Weekly diary

Worn this week were Aromatics Elixir, L Air de Rien, Zagorsk, SJP Covet, Doe In The Snow, Civet and vintage Miss Dior.

On my plate I had congee with ramen egg, Korean japchae with chicken, which I made for the first time a mnd I turned out great. We ordered pizza at work on Friday and I had my beloved anchovy and capers pizza. Saturday I made fried liver with apple, onions and smashed potatoes and baked a libanese orange cake. Sunday was homemade ramen with egg and chashu, all made from scratch.

We are still watching Criminal Intent, so many seasons to watch, we are just in number 4…but this gives me more time to knit some socks for my best friend in Berlin. We did some planning for our allotment garden and have sowed the first bellpeppers and artichokes.

Weekly diary

As the community project this week at the NST blog was yellow or gray, I wore some grey scents like Full Incense, Fourreau Noir, Attaquer Le Soleil and mb03 by Biel plus some yellowish scents like Eau Duelle and Felanilla. Sunday I had a craving for something more citrussy, because we finally had some snow and put on Lovely Sheer and later Cristalle Verte.

I did not have too much time to cook, so it was a big batch of chicken paprikash, baked pumpkin with Feta Creme and Hummus and salmon with Miso butter pasta and steamed broccoli. And I made congee, to see if this could be something to eat for breakfast.

I spent a lot of the weekend on my sewing machine and made a pinafore for a friend who loves to cook. I also cut and finished a wearable muslin of the cashmerette Harrison shirt with short sleeves. It was not as complicated as I thought I would be. Maybe it still needs some minor corrections after a test wear.

Weekly diary

Scents worn this week were Doe In The Snow, Aromatics Elixir, Botrytis, Meet Me On The Corner, Ambre de Merveilles, Chanel No19 and Memoire d’une Odeur. Funnily my sense of smell felt slightly enhanced this week, although I had a thankfully not Covid viral laryngitis.

On my plate I had red cabbage plus brats, pasta with tomato sauce and another one with truffeld pesto plus linguine with mussels. The boyfriend made roast Goose legs with spaetzle and red cabbage and sunday we had chicken noodle soup made from leftover carcasses, that we usually collect in the freezer until we have enough for soup.

I finished reading City of Girls, that I enjoyed a lot, although I had some problems to believe that a young woman in the 40ies could get from virginity to a threesome in just one year. What I liked was the description of the wartime NYC and the showbiz. It was a highly amusing read and I I can recommend it. Now I started Pachinko, but cannot say too much about it.

Most worn scents of 2020 plus diary

I tracked my daily scents in 2o2o with the Memento app, which worked very well.

With 12 wearings each Fils de Dieu and L’ Air de Rien took first place. Second place was What I did on my holidays by 4160Tuesdays with 10 wearings. Third place with 9 wearings were L’ Ambre de Merveilles, Aromatics Elixir, Chypre Mousse and Roma. Calligraphy Saffron and Empreinte got on my skin 8 times and Niki de Saint Phalle and Covet got worn 7 times.

This week I wore Doe in the snow, Cabochard, I thunked Rose de Petra, wore Chypre Siam for New Years eve and started the new year with L Air de Rien. The next days I decided on Agent Provocateur and Larmes de Desert.

My boyfriend was on holidays, so he had time to cook. We had lots of delicious food. Pumpkin soup Thai style with meatballs and fish sauce, dorade with cauliflower gratin. On new years eve we had octopus salad with burrata and homemade tagliolini with mushroom and truffle pesto. The first of January we ate svabian lentils with Spätzle and sausage and this evening there will be homemade pizza.

The only firework allowed during lockdown

I hope all of us will have a better and less stressful year in 2021. Stay sane, safe and healthy!

2020 Reading list

I managed to read or listen to audiobooks more than i thought. I listened to my audiobooks mostly on my commute, and with biking a lot this summer and autumn i got at least a bit more than 2 hours of it on my bike commute.

I read a lot of series that year, beginning with the “Blossom Street” series of Debbie Macomber, which is a very light reading, but it is also very relaxing. I also like Stephen King, so i listened to the Mr. Mercedes series on audible, read by my favorite reader David Nathan (sorry, its in German).

I started the Harley Merlin series, but gave up after the fourth book, i could not find myself in this alternate universe, although i am a diehard Harry Potter fan. I thought the series lacked a bit of charm, and there was too much fighting for my personal taste.

I also heard the complete “Into the Wilderness” series by Sara Donati, that was not too bad and then dived into the Sumpflochsaga (Amuylett series in the english translation). Usually i am not a big fan of Fantasy, but this self published series was quite good and i read it to the end. Note, that the sequels get longer and longer, so the later ones were more than 1000pages long.

I read “The Fifth Season”, but did not enjoy it much, which astounded me, because i usually like SF. I also really disliked “Rosewater”. The best SF i read was “Children of Time” by Tchaikovsky, because of its really special perspective, written from the view of a strange arachnid people.

I listened to Richard Russo´s “Empire Falls”, that is a great book, although a bit depressing and “Behold the Dreamers” from Mbue, that made a great impression on me. I also finally listened to “The Help”, that i gave up on some years ago. This time i managed to get into the dialects better, but sometimes it was a hard listening for a german native.

I am still listening to “100 Years of Solitude” by Garcia Marques and in the beginning of “City of Girls” by Elisabeth Gilbert, which is a really great fun read.

Alltogether i read and listend to 42 whole books (i did not mention all of them..) and have to finish two more. I hope i will keep up my reading list that long for this year too.