Fiction.Chocolate. Sinfully Superb

Chocolate, Sinfully Superb
Some people dream of drowning in a vat of whiskey, my fantasy is slowly slipping away while being smothered in creamy milk chocolate, hoping to be able to swallow just a few more litres of this heavenly delight before passing away.
Now chocolate comes in big slabs, small blocks, mini bites, wonderful flavours of milk, dark and white, who cares, it’s got to be good for you. Many people consume tonnes of this delicacy in their lifetime; including your truly. My preference is the milk variety with a side dish of white and lots of it.
I have been told dark chocolate is very good for you having lots of anti oxidants, again who cares, the mere mention of that nine letter word sends me into a maniacally frenzy, drooling at the mouth, that first bite sometimes sends me into a chocoholic climax which can last through the entire block. I do know my limitations, never buy a huge slab, it gets devoured in record time down to licking out the last crumbs in the tinfoil wrap.
That’s just the choky blocks, next comes the boxes of carefully itemized delights of all shapes and tastes, one needs to read the different flavours, study the ingredients, alas an urgent frenzy takes over and not too long the whole box is devoured. Among my favourite brands are Cadburys Roses, and any liqueur filled morsels, and a definite lean towards imported treasures such as Ferro Roche from Belgium and I just can’t resist the Swiss Lindts individually wrapped varieties.
That’s just the beginning of what can be done with the seed of the Cacao tropical tree, a native of South America where it was first domesticated and highly prized by the Aztecs. It has been extensively cultivated in the old world since the Spanish conquest. The fruit is a pod containing a sweetish pulp in which are embedded rows of seeds, the harvested pods are fermented by naturally occurring bacteria and yeast to eliminate their bitter, astringent quality. The seeds are then cured and roasted, the clean kernels, called cocoa are manufactured into various products. Their large percentage of fat, removed by pressure, (trust me, it is non-fattening) this is called cocoa butter, used in soaps and cosmetics. Another interesting bit of history, Cocoa beans were used as currency in pre-Columbian civilizations, between 80-100 beans would buy you a new cloth mantle.
Now we have that all confirmed, lets move onto the next use of this product to die for. Cakes of all styles, chocolate Log, Black forest and shortcake, a large selection of biscuits, plain and cream filled. Chocolate icing always adds that final touch to sponges and cup cakes. Another of my favourites, (wish I was a good cook) Chocolate Éclairs, yum!
Moving through the chocolate ranks you must not forget the old favourites drinks like Cocoa and Drinking Chocolate, and the mouth watering Whiskey based home made Irish Cream Liquor, very smooth on the palate but with the kick of a mule if over indulged, the family recipe has been passed down to me.
Now that seems to cover a lot of ground, so lets all take a minutes silence and dream of our favourite combination, plus deciding which is the closest shop to make our hysterical dash . I think I have gathered a kilo or two just writing this short document on my favourite pastime. Now where did I put those Eclairs?
Word Count. 580.

