nothing if not honest

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So at the end of week one of 100% sugar-free… can you guess where this is going?

I got through the whole week without so much as a dried apricot. Zero fructose. There was baking, there were Bikkies, there was the gift of a family sized box of Maltesers in my pantry – and I held on. 

We went to the Rural Fire Service Christmas party (Adam is a volunteer) on Saturday night and I didn't eat so much as a cherry. Dedicated to my sugar-free fortnight I was. 

Until last night. Our street party. (Although 'street' is a loose description for this winding dairy-farming lane!) And my undoing was one lovely neighbour's incredible-looking lemon meringue pie and another's cherry pie. What a cherry pie it was. I was no match for either. 

As I gratefully and deliberately licked my spoon (can't talk right now, sorry, on a sugar high), I pondered the joy of sugar.

I thought about how, when you have them rarely, a handful of peanut M&Ms can seriously feel like magic beans.

I thought about the joy of a really very good cheesecake, baked of course, always shared, usually with friends who take their cheesecake as seriously as I do – we wave our forks at each other and groan in delight.

I thought about standing at my beloved friend Anna's funeral, we weren't yet thirty, and I looked at the big chocolate cake on the table (ordered by her Mum), and I remembered all the cake we shared over many years. Orange and poppyseed or chocolate mud, late at night in our favourite cafe on Glebe Point Rd throughout the chaos of university. I looked at that chocolate cake and was so glad we weren't dieters. 

So I'm sorry. I didn't follow through to the second week of sugar free. In fact, I could be almost certain there'll be sugar in our Slice of Wednesday.

Because just a little bit really makes life sweeter. And life's short. Say yes to the Lemon Meringue. And if someone goes to all the trouble of going all the way out to Young to get cherries, you know their cherry pie will be something special. 

*waving fork at you and groaning happily*

Enjoy. I intend to.

xxx

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