And they still love their fax machines too...

 

As does the Observer - you can still enter the Everyman Crossword comp by fax!

 

Sound business reasons for keeping both. Pagers are not affected by the tech used to stop X-rays leaking to areas of hospitals where they are not needed, and so are more reliable in some situations than mobiles. Mobiles are, in any case, prohibited in large areas of hospitals.

As for the fax, I can't recall the exact details but they have a higher status legally than e-mails.

 

Turned up at Chipstead FC yesterday in rain, mud, cold etc to see them play FC Romania in FA Trophy. Interested to see this sign, so returned my knuckle dusters, bog rolls, broken bottle and zombie knives to the boot of the car.

Chipstead FC by Mike Longhurst, on Flickr

 

We have similar signs at the rugby club. I coached mini & junior rugby for many years and have enough stories about the antics of spectators and coaches to write a book. The worst has to be when I was refereeing a primary school tag rugby tournament. I ended up evicting the headteacher of one school from the side lines.

 

Yes, I've seen fights between parents.

 

They have disabled mooring posts on the Thames in Staines. And judging by the corrosion, have had for some time.

It's upside down because the murky grey at the top is the Thames and

a) I can't swim
b) it looks wrong if you rotate the pic.​

 

It's a man in a coracle

 

Don't see all that many coracles in Staines.

Mind you, their seem to be a lot of outrigger canoes about these days. Wonder why that is.

 

And today...

A Collapsible Skip! by SteveH, on Flickr

OK, so it's really just a big rubbish bag, but it can take 1.5 tonnes and it does say "Use it like a skip" on the side.

 

I wonder what lifts it up?

 

Presumably the company that provides it has a truck with a small crane on it - like those that deliver pallets of breeze-blocks and so on?

Ah yes, according to the Hippobags page...

They cost about £250 including collection and you have six months to fill them. They also collect when you are out, "unless you want to take the day off to watch!"

 

£250 !!!!!

I got a medium sized skip in 2016. No where near as expensive as that and they managed to collect it when I was out too. Who needs six months anyway?

 

Everyone else on the street?

 

Nah, they just need one dark night...


ETA: Oh, and on the subject of machinery, something for any agricultural posters who want to finish work early...

 

Discovered this yesterday on my way to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, 'Nail House' by Leonard van Munster . . . . .

 

Average Skip Hire Prices
8 November 2019
RANDOM RUBBISH


Every year we survey over 500 skip hire companies across the UK – not just the ones in the AnyJunk network – to see what they charge consumers for a skip. From this, we produce average skip hire prices for cities in the UK. These rates are shown below for 6 cubic yard and 8 cubic yard skips – the two most common skip sizes – and commonly referred to as a ‘Builders skip’. Rates include VAT but exclude the cost of a skip permit or parking bay suspension. They are for general mixed waste.

UK Skip Hire Prices 2019 (average rates of local suppliers)
Location 6-yard skip 8-yard skip
UK Average £226 £253
Birmingham £195 £220
Bournemouth £267 £328
Brighton £232 £276
Bristol £240 £273
Bromley £240 £280
Cambridge £201 £234
Cardiff £238 £247
Chelmsford £219 £249
Chester £232
Croydon £267 £313
Doncaster £186 £238
Edinburgh £175 £221
Exeter £267 £319
Glasgow £204 £207
Gloucester £235 £272
Hemel Hempstead £231 £275
Ipswich £217 £249
Iver £249 £294
Leeds £168 £227
Leicester £209 £231
Liverpool £203
London £258 £283
Luton £268 £288
Manchester £199 £227
Middlesbrough £230 £241
Milton Keynes £241 £267
Newcastle £227 £259
Northampton £175 £205
Norwich £205 £229
Nottingham £188 £236
Oxford £250 £295
Portsmouth £249 £296
Reading £239 £292
Sheffield £188 £226
Southampton £282 £337
Swindon £250 £308
Tunbridge Wells £241 £290
York £179 £223

Note: prices include VAT @ 20% but exclude skip permit fee & parking suspensions if on road. Source: AnyJunk Updated 8 November 2019




The above table tells us that the average skip hire price across the UK is £226 for a 6-yard skip and £253 for an 8-yard skip. Based on our analysis, the cheapest cities to hire a skip appear to be Leeds, Edinburgh, Northampton and York. Unsurprisingly, London is at the other end of the scale and is more than 10% more expensive than the national average. The most expensive cities in the country are Bournemouth, Luton, Southampton, and Exeter (and also Croydon town, which isn’t a city, but seems to have crept in!).
Man & Van is cheaper
In most regions skip hire is more expensive than man & van rubbish removal. To check live prices for both skip hire and man & van clearance in your region click here.

 

I designed the river wall at Staines some years ago. It seems to have held.

 

Remarkable geological formation that hill. I can only assume of glacial origin?

 

That's interesting - I always thought a standard skip was 7 cubic yards and the main denominator in hiring one (admittedly not for very many years) was whether one end would open so that you could fill a lot of it without running a plank up.