And when you open your handbag to find a pair of surgical rubber gloves (one of my Guineas has to have an antibiotic gel rubbed into her paw) and some syringes...now that really is a conversation killer.
I went to pull a pen out of the pen pocket in my work bag the other week only to pull out a syringe instead! I carried on as if this was perfectly normal and no-one said anything (to my face at least!)