I had a rather unfortunate encounter yesterday. I’m working away on the new blog and naturally I get hungry. So I head downstairs and grab the last four dried figs (not the new package of lovely organic dried figs recently procured from Whole Foods) and a fistful of raw almonds. I love figs and almonds together, walnuts too. It’s a tasty treat with the extra bonus of being a healthy choice. Now usually I bite the stem off the top and stuff the fig with almonds as per my custom. Today, however, I bit into the fig in transit, without looking, chewed, swallowed, and headed back upstairs – figs and almonds neatly tucked into a tiny white porcelain bowl. I get back upstairs, sit down at the computer and rest the bowl to my left.

I am soon ready for some more figs so I look at the bowl to find the one I had already bitten into and, lo and behold, I find that the golden fig with the bite out of it is cartoonishly black on the inside. Mould? BLACK mould? Isn’t that the kind they find in houses that can make you seriously ill or kill you? Surely this is just a very dark fig. With no visible seeds. I knew that scenario was highly unlikely even before I nudged the fig and a bunch of black powder fell out onto the lovely white bowl.

OMG. I have ingested toxic black mould.

I informed hubby (reluctantly, since I had squabbled with him not ten minutes before) and told him where the fig was (waste basket in his studio) in case the paramedics, hospital, poison control, or whoever needed to know. Then, forgive me for being indelicate, I proceeded to the WC to induce vomiting – apparently not an easy task when you’re trying to remove one bite of food. Hubby didn’t seem to care. The cats were very concerned.