How to come up smelling of roses, not eau de car oil

re you giving your girlfriend perfume, it’s a parfum, so it must be service from their elegant Wendy Readers may be surprised to learn perfume again this year?” good.” house in Fulham, west London. that the tradition of the Christmas

“Yes, I got her a bottle of “You can’t go wrong with a parfum. “Mothers and fathers worry Quiz goes right back to pagan times that one which comes with lots of And the bottle has to be a weird shape. incessantly about their inadequacies, so and the rituals around the winter floaty white silk in the ads.” And if the girl in the ad murmurs we boost their self-esteem by putting solstice, an occasion for reflection and

“They all have floaty white silk in something inaudible which you guess them in touch with their inner questioning. “What’s it really all them. It’s actually the rule. Is it the one is in French, that’s always a good sign.” cuteness,” says Toby. “Just a few w about?” about? they would ask each other. where Keira Knightley, in white “Oh, now I think I should have got a sessions with mothers dressed d in gauzy “Why is fertility such a big thing?” leathers, rides a motorbike through murmuring barefoot girl. Maybe next pink fairy outfits with wings and nd they ThisThi gradually developed into the wonderfully traffic-free streets?” year.” quickly win back their self-belief.” ief.” annual annua Bumper Solstice Quiz, with

“No, it’s the one where Angelina “And are you getting aftershave Jessie adds: “There’s one father, ther, questions questi such as “Who gathered the Jolie has that faraway, mysterious again?” holding down an important job ob in the most mistletoe m this year?” Or: “Who look, as if she’s trying to recall the “Yes. Last year my girlfriend gave City, who was screwed up about out his said, ‘I’m ‘I through with woad; it’s no kings and queens of England in me the one where the young man is daughter’s oboe lessons, so we e got him longer a good look’?” chronological order and you wonder if stripping off to have a bath in what to go to his office every day for r a week EldersElde carved questions in the form their names are tattooed across her appears to be a library and there are with a cat’s whiskers and nose e painted of pict pictograms on a tree trunk, then the shoulders. Last year I got my girlfriend these women outside, sort of on his face, and now his daughter hter is answersansw would appear, written the one where this woman in a clamouring excitedly. I suppose they learning the cello as well.” upside down, on a nearby tree. upsiL nightdress seems to be lost in a steamy want to borrow a book.” “We show them how empowering wering Later, at the first Christmas, after jungle at night, then it rains really hard “Did it work for you?” it can be to shout ‘wee-wee!’ in na a the Magi had delivered their gifts to and then she’s running barefoot along “Not really. Nobody ever asked to crowded lift in John Lewis,” says ays the stable in Bethlehem, they must a moonlit beach.” borrow a book.” Toby. “And we teach that throwing wing have ha been at a bit of a loose end.

“Running barefoot along a beach food on the floor is part of their ir What Wh would they do next? It’s easy usually means it’s a high-quality development as a parent.” to suppose that three wise men perfume, but you have to take care; Toby and Jessie believe that it is would wo be interested to know which sometimes it’s just a car ad. So what important for mothers and fathers one of them was actually the wisest. does this year’s perfume smell like?” to embrace the positive tantrum. At thisth point, Melchior, maybe,

“Haven’t a clue. Essence of essences, This is why they hold workshops in might migh well have opened his saddlebag I think. It’s not about the smell, after M&S to demonstrate the liberating and sa said, “As it happens, I also came all, it’s about the idea. And it’s not a effect of writhing on a floor. bearing bearin a Jumbo Crossword…” It seems parents are now hiring life coaches for children aged between four and six. Not a bad idea, I suppose, but not as good as getting four and six-year-olds to act as life coaches to anxious parents. Toby and Jessie (tobynjess.com) offer such a

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