Non-fiction. Army life, the way it was

Army Life, the way it was!
Compulsory Military Training or C.M.T as it was referred to back in 1953 was for all eighteen-year-old males who passed a medical examination.
My turn had arrived and I soon found myself lining up for my uniform at the Papakura Military Camp in New Zealand along with hundreds of others in the same age group, we were about to change our lives taking part in some vigorous physical training and discipline. Most of us came from country towns and were very quiet and a bit shy away from the comforts of family living and like me I still hadn’t learnt a lot about worldly things outside the small community I was brought up in,
As we were informed, this the 11th intake of C.M.T, we were to be doing four weeks of basic training at Papakura, then six weeks of selective training, maybe in other camps around the country. Our uniform was strictly army style, two sizes, too big or too small, somehow I must have been among the average and most of my kit fitted. It consisted of a heavy dress uniform, plus what was called a lemon squeezer hat which had to carefully moulded into four creases coming up to a peek, two sets of fatigue uniforms for training and a set of lighter dress clothes for bull ring marches and rifle drill, plus heavy boots that took ages to break in.
The camps had been set up for world war two training before the troops went to war so everything was still there, huts that held about forty soldiers in two sections with our Sergeant in charge residing in a private room in the middle. There was a stretcher bed and bedding, a small side cupboard, which was for our personal items. We were instructed on how our beds were to be made, extra mess duties if they weren’t done to perfection. Not a speck of dust or dirt was to be found on the floors, the windows shining, all army clothes folded a special way and neatly put in the cupboard, shoes and brass buttons polished.
There was a huge mess room for meals, a roster for duties making the meals, dishing them up and doing the dishes. The quality was very good, as most of us had been used to plain wholesome food. The latrines and showers were not what you would call very private, taking a shower with many others took a while to get used to and overcome shyness. Every day there were new rules to obey but our hut 11 boys soon became good friends and helped each other overcome this new way of living.
The early morning wakeup call, I think it was 5.30 or 6.00am, took a while to adjust to as our young bodies were very tired with aching muscles every day from hours of exercise and marching. After the morning oblussions and breakfast, the early rally in the bullring seem to go on forever as our Sergeant needed perfection or else we stayed till he got it. Learning to take abuse from a corporal shouting into your face certainly made me feel like giving him an uppercut to the jaw but as the weeks rolled by you learned to handle the abuse and try and perfect what was required.
Our 303 rifles proved to be very heavy after an hour or so of training but as we all became stronger, so did the rifles become lighter.
The month of basic training went very slow and our brains had a lot to remember as everything needed many hours of repetitive work and towards the end we were able to look back and pride ourselves in learning this entirely new way of life in such a short time.
One particular march of twenty miles in full kit proved a painful experience, developing blisters, I was soon limping along wondering how I was going to last the distance, finally I took my boots off and finished in bare feet, very pleased with myself after noticing many stronger soldiers were giving up.
In that month I was able to go home twice to see my family, the other weekends I was on kitchen duty but were able to go into the Papakura town in the evenings, but hotels were strictly out of bounds as the age limit was still 21 years, of course our uniforms gave us away and we were refused entry.
The passing out parade was colourful and I can recall our hut 11 were awarded some merit for being well run and tidy, not that it meant a lot, an extra few shillings in our pay packet would have been nice.
Now was the time to tell us all where we were going for the next six weeks of selective training, somehow I was put into Army Service Core or A.S.C at it was referred to, this meant I was to become a driver of a huge G.M.C. truck and other smaller ones, I only had to move to hut 12 next door, not sent south where as winter was approaching it would be bitterly cold on manoeuvres and root marches.
After settling in, making new friends, I found life was a little easier, the sergeants and corporals who blasted us for a month actually became human and started teaching us in more detail the finer points of warfare training.
One morning several of our names were called and we were to report to the transport department for training in driving, we were each aloud to drive a smaller truck around the yard and told where different working parts were, after an hour were told to gather at a certain point to go for our licence, “what!” I thought, “I can’t drive that truck!” Somehow we started off down the road with the first soldier to be tested, lot’s of kangaroo jumping and grating of gears, I think we were more scared on the back of the lorry than the driver. My turn finally arrived, tough on me as we were approaching the town, more traffic and confusing signs, just my luck I was close to a round-about, I had never seen one before I came to town, my instructor told me to turn right at the round-about, I did! , Around the right side of it, I thought he was having a heart attack, he screamed at me to stop and reverse, then I was told to get out of the drivers seat. Back at the camp we were told to assemble and wait for results, they were duly read out and to my amazement my name was called as passing my test, the instructor saw the surprised look on my face and quickly made the remark, “ Yes Fitzthum, I don’t want to risk my life again with you”. Now that’s how I got my heavy trade licence. The instructor did tell me later that he thought my reversing was very good?
One weekend some of us on day leave only put together money and allotted one
person to catch a bus to Henderson, a town on the other side of Auckland city, go to a winery and purchase eight ½ gallon jars of sherry and bring them back for a party that night, he arrived next afternoon with only four jars, he looked terrible and was suffering from a huge hangover, it had been a hard job covering up for him so he wasn’t booked for being Awol.The remainder of the sherry was very good but made most of us sick, just as well we never had the lot.
Now six weeks had passed quite fast, I was actually enjoying this new life and quite proud that I had built up some muscle, made lots of friends, learned much about the army trucks, rifles, (never call them guns) discipline and knowing how to react to orders. All this made me a much more mature person, bringing out some hidden qualities I never new I had
Our passing out parade was a huge family gathering, I felt very proud and pleased that my parents had made the journey and I watched them, knowing they were very proud of their quiet boy who had finally became a man, the lecture on the way home was all about staying on the straight and narrow and how to treat ladies, etc.
I was put on the reserve list for the army. which meant three weekend training a year and a three-week camp once a year for three years. After the first year we were aloud to apply for discharge, I did enjoy these training sessions, especially the camp but it was time to get serious about my future and start to save some money so I could fulfil a dream of owning my own little business so I applied for and received my discharge from C.M.T but stayed on the reserve list for a further ten years, Luckily I was never called up for military service overseas but was prepared to accept it if called.
I think this compulsory training was sadly stopped at the 23rd intake; it was a valuable part of my maturing and certainly would help other generations to do the same.

