A huge let down on Oct 24...

The package that I had anticipated with the greatest delight.

The victory that was to end all victories.

Well, as it turned out, it was just that - dousing cold water on my aspiring antiquing dreams.

The larger of two supposedly sealed bottles of Shalimar perfume that I had paid $300 each for, reeked of perfume and had two round stain marks on the blue exterior packaging when I removed it from the styrofoam box the seller packed it neatly in.

My heart was in my mouth as I undid the packaging. The worst ever fear I could ever fear was realised: not a single drop of precious juice remained in the beautiful crystal bottle; courtesy of a cracked plastic seal.

The decades-old dried perfume had pooled in the recess when the bottle nestled.

The other 40ml bottle however was pristine, flawless with juice securely sealed in, so I guess it wasn't a total loss!

But my hopes for a dream bargain were dashed, leaving me merely grateful for the bottle being smaller than I had anticipated so that I had lost 2.5 ounces, not 4.2 ounces!


$200 - $250 of my sweated blood money went down the toilet.

Well, almost.

I soaked the dried perfume in the vintage eau de cologne that I had quite a lot of, and pipetted the liquid into an empty 4 oz Baccarat crystal bottle.

One ounce of cloudy juice was salvaged this way, but the box became a disaster area.


Better than nothing, when all is said & done.

I tried to turn it to my advantage, promising never to shop on eBay again for the forseeable future, while also launching an 'Item significantly not as described' claim on Paypal.

In view of the coming end-of-year slowdown, methinks this resolution is timely.

Resuming the exercise of the little grey cells...

Oh my. How long has it been since I last blogged?

Far too long.

I've been so busy on eBay, 'investing' in old discontinued or classic reformulated fragrances that my need for self-expression went into deep hibernation.

This huge void was anything but empty: pain deliberately inflicted by thoughtless family members drove me behind this wall of silence as my primary defence.

The need to be proven successful in other ways than mere accumulation of fiat currency burned quietly all along, but thanks to God and his mysterious ways, I have achieved that, turning scorn into jealousy as I have crafted a lifestyle that allows me to wake up late in the morning, casually stroll downstairs to work, and then resume my own activities again(primarily shopping for bargains on fleabay,which I discovered I was skillful at thanks to Pet Society).

Success is still a work in progress,of course, even possessing the satisfaction that I have achieved my primary monetary target way in advance of year's end.

Progress would consist predominantly in expanding my online 'antique' business and adding other country feathers to my cap in addition to the US, Britain and Russia.

Let normal people grow a head full of white hair agonising over how to please their superiors at their regular-income boring-as-hell job, and let them burn their so-called high salaries on escapist activities meant to numb their inevitable pain.

Allow them to rue over how they wish they were their own boss, and be saddened by their lack of courage to take charge and change matters(I was there once, for over 5 years).

Today, as I walked back from a coffee at a nearby outlet, I saw the freshly-smashed cadaver of a large green lizard, bright red entrails interspersed with a surprisingly thick spine broken clean in three places. It was just beyond the cement kerb that symbolises safety for those of its ilk.

I was a little shaken and pondered over how transitory our earthly lives are. I mean: how much more secure are our lives compared with those of lizards(or frogs or cats) attempting to cross busy trafficways?

Though God did say in the Bible how much more valuable human lives were than the sparrows or the lilies in the field,every day we learn of people who lose their lives in an untimely manner.

Lately, I had allowed myself to become a little down over the lack of love in my life.

Not today.

Today, I allow myself to savour instead the miracle that I'm not lying dead among the detritus of the misfortunes and misdemeanours that have visited me all these years until now.