Friday, March 03, 2006

Arabie

Even the faintest whiff of Arabie sends me to places I haven’t visited since I was a little girl of 3 or 4 years old, back to the Muslim quarter in ancient Jerusalem. My parents used to take me there almost every Saturday. Arabie smells just like the Muslim market over 26 years ago - spices such as saffron, coriender, cardamon, cinnamon... Sweet confections (Rahat Loukum) and the famous refreshing scents of Tamarhindi drink that were sold by merchants carrying a copper barrel on their back (with little taps, the glasses they had were actually made of glass, so they will wait for you to finish the drink before continuing their merchant-trail). Scents of straw mats, Persian carpets, handmade mattresses, copper lamps, ropes... All somewhat dusty and desert smelling, enclosed between tall ancient stone wall, and cool underneath the arches, protected from the heat of sun and human temprament alike... The abundant tactile and sensual distractions will confuse the warrior and soothe the poliltician… Tangy green almonds with salt sold at the exit by young boys sitting on rolls of rubber tubes…As well as the famous long oval sesame-drizzled fluffy bagels with Za’atar (a herb mixture based on wild hyssop and thyme). Those bagels and the cliché olive-tree camels and a few blue glassblown vessels at the Jaffa Gate only scrape the surface of these memories...

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4 Comments:

At March 04, 2006 4:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Ayala this is an amazing blog i am so impressed!! i wish it huge success and lots of comments and ideas to share, making this place more of a sweetly scented world....

 
At March 04, 2006 9:59 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enchante!

 
At March 07, 2006 7:17 PM, Blogger katiedid said...

Oh I do love Arabie - like all SL scents, it is not for everyone. And for me, it is NOT to be worn under any circumstances in cold weather. It seems counterintuitive for such a sweet scent, but that's personal chemsitry for you. When it's cold, Arabie smells positively vile on me - like some sort of janitorial experiment gone wrong. But in the summer, oh it's divine, and I smell delicious when I wear it.

Lovely memories to share, A, I can just picture it from the way you've worded it.

 
At March 09, 2006 8:02 AM, Blogger Ayala Moriel said...

Interesting, Katie... It does sound a bit dangerous to wear Arabie in warm weather, but I will be soon experimenting with that. It is one of the scents I am planning to take with me to my trip back home in April. I will let you know how that works! In Vancouver there is hardly any opportunity ever to try perfumes in warm weather...

 

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