The grumpy thread

[bub2006]

^ Me and the other half are both on zero hours contracts (we're carers). Don't know one week to the next what we're doing. When we do plan stuff so we have a life, they moan like fxxk about our availability. They can fxxk right off as we want a life as well. As far as we're concerned zero hours works both ways!

Ive spent many a year working in care. Residential,domicillary and aquired brain injury. I wasnt concerned about zero hours there as i knew there wasalways the work there if needed. I never worried about knowing my house was safe,bills paid etc

[AMC Rebel]

I think one reason I have an aversion to these is that they remind me of me and my teenage friends desire to rebel and look different - by which we all ended up looking the same.  

 

Yet if I think about it, not wanting to follow the current fashion for totally fucking things up in exactly the same way is arguably no more contrarian than the people fucking up nice old cars.

 

Tricky, innit?

 

I suppose I agree if you paid for it you can do what you want with it - I, for example, have no problem with the fact that the car that recently donated my replacement 290 V8 went for banger racing - at least I got some bits and the engine and box.

 

Then again I hate people lowering everything because I never want to sacrifice ride quality for appearance, and only rarely for handling.

 

And I don't even like 99% of BMs

[NorfolkNWeigh]

Im biased towards e38's, So naturally im going to say its very sad indeed.

 

Id sentence the mong to 20 years of daewoo matiz he can rat look that

Or Rugrat loo it

[sierraman]

I see what you are saying but you can't control what people do when you sell it. The Mondeo I just sold on here was a lovely motor and it'd be nice to see it preserved but ultimately if the new owner wanted to saw the roof off its up to him at the end of the day.

 

What I'm saying is that it's a silly thing to do if you ask me as something like that BMW isn't cheap to run, he'll get a bill for a pair of shockers and it'll be on the scrap heap after he's took it to bits and it's sat on some bricks outside the house for 3 months. Its obviously not gone to a sympathetic owner has it!

[oldcars]

Not my cup of tea. Hope the new owner finds out who vandalised his car tho.

[sierraman]

He'd never notice! Probably be dead chuffed if someone slung a pint of brake fluid over the roof.

 

I went through the phase of modifying when I passed my test. You genuinely thought while Peugeot had spent millions developing your 106, that you could improve it immeasurably with a budget of £80 and some shiny bits of tin from Bullseye.

[burraston2006]

We don't overly worry about there being no work as there are always hours about. The grump was that they expect you to drop everything at short notice to suit them, but when we want time off for holidays, family occasions etc they moan like Fxxk! The job itself be both love as you are really making a difference to people's lives.

[xtriple]

Now't wrong with dogs kissing you Chester takes the food right out of my mouth if he can, the fat git!

 

Today's grump is the Kia. It did the misfiring/emissions light on thing even though it was in gear and just stuck in traffic. Code cleared when I got home fine but I am a tad worried as the MOT is due in less than a month and if it really starts arsing about, it could get expensive... which I don't want obviously! I like not caring about it, but not a fan of the way it drives: steering is way too light and feels disconnected and on the lousy roads round here the bumps and clunks from the suspension (front) are quite alarming! Also, for the little trips I do, it is no better on fuel than the BGD - 14.1mpg currently which is shit, the BGD does 14 on the same little trips!

[RustyNuts]

I'm not a BMW fan, but whoever did that is a cunt.

 

You're right... they didn't let the entiure car body go rusty

[captain_70s]

I avoid my cars being ruined by new owners by refusing to sell them and letting them melt into my garden. I don't think the people who owned them before me are terribly impressed though...

 

He'd never notice! Probably be dead chuffed if someone slung a pint of brake fluid over the roof.

 

I accidentally did that to the 1850, was faffing with the braking system, went to start the car to ease it forwards a bit, turned the key without putting the brake pipe back on the master cylinder. The car starts, braking system attempts to pressurise and blasts all the remaining brake fluid out of the master cylinder out of the open bonnet and all over the roof... This is why the roof is covered with little spots of brighter yellow now.

[Tamworthbay]

Don't folk have enough to worry about without stressing over what other people to their own property? If he wants to look like a twat that's up to him surely? Now if he did it to MY car whilst I owned it that would be a different matter........

