AES
Established Member
This is NOT in any way a political post. OR a rant. Hence posting a new thread.
The blokes who collect our household rubbish here every week are, at least theoretically, "scheduled" to come and collect ours every Wednesday at any time after 8.30 am. Normally they arrive at about midday (though we're a small village there are other places they normally visit on Wednesdays as well as us).
We don't put the rubbish out overnight because of animals "attacking" the rubbish bags, but today, when I went out to place the bag by the front gate the dustmen had clearly already been and gone. So I dumped the bag in the boot of the car and went off in pursuit. Found the 2 man team not so very far away and handed over my bag.
After the normal exchange of "sarcastic pleasantries" ("Did you blokes wet the bed this morning?" - in Swiss German of course) the driver asked me if I am English. It turned out that so is he, and although he lives in the same village - has done for 10 years or so - he was quite unknown to me.
It turned out that he's a Boeing 777 Senior First Officer for BA, based in Heathrow, but currently on furlough, so on constant "stand by" for call back. For those not familiar, the B777 is a long-haul aircraft (e.g. London to US, etc, etc) and he has been on stand by for over one and a half years now. No pay of course, and no idea when/if he'll ever fly again. So he describes driving a Swiss dust cart as his "Covid job".
Thinking about it I was again struck by how lucky I (and my wife) are, being already retired, in my case since 2015. Purely a matter of luck (and date of birth I guess). That bloke could so easily could be me if I was a few years younger.
Me? My wife and I are off to our local jabs centre for our 2nd Covid *** this afternoon. There are quite a few (many?) moaning about what our Government has and has not done and should/should not have done - me too sometimes I must admit. Just like everywhere else it seems.
So it's good to be brought back to "real reality" once in a while!
My thoughts and best wishes to all here in a similar position. Good luck to you and yours folks.
The blokes who collect our household rubbish here every week are, at least theoretically, "scheduled" to come and collect ours every Wednesday at any time after 8.30 am. Normally they arrive at about midday (though we're a small village there are other places they normally visit on Wednesdays as well as us).
We don't put the rubbish out overnight because of animals "attacking" the rubbish bags, but today, when I went out to place the bag by the front gate the dustmen had clearly already been and gone. So I dumped the bag in the boot of the car and went off in pursuit. Found the 2 man team not so very far away and handed over my bag.
After the normal exchange of "sarcastic pleasantries" ("Did you blokes wet the bed this morning?" - in Swiss German of course) the driver asked me if I am English. It turned out that so is he, and although he lives in the same village - has done for 10 years or so - he was quite unknown to me.
It turned out that he's a Boeing 777 Senior First Officer for BA, based in Heathrow, but currently on furlough, so on constant "stand by" for call back. For those not familiar, the B777 is a long-haul aircraft (e.g. London to US, etc, etc) and he has been on stand by for over one and a half years now. No pay of course, and no idea when/if he'll ever fly again. So he describes driving a Swiss dust cart as his "Covid job".
Thinking about it I was again struck by how lucky I (and my wife) are, being already retired, in my case since 2015. Purely a matter of luck (and date of birth I guess). That bloke could so easily could be me if I was a few years younger.
Me? My wife and I are off to our local jabs centre for our 2nd Covid *** this afternoon. There are quite a few (many?) moaning about what our Government has and has not done and should/should not have done - me too sometimes I must admit. Just like everywhere else it seems.
So it's good to be brought back to "real reality" once in a while!
My thoughts and best wishes to all here in a similar position. Good luck to you and yours folks.
