Howie was trembling, his nerves shot to ribbons. As he stepped out into the mid-afternoon downpour, he looked up to the heavens and breathed a sigh of relief. The day had gone well. The fears and anxieties that had nudged him awake every half an hour the previous night had not evolved into truths. They had both come out of the chocolate factory intact.

Howie turned to look at Jen, who was busily rustling in a thick, paper bag, endorsed with the logo of Haigh's Chocolate. He felt definate relief; she hadn't broken through the glass window into the factory, she hadn't elbowed anyone out of the way, and she hadn't hurled herself face-first into the big vat of melted chocolate. But she looked different somehow; she had lost that wild look in her eye, and the skin on her face... Howie took a short breath as he appraised her face, noticing a sickly darkening around her lips. What were those brown patches now blooming around her mouth?
Oh, he thought. Chocolate.

The best thing about Adelaide - other than the fact that we live here - is most definately that it is the home of Haigh's Chocolate, Australia's premier choc-makers. Now, they have Cadbury's here, and lots of it, but if you want an exquisite, boutique, superior chocolate (with boutique prices to match), then it's Haigh's you're after. And they give free factory tours. And today, it was our turn to go on one.
We got to the factory at about 1.45pm, ready for our 2pm tour and we checked in the chocolate lady, letting her know we were here. Needing the toilet, we were informed that they were in the next building. So we went. Oh, how I longed for someone to inadvertantly leave a door ajar, carelessly, when exiting the factory floor... But it was not to be. We had no more than a couple of precious minutes to scour the shop before being called to our tour. Now, obviously the main reason we were there was because of the free choc. Fortunately, not only do you get free dark and milk choc at the beginning of the tour, but you get to watch the lovely workers hand-crafting all different sorts of sumptuous chocolate, and you get more choc at the end. It was fascinating, as we watched the workers preparing the different chocolates. We saw some new workers rolling truffles for the Christmas Pudding truffles and saw the manager bringing back a tray of them that hadn't quite been rolled in the perfect shape - so they would have to be done again. Chocolate simply poured out of every machine, it was wonderful, and it was obvious why the chocolates are rather pricey - each one is individually made, and the little oompa-lumpas take great care over each little truffle that they make.Yum. After the tour, we were given chocolate covered scorched almonds, which vexed me greatly, as of course I cannot eat nuts. Howie's tummy benefitted from those.

We wandered around the shop for a good while, and obviously we bought things. Being the factory shop, there are factory seconds bags on sale... Milk chocolate covered raisins went down a treat. And the most marvellous thing? After we'd bought our treats, the lady behind the counter offered us some alcoholly-marshmallow-rediculously chocolately thing to try, plus a handful of pure chocolate counters each. We both felt a little bit sick by the time we left.

But such is a trip to Haigh's Chocolate Factory.
Next, we went to a shop in the town centre and bought wigs, fake moustaches, fake noses and face paint. Guess what we'll be doing tomorrow?