Filed under: America, Art, Entertainment, Family, Fun, Life, New York, Religion, Society, Thoughts, Weird & Wonderful | Tags: America, Art, Entertainment, Fun, Life, New York, Society, Thoughts
I love this t-shirt. Bought in a souvenir shop on 5th Avenue in New York on our recent trip, I wore it for the flight home. Another passenger queuing for the security gates in Newark burst out laughing and said he loved it. One of the flight attendants, on entering the aircraft said “I don’t like your shirt”, but
with a devilish smirk.
I don’t believe it is an offensive shirt and I would never deliberately offend anyone, but there is a definite reaction which can range from smiles and smirks to frowns and tuts. I’m looking forward to my “good-living” sister-in-law seeing it – should be good for a laugh!
Definitely worth the $10!
Filed under: Fun, History, I Want One!, Life, Memories, Thoughts, Weird & Wonderful | Tags: Belfast, Fun, Memories, Weird & Wonderful
I recently rediscovered the guilty pleasure of the Topic bar. It had been perhaps thirty years since my previous Topic and when I saw it on sale, my mind went straight back to McGarry’s newsagents at the Gransha shops on the Glen Road, Belfast around 1977.
Back then, buying a Topic meant a serious outlay of cash. They were 8p ($0.16) each. The price for tonight’s purchase was 47p ($0.94). Not sure where that takes us in terms of inflation, to be honest!
I am sad enough to have a technique or ritual for eating my Topic, which might gave you an impression of how much I savour it. I wouldn’t even consider eating it without a mug of black coffee. I’ll unwrap it fully and slowly and carefully bite about two inches of the caramel covered in chocolate off the top of the nougat base. The chocolate and the caramel fuse together in my mouth for about a minute and a half before I wash it away with some coffee. This action is repeated until the caramel is sadly no more.
From memory, in the 70’s, the hazelnuts were cut in half but now they appear to be in much smaller pieces. This, I believe however, can be considered an improvement, as it helps the nougat/chocolate base last a little longer.
The cynic in me believes that the hazelnut pieces are fragmented because Mars, which produce this little gem, have reduced its size and weight over the years to the point where a half hazelnut would be too big to fit into the nougat segment. Nothing really good lasts forever, so we are left with a slightly smaller more expensive treat – but it still the nicest piece of confectionery on the market in my view.
As I said, nothing good lasts forever, and so as the last residue of the chocolate and nougat is washed away by the last of my coffee, I start to look forward to tomorrow evening’s Topic…
