Category Archives: Short Stories

Thanks to Vikki Irwin and Richard Daniel and BBC News Online for the Headline.

Bins are very important, particularly the food waste bin , which in a hot summer like we are having now, can turn into a fetid, horrible , maggot ridden object in the space in the garden that you keep it. ( in my case right beside our back door). However, we are lucky the bin collections in our area seem efficient, in fact we were part of the pilot scheme with the food waste bins a few years ago and now they’ve been introduced throughout the County and seem to work quite well along with the other waste collections.

The model in East Suffolk however has not worked so well, perhaps because they delayed the introduction, perhaps because they didn’t like Central government being heavy handed with them. Whatever the reason , the introduction has not gone smoothly and as a result of the mishandling of the process, the shambolic bin collections have resulted in East Suffolk Council serving a “Breach of Contract ” to itself.

I would say that basically there was just not enough people on the ground employed to achieve the collections and now they are employing an “expert” with many years experience in managing “bin collections” to fix the situation. They have been appointed and will start in August. In other words someone is going to be paid a fancy salary to tell them that they didn’t have enough workers in the first place and will have to recruit.

So same old story of trying to save money upfront and in the end wasting a load of money.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thanks to Maria Jevstafjeva and Leandro Prazeres and BBC News Online for the Headline.

Interestingly enough one of the Russian men involved in this case has lived in Angola a long time, 40years to be exact. They claim to have been creating a Russian Cultural Centre which they may have been for all I know.

I wouldn’t imagine the conditions in Angolan jails are very nice and the two Angolans that were on trial with the two Russians must be relieved that one was given a suspended sentence and one was acquitted.

The Lawyer for the two Russians did his best to get them returned to Russia and defended their case as best he could , but given some strange behaviour at the trial , including the Prosecutor’s refusal to read the indictment out in Court as would normally be the case so that it was clear what charges were being brought.

The charges included money laundering. Whatever is going on I wouldn’t want to be spending time in an Angolan Jail.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thanks to Navin Sing Khadka and BBC Online News for the Headline

This particular article is about the dromedary camels ( the ones with one hump) .80% of the population of dromedary camels live in North Africa and the Horn of Africa and even they are struggling in the heat.

The extreme heat has lead to severe drought and even the resilient camels cannot cope. They produce less milk and their young calves are subject to high mortality rates. The camel herders who rely on these animals in turn are suffering and cannot maintain healthy herds, not having the resource to pay for veterinary services which compounds both the people and the animals suffering.

It’s a sad situation, the camel is no longer the king of the desert.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thank you to Notes from Poland Online for the Headline

Scientists from Poland are seeking to solve the mystery of Poland’s ” Crooked Forest”- a set of 90-year old trees with bizarrely curved trunks by developing “tree bending technology” to recreate their unusual growth. Bonsai on a big scale.

The research is being done as the Crooked Forest located near the town of Gryfino in Northwestern Poland has some trees that are getting older, and dying out. They are pine trees and the objective is to understand why they grew their curves and to replicate it to grow a Crooked Forest 2.

Historically the reasons why the trees were grown that way in the first place have been lost, but it will not be an easy feat to replicate and may take many years. Meanwhile the forest which once consisted of about 400 curved trees now only has about 100 left and time is running out.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thanks to the Standard London Online for the Headline

Just shows what can happen when someone moves on in their job having made a decision that no one at the time thought was very important.

Wandsworth Council apparently paid out £600,000 to redecorate and upgrade two railway bridges at East Putney Tube station including “pigeon proofing the site “. Locals are renaming it the Ikea Bridge in honour of the famous Blue and Yellow of our favourite Swedish Furniture supplier. Nearby residents feel the colours are garish and do not fit in with the area, meanwhile Network Rail and a senior transport planner at the council say that the “negative comments” are relatively few considering the large number of local residents and station users and there are no plans to repaint the bridges.

Watch this space.

Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏

Thanks to Lisa Young and BBC Online News for the Headline

And here’s a rub everyone should know about. The CQC charges those who need assessments to provide healthcare a £1000 registration fee along with the significant administration commitment to maintain registration and have the required inspections.

Unfortunately due to a change of Law, remote voluntary search and rescue organisations now fall under the remit of requiring a CQC inspection and the organisations themselves being purely voluntary and really being made up of knowledgeable mountaineering enthusiasts and rescue dogs simply do not have the money or the time to achieve this registration and therefore will have to cease operating. This is a ridiculous situation.

The Law is an Ass sometimes.

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Namaste and Thank You for Reading.🙏