"Excuse me, Miss..."

(Damn it. I knew I shouldn't have made eye contact and SMILED - wtf?? - at the very scary looking homeless guy as his head rose out of the rubbish bin outside the office). I tried to look away quickly, but he was on to me.

"Before you just say no, can I please ask if you have any change? It's not for drugs (yeah, right). My friend and I need to get five pounds together so we can sleep in a hostel tonight. It's so, so cold."

Damn it again. It was cold. So cold, in fact, that i had a good 3mm covering of ice on my windshield this morning. So cold (and still dark - sun rise was at 7.36am today) that every time I breathed in it felt like I was inhaling glass. The poor, wretched man was filthy. Dirt so ingrained in his hands and around his nails that would have required a chemical peel and bleach to remove. To be honest, he didn't look like a user. His eyes were bright. He was lucid, well mannered and articulate although most of his teeth were missing and the few that were left were the colour of dark chocolate. The smell was incredible. It made my eyes water but I couldn't let it show - the man was rock bottom, and to make him feel lower would be inhumane. I rooted through my handbag, hoping that I had sized this guy up correctly - there were a few people walking down the street, but not many and it was still dark. I finally found my purse and tipped out all the money I had in to his hand. He stared at it for a second, his eyes growing wide.

"You're an angel, Miss," he said as he turned around and walked off. "You're an angel."