This month we’ve been around and about a bit. First we hopped off to Berlin for the Art & Olfaction Awards organised by the one woman amazemachine, Saskia Wilson-Brown. Berlin is a place for which I would quite happily up sticks and leave London. Of course, this would involve a little learning of German, but it sounds so wonderful with all those syllables (and of course most Germans sensibly learn English from the age of around seven anyway) that I don’t think it would be an insurmountable task.

It’s never too late to learn a new language, or a new anything. That said, I’d probably draw the line at relearning gymnastics.

In Berlin I finally met Victor Wong, founder of Zoologist, for whom I made Macaque last year: the fragrance of a senior monkey who lives in a Japanese temple. Yes. Victor was a little phased with jetlag counterpoised with Red Bull, like a nocturnal bushbaby dragged into daylight, so I hope to meet him another time when he’s wide awake.

I also plucked up the courage to talk to Master Perfumer Christophe Laudamiel (seen in the photo with projected award-winner antlers). Here we had a dilemma. I’d heard from three sources that Christophe thinks what I’m up to is “cool” so by saying hello I was taking a great risk of blowing it all, given that I am the opposite of cool in real life.  He was at the awards to get his golden pear for being fabulous. Fortunately, completely unprovoked he told me the story of how he’d found two of my scents (Maxed Out and The Dark Heart of Old Havana) in New York, decided that they were the only interesting fragrances in the shop and wanted to find out where they came from so he sent his assistant to visit Acton.

The great thing about the A&O Awards is that they are transparent; the brand owners and perfume creators are named. The artisan category is for people who own their own businesses and make their own perfumes. The independent category is for people who own a company, and openly employ a perfumer. (The perfumer can choose to stay secret, but the indie owner can’t claim the credit.)

Leo Crabtree won the indie category for his company Beaufort London, This was wonderful because he’s great and his fragrances (Like Victor’s) are uncompromisingly exactly what he wants. Saskia asked me to be one of next year’s judges; it’s loads of work but Andy Tauer said it was very rewarding, and he’s another of my heroes so I said I would.

Following that, we ran six workshops – in Docklands, Acton and Sussex – and fitted in the Fragrance Foundation Awards. That was completely different. If A&O is the perfume equivalent of the Sundance Festival, then this was more like the Oscars. Michael Buble’s fragrance beat me for the Elle Magazine Reader’s Choice award (something I never thought I’d write) and Marina Barcenilla beat me AGAIN to the indie award, second year running, but she’s lovely so I don’t mind. I’ve not met the Buble.) Of 500 people in the room, I think that Marina and I were the only two people present who actually get their hands smelly mixing up their own scents. At A&O it was probably half the people in the room. Both were good fun, in very different ways. I feel more at home at A&O.

Our new project, Our Modern Lives, is making steady progress. The scents will leave our building this week. Smell them at Pitti Fragranze in September and Best of Britannia in October, then Stylist Live at Olympia in November.

That’s it for now, except to say that we’ve started Scent of the Week; every week for a year, one of our fragrances will be half price and this week it’s our best seller The Sexiest Scent on the Planet. Ever. (IMHO). It’s four years old this weekend. Scroll right to the end.