Favour proves to be quite challenging

Recently, I was asked to water a friend’s garden while they were away. Since they live in my neighbourhood, I swung by with Flossie on the way back from our morning walk.

I’d been given instructions on how to access the garden via a padlocked gate and an alley that ran along the back of a couple of neighbouring houses. 

Flossie and I ambled up to the gate to find a group of builders parked directly in front of it, unloading their van. Knowing myself well, I had a fleeting thought that I might struggle with the padlock.

And sure enough, I did.

After lining up the four digit code, I waited for it to spring open. 

It didn’t. 

I fumbled around, moving the numbers back and forth, trying to pull the padlock apart. I checked the code on my phone. It was correct. 

A builder asked me if everything was all right. For some reason, I said I was absolutely fine, thank you. Meanwhile, Flossie pulled on her lead and introduced herself to the men, one by one.

This wasn’t helpful.

After more fiddling and muttering, I had to admit that, in fact, I couldn’t open the padlock. One of them kindly assisted. It was surprisingly easy. Apparently, I should have pressed a button on the bottom of the padlock. 

I felt a little silly.

Once in the alley, we had to negotiate a fallen down wire fence from the adjacent garden and then another gate, this time a broken one, that needed lifting up carefully.

It was a relief when we finally reached our destination. The watering went without a hitch, thankfully. Flossie checked everything, wiped her nose on the glass back door as she tried to peer inside, and we left, renegotiating the broken gate and fencing on our way out.

The builders were still around and I managed to lock the padlocked gate with ease this time. 

I thanked them profusely as Flossie tried to climb into their van.

We were all firm friends now.

As published in the Bath Chronicle, 22 June 2023