Orange marmalade

I hated marmalade when I was a kid. Jam I loved. But that strange icky stuff with texture (orange peel) just tasted and felt wrong. The thing that I hated the most was that orange peel; it had a strong flavour that didn't appeal.

I mostly have memories of my second wife that I'd rather not have but I did take at least two positive things away from that failed experiment in optimism; the first was an introduction to wine, the second an introduction to marmalade. The wine you all know about; indeed I probably overdo the enthusiasm for it.

In February 1988 Peta and I had just started sharing a house with Claire. Totally platonic you understand. Uh huh. That was the month and the day that Pink Floyd came to Melbourne for their second tour in Australia (Saturday Feb 13, 1988) and I was there. Great concert. I've written about that concert before.

When I got home Claire had gone to bed but Peta was still up; we shared a cask (box) of red wine. At the time I hadn't the taste for red wine; it went down rather like Listerine but Peta was an interesting person and...

So one thing led to another and we became drinking pals. And I got quite the taste for the red wine. Late on Thursday Feb 25th 1988 we sat down to drink wine and listen to Philip Glass. Time passed and wine was drunk and early the next morning we set off for a jog around Brunswick, Melbourne. I was a dozen years older than Peta but I was damned if I was going to let a little thing like that slow me down.

And so I paced her. I have no idea how I survived that experience but I did. When we got home I wanted to fall exhausted into bed but she wanted breakfast. Which I cooked. Bacon and poached eggs on toast. And then she took out her jar of Orange Marmalade and spread it on a piece of my toast. It was delicious.

On February 26th we kissed for the first time. And on the 6th anniversary of that kiss we were married. On the 7th anniversary plus 9 days the marriage ended. You're going to have to wait until February 26 2006 for the rest of the story.