Chocolate bus

I've always been really good at making my lunch at home and bringing it to work, but sometimes it's handy having a supply of food and coffee that's just a stone's throw away. At other times ... well, there are alternately victors and casualties in the battle of 3.30-itis. Most days, it's just fine and I can be distracted by a brisk walk around the block. But sometimes chocolate biscuits in the kitchen scream out my name and won't be silenced by an apple or emergency chicken noodle Cup a Soup. Strange, that.

Years ago, I used to work opposite a large supermarket. It was very handy in an emergency but a bit too convenient when 3.30-itis struck. On one of 'those' days, a colleague went across the road to the supermarket and bought some chocolate. It got demolished quickly by the team and everyone was temporarily contented by a mid-afternoon concentrated shot of fat and sugar. Ahhh. A few days later, someone else bought chocolate and passed it around. And then someone else did.

We called it the chocolate bus. It would leave mid-afternoon and bring back little treats and surprises. With everyone in a team of 8-10 taking turns, you'd only need to buy chocolate once every few weeks but could enjoy it a pick-me-up whenever you needed it most. That's what we told ourselves. We deserved it. A tiny bit every now and then couldn't hurt.

The chocolate bus started leaving daily. And then it started leaving earlier each day. We had to impose a rule on the chocolate bus: in future, it would only be allowed to leave after 3 pm. Otherwise, we'd need to start a wine wagon when the next wave of malaise hit around 5 pm and it would all be downhill from there.

Yesterday was one of 'those' days for almost everyone I know: drab, dreary and with very little energy. Today, we had a chocolate relay with a bar of Whittaker's White Raspberry. The chocolate baton was passed around everyone in the office and was not allowed to rest on a desk. I don't know who started or finished it but was reminded of the chocolate bus. Perhaps the chocolate relay could be a new tradition? No, it's a very slippery slope. Anyway, sometimes there are yummy leftovers from catered meetings and there's always emergency soup, right?