Lost Horizons

Exploding Shower Gel?

Due to a big conference in town being organised by Credit Lyonnaise, I am unable to get a room at the Intercontinental, where I normally stay in Shanghai. So, for the first time I am staying at the Baoan Hotel just five minutes walk down Dongfang Road. The hotel lacks the same amenities as the Intercon, but is quite acceptable. The rooms are clean, comfortable and of a decent size. You can tell it’s a hotel catering for Chinese, because, whereas the Western hotels have smoking fllors, this hotel has a single non-smoking floor.
The bathroom amenities are good and the shower space is large, with a flexible shower head, and a shower rose in the ceiling. The latter provides a wonderful deluge of water that is really invigorating.. The shower space is also equipped with two platsic dispensers: shower gel and shampoo – a great improvement on those annoying, little plastic bottles.
The first time I used the shower and was soaping myself up I noticed that the shower gel smelled slightly strange. I couldn’t quite place it at first, and it was frustrating because I remembered the smell but couldn’t quite place it. Then, all of a sudden it came to me, “Marzipan, it smells of marzipan”, Pythagorus would have shouted – and when you come to think of it “marzipan” is a much better exclamation than “Eureka”, well, I think so anyway.
Back to the shower, where I am now soaping my self up vigourously and thinking of wedding cakes, and the one time that I tried to make a Christmas cake. I thought the cake was a great success – I had been lacing it with booze for about ten weeks, it was well steeped in alcohol – the only let down was the icing, that was a real mess; but everyone thought that it tasted very nice, just before they collapsed in an alcoholic stupor.
I am just about to wash between my legs, when another distant memory floats to the front of my mind. This one related to a security course I had to attend, about twenty-five years ago, when we were in the Cold War, and Russians were the bad guys. Part of the course was about what we call, nowadays, IEDs or improvised explosive devices. We were shown how bombs could be hidden in the most innocent looking objects, and would catch the careless person unawares; however, one thing that could give away these bombs was the fact that explosives smelled of marzipan. Instead of nice thoughts of cakes, my mind was suddenly filled with images of exploding books, and flashlights.
I quickly washed off the shower gel and washed between my legs with the shampoo; it may not have been so good at the job, but my mind was put at ease. Isn’t it strange how smell is one of the strongest senses for triggering memories?

posted by Luke @ 8:11 PM