The Nibble Dilemma

I felt a little woozy this afternoon, a bit out of sorts in the motorisation department and unable to concentrate fully on my afternoon nap.

Between sniffles and large clearance of the nasal arena I removed layers of clothing that I had only recently climbed inside to combat the artic conditions of a Scottish summer. I felt the urge to drink a nice cup of warm tea and so, unravelling myself out of the depressed area of the sofa I wobbled my way towards the kitchen and the kettle beyond. Before reaching the kitchen I glanced back at the scene of the crime and the residue of my previous session - enough ingredients to bake an x-mass pudding lay in crumbs as witness to my debauchery, minus the brandy I noticed regretfully.

Feeling slightly chilly whilst watching the kettle boil I turned the heating up and having made my cup of tea and along with a packet of butter cookies, a jar of stuffed olives and some barbecue flavoured Pringles I returned to the sofa. I sat down at the other end from previous and aimlessly contemplated the remains of the burglarised larder that was attempting to disguise the sofa as a baking shop.

I love crystallised ginger, chunky lumps of mouth-watering sweetness that beg for another to be had. But I am not very sure what ginger goes well with in the snack department. It has forever shared place in the bowels and workings of my digestive system with anything from grapefruit to toffee. And today ginger had played an important part in the current mess of disorientated and gas producing internals. The remains of my ginger session lay in eclectic mix amongst the debris of dried apricots stones, grape seeds and chocolate wrappers.

I had only minutes previously devoured a whole half pound of Cheshire Cheese! I just love the crumbly texture, the delicious unsweetened and mouth-watering taste of most cheeses and had I had in the house a larger selection, Gouda, blue stilton and cream cheese would have followed the Cheshire in short order.

In retrospect it is extremely hard to picture how the mess of cheese, crystallised ginger, grapes, tea and orange juice, dried apricots, chocolate (dark and mint), a small raspberry flavoured rice pudding, a glass of water, a banana and a boiled egg managed to meet inside my stomach and to work through my system without violent expulsion. That was my afternoon's debauchery: endless nibbles that have no affiliation to each other and ten episodes of friends.

Thinking about what my stomach must be feeling after such a session caused me to break out in a sweat and so picking myself up off the sofa I removed the recently donned layers and turned down the heating to a more reasonable climate.

Feeling slightly dizzy with the efforts of removing my clothes I sat down once again - and then it struck me. Ice cream would go well with ginger or maybe some roasted cashew nuts!