Best ice cream ever

On the Thursday of our Canberra holiday, I woke up very early with a burning sore throat. It felt hot and scratchy and hollow and hurt like I’d swallowed razor blades. I’m sure you guys have all felt like that at one time or another, when it hurts to swallow. I felt dreadful. But I was thinking of two words: ice cream.

“What can I do to help?” Jac asked, stroking my hair. “Can I get you anything?”
“Yes please,” I croaked. “Can you order me room service ice cream?”

Yes, YES…ice cream! Ice cream, ICE CREAM was all I could think about. Ice cream never sounded so good at 6.20am. Cold, cold ice cream to cool and coat my hot, sore throat.

ICE CREAM!

I got into the shower hoping that a few minutes under the hot water would help make me feel a bit better.

I heard Jac on the phone: “Yes, I’d like to order a bowl of ice cream please… Yes, just a bowl of vanilla ice cream. Yep, that’s all. Thanks.”

She told me: “They said it’ll be here in 20 minutes.”

I sat in bed, freshly showered in my fleecy white hotel bathrobe and waited for my ice cream.

I was thrilled and impressed when almost exactly 20 minutes later, the ice cream arrived. Three scoops of vanilla ice cream presented in a tuille basket with toasted flaked almonds. Thank you, Hyatt Hotel Canberra!

Room service vanilla bean ice cream

Maybe it was just because I was feeling so sorry for myself and the ice cream was so cooling and soothing to my hot painful throat – and I was sitting in bed in my comfy hotel bathrobe eating it – but this tasted to me like the best ice cream ever!

It was very good quality ice cream – rich and smooth, creamy in texture and colour, dotted with black specks of real vanilla. I’m sure its magnificence was due to high butterfat content… bad, beautiful butterfat. I broke off little pieces of the crispy biscuit basket and dipped them into the ice cream. The tuille felt almost imperceptibly warm on my fingertips – was I imagining that or had it been freshly baked? I was comforted, intrigued and awed at the same time.

Vanilla bean ice cream

I started to feel better as I ate the ice cream. I felt much less miserable after I’d finished it all. It was such delicious ice cream that I wanted share it with Jac – but I didn’t want to share my germs too!

Seeing as I had paid for the conference and to come all the way to Canberra to attend, there was no way I was going to miss it.

After I finished the ice cream, we decided to go to the breakfast buffet as we’d originally planned – Jac was starting to feel hungry! (Yes, there will be a hotel breakfast buffet post!) And after breakfast, before we parted company for the day – me off to the conference, Jac off to Parliament House – we stopped by a little shop at the hotel that sold souvenirs, knick-knacks and emergency supplies to buy me some lozenges/cough drops.

I had to laugh at the hotel shopkeeper. He saw me looking at a pack of souvenir fridge magnets in the form of Australian dollar notes, smaller than real money.
Shopkeeper: Those aren’t real money. They’re magnets.
TFP: Um, thanks…I know.
At this point I will also add that the label on the pack said: “Australian Money Magnets”. I’m sure I didn’t look my best, but I didn’t think that would make me appear illiterate! :P

By morning tea-time I had developed a blocked AND runny nose to go with my sore throat. But I would not let illness stop me from getting a lot out of my conference! I was determined not to let it stop me from enjoying the rest of my holiday – and more importantly, I didn’t want it to spoil Jac’s holiday. We still had lots of eating plans and I intended to follow them through.

I don’t mind admitting – and my friends already know this very well – I am not an optimist by nature. But later, I said to Jac: “I feel crook, but at least it’s not tummy or toilet-related illness.” Really, I felt very lucky – thank goodness it was just a cold and sore throat!

Your best ever ice cream moments… and getting sick while on holiday

I’d love to hear about your best ever ice cream moments… or your terrible tales about getting sick while on holiday… feel free to share.

Canberra trip, November 2010

See the full list of posts from our Canberra trip, November 2010 in correct reading order.

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