Miss Hap wanted to go into town today as she was pretty fortunate in getting some money for her birthday. We still had one of her friends with us from last night’ s sleepover, and off we all headed off.

As is the norm, we headed straight for Starbucks when we got there, which was packed, as it was mid-morning. The girls went in to get the drinks whilst myself and Mr Grump tried to find a table outside. We ended up sharing a table with a young woman as it was so busy. The girls of course, did not want to be seen with us so they sat inside.

Directly opposite us, a few feet away, UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party) had set up a small stall. As we are voting in the General Election in less than a week. some of the candidates are still trying to persuade as many people as they can to vote for them.

They had a load of balloons tied to their stall, leaflets to give to the public, and cardboard placards with information on for those that were interested. Their actual candidate wore a rumpled  cream suit, and there were a couple of older women there giving out leaflets to passers-by. An old man hunched over, and a rather heavy-set middle-aged man were also milling about.

I didn’t really pay that much attention to them as I talked to Mr Grump, but a couple of ‘bangs’ had me looking over in that direction. Some gangly young man decided that he would enjoy himself by popping the balloons and knocking down the placards. Crumpled suit was nowhere in sight, but the old guy was straight in there pushing and shoving the young one around and getting irate. It looked as though he was going to swing for him and do himself an injury, as he was pretty unsteady on his feet.

Sensing a bit of action might take place, the heavy-set man waddled over and started wading in. From out of nowhere another youngish man joined them who was wearing a natty suit and tie. He too was trying to talk the youth out of destroying the stall, as it appeared that the young man objected to UKIP’s policies and he decided that it would be a good idea to show his displeasure by trashing the stall!

What made me laugh though, was it turned out that the man in the suit that had come over, was actually one of the ‘Green Party’ who had set their stall up a few feet further down the road. He had seen the disturbance, and thought that it would be a great opportunity for him to go over and persuade the balloon popper to vote for his party instead!

Talk about making the most of an opportunity!