Winter Nips, Olbas and Memories

At this time of year, I reach for the Olbas more frequently. It use to be a seasonal thing, but my addiction has deepened, or my sinuses have become more stuffed over the decades, so now it's an all year round habit. The Olbas addiction started in early childhood, when the Grandma Lil use to shove an olbas inhaler up my nostrils before heading out to school on a cold morning. It was only in later years, did I realise that the olbas inhaler was passed between the sisters and I, never wiped in-between (gross). That olbas inhaler had to be ancient, I never saw a new one, ever.When the ye olde ancient olbas inhaler wasn't about, a few drops of pure olbas oil was put on a hanky and stuffed in my pocket. They say that your olfactory (sniff sniff) senses link up directly to your memory, so sniffing a wee bit of olbas whooshes me back to days of duffel coats and hugs off Grandma Lil.

Another childhood memory that goes in hand in hand with the olbas, is a handful of Winter Nips, before you get excited, the nips I am talking about, are the sweets you see in the picture above..Not the scenario doodled below....

I loved  those sweets, they are small black herbal flavour boiled sweets, which don't actually sound that nice, but I assure they are! They warm up your mouth and as a kid, I was convinced that they magically warmed up your whole body. So when I saw a bag of them in the supermarket, I had to buy some! Nom nom nom nom!

So do you have favourite childhood sweet? What childhood smell tickles your olfactory senses?