A Word In Your Ear - October 25, 2018

The other Monday I had an anxious, early-morning appointment at the dentist’s – to have a front tooth pulled out. What could be worse to start one’s week?

Well, I’ll tell you - getting back to the car minutes later and finding a £70 fixed penalty ticket. This was just before parking would be permitted for up to two hours. Some blighter had been skulking, ready to pounce!

Yes, I know it’s wrong to use a vacant resident’s space, even for a few minutes, but no other parking was available by the surgery, plus it was bucketing down.

Round the corner, by Stanley Park, She Who (usually) Knows was also done. Although only parked the short time it took to collect me from a crowded cricket club, she failed to notice a tiny residents-only sign on the far side of the pavement. The air wasn’t green but blue! (From me, of course, not She Who.)

The answer, I’ve decided, is to walk. It’s healthier, you see more and meet interesting people. But, then, my anger sprouted again. The final straw – or privet clipping - was my green bin not being emptied.

I’ve left it out before, full of hedge cuttings and where you couldn’t miss it, but – when ringing to complain - been told it wasn’t ‘properly presented’. No wonder neighbours don’t pay for green recycling.

Still, just as I’d penned this and ranted on the council’s website, lo and behold! My bin was finally emptied.

Thanks, in the end, council. But then, when I weigh it up, we’ve still paid £30 for only one collection – and more than double that in parking fines . . .

I’m off again – walking, of course.

For Roy’s books go to royedmonds-blackpool.com.