General Chat

I couldn't agree with you more, Squirrel

I'm getting more than a bit sick of hearing about "non-jobs" in the public sector - as if librarians and others don't actually have something to contribute.

Did you watch the documentary on the effects of the CSR in October - shown on Thursday evening? Most telling for me was the fireman who explained that cuts to the fire service only meant one thing - fewer fire engines equals more people dying in fires.

Our local conservative mp tried to defend the "cuts" by suggesting that the public sector should be leaner and more innovative. Said fireman rightly questioned what this rhetoric meant - what does "leaner" and "more innovative" mean if your house is on fire?

Sue x

Rita, my idea exactly. Little honesty about. Our postman knocked at my door the other day to see if i was in as he had a parcel for me. he then proceeded to walk back down the road, got in his van and brought me a box containing one pair of shoes! What a waste of time and money. I carried parcels and mail in a bag or on my cycle carrier. Big parcels were delivered by van later in the day.
When my dad was on the dustie, they always carried through the house any dustbin that people were unable to carry themselves. They knew everyone on their round and were treated as friends. And I have known them go back after work to give the elderly a hand with odd jobs.

Just to clarify for Rita -- our communal super mailboxes consist of individual locked boxes, one for each household, to which only that household has the key. Just like in apartment blocks, where there is a mailroom and only the postie has access to the back of the slots, to shove the mail in the slots, and each tenant has a key to open the slot on the other side.

I've never heard of theft from supermailboxes, but theft from regular household mailboxes happens. (Because of the climate, no one here has mail slots in their doors anymore, as the wasted heat would be horrific. We have boxes attached to the house next to the front door.)

The main source of mail theft is unfortunately internal, and it is unfortunately not uncommon. No.1's mother had bank info stolen from the post last year, and his sister-in-law living in the same household had her unemployment cheques stolen. And I'm trying to arrange a time to go down to the bank wth the elderly African gent to view the video the bank says it has of him withdrawing his $800 income tax credit (directly deposited to his account) that he swears he never did. It isn't difficult to know when the notices of direct deposits come out, and open and reseal one of them to get the banking details, and it's common knowledge that this happens. Public employees aren't all saints.

I'm afraid we'll find that he did do it, though. I was reminding him the other day of when I took him for his colonscopy about 5 years ago, and all the preparation I had to walk him through the day before ... and he didn't remember a minute of it ...

This is off at a tangent, but re bin and recycling collection...I was incredibly impressed the other morning at our recycling collectors ( we have a box for paper, one for cans and glass, a bag for plastics, and a bag for cardboard) , they're usually collected before I'm out of bed lol so it's the first time I've seen them, the young man took to the road at a run, boxes up one in each hand, up to truck, emptied by 2nd young man, down back to the the kerb and on to the next all without missing a beat...he really earns his money.