The grumpy thread

[Supernaut]

NHS IT & the sooner I can make a living without touching a computer/network switch etc the better. It's so bloody boring & annoying because of poor management.

I've never liked IT, just ended up in it. If you enjoy that stuff it's probably better.

 

Fucking hell. Replace NHS with University and third line with second line and you're just an older version of me.

 

My degree is in Sustainable Environmental Management, I still don't entirely know how I ended up as a network technician!

 

The management at my job are also hopeless.

[beko1987]

Only if you ain't prepared to copy and paste part numbers!

Would have saved £13 with no effort. But I was clever* and paid for next day shipping from cp4l so I can't cancel and re-order.

 

Ill just go back into my corner and grumble. Half of me thinks it's just sent it to me as it knows I've been on all 3 within 2 minutes looking at batteries! Bit fecking late now isn't it, should have sent it when I was looking...

[Kiltox]

Buy one from ECP tomorrow for £13 less and send back the CP4L one for free under distance selling regs and really stick it to them

 

Imagine being a trade customer and finding that you can order online cheaper than buying on your trade account - that smarts a bit!

[beko1987]

Buy one from ECP tomorrow for £13 less and send back the CP4L one for free under distance selling regs and really stick it to them

 

Imagine being a trade customer and finding that you can order online cheaper than buying on your trade account - that smarts a bit!

I can't quite be arsed with that!

 

The online being cheaper than trade is a big thing in the vacuum world! My mate who runs the big manchestervacs place and some of the smaller people I know get it all the time! Qualtex are the big players, pretty much all the pattern parts are made by them, massive company etc, and they sell to the trade. I blagged an account once but lost it in a spending review where they culled all accounts who spent under a threshold.

 

Either way, they also sell on eBay under LM Electrical (many people here will have seen it as I send them that way when asked questions etc). It's cheaper to buy parts vat free with free shipping from eBay than direct from Qualtex, with vat and £8 shipping added!

 

Occasionally a moan is had and they lower the prices, but they creep back up. Mvacs chap once stuck his oar in and ordered 2000 motors from ebay rather than direct... The rep came round and went very quiet when he was told... They dropped the trade price after that.

 

I don't stockpile consumables anymore, I just order it from ebay and 2 days later it turns up in all the same packaging it did when I ordered directly from them!

[BorniteIdentity]

I had a listen to a bit of UK radio a while back when XM were re-broadcasting Radio 1 on satellite. There was no time delay so listening to Steve Wright just after I had woken up made me want to smash the radio.

 

Thankfully most commercial stations here don't suck and play halfway decent music most of the time and don't talk too much.

 

One of my favorite stations is actually in Spanish, on 850AM which is fine at night but too faint to pick up during the day. Helps that I can hardly understand what they're saying, but it's usually cheerful and enthusiastic and not annoying in the slightest.

 

UK radio needs to take a listen to other countries for inspiration. They say radio is a dying medium there- I can see why. Here is going strong because not every presenter is a complete tool and there's a decent selection to listen to, even here.

 

On the FM dial from 88 going on up (from memory) there's Christian talk, a jazz station, sports talk, oldies (centered around the 60's for music), more church, a Spanish station, RnB station, sports talk, pop, pop, sports, rock, RnB/rap/noise, all-rounder listen-as-you-work, rock, indy sports, local indy prog rock, sports, pop and sports

 

At night the AM dial lights up around here with music from Mexico, bluegrass, sports, Cuba on a good night (which can be fun to listen to) and a wide variety of every type of religious PopSongs you could wish for.....

 

I struggled to find 6 stations on the entire FM dial when I was last in the UK. AM was totally dead. Does music have to be in Ultra High Def Super Dooper Surround (compressed to shit and coming in at 12.5kbps)?

Phil

Some really good points made here, particularly about our premature and forced abandonment of MW.

 

What I cannot agree with is that radio is a dying medium. Over 90% of people listen to live radio each week; 92% watch TV. When you look at ‘audio’ as a whole (including podcasts and radio listening via TV) then radio actually wins.

 

That doesn’t feel to me like an industry that is on its arse.

 

There were gross errors made in the licensing structure of FM stations in the UK, and we are now plagued by that legacy. Fortunately, digital platforms are giving us an opportunity to level the playing field and increase choice. That is good.

[Kiltox]

I can't quite be arsed with that!

 

The online being cheaper than trade is a big thing in the vacuum world! My mate who runs the big manchestervacs place and some of the smaller people I know get it all the time! Qualtex are the big players, pretty much all the pattern parts are made by them, massive company etc, and they sell to the trade. I blagged an account once but lost it in a spending review where they culled all accounts who spent under a threshold.

