The Stephenson Families' Great Californian Adventure

Yesterday was an interesting day at the office. We are working on a level which requires a lot of "junk" and litter, and we decided to go on a field trip to the local "recycling centre" which is basically a posh term for the city dump. There are 2 main areas: one is the traditional public dump where people unload fridges, sofas, etc etc. This gave some decent reference of pipes, electronics, rusted metals. Then we moved into the main garbage area which is best described as a stinky aircrat hanger full of rotting matter. Seriously - its the central hub for the household waste from the entire city. The trucks dump it into an entrance, its bulldozed into the main "pit", its watered down, compressed, scooped into bigger trucks and then landfilled. Man, was that disgusting! Its so foul they constantly spray the entire room (it really is like a hanger) with a mixture of water (to keep the dust down) and air freshner - no kidding! I think the worst part was the thousands of seagulls swooping in through the entrance and picking at the crap. An interesting experience for sure!

Now - bear in mind the trip was less than 9 miles each way and we were there about an hour - the round trip took from 11:30 until 3PM. Traffic. Its always bad in the city but the QM2 (see below) brought everything to a complete standstill. Its just a ship guys!!! :-)