A tight call between penance and tiny passages of pleasure

Overhearing conversations in cafes and pubs can turn into a little hobby and even at the risk of being accused of being a nosy parker, we don’t want to spend our lives either with ear muffs or headphones stuck in our ears.

Most of chats slip into the category of trinkets of trivia and the other day, a couple of mature males were in a little bit of ‘a spot’ – not because their partners had decided to up sticks and leave them but because they couldn’t get Time Out bars anymore: Cadburys have decided to stop making them.

Bars of all sorts, whether they be chocolate, caramel or wafer have all been dear to our hearts at one stage and many moons ago, there was always a flush of excitement if an aunt or uncle left a gift of a shilling or two to spend at the local shop.

I’m probably giving my age away when I admit that I can recall ‘Trigger’ bars being sold for about three pence (old money 3d) which were wrapped in a foil of deep blue shiny paper which when torn asunder revealed a chocolate coat seam of toffee. They were a real step-up from the old penny bars.

Now we all know of course that chocolate bars need to be kept in their place and that they shouldn’t feature on the main courses for breakfast, dinner of supper but in their place they do give us (well me anyway), a real minute or two of pure pleasure.

There was a moment of sadness among a couple of family members just before the year end when news broke that ‘Animal Bars’ were to be discontinued by Nestle after being first produced back in 1963.

‘Animal Bars’, as might be expected from their name, had the shape of two animals moulded onto them.

Pictured: One of life's simple pleasures!