We walked around our local streets, past the water leak bubbling out the road, Fred drinking from the stream of water running along the curb. The man who lives in the house right next to this water leak was cutting his hedge. I know him and he likes Fred.
He said, ‘do you want to know the saga?’
Of course, and he went onto explain how for three weeks this water has been poring out. Four way traffic lights will be installed next week to complete what he estimated was a two hour job on this very quiet residential back street. He has an air of self confidant corporation shop floor worker about him and he tells a story in a very entertaining way, making the waterboard look very foolish. He also used to work in the water industry.
The funniest part of his story was where he phoned the water board to explain that they had already closed the road for 3 days to enable a sewer drain to be installed about 50 yards from the water leak, but after repeated requests from him saying, you have closed the road and you’ve diverted the traffic all you have to do is arrange for men to come and repair it while your other men are working on the sewer? The answer seemed to be they thought the water leak had been fixed already before the sewer pipework had started, even though the workmen were wading about in several inches of water the whole time. The whole thing would soon be sorted out very soon.
The man’s wife came out of the house saying, ‘There’s not a lot of work going on out here’ . We said goodbye laughing and we left him to get on with his hedge cutting.
The next encounter was with an old lady walking home from the co op. She was very keen to say hello to Fred, who does like the attention. She was eager to explain and ‘she wouldn’t keep me long’ that her Shih Tzu, also known as the (Chrysanthemum Dog) had been found by her daughter abandoned as a puppy and in a coma. She had carried the dog home and called the vet. Advise was do nothing and see if the dog recovers. The dog is now eleven and sleeps on the old lady’s bed along with two cats in one harmonious family. I noted her chunky cardigan definatly not fair isle but in the Fair Isle envelope. Done up with two buttons at the top.
