Don't forget your socks!

KidCity, in the suburb of Mitchell, is one of those indoor play centres with gates to keep the kids in, and coffee and wifi to keep the parents happy. Inside, it's much the same as play centres everywhere - big slides, netted areas to climb up and into and through, and ballpits with lots of brightly-coloured plastic balls. The McDonalds of playgrounds ...

Smoke gets in your eyes

The smoke plume from a friend's house in Palmerston. Photo: Apprentice Domestic Goddess

The big news in Canberra today was a huge chemical fire in the suburb of Mitchell. Many northside people were woken in the early hours of the morning by loud explosions, and the morning news reports were full of the story. All northside school were closed for the day, roads were blocked, and smoke filled the air.

Another view of the smoke from the Mitchell fire. Photo: Apprentice Domestic Goddess

The fire burned all day, with fire services working on containing it by covering it with foam. The following video gives an idea of how intensely the fire burned:

Too much stuff

Storage facility, Mitchell.

These places are popping up at an alarming rate, and they're a symptom of a (literally) growing problem - too much stuff. Of course, some people see it as 'not enough space', even though our parents and grandparents often managed in much smaller houses and with larger families. So what happens when you've filled up the house and the garage? You rent an empty space with a roller door, and fill that up too. Just crazy.

The life you save could be your own

Road signs on Gungahlin Drive, Mitchell.

This photo was taken from the car yesterday (no - I wasn't driving!), and I haven't adjusted the colours at all - this is what a clear winter day in Canberra looks like :)

All washed up

Baths at the R Shop at Michell Resource Management Centre (taken on a brighter, drier and somewhat warmer day than today*).

The R Shop resells items rescued from disposal. You can find old school desks, vinyl records, books, toys, bicycles in various states of disrepair, kitchenware and all manner of things. Mostly they'll need some work, or at the very least a good scrub, but they're generally cheap and you might find a real bargain.

* It's been raining on and off all day, with gusty winds. It's officially 5.7 degrees C at  2.30pm, but with the wind chill factor the apparent temp is -1.0. Brrr ...)

What a load of rubbish!

Today we went to the tip with a trailer-load of rubbish. This shed is the tipping floor at Mitchell Resource Management Centre. You back your car or trailer or truck up to the edge (where I'm standing), and unload into the pit, where workers retrieve anything recyclable or saleable, before the rest is pushed down towards the back wall. Trucks pick up the waste from under the chute, and take it to landfill.

Recyclables (including paper, metal, wood, paints, oil, whitegoods and car batteries) are separated for processing. Most of them are sent interstate for recycling.

In Canberra, we have two types of household bins: general waste (with a green lid, collected weekly from the roadside in front of your house) and recycling (cans, bottles, papers etc., with a yellow lid, collected fortnightly in the same way). Any larger items, or garden waste, you dispose of yourself - you can pay someone to take it away, or you can load up the trailer or car or ute and take it to the tip (for a fee) or the green waste depot (some are free, some have a fee) yourself.

Canberra generated over 800 000 tonnes of waste in the 2009-2010 year. Almost 588 000 tonnes (72%) of that waste is listed as 'resource recovery', which means it could be recycled or reused in some way.

Domestically we do a bit better: 85% of standard household recyclables (paper, plastic, glass and metals) and over 90% of green waste were recycled in the same timeframe.

But it's still a load of garbage!