Stark Reminder

This week I was reminded about the reason I wash all my fruit and veg in "Milton" solution after purchasing them from the market.
One by one, I  move my vegetables or fruits out of the shopping basket...

...and into the bowl of "Milton" sterilising solution:

Joel and I had been to the market as usual, straight after the school drop-off  for Esther and Ben. It was early in the morning before it gets too busy. It was only 07:45. Some stall holders were still setting up.

After buying my fresh tomatoes, peppers and carrots, a little old lady gestured to me from within the dark alley-ways that make up the pathways between market stalls. I thought old ladies were supposed to be kind- all twinkly eyes and friendly smiles. This old lady did NOT fit my naive assumption. She grinned a toothless grin at me, then pointed onto the ground to show me something. I should have known better, seeing the glint in her gleaming brown eyes, but I looked at where she pointed. And shuddered. There on the ground was a growing pile of RATS!!

These vile creatures were being plucked from among the pile of vegetables where I had just been busy purchasing our week's healthy food supply! The stall holder was delving into the pile and extracting rats who must have been busy feasting all night. He must have squashed or strangled them in a deft manouver, before casting their still-warm but lifeless bodies onto the floor nearby. When I last looked, the heap of grey rodent bodies was getting higher, as the goosebumps on my arms got taller!

I felt ill. I wish I hadn't looked down. The old lady cackled as I glanced at her again. She then sauntered off in the opposite direction, soon lost from view in the gloomy labyrinth of the market's alleys. She seemed delighted by my instinctive reaction of revulsion towards the horrible sight I had witnessed. I must have confirmed all her suspicions about being a softie white-woman who can't handle a few little rats!

Joel was more fascinated than repulsed, but he doesn't share his mother's phobia of rats! I stood dazed for a minute or two, much to the amusement of other stall-holders, then I resolutely marched on towards the car. I drove purposefully home, headed to my larder and took down the tub of "Milton" sterilising tablets. When I can't be sure what might have been crawling or running riot on our food all night, I'm not going to take any risks! It was a good reminder of just why I spent so much money on "Milton" tablets last time I was in England!