Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Delamere is a darling














I've been reading Delamere's blog for a while now. Reasons for my continued readership are varied but include being impressed that she's managing to raise three kids ranging in ages from 6 to 13, has a rewarding career, a nice husband, a brilliant sense of perspective and an enviable way of looking at life and writing about things orbiting her sphere (not that she's spherical in size, of course) in a manner that is observant but not nasty. Oh and she quite likes that little known authoress Ms Jane Austen.

She found me via chocablog and we became fellow lurkers and then regular commenters. Now that we've moved to and ensconced ourselves in Melbourne, it was time to meet the lady in person. We figured that her daughter C could meet my Sapphire and discuss all matters relating to rabbit ownership, the wonders of both Abba and all Mamma Mia performers (except Pierce Brosnan) and whether the Beanie Kids craze was still relevant in the post-Hannah Montana world.

And bless Dela's (yes, I'm abbreviating even her blog name now) sweet heart; the second I opened the door she stood there offering up a fresh carton of Farmers Union Iced Coffee as a greeting. If it had been accompanied with a Lindt Ball necklace, our meeting would have been pretty well perfect.**


I must have uttered these idle thoughts out loud instead of just keeping it to myself because C shyly smiled and said, "I like chocolate too."

"Oh you do, do you?" was my response before I led her into the kitchen to show her what was in my stash for the week. "Would you like to help me taste some for my next review?"
















Would she ever. Delamere then decided it was time to drop me a bombshell. She used to work for Cadbury. Yes, the Cadbury. Home of the Dairy Milk; the original (and most generously-sized) 250g family block; the excellently revamped Old Gold; the solid gold Crunchie; the evil-but-essential Creme Egg.

Plus, she used to bring her 'work' home with her. Regularly. Plentifully. Necessarily. I was so overcome by this unexpected news I slurped down my iced coffee in uncharacteristic silence, trying to digest just how she remained slim, healthy and willing to leave such a place. That is, until she explained how difficult it was to go shopping without bumping into work colleagues and having to disrespectfully shove the Lindt balls, Twix bars and non-Cadbury Schweppes-related general grocery items under the slabs of Rum-n-Raisin, Top Deck, Cottees cordials and jam jars. Yep, that's likely to force any true chocophile to start searching the Work Wanted advertisements - no-one should be made to stick to just the one brand of chocolate in this democratic, 'fair go' brown land of ours. Yes, I do note the appropriateness of living in a 'brown' land.

I was stoked that Delamere 'got' my 'WWJJD' (What Would Joan Jett Do?) t-shirt and noted that yes, she too had Edward DeBono's 'Mind Pack' still in its plastic wrapper on her bookshelf as well. In fact it will now become my 2009 resolution to open it, work through the puzzles and hopefully gain some kind of remedial entry into the until-now completely mystifying world of lateral thinking.




















As for Sapphire and C, they hit it off immediately and spent the afternoon avoiding the heat through systematically going through every item located in her bedroom, engaging in copious chatter, intermittent giggles and joyously scraping their front teeth on frozen Sunny Boy Glugs.

Delamere waited for my reaction when she asked if we'd be interested in going to the Harold Holt Memorial Pool for a swim. Only Australia (or perhaps Melbourne itself?) could name a pool after the one and only Prime Minister known for going missing whilst swimming in the sea.....

Unfortunately, we have to stay near home to await news on a viola, collect some ordered school uniforms and hang around for the delivery of our new BBQ. As we're discovering, 'delivery times' are about as elastic as Pamela Anderson's g-strings and 'morning' has been known to mean any time from 7:00am to, say, 9:30pm.

Said BBQ is a stainless steel behemoth, a veritable kitchen-cabinet-on-wheels that Love Chunks assures me will be:
a) worth every penny;
b) able to be easily lifted into our back verandah by one scrawny delivery man;
c) called into action least five nights per week to cook dinner; and
d) used by him every time.

Well that's all right then.


