Saturday 20 June 2015

Shopping without glasses

Half of me thinks I shouldn’t really be eating cereal for breakfast. Sugars and starches trigger your fat-storing hormones and, geez, hasn’t life got enough problems already without that?    

But there is, on the other hand, more to living than the constant losing battle against the bulge. For one thing, carbs eaten sensibly (whole grains, I mean, not white sugar) keep me cheerful and help stave off the Black Dog. And then there’s that other matter – wheat bran helping to, as it were, smooth the way of the otherwise stony path.

So I do eat cereal for breakfast; but we are not talking pop-tarts. I have a bowl with two kinds of cereal in: the sort that has bran flakes with dried fruit and dried coconut (similar, for intestinal purposes, to eating steel wool); and the other sort that old ladies buy. Do you have it in the States? Here it is sold as All Bran:



Well, on Friday, Hebe and I went to get the groceries as usual, diverging and converging on our hunter-gathering expedition round the supermarket, and I went into the cereal aisle and picked up a box of All Bran.

This morning I opened it for breakfast.

You know that story from John’s gospel, how Jesus went to the wedding at Cana-in-Galilee, and changed the water into wine? Well, I thought he must have been interfering with my All Bran in the night. Because – oh, glory hallelujah! – when I opened it, I realised this was chocolate cereal! Oh, man – I love chocolate cereal! I never buy it because it’s sugary and isn’t good for you.

I’d bought this:



I’m going shopping without my glasses again!


14 comments:

Suze said...

I am glad for your happy mistake. Enjoy the treat. The whole post made me smile and I thought your descripton of the need for fibre was pure elegance.

rebecca said...

Smiling. For so MANY reasons :)
Enjoy!

Sandra Ann said...

Hilarious!!! Packet opened to the strains of the Hallelujah Chorus!!

Pen Wilcock said...

:0D

(That was a big smiley Pilgrim posted, not actually two question marks!)

xx

Elizabeth @ The Garden Window said...

That is truly serendipitous!

Julie B. said...

We do have Kellogg's All Bran here, but I've never seen the chocolate kind! Hmmmm.... xoxox

Michelle-ozark crafter said...

Maybe you should do without those glasses!

Pen Wilcock said...

Well, Julie B, when you come to England . . .

xx

Michelle, I like that suggestion! A shopping basket full of surprises :0) xx

LANA said...

Haha, many a great discovery was made by mistake!

Emj said...

Just borrowed the first three books of the Hawk and the Dove from the library! A friend told me about this and I cd not get them at the local bookshop. Am so enjoying them and just got on to your blog! Hahaaa enjoy the cereal!!

Pen Wilcock said...

Hi friend. I'm so glad you're enjoying the stories. You won't find them in bookshops unless you order them, but you can get them online. I buy mine from Amazon, but if you object to Amazon there are various other online sources. xx

LANA said...

Have already read 3 of your books and enjoyed them very much. For some reason my comments never seem to go through but I just wanted you to know I am still reading your blog. Blessings to you. You are always an inspiration.

MaryR said...

Hi, I've just found your blog, as I found your trilogy, The Hawk and the Dove last year and gobbled them up. I was so moved by them, and fell in love with Peregrine. You made him so loveable, despite his irascibility. I wanted him to go on forever. then a couple of months ago I discovered there were more to this series and now have the next three, alas without Peregrine. I'm halfway through The Hardest Thing to Do, and am discovering new depths to John, now the Abbott. It will be interesting to see where Tom and William end up. As well as being moved by your writing, I find it very demanding of me, requiring I examine my motives, lean on God more and try to love as He does. Oh, I am so glad I found you and your work. Thank you so much for writing as you do. You did say to add my email address but not sure if you really meant that. God bless you.

Pen Wilcock said...

Hiya - thanks for writing - I'm so glad you've found the books helpful! Right now I'm working on vol. 9.

Sending your email address is if you want to be in private communication and don't want your comment posted. Sometimes people want to tell me about their lives, private details they wouldn't disclose online. With an email address I can write back privately.

Thanks for getting in touch. So far this year I've been writing (books) pretty much flat out, so haven't been blogging so much - but we do get into some interesting conversations here. Good to meet you. x