John Pilgrim: Premium bonds will always be a winner

IT is 54 years since Premium Bonds were launched in this country and I purchased three of the things during the first week.

To this day I haven’t won a single thing and I am thinking of asking for my money back. It’s the same with the lottery, two people won something like a £100million recently and I haven’t won so much as a quid.

My neighbour regularly wins £10 or more on the lottery so it can’t be anything to do with post codes can it? Maybe it’s something I said but I am really thinking of packing it all in – except that I keep on thinking that if I do that I will never know if I would have won. That’s what they are counting on!

We were discussing this and other subjects during the course of dog walking last week. I use the word ‘we’ because our group is growing larger by the month and we find that having a chat and putting the world to rights saves our legs but gives the dogs plenty of exercise.

The Apple Lady suffered another blow to the head recently when a cooking apple struck her on the head whilst she was attempting to shake apples off a tree. The problem is that there are so many apple trees in and around the parks and woods where we live and Henry, her dog, enjoys a good apple. He shows no interest in a ball but will happily chase a Cox’s Orange Pippin for miles.

And it doesn’t stop there because Ellie the Apple Lady’s other dog has taken to rolling in fox poo so is now called ‘Smelly Ellie’.

It’s great to meet up with these folk on a regular basis because it makes you realise that there are plenty of simple pleasures left in this old world and having a good natter is one of them.

The dogs seem to enjoy it too, we don’t have too many barking matches and if we do it is nearly always over a ball or an apple in Henry’s case.

Recently we were sitting on a fence and chin-wagging away when I noticed that Henry had my Gemma’s ball in his mouth. I turned away and kept on chatting to the gang until a movement caught my eye.

Gemma had run off and returned with an apple and was now standing in front of Henry with it in her mouth. I watched as she dropped it in front of Henry and as the soft dog dropped the ball to pick up the apple my spaniel grabbed the ball and ran off! How cool is that?

All in all having Gemma is better than winning that blooming old Premium Bond thing.

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