What a funny old week it's been. And unless you've been walking around with your head in a bucket and your ears full of sand, you'll have been aware I've been taking part in MyZeroWaste's National Zero Waste Week, along with many other bloggers and Twitter users across the UK and indeed around the globe.
Now the first time I tackled a Zero Waste Week - in March last year - I was very well prepared. I had a plan and I was constantly on the ball, keeping my eyes peeled for any piece of rubbish to bite me on the bum at the least expected opportunity.
But this time around I've had a sprained wrist as well as such a busy social calendar that it could make your eyes pop with the velocity at which I've had to fit it all in.
So apart from the odd little lie to the kids "Sorry they had no crisps, have a packet of foil & paper wrapped Rolos instead" and the odd little fib to Mr A "Sorry they had no Minstrels, have a packet of foil & paper wrapped Rolos instead" as well as collecting a handful of disposable cotton handwipes from a bunch of folk I've never met before at a Twestival visit to an Indian restaurant, I haven't really given it a great deal of attention.
Yes as far as my personal Zero Waste Week contribution has gone, it's simply muddled along with the rest of my life.
Now this means it could have been an absolute disaster but the great news is my resident foodie fusspots have done an amazing disappearing act this week. With a husband travelling around the East of England living off buffets at every turn and kids now back at school returning home with a ravenous appetites, the bin has been in pretty good health.
It's been so good, we've had absolutely nothing for the Bokashi bin and as for the chickens, they've been looking so blimmin' disappointed at the lack of any spare scraps, that by the end of the week I was feeling emotionally blackmailed into cooking extra portions of pasta just for them.
Geez, it comes to something when you spend the best part of your forties trying to REDUCE food waste then suddenly find that you need to CREATE some, to ensure the whole menagerie are blimmin' fed.
So with no unrecyclable\reusable packaging during the last week and no cooked food waste to hit the Bokashi bin, I was feeling on top form, thinking I would have a completely empty bin...
... until our pair of black and white moggies got all sniffy and refused to eat the last scraps of their Whiskas cat food left in their bowl from Saturday.
So the amount of rubbish created this week has been just a few bits of the cats leftovers.
Not bad eh....especially when our usual weekly rubbish is normally about a quarter of a bin bag..
...and I am chuffed to bits I can fit it into the brand new wheelie bin that I dug out especially for National Zero Waste Week!
It's the one on the far right of the picture above....that's right...the one at the very end of the row!
Here's the photo again to save you scrolling back up.
And here it is being picked up by the friendly bin man ...
But don't get excited yet because amongst all this good news and celebration over our week's worth of waste, I am left with a HUGE dilemma because when we returned from a trip to the seaside yesterday, my King of Declutter, the beloved Mr A, shifted everything around in the dining room, so he could find room for a huge painting of Southwold that he commissioned for his 40th birthday.
It involved shifting out a load of crap from what's been a much under-used room in the last few months.
And in doing so uncovered this...
Yep, it's a bag of miscellaneous "rubbish" according to Mr A, which he sorted out about a month ago, but forgot to "throw out" - i.e. surreptitiously take to the tip while I was busy elsewhere.
Of course being the offical head of the household, he tells me that this doesn't actually count to National Zero Waste Week, because it is a bag of "old rubbish" and as it happens, I've not had chance to sort it yet and I am sure it will be smaller by the time I've finished with it.
But forget Mr A's excuses. I think I should leave it for you to decide what should account for our official weigh in?
My small bag of cat food or Mr A's unexpected bag of household crap?
Who gets your vote?
I know it could be tricky, so while you make your mind up, I'm going to enjoy a cup of tea in our nicely restyled dining room, where I will be getting ready to join in the Jonathan Vernon-Smith show on BBC Three Counties Radio this afternoon.
Today's debate is the issue of new wheelie bins for managing food waste.
Yep I'm talking rubbish again - for a change.
Hmm, I wonder if he'll show me his, if I show him mine. Question is, which bag should I show him?
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