Saturday

I went into Queensway Tesco, nothing doing. But when I left Sta was sitting on the pavement in front of the cashpoint. He looked unusually lucid. Dod was wondering around holding a drink cup approaching people, begging.

Later returning down the street, Dod passed me southwards, he got as far as HSBC, saw none of his junkie mates were begging there, did a 180, and returned back down to Whiteleys.

Dod's begging style is to approach people walking towards him, and ask them for money. He is pretty 'in your face', and his success rate is probably about 5%. Anybody who gives him money is pressed to give him more, which they sometimes do.

Outside the computer shop, he ran into a friend. She was caucasian, very overweight, short dark hair, probably in her 30's. She was wearing a red nylon bomber jacket, black jeans and pink baseball cap. They talked and she gave Dod a cigarette. A few minutes later she was standing in the doorway of the Computer Shop telling Dod to 'Go home!'. She was drinking a can of Special Brew, and her eyes looked like they were about to pop out of her head. I doubt she is a junkie, but we'll see, but you wouldn't expect Junkies to buy cigarettes, they scrounge them instead. I'll refer to her as Mys2. She and Dod wondered together back up to the park, split up, she continued, Dod returned down past Boots where he tried at some length to get some money off a busker playing violin. This is the life of the street junkie, constantly on the move, constantly begging and thieving.

At Tesco, Jim was walking over the road from Whiteleys. He was in a grey sweater, no coat today. He didn't look for traffic, he looked a million miles away. Sta was wondering up and down, eating a yogourt with his finger. Some people who give to junkie beggars think it clever to give them food - however that just means they spend more of their money on drugs.