Captain Moonlight's Notebook: Not to be sniffed at

UNTIL last week, my only contact with the juniper berry had been gin. Now I learn it is the main essence of a concoction to overcome jet lag and is well- known as a stimulant to aromatherapists. It keeps you awake. If you want to go to sleep you sniff lavender essence, which, I discovered with even greater excitement, is a mild narcotic. Between staying awake on juniper and flaking out on lavender, there won't be much time to watch the movie.

Pretending that I was flying to Australia, I sniffed my way through 22 time zones and was very much looking forward to the return journey. I was introduced to these mood-changing substances (not of the Bill Clinton sort, I hasten to add) at the Park Lane Hotel where French aromatherapist Daniele Ryman has opened London's first jet lag shop. I can also recommend essence of tea tree, a scruffy New Zealand bush that Captain Cook's crew thought was the real thing until they tasted it. It is an antibiotic. Madame Ryman said it was marvellous for cuts.