Olfactory

I think the sense of smell is the most underrated, out of all the senses. Many people will talk with horror about what life would be like if they couldn't hear, people will imagine a nightmarish existence without being able to see, a life without being able to taste would be a life barely lived at all -- but smell is something we don't always rate that highly.

I have a pretty lousy sense of smell. My hearing isn't great for that matter, and while we're on the subject my eyesight leaves something to be desired... but I sometimes wonder if I might be suffering some kind of permanent allergy, affecting my sense of smell. Mostly because other people tend to notice smells before I do.

I worry on occasion that I might wear too much aftershave. Going out on a Friday night, I might be crammed in the backseat of a car -- and someone, usually Austin or his fiancée -- will remark that I smell good, or perhaps I'll be buying some chewing gum in a shop on a Sunday morning, and the girl on the checkout will ask me if I'm wearing Issey Miyake. I usually get embarrassed at that point, both from the attention and the idea that I must be wearing too much if someone else can not only pick up on a scent but be able to identify it. I'll generally still be unable to smell it much at all.

Despite not having the most wondrous of abilities in that department, I make strong associations with smells. When I was in New York city, I decided it was a city of smells and that one would be able to navigate the city without the need for sight, relying on scent alone. There was the corner that always smelled of drains, or the man selling chestnuts, or any number of other olfactory landmarks. After a while it became a kind of shorthand; go down the street, past this electronics store, then turn left on the corner when you can smell drains.

One of my favourite smells is Sunday night hockey. You walk in through the doors, and are immediately assaulted with a variety of smells -- the slightly sweaty, musty smell of the skates (and probably the players), the various canteen food stuffs, the chemical smell of the ice, and general people smells. I feel happy almost immediately when I smell it all, as it reminds me of good times. Lots of lousy games with Chelmsford being unable to play as a team, but generally good times.

Another smell I love is swimming pools. I love to swim. I find it tremendously relaxing, while at the same time requiring enough exertion to tire me out and release those feel-good endorphins. I love the smell of the chlorine on my skin, that no matter how much you scrub in the shower at the pool afterwards you never quite get rid of. There was a time when I was living in Derby where I was swimming every day -- I'd get up, not bother to shower, just throw on some jeans and a baggy hoody, then head to the pool for an hour of laps. I've taken now to enjoying swimming on my own on a Friday night more than going to the pub with my friends. I went to the pool tonight, and I felt my heart speed up a little with excitement when I smelled the warm air and the chlorine of the pool.

Unfortunately, they're a bunch of bastards and I found out that my timetable was out of date -- Thursday nights is now "staff training", so I didn't get my fix.

Smells can be bittersweet, too -- there's been so many times when I've shared a bed with a girl for a few days, but after she'd gone had to wash my sheets immediately, as I couldn't stand to have the smell but not the person.

But there are a hundred smells I love, and I don't even include fresh cut grass or baking bread. I love the smell of Mexican food (conversely, I strongly dislike the smell of Indian food, even if there are probably a lot of dishes I expect I might like), I love the smell of surf wax -- how it lingers on your hands, from spending so long rubbing slow circles of wax on a board. I love the salty smell of 'the sea', which you get here with the wind in the right direction and the tide is out on the river, or sometimes when it rains and the stones on my drive smell like a pebble beach somewhere. And though it might sound a little unhygenic, I like the smell of my clothes when they have lost the immediate "just washed" smell from the machine.
Not unclean, but not not sterile either.