Tsokolate

It's 6:07 in the morning in South Australia, with the mercury down at 6'C. The poultry sheds were empty because all the chickens had gone to the dressing plant a day earlier at dawn; so even if it's still dark and foggy outside he's nothing to worry about. It's a three-day late autumn holiday for the chook-minder!

Inside the farm house, he was sitting in front of his computer to check his email’s inbox, to reply to the offline messages and to read the new comments on his blog.

The wood-burning fireplace just beside him had been working overnight so he was enjoying the comfort while, at the same time, warming up his tummy with hot chocolate.

He took a sip of the hot beverage, and the tempting aroma of the roasted cocoa beans seemed to have stimulated his sleepy brain cells faster than the choco-drink itself because suddenly, his thoughts began to wander around the mysteries behind the ‘chocolate’!

He became envious of the chocolate’s virtue of compatibility. While he, the poor chook-minder, had been struggling for almost three decades to find the right place and the right person for him in this world, the chocolate had been enjoying its harmony with almost everything since its discovery!

'Chocolate goes well with milk, with vanilla, with sugar, with flour, with cereals, with cream, with nuts, with fruits, with liquor, even with coffee and almost everything,' he thought! 'It’s an all-around flavouring— cake and pastries, dips, ice creams, spread... It can be consumed as a drink; it can be eaten as a food. It tastes good when it’s hot, while it is equally great when it’s cold! Chocolate can even transform itself into solid, liquid or gas depending on its environment or its exposure to various challenges of temperature without losing its lovely properties and safety of consumption.'

'Chocolate has three types and blends!' the chook-minder remembered. 'There’s dark chocolate, milk chocolate and white chocolate. Chocolate comes in different colours, flavours, forms and textures; and these wonderful attributes have brought immeasurable excitement to its taste,' he believed! 'It has never been hated; they’re even restricted for health reasons because every second a lot of people around the globe are craving for chocolates.'

IT'S HALF-PAST EIGHT in the morning now, and after posting an entry about chocolates on his blog, the chook-minder realized that he hadn’t consumed his hot chocolate, yet. His drink had been gradually getting warm inside the mug so he decided to take it, all the way down, before it turns into a cool drink.

It’s 11.4’C outside, and amidst the misty atmosphere, a dull sunray had already started penetrating the window glass and gleamed through the vertical Venetian blinds behind him. The heat radiating from the flaming coals in the fireplace had started to bother him so he was thinking to extinguish it. He left his keyboard and moved towards the burning hollow at the corner of his room... hoping that before the day ends, he could find that sense of ‘compatibility’ he’s been longing for...

...forgetting the fact that dozens of red roses are very much compatible with boxes of Chocolates, too!

There's a substance known as theobromine which is found in chocolates. While theobromine was once used in the treatment of several heart diseases (hypertension, arteriosclerosis, angina pectoris, etc) and as a vasodilator, diuretic and heart stimulant in modern medicine, in veterinary medicine this alkaloid is toxic to horses, dogs, cats, and parrots (a close relative of chicken).

So, avoid giving chocolates to your pets!

Sources: Wikipedia and The Merck Veterinary Manual