Gandalf Shops at Waitrose

As usual collecting season means caffeine, a triceps workout as the collection box gets heavier and in an attempt to shift weight from leg to leg, the development of the 'collector's shuffle' - a dance usually to a tune in your head you can't get rid of...I tried to replace La Bamba with California Dreaming with little success.

You try little games in your head while still trying to engage with passer's by while trying not to be that annoying collector that people cross the width of the concourse to avoid. And you wait.

Not for the money. That usually comes. But for the odd encounter with who knows who.

I was not disappointed.

One passerby assumed I was one of the success stories of the substance abuse support programmes of the Salvation Army, another was a young person who I had worked with who was tired and excited from her first day at work the third was Gandalf (Ian Mc Kellen) carrying plastic Waitrose shopping bags in each hand.

I know I was a little surprised myself - plastic shopping bags!