I do a good deed

The day dawned another blue skied one - this is amazing! There hasn’t been a summer like this since, oh, 1967 - and we STILL talk about that one! Or am getting mixed up? Was that the Summer of Love?

Anyway, I leapt out of bed and readied myself for a photographical phorage at the duck pond. I thought I (you) needed a bit of calm normality after the Madness of the Mile. I really wanted to try out my fast shutter speed on gulls swooping around being fed. Only problem is, it’s hard to feed them and wield a camera. An accomplice is needed, but there’s usually someone feeding them a loaf of white bread. Except not at the crack of dawn...

I had my special ‘duck and swan food’, but the pigeons got most of it. I tried the flip out screen, which is also a touch screen, so if there were two pigeons in view, one behind the other, you could touch the one that you wanted in focus and take the photo. Amazing.

The camera is also a lot lighter to hold and press the shutter (than the DSLR) when bending down and hanging it an inch from the ground. I did have fun, and got some funny ones with pigeons’ faces peering right in the lens. But I chose this handsome chap, who is posing nicely with his foot delicately placed forward. Though his feathers are a bit ruffled in the breeze.

Of course, I wanted some flying swans, and sometimes they will fly from the other end of the pond when they see someone feeding the others. Did they bother to fly this time? Didthey'eckaslike. They cruised along, taking their time. Once they were all up at my end, I walked to the other end and waited and waited. Then I gave up and went away and encountered a swan on the path. Got some low down shots of him coming right up to me. It was quite scary, as he flopped and flapped along the concrete path with his big floppy flappy feet - that was the only sound. Except for my heart beating loudly.

And then - yes - I heard it. The unmistakable whoop - whoop of swans flying!! I rushed out to where I had been standing only a minute ago, and three swans landed before I could get organised!! I stomped off in a proper sulk. Bad words were said.

Popped in to the bank with the shredded and glued cheque.

‘Hello, how can I help you?’

I put on a pathetic face looked pathetic, said nowt, and plopped the shredded cheque on to the counter. This was examined carefully by a young woman of about 15 years old, her pretty little face changing as the realisation dawned of what she was looking at - a bit like those old 'Five Boys Chocolate' faces, but with a different ending - sheer hilarity, as she could no longer hold in a loud guffaw.

The young girl called over another colleague. The colleague looked at it, and tried to, but couldn't, stifle a hearty chuckle.

She then called over another colleague, who blatantly collapsed laughing! When they had collected themselves together, one of them explained that they couldn’t take it. It would clog up their machines.

I’ve never been in a bank and seen so many happy smiling faces. But they're not bankers (whom we all hate), they're just innocent tellers, and don't have much to be cheerful about in their job.

So that was my good deed for the day.