FIRST of all a confession - this piece was written under the influence of a wonderful rum truffle and a gooey, slightly bitter orangey thing that was utterly delicious. I might also have been drunk on the smell of chocolate.

Isn't chocolate wonderful?

Ngaio Jayne Aithwaite certainly thinks so. Two years ago with a new life and a new husband, she opened a new shop too, Chocca, in Bedale's Main Street.

That wonderful rich chocolatey smell hits you as you walk in, Breathe in - it's delicious.

All the chocolate here is the proper stuff, rich in cocoa solids. No Kit-Kats, no Cadbury's, but the best high-quality chocolate from all over Europe.

"It's what we like to eat, so that's what we like to sell," says Ngaio.

She's a Bedale girl born and bred. Retail's in her blood too - her mum's just about to retire from running Woolfayre in the town and Ngaio made her first sale there, aged three and a half, standing on a box to reach the shelves.

"But chocolate's a lot more fun than wool," she says happily. And who's going to argue?

"The best thing about this shop is that you're selling things to make people happy. People are celebrating, or buying presents or giving themselves a treat or just cheering themselves up. That's got to be nicer than anything else."

She and Kevin - who both admit to "a slight chocolate addiction" - found the shop when they were out walking in the rain at four in the morning, ideally situated between a newsagent's and a flower shop.

There are chocolates from Belgium, Switzerland, Austria, Germany, Italy and England.

"You need the English to make rose and violet creams," says Kevin, who helps out in the shop when he can. "Belgians just can't make violet creams."

Which is some small relief for our national pride.

As well as the chocolate - bars, boxes, loose chocolates, chocolate bumble bees, pencils, Santas, spiders, puzzles - Chocca stocks a small range of old-fashioned sweets - Uncle Joe's Mint Balls, black bullets, cherry lips, aniseed balls, sugar pigs and sugar mice with long string tails.

There are chocolate coins - "proper ones, not euros" - all year round, fudge from Beverley and a selection of foreign specialities, real Turkish Delight, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, Hershey Bars, Reese's peanut butter cups and a whole wall of jelly beans.

No surprise then that Kevin and Ngaio's favourite film is Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory.

Such is their passion for the stuff, that they even give me a recipe for chicken and chocolate - something about grating fine dark chocolate into the cheat gravy "because chocolate was originally used as a savoury".

But it's not just the sweets and chocolate.

"It's the wrappings," says Ngaio. "Anything pink and glittery and fun. Even our house is decorated in sweet wrapping colours."

They pack many of their chocolates themselves - glittery bags, shiny ribbon - and love the whole procedure. They can even tell you the exact pattern on the paper that wrapped the flowers for the funeral of Coronation Street's Maxine. ("Ngaio was sobbing, but I was just looking at that wrapping paper," says Kevin.) And that the chocolate used in The Great Escape was Droste - which they also stock.

Through an archway, another part of the small shop is devoted to oils, chutneys and pickles and a range of Bridgewater pottery. "We started selling as just something to put chocolate in, but it's gone really well so now we have more and can order anything in."

Customers are divided between tourists and locals. There's often a chocolate or two to taste as they are keen to share the delights of their favourites.

"People ask us if we don't get sick of chocolate," says Ngaio. "No we don't. Never. This is my dream job and I'm doing it."

Chocca, 39 Market Place, Bedale. (01677) 422229. Open 9am-5pm Monday-Saturday and Sundays in December. They had - and might still have if you're quick - a nice selection of sweet creepy crawly goodies for tonight.

Buying charity Christmas cards is a brilliant way of giving twice. If you can't buy your cards direct from the charities, the best way is from Cards for Good Causes. They set up temporary shops in Tourist Information Centres, libraries and churches all over the country between now and Christmas and every shop deals with at least 25 charities, often more, including a few local ones.

Best of all, a staggering 81p in every pound goes straight to the charity, as opposed to around 5p from some of the charity cards sold in other outlets. Last year, the cards raised £4.3m for the charities involved.

There are plenty of shopsin our region: Tourist Information Centres at Barnard Castle, Durham, Leeming Bar, Leyburn, Nortallerton, Richmond and Thirsk; main libraries in Harrogate, Ripon and Scarborough; in the Four Clocks Centre at Bishop Auckland; St Thomas Haymarket in Newcastle and St Martin le Grand in York. And if you want to buy your cards direct from the charities concerned, here are a few more addresses:

CHILDREN'S LIVER DISEASE FOUNDATION, Remploy, 33 Wales Farm Rd, Acton, London W3 6XX. Tel: 0845 600 2523

CHILDREN'S SOCIETY, Appledown House, Barton Business Park, New Dover Road, Canterbury CT1 3TE

EMMAUS, 48 Kingston St, Cambridge CB1 2NU

THE LEPROSY MISSION, PO Box 212, Peterborough PE2 5GD

RSPCA, PO Box 40, Burton upon Trent DE14 3YE

ST DUNSTAN'S, PO Box 280, Weston Super Mare BS22 9ZD

SALVATION ARMY, 1 Tiverton St, London SE1 6NT. Tel: 020 7467 6580

THE STROKE ASSOCIATION, 61-69 Derngate, Northampton NN1 1HD

UNICEF, PO Box 300, Wetherby, LS23 7XN

Bouquets of the Week

Dear Sharon

I run a reading group for visually-impaired people and we went to see The Shell Seekers - 14 visually-impaired people, one guide dog, a volunteer and myself - at Darlington Civic Theatre.

From the moment I spoke to Sue Wilson, Group Sales Organiser at the theatre, I had every confidence things would go smoothly. A week before the performance she arranged a meeting with Peter Tate, one of the duty managers, which was a chance to discuss any possible problems.

Bearing in mind the difficulties of people with sight problems being able to follow a play, the theatre has an arrangement with volunteers to prepare an audio described tape of an earlier performance. Members of my group unable to see at all were able to wear special headsets to hear how the stage is set and to keep up with the action.

The evening was so enjoyable. Sue and Peter were both there to see that everything was OK, including offering more headsets if needed. One of the staff took care of the guide dog throughout the performance

I was so impressed with the care given to our group by Sue Wilson, Peter Tate and staff of the Civic, which added to our enjoyment of the evening.

Jennifer Moutrey, Darlington

l Well done to the Civic Theatre - and to those volunteers who prepare the tapes. Often it takes just a bit of care and thought to enable more people to enjoy everyday things. For their care and planning, we're sending this week's bouquet to the Civic Theatre.

Ann Jameson writes from Willington wrote to say that Donna who works for kitchen company GB Ltd based at the Co-op in Bishop Auckland was really helpful when they dealt with her recently. "She helped us to choose the units we needed and sorted everything out. Delivery was within a week. And when one piece was missing she got it for us within a day. Her help was greatly appreciated."

And an accolade for a hospital cook - definitely a first time on these pages. Mrs Hughf of Bishop Auckland would like to nominate Brian, chef at Bishop Auckland General Hospital. "He has a very pleasant cheery personality and makes lovely hot meals, especially cauliflower cheese."

If you want to say a public thank you for good service or to a helpful neighbour, kind stranger or efficient business, then just write with all the details to Sharon Griffiths, Bouquet of the Week, The Northern Echo, Priestgate, Darlington, DL1 1NF. Each week the person nominated in our main letter gets a real bouquet of flowers or a box of hand made chocolates from The Little Chocolate Shop in Leyburn.