THE CULTURE OF SELF-INDULGENCE

"Oh go on, you deserve it."

"You know what," says Gok, heading for the fridge and dimming the lights, "We just don't treat ourselves enough."

The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. What's he talking about? We treat ourselves all the time! In every town, on every high street, in every coffee-corner up and down the land. There are sugary cakes, boxes of doughnuts and toxic sweets making their way round most offices, every week! A lot of us have taken to the gym out of a terrible fear of the twin terrors of heart-disease and obesity the telly's always on about.... when it's not trying to sell us stuff.

"You're running around all day... you deserve... a little more 'me' time, a bit of indulgence... now and then," he says. He winks to the camera and pats the back of the plush-looking sofa. He has a sort of lolling style, Gok Wan. His words roll upwards towards the middle of the sentence... he pauses... and then he tumbles them down towards the full stop with a cheeky wink and a perfect smile.

He's flogging yoghurt. Yoghurt. Oh yes, that reminds me: as I was walking round my local Sainsbury's the other day, I noticed that they're now spelling yoghurt without an H. I shook my head despairingly and moved on to the cheeses.

Yoghurt.

Have a little me time, have a little yoghurt. That'll do it. You know what, I appreciate that busy people might need a moment to themselves: young parents, driven professionals, people with difficult situations, technical authors... television fashion presenters. What I object to, Gok, is the culture of self-indulgence that you and your yoghurty masters appear to be pushing on us.

-

Why are they spelling it without an H? I might write to Sainsbury's.