Drunks and ice cream

I just had a craving for good ice cream. Luckily for us, there is a very good ice cream shop in Balmain - about a 10 minute drive from here at this time of night. Being a long weekend, I reckoned that there was only a slim chance it would be open, but what the hell else am I going to do at 9.30pm on a Monday night that is any more useful?

The trip was half a waste of time. The place I wanted to go to was shut, but a restaurant just up the road was still open, and it had an ice cream display out the front. I have been to that particular place once before - and never been back. But it was try their ice cream of starve.

Their selection was terrible compared to the place I wanted to be open - seven flavours vs about 30. I also didn't like the look of the way the bloke was struggling to scoop it out. That often means it is too cold. He even had trouble with the tiramasu flavoured stuff, and that is half biscuit.

The other shocker is that I had to pay $10 for two small tubs of ice cream. You know when you buy Thai takeaway and you ask for a small rice, and it comes in a small circular container? Well, think of something about half that size, or less. Two of them cost $10.

I occasionally make ice cream at home. Not exactly proper ice cream - more a frozen creamy ice confection. I can't remember what it's called - some wop name. Even if I throw in lashings of berries, double cream and a vanilla pod, I can make about 6 times that amount for $10. And it tastes better, and has a superior mouth feel.

The icecream was gritty, like it was full of sand, which is usually a sign that it has been frozen and thawed and frozen again, as ice crystals have been able to form in it. I was no very impressed.

I was so unimpressed, I have failed to have seconds. It is now October, and that is the first time this year I have not had seconds. Bad, bad sign.

The other thing about my short journey to Balmain and back was the number of drivers that appeared to be drunk. Most were completely incapable of remaining in their chosen lane. Now I know the roads around here are rough, and cars get bounced around a bit, but they don't get bounced halfway into my lane as I am trying to get past someone that is doing 30 in a 60 zone and weaving from side to side. They were everywhere. It was like the Christmas Island crab migration - all these cars going sideways everywhere one looked.

I never thought that going out for ice cream could be so perilous.