Early Risers.

[New Haven Neil]

Dry. Sunny. 6c. Bleah.

[Gwiwer]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

Sheesh, don’t British Councils get it? If you want people to do “X” then you make it easy to do “X”

I get that some areas are better-equipped than others to sort and manage recyclables. 
 

Upon the Hill of Strawberries we had two bins - one for waste and one for plastic and glass. Only petro-chemical engineers know for sure which plastics recycle and which don’t so we adopted the widely-held belief that crunchy plastic does not recycle - all the rest does. The “facility” can then sort what they want from what they don’t. 
 

Paper, card, garden waste etc all had to be taken to neighbourhood skip sites - ours was on the corner of the road - which were widely abused and fly-tipped because the council charged £70 to collect electricals and all other hard waste. £70!  No wonder folk just dumped it. 
 

Currently we are blessed with two bins again. Green for household waste, brown from garden waste. Glass goes in the black box, card in the orange bag, paper in tge blue bag, plastics and tins in the red bag and anything else (including tetrapaks which we use a lot of for Dr SWMBO’s almond milk and cranberry juice) has to be taken 15 miles to the recycling depot. 
 

That’s not such an easy system although fundamentally all that differs is the degree of pre-sorting. 
 

But when we go to fortnightly waste collections later in the year our green bin will be replaced with a black bin. Why?  They are the same size. Why?  Because someone somewhere decided that rubbish bins should be black. Cue a cash-strapped unitary council having to pay out for tens of thousands of new bins to replace an equal number of perfectly serviceable green bins. And where will the green bins go?  To recycling, of course. If you care to pop it in the back of your car and drive 15 miles …..  

 

In Australia household waste went in the green-lid bin and all recycling went in the yellow-lid bin. Garden waste was composted or fed to the chookens. 
 

Make it easy. Keep it easy. Oh - and where is the 50% reduction in that part of our Council Tax to match the 50% reduction in collection services?  No. It’s all going up by 5% which must surely be some sort of “shrinkflation” 

[Winslow Boy]

28 minutes ago, skipepsi said:

Yes I think I am there.

 

31 minutes ago, Gwiwer said:

Good morning from the Distant (Signal) West. A golden shiny thing rose from behind the carn and seems to have made all the small people very chattery on their way to school

 

Dr SWMBO was up at 4am due to being unable to sleep any longer.  She has kindly left me a pile of dishes and pans in the kitchen but tonight’s meal is already prepared. 
 

She also just asked me something as she read through her various pages of interest on the web. 
 

“What does it mean to abe?”  
 

“Abe?”

 

I peered over her shoulder. Her command of the language (though not its grammar) is as good as mine so I wondered what she had found. 
 

“Abe. A - B - E.  Like here where it says Jennifer was abed before anyone else in the house”.  What does “abe” mean. 
 

.

 

 

.

 

“It means she was in bed first……” 🤦‍♀️

“Were you mizzled by that?”

- “Mizzled”

-“as in misled” 

 

Welcome to Brain-dead Day

I think she might be going 'native' on yourrr. Might be worthwhile getting some lessons yourself young man.

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

There speaks a man with tongue in cheek 🤣

 

Collingwood are the butt of humour. And I have many more teeth and fewer mullets than their supporters do. 
 

 

 

 

 

Come on! You know the words - 

 

Good old Collingwood forever,
They know how to play the game.

Side by side we stick together,
To uphold the Magpies name.

See the barrackers a shouting,
As all barrackers should.

Oh, the premiership's a cakewalk,
For the good old Collingwood.

 

 

 

(Warning to  "professional"  prima donna soccer players  - contains scenes of  actual physical contact!) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited January 26 by monkeysarefun

[DaveF]

A fine sunny morning, I am off out for some fresh air.  

 

After that, who knows - but there are some things I "ought" to do.

 

David

[Winslow Boy]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Extreme weather antics today. At 6.30AM  it felt really sticky and awful when I went outside so I was surprised it was only 20 degrees, but then I  noticed the 97% humidity.  Around 11 or so a westerly wind hit and although the temperature was by then high 30's the dry desert wind had dropped the humidity to 17 and it felt a lot more comfortable.  Around 4 or so a Southerly change arrived, which brings cool moist air from the Pacific ocean  and it is now a comparatively chilly 24.

 

Traditionally when I'm stuck inside in the aircon I watch cold things on the telly, usually Scott Of The Antarctic, but I'd watched that only recently when it was 42 outside, so instead I pretended it was last winter and  in honour of Australia /Invasion/ whinging about it generally /  Day  I watched a replay of the 2023 AFL Grand Final.

 

What a game that was, one for the ages.   The  lead changed 10 times through the match. Name any other sport that has had ANY game change lead that many times, let alone a final..  (perhaps theres some NBA basketball play-off, or maybe a  Netball game...? one for ER sports expert @Ozexpatriate to put me right on!)

