Fred had a limp yesterday and seemed like he wanted to stay in so we didn’t go out. But Today it’s a miraculous recovery overnight and were out and so is the tide. This means there is a massive wide-open expanse to chase a few seagulls …. as expected. However it not the complete takeover of Fred’s consciousness as it has been before, he comes back to me quite soon, enough of chasing already.
So we climb the steps up to promenade and I hook Fred to the railings while I use the public facilities. I walk in and there is a guy in the loo wearing bright hi viz orange clothing and I can tell he is working on the seafront defences. I adjust my clothing accordingly and am surprised to hear quite a loud squeak ….. and again! I realise I have a squeaky, pink rubber elephant about the size of a tennis ball in my jacket pocket. This is a dog toy with large eyes and little tusks which I had forgotten I had brought with me. I remember now grabbing it thinking if I need to distract Fred’s attention for any reason I’ll squeak the elephant- squeak the elephant and overt a doggy mishap like Fred chasing a cyclist or a jogger! It’s a fantastic squeak on this toy really loud, the kind of noise a clown might use just as someone bends over, nothing rude about this noise but it’s a really great substitute for a rude noise. The guy is now drying his hands under the noisy dryer. No reaction at all to the previous squeaks. Now as I readjust my clothing to leave I am waiting for a repeat squeak and just as a second bloke walks in .. not two squeak’s its three, possibly even four and I am powerless to prevent them from happening. These are clearly audible over the sound of the dryer. I wait for some kind of reaction from either of these two men as this is quite a funny situation.
What I get is a hearty ‘Good Morning’ from the second man, and I feel him looking at me very intensely as I nod a rather low-key good morning back.
Other than that it’s an uneventful but pleasant walk along past the massive diggers and the groyne works which I really enjoy looking at. Then we are almost home and I see two women on the corner that I know, one of them has a small dog. Fred wants to cross over to say hello, I know the conversation could turn a bit Daily Mail quite quickly if I’m not careful. Sure enough the conversation is all about peoples cars being broken into and somehow I don’t know how but that is linked to the Parachute Murderer who tried to kill his wife! As we walk along the road Fred is switching from one side of the pavement to the other and back again, a zig zag fashion sort of sniffing and half boxing with the other dog. Suddenly one of the women falls down onto the pavement and her head is inches from my feet.
Now; young people ‘fall over’, but older people ‘have a fall’ and there is a huge difference. For a minute or two this is serious as we don’t know why she fell in the first place. Is it a fall or is something more serious happening? After a little while she is able to get up by herself and all is well. I said what happened – were the dogs leads tangled around your legs… no it appears to have been the classic proud paving slab! All is well and I say goodbye after broken ribs are ruled out. Yeh goodbye glad your OK – ‘she died you know alcohol poisoning’ – Bye- ‘alcoholism’ – Yeh goodbye – ‘terrible’ – Yeh goodbye – ‘Open Studios’ – goodbye – ‘are you?
I am shouting across the road, ‘No I’m not doing them this year’ – Sculpture of a horse in Canterbury’ – No bye….bye……………..bye I’m waving now.
