Things that are almost as good as chocolate #6

Brazil nuts! (Obviously not chocolate covered ones ... )
I've just discovered brazil nuts. Must be careful not to scoff the whole packet. Maybe 2010 will be '365 days without brazil nuts'. hmmm.

Things that are almost as good as chocolate #5

My brother's girlfriend's mother's tiramisu.
Try saying that 5 times quickly!
Mmmmm.

Easter

Well, got through Easter OK. And actually, it wasn't too bad. My brother's girlfriend brought her mother's home made tiramisu to Easter lunch and to be honest, it was WAYYYY better than eating all those chocolate eggs.

Plus, the next day I didn't have that 'oh I ate too many chocolate eggs yesterday' feeling.

Next stop - Mother's Day.

Clayton's chocolate: the chocolate you have when you're not having chocolate ...

This chocolate soft toy is not only cuddly but it smells just like a coconut rough!

Smelling it made me remember how I used to walk 15 mins to a deli when I was ten, with 30c burning a hole in my pocket. And I would buy a coconut rough and slurp on it all the way home. (There were mint patties too, and they were also 30c. But who would choose a mint patty over a coconut rough? Not this bunny!)

Maybe I could start carrying this little toy around with me like a security blanket (this is assuming I could wrest it from my little boy's arms, and I'm not convinced I could. And NO it wasn't ME that bought it for him!!). But I'm not sure if it would prove to be more temptation than solace, a la the chocolate scented flowers (which I haven't planted yet).

Happy Easter. :-)
PS This chocolate bunny is sold through Target stores.

Things that are almost as good as chocolate #4

Getting real mail in a real letter box (and I don't mean bills).

I used to have 13 penpals, back when I was 17 and had time to do things like write newsy letters. I had penpals from many different countries - some were friends that moved overseas when I was younger and I kept writing to them, and some were the friends of new friends (the new friends having moved to Australia from overseas).

Now, I admit, email (and Facebook) are great for keeping in constant touch with people. Instant touch. But they are nothing at all like the letters you would get in the mail box in the front garden.

And that zing of joy that you'd get when you found a fat envelope in the mail, with stamps, and your name on it. I would take it inside turning it over and over, looking at the handwritten address and sit down with a happy sigh, and read it. There is nothing like getting and reading a real letter.

These days my hand gets cramped after half a page of A4 handwriting. Those muscles just don't work anymore.

So I think I'd trade a block of chocolate for a fat envelope in the letterbox any day. Of course, now I HAVE traded in the chocolate for a year, it's extra disappointing only to find bills in the letterbox. But, as my mother used to say (when my brothers complained that I always had mail and they never did), 'you have to write letters to get letters'. So perhaps I'll go find a pen. I'm sure there was one in the bottom draw in the back room last time I looked ...

What about carob?

So in the 'not eating of chocolate', where does carob sit?
Frankly, it doesn't really matter because I am not a big fan of carob and I don't eat it anyway. :-P
(Apologies to all you carob eaters out there ... perhaps later in my year choc-free I might feel more inclined to sample carob again ... but probably not.)

Change of subject ... so ... read any good books lately?

Our bookclub is reading The Mayor of Castorbridge (Thomas Hardy) at the moment. I read it years ago (like about 20) and remembered enjoying it. This time around it's going a bit too slowly for me. Possibly because I can't sit down and read it all in one hit, but have to nibble at it just before bedtime each night. So far, not much has happened except a lot of walking (yes, I'm not far into it at all).
Now, my husband is reading my children The Wishing Chair (Enid Blyton), a chapter each night at bedtime. And it's ALL happening in The Wishing Chair. So far it's been three nights of adventure, delicious-food eating, new friendships and magic.

I'm adding 'large wishing chair' to my Christmas list.