Do you want a hug with that?

Our trip to the farmers market this morning has left us with a bounty of sweet and juicy oranges (the kind that shouldn't be eaten in public in case they dribble hopelessly down your face), piquant peppers of all shapes, sizes and colours, (including brown which shouldn't look appetising, but it really does), a punnet of small yellow tomatoes in anti-corporate irregular forms, and three massive ready-to-stain-the-chopping-board beetroot. Yum, yum.

The market is a busy twice weekly affair, which was heaving when we got there, and no doubt remains so from start to finish. It takes place at the Ferry Building which is already a constant hubbub, and is visited by locals and tourists alike. You can spot the locals; they actually buy stuff, and they don't stand in the way of people actually wanting to buy stuff, just tasting the freebies. There are two markets; one for fruit and veg and one for arts and craft. Sandwiched in between the two stands a man with a home-made drum set playing his heart out, producing amazing sounds from a vegetable oil container. He is always there and must have the stamina of an ox.

Slap bang in the middle of the fruit and veg market, in a main thoroughfare, for people coming off ferries and visiting the regular shops and restaurants at the ferry terminal, and for the farmers marker shoppers, are a group of people who hold up cardboard signs which read simply 'Free Hugs'. If a person comes towards them, they open their arms and embrace. A girl with a big voice advertises by bellowing "Come get your free hug" and perhaps a surprising amount of people to a British reader anyway, bellies full of the finest Californian fruit, approach to feel the warmth of a stranger, and then get on with their day. It is impossible not to smile at the spectacle.