What makes you grin? Antidote to grumpy thread

[vulgalour]

Sat in traffic in the Princess this morning and the Weather Girls appears on the radio.  Crank up the radio, crank down the windows and sing along much to the bemusement of passing pensioners.  Today is a good day.

[Lord Sterling]

Today he was visibly pissed off that a car dealer wouldn't take a car off the market until Saturday so he could go an have a look at it. This was somewhere in the middle of 5 or 6 phone calls to the dealer about this car over the space of the day, asking all kinds of pointless questions about stuff that was in the photos or the advert description. "He says it's first come first served! There's no need for him to be a dick like that, I've told him I'm working all week!"

 

I asked him if the car he was going to see had any service history or anything - turns out he had never heard the term "service history" before and had no concept of the fact that a car needed servicing, and that a newer car would be expensive to keep serviced up properly. I had to explain all the stuff about cambelts, oil changes etc and what they cost and when they should be done. He thought that all this was done for £40 a year at the MOT - he also assumed it would still cost the same £125 a year to tax as his 1.25 mk5 fiesta. (It's actually £475 which surprised even me)

 

Same goes for insurance - "It's still a fiesta though, why would it be more? it's not a lamborghini or anything".

He had a claim last year when his old corsa got stolen because he left it parked outside a travelling fair down a shady back road for 3 days. He claimed on the insurance for it and took the first offer they gave him (£370) minus his excess leaving him with a claim on his file, loss of a years no claims and a £20 cheque.

 

He thought he would be able to pay the bloke £3500 with a cheque and drive off there and then.

I explained that you can "barter" and get a bit of cash off which was a pleasant surprise to him, but he got carried away and started looking at £5500 cars thinking he could knock the seller down to his £3500 budget.is now expecting to walk away with the car for £2000.

Amusing as this is to read, it's an all too a familiar story when it comes to a majority of car buyers out there, particularly younger car buyers. They do next to no research because it interferes with thier "facebook updating/texting time" plus there is too much boring info for them to take on board. As I've banged on about this before in the past; many car buyers buy a car to impress thier social circle so will happily blow thier often larger budget to buy the newst and sportiest car they can get. The things you can buy for less than say £2k is amazing, but these kinds of buyers have no imagination. It's got to be the latest and most sportiest car thier budget can afford.

 

If I had 3.5k to spend on a car, I'd buy the best KV6 Sterling I could find, get it serviced and change the belts and whatever I've got left over I'd bank.

 

I suppose as long as he's happy.....

[Bobthebeard]

If I had 3.5k to spend on a car, I'd buy the best KV6 Sterling I could find, get it serviced, MOT'd and change the belts, whatever I've got left over I'd buy a small bag of Haribos......

EFA

[Bucketeer]

Such is the joy of humanity.

Everyone is different.

We all have different ideas, thoughts and priorities.

Nobody should be judged for that.

 

_{He does sound like a clueless cocksponge though.}

[Ratdat]

Just ordered a brand spanking new Portamig. This makes me happy. Maybe the joy will return to welding once I have a MIG that doesn't fuck up every ten minutes.

[Junkman]

Maybe the joy will return to welding once I have a MIG that doesn't fuck up every ten minutes.

 

There is no such thing.

[hairnet]

so mo - what would you buy with the other 3k

[cort16]

Welding's satisfying until the first spark goes in your shoe/pants/ear hole. I've got a sealey power mig that was about  350 quid and I'm always baffled by it's complete shitness. The clutch thing that adjusts the wire tension winds up to the point the spool is imovable every 10 minutes or so meaning a regular wire speed is completely impossible.

[Ratdat]

My current welder is a Clarke 175TE which to be fair, has been pretty good but I've had it for 10 or 11 years now and it's getting tired. The only issue it's had from new is the wire feed rollers have serated grooves to grip the wire, which they do far too well such that if anything stop the wire (such as it burning back to the tip) the wire then kinks in the feed. The wire feed motor is dying now and the torch has all but had it so it's time for a new one. The Portamig goes down to 15amp which is probably half what the 175TE can manage so it hopefully will be better for wafer thin French and Japanese tin.

[cort16]

I wish I'd spent a bit more and got something with more flexible power controls. I've basically got 1 or 2 with Low and High. You can just about weld 1mm on one/low but anything remotely thinner and it starts blowing holes.

[twosmoke300]

I had a snapon/cebora welder and nothing but trouble. Bought a used clarke 100a jobbie to get me out of the shit one day and its a cracker. Smooth reliable wire feed that the cebora never had .only cost me 80 sheets too.

The gasless ones are a waste of time though

[Ratdat]

I had a Cebore that got nicked. It was okay but never really go on with it. Had an Sip 150 turbo that was utterly terrible. Really temperamental.

 

I do enjoy a good bit of welding and body fabrication but only if I've got good gear to do it with.

