You'll be wondering about the ladle ...

The story of the ladle has become legend in some circles, but there are those among you who have probably been looking at the photo of the ladle thinking I’ve lost the plot. Not so! Well, not entirely anyway.

This is the story of the ladle …*

Once upon a time, in a fictional land far far away, there lived a fictional Ginger. The Ginger was married to a wonderful man called The Husband, who she loved dearly, and who she would never, ever, ever tell fibs to about shopping. Ever.

Every day The Ginger used to go for a walk during her lunch break at work, and she would wander past a gorgeous little shop called Art de Vivre which stocked all sorts of beautiful things. Amongst the beautiful things that were for sale at Art de Vivre there was a fabulous range of kitchen utensils, in Provençale designs …cheese, bread and paring knives, jam spoons, salad servers, serving spoons, ladles …but they were hideously expensive.

The Ginger used to dream of having such beautiful utensils in her kitchen.

Then, one day, The Ginger went for a walk during her lunch break and discovered the true meaning of happiness. Art de Vivre was closing down (very sad!), but they were having a closing down sale (very happy!!), and everything was reduced. Everything. Including the beautiful kitchen utensils. In fact, the beautiful kitchen utensils were not only individually reduced, but if you bought 2 or more, they were reduced by even more! The Ginger was in heaven as she [dived headfirst into the utensil display in case someone else might get to the utensils before her] gracefully collected a ladle, and a couple of other things, and then happily skipped back to her office** (after paying for them of course).

After happily skipping back to the office, The Ginger was cheerfully tucking her receipt for the ladle into her diary when she noticed something. Something rather bad really. She had actually paid quite a lot for the ladle. Quite a lot. Forty-something dollars a lot.*** For a ladle. Forty-something dollars for a ladle which was 30% off to start with. Which means that the ladle was about $60.00 full price. That’s a rather pricey ladle by anyone’s standards.****

The Ginger realised that the ladle must have been mispriced on the stand. Woops. But, it was such a beautiful ladle, that The Ginger forgave it for being mispriced, and just hoped that The Husband wouldn’t look at the VISA bill that month (and although The Ginger hopes this every month, she especially hoped it this particular month).

That night, The Ginger had to wrestle The Husband to the ground because he was going to use the ladle for serving dinner. The Ginger explained to The Husband that he cannot ever use the beautiful ladle because it was [too bloody expensive to actually use] so beautiful, it must be used for display only.

And then something else happened.

The Husband, although somewhat baffled, after the tackling incident, told The Ginger that he really liked the ladle and thought he and The Ginger should have more of such beautiful things in the kitchen. He suggested that while the sale was on, The Ginger should go and get some more utensils. Like, one of each. The Husband’s enthusiasm might have been partly because The Ginger might possibly have suggested that she had paid a little bit less than she actually had for the ladle. Just a smidgeon though, of course.

Uh oh.

The Ginger had a dilemma. What was a Ginger to do? She had to either admit to the husband that [she had told him an enormous fib about how much the ladle cost] the ladle wasn’t actually quite so cheap as she might accidentally have led him to believe it was …and therefore get herself strangled to death and buried in the back garden. OR she could go and get the rest of the set of beautiful utensils and protect the husband from knowing the true extent of The Ginger’s woopsie, which he surely would prefer anyway.

It was a difficult decision, which the Ginger suffered over dreadfully. For five minutes.

The very next day The Ginger went and got the rest of the beautiful utensils ...which no one is allowed to use to this day ...and The Ginger and The Husband lived happily ever after.

Until about 5 minutes after I post this.



* Please note that the story of the ladle is entirely fabricated. There is not an ounce of truth in it. Honest!!

** The Ginger is hoping that The Husband has started laughing too hard at the thought of The Ginger happily skipping anywhere to enable him to continue reading.

*** In case The Husband isn’t laughing too hard at the thought of The Ginger happily skipping anywhere, The Ginger has written The Husband a short letter:

Dearest The Husband (who is the most wonderful man in the world),

I love you very very much, and you must remember that because this story is entirely fictional, the price of the ladle is entirely fictional also, and The Ginger would never have paid that much for a ladle. Or told fibs about it.

Love,
The Ginger

**** She didn't notice this earlier at the time of purchasing the ladle as she had bought a couple of things, and is completely crap at maths.