Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

RAB MCNEIL: I scream, you scream…the pleasure of a choc ice in the freezer

Post Thumbnail

HERE’S one of life’s little joys: you finish your dinner and are just thinking about putting a brew on when you remember – yay, yay and thrice yay, I bought ice cream today!

Tell you what: there’s nothing like a bit of pudding for raising the morale. I believe, too, that in getting the old salivary juices going, it helps the stomach digest the main course. It also takes away the taste of the latter which, with my cooking, is rarely pleasant.

Of course, we’re not supposed to have pudding now. It’s too unhealthily pleasurable. What I don’t understand is how people in the past were nearly all slim, yet they ate pudding with lunch and dinner. No meal was complete without it.

When we were bairns, the only reason for eating our main course – perhaps some horrible sliced meat – was to get to the pudding: in those days, often as not, tinned fruit and custard. My favourite, though, was stodgy sponge pudding and custard.

Rab McNeil.

Ooh, it was so warm and cosy! And it filled up all the corners, meaning you didn’t need anything else that evening. People forgoing pudding now often have something around 9pm, so it all works out equally in the end.

Actually, to be honest, we’d have pudding with dinner and something else around 9pm: “breakfast” cereal or toast. We knew how to eat in those days and yet never got fat.

Strictly speaking, ice cream is a probably a dessert rather than a pudding, but I care not a whit. I remember a girl in our old works canteen, who was as thin as a rake and used to have sponge pudding, custard and ice cream for her “afters”.

Recently, it’s just been ice cream for me. You can get all sorts nowadays, including non-dairy, though I tend to go for a straightforward choc ice.

One day last week, I’d such a happy time, topped off with ice cream. Friends were visiting from Glasgow. We went to the village pub, all socially distanced and being admitted only after having our heads examined (for temperature), and had such a laugh, mainly recalling jokes and characters from cartoons, which we all (three chaps and a lady) loved.

Laughing like a drain

When I got home, I put on my dinner and looked for a DVD to watch, opting for The Royle Family, which I’ve seen so many times but which, once again, made me laugh like a drain.

I’d had a day of laughing – and then I remembered about the ice cream. That really topped things off. I remember thinking: ‘Life doesn’t get much better than this.’

Of course, I don’t have ice cream all the time, usually undergoing a period of abstinence after one of those unfortunate occasions when I’ve eaten the whole packet in one go.

But that just means you can’t take it for granted. It’s something of a special treat, and probably needs a few days of going without, and thinking ‘Oh, how rotten – there’s no ice cream’, for you to appreciate the joy of a choc ice to put the tin lid on your dinner.

It’s 11:35 am as I write. There’s a choc ice in the freezer. I’m tempted to have it noo. But I’ll keep it for tonight – my little post-prandial delight.