beautiful monsters

Allsorts

We bought 1.5kg of liquorice allsorts tonight. My flatmate and I were walking past the Newtown New World and there was a guy sitting on the footpath with a box full of packets of liquorice allsorts. We were running to get out of the rain, so we didn’t take much notice, but once we got inside we were overcome by liquorice cravings. When we came out of the supermarket the man was leaving. “How much?” Kara called out to him, and he stopped. “Whatever you want.” “Two dollars,” Kara said. “Ok, two dollars. You can have two packets for two dollars.” So we gave him the money. “Here, have another one too. It’s a gift.” And then he hurried away down the street. In the car we examined the packets carefully. They didn’t seem to have been tampered with. They didn’t seem to be past the best by date. In fact, they didn’t seem to have a best by date. They looked ok. And they tasted remarkably like liquorice allsorts. But where he got them from? So odd.

We picked up our Chinese takeaways and raced home in time for the arrival of the baby – who was overdue in the end anyway. Yup, I have a baby tonight. A nine-month-old baby, who is unbearably cute. *Deep breath.* It’s only chemicals, I don’t have to listen to them. And having a real one of your own is not the same as borrowing someone else’s for a night... why won’t my hormones listen to reason, damn it? Even two hours of screaming baby didn’t cure me! Turns out the little one is a great pianist (though she doesn’t have a very big reach yet). And she likes Denis Glover, Beethoven, and Hirini Melbourne. And I think she has my eyes...