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The long promised fuel tax protest ended up by being a bit of a damp squib, with apparently very few taking part, and those who are being well shepherded by the police. The government also did its 'bit' - or so they would have us believe - by announcing that they expected petrol to come down 4p per litre next week, as the drop in the price of a barrel of oil 'eventually filters through to the pumps'. I like to think that I'm a fairly intelligent person (although some may question this), and I still don't understand how it takes less than a day for price increases to filter through, but nearly two weeks for price reductions. I also don't understand why, if a barrel of oil is now around $60, the price will only come down to 95p per litre, when the last time oil stood at this price a litre of petrol cost 82p! The final in this trilogy of STUpidity is this: if the oil companies are telling us that they are merely passing on their increased costs to the consumer... then why is it that they are all making record profits and seeing their share prices rocket on the stock exchanges. I didn't do economics at university, so the complexities of profiteering are completely beyond my admittedly limited comprehension. Enough already, I hear you say! What about my day? Well, since you ask, Craig was up again, and between us we managed to extend the driveway and fill up the trailer with rubble for dumping. On our arrival at the 'recycling centre', we were met with a man holding a pen and a clipboard. "We need you to fill out a form", says he. "What for?", asked Craig. "For our records", he replied. "What records?", asked Craig. "We need to keep a note of your van's registration number, so we know who you are", replied he. "And why do you need to know who I am?", asked Craig. "So we can check to see if you have a waste disposal licence that allows you to carry and dump waste." To cut a long story short(ish), we now need a licence to dump waste - and this, apparently, applies to everyone - not just tradesmen. The licence costs £300, and gives you the right to transport waste. Only licence holders are allowed to dump waste, and for an additional cost: at the recycling centre it is £30 per load - whether one plastic bag of broken toys or a lorry load of old bricks; at the refuse dump (non-recycling), it is £30 per tonne, if brought in a van or lorry - free if brought in a private car. It would seem that the council don't want to encourage recycling, and they want to encourage flytipping. I pay over £1500 council tax each year, and sometimes wonder just what I get for this money. In the end, we were told that we could 'recycle' two or three loads before they start charging us. How generous of them.

I finally arrived in Lisbon this time last year