Streets, a tip and a flyer

13 July 2012

I was sat watching telly last night when a thought came to me while I was sat quietly fuming over the house hold refuse tip closing its gates at 3.15pm.  That seems daft to me cos unless they are then going to send all the staff home at around that time, then as a cost cutting exercise it's a waste of time.  When we arrived yesterday we saw a number of staff standing about doing very little apart from what looked like scavenging through the huge skips they use.   

Anyway, my thought ...

Bracebridge Street is a mess!  By that I mean the overall look of the street, the amount of litter and so on.  Most of it is around the Queens Road end of the street.  Then there are the lime trees that line both sides of the street which look nice during the spring and summer but cause a big nuisance when sap begins to fall off the trees and coats cars parked underneath them.  It also cause additional problems with parking because some drivers park their cars away from the trees, or try to and others then have to find a parking place elsewhere.  But perhaps the biggest problem there is number of houses that have bought to rent out.  So many of the these tenants are young folk who just don't have any interest in the street other than as a place to eat and sleep.   

Vast quantities of old furniture and waste piles up on the front yards and add to the overall uncared for look.  And worst of all, there are three known drug dealers in the street.  Those people have even less interest in the street and drag it down even more than it was to start with.  But why are they still there?  Surely the cops should have dealt with them by now?  Ah well ... ... ...

Compare Bracebridge Street with where we live now.  A wide street with semi-detached house down one side, a council owed supported block of flats and a sheltered complex on t'ther side with more semis far on down the street.  It  those we have met, very friendly folk living here.  The difference between here and Bracebridge Street is really striking.  I suppose the main difference is the ratio of renters and owners being heavy on the latter.

We had a disappointing phone call yesterday morning.  The lady who was going to buy the house has now withdrawn.  She was a cash buyer but she is now claiming that a major hick-up at her current home means she will not have the full price in time for completion.  So we have to start again but the agents do have a another inetersted buyer who is viewing the place at 2pm tomorrow.  We also know of someone else who is interested in the place, a certain sale too but he is unwilling to go through the estate agent and wants to do a deal with us alone.  He's a friend of ours but I'm willing to go down his route seeing as we will still have to pay the agents if we sell privately anyway.  Bedsides which, I don't think Raj will want to pay the going price for it.

Warwickshire County Council is planning to switch off 39,000 street lights across the county to save £500,000.  There's a lot of opposition to it across the county too.  I can see where they are coming from, but I am also aware of the massive light pollution problem that the developed world causes.  I can't remember the last time I saw a clear dark sky where I could clearly see the Milky Way and I wonder just how many kids have seen it live and not in books or on a DVD.  No matter what, WCC will do what they want no matter what we say!

No start photos I'm afraid but I have a few sunsets, here's one of them ...  

I got this one from the front door of our bungalow in Bed'th about six or seven years ago.

Funny time ...

An 80-year-old man went to the doctor for a checkup and the doctor was amazed at what good shape the guy was in. The doctor asked, "To what do you attribute your good health?"
The old timer said, "I'm a former Marine Corps fighter pilot and that's why I'm in such good shape. I'm up well before daylight and out flying up and down the countryside."
The doctor asked, "How old was your dad when he died?"
The old timer said, "Who said my dad's dead?"
The doctor said, "You mean you're 80 years old and your dad's still alive? How old is he?" The old timer said, "He's 100 yrs old and, in fact, he flew next to me this morning in his own airplane. That's why he's still alive; he's a former Marine fighter pilot too!"
The doctor said, "Well, that's great, but I'm sure there's more to it. How about your dad's dad? How old was he when he died?"
The old timer said, "Who said my grandpa's dead?"
The doctor said, "You mean you're 80 years old and your grandfather's still living! How old is he?"
The old timer said, "He's 118 yrs old. He's a former 'China Marine'!"
The doctor was getting frustrated at this point and said, "I guess he went flying with you this morning too?"
The old timer said, "No, Grandpa couldn't go this morning because he got married."
The Doctor said in amazement, "Got married!! Why would a 118-year-old guy want to get married?"
The old timer said, "Who said he wanted to?"