Fiction. Boyhood dreams

Boyhood Dramas
James and John were next-door neighbours, only children of business parents. This meant they were left alone for many hours and had to entertain themselves while their folks worked long hours.
Having known each other most of their young lives, plus there were no other twelve year old children to play with, the two boys
Spent many hours together with their computer games, ipod music and many other gadgets their parents had bought them to make up for the minimum time they could spend with them,
It was a Wednesday morning of the first week of school holidays; James arrived at John’s house.
“John, are you out of bed yet?”
“Sure” says John. “I’m just feeding the cat and dog, come in”
“What about we bike over to the dam, we can take our fishing rods and togs with us”
“Sounds like a good idea, gets lonely around the house, I’m sick of computer games”
“I’ll go home and put some food in my backpack, see you in half an hour”
The boys cycled off through the track in the bush and twenty minutes later were enjoying a rest in the shade of a huge Casuarinas tree on the banks of the dam.
“We had better get fishing before this bait goes rotten”
The lines were baited and cast into their favourite spot but so far the fish were not interested. It was a good time to discuss their many gadgets and computer games, also the new blonde chick who had just started in their school before term break. Each boy argued that Mary-Lou had given them the glad eye; maybe she will become their friend. It was a warm day and both boys were bored, as there were no bights, they soon fell asleep.

“Lets have a swim, I’m sweating and there’s no fish”

