Nick Jordan

My local council has recently sent out a leaflet to every residence which says that from September 10th we have to recycle a whole shedload of stuff and that there’ll be £1,000 fines for persistent non-compliance. Fair enough, except that the recycling boxes they provide are minute (about a foot wide, a foot high and a foot and a half long) and we now have to put the following items in them: plastic bottles, cardboard, paper, batteries, tin cans, foil, glass bottles and jars, textiles and shoes and engine oil. I just can’t see that a week’s worth of this stuff will fit inside such a small box.

Add to that the fact that the boxes are stolen regularly and I reckon the council are going to have to provide much larger receptacles very soon, probably in the form of green wheelie bins to complement our black ones, or face real difficulties with pissed-off locals. I give it six months at the most.

I spent the weekend just gone in Warwick, which is a very pretty little town with a lot of cool stuff to see. The obvious thing, Warwick Castle, is run by Tussauds and boy does it show. It’s extortionately expensive to get in (£18.95 each for adults) and is full of gift shops and burger bars, with very little in the way of solid information about the place or its past occupants. I didn’t even manage to spot such basic details as when the various bits of it were built, although I can’t believe that sort of stuff isn’t there somewhere. You’d be hard-pressed to learn a lot simply by wandering around and reading signs, and the staff, although dressed up very nicely in various period outfits, weren’t terribly forthcoming, either.

Despite the disappointment of the castle the rest of the town was great, in particular the Collegiate Church of St. Mary, which boasts that it has the finest mediaeval chapel in the country and, having seen it, I’d find it hard to dispute that. Brownie points, too, for the Keep, a very nice little restaurant indeed. Not cheap but a very pleasurable way to finish off a day wandering about in the rain.

Motorway shut after biker murder. This is truly shocking. My heartfelt condolences to his friends and family. A tragic waste of a life.

Last night, after work, I went to the Great British Beer Festival at Earls Court. It was a great deal easier to get into this year; last year I had to join a massive queue but this year there wasn’t one. Anyway, I had a good wander around, tried some very nice beers, including a very pleasant banana beer from somewhere or other, met and chatted with some nice people and left reasonably early because, to be honest, I was very tired and traipsing around made it all too apparent that I wasn’t going to last.

I’m glad I went although I think it would have been better if I hadn’t had a long day at work first. Maybe next year I’ll do the sensible thing and just take the day off.

Last night after work I went with a group of friends to the Museum of London, where we were treated to a tour of the mediaeval section by an extremely knowledgeable and interesting member of staff. I learnt a few cool things and saw some great stuff. One of the things that I noticed was how modern a lot of the jewellery looked. There were rings that you wouldn’t have glanced at twice if you saw them in a shop window today.

Anyway, after the tour we repaired to the pub (of course) and had a few beers, which means that I find myself in a slightly delicate state this morning. Not hung over exactly, not even a headache, but definitely not a hundred percent right either. Still, I shall be fine once I’ve polished off a cuppa or two.