"Ten pence should be enough," I said to beggar with whom was having discussion outside Brighton station.

"Not any more. It costs at least 20p to make a phone call - and that's before you've even said anything."

"I thought it was ten."

"No, no. You must have been using a mobile for the last two years. It went up a while ago. You need at least 20."

In case you're wondering, I was not trying to beat the beggar down to what I thought was a reasonable price for a phone call he claimed to need money to make - quite the opposite. It was me who needed the money and the man who looked as if all he possessed were the clothes he stood up in, a can of Red Bull and a Sainsbury's plastic bag, was trying to persuade me to walk off with sizeable portion of his day's takings.

At that moment, all I possessed where the clothes I stood up in (apart, of course, from the flat full of stuff and bank account full of (well more empty in fact) stuff, but I didn't have access to any of it. So, although technically the clothes I was wearing were not all I possessed, at that moment it felt like it), having mislaid (or had stolen) bag containing money, keys, phone - everything in fact. So, Red Bull with his plastic bag and pocket full of coins was at a bit of an advantage.

We'd entered into above conversation after my discovery of absence of bag with every thing in it and realisation that this meant I couldn't even get into home and would need to "phone a friend" who has spare keys, but didn't have any money to do so.

After a spot of unsuccessful begging on the station concourse, I was moved on so that I couldn't continue "hassling the customers" - i.e. asking a few well-heeled fellow commuters if they could spare ten pence for a phone call (which incidentally they couldn't.)

Anyway, beggars outside Brighton station, with whom I found myself huddled on rainy pavement, were much more sympathetic to predicament than above mentioned fellow commuters. After we'd all had a good old moan about how you couldn't bet on Brighton station any more, they asked me how much money I needed and we ended up having above conversation, at the end of which I was given 20p and returned to station to make phone call.

Not that I could find a phone there to make it. Haven't actually had to make a call from Brighton station for some time but still could have sworn there were some phones. But after spending a while looking, I couldn't find any and made the mistake of asking station officer, who a few moments earlier had moved me off the premises for hassling the customers with my threatening demands.

"Excuse me but I just wondered if you could please, possibly.... (it would be ever so kind if you could and I'd be grateful for the rest of my life, as long as I shall live), spare me just 10p for a phone call."

"I though I told you to get off the station premises," he warned. "There's a phone outside." So, it appears making phone calls is another thing which has recently been added to the list of things you are to allowed to do on Brighton station - the others being begging and being a pigeon.

Anyway, went outside, found a phone halfway down Queens Road and was nearing the front of the queue when I heard an irritatingly familiar mantra being chanted near my ear. "Spare any change for a phone call? Spare any change for a phone call?"