Blood Will Flow

I was blooded today, which is to say I saw my first client alone. I thought it was a trick, as I only dropped into the office for a few hours to have my training progress checked, and ten minutes before the doors opened the boss asked me if I would see some people. She thrust a pad and pen into my hand, and practically pushed me towards the door. I must have looked alarmed, and then laughed as I saw the rest of the office turn towards me in their chairs to grin at me. "You're joking," I told Nick, but she wasn't, and so it came to pass. It was fine, two lovely people needing a bit of help. When I came back in everyone was happy for me. "It's much better done like that, when you're not expecting it. Then you don't have time to worry and get nervous," they said. Amen to that.

Back home again I put on my "care-in-the-community" hat with the ear flaps and took off down the lane. The sun didn't actually come out until I got home, but it was bright and windless though very cold. I speed walked the whole way until I met Mike and Alfie coming back. Alfie is going under the knife tomorrow to have a lump removed from his leg. At 9 he is sprightly and active, and Mike told me it didn't matter what it cost as long as they put him right. I thought I saw a little tear escape from his eye, but he said he was having awful trouble with this cold air. In the distance I could hear a volley of gunfire, the last few days of the shooting season putting some urgency into the desire of a lot of men - nearly always men - in green to massacre flock after flock of pheasants. I wonder how many they will actually eat. There's something not quite so terrible about killing for your own table.

In Waitrose this morning where I stop every week on my way to CAB to buy a sandwich for my lunch and collect a free cup of coffee, I was told by the cashier that in the near future I would have to spend at least £5 in order to qualify for this perk. Really Waitrose. First you offered free coffee in the cafe for every MyWaitrose card holder regardless of whether or not they are regular shoppers, the news quickly got around, and every near 'down and out' in Saxmundham and environs quickly acquired a card and used the place as their sitting room. When that practice was stopped these people all vanished, the free-from-a-machine coffee for card holders seeming to be less popular. But this latest outrage? I spend thousands of pounds a year in Waitrose and have only recently started having one free coffee a week. If they want to keep their valued customer base happy, why do they not just check your spending status via your card to establish who should qualify and who not? Anyone could have told them their original scheme would be exploited. Is there nobody with an ounce of common sense in head office?