Interesting times.... Started the day today with a visit to colleagues in our Bereavement Services department to discuss basing some of our teams at their premises. As usual, most welcoming, and I am always impressed by the quiet professionalism with which they carry out their work. A very constructive chat, and then returned to the depot.

Very pleased to receive our annual LEAMS report from Keep Wales Tidy. This is an independent sample of our streets (6%) and gives a detailed picture of the amount and type of litter found. This year it shows a significant improvement in our standards which is very gratifying. Of note though is that cigarette litter was found in over 90% of the locations sampled. This illustrates the importance of the work we are doing on educating smokers on sensible disposal of their butts.

A colleague finished the afternoon for me by walking in and sharing a completely bonkers letter from a member of the public that she was struggling to allocate for a reply. It complained about litter, dumped furniture, cannabis smoking, illness and finally the evils of a broken washing line, over about eight pages, in the most incomprehensible handwriting. Ho hum.... Obviously must be a full moon or something, as I then took two calls in quick succession from colleagues in our call centre who are normally stars at dealing with strange calls, with two separate but odd queries.

Just as I was thinking about going home, the press office rang as a Cllr had been winding up the local paper with problems to do with flytipping even though I had given them a full explanation by letter just over a week ago. Grrrr.

Got home, and was very worried when I opened the front door as normally woof is there to greet me, wagging his tail and bouncing as though I had been gone for a week. Instead, all was ominously quiet. It seemed the living room door was shut so he was locked in there. Opened the door to an onslaught of wags, bounces, squeaking, etc... to find he had been using the time by building what looked like a den using all the sofa cushions, and a thatched roof using his sheepskin rugs. Hmmmmm. Tidied up much to his annoyance, let him out and fed him. Then got changed myself and began to cook some rice for myself. Now he is closely supervising, parked by my feet as I type, looking happy and relaxed. He came to bed with me last night and slept very contentedly at my feet, and was very peaceful and quiet, no breakdancing at all.