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Jigjag

What a totally horrendous list of recycling categories! I don't understand some of them - the 'paint (other)', for example, and what's to happen with my tissues and kitchen roll? . We seem to cope quite well, but perhaps we've just honed up all our recycling skills over the years.

Rosalind

Glad you had a lovely Christmas Day in N Wales. You were probably further along the coast than I am, but it was a glorious day here too, and it has has been very pleasant since, very mild.

My bus stop no longer has a timetable but you can text to find out when the next one is due. What a farce!

Malone

Yes it is an incredible list. I have to-date recycled into 16 of the 18 categories (not every week). If I can get hold of some engine oil, and put some paint in a plastic bag, I may achieve my ambition of re-cycling into every category in a single week.

We put tissues and kitchen roll in the household waste now. Pity. I am surprised they collect cooking oil. They probably send it to Grunger.

Malone

They are certainly useful but they are not for me. A nephew asked me recently how often I charged the battery in my mobile. I told him I didn't need to as it was wind-powered. He was very excited and said he would get one from an apple shop.

That's bad news about the telegram service. Agatha Christie's books depended on it.

Rosalind

Your 'Dial-a-Ride' doesn't sound ideal - in many respects. The 'use an app' stuff is incredibly annoying for many people. I think there are similar problems with some parking machines - no money can be used, instead it's to be done from your phone. Apart from not liking that being compulsory, I also feel t's forcing people into having internet banking, financial stuff, on their phones, not something they necessarily want.

Jigjag

Well done on being able to recycle so many of the categories on the list. I'm sure you'll manage the whole lot at some point in 2020.

Having a train-mad son, I believe used engine and perhaps cooking oil can be used to power some "heritage" trains.

jigjag
The beach we go to in Wales is called Dinas Dinlle, south of Caernarfon.

I can understand why councils might not want cash in parking machines (as it has to be collected) but surely a credit card should be OK? Or a pre-loaded cash card, like an Oyster?

Rosalind

For various reasons, my sister, my husband and my father-in-law would have nothing to do with credit cards... and certainly wouldn't get one just to be able to park (and in some cases of parking, they'd also need an appropriate app - another no-no). The pre-loaded cash card sounds a suitable option, one worth considering.

I have come across the mother of all "so's". Beowulf, an epic Old English poem of 3812 lines, begins, in Seamus Heaney's translation:

So. The Spear-Danes in days gone by and the kings who ruled them...

In the introduction, Heaney defends his use of "so" because it" operates as an expression that obliterates all previous discourse and narrative, and at the same time functions as an exclamation calling for immediate attention."

To be fair, this was in the 1990s, before the "so" craze caught on.

Orson, thanks, that was really interesting. I have no objections whatsoever to the use of 'so itself, especially not when it's in a case as described by Seamus Heaney. It's the use of 'so' - and its close friend 'like' - as punctuation that I detest. The sentences with a few sprinkling of 'so's and an endless parade of 'like's are as horrible on the ear as they are on the eye!

Jigjag

I will gladly swap some engine oil for your cooking oil if it will help you. I am having my car serviced next week and will ask Emma Tee, assistant mechanicess to put the old oil in a sealed container for you. Could you pick it up please.

What does your Council mean by "appropriate container" for the cooking oil? I imagine they mean a frying-pan. After the binmen have disposed of the oil, do you you get your frying-pan back, or do they re-cycle it as "Larger appliances" as it will be bigger than a toaster.