A nursery cold, a bowl of oranges, and the moment a peeled satsuma put me straight back into Christmas. I hadn't noticed my sense of smell had gone until it came back.
My daughter had her first day at nursery and brought something home with her. Nurseries are generous like that. Nothing serious, but it left me blocked up for a couple of days, staying in and eating oranges because someone once told me vitamin C helps.
Then I peeled one, and suddenly I was somewhere else. It was Christmas: a satsuma at the bottom of my stocking, the house warm, nobody in a rush.
I was already there before I'd worked out why. Then it landed. I could smell the orange, which meant that the whole time I hadn't been able to smell anything, and I hadn't even noticed.
Smell does that. It's why we don't really talk about notes. Nobody falls for a perfume because of an ingredient list. They fall for it because it takes them somewhere.
So my sense of smell is back, and so is Christmas, three months early. I'm keeping the oranges.