We wheelie could have bin in trouble!

WE HAVE a 100-yard drive leading to the road and, with advancing years, we take the bin down to the roadside hooked on the towbar of the car (that’s if we remember it’s bin day). On one such day, we gaily put said bin on the car and proceeded to the road. Completely forgetting about the bin, we checked that there was no traffic either way and shot off up the road! Unbeknown to us one of our neighbours, by now following, saw us. They told us later that they’d thought: ‘If the police see them they will be stopped because you can’t see their number plate!’

Uphill and down dale we went, through two villages and to our destination nine miles away to Ashbourne in Derbyshire. We did our shopping and returned home. On arrival at our drive, my partner exclaimed: ‘Did you take the bin off the back of the car?’ ‘No, you usually do it,’ I replied. It dawned on us that we had indeed not taken the bin off, but where was it? We did a quick about-turn to find out where it had got to. No, nothing there. Where could it be?

On through village one, then village two, and up the hill to the top. There it was on the side of the road, upturned, rubbish everywhere and across the farmer’s field, where we had to go and collect all and sundry. On inspection of the bin, it was noted that the wheel had come off, hence the end result. We saw no other persons on route and no cars either but the full bin had lasted some six miles! I can only think that the rumble strips at the top of the incline took their toll on the rolling stock. I had to hotfoot it home to collect the trailer and retrieve said bin. We contacted the council and asked if they could supply us with a spare wheel. They said, ‘we’ll send you a new bin’, so the old one holds the pony feed. We could have ended up outside Marks & Spencer complete with wheelie bin had it not been for the rumble strips!

Maurice Arden, Leek, Staffs.