After visiting friends in Nether Edge I've walked, and cycled, sometimes with a bit of a wobble, through this small patch of inner city wilderness on my way home.
Sunnybank urban nature park.
Today I walked through there as I was notching up steps for the Global Corporate Challenge, "create a culture of health". The bit in quotes puts me quite on edge, "welcome my son, welcome to the machine."
Sunnybank was the last place that my enormous black and white cat, Bottom, had a taste of fresh air and wilderness. There was slightly more grass then and he had an opportunity for a mooch about and a sniff of the air, although he wasn't really in the mood. The PDSA were the destination, they were located on the other side of where Waitrose is now, and it was his final resting point.
As soon as I got a decent income the PDSA were the first recipient of my regular charitable donation, and that's continued ever since. The amount of benefit people get from their service is enormous. I'm no fan of charity, a civilised society should be paying for the resources needed via taxation, without the personal preferences of a charitable donor having effect. But then we are a closer to being pre-civilised given the way we express our concern.
This made me think of the NHS and what position many people would be in if we didn't have it. It would be humans that would be dependent on handouts, and the fat cats in this case would be of a whole different type. And who would be the recipients of that charity, those that had the greatest need or those who conformed to the moral template of the giver. This compounds inequality, and really we don't want to go there.
On the other side of Sunnybank my thoughts changed, as with the weather. It was raining when I left the office, but as I passed through Sunnybank it started to clear up, then it warmed up considerably. My moment of cat-based reminiscence passed, and I made my along the Ecclesall Road and then up through The Botanical Gardens. It was a pleasant wander out of the office and an opportunity to clear my head.
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