 

Either way, they also sell on eBay under LM Electrical (many people here will have seen it as I send them that way when asked questions etc). It's cheaper to buy parts vat free with free shipping from eBay than direct from Qualtex, with vat and £8 shipping added!

 

Occasionally a moan is had and they lower the prices, but they creep back up. Mvacs chap once stuck his oar in and ordered 2000 motors from ebay rather than direct... The rep came round and went very quiet when he was told... They dropped the trade price after that.

 

I don't stockpile consumables anymore, I just order it from ebay and 2 days later it turns up in all the same packaging it did when I ordered directly from them!

Arseholes man. Guess it’s the world we live in with a race to the bottom on online prices etc

[New POD]

Breakfast show DJs, why are they all such annoying moronic fuckwitted cunts?

 

I recently moved on to radio 3 - No annoying fuckwitted cunts, and my driving has improved.

[dozeydustman]

Sometimes I have to go and work elsewhere to get away, unfortunately the only other place seems to have "What about us" by Pink on a loop.

 

 

Sounds like local (to me) independent station Spirit FM. They've had the same playlist for the last 3 years. Unfortunately the radio in my lorry has a busted aerial, so picks up only Radio 3 or Spirit. Fitters won't change it as it's not a necessity....

[somewhatfoolish]

Yup. Do you sound & pretend to be an overactive five year old on speed with lower than average mental abilities? Shouting endlessly the same crap unfunny joke for months & pretending it's a catchphrase? If so, take a long walk in the sea & when your flat cap floats keep going.

 

I'll assume not though as you don't appear to be an utter cunt on here.

 

As for 'Wrighty' he's ok but past his sell by date. Mayo is a lot worse to my ears, but no one on R2 is as bad as Vine.

 

Talking of radio, why are all the best shows on over night? Alex Leicester was the best DJ on R2 for years (might still be, I've lost track) and was on about 2-6am.

Standard greeting!

[New POD]

Still fucked off at work for no apparent reason. Nearly snapped at a few people so took myself somewhere quiet away from others when I had a chance.

 

What does everyone here actually do and do you enjoy it? I work at a school, for context.

 

I am a Manufacturing Engineer. I am contract (ltd company owned by me) and currently working at a reasonable rate for an aerospace company in Wolverhampton that used to be Hobsons, then was Lucas, then was TRW, then was Goodrich and now is United Technologies Corp. 

Every procedure and process and interaction with any other department is designed to suck the will to live out of you. Everything I need anyone else to do is prioritised lower than death itself. (ie If I can arrange a meeting and if they die before it, they will attend and do what I need then to do, but if they are alive, they won't have time. Occasionally you'll deal with another contractor is another department who thinks this too and will piss off his co workers by doing what you want in double quick time.  My hiring manager bangs his head on the desk and screams "Why why why?" or rather he comes back from meetings and is grateful to me for stopping him smashing his head into the wall.

As I've explained to him, we can only do what we can do. We can demand change and it won't happen. We just need to make sure whatever we do is right.

My contract looks like it's going to be extended to Christmas, thus proving that Chaos = Cash

[Jams]

I was listening to 1xtra until late bit I made a switch to capital extra! It's brilliant but the adverts piss me off so I've gone back to 1xtra!

 

If any of you are local Chester ish can I recommend radio city2 it's brill

[Aston Martin]

Picked him up 4 years ago today, so, so, pretty. Just never buy one.

[SierraMikeHotel]

 

 

...high-top LWB Transit...6'6" height restriction...

Roflcopter.

 

I was once loading the car up with cheap wine in the Cité Europe car park in Calais when I heard an almighty bang, and looked up to see a Brit-registered rental high-top Transit half-way through the goalpost height restriction. It turns out the high top on those was made of fibre glass: it had sliced the top clean off.

[Dick Longbridge]

No, but check the facts before you react.

What difference does it make?

[Timewaster]

You called?

I love the fact that our resident breakfast presenter is posting on here at 07:52

 

Multi tasking at its best.

 

(The odd occasion any fool let me into a poorly guarded studio, I found the experience was mostly 3 minutes of looking out of the window followed by 30 seconds of blind panic, followed by another 3 minutes of looking out the window.

I wasn't invited back )

[PhilA]

Some really good points made here, particularly about our premature and forced abandonment of MW.

 

What I cannot agree with is that radio is a dying medium. Over 90% of people listen to live radio each week; 92% watch TV. When you look at ‘audio’ as a whole (including podcasts and radio listening via TV) then radio actually wins.

 

That doesn’t feel to me like an industry that is on its arse.

 

There were gross errors made in the licensing structure of FM stations in the UK, and we are now plagued by that legacy. Fortunately, digital platforms are giving us an opportunity to level the playing field and increase choice. That is good.

