Garbage Day/Changeover Day

The garbage collectors in St Ives are very specific about how tourists are supposed to make garbage easy for the garbage collectors to collect. Numerous signs are posted in numerous places around the town, on walls, and in the tourist information center. Woe unto him who does not 'get it'.

We worried a little bit about this all week, wondering if we would remember it in time, and whether or not we would do it 'right'. Americans often don't. So we got it ready late last night in case an early rising garbage man might arrive and get mad at us. We will go to great lengths to make sure no one gets mad at us, so all of our garbage was neatly bagged, and gently placed inside of a bin, which was then taken out to the theoretical garbage 'area'. Then early this morning my sister suddenly said, as she combed her hair, "It's sounding garbagy out there."

"Garbagy". That is sister for "There are garbage men outside making a ruddy lot of noise."

I dashed out there to watch. It was an amazing sight, at least 15 garbage men (why are there never any women?) all dressed in orange, scurrying up and down the cobbled streets, grabbing bins and rolling them down to their trucks. And then emptying them. And then rolling them back up again. All of this was done at speed. The streets are severely steep so a person has to be strong and energetic to be a successful garbage man. I stood back, but it was apparently not 'back' quite far enough because a garbage man tapped my shoulder and said, "Madam, you might get hit there," and kept dashing. I moved.

The din was tremendous. If you can imagine it, each garbage man rolling up to 4 garbage cans at a time, that's 15 x 4, that's 60 garbage cans all rolling down, up, in, out, and making, in general, a 'ruddy lot of noise'. I doubt that any tourist slept through it, however early it might have been.

Once this was all over, the streets returned to their former calm. I continued to the Norway Store for our daily allotment of croissants and chocolate twists. I walked with a slow step, however, knowing that today was leaving day for my sister and her husband. They had been my boon companions for 8 days, and how dare they go? But go they must, and so we cleaned out our little Hobbit cottage and rolled our bags down the cobbled lanes that had, just a little while before, been the scene of frenzied garbage can men doing their frenzied jobs so very cheerfully. 

As we passed into another section of the town, familiar banging and clanging noises began to reach our ears. We'd need to watch our step, and no mistake. It was sounding pretty 'garbagy' out there.


See you along the way!
the SconeLady