Void.

Void.

I remember when my stepdad went to the hospital three times a week, he was on a dialysis machine. I remember, a paper towel, container was fitted in our bathroom, and Mum had to buy a large clock and have it fitted to the wall, with a second hand. We all had to wash our hands for two minutes, when we came into the house, to keep him safe.

Mum had the most difficult of tasks, she had to weigh his meat, it was a tiny amount. Sam was not allowed any salt and could have lots of vegetables. He was allowed to go out for a meal, once a year. Whenever we came home with fish n chips, he was not allowed to have any! As salt and vinegar, if we didn’t have any put on in the chippy, then he could have some, but we always had salt n vinegar put on in the shop. We would feel guilty, eating it in front of him. It wasn’t a nice time, for him or for us.

Mum did her part, to the letter. Sam however would cheat, and when he went to the hospital, he would sometimes be ill, because he would sneak food that he knew he should not have had. The hospital would sometimes blame Mum, but Sam would confess!

I remembered two things, that he went through, one was this thing they put on his wrist, I think it was, or on the back of his hand, it looked like stitches, but when we touched it, it buzzed! The second thing was worse, he came home, one day from the hospital, and there was a very big thing sticking out of the side of his neck, poor Sam, that was when he was very ill.

A few days ago, in the reduced section, of my superstore, I saw a blast from the past, it is not something that I would ever buy now, but I thought as it is reduced to 54p I decided to buy them, it was a bag of crisps 6 in the pack, the one where you have to add the salt inside it, and shake! I don’t know if it was a different company that did it when I were young, or the same company. I expected to see a small blue packet inside, but it was clear, and difficult to find. I couldn’t wait to try it and the nostalgic feeling it would give me. I opened the seemly very tiny bag of salt and closed the bag and I gave it a shake, to get the salt all around the crisps.

It didn’t seem to coat it all, and I was left wanting more salt. In a world now where strong flavours are the norm, this did not deliver! It would do, when I had nothing else and wanted something.

The first bag I tried, I suppose I would give it, 8 out of 10. Tonight I fancied a bag before I went to bed, I looked for the clear tiny pack of salt, opened it, and tried to get it all out, and gave the bag a shake, it was ready, but I wasn’t ready for the very weak taste, I thought, how do they stay in business? When there are SO many other fantastic crisps on the market? To be fair to me, I don’t add salt to anything, only chips when I am outside the house, because I can control that salt intake, as a ‘good’ thing, in my eyes.

When I had these crisps tonight, I was too disappointed, they did nothing for me, at all. In fact, tonight I gave them, 1 out of 10.

Because they were so horrible I thought of my stepdad, these crisps were void of taste, they would have been perfect for him, if he were still alive.

So maybe, it is people on dialysis, or who have high blood pressure, that keep this company going.

Somebody must be eating them.

RIP Sam.