Friday 25 May 2012

Sweet Delayed Gratification

Let's go back in time a little. The year is nineteen ninety something.

The Rebel Sis and I are in the car most probably, on our way home from a birthday party. In our hot little hands, we both clutch our own respective party bags; carefully surveying the booty within the flimsy plastic sacks. The Rebel Sis reaches in and pulls out one of the sweets in it's brightly coloured wrapping.

"Wicked!"* she says and rips the wrapper off, before shoving the sugary treat in her mouth. This pattern continues for a while - she chews, gulps and slurps her way through the entirety of her party bag in less than half an hour, including the delightfully squished cake in the bottom.

She turns to me, still licking the icing off her fingers. "Aren't you going to eat yours now?"

I clutch my bag closer to me with all the anxiety suitable to the elderly young pensioner I was always meant to be.

"No."

She looks at me, perplexed. "Why not?"

"I don't want to!"

"If you're not going to eat it, you may as well give it to me." She stretches out her hand. Since this proposal makes less sense to me than most things, I respond only by cutting my eyes at her and kissing my teeth in irritation.

My dad turns around: "Whose hissing?!" I shrink into the chair, while the Rebel Sis gleefully takes the opportunity to dob me in.

That one party bag could last me up to a month. The cake would have to be eaten pretty soon, to avoid it going stale. On days when I felt like it, I would take one of the sweets to school, as a status booster in the lunch hall. On down days, I'd escape and either run my fingers over the wrapping paper, break one open and savour every. single. bite. I prolonged the heck out of the satisfaction most kid's normally get from party bags (though I had to hide mine, since the Rebel Sis would literally just take it if she found it).
I genuinely didn't understand why the Rebel Sis would want to have it all at once - how could she possibly enjoy it?

Today, the picture hasn't changed much. I'm an obsessive saver still. The way I see it, the dreams I can achieve by putting towards the future are far bigger that what I can do with what I have right now.


Why have something puny today when tomorrow I can get something magnificent?


The Rebel Sis does not agree with this sentiment. Her first Christmas back home after uni, she returned with the announcement that she had bought an Xbox360, as well as a plethora of games to play on it (between 12-20 games in total). My eyes boggled. "Where'd you get the money for that?"
She shrugged. "My overdraft."
"How are you going to pay it back!?"
She gave me a bemused look. "I'll just sell it when I don't need it any more."
But she bought it new. So the price she'll be able to sell it for will be depreciated from the price she bought it for. Which means she won't cover her costs.
Which means that....that...

*sigh*
That I should keep my nose well out of my sister's financial business.

* Look, I've already mentioned it was the nineties, all right?

No comments:

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comment! It will make my day :)