Ham
for Christmas
I
showed Sari a package which had been delivered to me. It was an uneven
object of approximately 10 centimetres' width and heigth, although
someone had tried to make it appear a geometrical cube. A shining
plastic cover was wrapped around the parcel so that it was impossible
to see what was inside.
'I
wonder what we have got here?' I marvelled as I removed the plastic
wrapping. 'It seems that this was sent by my project manager.'
Removing
the wrapping I could see that there was something inside. I was not
able to define what it was when it started to bloat. Reseased from
the plastic the object got into contact with air. As a result the
thing quickly doubled its size, and then continued to swell three,
four, five times its original dimensions. 'This is a Christmas ham!'
I exclaimed.
The
self-inflatable Christmas ham looked like the real thing but, as it
had not been fried in the oven, it was almost colourless and without
any aroma. 'I surely would like the traditional taste of ham,' Sari
said and placed the ham in the oven.
We
kept the meat in the oven for some time in the highest possible temperature.
When the outer edges were about to burn we took the ham out, just
before the oven was starting to fill with smoke. The fragrance was
slightly better now but still not quite as good as in a traditional
ham.
I
lifted the ham on a tray. I conjectured that the project manager had
most likely reserved the ham for himself but then just before X-mas
remembered that it was actually meant for me. He must have been very
disappointed now at not having a self-inflatable ham for Christmas.
