Hi Everyone, I have this monologue with myself each Saturday that I go to the market:
“You have the list right? No deviating from it (the list) today. And when you come home you’re not spending all day in the kitchen. Cook lunch and be out of the kitchen by midday the latest. No experimenting today either.”
One can have good intentions can’t they? But then again my friends who are my taste-testers might not agree. Some of them have the audacity to contact me on Fridays to ask if I am going to the market in the morning (Saturday). They know what uptakes. This past Saturday was no different.
Armed with my list I set about to get my vegetables and ground provisions. I was doing well, keeping steadfast to the list, until I got a whiff of guavas. “I’m smelling guavas,” I said more to myself than anyone else but I think the woman next to me heard me and pointed me in the direction of the guavas. It was in the lane just above the one I was in and as luck would have it, it was my friend Joel Searle and his mom’s stall. You know, it is a bad thing when other people know your areas of weakness, they can take advantage; they can coerce, cajole and contrive to tempt you.
I stood in front of the stall staring at the guavas piled high in front of me. I inhaled deeply. As I inhaled I closed my eyes and said in my mind, “You don’t need the guavas Cynthia. Remember what we talked about at home? You already have guavas frozen. Why are you going to buy more guavas?” I opened my eyes and saw Joel’s outstretched hand offering me a plastic bag in which to put the guavas; the most mischievous
