Hair.
There's a really rather famous bit in Marcel Proust's In Search of Lost Time which involves the protagonist discovering a long lost sense revealing a moment from his past in perfect clarity. Something similar happened to me today. Of course Proust's involved dunking a biscuit in a drink reminding him of childhood, mine involved the overbearing smell of potent spirits mixed with the unmistakable odour of absinthe. Me and Monsieur Proust appear to be on different levels of culture, rather unsurprisingly.
And yet, the sensation was really rather strong... a sudden vivid recollection of drinking in a Derby late licence bar with my friends, some four or five years ago. The conversations, the sights, the sounds, the flavours (oh, God - the flavours!) and the throat burning sensation of absinthe.
And like that, the smell, sensation and vividity were gone.
It all seemed rather appropriate, though as it goes. Because the reason I was wandering into town anyway was the take steps into closing the door on studenthood, at least in it's less mature undergraduate state. Yes, today I said goodbye to the lion's maine of hair that has been a feature of my head since 2004. Got a job interview in Manchester on Wednesday, and decided the time had come to look respectable. Or at least, to take steps towards someday (maybe) beginning to look slightly more respectable.
My first impressions of the world without long hair obscuring my face? "My neck is cold."
And yet, the sensation was really rather strong... a sudden vivid recollection of drinking in a Derby late licence bar with my friends, some four or five years ago. The conversations, the sights, the sounds, the flavours (oh, God - the flavours!) and the throat burning sensation of absinthe.
And like that, the smell, sensation and vividity were gone.
It all seemed rather appropriate, though as it goes. Because the reason I was wandering into town anyway was the take steps into closing the door on studenthood, at least in it's less mature undergraduate state. Yes, today I said goodbye to the lion's maine of hair that has been a feature of my head since 2004. Got a job interview in Manchester on Wednesday, and decided the time had come to look respectable. Or at least, to take steps towards someday (maybe) beginning to look slightly more respectable.
My first impressions of the world without long hair obscuring my face? "My neck is cold."