Monday, March 28, 2011

I love council pickup

Look at what I found!

I can't believe it I am so excited!

In Brisbane once a year the council does this 'council pickup' thing where people can put any of their old crap on the street (from fridges to old beds to mattresses to cardboard boxes) and the council will come and pick it up and dispose of it. This year they are encouraging the public to go round and get stuff they think they can recycle which is brilliant. (Apparently in past years we weren't supposed to...oops. Last year I found a Wedgwood teapot in perfect condition).
I collect teapots and tea sets.

ANYWAY! The bike! I bought a mauve coloured vintage traveller bike a while ago on eBay for a fair chunk of change. I love it. It's worth every penny. I've been wanting to get Nadine a bike too so we can go on some of the nice bikeways Brisbane has to offer (riding by myself is a bit boring, unless I'm going somewhere specific). But we've been so broke lately so it just wasn't an option for a while!

And today after work I went for a quick walk and saw this beauty (the maroon one).

It's in tip top condition, brakes work, gears look fine, it needs new inner tubes and tires. But the paint isn't even scratched, there is no rust that I could find in my quick inspection, the seat is untainted AND it's the perfect size for Nadine!

And it was free!

This totally made my week. Thank you people who can't be bothered selling such a gem for lots of money.

2 comments:

Theresa said...

How exciting! I wish Townsville did something like this. Instead, they've posted out free dumping vouchers to all home owners (note: not renters). So there is rarely an opportunity for kerbside shopping. How lame that it was never legal before -- Andy was telling me just last week about a guy in Melbourne who was arrested for theft, because he picked up something that was left kerbside. Because, apparently, anything on council property (ie the verge) *is* council property. Totally lame. But very cool of Brisbane to buck the trent.

Emma said...

@Theresa: I heard about the Melbourne guy! But apparently it wasn't classed as counci property - it was technically the property of the people who put it there and if he went in and asked he would have been free to take it. So silly. It's a great recycling oppurtunity. Everywhere should do it - imagine the landfill saved! The stuff the council takes literally just gets dumped.