Eight Acres

When we took our old BBQ to the dump I had a an opportunity for a quick look through the dump shop.  (I should also point out that the only reason we didn't put the BBQ on freecycle is that we took off the wheels and the hot plate for upcycling, and the burners were very rusty, so it was better off as scrap).  The dump shop is even cheaper than op shops and you can find some really unexpected things there. I was incredibly excited to find the 1980s Australian Trivial Pursuit game with ALL THE PIECES AND CARDS!!!!   I have wanted a copy of this for ages, yay!  We have an old monopoly game from the markets, but that game just gets so boring it makes us fight, and we've had to resort to playing cards lately.  This should provide hours of fun. I also found a couple of books, one about travelling in the Northern Territory and one about resources in Queensland.  I got all of this for $5.  Bargain!  Do you use a local dump shop?  O...

I was going to write a whinge about digital TV and the number of old TVs that were no doubt being thrown out as a result of changing from analogue to digital TV, but as I was looking for more info, I found out that Australia has finally made some progress on product stewardship and recycling of TVs and monitors....... A couple of years ago we owned three TVs, one tiny old 15" that my husband had owned since his  apprenticeship, a 32" cathode ray that was bought to replace the tiny one, and another very old (no remote) 32" that was given to us by a friend who upgraded.  We were perfectly happy with these TVs on analogue signals and had no intention of buying a flat screen.  But then the government decided to change to digital TV, and the analogue signal was to be turned off in the next few years (earlier in rural areas than the city for some reason).  I have NO idea how this was justified, I can only assume that its good for the TV channels, so they lobbied for it. ...