(One paw, two pause…)

We have a George Foreman grill. It’s a thing you plug in and when it heats up you put in your rashers or burgers or some other thing you might want to grill. It was advertised as a healthy way to cook because all the fat from your chosen meat product drips down into a tray and you don’t eat it! Also, in the ads it seemed to be really easy to clean, most of the mess goes into that drip tray.

(A cactus in a salsa jar, kinda poetic)

The reality hasn’t exactly lived up to the dream, though. Possibly it is healthy, but watching fat drip is a real appetite suppressant. And the easy cleaning? It’s not…. easy. Well to be clear, (and this might seem a little moany but I’m telling anyway) the one who uses it most, doesn’t clean it after using it. So it needs heavy duty cleaning ten days later!

(Very wet bumble bee)

And this reminded me of when I wanted to be a receptionist. I was a trainee software programmer and I was finding the work challenging (in other words, I was fed up and miserable). In the same company there was a receptionist and each day she would come in, go to the bathroom, put on her makeup and come out to the reception area with a big smile. She answered calls all day and at five she went home. It looked like a dream job to me. To me she had no worries, she knew what she was doing and she did it well. My fantasy of getting her job went on for weeks until one day I met her in the bathroom and she was crying. I did what you do in these situations, I sat and listened. Well, long story short, it turns out being a receptionist isn’t the dream job I had imagined!

(More nice Irish clouds)

So… maybe the George Foreman grill has lived up to the dream….. but just not my dream. Maybe it’s George Foreman’s dream or the advertiser’s dream or the manufacturer’s dream. Someone else’s dream life may not be a fit for you…. you’re an original, live your own dream life.

Anyone want a slightly used, very dirty, signed, George Foreman grill? Mairead.