The new news 24 thread

[Yoss]

1st MOT in my ownership for the Up! today. It was as painless as I was hoping it would be. 

 

[Yoss]

Also today, I have been a Postman for 35 years. 

[dozeydustman]

I have finally got round to building the £55 press from wherever I bought it 2 months ago! (Robert Dyas?)

No instructions included on how it goes together, just a diagramme of parts, no labels.

Only took 5-10 mins to suss out though. It feels sturdy enough to press out wheel bearings on at least 2 of the fleet, but I will source a piece of thin grippy material to go between the bottle jack and the plate it presses on, as it twists about while pumping

[dozeydustman]

The addition of an old Grippaz glove has made a marked improvement on keeping the jack stationary.

[Lord Sterling]

4 hours ago, Yoss said:

Also today, I have been a Postman for 35 years. 

Happy...er....postday @Yoss and also, where's my bleedin' post! 😂

[Lord Sterling]

Today, I took a nice drive to Shrewsbury to pick up a genuine boot tray for the Jag. 

Then popped into Telford to drop off some stuff that had been cluttering up my flat.

Then whilst having a little drive around Telford, I spotted this UTTERLY GORGEOUS S2 Jaguar XJ6 4.2. Had a little chat with the guy, it was his Dad's car, he appears also to have a couple of Austin A35s, one on the driveway and one in the garage.

[MrGTI6]

1 hour ago, Lord Sterling said:

Then whilst having a little drive around Telford, I spotted this UTTERLY GORGEOUS S2 Jaguar XJ6 4.2. Had a little chat with the guy, it was his Dad's car, he appears also to have a couple of Austin A35s, one on the driveway and one in the garage.

I'm not even into Jags particularly but that looks incredible.

[Yoss]

4 hours ago, Lord Sterling said:

Happy...er....postday @Yoss and also, where's my bleedin' post! 😂

Thanks. I have to say the job has changed massively in those 35 years but it's likely to change out of all recognition again in the next year as they try to implement the new changes. This involves first class going every day but second class only every other day (on paper anyway, in reality some places are lucky if they get anything at all once or twice a week) 

This will involve three posties covering four walks (deliveries) every day. Two posties will do a delivery each, the third will take only the first class on the two other walks. The next day they swap places. At least that's what they've worked out on the back of a fag packet. What happens when one of those three is off is anybodies guess, and I mean scheduled days off or holidays, I'm not even getting in to sickness. Because we don't have enough staff to even cover the normal day off cover duties. 

So I've got another 8 to 10 years to get through but I must admit the last 35 seem to have gone pretty quick so another 10 should be a doddle. That's what I'm trying to convince myself anyway. 

[richardmorris]

2 minutes ago, Yoss said:

Thanks. I have to say the job has changed massively in those 35 years but it's likely to change out of all recognition again in the next year as they try to implement the new changes. This involves first class going every day but second class only every other day (on paper anyway, in reality some places are lucky if they get anything at all once or twice a week) 

This will involve three posties covering four walks (deliveries) every day. Two posties will do a delivery each, the third will take only the first class on the two other walks. The next day they swap places. At least that's what they've worked out on the back of a fag packet. What happens when one of those three is off is anybodies guess, and I mean scheduled days off or holidays, I'm not even getting in to sickness. Because we don't have enough staff to even cover the normal day off cover duties. 

So I've got another 8 to 10 years to get through but I must admit the last 35 seem to have gone pretty quick so another 10 should be a doddle. That's what I'm trying to convince myself anyway. 

Most of the post (people ) I’ve spoken to at home and work have been great.  When I’ve asked about their work changes, they’ve said that they’re the last to know.  The home / work pick up is great by the way, if your powers that be ask. There’s no post office we can get to in work hour.

[Yoss]

48 minutes ago, richardmorris said:

Most of the post (people ) I’ve spoken to at home and work have been great.  When I’ve asked about their work changes, they’ve said that they’re the last to know.  The home / work pick up is great by the way, if your powers that be ask. There’s no post office we can get to in work hour.

I've only learnt as much as I have in the last fortnight as they are planning to put it in to our office by September. 

The parcel collection service is marketed as convenient for you but it was started to take money from The Post Office. Royal Mail and Post Office are now completely separate companies so if you take a parcel to them they, not unreasonably, take a cut. But if I come and pick it up from you the Post Office don't get a penny and Royal Mail keep all the money. It's just a happy coincidence that it is also more convenient for you. 

But thanks anyway! 

[loserone]

Yup from a usability perspective it's a game changer.  I posted all the Christmas cards and had the labels brought to the door. Everything I post goes out RM now.

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, loserone said:

Yup from a usability perspective it's a game changer.  I posted all the Christmas cards and had the labels brought to the door. Everything I post goes out RM now.

I accidentally posted most of our Christmas cards without stamps last year. ( My mother had just died so I was a bit pre-occupied to say the least).

They did get delivered, although  the last one took until May.

[comfortablynumb]

Made me laugh when they were saying about post being every other day in future.

Ours has been like that for years 🤔

[beko1987]

I only get letters once every 1.5 weeks. The small packets come through though.

My postman is a lovely guy and it doesn't bother me much that it's only so often I get letters (probably makes me part of the problem).

Dare I mention leaflets? I was helping gather our national data to be exported into Hubspot and we've sent over 36 million leaflets through rm this fiscal year already! Most of them probably got delivered nested 🙄😂

The collection service isnt great though, for me at least. Posting big bulky but not heavy stuff ebay defaults to it and I'd feel so bad making him put some stuff on his trolley Ive had to play the simple postage bollocks so much to make it let me do a parcelforce collection for a biggish box.

