Benjamin Eisenstadt first came up with the idea of packing sugar into small disposable packets. Apparently, one day, while having tea with his wife at a cafeteria, this idea came to him, as he became annoyed at the idea of the sugar dispenser’s hole getting clogged up. Sadly, he never patented his idea, and it was soon picked up on by bigger companies, and the story did not end in sweet oblivion for the poor man. I guess there is a lesson in this for all of us.

Huletts Sugar at some point decided to print quotes onto their sugar sachets. So dedicated are they to spread philosophy, that their website tells me that they have a Top 9 famous quotes. In the number one position: One should only see a psychiatrist out of boredom. In position number 5? Where there is an entrance, there’s got to be an exit. Most things work that way.  Now that is a good one to remember as you circle the parking tower at an airport, trying to follow exit signs. Position number 9 offers: Caves are whimsical things, and geology on a local scale is random and unpredictable. Yeah, right. Not sure what I am going to do with this one. I am sure at some point the knowledge will come in handy. You never know. I may find myself trapped in a cave one day.

So, what brought me onto the conversation of sugar sachet philosophy? It was a conversation we had with friends this past Sunday. These are the friends who did the reverse of what we had done. They built their house, and moved down to it, whereas we moved here to build. There is a lot of sense in both decisions. While the Ladies were enjoying their glasses of cold wine, the Boys were discussing building techniques and how best to build. When to take short cuts and when not. The Ladies topped up their glasses and the Boys moved onto their next building topics. Chief Builder A advised Chief Builder B that any short cuts or savings you are tempted to make now, you will regret in a few years’ time. The Ladies topped up their glasses and the Boys decided to do things right.

But this conversation reminded me of my personal favourite Hulett Sugar quote. It is a quote by Mark Twain, and it goes like this:

“…you won’t regret the things you did. You’ll regret the things you didn’t do…”

Somehow, of all the sugar sachets I have torn open in my life, this is the one that stuck with me. I think the memory is aided by the fact that I was doing something at the time that I feared I may regret, but clearly this sugared philosophy gave me the courage to persevere. Looking back, I would regret today had I not done what I did back then. No, sorry. There will be no sharing. Some things are better left unsaid. But it was a very important bit of life experience that contributed to me being who I am today. And one that I treasure.

But back to sugar. I do not know if this one ever made it onto a sugar sachet: A wise woman puts a grain of sugar into everything she says to a man and takes a grain of salt with everything he says to her., but I rather like it. There is also: Everybody’s got their poison, and mine is sugar.

Oh, and mine is sugar. I have discovered a lady in Kleinmond that bakes the best koeksisters. Now, a koeksister – for those cousins who speak foreign, is a traditional South African confectionery made of a plait of dough, that is deep fried and once cooked, this hot tidbit is dunked into icy cold sugar syrup. I have done my fair share to help this lady become famous. I seem to be calling on her far too often lately, to collect koeksisters for all sorts of people. She bakes for a shop in Kleinmond, but I now bypass the middleman, and go straight to the source. Which is bad news for me. On my first trip, I would eat one koeksister on the way home. On the second trip, I worked my way up to two. You get the gist, and as with my dirty little secret that I do not regret, this too will become my little secret. I suppose I can justify my actions by saying that I am practicing setting a Guinness World Record, of: How many koeksisters can you eat in one trip? Perhaps, going forward, I should drive with the box in the car boot. I somehow doubt that I will be tempted to stop the car every kilometer.

But seriously. Occasionally while building on our mountain, doubt sets in. Or anxiety gets out of hand. Or you second guess your decisions. It is very difficult to remain levelheaded when taking on a project like this. But God always has a plan. This week end His plan was for us to have an impromptu visit with our friends. And while the Ladies sipped glasses of cold wine, the Boys were discussing the merits of doing this right and having fewer regrets later. By that time, the Ladies had gained some wisdom from all the wine and had a few ideas of their own to add. Which is why, right now, Colin is trying to figure out how to fit a bath into a space that was not meant to have a bath. He will find a way to do it.

Unless he wants me to remind him every so often that he will regret not putting one in.

No pressure. Just saying.