The bane of my life

They were the bane of my life in Sydney and I can't avoid them here either. Today while I was working, this fine gentleman from the Voorburg council spent hours blowing leaves in the street.
In Sydney, I at least had my own blower to retaliate with - if the neighbors blew leaves at 8 a.m. on Saturday, I could start blowing them at 7 a.m. on Sunday and my petrol-powered blower was far noisier than the glorified electric hair drier the neighbors used to clean up their leaf litter. Here, I have nothing but a broom.
The one good thing about leaf blowers here is that their season is considerably shorter than the year-round misery in Australia. In the last month, many of the trees here have been stripped almost bare by a couple of howling gales and the trees won't start shedding again until this time next year.