Christmas yesterday for me was one of the all time great Christmasses. Everything went brilliantly. We started with a picnic at Point Ormond, letting the breeze coming off the bay keep us cool in the heat. When it got too hot and windy to stop the food blowing around the park or to keep playing cricket, we retired back to my mum’s place to open presents, drink cold drinks, eat more food, and generally make a mess.
![[Who are these nutters? My family, that's who, having a sombre, restrained Christmas picnic at Point Ormond]](/images/1998/12christmas.jpg)
There’s just one thing that put a dampner on Christmas. Among the great presents I got this year (hardly a dud among the huge pile) was a bunch of chocolates and other assorted small things from my mum in a box. The chocolates got mixed up with everything else. Later, away from the maddening crowd, I started to eat the chocolates. Most were wrapped. I found a Coke bottle-shaped one which looked okay. I snapped off a bit. It looked very chocolatey. I put it in my mouth.
Hmmm… odd taste. Liquorice? No. Soap. My mouth froze up, and I ran to the bathroom to participate in ten minutes of spitting, rinsing, toothbrushing, flossing and anything else I could think of to get the taste out of my mouth.
None of those worked fully. In the end I was forced to resume eating chocolate (realchocolate) to get rid of the taste.
