a man gave me a dollar on the street today and i was so touched. maybe it was my short dress with thumbprint drawning birds, maybe it was the plus side of global warming which works well for melbourne in october and brings sunshine filled 30 degree days, or maybe it was the undeniable cuteness of my little pickle. i was walking along quite early, on my way to deposit quite a large cheque in the bank incidentally, having spent the last of my cash on a coffee at the galleon, when one old man came up with pickle's hat which he had dropped on the ground as usual. we got chatting, he told me how cute pickle was, pickle smiled and blew some rasberries at him, he told us about his grandkids (12, 10 and 5, all good kids) and pinched pickle's cheeks a bit. then another old man, who didn't know the first one, passed, and said oh he really is a beautiful baby, so nice. he pasued for a closer look, maybe chubbed pickle's cheeks, i'm not sure, then dug in his pockets and took out some coins. he picked out a nice gold dollar coin and gave it to me to buy something for the baby. i was kind of embarrassed, but i didn't want to offend by saying no, and he reminded me of a Mr.Rochstein type, my grandparents' friend who used to run a jewellery shop on acland street and once gave me a gold heart necklace with a little fake diamond in the corner. Sometimes people just want to give you something, i understand. acland street in the early morning is very good old man territory i must say, because a few minutes later another old man came up and admired pickle!