The new news 24 thread

[Yoss]

17 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Is that why we haven't had any post since NYE? 

Only new years eve, you're doing well! The week before Christmas we lost over 40 staff to covid. That's in an office of around 130, so almost a third of our staff. Most of those are back now but more are off as it spreads. I was lucky* enough to catch it in November so I was immune to this wave but it has been both chaotic and eerily calm at the same time as parts of the office are practically empty. The bosses have given up, there's not a lot they can do really. We work in pairs from each van but every time one of us has a day off we don't have any cover so it'll just be me covering both duties. What tends to happen is I concentrate on the packets and leave the mail behind as its the packets people want and they take up more volume. Then the next day we'll have two days mail to clear. Then it will be my partners day off and we're back to square one. But our customers are the lucky ones, they only miss out one day. The duties where both posties in the pair have gone off are a lot more hit and miss and it is just pot luck. We do our best. Most of us anyway. 

17 hours ago, Asimo said:

What happened to cleaning the vehicle at the end of the shift? If the scuttle is that neglected, how is the sump?

 

Ha ha, I've never washed it and it's ten years old. There are no facilities at our office to wash them even if I wanted to. But there is no time in the duties anyway, I'm usually at least half an hour late getting back. 

When I started we only kept the vans for three years. You always used to see old Royal Mail Sherpas knocking about in private hands. I think they were auctioned off and probably a good buy as they were generally well looked after. Not any more, my Pug is ten years old this year. You never really see them in private hands now because we keep them until they utterly fucked. I guess it makes sense from a private companies point of view but it doesn't do much for the public image. 

It does get serviced twice a year and obviously MOT'd but the garage never wash them either. I even have lichen growing on mine and that takes decades to grow. 

[grogee]

3 hours ago, Rod/b said:

Got back from a few weeks in the UK to find the truck without sufficient electrons in the box to even unlock the doors on the button. Jumped it up using the Kia Mumbus and took it for a spin to see if i could persuade some electricity back into the battery.

Parked up and came back a while later to this:

Upon closer inspection this quick connect elbow on the bottom of the header tank has given up the ghost.

 

Also the battery was flat again so i boosted it and took it down to my tame mechanic as I haven’t got time for dicking about with cars at the moment.

On the way there the tyre light came on, and by the time i arrived the left front was flat. So that’s brilliant too.

The battery is testing is bad, oh and it needs a front wheel bearing.   Always happens right after christmas doesn’t it?

EDIT:

Update - the header tank needs replacing too. Quite excellently Ford have combined the air box and header tank in one unit and therefore it costs £200, which is more than the replacement 4x4 locking hub and bearing unit costs.

Here’s one of the pictures the garage keeps whatsapping to me.

Sorry for your January automotive expense. 

On a related note, I take pics and videos of work I do for 'customers' (don't tell tax man). I can't believe most UK garages haven't caught onto this. It's easy and free, plus you often need pics as reference anyway. And it's reassuring for the customer. 

[grogee]

8 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Only new years eve, you're doing well! The week before Christmas we lost over 40 staff to covid. That's in an office of around 130, so almost a third of our staff. Most of those are back now but more are off as it spreads. I was lucky* enough to catch it in November so I was immune to this wave but it has been both chaotic and eerily calm at the same time as parts of the office are practically empty. The bosses have given up, there's not a lot they can do really. We work in pairs from each van but every time one of us has a day off we don't have any cover so it'll just be me covering both duties. What tends to happen is I concentrate on the packets and leave the mail behind as its the packets people want and they take up more volume. Then the next day we'll have two days mail to clear. Then it will be my partners day off and we're back to square one. But our customers are the lucky ones, they only miss out one day. The duties where both posties in the pair have gone off are a lot more hit and miss and it is just pot luck. We do our best. Most of us anyway. 

Ha ha, I've never washed it and it's ten years old. There are no facilities at our office to wash them even if I wanted to. But there is no time in the duties anyway, I'm usually at least half an hour late getting back. 

When I started we only kept the vans for three years. You always used to see old Royal Mail Sherpas knocking about in private hands. I think they were auctioned off and probably a good buy as they were generally well looked after. Not any more, my Pug is ten years old this year. You never really see them in private hands now because we keep them until they utterly fucked. I guess it makes sense from a private companies point of view but it doesn't do much for the public image. 

It does get serviced twice a year and obviously MOT'd but the garage never wash them either. I even have lichen growing on mine and that takes decades to grow. 

