Chocolate, libraries and pork pies...where's Maria, I think I've got a verse for her song.

Small comforts.

I know, I know.  I just wrote a whole thing about rating stuff and now I’m going to write a thing about how some stuff is making the move back to the UK less horrible…I see the hypocrisy.  Here’s the deal: I’ll not put an out of five on anything, I’m just going to say stuff about stuff and we’ll both walk away and never mention this again. – I do realise I’ve typed “never” there, too.

A number of years ago, Hugh Laurie used a character in his novel to praise Cadbury chocolate.  I disagree with this fictional character.  Cadbury chocolate in the UK is too sweet.  Too, too sweet.  I never really enjoyed it before I went away, I enjoy less now.  Galaxy used to be a delight; not so much now.  Even Minstrels are…meh, and the chocolate around Revels has deteriorated to the point of being almost inedible.  The texture of a lot of milk chocolate here is unpleasant in the mouth.  It feels cloying, as if it’s shouting “SUGAR!” at you, right in your face, so to speak.  To these tastebuds, even Galaxy has lost the creamy, swirly delicious I seem to remember from years gone by.  It just all feels sticky and sweet and way too sweet!

Thank the lord of all chocolate, then, for Waitrose own plain and white chocolate.  After eight weeks back in the UK, I have found a chocolate I can eat relentlessly and then try to run off.  It is creamy or bitter and chocolatey and smooth and yum.  It is warming and soothing and all things chocolate should be.  Likewise, the one bar that seems to have lasted the test of time: plain chocolate Bounty.   The milk chocolate version is bitty and not nice.  The plain chocolate variety is a loud celebratory noise in your mouth.

I appreciate the vogue is to close libraries but my goodness, what a brilliant thing a public library is.  The library here is used well.  It is such a welcoming environment – more so now because they’ve finagled some money from somewhere and done themselves up a treat!  A great selection, brilliant workspaces, a stupendously gorgeous children’s library, the lot.  All the more important is the atmosphere.  There is a beautiful hum of use hanging in the air; a wonderful calmness and purpose in the way people sit and type or stand and search or sit and read.  The encouragement for children to suck up joy from the words inside the building is fantastic.  I love this library – I love all libraries to be fair – but I love this library because of the time and space it is filing during this time of transition.  It is a comfort blanket I am happy to wrap myself in every day.

I’ve mentioned pork pies before but here I go again.  Pork pies.  This one confuses me.  New Zealand is the land of pie.  They love pies in New Zealand.  They absolutely love pies in New Zealand.  If it can go in a pie, New Zealanders put it in a pie but they don’t do pork pies.  All pies should come from a pie warmer, in NZ.  All pies should either be tepid or scalding, in NZ.  In all of this, they don’t appear to have room for a cold pie.  I don’t understand why.  One taste of a pork pie and everyone, EVERYONE (Sorry – got caught on TRUMP-LOCK there) can see why pies exist.  Surely?  The pork pie is a sumptuous, lavishly elegant, delicious, moreish piece of food.  And then you add some HP Sauce and Smokey must be singing because you can hear violins.  I have eaten far too many since I have been back.  I may have eaten one in New Zealand; I think I can give myself a pass on that…another thing to have to run off.

See, I have not once said “out of”.  Three things that are making the migrant feel a little bit happier about his migration.  Whilst I’m struggling to find my place here again, it’s good that simple things like chocolate, libraries and pies can go some way to making the day a happier place to be.