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?

When sisters attack

Lofty surprises

The loft insulation type bloke was only a wee bit late and got the job done rather quickly. Unfortunately he put the insulating stuff over the already insulated floor? So that will have to taken up and shoved somewhere. Shortly after he finished, the cavity wall filler type people turned up and got that job done. This house is now supposedly super insulated, so I am supposedly snug as bug in a rug. As I have had my flu blanket on, I cant really tell yet.

Now that the ghastly loft is empty and insulated, its time to sort through all the crap. Not that any of it is actually mine. Well apart from two boxes of Wallace and Gromit stuff. I was a tad obsessed with the cheesy wonderfulness that was and is Wallace and Gromit. As the emptying of the loft was a rush job due to illness and laziness, I was without a bed and bedroom for four days! This did not help my naturally sunny disposition or phlegm filled body. Anyhoo I have made room now for my weary carcass and the mega sortage has begun.

Its not all been doom and gloom, I have found the family tree that the dad has been looking for, for ages and a day. Also a whole load of awesometriffic family photos. The photographs above are just a few of the million I will be scanning. Also I will update on family tree findings as and when the dad finds interesting tidbits.