When I was a kid, we didn’t get dessert very often. We whined about it a lot, so much so that my (very wise) mother concocted a plan. We were going to have an Icecream Day. We would be allowed to eat as much icecream, and only icecream, as we wanted all day. BUT we would not be allowed to beg and whine about dessert anymore. When she announced this, my siblings and I thought we were in heaven! Our eyes goggled at the 8-litre tub of icecream my mum brought home from the shop…Our dessert-loving dreams were coming true!
Icecream Day dawned and icecream for breakfast was just about as magical as our little childlike hearts could have hoped for. Icecream for a snack mid-morning, yes please! Icecream for lunch, still yum! Icecream for an afternoon snack…well, ok, we love icecream. But by about 5pm in the afternoon my siblings and I were feeling pretty low. The sugar rush of the morning had worn off and our enthusiasm for icecream had melted into a puddle of disillusionment. We were trying but failing to get excited about yet another bowl of icecream for dinner. It turns out sugary sweet and cold is wonderful combination in moderation but when the evening cools and icecream is your only food, your body begins to crave a warm, nourishing meal. Frankly, I’d have settled for a raw carrot.
Now, for the piece-de-resistance – remember my mother is a wise woman – she suggests out loud to my dad that he go to the local takeaway and get fish and chips for dinner. Just two serves, of course.
Oh cruel Wisdom! How we learnt the error of our ways! By this stage I would have sold my brother for a hot, salty potato chip. And I need not tell you how we suffered when my dad arrived home from the takeaway with the smell of piping hot chips emanating from the butcher’s paper parcel.
Agape and desperate, we watched my parents eat their dinner while our neglected bowls of melted icecream matched our despondent mood. We begged for a chip, just one, but my parents stood firm. “A deal is a deal,” they said…”Now, icecream for dessert?”
(Image by Steve Buissinne via Pixabay)