Ritter no more?

Why are these lovely chocolates disappearing from London shops? Suddenly I realised that most of the places that I knew that sell them are no longer doing it - that includes a local shop which had the most amazing variety. Life is definitely NOT fair.

The Perfect Quote

All I really need is love, but a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt!

Lucy van Pelt (Peanuts by Charles Schultz)

I found this today online, along with some variations. I couldn't resist posting it, especially as I am reading a collection of Peanuts comics. If I loved Lucy before, I do even more now.


I would love to find the actual strip this appears, but I doubt that it will happen soon: the strip ran for nearly 50 years (end of 1950 till February 2000) and "The Complete Peanuts" collections published so far only cover the first 20 years.

47 hours in Chocolateland

Just came back from 47 hours in Chocolateland, known to the rest of the world as Brussels. In 47 hours I managed to spend quality with dear friends, buy chocolate, go to an exhibition on the Smurfs' 50th anniversary, get overly nostalgic about them (my favourites when I was young), decide to buy some of the books, proceed to buy four of the books (and in doing so go through most bookshops in Central Chocolateland as this seemed to be nearly sold out, although did get it in the end) plus this (which I hope my French allows me to understand), buy more chocolates (these being a very special treat), read one of the books, decide I wanted more and proceed to buy three more.

Not much sight seeing this time, except for the odd art nouveau building, but hey!, seven smurfs' books, plus Fabrice Tarrin's newest, plus the latest from Dupuis collected Fraquin's Spirou et Fantasio is not too bad for such a short of time. As an added extra, the imense pleasure of leaving some of my worries behind...

With many many thanks to V and G for their hospitality, company, patience, sharing of memories and V's fantastic friendly sholder.

Views from Chocolateland