 

 

Perhaps so- it's been a while since I was there and that was likely propaganda from the TV companies anyhow.

 

Despite its technical pitfalls, my mother does enjoy listening to her DAB radio.

 

 

--Phil

[DodgeRover]

Still fucked off at work for no apparent reason. Nearly snapped at a few people so took myself somewhere quiet away from others when I had a chance.

 

What does everyone here actually do and do you enjoy it? I work at a school, for context.

I'm a self employed carpenter doing first and second fix work as well as kitchens, bespoke units etc. Basically if it's made of wood in a house it's my fault

[BorniteIdentity]

I love the fact that our resident breakfast presenter is posting on here at 07:52

 

Multi tasking at its best.

 

(The odd occasion any fool let me into a poorly guarded studio, I found the experience was mostly 3 minutes of looking out of the window followed by 30 seconds of blind panic, followed by another 3 minutes of looking out the window.

I wasn't invited back )

I was in the middle of a pre-rec at the time!

[Cavcraft]

I was listening to 1xtra until late bit I made a switch to capital extra! It's brilliant but the adverts piss me off so I've gone back to 1xtra!

 

If any of you are local Chester ish can I recommend radio city2 it's brill

 

Radio City 2? If it's just a tenth as bad as the main one, it'll still be unbearable. That said, it has to be better than Radio Merseyside which is just 23 hours, 59 minutes of monotone talk about lighthouse bulbs, city centre roadworks and a second-by-second in depth analysis of Everton's game at the weekend from someone who didn't actually end the game, as he was busy teaching his pet goldfish to swim.

[Dick Longbridge]

All you lot complaining about having to listen to Radio 1 at work don't know how good you've got it...

 

~wavy lines~

 

Its 2004, and my girlfriend has decided to use the day I get back from uni for Christmas holidays to dump me. Faced with the four weeks of dry roasted peanuts and passive-aggressive sniping that is a family Christmas, I decided to get a job. Any job. So I ended up stacking shelves in the chilled aisle at Tesco, being asked if we'd sold out of sprouts every ten minutes (yes, we're not hiding them by the puff pastry).

 

Now, this meant Tesco playing their own Christmas mix CD. And Track 1 was 'Stay Another Day' by East 17. How do I know this?

 

'Baby if you've got to go away / [/size]I don't think / [/size]I can take the pain / [/size]Won't you stay another day / [/size]Oh don't leave me alone like this / [/size]Don't say it's the f...'[/size]

 

Bing bong! 'All available cashiers to the tills, please'[/size]

 

'Baby if you've got to go away / [/size]I don't think / [/size]I can t...'[/size]

 

Bing bong! 'If you want a fruity treat this Christmas, come to aisle 13 where there's 50p off Tesco deep-fill mince pies!'[/size]

 

'[/size]'Baby if you've g...'[/size]

 

Yep, it started from the beginning EVERY PISSING TIME SOMEONE USED THE TANNOY. Track 2 was Rockin' Robin, providing sweet relief three or four times a day. Track 3 was Slade, which happened once, ever, but along with the fact my rabbit looks like Noddy Holder is probably the reason Merry Christmas Everybody is my favourite Christmas song. I like to think Track 4 was 'Just Like Chistmas' by Low, but its probably better I never found out as I'm not sure I'd have got over the crushing disappointment when it turned out to be Mariah bastard Carey. [/size]

I really belly-laughed at that.

 

It reminds me of when I worked in an Iceland store at the back of a Littlewoods as a pre-uni summer job many years ago. We had to endure Littlewoods CD on permanent loop, and I blame it for my unhealthy hatred of all things Tina Turner and Whitney Houston.

At least I cheered myself up with predicting what the oldies would ask me. The tills were on the edge of the boundary between us and Littlewoods, and it was an open-plan setup. If you had a blue rinse, were slightly muddled and buying your practical Littlewoods pants, it made perfect sense* to walk from the plush carpet onto the supermarket lino, approach the grumpy, long-haired teen sat on the Iceland till, and then start questioning his logic when he explained that it wouldn’t become possible to buy pants because they weren’t a frozen food item sold by a shop called Iceland.

The oldies also used to ask me for items with the word ‘wafer’ in the title.

You name it: wafer-thin ham, ice-cream wafers or even rinky dink Pink Panther wafers. If it were a repeat customer asking me, I could start the conversation with a, “I know, you need wafers,” before they asked. It made it all the more funny because wafers is difficult to say when one has ill-fitting false teeth.

[Guest Hooli]

Classic fm in the car for me. Also no dickheads cunts and keeps me below the stress level where I want to rip other cunt's heads off for not being able to even pretend to drive.

