Bees and icecream

I have not been riding much lately on account of the flu. I thought I was mostly over it last week, so I went for a spin.

That didn't last long.

I could barely get up to a good pace on the flat, let alone climb hills. I was gargling snot, and felt as flat as a tack. No energy whatsoever.

So I went back to bed and slept for a week.

Today was different. I could breathe. I had energy, I could climb hills and I almost went fast on the flat bits. Hooray.

So much for riding. Almost.

I was riding towards a house that was being demolished. That's a common sight around here - all the pokey little post-war brick bungaloes are making way for big fuck-off mansions with a nine car garage. What was different about it was that three blokes were squatting around a smokey fire at the front of the block whilst the bulldozer did its work behind them.

That was a bit odd. At first, I thought they were working on some wiring or piping in a pit, but as I drew level with them, I saw that it was a plain old fire. Making lots of smoke. They weren't boiling a kettle, and it was a warm day. What was going on?

About one second later, I rode into a huge swarm of bees. I take it that the demolition work had disturbed a nest, and the bees had decamped for the road. It's times like this that make my investment in some proper cycling sunglasses all worthwhile - the little sods were plinking and plonking off the hard plastic, and I quickly closed my mouth and concentrated on breathing as little as possible through both nostrils.

Thankfully, the swarm only stretched for 50 yards or so - I was through it in a few seconds. It's a good thing I had slowed down to check out the demolition - otherwise, I would have plowed into the swarm at speed with my mouth wide open, and that could have spelled trouble. A few of them decided to stick to my jersey as hitch hikers, but that didn't last long. As soon as they worked out that I was not a large daisy, they let go and buzzed off somewhere else.

That were the bees.

Now to icecream.

I have been weighing all the icecream that we buy for some time now. The "premium" stuff that we get at the local supermarket weighs 880 grams for a 2 litre tub, and costs about $6.80. The "super premium" stuff weighs more and costs more. But I'm over most of it, due to the small range of flavours.

I tried one of our local gellato makers on the weekend - this being wog town, there are a few within a short drive. I bought 2 x 1 litre tubs containing 7 varieties for $17, and each tub weighed 885 grams. It's dense. It's solid. It's twice as dense (or contains half the air) of the premium supermarket stuff. And it's only an extra $2 per tub.

Tell me again - why do we buy so much cheap icecream in this country?