Sometimes, I feel as if I have left Earth, my familiar Earth,  behind,  and landed on some other planet.

While the Earth I knew was pleasant and uncomplicated, this new strange version is not as welcoming.  People don’t talk to one another. They are very serious about things.  They are so constricted by the novel regime that is afraid of offending anybody or upsetting somebody accidentally that they vet everything and edit every comment in case it touches a nerve, real or imaginary.

Expressing any opinion is preceded by an apology.  Just in case it’s not politically correct…

So in a way we have diluted conversations so that they have become meaningless and bland.  In other words,  we play it safe.

What has all this got to do with perfumes?

A lot actually.

Allow me to explain.

When I was taking a walk in the Chadstone Shopping Mall I was approached by  a lady who was promoting the new Chanel No5.  So I asked her what was different about this version of Chanel from the previous one  which had stood the test of time.

Her reply was as follows:-  “We have diluted it.”

“Does that mean  you have weakened it,  made it less sexy?”  I asked.

“Yes” she said.  “We are trying to appeal to the younger girls.”

“Can’t they just stick to something like Justin Bieber’s artistic endeavour in the world of perfumers?”  I asked.  “After all,  Chanel is not really a brand for teeny boppers,  is it?”

Surely Chanel is not lolly water, but a sophisticated perfume for real women rather than ingenues.

Apparently not, it seems. Light scents that smell like bubble gum are what pubescents are buying and so we must bow to their Lolita tastes.

I am now scouring the internet for real perfumes for women who have left school and want to enjoy sophisticated and redolent perfumes of the kind worn by women rather than kids.