The other day, having gone to meet G at work and walk home with her, I was standing outside of the shop munching on a decadent cheese and mushroom quiche, when a man approached me and asked for a donation to feed homeless men. I told him I had no cash, true, and he pulled out a portable card machine and said they take plastic. I was in one of the wealthiest areas of London with my mouth full of pastry that probably cost more than a full meal in other parts of the city and didn't have my defences up. I said OK, typed in 5 pounds and off he went. A minute later a very well dressed woman with a tiny drop-kick dog came up to me and said in a snarky voice, "He's Hare Krishna you know." Well I didn't know. But had I had time to look at the pamplet he'd given me I probably would have figured it out considering it said International Society of Krishna Consciousness on the cover. I remember the days of skinny bald guys in white robes asking for money. The first vegan restaurants. The fear of cults brainwashing the youth. They were rampant in my first years in Europe in the early'80s. In Amsterdam I stayed in a hostel on a barge run by Krishna. I remember thinking the food was awful it was so bland, especially after an evening of sitting around chanting and smoking...something. Any who. I guess the Krishna have gone all conventional and have given up the robes and the street chanting. But I looked it up and they do infact donate free meals to the homeless. In London it's 1,200 vegetarian meals a day. My 5 pounds was well spent. Take that snarky, snobby woman! It's warm and very blustery today with dark clouds scuttling overhead. I'm going to the supermarket to count the clueless, maskless people infecting the city. xxoo me