Mikado Biscuit Colours

Anyone who grew up in Ireland knows Mikado biscuits or Jam Mallows. They are not my favourite or anything, I don't search them out in the 'ethnic' section of Tesco's, but the colours are memorable, the very same as these flower petals.

So, there I was in Stratford Park, having sat down to eat my lunch on the steps of the deserted bandstand. All too soon I was soon joined by a family of two adults and three toddlers, who ran and span round and round the wooden floor, laughing, and chanting,

"Dizzy dizzy dizzy house!"

I could tell without looking that at least one of them was about to fall over.

Initially, I was irked, till I remembered a scene with my sister, Kate, when we were about six and seven, sharing a bath at my grandparents' house. We had a game: when the bath plug was pulled, we had to lie in the bath, droning

"Morton's fruit pie filliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiing"

until the tub was completely empty.

The choice of words was random: we'd got it from an advert in my granny's Family Circle magazine. If it had been a few years later, at the height of the oil boom, when she'd become a Nationalist, our chant might have been,

"It's Scotland's oiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiil".

No matter! One night we were lying droning in the bath as usual, when our grandfather came storming up the stairs, apoplectic, and barked at us to be quiet. Seemingly the sound had carried downstairs, and was not to his liking.

To this day I have never droned in the bath again. Neither on the bagpipes, nor vocally. My grandfather's ashes can rest safely halfway up 'his' mountain. He scared the child-me so much with his sudden outbursts and rapid mood changes, but then I was a deeply annoying child!

All that is by the by. I was in the park, trying to get the pink flowers to stay still in the wind so that I could blip them, because I needed to be at the adjacent College, later, for an interview. Somewhat to my disappointment, I decided not to do the course I'd come to see about, but I was advised to look into employment in functional skills or ESOL. So, it wasn't a complete waste of time. Nothing ever is.