IT ARRIVED!!!

Well, it has been proven true that good things come to them that wait. I have been waiting 3 months for a package from my secret blog exhange buddy Impossible Jane!!!

Now, don’t you go getting hard on Jane because I have had to wait. I have not been waiting on her… no, I have been at the mercy of the US Postal Service and their surface mail services… enough said..

So, having got to the point of despairing altogether (becuase this is the 2nd package I have been anticipating from American Shores that hasn’t been apparent, the other a ‘this fish’ t-shirt has never arrived, though it as ‘been sent’ twice) the furthest thing from my mind on arriving to work today was an email from the receptionist saying “There’s a package from America here for you”

Baby, I ain’t never moved so fast…

Here it is…

And before you wonder why it looks all dusty and brown… Let me say I also wondered… I thought it might have got mistakenly sent on a cargo ship to Iraq or… that it had been infiltrated with some kind of fumigant from Australian Customs…

But no, on closer inspection the dust was hmmm…. fragrant…

like… Chocolate… mmmmmm chocolate….

This was because the contents of the box included all the fixings for a great hot choc (Hershey’s cocoa powder and marshmallows) and sadly a very pointed item had pierced the box, and the cocoa jar, and thus the cocoa had spread abroad… In a trail from Rhode Island to Sydney…

All is not lost… The contents were in fine condition underneath their chocolate coatings… and included:

Cadbury Fruit and Nut (the only) Chocolate… the American kind, which is different from the Australian kind, which is different from the NZ kind (my favourite) and was very tasty and a valuable cultural experiment in the differences between the same product in different places and which has mysteriously disappeared… I suspect ‘the boss’ Ed..

Whoppers – Hmmmmm more chocolate and never before tasted… 3 boxes!! Yay!!! I can see I shall have to take security measures to ensure the same chocolate thief doesn’t find them and nick off wiv ’em too.

Picture Postcards of Providence, Rhode Island. Even the name is gorgeous!

Butter Popcorn!!! Will have to hide that from Flick… she is a demon for popcorn and if she found out it was from America it would be like fighting off the Tazzie Devil to keep it from her…

As mentioned… hot chocolate fixin’s… Bring it on… just in time for winter!!! Can’t wait to see how many of the ickle tiny marshmallows fit in my mug…

Finally two RI specialities… Mayor’s own Marianra Sauce… which I will be serving with gnocchi for dinner tonight… (The bottle came with it’s label amended to include prison bars … I believe there is a story behind that which I am hoping Jane will put in the comments so we can all hear about it!!!)

and a pack of Kenyons Old Fashioned Cornbread and Muffin mix. Now, this is the piece de resistance as far as I am concerned…. good old fashioned American Cornbread is ONE OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS!!! Jane, how did you know??????

Can’t wait to try it out… I haven’t found anything like the real thing since I came back to the Antipodes in 1991!!!

So, thanks a bundle Ms Impossible… The package was TOTALLY worth the wait!!!