He doesn't have a gun, he only has an ice-cream

I haven't blogged in ages - I haven't had my laptop in ages, it's been in for repair. A few weeks ago, the laptop died and I decided that my fan was clogged up and that was the problem. Nothing would do me but go to Mullingar to buy a can of compressed air. An easy task, you may say - not so. I did every bloody shop in the town before I finally found a place that sold it (as it turned out, the fan wasn't the problem, it was a buggered hard drive), but we were all starving by the end of the air-search.

We stopped in a Drive-Thru Supermacs on the way home (I have a serious bone to pick there too, but more on that in a minute), and there were some soldiers in having food. My little boy found this extremely interesting.

Son: "Mammy, why are those men dressed up as soldiers?"
Me: "They're not dressed up as soldiers, they ARE soldiers."
Son: "How could they be soldiers?"
Me: "Um... Because they are."
Son: "But sure there's no such thing as soldiers in real life!"
Me: "Yes there are, but we don't fight wars here."
Son: "Then why are there soldiers if they don't fight?"
Me: "Eh... because they do other stuff, like protect money and banks and stuff."
Son: "Oh, right."

That seemed to keep him happy enough, until the group of men got up to leave, and ordered some ice-creams to take away with them. As my son watched them leave, he piped up again:

Son: "Yeah, they're definitely not really soldiers."
Me [sigh]: "Why?"
Son [pointing to one]: "Sure he doesn't even have a gun, he only has an ice-cream."

Imagine: Two sides at war, ready for battle - then one lad pulls out a Cornetto. Epic.

Back to the bone I had to pick with Supermacs (and all fast-food outlets, for that matter). I don't go to fast-food places unless it's a situation like this one was, where I'm absolutely bloody starving and I won't be home for ages. I think they're overpriced with over-salted mass-produced crap food. But anyway - we ended up in one that day. There were signs up both outside and inside, showing a big portion of yummy-looking Taco chips, with juicy mince and big, chunky golden fries, and were advertised at €1.99 a portion. Himself & me decided that they'd do us until later, so we ordered one portion each. My son is going through a drumstick phase, so he had two chicken drumsticks. The taco chips arrived - and were NOTHING like the ones in the picture. Ours had about two spoonfuls of dry mince, 15 chips (I counted) and an enormous heap of uncooked, unmelted grated cheddar heaped on the top.

The chips weren't even hot enough to melt the cheese. Now I realise that €1.99 isn't a whole pile of money, and I know - what were we expecting? Gourmet? But what we did get was an absolute joke and I won't ever be eating there again. Their advertisements are completely misleading and the food is anything but "tasty and tempting". However - I'm not one to judge, so if this is your idea of tasty food, then you can go to their website http://www.supermacs.ie/ and print out some money off or BOGOF vouchers for various items on their menu. See? Not a total bitch.