Wispa is back!

For those of us who lived in the North East of England in 1981 and can remember their first Wispa chocolate bar, they should also be proud of the fact that Cadbury released a trial version here two years before the rest of the UK got a look in. It was the ultimate melt in your mouth chocolate experience. On weekend birding trips to the coast, me and a mate would cycle the 18 mile round trip from Newcastle to Seaton Sluice. After tramping round the rock pools by St.Mary's Island at Whitley Bay and checking for bird corpses on the high tide mark and beneath the web of wires at the radio telecommunications station(don't ask!), we would settle down at the appointed hour for a spot of lunch. Huddled on the cliff edge at Seaton Sluice overlooking the sea or peering out at a raft of Tufted Duck and Pochards through the open shutters of a bird hide we carefully surveyed the contents of our motherly prepared packed lunch. Flat soggy sarnies, scotch eggs and HP sauce, ribena cartons, apples, crisps and a selection of chocolate bars. After the usual jokes about the compressed cheese and tomato sandwiches we would crack open a Mars bar, orange or mint club biscuit or a Cadbury's Wispa which had to be melted in the mouth and never never ever chewed! Now the Wispa is back my senses are primed and out on willing receptive stalks, so standing at the counter buying my chocolate feels like that tangible rush I felt when I first read Roald Dahl's 'Charlie and the chocolate factory', the bit when Charlie Bucket bought his Wonka bar and slowly peeled back the wrapper to see if he had won one of the prized golden tickets. Like so many people I can't believe it ever went away! As a footnote, it was as I was uploading an image of Charlie and his golden ticket that I noticed that to his left and behind him is a magazine on display called 'Bird Watching'. I know this because I used to buy the same magazine every month. Freaky!!