Nia

The last few days were quite good. another 2/5 of a bottle. this means I already have two bottles and 1/5

I'm giving myself scheherezade because I just sent my advisor a very long email detailing my dissertation's chapter division, each chapter's subdivision, and how much progress I've made in each. It is harder than it looks.

These are my rewards for the next five units: Unit 26: Masquerade. DONE Unit 27: Morgause. DONE Unit 30: Ode on Melancholy I'm skipping some because the missing units are likely to change when the school year begins.

I've managed to stay away from the computer quite well this weekend. I'm awarding myself 2/5 of a bottle, let's see if I derserve the third ml today! I'm giving myself other 2/5 because I have been working like crazy in the garden.

Unit 21: Eclipse. I really want to try this one and it's suitable because this is likely to be the worst unit: uses of the infinitive and the -ing form. DONE. Unit 22: Hesperides DONE Unit 23: Intrigue DONE. This one was so hard that I'm also giving myself an imp of Leanan Sidhe. Unit 24: La Bella Donna della Mia Mente. This is another one I reaaaaaally want to try. The unit isn't bad: the expression of assertion, emphasis and objections. Unit 25: La Belle Dame sans Merci. The topic is not going to be so merciless: expression of cause, consequence and finality.

I've been a very good girl lately. I have been online just the time I needed to check email and read a few of my favourite blogs, and never during study hours. I've earned my first TAL bottle. Now for the second.

I'm unlucky with tea blends. they either disappear completely, or the tea note is undetectable. It doesn't matter if the tea is green, white or black. This case is no exception: it smells as if someone had added vanilla to Baoban Sith. Even though the elusive tea note is frustrating, I like this unexpected combination (lemons and vanilla, mmmmm), which is not overwhelmed by the musk at all. Yum.

Initially it smells sweet as candy, like Hanging Gardens. It was disappointing because I didn't expect a scent inspired by Spain (especially Madrid) to be sweet. Later, the wine slowly comes out, with what appear to be roses underneath. It doesn't take much, about half an hour, for the wine to give way to the mimosa, which for some strange reason smells a lot like roses when the wine is still playing about. After an hour, the barest hint of mimosa is all that is left. Definitely disappointing, and Kali and Wanda are still competing to be my favourite wine scents.

OK, now the mission is mostly to catch up. I'm two or three units behind. For finishing Units 15 & 16: Bon Vivant. DONE For finishing units 17 and 18: Coiled Serpent. DONE Units 19 and 20: Dana O'Shee. DONE I will be dealing with some of the most boring lessons these days. Where was that Determination imp?

The only reason why I don't think I'm addicted to web-browsing is that I don't normally miss it when it's unavailable. I don't know if I do it so much while I should be working out of laziness or becuase of a twisted self-destructive impulse that doesn't want to see my PhD finished. Probably both. Monday the 16th wasn't a good day because I couldn't get a Phd chapter draft started. I have passed the last two days away from home so they don't count; this is not a measure of days not passed online but of days of uninterrupted work. Today is wasted already. I have had two good days of little-interrupted work. That's another 2/5 in a TAL, so so far I have 4/5 of a TAL bottle. Probably Lionheart.

The Grammar section, the units that deal with aspects of meaning and grammar that are relatively simple and expressed in few words inside a simple sentence (the expression of quantity, or of possession, for example) is one of the greatest hurdles because they are dry, boring lists that have to be given an attractive, systematic expository style for two reasons: one is to facilitate memorisation, and two, to prevent that the examiner falls asleep. These are Units 10 (word formation) to 27 (the passive voice). According to my plans, I should be doing a unit a day and get Unit 15 done by the end of the week. However, I have had to take some days off and I'm four lessons behind. Today's reward will be one imp only, Blood Amber, if I manage to do three units: word formation (the fun one), the linguistic sign (that's going to be a tought one), and the concept of grammar. *** ETA: I managed one unit and a bit of another one. Friday 20th: Blood Amber will still be my reward if I manage three units today: the linguistic sign, the concept of grammar, the expression of quantity. ETA: no, I couldn't swallow three units in one go. I could finish off two. No Blood Amber yet. *** Definitely, I can't aim at three units a day on the first reading. Two a day is hard enough; three a day, especially on very boring, technical topics, gets the information messed up in my head. Today, Monday 23th I have finished two units: the expression of quantity, and quality/degree/comparison. I think I0ve already deserved my Blodd Amber.

Mission 3: Finish the Phonetics & Phonology section. Units 8 and 9. Sunday 15th: Unit 8. Absinthe. Monday 16th: Unit 9: Bess!

