House of smells!

If you've been following these posts you will have seen last week's account of the smells that have been assaulting the olfactory receptors of the Plummer family in recent days: the stench of a blocked drain, and the pong of a newly painted bedroom that gave me 'Dulux-poisoning' last weekend!!

Well, here we go again. Carole and I woke up in the early hours of this morning to a house reeking with the pungent smell of petrol. Had a tanker jack-knifed on the road outside, spilling its load?

It turns out that the culprit was our eldest son, Mark. Having passed his test a few weeks ago, he underwent a rite of passage just after midnight - filling up the car petrol tank for the first time. Apparently, the nozzle suddenly came out of the spout. Mark says that it could have happened to anyone though, apparently, he soaked his clothes from the shoulder down (was he kneeling during this rite?) and sent petrol splashing all over the forecourt.

Carole's put the clothes through the wash this morning, but it doesn't seem to have made any difference. In fact, the heat of the radiators, over which they are currently sprawled, seems to be increasing the odour's potency. I've got to get out into the fresh air!

And, when I do, Im going to reflect on two stories.

Firstly, a Biblical story relating to a father's reaction to the smell of his son's clothes. The conniving Jacob had dressed himself in his brother, Esau's, clothes in order to trick his aged and unseeing father into giving him his blessing, rather than his brother. We're told that, 'When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, "Ah, the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed..."'

The Bible is nothing if not honest about the weaknesses and foibles of its heroes. What can this story teach us about honesty and integrity in our relationships, and about a God who can still do something special in, and with, our lives, even when we've screwed up big-time?

And, secondly, a wonderful story that I've used on several occasions about a young boy who smeared some smelly Limburger cheese on his grandfather's moustache while he was asleep. When his grandfather woke up, he exclaimed, "This room stinks!" He went into the kitchen, sniffed, and said, "This room stinks, too!" He walked through the whole house grumbling, "The whole house stinks!" So he went outside, took a deep breath....and cried out, exasperated, "The whole world stinks!"

Sometimes, when the whole world stinks, the answer is right there under our nose!!

Sensual Intelligence - 3: Your Nose

I've had some bad experiences this week. The worst one was the fruitless time spent trying to unblock a drain. I won't frighten you with the details. A kind soul loaned me some rods with various endpieces that help you to screw, scrape and squish the stuff, but I couldn't manoeuvre them more than a few feet down the pipe, so it's an ongoing situation. The other bad experience has been today's attempt at decorating. I loathe decorating and all of the energy drains from me even thinking about it. But Carole and I have set to, and managed to give the ceiling a couple of coats of paint. At least it's a start! One of the worst common factors about unblocking drains and decorating is the smell - my olfactory senses have been well-and-truly assaulted this week!

It made me think that it was about time that we thought about another of Tony Buzan's group of amazing facts regarding our sensual intelligence, and what more appropriate than thinking about our noses! I find what follows absolutely incredible...

• Your nose has 5,000,000 olfactory receptors: each one has its own gene.
• Over 1,000 giant protein molecules are used by your receptors to decode smell.
• Your nose can distinguish 10,000 different odours.
• In ways that no scientist has yet been able to explain, your nose can detect one molecule of 'smell' in one part per trillion of air!
• Your olfactory nerves are unique. One end of each of them is exposed to the outside world. The other speeds the impulses directly into your brain, providing an instantaneous communications link between the two. The things you smell can bring about deep and powerful emotive responses. This is because the minute your brain is aware of a smell, it sends the information directly to your emotional centre. This is in part why aromas are so closely associated with sexual arousal and the powers of recall.
  

As always, Buzan suggests some exercises for heightening our awareness of the different senses. Here are some of his suggestions regarding our sense of smell:

• Regularly give your nose (as well as the rest of you!) the treat of trips into nature. Inhale through your nose as all animals do, rather than through your mouth, as most people do. Sniff the rain. You think it doesn't have it's own aroma? Yes it does!
• Learn to distinguish the scents of different flowers.
• Smell has become one of the least used senses. Reverse this trend! Experiment by placing flowers around your home, and by using perfumed candles in chosen rooms or when you are having a bath. If you have a garden, plant it to create scent treats.

I've got another suggestion, too. A group of people who have trained themselves to distinguish between a number of different smells are mycologists - people who study fungi. Lots of fungi are distinguished by the odours they give off. So there's something you can have a go at next Autumn...toadstool sniffing!