As Saturday is my only day
off, today was my first chance to attempt to fully engage with Jack. I’ve
walked him around the park across the road from our house, but that is
predominantly a toilet visit for him. Mandi and I took him to Highfields Park
in the grounds of the University Of Nottingham for the afternoon and took a
ball with us for him to play with. I had worked out that he is quite an energetic
little thing, but hadn’t realised just how fast a little dog can run. It was
nice to be able to let him run around without his lead, although as he hasn’t
been neutered we had to keep an eye on him around other dogs in case he decided
to run off and shag some lady dog. Thankfully he didn’t get up to any of that
business though. Jack loved playing fetch and could have played all day if we
had let him, but he did let us put his lead back on and have a walk around the
lake. Pigeons and ducks are apparently a bit of a bugbear for him though, as he
went apeshit whenever he was in the vicinity of one and pulled on the lead and
barked at them. The bark he reserves for birds isn’t his usual bark for some reason;
it was actually more of a honking sound. We stopped for a coffee in the
Lakeside and would have sat outside if the tables and chairs hadn’t been wet
from the rain, both of us were a bit nervous about leaving him tethered outside
but he behaved himself and exploited his cuteness every time someone walked
past him and paid him some attention.
In order to get to Highfields
we had to travel on two buses, (I had an errand to run in town beforehand) and
bought a family ticket costing four pounds. The ticket covers two adults and up
to three children, but we bought it as it is cheaper than buying two all-day
tickets (it’s not the money it’s the principal, and the money). At no point
during the transaction did the bus driver mention the dog. Between town and
Highfields we got on a bus and the driver asked for the dog’s ticket, which I
didn’t fall for as I assumed the driver was trying to pull a fiddle and stick
the money in his pocket. Bizarrely, we managed to get on the next bus without
being asked to pay for the dog. Jack didn’t have to pay to leave Highfields and
travel to Bulwell afterwards (it is actually easier to go shopping in Bulwell
and get the bus back as that particular bus stops right outside our house), but
was asked to pay to leave Bulwell. As much as paying to leave Bulwell is a
prospect that could earn someone a lot of money as the place is a fucking dump,
I wasn’t going to fall for this trick again. The driver was adamant (trying to
make some extra money now that the hits have dried up – ha-ha, I’m hilarious)
that we had to pay for Jack. I accused him of being on the fiddle and refused
to travel on his bus. Adam (that’s what I’m calling the driver, based on my
triumph with the adamant/Adam Ant joke in the last set of brackets) must have
taken an overdose of the arsehole tablets because he waited at the station to
prepare the driver of the next bus. There was no fucking way that I was buying
into this scam so we had to walk back from Bulwell, which to be fair is only
about half an hour.
The drivers kept saying that
it was one pound for the dog, but it wasn’t made very clear if this was a
single journey or an all-day ticket. Whichever scenario is the correct one, the
very first driver that we encountered and bought our ticket from in the first
place is the one at fault. Either way I have written a letter of complaint to
NCT (a notoriously badly run bus company) with the ticket enclosed for a
refund. It might only be four pounds, but it isn’t the money it’s the principal
– and the money.
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