Ice-cream man

I like to buy ice cream from an ice-cream man who drives around the neighbourhood on his motor tricycle with a beach umbrella or a van. Again, an old trade that has been existing for many many years.

A dollar each and consumer can decide to wrap the ice cream with a slide of colourful bread or two crispy biscuits or just in a cup. I prefer eating it with bread or biscuit. The ice-cream usually comes in a few favors namely red bean, sweet corn, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate. The ice-cream man will ring his bell to announce his arrival and to attract people to patronize his mobile stall, especially the kids and students.

Instead of buying and keeping a box of ice-cream at home and be stuck with the only favor for awhile, I prefer buying it from the ice-cream man - economical, fresh and with more choices. Another reason is the thrill of running into one unexpectedly, to consider myself lucky to come across one :-) A dollar's joy and enjoyment is comparable, if not better than, having it in Swensen, Hagen Daz or Ben & Jerry's.

There was once that I ran into an ice-cream man in the car park after work. I was happy and prepare to buy one to enjoy it. When I approached the ice-cream man, he was smoking while ringing the bell for business. Though he was smiling at me, the unhealthy and dirty image was just undesirable and killed my excitement or urge to buy an ice-cream from him. The second hand smoke is not good for anyone especially the kids and he is not considerate about it. Another piss-off experience is you are about to rest and read at 10.30pm when you hear the ice-cream man ringing for business. It is a sharp noise in a peaceful night.

Other than the above two not welcoming situations, I am always thrill enough to run into them unexpectedly.