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Jags of Route 79 is talking about greener Brent. I thought it would be the perfect opportunity to talk about our local council's garbage collection and recycling arrangements. I live on the border of 2 councils. I don't mean border as in estate agents 3 miles down the road boarder to make it sound like a nicer area. I mean the border is were the pavement end and the front garden begins. This means that I have a postal address in 1 council and I pay my council tax in another. It is a lot of fun when applying for planning permission because generally each council will be sending the application back and forth to each other until I pick the phone and state to my council that if they don't want to deal with it then could they please refund my council tax. Anyway I digress. As far as rubbish collection is concern there are 2 a week in the street. One by the council I pay tax to for the one side of the road and another the day before by the other council for the other side of the road... utter madness. Accross the road they have green boxes which take paper, glass, cardboard and metal and are emptied every week. On our side of the road we have boxes where we can only put paper and which are collected on given dates. I think they sent us a schedule once, but as I am the sort of person who forget that it's the day my child is meant to go to school in costume or mufti or that it's Inset day, what do you think the chances are that I'll remember to put the stupid box out. And let's face it, what is the point of them spending time and energy collecting if I still have to make a trip to the bottle bank ? Him Indoors tends to stop on his way to rugby training so he does not make a journey especially for it but that is not the point is it ? You see recycling appeals to my hoarding nature. It's hoarding with a clear concience because you throw away without the guilt of wasting. I like it. Unlike Brent our council does not feel there is a need for wheelie bins so unless you want the contents of your bins spread accross the road you need to double bag anything which may appeal to foxes which means I occasionally have to say yes to plastic bags in shops even though I only use them to through them away in some landfill site. Accross the road, the council subsidises compost bins (We got one free when I lived with Kim in the other borough) and organisies meeting about the best way to make compost out of your peelings and garden refuse. You can also take your garden refuse to a bit at the tip where they make compost. On our side of the road they will give you a discount on composts bins and a leaflet. They will also sell you green bags for garden refuse and you can if you want buy the compost they made from your weeds (for a fee). We put away paper, cardboard, tins and glass because I got into the habit when we had a green box and it's hard to get out of. We compost our kitchen waste (minus meat or fish for obvious reasons) because you can never have too much compost, it takes a lot of room in the bin and I hate having to cahnge the bag and there is nowhere obviuos to store extra bags until the next collection and last but not least, without most kitchen wast bins smell an awfull lot less. We worked out once that if there was a container somewhere which took plastic packaging and tetrapacks we would probably only have 1 standard supermarket carrier's worth of rubbish to go out a week. Why is it those are recycled where my parents live but not here ? One thing I don't get though is the people who live in the house opposite ours. They never have less than 3 bin bags a week out on the pavement yet they have the same size household as us. How do they manage it ? |
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17.2.04 00:16 |
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I'd rather go to the dentist.
Constance the lovely au-pair will be leaving us at the beginning of April (nothing we have done, honest, she just has to re-sit some exams and validate some work experience stuff). Anyway, it means we are back in looking for suitable childcare territory. I suppose I could do what I normally do about things that need sorting out ie procrastinate and hope everything will sort itself out when the deadline hits me in the face. Unfortunately it is just not an option with childcare (too scary an option - it would send me to an early grave). I have asked around and nobody knows anybody who would do. Childminders around here are way out of my price range as for nannies well I ain't related to that nice millionaire Paul Daniels and cannot offer wages, national insurance contributions, a flat a car and other fringe benefits. I have put our name down with an agency and we have been receiving emails from potential candidates. I showed Constance the picture of one of them. The poor chap looked just like a serial killer (child quote of the day "Is that somebody who kills cereals ?"). Another one from Estonia only asked one quesstion: how much do you pay ? Doing it for the love of children and to improve her English obviously. I have just sent an email back to a girl in the States. Not sure she is quite right for us as she came accross as a Duracell bunny hooked to a 12V battery and was very keen to stress how devoted a christian she was but since she sounded the sanest of the lot, I took a gamble. Will see if her follow up e-mail is in the same vein. Which me luck. |
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20.2.04 00:20 |
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How do you know I was bored at work today
Because I had loads of fun playing with the following. They really appealled to the born cynic in me: Michael Howard sings The Smiths Alastair Campbell's wheel of retribution I also made my representation in lego thanks to reasonably clever's mini-mizer Here it is...
