As a kid I’m sure I thought the phrase was

Red sky at night fisherman loves angel delight.

Red sky in the morning the angel delight has gone.

I’ve not had Angel Delight since a time when my parents thought it was cool to dress up the youngest child in a brown cardigan and Joe 90 glasses. Joe 90 is really showing my age. Just in case your not 945 years old:

Angel Delight is a powdered dessert which depending on the stirring technique either had the texture of liquid silk or cheap lumpy wallpaper paste.

Joe 90 was a ten year old super brain of a kid – a Gerry Anderson creation

I thought it would a good idea to let son try a bit of Angel Delight

What on earth is this

Strawberry Angel Delight

Is it supposed to be lumpy

Not really. But you don’t have to eat the lumpy bits.

No Dad, just No.

So yet another parenting disaster. Even the dog showed no interest in the potential for leftovers. I suppose the aim was never to get son hooked on all those E numbers. It was more distraction. Distraction from the previous days meltdown and from the upcoming anniversaries. His grannies leaving us anniversary is in a couple of days closely followed by his mums anniversary. Sandwiched between the two is a return to school. Yikes.

I am reminded of Angel Delight by a recurring memory of my partner making herself a milky rice pudding most nights. It’s often the little things which produce the most vivid memories. The glass bowl she made the puddings in has remained unused since she left us. It’s kept in exactly the same place on the worktop – it is occasionally dusted down. I could probably do with a good dusting down these days.

This afternoon we are taking the distractions to a whole new level. The biggest bottle of sugary coke and a bag of mentos. Wish us luck as we try to split the atom…..

63 thoughts on “Distraction”

      1. You mix up your angel delight or instant whip with half the suggested liquid and before it goes thick, pour it over vanilla ice cream. You can liquidise it if you like, but it’s nicer to use a spoon!

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      3. Years ago you could buy Nesquik, a milkshake powder. I don’t know if it’s still available, but when I tried it, it tasted of plastic packaging and chalk, hence my experiment with instant whip. The butterscotch is nice by the way!

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  4. Talk about old… I had to Google the Mentos and Coke thing😕 I remember Pop Rocks and Coke (also an excellent Green Day song😉) but I missed this newest weird Coke thing.
    Thanks for giving me a great idea to help Ben make a Mess that doesn’t involve things getting broken (hopefully🤞).
    HUGS!💌

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  5. Wasn’t a thing growing up in the 50s. Did we even have Mentos? I remember getting a buzz on with coke and aspirins, but they changed something in the formula. It stopped working after awhile. So it goes…

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  7. You should of gone with the butterscotch. You are right about the little things though, those tiny details are what makes the people we love who they are so they are what we remember and what often triggers the grief. X

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      3. Yes he probably suspended the right to choose angel delight flavours at the cash and carry and then told the world he knew strawberry was what all the people really wanted….

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  10. No.1 Tip! If you intend recording the Coke/Mentos distraction make sure you point it AWAY from the camera!!!

    (Tip No.2: Don’t wear decent clothes you want to wear again later!! 🙂 )

    Get really creative (and by creative i mean ridiculously silly) with those distractions over the next few weeks – i have confidence in you! 😉

    Really nice Sunset photo by the way! 🙂

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  12. Ah yes I tried to introduce my kids to Angel Delight too. Did not go down well and mine wasn’t even lumpy! I used to have it every day when I got home from school. I think I’ll buy some for myself. Been having trouble eating solid food an am subsisting on Ready Brek and babyfood so Angel Delight in similar vein and adds variety.

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  14. My 11yo daughter has offered to visit you land bake you some concotions. Also dogs of all kind, especially mad dogs, are in love with her. Let me know when you are available to receive her.

    Ha

    😉😂

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      3. It was – one of them was an active ingredient of Agent Orange, the defoliant the US sprayed on Vietnam during the war, for example. There were others which were pretty awful, too. Lots have been proved to be carcinogenic, and I’m pretty certain that was known at the time.

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  17. Butterscotch Angel Delight was the best! Better than chocolate! And we all remember that time the cat broke into the fridge (yes, BROKE INTO THE FRIDGE) and stole the bowlful that was setting for our pudding.

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  18. Just read a joke by Dylan Moran ( Black Books):

    “You know it’s a sad day when your kid looks at what you cooked and asks: Daddy, is this Organic?”

    “Organic?? I grew up on Angel Delight – we didn’t have anyting in the house that wasn’t Neon!!” 😉

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  19. Over the years I’ve discovered that there are some phrases my family use that are not northern-irish-isms, scottish-isms or any other kind of widely known “ism”. They are exclusive to my father and uncle – this reminded me of one of dad’s, told when seeing a red sky on the morning school run:

    “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight,
    Red Sky in the morning, Shepherd’s house is on fire.”

    Irreverent, I think, is the best descriptor for the two of them. Thanks for the morning giggle and reminder, and I hope the mentos and diet coke trick worked great! Mythbusters did a segment on what makes the reaction if that might interest your son – could probably find it on Youtube.

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