Skinny Scots, honestly.

The deal-io is that almost all the Scots I have met/seen here are skinny, and if not thin then simply average.  This is very perplexing if you look solely at their diet.  Fish (battered, deep fried) and chips (fries) along with haggis and the ever popular macaroni pie (which is macaroni and cheese, placed into a pie crust) are just a few of the ways Scots pack on the calories.  Ryan has a co-worker (named Debs) who declared "I love me a macaroni pie!" Scots have referred to the area as the land of the carbs, and the bread here is good enough to prove it: chocolate croissants, "luxury" scones, tiger bread, take and bake baguettes.  Good stuff.  Today at the store though, I think I figured out their key to keeping slim while pigging out. It's all about the grocery shop.  First, if you don't have a car, or just need to grab a few things at the store, there are many smallish grocery stores on the street corner (picture a Corner 22 or Circle K with produce, butcher, bakery, fishmonger sections.) In order to get here you must walk, which means you will exercise to and from your grocery shop, and can't buy tons of food because you can only purchase what you are able to carry home. The real workout though comes when you can drive to a big (american normal) size grocery store and have to mess with the cart that has 4 independent wheels (just like in Ikea.) It's kind a fun pushing that silly cart around at first, but once you get it half way full of heavy groceries, the game ends/begins and you realize that are in the middle of a Scots workout, a total core makeover.  In order to keep from slamming into people, displays, shelves, and produce pyramids, you need your head in the game and every muscle contracted.  Maybe Obamacare can mandate new "Core Carts" at all grocery stores... Is it too early to start Obamacare jokes?

Yes, even in Scotland, I still do most of my shopping at Walmart.

On the white thing above the hanging chain is a slot that you put a pound in to use the cart, which releases the chain that links the cart from the line of carts.  When you finish with the cart and return it back to the line, and insert the chain, you get your pound back.  Nobody steals carts and everyone returns them to their proper place (we all want our pounds back!) It makes sense, but only once you've figured out why the carts are locked up.  I was totally baffled the first time I went to Asda.