seibu

Thanks that sounds quite convincing actually, given the time of night.

Last night I was woken(!) at about 3:30am by an overpowering sulpher / burning rubber smell coming from outside. I actually went out into the street to see if I could tell where it was coming from, and it extended at least to both ends of my street. I searched on twitter and at least one other person had posted about it. Did anyone else smell it? Anyone have any idea what it might have been? It's gone this morning.

Yeah, I find the implication that some lives a worth more than others a bit troubling too. Of course, the reality is that you already get a longer sentence for murdering a police officer. I believe the starting tariff is currently life with a minimum of 30 years, as opposed to the usual "life" which means about twelve years. So really this "proposal" is just political pandering to tabloids, etc anyway.

Afraid to say I've had problems with Sheffield mail ever since I moved here about sixteen years ago. This has ranged from a spate of parcels being opened and items removed in 2002 and 2003, to more recently, important pieces of mail never turning up. I have always reported these problems, and in my opinion the system is clearly set up to make it hard to complain. It's hard to find the right numbers to phone, and it's hard to speak to a human. At every stage, the priority of staff seems to be to tell you to phone back at another time, and to avoid taking down any specific details about what has gone missing, where and when. So I'm not convinced that a lot is actually done to record problems, look for patterns, or do anything about it.

It seems to me that there's something up with mobile services in Sheffield at the moment, regardless of network. I had about a week of problems in S6 and S3. I'm on Three. I got in touch with them and they said there was a technical problem in Sheffield generally, but they wouldn't be more specific. My problems have now cleared up, but one of my colleagues, my girlfriend and a few of my friends, all on different networks, have been having problems this week. It would be interesting to know what's actually going on.

Hi, I tried to take some garden waste on foot to one of these places last year and was turned away. Luckily I went home used it to start a compost heap. Right now though, I've got a full wheelie bin and some sacks of rubbish which are creating a pretty big problem for me. I got in touch with the council and they (eventually!) confirmed: "Dear , Access to your local household waste recycling centre can be made by foot if necessary. regards" I don't want to trek all the way back there only to be turned away again so I've contacted Veolia to clarify. I'll post back what they say.

Okay, well I'd better get a move on then! Council confirmed today that I should be able to take my rubbish on foot to a recycling centre. Last time I tried this I was turned away, so I'm contacting Veolia to clarify.

Thank you! That's incredibly helpful! :-) Just to stress, I never intended to dump rubbish in the street. I would be putting it there until my bin was collected, and then putting it in the bin. In time I hope to be able to 'catch up' to the fortnightly schedule!

Right. I've been in contact with the council about this but I've just been sent a form letter defending the fortnightly collections, without actually addressing my question. I suspect they didn't read it. I've got a pretty serious waste problem building up. As far as I can tell, there's nothing I can do. I've been told that all the recycle points in Sheffield can only be accessed if you're in a car. I have a full wheelie bin which is not due to be collected for nearly a week, and bags of food waste with nowhere to go. Would it be illegal to put them on the street? I know it certainly wouldn't make me very popular! As I say, I've contacted the council asking for help and they've just sent a form letter without answering my question. If you don't have access to a car, is there any legal way to dispose of excess household waste?

Yeah, as I've said, five is a bit young. What I'm interested in is what age people *do* think children should be responsible for their own inhaler? A quick Google and one asthma counsel says ten. I had mine as soon as I was diagnosed, which was a bit younger than that, but do people agree with ten as an age? Are there some secondary schools which take inhalers off kids? 'Cause I definitely don't agree with that! BTW nothing against any teachers personally but I wouldn't have trusted any of mine with my inhaler!

What age would you say a kid should be 'trusted' with an inhaler at school? 'cause I certainly know about asthma, and although I wasn't diagnosed at five, I was by ten, and I *don't* agree that kids of that age should have it taken off them.

The problem is that it's very unpredictable. I could have no symptoms for months, then walk past a pile of mouldy leaves and it's like "wheeeeeeeze"! I am down to a bare minimum of medication nowadays and my asthma is considered very under control, but I cold still have an attack at any moment, 'cause it's a complicated condition. So complicated in fact that they still don't really know what 'asthma' really is!

Yeah, five is a bit young actually. Do they still take it off you in secondary school?

I sympathise with the original post here. I've had asthma since I was a kid and always carried my inhaler with me, including at school. If somebody tried to take it from me I'd be pretty distressed, because then I'm dependent on that person to breathe! What if they aren't around when I need it? Having read some of the posts here I can understand *why* teachers take inhalers from kids nowadays, but I still don't agree with it. It's another example of people covering themselves legally, at the expense of common sense. Two reasons: Firstly, if you want people to grow up to be responsible, you need to treat them like adults. Secondly, if you've got a life threatening condition for which you may need medication at a moment's notice, you should be the one responsible for administering that, nobody else.

MJ01 is entitled to his view, and certainly doesn't deserve to be called a <removed> just because he doesn't agree with you. Some people would have been able to go tonight and some wouldn't. Similarly, if the show is rescheduled then some people won't be able to make the new date. If it isn't rescheduled then nobody gets to go. For what it's worth the decision to cancel or go ahead probably wouldn't have been influenced by money, because shows are very often insured against cancellation. They would have wanted to go ahead because the band was there, the equipment was there and lots of people would still have been able to go. It was a difficult call, and for whatever reason the people who were in favour or cancelling won. People who disagreed certainly aren't <removed> !