Bike rules

Before my house was rebuilt, the step from the kitchen down into the garden was 12cm. The garden then sloped downwards before rising again to the end. The new patio is at the same level as the house and now the theoretical rise over the whole garden is only 12cm. But the soil still dips down then rises and as I have been working to improve the compacted clay (dry it out, pound it, mix the resulting powder with compost - slow, tedious labour) I have been digging and raking the usable soil to spread it more evenly.

The digging process has exposed not only puddled clay but also a lot of building rubble which I've been loading into buckets. I was looking into how to dispose of it and discovered that we no longer have to pay to take non-commercial rubble to the Recycling Centre - we can now book a maximum of one trip a week taking five 20-litre bags free. Anything over that costs. Last night I booked. In the box asking for a car registration I wrote 'BICYCLE' and my application wasn't rejected!

The maximum I can carry on my bike trailer (or lift in my arms) is one 15-litre bag and one 12-litre bucket. So off I cycled this morning, preparing my argument to be allowed in with a bike. To be fair, even though most Household Refuse sites say that it's too dangerous to let bikes in, almost all my visits to ours over 30 years have been by bike and, sure enough, there was no problem. They didn't even ask to check my booking. On the way out I asked whether I could make another trip today since I hadn't brought my full allocation. Yes, of course I could.

When I came back this afternoon someone else was on duty. I told him I'd booked a slot and he replied, 'You've worked so hard to bring this lot that I wouldn't charge you anyhow.'

Public service!

For good measure, I then took all my scrap metal (rusty nails, bricklayers' ties, a wood-varnish tin, two defunct phone charger cables...) to the metal recycling yard, where in order to get in you have to be a registered scrap metal dealer - as I am. I am now £9.35 in credit there.