02.06.2006 08:00 - Another Day in The Cut-Throat World of Freelancing.
Years ago, I worked in Birmingham City Centre, long before its current regeneration. I worked in Smallbrook Queensway, so I was able to go down to the main shopping centre as was, before it was restructured to look like a Martian Colony.
Often, I would be confronted by one of the local homeless folk, either selling "The Issue" or just begging. The beggars would often be accompanied by a dog, whose job it was was to look miserable, cold and hungry, and break the hearts of the passers-by, who would then donate when they normally wouldn't have. One of these dogs, by far the most successful, was a greyhound, who had got the shivering, miserable look down to a T. This dog was extremely successful. So successful, in fact, that he freelanced. I saw this dog so often with different beggars that it couldn't have been any other way.
I believe the going rate was either two tins of pedigree chum or a bucket of Colonel Sanders.
