It's Thursday today

Which means that my local library might be open for me to change by library books.  I had intended to do that on Monday, but that bank holiday crept up and spoiled things.  Mind you, I'm not entirely certain about the library being open.  Thursday is one of the designated opening days, along with Monday and Saturday, but things local government-wise seem to be going haywire this week and I'm wondering if there is a strike.  Neither our wheelie bin nor our recycling boxes have been emptied this week.  I was expecting that to be done yesterday but it didn't happen.

It's that bank holiday again.  Normally our wheelie bin is emptied on Tuesday each week and the recycling boxes on Tuesday every second week but when there's a bank holiday Monday the collections get put back to Wednesday with the crews working Saturday to make up the lost day.

We used to have dustbins but now, as in practically every other village, town and city, we have a wheelie bin.  Note that: A as in one wheelie bin.  My friend Chris lives under the auspices of a different authority and he has three wheelie bins, each for different material.  We do have two recycling boxes: one for glass and the other for paper, card, plastic and metal.

I wonder why some people paint their house number, sometimes even the road name as well, on their wheelie bins and recycling boxes.  It's not as if they own the things, which remain the property of, in our case, Brighton & Hove City Council.  Do they think there is something special about "their" bins and boxes - or are they perhaps afraid that if somebody else's wheelie bin is returned to them they might catch something like the dreaded lurgy?  Or maybe it's the contents of their bins that are special -  "Our rubbish is of a much higher quality than those common people next door put in their bin" - so they are, in fact, showing off.  They want to world, or at any rate those who pass by and look into their bin (as if anybody would) to see that they can afford to throw away things other people covet.

(I've just checked the council web site which states:

Our refuse, recycling and street cleansing crews have not gone out to work yet. 
There was no refuse recycling or street cleansing service yesterday, Wednesday 8 May, as a result of unofficial industrial action by our workforce in relation [to] discussions on pay and allowances. 
This morning our crews have not gone out to work yet and we do not know whether the service will be operating later today.)

At least that means the library will almost certainly be open.  Of course, even if it isn't, all is not lost.  Last Saturday, while clearing up after the Lions book fair, I spotted a copy of a book I had been wanting to read again - Winter in Madrid, by C J Sansom.  I first read this book several years ago having borrowed it from the library but there has been no sign of it on the shelves for a long time now.  Although I have started reading it, I shall probably put it aside and take it up again when we are next in France.  It is the sort of book that it pays to read in fairly solid chunks rather than dipping into for a page or two at a time.  I think it is also better to absorb it slowly.  At least, that's how I remember it.

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The Waterhall dew pond is swarming with tadpoles this year, far more than last.