As most of us know we now live in 2006 the digital era. To that end we have hundreds of television channels to choose from and indeed we all pay our monthly subscription for such services.

I expect to see advertising but now armed with my remote control in one hand and a glass of wine in the other I expect to be controller of what I view.                  

Picture the situation its a friday night and you decide to sit on the couch, feet up an optional extra,and try and find something that might hold your attention for a while.You start at the beginning of the channels and flick. This usually does'nt take that long as you know what channels show crap and what channels might contain something that you may watch. Your search is ended you fall upon something that looks ok you rearrange the cushion straighten your balls and prepare to be entertained.

Ads come on so what do you do? you flick but its no use all the channels are showing the ads at the same time. Every channel who are meant to be competing with each other are showing the ads at he same time.

So why do we need all the channels and pay €450 per annum coupled with the annual licence fee of €155? the answer is that we dont need all the channels we have been sold" a pig and a poke". If we only had say 6 channels we would get the same amount of entertainment and more importantly we would do other things like speak to each other or heaven forbid read a book.

So the next time you have a hour try and avoid the ads, now that has the makings of a good party game. 

Recycling is one of those inititives that I am sure that all of us support as it will enable us to ensure that we leave a world for the future generations.It is even part of most Governments enviromental policy.

 Why then is it so difficult to do?

As a householder with two children we generate a lot of rubbish many of which can be recycled.Glass is an obvious one, be it in the form of bottles or jars. We  do not throw our glass away but wash it, store it and periodically bring it to the local bottle bank. You get to the bottle bank and find that its full and therefore you cannot deposit your bounty.Worse still is that people who have visited the bottle bank with recyclables and see that its full simply take the load from the car and leave it on the floor outside the bottle bank to act as fodder for any loon to come along and use it as a missile on a weekend night when he/she are pissed. I cannot understand why they cannot bring the glass home and return another day.

We also have a lawn and cutting the grass is one of those chores that I look foward to with as much relish as going to the dentist. Its not so much cutting the grass its the disposal of the grass and other garden cuttings. I decided to invest in a compost maker,and followed the simple instructions of placing all of my organic waste into the composter and I was assured that within a year or so I would have compost that I could use in my hanging baskets etc.Bollocks it does'nt work all I have is a mass of slime with a smell that would strip paint from a wall. Not only that because of the fact that its not decomposing its now full so I have to put the grass into black sacks and bring it to a local authority centre which is never open.

Would it be too much for somebody to explain how to compost correctly or have a timetable issued to households telling us when the bottle banks are emptied so that we can perform our civic duty. Most of us are doing thing to help the environment but why is so difficult as frustrating?