Thursday, September 15, 2005

Nelly the Zealophant

Bert and I went out for breakfast this morning. We went to one of those cafes that specialise in cheap Ulster fries and traybakes. It’s a popular spot that is always doing a roaring trade. As I’d already had my healthy fruit and muesli breakfast I ‘contented’ myself with a cup of coffee. He was ages in the queue so I entertained myself by people watching. There was a 60+ couple in front of him. I noticed that the man, otherwise just stocky, had one of those enormous bulging bellies. His wife was pretty chunky too. Both of them collected huge platefuls of food. I watched the man as he sat down. He looked almost dewy-eyed as he started to tuck in. Bert came down with a small fry-up, small enough to see lots white plate through. I’ll have to be honest here and admit that not so long ago I’d have had some food too, even though I wasn’t hungry, just because it was there and everyone else was eating. And maybe that was why I was so interested in what all the other people were eating and why I was being hypercritical about their diets and their BMIs. As Ed said of me as recently as today, ‘there's no zealot like a convert’. He was talking about my anti-smoking stance. But anyways back to the big-bellied man. He was still chomping away after Bert had finished the mini-fry. Only by now he was looking a bit bored with it and his jaws seemed weary as he chowed down. His hunger was satisfied but he carried on eating. And that’s how you get a great big belly. Just another observation – I reckon that the proportion of obese people inside the café was far greater that the proportion out on the street.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Bored eating fried food? That man doesn't deserve said food if he's not going to enjoy it...

Nelly said...

But he obviously hadn't the metabolism for it. Maybe he had when he was young. Like you....

Anonymous said...

Yup. And I plan to make the most of it, then die, immensely fat, in my early 40s.

Everyone should have such a plan.