Busker with a mouthful

With poor weather coming, although one would be hard pressed to know the difference between bad and poor,  we decided to take an early walk on the beach at East Preston towards Worthing with a pint at the Sea View, the pub without a sea view unless you are a giraffe, as a reward for honest endeavour.

With that pub booked solid with blue rinses waiting for their roast turkey dinners, we decided to have a look at a couple of other pubs we had not previously visited. The Arun View in Littlehampton has, as its name suggests, a view of the river Arun. It has the view, yes, but what it lacks is any style or class, which seems to be a the same as most, if not all of the pubs in L.A. otherwise known as Littlehampton.  Swirly carpets are my pet hate so we left.

The tour to find new clients for Currencies Direct continued: The Cricketers at Duncton was pleasant, the George Inn at Eartham was closed, the Lamb at Angmering busy and interesting, but we ended up at the Black Rabbit, where dogs are welcomed into the bar. Not all dogs, obviously, only well-behaved ones. Regular readers will know that we are the proud owners of a lovely old well-behaved but deaf springer spaniel, Max, who is charming and obedient and a delight to be with. They may also know that the Nice Lady  Decorator has introduced a thieving, unreliable, rubbish-bin-raiding horror of a dog into out household, and spends much of her time defending his indefensible behaviour. Such was the case yesterday when, despite being on his lead, Banjo (for it is he) the obese and catastrophic cocker spaniel managed to jumps up at a waitress as we walked in, and almost stole a sausage from the plate she was carrying to a table nearby. Had a child attempted such a crime then that Nice Lady Decorator would have quite correctly come down upon that child like a ton of bricks. Because she describes him as the “needy” dog,  no visible admonishment was forthcoming, nor was there when he emptied the bin in the kitchen on several times over the Christmas, twice in a very short space of time. Of course I am not allowed to make any comment or make any recommendations as to how this appalling behaviour could be rectified. Apparently you cannot teach an old dog new tricks, however I would contend that I would like to try although some dogs will never learn. A waste of a bullet.

There was however, a moment of karma, a Moment of wonderful justice.  As we were sitting enjoying a pint, a waitress attempted to access a nearby fridge managed to spill some trays of mustard over her shoes and on the floor near to us. In a flash the demon dog was on it, licking furiously at what he thought was some tasty snack. The mustard did the trick and hopefully he has learned a lesson, but I doubt it. Talking of learning a lesson, I learned one in Australia recently where a busker managed to make the same row offered by a didgeridoo, but with a Hoover, as my picture today suggests.

A busker with a difference caught in Adelaide

Before leaving we struck up a conversation with a visiting American who was taking a short holiday from teaching in Libya. He seemed a good, well-educated sort, but once he suggested that Margaret  Thatcher had based here entire market  forces strategy on an experiment in General Pinochet’s Chile, I decided that it was time to retire.

Chris France
@Valbonne_News