Richard - hair cutter or raconteur?

What a fascinating hour I have just spent in the company of my hair cutter, Richard. The things I have learned and which I shall be delighted to pass on. A couple struck home in the light of my conversation with Dave, pest controller extraordinaire: one, that apparently (and this has been verified by others) you can deter foxes from visiting your home by pouring(?) fermented male pee on the area that they like to pee on. Apparently they can't abide the smell - but then who could?

For those who are plagued by foxes however, I would suggest giant mothballs - I have tried them myself and it is possible that they work. Or rush outside the moment they have made their pong and wash it away with strong smelling detergent (a smell which is, I think, more forgiving than fermented male urine).

Secondly, that cows (ok, not vermin but still annoying animals who get in your way) cannot walk backwards.

Apart from these two fascinating facts I learned that if you have a horrible disease where the gungy stuff that makes your lungs elastic gets infected so they are no longer elastic, you will be saved by someone plunging a knife into your lungs! The amazing thing about this is is that this happened to Richard when he was 20 (apparently he has the scars to prove it, but he didn't show me and to be honest I did want him to concentrate on my hair so I wasn't too bothered) and yet Camilla and I had witnessed the exact same procedure in the last episode of Robin Hood! And we had pooh poohed it as being ridiculous and yet just two days later Richard proved that it was a verifiable medical procedure. Coincidence, or what?

I wouldn't go so far as to place Richard on the jewel scale amongst hairdressers but he has done my hair nicely and was very amusing about the foxes and riveting about his personal health, so the hour in his company passed easily. Good old Richard.