Just in the nick of time we found some shared house accommodation in east Bristol. Sharing with 4 others we have a nice big room at the front of the house that is furnished with a bed, wardrobe and couch. We then share the kitchen, lounge, bathroom etc. Pretty big place and thankfully we are on the ground floor so no stairs to climb, hooray! We are very thankful for finding somewhere that is quite close to the city, has great transport (bus and train) outside the house and seems to be a nice, quiet household. Thats what we like. The hubby has been sick with a cold the last week so we have been taking it easy. Went to see Pirates of the Carribean the other night. Was surprised that it was actually on par with Australia, cost wise I am referring to. The other great thing about the new place is that we have broadband included in the monthly rent along with water, gas and council taxes. They seem to love their taxes over here. Taxed for everything but the services seem to be very limited. For example the rubbish collection. Each house has a small wheelie bin which obviously is not big enough for the average home as there are always bags and bags of extra rubbish lying next to the bins. Apparantly the rubbish collectors don’t pick these up though if they are not in the wheelie bin. Go figure. Recycling seems to be a new thing over here and the councils are trying to push it big time. However, if you provide people with the correct tools i.e. proper sized collection buckets then you might be more successful! It would seem they could do something about packaging first and foremost in order to decrease the amount of waste they take off in the first place. We got a delicious Turkish meal the other day however it came in a styrofoam container, wrapped in butchers paper then placed in a plastic bag! What the…?