Cola Cubes

Yesterday Nine had his Tenth birthday. So I have achieved the status of mother to two double-figured children. Does that mean I am a real grown up now? Although I also have a washing machine, a mortgage, middle-aged spread and a teenage daughter, I’m not so sure. This morning when I was supposed to be doing my Italian homework I found myself perusing a site called aquarterof.com, a fantastic retro sweetie shop that has, amongst others, cola cubes (that leave your mouth as ragged as a shaggy mop), traffic light lollies, lemon bon bons, Refreshers and even Golden Nuggets bubblegum in a real sack!! This latter is now, somewhat un-authentically, packaged in a sealed pouch within the hessian bag thanks to modern hygiene regulations but still, as soon as the photo of these little gems popped up on screen, a whole Niagara of childhood memories came flooding right in. I was directed to this site by the wonderful  Motherhood: The Final Frontier, which has been my main inspiration to begin my own blog and to whom I feel somewhat indebted for kick-starting me on my way. Following the link to the sweeties available by the quarter – and note that this is quarter of a kilo, significantly more than the traditional quarter of a pound – I then somehow found myself watching YouTube videos of The Bananna Splits and The Double Deckers. How did that happen? In the old days, when I watched them the first time round, I would quite likely have been sitting on the Saturday morning sofa, sucking noisily on said sweet treats, my Dandy beside me waiting to be read and all purchased with the 10p pocket money handed over by my parents every weekend.

But back to reality… Wow, a whole morning wasted dawdling in the past when I should have been doing my already-one-week-overdue homework and getting the shopping in ready for preparation of tonight’s dinner, which has to be left for the hungry family to eat whilst I go out to yoga. Ho hum. What it is to have the freedom to waste or make the most of one’s time when one has the choice. But it was a completely delicious morning. Endless cups of coffee accompanied me on each of my, albeit sedentary, activities. Tomorrow I will have no such luxury of choice on how best to despatch of my time being tied, as I shall like many others across the globe, to my desk at work. In fact tomorrow is a whole day of meetings, so there you have it. The choice is already made. Will I be spending my time in worthwhile activity, being productive and achieving great things and thus dutifully earning the salary which is paid to me? No. I will be sitting twiddling a pencil, shuffling papers around and thinking how incredibly focused some people are on completely worthless activities. When I say worthless, what I really mean is ‘boring to me.’ My colleagues are, for the most part, a delightful group of people who are funny, clever, motivated and really deserving of their generous salaries. I, on the other hand, am less so. Whilst seated around the meeting table emanating a carefully crafted countenance of concentration, behind the facade I will be wondering whether I can get home in time to take newly achieved Ten to the beach to fly the kite he received for said birthday. An activity for which neither of us will be paid but one which is far more inspirational and rewarding, wouldn’t you say?