Aqua Manda Moments

How many of you remember this perfume from the 1970s with it's orangey fragrance and it's almost William Morris style lid?

Remembering my own Aqua Manda moments brings a lump to my throat. I was at a small Grammar School for Girls. We were allowed to go into town on Friday lunch time (if you had a note from home). I would buy my Aqua Manda from The Pharmacy of Morgan, then we would pop into The White House to look at their latest smelly candles in the days when scented candles were still an exotic treat. Check the market for a tee shirt. Check our watch because we wouldn't dare be late back to school.

And later, the butterflies in my stomach as we walked into the disco in the local village hall. All cheesecloth and high hopes. Going home feeling deflated because it was your best friend who ended up snogging your favourite boy all night.

I spent quite a lot of money last year buying a full bottle of Aqua Manda in its original box. Just smelling it takes me right back. I sometimes wonder what I would say if I had the opportunity to talk to that chattering girl as she stood in The Pharmacy of Morgan.

Would I tell her what Life had in store?

Would she listen to what I had to say?