Mrs Overall and the Missing Tuna

I had a sudden thought about how much I miss prawns since becoming vegetarian. This is because when Andy and I have a lunch out at our favourite lunch-time snackery, I usually have a jacket potato with prawns or a baguette with prawns. Andy doesn't like prawns; he maintains they are disgusting creatures who hang around sewage outlets far too much to make them safe and decent foodstuff. It never bothered me, having suffered no obvious ill-effects after eating prawns.

And what brought this thought was that on the way home from the Harry Edwards Healing Sanctuary, we stopped off in this little village at a tea-shop which was attached to what appeared to be the post office/ general stores/ purveyor of shrimping nets. And we ordered jacket potatoes. Our order was taken by someone who, both in looks and manner, reminded me of Mrs Overall from Acorn Antiques. I ordered jacket potato with cheese and coleslaw, Andy ordered his potato with cheese and tuna mayonnaise. As Mrs Overall's doppelganger exited with our order, we both instintively knew we were in for a bit of a wait, but that was okay because we both had books with us.

Anyway, our lunches duly arrived. My cheese and coleslaw, and Andy's cheese and tuna mayo...only without the tuna. And with what looked like half a jumbo jar of mayo plonked on top.
'Didn't you want tuna?' I said.
'I did,' said Andy, probing the heap of mayo in case the tuna was hiding somewhere beneath.
Neither of us had the energy to recall Mrs Overall and go through the rigamarole of enquiring after the missing tuna.
'I expect in the kitchen there is a little pot of tuna sitting forlornly, waiting for its mayo, and when Mrs Overall clears up at closing time, she'll find it and wonder what on earth it's doing there,' I said.
'Perhaps she misheard what I wanted,' said Andy. 'Cheese 'n'tuna mayo,' he experimented.
'Well, 'cheese' and 'tuna' have similar sounds,' I said. 'Especially with your accent, you northern weirdo.'
'Eastenders cockney bird,' said Andy.

And we partook of a bit of North/South divide witty banter. My how we laughed! We are so entertaining!

So when I went shopping yesterday, I bought some tuna so Andy can have a proper jacket potato with cheese'n'tuna mayo at home. I draw the line at dressing up like Mrs Overall though.

Right, I've got to go and do some writing now. I am being nagged. 'Stop faffing with the blog,' I am being told. 'Get on with your proper writing.'
'But I like writing my blog,' I say.
'But it's utter drivel,' I am hearing.
'That might well be, but it's my drivel and I like it,' I say.'Besides, Martine McCutcheon wrote a load of drivel and SHE got published.'
'Will you let go of the Martine McCutcheon thing?' they say. 'And you know full well she only got published because she is famous.'

I sigh. They're right of course. For us ordinary writing mortals, who slave away at honing the tiny glimmer of talent we believe we have inside us (in that bizarre delusional way us writing types have), we just have to get on with it without the leg-up of fame, or wealth, or being the friend of a sister-in-law's uncle who knows someone in the publishing trade.

Oh happy co-incidence, where art thou? Oh come to me, the grief-stricken servant of the elusive muse, and change my fortunes, why don't you????

'I'm over here behind the tuna,' says the Happy Co-incidence.