Think or Thwim

So I took my eldest son down to the new Llandudno Swim Center last night, to have a bit of a look around and for him to participate in his first training session in the new pool as part of the Abergele Performance Squad.

Although the pool still isn't quite finished, there's enough of it there - for instance a big hole with some water in it - to see that it should turn out to be a central attraction for the Conwy area, and further add to the facilities available within the area for swimmers of all ages, young and old alike. The internal layout of the building is modern, clean and has a definite feeling of space to it. Even the viewing stands seem to have a bit more leg room and perhaps more importantly - circulating air - than you typically find in other venues.

The New Llandudno Swim Center - a number of local councillors and residents expressed concern that in the event of a severe flood in Llandudno, the building would be difficult to find due to it's "wave camouflage" design.

The only slight problem I noticed was that the car park (which incidentally, is "pay and display" and shared with Venu Cymru next door) was massively flooded last night - so much so that it looked as if they'd actually constructed a separate outdoor pool as part of the whole development.

They should probably sort out the drainage in the car park, if only to prevent any prospective customers from either 1) floating off whilst attempting to enter the building, or 2) returning to their car only to find it jacked up on a pile of dead crabs as a result of a bunch of marauding haddock stealing their tyres.

Members of the Swim Wales governing body perform a spot-check inspection of tiling around the inside of the new Llandudno warm-up pool, only to find that the local Cosa Nostra swimming jamboree had been there earlier in the day.

Other than this minor problem - which admittedly is still in keeping with the aquatic theme of the new building - it looks to me as if this was most definately 6 million clams well spent. I might even learn to swim myself.

Extra Recycling Bins - Find Them Here!

Bit of good news here (well at least it's news to me). Recently, whilst digging around on the local Conwy County Borough Council web site, I noticed that buried quite deep within the pages relating to kerbside recycling and collection, you can actually order new green recycling boxes and bags at no extra cost. (At least no explicit cost - don't get me started on the Council Tax).

Given that there are five of us in my household, and that we regularly run out of containers for the recyclable waste and other rubbish that we generate now that collections are done on alternate weeks, I decided to give this a whirl.

It was all easy enough, I simply completed the online form, and within a week a nice, shiny new recycling box was waiting for me as I returned home from a business trip down to London. Result.

After a long wait, a group of elderly Abergele residents rejoice as they make use of a new recycling point to dispose of their used syringes, burnt spoons and blocked crack pipes.

I thought I'd pop this down on the blog because there are probably quite a large number of people in around the Abergele area that don't even realise that this is general council policy. (Also, I'm pretty desperate for things to write about as you can probably tell).

In fact, if you rummage around a bit more on their web-site you even find the statement:

You may request additional boxes and bags as you feel is necessary to enable you to recycle waste.

Isn't that nice of the council? I think it is, and I also think that it shows their genuine committment to helping us all behave in a slightly more eco-friendly manner.

Of course, there's no telling how long this policy will stay in effect if everyone starts requesting extra recycling boxes and bags....but I guess there's only one way to find out. :0)

More information on all things council and in particular kerbside recycling can be found here.