Pluto and the vet

Last night I was in bed by 6.30pm and asleep by 8pm. I woke up a couple of times briefly for a drink of water but otherwise didn’t stir till my alarm this morning at 6.30am. It did me the world of good. What with the stress of the house, the job interview and work and having to visit occupational health yesterday, it had literally become too much… nothing dramatic, just a deep need to sleep and rest and forget the last couple of days. I feel positively chipper this morning!

Pluto has been licking his back foot. He’s quite a clean dog so at first we didn’t pay much attention. But then noticed it was becoming more persistent. I had checked his foot over several times, but it didn’t seem painful and there was nothing out of the ordinary that I could see, but this morning I noticed that one of his claws is coming away. Of course, I panicked! I called the vet and was preparing to rush him straight over. But the vet was quite calm and seemed to think that a lack of blood, pain and discomfort makes it a fairly routine thing and we’re actually not seeing the vet until tomorrow. I don’t know what they’ll do – remove the claw possibly? I can’t bear anything being wrong with Mr P. Not least because he can’t actually tell me what the problem is. So I am fretting a little bit and hoping it’s nothing serious…

I have a photo shoot tonight – on Tower Bridge no less, for an LGBT group. Hopefully the sun carries on shining brightly and we have a lovely blue sky background. Nothing finer than the props that nature can provide!

What is the cost of kindness?

£1 apparently! I was on my way to my photo shoot today via Lewisham because I wanted to pick some stuff up from Millets (the outdoor shop I always use, more of that later). I parked in a side street by a parking meter (next to a car park) only to discover the smallest I had was a fiver. Worse, traffic wardens were prowling… three of them, writing out tickets, losing a little bit more of their soul each time they slapped a ticket on a windscreen… I asked one of them whether they knew where I could get some change but got little more than a shrug in reply. Then I saw the guys that hand wash the cars in car parks and asked one of them if they could change my £5. He couldn’t so he gave me a £1 and said, give it to me when you can…

I raced back to the car, got a ticket and then went to the shops. I did get some change after I had done my shopping, and found him again to give him back his pound. I know it was only a pound, but I was really touched. He didn’t know me and certainly didn’t know whether he could trust me. Anyway, I felt that he was very wonderful for doing it.

I alway use Millets in Lewisham. A lot of people use Millets because their prices are quite good, but I always use them because the service is great. I have never had a bad experience in Lewisham Millets. They rock. We’ve bought boots, clothes, equipment, a £200 tent… and each time they’ve been really good.

So I told them that! (I’ve written to their head office before and my letter was published in the staff magazine that goes all over the country!) But today I told the woman who served me as well. She positively glowed and seemed really delighted that she was being appreciated!

The photo shoot was OK – but only three people turned up so we’ll have to do a follow up. The lunch was very nice though!