The collected works of ScottyB

A sore throat is never pleasant. Thankfully this one hasn’t gone beyond the sore throat phase just yet.

At the moment, its in that sort of ‘cold limbo’ where it could swing either way.

Either it can head North and become the dreaded head cold. The bane of the brain. Making you feel like your head is two sizes too small for your brain and your nasal passages feel like they are trying to pass golf balls. The other option is heading South. No more or less favourable than the head cold, simply another option, the other of two evils, where your body makes every attempt to cough up its own lungs. And on some accounts; succeeds.

Luckily for me, I’m usually over them in a few days. Unfortunately it doesn’t reduce the annoyance of being lumbered with a cold.

And I’ve never suffered (yet - touch wood) from the dreaded Man Flu that seems to plague so many - including my Father and many close relatives.

On the bright side, nothing beats waking up on the morning where it all seems to clear up magically overnight, suddenly allowing you to breathe perfectly again through both nostrils.

Always the optimist

Not the cards, but the choccy!

Cadbury Top Deck. Like most Cadbury chocolates that find their way into my hands or onto my desk, they don’t stick around long. Such is the fate of chocolate to be unwrapped and devoured with sheer delight.

It’s impossible to stop. You unwrap and at the time, one row seems enough. Even as you’re eating it, you enjoy it, but you think ‘This will do, I can stop at one row’.

As you click off the last square from the row, you accidentally shatter the new row, just slightly. Making it uneven.

This is unacceptable, as now you have a tainted row. You’re doing yourself out of a full row next time if you leave it like that. So you do all that you can to make it right - you click off the next row and continue doing so until its even. Sometimes this means clicking off multiple rows and before you know it, half the block has disappeared.

By then you get to the ‘Oh well, its half gone, so I might as well finish it’ stage. This is the dangerous one.

To the unseasoned chocolateers, it can spell stomach aches and general feelings of shame - but to the lifelong chocoholic, it is the height of sweet consumption.

You stare at the foil, an empty packet, a null void where a block of chocolate used to be. And you feel completely fulfilled. Literally.

Chocolate. The devils delight.