An absolutely beautiful summer's day spent soaking up the sunshine, sleeping even longer than usual, and generally making sure I'm in the best of health before the final two week journey back to Toronto. And I am. I feel ridiculously well.
I saw something quite disturbing at breakfast this morning. A girl of no more than twelve years old, whose weight I would estimate at about thirteen stones, starting her day with a dinner plate-sized helping of French toast covered with jam, maple syrup and whipped cream. This was quickly followed by an equally large plateful of waffles - more maple syrup, more whipped cream. I didn't wait to see what came next, but I had a slightly sick feeling that she wasn't finished. The choices made by her parents (who were gargantuan - her mother was at least 24 stones) were almost equally inappropriate; no cream, but mound upon mound of eggs, sausages, homefries, pancakes, syrup and so on.
Living in the North East of England one can hardly feel culturally superior about obesity, it's everywhere. But the number of people here who are truly enormous still comes as a shock. This is especially true of children. This morning's exhibition was extreme, but I have seen numerous adults looking on fondly as their almost spherical child consumes a huge pizza accompanied by potato crisps, washed down with a pint of coke and followed by ice cream. What are they thinking?
The other odd thing is that there is no shortage of people of normal weight. Lots of the people I see look very fit. But there seems to be a polarisation to the extremes, with the group that is squeezed out being those that one might describe as the ordinarily overweight. Nothing in moderation here, you're either slim or you're FAT.
Other quirks about North America. Electric switches work the opposite way round to ours- up is on, down is off. Taps too - clockwise on, anti-clockwise off. I can't remember noticing this one in Canada, so maybe it's just a US phenomenon. Anyway, it's a serious matter when one is trying to adjust the water temperature in the shower.
My brief sojourn in New Hampshire ends tomorrow, I move on to St Johnsbury, Vermont.
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