by Eileen 配仪

Art Practice 22/6 – Watercolor Lemons

I was initially displeased with the look of this because I felt I executed it poorly. The table and background was especially displeasing. The lemons and their reflection didn’t look like lemons.

I changed my mind after I woke up today. I sort of get it. It’s not perfect but i can see it. It almost looks like an art school practice.

by Eileen 配仪

I was at a do yesterday. (I can’t think of how to call it other than a do. It’s a casual work related event that requires me to look not too far away from my work self. )

The Very Important Person At the Pinnacle of Our Food Chain came out from some hidden place. He stood and waved at the proletariats hoping perhaps for a roar of approval. Just before he had to go and deliver his speech, he walked over and grabbed a child for a photoshoot. The child did a sad emoticon and reached out for the mom at once.

He returned this child and took another nearby for his shoot. That kid did not cry. I will not be able to just grab and do it. I will have a long conversation of nonsense words with the baby to arrive at some understanding that he or she was amenable to being picked up. I will then cautiously pick the child up while continuing that goobly gook conversation.

It must be the aura of being Very Important.

by Eileen 配仪

挤眉弄眼

On a whim I recorded myself on a call. I imagined myself a dull stone faced worker droning on in rapid mode. I tend to speed along in chaired meetings because I don’t like having meetings but being sandwiched between a rock and a difficult place I have to communicate.

I played back and found everything about myself strange. The way I pulled down on the corners of my mouth to the multitude of facial expressions I pull.

I started my working life as a call centre worker and it is almost as if I never left that first job. Still in a head set after 27 years.

by Eileen 配仪

Notes on the fragrances recently purchased

The Le Labo perfumes are something that I have been obsessing over for a number of years. Earlier this year I was determined to walk into the store and get the bottle. I chickened out and returned home empty handed. Discovered dupes only recently and started to buy all the perfumes that I have denied myself.

  • Montagne Perfumes – Eau Santal inspired by Le Labo Santal 33
    • I purchased a decant and this is comes very close if I wait for about 5-10 mins. Thrilled with purchase. Used it straight out of the box. I don’t have a problem with longevity with this but it is very close to skin scent.
  • Montagne Perfumes – Another 14 inspired by Le Labo Another 13
    • Blind buy. I don’t think anyone standing near me can smell it.
  • Oil Perfumery – Impression of Chloe Atelier de Fleurs Santalum
    • The scent was not close at all and I didn’t enjoy it. I use it with Herbs Mimosa by rolling both side by side. After 1.5 to 2 hours it was lovely and pleasant. I bought the full bottle instead at Sephora sale
  • Oil Perfumery – Impression of Chloe Atelier de Fleurs Herbe Mimosa
    • Also felt it was not close base on the spritz at the store.
  • Oil Perfumery – Impression of Chloe Naturelle
    • I don’t know this perfume well enough to know if it was close. I tried it at the store and love it. I felt it was not close.

Edit : I tried the oil perfumery fragrances again with the originals and now feel the need the clarify. The notes made by oil perfumery closely matches the original versions. However to my layman nose they don’t smell the same as the perfume due to the heavy harsh opening note it. There is a rounded airyness for the original bottles that is not in the oil perfumery version. It smells finished from the first spritz. The oil perfumery version smells better after 2 or 3 hours. I wonder what do the perfume houses do to round the smells. It sounds mad if maturing takes months.

A number of years ago when I discovered the sandalwood perfume that I want was mostly too expensive I attempted to mix my own. I bought an old version of a sandalwood oil perfume by body shop and a small vial of Australian sandalwood and poured it together. Australian sandalwood had no creaminess. It smelled of piss. 6 months later the smell became different- of old cupboards.

by Eileen 配仪

I just happen to know the answer to this trivia.

Are you superstitious?

Superstition developed as a form of risk mitigation practice. It helps us deal with the unknown & unforeseeable in our daily lives. The rituals are more detailed & elaborate as the sense of risk increases.

Details could be read here and this article describes superstitious  in football.

It is going to be difficult for anyone to denounce superstition totally given most societies have some form of superstitious beliefs. What doesn’t help: our pattern finding brains have a preference for pattern finding.

This means it can be as silly as “making it rain by washing my car ” or as elabourate as a ritual for ancestral worship codified by a Chinese emperor from ancient past.

I’m in risk management. Of course I’m going to veer towards superstitions. As with any other average persons, I will not rank very high, nor very low on such practices. I do have an odd one, due mainly to my scatterbrain than anything else. When I travel, if I missed out packing a minor thing, for instance, floss,  or face wash, it means no bad horrifying thing will happen to me.