Smells

I'm sure you have experienced it too - smells that brings you back to your childhood or to a time that that particular smell represents. My sister used to collect erasers and some of them had a very distinct smell (nice) and every now and then I smell something that makes me remember the box she kept them all in and how the smell "exploded" when the box was opened...

Then there are the not so nice smells that you really wish you wouldn't remember. 7,5 years ago when I first came to Sheffield to study me and my friends got on to the same tram as a homeless girl and she really didn't smell very nice and it was such a strong dirty smell that I almost threw up. For days/weeks I walked around town looking around to see if she was next to me because I could swear I could smell the very same thing again. And of course I never saw her again...

And the best of them all - the smell of horses. That is the one thing I can pick out from an impressive distance. I can smell them across town way before they come anywhere near me. Boyfriend sometimes accuses me of hallucinating but 15 minutes later I go "There they are!!" and sure enough, the [police] horses will be passing by.

I dream of the way Maja used to smell. She'd be grazing or sleeping and I just leaned on her and we could happily hang out like that for hours on end and all the while I just "sniffed" her. That is one of the things I struggle coping with now that she is gone - not the way she smelled but the fact that I'll never experience it again. Every time I came back from travels or Uni I didn't feel properly "at home" until I could smell Maja and all I can do now is remember. It's sad that it's a thing of the past rather than the present but at least it brings back good memories...