Christmas on the streets of Inverness

I went to inverness yesterday, looking for a couple of presents for Lesley and Christopher. It has been long time since I went to the city and all around me Christmas was in its full show. Did not know were to start. Walked into the eastgate centre, stopping at the book shop, then to HMV were I bought something for Chris, then passing the coffee and the pastries shop....tempting me....! Down the stairs another coffee shop, out in the direction of the Victorian market, and every few meters food was on display making my mouth wet....but, I stopped and open my rock sack were I did deliberately put in it some of my bread sticks to resist the temptation overcoming me. I was thinking about Ulysses getting tied up to the mast of the ship in order to hear the sirens and their beautiful voices singing and tempting him to go with them...and die...in their trap. Well I did not want to avoid to see and smell all the nice food on display, but I knew that few bread stick would do the trick.
The abundance of food available to anyone ( most of us) is just a sign of wealth and commodity in our society. On the other hand, is bizarre that food is served every where in addition to restaurants, coffee shops and pizzerias. I still remember my shock when first visited the swimming pool in Inverness about 12 years ago. Going to keep fit or swimming and at the same time selling fatty food and sweets inside the very complex as soon as you had finish yours exercises. Then maybe going to buy a jumper and find that there is a restaurant in there as well. Even if you now go to HIS you can buy food. Food is every where around you.You can not escape the temptation. You are trap every time you enter a shop and do not matter what kind of shop it is. Even in HMV yeaterday morning, as I was approaching the cashier a lady before me bought a DVD a bottle of irn bru and three chocolate bars.Can you see what I mean.One DVD and four other products which had nothing to do with what that shop should be selling. The other problem is the amount of sweeties are sold, even in a grocery shop. There are more sweets and fizzy drinks on display than fresh greens.
I always underline this to people I talk to when the argument about healthy eating arises. The problem is the food ( the bad one especially ) available at every door you enter. Fancy some shoes? Yeah, OK and have a cup of hot chocolate as well. lets go to M&S and see some underwear and have a sandwich with a coca cola...and so on.
We can not spend million in adverts saying what to eat and what not to eat, if at the same time we offer food to people as described above. Is wasted money.Plus, lots of this food is wasted as well.
Food really is not a necessity anymore. We eat to please ourselves, which is not a bad thing if the pleasure of it was not then related to the problems we are talking about: waste and health. The pleasure is not only in the taste, but in the color, the smell, the quantity etc. We indulge too often and this is the real problem.
Anyway, Christmas is nearly there and I hope people will enjoy the food they buy and eat without wasting any.
This morning I defrosted the last meat balls and some wild herbs and made some more ravioli.Then I made  two pear cakes ( Christopher just loves it ) and a loaf of bread.
I am keeping very busy and next week on Tuesday I will be demonstrating how to make some types of pasta to a group of friends in the library. Hopefully this will encourage more people to make their own pastas more often.
this week end I hope to carry on working in the wooden house, starting to put down the floor. Snow is melting, so it should not be too cold outside.

Today's pear cakes and the bread