I hate fireworks night

[Doomy]

Not only have explosions been going off all night making my house sound like a World War 1 trench, but some neds nicked every bin from my terrace and burnt them. I'd see the funny side except that the council will bill me about £70 to have mine replaced.

Why are victims of crime expected to pay for the privilege?

[eviltb]

That sucks! No way should you be made to pay for it when its blatantly a criminal act!

[zipp]

Injustice sucks, especially when its legalized injustice. It could be worse. I know a guy who has to pay $3000 in burial costs just to get the hospital to release his dad's body.

[Ghost Bear]

Nov 6, 2009 3:22:36 GMT -5 zipp said:

Injustice sucks, especially when its legalized injustice. It could be worse. I know a guy who has to pay $3000 in burial costs just to get the hospital to release his dad's body.

Hospitals can't just release bodies - there's all sorts of risk associated with having bodies lying around the place. I don't know what the going rate for a funeral is, so I can't say whether 3k is excessive, but there are good reasons for the hospital to do what it's doing.

As for the bins - can't you appeal/speak to the Council about it? Seems worth a try at least. Chances are that there're remains of the bins at the site of the fire - this should show them that you're telling the truth.

-GB

[Doomy]

Second chapter of my thrilling bin saga:

Just off the 'phone to the council. The recycling bin is fortunately free, but the main bin is £40 which I paid as obviously I need one and a fight now will only lead to delays. The feckers didn't even want the crime number I got from the police, so it will obviously be pointless presenting them with further evidence.

Homeowners get shafted every time. The only council services I use are cleansing/street repair, getting my bins emptied and borrowing the odd library book, yet I have to pay for education and housing services I'll never need.

Man, reading the above makes me think I'm not just getting old but positively curmugeonly.

Zipp - I'm guessing your friend is American, at least in the UK we have free healthcare services. Our hospitals are filthy and riddled with lethal infections, but at least you won't have to pay to contract a flesh-eating virus.

[jan]

Oh, that's bad, Doomy! I hope you'll resolve it somehow.

They burnt the bins? Ooops!

But - be happy you don't live here. Here, you can't even defend your own property. I have a woodland, and many idiots go there with motorcycles and these three-wheeled and four-wheeled things, and I can just watch them destroying my woodland. The police absolutely doesn't care, they even don't bother to come and look at it (and I can even name the guys, I know them personally), and if I would try to defend my property with force, I would be prosecuted and found guilty for injuring them and sent to prison. I can't do anything.

And there's a guy who runs a horse-farm nearby who sends the turists riding horses to my woodland without my permission, and the horses damage the saplings and small trees. I went to this guy once and asked him not to use my woodland - and guess what he said! He said: "Don't try to make me angry or I'll send a couple of my Ukrainians on you!" And so what can I do? Nothing! The police just doesn't care (they might be corrupted by this guy, I don't know).

If I lived in a normal country, the police would try to help me. Or I'd put a "No horses and motorcycles" sign on my property and I would warn and then shot every idiot that would ignore the sign. Here I can just watch them and grumble here.

[Doomy]

You own a forest?

Do you spend frosty mornings hunting on horseback with a hawk on your arm?

[blazingsaddle]

Ah Jan, if only animal kinship could be a reality. Imagine having an army of wolfs, bears, wildcat and more to defend your woodland against the Giaks.

Doomy, thats [censored]! As you know; "The crime doesn't pay". Yeah, its the honest citizen that pay for crime. Life in society [censored] sometime.

[jan]

Nov 6, 2009 5:33:38 GMT -5 Doomy said:

You own a forest?

Do you spend frosty mornings hunting on horseback with a hawk on your arm?

LOL. What's so strange about it? It's actually just a small woodland, a few hectares, divided into three pieces. But I like it. There are several tiny water streams and a large "feeder" for deer, and a beautiful view. We also have about 20 hectares of agricultural land, but we don't farm it, we lease it to local agricultural companies.

Our family had been owning this land for many generations, then it had been "nationalised" (i.e. stolen) by communist after the communist coup in 1948, and we got it back after the Velvet Revolution in 1989 (I don't know if you can imagine how land looks after 40 years of communist mis-management).

And no, I don't hunt there, no, I don't have any hawk - I just work there with my heavy axe (I always wanted to be a lumberjack ;D ) - this axe makes a self-control harder when I see these motorised idiots around - I'm afraid I'll once use it on them - and spend the rest of my life in jail.

Nov 6, 2009 5:33:38 GMT -5 @blazingsaddle said:

YAh Jan, if only animal kinship could be a reality. Imagine having an army of wolfs, bears, wildcat and more to defend your woodland against the Giaks.

I could defend it easily against the Giaks by myself. Stupid guys on motorcycles and corrupted cops are, however, a different story... I wonder what Lone Wolf would do...

[Black Cat]

Jan, do you have a fence? Block the accesses with cement blocks or a big sturdy barrier. Of course, the ATVs might find another place to enter your property, but if it is difficult for them to do so, it will decrease the number of times these guys come around. As for the horses, if you block the access, it will be hard for them to go in.

[Doomy]

But horses can jump fences.

[Black Cat]

Do you really think tourists riding horses will try to jump the fence? These horses are made to walk, not to take part in a stepplechase competition. Plus, tourists won't try to pass by if they see the fence. They don't want to get in trouble.

[Doomy]

Sorry, I was being a little facetious there.

Kidding aside, it must be wonderful to have your own lttle bit of countryside (now you've got it back). I've always loved forests, and holidayed in many wooded campsites as a youngster.

[jan]

BC: Thank you for the advice, but... it's simply not possible to fence several hectares af forest. Well - it is possible, but it would be very expensive or labour demanding. I just can't do that. And if I block the entrance (there is no real road to the forest, just paths), they would just go around - actually, these guys prefer off-road, so they would be happy if the entrance was blocked. You must understand that these are off-road motorcycles (and horses too, lol), and they are not using paths in the woodland - they go totally freely throught the whole forest. But thank you for the interest.

"Plus, tourists won't try to pass by if they see the fence. They don't want to get in trouble."

Hmm, unfortunately, you're probably referring to Canadian tourists. We are talking about a combination of Western technology and Eastern mentality. And it's the worst possible combination, believe me. Well, but I'm optimistic - I hope the things will improve in the future... I hope...

[Beowuuf]

Personal forest = wow and cool

Everything else mentioned in this thread seems to be irritating suckage Maybe we all need to move to Jan's forest and take our burning bins with us to a barrier around the edge?