scratch and sniff

i was doing my laundry today downstairs and smelled a familiar smell- swimming pool. then i realized it was the chlorine bleach. but i remember that smell from long ago when i used to swim until my fingers were wrinkly like raisins and my eyes were red and stinging. (i was one of the tough kids who refused goggles. also partly because they were realy hard to put on and yanked at my hair when i tried to take them off)

then i was at dim sum in chinatown. went to the bathroom and was greeted with that heavy/sweet/clingy smell of mothballs. is solidified naphthalene a chinese invention because i don't know anywhere else that people hang these things like they're lavender potpurri sachets. but it reminded me of my grandma's house. she used to have them all over- in the cupboards, under the bed, behind the table and of course in the bathroom. when i was younger i used to think mothballs were special mentos that you put in your cupboard to scare the cockroaches because i obviously didn't get the "moth" part of mothballs. do we even have that many fabric-eating moths in singapore that we need these mothballs everywhere? for some reason i even remember the cheena-pok packaging it comes in.