Thanks for your postie efforts in these challenging times. It can't be easy. We are blessed with a lovely post lady who is very friendly and helpful. She got a bottle of wine for Xmas from us but now I feel bad that no-one in the depot got anything!

[Lankytim]

I spied these poorly advertised Cobra slot wheels on eBay, as they were local I stuck on a very low bid and won. After getting over my immediate buyers remorse I arranged with the seller to collect and picked them up today. 

The seller hadn't advertised the size or the PCD but it turns out they're 14x6  with a PCD of 130mm, meaning they were probably fitted to a classic Beetle, although I think they'll fit some Skodas too. Not much use for me, unfortunately. 

I'm going to remove the scrap tyres, clean them up and stick them on eBay again, except this time I'll give them a proper description. 

 

 

[Zelandeth]

About six months ago my housemate's company car threw a hissy fit.  While sitting stationary in a traffic jam, the traffic jam assist, adaptive and standard cruise, collision avoidance system and park assist all announced on mass that they were out of order.  Today the dealer was finally able to get it in for a diagnostic session.

Their assessment: The wheel alignment is out, and that's not a warranty issue so will be £110 plus VAT to sort.

I am seriously calling bullshit on that...I reckon they've cleared the codes and looked for something chargeable they can spend ten minutes doing to make it worthwhile.

Taking bets on how long after we get it back tomorrow before the fault reappears.  I give it a week.  Though it should have been handed back about four months back as it is, nobody knows when the next one is likely to surface.

Audi haven't had a great track record with us really where defects, and especially their ability to fix them are concerned.

[grogee]

6 minutes ago, Zelandeth said:

About six months ago my housemate's company car threw a hissy fit.  While sitting stationary in a traffic jam, the traffic jam assist, adaptive and standard cruise, collision avoidance system and park assist all announced on mass that they were out of order.  Today the dealer was finally able to get it in for a diagnostic session.

Their assessment: The wheel alignment is out, and that's not a warranty issue so will be £110 plus VAT to sort.

I am seriously calling bullshit on that...I reckon they've cleared the codes and looked for something chargeable they can spend ten minutes doing to make it worthwhile.

Taking bets on how long after we get it back tomorrow before the fault reappears.  I give it a week.  Though it should have been handed back about four months back as it is, nobody knows when the next one is likely to surface.

Audi haven't had a great track record with us really where defects, and especially their ability to fix them are concerned.

Get to fuck! Wheel alignment my ass. 

I think with this sort of thing an electronic hiccup can knock all those things out, but the first course of action is pull codes - record - clear codes - test drive. But that is of course not chargeable. 

I'd be saying that's an outrageous cost for wheel alignment, and you're not paying. Cheeky fuckers - name and shame

[Yoss]

16 minutes ago, grogee said:

Thanks for your postie efforts in these challenging times. It can't be easy. We are blessed with a lovely post lady who is very friendly and helpful. She got a bottle of wine for Xmas from us but now I feel bad that no-one in the depot got anything!

Cheers, like I say most of us do our best. There are a few try to do as little possible and seem to get away with it, but probably no more than in any other large organisation. I do alright at Christmas so I must be doing something right. 

[Zelandeth]

10 minutes ago, grogee said:

Get to fuck! Wheel alignment my ass. 

I think with this sort of thing an electronic hiccup can knock all those things out, but the first course of action is pull codes - record - clear codes - test drive. But that is of course not chargeable. 

I'd be saying that's an outrageous cost for wheel alignment, and you're not paying. Cheeky fuckers - name and shame

Sadly as it's a company car telling them to do one and take it elsewhere isn't an option.  This is the same main dealer which "repaired" a broken seat adjuster (the handle snapped off the first time we tried to adjust the backrest) on a TT a few years ago simply by gluing it back on rather than replacing the part.  Twice.

[Sunny Jim]

The only good thing about getting up in the dark at this time of year is seeing a sunrise like this on the way to work.

[wuvvum]

Wow!  That is spectacular!

[Sunny Jim]

Here's the shiter's shot

[HMC]

Ongoing use of the s type r as the main car. Fun, quite discrete and practical (photo taken during pizza collection, earlier )

[wuvvum]

How many sets of rear tyres have you got through so far?

[HMC]

25 minutes ago, wuvvum said:

How many sets of rear tyres have you got through so far?

You have clearly understood my relationship with this car 😂

[loserone]

54 minutes ago, Sunny Jim said:

Here's the shiter's shot

Too late for a calendar entry ?

