A day that I for one will never forget Please, don’t just leave it to ‘someone else’
I DON’T think there are any words that might adequately explain how proud I felt to stand on the stage at Pembrey Country Park on Sunday as Leader of Carmarthenshire County Council as we hosted the Grand Depart of the Tour of Britain cycle race on Sunday.
It was a great day in our history and will be long remembered.
We have a facility that is now second to none there in that amazing park, but this event, along with the park itself, still had to be planned, engineered, arranged and facilitated in order to make it the success that it was.
So many people thanked me for the meticulous planning that had made the event such a huge success, and such a pleasure for all concerned, and I want to pass that thanks on to the staff, volunteers and communities who worked so hard in order to support the event and give the riders such a warm welcome.
I have lost count of the positive comments we have received, both from local people who enjoyed the spectacle right on their doorstep, and also from visitors to the county who felt and enjoyed the buzz we created.
Sir Gar was at its best on Sunday - and I was privileged and proud to have been there on a day that I for one will never forget. LOYAL readers will be aware that I have many pet hates.
I also hate many pets, like next door’s cat, which I call “Handyman” . . . because he keeps doing little jobs in my garden.
Talking of pets, people who keep snakes, lizards, killer whales, etc, consider themselves superior to anyone who keeps “run-of-the-mill” pets like hamsters, budgies and goldfish.
In their minds, they’re “individualists” who don’t follow the common herd.
Yet, strangely, every single one of them who owns a pet python calls it Monty!
How’s that for individualism?
My Number One Pet Hate is the casual way people drop litter out of car windows, on the pavement and in parks.
Wherever I go, this country is slowly drowning under a tsunami of plastic bottles, takeaway cartons and crisp packets.
As soon as their train pulls into the station, some bone idle text-addicted rail travellers leave their empty coffee cups on the bench they were sitting on for 20 minutes.
They get on the train without a backwards glance, confident “Someone Else” will do what they’re too lazy to – drop the cup in the bin placed all of 10 feet away. After the Reading Festival, 30,000 tents were left behind, along with a mountain of general rubbish – all of which will go to landfill. That means 30,000 or more people should, under the Phil Evans Law (which is sadly not on the statute books . . . yet) be doing serious jail time for being thoughtless, lazy twerps who think it’s OK to walk away from a festival, leaving all their gear behind for “Someone Else” to clear up.
That “Someone Else” is the rest of society – people who’d never think of dropping litter.
They’re people who feel so strongly about our streets and green parks being covered in discarded rubbish that they make the effort to pick it up and bin it.
I’m “Someone Else”.
Are you?