I recently moved on to radio 3 - No annoying fuckwitted cunts, and my driving has improved.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[Guest Hooli]

Standard greeting!

Standard reply.

 

 

The sock rocks, that should date my listening period.

 

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

[New POD]

Radio City 2? If it's just a tenth as bad as the main one, it'll still be unbearable. That said, it has to be better than Radio Merseyside which is just 23 hours, 59 minutes of monotone talk about lighthouse bulbs, city centre roadworks and a second-by-second in depth analysis of Everton's game at the weekend from someone who didn't actually end the game, as he was busy teaching his pet goldfish to swim.

 

Occasionally just occasionally, I'll stick BBC Manchester on whilst Heading for the M57, at 5:30 am.  It's okay* until it starts getting crackerly at Junction 16 of the M6.

[New POD]

Classic fm in the car for me. Also no dickheads cunts and keeps me below the stress level where I want to rip other cunt's heads off for not being able to even pretend to drive.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

Ah but adverts. I can't stand adverts.

[Noel Tidybeard]

Ha knew this would happen. The guy has just messaged me saying the clutch master is leaking and that he wouldn't have bought it if he had known and demanding I do something about it.

 

I've replied saying 'tough' in more polite terms. Fuck sake. Again.

 

"well it serpently wasn't leaking when you took it away, i would've noticed my wife would kill me if there was a stain on the driveway!"

[Alfamale]

Local Radio grump continued....

 

I’ve listened to the breakfast show off Hallam FM in Sheffield in the car on the way to work every since my first day at work in 1999. A character called Big John has been the presenter for most of that time. Anyway, he’s always been reasonably entertaining and had some good sidekicks and comedy elements. Lately however his new female sidekick seems by to have taken over and basically turned it into an audio version of mumsnet.

 

Stopped listening when she asked listeners to ring in to say if they would least like their man to be fat or bald. Can you imagine the furore if the male presenter had asked if men least prefer fat or ugly or summat.

 

I’ve left them to it and have talksport on instead now.

[madrat]

I had a listen to a bit of UK radio a while back when XM were re-broadcasting Radio 1 on satellite. There was no time delay so listening to Steve Wright just after I had woken up made me want to smash the radio.

 

Thankfully most commercial stations here don't suck and play halfway decent music most of the time and don't talk too much.

 

One of my favorite stations is actually in Spanish, on 850AM which is fine at night but too faint to pick up during the day. Helps that I can hardly understand what they're saying, but it's usually cheerful and enthusiastic and not annoying in the slightest.

 

UK radio needs to take a listen to other countries for inspiration. They say radio is a dying medium there- I can see why. Here is going strong because not every presenter is a complete tool and there's a decent selection to listen to, even here. 

 

On the FM dial from 88 going on up (from memory) there's Christian talk, a jazz station, sports talk, oldies (centered around the 60's for music), more church, a Spanish station, RnB station, sports talk, pop, pop, sports, rock, RnB/rap/noise, all-rounder listen-as-you-work, rock, indy sports, local indy prog rock, sports, pop and sports

 

At night the AM dial lights up around here with music from Mexico, bluegrass, sports, Cuba on a good night (which can be fun to listen to) and a wide variety of every type of religious PopSongs you could wish for.....

 

I struggled to find 6 stations on the entire FM dial when I was last in the UK. AM was totally dead. Does music have to be in Ultra High Def Super Dooper Surround (compressed to shit and coming in at 12.5kbps)?

Phil

I'm sorry but you are talking utter shit, where were you? the FM band is full to bursting in the UK with a mixture of stations, both national and local, radio 2 and radio 4 have enough content to keep me busy in the day and into the night. Who wants to listen to anything on AM.

[RayMK]

It's the vacuous ramblings of callers that long ago put me off listening to music stations on the radio. However, when in hospital recently I listened to the radio on my phone and found that the early morning stuff was rather good, including the non-musical offerings. I became mildly addicted to a programme called "The Home Front," a bit like a wartime version of the Archers.

[AlabamaShrimp]

Mini Shrimp does ask for the radio on in the Frontera (it doesn't work in the Fiesta) but as the buttons are all so tiny he's got no chance. Why don't radios now still have giant buttons or dials so you don't get distracted?

 

Tbh even when I have got one working/I can use I spend too long Turing it over or off at pointless adverts.

 

There should be a channel that's just video game/film music or the like that doesn't need the Internet.

[Kiltox]

Classic fm in the car for me. Also no dickheads cunts and keeps me below the stress level where I want to rip other cunt's heads off for not being able to even pretend to drive.

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

The reception on most radio stations on the shite head unit in my Duster is shite but classic fm is the worst

 

The DAB in my van is shite too, loses signal constantly