[Split_Pin]

Just now, beko1987 said:

leaflets

My postie calls those 'important information'*, with the emphasis on the asterisk 😂

We've always had great posties round our way and it helps that 2 of them are into cars so we are always blethering. 

[comfortablynumb]

Yeah I should say, on the occasion I do see the guy who's presumably supposed to be out regular, he's great.

Part of the problem is that they seem to stick him on other rounds, and then we get someone who doesn't know the layout of the road.

Doesn't help that in my road, no house has a number, because it's so old, they're all names.

Took us a while to work it out when MK1 son had a paper round 

[barefoot]

I drove a 330 mile round trip to speak at the funeral of my best mate yesterday. We went in the 75 which as you'd imagine made it almost effortless, but the endless fucking traffic queues on the M25 and the M42...

[Split_Pin]

Sorry to hear about your best friend. I could not possibly manage a speech at any funeral, well done man.

[comfortablynumb]

When my godparents died, their eldest son did a great eulogy for both of them

There's no way I could do something like that.

Sorry about your friend @barefoot

[barefoot]

1 hour ago, Split_Pin said:

 I could not possibly manage a speech at any funeral, well done man.

1 hour ago, comfortablynumb said:

There's no way I could do something like that.

Thank you both, it was a first for me and not something I was looking forward to. I despise speaking in front of a large crowd, but my words were intentionally very funny and I forced myself to think of it as a simple exercise in reading out loud.

[Metal Guru]

3 hours ago, comfortablynumb said:

Made me laugh when they were saying about post being every other day in future.

Ours has been like that for years 🤔

We never get anything on a Monday. 

[Yoss]

7 minutes ago, Metal Guru said:

We never get anything on a Monday. 

Don't ask me why but Mondays and Tuesdays are always lighter anyway. So much so that my finish time is 40 minutes earlier on Monday than it is on Wednesday or Thursday. So you are statistically less likely to get mail on Monday. 

 

[barefoot]

I meant to post this earlier, but the weekend before last I was pissing about at CamperJam and this guy pitched up next to me. Obviously it's a personal plate, but he tells me it was a press car and very few were made like this. It's apparently the full 180S spec, but it's a diesel. Whatever, bloody nice, bog all miles on it and part of his 'yellow fleet'. A newbie, an SLK, this & something else I forget.

It was towing an Eriba.

 

[brownnova]

9000 locked me out/wouldn’t deactivate the immobiliser at work on Monday until I dismantled the fob and poked metal bits with a biro. It was enough to get me home, and then used the wife’s MG EV to get to work on Tuesday & Wednesday. Tues night I had a play with the spare fob, and it wouldn’t play ball, on Weds night I had another go, and read that sometimes the fob is forgotten by the car,  and it needs 5 presses. Nope that didn’t work either… so I read up on other Saabs and came up with a routine involving engaging the ignition 5 times and then hitting the button 5 times. Amazingly after the 5 ignition cycles the key fob is as re-linked to the car! That wasn’t on any of the forums!

Good news was that I could go back to retro powered commuting for the last day of term.

I celebrated by patching up the air intake on the Pontiac which is broken until I can get a new one, and taking that for a quick spin. 

[egg]

Like the old school nature of the look of this place.

[Lord Sterling]

Once again, I noticed that one of the front numberplate screws has gone awol. Consulting my spares, I noticed that I didn't have a black screw cap surround. 

Ordered some online and they came today, cool. Front numberplate screw and cap replaced. However, I noticed that the screw is little loose when being screwed on so I need a larger screw bit. 

The rear number plate had one side held on with a rivet, I mean, just why?

I managed to carefully extract the plate and eventually it came away with backing clip that is usually held into the taligate plate recess to take a screw.

I got rid of the rivet (which looked like a small spent pellet) and replaced it with a screw and black screw cap:

Small, uninteresting job, but one that is done and will make changing the tailgate in a few weeks time a little easier.

[IronStar]

Technical inspection? Not a problem m9! ✅

[artdjones]

9 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Once again, I noticed that one of the front numberplate screws has gone awol. Consulting my spares, I noticed that I didn't have a black screw cap surround. 

Ordered some online and they came today, cool. Front numberplate screw and cap replaced. However, I noticed that the screw is little loose when being screwed on so I need a larger screw bit. 

The rear number plate had one side held on with a rivet, I mean, just why?

I managed to carefully extract the plate and eventually it came away with backing clip that is usually held into the taligate plate recess to take a screw.

I got rid of the rivet (which looked like a small spent pellet) and replaced it with a screw and black screw cap:

Small, uninteresting job, but one that is done and will make changing the tailgate in a few weeks time a little easier.

I don't know what the law is now, but plates had to be riveted on in France in the past, anyway. Screws not allowed.

[egg]

24 minutes ago, Lord Sterling said:

Small, uninteresting job, but one that is done and will make changing the tailgate in a few weeks time a little easier.

Nothing really matters more than number plates looking right. I dunno, I know I'm a strange obsessive....

[Lord Sterling]

19 hours ago, artdjones said:

I don't know what the law is now, but plates had to be riveted on in France in the past, anyway. Screws not allowed.

Interesting, I did wonder as I've seen them with riveted plates, I guess it stops them being tampered with/stolen and they live with the car from new. Also, as I understand it, France don't offer "private" plates.

As a British plated car here which has never lived in France as far as I know, and there doesn't appear to be any specific laws about how it's secured to the car here in the UK.  I reckon it was just someone who couldn't be bothered to find a screw but had a rivet gun to hand. As I understand it, it did belong to a bloke who ran a garage at one point.

Belgian plates can be screwed in too, but they transfer from car to car with the owner and form part of a proof of tax payment. 

18 hours ago, egg said:

Nothing really matters more than number plates looking right. I dunno, I know I'm a strange obsessive....

I agree. It's small things like this make me strangely happy.