[MarvinsMom]

"Expressing my individuality innit"

 

What a pity - it was never valuable but this really gets on my tits. 

 

i fuckin' hate BMW's, but no car deserves that!

[mercrocker]

I was at a table outside a cafe last Friday having a sandwich. There was a seedy looking couple nearby who each had a coffee piled up with squirty cream and their second crime was that the bloke repeatedly dipped his finger in the mess and let his dog lick it off. I often see people allowing their pets' slobbering tongues to come into contact with their own mouths and wonder if it's just me that finds the practice unpleasant?

 

This whole tables outside thing is starting to get on my tits TBH.    Fine for creating a Continental cafe culture but it doesn't, though, does it?    Exactly the above type of behaviour and anything else that is deemed to be impolite, illegal or unclean can be apparently carried out without flinching cos OUTDOORS.   The mouth-breathers and chain-smoking chav mums don't seem to be adding much cosmopolitan ambience either, in my opinion.

 

Our town's pedestrian precinct now has two such establishments - a big chain that can FRO on principle and a Portuguese bloke who, quite understandably, has followed suit with his cafe.    Its supposed to be a precinct but now we find ourselves having to weave around furniture and in the case of Costa stupid little barriers that shouldn't bloody be there.   Even the chippy has put two wobbly chairs outside in case you have sudden need to smoke a tab while waiting for the Mars bars to crisp up.   

 

I suitably embarrassed Mrs Rocker this week by resolutely striding through the bloody lot in a bolshie "reclaim the street" manoeuvre during a particularly grumpy afternoon.

[dugong]

Ive spent many a year working in care. Residential,domicillary and aquired brain injury. I wasnt concerned about zero hours there as i knew there wasalways the work there if needed. I never worried about knowing my house was safe,bills paid etc

 

Is there no work in that industry now? [sadly] I would have thought there was always a need.

[bub2006]

How i see it is its his car,his choice. No one will park too close to something like that,always handy in a car park as ive found with the kia. Ive done it before with a punto with battered bodywork. Matt black wing as paint was fucked,graffiti bonnet for same reason. Also had a hazard tape sunstrip. No one got close to it which was a bonus. I prefer natural evolution compared to forced though

[eddyramrod]

Oh there's work, but it's all zero-hours minimum-wage, and you're treated like shit, as in so many such jobs.  I know, I've been there.  Nobody wants to do it because of that, so there's a constant shortage of staff, which means there's plenty of overtime (rarely at any enhanced rate) and way more stress than anyone needs.  The position isn't helped by the endemic British-business policy of understaffing.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

I tend to call matt black 'death row black'. A fella on the blue forum recently bought Pistonpopper's tidy old beige Alpine, coated it in a layer of black shit to 'tidy it up', then stuck some stickers on the most ripply bits. It doesn't matter that it wasn't a mint example - it's the fact he's done it to sell it. Take a car with a very limited market, and then narrow it some more; fantastic sales model. Not.

The only thing matt black works on is shagged old 4x4s. Otherwise, it's jut another car bloody ruined.

[chaseracer]

A high proportion of the people I represent work in care.  That should tell you a lot.

[Guest Hooli]

I suitably embarrassed Mrs Rocker this week by resolutely striding through the bloody lot in a bolshie "reclaim the street" manoeuvre during a particularly grumpy afternoon.

 

I used to do that a lot at one place in Worthing. They picked the busiest & narrowest point of the pedestrian area and blocked 3/4 of it off for some wankers in stupid outfits to dance about & stop people getting past. Walking straight through the middle was much quicker than queuing to get around. If they want to dance around like cunts then then can fuck off & hire a fucking hall to do it.

 

 

Ever tried walking off with a cafe's tables? it's been dumped in a public area so must be rubbish after all.

[bub2006]

I sold my punto to a bloke who travelled down from blackpool. He drove to derby at night bought car for full asking price. He said his son had his old car and wrote it off then had a car on finance and did same. He said the punto will teach him a lesson!

