Bin there.

There are a few noises in our lives that cause distress, but none so much as something that often wakes you from sleep. Perhaps, you’ve just opened your eyes and are lying there, thinking about getting your arse out of bed, when all of a sudden in the distance you hear the distinctive beep beep of a large truck reversing. Depending how drowsy you are the realisation that it’s the bin lorry, can take a minute to sink in, but if you forgot to put the recycling out the night before, you wake up pretty quick.

Gone are the days for me dashing downstairs to catch them, they’d have left the street before I put my slippers on. It’s particularly frustrating if you had a party at the weekend and have three boxes full of empty bottles and cans like lockdown, I remember that time well, one council worker suggested that George Best was living at my house.

Luckily for me, I did remember, so laid there quite smug this morning as I heard the beeps approaching, one neighbour though wasn’t so fortunate. As I looked out my window across the street, I could see amongst the green bins and re-cycling boxes, a solitary grey wheelie bin, they’d made an even bigger mistake and put the wrong one out. The whole street now will be waiting for the moment he comes out to collect his un-emptied bin, my money is it’ll be after 9pm this evening.