Quarantine

Things have been a bit quiet round here thanks to a nasty little virus. I'm working on borrowed laptops at present, and operating with a super-fussy filter system until it's all been traced and sorted.

It's uncannily like having a Victorian maiden aunt following me round everywhere so I'm having to be most circumspect in my surfing - she doesn't like some of you at all!

Meanwhile, something odd is happening with my Blogger account; I am well aware that should I invite all my regular and valued readers to a jolly reunion, we could comfortably fit into the waiting room of Colwyn Bay station and leave plenty of room for passing travellers.

Blogger insists otherwise, claiming hundreds of phantom visitors are calling in every day, despite the evidence of an independent counter. It looks as if there is a ghost in the machine - or rather a whole crowd of them - so I think the time may have come to switch identities, or at least blogs.

This may take some time but keep an eye out for me - I'll be back.

Quote of the day - did he really think this one through?

Matthew d'Ancona, writing in the Evening Standard on the career of Lord Taylor of Warwick:

'He has passed through the political system like a barium meal...'

A question of recycling

I don't normally recycle posts but, with a heatwave approaching and the matter still not resolved, together with repeated power cuts today as they are digging up the road outside, I hope you'll forgive a re-appearance of this one from last July as a reminder of what's in store.

Back in October 2008, Eric Pickles said a Conservative government would re-instate weekly refuse collections. Well, Eric, get a move on!

It was the blackbird that alerted me. Time after time, I found him sitting near the dustbins with his beak full, looking decidedly pleased with himself. And well he might be; in addition to a sheltered nest site and a bird-bath, it appears the Tavern garden now offers him a fast-food outlet.

Since those eco-minded types at the council delivered our kitchen waste caddy, we have dutifully put all our food scraps into bio-degradable bags and thence into the brown wheelie-bin, to be carted off for recycling - no bin-liners or chemicals allowed.

Trouble is, they empty the bin once a fortnight. And despite washing the bin out two weeks ago, I discovered today* that we have acquired livestock in the shape of several hundred extremely agile maggots busy re-enacting the Great Escape - hence the happy blackbird.

It's not beyond the wit of man (or woman) to see that bi-weekly food waste collections may be acceptable in winter but when the thermometer creeps up past 25C they leave much to be desired. So come on Cameron &Co - let's have some action before the plague of flies descends on us all.