Richard Baum

God’s continual mocking of me shows no sign of abating. We have an arrangement, Him and I, whereby I try my best to do good things, and He amuses Himself by plonking annoying but ultimately quite funny trials in my path, which in turn then never leave me short of things to write about on here.

I was woken last night at 01:00 by the sound of my wheely bin blowing over in gale force winds and driving rain. I wandered over to the window to take a look, and saw the contents of the bin strewn across the road and blowing around the neighbourhood.

Not a pleasant sight at that time in the morning.

Undaunted, I put on the first two items of clothing that came to hand (dressing gown and work shoes) and headed out into the street, to spend the next ten minutes battling against The Perfect Storm to retrieve a week’s worth of rotting food and general horror from my neighbour’s shrubs.

I respected bin men before, and now I do even more. Although last night’s work had more in common with body-exhumers than bin men, I’m sure. And I bet they don’t have to tackle our rubbish in the middle of the night dressed only in a towelling robe.

So I am tired today. But I will still find time later on to do some Councillor work – I am out leafleting this evening in the north of the ward, assuming that the weather doesn’t put on its angry face again and leave me looking mournfully out of my lounge window at a world sailing off in a storm somewhere.

Rick