Him Indoors thinks it is uncanny. Shame I could not give it high heels and a V neck. |
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20.2.04 22:02 |
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How was Winchester ?
It was cold. I am not a person who gets cold easily. I did not need the electrical heater which was offered to me at work last year when the central heating broke down and this year my colleague K (similarly hot blodded) and I have been known to open windows only to be called freaks of nature by people entering our office. But today I was cold and I was not the only one. The last time I felt that cold was when Him Indoors thought it would be ok to sleep in a tent in Wales in May and because I am normally the one who is always warm I drew the short straw and got the manky old, thin sleeping bag. I found out today the reason why England occasionally does badly at rugby was revealed. Rugby mums and dads can be half hearted supporters when the tempreature drops and the wind picks up. I did feel some guilt when I wished my child's team would not make it past the first round because I was frozen to the core until later, I overheard a rugby mum say in the ladies that she was considering offering her child money so his team would not make it to the semi-finals. I was told by a rugby dad that his child team were "doing apallingly, unfortunately not apallingly enough" as he was chivering in his Barbour and wellies (by the way I had not seen so many Barbours, wellies and Land Rovers since I left Lincolnshire). The boys were having a great time running around and ignoring the coaches shouts of "put your coats back on" between games. Little boys are made of tougher stuff than their mummies. Our team's rugby dads were having fun passing the ball and playing "got you fatso" in between games. I took solace in the lovely warm clubhouse where I warmed myself up with a Pride (I had drunk all the tea in the flask and The Boy had beaten me to the hot chocolate flask). The barmaid asked one of the rugby dads if he wanted his Guiness normal or extra cold and was met with a "If I want it extra cold, I'll just put it oustide for 30 seconds, right now I'll have it as warm as you can make it". The under 7's team managed to make it past the 1st round despite being beaten by Farnham and the boys, mums and dads were extatic. I suppose by then our brains were frozen and delirium had set in. I'll finish with a pearl of wisdom from a nice rugby mum. "When I have trouble putting photos of fixtures in order I just look at the mums on the touch line. At the begining of the season we all make a bit of an effort to look half decent. By the end we just throw anything on as long as it's warm" - spot on.
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22.2.04 21:24 |
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Did anybody watch that "I got conned and live to regret it" programme last night
I think it was actually called something like trapped in the sun. I happened onto it while zapping and could not bear to watch more than a few minutes of it. I always thought I was mellowing with age. I was wrong since within 30 seconds I was shouting words to the effect of "duh you dipstick have you never heard that if it sounds to goo to be true then it probably is" and things like "of course when you decide to go and set up a business abroad, in which you want to sink your life savings the best way to go about it is to A) not bother to learn the language of the country you want to start your business in B) not have a clue about the rules and regulation in said country C) realising the shortcomings of your local knowledge it is then a brilliant idea to do away with any legal and translation help when dealing with business transactions. Why do they think that something which they would not attempt in England without careful planning and advice will be a breeze when they do it in a country and a language they are unfamiliar with. I quickly switched again when I go to the house with no connection to the sewage mains as I just wanted to put my hands through the TV and grab the couple by the shoulder to shake them violently. They bought a house for £8,000 and took the agent's word that nothing was wrong with it. If they had been in the UK they would have ordered a survey (at least a basic one) before parting with their cash - why did they not do it because it was abroad. After all if you get such a "bargain" you should not ming too much paying for at least a basic survey to be able to forecast/budget what you will need to spend in the foreseeable future. I could bear it no longer, just had to change channel. |
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25.2.04 20:56 |
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Transmitting values
