Down the valley

The excitement of a new strimmer means that my supplies of string for it are running low and that, combined with the need of some cash to pay the builder, meant I had to brave the covid infested valley.
All very straightforward except thsat I made the mistake of going to the local Treserorie (?sp) to pay what I thought was a few council style bills to be told I owed a sum rather larger than I anticipated. A ittle bit of negotiation in my best French and it was halved but still rather more that I had thought. More French bureaucracy.
What made it all the more galling was that most of it was referring to rubbish collection and our bin went missing about a month ago so we currently don't have much of a service at all.