I tried Osun without remembering the lab's description. Wet, it smells of candy. Not just foody: synthetic candy. It's a good thing I didn0t wash away, because it turned to spicy candy and later to fruity candy. I applied it more than an hour ago and that's what I feel now: something like extremely sweet fruits. Like cherries, or melons. Honey tends to eat up all the other notes on my skin, but this is not the case here. Besides, I agree with Ladycrow. Even thougfh I know next to nothing about the orishas, I think this is a good scent-for-a-purpose, because it has made me feel instantly happy. That's so odd.

on the imp: a slightly soapy floral that reminds of lilies. Ick. Wet: a vague, tiny floral hint. Five minutes later: This smells very little on my skin. It's just a standard floral, in which a rose-jasmine combination is more noticeable than any other element. Not a memorable scent.

The first impression is of alcohol, the same kick on the nose that sniffing alcohol would give. Then it smells of Vicks Vaporub. Medicinal, slightly minty. There's no dirt, flowers, or patchouli. Nevertheless, it's not as bad as other cypress/cedar/ juniper blends so I might keeep it as it does smell refreshing.

I spend way too much time online. I'm going to give myself 1/5 of a TAL bottle for every day in which I limit web browsing to (quick) email/forum/blog checks. Say, 30 minutes a day. My first bottle is going to be Lionheart. Wednesday: Bad day. I spent a lot of time in a lot of different forums Thursday: I can't concentrate in anything after a tiring morning with several appointments and I again wasted too much time. Friday 13th and Saturday 14th: This is beginning to work. So far I've deserved 2/5 of a bottle

On the imp: lemongrass with something playing underneath. On me: pure lemongrass. The only difference with the lemongrass SN is that the single note is overwhelming and lasts forever, and this one is subtle and lasts about an hour.

Mission 2: Fusing units 1 to 5, which deal all with very general concepts on language learning & acquisition, and communication theory. Reward: Five Neil Gaiman imps from a decant circle: Crowley, War, Fairy Market, Tristan, Yvaine. I want to do one unit a day. Monday, unit 1: Completed! I have a lovely unit on the history and current tendencies of foreign language teaching. I have earned my Crowley. Tuesday, unit 2: On the relationship between the first and the second language. I have earned War! Friday: I've had a marathon and finished units 3 (left half-finished yesterday), 4 and 5. However, I have not concentrated as much as I should so I'm just adding the Fairy Market imp. Monday: Unit 6. Tristan is mine! Tuesday: Unit 7: Yvaine is on the lot! Mission accomplished!

This is the plan: I need to prepare for a Government exam that is the entry to a teaching position in the State high schools. There are 70 theory units and 15 practical ones. 70-ish is the approximate size of my BPAL wishlist, so I will give myself an imp for every unit I finish, with a few tweaks. First mission: getting two different sets of units from other people to fuse them and create my own "textbook". Reward: Antique Lace. I'm going to work up a wishlist /shopping list in alphabetical order, although for particularly big hurdles I will promise myself 1/5 or a 1/4 of a TAL bottle. Sunday the 1st: DONE!

Phew! The rosemary is strong, but the notes work well together. Since I have an imp of 2, 5, 7 that I only use for layering, I can make it have as much extra rose as I want, but that doesn't mean this doesn't work well on its own. As time passes it gets more and more floral. Really nice. ETA: I wrote this review after one use. Now that I've almost used up an imp, I'll expand. The rosemary is strong only at first. It goes OOHHHH, and then it retreats into the background. It turns into a clean, fresh, floral smell with a hint of rosemary. It is also intensely comforting and relaxing, the type of relaxing smell that clears up stress and helps you be more focused. This could be related to the fact that it smells a lot like baby fragrance - in Spain we like to use special perfumes on babies, and they always smell fresh, clean, light. This is like the luxury version of that. It smells very comfy. I like to use it to study when I'm stressed or when I'm sure that I'm so upset that I'm going to take it out on whoever least deserves it.

The imp smells of powdery lemons. Wet, it smells like very synthetic room-freshener lemons. Rose and lemon together doesn't sound like such a great idea now. Dry, it's the same with added ickiness. Still in the search for a fresh BPAL that works on me.

Wet, this smells only of candy, and a bit like a synthetic-flavour strawberry candy. Fig can do that to me. Dry, the candy is controlled by the spicy notes. I smell like a expensive dessert, like some berry concoction with clove. As time passes, the spice takes over the candy. A very sophisticated scent.

On the imp, this smells delicious, complex, sparkly with the neroli and the orange peel. Wet, it only smells of bitter almond. Bitter almond smells like The Bitter Almond From Hell on me, so sweet almond smells like a less hysterical bitter almond. Dry, it smells of... roses and a bit of almond. Another one for the swap pile.

The roses are so strong it smells almost lemony. Then all I get is a combination of sweet pea, which my skin apparently amplifies, and rose. It doesn't change much over time, and the worst thing about it is that I don't detect the ylang ylang at all.

The nag champa & patchouli combination makes me smell like a hippie who hasn't seen the inside of a shower in three months. If I don't think of it as a perfume, it might make a good room scent if I'm in the mood for nag champ-ish incense sticks.