Hello! Hi there! What ho!

I like to greet folk when I am 'oot an' aboot' and so does Gail.

Whether we're visiting the park, strolling by the river, having fun at the beach or a-roaming in the hills, wherever we are, you'll get a cheery 'hello' from Gail and a friendly sniff and a tail wag from me.

Nothing unusual about this, at least in Scotland, and our salutations are most usually acknowledged and met with one of the following weather-related responses:

"Beautiful weather today!" (Meaning the sun actually shone at some point in the last three hours).
"Nae such a bad day" (i.e. it's not actually raining, although it might be freezing cold with a gale force wind).
"They say it'll be better later in the week"(i.e. no redeeming aspects to current conditions).

It is true that, especially in the early mornings, a percentage of the humans we encounter will be striding along on Planet Headphone, but they are very much in the minority (and of course you don't get this with dogs).

Well all this preamble is by way of explaining how shocked we were to learn that there is currently a campaign exhorting visitors to the South Downs National Park to say hello to one another when they cross paths in this beautiful region of Southern England.

Yes really! See the poster below:

The video which forms part of the campaign is downright weird. Although I must say I did enjoy the bit at around 1 min 56 seconds..



What's odd too is that I'm sure people from that part of the world are nice and don't need lessons in treating each other well. My beloved late Human Grandad came originally from Sussex, and he would never fail to offer a polite 'good day' to a passer by, and if she were a lady, to touch his cap.