Emotional Blackmail and Whiskey Cake.

Dai, Cliff and Daren
Originally uploaded by darenpackham.

One day at the hotel Dai and I noticed that Cliff, had in his possession a rather splendid whiskey cake! We had our eyes on that from the start. Cliff recounted reluctantly that Ness (his girlfriend) had given it to him to SHARE with us on the trip. We liked the idea of, ‘SHARE’ far more than, I think Cliff did!

It was late in the trip and as we had not all managed to summit Mont Blanc (which would have been the ideal place to share such a marvellous cake) The questions that remained on our minds was. A) Had Cliff already eaten it? Claiming the old ‘emergency ration’ chestnut.. B) Was it still nicely tucked in his rucksack? and C) If it was in his bag how were we to persuade him to part with at least a 3rd of it each!?

It was a beautiful gesture, that both Cliff and Dai had agreed to walk down past the spot where my brother had fallen from the mountain. It was hard to watch the mountain train leave down the steep track without us, as we were all tired from an already long day. We were talking generally and spirits were high. Cliff and I eventually caught up to Dai. I looked at Dai and said with a slight smile, “ It might be fitting to share a bit of whiskey cake in Clives memory?”

That’s beautiful! How can he say no to that!? Dai was grinning broadly! I was quite pleased with this underhanded route to the cake and I know that Clive would have appreciated the humour.

The cake was taken ceremoniously from its tin and its wrapper and shared 3 ways and toast to Clive was made.
(I have to add that Cliff is very generous in every aspect, except for, when it comes to sharing cake, or if it is clearly your turn to make the tea)