LOL!
You sneaky minx.
OK, so there we were, driving back from an outskirts-of-London 'attraction' (Syon Park), and knowing that DS will be too tired to eat a wholesome tea by the time we get home. And I might be too tired to prepare one. And DP takes too long.
I suggest to DP that we stop somewhere and eat - Pizza express in Sheen, say, as DS loves the Fiorentina, and I enjoy the leftovers. DP mentally tots up the huge aount we have spent at Syon Park (entry to Tropical World, 4 pots of fish-food,£13-75, entry to Butterfly Park - DS stayed less than 10 mins, 'too hot', 10-75, entry to 'Snakes and Ladders' soft play - stayed 20 mins because I couldn't stand it, £4-50, entrance to 'stately gardens' - lovely, £3-75, £12-40 on one ploughmans lunch and one horrible cornish pasty plus drinks for us all to share, £89 on one nest of coffee tabnles reduced in the Cotswold Company shop, but worth it because we are currently using DS's foully-stained Ikea children's table) and says - NO.
He then broached the possibility of McD. I say - NO.
DS says he would like to go to McD, and the words 'Drive-Thru' appear as if by magic before us, in Brentford.
Navigating the menu took some doing, for a novice, in these days of 'push the healthy option'. No big hanging banners proclaiming 'happy-grease-and-salt-for toddlers' with a pic of Ronald McD. So I asked if they did Happy Meals. The assistant looked at me as if I was green with a little arial sticking out of my head.
Wha' sor' a sandwich?
Er, a cheeseburger, please.
Wha' sor' a drink?
Er, what can we have?
Anyfink. Fruit Shoot, pepsi, juice...
Juice, please.
While she was getting it, I saw the 'happy meal' panel on the menu and was amused to see that she hadn't even thought to ask 'fries or carrot sticks'.
As DS waslked back across the car park, proudly clutching his box, was impressed no end that we could have a small bottle of tropicana juice as part of a £1-99 meal, and DS was very pleased with his toy, a godsend as we crept along the S Circular. By the outskirts of Putney, Ds was saying 'I shouldn't have wanted this, it's making me choke', but this turned out to be nothing more than a crisis with a slice of gerkin.
DS also asked if it was 'vegetarigen' - he has been vegetarigen since last week, in line with a school friend, and I'm afraid we have been lying to him. He also asked 'is McD capitalist' because DP has been indoctrinating him while shopping in Bernardos and Traid for clothes.
I was impressed with the price, the Tropicana, DS was impressed with the toy, but not mad keen on the burger...and probably won't beg to go back as a treat, and now that i hear the spelling of Drive_thru has been corrected in Haringey, my lingering aftertaste about that is fading.
So, a reasonably non-eventual non-event in the life of a middle-class family with more faddy scruples than money.
£600 a column, anyone??