America is big. Americans are big. They like food. We like food. So after two weeks here I fear we will leave much larger than when we arrived. Today we decided to try and avoid this and be more sensible in my eating. We started with breakfast ( as over here, it’s also the first meal of the day). We went to a cafe one block down (get me with the lingo! It was about 100 meters up the road on the left in English). The first thing that was odd about this place were the chairs. They were normal dining chairs, but on castors. Oh yes, you heard me right. Castors. I assume this is so that patrons don’t have to strain themselves and lift their chairs as they tuck themselves in. Very practical, but also great fun. It’s not everyday that I get to do my Davros impression before breakfast!

Then came the all important order. In my bid to be slightly healthy I went for oatmeal ( sorry, I’m so fluent now. Porridge). Now the problem with porridge is that it’s very subjective. Some like it salty, some sweet, some make it with water, others milk, Heston makes his with snails. But I’ve had porridge out before. It would be fine wouldn’t it? Wouldn’t it? It wasn’t.

A large bowl of luke warm water with oatmeal floating in it and raisins doing backstroke was presented to me. They hadn’t used salt..or sugar..or milk. Just water and porridge, but not really cooked. Lovely. Perhaps this is now they have porridge on Skaro Anyway being English we smiled, ate it and still tipped the waitress. Tomorrow I’m back on the pancakes and maple syrup.

Lunch was a sandwich. The difference between a UK sandwich and an American sandwich is that in the UK we put meat inside bread. Here they surround bread with meat and if some slips inside all the better. We decided that a dessert was in order and so went to the Cheesecake Factory (not the same as the one in the Big Bang The Theory…shame).

Now this factory takes its cheese cake seriously. The menu had over 20 variations of cheese cake and the sizes were large. I mean really large. Unfortunately this is where we haven’t really got to grips with the culture. Since we have been here we have seen at least one patron of every cafe or restaurant ask for a doggy bag. We on the other hand just eat past the pain threshold. We are both war babies (ok it was the Vietnam war and there s no rationing but we were still both war babies!) Operation cheesecake completed we decide to walk home the scenic route and decided that sushi would suffice for dinner. That’s exercise and a healthy tea. Bring on the burgers tomorrow.