Curiosity gets the better of most of us, ours was fired by noticing that as folk used the shortcut they would stop off at the pile of rubbish and have a bit of a poke about in it and end up taking something away with them. Not wanting to loose out in any way, Bill, my dear husband, decided it was time to take a look and took the wheel barrow with him. He came back with a barrow load of paving (mostly broken but good for his purposes, which deserves a blog all to itself at a later date) and a quite large pale blue plastic object which I am currently choosing to ignore.
So with all this interest you'd think the pile would get smaller, but no, it started to gain objects, notably a ghastly yellowy cream leather sofa. I can see why anybody with any taste would want rid of this abomination, my sympathies are with the owners, this was obviously a terrible purchasing error they are so ashamed of that a new tip so close by meant they could heave it over the back fence in the dead of night and no one would need to know.
Half term is upon us, a pile of rubbish with a sofa on top is attracting a lot of attention from local children and a few we've never seen before. OK, so now the pile is going down, but is spreading out, and bits of it are starting to appear in the road, not good, but even worse, the sofa is still there and they have begun to decorate it. I'm sure I didn't know words and symbols like that when I was their age.
Time I made a phone call... Another small aside, when I left school at the age if fifteen in 1966 I managed to get a place with the GPO as a trainee telephonist, £2.17s.16d per week rising to £3.10/- after training, which lasted six weeks after which I was handed a certificate of sorts and a job on an old PBX exchange in West London with dolls eyes and jack plugs. We were using dials and pressing button A back then, STD had still to come. I only lasted six months, it was 1966 for Christ sake, there were a lot better thing to do in West London than dial numbers for other people, but my training left me with a 'telephone voice' which I have to this day.... Phone call made.
I'm guessing that Mouth Almighty's call was of the aggressive kind, as that seems to be his favourite form of communication, or possibly the only one he knows. I opted for a different approach. After being transferred to 'environment' after being sent to 'highways' after starting out at 'human resource' [I did question that one] I spoke to a very timid sounding young woman who must be in the wrong job if the sharp intake of breath when I started to explain the tipping problem was anything to go by. Ploughing on, I took the health and safety route and said I was concerned about the fact that it was half term, there were kids crawling all over the tip, there was broken glass and other sharp objects in the pile and then I dropped in a the two points which probably sparked them into action. Dogs and rats.
We are blessed with numerous free roaming dogs, admittedly most of them are quite old, all of them harmless. They've all got homes, they don't run in packs, they just amble about and do what dogs do. Like children, they are curious and some of them have staked their claim on the new tip, you get the picture.
These days most of us are blessed with rats. We have a neighbour who keeps rabbits and another keeps chickens and of course, we all feed the birds, so we are no strangers to rats, we are aware of their sneaky little ways. We also know that with it being a bit chilly a big pile of rubbish is going to be like heaven to the rodent population, and the longer it stays there the more bloody rats we're going to be plagued with.
I left the fact that it was an eyesore until the end and didn't put to much emphasis on it, I have a feeling that was the focus of Mouth Almighty's 'complaint' which is probably why the tip was still there.
The young woman at the other end of the phone sounded horrified at the mention of dogs and rats, and got down to the fine detail of location of the tip in relation to peoples properties, access, when it arrived etc. Then told me it would be dealt with urgently and thanked me, rather too gushingly I felt, for taking the time to report the unfortunate event.
I made that phone call at about 10.00 o'clock, first pair of high vis tabards appeared at about 3.00 o'clock that afternoon, this was only the start.. more in next post.
So with all this interest you'd think the pile would get smaller, but no, it started to gain objects, notably a ghastly yellowy cream leather sofa. I can see why anybody with any taste would want rid of this abomination, my sympathies are with the owners, this was obviously a terrible purchasing error they are so ashamed of that a new tip so close by meant they could heave it over the back fence in the dead of night and no one would need to know.
Half term is upon us, a pile of rubbish with a sofa on top is attracting a lot of attention from local children and a few we've never seen before. OK, so now the pile is going down, but is spreading out, and bits of it are starting to appear in the road, not good, but even worse, the sofa is still there and they have begun to decorate it. I'm sure I didn't know words and symbols like that when I was their age.
Time I made a phone call... Another small aside, when I left school at the age if fifteen in 1966 I managed to get a place with the GPO as a trainee telephonist, £2.17s.16d per week rising to £3.10/- after training, which lasted six weeks after which I was handed a certificate of sorts and a job on an old PBX exchange in West London with dolls eyes and jack plugs. We were using dials and pressing button A back then, STD had still to come. I only lasted six months, it was 1966 for Christ sake, there were a lot better thing to do in West London than dial numbers for other people, but my training left me with a 'telephone voice' which I have to this day.... Phone call made.
I'm guessing that Mouth Almighty's call was of the aggressive kind, as that seems to be his favourite form of communication, or possibly the only one he knows. I opted for a different approach. After being transferred to 'environment' after being sent to 'highways' after starting out at 'human resource' [I did question that one] I spoke to a very timid sounding young woman who must be in the wrong job if the sharp intake of breath when I started to explain the tipping problem was anything to go by. Ploughing on, I took the health and safety route and said I was concerned about the fact that it was half term, there were kids crawling all over the tip, there was broken glass and other sharp objects in the pile and then I dropped in a the two points which probably sparked them into action. Dogs and rats.
We are blessed with numerous free roaming dogs, admittedly most of them are quite old, all of them harmless. They've all got homes, they don't run in packs, they just amble about and do what dogs do. Like children, they are curious and some of them have staked their claim on the new tip, you get the picture.
These days most of us are blessed with rats. We have a neighbour who keeps rabbits and another keeps chickens and of course, we all feed the birds, so we are no strangers to rats, we are aware of their sneaky little ways. We also know that with it being a bit chilly a big pile of rubbish is going to be like heaven to the rodent population, and the longer it stays there the more bloody rats we're going to be plagued with.
I left the fact that it was an eyesore until the end and didn't put to much emphasis on it, I have a feeling that was the focus of Mouth Almighty's 'complaint' which is probably why the tip was still there.
The young woman at the other end of the phone sounded horrified at the mention of dogs and rats, and got down to the fine detail of location of the tip in relation to peoples properties, access, when it arrived etc. Then told me it would be dealt with urgently and thanked me, rather too gushingly I felt, for taking the time to report the unfortunate event.
I made that phone call at about 10.00 o'clock, first pair of high vis tabards appeared at about 3.00 o'clock that afternoon, this was only the start.. more in next post.
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