Smell like...

I was ambitious yesterday, setting my alarm clock at 7.10am today. I woke up at 6am and reset it to 7.20am. I had trouble waking up immediately and took my time to close my eyes for a little while. I was jerked out of my sleep at 7.58am. I have to clock in at 8.30am.

Close-my-eyes-for-a-little-while my ass.

I jumped out of bed, reached for the towel, tried to open the bathroom door but it was locked. My brother was in there doing his usual morning ‘business’. Cursing in my head, I detoured to my mom’s shower.

As soon as I entered the shower, I sniffed this familiar smell. I saw Pink LifeBuoy’s body wash. The scent opened a dam and a wall of emotions came rushing through. The scent triggered my hippocampus to high gear and memories started to replay almost like slideshow in my mind.

SEOUL. It’s the scent of Seoul.

When I first came to Seoul, we (Nuur and I) spent a few days in Nuur’s cousin’s house. It’s a compact house with an open space that serves as study area/living room/dining room, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchenette, and 1 small upper floor just for sleeping. This smell reminds me of that cute house. Every morning we would shower with this body wash before we embark on our adventure for that day. At the end of the day, we would shower again. So, we smell like this all-day-long.

God, I miss Seoul. SORELY.

I didn’t pause to reminisce, rather, I quickly lathered the soap all over my body.

The feeling….. Oh, the feeling! It felt like home.

Since I don’t have the luxury of time, I finished my shower in exactly 4 minutes. (Hey, don’t judge my speed. I was clean, I smelled wonderful, I was good to go. ;p)

It’s casual-Friday at the office so, I scanned my room for my jeans. Of all days, the jeans were not hung on its usual hook by the closet door. I opened by closet - lo and behold, my OLD jeans. I bought these pair especially for my trip to Korea and wore it almost everyday there.

“Great, another item just to remind me of my happy days in Seoul”, was what I thought.

I have to admit, the jeans were a little eager to hug my umm.. voluptuous figure. Not wanting to waste more time, I slipped struggled into the jeans and while doing that, I was eyeing my casual tops drawer. What to wear? What to wear? What to wear?

I settled with a purple top that I bought from Seoul, just to embrace today’s Seoul-Hark-Back theme. I put in on, checked myself out in the mirror and decided I looked like Dr. Bruce Banner transforming into Hulk – nearly ripping through the seams of the clothes.

Aigooooooooo! I settled with a brown (stretchable) top that I bought in Bandung. Buzz-killer.

I didn’t even put on toner and moisturiser and scrambled to the front door exactly at 8.16am. While walking to the elevator, I took a loooooong whiff of my right arm.

I, indeed, smell like Seoul. J

p/s: In case anybody's wondering if I got to work on time.. NOT!