I’m always on the lookout for ways to help this World of ours keep on spinning. If I’m honest I have to say I’m always looking for things I can do which involve the least amount of effort or commitment, I suppose I’m an armchair activist.

A few months ago I decided it would be a really good idea to have a compost bin. Well it would, wouldn’t it? I should mention here that Palacio Andaloo is a very, very small house, and my “garden” is on the roof, and I don’t know the first thing about compost. So, I got the metal bin and drilled ventilation holes through it and started piling in the “compost”. After a few days it started oozing some foul smelling liquid through the ventilation holes and onto the new floor tiles. I cleaned it up and sat the bin in a plastic saucer in case it happened again. The following day the saucer was full with brown liquid which smelt like it may have passed through an animal. I emptied the saucer, cleaned it and put it back, and have been doing this daily (as if I haven’t got enough to do) ever since.

On Saturday I was on the roof, and realised I’d got used to living in a fug of putrid vegetables. Enough. The thing had to go, and it had to go right away. There was only one place it could go, the community rubbish bin at the end of the street. So, I cleaned the saucer for the last time and sat the evil smelling bin on it. I then covered the whole thing in plastic and waited for the siesta. Once I was sure everybody was asleep I crept out, and between the two of us we managed to carry the mobile farmyard to the end of the street.

This morning the other Andaloo took some rubbish to the bin and came back smiling. Apparently somebody had taken the compost bin, but not the bin-men because the saucer and plastic cover were still there. But? Who…? Why would anybody…?

This is one I really don’t want to understand.