It`s chocolate week. Here are 3 big, fat chunks....

Chocolate. Want some? Call me.

Like it, as a business concept? I thought I'd throw it out there. With a couple more hand made, glisteningly chocolatey creations that I made earlier. Here's why:

Every time I mention my (incredible, patent pending) idea for a Chocolate Van; (*You dial; we deliver*....Lol...) I`m swamped with urgent appeals  to get the business on the road. Immediately, if the booty's in the boot; so to speak. It's usually fairly late in the evening when these Twitter conversations kick in, long after tea's been scoffed, and always after any children in the house have been tucked up in bed.

Sometimes the tweets are quite angry. Women (in the main....) tweeting IN CAPITAL LETTERS  that there's NO CHOCOLATE in their house; often demanding to know why. (You've eaten it, love. )

I used to think it was just a girl thing. All down to those ...... hormonal cravings. But men respond to the choc-tweeting too .(OK...Richard, mainly, wanting sherbet lemons.) They clearly love chocolate too...but the longing is nowhere near as intense. On the other hand, it's often the bloke (apparently)...who gets sent down to the petrol station when there`s a choccie craving in the house.

The need for chocolate can be desperate, and urgent. My friend Carol was driven to licking powder from a tin of hot chocolate mix. Sue ripped open a (wrapped) box of chocolates for her auntie which were under the Christmas tree. Then scoffed the top layer and half of the second before retiring to bed, nauseous. (Look ok, there's no Sue. It was me.)

This is often because even the `secret` chocolate in their hideaway places* has been greedily consumed.Now there`s nothing. Don`t pretend you don`t know what I mean by this*, by the way. I`m not eating chocolate at the moment, (really) but, should there be an in-flight emergency at any time, I know, entre nous, where I can find some: *Adopts air stewardess mode with that arm thingie going on...*

Here: (my desk, my drawer, my chocolate)

Here, in a kitchen cupboard.....

And even here; in the feckin` freezer:

Here`s the plan, then. I go to the wholesalers and get a shedload of the the regular stuff. .Mars Bars, Twirls, Toffee Crisps, Dairy Milk. Big slabs of the stuff. Not 'for sharing'. For `ourselves`. Then there'd be the `luxury` range. I`d have to do some deal with Julia of Toot Sweets in Shrewsbury, so that any `A` list clientele could partake of her chocolate covered honeycomb bars. Her salted caramels. Her mixed selections. (This is driving me stark raving bonkers, writing this. Julia, come in, please...over....)

And cakes. Home (not mine, obviously...) baked chocolate brownies with white-choc-chips in them. Party celebration numbers with deep, sweet, lavish layers and toppings of chocolate buttercream. Cookies... chunky chocolate biscuity traybakes....you like?

I`m forgetting the key issues here, like formulating a business plan. Pah. Let`s talk van colours...chocolate and cream..or `you know whose` purple? Or should I travel incognito--so that you could just pop out in your onesie and slippers, have a quick browse and get back in the house to eat the stuff?

Secret Shrewsbury: shop here and buy one.

And now...for a commercial break.

For two reasons: firstly because this is my blog and I can have one if I want to. And because sometimes, the little guys get forgotten.

So while you`re taking in Shrewsbury`s fabulous medieval past, and its connections with Dickens and Darwin, have a peek at its independent shops and businesses, too. There are lots of them scattered around the town; small bright links in the retail chain.

Just for starters: well, pretty much any of the stalls in Shrewsbury`s Indoor Market; flowers, fruit and veg, clothes and carpets, Chinese spices and champagne.

But first for a mention in Monday`s top four:

Julia Wenlock`s chocolates (@TootSweetsShrew).  I`m not kidding; her salted caramels are to die for. And big slabs of chocolate with honeycomb underneath or nuts on top. I mean...come on....

Secondly: coffee.There are so many really good, friendly places to stop in Shrewsbury now- you`re really spoilt for choice. But before you order your latte, the chicken and mustard salad at Alfie and Billy`s ( @alfieandbillys  ) on Wyle Cop is hard to beat. And they`re so friendly! Plus you can watch the world go by while you`re eating, and sneak a look over the road at the window display in Blushies. Then go there...

There`s a good selection of vintage and interiors shops--but some are hidden away. Just like Eddies. On the edge of  the shops in Longden Coleham; it`s great for a browse . I nearly didn`t stop the other day, but popped in and ended up with two sets of salad servers (one with mother of pearl handles, one set in wood and tortoiseshell; (£5.50 a pair! ) a gorgeous silk scarf, a vintage lace bag for a fiver and a couple of napkins to match a tablecloth I bought there a few months ago. A lot of beautiful things, for not very much money.

And I was just jumping back in the car to go home...and remembered the hanging baskets I bought last year from the plant shop just opposite Longden Coleham school. There are some out the front, or you can ask to go through to the back of the shop, where there`s a little yard full of bedding plants and baskets. I`d never seen this bit before, and was happy to buy from here, rather than one of the massive garden centres that take you half an hour to get round and queue.

So that`s it. No, I don`t spend all my time shopping, and I certainly haven`t got money to burn. But if there`s a smaller independent business worth shouting about, in Shrewsbury or any other part of Shropshire, allow me to shout; and maybe add your favourite, too?

Have a good day!

Chocolate:the final frontier...

I love it and I hate it. If I taste even the tiniest corner, I have to finish the whole damn slab. Yep, even if it`s a family sized stonker. The kind the health police have now told chocolate companies to label as *IDEAL FOR SHARING*.Get lost. Fat chance.

I did, however, once share an attic flat at the top of an old mansion in Chislehurst with a wonderful girl called Anita. Because a couple of the rooms were Toblerone shaped;chocolate (and men) were on our minds a lot of the time. Mine (chocolate bars...not blokes...) would arrive in a rush; the result of a quick dash to the garage and a sprint up three flights of stairs to work off what was to follow. In,slam door shut; frenzied ripping off of wrappers; scoffed. Game over.

Anita, though, would unwrap hers slowly and seductively.... teasingly breaking off just a square...then maybe another...then leaving the rest of it seminaked ; peeping through the folded back wrapper...tempting anyone (I was her only flatmate) who might glance into `her` cupboard to check out the tomato puree situation. In her mind, it was there as a little treat for herself the next night. She soon learnt that was a bad idea. Finders, keepers. You see it; you eat it. Fact.

I`ve tried the completely calorie free variety too--you know--the bar you munch in the car all alone? Nobody sees you eat it if you drive fast enough ; so you get home..and the chocolate thing never really happened. Until the scales give your secret away. Been there, didn`t like it.

But I`m staying strong! It`s been tough. I would, frankly, kill for one of Julia Wenlock`s chocolate covered honeycomb bars today, or virtually anything she produces at her Shrewsbury based business, (she`s on Twitter, too, at @TootSweetShrew ...go on...eat my share...!) but once I start.......you know the story.These days, the bathroom scales are making me smile, and that`s the way it`s going to stay .Happy chocolate chomping if that`s what you`re up to today :) And happy chocolate week to Julia and everyone else whose beautiful creations tempt and delight us.