[grogee]

Promising call re: job this afternoon. The nice thing about it was I sent a CV this morning, then a Person who works there called me for a friendly and informal chat this afternoon. There was no HR bollocks and I'm guessing my CV hadn't been computer-filtered. 

Interview next Thurs apparently. I need to buy a shirt. 

[GMcD]

5 hours ago, SiC said:

"New" car has just been delivered. Bought in the wet and delivered in the wet. Never actually seen it in the dry, so hopefully it's ok! Its the most I've ever spent on a car and much rather not have spent this much. But with the crazy market and needing a car, needs must.
Our dead A4 is due to be taken away on Thursday all being well.

I do like these a lot. Good choice 🙂. 

[Angrydicky]

2 hours ago, HMC said:

Ongoing use of the s type r as the main car. Fun, quite discrete and practical (photo taken during pizza collection, earlier )

Nice '63 Lincolnshire plate on that, did it come with the Jag?

[adw1977]

5 hours ago, Zelandeth said:

While sitting stationary in a traffic jam, the traffic jam assist, adaptive and standard cruise, collision avoidance system and park assist all announced on mass that they were out of order

Getting rid of all that sounds like an improvement to me.

[GMcD]

Sno Kaos.

[Yoss]

The news feed on my phone gave me a link to an Express story about the mail delays. I clicked on it to see if Southampton got a mention. It did but one of pictures they used was this. 

I didn't realise the delays were that bad. 

[adw1977]

1 hour ago, Yoss said:

I didn't realise the delays were that bad. 

I looked up GUC96W

Untaxed since it was just under 9 years old, pretty typical I suppose.

But wait:

Could it still be out there, waiting to be the next OMGBARNFIND?

[Tenmil Socket]

On 1/5/2022 at 6:22 PM, cort1977 said:

My very nice neighbour just gave me a load of mountain bike parts and a frame.  I only asked him if he had an old 26" wheel.  He said he doesn't have 26" wheel bikes any more, couldn't be doing with trying to sell bits and I could have them.  Amazing. 

Will have to buy him several cases of beer.

I have a 26" front wheel you can have. What parts did he give you?

[cort1977]

7 minutes ago, Tenmil Socket said:

I have a 26" front wheel you can have. What parts did he give you?

That's very generous, thank you.  I have actually got a wheel now so all sorted.

He gave me a Specialized Rockhopper hardtail frame that has been upgraded with various expensive parts such as Race Face cranks and a high end Rock Shox fork.  He also gave me another fork, another wheel, various tyres and loads of little bits.  My neighbour has several bikes and likes to upgrade them so his older parts get moved down to this hardtail.  He has now sacked off 26" wheels altogether and has a Santa Cruz ebike so all the old stuff he has given to me.  

[Ghosty]

 you've done alright there! 

[Tenmil Socket]

1 minute ago, Ghosty said:

 you've done alright there! 

What he said 👆

[vulgalour]

A smidge over 100 miles completed in the Princess since head gasket replacement and no issues have presented themselves.  That probably means I've fixed it, right?

[somewhatfoolish]

On 1/5/2022 at 9:54 PM, Yoss said:

As electric vans still seem a distant dream for us poor posties, at least at our office, I've been cultivating my own moss gardens in the scuttle of our Pug Partner to reduce our carbon footprint. 

So imagine my delight yesterday when I noticed we have a tiny mushroom in there too. 

So not only do we offset the carbon from all the diesel we use but we now have our own food supply. I'm hoping the two separate gardens in each corner will spread to become one big one right across the scuttle. Should be able to grow enough to be self sufficient then. 

If it's anything like mine there are big foam rubber seal things at the rear corners of the bonnet which after a year or so become porous and function as growth medium; mine are so far along they're being reduced to soil.

[GrumpiusMaximus]

11 minutes ago, vulgalour said:

A smidge over 100 miles completed in the Princess since head gasket replacement and no issues have presented themselves.  That probably means I've fixed it, right?

No.  You are now its prey.  It is stalking, waiting to lull you into a false sense of security until it leaves you on the inside lane of a smart motorway in a blizzard.

[Lankytim]

The local garage were too busy to remove these tyres so I had a go myself. I broke the bead by using a 10 ft metal box section tube balanced under the V70 tow bar and pushing a very robust garden hoe thing into the bead. It actually worked very well although after removing the tyres with tyre levers and washing up liquid I’m absolutely knackered!