Do Dustmen Dream of Clockwork Snails?

Dateline ++ Twisted Pines ++ Thursday ++ 7:15 am ++ Bin Day

I wish I got as much jobsworth satisfaction from my employment as our local binmen seem to get. Thursday is bin day for a large chunk of Twisted Pines. Many moons ago we were given wheelie bins which were emptied every week. A couple of years ago we were given 2 extra wheelie bins per house for garden waste and recyclables. Nonrecyclables get collected one week, garden waste and recyclables the next. Supposedly we're supposed to be recycling 70+% of our waste so where the logic is in collecting it 50% of the time is lost on me.

So, last Thursday morning just as I was loading the car ready to head off to the hospital, the bin lorry appears round the bend of my little cul-de-sac. It isn't a very wide road but I could have squeezed past them had they not taken such an aggressive stance in the middle of the road. Instead I sat patiently waiting for them to trundle past, they have a job to do, no point getting irate about the timing is there, I thought. They of course, knowing that I was waiting to get out took their sweet time getting closer to my house. When they finally arrived at my neighbour's drive I thought the driver might be kind enough to pull forward an extra ooh 8 or so feet and thus allow me to get out.

I thought wrong.

Mr driver inched forward and with an evil smirk on his face and looking me in the eye the whole time, completely blocked me in. He then proceeded to inch slowly along while the guys emptied all the bins from the other side of the cul-de-sac before finally emptying my bin (which was deposited right in the middle of the entrance to the drive forcing me to get out and move it before I could drive off). Then instead of moving forward and turning round in the turning circle, which has ample room for turning an articulated lorry, I've seen it done many times, they reversed down the road at a pace slower than you would use to berth the QE2.

In the words of Mr Wogan, is it me?