** On second thought, seeing as it was a sweat-slicked 41C today, perhaps the Lindt ball necklace would have ended up as a oily waistcoat and not have been such an attractive prospect after all.

9 comments:

Unknown said...

Glad you guys got to meet each other - & how thoughtful of Delamare to bring you some FUIC!

Baino said...

Fabilicious . . isn't it great to meet fellow bloggers, I love it. I don't envy your 41 degrees tho . . .Having been eating healthily and denying myself chardy for almost 2 weeks now and having lost only 2 kilos, I dunno how you girls do it and stay thin! Clearly I'm not jogging enough! (actually I'm not jogging at all!)

Helen said...

Awesome! I had forgotten about creme eggs and now I want one. And something tells me we don't get them in south africa anymore (along with other essentials like cherry or vanialla coke...)

When i was a kid and we went on holiday to the coast my brother and i would hike about 4km to the nearest shop and buy a creme egg each and walk home. Thanks for reminding me!

delamare said...

Oh Kath, thank you for your kind words! C and I had a delightful time with you and Sapphire today too. C even made a woolly anklet thingy as soon as she got home in Sapphire's honour.

And you certainly lived up to my expectations! I was very excited at the prospect of meeting you both, and can report to fellow BftBs devotees that Kath and Sapphire are just as delightful in person, and their new home is lovely. I also loved meeting Millie, Skipper and witnessing the chocolate/iced coffee stash in the fridge.

I will remember to wear my Lindt Ball necklace when we next meet too. :)

Dela

River said...

How lovely to meet up with another bloggy friend and to have her bring FUIC, well, that just tops off the day, doesn't it? Does she live close enough so the two C's can become good friends? Although it sounds like they are already, after just one meeting.
I like the sound of your new BBQ, almost a complete outdoor kitchen, eh? That'll save you heating up the kitchen trying to cook dinner in these heatwaves. I haven't read Delaware's blog for a while, I'll have to get over there and do some catching up....
Please tell me you have airconditioning in your new home, I'd hate to think of all your chocolate melting in your pantry. Licking it off the wrappers isn't quite as satisfying, somehow.

Anonymous said...

Only 41?!?! Mere wimpishness. It made something like 46 in Adelaide today :(

The Lindt necklace would have been a bad move either here or there.

A sunny Boy Glug sounds like a jolly good idea right now, its been a stinker, 36 in the office at my desk. When I left the office at 7:45 pm (!!) it was still 41.5. Not fun.

Kath Lockett said...

Catherine - you'd love her too - she's a FUIC convert and into interior design....

Baino, I haven't been jogging either since arriving in Melbourne. My brand new treadie turned up yesterday but is still in its 113kg flat-pack in the hot shed. I didn't have the heart to hassle Love Chunks to assemble it when it was 41C last night.

Helen - the Creme Egg is one of my guilty pleasures, but I wait until *after* easter when they're usually half price. And if you had to walk 4km for one, then *I* would have bought THREE. Or maybe six....

Thanks Delamere. Blogging has bought all kinds of rewards, hasn't it? Lindt necklace might work better in the middle of winter though.

River, yep, we have air-con but just in the living room. Ceiling fans in the bedrooms are pretty darn good though. I've been bucketing out my shower water on the rapidly dying garden and spraying the rabbit to keep him cool.

OK Ashleigh you're right; we didn't get the 45C that Adelaide had but lemme tell you that living in a weatherboard rather than a high-ceilinged double brick place does make avoiding the heat a bit like trying to hide from the sun behind the car windscreen.

squib said...

I always thought working in a chocolate factory would put you off chocolate for life

delamare said...

Squib, I'm sorry to say that I never got closer to the chocolate factory than the on-site meeting rooms and staff shop - I worked in another building. I can say though that I got very particular about which sort of Roses and Favourites choccies to choose from the numerous bowls around the building, and it took me ages to recover from the post lunch "I HAVE to have chocolate right now!" desperation!! And I've never lost that "mmmm, fresh!" sensation when I bite into a recently manufactured chocolate or lolly!