[rml2345]

Been meaning to write this up. I'm not sure if it's an out and out grin but certainly a tentative smile at least...

To recap, Atos asked me in for one of their shambolic medical computer says no affairs as part of an ongoing claim for benefit, the prospect of which terrified me to the point of illness. 
Spoke to the Aspergers Initiatives benefit chap who had them rebook my appointment so that he could come with and change it to the afternoon thus increasing my chances of being alive when the appointment is due. He said the information I have already should help during this ordeal and that he'll walk me through the whole process so I know what to expect.
Not only that but my dad can come for moral support on the new day so another bonus. 
Still worried as hell but less so than before.

Also, the Volvo is working quite well after the NSF caliper was changed for one that actually works. 

[Cavcraft]

Our cat (Dave, the greedy one) has split his tongue open somehow, probably scavenging for food somewhere. That's not very grin worthy, but the vet said he'll be fine and now when he miaows it's like one of those foreign dubbed films where his mouth keeps going long after the sound has come out.

[scruff]

Such is the joy of humanity.

Everyone is different.

We all have different ideas, thoughts and priorities.

Nobody should be judged for that.

 

_{He does sound like a clueless cocksponge though.}

 

Aye, it brings home how throughly boring it must be being a normal

[twosmoke300]

Our cat (Dave, the greedy one) has split his tongue open somehow, probably scavenging for food somewhere. That's not very grin worthy, but the vet said he'll be fine and now when he miaows it's like one of those foreign dubbed films where his mouth keeps going long after the sound has come out.

 

Our cats seem to get funny (but not really) facial injuries .

The ginger one got stung on the nose by a bee/wasp and his whole face swelled up.

The youngster got spat at by a toad and had a reaction to it so the tip of his tongue swelled up and was stuck out for 3 days.

[Spiny Norman]

Had to do a quick U-turn in the Volvo today. Forgot how utterly awesome their turning circles are, I nearly stayed on the same side of the road.

Also managed to get it into the local Kosovo car wash this afternoon. It was utterly filthy with caked on oily mitt stains all over the bodywork and to their credit when they'd finished giving it the usual once over, they spotted all the stubborn bits and ended up doing about half the thing again to get rid of the muck and still only wanted their usual four quid.   

[vulgalour]

Found an update on my old Polo.  It is now a van and has been de-modified to return it to something more like stock as well as receiving a new engine.  I'm looking forward to seeing a picture of it, and I'm delighted that it sounds like its going to return to the road soon.

[nacho man]

Going centre parcs for a long weekend. Only been back at work a few weeks since Xmas. But god I need a relax.

 

Reading material sorted.

 

[Conrad D. Conelrad]

They have television in all the bedrooms now, you don't need to read about Peugeot 2.2 HDI cam belt swaps anymore, you can watch Cartoon Network. 

[r.welfare]

This month's Car Mechanics is a good one.

[brickwall]

Going centre parcs for a long weekend. Only been back at work a few weeks since Xmas. But god I need a relax.

 

Reading material sorted.

 

 

 

Is Centre parks not milf heaven?  I'm interested in the Flak towers too and visited a couple of survivors. The  mini bomb proof shelters are interesting too!

[nacho man]

I have been to the Berlin one and had a tour round and it was crackers. Will report back on the milf situation.

[beko1987]

We all know stupid car buyer questions...

 

I'm selling a nice Henry Hoover. Spammed a few of the local facebollock sites, and within a few minutes, had a question...

 

Hoping he bites, could be fun! Over a fugging hoover! Chuckled that someone liked my comment though... Wonder if I can get banned from facebook?

[Paul Dupart]

It sucks!

[RedSparrow]

This is the sort of shit I watch on Youtube when I'm bored.

 

[vulgalour]

*ringring*

Hello?

Hey, it's Dugongfromautoshite.  I've found most of a Princess in a skip, do you want it?

Hell yeah!

 

So that's a thing that just happened.

[Lord Sterling]

Got a job starting on Monday so financial flow will be restored. Also I'll be getting paid monthly which means I'll be seeing a 4-figure payment into my bank account every month rather than a just-above 3 figure every week. Been to a job interview today and it looks good but I spoke to the Holiday company who have now decided they might like to post me to an admin job in the South of France. So either way, I'm outta here soon

 

Also, charged up my old Motorola StarTac after about 3 or 4 years of not being used and used it yesterday and today, although still using my Nokia E71 as a main phone the StarTac is great!

[Bobthebeard]

The fact that this forum is working so smoothly since Dave took charge! No misfires, flat batteries, EML or 'failure to proceed'.

Cheers Dave!

[fordperv]

the rain stopped long enough for me to try out some fancy bubblegum fragranced wash and wax on the saph, i was that impressed with the results i treated the car to a hoover and wipe round inside as well

 

on the downside it started raining 30 mins later but at least it hasnt got road grime on it