A Tale Of Two Cities

Meet Rat...

I got chatting to Rat on the way from the station, in Leeds City Square where he was playing his wooden whistle. This area, about half a square mile, is the "new" financial district of the city.

He was bemoaning the fact that he kept getting moved on by the owners of the flashy bar nearby (used to be a busy general post office, actually, when I worked in Leeds). Where the bankers go to swill champagne in their lunch "hours"...

Apparently they said he was "aggressive". I also realised I knew him from when he used to sell the Big Issue outside the Royal York Hotel for many years. I hadn't seen him for ages. Apparently he was "complained" about there too.

Actually he's a really great guy with a wicked, incisive sense of humour; albeit very down on his luck. Originally from Iceland, he came over when he was a child. Good to chat and dally. Well worth me being late for where I was meant to be going...