Toffee Pops

It's funny the small things you take for granted. Pre-car purchase, I was doing my food shopping when either my flatmate or a colleague named Andrew, who I jokingly referred to as my chauffeur during my first few weeks at the school, were stopping by the supermarket. It's an easy process to pick up a few things when you know which aisle to look in and you know what you are looking for. For me it was completely bewildering to try to pick up enough to eat for a few days in completely foreign territory in 10-15 minutes. Sure the packaging is in English, but I hardly know any of the brands. I would say that less than 10% of the products in the supermarket are familar to me.

One night I went to the supermarket with Andrew (my chaffeur) and his flatmate Kyle. Clearly my bewilderment was slowing me down. They had checked out and put their purchases in the car and rather than telling me to hurry up, they offered to help me out. So I would name an item (say hand soap or mustard) and they would go off and find me their favourite of that product. It became quite a fun game. Kyle's eyes practically popped out of his head with excitement when he asked me if I had tried Toffee Pops and I said no. He knew he was going to be the one to introduce me to one of New Zealand's tastiest treats... biscuits covered in toffee caramel and then coated in milk chocolate. Really. It was a given that Kyle would make an addict out of me.