Blue Raspberry Slush

Monday 13th October 2008
Today is the last day of the School Half Term Holiday and we had been asked by the Scouts to help clean up the Motocross track after an event there yesterday, it would appear that if they do it they will get $500 Dollars towards there Scout Funds.
Unfortunately, and we mean that most sincerely, we were unable to help out because Marisa had an X-Ray appointment with the Dentist this morning, and when that was over Carolyn had to help in the Café because we were very busy for a few hours.
Carolyn cut the kids hair today, she did quite a good job considering she is not a hairdresser.
Marisa went to Cubs this evening, they arranged an extra meeting for the older Cubs to be able to do some work on getting their badges without the younger ones to disturb them.
Ian and Fliss were close to closing the Cafe on time today which would have been a rare feat, Monday is strip all the Machinery down day and it normally takes forever, today everything was running like clockwork.
That is to say everything was running like clockwork until, after stripping down, cleaning and sanitising the Slush Machine, Ian put it back together again. Putting it back together is a messier job than cleaning it in the first place because all the seals and moving parts have to be thoroughly lubricated with a Vaseline type substance, this makes it all very sticky and slippery.
The biggest problem with putting it back together is one particular rubber seal that has to be lubricated and stretched over the back of the freezer drum, once in place the main Liquid container slides over the freezer drum and creates a seal at the back. Today Ian found out what happens if that seal slips off, which it often does, and goes unnoticed.
Ian had put the machine back together again and after a few early struggles to get the rubber seal to stay in position long enough to put the Liquid container into place, it was done. The next step was to fill it up with Slush Liquid and turn it on.
Ian made up 12 litres of Bright Blue Raspberry mix and quickly poured it into the machine, as the last of the liquid was going into the machine Ian noticed a jet of Bright Blue pouring out of the side of the machine round about where the Rubber Seal should have been, like the little Dutch Boy who stuck his finger in the Dyke Ian tried desperately to stem the flow but it was not going to happen.
In the matter of a few seconds, 12 litres of soon to be extremely sticky blue stuff was flowing across the floor. Ians first thought was for the floor out on the public area of the shopping centre, he had been warned by the centre manager that Blue Slush soaks into the sort of tiles that have been used in the centre and take about a year to get properly clean again.
Fortunately all the liquid stayed inside the Café so he could breath a sigh of relief, the next step though was to mop it all up which took forever.
After mopping up Ian then had to clean, lubricate and put back together again, the offending machine. This time he made certain that everything was in place before pouring in the liquid, he and Fliss after looking forward to finishing almost on time, ended up finishing an hour and a half late and he was not very happy.
I