Perfect Poise, Perfect Life
Bring your body into balance and revolutionise your life
By Noel Kingsley
Publisher Hodder Mobius
AVAILABLE HERE
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The smell of Bond
I'm not deluded. I don't look like James Bond. But apparently I am smelling like his creator, Ian Fleming, according to the sales representative in the men's perfumery department of John Lewis. She thrust a sample into my hand. "Floris 89 was Ian Fleming's favourite Eau de Toilette and he made it Bond's favourite too! It has been re-issued to commemorate 50 years since Fleming wrote the first Bond book and to mark the launch of the latest film Quantum of Solace."
"I see."
So having returned to my office after a brief sojourn to buy a gift for someone, I'm now sitting at my computer smelling like Fleming or Bond or both and wondering if the connection will inspire my writing. I glaze over.
Did Fleming ever glaze over? It wouldn't appear so, having written many successful books and created an iconic character who is probably more widely known for being English than the Queen herself. I sniff the Floris 89 scent again... fresh, sophisticated; it's a citrus/floral melange with a hint of Sandalwood and cedar, very 1950s but I actually quite like it. Then again, it has been described as being more for an older man. I guess that's me...
If Fleming was around now, he would recognise it instantly. It might remind him of Havana and his old gentleman's club.
Isn't it fascinating how certain smells can remind us of situations so very long ago that we may have forgotten completely? How is it that a smell can stimulate all the senses so we can see in our mind's eye and feel experiences that we have not thought of for decades? It was just last week that I got a whiff of a passing scent somewhere that reminded me of the school class room I sat in as a 8 year old. It smelt of plasticine, wood, glue and paper and old fabric world maps that got hung on the blackboard. I 'saw' my elderly teacher with her mop of curls, heard her thin voice, remembered her string of pearls that once snapped so they all plunged down her cleavage; my class-mate Fergus got a telling off for offering to help retrieve them with a spoon.
Such is the power of smell to retrieve memories from the dusty files of experiences. I am reminded that our posture also hold the grains of memories. Locked in our shoulders and neck are the tensions of a million experiences. This is why sometimes when we release muscle tensions in Alexander Technique lessons we may get flashbacks to situations. We may burst out laughing for no real reason, or some tears may well up as we release emotions that have been held captive for so long. There is always a box if tissues in my teaching room for this very reason.....as well as for cleaning the nib of my fountain pen.
I wonder if Ian Fleming used a fountain pen. Probably. But more than likely to write hand written notes than his books which he typed on a clunky typewriter.
The bell has just rung indicating that my next client has arrived....and I'm still smelling of 89..... However, I'm ready to help my client release a few unwanted tensions and improve his posture. He'll look more like James Bond than I ever will when I'm finished with him, that's for sure.
