The Wheelie Bin Saga

We have rather a lot of bins.

- A grey wheelie bin, for general rubbish
- A green wheelie bin, for garden waste
- A black wheelie bin with a blue lid, for cardboard and recyclable plastic
- A black box, for newspaper, glass and tins.

Which is a bit irritating, as there is nowhere to keep any of them except on the street in front of the houses, and there is not really enough space for 3 big bins. I was able to get smaller bins for the grey and green ones, but they don't offer smaller ones for the recycling (and really, who produces 240 litres of cardboard and plastic a fortnight?)

ANYWAY, in January, the bin-men broke the lid of my blue-lidded bin.

"No Problem", I thought. "Wiltshire Council has a handy on-line form you can complete to report such things, and they will then replace or repair your bin."

I filled in the form, and received an acknowledgment, which warned that it might take 21 days to replace/repair a bin.

Time passed. No new bin appeared.

More time passed. No new bin appeared.

Even more time passed..

In March, I sent a further mail to the council. Maybe council-days are longer thn normal ones, and "up to 21 days" really means "2 months or more"

I got a response. It seems that my original request had been cast into a deep pit of forgetfulness. But they were very sorry and I would get a new bin within 21 days.

Time passed (again). No new bin appeared.

More Time passed. No new bin appeared.

About 5 weeks after my second request, a brand new black recycling box appeared.

For reference, what I needed was a 240 litre wheelie bin. What I got was a 55 litre box, to replace the completely undamaged and usable box I already had.

I e-mailed the council again. I'm on first name terms with Jonathan in the waste and recycling department, now. He seems nice.

He apologizes. He will  try to sort things out. He warns me that it may take up to 21 days for my new wheelie bin to be provided...

Today, (a mere 121 days after my original request) I looked out of my window to see a crew of council workers removing my old, damaged bin and delivering a new one!

And then, about 90 minutes later, a second crew turned up, with another shiny new bin. I saw them standing outside trying to see how my bin was damaged, and I was only just in time to stop them taking the new one away (I mean, I hadn't had time to get attached to it, but I had stuck some sticky numbers on it to identify it as mine, and I should hate for it to be rejected so early in it's career.

The only thing is.... someone stole my recycling box yesterday, so I've just reported that and requested a new one.

I've got an e-mail back from the council.

They say it may take up to 21 days to replace my recycling box......

Bleugh

I've been feeling grumpy. I've not been well this week, and  I'm bored with it.

If it's been a cold, it's a really vicious bugger. If its flu, it's a really mild dose. Plus, as long as I do absolutely nothing (and keep a supply of lemsip and a bunch of tissues handy) I mostly feel OK, so I also feel like a bit of a malingerer for not being able to do anything more.

But it's meant I couldn't go to Rye last week to see the Dave McKean exhibition, I had to miss 3.5 days of work this week, and today I managed to get to the library but was then too exhausted to do anything else, so I didn't go to see Joe Abercrombie or Moira Young, both of whom were here signing today. Although the new library is nice. I'm not entirely sure why they were large numbers of people wearing khaki shorts and false moustaches wandering around the library but there were also a LOT of children (and I'm pretty sure that the Gruffulo was actually there, and not an hallucination caused by my low grade fever) which is all good. Kids having fun in libraries is a good thing.

In Which There is Marmalade, Insurance and Meh

It is marmalade season again, so on Saturday morning I ventured out in search of the elusive seville orange. They aren't always easy to find, but happily I managed to track some down, and bought around 5lbs, which ought to let me make a decent amount of marmalade, once I summon up the energy to do all the necessary chopping and squeezing. I think I had fewer oranges last year, and as I recall it took a looong time.

Unfortunately I sem to have aquired one of the many nasty bugs going around - I have a head  chest cold, but mostly the evil little thing  LURKS, so I keep thinking I'm getting better, then when I do something (you know, like getting dressed, or going to work) it turns out that actualy, I'm not better at all. I just FELT better temporarily becasue I wasn't doing anything. Which sucks.

Luckily, if I don't get to the point of being able to make the marmalade within a reasonable time, I shall be able to freeze the oranges until I'm feeling better. (Since the oranges will be juiced, and the peel boiled to make itt soft, the fact the the freezing will make the oranges go soft is, if anything, a benefit rather than a disadvantage.) but that does not stop it being irritating.

The other (also irritating) think which has been occupying my time is the car insurance. As I mentioned on my last post, the time has come around for renewal - my existng  insurers sent me renewal documents with a bill for renewal which equates to an increase on last year's premium of almost 40%.  Now, I was expecting an increase, as I'm aware that insurance premiums generally have gone up, but that seemed to me to be taking the mickey in a big way. Shopping around, the lowest quote I found was 20% LOWER than my last year's premium (so about £150 cheaper than thier renewal) and although I haven't gone for that one, I have found a quote which costs just £20 more than I paid last year (and , as it turns out, has slightly lower excesses than either last year's insurance, or this year's renewal)  But I resent having to spend so long ploughing through
quotes, and the greed, and complete lack of any concept of rewarding  customer loyalty which makes it necessary. Grrrr.

