Weekend roundup

It has been an interesting week here in the UK. What with Wimbledon in its second week, torrential rain in Devon and the school summer holidays just round the corner, it is go, go, go.

As the school year winds down, we are personally reflecting on our daughter Hannah's first year in formal education, and even our younger, Daisy, is finishing her first year of pre school! I never realised just how busy it could get. I mean, Hannah is only 5, but it is already difficult keeping on top of everything that happens. Friday was sports day and I was really impressed with Hannah's sporting skills. It is very un-politically correct to be competitive at that age, and it isn't really, but still, I was proud to see that Hannah had some zip and determination and got into the spirit of things. Today was the school's summer festival, but it was somewhat spoilt by outbursts of capricious English downpours.

I was very excited to receive a parcel of perfume samples from my kind friend Cymbaline earlier in the week. There are some wonderful goodies in there and I am slowly working my way through them. I am sure I will write about some of them in the weeks to come.

In addition to trying some of these new samples, I revisited Gaultier's Fleur de Male, a very underrated orange blossom perfume in my opinion. If you are familiar with Le Male (and let's face it, who isn't?) then Fleur de Male will rekindle some of the memories and associations, but I find it to be wonderfully warm and sensuous perfume. In fact, I really like Le Male too, except that every other man and his dog was wearing it for most of the late nineties and early noughties, meaning that you couldn't escape the smell of it!

Tomorrow we are off to London to meet some friends of ours who now live in Germany. I don't think I will manage to get near to any perfume stores, but rest assured that if I do, I will take advantage of the opportunity!