[Barry Cade]

Took an avensis and a caravan down to Accrington through the night, dropped off a half 3 am.. The guy saw me load said car and caravan, and gave me the address, and door number to drop the key through. Just hitch up after you've dropped and park them outside the house he says. They never do tell you they live in a cul-de-sac, where everyone owns 4 cars,cant park,nowhere to turn and there are posts,signs and bloody massive flowerpot things everywhere.Then, even at that time in the morning, someone needs past...

[richardmorris]

What a monumental fuck up today was. As if having an FTP in a 56-plate (that's 2006) Corsa and ending up getting home at 11pm yesterday for an early 6am start today wasn't enough...

From being picked up around 6:30am this morning I didn't get dropped off to my first car today until gone 11am (as we had to get to Stoke via Nottingham and Telford) car picked up and dropped off just before 2:30pm, this left me with a very tight schedule to get my next car, 22 miles away in Sandtoft before 5pm. Got to a very lonely Crowle station and called up, a few taxi companies, no one could help me get to the place before 5pm as they all had jobs in sCUNThorpe . However, thankfully the car place had an after-hours security guard who'd sort me out my vehicle so at least I had something to go home in, except.... the office had forgotten to give me a bloody release code.

But this was minor hiccup compared to happily arriving on to the A42 just off the M1 to be confronted with a line of traffic that wasn't moving. Yep, you probably guessed it, a lorry had cheerily jackknifed spreading most of its contents onto the carriageway. The Police/Traffic wombles(?) decided to shut the motorway for 2 hours, I could feel my sanity honestly slipping away as I began to lose my grip on reality, once is fine but twice on the trot? Yep, it's probably why I began talking to myself and shouting to the world as I had nothing more than a Vauxhall Insignia to keep me insulated from the horrible outside world (and I like Vauxhall Insignias) So once again, instead of getting home at 8:45pm, it was once again an 11:30pm stroll into the door.

Thankfully, it's not an early start tomorrow.

 

You're lucky the m4 has been shut all day at Maidenhead.

[M'coli]

Is there no work in that industry now? [sadly] I would have thought there was always a need.

  

Oh there's work, but it's all zero-hours minimum-wage, and you're treated like shit, as in so many such jobs.  I know, I've been there.  Nobody wants to do it because of that, so there's a constant shortage of staff, which means there's plenty of overtime (rarely at any enhanced rate) and way more stress than anyone needs.  The position isn't helped by the endemic British-business policy of understaffing.

What my granny used to call the "home help" has changed a bit in the last 30 years. If I see a car labelled up as being from some sort of care agency or the like at a give way trying to join the traffic, I now will always let it out in front of me if it's not going to cause chaos.

 

They're only trying to get to the next person that needs them.

[Timewaster]

Yeah it looks awful, but is it any worse than playing Timing belt roulette whilst polishing the paint on a Sunday?

 

It's all abuse that will inevitably lead to the scrap yard, just one is visible.

[chaseracer]

They're only trying to get to the next person that needs them.

 

And might not actually be getting paid for their travel time, despite the recent test case...

[Lord Sterling]

You're lucky the m4 has been shut all day at Maidenhead.

Oddly enough I was working around Maidenhead but thankfully had no call to drive on the M4 apart from out of (practically central but not quite congestion charge) London. However, today's road fuck up was caused on the M40 out of London due to a car fire. Today's home time: 9:30pm, the earliest I've been home all week so far.

 

Tomorrow I have a drop off in Kilmarnock then to Motherwell (via public transport which surely must be better)

[beko1987]

You were close to me then! Don't suppose your doing leeds-maidenhead/my way anytime soon are you? Got a hoover to get

[fatharris]

FATHARRIS DOESN'T LIKE THIS.

[Lord Sterling]

You were close to me then! Don't suppose your doing leeds-maidenhead/my way anytime soon are you? Got a hoover to get

At the moment no, I was in Leeds yesterday but only dropping off so it was a train out of there. Tomorrow is Motherwell to London via home so I won't be going by Leeds, however let me see what I've got next week

[M'coli]

And might not actually be getting paid for their travel time, despite the recent test case...

That's very true, but the sentiment still stands: every minute that someone like this can spend actually providing care is more valuable to the person receiving the care than the 1/60th of the hourly rate that the carer spends in traffic.