CHOCOLATES FROM THE EIGHTIES

It's raining today, so I'm not going anywhere for lunch. Looks like I'm going to have to wait for the coffee van to turn up.

Thinking about the Milk Tray Man yesterday got me thinking about other television adverts from the 1980s - it seems like quite the golden age to me; although I do confess that I watched a lot more TV back then, when there was much less of it.

There was the lady who ate chocolate in the bath. I think we were being told that Flakes were smooth, elegant and luxuriously relaxing. She'd slip out of her silk nightdress (it was all tastefully done), lower herself into one of those cast iron baths in the middle of a darkened room, and then the next thing you knew she was snapping a Flake perfectly between her teeth.

How in the world did she do that? Flakes are almost designed to disintegrate into tiny shards of chocolate as soon as you open the packet! The bath seems like the last place you'd want to try eating one of those things!

And what about the Milky Bar Kid? I never understood how sending an albino child in a cowboy hat, into a gunfight, would improve the situation. He was an unlikely hero for sure, with his little round glasses and a holster full of chocolates. And while I can't find any evidence for it, I'm almost certain that the Milky Bar adverts were somehow 'endorsed by dentists'. I bet they weren't.

Then there are the classics. You don't have to go far before you find someone my age who knows all the words to 'The Red Car and The Blue Car Had a Race' or goes misty-eyed whenever they think of Um Bongo (they drink it in the Congo).

It's a wonder people in their thirties have any of their teeth left.

The rain is coursing down the glass and splashing off the outside window ledge. I'm glad I'm not out there. Sir Ranulph Fiennes once said, 'There's no such thing as bad weather, only inappropriate clothing,' which is one way of reminding us who's in charge.

Unfortunately, I came to work without an umbrella this morning so I'm beseiged by the downpour thanks to my inappropriate preparation.

Oh and I haven't had any lunch and I'm day dreaming about chocolates from the 1980s.