Snack Time

We all need a little sugar rush now and then. Here at the press center, they are offering snacks between 10 and 11 a.m., and 4 and 5 p.m. Paul tells me this is unusual.

It seems to be sponsored by Coca Cola, and on offer there is usually cookies and fruit, tea, coffee and orange drink. (I thought it was orange juice, and I was very wrong)

The cookies are good -- about six different varieties of Chinese cookies. And the fruit is varied: some beautiful-looking peaches that were unripe and thus inedible, bananas that are green but taste ripe, the occasional plums and lately Asian pears.

This is a nice gesture, and people seem to appreciate it. In the afternoon, there are lines of a dozen or more people waiting their turn for cookies. Is it that the treats are free? Or that everyone needs a little buzz in the afternoon?

I don't know. But I'm not one to turn down a free cookie.