Great Start..{updated}

Hello Friends!

A while back, I discovered that there is a voice activated typing system on the laptop.  I find this very useful, although it isn't perfect. If I don't use it for anything else, it helps me keep my blog going and I can use it for my emails. I was just getting really into the swing of using it when one day I came online and it didn't work. It was really annoying as these days I'm getting bad cramps in my hands so being able to type voice activated is very useful indeed and imagine the frustration at not being able to use the voice activated typing. Well, the other day, I'd had enough of it, so I started to fiddle around in the settings. Lo and behold. I have fixed it.  I don't know how, but it's fixed and I'm happy.

Well, two days into the new year. And we're already off to a good start with the local council. We have three different collection rotations for our household waste and recycling. We have multiple skips and bags that go out weekly for all the things that can be recycled, such as glass, paper, cardboard, tin, etc.  Food waste also goes weekly but other compostable wastes such as garden waste goes out once a fortnight.  Then every three weeks, we get to put out up to three black bags of what is termed residual waste. Household waste that doesn't fit into any of the recycling skips.

The one thing you don't want to do is miss one of the three weekly black bin bag collections. We are allowed one bag of rubbish per house per week and if you missed a three weekly collection. You aren't allowed to put out six on the following collection week. Therefore, it is important to keep on top of what is going on. I used to get text message reminders, but as our Council is hugely in the red, they have. discontinued this service. So last year I started putting colour coded dots on my calendar in my journal. Green for regular recycling. brown for garden waste, and a black dot every three weeks for the black bag. It worked well. I didn't miss a single collection..

Over Christmas and new year. If your weekly collection falls on Christmas Day, Boxing Day or New Year's Day, then your schedule is altered because the council don't work on those days. Fair enough. We get an amended schedule. 

One of the jobs I do over New Year's is to transfer all relevant information. from last year's diary into this year's diary. It was time to fill in the multi coloured dots for the refuse collection. I went onto the local council website. I found the collection calendar. Straight away, I noticed that the. first black bin bag collection, which is due to go on Thursday, the 9th of January is scheduled for Tuesday, the 14th of January. It didn't take me long to work out that the council have put our collection schedule for everything for the entire year. down for Tuesdays instead of Thursdays.

This calendar will have already been printed. thousands of copies to be distributed .What a waste of money and paper. Our services are being cut left, right and centre because the council hasn't got enough money and then they go and make a mistake like this.

This is not how I'd planned to start the New Year blogging with a moan, but it really annoys me when we aren't getting the services that we used to get and then they go and make mistakes like this. I shall be calling them as soon as they open at 9:00 o'clock. I will come back and put an update on what they say.

Until next time.

Debbie.

The council switchboard. Seemed completely nonplussed. To paraphrase what I was told, it must be a technical error, we'll pass it on to the IT Department. 

Fair enough, but who's going to clean up the mess when all the bags are going out on the wrong day?