To be or not to be- healthy that is...

I have been volunteering for this charity here in Cardiff called Pedal Power. It's a great thing helping disabled cyclists and generally promoting healthy living and the benefits of cycling. I recently started working for them by expanding their general hire of bikes in a different area of Cardiff- Cardiff bay. I have been working in the bay now for 3 days and it has been slow. I thought because we didn't do a very great job of advertising it before hand and the weather has been a little disappointing to say the least. But we have had a lot of people come and tell us that bringing the bikes to rent to the bay is a great idea and they will have to come another day and rent from us. They have just recently opened a pedestrian/cycle bridge across the bay that has been very popular and so a cycle hire facility there is just want the bay needs. Well I would think.
This is the back of my co-worker Leevon. (Lee) . He is shy of the camera phone especially when what I was really trying to photograph was the little girl selling sweets behind him. Here is a better picture of their outfit.
The woman that is selling here, besides that she isn'a t very nice woman and insisted that she shove her cart right up against our bikes when she had a whole corner to occupy, had her 11 year old granddaughter help her this weekend. Here she is selling candy floss (cotton candy to us Americans) and chocolate covered marshmallows and strawberries. To the normal Bay goer this is a nice sight and everyone loves chocolate especially if it is covering something healthy like strawberries. That's what I thought too, until I have had to operate next to these two for the past few days. I don't think the woman likes the job any more because she is never there leaving the little girl to do all of the selling. The little girl is forever eating the marshmallows and licks her fingers and eats the chocolate too. (You can see the chocolate fountain on the left side of their cart.) They sell 5 marshmallows or 3 strawberries on skewers for 3 pounds (about 6 dollars) a skewer and then ask the customers if they want chocolate on them which of course they say yes, and then the little girl proceeds to stick the skewer in the chocolate getting it on her fingers and then lick them in front of the customer. No hand washing in sight as well. To make matters worse, the chocolate fountain isn't made up of chocolate and milk. I mean I don't know how these things work really, these chocolate fountains, but I was under the impression that the machine heats up the chocolate and you add milk and that's how the chocolate flows, but these ladys, through the course of the day, thins the chocolate down by adding a whole bottle of vegetable oil. Yes, the same type as you would fry in, and yes a WHOLE bottle. No more chocolate added - I don't know how much there was in the mix to begin with- just more vegetable oil.
Now that is ok- I mean fine, ok really bad for you but everyone eats bad for you things sometimes, so what. The part that gets me is that Lee and I are working our butts off, trying to get people to hire these bikes- That cost 4 pounds for an adult bike per hour and 3 pounds for a kiddie bike, and we are struggling to get anyone to hire. We have all kinds of little kids coming up and pointing to the bikes and saying "Daddy, can we go for a ride?" but then walk by us and get in line to buy (for the same price), 5 fingered marshmallows on a stick with vegetable oil.
I mean what??? What kind of parent (and there were many I can tell you- that shop had a line the most of the day) would give a child absolute shit to eat but say no you can't go for a healthy bike ride around the bay? Does that make sense? I have tried to rationalize it the whole day, and finally coming to the conclusions that it is easier for the parent to pull out 3 pounds and give the child crappy food, then to have to be involved by watching the child on a bike or joining themselves on a bike for an hour. Give the kid a lolly and make him shut up. I even had a father say to me... actually this is how it went down... little girl walks up to one of the little pink bikes and says " daddy, can I go for a ride?" and I say "Hey! that bike is just your size! I will give you a free ride on it and your daddy will only have to rent his bike!" ... Then dad says to me picking up his daughter "she can't do that, she isn't strong enough." .. You can imagine the look on the little girls face. I almost called the police I was so angry with that guy, complete verbal abuse to his little girl, tell her she was not strong enough to pedal a little tiny pink bike just her size. And I was giving the girl he bike ride for free!! I mean, if the guy didn't want to rent a bike that is fine, he could have said, "oh no,not today." but instead he chose to tell me no by saying that the girl wasn't strong enough. All day long I help disabled people, sometimes severely disabled people, onto bikes and this guy is saying that his clearly able daughter isn't strong enough. Maybe if I was giving the girl a free "shit-on-a-stick" he would have bought one for himself too?

oh well, that's us I guess.

Oh, one more thing, that happened to me yesterday, that I think fits this blog nicely. The people at the bay that have let us set up shop there have been really nice, always coming to see if we need anything and if we are ok. Yesterday Lee and I were plagued by this very over weight security guard that Lee thought was jinxing us because he kept coming over, looking at our log book with our poor sales and hissing and making faces. He said to me, "you won't see me on any of those either", pointing towards the bikes.
And I said "why not? they are brand new and it's a great day to take a ride"
"I only like things with motors."
"Really?, well don't you like your legs? they happen to be great motors!" I said with a smile and a giggle.
"I have four cars!"
"O... K..., ummmm Why do you have 4 cars? there is only one of you?, I don't even own a car here in Wales and it's fine"
"Four cars is better than one." he said with a look of superiority
Now, at this point, I tried desperately to change the subject thinking of anything other than maybe you should try something other than trying to impress people with how many cars you own- I thought that I was getting hungry and he might have an idea - seeing the size of the man- about where a good place to get lunch. Plus the fact that Lee and I have set up right across the path from this gourmet burger restaurant that at the moment was producing this wonderful smell of burgers grilling.
"Well... hummm... the price of petrol is really high do you know of anywhere around here that is a good place to have some lunch?"
"I don't eat here, this food is too healthy like." As the waitress brings out two patrons their delicious and extreemly NOT healthy looking burgers and chips (french fries to us Americans).
"Too healthy? really?" I asked trying to get him to notice the burgers and fries.
"Yes! and I bet you don't even like beer!" he said with another look of superiority.
At this point I got a little worried that I had been unknowingly demeaning and quickly tried to change the subject again.
"Actually I love beer, I can't have it now though since I'm 4 and a half months pregnant."
"You should have told my wife that when she was pregnant- drank all though her pregnancy!" he exclaimed as if his wife was cooler, more hip and daring than I was.
"Oh... well, I should probably hand out these fliers now..."