Odours

I was in the David Jones city store this afternoon, hanging around waiting for a friend as he used the toilets there. We were there because David Jones has one of the few public toilets in the city centre that don’t look like a sewer pipe has exploded inside them.


McDonalds toilets are usually pretty safe, but I’ve been into the one in the McDonalds on the corner of Barrack and Hay Streets, and it was the nastiest restroom I have ever seen. It appeared that a junkie had been in there with Mr Hankey the Christmas Poo, having a fight to the death. One of those crash-around-the-room, breaking-bits-of-furniture sort of fights. Put simply: ewww.


While I was waiting I had a look at the men’s aftershave and cologne counter. Apparently the top-selling cologne in the store is L'eau d'Issey Pour Homme Intense by Issey Miyaki, so I squirted a bit from the tester bottle onto my wrist. And it was like no cologne I’ve ever smelt before.


It was bitter and botanical, with fragrances like gin and cinders and parsley. It was pretty horrible when I sprayed it on my wrist and actively sniffed it, but when it sank into the background it became oddly compelling. It’s a brave and strange scent, and I suppose it’s to be applauded for taking a risk.


But I wonder how it came to be the top-selling cologne in David Jones? Maybe the local male population is beginning to embrace the unconventional. Or, more likely, the people on the David Jones cologne counter are big fat fibbers. I don’t imagine that there are that many men in Perth with the self-confidence to go around smelling like Hell’s herb garden.