Sunday, September 12, 2010

The unfortunate incident of the sweetie in the sermon

In church this morning the speaker had just begun when Jared offered me a sweetie. It looked like a blackcurrant suckie sweet and my throat was a bit dry so I took it. I unwrapped it as quietly as I could and popped it in my mouth.
'Urrrggghhhhhh!!!!!!!'

I don't know what it was but it certainly wasn't blackcurrant. It was awful. Possibly licorice or aniseed.

I looked at the clock. I figured the speaker would go on for twenty minutes . That meant I had twenty minutes to suffer the sweet. I couldn't crunch it - too noisy; I couldn't swallow it - too big; I couldn't spit it out - could I?

I took out my hankie and made a big show of blowing my nose but just as I did so my neighbour turned to look at me. I quickly put my hankie away again without disgorging the sweet.

There was nothing for it: I had to sit and wait.

Twenty minutes passed and the speaker showed no sign of stopping.
Twenty-five minutes.
Thirty. Thirty-five. How long could one man talk for?
'Let's pray.'
Phew, nearly there.
Five minutes later he sat down; I leapt up and dashed to the kitchen. By this time I'm convinced that not only have I rotted my teeth by prolonged exposure to sugar but they're probably black as well.

I spat the sweet into a piece of paper and threw it in the bin. Heinke wanted to speak to me but I rudely said, 'No wait! Let me get a drink of water.'

And as for what subject the speaker was talking about, I don't have a clue.

It rounded off the morning nicely. Chris had been telling everyone about the community cafe we'd run during the summer and how I must have scared people off as I didn't get any customers on my days. He finished up by saying, 'No, I shouldn't make fun of her. She, um, well, Liz tries.'

He might as well have added, 'Bless.'

2 comments:

JARED said...

Ha, ha! Got you Liz! I'm so sorry i should have explained. It was a classic aniseed sore throat and cough sweet.

click the link:

http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.sweetstall.com/acatalog/Jakemans-Throat-Sweets.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.sweetstall.com/acatalog/Throat___Chest_Sweets.html&usg=__U-vRo33VJ3sXfJCDU7IruDl262U=&h=188&w=250&sz=17&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=0IcW2MBtYhtlKM:&tbnh=135&tbnw=167&prev=/images%3Fq%3Djakemans%2Bthroat%2Bsweet%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26rlz%3D1R2GGLL_en%26biw%3D1003%26bih%3D563%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=rc&dur=221&ei=8c2MTLuFPI_QjAf_lKGWBg&oei=7M2MTMLwAszMswbs2-DUAQ&esq=2&page=1&ndsp=14&ved=1t:429,r:5,s:0&tx=113&ty=66

I think there's an important lesson for life to be learned from this...

Liz Hinds said...

There is indeed, Jared! But what it is is a mystery!