 

Even though @Gwiwer favourite team Collingwood ended up winning, you'd have to be an actual lemon to be bitter about it. 

 

Awesome  game, awesome sport - 5 stars!

 

 

 

 

I just noticed these cows across the back paddock. They  seem to be watching  some kind of  presentation or are having a meeting.

 

. Maybe it is a Cowmitteee meeting,  lol.

 

 

 

Perhaps they are being told about what the psychotic horses have been up to and will be voting on what to about it.

[Hroth]

5 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Perhaps they are being told about what the psychotic horses have been up to and will be voting on what to about it.

 

Perhaps they're in league with the psychotic horses....

 

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Gwiwer said:

In Australia household waste went in the green-lid bin and all recycling went in the yellow-lid bin. Garden waste was composted or fed to the chookens. 

 

 

Nothing much has changed. Vegetable and fruit scraps go to the red-back spider infested worm farm, meat scraps get fed to to the magpies and butcher birds, anything remotely recyclable like paper, cardboard , plastic and other recyclables all go into the bin With The Yellow Lid, though I leave cans and glass in a box beside the bin for the lady who comes around and  collects it to claim the deposit back to send  to the Koala Foundation.

 

Grass cuttings green waste  and leaves go  into the green bin which was here when I moved in in 1989 and is still going strong. All other rubbish goes into the red lidded smaller bin.

Edited January 26 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

7 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Perhaps they are being told about what the psychotic horses have been up to and will be voting on what to about it.

Jeez the place has  improved since they've  been gone. 

[Tony_S]

18 minutes ago, Winslow Boy said:

Perhaps they are being told about what the psychotic horses have been up to and will be voting on what to about it.

It is important to keep stakeholders informed. 

[monkeysarefun]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

It is important to keep stakeholders informed. 

 

 

Had you called them steakholders instead,, that would have been heartless and cruel..

Edited January 26 by monkeysarefun

[PhilJ W]

3 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

At least your council seems to have some semblance of common sense.
 

Sheesh, don’t British Councils get it? If you want people to do “X” then you make it easy to do “X”

 

Our local Gemeinde (council) has rubbish collection once a week; the rubbish is mixed (food, etc) and goes into a special yellow bag that you have to buy (I am assuming that the cost of each bag contributes to the cost of collecting and sorting the rubbish); paper is bundled and collected every two weeks (free of charge), garden waste is collected once a week (also free); cardboard is bundled and collected once a month (free); there are collection points for glass (by colour), aluminium and PET plastics scattered around the village (all easily accessible); scrap metal is collected twice a year (but can also be deposited at the recycling centre) and we have a recycling centre open 6 days/week for recycling anything. Most recycling is free, although there is a small charge for certain items that require special handling (like old paint and household chemicals).

 

Unsurprisingly fly-tipping is pretty much unknown.

Here we have a *black bin for general rubbish (landfill) emptied fortnightly. Also emptied fortnightly is an orange box for glass bottles and containers. All other waste is collected weekly, food waste has a separate sealable container. For other recycling we have reusable sacks which are rather like **oversize shopping bags, a blue one for card and paper and a white one for plastics, tinfoil and containers such as tetrapak. 

*This was the bin that they didn't empty.

** They are approximately 2 X 2 X 2 feet each and take up an enormous amount of space which in my house is limited.

[Andy Hayter]

4 hours ago, iL Dottore said:

At least your council seems to have some semblance of common sense.
 

Sheesh, don’t British Councils get it? If you want people to do “X” then you make it easy to do “X”

 

Our local Gemeinde (council) has rubbish collection once a week; the rubbish is mixed (food, etc) and goes into a special yellow bag that you have to buy (I am assuming that the cost of each bag contributes to the cost of collecting and sorting the rubbish); paper is bundled and collected every two weeks (free of charge), garden waste is collected once a week (also free); cardboard is bundled and collected once a month (free); there are collection points for glass (by colour), aluminium and PET plastics scattered around the village (all easily accessible); scrap metal is collected twice a year (but can also be deposited at the recycling centre) and we have a recycling centre open 6 days/week for recycling anything. Most recycling is free, although there is a small charge for certain items that require special handling (like old paint and household chemicals).

 

Unsurprisingly fly-tipping is pretty much unknown.

 

 

Not dissimilar here in France except no charge for paint and people are allowed, indeed encouraged, to take away the part full cans to redecorate for free.

 

The only downside is that there is just one recycle centre for  10 communes - small by population but huge by area.  So we frequently see things in the communal waste bins that could have been recycled.  As you say, make it easy.