‘Okay James, I’m first in”
“You’re a cheat, you have your togs on under your clothes”
“Smart Eh! Come on, I’ll race you to the old log”
Old Charlie, who lived in a shack beside the dam came running to the shore full of excitement, waving his arms and jumping up and down.
“ Boys, come here quick, there is something very strange just around the corner among the trees”.
James and John had known the old man all their life and he had taught them to fish, showing them his own special spots where the big ones were.
“What’s up, Charlie, you look like you’ve seen a ghost”
“Just follow me very quietly, we don’t want to disturb him”
“What are you talking about?”
“Come quick”
As they rounded the corner, there in a clearing was the strangest of objects, it was about the size of mini bus, round very shiny silver and stood about two mitres off the ground on three sturdy legs.
“Wow” Said James. “ I’ve always dreamed of seeing a real space ship”
“Just be careful, it may be those smart Jones brothers with one of their silly pranks”
An opening appeared on the side of the craft a ladder slowly made it’s way to the ground, then a man in strange clothes started down the steps. The boys backed off a bit but old Charlie stood his ground, he also thought it was someone trying to frighten them.
The stranger stood tall and erect, brushing off his silver suit he stared at the three, and then he smiled.
“Don’t be scared, I have come in peace, my name is Amos and I have travelled through time from a far away Galaxy. There are three more just like me inside our craft, we would like to speak to you about your planet and want to learn some more about how it operates”
The three other men appeared and joined their leader; they were identical in looks and dress.
James was the first to speak, being full of curiosity; he was amazed that they looked like some of the warriors in a war game he had got for his birthday.
“Why do you all look the same”?
Amos introduced his travelling companions as his brothers.
“We have the power to take on any image we want to and have done a lot of study on the inhabitants of your planet and decided we would look too different coming here in our own image. Also we have learned your language which is very simple for us”
“ What do you really look like?” John said, realising they were quite harmless.
All of a sudden a mist appeared and when it cleared there were four strange looking creatures in front of them. They had one large eye in the middle of a huge head which had scales on it and resembled a reptile, a small mouth and no ears, their orange bodies was very rounded and had four arms and two legs and a short curly tail.
The two boys and Charlie stood back and were starting to get scared at the horrible sight, another mist spread over them, when it cleared the four aliens were back looking like humans again.
“How do you manage to change your looks like that?” said James.
Amos replied.
“Our planet is millions of light years ahead of you. Our bodies never die we can create what you humans call magic to just about anything you could think of”.
James thought, we could rule the earth in a matter of minutes.
Amos could read his mind, but decided to let him dream a little longer.
“I have some questions to ask you”
“Anything that you like, we think you are really neat, especially when you take on a human look”
“We are interested in how the larger countries of earth have rulers that are always causing unrest among their people, interfering in other countries affairs and sending soldiers to sort out their problems and usually make things worse”
Old Charlie thought he should try and answer the questions as the boys were still young and would not know much about these affairs.
“The world of ours has been fighting for centuries, mostly over greed and fame, some countries fight about religion, others about what wealth they can get from each other”
Although James and John didn’t know a lot about the politics of the world, John did remember hearing his parents talking about it with friends. He said
“There are many horrible things happening to people, us kids are worried about what will happen to us when we grow up”
Amos and his friends talked among themselves for a while, and then spoke about how their planet works.
“We don’t understand why your world should fight as ours are all born equal, we don’t need anything more as we already have it”
Old Charlie answered many more questions, and then asked them why they decided to come and visit us.
“Because we have learned about all these horrible things that happen here in our history and have been sent here for answers, now I think we have a lot of them and we can go home and try and make our brothers understand, I’m sorry but we have a better life than you”
James asked Amos.
“How can you speak our language, do you know what is going to happen to us?”
“Our people speak every language in the universe, we also know what will happen to you but our laws wont allow us to tell anyone”
Old Charlie had another question
“Are you staying here for a while, maybe we can answer any more questions you need to know”
“We have made many landings on your planet over the last few weeks and will be quite happy to go home now to our lovely life, it has been very nice talking to you all, now it is time to go, thank you for being our friends, goodbye”
The aliens were soon back in their craft, pulled up the steps and closed the door, with a very quiet whirling noise they lifted of and were soon just a speck in the sky.
Old Charlie spoke first.
“I think we should keep this our secret, no one will believe us and they will say we are mad.
“Wake up you two, I’m sure you have each caught a fish “
James said.
“What happened, are we alone here”?
Old Charles looked at him and thought he was still dreaming.
John said.
“Yeh, what happened, where are those strange men?”
The boys discussed the dreams with Charlie who was amazed they had the same dream, in every detail.
“How can we have the same dream?”
“Maybe you were both dreaming of a certain young girl, I think one of you called out Mary-Lou”
“That’s weird, I’m sure I wont be telling anyone, will you keep this our secret, Charlie”.
Sure will, come with me now, I’ve got something to show you both. Around the next corner there was a clearing like someone had flattened it with a heavy roller. The two boys stared in amazement; James went over to take a closer look. He saw something shining and picked it up.
“What a neat looking button, it has some strange markings on it

Word Count. 1539