Thanks Dave for showing me this! Check out the headline…  Is it not a normal occurrence??

*insert the noise the sideshow bob makes when he stands on a rake*  Next door (not the pirate side, the other side) there is a small child.  It is about 18 months old (it can walk).  Now, I love babies and even children, but this one does not amuse me in the slightest.  Far from it in fact.

This child spends most of every day and night shrieking and shouting.  I don’t mind it when babies cry, or even if they have a bit of a strop, but I watch as this one is picked up by his parents to go in the car…  He starts to whimper.  They say “shhh” and he shrieks, kicks, screams and yells for about 20 minutes!!!  It happens all the time and is even happening now as I type.

Firstly, he is a boy.  Girlish screaming should be stamped on.  Secondly, the parents don’t tell him off for it, he just continues until he gets his own way.  I didn’t hear the baby for about three weeks and it was absolute bliss.  I did start to worry when I didn’t see the mum either, but did see dad emerge from the shed with a large spade.   All fears have since been alleviated.  The child screams once more.  New fears have been instilled.

Now, many of your will know that I am not a great fan of spiders. Quite the opposite in fact. This said, I will not allow JT to kill any that come into the house (even the one that was crawling down my bath towel the other day as I started to dry myself – that caused a shriek I can tell you!) However, I did jump slightly with surprise as I read the following headline in the Echo the other day:

“Mussolini’s Spyder Goes Under The Hammer”

The spelling passed me by completely and I had visions of a poor little pet spider coming to an untimely end due to a careless flick of the wrist! Of course, I opened the article only to discover that it refers to a car being auctioned. What a blonde.

“It was expected to go for up to £1 million.” Whoops.

This originated from a slightly dappy quote from myself… “You’re screen looks like…Where’s Wally!”  said Naomi, looking with awe and wonder upon Lucy’s screen.  The girl certainly does know how to multitask!

The other day, the gorgeous Jacob came round with his Mummy for Sarah’s baby shower.  When the boys still hadn’t returned by midnight and Jacob (who had previously been fast asleep and very good) had woken up (and was still being very good!) decided that my phone camera was a lot of fun.  After following Twinkle round the sitting room shouting “CAT!”   “IYAAA!” “ELLO!” (Twinkle was puzzled) he started to sort the jungle confetti into animal order (particularly the monkeys).

The other day, the occasion came when one has to purchase a new toothbrush (mine was looking a bit like a large eyebrow that had been slept on at the wrong angle!)  We were in Sainsbury’s and I marvelled at the sheer expense of a piece of plastic with some bristles on the end.  Then I saw it…  SPECIAL OFFER.  A beautiful, pink and blue with clear blue and almost sparkly bits, curvy bits and all sorts toothbrush!!!  It was stunning and my designer’s eye looked upon it with great admiration.  There was even a nice bright yellow rubbery sample of the tongue cleaner stuck to the front of the packet!  Delight.

Today I ran around town with a box on my head for a friend’s Uni project… To be honest I needed a laugh.  It was really funny, the ‘box people’ went up and down escalators, sat in the back of a DHL truck, tried to use phone boxes, crossed the road together, sat reading a paper and then I had to wear a really big box and crouch down so that I looked like a piece of discarded rubbish, before getting up suddenly, running along a bit and ducking down again!  The general public were very confused…

I have just emailed the council regarding their almost brilliant kerbside recycling scheme…. It is worth a try….  I did format the paragraphs properly but for some reason they are not working on here!!

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would firstly like to congratulate you on your fantastic kerbside recycling scheme, I really appreciate the fact that you provide the green boxes and come to collect them every fortnight – what a brilliant idea to help people recycle. Thank you so much for investing in this initiative, as since using the scheme and buying a compost bin, our waste has significantly diminished and we are far more considerate of what we throw away.
I just wondered if I could possibly offer a few ideas/suggestion in order to make this service even better…? The main problem we have in our household with ‘waste’, is packaging and plastic bags. Now I know that we can re-use our plastic bags and that Sainsbury’s has a plastic bag recycling scheme. Is there any possibility that in the kerbside collection, a move could be made towards collecting plastic bags, or polythene food packaging (such as salad bags etc)? Even if there were ‘bag bins’ at the end of roads where plastic bags could be recycled then this would be a great step towards keeping ‘binned rubbish’ to a minimum.
I appreciate that we should really get our act together and take our used bags to Sainsbury’s (we will do eventually!) and also other items such as old clothing, shoes, foil etc which can all be recycled, but the problem with encouraging people to recycle is that you really have to make it easy for them (in my humble experience) or they won’t bother, tragic as this is. The reality of the matter is that few people will want to spend their precious day off in the week, carefully washing and squashing their cans, sifting through different coloured bottles and posting them through the holes in the bottle bank (although this is a very good service for those of us who use it). I believe that this is why the kerb side scheme is so effective, because it does exactly that, it makes recycling easy, so any way to diversify that service would be a good investment.

The only other suggestion I have is that it is made possible to recycle magazines and junk mail. It drives me mad that so much rubbish comes through my letterbox, but more so that if I put it in the recycle box, it is left in there as I cannot recycle glossy paper. Is there not a way? It seems irresponsible to just throw it away.

I hope that these suggestions have been helpful and I would like to thank you once again for the service that you provide.

Many thanks,

Naomi Turner

This morning I popped to the Co-op on the Leckhampton Road to buy some bread.  I decided to take my bike and so set off enjoying the smell of the morning air.  I decided to say a few prayers using a method that often helps me when I am outside.  I tend to look around and thank God for all the beautiful things around me.  I looked up and saw Leckhampton Hill, so thanked God for it, as it is very beautiful.  I thanked Him for the blossom on the trees and the sound of church bells which was a really nice addition to my little excursion.  I looked around some more and saw a dog having a poo.  CRASH.  The moment was lost, as his lady owner bent down with her hand in a nappy bag and picked the thing up, performing that deft ‘magic trick’ hand movement which somehow launches the poo into mid-air from the ground and neatly plops it into the little sack (now with a perfect little knot in it, all employed within the same gesture).  The poor lady then has to conduct a significant proportion of her walk looking very trendy with a transparent bag full of poo and an excitable dog by her side until she finds a ‘poo bin’ (kindly provided by the Borough Council).  “Thank you Lord for dogs.” I muttered.

Do you ever just get one of those days?!!