Purple Pen's post on practical and theoretical parenting has struck a chord. My style of parenting owes more to Lois of Malcolm in the Middle than Mary Poppins I'm afraid. Then again it works fro me and The Boy and like Princess Fairy Toes I am given many opportunities to feel smug. It may all fall appart in a few years when the raging hormones kick in but in the meantime I am transmitting him values which I hold dear. I feel I am raising a cynic. He got the message fairly young about the use of cartoon character on packaging. I could not face a lifetime of pester power in the supermarket so when he asked for Thomas The Tank Engine cheese which I knew he would not like I explained that the brighter and more elaborate the packaging (especially if it uses cartoon character or famous people as a prop) the more likely it was that it did not taste very nice or was not very good for you and that if it was very nice it would not need the nice packaging to attract attention and sell. He still wanted it. I said he could have the Thomas cheese if he wanted but he would have to eat it all as I would not buy the one he liked until the Thomas box was finished as wasting food is wrong. We agreed, the deal was done, he still wanted the cheese. It was painful to watch him eat the stuff which he clearly disliked and turned down repeatedly. I did eventually cave in and threw the last few portions in the compost bin but he has never asked for character branded food again. The latest lesson was about those magazines which come with a part of a model or a collection or other. I saw him looking quite intensely at the advert and broke the charm (heartless person that I am). I spelt it out "you see, there is some writting in little letters at the bottom of the picture during the advert, what it says is that only the first issue is cheap, after that they are £5 each and there are 52 copies to get the complete set, that makes it more than £250 to get the set and that's a lot of money to pay for a plastic train set. For that amount of money you can get loads of extra bits for the train set you already have plus quite a few books about trains. Which do you think is nicer ? And why do you think that the writting which gives you what you really need to know is in small letters ?" Oh dear, no such thing as an inocent childhood any more, well not in my house anyway. |
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25.2.04 21:20 |
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Day 4 of the non shopping week and still holding
Like Adrian I fill up my cupboards with food in the unlikely event of a major disaster. No I have never been starved in my life but it makes me feel better to know everything is there just in case. I had never realised just how much food I kept though until now. On Saturday, Him Indoors made the most of an "up" mood on my part and filled my car to the brim with junk for the tip (things like the old avocado toilet which used to grace the upstairs WC). Unfortunately by the time I had finished weeding the front garden, the clouds had moved in and I lost whatever energy I had. I thought I would just do it later until it was too late. I remebered I needed to go shopping on Monday but could not as the junk was still in the car and decided to see if we could make it untill next Saturday before I go to the supermarket. So far so good. I have managed to feed us but I am now resorting to looing in the recipe books for ideas as I am missing a few of the ingredients for the old favourites. Monday we had Pea and lettuce soup, smoked mackerel salad and bread and butter pudding (there go the last of Him Indoors' bread and the last 2 eggs). Tuesday we had chicken in a korma sauce with rice (which I have finally learned how to cook thanks to K who is a star !) and spicy cabbage and carrots, fruit coktail for pud. By the way Him Indoors always claimed I my family was the only one where children fought over who did not get a fair share of the grapes and cherries. I now know it has to be a lie or at least a more common argument than he thinks since tesco's have added "improved - with more grapes and cherries" on the label. Today a modified version of Hugh Farnley Whittingstall's half the garden soup (there goes the last tin of tomatoes, the beetroots and the last carrots) with some part baked baguettes (we ran out of bread flour so no more Him Indoors bread), tinned peach crumble (no more eggs) and custard. It's getting more difficult. I had never realised who much our meals revolved around eggs, vegetables and fruit. Tomorrow I might try tuna & cauliflower cheese (I am sure I have seen tiny bits of Red Leicester, Lancashire and mature Cheddar lurking in the cheese drawer of the fridge). Friday, well Friday is another day as Scarlett may have said. |
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25.2.04 21:54 |
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