MY OLD MAN'S A DUSTMAN...

...well you can’t sing that old Lonnie Donegan song anymore!  

Today, we were blessed to see - from the left - Martin, Sheila, the driver, and Connor, who just happens to be Martin’s son and what a friendly trio they were.

Our rubbish, which included plastic and tins, paper and food waste, was due to be collected last Thursday, but there has been an issue with collections, so they are all behind.  Well, I was pleased they were for once, as it gave me today’s Blip - the hellebore will have to wait!

Lynn, our lovely next door neighbour treated them to some crisps and they were very grateful.  I told them how pleased we were to see them and as Lynn had told me, and they all mentioned today, they are getting a lot of abuse from people because they haven’t collected the rubbish on the right day.  I said that we are the rubbish-makers, so why are people abusing them?  Martin said they were used to it, but of course, they shouldn’t have to get “used to it”.  They are providing a service and sometimes things don’t work out well, but that’s no reason for people to take out their spite on the workers, who are doing their best.  You can see it’s a beautiful day today, with blue skies and the sun is shining, but who would want to do their job in the wind and rain and even snow?

I told them about Blip - of course I did - and asked if they would be happy to pose for a photograph - Martin and Connor were busy emptying Lynn’s bins and bags, but Sheila called them over and said she would be the rose between two thorns - so here they are - our cheerful and hard-working binmen - sorry waste operatives - we sent them on their way rejoicing and thanking us for our compliments.  

Isn’t that what life is all about - telling people how much you appreciate what they are doing and realising they are doing their best in difficult circumstances?  I’m going to buy a box of biscuits to give them next week - or of course, I could give them the chocolate shortcake biscuits that are in the box on the high shelf in our hall cupboard with all the boxes of chocolates;  one less box for us to eat!

Have a great day and remember - BE KIND because you NEVER know what someone else is going through!