 

 

à

[PhilJ W]

Morning all from Estuary-Land. Another good night, seven hours sleep with the usual four a.m. callout from bladder control. Wall to wall blue welkin this morning with only a light breeze. Problem is that means high pressure which encourages the arthritis, Nurofen has been taken. Not sure what I'm going to do today, probably very little. 

[PhilJ W]

Oops, I nearly forgot at one time the council collected garden waste for free in a green wheelie bin. Now they charge an annual fee but they didn't collect the wheelie bins, just left them with the residents. I wasn't bothered by this as I composted or recycled my garden waste anyway. I now use the green bin for prunings and other stuff for the shredder that likes things to be dry. 

[southern42]

' morning all from red dragon land.

4.2C. Dry, sunny day so that should put me in a good mood!

 

Really?

Some SNN (scintillating news not)

18 hours ago, southern42 said:

Also in the headlines - another pair of base layer leggings...so small it might fit a stick girl. Now, it said size "M" and according to the "size guide" I was between sizes so I ordered the larger one. I hate to think what critter the smaller size would fit. Return awaiting.

 

Better luck, I hope, has arrived in the form of two cotton shirts both in the larger of two sizes. I shall try them on when the appropriate mood comes over me (the price had come down by 25%, so I was delighted that I had taken so long to decide to buy them, and delivery was free).

 

Two shirts - one is just right and feels lovely and soft. The other would fit a well fed mammoth! One to be returned! Both sporting the "M" size. It begs the question, "Why not get it from the store?" From my little experience, when I have returned catalogue/web items to store, it turned out they did not actually stock it in the store! This particular supplier is postal/carrier return only.

 

A few jobs to do and a toot on the flute (and maybe go for a short walk?) before giving a new home to this afternoon's C&C groceries. So, I had better geronwivit.

 

Take care. Be good. Have a rant free day.

Polly

 

[jjb1970]

Waste here is part of the utility service and nothing to do with the government, the fee is part of our electricity and water account. I think it's a much better arrangement, they come every day, we just have general waste and recyclables though public bins have a higher degree of segregation. Being a chargeable service as part of the utility service means they're not constantly arguing over resources and jockeying for funds with every other local government service. 

[RobAllen]

Today, I'm rearranging travel as the railway company has emailed me to confirm that I'm affected by the strikes.

[monkeysarefun]

9 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

Waste here is part of the utility service and nothing to do with the government, the fee is part of our electricity and water account.

 

 

Can I ask who are you paying to supply those services - is it some body corporate that runs the building you live in?

Edited January 26 by monkeysarefun

[Robert]

3 hours ago, Barry O said:

We seem to be missing even more ERs at the moment. @polybear, @PupCam, @zarniwhoop@Grizz, @Robert, @andyram, @NGT6 1315 along with several other more long term non attendees.  I hope they are all well.

 

 

 

I'm around - just not very vocal!

[jjb1970]

1 minute ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Who are you paying to supply those services - is it some body corporate that runs the building you live in?

 

We are in a landed house so it is SP (Singapore Power), in condo and HDB blocks it is part of the service charge. Actually, I am wrong to say nothing to do with government as in our area it is SP Power which is the state owned utility company. However, it is a standalone company charging for the services it provides so immune to the sort of budget wrangling we get in the UK as local government agencies fight and councils are limited by what they can levy in council tax.

[jjb1970]

In condo and HBD blocks the management committee will look for a contractor, in condos waste collection can be several times a day and contractors will put mini depots nearby to manage the load.

[monkeysarefun]

6 minutes ago, jjb1970 said:

 

We are in a landed house so it is SP (Singapore Power), in condo and HDB blocks it is part of the service charge. Actually, I am wrong to say nothing to do with government as in our area it is SP Power which is the state owned utility company. However, it is a standalone company charging for the services it provides so immune to the sort of budget wrangling we get in the UK as local government agencies fight and councils are limited by what they can levy in council tax.

 

 

Never trust a government that tells you to sell off the power or the water " because it will be cheaper. "

 

Our nationalised power grid went to the private sector following one state election a while ago, but plans by the same bunch to privatise water got abandoned after publicity of the UK experience, so thank you all for taking one for the team!

[Gwiwer]

1 hour ago, monkeysarefun said:

Good old Collingwood forever,
They know how to play the game.

Earworm 

 

🥵

[jjb1970]

The whole government - business model and relationship between government and society is very different here. In some ways it's better than Britain, others less so. Despite being much more about 'Singapore plc' and pulling for the national team, social protection is nothing like as good as the UK. Healthcare is world class and makes the NHS look second rate but it is private with state regulated insurance. There are polyclinics for those in need but if you rely on polyclinics it's a bit like the NHS with waiting for treatment. The place has been (in my view) accurately described as a benign authoritarian state. The down sides to that are pretty easy to spot, the upsides are that everything works, it's clean, safe and efficient and as long as you don't break the rules in some ways people face less interference in their lives than in Britain.