When ice is water...

Christmas in Australia is in high summer and usually with days of 30 to 40 degrees C (90 t0 110 F or thereabouts) and so with the festive season there is usually a large demand for bagged ice. I've had the experience of not being able to buy ice on the day before Christmas or on New Year's eve for love nor money because demand far outweighed supply. But the trouble with my part of Oz is that it can be 40 degrees leading up to the day and then the temperature can be half that for a few days on end before getting back up to oven temperatures again. Making it very hard to manage stock if you're in the ice trade, I guess.

I had occasion to buy a bag of party ice yesterday, and I figured that it would be a simple process because the temperatures had been hovering in the high 20s and therefore I didn't expect that there'd be any difficulty.

Why party ice?
Butch and I were spending New Year's eve with just the two of us in an exclusive and private location that required an Esky of ice to keep the chilled beverages... well... chilled. Actually I just figured having the chilled drinks in the lounge would save a lot of walking to and from the fridge.

So I went to the local service station and wandered in to pay for "A bag of ice, please."

Attendant: One bag of ice, $3.95, thank you.
Me: (Handing over a note and receiving change) Um, where's the ice fridge?

Attendant: (Pointing back out of the shop and indicating around the side of the building) It's out there... in a bag.

In a bag? Is that what she said? She had an ethnic background which gave her a bit of an accent, so I just thought I heard wrong.

After paying I went around the side and found the typical well insulated very large two door ice fridge that one is quite familiar with. But in front of the fridge, the locked fridge by the way, right there on the concrete, in the direct heat of the blazing Australian sun, was a small 'pyramid' of ice bags piled up inside what can be best described as a 'wigwam' made of heavy plastic. I guess it had a capacity of about 30 to 40 bags, but currently held about 20 bags of ice.

It surprised me, but ice is ice so I lifted the flap and peered in... the ice in every bag in that stack had the unmistakable wet look that ice gets as it melts, and each bag had a puddle of water in it. I disassembled part of the stack to get to those bags behind, but only to find the ice in the same state... that of melting.

Now it's not like the ice was half melted and the bag had more water than ice in them, but there was at least a cup of water in every bag and many of them would've had over double that amount.

So back into the shop I went.

Me: I just paid for a bag of ice?
Attendant: Yes?
Me: Well I won't be taking one, thank you, and I'd like my money back please.
Attendant: Oh... why?
Me: The ice has melted, there's water in the bags... so I won't take one, I'll take my money please.
Attendant: (In disbelief) Melted...? It's insulated, it can't be melted.
Me: The insulating is a white plastic tent... the ice is melting.

Without another word she came out from behind the counter and went past me out of the door. I rushed after her and when I caught up behind her;

Me: Excuse me... what are you doing?
Attendant: (Without stopping or even turning to face me... ) I'm taking a look at the ice.
Me: Oh... you could've told me.

We got to the ice 'tent' and she looked in and grabbed a bag;

Attendant: (Handing bag to me) This isn't melted... they're not melted.
Me: (Tilting the bag) See all that water?

She took the bag from me and put it back in the tent and grabbed another, tilted it and put it back. Just then I reached in and pointed at all the stacked bag;

Me: See, they all have water in them... they're not really bags of ice, they're bags of ice and water. I'll take my money now.

Then the attendant closed the plastic flap and walked back towards the shop and so I followed;

Attendant: They've only melted a little, there's plenty of ice.
Me: (Believing that we're going back for my refund, and following the attendant) I'm buying ice not water... and the life span of those bags is shortened.

We entered the shop, she went behind the counter, she came out from behind the counter, she walked by me and out the door;

Me: (Catching up) Excuse me... what are we doing.
Attendant: (Not a word)
Me: (As we reached the freezer, she revealed the keys in her hand an unlocked the door) The polite thing to do is to tell me what you're doing.

With the door open to the freezer I looked in and found that it was completely filled with ice bags. Completely filled to the point that there was hardly any gaps... for... I don't know... circulating chilled air for instance.

I could see that the bags immediately in fron where also melting... the fridge was overloaded and wasn't doing it's job for at least the bags I could see. I could see her face as she realised that these bags were as bad as the ones not in the freezer;

Me: These are just as melted... it's because the freezer is too full. I really want my money back now, please.

And with that she locked the freezer door and walked off again... I followed saying;

Me: When you pay for ice that's what you expect to get.

She gave me my $3.95 back.

On reflection... It probably wasn't the potential loss of my $3.95 that motivated her to keep walking back and forth in an effort to convince me that water was ice. I think it was the horror of all the other $3.95 bags of water that gave her great concern.

I went to the next servo up the road and got a pack of ice that was opaque and dry.

Happy New Year.