn't occur to me that these modern day perfumiers and testers exist. They are usually trained but this girl had a natural talent for sniffing out scents, as discovered in a test during the interview process. I said I imagined it isn't something you realise you have an aptitude for but she replied that she'd always known she had a delicate sense of smell. How strange that you could know that - I don't know what smells are like from someone else's point of view and assumed by nose is neither more nor less finely attuned than the next.

A police officer friend also told me about responding to a call today from a mother on behalf of her grown-up son who was threatening to commit suicide using a television cable. My law-enforcing friend spent several hours with this man, who had only hours before viciously beaten a love rival and was now feeling guilty, during the process of medical assessment and sectioning. The PC herself having also suffered with depression was able to sympathise with this man, calm him and urge him to request anger management and talking therapies. The officer commented to me how strange it felt dealing with someone whose life is so different to your own but to be able to understand the exact symptoms and feelings he described.

That's enough for now. And I should probably point out I'm slightly worse for wear. Will probably read this tomorrow and think: what a pretentious c*nt...