Oh, and did I mention having to go through my tax return to send that back? It really does make for a fun week. *sigh*. The last thing I want to know is how much of my money  have to give to the government so they can piss about spending it on MPs second homes, and on endless rebrands, and tax breaks for rich doners, and legislation to reduce civil rights and court cases to defend doing those things, and wars we should never have countenanced, while at the same time refusing to pay for essentials stuff like schools and libraries and legal aid and support for the most vulnerable in society, or anything else which might make for a better, or more equitable society. Paying tax is never going to be fun, but  paying to watch things being torm apart REALLY sucks.

*sigh*

Rant over.

General Round Up

Dear me, no blogging for a week. I have been slack.

On the other hand, there has not been a lot to blog about. Its been a bit of a frustrating week at work, one way or another - the way when you have one thing which goes wrong, or one client weho is difficult, you suddenly have 2 or 3 more.

This weekend I had been planning to go to London to see Bitter Ruin - I have seen them before - they opened for EvelynEvelyn back in April, and Cheryl and I went to see them when they played in Bath in June.

When the tickets went on sale for this tour, I bought a ticket for the Friday night (as that was origianlly the onlt show within a distance I could get to) then when they added an extra show on Saturday I bought a ticket for that instead as it is easier to do these things on weekends. - However, I came to realise that it really wasn't going to be  practical to go. I was too tired, feeling too run down, and the logistics (I had inadvertently booked myself in for a flu jab on Saturday morning, which I couldn't reschedule as my GP's surgery does them on designated days and this was the last one) plus to cost of travelling up etc. meant it just wasn't going to work out.

On the plus side, I was able to find someone else who could use each of the tickets, so at least they didn't go to waste.  And given how much timme I have spent either sleeping, or curled up on the sofa this weekend, I am sure it was the right decision, but I am sorry I  missed seeing them.

As I found myself in town to get my flu jab, I did do a little shopping, and found a couple of shirts and a coat, all on sale, and also picked up 4 new books, 2 of which are definitely going to be Christmas gifts, and the other 2 may be (I bought them with other people in mind but would rather like to keep them...)

Things I hoped to get done but didn't (once I had resigned myself to not going to London) included making and freezing food for next weekend, when I have guests coming, and going to the framers to get my 'How to Talk to Girls at Parties' print and my 'Billy Bones' illustration, framed. Oh well. Soon.

I kind of hoped that some housework would get done, too. Sadly the houswork fairies seem sadly delinquent at present.

Bleugh

I was planning to do a round up of what I have been reading recently, and my plans, but the cold I brought back from Ireland has turned nasty, and so I have mostly been curling up in bed with hot drinkks and honey and a warm cat.

I made it out of the house once over the weekend, to send a parcel, and to pop into the bank.

Except on Saturday night, when I was woken by shouting and bangs and unexpected lights, and what turned out to be a  fire, and subsequently two large fire engines, outside in the street.

It seems that the fence to one of the neighbouring houses (about 4 doors away) caught fire.

 I am going to take a wild guess and say it had help, as given it was so wet on Saturday morning I was seriously considering whether I shoud start building an ark, I very much doubt that spontaneous combustion was to blame..

I am hoping the week will improve.

Hello? Is anyone still here?

I've been a bit lax about blogging recently. Sorry.

Mostly because there hasn't been much going on since I got back from my parents. This week in particular has been not a lot of fun - I had to see a doctor on Monday (to be examined for a report, relating to the RTA I was in last May), then on Tuesday I had to see the dentist, for a regulat checkup. That made be nervous - I have always been scared of dentists - weak teeth + a heavy-handed and impatient dentist as a child, made worse by an incompetent dentist and some root canal work as a student, but I have to say my current dentist is very nice. Having (touch wood) now not had any problems for several years, I am gradually getting better at not panicking.

I didn't get given a sticker to say I had well cared-for teeth, or that I was good at the dentist, though. Most unfair. The 7 year old ahead of me did, and I thought age-discrimination was supposed to be illegal now! But I am over it now. Honest.

I am disappointed about this weekend. I have a ticket for Bill Bailey's solo show, in London this sunday, but I now don't see how I can go. My original plan was to go, get the last train home (which would be just about do-able, and would get me back home by about 2 a.m), then take Monday morning off work to sleep. Now? It seems I shall have to be in court on Monday morning, and I just don't think it will be practical. *sigh*.


Next week should be more fun, however, at least once I get to Wednesday. (Tuesday, I have partners meetings and reviews at work) On Wednesday, I will be going to see Bitter Ruin in Bath, with Cheryl, then on Thursday I am going to see Twelfth Night. I'm looking forward lots to both.

And until then, I have a copy of Stories with a new story from Neil Gaiman, and one from daian Wynne Jones, and one from Joe Hill, and a whole lot of others, so I'm happy.